Portal 2

I am watching the intro cutscene over mr spacecadet's shoulder right now! (no liveblog)

i'm down with a seven hour game if all seven hours are great

Prefer this too... a worry with this is that they would feel the need to pad it out to justify the AAA price tag. Picked up my copy earlier, gonna play tonight =)

okay the first two hours or so are great fun but it's really just PORTAL like more of the same not there's anything wrong with that
load times kind of inexcusable imo
i'm ps3 btw

uhoh

so far this is very funny, but also really fucking boring.

huh

Just wait for it. You're in the regular test chambers with Glados being bitchy, yes? Things pick up. Very much so.

yeah, that's where I'm at. Will be patient.

voice acting and script is v v v v good btw

Ok, yeah. Think of the part you're in as an extension of the first one's ending. Things get properly nuts once the plot starts, you get to play with the new mechanic, etc.

okay, looking forward to messing around with this more tomorrow.
one thing i do immediately like: the hostile, self-hating, more interactive environment

yikes i don't think i could play this on a console, irc on Portal 1 a lot of the time you had to turn around quickly with almost pinpoint accuracy firing those portals.

I just don't think I could bare that not using a mouse

I've only used a mouse and a computer for years for FPS since Quake, barring Halo and Portal. Never owned a console later than the NES, and I found Portal was okay with a controller.

OK so my housemates "this time she's a potato" comment wasnt a joke? He's been in his room non stop for the last 2 days thanks to this thing.

I cant get my head around this game fwiw. I get so dizzy.

I had a gang of Amazon trade credit and the get-a-free-$20-gift-card-w/-purchase was still going on last night so I said FUQ IT; should be arriving on Friday. anyone have any coop impressions yet? all I know is what I read in the Eurogamer review.

actually gonna try the split-screen co-op with a friend this weekend, seems like it could be really fun (to kill each other).

ok played until pretty late last night, still rolling through the test chambers, game need to get a fucking move on imo - trusting u dudes, but man this really feels like the worlds longest and most unneeded tutorial. wondering if that is thx to this being the first time ps3 types could play portal so

idk, its kind of frustrating and not all that fun so far

wondering if that is thx to this being the first time ps3 types could play portal so

?

portal is on orange box on the ps3

oh yeah duh what the hell am i thinking of

To be fair, the ps3 Orange Box was a pretty shoddy conversion, sold poorly, and Portal was never available as a separate dl like for pc and xbox players.

I agree a bit about the pacing of that section- I get that it's supposed to be GLaDOS just outright tormenting you without even the thin veneer of "professionalism" she had up to the end of the first game (the oxyhen stuff, "a special medical procedure," etc, all very I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream)- but there's really no sense of rising stakes or of anything really *happening* until toward the end of that part. Short version: just because it's supposed to be tedious and oppressive doesn't mean it has to feel that way to the player.

Ignore me, I'm rambling. It gets oh so much better, though.

oh lord

http://store.valvesoftware.com/product_images/main_images/CP201main2.png

probly never going to play this so been watching youtube walkthrough instead. it does look a treat must admit. some of the new gameplay elements also look amazing.

also, i was quite surprised at how funny i found the voice of Merchant, whereas in the trailer it really put me off.

Really enjoying this. Put about an hour in, which means I've seen 20 minutes of loading screens.

rite? loading is really inexcusably long

only like an hour in but it is great so far. is there an ilx group on steam?

i have no friends so you guys are my only hope for co-op

is it longer than half life 2/portal 1 loading times?

i am setting up steam account shortly with ps3 so will co op
and yes there is an ilx steam group. what the hell is it called folks?

I am contemplating doing Portal 2 on Steam instead of a console but I'm not sure. Is it going to look way better? I loved playing 1 on a console.

so my understanding is that if you buy it on ps3, you can play it on a pc via steam... right?

http://www.shacknews.com/article/68107/portal-2-ps3-steamworks-features

If they fix the ps3 network issues I'd love to rock some co-op too.

Steam group:

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ILG

join! friend! etc.

still not even halfway through watching this playthrough, and the story is amazing.

i just started playing this tonight. how the environment slowly changes and the background hints that are dropped throughout are great.

10 things about portal 2

1 - No game should EVER have this much loading. EVER.
2 - The basic game mechanics hold up real well; it's still fun to work out puzzles with portals
3 - The pacing is PLODDING; I finally reached the twist sequence but MAN it took some time
4 - Script and voice acting and story are the absolute best thing this has going for it so I can see where spoilers are an actual concern
5 - I love the weird human touches throughout, the "save the turret being recycled" achievement was a great moment in gameplay
6 - Weirdly unforgiving platforming; lots of "what's over here oh i'm dead" jumps
7 - Some serious frustration points that could be easily amended by a bit of in-game direction. I've been stuck in a room at least three times where I just end up running in circles trying to find the one place I can shoot to get a portal and there's just no obvious solution. Some of this is poorly designed, which is a bit out of character for valve.
8 - the graphics are just a joy
9 - so's the sound design
10 - sure do wish i could play co-op. thanks for being a sometimes functioning network sony.

11 - potato

12- 100 - NO GAME SHOULD EVER HAVE THIS MANY LOADING SCREENS

I came around to Stephen Merchant, especially toward the end when he has some more interesting material to work with (and I'm sure it helps that I'm not a British and haven't seen Extras), but I can't help but wish Valve had gone with their original pick of Richard Ayoade.

Or Karl Pilkington. He's even the right shape!

Played a bit of the co-op. Good stuff.

12 hours to download? ack, why didn't i set it off sooner. oh well i should prob get out and enjoy the sunshine anyway.

Ha, playing this with a 6 yr old spectator, and on three separate occasions now I've been sat scratching my head over what to do next only for him to say something like "put a blue one over there, then you can go round that bit" and BE RIGHT. wtf kiddo!?

Associated question - this is has a PEGI rating of 12 but so far there's been nothing worse than Stephen Merchant saying 'bloody'. Does it get significantly less kid friendly later on? Maybe I should start a gaming parenting thread.

the loading screens are very quick on my pc /bragging '11

Jim- it's rated 10 and up in the states, and whileit doesn't get especially vulgar (a few "hells" and "craps") or violent it is quite dark in places. More jokes about tumors than your average game, for instance.

loved this game.

loading times are ridiculous for sure but i can forgive that for a game that feels aesthetically whole--just lots of small well planned things that contribute to a meaningful experience. like the evolving aperture logos. and other stuff that would be spoilers.

Every single time there was a long jump (the kind where you jump down from somewhere really really high, shunt through a portal on the ground, pop out a portal from a slanted surface to go forward really really far) I yelled wheeeeeeeeeeeee in delight, I couldn't help it.

That consistent feeling plus the great dialogue made this game for me, plus the damn amazing attention to detail and set design, sound design, these guys are just so good.

There are lot of things that make the game short of perfect - the pacing as forks mentioned, various things that sort of try to live up to the first one but inevitably can't - but this really had plenty to enjoy, and I loved the puzzles with the gels and refractory cubes. The game was just hard enough where I never felt like I needed to go seek a FAQ, but still felt really satisfied whenever I solved a tough puzzle. I feel like that's rarer and rarer these days.

Gonna try to pressure a friend to buy this sooner than later - he's waiting for the next time it goes on sale, and I promised him we'd do the co-op mode together...

More jokes about tumors than your average game, for instance.

― muus lääv? :D muus dut :( (Telephone thing), Friday, 22 April 2011 21:22 (Yesterday)

Kindergarten Cop had no problem with tumor jokes and six year olds.

Is there any reference to the updated ending of the first Portal, ie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXAq34TrVXM

Read Lab Rat -
http://www.thinkwithportals.com/comic/

I can understand the PG rating, the idea of an omnipresent voice constantly telling you how they're going to kill you might be a little much for little ones

Outside of Lab Rat, the only reference/connection to the updated Portal ending is the fact that you start the game back in stasis. Party Escort Bot doesn't get his turn in the spotlight :(

This is probably a side result of my Valve fanboyism more than anything, but the National's song is shockingly decent, kind of pretty, even:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaMEIuTxfwM

Note for the spoiler-averse- it's not one of the game's musical numbers; it only appears in the game playing on a tinny little radio in a hidden Ratman room early on.

played this with my girlfriend at the time and i ended up crying literal tears of frustration and was in a mood for the entirety of the day after.

the sequence through the 'historical' section of the complex (the j/k simmons bit) is just amazing. valve are so good at storytelling.

― goole, Thursday, May 9, 2013 12:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that whole section of the game is really special, to the point where the later stuff back in the normal complex is kind of disappointing

jk simmons is amazing

narratively and atmopsherically it was great, but in terms of the puzzles it was a little weaker than the other parts for the sheer fact that the number of portal-able surfaces were so limited

yeah, but the puzzles were interesting in their sheer size, i thought. like, few portal-able surfaces, but they were sometimes hard to find, just a tiny lil white spot across a huge room or something

^i totally said "portalable" all the time while playing

i came up with the mental neologism of 'whitewall' for what i needed

FUCK NO WHITEWALL THERE WHAT DO I DO FUCK

played this with my girlfriend at the time and i ended up crying literal tears of frustration and was in a mood for the entirety of the day after.

― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Friday, May 10, 2013 12:58 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha its a healthy exercise in being patient! you forget how unnatural using 2 sticks to move and turn your view is for people not used to fps games. she ran in circles a lot instead of just turning her view >_<

you forget how unnatural using 2 sticks to move and turn your view is for people not used to fps games. people who play fps games with a mouse and keyboard, as god intended

omg you use a two button LOL

two button mouse* #fail

the frustration was at how bad I was - she is far better at games than me. we were playing it with her housemates watching us and she was berating me for being shit and it all got a bit too much for me tbh.

aw

mh otm about control schemes; gamepads for fpses are an abomination before the lord

I played some doom in my day but came of age in the realm of shooting people in quake with a sweet Logitech mouseman.

Lol olds

i am a clinger. here's a picture i took five minutes ago (i did have to retrieve the disc from a drawer)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/Inuxx/0a124241-7687-47e6-9f1f-73ba7a09903e_zpsd160bc76.jpg

that stuff on the mouse is noob blood

mousepad also obv from like 1995

Doom was the last shooter I was any good at

doom actually when i replayed it last year i discovered that because there's no Z-axis you can get total precision just using the keyboard: left hand on WASD to move forward/backward and strafe left/right; right hand on the left and right arrow keys to turn. (the left pinky and thumb rest on CTRL and SPACE for shoot and use respectively.) as a kid i was totally unaware of this approach; what i did was play mouse-only, as in i pushed the mouse forward across the pad to walk forward, which now seems INSANE. i kind of want to write a book about FPSes that's why this post is okay.

(that was also the excuse i used when downloading eric harris' custom doom levels)

(but wait: aiming with the arrow keys is the same as aiming with a stick only not analog and thus less precise. i guess what this means is i wouldn't mind the sticks in modern shooters if you weren't allowed to look up or down. actually that single technical limitation gives doom a HUGE elegance boost imo.)

except when you're shooting point blank at a wall and the invisible bullets magically careen upward in a parabolic arc to nail the zombie sergeant on the ledge above

ha i had never thought that that would happen point-blank! but of course you are right it would. the doom-quake axis of shooters is so abstract compared to the new ones: nobody least of all john carmack really thinks you're a space marine. you're a floating node.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWjP77TztTQ

5 years after everybody else in the world I have just finished this.

And then immediately replayed the whole thing.

Would like there to be a 3rd person replay view - some of the flying jumps are impressive but you don't really get a sense of distance with 1st person.

still probably my favorite game ever