Portal 2 ... YAY YAY

[caladein]

In terms of outdoor advertising (billboards/bus liveries/supergraphics) for games, the big blitzes seem to be for Valve and Rockstar titles.  L4D2 had a big one, anything GTA has a big one, and I'd be shocked if L.A. Noire doesn't already have a massive tarp over Hotel Figueroa.

[UnSub]

Outdoor (i.e. billboards, buses, etc) is comparatively cheap advertising. Plus Portal is a major Valve IP and they've got plenty of money to spend, so it makes sense.

[Sjofn]

Playing co-op with my sister was a definite bonding experience. We both delight in watching the other careen to their death due to their own stupidity. We don't even have to try to murder each other!

[Quinton]

I need to finish up chapter 4 and 5 of co-op.  First three were a blast.

"They say that the old caretaker of this place went absolutely crazy.  Chopped up his entire staff... of robots.  All of them, robots.  They say at night you can still hear the screams... of their replicas.  All of them functionally indistinguishable from the originals.  No memory of the incident.  Nobody knows what they're screaming about.  Absolutely terrifying.  Though obviously not paranormal, in any meaningful way."

[Wasted]

"They say that the old caretaker of this place went absolutely crazy.  Chopped up his entire staff... of robots.  All of them, robots.  They say at night you can still hear the screams... of their replicas.  All of them functionally indistinguishable from the originals.  No memory of the incident.  Nobody knows what they're screaming about.  Absolutely terrifying.  Though obviously not paranormal, in any meaningful way."

I love it later when GLaDOS says she's going to put Wheatley in the Room with the screaming robots for 10 years before she'll kill him.

[Morfiend]

Finished it. Took about 5 hours. Exceptional game. Better than the first. Snagged the title of best puzzle/platformer ever from the cold dead hands of Portal 1.

I thought you where being a little enthusiastic with this comment. But no. I just finished it. Fucking fantastic game. I totally agree.

I wasnt rushing, and I would stop and look around and listen to a bunch of the dialog, took me 7.3 hours to finish single player. I plan to do some multiplayer this week.

[Quinton]

Just finished multiplayer.

We saved Science!

How cool is that?

[K9]

Neat

[Simond]

Random, HL2-plot-related thought. Judging from the level where we find the

[Tarami]

Just finished multiplayer.

We saved Science!

How cool is that?

How long did it take you? I'm playing through it with a friend currently and am wondering if we should pace ourselves.

[NiX]

How long did it take you? I'm playing through it with a friend currently and am wondering if we should pace ourselves.

Took Strazos and me about 5 hours.

[Strazos]

And that was late at night so my thought processes were starting to go.

[Tarami]

Unless course 5 is really hard, this isn't going to take five...

My major complaint with Portal 2, really: it's far too easy. There are a few kinda tricky ones at the end of the single player, but the co-op... have you played the single player first, it's basically a snorefest. They shouldn't have taught the techniques all over again, it's a horrendous waste of content in my opinion.

[Strazos]

I was saying the same to Nix - we need some challenge maps or something.

Anyone know if/when the SDK is getting released?

[Trippy]

Unless course 5 is really hard, this isn't going to take five...

My major complaint with Portal 2, really: it's far too easy. There are a few kinda tricky ones at the end of the single player, but the co-op... have you played the single player first, it's basically a snorefest. They shouldn't have taught the techniques all over again, it's a horrendous waste of content in my opinion.

Some people are playing co-op first, though, so that's kind of a problem for them if you don't ease them into things.

[Simond]

Unless course 5 is really hard, this isn't going to take five...

My major complaint with Portal 2, really: it's far too easy.

Counterpoint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hYOi-DfqlU#t=7m00s

 

E: More on the "Maybe Cave Johnson has a point" thing - http://www.thinkwithportals.com/comic/#14
Look at the wall and the table in the big panel of the flashback part of the comic.

[Tarami]

Some people are playing co-op first, though, so that's kind of a problem for them if you don't ease them into things.

Yeah, I get that - I still think it's a waste. The single player campaign is the main attraction. The coop is really a sideshow, requiring you to play the single player first (or be able to learn really fast) isn't too much of a stretch, is it? By not "tiering" the content at all you're basically making a lot of it redundant because regardless of which order you play it in, you're going to cruise through a majority of the puzzles of the second half you play.

[Ingmar]

The single player campaign is the main attraction. The coop is really a sideshow

I don't know that Valve sees it that way. They built a store for the co-op, after all. I suspect they see the co-op as the way forward for the franchise at this point, someone linked an article to me earlier about Valve being 'likely done with single player games' earlier, haven't read it yet because the site is filtered here at work, but I got the impression that was a quote from Valve.

[NiX]

And that was late at night so my thought processes were starting to go.

That made it a lot more fun.

[Quinton]

Counterpoint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hYOi-DfqlU#t=7m00s

Wow.  I can sort of understand the mechanics being a little confusion to some people at first, but wow, just wow.

[Strazos]

Shit's staged.

[NiX]

Why that link was even posted... The obviousness of her faking the inability to follow the floating "Push button" icon makes me rage.

[caladein]

How long did it take you? I'm playing through it with a friend currently and am wondering if we should pace ourselves.

Took Strazos and me about 5 hours.

Same with my friend and I.

[ffc]

It's so much fun playing mean local coop: sabotage partners, block paths, aim lasers, steal objects, mark objectives and continually claim credit for solving it, etc.

I only hope when GLaDOS makes comments about one player doing better than the other or hands out points she isn't really using some kind of score or else meanness levels will increase to physically dangerous levels.

[Samwise]

Prospero and I finished the co-op in about 4 hours.  We didn't use voice, so we got to have fun figuring out how to use all the in-game communication tools.   

[NiX]

It's so much fun playing mean local coop: sabotage partners, block paths, aim lasers, steal objects, mark objectives and continually claim credit for solving it, etc.

I only hope when GLaDOS makes comments about one player doing better than the other or hands out points she isn't really using some kind of score or else meanness levels will increase to physically dangerous levels.

When you're at the hub the screen will flash the total points. Not sure if it showed individual.

[tgr]

Funny side-effect of me having found RBR: I get to trigger the bug with unmapped axis on a controller (g25 in my case) which causes the orange portal to be fired infinitely.

[ffc]

When you're at the hub the screen will flash the total points. Not sure if it showed individual.

-250 -785 total points!

[Comstar]

Via Reddit - Chell in the Rain. You need to maximalise you're browser window and have both songs playing. I suppose it's a big spoiler for the end of the game, though I suspect it can have a big impact on you whether you've played the game or not. The reddit thread has some pretty big spoilers, so don't read it if you don't want to not cry (and it explained so much I missed too).

Once you've finished Portal II, this will make you cry. Once I read the Reddit thread where it explained the opera song at the end that GladOS sang to Chell it really hit hard.

Amazing how a single picture with a song and some rain can have such a large emotional impact. Hello new Desktop Wallpaper.

[Jeff Kelly]

I'm now in the final stages of Portal 2 and so far it has been an awesome experience. Much, much better than the original in every respect although the puzzles could be a little bit harder for my tastes.

A few things I noticed:

[tmp]

[Sjofn]

[Samwise]

Not spoilering any of this because it's all from Portal 1.

Bring Your Daughter to Work Day is an excellent opportunity to have her tested.

A good number of people (myself included) deduced from that line that Chell is the daughter of someone at Aperture.  I also recall people saying that her full name was "Chell Johnson," but I don't know where they got that from -- might have just been over-eager extrapolation from the "cjohnson" login scribbled on the walls from before we knew who Cave was.

[jakonovski]

This was pretty cool (and spoilery): http://rain.nxe7.com/

[Samwise]

This was pretty cool (and spoilery): http://rain.nxe7.com/

5 posts above yours, sir.

I just finished digging through the Reddit thread and looking up the opera lyrics and all that.