Not much in there we haven't already heard, but they did confirm that the singleplayer is twice the length of that in Portal 1. The coop is a completely different campaign, and the same length as the singleplayer, so all in all it's about 4 times as long as the original, for those that really care about time and whether it'll be worth the full price.
They refused to make any real story comments since the whole point of Portal is finding that out for yourself, thank you. They were asked a question about Rat Man though, and their studious non-answer implies (at least to me) that he / she is going to get at least some sort of revelations or additional role in the sequel.
They also said that they don't want this to be about forcing the player to become a Portal Ninja or ramping up the difficulty, but rather that they wanted to expand the breadth of the experience instead.
subedii on
0
Options
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
It's sort of the name some fans gave to whoever it was that was leaving messages and blood-stained signals for you all over the facility.
We never did find out who they were, or whether they managed to escape or what. We just knew that they had been a lot of the places you had gone, and they left messages in strategic place trying to help you (or maybe just anyone) in trying to escape.
This individual may or may not have also been the one scrawling messages about companion cubes and otherwise going crazy with cabin fever in those hidden rooms with graffiti all over them. We don't exactly know how many test participants there have been before Chell.
Ok, so Portal got patched yesterday? What was in it?
Good question. The news is fairly obviously holding out on us, because all 4 games (HL2, E1, E2, and Portal) received patches in the hundred meg range.
There is definitely some serious media in those patches. More than just a set of crash fixes.
Not really; Valve games have just gotten bloated lately. They've done several TF2 patches that just fix one or two things and wind up being 100 megs in size. These were months ago and no one has found any hidden stuff in a lot of them.
Undead Scottsman on
0
Options
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
It's sort of the name some fans gave to whoever it was that was leaving messages and blood-stained signals for you all over the facility.
We never did find out who they were, or whether they managed to escape or what. We just knew that they had been a lot of the places you had gone, and they left messages in strategic place trying to help you (or maybe just anyone) in trying to escape.
This individual may or may not have also been the one scrawling messages about companion cubes and otherwise going crazy with cabin fever in those hidden rooms with graffiti all over them. We don't exactly know how many test participants there have been before Chell.
Or if Chell is just getting cycled through the test a billion times.
Kupi on
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
So I just watched some video of Portal 2, and the sense of humour is spot on again. So awesome. I dind't watch more then 2 minutes cause I want it all to be fresh and funny like the first.
But is it just me or are the graphics MUCH better. Did Source Engine get a significant upgrade? Everything looks much more Next Gen despite the Engine being fairly old at this point.
Half Life 3 would look reallllly good in it. Just sayin!
So I just watched some video of Portal 2, and the sense of humour is spot on again. So awesome. I dind't watch more then 2 minutes cause I want it all to be fresh and funny like the first.
But is it just me or are the graphics MUCH better. Did Source Engine get a significant upgrade? Everything looks much more Next Gen despite the Engine being fairly old at this point.
Half Life 3 would look reallllly good in it. Just sayin!
The Source engine is always getting upgraded, that was pretty much one of the core goals behind it. If you compare Ep2 to Half-Life 2 you'll notice quite a hefty upgrade in the visuals as well.
I just hope that by the time the damn thing comes out my Mac can still play it.
Well how does it deal with Portal 1? I don't imagine there'll be a massive upgrade in system requirements. At a guess I'd say it's likely you'll be able to play at roughly the same visual level to keep the same framerates.
I just hope that by the time the damn thing comes out my Mac can still play it.
Well how does it deal with Portal 1?
Does pretty good. I've got two graphic cards. late 2009 Mac Book Pro. I think it's 9400M and 9400GT? Something like that. Anyway I played through the whole game on the low-end card. Worked fine for me. A little jumpy in places.
Edit: That is encouraging. Mind you, Portal is the first Valve game I've played and the first computer-based game I've played in about a million years (last was probably Rebel Assault II or TIE Fighter). So I don't really know how these things work.
Cameron_Talley on
Switch Friend Code: SW-4598-4278-8875
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
Generally speaking, Valve have usually been really good with catering to lower end systems with their Source games.
And system specs in general haven't really been advancing on the PC for years now. A lot of that is to do with the fact that game development for large games is tied to the console cycle, so we're not likely to see anything really pushing PC hardware until the next console generation hits. Which by the looks of things is still quite a way off.
I just hope that by the time the damn thing comes out my Mac can still play it.
Well how does it deal with Portal 1? I don't imagine there'll be a massive upgrade in system requirements. At a guess I'd say it's likely you'll be able to play at roughly the same visual level to keep the same framerates.
Err... allow me to question the validity of that statement... Portal 1 almost doesn't even have light maps, it's so plain! In the Portal 2 movies, I see vegetation which casts very detailed shadows on the ground, and then there's the whole 'goo' fluid physics thing.
Even Team Fortress 2 makes the fans on my brand spanking new maxed Macbook Pro woosh like crazy, so I'm betting Portal 2 will be torture to the poor machine. Also, I didn't find that the framerate in TF2 was perfect on the highest setting, so I'm running on medium currently (not that I see a difference between medium and high in TF2... which oddly, was roughly the same with Starcraft 2).
eobet on
Heard the proposition that RIAA and MPAA should join forces and form "Music And Film Industry Association"?
I just hope that by the time the damn thing comes out my Mac can still play it.
Well how does it deal with Portal 1? I don't imagine there'll be a massive upgrade in system requirements. At a guess I'd say it's likely you'll be able to play at roughly the same visual level to keep the same framerates.
Err... allow me to question the validity of that statement... Portal 1 almost doesn't even have light maps, it's so plain! In the Portal 2 movies, I see vegetation which casts very detailed shadows on the ground, and then there's the whole 'goo' fluid physics thing.
Even Team Fortress 2 makes the fans on my brand spanking new maxed Macbook Pro woosh like crazy, so I'm betting Portal 2 will be torture to the poor machine. Also, I didn't find that the framerate in TF2 was perfect on the highest setting, so I'm running on medium currently (not that I see a difference between medium and high in TF2... which oddly, was roughly the same with Starcraft 2).
Well it's not like I was speaking in absolutes. In real terms we don't know yet what the performance is going to be like, I just suspect it's not going to be a big jump from the requirements of Portal 1. If only because they also need to get it running smoothly on the console side as well (which IIRC, the EA port of Portal had some issues with).
I just hope that by the time the damn thing comes out my Mac can still play it.
Well how does it deal with Portal 1? I don't imagine there'll be a massive upgrade in system requirements. At a guess I'd say it's likely you'll be able to play at roughly the same visual level to keep the same framerates.
Err... allow me to question the validity of that statement... Portal 1 almost doesn't even have light maps, it's so plain! In the Portal 2 movies, I see vegetation which casts very detailed shadows on the ground, and then there's the whole 'goo' fluid physics thing.
It has lightmaps. That's kind of a weird thing to say. Portal 2 seems to have uniformly higher-res lightmaps, but that's not really going to affect performance (kind of the whole point of lightmaps).
Subedii's right, there's been nothing shown yet to indicate higher system requirements. The dynamic shadows everyone's jizzin' about are env_projectedtextures (in the engine since 2007). Modders use them a lot. The performance hit is the same as the flashlight shadows in Episode 2.
The fluid physics were in a version of the engine that was made available a few months before the Orange Box came out, and there was almost no FPS hit on those at the time, presumably they've been optimised further since.
Right, people aren't used to seeing the projected texure used as a key light in the scene, rather they are used to seeing it as a flashlight. Thus, the jizz. It really makes the moving wall and floor panels look good.
so has the picture of the companion cube in the e3 trailer been posted yet?
There's a companion cube in the trailer? I do think I've noticed one of the new cubes that redirect lasers that have been shown in the gameplay videos.
I wonder if getting the Cube will be an optional sidequest sort of thing. I think I would prefer it that way; I will go to great, seemingly unnecessary lengths to rescue my quadrangular friend.
Watched the first trailer. Day one purchase. Now to assume the media blackout position.
I didn't even watch that, I'm trying for total media blackout. I should probably also stop coming into this thread, just in case.
Darmak on
0
Options
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
edited June 2010
Based on the 1up interview with the devs, I'm not too worried about spoilers. They flat out refused to answer story questions because "it's more fun to find out on your own."
Unless you are worried about finding out about new gameplay mechanics and stuff I guess...
Looks like there really is a companion cube in the trailer. I wonder if there'll be a companion cube level in Portal 2 too.
Personal guess:
At some point they're going to take you to a derelict room filled and overflowing with mass produced companion cubes that were meant for all the other test participants.
Goodnss knows what denigrating comments GLaDOS would have for you at that point.
EDIT: Ooh, even better:
At some point you have to get to GLaDOS, or get somewhere to stop GLaDOS. Before you can get there GLaDOS keeps trying to interfere and stop you from reaching your destination.
Finally in desperation, she presents you the companion cube suspended over a pit of fire, or somehow in peril. All the while telling you that your friend the companion cube survived and has been trying to reach you for all these years. That this is the only chance you'll have to rescue him. Are you really going to murder him again after all he sacrificed for you? Are you really that cold hearted?
Then the player continues on, GLaDOs "kills" the companion cube again, and then denigrates the player for being such a murderous human being.
I think with the right writing a scene like that could be hilarious.
Glados without the personality spheres seemed alot more calm. I wonder if she will have them attached later on and have different personalities throughout the game.
Glados without the personality spheres seemed alot more calm. I wonder if she will have them attached later on and have different personalities throughout the game.
I chuckled when reading the subtitles when you burn the first sphere. "[smoother, seductive voice]"
Kudos to Valve for having subtitles, by the way. Do all Valve games have this option?
Cameron_Talley on
Switch Friend Code: SW-4598-4278-8875
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
Glados without the personality spheres seemed alot more calm. I wonder if she will have them attached later on and have different personalities throughout the game.
I chuckled when reading the subtitles when you burn the first sphere. "[smoother, seductive voice]"
Kudos to Valve for having subtitles, by the way. Do all Valve games have this option?
Since Half-Life 2 IIRC, they've all had subtitles including closed captioning for things like sound effects.
Looks like there really is a companion cube in the trailer. I wonder if there'll be a companion cube level in Portal 2 too.
Personal guess:
At some point they're going to take you to a derelict room filled and overflowing with mass produced companion cubes that were meant for all the other test participants.
Goodnss knows what denigrating comments GLaDOS would have for you at that point.
EDIT: Ooh, even better:
At some point you have to get to GLaDOS, or get somewhere to stop GLaDOS. Before you can get there GLaDOS keeps trying to interfere and stop you from reaching your destination.
Finally in desperation, she presents you the companion cube suspended over a pit of fire, or somehow in peril. All the while telling you that your friend the companion cube survived and has been trying to reach you for all these years. That this is the only chance you'll have to rescue him. Are you really going to murder him again after all he sacrificed for you? Are you really that cold hearted?
Then the player continues on, GLaDOs "kills" the companion cube again, and then denigrates the player for being such a murderous human being.
I think with the right writing a scene like that could be hilarious.
You can continue on like nothing happened. But you should get an achievement for doing an optional, ridiculously tough portal jump to save the cube mid-air before it falls into the pit. I would love that
I'm a little afraid that, with all of the new things they're adding to the game, there's going to be too much to keep track of.
Given the masterful rate at which they introduced new elements in the first game, I wouldn't worry too much. Didn't you go through like three or four puzzles before even getting the second part of the portal gun?
Also, remember how the companion cube originated. When they first tested that level, it was just a normal cube, and people were trying all sorts of ridiculous things to try and circumvent the puzzles because they'd assumed the cube wasn't important and left it behind. Thus, the companion cube was born.
Also remember how reflexes didn't actually matter much at all until the latter part of the game. I'm sure part of the reason the game is being delayed is so that they can smooth out the learning curve.
Posts
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/30024
Not much in there we haven't already heard, but they did confirm that the singleplayer is twice the length of that in Portal 1. The coop is a completely different campaign, and the same length as the singleplayer, so all in all it's about 4 times as long as the original, for those that really care about time and whether it'll be worth the full price.
They refused to make any real story comments since the whole point of Portal is finding that out for yourself, thank you. They were asked a question about Rat Man though, and their studious non-answer implies (at least to me) that he / she is going to get at least some sort of revelations or additional role in the sequel.
They also said that they don't want this to be about forcing the player to become a Portal Ninja or ramping up the difficulty, but rather that they wanted to expand the breadth of the experience instead.
We never did find out who they were, or whether they managed to escape or what. We just knew that they had been a lot of the places you had gone, and they left messages in strategic place trying to help you (or maybe just anyone) in trying to escape.
This individual may or may not have also been the one scrawling messages about companion cubes and otherwise going crazy with cabin fever in those hidden rooms with graffiti all over them. We don't exactly know how many test participants there have been before Chell.
I didn't think Portal was long or short. It was just right.
Not really; Valve games have just gotten bloated lately. They've done several TF2 patches that just fix one or two things and wind up being 100 megs in size. These were months ago and no one has found any hidden stuff in a lot of them.
There were a couple of scary moments when I thought it was David Walliams
But is it just me or are the graphics MUCH better. Did Source Engine get a significant upgrade? Everything looks much more Next Gen despite the Engine being fairly old at this point.
Half Life 3 would look reallllly good in it. Just sayin!
The Source engine is always getting upgraded, that was pretty much one of the core goals behind it. If you compare Ep2 to Half-Life 2 you'll notice quite a hefty upgrade in the visuals as well.
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
Well how does it deal with Portal 1? I don't imagine there'll be a massive upgrade in system requirements. At a guess I'd say it's likely you'll be able to play at roughly the same visual level to keep the same framerates.
Does pretty good. I've got two graphic cards. late 2009 Mac Book Pro. I think it's 9400M and 9400GT? Something like that. Anyway I played through the whole game on the low-end card. Worked fine for me. A little jumpy in places.
Edit: That is encouraging. Mind you, Portal is the first Valve game I've played and the first computer-based game I've played in about a million years (last was probably Rebel Assault II or TIE Fighter). So I don't really know how these things work.
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
And system specs in general haven't really been advancing on the PC for years now. A lot of that is to do with the fact that game development for large games is tied to the console cycle, so we're not likely to see anything really pushing PC hardware until the next console generation hits. Which by the looks of things is still quite a way off.
Err... allow me to question the validity of that statement... Portal 1 almost doesn't even have light maps, it's so plain! In the Portal 2 movies, I see vegetation which casts very detailed shadows on the ground, and then there's the whole 'goo' fluid physics thing.
Even Team Fortress 2 makes the fans on my brand spanking new maxed Macbook Pro woosh like crazy, so I'm betting Portal 2 will be torture to the poor machine. Also, I didn't find that the framerate in TF2 was perfect on the highest setting, so I'm running on medium currently (not that I see a difference between medium and high in TF2... which oddly, was roughly the same with Starcraft 2).
I'm a huge fan of "4000 Degrees Kelvin", the track that kicks in as you're asked to assume the party escort position in the last test chamber.
By the way, I assume that the music they used for the trailer isn't anything specific? As in, part of a widely released piece of music?
Edit: regarding the first gameplay video:
Well it's not like I was speaking in absolutes. In real terms we don't know yet what the performance is going to be like, I just suspect it's not going to be a big jump from the requirements of Portal 1. If only because they also need to get it running smoothly on the console side as well (which IIRC, the EA port of Portal had some issues with).
It has lightmaps. That's kind of a weird thing to say. Portal 2 seems to have uniformly higher-res lightmaps, but that's not really going to affect performance (kind of the whole point of lightmaps).
Subedii's right, there's been nothing shown yet to indicate higher system requirements. The dynamic shadows everyone's jizzin' about are env_projectedtextures (in the engine since 2007). Modders use them a lot. The performance hit is the same as the flashlight shadows in Episode 2.
The fluid physics were in a version of the engine that was made available a few months before the Orange Box came out, and there was almost no FPS hit on those at the time, presumably they've been optimised further since.
There's a companion cube in the trailer? I do think I've noticed one of the new cubes that redirect lasers that have been shown in the gameplay videos.
It's in there. It's very fast though so it's easy to miss, someone posted up a screencap.
Watch the trailer and stop at around 22 seconds. It's on the right of the screen, in an opening on the wall. Just chilling.
EDIT: Oh gods you're right. YES.
I didn't even watch that, I'm trying for total media blackout. I should probably also stop coming into this thread, just in case.
Unless you are worried about finding out about new gameplay mechanics and stuff I guess...
Personal guess:
Goodnss knows what denigrating comments GLaDOS would have for you at that point.
EDIT: Ooh, even better:
Finally in desperation, she presents you the companion cube suspended over a pit of fire, or somehow in peril. All the while telling you that your friend the companion cube survived and has been trying to reach you for all these years. That this is the only chance you'll have to rescue him. Are you really going to murder him again after all he sacrificed for you? Are you really that cold hearted?
Then the player continues on, GLaDOs "kills" the companion cube again, and then denigrates the player for being such a murderous human being.
I think with the right writing a scene like that could be hilarious.
Well, if not, you can just upgrade some components---
Oh. Wait.
I'm so sorry.
Enjoy your new computer?
It's a Macbook Pro. I wouldn't expect to upgrade. It's a Laptop. Not too many laptops have removable graphics cards.
I don't normally game on a computer at all so it's not a concern of mine.
Even as a Mac fan I wouldn't recommend getting anything other than a Mac Pro if you're a serious gamer that needs upgradeable hardware.
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
I chuckled when reading the subtitles when you burn the first sphere. "[smoother, seductive voice]"
Kudos to Valve for having subtitles, by the way. Do all Valve games have this option?
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
Since Half-Life 2 IIRC, they've all had subtitles including closed captioning for things like sound effects.
You can continue on like nothing happened. But you should get an achievement for doing an optional, ridiculously tough portal jump to save the cube mid-air before it falls into the pit. I would love that
Given the masterful rate at which they introduced new elements in the first game, I wouldn't worry too much. Didn't you go through like three or four puzzles before even getting the second part of the portal gun?
Also, remember how the companion cube originated. When they first tested that level, it was just a normal cube, and people were trying all sorts of ridiculous things to try and circumvent the puzzles because they'd assumed the cube wasn't important and left it behind. Thus, the companion cube was born.
Also remember how reflexes didn't actually matter much at all until the latter part of the game. I'm sure part of the reason the game is being delayed is so that they can smooth out the learning curve.