I just wonder what bearing this has on HL:EP3/HL3/More Aperture Science. It was linked on Steam from Portal 2 in my library.
I havent had a chance to play Portal 2 Coop yet, but I don't see how you can tell the type of story Half-Life uses in multiplayer.
Yeah that scares the shit out of me.
I don't know, considering Alyx Vance was pretty much a co-op partner in ep 1 and 2, and what they've been able to do in lfd 1 and the co-op in portal two concerning characterisation and "telling" a story I think it could work.
I'm a little tired of Alyx and long for solo sequences again. All my favorite bits from HL2 were when I felt lost in the world and atmosphere, like the opening and boat sequences. Having Alyx always around to guide you kind of changes that.
What about Father Grigori? His interaction with Gordon is a bit less frequent that traditional co-op games, but a game where both players basically play two separate paths that occasionally interlink could be interesting (and provide some replayability).
But I'll agree. Some of the best parts were stopping off at houses along the highway just to check the neat things inside, and that probably wouldn't happen as frequently with co-op partners.
This is actually the reason I haven't enjoyed the co-op in other games like Borderlands and Left 4 Dead as much as I hoped I would; There's this richly detailed, fairly open world with lots of stuff to explore and lots of reasons to drink in the atmosphere, and it just feels wrong to breathlessly run through the whole thing, trying to keep up with three other people. With Left 4 Dead they at least give you immersive reasons to keep moving, but in Borderlands it's a serious problem for me.
The whole problem with the multiplayer side of things is that you actually have to have friends available that want to play it. Also, grabbing random people is always too much of a gamble. Sometimes they cooperate and sometimes they don't.
I just wonder what bearing this has on HL:EP3/HL3/More Aperture Science. It was linked on Steam from Portal 2 in my library.
I havent had a chance to play Portal 2 Coop yet, but I don't see how you can tell the type of story Half-Life uses in multiplayer.
Yeah that scares the shit out of me.
I don't know, considering Alyx Vance was pretty much a co-op partner in ep 1 and 2, and what they've been able to do in lfd 1 and the co-op in portal two concerning characterisation and "telling" a story I think it could work.
I'm a little tired of Alyx and long for solo sequences again. All my favorite bits from HL2 were when I felt lost in the world and atmosphere, like the opening and boat sequences. Having Alyx always around to guide you kind of changes that.
What about Father Grigori? His interaction with Gordon is a bit less frequent that traditional co-op games, but a game where both players basically play two separate paths that occasionally interlink could be interesting (and provide some replayability).
But I'll agree. Some of the best parts were stopping off at houses along the highway just to check the neat things inside, and that probably wouldn't happen as frequently with co-op partners.
Grigori was great, yeah. I wouldn't be opposed to more of him. Whatever the case, I trust Valve. Part of me wants them to make another HL2 but the other part realizes they wouldn't be Valve if they didn't evolve. Everyone thought HL1 was a masterpiece, and then HL2 came and blew that out of the water, so maybe we're in for something that could actually topple HL2.
It's a throwaway quote that kotaku took in order to CAUSE PANICS OH NOES!
Yeah, it's to be expected of kotaku but I'm disappointed several other sites which I hold to higher standards should know better than to link to kotaku tripe.
In this case the source of the comment isn't one of their 'secret but totallllly reliable insider source' but the geoff thing, but they should have known better than to go publishing wild on such an offhand comment. Should have been something they could have asked people of valve next to further comment on than treat as a press release.
I'm all about the co-op and I'm really loving seeing it included in all these classic single-player franchises that I day dreamed about experiencing with a friend. I wouldn't argue that there isn't something lost in the transition, but I think I have a better time of it than others because I pick my co-op partners very carefully and it's nearly always the first playthrough for the both of us.
I don't have a problem with feeling rushed because the people I play with are just as eager to take some time and drink in the atmosphere as I am. I think it's likely that game developers also have a very positive co-op experience which is perhaps fuelling this push, since within the industry I'm sure they have access to many a mature, like-minded co-op partner.
When I see comments about not wanting to ruin the experience sharing it with some dingbat who is going to be fucking around and blathering about I just have to ask, "Why would you do that to yourself?" I only got around to playing Portal 2's co-op yesterday because I was waiting for the right person to play it with, and it was worth the wait. One of my favourite things about co-op is the potential for 'physical' comedy like when my Portal partner managed to sneak ahead and hide from me, and when I rounded the corner he sprung the hug emote on me like some kind of splinter cell stealth kill.
(Having said all that I really don't think Alyx should be made a player character, and I'm somewhat doubtful they could shoehorn co-op into what's left of Gordon's story.)
Man people are reading way too much into what was probably a throwaway comment that we haven't even heard directly.
Here's an interview from back in November, where the interviewer was pretty much trying to obliquely tell Erik Johnson that singleplayer campaigns were no longer viable, or that Valve couldn't or wouldn't be doing them in future.
When it comes to longevity of gameplay and long-term monetization of customers, how viable are single-player gaming experiences like this one going to be in the long term?
EJ: I think there is an interesting question in how many projects should be offline products and how long that is going to be viable. Half-Life 1 was a really offline product. I think customers want to find ways to talk about the thing that they are a big fan of with other people, and ideally experience it the same way.
That doesn't mean every game needs to be multiplayer. With single player games that were completely in a box, and there was no way to experience anything else, I think there are things that customers want that those games don't take advantage of.
That could just mean that you want to be able to chat with other people who are playing through the same part of the game as you, or the fans can write commentary nodes in the game and everyone can experience those to take advantage of the fact that there is a huge community of people that want to interact with each other.
I still think the analysis that every product needs to be a competitor in multiplayer, or an MMO, is incorrect; there are a lot of people who want an experience without the stress, so I don't see that changing.
It's interesting to think about -- numbers suggest that the popularity of guided single-player experiences is dwindling. That may mean that the highest-quality studios will no longer be able to invest in the development of those titles, and thus that type of experience won't improve.
EJ: Part of it is thinking through he reasons for making decisions. You brought up piracy being a reason to not do single player, which I think is a pretty crazy analysis on an issue like that; that's making a decision for your customers about the types of products you are going to build without, by definition, including your customers in that at all.
You're saying that because of these pirates, you get no single player experiences, which makes no sense to me. If there are as much players that want single player experiences, you should go build that. I think there are plenty of people that still want to have single player experiences. Look at Mario; those games do really well.
True, but I feel like those experiences, for adults, are already rare, and will continue to become more rare because it's difficult. Can studios like yours survive without making people essentially pay to level up?
EJ: One thing to think about is, when we are building a game like Half-Life 2 or Portal, monetization is a separate thing that, in the context of the game design, doesn't make a huge amount of sense, really.
We are trying to exploit the psychology of the people that play our games all the time. We are trying to change their emotional state, and trying to predict what their emotional state will be based on what we are doing in the game world.
What's compelling for people, like, "Hey, they're getting a huge reward here, they are going to be happy. They are going to be challenged on the skills that we taught them here and that's going to be rewarding them." There is a non-customer-hostile way to think about what we are doing. There are hostile ways too, though. (laughs)
Definitive proof that Erik Johnson plans to violently force us to play Episode 3!
I'd be quite a bit disappointed if they did try to forcibly integrate active multiplayer into every aspect of the game (i.e. no dedicated single player). Technology and developmental artistry have finally advanced to a point where games are starting to convey ideas in a way that cannot be replicated by other media (without drastic changes to the foundation).
It's a throwaway quote that kotaku took in order to CAUSE PANICS OH NOES!
Yeah, it's to be expected of kotaku but I'm disappointed several other sites which I hold to higher standards should know better than to link to kotaku tripe.
In this case the source of the comment isn't one of their 'secret but totallllly reliable insider source' but the geoff thing, but they should have known better than to go publishing wild on such an offhand comment. Should have been something they could have asked people of valve next to further comment on than treat as a press release.
All the more stupid considering that Kotaku themselves were reporting that Gamasutra interview a few months back, literally with the headline: "There’s At Least One Developer Still Rooting For Singleplayer Games".
It's a throwaway quote that kotaku took in order to CAUSE PANICS OH NOES!
Yeah, it's to be expected of kotaku but I'm disappointed several other sites which I hold to higher standards should know better than to link to kotaku tripe.
In this case the source of the comment isn't one of their 'secret but totallllly reliable insider source' but the geoff thing, but they should have known better than to go publishing wild on such an offhand comment. Should have been something they could have asked people of valve next to further comment on than treat as a press release.
All the more stupid considering that Kotaku themselves were reporting that Gamasutra interview a few months back, literally with the headline: "There’s At Least One Developer Still Rooting For Singleplayer Games".
Yeah I don't really see the problem with them auto correcting the portals at those key moments. Sure, it's not a HUGE issue if you die at that point I guess, but reliving that same moment again would sort of lower the awesomeness factor. I think it would detract from how neat the situation was rather than make some sort of positive addition because you didn't press the wrong button.
It's not an "Ah hah!" moment, it's a dramatic/cinematic moment.
I... didn't shoot a portal there at all.
Wanted to see if it was really going to smash me.
It did.
The game autoloaded a previous save from less than twenty seconds earlier, I redid the scene, it was still awesome, no big deal.
I kind of regret turning on subtitles when I was playing the game. Sometimes the dialogue is SO much better when it's in time with the action, instead of you reading it a second before. E.g. Those Wheatley parts, and that part when GlaDOS was telling you about
People with guilty consciences being scared easily by loud noises TRAIN HORN
No offense, but I don't think that that would be at all a good idea.
I didn't say it was a good idea, I just said I could definitely see it happening, considering how often the characters work together and the statements made concerning Valve possibly being done with single-player games.
But Stabbity is probably right, in that Gordon is set up as this ubermensch in power armor whereas Alyx is, at the end of the day, just some resistance leader. It'd be weird for them to run-and-gun side by side.
Yeah, Valve would need some other character with power armour to make Half-Life co-op work properly.
Please make it happen, Valve
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
Yeah I don't really see the problem with them auto correcting the portals at those key moments. Sure, it's not a HUGE issue if you die at that point I guess, but reliving that same moment again would sort of lower the awesomeness factor. I think it would detract from how neat the situation was rather than make some sort of positive addition because you didn't press the wrong button.
It's not an "Ah hah!" moment, it's a dramatic/cinematic moment.
I... didn't shoot a portal there at all.
Wanted to see if it was really going to smash me.
It did.
The game autoloaded a previous save from less than twenty seconds earlier, I redid the scene, it was still awesome, no big deal.
Yeah, during that moment, I thought that
Wheatley was just being incompetent Wheatley and missed me with the spike plate. Then I noticed the portalable surface in the distance, and noticed the spike plate had retracted, but did not react fast enough to not die. Easily made it through the second time.
Also, I agree about subtitles. I usually play games with them on, but it really did ruin the surprise of the dialogue at times. Especially that
TRAIN HORN
part you mentioned. That was the point where I shut them off.
I turned the subtitles on because I'd missed little pieces of dialogue a couple of times, they were turned off five minutes later.
I didn't like the way they were handled in the game at all.
I thought I pressed it as well. But in case you don't;
Glados was still plugged in the core replacement thing.
Could be that wheatley wasn't able to respond to a heartbeat update or was partially disconnected and hence the new core took over without contention.
I distinctly remember pressing the button THEN getting bombed. A split second after pressing the button yes, but that's how I remember it.
I think far, far more interesting is
GLados was considered an appropriate substitute for a corrupt core. It really does indicate that perhaps it's the facility, and not the Glados personality itself that is the problem.
If your website doesn't let me use it with NoScript, as I choose to use it, then I'm not going to read anything you write ever.
NoScript is the greatest thing.
In the UK, we get redirected to their UK site. If you follow one of the crazy hash links to a specific article: nope, UK homepage. I'm following Lifehacker on Twitter and whenever they post an article link: nope, homepage. It is apathy that keeps me followed.
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Yours truly, Ace Jon.
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
I distinctly remember pressing the button THEN getting bombed. A split second after pressing the button yes, but that's how I remember it.
I think far, far more interesting is
GLados was considered an appropriate substitute for a corrupt core. It really does indicate that perhaps it's the facility, and not the Glados personality itself that is the problem.
She's like 80% corrupt versus 100% for Wheatley at the end according to said system, so more appropriate I suppose.
Listening to the dev commentary on Portal and Portal 2... the game testers they use are... well they just don't seem to be very smart. Constantly forgetting the techniques and skills that the game just taught them, absolutely refusing to look up... like they're dogs or something(Big Al says dogs can't look up) dying because they constantly shoot the wrong portal (causing the devs to just give up and auto correct your portal usage). i dunno... little worrisome or something, like maybe they should have people who are you know good at games testing them.
Also, some of the Ellen McLain(GLaDOS) commentary make her sound like one of those snooty actor types...
Skull2185 on
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
edited April 2011
Your worry about the skill of playtesters is the exact reason why Valve uses them.
Listening to the dev commentary on Portal and Portal 2... the game testers they use are... well they just don't seem to be very smart. Constantly forgetting the techniques and skills that the game just taught them, absolutely refusing to look up... like they're dogs or something(Big Al says dogs can't look up) dying because they constantly shoot the wrong portal (causing the devs to just give up and auto correct your portal usage). i dunno... little worrisome or something, like maybe they should have people who are you know good at games testing them.
Also, some of the Ellen McLain(GLaDOS) commentary make her sound like one of those snooty actor types...
No, the point of game testing is to have a cross-section, so when a non-hardcore gamer picks up a game, they aren't immediately frustrated to the point of quitting. Accessibility is one of the reasons Portal and Valve games in general are popular. Compare God of War to Devil May Cry; which one is easier to play effectively? God of War. Which one is more popular? God of War.
We haven't all been gaming for 10+ years, nor should games be designed for that crowd unless you plan on only having a niche market.
To be fair, on the last test I completely forgot how to complete the last part even though you do it in the previous test chamber. I got stuck on this twice.
Yeah, they sound like idiots when you know how to do it, but it's exactly because of the fact valve listens to these guys that the games are so well put together.
Most of the tests I got through significantly faster with less brute force than my housemate.
Listening to the dev commentary on Portal and Portal 2... the game testers they use are... well they just don't seem to be very smart. Constantly forgetting the techniques and skills that the game just taught them, absolutely refusing to look up... like they're dogs or something(Big Al says dogs can't look up) dying because they constantly shoot the wrong portal (causing the devs to just give up and auto correct your portal usage). i dunno... little worrisome or something, like maybe they should have people who are you know good at games testing them.
Also, some of the Ellen McLain(GLaDOS) commentary make her sound like one of those snooty actor types...
I have to admit, I got stuck on one room
where the dev commentary even said they updated it because people got confused. It was later in the game where Wheatley rips apart a corridor, then throws white paint on the walls (as the dev's said, to remind the user that you can use portals). Then I got into the room, saw the redirection beam, and instantly forgot about using my portals to just portal myself across. I don't know why, but I instantly assumed that I must use the redirection beam to get across the pit.
Once I figured it out, it was a big "duh" moment. And then the devs said they even updated it to remind people! Double whammy!
I didn't get stuck much, and the rest of the puzzles were easy, but sometimes brain farts happen, and the devs tried to fix that. Their playtesters did an excellent job.
Auto correcting portals? I'm pretty sure I've never once shot one color and had the other color come out of my gun.
If there was auto correcting portals, how come I have so many deaths from when I accidentally moved my anchor from the hard light wall or from the gravity beam source.
As a side note, the term "anchor" is the term that me and my co-op partner use for our portal that doesn't move. I.E. the one that stays at the hard light source or gravity beam source.
Auto correcting portals? I'm pretty sure I've never once shot one color and had the other color come out of my gun.
If there was auto correcting portals, how come I have so many deaths from when I accidentally moved my anchor from the hard light wall or from the gravity beam source.
As a side note, the term "anchor" is the term that me and my co-op partner use for our portal that doesn't move. I.E. the one that stays at the hard light source or gravity beam source.
They only did it for a few "ARGH PANIC" ones. Basically only in the endgame.
SilkyNumNuts on
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
edited April 2011
They occur in only two (that I know of) specific parts of the game, and it's such a minor damn thing you probably never even noticed it.
No, the point of game testing is to have a cross-section, so when a non-hardcore gamer picks up a game, they aren't immediately frustrated to the point of quitting.
That's a valid point, I didn't think of it that way. Re-reading what I typed, it came off a bit snooty elitist. Wasn't aiming for that. Not a fan of auto-correcting the portals still, but it just seems so odd to me that someone wouldn't make it a point to remember the last portal they shot, its always at the front of my mind.
"Orange orange orange" or "Blue blue blue"
Skull2185 on
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
Did anyone else feel like the puzzles were easier this time around? I kind of got the feeling that I had to use fewer quick and accurate portal placements, almost as if the game were optimized for joystick control and not mouse. It was a great game don't get me wrong, but I had fewer moments of "man I am a fucking wizard for pulling that off" than I did in the first Portal.
I never thought the quick and accurate ones should have been in the first game though, as generally it wasn't easy to actually carry it out even when you'd figured it out. I didn't like them, and my gf who I got to play the game last week wouldn't have finished the game without my help for some of the more irritating sections. Thhat alone is a damn good reason for them to be removed.
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
No, the point of game testing is to have a cross-section, so when a non-hardcore gamer picks up a game, they aren't immediately frustrated to the point of quitting.
That's a valid point, I didn't think of it that way. Re-reading what I typed, it came off a bit snooty elitist. Wasn't aiming for that. Not a fan of auto-correcting the portals still, but it just seems so odd to me that someone wouldn't make it a point to remember the last portal they shot, its always at the front of my mind.
"Orange orange orange" or "Blue blue blue"
Here's the thing: if you never heard the commentary talk about it, you would never even know it exists. It's subtle and occurs in literally two, very specific sections of the game where it isn't even about portal placement in a puzzle, just getting past a specific, choreographed sequence.
In the actual game, solving puzzles, it's completely a non-issue.
No, the point of game testing is to have a cross-section, so when a non-hardcore gamer picks up a game, they aren't immediately frustrated to the point of quitting.
That's a valid point, I didn't think of it that way. Re-reading what I typed, it came off a bit snooty elitist. Wasn't aiming for that. Not a fan of auto-correcting the portals still, but it just seems so odd to me that someone wouldn't make it a point to remember the last portal they shot, its always at the front of my mind.
"Orange orange orange" or "Blue blue blue"
I mean, in the two places where it's actually used it's less a puzzle and more a quick time event to be honest. And we all know how lame and frustrating it is to fail those :P. Also, they're at points in the game where you're not expecting to need to suddenly know which portal you just shot. In both instances you are surprised by the fact you have to shoot a portal at all.
They were basically not designed to be challenging parts, they were designed to be exciting. I think the auto-correct is actually pretty clever on Valve's part.
The two auto-correct points are fine, because at those points you don't get to plan them out ahead of time.
I did think the game was too easy, and the commentary points where they say the play testers couldn't finish the levels until the puzzles were dumbed down make me sad. It felt like just as they have finished teaching you new game mechanics the game ends.
The hardest parts of the co-op were nice, but that also ended just when it was getting good. Hopefully there will be add-on levels that build on the difficulty from the ends of the campaigns.
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
Posts
This is actually the reason I haven't enjoyed the co-op in other games like Borderlands and Left 4 Dead as much as I hoped I would; There's this richly detailed, fairly open world with lots of stuff to explore and lots of reasons to drink in the atmosphere, and it just feels wrong to breathlessly run through the whole thing, trying to keep up with three other people. With Left 4 Dead they at least give you immersive reasons to keep moving, but in Borderlands it's a serious problem for me.
Grigori was great, yeah. I wouldn't be opposed to more of him. Whatever the case, I trust Valve. Part of me wants them to make another HL2 but the other part realizes they wouldn't be Valve if they didn't evolve. Everyone thought HL1 was a masterpiece, and then HL2 came and blew that out of the water, so maybe we're in for something that could actually topple HL2.
Yeah, it's to be expected of kotaku but I'm disappointed several other sites which I hold to higher standards should know better than to link to kotaku tripe.
In this case the source of the comment isn't one of their 'secret but totallllly reliable insider source' but the geoff thing, but they should have known better than to go publishing wild on such an offhand comment. Should have been something they could have asked people of valve next to further comment on than treat as a press release.
I don't have a problem with feeling rushed because the people I play with are just as eager to take some time and drink in the atmosphere as I am. I think it's likely that game developers also have a very positive co-op experience which is perhaps fuelling this push, since within the industry I'm sure they have access to many a mature, like-minded co-op partner.
When I see comments about not wanting to ruin the experience sharing it with some dingbat who is going to be fucking around and blathering about I just have to ask, "Why would you do that to yourself?" I only got around to playing Portal 2's co-op yesterday because I was waiting for the right person to play it with, and it was worth the wait. One of my favourite things about co-op is the potential for 'physical' comedy like when my Portal partner managed to sneak ahead and hide from me, and when I rounded the corner he sprung the hug emote on me like some kind of splinter cell stealth kill.
(Having said all that I really don't think Alyx should be made a player character, and I'm somewhat doubtful they could shoehorn co-op into what's left of Gordon's story.)
Definitive proof that Erik Johnson plans to violently force us to play Episode 3!
I'd be quite a bit disappointed if they did try to forcibly integrate active multiplayer into every aspect of the game (i.e. no dedicated single player). Technology and developmental artistry have finally advanced to a point where games are starting to convey ideas in a way that cannot be replicated by other media (without drastic changes to the foundation).
All the more stupid considering that Kotaku themselves were reporting that Gamasutra interview a few months back, literally with the headline: "There’s At Least One Developer Still Rooting For Singleplayer Games".
Grief.
http://kotaku.com/#!5685129/theres-at-least-one-developer-still-rooting-for-singleplayer-games
Kotaku is a terrible thing.
If your website doesn't let me use it with NoScript, as I choose to use it, then I'm not going to read anything you write ever.
NoScript is the greatest thing.
I... didn't shoot a portal there at all.
The game autoloaded a previous save from less than twenty seconds earlier, I redid the scene, it was still awesome, no big deal.
I kind of regret turning on subtitles when I was playing the game. Sometimes the dialogue is SO much better when it's in time with the action, instead of you reading it a second before. E.g. Those Wheatley parts, and that part when GlaDOS was telling you about
Yeah, Valve would need some other character with power armour to make Half-Life co-op work properly.
Please make it happen, Valve
Yeah, during that moment, I thought that
Also, I agree about subtitles. I usually play games with them on, but it really did ruin the surprise of the dialogue at times. Especially that
I didn't like the way they were handled in the game at all.
or at least I pressed the button.
Uh... SCIENCE... wizards
That's actually a very good point...
Glados was still plugged in the core replacement thing.
Could be that wheatley wasn't able to respond to a heartbeat update or was partially disconnected and hence the new core took over without contention.
I think far, far more interesting is
Also, some of the Ellen McLain(GLaDOS) commentary make her sound like one of those snooty actor types...
I can almost guarentee that theres a 50% chance I fired the wrong portal at the
But I assumed I would just be able to shoot a second portal next to me if that was the case. I suppose it would throw the scene off a little bit...
No, the point of game testing is to have a cross-section, so when a non-hardcore gamer picks up a game, they aren't immediately frustrated to the point of quitting. Accessibility is one of the reasons Portal and Valve games in general are popular. Compare God of War to Devil May Cry; which one is easier to play effectively? God of War. Which one is more popular? God of War.
We haven't all been gaming for 10+ years, nor should games be designed for that crowd unless you plan on only having a niche market.
Yeah, they sound like idiots when you know how to do it, but it's exactly because of the fact valve listens to these guys that the games are so well put together.
Most of the tests I got through significantly faster with less brute force than my housemate.
I have to admit, I got stuck on one room
Once I figured it out, it was a big "duh" moment. And then the devs said they even updated it to remind people! Double whammy!
I didn't get stuck much, and the rest of the puzzles were easy, but sometimes brain farts happen, and the devs tried to fix that. Their playtesters did an excellent job.
If there was auto correcting portals, how come I have so many deaths from when I accidentally moved my anchor from the hard light wall or from the gravity beam source.
As a side note, the term "anchor" is the term that me and my co-op partner use for our portal that doesn't move. I.E. the one that stays at the hard light source or gravity beam source.
They only did it for a few "ARGH PANIC" ones. Basically only in the endgame.
That's a valid point, I didn't think of it that way. Re-reading what I typed, it came off a bit snooty elitist. Wasn't aiming for that. Not a fan of auto-correcting the portals still, but it just seems so odd to me that someone wouldn't make it a point to remember the last portal they shot, its always at the front of my mind.
"Orange orange orange" or "Blue blue blue"
Here's the thing: if you never heard the commentary talk about it, you would never even know it exists. It's subtle and occurs in literally two, very specific sections of the game where it isn't even about portal placement in a puzzle, just getting past a specific, choreographed sequence.
In the actual game, solving puzzles, it's completely a non-issue.
I mean, in the two places where it's actually used it's less a puzzle and more a quick time event to be honest. And we all know how lame and frustrating it is to fail those :P. Also, they're at points in the game where you're not expecting to need to suddenly know which portal you just shot. In both instances you are surprised by the fact you have to shoot a portal at all.
They were basically not designed to be challenging parts, they were designed to be exciting. I think the auto-correct is actually pretty clever on Valve's part.
Has anyone figured out what it is? I have a few guesses, but I can't be sure; I'm not a wizard.
I did think the game was too easy, and the commentary points where they say the play testers couldn't finish the levels until the puzzles were dumbed down make me sad. It felt like just as they have finished teaching you new game mechanics the game ends.
The hardest parts of the co-op were nice, but that also ended just when it was getting good. Hopefully there will be add-on levels that build on the difficulty from the ends of the campaigns.
This one, apparently (near end spoilers).