Portal 2 Impressions

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After canceling their big Monday night Portal 2 event, Valve settled on a understated little affair in a quiet office on the second floor of the Staples Center. Project lead Eric Johnson took us through a canned video presentation with some commentary on his part of a bit of Q&A afterward. I'm not sure what I can tell you about Portal 2 without without coming across like a drooling idiot. It's amazing. There's a clearly stated focus on augmenting and improving on all the elements of the original that stuck with fans and it really shows.

Best example of this to me was the weird fascination people had with the weighted companion cube in the first game. Something Valve is doing to build on that fascination is provide a new companion that you carry in the world like the cube -- but it's a personality core. It speaks to you as you carry it much like GladOs would, only it speaks in a charming accent and had some incredible funny dialogue in the demo. Fun fact: the voice is done by Richard Lord, an artist who works for Valve. He's great.

There's a great many other new addons to the game including full coop levels that are separate from the main single player story and a handful of new portal gun powers. It's worth not looking too deeply into these new abilities and the puzzle ramifications they bring if you can manage it. Portal is all about discovery and the sequel is no exception. You're already going to buy it anyways, so just rest assured that they're setup to knock it out of the park.

PC/Mac/PS3/Xbox 360 all released on the same day sometime in 2011.

Comments

New Portal Gun types? And I thought the G4 "hands-on" interview video thoroughly exploded my brain with the possible complexities this game will offer...wow!

Critical Darling evolves into Mega Smash Hit and then finally Religion? All hail the Cube? I can see it.

EDIT: that is an ADORABLE picture.

New Portal Gun types? And I thought the G4 "hands-on" interview video thoroughly exploded my brain with the possible complexities this game will offer...wow!

I should probably rename that to portal gun powers to save some confusion.

Certis wrote:
New Portal Gun types? And I thought the G4 "hands-on" interview video thoroughly exploded my brain with the possible complexities this game will offer...wow!

I should probably rename that to portal gun powers to save some confusion.

Ah. Nevertheless!

I actually got goosebumps watching the E3 trailer.

Will I still be able to carry my radio everywhere? Gotta have my tunes!

PS: Did you just like it because of the joke at the end of the trailer?

wordsmythe wrote:

PS: Did you just like it because of the joke at the end of the trailer?

Prepare to be banned.

It seems they actually used an element they got from hiring the team that did the TAG mod for Half-Life 2. I immediately recognized it -- pretty cool.

Something Valve is doing to build on that fascination is provide a new companion that you carry in the world like the cube -- but it's a personality core. It speaks to you as you carry it much like GladOs would, only it speaks in a charming accent and had some incredible funny dialogue in the demo.

This sounds awesome. I enjoyed the talking orbs at the end of the original so I'm excited to see what they do with this.

I had meant to avoid Portal 2 coverage until much closer to the release date to avoid going crazy, but this morning I broke and watched the trailer. It was pretty amazing. I never really got why the companion cube became such a hit, it was just a metal box with some painting on it. This new british guy is actually a companion, if I end up having to break him to pieces, and throw every piece into a fire, I will regret it deeply.

Yonder wrote:

This new british guy is actually a companion, if I end up having to break him to pieces, and throw every piece into a fire, I will regret it deeply.

Have you seen the videos? My guess is that most people will want to throw him in a fire and break him into little pieces. I bet there'll even be an achievement for it: Drop dead Wheatley!

This is an easy pre-order.

I can't decide if the custom skins I would get for pre-ordering through gamestop would be worth it. I don't really need another game box taking up space in the top shelve of my closet. But on the other hand, different skins....

Yeah, this and BF3 are both hovering really freaking close to the "must pre-order" level.

Bill_Lewis wrote:

I can't decide if the custom skins I would get for pre-ordering through gamestop would be worth it. I don't really need another game box taking up space in the top shelve of my closet. But on the other hand, different skins....

Really?