By Jim Rossignol on March 5th, 2010 at 5:54 pm.
ZOMGPDATE: Apparently there’s some kind of crazy co-op mode included, although the source is a now-edited GameStop description, so hmm.
As confirmed by the cover of next month’s Game Informer. GI’s Jeff Marchiafava says:
Our 12-page cover story gives you the first details on Portal 2′s new gameplay mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists.
So no, they’re not giving much away. Cheers to Pat for the tip. Official word from Valve saying the game is out “This Holiday Season”, below.
VALVE ANNOUNCES PORTAL 2
Sequel to 2007′s Game of the Year Coming This Holiday
March 5, 2010 – Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, and Half-Life) and leading technologies (such as Steam, Source), today announced Portal 2 for shipment this coming holiday season.
Portal was originally released in 2007 and earned over 70 industry achievement awards.
For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com
That gives us something to look forward to, anyway…
05/03/2010 at 17:57 +--JAK--+ says:
Holy Mary Mother of Jesus!!!!!!
05/03/2010 at 17:57 Heliosicle says:
Didn’t we kind of know already?
I’m really excited about this, still need to get the original though, completed it at a friends…
05/03/2010 at 17:57 Springy says:
Is that a bust-up Glados? How exciting! Hope they expand on the storytelling, perhaps weaving it more closely to the rest of the Half-Life universe.
05/03/2010 at 17:58 Lambchops says:
Yay!
05/03/2010 at 17:59 Resin says:
very nice….
05/03/2010 at 18:00 jsutcliffe says:
The Steam announcement has another secret message, but I’m a little disappointed in Valve for making the secret so obvious with the underlining. They could have highlighted those characters some sneaky way in the HTML that would only be apparent to people who looked at the source code, or something. After the insane BBS trickery I expect better!
F!
05/03/2010 at 18:12 Alexander Norris says:
http://pastebin.com/stHSgY2V
05/03/2010 at 18:00 MrBRAD! says:
NEXT month?!
Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage!
05/03/2010 at 18:01 Ozzie says:
Surprise, surprise! ;)
Now, where’s Episode 3!?
05/03/2010 at 18:02 Glove says:
Delicious!
05/03/2010 at 18:02 Adam says:
“drattmannh0nee”?
05/03/2010 at 18:37 Oneironaut says:
GLaDOS login: drattmann
Password: h0nee
That login/password was used to access a new set of information from the BBS feed.
http://pastebin.com/stHSgY2V
05/03/2010 at 18:02 Winter Pine says:
WTF?! Isn’t it a little too fucking soon for another sequel VALV€?! First that bollocks with L$D2, and now Portal 2?
Give me a break.
05/03/2010 at 18:10 Ozzie says:
How does “L$D2″ even work at all as an acronym? *confused*
05/03/2010 at 18:12 Webster says:
Is this sarcasm? Because it really should be.
05/03/2010 at 18:13 OptionalJoystick says:
@Ozzie – Shift + 4 is the dollar sign on the UK keyboard layout. And Valve is all about the capital.
05/03/2010 at 18:18 Janxer says:
Really? REALLY?
There is so much wrong with the people who go “OMFG VALVE TOO SOON!”
1) Most devs start working on a sequel as soon as a game is out the door.
2) As long as the games are good quality, why do you care when they reveal it?
3) Portal was released in 2007. That’s three years ago.
etc.
05/03/2010 at 18:19 Jesse says:
Yes, this is either funny sarcasm or total madness. Please assume the party escort submission position and await further instructions. Please do not post until the instructions arrive.
05/03/2010 at 18:20 Ozzie says:
You have to wear some pretty dirty pairs of shitty brown glasses to think that Valve is only all about the capital.
These M$ kinda jokes are ten years behind the times anyway…
05/03/2010 at 18:21 Ozzie says:
But I think it’s sarcasm. Doesn’t make any sense otherwise.
05/03/2010 at 18:22 Jeremy says:
I hate it when companies try to make money. Don’t they know that corporations can pay bills with good will?!
05/03/2010 at 18:28 PHeMoX says:
Yes 2007 is 3 years ago, but that obviously makes it a different case altogether than with Left 4 Dead 2.
“2) As long as the games are good quality, why do you care when they reveal it?”
In fact, Left 4 Dead 2 easily misses the mark here!!!! By a long shot. It’s basically more like a re-issue of the same thing. And the original featured the same broken gameplay and graphical flaws as the sequel, so don’t even start about good quality.
05/03/2010 at 18:31 PHeMoX says:
Also, if they dare to charge more than 10 bucks for it, assuming it’s as short as the original, I’m going to download it.
When part of an second Orange Box collection it’s probably worth spending a total of 40 bucks or so, but both Team Fortress 2 and Portal weren’t worth their stand-alone price at all!
And I downright loved Portal. But it was too short, has virtually no replay value, no multiplayer..
05/03/2010 at 18:57 Stupoider says:
@Phemox: You’re actually implying that TF2 isn’t worth the standalone price, despite the constant updates and endless hours of gameplay?
05/03/2010 at 19:53 Dave says:
TF2 alone was worth the price of the Orange Box. I consider Portal the best free gift ever, and the HL2 episodes a not bad bonus.
05/03/2010 at 20:04 Tom O'Bedlam says:
reading that I can only assume I’ve wandered into some bizarre dadaist performance piece. For some reason now unknown to me, I ended up buying each part of the orange box seperately, even then I don’t feel like paid too much for it. Especially when consider how incredible Valve have been to the tf2 community. Equally, I never understood the L4d2 rage, there’s some real issues with sense of entitlement amongst pc gamers…
06/03/2010 at 00:34 Atalanta says:
@Tom:
Same here; I bought Portal, than TF2, than HL2, then the Orange Box. Honestly, I haven’t finished HL2 or episodes 1 and 2, and I still feel like I’ve got my money’s worth on TF2 alone.
05/03/2010 at 18:03 Web Cole says:
Yes.
That is all.
05/03/2010 at 18:04 laikapants says:
I’m a bit sad it is apparently a stand alone release, instead of part of Orange Box part deux. Still with improved storybits, perhaps it amply acts as a parallel precursor to whatever goes down in HL2: Ep3, which is hopefully hot on Portal 2′s heels.
And I hope by next month’s issue, you mean the one that is on the way to my house. Tis my last issue and except for things like this (giant cover stories with shiny pictures), the internet is far better at reporting game news to me and for free to boot.
05/03/2010 at 18:22 jsutcliffe says:
There’s nothing to stop them packaging in some extras, just as TF2 and Portal were pretty much extras bundled with Episode 2. I wouldn’t rule out another Orange Box kind of deal yet.
05/03/2010 at 18:44 laikapants says:
Not 100% ruling it out, but saying that it is “a stand-alone, full-price retail release” seems to indicate otherwise. I’m excited all the same.
06/03/2010 at 18:14 y3k-bug says:
I highly doubt there will be any extras, Game Informer has stated that this is a full priced, stand alone retail package.
05/03/2010 at 18:05 oceanclub says:
*fist pump*
P.
05/03/2010 at 18:07 Taillefer says:
You will be able to portal through both space and time.
05/03/2010 at 18:32 HidesHisEyes says:
When this turns out to be the case everyone will feel really silly for ignoring you.
05/03/2010 at 18:32 PHeMoX says:
I think you might be onto something there… it would be need to be able to influence time in some manner combined with the portal stuff.
Would become a brain twister at some point though. :)
05/03/2010 at 19:16 Taillefer says:
Braided portals.
05/03/2010 at 19:22 Starky says:
Well as we all know space and time are the same thing anyway (spacetime), so if you can portal through space you effectively are portaling through time.
05/03/2010 at 23:26 Sonic Goo says:
They would just portal back in time and pretend they didn’t ignore you.
05/03/2010 at 18:07 Psychopomp says:
Episode 3 plz
05/03/2010 at 18:08 Radiant says:
So soon? I feel outraged I’m totally boycotting porta…*drops dead through sheer sarcasm*
05/03/2010 at 18:26 Radiant says:
This joke was funnier before someone did it before me without the sarcasm.
05/03/2010 at 18:10 Britpunk says:
Weirdly anti-climactic.
After all the fun and games this week, for it to be confirmed via an online preview of a magazine’s front cover/content just seems like a bit of a letdown.
Unless of course, it turns out that the game is gold and primed for release next Tuesday…
05/03/2010 at 18:12 Shalrath says:
Looks like the cake… wasn’t a Lie.
YYYYYYYYEAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
05/03/2010 at 18:20 Paul B says:
Portal 2 will be a triumph! I’m making a note here: Huge Success.
06/03/2010 at 10:14 DJ Phantoon says:
Mind explaining how GLaDOS is going to put sunglasses on?
05/03/2010 at 18:18 Durns says:
Obvious troll is obvious
05/03/2010 at 18:20 Heliocentric says:
When i look at glados now all i can see is upside down bondage lady glados…
*shudders*
05/03/2010 at 22:43 Spacewalk says:
GlaDOS makes me think of a housewife who thinks all her problems will go away by baking cakes for her unruly children more than someone whose entire wardrobe is full of PVC.
05/03/2010 at 18:23 Jath says:
Well, besides the release date, they already announced a Portal 2. They had announced that in an interview with one of the creators. A while back.
05/03/2010 at 18:23 Jesse says:
This is so great.
I have no investment in the Half Life series, so I can only imagine what it must be like for those waiting, with bated breath, for the third game. I don’t think it’s unnatural that I experience a faint amusement reading about your frustration. It’s okay. I’ll get what’s coming to me, too. For instance, Red Dead Redemption was just delayed three more weeks. I feel your pain.
No I don’t. YAY PORTAL 2!
05/03/2010 at 18:24 Jeremy says:
Maybe Portal 2 is only 1 room, and when you create a portal it takes you to Episode 3?
05/03/2010 at 18:24 Vinraith says:
It’s got a lot to live up to, but then so did Half Life 2 and that turned out brilliantly. If anyone can pull it off, Valve can. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with it.
With Ep. 3 and Portal 2 in the pipeline, surely we’re looking at another “Orange Box” type compilation (hopefully without the redundant copies of older games). That does beg the question of what the MP component will be, I’m still sticking with Counterstrike 2 as the most likely culprit.
05/03/2010 at 18:33 Bret says:
Hey, if the redundancies are free and giftable, I don’t see the problem.
05/03/2010 at 18:35 Antlia says:
@Vinraith
I don’t think it’s gonna be Counterstrike 2. It’s a bit different beast than other Valve-games. I presume it’ll be a new, unexpected game.
05/03/2010 at 18:38 Vinraith says:
@Bret
My problem with the redundancies in the Orange box is that they weren’t free. Were you unaware of the (canceled) Black Box?
@Antlia
Good point. Something new would be interesting, simply because they haven’t done it in awhile. It doesn’t matter a whole lot to me, I’ll buy the thing for the single player components like I did the Orange Box, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed TF2 so another pleasant surprise would be welcome.
05/03/2010 at 18:40 jsutcliffe says:
@antila
Ricochet 2!
More seriously, I could see them doing Counter Strike 2. CS: Source is fine, but it really is just Counter Strike with shinier graphics. I would be interested to see how the brainy people at Valve could refresh the gameplay if CS2 was on the table.
05/03/2010 at 18:43 Britpunk says:
You guys, y’know, read the article?
“a full-fledged, standalone sequel.”
05/03/2010 at 18:45 Vinraith says:
@Britpunk
I see people interpreting that as “not part of a package” but that would imply that Portal, for example, wasn’t a “full fledged, stand alone game.” It was, it was just packaged with a couple of other games. For that matter it WAS sold separately as well.
05/03/2010 at 18:46 jsutcliffe says:
@doubtful person questioning my text-parsing abilities
Standalone means not an expansion. Full-fledged presumably means it’ll be longer than a 3-hour game. Neither of those points preclude it from also including other things.
05/03/2010 at 18:48 Pantsman says:
How do you determine that the regiftables weren’t free? By what mystical maths do you determine which parts of the Orange Box’s price were attached to its seperate parts? The Black Box was cancelled, yes, perhaps because Valve realized that the three new things had all the value of a full-price game, so they shouldn’t charge less.
Saying that one component of a product was or wasn’t included in the price of the product is totally arbitrary. The only thing that matters is whether what you got out of it was worth the money you put in.
05/03/2010 at 18:50 Britpunk says:
“The fiercely independent studio is investing more time, more capital, and more risk into a stand-alone, full-price retail release. ”
Link me do.
05/03/2010 at 18:53 Vinraith says:
@Pantsman
Black Box, containing Ep 2, Portal, and TF2 = price 1
Orange Box containing all of the above plus HL2 and Ep1 = price 2
price 2 – price 1 = effective cost of HL2 and Ep 1. This is not a hard thing to figure out.
05/03/2010 at 18:55 Vinraith says:
@Britpunk
“Full priced” is the modifier you needed there. Yes, sounds like it’s not part of a package after all. In that case I’ll join the “where’s Ep 3?” chorus.
05/03/2010 at 19:43 Starky says:
@Vin
I think his point is that Valve clearly decided that the 3 new games you got in the Orange box were clearly worth full retail when combined – and I think they were right, the orange box was praised almost universally for it’s value.
Just because there was going to be a cheaper version at some pre-release state doesn’t mean that valve ripped anyone off – when Valve planned the black box, Portal and TF2 might have been smaller, shorter affairs offering less value.
So what happened in reality is that Valve decided to make them bigger and better – made a clear commitment with TF2 to expand it (and fulfilled it more than anyone could ever have hoped for) – and in return for that decide that it warranted charging full retail.
They were right.
Sorry but anyone who actually believes that the orange box was poor value for money is just crazy, or trolling.
05/03/2010 at 19:47 PleasingFungus says:
Comparing the price of a game that was released to one that was cancelled seems like a bit of dubious proposition to me. If they had never even announced the Black Box, would you still be angry?
05/03/2010 at 19:47 Vinraith says:
@Starky and PleasingFungus
Do we really have to do this again? Let’s not. The math stands. You interpret it one way, I interpret it another. It was a long time ago, it was elaborated upon solely because of a factual inaccuracy in a post above, let’s move on shall we?
05/03/2010 at 20:24 Starky says:
The math doesn’t stand though, not one bit – it’s ignoring almost all of the possible variables and is a simplistic reductionist view that holds almost no meaning.
You’re welcome to your opinion – you think they should have held to their intent to release them for cheap, no matter what happened between the idea of the black-box and the cancellation of it. That is fine, I simply disagree.
I think the Orange box was brilliant value for money anyway, TF2 alone equalling the value 5 times over.
05/03/2010 at 20:38 Vinraith says:
you think they should have held to their intent to release them for cheap, no matter what happened between the idea of the black-box and the cancellation of it.
Not really, but that’s not what we’re talking about anyway. We’re talking about whether HL2 and Ep 1 were free.
There were two planned releases. The Orange Box and the Black Box. TOB had HL2 and Ep1 and a higher price point. This is before TBB got canceled, mind. So, clearly the difference between planned TOB’s cost and planned TBB’s cost was the value of HL2 and Ep 1, yes?
05/03/2010 at 22:35 Pantsman says:
Originally, yes. But any number of re-evaluations might have led to the cancellation. The Black Box was worth the price of the Orange Box. They may have figured, “we should charge full price for the Black Box! But then we’d have to charge more for the Orange Box, and no-one will buy it just to get some old games! Hey, let’s just throw HL2 and Ep 1 in there as a bonus! But wait, then it’s the Orange Box. Alright, call it that!”
One more time: the distinction is arbitrary. Just because some people thought it had a given value at one point doesn’t mean that it objectively has that value. It’s just one way of looking at it. There is no real difference between being charged 50 dollars for all five items and being charged 50 dollars for three and getting the other two free. The difference is entirely in your mind.
06/03/2010 at 02:40 Fumarole says:
Yay, the Black vs. Orange Box debate. There’s something worth bringing back up. Thanks.
06/03/2010 at 10:23 DJ Phantoon says:
This math is made possible by the English.
Here in the land of Freedom and Alleged Torture, our games cost a pretty much set price. It would have been harder to sell more units at a higher price despite alleged quality (see: Wii VS PS3 debate) and honestly, you couldn’t devalue HL2 and HL2EP1 enough for the Orange Box to cost $50. Also, it makes sense to have the previous games in the series so people don’t have to go looking, they just activate the game and get more of the story.
TF2 is worth 50 standalone. What more needs to be said?
I mean maybe I don’t get it, I live under the rule of a democratically elected guy, as opposed to a bizarre system in which you pay tribute to a practically ancient hereditary line who has the power to dissolve government at any time. While still living under the rule of a democratically elected dude.
Also I still only pay the standard fifty dollars for games, or less.
Note! Valve is privately owned. Drop the arguments about companies being greedy, they do not apply here.
05/03/2010 at 18:26 James G says:
Oooh, beautiful covers.
Anyone know where you can pick up a copy of Game Informer in the UK? Or am I going to have to resort to reading blurry scans?
05/03/2010 at 20:32 Bob says:
Digital economy bill says no to that
05/03/2010 at 18:27 Stew says:
Woot.
05/03/2010 at 18:30 Antlia says:
I think the environment in this is gonna be exciting. If you look at the silhouettes, you can see that there are plants of some kind! Maybe we’re getting a more rundown and ruined science facility this time. That would be pleasant.
05/03/2010 at 18:33 yaster says:
So, now we get a non-new-&–non-fresh-&-non-original portal instead of the past godness. Ben there, Don that. I’ll pass.
05/03/2010 at 18:42 Bret says:
Of course. Because Half-Life 2?
Who needed that? We had Half-Life already. No room for growth there.
06/03/2010 at 02:42 Fumarole says:
Who is this Don fellow?
05/03/2010 at 18:33 Ketch says:
I really want this to link Portal to the Half-Life universe!
05/03/2010 at 18:39 Bob says:
I like how its all overgrown, but there’s a light on Glados, guess she is back!!!
05/03/2010 at 18:43 Ado says:
Cool. I have much love for this game. I was looking forward to it the most out of the Orange Box selection (playing before Ep2) and am really happy this is coming.
Also, everyone should check out the link the magazines website, as they have a doudle cover with the other aperture on the back cover. Nothing original there but you can see that GlaDOS is in some kind of jungle and you can see back into the new Portal level.
05/03/2010 at 18:54 jsutcliffe says:
Looking at the Steam forums, I am liking the new suggestion (using the drattmann login, parsing data into an image) that there is going to be some kind of co-op in Portal 2.
05/03/2010 at 19:17 Sobric says:
http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=904084
EDIT: that link seems to have lost some of its photos.
http://booto.bur.st/portal/coop.jpg
This is what I was linking to specifically
strong suggestions from encrypted files that Portal 2 will include a co-op mode. Although everyone thinking “I fucking wish Portal 2 will include a co-op mode”, goes a long way to making the suggestion ‘strong’.
05/03/2010 at 19:02 vecima says:
It doesn’t matter what a valve game is “worth”. It’s valve, so I will buy it. Note however that they are the only company that gets this kind of fanboy loyalty from me. At least they realize that you should give gamers the full fucking game up front, instead of releasing incomplete, and selling you the rest later. (I’m looking at you Ubisoft / ACII chapters 12 & 13)
05/03/2010 at 19:07 kalidanthepalidan says:
Hopefully Portal 2 tells us how the Borealis got where it is.
05/03/2010 at 19:07 ThatBigChicken says:
I haven’t even played the first one yet. Should I feel guilty?
05/03/2010 at 19:17 Demon Beaver says:
I pity thee, sad person!
You should definitely go and play it! (:
05/03/2010 at 19:12 Diogo Ribeiro says:
*first fap*
05/03/2010 at 19:15 Demon Beaver says:
I’m so excited!!! Portal 2, now with plants!
05/03/2010 at 19:20 Radiant says:
drattmannh0nee?
05/03/2010 at 19:23 Britpunk says:
If I recall, it was ‘The Ratman’ who left all the grafitti everywhere in the first game. I would guess D Rattman is the ratman
Apparently this is a username/password for the ARG BBS.
05/03/2010 at 19:25 Vitalis says:
Scroll up.
05/03/2010 at 19:46 Noc says:
Oh man. What a shock!
And here I thought we were in for a new edition of Peggle.
05/03/2010 at 19:49 Noc says:
Oh man. What a shock!
And here I was expecting more Peggle.
05/03/2010 at 19:51 James G says:
If Portal 2 does get a Christmas release I can easily see that one of the first games I play in 2010 (ME2) may be challenging one of the last, for GoTY.
05/03/2010 at 19:56 Luggage says:
And yet it hasn’t occured to anyone that a supposed cover on some weird ass magazine most people have never heard of prior to this “spoiler” may be a hoax to lull people into some kind of false safety until 11 March?
Come on, even if this was the most successful PC gaming magazine on the planet they would easily cooperate with Valve on this if in return they got the exclusive cover story for the real deal that will be announced on 11 March.
I don’t buy it.
The other stuff was done way to crafty to have an early spoiler slip through this clumsily.
05/03/2010 at 20:10 jsutcliffe says:
Game Informer is hardly a magazine nobody has heard of. It’s just not published outside of the States, and regarded with some suspicion since it’s published by GameStop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Informer
I fully expect there to be more than Portal 2 announced in the coming weeks though.
05/03/2010 at 20:15 laikapants says:
It is also announced/confirmed via Steam:
Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike and Half-Life) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Portal 2 for shipment this coming holiday season.
Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007′s Portal, which won 70 industry achievement awards.
For more information, please visit http://www.steamgames.com
06/03/2010 at 00:26 Ozzie says:
And it didn’t just slip through clumsily, the progress bar on the BSS filled up to the announcement.
05/03/2010 at 19:57 LewieP says:
Going to have separate single player and coop campaign:
http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=77276
05/03/2010 at 20:01 assaf says:
hehe, nice :)
05/03/2010 at 20:13 Wulf says:
If it’s as puzzly as the first, then they’ve already got a sale here, and a guaranteed happy punter. Portal was a real fave for me, and I do like my puzzle games. It’ll be interesting to see where the sequel takes it, I hope it doesn’t take it to shootyshooty action too much, that’d ruin things a bit.
05/03/2010 at 20:24 M says:
This appears to be the case:
http://media1.gameinformer.com/images/site/pages/p2/portalwrap2.jpg
Left hand side – looking into the past (when the labs were fresh and new) from the old. Right hand side – vice versa. Overgrown and broken.
05/03/2010 at 20:47 Abi79 says:
Time travel then? That can lead to some interesting puzzles.
05/03/2010 at 20:54 jsutcliffe says:
I strongly doubt it’s going to be time travel (including simply that an overgrown environment contrasts nicely with a test chamber for promo images). There are plenty of other explanations for why one side of a portal might be overgrown. Time travel is already getting a little tired as a mechanic, and Portal has its own fabulous game mechanic that still probably has plenty of legs.
05/03/2010 at 21:00 M says:
No. On the left, you’re standing in foliage looking into a pristine test chamber. On the right, you’re standing in a pristine test chamber looking into GLADOS’ broken throne room, overgrown with plants. Strongly implies you’ll be travelling between the two timescales.
There’s a “new mechanic”, we know this. Space and… time?
05/03/2010 at 21:01 Taillefer says:
You’d not just see yourself through the portal you created, but see yourself before you created the portal through which you see yourself.
05/03/2010 at 21:18 Serenegoose says:
you may have noticed, but Glados’s room gets blown the hell up, whereas the rest of the labs could have been left entirely intact. This does not evidence time travel even remotely. It just means some bits of the lab are damaged, and some aren’t, and you will travel between them.
05/03/2010 at 21:30 Uhm says:
The only logical conclusion is that portal technology was developed by velociraptors. A portal opens in the distance, then one suddenly opens in the wall beside you. “Clever girl”.
06/03/2010 at 02:47 Fumarole says:
I like the way you think. XKCD much?
07/03/2010 at 01:42 Uhm says:
If it involves portalling velociraptors, then apparently not enough.
05/03/2010 at 21:03 jsutcliffe says:
More info from Game Informer (via Destructoid) and a hastily-removed product description at GameStop:
Portal 2 will have a co-op mode with new playable characters and a completely separate campaign from the single-player game. GLaDOS (obviously) makes another appearance. GameStop lists a release date of October 26.
Gamestop page with truncated product description: http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=77276
Original product description:
“Coming this holiday. Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007′s Game of the Year and draws from the award-winning formula of innovative game play, story, and music that earned the original over 70 industry accolades. Features single and multiplayer co-op modes.Portal 2 draws from the award-winning formula of innovative gameplay, story, and music that earned the original Portal over 70 industry accolades and created a cult following. The single-player portion of Portal 2 introduces a cast of dynamic new characters, a host of fresh puzzle elements, and a much larger set of devious test chambers. Players will explore never-before-seen areas of the Aperture Science Labs and be reunited with GLaDOS, the occasionally murderous computer companion who guided them through the original game. The game’s two-player cooperative mode features its own entirely separate campaign with a unique story, test chambers, and two new player characters. This new mode forces players to reconsider everything they thought they knew about portals. Success will require them to not just act cooperatively, but to think cooperatively.”
05/03/2010 at 21:08 Vinraith says:
@jsutcliffe
Separate MP and SP: good. Co-op mode: good. Here’s hoping co-op only requires two players, but co-op puzzle solving with portals has the potential to be absolutely brilliant.
Edit: I see from your edit that it does, indeed, only require two players. Brilliant, this should be awesome.
06/03/2010 at 00:39 jarvoll says:
SIGH. Well that’s this game ruined for me, then. Yes, yes, there’s a single-player campaign, and of course I’ll buy the bloody thing and love it, but I’ll only really be getting half a game, apparently. I don’t think anything could more easily destroy the atmosphere and feeling of being special that Portal engendered than by introducing some outsider. Aperture Science is a lot less exciting, threatening, exotic etc… if my fiancee, sister, or friend is there with me. It would become *just* a puzzle game, which would be fine, except Portal is SO much more than just puzzles.
I can enjoy multiplayer in TF2 because there’s no story or world for other people to bespoil, and the class mechanic forces players to act like their character anyway. But to solve problems, one shall presumably be forced to talk a LOT with one’s co-op partner, COMPLETELY shattering the suspension of disbelief. I’m sure lots of people will be super happy, but I am not. I am sad. Not super-sad, after all it’s a new Portal, but still… sad.
06/03/2010 at 02:47 Dominic White says:
“SIGH. Well that’s this game ruined for me, then.”
At this point, I think Valve could personally mail a solid gold life-sized statue of D0G to everyone who ever played HL2, and people would still complain that it’s not platinum and jewel-encrusted.
06/03/2010 at 03:38 Clovis says:
REPLY FAIL
I’d be pretty pissed if I couldn’t order it to throw a car.
06/03/2010 at 04:19 Bret says:
Gold?
Gold is LAME and everybody does gold.
And D0g? Way to be OLD and SAMEY. Where are the new ideas?
06/03/2010 at 10:12 DJ Phantoon says:
Exactly.
Or made out of cake.
06/03/2010 at 02:59 Shalrath says:
So wait, if they DIDN’T add co-op, you’d be getting more of a game? I don’t get it.
06/03/2010 at 03:37 jarvoll says:
It’s not that I’m cursing Valve or irrationally demanding that they do as I command. I’m sure this co-op mode will be amazing fun for many, many people, and I am genuinely happy for those lucky ones. No, I still love Valve, will still (as I said) buy Portal 2 on day one/preorder. I just don’t like co-op, and it makes me sad that this means I’ll probably miss out on a significant chunk of the Portal 2 experience. Do I wish it were completely single-player? Yes. Do I expect Valve to cater to my personal desires? No. I really don’t feel this is a complaint on a level with the bitching about that other Valve game, merely lamenting the incongruence between my personal preferences and the direction they’ve chosen for a series I dearly love. It’s as much “silly preferences” as “silly Valve”, probably even more the former than latter.
06/03/2010 at 03:49 Vinraith says:
@Shalrath
While I happen to disagree with him on this one, as I have someone to play Portal co-op with, I can understand where he’s coming from. Resources put into a mode you can’t play are resources that could have been put into the game modes you can play. Lack of co-op means more single player, for example. I’ve been similarly frustrated before, lots of games include MP modes I’ll never play after all. It’s not so much “damn them for including this mode,” it’s just “damn, I wish the resources they put into that mode had been put into a mode that mattered to me.” That is, it’s not an “angry” thing so much as a sense of missing out.
06/03/2010 at 04:45 jarvoll says:
Indeed. Thank you for actually reading what I wrote, as opposed to assuming I’m just another perenially dissatisfied fan with an inflated sense of entitlement, as others seem to have done. It’s a shame that people’s saturation of one complaint about a company renders it almost impossible to note almost any other down-side about said company without being lumped in with the wailers and teeth-knashers.
06/03/2010 at 04:46 jarvoll says:
…in reply to Vinraith.
06/03/2010 at 04:51 Vinraith says:
@jarvoll
Yeah, the boycott has so sensitized some Valve fans around here that they’ve become downright zealous about Valve apologism. If you’re perceived to be criticizing Valve (whether you are or not, whether it’s valid or not) you pretty much get swarmed. It’s circular, of course. Fierce hatred leads to fierce love, which engenders more fierce hatred. I’m not sure what, at this point, could end the polarization and allow any kind of rational discourse about Valve, their games, or their business practices on this site again.
06/03/2010 at 14:55 Dominic White says:
The fact that it’s Valve really has sod-all to do with it. it’s more that ‘this game is ruined in my eyes’ is a completely insane and ridiculous reaction to finding out that it contains a whole seperate campaign for co-op. I’d be saying largely the same thing if it were any studio.
The thing is, if it were any other studio, nobody would complain. It’s a decision that created nothing bt glowing praise when they did it with the 360 puzzle-platformer Splosion Man. Any other response would be bordering on lunacy.
06/03/2010 at 15:47 jarvoll says:
“The fact that it’s Valve really has sod-all to do with it.”
“The thing is, if it were any other studio, nobody would complain.”
Even assuming you’re not contradicting yourself here, it seems that with “[this] is a completely insane and ridiculous reaction”, you’re denying my right to an opinion. This. Is. How. I. Feel. Is that really so hard to understand?
06/03/2010 at 17:20 Stupoider says:
Nobody is denying you your opinion, we just think your opinion is completely confounded. :O
07/03/2010 at 00:46 FunkyBadger says:
Not aimed at you at all, but the internets would be a better place if a lot less people had opinions.
06/03/2010 at 15:57 invisiblejesus says:
I think that’s a bit of a one-sided interpretation; there were/are excessively passionate people on both sides of that particular argument.
06/03/2010 at 19:20 Vinraith says:
@invisiblejesus
Of course there are excessively passionate people on both sides of the argument (hence “fierce love” and “fierce hatred” and the bit about polarization). The thing is, jarvoll isn’t bashing Valve, he’s explained that and I’ve tried to help explain it too. That he continues to be treated as though he’s a boycotter would seem to indicate a certain level of over-zealous defensiveness among Valve fans.
06/03/2010 at 21:01 Dominic White says:
Funny thing is, last Valve game I bought was the L4D1, and even then at a budget price. L4D just isn’t my style in the end, and even TF2 hasn’t brought me back often.
So there’s no vested interest here. However, stating that a game is ruined because it has MORE content is crazy talk, no matter the subject. But you’ve got to bring out that boycotters persecution complex, dontcha?
06/03/2010 at 21:30 Vinraith says:
@Dominic
If Valve has “sod-all to do with it” and you have “no vested interest here” then stop saying things like:
The thing is, if it were any other studio, nobody would complain.
and
At this point, I think Valve could personally mail a solid gold life-sized statue of D0G to everyone who ever played HL2, and people would still complain that it’s not platinum and jewel-encrusted.
It’s not like he’s blaming Valve anyway, so they really don’t have a thing to do with this.
He said the game is ruined for him. Is that dramatic overstatement? Sure. But is it completely incomprehensible to you? Say a game your were very much looking forward to comes out and it turns out half the content of said game is going to be inaccessible to you as a result of the way you play games. This wouldn’t upset you? You wouldn’t be annoyed at the circumstances that barred you access to half the game?
06/03/2010 at 23:30 Starky says:
@ Vin
Re: “It’s not like he’s blaming Valve anyway, so they really don’t have a thing to do with this.”
It’s a silly opinion though – and everyone is right to pull him up on it.
Now a much more reasonable opinion would be that as a gamer interested in only single-player portal, he’s lost interest in paying full retail for it, as half the content won’t mean anything to him.
In which case the answer is to simply wait for a cheap deal some place (probably on steam via a weekend deal) – and then get the half you ARE interested in for a reasonable price.
Hyperbolic nonsense is just that, along side “worst movie ever” comments.
People acting like a co-op/multiplayer mode personally offends them is just plain ridiculous, that somehow valve should somehow cater just to them instead of (I’d wager) the vast majority of people who’d LOVE a portal co-op mode is equally so (granted the guy who kicked this off wasn’t of this latter opinion, but many people seem to be).
07/03/2010 at 01:01 Vinraith says:
@Starky
that somehow valve should somehow cater just to them
Except, of course, that’s not what he said. Nor, as clarified later, is it what he meant.
I don’t dispute that the first line of the comment was hyperbolic and unproductive, but I do understand being frustrated by included content that you won’t be able to personally enjoy. It’s not a matter of being mad at the devs for including it so much as it’s a matter of being mad at the circumstances that prevent you from enjoying it.
Plus, honestly, it’s not “pulling him up on it” I have a problem with, it’s people making this into another “everyone is out to get Valve” tirade when it really has nothing to do with who developed the game.
06/03/2010 at 22:22 Shalrath says:
“Resources put into a mode you can’t play are resources that could have been put into the game modes you can play. ”
This is one of the largest fallacies of game development. Teams are created, size-wise, according to need. if you need to put multiplayer in, you add a, often literally, multiplayer team to make it. It’s not like there are 20 people, and when they add multiplayer, the poor lead designer is staying up 23 hours a day to make up for the new feature.
In fact, adding additional features, ESPECIALLY at a creative company like Valve, means that things you hadn’t thought needed fixing become more fun, due to something you found elsewhere. It’s a creative industry, despite what Activision would have you believe, and the more things being done on a project, the more ideas get tossed around. Yes feature-creep is an issue, yes shoe-horning mutliplayer in can be a problem, but you have to remember that this is fuckin’ VALVE here. They know what they’re doing.
06/03/2010 at 11:35 bill says:
I know how you feel. I’m an almost 100% single player myself.
BUT, i can imagine that 2 player portal puzzle solving would be pretty awesome. They could come up with some totally mindbending puzzles.
It could be so awesome infact that i’m tempted to break my “no multiplayer rule” in this case.
My worry is that as a puzzle game it’ll really only be good if the two players are both at the same point, so I kind of have to have a partner lined up before it starts. It’d suck for a newbie to play with someone who already knew how to solve the level.
06/03/2010 at 17:19 Stupoider says:
You’ll be getting all of the game, it’s just a matter of how long you can hold out not trying to co-op out. I was under the impression the co-op would follow along the same plot as the singleplayer campaign, but with puzzles to better suit multiple players. That’s how I’ve seen most co-op games handle it, you’ll only be missing out on some puzzles that aren’t even achievable in singleplayer.
06/03/2010 at 22:08 Psychopomp says:
Successful troll was successful.
05/03/2010 at 21:09 TCM says:
DELICIOUS
06/03/2010 at 03:25 PleasingFungus says:
om nom nom nom nom
05/03/2010 at 21:14 Tyraa Rane says:
@ Ketch
HL and Portal are already linked, albeit by a thin thread. Black Mesa gets a few mentions in Portal (some slides detailing Black Mesa as Aperture’s competitor, and of course, “maybe Black Mesa / that was a joke, ha ha, fat chance!”). And the Borealis in HL2 is an Aperture Science ship.
Though maybe if we’re lucky we’ll get even more info connecting the two in Portal 2. (Since that would just be the awesome frosting for this totally excellent cake.)
05/03/2010 at 21:15 jsutcliffe says:
Hmm, so trying to correct some broken line spacing gets me marked as a spammer, eh? Maybe if I advertised viagra or college papers in my post it’d baffle the spam filter and let my post through.
REPOST:
More info from Game Informer (via Destructoid) and a hastily-removed product description at GameStop:
Portal 2 will have a co-op mode with new playable characters and a completely separate campaign from the single-player game. GLaDOS (obviously) makes another appearance. GameStop lists a release date of October 26.
Gamestop page with truncated product description: http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=77276
Original product description:
“Coming this holiday. Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007′s Game of the Year and draws from the award-winning formula of innovative game play, story, and music that earned the original over 70 industry accolades. Features single and multiplayer co-op modes.Portal 2 draws from the award-winning formula of innovative gameplay, story, and music that earned the original Portal over 70 industry accolades and created a cult following. The single-player portion of Portal 2 introduces a cast of dynamic new characters, a host of fresh puzzle elements, and a much larger set of devious test chambers. Players will explore never-before-seen areas of the Aperture Science Labs and be reunited with GLaDOS, the occasionally murderous computer companion who guided them through the original game. The game’s two-player cooperative mode features its own entirely separate campaign with a unique story, test chambers, and two new player characters. This new mode forces players to reconsider everything they thought they knew about portals. Success will require them to not just act cooperatively, but to think cooperatively.”
05/03/2010 at 21:34 Noc says:
Re: Editing:
Yeah, I had that happen too. Since the extent of my editing was to put the words “new” and “edition” adjacent to each other, I assumed that that just set off some flags my original post didn’t? But if this is happening to other folks for similarly inoccuous changes, there might be something screwy in the edit function.
Hmm.
06/03/2010 at 02:50 Fumarole says:
Don’t rule out that RPS simply are not New Edition fans.
05/03/2010 at 21:22 Serenegoose says:
Even though I don’t think it’s true and I wouldn’t want it to be true, it’d be vaguely interesting if the co-operative campaign had one player playing as Glados and the other a test subject, perhaps using the labs to defend against the combine. Glados doesn’t want her sovereignty ended, and another test subject would definitely be the lesser evil. It will however undoubtedly be interesting to see how valve manage to make their most single player of single player games work as both a single player and co-op game.
05/03/2010 at 21:35 Shalrath says:
I’m sure a certain Cargo Cult would love to do that, as it’s straight out of Marathon ;)
05/03/2010 at 21:31 Vadermath says:
Yay! Awesome.
@All the people comparing this to L4D2: Screw you, gentlemen. Let us not forget that Portal and HL are much more complicated beasts than L4D. If they decide to make a sequel to Portal, they’ll do it right. They’ve decided to do so, hence the following: They’ll do it right.
Seems that GLaDOS and Aperture Science are a tad less clean and shiny this time around…
05/03/2010 at 21:52 Leelad says:
My Mini rant deletedficated..
My apologies.
05/03/2010 at 22:22 Pantsman says:
Co-op? Amazing.
Looks like this could be a full game, as opposed to the bite-sized morsel of the first game. That would be…well, amazing.
06/03/2010 at 01:04 Fumarole says:
What, exactly, was missing from Portal to deny it full-game status, pray tell?
06/03/2010 at 01:08 HexagonalBolts says:
It was very short?
06/03/2010 at 02:51 Fumarole says:
I say again: what was missing?
06/03/2010 at 03:48 Tyshalle says:
Why are you quibbling? You know exactly what he’s saying.
Jesus, internet people are assholes purely for the sake of being assholes.
06/03/2010 at 03:59 Fumarole says:
Yes, I know what he’s saying, and what he’s saying doesn’t answer my question. Since you’ve decided to take up the cause and defend the helpless, perhaps you can answer it? Or could it be that there is no good answer?
06/03/2010 at 05:04 Aisi says:
“I’m a shallow gamer who expects quantity, not quality!!”
Now can we be done with this? :P
Diff’rnt strokes..
06/03/2010 at 07:54 bill says:
What was missing?
All the filler that game devlelopers usually use to pad out games so that many people never finish them, that’s what was missing!
I demand my filler! I actually got to the end of portal before I got bored of filler! It was disgraceful!
06/03/2010 at 13:10 Dante says:
I think he’s saying he’d be happy if portal 2 was a standalone release, with the additional material that implies, rather than one facet of a bundle. No that the Orange Box isn’t amazing, but with nothing else on the horizon we have to assume portal 2 will be it’s own beast.
Now calm down kids.
08/03/2010 at 06:32 Tyshalle says:
Portal was what? Like a 2-3 hour long game? And 3 years later they’re still asking for like $20.00 for it?
I’m not suggesting it’s not a spectacular game. I’m not even suggesting that it’s not worth the twenty bucks (though I am not sure that I’d pay that much for it). But likewise, I don’t think it’s too outrageous for someone to hope that Portal 2 lasts a bit longer than two hours. And the argument that “2 hours of tightly packed awesomeness is better than 20 hours of padded filler game” doesn’t hold any water whatsoever, because it doesn’t have to be either or. Half-Life 2 was what? Like 25 hours long? Was pretty awesome all the way through, too.
So yes, hopefully Portal 2 will be longer. You can feel free to hope that it will only be about two hours long, but as someone who really loved the hell out of that game, I seriously hope that I can spend some serious amounts of time in it.
05/03/2010 at 22:24 Web Cole says:
Co-op portal puzzlin’? I amend my previous comment to :
YES! YES! YES!
05/03/2010 at 22:31 Wulf says:
Portal with co-op would be a glee inducing thing.
05/03/2010 at 22:34 Lambchops says:
Co-op will probably only work if you’re in the room with the person though – so probably not as good for the PC version as for the XBox one.
I know I would have a struggle of a time explaining to people my rationales for trying things in single player portal – never mind having to do some of the more complex portal shennanigans simultaneously with someone else.
would be brilliant as a split screen thing on a console though.
05/03/2010 at 22:35 mister_d says:
Co-op Portal you say? That sounds… not so good. Hopefully it’s just some optional extra mode and not the meat of the game.
05/03/2010 at 22:43 jsutcliffe says:
It’s a completely separate campaign from the single-player game.
05/03/2010 at 22:56 Urthman says:
Poor Jonathan Coulton. Either Valve didn’t invite him to try to top “Still Alive” for Portal 2, or they did.
I have no idea which would be worse.
05/03/2010 at 23:06 Rick says:
I don’t buy all this “this is like L4D2, too soon” rubbish (even if I still stand by that in regards to L4D2 and as such its still the only Valve game I don’t have). Unlike L4D2, w’ve known that this was coming for months, if not years, especially since Valve had said “if we get a good response and people want us to, we’ll make another!”, to which they got a good response with people asking for more Portal. Bring it on!
06/03/2010 at 02:32 Shalrath says:
Too soon? It’s been three years!
05/03/2010 at 23:20 OldOneEye says:
Game Informer confirmed the Co-op info from the now-edited Gamestop preorder page:
http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/03/05/Portal-2-For-Two.aspx
06/03/2010 at 01:09 Frosty says:
How can self respecting PCgamers compare Portal 2 to Left5Dead? Christ there are some people that will just shit on anything.
Did you not like Left 4 Dead 2? I didn’t. You know what I did? I didn’t buy it. Oh, genius!
The most exciting announcement of the year but still some people insist on shitting on it. I know this is the internet and I know I’m stupid to respond but it just makes me so angry! GARRRRR ANGRY INTERNET FACE ON!
06/03/2010 at 04:26 MD says:
:-[
06/03/2010 at 01:38 Jayt says:
holy tits balls etc, can’t wait.
06/03/2010 at 02:31 Shalrath says:
Not sure if anyone saw this, or mentioned it here, but (I found this cute) a bunch of letters were underlined in the Portal 2 News on the Steampowered website; they spell:
drattman h0nee
Hehehe.
06/03/2010 at 02:44 Dominic White says:
I’d just like to point out that Portal 2 isn’t new news. Valve put out a casting call for someone to play as Cave Johnson, along with a character portrait and backstory details for him back in mid-2008. That was effectively announcing that it was in development, there and then. It’s years-old news.
They’ve just managed to keep things really hush-hush until then, which is pretty impressive.
06/03/2010 at 04:33 cata says:
Answer what? What was missing? Part of the game was missing. It was very short. Many games are much longer. People like longer games because there is more to play. Big-name single-player games typically have a certain length which Portal lacks. It is missing that length. What is the magic word you are looking for?
06/03/2010 at 04:47 Vinraith says:
@cata
He could have saved himself some grief (and you as well) if he’d said “full length game” instead of “full game.”
06/03/2010 at 05:02 Fumarole says:
Vinraith basically hit the nail on the head with that one. To me Portal was pure distilled gaming awesomeness. I do get flabbergasted when people find fault with it. I suppose I should not be surprised with finding imprecise writing on the interwebs.
06/03/2010 at 07:56 bill says:
= filler
06/03/2010 at 10:10 DJ Phantoon says:
And people keep forgetting Portal originally came in the a ridiculous bargain box buy at five games for$50 including the new TF2 and HL2EP2 with HL2 and HL2EP1 to be gifted away if you already had them.
Honestly, I think they only reason people complain is because they were given so damn much and think they’re entitled.
What the hell do these people want, anyways? Cake?
06/03/2010 at 14:10 R3D says:
the only people i found that thought portal was too short where people who dyed in the fire and thought wow thats a depressing end.
06/03/2010 at 06:33 GLOWi says:
I don’t think Portal 2 comes too soon, I think that Ep3 (HL3) comes too late.
The Prtal 2 announcement as an AAA standalone title pushes chances of Ep3′s arrival away.
I would much prefer Valve to finish their job with the episodes before starting anything new.
I wouldn’t complain if HL had finished story at least partially, not a cliffhanger ending.
07/03/2010 at 00:36 FunkyBadger says:
Good.
Games with zero headcrabs > Games with more than zero headcrabs.
06/03/2010 at 06:44 Christian Louboutin Sale says:
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06/03/2010 at 07:51 bill says:
ignore this comment. it seems i need to comment once to get the reply function to work. Imagine it’s about ugg boots or something…
06/03/2010 at 08:28 Glove says:
What about Christian Louboutin shoes?
06/03/2010 at 11:31 bill says:
i don’t know what those are, but i’m sure RPS is a prime market!
It does actually seem that the reply button ONLY works after I have posted once. Interesting…
06/03/2010 at 08:00 bill says:
Geez. I guess I’m gonna have to find some online friend to play the co-op part with.
While it sounds like a good idea, it’ll be a bit galling to those that can’t experience it.
Also, I really hope they keep the length down to something like the original. If they decide that the have to pad it out to make it a “full length game” then it’s likely to wear out it’s welcome, unless they can introduce some new mechanics at regular points throughout the game.
Portal was one of the best examples of tight game design and pacing that i’ve ever seen.. it’d be a shame if they forgot that because some people judge things only by their length.
06/03/2010 at 08:35 ctdahl says:
… or they could be bundling it with anouther game or two, like a potential EP3. The holiday season is still 10 months away, plenty of time for Valve to fuck with our minds and heartstrings.
06/03/2010 at 10:18 the wiseass says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OflmIQ-Go0
Baby= me
Hand = Valve
06/03/2010 at 10:36 Heliosicle says:
Will there be cake?
06/03/2010 at 11:29 bitkari says:
Triumph, cake, etc.
06/03/2010 at 11:45 westyfield says:
It’s Portal, Jim, but not as we know it.
YEAAHHHHH!!!
06/03/2010 at 12:20 Hyoscine says:
@Fumarole
Some guy enjoyed Portal, and is hoping to enjoy more Portal in the future? Shit, best be all over that post…
Did the guy say the first wasn’t a full game? No. You did. So I guess you can stop policing this thread now?
06/03/2010 at 12:30 Bowlby says:
I’m probably one of the few people who thought Portal was good but not amazing. (You got me, I did fail the Voight-Kampff test.)
Hence, I really don’t care about this sequel – but if I did care, I wouldn’t be impressed by the inclusion of a co-op mode. I’d rather they’d spent that time developing the single player experience a bit more. That’s just me, though, and where my preferences lie.
06/03/2010 at 13:12 JuJuCam says:
Clearly the seperate co-op campaign is, in fact, HL2:E3
06/03/2010 at 14:15 Tobias says:
That’s awesome and all, but I won’t hold my breath till they’re all off beta and releasing on time.
06/03/2010 at 17:01 Pijama says:
Well, hopefully co-op won’t mess with the single-player experience. :)
Also: YAY
06/03/2010 at 18:29 lul says:
ah criky, jarated me off
06/03/2010 at 19:45 mister_d says:
Urgh, it’s simple. Some people don’t like co-op and are disappointed to hear that they might only enjoy half of the game.
It remains to be seen just how the single player / co-op breaks down. Though it’s perfectly valid to hope for a greater single player focus if that’s what you personally enjoy, just as holding the polar opposite opinion is equally valid. -_-’
06/03/2010 at 21:56 HermitUK says:
Given we really don’t know how the co-op content is going to play out, it seems a little odd to complain about its inclusion. I would personally expect the co-op content to be a seperate campaign to the main game, but I also would not be too surprised to see some means of playing it through alone – be that with an AI, or with the same story but edited puzzles for one player. That’s all baseless and wild speculation, mind, but Valve must have recognised from L4D that there are people who only want to play it single player.
I did note their use of the phrase “live fire” in the co-op announcement images (Viewable on http://portalwiki.net/index.php/APF_Images ). Immediatly suggested to me something involving androids.
06/03/2010 at 22:24 Kj says:
i want to know 2 things…..which “holiday” they mean, and how the coop works, both with portal guns, or something less symmetrical? these valve fellows are a tricksy lot
06/03/2010 at 22:26 TCM says:
No. That is stupid. The very idea of being upset at that is stupid.
Completely and totally.
06/03/2010 at 22:27 TCM says:
The frig? Why’d it get posted here instead of at the bottom of the comment list?
This was a response to Vinraith down there, incidentally.
06/03/2010 at 22:30 Vinraith says:
@TCM
The thread is scrambled due to some peculiar errors.
I find your lack of comprehension incomprehensible, so I guess we’ll have to leave it at that. Personally, I frequently find myself wishing a developer’s resources had been spent differently on a game and/or cursing the fact that I can’t find people to play a certain mode with. If you don’t, I guess good for you. In this case I’m fortunate not to have that problem, I’m very much looking forward to playing some Portal co-op, but I can certainly understand the frustration of folks that won’t be able to.
06/03/2010 at 22:37 TCM says:
But that’s not how resource spending works.
It isn’t “there is X amount of resources to spend on this game let us split it up to make coop and single player modes” it is “there is X resources to make single player and Y resources to make multiplayer”, they don’t affect each other. Two seperate teams work on each. It’s a commonly held and completely wrong misconception, I have spoken to at least two developers about this in the past. It’s wrong.
06/03/2010 at 22:39 TCM says:
As for being angry about not being able to play coop…Well, make some friends, gift them Portal 2. Or something. Or even find random jerks on the internet to play with. If your internet is too crappy to play online, that’s a personal problem.
>_>
06/03/2010 at 22:41 Vinraith says:
@TCM
There’s a finite supply of budget, there’s a finite supply of personnel, there’s a finite supply of time. Many developers may take the personnel pool, split it into two teams, give each of them a share of the budget, and tell one to make SP and one to make MP. That’s obviously not how it works on all games (some games don’t have MP, some games don’t have SP) and that’s obviously not the only way to divide resources.
For that matter, the presence or absence of MP fundamentally affects design priorities and directions. You can’t have an asymmetric multiplayer game, MP strategy games are inevitably more focussed on balance than narrative, and so on.
06/03/2010 at 23:04 TCM says:
The logic is fundamentally flawed, is all I’m saying. It’s a slippery slope. You might as well say devs should only work on one game at a time, to put all their personnel and resources into one project.
07/03/2010 at 00:40 FunkyBadger says:
TCM: that’s got absolutely nothing to do with what Vin’s written.
06/03/2010 at 23:19 Pantsman says:
I don’t think anyone has really been that irrational in defending Valve here. The complaint is indeed a nonsensical one; as someone rightly pointed out above, lack of co-op does not mean more single-player. Nothing has been lost by the addition of co-op.
06/03/2010 at 23:28 Starky says:
deleted – fixed below
06/03/2010 at 23:38 Urthman says:
Maybe we’ll actually be able to confront GLaDOS this time? The ending of Portal was surprisingly dark and grim, which was cool, but I’ve been itching to get revenge on that damned computer for dumping me (and the cube!) in that furnace.
07/03/2010 at 00:41 FunkyBadger says:
Nice.
07/03/2010 at 03:13 Santiago says:
Ah this saxons, amusing peoples.
Sometimes one takes a little step back from this modern world and then sees that, one culture, manages to control the oscillations of *subatomic particles*, tunneling their flow through special microscopic metal engravings, in such a way that not only such oscillations are propagated, but that *information* is transmitted within them. By some mysterious reason by fumbling with the engravings they manage to make the subatomic energy flow perform *calculations* on its own, without human assistance.
Then only two generations after such a development took place, this magnificent victory over the mystery of nature is used to *play games*, mainly within highly realistic *virtual worlds* that exists only encoded in the oscillations of *subatomic particles*.
But then, while in some parts of the world people eat dirt for a little fun, one guy seems *disappointed* that a *game* features the possibility of two human beings interacting in a virtual world thousands of miles away from each other using *equipment that costs about one week of labor* by a standard citizen… because he doesn’t like it so much really.
Really, I’ll take my step back forward. It all seems a joke from that distance.
07/03/2010 at 10:48 HermitUK says:
The GameInformer atricle from April has leaked onto the net in its entirity. Quite frankly, the game sounds awesome. Especially the co-op stuff (Which is a seperate campaign involving androids).
08/03/2010 at 07:36 Magic H8 Ball says:
I predict this time around it will be four hours long.
And a full $50. Because it’s a full, stand alone game, right.
08/03/2010 at 09:07 jarvoll says:
I shan’t comment on being taken for an anti-Valve fanatic, as I feel I’ve done my best to explain how far from the truth that is, and Vinraith has probably done a much better job at same.
I feel pretty disappointed that my opinion necessitates my being “pulled up” in the first place. I don’t understand how any thinking person can say that someone’s opinion and indeed *feelings* are wrong, and speak of me as though I were a naughty child who ought to be disciplined for having feelings others don’t share. I can certainly understand how the first sentence in my post my be taken for hyperbole, as it’s a rather absolute statement. However, I contend that even were it hyperbole, it would be exaggerated expression of my personal reaction, and so not subject to objective reason. Perhaps people don’t wish to read opinions that differ severely from their own; I would venture that the internet is probably not the ideal place to be, and comments threads in particular.
Saying that Portal 2 is ruined for me is, however, most likey not hyperbole. I thought I had explained *why* in my original post, and perhaps those accusing me of being wrong, ridiculous, silly, or confounded failed to read past the first sentence. Perhaps I simply expressed myself poorly, however, and so in service to those people (and to my wounded ego that yearns for defense), I offer the following explanation, which I hope shall elucidate my feelings without risk of being taken for “THIS IS TEH WORST MOVIE EVAR!!1″.
I am very introverted. On the Myers-Briggs personality scale, I have throughout my life scored 70 out of 70 on the introversion scale. I feel uncomfortable being outside my bedroom, not such that I can’t function in the world, but certainly such that I almost constantly yearn for solitude whenever I am not alone. Games are one way in which I can express this personality trait; I’m sure many people here are similar. Games-as-escapism is well documented. Portal, to me, represented one of the most wonderful escapes from the world I could ever imagine. It was, to begin with, a perfect game – also well documented. But it was also a game in which I was the only “person”. Oh sure, there was a computer, but clearly I’m comfortable with computers. It was a game in which I solved problems and achieved things without a single piece of help from, or contact with, anyone (contrast with HL2, for example, where I am just one albeit powerful member of a larger resistance, in whose presence I must often fight). It was a haven for me – Aperture Science my own private little getaway.
Hopefully, then, one can see how introducing ANY other character would immediately break this spell, and Portal 2 suddenly goes from More Paradise to Just Another Great Game From Valve, Only You Have to Share It With Someone Else Making It A Draining Experience Rather Than A Refreshing Experience. Playing a co-op game for me is like being outside, at uni, at work, at friend’s house. Sure, I can do it, but not for very long stints, and I need to come home to relax and recharge afterwards. I know this to be true from years of playing D&D and a year of playing a co-op shooter whose name, for safety, I shall not utter here. I find co-op gaming to be a mildly pleasant experience. It’s better than being at work, but worse than just about any other gaming experience I could be having. To have Portal 2 go from More Paradise to Worse Than Just About Any Other Gaming Experience is pretty disappointing to me, and so it is not hyperbole to say that the co-op has ruined it.
Of course, there is a single-player component as well. As said, I will in all likelihood love this as I love HL2 and episodes, and many other games. But it will never, to me, be as good as it might have been. There is a chance that the co-op mode will not have anything to do with the story, and instead function like the advanced maps did in the original: purely building on the puzzler gameplay without any intrusion into the fictional world at all. That, for me, is currently the best-case scenario, as I feel that that would make the minimal impact on my enjoyment of the presumably story-driven single-player component. This is similar, I think, to how I and many others here feel about MMOs: sure, the big world is great, but it’s ruined by all the other people breaking the illusion.
In summary: Portal, for me, was all about being alone. Co-op obviously breaks that, which in turn ruins the game for me. This is not something I am attempting to apply to anyone else, I am simply sharing my feelings on the matter. (In addition, I feel the frustration of missing out that only Vinraith, of my respondants, has seemed to understand.) If you find it difficult to understand how I feel this way, I’m sorry, but I can’t do much else to help you. However, I suggest that you are barking up the completely wrong tree if your reaction to this lack of understanding is to tell me that I’m ridiculous, silly, or “confounded” (whatever that means – sorry that I don’t quite know). I find it supremely narrow-minded to assume that when you can’t find a reason to think a certain way, then no-one else ever could, which is how I interpret phrases like “It’s a silly opinion” and “hyperbolic nonsense”. My opinion is, in fact, quite sensical; the only nonsense is treating it like an error of fact to be corrected.
08/03/2010 at 09:09 jarvoll says:
…and somehow this has ended up BEFORE my original post. Hmm. Well, even if no-one reads my reply, it was therapeutic to type it out.
14/05/2010 at 17:02 Revenger says:
it would be cool if you played as freeman XD dr freeman is epic