Portal 2

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.

Oh, and a further non-spoiler anti-warning, as it were: none of the puzzles in the latter half of that fan video appear in the full game, so no worries there. They were created just for the promotional videos, to show off new game mechanics.

I believe that The National song also appears more prominently in the co-op mode (got to the end of single player and still hadn't heard it so looked up where it was). Missed the radio with it until playing a couple of bits again for achievements now. Annoyed slightly by the ambiguous test chamber names on a couple of those (wasn't there more than one Test Chamber 10?).

Also guessed both of the twists very early, found Cave quickly annoying and not funny and ok, a couple of the non-elevator loading screens were rather annoying, but otherwise this was fantastic, loved every minute. All the new mechanics were cool and handled very well. Looking forward to when I get a chance to play the co-op.

Loved this! What a great game, despite the long-ass loading times. Best game I've played in quite some time.

i had no issues w/loading time and i'm playing on a 2008 mbp

anyway this was great. obv lacking the sheer novelty of the original, and the boss sequence was boring and easy, but still super fun. the fact that i knocked it out on a weekend day off is a plus imo---more like an "entertainment" and less like a "project"

would love to play the coop but i have no idea how that works

tbh both portals are kinda what i think of when i'm trying to convince skeptics that games are actually interesting and worthwhile---they're puzzling, the plot/acting is v v good, and they're engrossing in a healthy way (v. say angry birds)

V v bummed to discover that there no extra/challenge levels. wtf?!

I have no one to play coop with, and that's like 50% of the experience from the sounds of things

Can you not play online?

I guess? Don't want to play with some random tho.

Join the steam group linked to above. We're slightly less random.

Reading thru some of the entries on the ARG wiki and it's like, these people are insane, or deliberately went about this only to bait the most OCD gamers on the planet.

seriously ambushed by unexpected emotion at the closing scene.

this is better than the first one - such an incredible atmosphere, and the gels etc really gave a whole new sense of physical joy to the puzzles. honestly, what could be more fun than splurging white gel all over the walls of a room?

Did feel like a bit of a goon at times though, quite a few puzzles I solved through sheer dumb luck. Thinking with Portals is hard.

Holmes versus Moriarty. Aristotle versus Mashy spike plate!
Holmes versus Moriarty. Aristotle versus Mashy spike plate!
Holmes versus Moriarty. Aristotle versus Mashy spike plate!
Holmes versus Moriarty. Aristotle versus Mashy spike plate!

^ when voiceover + instant replay collide with slightly annoying results.

I think that was my favourite line in the whole game, but I did only hear it twice. The deer line going into the room for the 70 second achievement, however...

is there some way to bulk-friend all of ILG at once?

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