Portal 2 ... YAY YAY

[kildorn]

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=5325&p=1

All of us here on the TF2 team have been asking to play Portal 2 for months now.

"Go away," the Portal guys told us. "You'll just try to put hats in it."

"Whaaattttt?" we said. "That's—psshhhh. If anything, we'll probably tell you to take some hats out of the game."

"There are no hats in the game."

After this, there was an awkward ten-minute silence while all of on the TF2 team stared at the Portal guys, waiting for them to start laughing. Instead, they just told us to go away again. That's when we realized: with so little time left before release, we couldn't afford to waste any time playing the game. We had to fix it. Now. So late last night we snuck into the Portal 2 source code and copy/pasted some hats into it.

You're welcome, Portal 2 team.

I at least got a laugh.

[Sjofn]

If you've been on the fence up until now—and who could blame you—you've finally got a reason to buy Portal 2. Courtesy of Team Fortress 2. The best game that Valve makes with a "2" on the end.

I totally cackled. I love every single person who writes anything at all for Valve.

[Fabricated]

I played through 2 sections of the multiplayer coop just now with one of my best friends and it was fucking great. It took us like 5 minutes of feedback before we figured out that it hotmics you by default. Bad valve!

Edit: Also, this still isn't $50 worth of game if you ask me.

[Jeff Kelly]

The game is fun, it's not significantly longer than the original portal though. At least if you subtract the cutscenes. It's good value if you happen to grab a discounted copy at a steam sale but recommended retail price is Eur 50 for the PC/Mac version and Eur 70 for the PS3 or XBox 360 version which is utterly ridiculous. (That's $70/$100 at the current conversion rate)

[K9]

The game is fun

Definitely.

it's not significantly longer than the original portal though. At least if you subtract the cutscenes

Eh? Just on test chambers alone it is probably three times as long. My playthrough has taken over six hours, the first portal was about 1.5. Portal 2 felt a LOT longer than the original.

Anyway, definitely buy this game, it is fantastic.

[Falconeer]

Just a short note to express my opinion. I love Portal 2, it's awesome, amazing, fantastic, great, technically and artistically outstanding.
It IS, overall, a better game than the first Portal.

BUT


(***PLOT SPOILERS***)

[Nightblade]

(***PLOT SPOILERS***)

[K9]

[Sjofn]

[Quinton]

I enjoyed the ride.

[kildorn]

Overall: awesome game. I can't wait to try out coop.

[K9]

  

[kildorn]

[K9]

[cironian]

[Ingmar]

The game is fun

Definitely.

it's not significantly longer than the original portal though. At least if you subtract the cutscenes

Eh? Just on test chambers alone it is probably three times as long. My playthrough has taken over six hours, the first portal was about 1.5. Portal 2 felt a LOT longer than the original.

Anyway, definitely buy this game, it is fantastic.

Yeah agreed, significantly longer. Still not "long" in an overall sense, but a lot longer than Portal 1, which took all of 2 hours-ish.

[Rasix]

If you're horrible at puzzle games and fps games, it takes significantly longer. 

[Sjofn]

Honestly the single player got mighty close to "too long" because I suck at pacing myself. Unless the game makes me car sick, which it did, so I didn't play it in one sitting  It's not that I wanted the game to be over, but since it was really clear where the game was heading to its conclusion, I wanted it to stop stalling.

[Abelian75]

Honestly the single player got mighty close to "too long" because I suck at pacing myself. Unless the game makes me car sick, which it did, so I didn't play it in one sitting   It's not that I wanted the game to be over, but since it was really clear where the game was heading to its conclusion, I wanted it to stop stalling.

I agree.  Well, I think.  I don't think it's too long, but I definitely think it's appropriate, and more towards the too long side of appropriate than the too short side.  I haven't actually finished it, but I am very, very close (I'm talking single player only here).  I'm at 7 hours... I don't really understand how that's all that short, tbh.  If it was twice as long or something (which it seems like some of the yelling people seem to be wanting) it would be preposterous and bloated, imho.  More really isn't universally better.  Obviously it's awesome when games last for a really long time, but I just don't think gameplay like this would work for a 40 hour epic or something like that.

(And it's absolutely fantastic, imho)

[Sjofn]

Yeah, we're basically in agreement. Basically if the game had gone on much longer, I think it would've just been pointless padding and annoyed me. This is all single player related, mind you, I haven't played multiplayer yet. I'm letting Ingmar emotionally prepare himself for it first. 

(I am not very good at jumping, you see. And by "not very good" I mean "comically awful.")

[Quinton]

Honestly the single player got mighty close to "too long" because I suck at pacing myself. Unless the game makes me car sick, which it did, so I didn't play it in one sitting   It's not that I wanted the game to be over, but since it was really clear where the game was heading to its conclusion, I wanted it to stop stalling.

Based on skimming the achievements there were some other fun things I managed to miss even though I was very intentionally trying not to rush ahead needlessly and enjoy all the environments and dialogue.

Guess I'll have to play through again!

Various things that I really enjoyed:

[Sjofn]

Honestly the single player got mighty close to "too long" because I suck at pacing myself. Unless the game makes me car sick, which it did, so I didn't play it in one sitting   It's not that I wanted the game to be over, but since it was really clear where the game was heading to its conclusion, I wanted it to stop stalling.

Also, I have decided my favorite moment was:

[Kail]

 I'm at 7 hours... I don't really understand how that's all that short, tbh.  If it was twice as long or something (which it seems like some of the yelling people seem to be wanting) it would be preposterous and bloated, imho.  More really isn't universally better.  Obviously it's awesome when games last for a really long time, but I just don't think gameplay like this would work for a 40 hour epic or something like that.

For me, it's not so much "Portal 2 needs to be fifteen-twenty hours" so much as "a $50 game needs to be fifteen-twenty hours."  The original Portal came in as an extra on the Orange Box, which also included Half Life 2, HL2 Ep.1 and Ep. 2, and Team Fortress 2 for basically the same price as Portal 2 by itself.  One of the concerns I had when P2 was announced was that they would feel the need to add hours of padding to lengthen the play time.  I'm glad they didn't, but I still think the game looks overpriced.  I'll likely grab it if it goes on sale for $10 or $15, but $50 is too much for a game I'd plow through in a day or two.

[Fordel]

Maybe we are all just spoiled at how much value the Orange Box actually was.

[Ingmar]

 I'm at 7 hours... I don't really understand how that's all that short, tbh.  If it was twice as long or something (which it seems like some of the yelling people seem to be wanting) it would be preposterous and bloated, imho.  More really isn't universally better.  Obviously it's awesome when games last for a really long time, but I just don't think gameplay like this would work for a 40 hour epic or something like that.

For me, it's not so much "Portal 2 needs to be fifteen-twenty hours" so much as "a $50 game needs to be fifteen-twenty hours."  The original Portal came in as an extra on the Orange Box, which also included Half Life 2, HL2 Ep.1 and Ep. 2, and Team Fortress 2 for basically the same price as Portal 2 by itself.  One of the concerns I had when P2 was announced was that they would feel the need to add hours of padding to lengthen the play time.  I'm glad they didn't, but I still think the game looks overpriced.  I'll likely grab it if it goes on sale for $10 or $15, but $50 is too much for a game I'd plow through in a day or two.

It might be close to 15 with the co-op. Not sure how much of it there is. It also *seems* like it is set up such that they can add more coop levels later, but we'll see I guess.

[Samwise]

Maybe we are all just spoiled at how much value the Orange Box actually was.

This.

[Quinton]

I feel that the original Portal was easily worth $40-50 to me, game experience wise.

I never finished HL2 and didn't play much TF2.  Portal, I adored.

[Samwise]

Okay, just finished.

[Abelian75]

In unrelated non-spoiler stuff...

For me, it's not so much "Portal 2 needs to be fifteen-twenty hours" so much as "a $50 game needs to be fifteen-twenty hours."  The original Portal came in as an extra on the Orange Box, which also included Half Life 2, HL2 Ep.1 and Ep. 2, and Team Fortress 2 for basically the same price as Portal 2 by itself.  One of the concerns I had when P2 was announced was that they would feel the need to add hours of padding to lengthen the play time.  I'm glad they didn't, but I still think the game looks overpriced.  I'll likely grab it if it goes on sale for $10 or $15, but $50 is too much for a game I'd plow through in a day or two.

That's fair, and quite reasonable.  I guess I think the complaint "It shouldn't cost 50 bucks" makes a lot more sense than "It should be longer."  I have no issue with the cost myself, but I have a huge game budget and I understand I am not the norm.  And obviously people are entitled to value entertainment however they want.  I definitely understand someone buying a game that will last 100 hours rather than 8 if they can only afford one of them, obviously.  I guess I'm just confused by the outrage about a game that costs 50 dollars lasting 8 hours single-player, since it doesn't strike me as an unusually low playtime for a game these days, and feels completely appropriate to the game itself.  Someone just plain preferring to buy a really long-lasting game instead of a shorter one is a totally different story, of course, I was more speaking of the "OMG VALVE HOW CAN U BE SO GREEDY" outrage that sort of exploded out of the ether on launch day.

[Comstar]

That...that was a very good game.

At the end...
I do think Still Alive is a better song though, maybe I need to get used to the new one.

[Sjofn]

I liked both songs, I'm not sure I could pick between the two. Still Alive had the unexpected treat factor that the new song doesn't have, so I have a hard time being objective.


PS: Ingmar Co-op Deathcount: 1, Sjofn Co-op Deathcount: 0

UPDATES AS EVENTS WARRANT

[Rendakor]

Regarding cost, I don't mind the price tag; I paid $55 and got it for PS3, which came with a free PC copy. I bought the Orange Box exclusively for Portal; never played Half Life 2, and only played a round or two of TF2, but never felt ripped off.

[rattran]

I enjoyed it, even with the 20 hour pause in the middle caused by my psu exploding. I did like the building in the salt mines being built from the bottom up, thought it gave a nice experience.

[schild]

[Ironwood]

That sounds made up.