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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?"
drattmannh0nee?
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
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.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
...along with the rest of the ARG. They've already been quite solved, over there. http://portalwiki.net/
Thank you Valve; a nice follow up to the game of the decade.
Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
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.
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.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
The underlined letters unscramble to "NA0A HATE NET DRM", which would be phonetically pronounced as "Now I hate net DRM".
One possibility, anyway.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
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.
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?
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.
Don't put advice in your sig.
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.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
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.
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".
You are welcome on my lawn.
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
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.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
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.
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS
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!)
The Portal 2 is a lie!
"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
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.
drattmannh0nee? I must be tragically unhip; I don't get it.
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...
Whatever it is, it's notablog.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
...you're one of those weirdos who reads the end of a book first, aren't you?
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.
I read the internet for the articles.
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.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
(....)
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.
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.
and less companies like EA, Activision, Microsoft, Ubisoft, etc.
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.
Ee, Dr Manhatt0n!
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
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
but, but, There is NO Cake!
Go here. It's very hard!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
id be willing to bet that it will be released in another orange box like deal with ep 3
Although to be fair, Chell never talks in Portal because there is nobody to talk to.
Except the Weighted Companion Cube.
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.
Time to make some more Steam friends to share the cake with.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Even if there is nothing to talk to, humans do talk to themselves sometimes.
Sure... /me backs away slowly.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
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.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't get sick playing Portal as I've always gotten sick playing FPSes before.
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.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
>>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.
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...
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.
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.
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.)
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
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.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
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?
the portal gun really can't work in HL2
You really need to see this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKg3TUPQ8Sg
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.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
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.
If I disagree with you it's because you are wrong.
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.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
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.
I read the internet for the articles.
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.
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?
Stupid.
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.