Anyway this cake is great. It's so delicious and moist.

[Soln]

This-just-rocks.  Amazing game.  Haven't had as prolonged and involved gaming with a title in a long, long while.  It's the only game I can very honestly remember where every-single-level was an intellectual exercise first, and physical skill challenge the second.  Actually, the first 10 or so levels are all just intellectuals challenges IMO.  Good review.  Wave the flag.

[DraconianOne]

Spoilers forthcoming - get over it!

I get the impression that Cave Johnson died in 1979 from reading ApertureScience.com so I think the link to Chell being his daughter (even cloned) is spurious at best. 

The AI mentioned could be Chell though although it doesn't read like that and doesn't even read that ambiguously. 

re: timeline.  Several years after 1996, the AI is activated on Bring Your Daughter To Work Day.  Black Mesa is still considered a competitor so it can't be post HL1 which is around 2001 or later (from the manual - Gordon Freeman still in MIT in 2000/2001.)  Time Portal is set is either then or possibly sometime after the Combine invasion - GLaDos says "Things have changed since you last left the building. Whats going on out there is going to make you wish you were back in here. I have an infinite capacity for knowledge, and even I'm not sure what's going on outside."

As for Chell: human or non-human?  Either clone or android.  So far, no evidence of clones in the HL world but that doesn't mean it's not possible.  GLaDos does refer to her as an android at one point, either by mistake or design.  Also, the achievement you get for euthanising the WCC is called Fratricide - an odd choice of words: the WCC is a "brother" of Chell?  Chell breaks GLaDos' heart?  How come?  Like a daughter might break a mother's heart? 

Or, alternatively, it's more straightforward than that: Chell is a former employee of Aperture Science ("things have changed since you last left the building") and there have been other test subjects before her who are initially locked in the relaxation vault and then submitted to the test as well.  Hence the hidden email on ApertureScience.com asking why no-one's been allowed to go home and how come they've built the Enrichment Centre.

I also concur about "Out Of This World" except here we called it "Another World".  Fantastic game, fantastic story. 

[Azazel]

While you say it's the best set of games to come in a box ever, and I agree... I'd have to say "This is what I expect out of games"
Companies like EA are going out and releasing 1 engine with 3 different games using it, with 12 maps each and selling them all separately for $59.99 is a thing of the past. If they want sales they are going to have to start doing shit like this.

With all due respect:

hahahahahahhahaahhahhahahahahahhahaahahahhahhahahhahhaahaa

you really think so?   

[Merusk]

One of my favorite games evar is Eric Chahi's "Out of the World".

The controls are very simple, and the player has a small set of simple tools (all of them activated by either tapping or holding down a single button) which can be used in a variety of ways. The game is about learning the use of those tools by dying a lot. It only takes four or five hours to get through it the first time and it can be replayed in two or so.

Four or Five hours?  Fuck, my friend and I spent that long the first night just trying to figure the game out, up to and out of the cage where you meet your buddy.  Goddamn panther was a pain in the ass, we kept missing the fucking vine.

[Yegolev]

Having recently finished HL2E2, I read this.  This is what I think.  Chell is not a clone.  Chell is Alyx's sister or cousin or something.  Well, could be that Alyx is a clone or Chell is a clone, but I just don't get that feeling.  My guts tell me the relaxation centers are where employees were put after GLaDOS took over.  I'm also just going on a gut feeling with the Alyx-Chell connection since they do look alike and the G-Man is linked to Aperture and Alyx.  I might have heard it wrong but I think Alyx is not Benson's daughter...?  Need to replay HL2E2, and I will because that lawn gnome is going into fucking space.

I think at this point they could go anywhere with the story.  I'd rather not see Gordon get the portal gun simply because I'd like to see Chell star in a game... too bad both are mutes.  Also Gordon doesn't have the leg braces.

EDIT: I'm also considering the notion that Alyx is a descendant of Chell, depending on timeline.

[Hoax]

Having never played HL2E2 I have no idea what you are talking about, I did enjoy beating Peggle and Portal was pretty damn cool.  The first time I use the fire a portal to fall into while falling to slingshot over shit method was a big grin-in-gaming moment.  I still need to beat it though...

I like the area I saw with the "the cake is a lie" line written over and over, that made me laugh.

[Velorath]

Probably linked to elsewhere, but Aperture Science has a Holiday greeting card up.

[HaemishM]

Or, alternatively, it's more straightforward than that: Chell is a former employee of Aperture Science ("things have changed since you last left the building") and there have been other test subjects before her who are initially locked in the relaxation vault and then submitted to the test as well.  Hence the hidden email on ApertureScience.com asking why no-one's been allowed to go home and how come they've built the Enrichment Centre.

NECRO!!!

I've finally gotten into the midst of HL2Ep2 and after having played Portal, I think this is the most likely scenario.

Also, I got the impression Chell (or whoever your character in Portal is) was killed at the end of Portal. So unless she IS a clone, she won't be back. GLaDOS on the other hand...

[Hoax]

Btw if you haven't seen the fucking awesome Portal shirts (GLaDOS, Cake and the Companion Cube are featured) you should check them out.  I'd link but I saw them on Steam so I dunno.  I really want the cake shirt very badly.

[bhodi]

Here is your link.

[Murgos]

Here is your link.

You rock.

I just ordered a couple of the Aperture Science coffee mugs.  Everyone here has some kind of mug with a logo on it, JPL or NASA or whatever (bunch a fuckin nerds, blah, blah blah, I wrote the flight code for the shuttle main engine controller, blah blah blah, like anyone cares) so these will fly right under the radar to 95% of them but a couple will get it.

I'll be able to out the gamers at meetings as I see the looks of recognition on their faces.  If I'm lucky I'll get a spit take.

[HaemishM]

The Head Crab hat is 

[Slyfeind]

YAY someone necro'd this thread. I haven't played Portal; I thought it was just this thing, and didn't know it was set in the HL2 universe. I might have to check it out after all.

I got Orange Box too, just a few weeks ago. Knowing nothing about HL2, and hating it for about half the game. Yeah, I freakin' hated it. I kept playing though, because everybody told me I had to. And I hated it all the way through. The difficulty level was just all over the place, I couldn't find the fun, and I thought it was sloppy, lazy game design. Clearly millions of gamers across the world were insane for liking it.

Then I got an army of antlions that responds to my squeezy-toy, and holy crap I loved it. I think the whole theme can be summed up with the go-cart in the tunnel. You ride through the sludge, the radioactive goop, and there's corpses everywhere, and one false step could mean your death. Then you emerge from that tunnel, into the light, and...it's quiet, and open, and there's no sludge, no death, and no oppression for miles and miles and miles. Woah.

Episode 1 was a failure? Too bad. It was interesting to see the world backwards, starting in the citadel and ending in the city. I want a head crab hat. They're sold out though. >_< Want Ep 3 now plz.

[Murgos]

YAY someone necro'd this thread. I haven't played Portal; I thought it was just this thing, and didn't know it was set in the HL2 universe. I might have to check it out after all.

You're missing out on one of the most intelligently crafted games in recent memory.

[HaemishM]

YAY someone necro'd this thread. I haven't played Portal; I thought it was just this thing, and didn't know it was set in the HL2 universe. I might have to check it out after all.

What Murgos said is correct. Not playing Portal when you have the opportunity is just depriving yourself of one of the best games ever created.

I got Orange Box too, just a few weeks ago. Knowing nothing about HL2, and hating it for about half the game. Yeah, I freakin' hated it. I kept playing though, because everybody told me I had to. And I hated it all the way through. The difficulty level was just all over the place, I couldn't find the fun, and I thought it was sloppy, lazy game design. Clearly millions of gamers across the world were insane for liking it.

Having finished all 3 of the HL2 games, I can safely say that the minute to minute shooting gameplay isn't really spectacular. Most of the normal weapons aren't great, you are always struggling to find ammo for the best guns, and other shooter franchises do the shooty bits much smoother/better. HL2 is one of those games where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The buggy rides are annoying (though much better in EP2 than in the original), and especially in the first HL2, there are way too many connected hallways with little to nothing in them. But combined with the story, the scripted events and things like the gravity gun and physics puzzles add up to one of the best shooter movie type games on the market.

Episode 1 was a failure?

I don't think it was a failure so much as it felt like retreading ground from HL2 with some interesting story bits thrown in there, and no real G-Man presence. It's brevity was actually a plus, because I could see some thinking there just wasn't enough story in there, and throwing mounds of enemies at the player would just feel like padding. Ep2 made up for that.