Portal 2

So, like, are we all just too busy playing it right now, or what?

Bought it today, beat it today, loved every second of it. Thoughts?

pre-ordered
got it the second it released, played for 10 hours

beat campaign and co-op




<3

Thought it was to short for fifty bucks honestly.

Getting to see the history of Aperture science evoked a lot of emotional response to the game as well as that awesome reference to Half-Life 2, the empty drydock of the Borealis. I was amazed at how well they captured emotion in the characters through excellent voice acting, realistic motion, and expressions. The musical accompaniment of the game was top notch, with the interactive environment altering the music heard to increase ambiance and intensity. Starting out in similar test chambers to the original (albeit potato-plant overgrown) was a really nice touch as it gave you a sense of nostalgia as well as an anchor to estimate the passage of time between the first game and this one. Overall, I think valve did an excellent job and am now excitedly anticipating the release of Half-Life 2 Episode 3. I need more Aperture dammit! Give me my Borealis!

Just beat Portal 2 campaign, and to be honest, I want to see what the world is like outside, at the end of the game. Besides mentioning Aparture science in Half Life, and Black Mesa in Portal, do you think they'll ever actually cross the stories over? What happened between Portal 1 and Portal 2, with Chell in her deep sleep? How did the world come to and end, and what year are these games even set in?

Edit:

Are these sources reliable? http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_o...f-Life_universe

The wikia is probably somewhat reliable, considering it's a wikia written by the avid fans of the game series. I'm not sure about the other one, though.

So Valve picked me along with 40 other mappers to be a beta tester for the upcoming level editor! I've had a chance to mess around with it, and I must say that I am very impressed with the interface and overall design. Mapping tools like Hammer look like the most complicated thing in the world next to this new editor, but don't be fooled. I was able to produce pretty complex and aesthetically pleasing chambers with the current limitations it has. Being a Beta, it's obviously incomplete, so I can't really finalize any ratings.

Basically, if you like designing levels, and love Portal, you will absolutely love this new editor! Even if you're an experienced mapper, you can still utilize it to produce basic templates of your maps, and then export them to Hammer for adding in all the extra details. This saves a lot of time and effort.

In conclusion, if you have any questions, I'll try my best to answer without breaking the NDA.

Are you allowed to reveal when it's coming out? If so can you tell us the date?

Is it more like Hammer (it's roots I'm sure), UDK, or CryEdit?

Edit: Just saw it's in-game. More like Cube2 then?

Don't know when it's coming out. It's still incomplete, and they're adding in new features for us to use over time.

If you want an idea of what the editor looks like, these are some publicly released "teasers" that Valve made:




These are very close to what the actual editor looks like, but not quite.
Everything is represented pretty much the same way as the screenshots. The view is entirely 3D though, and uses the same effect as the Sims, where the obstructing walls are made invisible depending on your angle.

So it's not actually "In-game", but rather a click and drag thing?

No, it is an in-game thing. That is the map editing screen, but you can hop into test mode at any time you like and test out your map.

So like Cryengine then? Haha.

So Valve has personally invited me to come visit their headquarters. They want me to meet their teams and specialists (especially level design and audio).

I am so excited!

Edit: Anything you guys would like me to inquire about?

Ask them if they know how to count to three.