f13.net

This is not for HL2:EP2

Ok.

So does anyone else want them to put the teleport gun in HL2 since Black Mesa and Aperture are so closely related?

Also, Sweet Halliburton they've fleshed this world out better than I thought. I had a sneaking suspicion when you first see the back rooms in Portal that everything would tie together neatly - BUT NOT THIS NEATLY.

All of the Half-Life 2 parts put together may eventually un-seat Deus Ex in my top 3 games of all time (it's currently at #3).

I wish Gabe Newell wasn't such a punk bitch.

That is all.

I want the teleport gun in HL2, Peggle and my breakfast cereal... so yes.

Portal is far more fleshed-out than I ever would have thought.  Also, as a non-serious series it would compliment the HL series wonderfully, crossover or not.

A Portal gun would be much more fun than a gravity gun in multiplayer games. And TF2 would be better I think with portals instead of teleport pads. Imagine 2fort with 2 way portals that worked for red&blue. A quick raid into the enemy fort, but a fast way for them back if you get slaughtered.

Has anyone had any luck with the 'fewest steps' challenges? I can't seem to work my head around them.

I only went through the normal maps.  It was 2am when I tried the first bonus map and I realized I was going to have to go to bed.

Why did the AI gas the place?

Did anyone else ascribe the 3 spheres as the computer's Id, Ego, and Superego?

My question was, why did the gassing take five minutes?  Or why did it not decide to disable the rocket launcher after the first smack?

The AI gets really hard to hear at that point but it specifically says that it can't disable the defense turret and "oh well".

That song at the end is hysterical and I hope they continue with the character you play in some fashion.

The AI also makes several "I wish I could just inject the neurotoxin directly in your brain" comments.

I still think they're tying shit together for episode 3.

When I get my new sound card, I will record the entire last battle. As well as some kickass sweet jumps.

Fuck Portal makes me want to set up a fucking fansite.

I enabled subtitles, but I couldn't take the time to read all of them.

Oh yeah, the eyes you blast off all babble if you listen.

And it's fantastic.

There was an interview about the Orange Box I read somewhere (god I can't remember where now) and it was hinted at heavily that this isn't the end of the Portal plot and that it would probably pop up in HL2e3, which in my mind is enough reason to buy it.

I'll buy it fucking twice.

They also announced it would be a Wii exclusive

I suspected that was only the beginning for portal.  Especially after the song at the end. 

At this point I'm more excited for the tie in than the continuation of G. Freeman.

The CJOHNSON TIER3 userid/passwd was written on a wall in one of the behind-the-scenes areas, I think the first one.

I love how the AI starts ripping on you towards the end.


I invited your best friend the weighted personal companion cube
but of course he cant come because you killed him
and none of your other friends will come because you dont have any
thats how unlikable you are
it says so right here in your personal file
it also says you were adopted

The AI is like a non-serious (in the eyes of the writer) SHODAN, and it works so god damn well.

Once I started seeing the behind the scenes areas, the game sunk its claws into me and I had to see how it ended.  I mean I've never been so held by a game, so I'm somewhat glad it finished when it did so I could move on with life.

But I still played through it two more times trying to find all 33 detachable cameras.  I could only find 32. ;_;

Detaching cameras in the Bonus levels count toward that achievement.


Could someone explain the ending to me ? The AI blew up, we all started to float upwards, what happened then ?

They count but you have to do it in a single game, not in bonus levels.  So it resets.

You landed on the ground outside the complex.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, you're a cyborg with robotic legs.. which is why you can fall a long distance, and also why one of the spheres at the end asks "What's wrong with your legs?"

Number of ideas about the leg thing.

Personally, I think it was a medical solution.

They added the leg braces because play testers kept being annoyed that she could fall a long way without being hurt, whereas Gordon takes damage when he walks off of a table.

Developer commentary FTW.

So, it was a medical reason. HUR HUR HUR.

Considering one of the achievements is to fall 30,000 feet, and assumes you'll survive...those are good braces.

The ending was eight thousand times better than the HL2 ending so I don't plan on overanalyzing it.

Pretty sure the AI mentioned the protagonist wasn't a real person on several occasions.  Could have been taunting but there might have been something to it.

I want that AI to be still alive and make a comeback in a future episode for the people who are still alive.

Also G.freeman needs to carry a box around as a sidekick next time, it's much more likeable than Alex is.

I always wondered why more games don't end the credits with a musical number. I hope to see more follow Portal's example.

An inanimate sidekick is all fun and games UNTIL YOU PUT IT IN A MOVING CAR.   :tantrum:


I want GLaDOS to show up in HL3 as Gordon's conscience that talks to him through his wristwatch or something.

I'd like to ask that the HL2 spoilers be contained in the other thread, please.

Also: I will have to view this at home: companioncube.ytmnd.com

At one point the voice over refers to you, possibly 'accidentally' as an android, at another point during the escape I'm pretty sure I heard 'you're not a real person you know'.

Don't give a rats ass about the character you play, but we'd better hear from AI again sometime.

Especially given the end of the song raises expectations.

I seem to recall it saying "You're not a good person, you know. Good people don't end up here."

But that was towards the end, and it was well past 2 AM by then, so my memory may be unreliable.

No, it's goddamn leg braces, you're not a robot or cyborg. The cyborg testing area refers to the turrets, and you can see pictures of the leg braces and their plans on some of the clipboards laying around  near the end.

The plot of Portal ties into Episode 2 amazingly, or at least, one part of it.

Also, GLaDOS says some weird stuff if you take long enough during the last fight.

"I have an infinite capacity for knowledge and even I don't understand what's going on outside."
"I was the only thing standing between them and us...well, I was."

Well, I just spent a few hours on HL:Ep2. Then I realized I wasn't having any fun, and went to visit GLaDOS again. Portal makes up for 'teh suk'

--
edit: spelign errer

GLaDOS may have held the fort at Aperture against the events between HL1 and HL2... Dr. Breen's glorious alien-o-rama.

Or she/it could just be a paranoid agoraphobic shut-in and there is no "them".

The relatively pristine condition of the building (including the brief glimpse you get of the outside) is such a stark contrast to the generally grimy and ruined world of Half-Life 2 that I'm more inclined to think that Portal takes place around the Half-Life 1 time frame.  Show me a road sign anywhere in Half-Life 2 that looks as shiny and new as that Do Not Enter sign outside the Aperture parking lot.   :-)  At least, I remember being struck by how "contemporary" that outside shot looked, even with the flaming rubble everywhere, and Half-Life 2 always looks really run-down and "postapocalyptic" by comparison.

It's tough to know how to interpret the "Maybe Black Mesa... That was a joke, HA HA, fat chance" lines in the song.  Does this mean that the protagonist is going to be heading to Black Mesa, and GLaDOS is either using reverse psychology to steer her away from Aperture's archrival, or using reverse reverse psychology to steer her toward the place where she can best realize the potential that she's shown during the testing?  (Maybe the protagonist is a young Gina Cross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Cross)?)  Or is GLaDOS just gloating because this is the post-Half-Life-1 time frame and Black Mesa no longer exists?

Unreliable narrator ftw.  I'm really curious to see how the timeline ends up fitting together.  As long as GLaDOS shows up again (ideally doing horrible things to Combine soldiers FOR SCIENCE) I'll be happy.

Funny link, because it would make more sense for her to be Colette Green.

From what I gathered the woman is Chell Johnson, daughter of the leader of the company.

Also a possibility.  I actually didn't know who Gina Cross was until I found that link; my only thought was that the Portal hero reminded me a lot of the HEV tutor from HL1 (and Googling for a screenshot ended up revealing that that bit character I was thinking of has a name and had her own game that I somehow missed entirely... who knew?).  Of course, the fact that the orange jumpsuit looks a lot like an HEV at first glance has a lot to do with that.  But it would be cool if the games were tied together in a really tangential (but retroactive) way like that.

(edit) Lorekeep, where'd you gather that?  From the "you aren't a good person" bit and the jumpsuit I'd been operating under the assumption that the Aperture test subjects were condemned prisoners that nobody would miss.  The "take your daughter to work day" bit wasn't lost on me, though.  Is there a picture of this Chell on that site that I haven't looked at yet?

Guys

i think portal just replaced Deus Ex on my top 3 games kicking it to number 4

guys

.... it did it in 2.6 hours.

At the very least her name is definitely Chell.  The person who modeled for the character is credited as having modeled for Chell in the ending sequence.  Beyond that all I had was the Wikipedia page on Portal and the number of coincidences from the Apeture Sciences website.

The cake wasn't a lie.
The cake wasn't a lie.
The cake wasn't a lie.
The cake wasn't a lie.
The cake wasn't a lie.

Chell? Doesn't GLaDOS mention some names during the game?

The android reference came as you finished the "live fire course for combat androids" that was "accidentally" substituted for the training course meant for you. 

Also, damn, what a fantastic game.

- Q

Found this on the SA thread (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2642804&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=58), dunno where it's from, but it brought a tear to my eye

(http://www.m2pt5.com/pics/sa/img/1192169023344.jpg)


Chell was a daughter or clone of a daughter of the CEO of the company (his login gives you access to the notes.exe file on the website) who was brought to work the same day the AI killed everyone else. Someone stopped the AI afterwards (and put on the pod to stop her doing it again) and the the base was abandoned (possibly because of the events of the Half Life 1). At some point afterwards GLADoS started running people (probably clones of Chell) through the system, during the time between HF1 and HF2 (she references to "I'm a genius and even I don't know whats happening outside"). Chell gets her cake at somepoint before or during HF2.

In a fit of extreme dorkitude, I screencapped the credits and transcribed this so I could use it in /etc/motd:


Looks best in a nice courier or other fixed terminal font.

- Q

I was wondering.. do you think there's a reason behind the fact that the main character never does a single human sound during the whole game? Ok for the lag braces, but what about a "oomph" of any kind when jumping? After all, that's standard in most FPS.

I didn't get any fucking cake.

I'm pretty sure if you turn your speakers up she makes some noise when you're getting plastered to the wall by a turret.

Might have been my brain putting it there though.

I believe it was, Schild. She doesn't make a damn noise.

She's as noisy as her rival, Gordon Freeman.

For those who missed the 'Competing with Black Mesa' presentation:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Portal_Slideshow_3.jpg)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6f/Portal_Slideshow_4.jpg)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/Portal_Slideshow_2.jpg)

So yeah, I guess the tape was meant for the androids.

Glados later refers to a backup of your personality and claims to delete it while you try to kill her, but in a way that also felt consistent with you being a clone.

That android comment was meant for androids doing the live fire course.

You are Definitely Chell Johnson (as referenced in the notes.exe part of the viral website) and GlaDOS has been sending clones of you through the mazes doing science -- that's who has been writing all the signs and stuff in the secret places -- your previous clones. However, they couldn't get as far or as fast because they didn't have leg braces.

It was mentioned the folks from old man murray wrote a majority of the dialog.. does anyone know about that?

I don't recall any foul language in Portal.

Yeah, Chet and Erik are the writers.

Not your brain putting it there.  I got to hear that sound a lot while going through the advanced version of the combat course.  Ow.

I'd need some hard evidence that Chell is a clone.  Cloning isn't something I felt was ever a major part of Half-Life.  I know that there is this weird sensation of "Wait, who is writing all these messages?"

I'd actually feel pretty sick if Chell was a clone.  Then you really are a blank slate, even more so than any other protagonist ever made in any game.  I know Half-Life likes to insert you into a role but g'damn.

Well, during the end sequence, the computer makes reference to stored personality/memories. That implies the ability to write as well, otherwise there would be little point (in this specific scenario, that is).

I think you're a clone with (nearly?) full memories of the original. The computer backed up your personality and memories and uploaded it into each clone. You'd want to do it that way anyway. Consistency is a huge part of experiments; Only change one variable at a time.

You want all test subjects as identical as possible, and, with cloning, that becomes possible. Every one of them are given the exact same memory, wake up in the same way, are given the same information... then, sit back and watch; notice and isolate deviations.

Then again, how much memory they are given is another question; If you have the tech to record/write brains than you probably have the tech to do at least a clumsy job of selective removal. Obviously bits that control motor coordination and learning and speech are there... Depending on the experiment, I can see cases for and against wiping memories... perhaps some were wiped, others not, depending on what experiments were taking place.

For some fun remembering, how about some Portal Quotes (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Portal)?

    * "Aperture Science: We do what we must, because we can."
    * "We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one."
    * "Remember, the Aperture Science ‘Bring Your Daughter to Work Day’ is the perfect time to have her tested."
    * "Please note, we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death. Good luck."
    * "Stop what you are doing and assume the party escort submission position."
    * "As part of a previously mentioned required test protocol, we can no longer lie to you. When the testing is over, you will be… missed!"
    * "Cake, and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the test. Thank you for helping us help you help us all!"
    * "Did you know you can donate one or all of your vital organs to the Aperture Science Self Esteem Fund for Girls? It’s true!"
    * "Well done, android. The Enrichment Center once again reminds you that android hell is a real place where you will be sent at the first sign of defiance."
    * "Although the euthanizing process is remarkably painful, 8 out of 10 Aperture Science engineers believe that the Companion Cube is most likely incapable of feeling much pain."
    * "The symptoms most commonly produced by Enrichment Center testing are superstition, perceiving inanimate objects as alive, and hallucinations. The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak."
    * "Remember when the platform was sliding into the fire pit and I said 'Goodbye' and you were like 'NO WAY' and then I was all 'We pretended we were going to murder you'? That was great!"
    * "Some day we'll remember this and laugh. And laugh, and laugh. Oh boy. Well. You may as well come on back."
    * "The Enrichment Center is required to remind you that you will be baked, and then there will be cake."
    * "Oh, you think you’re doing some damage?! 2+2 is… 10… in base four, I’m fine!"
    * "That thing you're attacking isn't important to me. It's the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit; it makes shoes for orphans. Nice job breaking it, hero."
    * "Look - we're both stuck in this place. I'll use lasers to inscribe a line down the center of the facility, and one half will be where you live, and I'll live in the other half. We won't have to try to kill each other or even talk if we don't feel like it."
    * "When I said 'deadly neurotoxin,' the deadly was in massive sarcasm quotes."
    * "Ah - there isn't enough neurotoxin to kill you, so I guess you win. Ha - I'm making more! That's going to take a few minutes though. Meanwhile - oh look, it's your old pal the rocket turret."
    * "Have I lied to you? I mean, in this room? Trust me."
    * ""There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I even invited your best friend the companion cube. Of course, he couldn't come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn't come either because you don't have any other friends because of how unlikable you are."
    * "Unlikable, it says so here in your file 'unlikable'- liked by no one"
    * "Good news. I figured out what that thing you just incinerated was. It was a morality core they installed after I flooded the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin to make me stop flooding the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin."

What part makes you think you are Chell Johnson? I think I'm missing something in the notes section. You're definitely someone's daughter, but I don't see how you can tell you are Cave's daughter.

If that's the case, how would the clones know about what awaits them at the end of the tests and write those messages for Chell? Is it that previous clones were more mentally unstable and affected by the situation than the one you play?

I don't think they were MORE mentally unstable, but obviously some were unable to finish a particular section (needing the spring shoe things) and stuck there, living on what they could find (you can see trash and water bottle remnants in the hidden places...

If those tickmarks on the walls are days, they probably went crazy from isolation, ultimately dying but helping each other, each one getting further than the last... I believe the farthest died where you have to get the box from the pipes, you can see lots of blood smear around and on the wall.

The situation seems more psychotic and horrific than I had original anticipated.

(http://xs320.xs.to/xs320/07415/emot-lovewcc.gif) (http://xs.to)

WOW. where did you find that.

The Something Awful Portal thread.  :-)

There's an arrow and black smudges inside the vent to the fan -after- the spot where you have to break the tube. Potentially one of the previous test subjects (I'm not convinced on the clone thing) made it all the way to GLaDOS and received the "surprise" that she fails to deliver to you. Some of them obviously remained inside of particular chambers a LOT longer than I did, had the opportunity to watch them reset, and potentially met other test subjects.

The fact that they knew where to find beans and water, and that they were so interested in keeping their computers (or whatever those boxes with the key symbol are) leads me to believe that at least some of the testing refugees were Aperture staff.

Read notes.exe but can't see where they mention the test subject being Chell.
Or they saying that the test subject is a clone.

Beside, anyone completed apply.exe and got a positive response by typing in the correct ID# ?

I choose to believe that the some clones reached the cake preparation facility, but never found a way either out of the building or into the GLaDOS chamber.

You can't enter the correct ID# into apply.exe

It's CASE SENSITIVE.

After seeing the SA picture I was going to call Rule 34, but it's already been done folks:

(http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/2171/rule34portalxb9.jpg)

From http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v325/Ledneh/?action=view&current=portal.jpg:

(http://frotz.net/misc/ledneh_portal_fanart.jpg)

Think that's my favorite piece of fan art so far...

- Q

Also, while the original ID blinks it changes a random character every time (which is probably why it blinks).  If you try to write it down, it will be a different ID by the time you finish.

Edit: Stark beat me to it.

I was googling for the Portal website on a friends laptop and came up with this (http://www.aperture.com/). The logo looks kinda familiar.

That fan-art is wallpaper material.  Too bad it's small.

I saw this:

(http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/5483/jellyfishbr9.jpg)

Maybe a child's rendering of the computer?

What did everyone get when they tried to put the ID in?

I took a screen shot of the ID, it still told me I was wrong and to wait for a Crisis Response Team.

So I did figure something out. The trick isn't in actually doing the application. It's in finding the flashing letters. If you add them all up you get "Thecakeisalie" which you enter as your UIN. Which brings up this...

(http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/752/75804045qr2.jpg)

Another hint that the player is possibly a clone happens right at the beginning of the game, when you wake up in the relaxation vault.  GLaDOS says "Welcome.. again.. to the Aperture Science and Enrichment Center."

She might have also just said welcome when you first came to the center. She does seem nothing if not polite.

If you wait to hear everything she says as you destroy her, she clearly says she's deleting your backups: ergo: she has copies of your memory that get put into a clone. The drawings on the walls were done by you on previous escape attempts.

While that's possible, I'm not ready to say that that *must* be the situation.  GLaDOS is pretty unreliable -- might be some truth down there somewhere, but she is pretty psychotic and very clearly willing to lie about any number of things.  It could be the messages and drawings were the results of other test subjects (volunteers? employees? unfortunate daughters of Aperture Science Employees?) being subjected to the Enrichment Program.

- Q

...and the catalytic cracking unit makes shoes for orphans.

Please rub your face all over that raw sewage container then assume the party escort submission position. Surely GLaDOS has entirely stopped enhancing the truth... she would never make absurdist, empty threats based on computer terminology.

And *you* destroyed it.  Nice work, hero.

- Q

Did she lie to you...in that room?

It doesn't count if she's lying FOR SCIENCE.

Portal is win.  Pure win.

Best 4 hour game I ever played.

I might have been wrong about it being Chell Johnson, it is definitely Chell, but the Wikipedia page was updated to remove all references to her being Chell Johnson, so I have no leg to stand on.

The character is certainly Chell (see the Credits, etc), and Chell Johnson seems like a reasonable guess (given the CEO's name, bring your daughter to work (and have her tested!) day, etc), but I don't think there's been any confirmation of this in-game or otherwise...

I'm assuming it got nuked from wikipedia for being "speculation" or "original research" or whatnot.

- Q

I got through all the advanced maps with no problem, but these challenge maps are bullshit. I can't get more than a silver for number of steps on the first map. Just from the elevator to the first portal and then from the last to the exit totally fucks me by eating my 10 steps. I did mange to get gold for the other two challenges on the first map, but I have no idea how you can only use 2 portals on the second. I pretty much refuse to play pachinko by directing the orbs with the boxes and praying they bounce correctly 10 times, so looks like I'm not going to be beating several of the others any time soon.

14 is ridiculously easy to get 2 portals in.  Take a look at your objective and figure out if you need to do anything special to get there.

Got it. Duh. I was thinking too hard.

I almost got 18, but I'm tired of playing "How many bullets can I eat before it kills me?" with the quicksave/quickload during each step of the process in the room with the turrets. Since you don't have the ability to kill any of them, it's just a crap shoot getting past them. I have all 3 gold on 14 now, but still can't figure out the number of steps one on 13. Still not going to play bounce-the-ball games on the rest.

Of course, then again, prospero got golds on all of them. Must.. compete...

you can enter 'thecakeisalie' at any point after you login... it's not your UIN(+L)

also, if you press return (or any other button) during that screen, it takes you to some sort of invoice for flour, thumbtacks and a giant tub for an outrageous amount of money.

anyone figure out the UIN(+L) yet?

EDIT:

the bit about GLaDOS lying that you guys keep talking about... when she counts down to not lying anymore, she cuts off before she gets to one.... so she can lie whenever without lying about not lying... @_@

Given her track record, even if she *didn't* cut out before finishing the countdown, I wouldn't be likely to trust her.  My money is on "she means well but is completely insane, so the results are highly non-optimal."  On the plus side, at least she had that morality module keeping her (somewhat) in check until somebody went and chucked it in the incinerator.

- Q

Eh, the fact that there's an incinerator in that room along with only one defensive turret screams Game Reality rather than Real Reality, so I take things that happen very lightly in that world.

That incinerator was there for convenience. You know, all her friends she invited to the party. HER FRIENDS. I bet she gets a lot of replacement parts. Those things can't be too light. And really, without a portal gun, how many people make it there anyway?

When you say non-optimal, that depends on your own personal value structure.

GLaDOS appears to be motivated solely by 'doing science'. Strictly from the point of view of 'doing science' for the benefit of 'everyone who is still alive' it could be argued that GLaDOS is behaving rationally.

The morality/impact of the story in this game is top-notch.  I managed to avoid spoilers before it came out, other than that the widget is a portal gun of course, so I thought the whole thing was really just going to be a tech demo in a do the trials veneer.  The growing danger of the tasks combined with the 'take your daughter to work and have her tested.' thing that culminates in the machine gun level was excellent for the, 'holy shit this thing is crazy' factor.  The 'You will be baked and then there will be cake.' line stuffed in with all the other inanities and the growing weirdness was awesome for when they broke down the wall with "The cake is a lie." and the behind the scenes stuff.

From the science & morals question it's great high concept Sci-fi.  If humanity is in danger of extinction due to an overwhelming external threat is it morally OK to test humans to destruction in order to develop a weapon capable of saving humanity?  Is it OK to clone one human again and again and subject him/her to a nearly endless hell (a really horrific thought) to prove theory and 'do science' under those circumstances?

Just great, intelligent stuff.

I don't get where the clone stuff is coming from.

I wrote this on another site where people were having trouble with that:



Some of it's guesstimation, some of it isn't. But it all sort of lines up. I'm going to play through it again and write an article about the game.

I see nothing in that to suggest she's a clone.

The clone theory is possible, but I don't think it's the only possibility.  I lean toward the belief that the first neurotoxin incident didn't eliminate *everyone* and that there may have been other Aperture Science employees (or daughters of employees) run through the "tests" previously as well.  The notes on the walls and little behind-the-walls camps are pretty clearly the result of previous "test participants", but they don't necessarily have to be clones of Chell for it to make sense.  Some of these test participants seem to have lived in the walls for quite a while (judging by the tick marks they made, presumably to mark the passage of time), and most of them seem to have been a little unhinged (being lab rats for a psychotic computer is probably generally bad for your sanity).

Also, it is very clear that GLaDOS is a pathological liar, which makes it really hard to differentiate things she's saying to manipulate you from things that may have some basis in reality.  I'd accept that not necessarily *everything* she says is an outright lie (hey, there *was* cake), but most of it cannot be verified.

- Q

Yea, it's pretty unfortunate that you'd have to go through every line of the game to get through the lies and truth.

It's pretty fortunate that it's almost worth doing that.

I'm not sure you *can* figure everything out just from what's presented in the game.  I am sure that it remains a fantastic experience even after 2.5 play-throughs.  The ambiguity is a feature -- the game doesn't make the mistake of explaining too much and lets you experience the world and draw your own conclusions... and discuss them at length with people on the internets.

I caught a bunch of little things I missed on the second time through.  For example, I totally missed the little hidden areas in the turret and companion cube levels the first time through.  Too focused on my goals to notice there was something behind those pushed out wall sections.

Also, I *loved* the final puzzle/fight.  It took me a little bit to get my bearings and time got short, but I actually finished it on my first attempt with something like 13 seconds on the clock.  Even so, playing it again let me enjoy a lot more dialogue that I didn't hear clearly in the mayhem.  First time through I really avoided picking up the personality cores (suspecting they'd explode or something), so I missed almost all of *that* dialogue -- including the wonderful chatter of the personality core and the ramblings of the cake core.

- Q

Another thought -- the clipboards with test results seem to imply that GLaDOS is merely continuing a test program originally started by the Aperture Science staff.  I mean it seems unlikely that *she* would be recording test results on clipboards just for her own benefit.  How far her version of the tests differ from the original tests is an interesting thing to ponder.  The NOTES.EXE stuff from the website, etc, seem to imply that Aperture Science is not exactly the sanest organization.  Hell, their answer to fuel line de-icing and competing with another contractor was to develop an Artificial Lifeform based research assistant (and Disk Operating System)...

- Q

Wouldn't clones be suboptimal for testing? Working on the supposition that one clone of a person acts the same as the next clone, there would be no breadth to the behavior at all. They'd make a good control group but that's it, I think.

She could use the clones to design a test course to teach optimal use of portal tech, in the hopes of eventually having a subject that can 'defeat' GLaDOS and be sent outside.

Or could have been using the other Aperture Science people in the same way, less efficiently.

I guess it's if you look at it as 'insane computer killing people with SCIENCE!' or 'Insanely clever computer training someone to fix things outside'

Based on the closing song and shots of lots of GLaDOS eyes, I'm inclined to the latter.

Depends entirely on what you are testing....




Bringing insanity into it misses the point, I rather took it to be 'computer taking direct instructions given by long dead programmers to logical extreme'.



Having had other participants and the clone theory aren't mutually exclusive. But having your specific character be a clone is the theory that best fits the evidence.

Any explanation needs to explain why you start in a box not knowing wtf to do. It's amensia, androids, or clones. Clones seem to fit best.

Timeline (imo):


 - Aperture Science decides it wants piece of Black Mesa action.
 - Develops GLaDOS as a hyper efficient way to do science - scores win with FSII.
 - More safety controls taken off of GLaDOS to accelerate science.
 - Portal and cloning programs start somewhere in the system.
 - Around the time of the Black Mesa incident, GLaDOS fills the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin, in order to ensure a clean lab environment.
 - Morality core fitted.
 - Not many staff left, and the portal storms are now well underway.
 - GLaDOS instructed to do science in aid of stopping the portal storms and the weird aliens turning up everywhere.
 - Possibly GLaDOS is directly responsible for the 4 year gap between Black Mesa and the Combine Invasion.
 - By now the Bring your daughter to work program is in full swing, GLaDOS quietly appropriates DNA for cloning science.
 - Site lockdown commences, noone allowed to leave.
 - Safety lapses continue to kill staff.
 - GLaDOS recognises the need to develop clones able to use and support the science.
 - Aperture enrichment program starts testing clones (and possibly non-clones) for their suitability as lab assistants.
 - Clones who escape testing program start living in walls.
 - C Johnson clones recognised as more effective than others. GLaDOS starts working to improve the C Johnson clone.
 - Events of 'Portal'.
 - At this point GLaDOS was the only thing keeping the Combine from coming to Earth. And you destroyed it. Nice work, hero.
 - Combine invades, humanity enslaved.


In 'still alive', GLaDOS is celebrating having created an adequate lab rat. And getting rid of that pesky Morality Core ofc.

And just on the clone thing specifically...

 - You are not told anything about your past at any point.
 - You appear to wake up in some sort of incubation chamber.
 - Documents in game refer to your legs as revision 1.
 - "Welcome... again... to the aperture science enrichment centre"
 - The whole palaver about having backups of you, and deleting them.
 - You are Chell, as demonstrated by the credits, however, someone has written Chell's password on the wall, suggesting that person was also Chell.
 - "These points of data make a beautiful line, we're out of beta and releasing on time." - I take this line to mean that events of the game have 'released' an aperture product, specifically, you.

Not proof, but enough evidence to say clones are the most likely answer. Cyborg is also possible, but doesn't feel as satisfying.

I should really just post my article in rough draft form.

No, I want bullet points and charts or nothing at all.

I think your timeline can still work without Chell being a clone, but really I just wanted to say that the above bullet point strikes me as an incredibly believable (based on her behaviour and actions in-game) explanation of GLaDOS's rationale for the initial neurotoxin flooding.

Perhaps you should win a "best able to think like a psychotic computer" award.

- Q

There's like 20 bullet points. And a single awesome graphic. I suppose I can throw in some charts. They'll be done in photoshop though.

I'm still not convinced about "Chell Johnson".  Seems likely but there's just too little information to be sure.  Clones, I'm fairly convinced.  Clone of Cave's daughter?  Less sure, little to support this.

The timeline can, but if Chell isn't a clone, we'd need to figure out wtf GLaDOS is doing. There is science being done. If the clone isn't being tested, I don't see what the experiment is for.

The portal gun isn't the thing being tested here.

I need to see what happens in Episode 3.  It could be entirely possible that Chell is a featured cast member, but it'll probably be a year or more before we know since Valve misinterpreted the idea of Episodic Content to mean "We're going to release 1/3 of a game every year!"

This is a vast improvement over Valve's previous "release 1 game every 6 years" business process.

I think at least part of the experiment is to see what effect repeated use of the portal gun has on living subjects.


Hence the psychological element in many of the tests (attempting to get you to bond with the companion cube and then forcing you to kill it, being told that this test is impossible, GLaDOS generally being nutty, et cetera).  If you think the portal gun makes people go nuts and you're working on eliminating that effect, you'll want to put your test subjects in stressful situations that expose them to the portal gun's deleterious effects and verify that they're able to cope well enough to continue solving the tests.

Like in this movie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_X_%28film%29) where they trained chimps in flight simulators to see how lethal doses of radiation impaired flying ability.

Furthermore, if Portal + TF2 (+ ep2) is 1/3 of a game, I want more 1/3 of a games.

Seriously. I'd much rather pay $50 for a few hours of bulletproof gameplay than $50 for 20 hours of wandering gameplay.(I'm looking at you Bioshock.)

I do suspect the "episodes" will go the way of the dodo. I think it takes way too much time to generate the art assets for a modern FPS to grind an episode out annually. At least not a good episode. Also it seems like their playtesting process adds at least 6 months to any project.

Thankfully, Episode 3 has been in development since Episode 2 started.

Good point. We should only have to wait a couple years at most.

Yeah they need to develop a TF2 Map Pack and a Portal Expansion or Multiplayer component to go with it.  Then they'll make you buy everything all over again and sell it to you in a box that eeriely resembles the Weighted Companion Cube in order to take your mind off the fact that you just wanted (Pick One: Episode 3 / More Portal / More TF2) and that those mother fuckers should have hurried it along.

Now if you're all for seeing more of all 3, alright.  Just stop calling it Episodic Content.

Article delayed. Needs a rewrite. There's just too much meat in the pudding.

I really think there should be a lame ending for any dumbass that actually takes the ride into the fire. A really lame ending. I reloaded my game just to see, but no dice.

Lame ending is you die and exit the game via menu.

Also, no cake.

Spoiler Ridden Article, Discuss Link at the Bottom. (http://www.f13.net/index.php?itemid=610#more)

Please to rebuke and shit. :)

Valve's staff talks about all that stuff in the commentaries I believe, and they state they're kinda re-evaluating how they do the episodic content thing because this shit took so long.

The guy who wrote GLaDOS' song "Still Alive" played at the credits:

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/

On his site, he says that he'll 'reveal the inside story' in an entry... but he really just says the very basics about Portal, and some stuff about GLaDOS being 'this hilarious passive aggressive personality'.  Unfortunately, no good spoilers, except that Valve may or may not be releasing the song on Steam or 'perhaps elsewhere'.

I <3 this guy.  computer + ukulele = awesome

See, I knew that'd be him.  It was his Zombie song I posted a while back on useless videos.

Some things I could not get out of my mind the whole day.

The whole facility looks like it has been abandoned a long time ago.

Some of the paintings you find in the "hidden" rooms look rather childish.

The reference to the "bring your daughter to work day" (and have her tested).

Chell (that was her name, right ?) looks a bit old for the above mentioned "bydtw-day", to me it sounds like something done for preteen children.

On one or more occasions the AI mentions that there are means to resurrect the player and apart from the fire at the first "ending" the traps do not look that deadly. We do not no, why exactly  "the floor will kill you" for example.

So.

In my mind I have this picture of little Chell being brought to BYDTW-Day by her father, something goes awfully wrong and GlaDOS runs several tests with the children in the enrichment center. Their memories are erased from time to time. Since the tests are not completely harmless, the pool of test specimens shrinks. Several years later, a now at least adolescent Chell is the only specimen left, GlaDOS is almost completely insane and Chell runs the tests for the XXXth time without remembering the earlier attempts.

Anyway, thats my take on the "Welcome ...again ...to the ..." line at the beginning.

Mmm. I like this idea of Chell having ran the tests million of times and having aged doing it into the abandoned Aperture facility in a perhaps identically dead and abandoned planet Earth. I like it far more than the clone thesis.

EDIT: Maybe in Borealis we'll meet young, "daughter-sized" Chell (I hope not. I hate kids, despite having one).

Yeah children have to be in there somewhere, only a kid could have drawn that "big bad jellfish" picture.

Or an absolutely insane Chell.

Finally got a chance to play through it.  Truly awesome game, and really really god damn funny.  Loved what they did with the story, wasn't expecting the depth.  Was kind of hoping they would reveal more of wtf happened/is happening, but it was still cool.

My only real let down was that I was kind of hoping the protagonist in the game would be Adrian Shepard, since I'd really like to see what happened to him.

Did you fall into it?  It's some sort of deadly, brown liquid.

Are you sure it's deadly?  Maybe it just knocks you out so you can be memory-wiped and put back in the rejuvenation pod.

I've also wondered whether the "incinerators" are really incinerators.  Why incinerate the companion cube when you can just SAY it was incinerated and then quietly cycle it back to the start of the chamber for the next subject?

Are you calling the companion cube a slut!?  :heartbreak:

Burning a companion cube is the only way to sterilize it.

There's no question GLaDOS cares about things like that.


That would make the last boss fight pretty... inconsequential.

These are great, paranoid conjectures.  I approve, especially the liquid bit.  However, I think I can safely assume the turrets and firepit are deadly, so what purpose would non-lethal liquid serve?  To the subject, they can all be considered deadly so the only reasoning I can use to have non-deadly liquid is if the turrets and firepit are also non-deadly.

If the Intelligent Incinerators really don't incinerate things, that can change a lot of the ending.  However it seems that Weighted Storage Cube production continues unabated, so I'm of the opinion that the incinerators really do incinerate whatever is tossed into them.

Then why is she... Still Alive?

What I mean is that the ending battle was a complete fabrication if the spheres were not actually being destroyed.  That would also mean that the test could have been completed before the game events, if the end battle was just the final test.

Yes, GLaDOS certainly wouldn't mislead us about something like that.   :-D


I don't think that's even in question -- all the helpful markings made after the last test chamber were pretty clearly made by test subjects on earlier runs.  And I'm very convinced that the end battle was just another test.  It was also a triumph.  I'm making a note here, huge success.

Yes, the last fight was definitely a test. No question about it.

The research facility was unnecessary after that I assume though, so what we saw was intended.

Also, you'll note that in the final song, it doesn't say that you're dead yet.

Even more, they foreshadow:
go ahead and leave me
I think I prefer to stay inside
maybe you'll find someone else to help you
maybe black mesa
that was a joke, haha, fat chance
anyway this cake is great, it's so delicious and moist
look at me still talking, when there's science to do
when I look out there it makes me glad I'm not you
I've experiments to run, there is research to be done
on the people who are still alive

and believe me I am still alive
I'm doing science and I'm still alive
I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive
While you are dying I'll be still alive
and when you're dead I'll be still alive
STILL ALIVE, still alive

So, uh, yea.

Game fucking rocks. Gives me chills. Etc.

edit: While I was typing this, I got a call from someone named Freeman. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeird.

Are they ?

As far as I noticed there is no "Health Bar" in the game. When you get hit by the turrets, you need to get hit for at least a few seconds before you "die". If you get hit by a short burst it does not kill you. NO MATTER how many short bursts hit you. Non lethal ammunition ?

The fires are far and between and could be holographic, but that I can not prove. Yet.

You people are psycotic.  You dont lose life because then they would have to put life packs into the game.  If not, you would just get continously lower on life as you ran through the game, till you only had 1 point left and continously dying to grazes by turrets, making it unfun.  When turrent shoot you, BLOOD splatters all over the walls.  When you fall in the toxic goo, or you know, get smashed in between two giant piston pounder things, it makes an audible death/crunching noise.  The AI is most certainly trying to kill you.

As for the fire thing, the only thing I can suggest is the child-like core says "Do you smell something burning?" or something similar when you hold it over the incinerator.

Also, if you want to hear her grunt, you can just drop a cube on yourself.

I suppose it's *possible* that the green goo isn't lethal, but I see no evidence of manipulation devices or ability to move unconcious bodies around. They'd surely have to be there though, at the very least, to keep the place clean and dust-free.

You guys realize you can jump down into the damn incenerator yourselves, right?  There is lava down there, and you most certainly burn/die.

Oh, very much so. But it might be just very hot Kool-Aid with good lighting.

Kool-Aid, good one.

Put me in the lethal-trap camp.  Per the song that schild helpfully quoted, seems like GLaDOS has more test subjects and will continue to do Science.

"We do what we must because we can."

GLaDOS feels that because it is capable of action it is morally obligated to act.

The dangers of believing your coporate mission statement.

This is how society breaks down.  When you take something simple, make it complex, and postulate and assume until you decide that you should start posting pictures of your companion cube over everything.

Seriously, stuff on Portal is being discussed so much like this that it is spiraling something that should be a given into "BUT WHAT IF?!??!?!"  When you start asking "Is it REALLY an Incinerator?" is when I get off the bus to crazy town.

Which is why the game is so awesome, because you know that previous test subjects went through the same thought process during their spiral down into insanity.  In any other game, yeah, we would be totally over-thinking this stuff, but in Portal, it's part of the plot.

I've got to agree with you on that.  Final test = facility being destroyed.  No more test participants (at least not for the portal rat maze).  Chell learned how to use the HPD (Handheld Portal Device) efficiently enough to break free.  Now she can use it to better the world, or whatever.  Therefore, HUGE SUCCESS.

http://www.aperturelabs.com

 :-D

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... dunno if any of you have been messing around with http://www.aperturelabratories.com like me, but I just found some weird stuff.

If you type "?" before logging in, you get this message:

If this is an actual plea for help in response to a hazardous material spill, an explosion, a fire on your person, radiation poisoning, a choking gas of unknown origin, eye trauma resulting from the use of an emergency eye wash station on floors three, four, or eleven, an animal malfunction, or any other injurious experimental equipment failure, please remain at your workstation. A Crisis Response Team has already been mobilized to deliberate on a  response to your crisis.

If you need help accessing the system, please refer to your User Handbook.

Try it... crazyness.... also, if you type it after you login, you get a list of commands, which I have yet to try.

ALSO, for those of you who don't know.  There are 2 logins that I know of.

U: CJOHNSON  P: TIER3     and    U: PORTAL  P: PORTAL

Logging in as portal gets you in the system as a 'new user'.  cjohnson gets you in as ADMIN.

(I'm sure this has already been discussed in either this thread, or another... but I am discussing now, and here.)


EDIT:  It appears that ADMIN is 'not authorized to transfer system tapes'    if ADMIN isn't, then who the hell is?

EDIT2:  When typing "?" while logged in, INTERROGATE is an option which 'requires at least one parameter'.  I tried INTERROGATE CHELL and it said "ERROR 07  (Unknown Employee)"... trying more now

It has been. When you get to the end of the test.. type in thecakeisalie for your uin. BEHOLD!

wrong... you can type in 'thecakeisalie' at any point after you login and it takes you to that screen...

so that's not your UIN(+L)

if you type 'ip' while logged in, it gives you your UIN(+L) without the blinkyness.... but it doesn't work... I tried it.

I did find that if you type "play portal" it kicks you to a specific youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/browse?&session=xzHA4DJdvga8eT6RQ3l17BtmCCwB1K9gLvlJXZlhMxB6OAADwDz-fT2HiUOBoLAUXw4lJ8fMe4wxEXOinfmj8pjkEtHWIDbPtgYT9iTZh1ORpF38CoLLgAGJbdiaWE8sYFt9pEotePoZiQXWiWrlntZqVzV5oLmg9QhtyXOTXLoyMSHfEetakB_umgUKJrlfjpifXLUHI4UlLUbXzg9zAv9TyUWdLtK5al7mq-qtqul639KV3Se3NcqiGug6b6xvWP97HHY4CCcsXdVxCHUpaPvml7uKYlmg0u4nZ4OYb9k=

but, as you can see, the video has been removed by the user, whoever that was.  wonder what the movie was there... : \

at first I thought that it was just taking me to youtube because maybe i had it open in another tab, but it's not... it takes you to that link SPECIFICALLY.  if you type 'logout' it takes you to http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php

stilllll diggin!

anyone know of any other possible Aperture Labs employees? I tried chelljohnson (with and without spaces) cjohnson, cavejohnson, all the characters from HL2, except for that new guy. I can't remember his name. You know who I'm talking about... What was his name?

Barney?  Dr. Kleiner?  Dr. Breen?  Benson?

Magnussen.  (AKA Uncle Tusky.)

Adrian Shepherd.

aka

Hard Penis.

lulz, yeah it's magnusson that i was thinking of... but didn't work either... DAMN YOU VALVE....

EDIT:

btw, has anyone thought of an anagram for 'thecakeisalie' ?  i think the letters rearranged may spell something else... i believe 'take a slice' is in there, but with left over letters... maybe a name? "eli"? "alice"? "kate" or "katie"?  their website is going to drive me insane.

Eli is a name in Half-Life. Was? HAHAHAHHAHAWHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.

Alice is pretty historic.

Kate and katie don't particularly have a place in the universe.

Magnusson is a punk bitch.

Aha, ickiest eel!  I teaches alike.  Ate like chaise?  Kite each aisle.  Ah, leakiest ice.  Tea heal sickie.  Heck, liase tea!  I leaches a kite.

Yeah, I'm not seeing anything.

I was thinking more along the lines of a username, or at maybe a name of an employee.  GLaDOS had the cake stuff programmed into her.  Maybe as a guise for "thecakeisalie"'s true meaning?

EDIT:  and what's the bit about after you type thecakeisalie and it says "I did find out a few things, like these terminals don't have to tap out characters one at a time."  ??

You guys are missing the great metajoke here. The game was written by Chet and Erik from Old Man Murray. They spent their time trashing fps over reliance on a)boxes and b)jumping puzzles. They got hired by Valve, they wrote Portal... a game about boxes and jumping puzzles.

Yes, and they locked you in a room just long enough before you see a crate that it's one of the best games ever made.

No joke was missed here.

It's an amazing game. Simply amazing. Even though it's short if it doesn't win several Game of the Year type awards it'll be a travesty.

I miss Old Man Murray. They should keep doing it.

Day job. Chet still runs Portal of Evil, poe-news and poetv. Not the same thing though

It sure as fuck isn't.  I miss those days.

Anybody have a link to the sound file of that festive song that plays on the radio?  I downloaded the whole soundtrack to the game, but nobody ever has that song included with all the others.  Can't seem to find it anywhere.

I'm going to go against all grain here and throw something out. For a game to make a top 3 in my book, it needs replayability. Portal lacks this. Awesome like 4 hours, but after that...

Obviously its a great game. GlaDOS is the absolute shit. But you won't be seeing me playing it unless a friend stops by and wants to try it.

The festive song is only a 22 second loop sadly. I can post it if you'd like.

If that is ok with the mods, then sure, I would appriciate it.  Don't feel like downloading a gcf viewer and trying to screw around with it.

Linky (http://mataway.googlepages.com/looping_radio_mix.wav)

I'm with you here.  Portal is pure brilliance.  But it's focused on simplistic (but excellent) gameplay with some clever metagame commentary and immense charm for the most part.  It's a breath of fresh air, but it's still a mini-game when all is said and done.

I'd give Bioshock GoTY before I gave it to Portal.  Because Bioshock, despite it's flaws and disappointing features is still a massive experience that grips you on multiple levels, for at least the first half of the game.  It's almost like Bioshock is a massive romantic era symphony with some flaws, where Portal is a perfect charming catchy folk song.  I love Portal, but it's not on the same scope.

Thanks a ton!

Wait for the multiplayer mods and player created maps to filter in.

This Vanilla Crazy Cake is quite tasty, it's a shame you will never enjoy it.

I've played through it 5 times already.
Not to mention the challenge levels and some of the commentary.

I'm going to agree it doesn't have a whole lot of initial replay appeal.  I blew through the game pretty fast, and didn't get stuck anywhere (except for very briefly in 1 room on test 18), so theres not much reason for me to go back and try again.  Advanced levels were pretty cool though.  Anyways, I feel that it will have alot of replay appeal when lots of custom maps start getting released.  It seems like the sort of game that would be easy for a creative person to sit down and create several fun and challenging levels.  That should keep me playing it for awhile, even though it isn't appart of the main "story" part of the game.  God only knows what sorts of mods people will think of for it as well (I consider mods for a game as still replaying it.  One of the reasons I felt Halflife deserved getting more GOTY awards than any other game ever).

The advanced levels really should have had extra GLaDOS dialogue in them.  Stuff that gave out more hints about what was happening in the story line.  (heck, they should have given you the option to do the game on an "advanced" difficulty, where all the levels were "advanced" with extra dialogue thrown in key places.

Since the first 14 levels were basically progressive training for the other levels, with some awesome GlaDOS narration, did you play them again just for 'her'? :)

I am no longer part of the problem.

That game was a whole barrel of fun.

If not GoTY, that has to be the best character of the year.

(I've been trying to think of who she reminds me of, and it's stupidly obvious: HAL9000.)

Not SHODAN?

Ahh.  I never played System Shock.

Don't taze me, and all that.

Both were very unfunny, but SHODAN does taunt you the whole time, sort of like a well-done Andrew Ryan... did you play Bioshock?

The only single player games that have had immeadiate replay appeal for me in the last 15 years have been Total War games, and MOO2.

I suspect this is because over that period I've never run out of other-games-I-want-to-play within the limited time I have to play them.


Portal qualifies as 'less replay appeal than Total War or MOO2', but that's not really something to lose sleep over.

I challenge all comers to think of a first person perspective, single player game that does have immeadiate replay appeal.

Bioshock is classified under 'man, if I only had time to finish' games. 

I'm still coming out of a multiple-year MMO slump that ate up a lot of my time and patience.

I played Vampire:Bloodlines through 7 times.  (Okay, it alternates between first-person and third-person depending on what weapon you're using, but it's still basically an FPS, right?)  I think I played Max Payne 5 times (again, over-the-shoulder, but just barely).

I'd rank Portal up there with both of those.  I haven't played through it 7 times yet, but I have spent a good chunk of time on the bonus maps, and I do plan on playing through the main game a couple more times at least (once to try to get that camera achievement and to see if I missed any of GLaD's dialogue the first time around, and once again with the developer commentary on).

I played through Vampire five times because the game changed quite a bit depending on which race you chose. Bioshock on the other hand I deleted moments after finishing. I play the Half-Life games a couple times each, but that is because I enjoy trying to figure out all I can about the storyline. I think I've played through Portal three times now( once with commentary ), as well as doing all of the challenges. It's not quite Vampire levels of replayability, but it's not too shabby.