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Valve's Portal Part of the Half-Life World
1up had the chance to sit down with Valve to talk about Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. They've come away with some great information, with probably the most exciting information focused around Portal. In a writeup of the visit, Matt Leone reveals that Portal is actually a part of the Half-Life 2 world. The protagonist is a new character, and eventually the fascinating puzzle/fps title will hook back into the Half-Life story at large. From the article: "'The origins of this character will be clear... eventually,' says Swift. Given that Portal has now been in development for just over a year, we wouldn't be surprised to see a few retroactive references pop up in Episode 1 as well, but for specifics we'll have to wait to hear more from the creepy narrator that taunts you while you play (yep, the same one from the first trailer)." For video and all the details, check out yesterday's episode of the 1up show.
In case the slashdot gets servered:
1up had the chance to sit down with Valve to talk about Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. They've come away with some great information, with probably the most exciting information focused around Portal. In a writeup of the visit, Matt Leone reveals that Portal is actually a part of the Half-Life 2 world. The protagonist is a new character, and eventually the fascinating puzzle/fps title will hook back into the Half-Life story at large.
From the article:
"'The origins of this character will be clear... eventually,' says Swift. Given that Portal has now been in development for just over a year, we wouldn't be surprised to see a few retroactive references pop up in Episode 1 as well, but for specifics we'll have to wait to hear more from the creepy narrator that taunts you while you play (yep, the same one from the first trailer)."
For video and all the details, check out yesterday's episode of the 1up show.
The fact it's in the HL universe has been known for a while. The only new info I found was that you don't start out with the two-portal gun.
Never can I get the first post. :(
The fact about Portal that must not be overlooked is that the voice dialogue is written by the two guys behind oldmanmurray.com
If you haven't ever read OMM, your education in gaming and games journalism is about to begin. Those guys make Penny Arcade looking like fucking bigfoot.
http://fortress-forever.com/
Registered Linux user #421033
Thanks man, this'll come in handy if slashdot gets slashdotted! Mod the parent up informative!
Note to anyone replying.
Original as in HL2, not HL1.
I like muppets.
You bought it on a CD?
Ew. Major ick.
Use STEAM. Buy everything via Steam. I've never had any problems with any content purchased and downloaded via Steam -- aside from, yes, the first month or two of Steam in which EVERYTHING was broken.
Seriously, Steam's looking to be one of the greatest innovations in entertainment delivery in the past decade. Or two. Who knows. Bored? Open steam, click on a new game you want, you get charged 5/10/20 bucks, and bam a lil while later there's the whole game. Gotta reformat? Who cares, just download the client, put in your login info, and bam.. there's everything you ever bought, no need to find CDs. On vacation at a friend's computer, bored while they're at work? Getcho that Steam client, you've still got all your games.
Seriously man.
You bought the CD?
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Why do people do this?*
Whenever there's an article about Valve, people write the same "Valve sucks!" / "Valve rocks!" comments, even if the comment has nothing to do with the story. Example: even though this article is acutally about Portal, and doesn't have anything to do with the content delivery system, I guarantee that a dozen slashdotters will see a story about Valve, and reflexively copy-paste their stock "omg steam is teh wrostest" comment. And they won't get modded off-topic.
The same thing happens with articles about Wikipedia. I've never been able to understand it. Slashdot, why does this occur?
*And you, parent poster. Why go out of your way to post on every HL2 story? Especially when the title of your post is "I don't care"? And especially when you end your post with "Now 5 guys will mod me as flamebait"? I honestly don't get it. Why bother?
Whoah there cowboy.
Before you go implying someone is a dipshit for purchasing the CD, you have to look at some of the reasons why they might do it.
There are of course a tonne of possible reasons but here's one which sticks in my mind and pisses me the hell off.
A HEAP of damned software stores dropped it to 10$ and some even 5$ within the first month.
ONE QUARTER of what we saps paid for from steam.
What happened to "digital distribution cuts out the middle man and saves you $$$"
What an absoloute joke.
Some people thought the character in Portal might be Adrian Sheppard from Opposing Force fame, but this seems to put that thought to rest. I'm still hoping for a bigger role for Sheppard in Episode 2 or 3.
"It's a reverse vampire...they....they crave the sun!"
It seems to me that the portal is nothing more than the Acme's magic hole, the one cartoon characters use to trick their opponents...as a multiplayer game element, it may have some value, but as a single player game it would really mess the exploration aspect of an FPS game.
Another, very plausible reason for buying the CD is that the user may have a dial-up connection or a very unstable connection. Plus, installing the game from a CD is almost always faster than downloading from Steam.
True -- for older titles, you probably will pay less in a store.
But when I got HL2, I got the silver package.. which included DOD:S.. and it was 60 bucks. Less IIRC than it was in a store, and the very day it was released I could play it.. since I had pre-ordered, and pre-downloaded, the program in its entirety.
Really, though, for an extra 5 bucks I'll stick with purchasing via Steam. It saves me about that much gas anyway, but by using Steam you get to indirectly support 3rd-party modders. Some of those folk put in a TON of work, and some are quite impressive with what they're able to do -- in the past it would be just a hobby, with a rare few exceptionals being brought onboard major companies.
Steam seems to be taking the angle that, if you develop a mod and want to sell it, and it's good.. just use Steam.
And I just find that neat. And now Steam's delivering games that AREN'T FPS / mods, too? I dunno. I like the potential, and since I can't contribute to what they're selling, I'll support that in another way -- monehz.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
You mean you *didn't* buy the CD? Ack! What the hell, man?
:)
You really want to have to re-download several gigabytes of data every time you format your machine or simply want to re-install the product? That's just silly. I like being able to throw in the DVD and re-install the game in a matter of minutes after formatting my machine. Then all I have to do is let it patch itself to bring it up to the current version. Easy.
You're a silly one, ain't ya?