Portal 2 ... YAY YAY

[Sky]

I'm a lover, not a fighter.

That's why you play a tank!  You're trying to shield mobs from those horrible dps-ers.

You've got to be very careful around Sjofn's AE spells. I hear she's... indiscriminate. There's always a sign for new henchmen at the local guildhall.

[ffc]

Fantastic Gameplay clip.

[K9]

Steven Merchant is an inspired choice as a voice actor.

[Prospero]

Also JK Simmons.   

[UnSub]

I'm not looking at those links because Portal worked best as a short-and-sweet-surprise. Hopefully Valve is trying to wrongfoot fans with some of that material, but honestly, I'd prefer to see it fresh.

[Pringles]

The PS3 version is $54.99 with $20 credit on Amazon right now

(which comes with the PC version   and works out cheaper than just the PC version on steam)

[Jobu]

So driving around town doing normal weekend errands and stuff, every single city bus I saw had one of those full-coverage ads for Portal 2. And I saw three different billboards of the same. Pretty impressive marketing blitz, I gotta say. I almost never see advertising of that scale or type for games, except when I happen to be in LA maybe.

[Strazos]

Left4Dead had a pretty impressive media blitz.

[Hawkbit]

The buses in Seattle were covered in them last week too, thought that was pretty cool.

[stu]

Same here in Miami. Pretty cool to see them around.

[Sir Fodder]

I'm one of those trying to avoid spoilery stuff- trying not to look getting tough with the blitz; whoops popup ad: was that a robot jumping across a chasm while cradling its detached head in its arms? oh kool... dammit. Still though, am skeptical, concerned that the production will be overwrought, a lot of the charm of the original seemed to have a very spontaneous quality, can be hard to recapture/replicate that stuff. I hope P2 is less whimsy/humor/coulton and more mysterious niches/darkness/huge surprises.

[Prospero]

So apparently the Valve indie game sale that came out last week is actually an ARG for Portal 2. There's a wiki that is cataloging what the 13 different games are doing here.

[Strazos]

Some people have far too much time on their hands. 

[Ratman_tf]

The non-combat puzzle game was quirky and fun.  But if you were to say that it never occurred to you how fucking awesome it would be to kill shit with the Portal gun I'd have to call you on it.

I wouldn't mind seeing a PvP mode in P2 (in addition to the SP and CO-OP) where you get a portal gun and try to dunk the other player(s) into spikes or acid or whatever.

[KallDrexx]

Aperture Investment Opportunity #1: "Panels"
Aperture Investment Opportunity #2: "Bot Trust"
Aperture Investment Opportunity #3: "Turrets"
 

[K9]

 

[caladein]

Last one's out: Aperture Investment Opportunity #4: "Boots".

Extra bonus points for the Mirror's Edge reference.

[K9]

I am so very ready for this right now

[tmp]

"That's 65% more bullet per bullet."

Extra bonus points for the Mirror's Edge reference.

Where, where?

[Strazos]

The crazy moves Chell was doing.

[tmp]

Ah, thought they're just showing off animation upgrades and the redesign for the sequel while at it.

i all the details they put in these blueprints.

Note: the sudden absence of a steady whirring sound may indicate a Miniature Black Hole Cooling Fan Battery failure. Quickly disassemble the Ring Singularity Harness, pry apart the upper and lower Ring Singularity Rings, and gently remove the Event Horizon Estimation Wheel. Then, while running directly away from the device, use the Wheel to precisely determine an estimated minimum safe stopping distance.

[caladein]

The crazy moves Chell was doing.

Well, more the hands flailing around when she falls right at the beginning (~20s in).  The stuff with Chell in third person was just cool .

[Surlyboi]

"So anyway, we're between banks right now, so just make those checks out, 'to cash'" 

I need to finish DA2 before Tuesday.

[Kageru]

Those videos are amazing. Stylish, well paced and written, awesome tech but it's not shoved into your face, humor that actually works and geeky as all hell.

  Valve.

[Ironwood]

My daughter has taken to signing off 'I'm Cave Johnstone, we're done here.'  No Joke.  It's both cute and a horrendous example of the insidious nature of viral marketing.

J Jonah Jameson.

[caladein]

Pre-loading is up.

[K9]

Seems liek we missed this, but Valve are running something fucking cool to coincide with the release. They have built a massive ARG that involves extra content hidden within a set of 13 indie games which they released as a pack on april 1st. There seems to be a lot of speculation going on and by the looks of things GLaDoS has taken over part of the steam forums.

Thread on the steam forums
Thread on reddit

This does nothing to minimise my excitement; I'm not sure how seriously I buy the idea that they will release early, but looking at the scope of what they set up, who the fuck knows what Valve has planned?

 

[MuffinMan]

Hmm I remember it being mentioned here but I don't remember in exactly what thread. It could be my precog powers manifesting, though.

[K9]

Here's a link to the Valve ARG Wiki

A lot of folks seem to be speculating that the ARG will lead to Portal 2 being released on the 15th. They also seem to suspect that the announcements from Aperture Science will be matched by a rival announcement from Black Mesa (i.e. HL EP3). So much speculation, and these ARGs always produce a lot more noise than signal. It is all very cool though, and I can only imagine how fun it must be coming up with one of these.

Also, it seems that the main folks who were driving the ARG forward have been kidnapped by GLaDoS, but they are ok, in a safe environment.

[Chimpy]

Interesting article on Ars about the PS3 version being the way to go if you own a PS3 (and according to comments, Amazon is giving a 20 dollar gift card with it free too) because you can play with all your friends on Mac/PC versions through steam, and you get to download the PC/Mac version free if you bought the PS3 version.

[Sjofn]

Hmm I remember it being mentioned here but I don't remember in exactly what thread. It could be my precog powers manifesting, though.

So apparently the Valve indie game sale that came out last week is actually an ARG for Portal 2. There's a wiki that is cataloging what the 13 different games are doing here.

It was mentioned like ... 14 posts before K9.

Why don't you listen to Prospero?!

 

[K9]

Whoops, I admit, I had missed that somehow. Sorry.

I'm just overexcited.

[Sjofn]

It's alright, K9, your squee is part of your charm!  

I did think it odd that he mentioned that and like ... no one said anything besides Strazos. I didn't say anything because ARGs give me a headache, so I never have anything useful to say about them beyond "it is neat they are doing that" and "Man, nerds are scary when they are fully mobilized behind a problem."

[MuffinMan]

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.

[Sjofn]

Aw, it was posted over a week ago, who reads that far up the page? No one. No one except me.