Portal 2 Catch-All

Sweet.

Now that's what you call replay value for a single-player game.

Well I'm logged into Steam on PS3. As a few of you know already from chatting with me.

Interestingly enough it doesn't log me off Steam on my desktop. I am currently downloading the Steam Portal 2 copy while playing on my PS3 until that gets done (Steam claims 11gb in an hour, but we'll see).

Probably focusing on single today, but maybe tonight/tomorrow we'll try some cross platform coop if anyone wants.

hubbinsd wrote:

Anyone playing this on the 360? Any word on how the controls feels?

I am. It feels as good as the last game. No problems. Typical Valve polish. As far as the game goes I wasn't in love with the opening and thought some of the humor was a little too over the top and not as clever. And then I got far enough in to see the villain and my happiness level went up exponentially as she spoke.

But yeah, the game feels great. Other than the fact that there are tons of people who will be playing on PC, I say jump in. I'll be playing co-op on 360.

DSGamer wrote:
hubbinsd wrote:

Anyone playing this on the 360? Any word on how the controls feels?

I am. It feels as good as the last game. No problems. Typical Valve polish. As far as the game goes I wasn't in love with the opening and thought some of the humor was a little too over the top and not as clever. And then I got far enough in to see the villain and my happiness level went up exponentially as she spoke.

But yeah, the game feels great. Other than the fact that there are tons of people who will be playing on PC, I say jump in. I'll be playing co-op on 360.

My 360 copy is being delivered today. Please feel free to add if interested in co-op. I know Nel e Nel is also on 360.

Also got my first PS3 trophy, and within seconds it was already listed in my Steam achievements as well. Things working as expected so far, yay.

NPR story/audio piece on the game. Jeff Gerstmann's on briefly.

I'm on 360 too.

Feel free to add me to your Friend's List if interested in co-op (though I'll likely be hitting the single-player first before playing online).

Gamertag: DJ Dostoevsky

I love this game! I'll be bouncing back and forth between work and Portal 2 all day

Nuean wrote:

I love this game! I'll be bouncing back and forth between work and Portal 2 all day :)

lucky bastard.

Well the PS3 controls feel great. There is a loading screen of 5-10 seconds between each stage so far, when riding the elevator. Not too bad for a game that doesn't install to the hard drive I guess.

Not sure if there's a similar loading bit on the PC, as that is still only halfway done downloading. Think I'll stick with the PS3 version for a while. That's the only thing that doesn't cross over, save files. Achievements, friends, coop, all good, but the single player save files only work from ps3-ps3 or pc-pc on your Steam account. Now that I'm in I might as well keep at it.

There is, regrettably, a small load time that's longer than the previous game on the 360 as well. Even when it's installed to the disc.

Stele wrote:

Well the PS3 controls feel great. There is a loading screen of 5-10 seconds between each stage so far, when riding the elevator. Not too bad for a game that doesn't install to the hard drive I guess.

Not sure if there's a similar loading bit on the PC, as that is still only halfway done downloading. Think I'll stick with the PS3 version for a while. That's the only thing that doesn't cross over, save files. Achievements, friends, coop, all good, but the single player save files only work from ps3-ps3 or pc-pc on your Steam account. Now that I'm in I might as well keep at it.

My saves aren't transferring PC to PC yet, annoyingly. Only thing that's transferring for me are key binds.

I saw on Twitter that controller support on PC is excellent if you're more of a console gamer and want to try it on PC.

Right, that's the thing I forgot to mention in my impressions post. I much prefer the first game's occasional loading to Portal 2's load after near every puzzle room. Would be nice if they could've done something humorous in loading. Typical loading screen does not amuse me.

Stele wrote:

WThere is a loading screen of 5-10 seconds between each stage so far, when riding the elevator. Not too bad for a game that doesn't install to the hard drive I guess. ;)

Long load times are unfortunately a hallmark of the Source engine. I did play of it this morning and the load times do seem faster then Portal 1 so hopefully some progress has been made there.

DSGamer wrote:

There is, regrettably, a small load time that's longer than the previous game on the 360 as well. Even when it's installed to the disc.

Is this within the actual levels or in between (i.e. riding the elevator to the next)?

I'm actually fond of the loading screens myself. As much as I enjoyed the idea of keeping the continuous experience going, there are just too many assets and things that need to be streamed into memory these days, and frankly the method of random pausing while a bar filled up in the middle of an action was pretty much my only annoyance with previous Source engine games

Knew I should've stuck with Amazon instead of Best Buy, but the extra $20 in gift certificates was too much to resist. Yesterday got the email that my copy would be ready for pickup today. Went over there, copy's nowhere to be found. Apparently it's the only one they got, though they have 12 "on order". They called another store that the computer said had them in stock, but apparently they don't. So now I have the option of waiting for the Best Buy copy to show up, or ordering a copy for $45 from either Steam or Amazon. I'll give it til the end of the day tomorrow before I decide what to do.

Complete horse sh*t. I'm so sick of everything going wrong somehow. First game in ages I've been excited for, and even that gets screwed up. Balls.

Chaz wrote:

Best Buy pre-ordering = Balls.

That sucks, Chaz. I learned this lesson an even harder way - the Rock Band Squier. My pre-order was set to be delivered April 3rd, a full month after the guitar became available! I stopped off at a local store on the way home from work, and they had one in stock, but couldn't honor my preorder, so I bought it there, and saved my receipt until my delivery showed up. Last time I ever buy something that I want quickly from Best Buy's online store, and at least for now, I won't shop at Best Buy at all.

I played for about an hour last night. I have not laughed as hard and as often at a video game in a long, long time. Even my wife, a non-gamer if there ever was one, was laughing quite often just hearing things from across the room.

Looking forward to the rest.

Hey, if there is a group, I would LOVE to play some coop games.

Well, I love multiplayer games in general, but my english isn't top notch. I know some slang, some key "words", but if you guys speak french, I'll speak that language instead I'm mic shy in general.

Oh forgot : Steam id is /id/Manach

I foolishly figured that I was safe since it was a major new release, and I haven't had a problem with those at Best Buy before. Lesson learned is to not buy anything at Best Buy unless you're holding it in your hand.

Sad corollary is that now I pretty much have to avoid the internet until I actually get a copy of it.

Sorry to hear that Chaz. There's a reason I've blacklisted Best Buy. Actually, there are a lot of reasons.

Manach wrote:

Hey, if there is a group, I would LOVE to play some coop games.

Well, I love multiplayer games in general, but my english isn't top notch. I know some slang, some key "words", but if you guys speak french, I'll speak that language instead I'm mic shy in general.

Oh forgot : Steam id is /id/Manach

Give us a link, instead. The Steam search feature is quite troublesome.

Wheatley is my new best friend. We're totally bros.

cyrax wrote:

Right, that's the thing I forgot to mention in my impressions post. I much prefer the first game's occasional loading to Portal 2's load after near every puzzle room. Would be nice if they could've done something humorous in loading. Typical loading screen does not amuse me.

Portal 1 loaded after every puzzle too, in the elevator. It was just a lot quicker since there were far fewer assets to load.

I played way too late last night. This game is awesome. Every time I think I [redacted] [redacted], I [redacted].

[redacted] yeah!

I have to say, Wheatley is a pretty awesome hacker.

Spoiler:

"I'm going to try a manual override on this wall."
"Turn around and I'll hack this door." *SMASH* "There, I hacked it."

muttonchop wrote:
cyrax wrote:

Right, that's the thing I forgot to mention in my impressions post. I much prefer the first game's occasional loading to Portal 2's load after near every puzzle room. Would be nice if they could've done something humorous in loading. Typical loading screen does not amuse me.

Portal 1 loaded after every puzzle too, in the elevator. It was just a lot quicker since there were far fewer assets to load.

Sometimes in Portal 1 you'd get two puzzles between loads.

Same with Portal 2.

In yo' face!

For whatever it's worth, my Best Buy experience was quite pleasant (though I don't know yet whether I'm going to get the 500 Reward Zone points; apparently not only did I need to create a Reward Zone account, I ALSO needed to sign up for the Gamers Club, which is a subsection of the Reward Zone, or something like that). I placed my order late Sunday night, dropped by 15 minutes after the store opened this morning at 10:00, and walked out a happy man.

Actually, there's more to this story. Hear me out.

I brought my oldest daughter along for the ride (and because we had to make a couple of extra stops along the way for errands). I asked if she'd mind if I played a gaming podcast for the drive. Since foul language was inevitable on said podcast, she said she'd prefer not. I relented and put on a playlist of fun, kid-appropriate songs, on shuffle. We get to BB and walk in. The place was basically empty; no customers to be seen anywhere. The customer service employee retrieves my preorder and asks if I'd like to pay an additional $3 for disc scratch insurance. Given that this is a Valve game and that the disc probably won't EVER leave its case, I declined. We get back into my car and I resumed the shuffled playlist. The previous song only had about 5 seconds left to go, and then, I sh*t you not, "Still Alive" came on.

"This was a triumph! I'm making a note here: Huge Success!"

I couldn't have planned that better if I tried.