Portal 2 ... YAY YAY

[Trippy]

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.

Huh, interesting. The Borg is trying to expand their reach into PSN now.

[schild]

The arg is pretty amazing.

[Pringles]

Here is info about Steam on the PS3 and the free PC key:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5477-WPJM-9388

[apocrypha]

Here is info about Steam on the PS3 and the free PC key:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5477-WPJM-9388

Awesome. Was going to wait til this was out and see if people thought PC version (controls etc) was better than PS3, but no need now. PS3 copy pre-ordered.

Talking about this yesterday made my GF find the cake song on YouTube. I know have it stuck in my head. Again. 

[KallDrexx]

I really am interested on seeing how they handle game updates.  Figuring they (at least used to) updated TF2 on an extremely frequent basis, it will be much harder to keep the PC and PS3 updates in sync due to the certification processes it has to go through.

[Nonentity]

I really am interested on seeing how they handle game updates.  Figuring they (at least used to) updated TF2 on an extremely frequent basis, it will be much harder to keep the PC and PS3 updates in sync due to the certification processes it has to go through.

Pretty sure that part of Gabe Newell's whole coming onto the stage at Sony's press conference was to confirm that Sony is basically handing Valve the keys as far as how frequently they want to update. I'm sure there's some sort of a cert process, but I don't think it will be nearly as restrictive, with how much it was talked up.

[Pringles]

I really am interested on seeing how they handle game updates.  Figuring they (at least used to) updated TF2 on an extremely frequent basis, it will be much harder to keep the PC and PS3 updates in sync due to the certification processes it has to go through.

Sid, PSB: Given the Steamworks functionality, will the PS3 version be getting the same updates at the same time as the PC and Mac versions?

Joshua, Valve: It’s our goal that, as we update the PC or PS3 version, we keep them all in lockstep. Especially because we have co-op gameplay between both platforms. Not all of the PC updates we do will matter for the PS3 - there might be a videocard-specific update on the PC, or a PS3-specific tweak. But as far as content goes, we want to keep them in lockstep.

From:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/14/portal-2-pretty-much-every-ps3-question-answered-and-that-cake-thing-too/

[K9]

You have done well humans

 

[Yegolev]

The arg is pretty amazing.

^^^

[Surlyboi]

You have done well humans

 

Get that final puzzle done and apparently, they unlock the game early on Steam.

[Yegolev]

Won't help me if I'm getting the PS3 version.

[tmp]

You have done well humans

 

Counter is done.

http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/

needs people to play these games now apparently, the more the faster it unlocks i'd guess.

[K9]

Ah well.

Portal 2 could come early, but only if people play indie games from the Potato Pack

[Yoru]

You have done well humans

 

Counter is done.

http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/

needs people to play these games now apparently, the more the faster it unlocks i'd guess.

A huge marketing stunt. Well played, Valve, well played. They're going to make a goddamn mint off this.

[tmp]

On side note, the very idea of glados@home is... 

[K9]

Genius

[Nonentity]

This is an absolutely incredible amount of support from Valve for these indie games. Good thing I own most of these games anyways.

[Quinton]

I fear glados@home.

Play some indie games, people!  I have to work today, but it'd be nice to have portal2 for the weekend ^^

If not, I'm going to have to schedule some vacation time next week.

[kildorn]

The steam folks need to be arrested for being marketing evil masterminds. Christ.

[TripleDES]

I predict that this won't have any significant impact on the release date. If you're lucky, you might get 24 hours out of it. Because I'm sure the publishers are going to be fucking excited, if it's suddenly available several days earlier to everyone and their dog.

[NiX]

How is that CPU determined? Does their have to be X concurrent users playing or just have been played?

[TripleDES]

No one knows. That's why I think it's certainly orchestrated bullshit, without player influence.

[kildorn]

Well it's obviously not actual CPU based (because uh, we'd just fake the SHIT out of that in minutes), but it would be trivial to base it off time played in the last hour. It's not like they don't collect it.

[TripleDES]

I like how Killing Floor has the most players and its bar budged the least. As I said, fucking bullshit.

[K9]

There's spectulation that the bar's progress is relative to the total number of copies of each game steam has sold. So if Killing Floor has ten times as many installs as another game, it needs ten times as much playthrough. The people who are keen about this are trying to get people to play through one game at a time.

There isn't really enough time to reduce the game's release by much anyway. Even if they manage to jump through valve's hoops, at best it'll be a Monday rather than a Tuesday release.

[Minvaren]

I fired up Audiosurf after refreshing the counter page a few times with no changes.  Audiosurf's opening screen showed the counter page - time down by about 3 seconds, 311 more "aux power" at the bottom.  

Refreshed the web browser and the stats changed to match Audiosurf's.   Seems like it's going to take quite a bit to speed it up significantly, but maybe just firing up the games you have at least once will help some.

(and now GlaDos has just redirected me in Audiosurf to a song from the Portal soundtrack, I think, with some Portal-based graphics...  Wowsers.)

[tmp]

I like how Killing Floor has the most players and its bar budged the least. As I said, fucking bullshit.

quoting a quote from RPS:

“Remember the Potato Sack? GlaDOS is apparently drawing “power” from
computers playing games in the potato sack. For every collective 48 hours
for one particular game, that game’s “power bar” goes up by 1%. And Steam
needs to record you actually playing the game – just leaving something
idling in the background does not contribute.

The potatoes we all frantically collected can still be collected – in
fact, you are a major contributor if you even collect one potato in one
game. Potatoes multiply that game’s particular power, so if, say, you
gathered 5 potatoes in Audiosurf and one in Bit.TRIP BEAT, you’d be
multiplying EVERYONE’s efforts in Audiosurf by 6x and BIT.TRIP BEAT by 2x.

Some people seem to think that launching multiple games is a good idea.
This is in fact, not helping at all, because Steam only records keyboard
activity in games launched through Steam, not through external launching.”

so if that's true, the amount of people logged in is only one of the factors.

[Simond]

Hey GlaDOS, if I wanted your 'advice' on tower placement I'd ask you. Me and General Raspberries are doing just fine, thanks.  

[ffc]

GlaDOS drawing power from a bunch of potatoes is awesome. For science!

[Sjofn]

(and now GlaDos has just redirected me in Audiosurf to a song from the Portal soundtrack, I think, with some Portal-based graphics...  Wowsers.)

Hey GlaDOS, if I wanted your 'advice' on tower placement I'd ask you. Me and General Raspberries are doing just fine, thanks.  

That's pretty awesome.

[K9]

Looking at the GLaDoS@home site I see people has made progress, but it hasn't really done much to lower the launch timer. Given that there isn't enough time to significantly reduce the launch date, perhaps the end of the ARG isn't the release of Portal 2, but the announcement of HL2 Ep3? From reading the wiki there have been leads which seem to hint at Black Mesa, the Borealis and that storyline, although maybe that is just wishful thinking.

[MuffinMan]

The banner at the top of Steam says "Help release Portal 2 earlier!" So I'm pretty sure it's to try and release Portal 2 early.

[Malakili]

The banner at the top of Steam says "Help release Portal 2 earlier!" So I'm pretty sure it's to try and release Portal 2 early.

Hey you, listen up, this is Half Life were talking about, conspiracy theories about game releases are totally acceptable!

[TripleDES]

Filling up WEOTW's bar shaved a   FULL 50 MINUTES off the launch countdown!

 

[MuffinMan]

Well, I'm off Tuesday so I'll be happy with however much time we can shave off the unlock time. If it can get down to 5PM Monday it would be just perfect.