official Portal 2

[WastedJoker]

What I'm struggling to understand is the high praise for the graphics. They're all a bit plain.

[PaulCabby]

"So how are you holding up? BECAUSE I'M A POTATO! *Slow clap*"

Had me laughing, best bit in the game :p

Fun game, managed to do it in about 5/6 hours. I'm not hugely upset by that as I knew that going in. The voice acting is superb, probably some of the best I've heard in a game for a long time, it's amazing how "real" Wheatley comes across as.

Another is when she goes

AH BIRD KILL IT IT'S EVIL

. Had me in stitches.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

im down and i have the exact same plan as you. definitely want to play it with someone who hasn't touched co op yet.

Cool sounds good. I would rather do it with someone who has not touched it either. Are you cool with waiting a few days or were you looking to do it sooner then later?

[Ambroos]

Same here! If anyone wants to play co-op, I don't really have any friends playing it... Username on Steam is Ambroos, PC, GMT+1 (Belgium), English or Dutch, got a headset, mostly play afternoon-evening.

I've done the first 2 (very short) levels only!

[soniqstylz]

Yeah, this is really just a marketing gimick to drum up business for smaller developers. Since I am sticking with the PS3 version to get it with a free version of the PC, does not really affect me since it will not affect the street date of it.

Speaking of which, I figured on my lunch break why not see if I could trick a Toys R Us employee into the fact that Portal 2 was already out. I almost had him. :laugh:

So then I went to GameStop just to try the same thing, and I swear some GameStop's just have the most annoying employees in the world, and it is no wonder I have all but sworn them off completely. These 2 kids that were there literally almost got punched in the face, that is how rude and annoying they were. I walked in, and the one said "Good Afternoon Sir," and when I said "so I heard a rumor that street date of Portal 2 has been pushed up, any truth to it?" He said no, not that he heard of, and he was respectful/nice enough about that. but immediately he goes into "so do you have a preorder of the game with our store?" to which I explained that no, I did not, I preordered it through Amazon. Immediately him and his coworker start making snide remarks, and the one says "why would you preorder with Amazon." To which I replied "To save $5." To which he immediately replied "We are also offering $5 off." I then told him "Amazon is also offering $20 of promotional credit, and not only that, I do not have to pay any tax either. Are you offering either of those?" So the one idiot responds "That is impossible, they are not offering either of those. Besides, everyone knows you HAVE to pay tax, not sure why you would think you are special and do not have to pay tax." To which I just replied "Excuse Me? Are you serious right now? Have you EVER purchased anything online? I can promise you I do not have to pay tax." And he starts going on and on about how I am wrong, was just truly a big dick about the whole thing. I literally just started walking out, and he really wise ass like says "Have a great day SIR" to which I replied "I will now that I am leaving this ****ty store" and the funniest thing about the whole thing is as the door is about to close, I hear the one kid say to the other "Dude, you really do not have to pay tax on Amazon."

These two morons all but sealed the deal for me. Gran Turismo 5 was the last game I purchased from GameStop, and if I can help it, it will truly be the last game I ever purchase from GameStop.

I kinda feel like I should buy L.A. Noire @ Gamestop, it's the best DLC pack. :(

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

What I'm struggling to understand is the high praise for the graphics. They're all a bit plain.

I think it has more to do with the style and animations than anything else.

[Ayepecks]

See the problem is Valve half assing looks like most other studios full effort. This is the company that gave us Half Life 2 and for $50(or $60 on consoles) we should get way more content. Across the board reviews and other sites put the full game at 15 hours of content. That is not $50 to me and imo half assing it from a studio like Valve. Making the writing and dialogue better is not worth selling it as a full priced game. I might get it at the Christmas sale but my money will most likely be spent on real games that give me hours of content for the price like ME3, Skyrim and BF3(mulitplayer hours I know the campaign will be short). Those games deliver on $60 portal 2 to me personally does not.

So you admit you haven't played it, and you're going on second-hand information as to why it's half-assed? That doesn't seem like a very well substantiated claim to me. I understand that to you it PERSONALLY seems too expensive, but I don't see how you can make a statement on the quality of a game which you admit to having not played. I also don't understand your first two sentences. The Orange Box included previously released games, so I don't get how that was a more full-fledged studio effort. The original Half-Life 2 on the Xbox had far less content than this. Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2's content was roughly equal in scope as well.

360 users: I'm done with the campaign and am looking for a co-op partner, since only one person on my friends list has the game, and he's still working on the singleplayer. Send me a friend request (gamertag: Ayepecks) if you're interested.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

Steam ID. Hell-In-A-Handbasket , im a membernof the

Neowin steam group, look me up for a game, may be playing a non steam game, but if i see it ill reply

[firey]

Hmm.. I really don't understand the hate. People are complaing about DLC.. well don't buy it.. it's not FORCED. I have 0 intentions of buying the DLC, yet I will still enjoy Portal 2 100%. It's a great game in my opinion, if you don't have 50$ to spend on a game, then don't, but don't come bitching about the price of a game. It is fully upto you to buy it if you want it. They aren't going to price it purely based on what you are willing to spend, clearly others (myself included) are willing to, and have 0 regrets in spending the 45$ to buy it.

[Neo003]

I though I heard it has steam cloud saves, is it not. Because I tried it on PC and it doen't have my PS3 save. :blink:

[Pajter]

What I'm struggling to understand is the high praise for the graphics. They're all a bit plain.

Source engine is really showing it's age. It's not ugly by any means though. But nothing special either imo.

[shakey]

Hmm.. I really don't understand the hate. People are complaing about DLC.. well don't buy it.. it's not FORCED. I have 0 intentions of buying the DLC, yet I will still enjoy Portal 2 100%. It's a great game in my opinion, if you don't have 50$ to spend on a game, then don't, but don't come bitching about the price of a game. It is fully upto you to buy it if you want it. They aren't going to price it purely based on what you are willing to spend, clearly others (myself included) are willing to, and have 0 regrets in spending the 45$ to buy it.

I think you and others are missing the point. Valve was the type of company to not charge for such a thing. Now they are. That is what most of us don't like. Slowly seeing a good company nickel and diming its customers for crap.

[Olemus]

I though I heard it has steam cloud saves, is it not. Because I tried it on PC and it doen't have my PS3 save. :blink:

Saves aren't cross platform.

[WastedJoker]

(N) Chapter 5 onwards gets really dull :/ Please tell me there's not much more of the dingy subterranean borefest

[EricCartmen]

I think you and others are missing the point. Valve was the type of company to not charge for such a thing. Now they are. That is what most of us don't like. Slowly seeing a good company nickel and diming its customers for crap.

If it is crap do not buy it. I can only assume that the people who do buy it do not think it is crap. Considering the stuff has no bearing on game play it is not required so I do not see the issue. If it was a FPS and the stuff was more powerful weapons ect... then I see the issue. My son loves the hats and stupid crap that I would never buy but he loves the stuff so he gets it when he can.

[shakey]

If it is crap do not buy it. I can only assume that the people who do buy it do not think it is crap. Considering the stuff has no bearing on game play it is not required so I do not see the issue. If it was a FPS and the stuff was more powerful weapons ect... then I see the issue. My son loves the hats and stupid crap that I would never buy but he loves the stuff so he gets it when he can.

Again, missing the point. I stopped playing TF2 once I saw the road Valve was going to take with the hats. It's not about what they are charging for, it's about that they even started it up in the first place.

As American Dad so well put it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3O3e42hc6E&feature=related

[firey]

I think you and others are missing the point. Valve was the type of company to not charge for such a thing. Now they are. That is what most of us don't like. Slowly seeing a good company nickel and diming its customers for crap.

I understand this, but knocking Portal 2 as a rip-off, or complaining about the price because Valve like every other company in the world wants as much money as they can get, is silly. Portal 2, regardless of price in my opinion is a pretty awesome game, the concepts, the puzzles, the dialog, etc are well worth it. The problem lies not with Portal 2, nor it's price. If price is that big of an issue, pirate it. People are butthurt because Valve wants money, and such releases fun little things for it (DLC). I want money, who doesn't?

It's the same thing as gas prices. People bitch and complain about how it's crap, and doing their "don't buy gas" boycotts. It changes nothing, gas is gas, and we gotta pay for it if we want it, and the prices will continue to go up.. but that gas is the same. As I say, with a game though.. you can download it for free.. not pay a cent... then you can save yourself 45$.. Hl2 EP 1, and EP2 were both pretty short games.. yet they still retailed for a pretty penny, I am about 4 hours into portal.. and just starting Chapter 5. I pay 15$/mo for WoW and have for the past 4 years. So that 12x4x15 (without counting the price of the 2 expansions that I bought (1 of which was collectors)) What do I do? I run around in circles killing the same stuff week after week after week.. hell I even quit for 6 months but my account was still active.

[Athernar]

I think you and others are missing the point. Valve was the type of company to not charge for such a thing. Now they are. That is what most of us don't like. Slowly seeing a good company nickel and diming its customers for crap.

Except they're not.

Skins, Flags and Hats are just like they are in TF2, cosmetic extras; and as time goes on we're getting a better picture of what items drop or can be achieved.

To top that all off, trading is coming to Portal 2, and store purchases are only temporally untradable; so once trading is added and the item economy hits in this won't be a problem if you think that minor cosmetics are important.

--

On another note, did a bit more work on my P2 Backpack viewer last night (P2B), got the Item List running:

http://tf2b.com/p2b/itemlist.php

[shakey]

I understand this, but knocking Portal 2 as a rip-off, or complaining about the price because Valve like every other company in the world wants as much money as they can get, is silly. Portal 2, regardless of price in my opinion is a pretty awesome game, the concepts, the puzzles, the dialog, etc are well worth it. The problem lies not with Portal 2, nor it's price. If price is that big of an issue, pirate it. People are butthurt because Valve wants money, and such releases fun little things for it (DLC). I want money, who doesn't?

It's the same thing as gas prices. People bitch and complain about how it's crap, and doing their "don't buy gas" boycotts. It changes nothing, gas is gas, and we gotta pay for it if we want it, and the prices will continue to go up.. but that gas is the same. As I say, with a game though.. you can download it for free.. not pay a cent... then you can save yourself 45$.. Hl2 EP 1, and EP2 were both pretty short games.. yet they still retailed for a pretty penny, I am about 4 hours into portal.. and just starting Chapter 5. I pay 15$/mo for WoW and have for the past 4 years. So that 12x4x15 (without counting the price of the 2 expansions that I bought (1 of which was collectors)) What do I do? I run around in circles killing the same stuff week after week after week.. hell I even quit for 6 months but my account was still active.

Never said portal 2 was a rip off. Stop taking such a defensive stance that you fail to see my point. I said I think its crappy of valve to start this nickel and diming for such things. Thats it. I think its crappy of them. I don't have a problem not having it, but I do not like the whole process/point of it.

I'm not looking for agreement, but I just dislike it when people get the wrong opinion about what I said :p

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

...

On another note, did a bit more work on my P2 Backpack viewer last night (P2B), got the Item List running:

http://tf2b.com/p2b/itemlist.php

Looking good. It's not picking up a couple of items on my profile, but I assume that's an issue on Valve's end.

[S00N3R FR3AK]

So you admit you haven't played it, and you're going on second-hand information as to why it's half-assed? That doesn't seem like a very well substantiated claim to me. I understand that to you it PERSONALLY seems too expensive, but I don't see how you can make a statement on the quality of a game which you admit to having not played. I also don't understand your first two sentences. The Orange Box included previously released games, so I don't get how that was a more full-fledged studio effort. The original Half-Life 2 on the Xbox had far less content than this. Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2's content was roughly equal in scope as well.

Right because I couldn't have any roommates or suitmates that own and let me play and watch the game right? The orange box is still worth $50 imo HL2 EP1&2 TF2 and Portal is great for content. EP2, TF2 and portal were all new making the Orange box well worth the lower then normal cost for it. I am also not comparing xbox to pc just pc to pc for these games. I also got almost 70 hours out of L4D and almost 50 for L4D2 and that's still rising. Portal 2 doesn't offer me the mulitplayer that I can use to rack up hours with. I beat the game the co-op then I'm done. Portal 2 does not offer enough for it's asking price. I stand by that statement and I might buy my own copy this chirstmas if it isn't already spent with games that actually give me bang for my buck.

[Doli]

Loading times on PS3 is crazy. I wish the game used the hard drive or Metroid Prime'ish approach and start loading the next map when you open the door that goes to the elevator.

[Ayepecks]

Right because I couldn't have any roommates or suitmates that own and let me play and watch the game right? The orange box is still worth $50 imo HL2 EP1&2 TF2 and Portal is great for content. EP2, TF2 and portal were all new making the Orange box well worth the lower then normal cost for it. I am also not comparing xbox to pc just pc to pc for these games. I also got almost 70 hours out of L4D and almost 50 for L4D2 and that's still rising. Portal 2 doesn't offer me the mulitplayer that I can use to rack up hours with. I beat the game the co-op then I'm done. Portal 2 does not offer enough for it's asking price. I stand by that statement and I might buy my own copy this chirstmas if it isn't already spent with games that actually give me bang for my buck.

You're now being purposefully misleading. Instead of saying "I've played it on my roommate's console," you're saying "I could have a roommate that has the game, you don't know!" If you did have one, you would have stated as much. There's no reason to lie through omitting information. If you haven't played it, you haven't played it. I'm not judging you for that. I'm merely making a statement of you referring to the quality of a game you have essentially admitted to having not played.

You're attempting to compare the playtime of a primarily multiplayer game to a primarily singleplayer game. Left 4 Dead 2 had a specific form of gameplay that catered to multiple playthroughs. I'm not sure what you can expect Valve to do with a form of gameplay that can't be randomly generated as a game such as Left 4 Dead 2. Did you complain when Half-Life 2 was released and it didn't cater to the multiple playthroughs as multiplayer games of the time did? Furthermore, I'm not comparing PCs to consoles. I'm comparing one Valve game to another. You brought up Half-Life 2, which I (correctly) assumed was you referring to The Orange Box, which is much different than the original release of Half-Life 2.

If you expect every single Valve game to be released to have the quantity of content that The Orange Box did, you're going to be disappointed at every Valve release. I'm not sure how you can expect that of them or any other game developer. I'm still not seeing where any of this "half-ass" stuff you claimed Valve is a culprit of comes in.

[rajputwarrior]

Cool sounds good. I would rather do it with someone who has not touched it either. Are you cool with waiting a few days or were you looking to do it sooner then later?

waiting is fine for me. me and fuzed have been rallying borderlands like crazy lately anyway so i have no problem waiting.

Source engine is really showing it's age. It's not ugly by any means though. But nothing special either imo.

like always though, the lighting in a source game is amazing. the engine show's it age, but it's still a pretty good looking game (mainly cause of the lighting...)

[rajputwarrior]

Why complaints about Valve's Portal 2 ARG miss the point

Valve put together a comprehensive and deep alternate-reality game to get the word out about the launch of Portal 2, as if this was a title that needed an extra level of publicity. The ARG lead to much speculation, people playing games in order to speed up the release of Portal 2, and a network of players came together to try to figure out what it all meant. Now Portal 2 has been released and the game is over?we think?and there are a large number of people oddly bitter about the whole thing.

That's silly: the entire point of any alternative-reality game is to publicize something, and there was no downside for anyone. For the gamers that played along, there was much to be gained. This is why the complainers have it all wrong.

A massive sale on independent games

Let's look at one of the largest parts of this whole mess, the Potato Sack. This is a bundle of independent games released on Steam, sold at a substantial discount. The bundle included 13 games, which would have been over $150 if sold individually. During the sale, which is still going on as of publication, the price for the entire bundle is $38.72.

This wasn't a bundle of no-name titles either; the games include Super Meat Boy, a game that was on many outlets' best-of lists last year. It included Amnesia: The Dark Descent, a game with almost universal praise. It included BIT.TRIP.BEAT. The games were almost all must-have titles, and they were being sold for much less than face value. This is a huge win, even if you don't care a bit about Portal 2.

If this weren't wrapped up in a larger marketing campaign it still would have been one of the best deals in PC gaming this year. So why are people upset? Let's dig deeper.

The games received new content

As the "main" game progressed, the titles in the Potato Sack were updated with new levels and content. If you were able to finish that content you earned Potatoes that were used to move the whole thing along. The thing is, the new content was all Portal themed, and gave new life to games people may have already finished. In a world where people are used to paying real money for new content for their games, these developers were giving away new content for free.

The organizational effort to get all these developers together, offer their games for so much less than the standard price, and then add new things to play in each title had to have been intense. Simply creating this mess at all would have been a huge undertaking, but everything went off without a hitch and players had fun trying to find all the secrets. While some claim that if another company had tried this, the backlash would have been more severe, what other company is in a position to try something this ambitious, and has the goodwill to get so many outside developers to play along?

Is this why people are mad, because gamers were given more content for free? Let's keep going.

The countdown

Valve then posted a countdown online, and the gaming press breathlessly reported that the game might unlock when it reached zero. We even hinted that you should take Friday off work to play Portal 2. We were overzealous, but then again so was every other outlet on the planet that covers games. When the countdown ended and it turned out we had to play the games in the Potato Sack to unlock the game, the reaction was less than pleasant. Despite the large amount of people who played the games to unlock Portal 2 early, the game was only released 10 hours before the expected time.

The timing seemed predetermined, with no real way change when the game would be released. This is a genuine point of contention: in the end it really didn't seem like we were able to change anything. Still, for those days we all played great independent games, shared secrets, and earned Potatoes?and it felt like we were doing something. It was fun, and gave us an excuse to play these games.

At the end, all the players that unlocked all the Potatoes were given the Valve Complete Pack for their troubles, a bundle that sells for $100 on Steam. There was some grumbling from players who already had the package?and since gamers were promised a reward for completing the task that's a legitimate beef?but in general the entire thing played out smoothly.

Besides, you didn't have to pay attention

This is the most important bit. With people complaining that it was all just a stunt and people were silly to pay attention to it, the point remains that it was easily ignored. If you chose to not play along, nothing changed. The game unlocked a tiny bit early, a few games were sold for less money, and a few people won a prize for playing indie games. If you didn't click on the stories about a topic that made you hostile, you didn't have to be aware of any of this. Nothing was taken away from the community, and there was never a negative outcome at stake.

Speculating about what was going on was fun, a bunch of developers who have created interesting games received a lot of publicity, prices were dropped on good games, and gamers had a fun challenge over the weekend. This makes people bitter? We knew from the start that this was going to drum up publicity for Portal 2's release, but at least it did so in a creative and interesting way. Valve seems like a silly target for complaints this time around. If you find yourself upset that someone else is publicizing a game by offering a sale on other games, our best advice is easy to follow: just ignore the stories about it.