Portal 2

apparently spoilerism is running rampant on this game so please abstain
who got it?

I'll be picking it up Thursday.

Waiting for me at home thanks to release-day Amazon shipping. AVOID AVOID AVOID the PC Gamer review, though; there's a screenshot that's a massive spoiler (or confirms one I was hoping was a hoax, at least).

same here.

have to say i can't see caring about story spoilers for this game, unless the spoilers are solutions to puzzles?

i'm skeptical about this. the first one was so perfect, i was actually disappointed when they announced a sequel

i feel exactly the same way as you, ade. but the demo sequences and advertising have kinda won me over.

last week i remember walking over a huge printed Portal 2 advert on some floor, can't for the life of me recall where it was!

i'm sort of w/ tam tam but more because i wanted more gordon freeman in my life instead of this. i'm betting there will be some sketchy but well-placed details hinting more about black mesa and aperture throughout...

but really valve are sort of like rockstar in that i will just give them my money

9.0 Gamespot
10/10 Eurogamer

All the reviews on metacritic are super-high, as you'd expect- except for the user reviews, which are slamming it for being "four hours long" (every review says the SP alone is 7-10), "a poor console port" (based solely on a "please don't turn off your console" message when saving), having "day 1 DLC" (customizable junk for the co-op bots like the TF2 store) and for the potato ARG, which... yeah, I can fault them for that. The extra content was often brilliant (see Amnesia, The Ball and Defense Grid), the Potato Sack got me to take a chance on stuff I wouldn't have looked twice at but ended up enjoying immensely (like Rush, Cogs) and the ARG itself was fun to follow until the trolling and fakes got out of hand, but the "early release" was pretty lame.

i'm down with a seven hour game if all seven hours are great

the vast majority of games are way too long imo - games that don't overstay their welcome, like the first Portal, feel like little miracles

^^^ a 7 hour game that rocks the house from start to finish is better than a 27 hour game where the first 7 hours might rock, but the last 20 hours are tedium incarnate.

i'm even more excited about a four hour game than i am a seven hour game! that way i can enjoy it and get back to work sooner.

also means it'll show up used faster :)

fine i'll fucking buy this since you made me

hate u all so much

really wish i had the money for this, my wife and daughter are going to be out of town for the next week.

the vast majority of games are way too long imo - games that don't overstay their welcome, like the first Portal, feel like little miracles

just bought this. stoked.

goole you can come over and watch me have a great time playing it any time you like

lol

I am watching the intro cutscene over mr spacecadet's shoulder right now! (no liveblog)

i'm down with a seven hour game if all seven hours are great

Prefer this too... a worry with this is that they would feel the need to pad it out to justify the AAA price tag. Picked up my copy earlier, gonna play tonight =)

okay the first two hours or so are great fun but it's really just PORTAL like more of the same not there's anything wrong with that
load times kind of inexcusable imo
i'm ps3 btw

uhoh

so far this is very funny, but also really fucking boring.

huh

Just wait for it. You're in the regular test chambers with Glados being bitchy, yes? Things pick up. Very much so.

yeah, that's where I'm at. Will be patient.

voice acting and script is v v v v good btw

Ok, yeah. Think of the part you're in as an extension of the first one's ending. Things get properly nuts once the plot starts, you get to play with the new mechanic, etc.

okay, looking forward to messing around with this more tomorrow.
one thing i do immediately like: the hostile, self-hating, more interactive environment

yikes i don't think i could play this on a console, irc on Portal 1 a lot of the time you had to turn around quickly with almost pinpoint accuracy firing those portals.

I just don't think I could bare that not using a mouse

I've only used a mouse and a computer for years for FPS since Quake, barring Halo and Portal. Never owned a console later than the NES, and I found Portal was okay with a controller.

OK so my housemates "this time she's a potato" comment wasnt a joke? He's been in his room non stop for the last 2 days thanks to this thing.

I cant get my head around this game fwiw. I get so dizzy.

I had a gang of Amazon trade credit and the get-a-free-$20-gift-card-w/-purchase was still going on last night so I said FUQ IT; should be arriving on Friday. anyone have any coop impressions yet? all I know is what I read in the Eurogamer review.

actually gonna try the split-screen co-op with a friend this weekend, seems like it could be really fun (to kill each other).

ok played until pretty late last night, still rolling through the test chambers, game need to get a fucking move on imo - trusting u dudes, but man this really feels like the worlds longest and most unneeded tutorial. wondering if that is thx to this being the first time ps3 types could play portal so

idk, its kind of frustrating and not all that fun so far

wondering if that is thx to this being the first time ps3 types could play portal so

?

portal is on orange box on the ps3

oh yeah duh what the hell am i thinking of

To be fair, the ps3 Orange Box was a pretty shoddy conversion, sold poorly, and Portal was never available as a separate dl like for pc and xbox players.

I agree a bit about the pacing of that section- I get that it's supposed to be GLaDOS just outright tormenting you without even the thin veneer of "professionalism" she had up to the end of the first game (the oxyhen stuff, "a special medical procedure," etc, all very I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream)- but there's really no sense of rising stakes or of anything really *happening* until toward the end of that part. Short version: just because it's supposed to be tedious and oppressive doesn't mean it has to feel that way to the player.

Ignore me, I'm rambling. It gets oh so much better, though.

oh lord

http://store.valvesoftware.com/product_images/main_images/CP201main2.png

probly never going to play this so been watching youtube walkthrough instead. it does look a treat must admit. some of the new gameplay elements also look amazing.

also, i was quite surprised at how funny i found the voice of Merchant, whereas in the trailer it really put me off.

Really enjoying this. Put about an hour in, which means I've seen 20 minutes of loading screens.

rite? loading is really inexcusably long

only like an hour in but it is great so far. is there an ilx group on steam?

i have no friends so you guys are my only hope for co-op

is it longer than half life 2/portal 1 loading times?

i am setting up steam account shortly with ps3 so will co op
and yes there is an ilx steam group. what the hell is it called folks?

I am contemplating doing Portal 2 on Steam instead of a console but I'm not sure. Is it going to look way better? I loved playing 1 on a console.

so my understanding is that if you buy it on ps3, you can play it on a pc via steam... right?

http://www.shacknews.com/article/68107/portal-2-ps3-steamworks-features

If they fix the ps3 network issues I'd love to rock some co-op too.

Steam group:

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ILG

join! friend! etc.

still not even halfway through watching this playthrough, and the story is amazing.

i just started playing this tonight. how the environment slowly changes and the background hints that are dropped throughout are great.

10 things about portal 2

1 - No game should EVER have this much loading. EVER.
2 - The basic game mechanics hold up real well; it's still fun to work out puzzles with portals
3 - The pacing is PLODDING; I finally reached the twist sequence but MAN it took some time
4 - Script and voice acting and story are the absolute best thing this has going for it so I can see where spoilers are an actual concern
5 - I love the weird human touches throughout, the "save the turret being recycled" achievement was a great moment in gameplay
6 - Weirdly unforgiving platforming; lots of "what's over here oh i'm dead" jumps
7 - Some serious frustration points that could be easily amended by a bit of in-game direction. I've been stuck in a room at least three times where I just end up running in circles trying to find the one place I can shoot to get a portal and there's just no obvious solution. Some of this is poorly designed, which is a bit out of character for valve.
8 - the graphics are just a joy
9 - so's the sound design
10 - sure do wish i could play co-op. thanks for being a sometimes functioning network sony.

11 - potato

12- 100 - NO GAME SHOULD EVER HAVE THIS MANY LOADING SCREENS

I came around to Stephen Merchant, especially toward the end when he has some more interesting material to work with (and I'm sure it helps that I'm not a British and haven't seen Extras), but I can't help but wish Valve had gone with their original pick of Richard Ayoade.

Or Karl Pilkington. He's even the right shape!

Played a bit of the co-op. Good stuff.

12 hours to download? ack, why didn't i set it off sooner. oh well i should prob get out and enjoy the sunshine anyway.

Ha, playing this with a 6 yr old spectator, and on three separate occasions now I've been sat scratching my head over what to do next only for him to say something like "put a blue one over there, then you can go round that bit" and BE RIGHT. wtf kiddo!?

Associated question - this is has a PEGI rating of 12 but so far there's been nothing worse than Stephen Merchant saying 'bloody'. Does it get significantly less kid friendly later on? Maybe I should start a gaming parenting thread.

the loading screens are very quick on my pc /bragging '11

Jim- it's rated 10 and up in the states, and whileit doesn't get especially vulgar (a few "hells" and "craps") or violent it is quite dark in places. More jokes about tumors than your average game, for instance.

loved this game.

loading times are ridiculous for sure but i can forgive that for a game that feels aesthetically whole--just lots of small well planned things that contribute to a meaningful experience. like the evolving aperture logos. and other stuff that would be spoilers.

Every single time there was a long jump (the kind where you jump down from somewhere really really high, shunt through a portal on the ground, pop out a portal from a slanted surface to go forward really really far) I yelled wheeeeeeeeeeeee in delight, I couldn't help it.

That consistent feeling plus the great dialogue made this game for me, plus the damn amazing attention to detail and set design, sound design, these guys are just so good.

There are lot of things that make the game short of perfect - the pacing as forks mentioned, various things that sort of try to live up to the first one but inevitably can't - but this really had plenty to enjoy, and I loved the puzzles with the gels and refractory cubes. The game was just hard enough where I never felt like I needed to go seek a FAQ, but still felt really satisfied whenever I solved a tough puzzle. I feel like that's rarer and rarer these days.

Gonna try to pressure a friend to buy this sooner than later - he's waiting for the next time it goes on sale, and I promised him we'd do the co-op mode together...

More jokes about tumors than your average game, for instance.

― muus lääv? :D muus dut :( (Telephone thing), Friday, 22 April 2011 21:22 (Yesterday)

Kindergarten Cop had no problem with tumor jokes and six year olds.

Is there any reference to the updated ending of the first Portal, ie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXAq34TrVXM

Read Lab Rat -
http://www.thinkwithportals.com/comic/

I can understand the PG rating, the idea of an omnipresent voice constantly telling you how they're going to kill you might be a little much for little ones

Outside of Lab Rat, the only reference/connection to the updated Portal ending is the fact that you start the game back in stasis. Party Escort Bot doesn't get his turn in the spotlight :(

This is probably a side result of my Valve fanboyism more than anything, but the National's song is shockingly decent, kind of pretty, even:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaMEIuTxfwM

Note for the spoiler-averse- it's not one of the game's musical numbers; it only appears in the game playing on a tinny little radio in a hidden Ratman room early on.

Oh, and a further non-spoiler anti-warning, as it were: none of the puzzles in the latter half of that fan video appear in the full game, so no worries there. They were created just for the promotional videos, to show off new game mechanics.

I believe that The National song also appears more prominently in the co-op mode (got to the end of single player and still hadn't heard it so looked up where it was). Missed the radio with it until playing a couple of bits again for achievements now. Annoyed slightly by the ambiguous test chamber names on a couple of those (wasn't there more than one Test Chamber 10?).

Also guessed both of the twists very early, found Cave quickly annoying and not funny and ok, a couple of the non-elevator loading screens were rather annoying, but otherwise this was fantastic, loved every minute. All the new mechanics were cool and handled very well. Looking forward to when I get a chance to play the co-op.

Loved this! What a great game, despite the long-ass loading times. Best game I've played in quite some time.

i had no issues w/loading time and i'm playing on a 2008 mbp

anyway this was great. obv lacking the sheer novelty of the original, and the boss sequence was boring and easy, but still super fun. the fact that i knocked it out on a weekend day off is a plus imo---more like an "entertainment" and less like a "project"

would love to play the coop but i have no idea how that works

tbh both portals are kinda what i think of when i'm trying to convince skeptics that games are actually interesting and worthwhile---they're puzzling, the plot/acting is v v good, and they're engrossing in a healthy way (v. say angry birds)

V v bummed to discover that there no extra/challenge levels. wtf?!

I have no one to play coop with, and that's like 50% of the experience from the sounds of things

Can you not play online?

I guess? Don't want to play with some random tho.

Join the steam group linked to above. We're slightly less random.

Reading thru some of the entries on the ARG wiki and it's like, these people are insane, or deliberately went about this only to bait the most OCD gamers on the planet.

seriously ambushed by unexpected emotion at the closing scene.

this is better than the first one - such an incredible atmosphere, and the gels etc really gave a whole new sense of physical joy to the puzzles. honestly, what could be more fun than splurging white gel all over the walls of a room?

Did feel like a bit of a goon at times though, quite a few puzzles I solved through sheer dumb luck. Thinking with Portals is hard.

Holmes versus Moriarty. Aristotle versus Mashy spike plate!
Holmes versus Moriarty. Aristotle versus Mashy spike plate!
Holmes versus Moriarty. Aristotle versus Mashy spike plate!
Holmes versus Moriarty. Aristotle versus Mashy spike plate!

^ when voiceover + instant replay collide with slightly annoying results.

I think that was my favourite line in the whole game, but I did only hear it twice. The deer line going into the room for the 70 second achievement, however...

is there some way to bulk-friend all of ILG at once?

xxp Haha! Yeah, same exact thing happened to me at that part.

What other ideas came up for Portal 2 that were eventually cut?
At one point we had a new Gel that allowed players to walk up the side of walls. While this added a new twist to the game, the effect was so disorientating that it made people nauseas.

While working on a first-person game you always have to be aware of that issue so we removed that Gel. We also made changes to frame rate and movement that will help anyone play Portal 2 even if they do experience a feeling of nauseas while playing other first-person games.

This is something that I haven't heard talked about much, but boy did I appreciate it. Pretty much every Source game gave me motion sickness if I played the game in full screen for more than an hour or two - no such issues with Portal 2.

i mean come on here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9jplTRwmdo

^My friend made that Mad Men thing.

got this as an early birthday present :)

i was playing this before going to bed last night and i was really overcaffeinated and couldn't sleep and i was laying in bed for hours playing portal rooms in my brain

xp it's good!

i've been playing it with my girlfriend (who is acting in an advisory capacity on the single player mode) and we both had portal dreams.

I say again: no bonus maps is some bullshit

yeah feeling this ^

actually kinda frustrated with this game, fuck co-op, give me replayability. of which this game has little or none.

what puzzle games have replayability? i mean "get out of this room" style puzzle games.

well the first portal had a new game plus.

you know i'm not really sold on this game. I wanna finish it first before i levy judgment but ultimately i think i'm gonna be a bit disappointed... though maybe unavoidably.

well the first portal had a new game plus.

wait the game itself was different? I thought there was just challenge maps and advanced rooms?

no thats what i mean, but the cool thing was that there actually were multiple solutions and the challenge/advanced stuff made you do the less direct ones, it was a great way to extend the game lifespan imo

Totes

There's no doubt there'll be several incoming DLC maps. (What I'd really love to see are more little Aperture Science story vignettes.) Honestly though I think I played the advanced maps in Portal 1 for about 15 minutes before moving on.

i was the same - the advanced maps were focussed more on doing things quickly rather than being pure puzzles.

same here.

love the '70s style aperture logo.

man, i thought j.k. simmons at point says "i don't know, what do these people buy? beer dirt?" and that was the funniest line in the game (so far). turns out it's "beard dirt" - so not as good.

There's no doubt there'll be several incoming DLC maps.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-29-free-portal-2-dlc-detailed

...what's DLC?

method of removing the fetus

with portals

*going to hell brb*

ok thx to free dlc i take back all of my bitching

what is it

he's the guy who rapped with Run before the record deal

you shut up

Downloadable content

the fact that i knocked it out on a weekend day off is a plus imo---more like an "entertainment" and less like a "project"

more of this, imo

i still have never played the orig - i heard it's not great on PS3 though.

I just started this, it is MAD FUN

by sheer coincidence I read this right before starting the game:

http://www.ludix.com/moriarty/apology.html

needless to say, the "LOOK AT THE ART *BZZZZZZ*" part had me lolling explosively

holy shit that was an awesome read

i was less than impressed.

The identity of a game emerges from its mechanics and affordances, not the presentation that exposes them.

in traditional games, sure. in videogames, the two are (or can be) inseparable. narbacular drop has the same mechanics as portal, but it's a different game!

your character can't jump in Narbacular Drop, and in ND you can make portals inside of portals, ergo they do not have the same mechanics

*sigh* ok but one could imagine a game with identical mechanics but different presentation, and it would be a different game.

well no, it would be the same game with different presentation akin to skinning

Yeah. Sometimes two games have the same mechanics but different stories and settings (Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank, for example), or sometimes they have the same story but radically different mechanics (Zelda games, for example).

disagree! thoroughly! you don't think level design, characters, story, are an intrinsic part of the game?

xp

I am likely not making my argument clear due to the synonymization of "videogame" with "game"

I do agree that distinct storylines help delineate one game from another if they share mechanics; where I am disagreeing is that I am arguing that, because they share the same mechanics, these two videogames are different instances of the same generalized game, which is encapsulated by the common mechanics.

games are just code sorry you're just another sucker

like when you play a game, you should just think to yourself, what nice code thank you, and that's all

like fallout new vegas just announced new dlc that is taking place in zion national park or whatever, what would plato say I wonder

ok... but if i say "this game is ART" i'm talking about the whole package. Change the presentation, and it might not be art anymore. in Brian Moriarty's phraseology, the identity of a game emerges from its mechanics and affordances, and the presentation that exposes them.

xp. my code is art.

I mean, this is bread and butter stuff and is played out across the industry in the form of genres and the expectations of gameplay that go along with them, and how the games that do something different in a way that people like tend to generate new genres (look at the whole "survival horror" sub-genre of adventure games started by "Alone in the Dark", for example, and how that was built upon by "Resident Evil").

Obviously all of these games within these general categories try to do SOMETHING differently in order to make themselves unique/desirable, some of which ties into developing specific mechanics to go along with the storyline/level design, but boil it down to, say, chess games; most of them play exactly the same way because the rules of chess are very strictly defined and well understood. If someone started a chess game and the first move was the black king leaping across the board and taking the white king, that game would not be chess.

xp: you realize that, at that particular point in time, he is talking about games in general and not specifically videogames, right

lol no not at all

I had a joke all typed up and ready to post before I saw that

he doesn't make that distinction, is the problem.

now I just typed up a post about your chess analogy

a joke, not a post

they are different, much like games are

I will never read a fucking thread is all I'm saying

really, your bone of contention is that you wholesale reject the idea that art is something you contemplate without rules or direct input

which is a fair oppositional position to take; I was more interested in reading and understanding the argument being advanced

wait I realized you are actually talking to ledge in your posts which makes it even more confusing holy shit delete all my posts

it's actually kind of funny because based on the argument advanced here, Final Fantasy VII is the most artistic game I've ever played

xp: lol no don't delete them, I treasure each and every one

("here" being that article; it also explains why what is ultimately a mediocre game managed to become such a mainstream hit)

*dusts off boring philo paper on Wittgensteins discussion of games, hovers over submit button, thinks better of it*

whose argument did it support

because if it supported mine you should totally post it, but if it supports ledge than keep that shit to yrself IMO

really, your bone of contention is that you wholesale reject the idea that art is something you contemplate without rules or direct input

Well, I do reject that. Probably. But my bone of contention upthread is his unfair conflation of games in general, which stand and fall purely on their mechancis, and videogames, where the presentation *can* be much more intrinsic. His 'All Your Art Is Belong to Us!' example is a horrible straw man.

Curiously he does actually say "Does it even make sense to speak of mechanics and affordances apart from presentation? Isn't it all one piece?" - but then he goes nowhere with it.

I think the counter-argument is that a videogame is still a game and, as such, the mechanics play a huge part in its success; in fact, one could argue that a videogame with excellent mechanics but poor presentation will trump a videogame with excellent presentation but poor mechanics.

the basic vibe of the wittgenstein thing is that there are no set of criteria that can actually define "game", but rather we appeal to a list of things we already understand to be games and assign the term according to our sense of it fitting in that set or not.

so it really doesnt help anyones argument.

youre welcome

lol I was misunderstanding the function of the set and sitting here going "uh, why are we evaluating a set of things we consider to be games to see if we think they are games or not" for way too long

It's such an unfocussed essay, all that stuff about mechanics, and kitsch, and Sturgeon's law - OMG Ebert thinks most movies are crap! Stop the press! - has no bearing on his Schopenhauer fanboy conclusion. And this - 'All sublime art is devotional' - thrown in there without defence or justification, pisses me off.

lets see if we can start an in depth discussion of set theory and get everyone to quit ilx within 24 hours! xpost

now I am REALLY looking forward to your bachelor party

its funny because games are such a great example of what hes trying to get across because they are readily agreed upon but every attempted categorical description you try to build has exceptions

is there a game without rules?

LIFE

well no, you have to spin the spinner to move your piece and draw cards or move forwards or backwards when you land on certain squares, there are definitely rules

i cant remember his example at the moment, but it was a good one - the only thing i can think of off the top of my head is frisbee (non ultimate) or something

like you could say that "try to catch" is a rule, but its a pretty weak rule and there is no penalty or point loss for not catching so

if there is no existence without motion then there are no games without rules

RULES OF FRISBEE:

- throw the frisbee
- try to catch the frisbee

xp: lol

I think there is a penalty, which is usually "looking stupid/uncoordinated" or "getting hit in the face with a frisbee"

the rules of frisbee are physics

physics or chemistry or biology

lets see if we can start an in depth discussion of set theory and get everyone to quit ilx within 24 hours! xpost

― The Band Perry is the drummer for Gay Dad (jjjusten), Tuesday, May 3, 2011 2:31 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

now I am REALLY looking forward to your bachelor party

― Dreaded Burrito Gang (DJP), Tuesday, May 3, 2011 2:32 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Might see some great sets on a bachelor party excursion.

I just got to chapter 2 and this game seriously has me lolling a lot

Makes me want to go back and play the first one

first ones humor is even more deadpan.

I know that even picking this one up spoils a lot of the story of the first one but I get the sense that it would still be mad fun

oh wait have you never played the first one?!

also so obv the real key question about my wedding is how we convince our ladies that we are doing important wedding stuff and then hide out and blitzkreig our way through the portal 2 multiplayer coop at my house

see this is why having separate apartments before marrying is a good idea, if you recall at my wedding we accomplished a lot of critical drinking by virtue of being across town from where the ladies were assembling invitations

lol @ critical drinking

finally took a shot at coop with a stranger last night. p fun, but I got d/c'd and the dude was sorta dumb

okay just hit chapter 6

this is way too addictive and fun; the only puzzle I've had severe problems with so far is one where I couldn't actually see there was an extra reflection cube

blowing up turrets is too fucking fun

I cannot wait to make my wife try this game

I completed the single player game a few nights ago, probably the most fun I've ever had playing a game. Some of the puzzles came close to driving me insane, but at no point did it ever get frustrating enough for me to look up walkthroughs online. Planning on starting the splitscreen co-op tonight, hope the PSN comes back on soon.

Finished SP, am disappointed. This guy's right, especially about the on rails nature of the puzzles this time round.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2011/05/portal-2-a-good-game-but-not-a-great-one.ars

Couldn't disagree more, tbh. I don't recall using any unconventional solutions in the first game - some might call that laziness (on his part I mean). I thought the new toolkit really threw open the gameplay, and made solving the puzzles hugely enjoyable.

I do kind of agree with him about the Cave Johnson part of the story, that was all a bit too implausible and thinly sketched, more of an excuse than a proper support for the 50s throwback salt mine section - incredibly atmospheric though it was.

Can't believe how many times I've read people complaining that this was easier without acknowledging that as a nearly inevitable result of retaining knowledge and skills from the first game.

this captures my take on the game pretty much exactly.
http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2011/05/there-really-was-a-cake.html
really pissed (maybe even moreso than IDENTITY THEFT) that PSN's crash promptly after P2's release has stopped me from playing the multiplayer which sounds VERY interesting

Good post. I agree with many of his points, though I must defend that that the puzzle design and curve in the second game in general was superior to the first game IMO, especially since they removed those puzzles that required very fast twitch reaction time.

His points about about the balance of narrative and how it served the design were still on point, though I didn't have a problem with it - but then, I loved Bioshock.

Still waiting for a friend to get his act together to do the co-op as well, from most accounts I've heard the puzzles are much more interesting.

finished this (with my gf) over the weekend, really enjoyed it.

This guy's right, especially about the on rails nature of the puzzles this time round.

have you seen that video of the guy hurling cubes around in portal 2 to create alternate (or at least shortcut) solutions?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjApKHyEGTc

that review is very http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/comicbookguy.gif

insane cube tricks guy is truly insane

I just finished the single player campaign; this is some of the most fun I have ever had playing a videogame! The various stages of the final boss fight were perfect; skill was required, but not so much that it felt impossible, plus it was relatively easy to work out how to beat each stage and the "tricky" part was executing within the time constraint.

My big takeaway from the game is "robots are bastards", lol. Wanna get Orange Box now.

skill was required, but not so much that it felt impossible

As I get older I have less and less patience with games that don't get this right. Either it feels too hard and I get frustrated and annoyed, or it's too easy and I feel cheated.

omg yes

you could also call this "'why didn't I finish Mass Effect before I got old' syndrome"

yep. never thought I would be someone who didn't finish games u_u when you deal with difficulty 8-10 hours a day at work, hard to accept it from a video game.

i am apparently the only person i know who didn't really enjoy this. Got very near the end; still not compelled to finish.

no you are not sir; I'm like 3 chapters away from finishing it and I just can't be bothered. really enjoyed what I've played so far and I've got nothing but effusive praise for the writing, but ever since the gels got introduced my enthusiasm for this game has dropped off in a big way.

Some of the later puzzles with the gels are really great IMO but this is my first Portal experience

yeah, just feels like a well written expansion pack on rails for me.

Yup

so basically never playing the first one before this one was the correct decision

I need to replay the first one to confirm my firmly held "portal 2 is so much better than portal 1" belief.

first one is def funnier, also orange box is so cheap now its prob worth it no matter what

the co-op is really fun you guys

i still havent tried it!

dude

i hate talking to people i dont know tho

can we cross-platform play via Steam? I mean I know I could google and get an answer but fuck that

Steam can play cross with PS3 users (although maybe not while PSN is down) but not with 360 folks.

SOL jjj ;_;

aw bummer that's what i was gonna suggest

the co-op does indeed rule - too bad it has zero replay value, but such is the price

jjj if you send me a plane ticket I will crash at your house and co-op Portal 2 with u

awwwww

First one had a lot more mystery going for it. I like em both though. Co-op with random ppl is hit or mostly miss. It is kinda fun but they need to pair newbies together.

i woulda played co op when i was into the game if not for fuckin PS3 IDENTITY THEFT

when it comes back, play it son! (even if you have to link it on your PC)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorZUFfpvC0

http://www.foxtrot.com/2011/06/06052011/

xp nice short

finally got around to finishing the co-op last night. the last few levels are so much fun, wish the whole game would have been like that (especially in terms of combining the different mechanics).

Finished this a few days ago (finished more quickly than I expected; esp the final boss which I was expecting to have to re-do bits of to leave myself more time, and instead I just ambled around trying stuff and just did it). Anyway it all played through fine but now my husband wants to play. But starting a new game (on the same PC) gets a few minutes in and then crashes every time - can't get further than 'sleeping in bed' at the very start. Tried just loading a v early save file and it worked for a bit then did the same thing. Anyone got any ideas? Seems like a fairly common problem (massive thread on Steam forums) but the fact it played through once ok might help narrow down what the issue is. We're mucking around with deleting my save files but not getting anywhere so far. :( I'd already been able to go back in to various chapters to do a few more achievements and didn't have any probs.

I'm trying to play the co-op with my gf and it keeps crashing, so I'd be surprised if they're not down to the same thing. ? as to what tho.

did you try re-verifying the Portal 2 files? (right click Portal 2 in Steam, Properties, somewhere thereabouts)

Yeah :(
I assume I could un- and re-install but it takes bloody ages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8SdYz7cq04

still keep meaning to get my hands on this

snagged a cheap copy of orange box - loving portal 1, will have to get this.

Can't believe they bought billboards for this a coupla months back. Feels like its some sorta cultural turning point.

ok that engagement thing was p sweet

http://www.tekgoblin.com/2011/08/23/new-video-brings-portal-to-life/

goole buy portal 2 so i can coop with a real person not some scumbag from the internet

haha i mean scumbag from xbox live - we are all scumbags from the internet

I only have the PS3/PC versions or I'd volunteer

might pick this up if it's on sale next weekend

aw, too bad the new portal stuff is co-op only. it's the perfect time for me to play it, but my main portal buddy is in middle-of-the-semester professor mode. :/

it's half price today and tomorrow

thanks for the heads up. 80% of the reason I bought a new computer is to play this.

haha i got a text off a mate, who i barely ever hear from, telling me this was then quid this weekend

80% of the reason I bought a new computer is to play this.

it was 95% of the reason my husband bought me mine :)

the new portal stuff is co-op only

nooooooooooo

Challenge maps are kinda fun I
Guess

what a delightful and thought-provoking game!

isnt it though?

This game rules

now i want to play it all over again

still have never played co-op

me either

Not good for couples. Xpost

the coop campaign has some REALLY good stuff, better chambers than the main game, IMO. downside - you can't play it with someone who's already done it

co-op is fun for couples imo though we burnt out by the dlc part.

the sequence through the 'historical' section of the complex (the j/k simmons bit) is just amazing. valve are so good at storytelling.

have been playing this co-op w bestie (pc-to-mac); have been putting off the single player and thus the story. the levels alone are joy.

the light bridge stuff!

i find myself talking out loud about what i have to do. "ok so i need to get that block, but this other thing is... and these turrets can't go... [20 mins pass] OH MY GOD DUHHHH OF COURSE"

co-op is fun for couples imo though we burnt out by the dlc part.

Well the other part of my couple isn't very good with any game that requires jumping/timing. I think the coop levels almost cause us to get divorced.

shades of Penny Arcade calling the New Super Mario Bros. Wii co-op Divorce Mode (which at least in that case was very on point, it was almost impossible NOT to kill your partner in that game)

Yeah, NSMB was insane.

Me and GF have had to improve our communication on co-op games. Most comes to the fore playing Lego:

Me: Go over there!
Her: Where?
Me: Over there! (waves hand at telly)
Her: !?!?!

Portal's co-op has a handy "No, THIS is where I mean!" feature, which I'm sure was added after playtester manslaughter.

that absolutely was an essential feature

played this with my girlfriend at the time and i ended up crying literal tears of frustration and was in a mood for the entirety of the day after.

the sequence through the 'historical' section of the complex (the j/k simmons bit) is just amazing. valve are so good at storytelling.

― goole, Thursday, May 9, 2013 12:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that whole section of the game is really special, to the point where the later stuff back in the normal complex is kind of disappointing

jk simmons is amazing

narratively and atmopsherically it was great, but in terms of the puzzles it was a little weaker than the other parts for the sheer fact that the number of portal-able surfaces were so limited

yeah, but the puzzles were interesting in their sheer size, i thought. like, few portal-able surfaces, but they were sometimes hard to find, just a tiny lil white spot across a huge room or something

^i totally said "portalable" all the time while playing

i came up with the mental neologism of 'whitewall' for what i needed

FUCK NO WHITEWALL THERE WHAT DO I DO FUCK

played this with my girlfriend at the time and i ended up crying literal tears of frustration and was in a mood for the entirety of the day after.

― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Friday, May 10, 2013 12:58 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha its a healthy exercise in being patient! you forget how unnatural using 2 sticks to move and turn your view is for people not used to fps games. she ran in circles a lot instead of just turning her view >_<

you forget how unnatural using 2 sticks to move and turn your view is for people not used to fps games. people who play fps games with a mouse and keyboard, as god intended

omg you use a two button LOL

two button mouse* #fail

the frustration was at how bad I was - she is far better at games than me. we were playing it with her housemates watching us and she was berating me for being shit and it all got a bit too much for me tbh.

aw

mh otm about control schemes; gamepads for fpses are an abomination before the lord

I played some doom in my day but came of age in the realm of shooting people in quake with a sweet Logitech mouseman.

Lol olds

i am a clinger. here's a picture i took five minutes ago (i did have to retrieve the disc from a drawer)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/Inuxx/0a124241-7687-47e6-9f1f-73ba7a09903e_zpsd160bc76.jpg

that stuff on the mouse is noob blood

mousepad also obv from like 1995

Doom was the last shooter I was any good at

doom actually when i replayed it last year i discovered that because there's no Z-axis you can get total precision just using the keyboard: left hand on WASD to move forward/backward and strafe left/right; right hand on the left and right arrow keys to turn. (the left pinky and thumb rest on CTRL and SPACE for shoot and use respectively.) as a kid i was totally unaware of this approach; what i did was play mouse-only, as in i pushed the mouse forward across the pad to walk forward, which now seems INSANE. i kind of want to write a book about FPSes that's why this post is okay.

(that was also the excuse i used when downloading eric harris' custom doom levels)

(but wait: aiming with the arrow keys is the same as aiming with a stick only not analog and thus less precise. i guess what this means is i wouldn't mind the sticks in modern shooters if you weren't allowed to look up or down. actually that single technical limitation gives doom a HUGE elegance boost imo.)

except when you're shooting point blank at a wall and the invisible bullets magically careen upward in a parabolic arc to nail the zombie sergeant on the ledge above

ha i had never thought that that would happen point-blank! but of course you are right it would. the doom-quake axis of shooters is so abstract compared to the new ones: nobody least of all john carmack really thinks you're a space marine. you're a floating node.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWjP77TztTQ

5 years after everybody else in the world I have just finished this.

And then immediately replayed the whole thing.

Would like there to be a 3rd person replay view - some of the flying jumps are impressive but you don't really get a sense of distance with 1st person.

still probably my favorite game ever