Valve Announces Portal 2

eldavojohn writes "Enough rumors, Portal 2 is due out for 2010. Valve also let users know through an announcement on Steam. Game Informer seems to be the de facto provider of Portal 2 information so far. Prepare yourselves for more aperture science! Notice anything funny about the underlined letters in Steam's announcement?"

Comments

Underlined letters?

[Golddess]

drattmannh0nee?

Re:Underlined letters?

[sopssa]

Where did you get the t's from? it's dramannh0nee. No idea what that means though.

Re:Underlined letters?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a new user/pass for the BBS of the ARG.

Re:Underlined letters?

[Anonymous Coward]

Password to a BBS which has files on there. Some ASCII art and some pictures in a custom format. Gotta run a tool in DOSBOX or real DOS to view them. It's full of random aperterture teaser crap.

More info in the reddit thread. Sadly, they know more about the situation than Slashdot.

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/b9qhb/portal_2_announced/

Re:Underlined letters?

[Anonymous Coward]

technologies and Steam

Re:Underlined letters?

[Anonymous Coward]

Notice anything funny about the underlined letters in Steam's announcement?

Some lame viral marketing?

Re:Underlined letters?

[Golddess]

From the word "technologies" and "Steam".

Copy/Paste doesn't copy the underlines, so I'll just bold the underlined t's.

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike and Half-Life) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Portal 2 for shipment this coming holiday season. Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007's Portal, which won 70 industry achievement awards.

Re:Underlined letters?

[Anonymous Coward]

Where did you get the t's from? it's dramannh0nee. No idea what that means though.

Actually it's

dratmannh0nee

With a single "t".

Re:Underlined letters?

[PopeRatzo]

From the reddit discussion:

Success will require them to not just act cooperatively, but to think cooperatively.

World Net Daily says that they're trying to turn gamers into Socialists.

Re:Underlined letters?

[ultravibe]

"...leading technologies (such as Steam..."
The 't's in "technologies" and "Steam" are underlined. Look again.

Re:Underlined letters?

[Anonymous Coward]

Glasses? two ts my friend

Re:Underlined letters?

[Improv]

Oh sweet they're announcing a new sequel to Koyaanisqatsi too, done by valve? Wild.

Re:Underlined letters?

[Chris Mattern]

Not sure if you need a new glasses prescription or a new display/video driver, but the "t" in "technologies" and the "t" in "Steam" were both clearly underlined.

Re:Underlined letters?

[Anonymous Coward]

I should stop arguing with myself

Re:Underlined letters?

[Anonymous Coward]

But we have a solution for that.

Re:Underlined letters?

[Anonymous Coward]

On second thought, maybe I shouldn't.

Re:Underlined letters?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I think I'll just masturbate.

Re:Underlined letters?

[fuzzix]

Oh sweet they're announcing a new sequel to Koyaanisqatsi too, done by valve? Wild.

Well, word is Aperture don't make their laboratory ware from Pyrex but from Philip Glass.

Re:Underlined letters?

[Spewns]

World Net Daily says that they're trying to turn gamers into Socialists.

Wishful thinking.

Re:Underlined letters?

[Jesus_666]

drattmannh0nee...
dr attmann h0nee...
Dr. Attmann honey...

Okay, who is doctor Attmann and who at Valve is in love with him or her? Using Google, I found various people with a last name of Attmann and a doctor's degree, most of them at German universities. I think this is a clue that Portal 2 will be playing at a German university.

Man, I'm good at this ARG stuff.

Re:Underlined letters?

[b4dc0d3r]

I think this is a clue that Portal 2 will be playing at a German university.

... while COVERED in BEES!

Re:Underlined letters?

[Acaeris]

Actually, it's D Rattmann. The Aperture Science website set the standard for their usernames as initial+surname (the site uses cjohnson for Cave Johnson the creator of Aperture Science). Doug Rattmann is believed to be the man who leaves the markings on the walls in Portal and was a programmer for Aperture Science according to the information in the ARG.

Androids

[Pharmboy]

I am so wanting there to be more sections for "androids". I always thought the idea of "android hell is a real place" was such a mind screw and gave you so much understanding of how messed up this company was, that it needed a whole game through the eyes of the androids.

Re:Androids

[HungryHobo]

When I heard that one my first thought was that it was a nod to Red Dwarf.

But where do all the calculators go?

Re:Androids

[mog007]

But where do all the calculators go?

Nowhere, they just die.

Re:Androids

[cthulu_mt]

I'd love to have Chell face androids as opposed to Combine forces. Maybe something easily tricked like Trade Federation Battledroids.

Re:Androids

[Bobfrankly1]

But where do all the calculators go?

Nowhere, they just die.

Unless they're solar powered!

Re:Androids

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know about androids, but Robot Hell is real, and it's in New Jersey.

Re:Androids

[Supurcell]

Maybe something easily tricked like Trade Federation Battledroids.

Or those turrets from Portal 1.

Re:Androids

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Calculator heaven, of course.

Re:Androids

[Pharmboy]

I'm guessing you won't be playing as Chell if it takes place further back in time (which is my guess). It would be hard to take place inside, in the future, since Chell kinda 'sploded the whole place when she (tried to) kill GLaDOS.

Honestly, they could easily come up with a FEW games based on this material. I would quickly pay $30 for a purely android based version, perhaps the android can finally escape after achieving sentience. It doesn't have to tie into the HL universe, it can be in the past. Just working his/her way through the program to gain enough "trust" to get deployed somewhere closer to an exit. The android has to "fight" their way through the final area using only the portal gun, while real humans and turrets have guns with bullets, all while GLaDOS is the voice that is directing the actions and informing the humans where the android is. I could expand, but your imagination can fill in the voids. Damn, I really want that game :) Portal 2 as well.

Re:Androids

[adamofgreyskull]

"I'm a pantheist, not a frying pan-theist"

Re:Androids

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll wait for the companion cube version. You help those trying to escape by placing yourself in places that would be of use to them.

Read about the underlined letters on portalwiki

[Sowelu]

...along with the rest of the ARG. They've already been quite solved, over there. http://portalwiki.net/

Re:Read about the underlined letters on portalwiki

[Monkeedude1212]

We've got a phone number extension and the underlined letters - which means there might be more yet to come.

Re:Read about the underlined letters on portalwiki

[Elwood P Dowd]

Can you provide deep links to the drattman/h0ney stuff? I would really appreciate it. The wiki is badly indexed.

Re:Read about the underlined letters on portalwiki

[Anonymous Coward]

I love the Progress Bar.

Right out of the xkcd comic, but even more extreme (femtoseconds to geological periods).

I'm so excited

[cthulu_mt]

Thank you Valve; a nice follow up to the game of the decade.

Re:I'm so excited

[u-235-sentinel]

Thank you Valve; a nice follow up to the game of the decade.

If it works under linux (or even crossover games) then I'm so there.. Otherwise I guess I'll wait for Portal 3 ;-)

Re:I'm so excited

[Bill Hayden]

My only hope is that by "in time for the holidays", they meant St. Patrick's Day.

Re:I'm so excited

[h4rr4r]

Portal does and this will be suppported. Crossover has HL2 based games as officially supported.

Re:I'm so excited

[uvajed_ekil]

Thank you Valve; a nice follow up to the game of the decade.

So you mean "Portal 2" is just a working title, and the real name is "Halflife 3?" Awesome!

Re:I'm so excited

[scdeimos]

Yes, Portal works under Linux (using wine). Barely. Just running the Steam front-end with wine is pitiful, slow, full of drawing issues, and likely to halt or crash unexpectedly. It was not an enjoyable experience for me and I had none of these issues when I was playing WoW.

Portal is the only thing that my four-year-old Windows XP notebook gets used for. I would hope that Steam gets seriously revised and becomes more wine-friendly when Portal2 is released.

Re:I'm so excited

[alexandre_ganso]

They ditched the dreadful IE components, in favor of linking their own compiled version of webkit (ie. don't need to have chrome/safari/konqueror installed). So things will improve.

Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on Valve... some time before 2020 would be nice.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[sopssa]

Come on Valve... some time before 2020 would be nice.

I actually rather take Portal 2 than new HL2 Episode 3 as its so much fresher from other games. Great it indeed was Portal 2.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[HungryHobo]

The sad thing is that portal 2 will be a disappointment.
It may in fact be a fantastic game but it will be judged next to portal which is pretty much a perfect game.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[Pharmboy]

The same could have been said about Half-Life, but they have managed to do more and more quite well. I never could believe that a game is so perfect that you can't add more to it. The main thing missing was 1. needed more levels and 2. needed more background story. My guess is that Portal 2 will be just that, more story and more levels. I don't see them changing the rules or physics of the game, as that wouldn't make sense.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[PopeRatzo]

I'd like to see some of the equipment and gameplay of Portal incorporated into the Half-Life storyline.

More than just the gravity gun.

The best part of the news of a new Portal is that it probably means there will be a new version of Half-Life, not just another "episode".

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Portal was unique, it was fun, but it wasn't perfect. I hate being on the hook for finding out who anyone is, or what the hell's going on. Mystery's fun, but at the end, give me some god damned answers, and let the characters speak for themselves. The fact that Chell and Gordon are both completely voiceless is disturbing to me.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[Inschato]

The fact that Chell and Gordon are both completely voiceless is disturbing to me.

Silent Protagonists are not all that uncommon and usually very effective. (Crono!)

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[interkin3tic]

The sad thing is that portal 2 will be a disappointment.
It may in fact be a fantastic game but it will be judged next to portal which is pretty much a perfect game.

Its worth remembering that this is valve, which consistently defies expectations. Team fortress classic was a fun little game: valve then took almost everything about that game and threw it out for team fortress 2. Usually that is a recipe for disappointment, but I think almost everyone who played both would agree that TF2 was much better. Half life 1 was also really great, but valve managed to improve on it for HL2. A lot of people were disappointed that they put out left 4 dead 2 so quickly, but I think it was an improvement.

And there are clear ways in which they could improve Portal. Here's one: LONGER. Another way to improve it? Bundle it with HL2 episode 3. I am having a hard time thinking of other ways they could make it better, but there are many reasons why I don't work at Valve.

I'm a little worried about multiplayer though.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[ryantmer]

I don't see them changing the rules or physics of the game, as that wouldn't make sense.

After all, they couldn't change physics...

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[azmodean 1]

The first potential improvement I thought of was outdoor levels. Sure it was convenient for both the tone of the game and for the type of puzzle to have everything take plave in mostly cramped indor rooms, literally being confined, but I think you could do some really interesting things with more open levels. And that is the kind of thing that takes longer to develop.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[Alamais]

...you're one of those weirdos who reads the end of a book first, aren't you?

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[CronoCloud]

(....)

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[genner]

The fact that Chell and Gordon are both completely voiceless is disturbing to me.

Silent Protagonists are not all that uncommon and usually very effective. (Crono!)

you need ... in a speach bubble for it to be affective.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[interkin3tic]

Wow, I do like that idea. The puzzles in portal 1 were generally only able to be done one way. While I think that was a good way to do it, some puzzles with many different ways of solving it, or much bigger environments, would be a really nice variety. I can't see them doing multiplayer without expanding the levels.

Come to think of it, the mechanic is fun enough even without the full portal game. I'd be interested to see valve do, for example a sandbox game where you have a portal gun, maybe you're a thief or a spy... I don't want "portal" to move that far away from it's roots, but that portal mechanic can be fun in a lot more contexts.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[bigstrat2003]

Portal was by no means perfect. It had amazing gameplay, but had a very weak story (although GLaDOS was a great character). It was also really short, so it pretty much a rip-off at $20. I loved it in spite of its shortcomings, but it did have glaring flaws.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[bigstrat2003]

I disagree. I think that silent protagonists are always ineffective (or, have been in the games I've played), simply because it turns the main character of the game into a very boring character. You simply can't get very attached to a character who says nothing, and could be taken completely out of the story without having an effect on it. I guess you could argue that it's effective in that they're not intended to be good characters, but simply an agent for the player to control, but I don't think the fact that a design choice is deliberate means it isn't bad.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[ShakaUVM]

>>Team fortress classic was a fun little game: valve then took almost everything about that game and threw it out for team fortress 2. Usually that is a recipe for disappointment, but I think almost everyone who played both would agree that TF2 was much better.

Not me. I uninstalled TF2 with only 20 hours or so into it.

I still have the original Team Fortress installed (the one that Classic Team Fortress was based on), which is still superior to both.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[YourExperiment]

And there are clear ways in which they could improve Portal. Here's one: LONGER.

I sympathise that it was over all too quickly, but Portal was the perfect length. It was part of its charm. Making it any longer would just have been dragging it out.

Another way to improve it? Bundle it with HL2 episode 3.

Can't argue with that. I thought the idea of episodic gaming was that the games came out in quick succession? I'm not a fan of the idea, but at least a short wait between releases would have been some consolation.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[scdeimos]

It was also really short, so it pretty much a rip-off at $20.

You got seriously ripped-off. I bought the whole Orange Box for $9.99 in a Valve special last April just so I could play Portal.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[Ihmhi]

I invite you to check out Fortress Forever, a Half-Life 2 Mod that does its best to stay true to TFC and QTF. Much like any other Team Fortress game (any veteran can speak of at least half a dozen TF mods for various games), it has its improvements and its weaknesses. It is still under constant development. I haven't had the pleasure of playing it for a good while, though, as I'm a bit burned out on the TF experience. (In my nightmares, someone breaks into my house and I've forgotten how to concaim.)

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[Ihmhi]

but I think almost everyone who played both would agree that TF2 was much better.

Good Sir, as a TFC player for 5+ years I wholeheartedly disagree.

Saying TF2 is an improvement over TFC is like saying a monster truck is an improvement over a riding lawnmower. Sure they both have four wheels and an engine, but they are vastly different beasts.

In one fell swoop, Valve's TF2 handed off a giant "fuck you" to the skills community (i.e. people who did things like rocket jumping maps and the like) and the high end league players - the very people who kept the game alive after it had supposedly "died". All of the wonderful movement skills were gone - sticky and rocket jumpng are nothing compared to what you could do with concussion grenades, a rocketjump with a frag in hand, etc.

TF2 represents the fate of every other awesome high skill and/or high speed game that has ever existed. Slowed down and dumbed down. Admittedly the graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is great, but the only thing TF2 has in common with its forebears is the name and the names of the classes.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can not express how awesome I find it that the above comment was modded +5 Insightful.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[Anonymous Coward]

Half life 1 was also really great, but valve managed to improve on it for HL2.

No, they didn't.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[interkin3tic]

TF2 represents the fate of every other awesome high skill and/or high speed game that has ever existed. Slowed down and dumbed down.

I never really thought about it like that. First of all my experiences with TFC was that most players simply spammed with grenades. Sometimes that was done skillfully, but usually just felt like luck. And I think there's something to be said about keeping the playing field from being absolutely dominated by vets. As someone who never had the time to put in serious hours, I thought TFC suffered that problem. The only reason I played it at all was because at the time I didn't have any other online games besides counterstrike, which had an even steeper learning curve.

I can certainly understand how those people who took the time to become skilled at a game would feel sold out by valve even if I prefer the bar to be lower. With regard to my original point though, I suspect that although the hardcore TFC players don't like the changes, most of the people who had played TFC would prefer TF2, do you agree?

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[Ihmhi]

Most of the people who played TFC for a couple of years whenever they were bored with Counter-Strike loved TF2.

The people who came over from Quake TF (the game that Quake players played because multiplayer Quake was too easy for them) to play TFC and played it for ten years probably hated TF2. It was the end of a legacy.

Here are some videos of TFC skills for you to watch. Mind you, these are from a Japanese TFC league (fpsjp's TFC league) in 2004, eight years after TFC came out:

Last Dinosaur 1

Last Dinosaur 2

If you search around you can find the original AVI files. I happen to have them myself. If you'd like 'em toss me an e-mail.

Incidentally, if you have TFC and you'd like to play sometime (I can show you the really fun high-end skills), add me to Steam. My steam name is the same as my Slashdot name, ihmhi.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[Doctor Morbius]

What the hell is that crap? Invisible players, players flying everywhere, turning while they're flying. I'm glad they got rid of all that nonsense. The classes are much more balanced now and unique. People don't run around spamming grenades anymore. TF2 is a superior game. The people that complain about getting rid of the "high skill" stuff are the elitists. I play TF2 for fun not to boost my self esteem by proving my superiority over other players.

Re:Still no HL2: Episode 3?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

I think headcrabs, cake lies, wall scribblings, turrets of all kinds, and creepy weird portal technology demands some sort of emotional response.

On the other hand, Portal doesn't have Chell interacting with anyone else BUT GLaDOS, but, it'd be nice to hear someone talk back to that smarmy and bitchy, computer. It's like the old OS8 Deforma I used in middle school with a voice synthesizer.

Mac support?

[MBCook]

At this point, I'm far more interested in Vavle's Mac development that they seem to be doing. I'd love to know if I can finally ditch my Windows partition. I'd love to see Steam and the Source Engine on OS X.

Given their solid Direct3D stance, I'm a little worried... but a gamer can dream, right?

Still, Portal 2. Going to have to play that.

Re:Mac support?

[PopeRatzo]

If Valve were to spend the money to develop for OSX, they'd never recoup it in profits because there's not a big enough installed base.

It's a lot more likely that Valve will make Portal or HL3 available on XBox than on Macs.

Re:Mac support?

[tlhIngan]

At this point, I'm far more interested in Vavle's Mac development that they seem to be doing. I'd love to know if I can finally ditch my Windows partition. I'd love to see Steam and the Source Engine on OS X.

Given their solid Direct3D stance, I'm a little worried... but a gamer can dream, right?

Still, Portal 2. Going to have to play that.

And yet, Crossover (which has an announcement a few articles down) has worked with Steam and Source Engine quite well. Half-Life, Half-Life 2 worked fine way back when I tried it (and bought it) on OS X. It was before OS X 10.5 when I tried it and it worked. I'd be shocked if it wasn't working anymore. Portal wasn't around when I tried it, but I'd guess it works.

Sure it's not native, but it worked well enough to be quite usable.

Officially Supported - http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name/?app_id=3424

Re:Mac support?

[euxneks]

If Valve were to spend the money to develop for OSX, they'd never recoup it in profits because there's not a big enough installed base.

It's a lot more likely that Valve will make Portal or HL3 available on XBox than on Macs.

Not at all, in fact, if they make a cross platform rendering engine then they can sell that to other interested developers (who are interested in the continually growing userbase of the Mac) and make a profit from that as well.

Re:Mac support?

[vertigoCiel]

It's a much smaller jump to the iPhone/iPad from Mac than from PC.

Re:Mac support?

[QuaveringGrape]

Quite possibly...
Wired article
A few interesting links in there.

Re:Mac support?

[MrHanky]

If Valve were to port the Orange Box or Portal 2 to Mac, they would have the installed base of practically every Mac sold since (let's see ... ) October 2008 capable of playing the game, with the Geforce 9400M being poor by modern standards but good enough for Source. That's a lot of computers that are otherwise starved for decent games. I can think of worse business decisions.

Re:Mac support?

[sopssa]

Half-Lifes and Portal are already available on 360 and PS3 too.

Re:Mac support?

[u-235-sentinel]

At this point, I'm far more interested in Vavle's Mac development that they seem to be doing. I'd love to know if I can finally ditch my Windows partition. I'd love to see Steam and the Source Engine on OS X.

Given their solid Direct3D stance, I'm a little worried... but a gamer can dream, right?

Still, Portal 2. Going to have to play that.

If they port it to Mac then I'd be willing to buy a Mac just for that. Then I can stop using crossover games for my steam gaming needs.

Better if it works under linux IMO but can't be choosy I guess

Re:Mac support?

[DeadRat4life]

didnt they announce mac support the other day? as for cost, companies like ID and Epic develop for Linux (and mac if im not mistaken) and they still seem to do fine with it. If they at least made their software to work better with WINE id be happy. Ive heard a lot of people say they got it working but ive had trouble with every source game.

Re:Mac support?

[textstring]

Rumors have it that they're porting Source to all major platforms including Linux.
Comes from the wikipedia article on Postal 3 showing a 2010 release date under Steam with OSX and Linux support.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_III

Re:Mac support?

[h4rr4r]

Crossover supports these games on mac. I use it to play all the HL2 games on Linux. I am just a happy customer.

Re:Mac support?

[Jeremi]

If Valve were to spend the money to develop for OSX, they'd never recoup it in profits because there's not a big enough installed base.

That depends on how difficult the code is to port to MacOS/X. If Valve is using a cross-platform game engine anyway, then porting to MacOS/X might be just a matter of recompiling the code and testing/tweaking it a bit. I know I'd be very likely to by Portal 2 if it came out for Mac, and I'm very unlikely to buy it if it doesn't (since I have nothing else I could run it on, and I'm not going to buy a system just to play one game)

Re:Mac support?

[Sark666]

I was skeptical about them ever d3d porting as well, but were these images released the other day a gag?

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/62617

Then I thought, if they have converted to opengl, could a linux port ever come down the pipeline?

A gamer can dream, right?

Re:Mac support?

[Sark666]

I haven't tried portal in crossover & wine since it first came out, but even though hl2 worked fine, portal had issues when actually looking through your portal sometimes, depending on the surface it was on. I checked a couple of times, and the bug was long standing, maybe it's finally fixed.

Re:Mac support?

[node 3]

If Valve were to spend the money to develop for OSX, they'd never recoup it in profits because there's not a big enough installed base.

Did it ever occur to you, as you wrote this, to wonder how what you wrote could be true while there are plenty of successful Mac OS X games? Do you think Blizzard and ID (for example) run their Mac divisions at a loss?

They don't even have to develop the whole game, as the game itself already exists. All they have to do is port the engine over (or even just wrap it in Cider, although that would not be ideal). Porting an engine over takes a bit of effort, to be sure, but far less effort than it took to create the engine in the first place, or even to develop the story and art and levels, etc, for the game itself.

Then, of course, there's the fact that Steam is coming to Mac (by "fact", I mean there have been teasers from Valve which all point to this, although granted there hasn't been an "official" announcement). With Steam, the #1 hurdle to selling games for the Mac is surpassed, which is to connect the games to the gamers.

Re:Mac support?

[TJamieson]

Didn't they already do a fair portion of the work with the PS3 port? It *had* to be OpenGL, necessitating redoing the engine (or just updating their old OpenGL renderer). However, I heard it was not very good on the PS3. Given the time that passed, I'd bet they used the PS3 engine as a jump-off point and have been optimizing heavily, around OpenGL 2.1 and 3.0 I'd bet. No coincidence 10.6.3 is supposed to have OpenGL 3.0 support.

Re:Mac support?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes but they suck. Look at console TF2 vs. PC TF2. There's no contest.

Re:Mac support?

[LeftClicker]

Please read this blog post: http://blog.wolfire.com/2008/12/why-you-should-support-mac-os-x-and-linux/

Re:Mac support?

[Azundris]

Played Portal on Mac using Crossover Games. Worked like a charm.

Re:Mac support?

[jimicus]

More than one indie developer has commented that Mac users seem to be far more willing to buy software and less likely to pirate it. So much so that the percentage of buyers who use a Mac is far more than one might reasonably expect given their market share.

Re:Mac support?

[Acaeris]

You'll be glad to know then that GameInformer confirmed Portal 2 will get a Mac release (which means at least that version of Source has been ported).

Re:Mac support?

[Baloo Uriza]

Screw the Mac and it's number 3 on the desktop status, what bout Linux?

Unscrambled...

[natehoy]

The underlined letters unscramble to "NA0A HATE NET DRM", which would be phonetically pronounced as "Now I hate net DRM".

One possibility, anyway.

Re:Unscrambled...

[pushing-robot]

From what I saw, drattmann/h0nee is a username/password used in the ARG, apparently giving you access to a BASIC program that generates this:

http://techplethora.com/COOP.jpg

Re:Unscrambled...

[Anonymous Coward]

Coop trial!?!?!? Is this suggesting that Portal 2 will have cooperative play? Rad.

Re:Unscrambled...

[sopssa]

That would be great actually. There's just so many possibilities with the portals if you played together with other people. It's also technically possible as the portal gun can be used in Garry's Mod and other games too. I sure wish it will have multiplayer.

Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[LoRdTAW]

So Valve, what ever happened to Half Life 2 Episode 3? Portal was fun and all but did not leave you with a cliffhanger ending like HL2 Episode 2. I am still patiently waiting.

Will we see another orange box like release with Portal 2 and HL2 Episode 3 bundled together?

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[sopssa]

There were some cliffhangers though, like the reference to that ship and other stuff. Also;

After she has destroyed the final piece, a portal malfunction tears the room apart and transports everything to the surface. Chell is then seen lying outside the facility's gates amid the remains of GLaDOS. In the PC version, Chell is then dragged away from the facility by an unseen figure speaking in a robotic voice, thanking her for assuming the "party escort submission position" (a reference to GLaDOS requesting that she assume this position after escaping).[25] This retcon was added to the PC version in an update on March 3, 2010.

It seems Valve added another cliffhanger in very recent update.

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[LoRdTAW]

I always wondered if they were going to try and tie Portal to Half Life. After all in Episode 2 Aperture Labs was mentioned and GLaDOS tells Chell that the world has changed since she last saw it. Maybe they are doing something very interesting story wise.

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[interkin3tic]

So Valve, what ever happened to Half Life 2 Episode 3? Portal was fun and all but did not leave you with a cliffhanger ending like HL2 Episode 2. I am still patiently waiting.

1. Yes it did! Especially now that they updated the ending to portal!

2. The ending to HL2 episode 2 wasn't much of a cliffhanger if you ask me.

3. Half life1: 1998. Half life 2: 2004 (6 years later) Episode 1: 2006 (2 years later) Episode 2: 2007 (1 year later). It's now 2010, 3 years later. We've got another 3 years before we can really say "This is an unusually long for Valve." Granted, I wouldn't expect them to reinvent the wheel like they did from HL1 to HL2. So I don't think you're being patient. Neither am I though, I want them to hurry the hell up.

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[brkello]

I can't even remember what happened at the end of Episode 2 any more. :(

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[jandrese]

To be fair, HL2 Ep1, 2, and 3 were supposed to be a single game broken up into three parts and released as they were completed. Episode 3 is taking a very long time to come out.

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[petermgreen]

IMO if you are going to count episodes then you should also count expansion packs

half life: late 1998
opposing force: late 1999 (1 year)
blue shift: mid 2001 (1.5 years)
decay: late 2001 (0.5 years)
hl2: late 2004 (3 years)
ep1: mid 2006 (1.5 years)
ep2: late 2007 (1.5 years)

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[genner]

So Valve, what ever happened to Half Life 2 Episode 3? Portal was fun and all but did not leave you with a cliffhanger ending like HL2 Episode 2.

Yes it did. I mean was the cake really a lie? We just don't know.

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[genner]

I always wondered if they were going to try and tie Portal to Half Life. After all in Episode 2 Aperture Labs was mentioned and GLaDOS tells Chell that the world has changed since she last saw it. Maybe they are doing something very interesting story wise.

Portal is already tied to Half Life.
Aperture Labs is Black Mesas competitor.
The story takes place paralell to Half Life 1.

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[SlashRSlashN]

Or...
Do the stories tie together?

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[VGPowerlord]

Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay are all by Gearbox, not Valve. Hence why the OP didn't count them.

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[Rei]

Well, the yellowcake was a lie...

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[Anonymous Coward]

HL2:E2 tied the Portal universe to the HL universe via Aperture Science ... Mossman had gone to Alaska to find the Borealis. Portal 2 will hopefully shed some light on the connection.

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[LoRdTAW]

I know about the tie ins. But I really want to know if Gordon freeman will ever wield the portal gun or if Chell will have to fight her way through a combine invasion.

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[Anonymous Coward]

Episode 3 is taking a very long time to come out.

I take it to mean that it's going to be a pretty epic game--since it's supposedly wrapping up with Gordon's part of the story. I'll take all the epicness they can dish out, as long as it doesn't become a DNF.

Re:Portal 2, Left 4 dead 2....

[Anonymous Coward]

But they *are* supposedly canon.

The Flash Version Mappack

[pcgabe]

While you're waiting for Portal 2, play the FV mappack if you haven't already. It introduces some new game mechanics, and would itself have been an OK sequel (or prequel), except it's a totally free mod instead.

Re:The Flash Version Mappack

[Monkeedude1212]

That Map pack was also purchased by Valve and shipped to the XboxLive Arcade - for you 360 owners, though you have to dish out a couple of dollars

Re:The Flash Version Mappack

[cthulu_mt]

Very cool. Thanks.

Re:The Flash Version Mappack

[mrpiddly]

For an extra challenge, Portal Prelude is also pretty fun but the voice acting is horrible and some of the puzzles border on unfair. It does not have those extra touches that made Portal great, but I still feel it is worth playing and the levels themselves are really well designed.

Test chambers 18 and 19 are insane.

Re:The Flash Version Mappack

[pcgabe]

Prelude is nowhere near as fun/polished as TFV. There are bits of dialog that make me wonder if the creators were paying attention AT ALL when they played Portal themselves (so many things in Prelude don't make sense). I'm trying very hard not to come out and say that Prelude was intelligence-insultingly dumb, but there it is.

However, it was quite challenging, and if THAT is what you're looking for, Prelude has it in abundance.

But of the two, I highly HIGHLY recommend TFV, and I will outright DISrecommend Prelude. Prelude was way hyped when it came out and was a terrible disappointment. And, not that it has a bearing on quality, but TFV has a comparatively tiny download (as it mostly reuses the resources in Portal and HL2). 40 megs, vs the 20-times-larger 800+ meg Prelude.

(I may perhaps be a little bitter regarding Prelude, as I was really looking forward to its release. And I will say that it is maybe a bit better than a lot of the stand-alone fan maps. But Portal and TFV were so, SO much better.)

TL;DR
Prelude = a challenge; TFV = a fun game

Re:The Flash Version Mappack

[Anonymous Coward]

That reminds me... I heard MS requires all DLC on the 360 to cost money. Products have a minimum charge that must be pushed, free content is not permitted.

I think it was Valve's explanation for why free Left for Dead content cost MS points on the 360. Seems rather stupid for MS to do though.

Never understood this game

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure I'll probably get modded troll, but I really never got this game. I thought it was fun to port around the first couple of times but I honestly found it to get repetitive and boring to keep doing the same thing over and over. I breezed through the game fairly quickly and never felt like there was anything particularly innovative or amazing about the game--I spent my youth playing many hours of Nintendo games that had the same thing, except only in two dimensions. It felt more like a polished half-life 2 mod rather than an actual game.

Re:Never understood this game

[Mascot]

Did you play with sound enabled?

Re:Never understood this game

[HeronBlademaster]

It felt more like a polished half-life 2 mod rather than an actual game.

There's a reason it was bundled with The Orange Box and only cost $20 separately...

Re:Never understood this game

[Spad]

Bingo. The gameplay wasn't anything amazing, it was just a clever take on the usual puzzle mechanics, but the context, the plot thread that ran throughout and the dark humour that went with it made it a great game.

Re:Never understood this game

[geekoid]

Man post as AC to imply he is so smart portal was a breeze.

News at 11

Re:Never understood this game

[DJCouchyCouch]

> it was just a clever take on the usual puzzle mechanics

Ah yes, the totally usual puzzle mechanics that no one's used before.

Re:Never understood this game

[alphaseven]

Did you play with sound enabled?

Actually that's a good question because the first day Portal came out there was a bug where the voice giving you instructions wasn't audible (for a few people). That happened to me, I played the first few levels and I never heard the voice, then the next day Valve patched the game and the game worked for me.

It was a subtle bug because all the other sounds were there, I never realized the best part of the game is missing. Luckily I hadn't gotten too far into the game.

Re:Never understood this game

[Anonymous Coward]

playing many hours of Nintendo games that had the same thing

I don't understand what you are saying. What Nintendo games have the same thing?

Was there a game with something similar to the portal mechanic? IIRC Adventure on the 2600 had a portal thingy, and I am sure there must be more, but are any actually used like Portal?

Or are you saying that Portal is just a platformer and the portal mechanic doesn't distinguish it?

Or?

Re:Never understood this game

[Anonymous Coward]

Or maybe he made the mistake of assuming the party escort submission position when asked?

Re:Never understood this game

[bigstrat2003]

I disagree. I thought the plot was terrible (escaping from a facility simply isn't all that interesting), and while there was a lot of great dark humor, it really was the gameplay that made Portal great. If it was the same game with different mechanics, it would have sucked.

Re:Never understood this game

[atamido]

Maybe I'm a simpleton, or I don't play enough games, but the game felt pretty innovative to me. I thought the user created portals were a completely new take on puzzle mechanics.

I always figured the $20 was due to the game's short length, and that management figured it would have a relatively small field of appeal.

Re:Never understood this game

[HeronBlademaster]

I always figured the $20 was due to the game's short length, and that management figured it would have a relatively small field of appeal.

That's what I meant. I thought the game was prety innovative too.. it just wasn't $50 worth ;)

drattmann/h0nee

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't find it in the wiki, but here's the story--

We were logging into the wiki as backup/backup. There was a progress bar displayed on login, that increased slowly over a couple of days (in addition to spitting out images).

Once the progress bar filled up, the Portal 2 announcement on Steam went live, complete with underlined images. At that time, backup/backup started spitting out a BASIC program, and logging in with drattmann/h0nee spit out some data files. If you plugged the data files into the BASIC program, you got these images, which seem to imply that at least this phase of the ARG is over: http://portalwiki.net/index.php/Aperture_Image_Format

Neat

[DeadDecoy]

I don't know what I'm more surprised at, the clever way in which Valve announced Portal 2, or how quickly their obscure puzzle was crowd sourced and solved. Heck, I only noticed the achievement a view days ago, and now we have unencrypted images from sound bytes in the game. I wonder what would happen if Valve left a little teaser challenge: cure cancer and we'll give you episode 3.

This is a triumph.

[cadeon]

I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS

Re:This is a triumph.

[cadeon]

Maybe this time the Pie will be a Lie.

Re:This is a triumph.

[msu320]

There REAALLLY was a cake.....

Re:This is a triumph.

[MrNiceguy_KS]

It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.

Re:This is a triumph.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's hard to overstate my satisfaction!

Re:This is a triumph.

[Darinbob]

That will disappoint the hobbits.

Because Someone Has to Say It

[MrTripps]

The Portal 2 is a lie!

I hope

[Anonymous Coward]

that portal gets mixed into half life somehow already =0

Re:I hope

[JSBiff]

If they do, I wonder if they will use a 'new, improved' version of the portal gun. What I mean is, in order to keep the puzzles in Portal interesting, the gun had a very serious limitation - it could only create portals on flat surfaces made out of a very specific material (not sure what it was, but it appeared to be some sort of ceramic tile, or something. Maybe it was just concrete, not sure.

Put another way, the Portal levels mostly had an 'over-designed' feel to them, but that was ok and made sense in the context of a game - after all, you *were* in a test course designed specifically to test/train users of the portal gun (must've been some military training program).

Half-life has certainly had it's share of very industrial areas, but in more recent entries in the series, we've been in the great outdoors, and in rather 'plain' buildings in the country-side. That means the gun would likely only be useful in a (kind-of) small number of environments/levels in the games, and those levels would probably end up feeling like they were designed specifically for the portal gun (which, of course, they would have been).

Of course, there's been plenty of examples of stuff in the Half-Life series where you could only use something for one or two levels specifically designed for that gameplay mechanic, like using one of 'barnacles' as a grappling hook to swing from place to place in only one or two levels in the original Half-Life, or in Half-Life 2, the level where you get the swarm of Ant Lions as 'pets', or the end of Half-Life where you get the 'energy orb gun', but at least those levels had this going for them: you never saw those things before, so it was a new and novel gameplay experience.

Since most people have already played Portal, not sure adding one level of portal puzzles would necessarily add that much in the way of novelty to HL2: Ep. 3.

Although. . . I suppose they could do new things with the portal gun. There were no monsters/enemies in Portal (except at the end). Might be kind of fun to put a blue portal somewhere bad, then shoot red portals under the feet of combine soldiers, then watch them fall 100 feet to their death, or drop into some sort of hazard.

I guess what I'm driving at is, sure, they could (and maybe even will), but if it'll only be for a small section of the game, not sure if that's really that important for it to be in the game.

Re:I hope

[brkello]

I am sure it will be. I remember playing HL2 Ep2 and there being something in there with Aperture Science in there. So it is in the same universe.

Re:I hope

[jandrese]

As you noticed, the portal gun really can't work in HL2, the areas are just too open and people would end up outside of the map in no time (or it would have to only work in a handful of specific areas).

It seems more likely to me that Gordan will rescue Chell and she'll make prescripted portals for him while he escorts her past the combine and does all of the gravity gun stuff.

The dialog should be really interesting:
Gordan: ...
Chell: ...
Gordan: ...
Chell: ...

Although to be fair, Chell never talks in Portal because there is nobody to talk to.

Re:I hope

[CronoCloud]

Even if there is nothing to talk to, humans do talk to themselves sometimes. Notwithstanding the talking electronics. I think if I was put through a course like that, I'd be saying various unflattering things about GLaDOS's nonexistand mother and father, and anyone who programmed her by about level 3.

Re:I hope

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry, but that just does not sound fun. The whole point of the limited surfaces was to make you think creatively to work around your limitations. If you can suddenly make a portal on everything, gone are a lot of the problems encountered in the game. Now, I'm sure you could come up with some puzzles by allowing portals everywhere, but it seems very limiting in comparison to having some mechanic to limit the player's movement.

Re:I hope

[Anonymous Coward]

If they do, I wonder if they will use a 'new, improved' version of the portal gun. What I mean is, in order to keep the puzzles in Portal interesting, the gun had a very serious limitation - it could only create portals on flat surfaces made out of a very specific material (not sure what it was, but it appeared to be some sort of ceramic tile, or something. Maybe it was just concrete, not sure.

Not Metal.

Re:I hope

[Rakishi]

Although to be fair, Chell never talks in Portal because there is nobody to talk to.

Except the Weighted Companion Cube.

Re:I hope

[osu-neko]

Even if there is nothing to talk to, humans do talk to themselves sometimes.

Sure... /me backs away slowly.

Re:I hope

[atamido]

the portal gun really can't work in HL2

You really need to see this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKg3TUPQ8Sg

Re:I hope

[jandrese]

Yeah, that's great when he's using it in the confined sewer level, but what about opening a portal on an opposite rooftop during the chase scene at the start of HL2? That's literally game breaking.

Re:I hope

[atamido]

Well, not necessarily a retrofit of the original episodes. But IIRC, the plan has always been to integrate the portal gun into the Half-Life story line.

Re:I hope

[JSBiff]

Not glass.
Not water.
Not ????

In Portal, there is only one material 'texture' that you can open portals on - something resembling concrete.

We don't really know for sure if you can open a portal on anything else. . . wood? Ice? Natural rock? Crystal? Does the surface have to be perfectly smooth?

Underlined letters

[Chris Mattern]

drattmannh0nee? I must be tragically unhip; I don't get it.

Re:Underlined letters

[FSWKU]

Think of it as a login/pass combination. drattmann/h0nee for what appears to be "Dr. Ratt Mann". The character name given to whoever drew all the markings on the walls ("the cake is a lie", the ode to the companion cube, directions for escape, etc) was "Rat Man", who was thought to be either another test subject, or an Aperture Science employee who went mad.

Re:Underlined letters

[JSBiff]

I think the problem is that, unless you look to sources outside the original Portal, you never encounter that character's name. You logically know someone left all those scribbles for you, but you never really know who. (It might be that if you play through the game with the developer commentary, they might discuss that character; I tried, but since I had just played through the game, even though it's fairly short, I found it too boring to play through a second time trying to pay attention to the commentary track - I don't know that I made it very far at all with the commentary on; it's been long enough since I played that maybe it's time to try it again.)

Re:Underlined letters

[FSWKU]

Yes, that is a problem, but I also feel it's part of what makes Portal so great. Sure, there's interesting puzzles, dark humor, and top notch design. But it's all the additional stuff you can find OUTSIDE of the main game if you take the time to look that makes it so appealing. I love how you can play the game and enjoy it on its own, but if you wish, there's also a whole other dimension to it that makes the story straddle the line betwen FPS and ARG.

Portal more imporant than Half Life

[rahvin112]

If you listen to the developer comment on Portal you will find out why Portal is more important to Valve than Half Like is at this point. Portal is probably the most popular "FPS" genre game for Women ever released. IIRC the lead developer at Valve was even a woman. Gabe makes the comment in the developer commentary with Portal that it opened their eyes to the potential to selling games to that other 50% of the population. Portal was a huge hit with the girls and from a business perspective Portal then became more important than Half Life.

Re:Portal more imporant than Half Life

[Velex]

it opened their eyes to the potential to selling games to that other 50% of the population

Let's hope they don't lose the original 50% by leaving us hanging in Half-Life.

Re:Portal more imporant than Half Life

[Anonymous Coward]

game for Women ever released.

If you really want to market it to women, then all you need to do is introduce micropayments, remove most of the content in exchange for collecting cute, fuzzy, "shiny" things, and release it as a Facebook app.

Re:Portal more imporant than Half Life

[kanuac]

I, for one, welcome the new age of positive discrimination in videogames. Was needed.

WTF

[darrenkopp]

Portal came out w/ episode 2... so where the F*** is episode 3? excited for this, but priorities valve!

Old News

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought one of the devs let it slip in some G4 interview?

Summary version

[FooAtWFU]

The "Adjust radio frequency" update added a bunch of radios all over the place which, if dragged to the correct location (or if you extract the resource bundles), will produce some sounds which translate to an old ham-radio-style slow-scan TV signal which have a bunch of pictures which give you some sort of hashed version of the phone number of the BBS where you login with 'backup/backup' and watch a progress bar saying "backup restoring, ETA: next Thursday (except on weekends)" or other silly stuff, and get ASCII art pictures of scenes which involve robots.

I'm sure I'm missing something. Like the secret new game ending. Which is on Youtube somewhere.

Re:Summary version

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a secret ending - they just updated the original one, so just finish the game now and you'll see it.

We need more companies such as Valve...

[nataflux]

and less companies like EA, Activision, Microsoft, Ubisoft, etc.

Re:We need more companies such as Valve...

[Anonymous Coward]

for real. Valve gameplay is always unique and the story is always fun and interesting, i really care about the characters in HL series, not so much for games like Halo. Plus they can design it well both visually and gameplay. the class system in TF2 is amazing, i dont know where else its been done so well, especially now with the upgrades. Not to mention how friendly they are to the modding community. I only with they supported Linux. Maybe on Monday ill hop a bus across the lake to go beg gabe newell, maybe force him to read The Cathedral and the Bazaar.

Re:We need more companies such as Valve...

[eric-x]

there is room for everyone. Without negatives there are no positives!

Maybe it's an anagram?

[__aawimn3783]

Ee, Dr Manhatt0n!

Re:Maybe it's an anagram?

[__aawimn3783]

the rat man den n0?

Hoping for the complete Civ4 to come to Steam for

[Shivetya]

Mac.

Its far cheaper to buy it all for PC than buy the whole shebang for Mac still.

and here is to hoping CIV5 has a Mac client at release

But...

[ZirconCode]

but, but, There is NO Cake!

Prelude too.

[antdude]

Go here. It's very hard!

why do people assume this means no ep3?

[DeadRat4life]

id be willing to bet that it will be released in another orange box like deal with ep 3

Game makes me want to throw up

[failedlogic]

I love playing FPSes. Portal is a really cool game but I only played for about 15 minutes. I felt like throwing up afterward. I never bothered finishing the game. I watched the ending on Youtube. Qute. Only which I could have played it.

I understand that Valve tends to adjust the line of sight of the player slightly (like in Half-Life series) and for some people it makes them really dizzy and nauseous. There's a hack to readjust the line of sight. I have tried that as well and no luck.

In fact, while I enjoy Valve's games - I have played up to HL2, all their games, and really only Valve is the problem, make me really nauseous. I have not had any problem or significant problem with any other FPS or any other type of video game - COD, Modern Warfare, Solider Fortune, Delta Force, Operation Flashpoint have ALL been fine.

Re:Game makes me want to throw up

[sunami]

I had this problem at one point during HL2, where you're taking the hovercraft along the water/waste/whatever. I had to put it down for a week, finish that section, and then it was fine. When I replayed HL2 a year or so later, I felt a bit sick at that same part, but I got through it faster so there was no stop. No idea why that part exactly.

Re:Game makes me want to throw up

[Barny]

A friend of mine is the opposite, a lot of other games, particularly the ID series, make him horribly sick, even just watching someone play, yet he can play any source based games without a problem.

The FoV could be a culprit, could also be how the engine handles some colours or even how a particular texture artist draws (my friend is colour blind to red and a few other colours).

Portal 2 will feature co-op

[hansamurai]

Time to make some more Steam friends to share the cake with.

HUURHUUR CAEK IS LIE

[Anonymous Coward]

IM SO RANDUM GAIZ. LOL TEH CAKE IS A LIE XDDD

I love Portal, but honestly, the people that won't shut up about that joke make me hate it.

Re:HUURHUUR CAEK IS LIE

[Anonymous Coward]

It is obvious that there is a very effective brainwashing technique buried in there...

just the opposite for me

[SpiceWare]

I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't get sick playing Portal as I've always gotten sick playing FPSes before.

New years is at the end of March this year!

[Japher]

So let me make sure I have this right...

Valve developed Portal, a fantastic game with an enthusiastic fan base who would love to see a sequel.

Steam, which is owned by Valve has just announced that Valve will in fact be releasing said sequel.

The release date for the amazing new game is April 1st.

Just sayin...

Re:New years is at the end of March this year!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, Valve announced it ON Steam, their publishing platform. I don't find that odd at all.

Unscrambled...cooperation.

[Anonymous Coward]

Something I was thinking about when I saw the above. In a dual-team one player could create only entrance portals and the other could do the same for exit portals. Both could go through a completed portal tunnel.

For those who read the EULA...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yay - Another game that won't ever be purchased, because it's from Valve/Steam.
And I know I'm not alone.

Hoping for people to stop doing this shit 'cos its

[c6gunner]

Stupid.

It spells out...

[blackprint]

Dr. Manhattan 0nee (I can't quite figure out the last part, I didn't read Watch Men). So whatever zero-nee or some such thing. PS: I understand it's a password, but figure there must be some fun this particular password.