By Jim Rossignol on June 29th, 2010 at 9:40 am.
We’ve already seen the trailer, but there was also some footage of Portal 2 in action at E3, and Valve have just released the direct feed. It’s mildly spoilerish, and introduces a new character, as well as gives us a glimpse of an old one. It also makes me flush with anticipation for Portal 2. On the Universal List Of Reasons To Be Excited this can be entered quite high.
29/06/2010 at 09:47 Saul says:
What’s the point of even living out 2010, now that this isn’t coming out til next year?
29/06/2010 at 09:56 sfury says:
Mafia II
29/06/2010 at 09:57 Rich says:
Oh please, please let the voice of that personality sphere be a place holder.
29/06/2010 at 09:58 Jim Rossignol says:
I don’t think they would show a placeholder… But apparently I am wrong.
29/06/2010 at 10:00 DoucheMullet says:
It is a placeholder. Valve said it was a placeholder voice from one of the level designers or something.
29/06/2010 at 10:02 Plagiarism says:
I might have to mute that voice and turn on the descriptive audio, and pretend that the protagonist has an IMPLANTED COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE! behind their ear.
It would be less annoying.
On the other hand, really looking forward to the rest of the game.
29/06/2010 at 10:03 Rich says:
The voice wouldn’t be so terrible if they made it sound robot-like, like GLaDOS.
I don’t suppose you have a reference, DoucheMullet. Did they say that at E3?
29/06/2010 at 10:13 Fuu says:
Firstly the voice is annoying but secondly it also ruins the scene by talking over it.
29/06/2010 at 10:14 AndrewC says:
Oh cripes, I’m really the same with the english guy’s voice. I don’t know if it’s just because i’m less forgiving of an English accent because it is closer to home, but it feels badly done, like Hollyoaks acting, like someone gamely ‘acting’ the lines rather than inhabiting the character.
I dunno the critical language for talking about voice acting so i’ll leave it to an emotional reaction: Ugh!
Can’t wait for the game!
29/06/2010 at 10:31 Rich says:
Close to home for me too AndrewC.
It just sounds like some guy they found in the pub.
29/06/2010 at 10:35 duel says:
I was listening to it thinking, some people are going to be really put off by his voice. But it didn’t seem to bother me so much, I kinda liked it.
29/06/2010 at 10:37 vanarbulax says:
The voice is most definitely ,a placeholder. Though for some reason people appear to be petitioning already to have him kept. I honeslty don’t know why though.
29/06/2010 at 10:43 terry says:
This a zillion times. I realise that it was probably done in a super-rush but that sounded like some sort of fanfic project.
29/06/2010 at 10:49 Tei says:
Graphics artist use a *very* ugly color ( 0xFF00FF ) for placeholders. Maybe this is the equivalent. A voice so ugly, no one would want to have that.
Anyway is kinda realistic (in a “Fun Facts” kind of way): you can imagine the IA experts on Aperture Science will use one of the tecnicians voice for his new prototype. Hell.. use a placeholder. The whole game Portal take place in a laboratory-like area, and placeholders make sense there.
But I think whatever Valve put there, will be more awesome. Realism could be dull, and you don’t want dull on games.
29/06/2010 at 10:51 Tei says:
Heres a youtube video of the most evil color ever.
29/06/2010 at 11:20 GGX_Justice says:
It’s a temporary voice, from the voice actor himself:
http://lastoutpostofsanity.com/2010/06/tempvoice/
So, while it’s confirmed by VALVe to be a placeholder, there’s currently a massive petition in the Portal 2 forums to keep the voice:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1310678
If you feel strongly about the subject, I’d voice it there.
29/06/2010 at 11:29 The Hammer says:
I did KINDA like it, but Rich and AndrewC make good points: it needs to sound more computerised, and it needs to sound less obviously like acting. I dig the accent, though.
29/06/2010 at 13:13 Gabriel says:
You kidding right?
This is the best voice they could have ever put!
What do you think is wrong with the voice?
29/06/2010 at 13:29 Web Cole says:
It wasn’t the best voice acting, perhaps, but the whole thing still had me smiling like a loon :D
29/06/2010 at 14:39 tomeoftom says:
Wow, Tei, you’re right! That is horrible. I didn’t even know solid colours could even be straight-out ugly like that.
29/06/2010 at 15:35 JonFitt says:
My immediate reaction to Wheatly ‘s voice was shock at the poor acting, but it grew on me. Probably because of the writing, but if they could get him to do a high quality reading and add some synth to the voice it could be good.
29/06/2010 at 15:40 Pmeie says:
I thought the voice acting of the sphere definitely needed some dramatic / comedic pauses added in, and to be brushed up a bit generally.
What they were going for could still definitely work nicely though, imo.
29/06/2010 at 16:41 Dave says:
The voice itself is fine, but it needs retakes, robo-processing has to happen to it, and it needs to not talk over GLaDOS so much.
29/06/2010 at 17:29 Polysynchronicity says:
I really quite like the current voice. Could definitely use some polishing but now that I’ve seen him with this one, I’m worried it’ll just sound wrong without it. :|
29/06/2010 at 18:45 Hodge says:
I like the voice, but only if Tom Chick doesn’t.
29/06/2010 at 19:10 origo says:
that ball doesnt sound like robot. Speaking of robot voices, there’s star wars’ C-3PO, there’s HAL and there’s Bender. Wonder whtich one would suit this ball the best :)
29/06/2010 at 23:05 frymaster says:
I really really liked the voice :(
It was so totally different from GLaDOS
30/06/2010 at 11:21 Rane2k says:
I think the voice has a certain charme to it, wouldn´t mind if they keep it.
Tei: Haha, yeah, I saw that color a lot when dabbling in Quake level editing. :-)
Fun thing: It is also the trademark color of a large (the largest?) german ISP, talk about good taste.
It´s also rather annoying, seeing as I have a DSL modem with trims in that color.
30/06/2010 at 19:42 WiPa says:
Plz to be getting rid of horribly annoying, out of place voice. Kthxbai.
29/06/2010 at 09:59 teo says:
The other parts are available everywhere, they’re just not on the GT frontpage
29/06/2010 at 10:18 duel says:
do you have a link? youtube throws up all the e3 footage but not this.
29/06/2010 at 11:13 Samuel Bigos says:
http://www.alttabbed.com/e3-portal-2-in-depth/
29/06/2010 at 10:20 HexagonalBolts says:
I like his voice!
29/06/2010 at 10:23 misterk says:
Theres only one appropriate response to that. Eeeeeeeeeeeee.
29/06/2010 at 10:25 James Benson says:
For the record, the voice is one of the animators at Valve. They have said they are not yet certain if they will use it in the final game or get in a professional VO.
29/06/2010 at 10:26 Helm says:
oh no! exposition bot! Well, the Portal writer is good so I’m not too scared but a NPC was the last thing I was expecting Portal to need.
29/06/2010 at 17:58 Santiago says:
Absolutely concur, leave me alone with the damn thing, it’s a puzzle game!
29/06/2010 at 10:28 Skystrider says:
Am I the only one who thinks Matt Weinhold would be perfect in the role as Wheatley? I loved his performance as Arthur in the Journeyman Project 2 and 3 – one of my favourite ingame companions ever. That said, the current voice ain’t that bad either. Looks promising, so I’ll treat this the way I treat all unreleased games: careful optimism and general avoidance until its released.
29/06/2010 at 11:53 Skystrider says:
…and only half an hour after I made my post, Buried in Time appears at GOG! One hell of a coincidence! Promise!
Anyway, that’s a mighty great game too. Go buy!
29/06/2010 at 10:51 Arienette says:
I didn’t mind the voice that much, thought the cheeky British accent suited the lines. That said, the guy could do with a few lessons if they’re to keep the voice.
29/06/2010 at 10:51 brog says:
sphere needs to shut the hell up if sphere doesn’t want to be thrown in a pit and left behind. please just give me some peace and quiet to explore.
glados’ chatter was at the perfect level in portal. this is far too much.
29/06/2010 at 10:55 Rich says:
I think you can trust to get the balance right. They corner the market on characterisation.
29/06/2010 at 10:59 Dave says:
If that English voice wasn’t such a cliche i’d be wetting my pants right now.
Even more worrying is the brief lapse into a Yorkshire accent “we’ve doon noothing wrong”. So not only is it a terrible cliche in itself, but it would appear its not even consistent!
29/06/2010 at 13:16 Flobulon says:
Yeah, that was more than little bit bizarre. It would make for an amusing malfunction though, if he switched regional accents whenever he received a heavy blow.
29/06/2010 at 13:41 Gabriel says:
That english cliche voice is the real voice of Rich Lord, one of the animators working on Portal 2 right now, so saying it’s inconsistent is a rather misinformed opinion.
But apparently it’s also a placeholder voice. Wheatley in the final release will have a diferent voice (which as for me is a real shame, I’d prefer a lot more this voice. They could’ve just give him some voice acting lessons and let hime voice wheatley the entire game).
29/06/2010 at 11:00 Garg says:
Seems that people are getting the impression from this trailer that you have a nattering sphere following you around the entire game. The impression I got from watching the other trailers is that he’s only there for a fraction of the game, leaving you in peace to ponder the puzzles.
29/06/2010 at 15:35 Dominic White says:
It’s almost as if you can get a limited perspective on a game from a tiny bit of gameplay footage showing just one scene with limited content.
The sad thing is that this needs to be pointed out to people. And even then, a lot won’t believe it.
29/06/2010 at 11:01 Anthony says:
I like the voice, so neener.
29/06/2010 at 11:14 FatRat says:
I love what Wheatley says, its hilarious. I’m just not sold on his voice…which apparantly is a place holder…the dude who’s voice it is has said so:
http://lastoutpostofsanity.com/blog/
29/06/2010 at 11:34 The Hammer says:
Oh god, Glados was AWESOME there.
29/06/2010 at 11:45 Rosti says:
“We’ve both said a lot of things that you’re going to regret.”
29/06/2010 at 11:42 Rosti says:
Ah!, it’s the Tutorial Sphere! All good, then. Looking forward to more Portal-thinks next year.
29/06/2010 at 11:56 TheApologist says:
That voice stood out as well below Valve voice acting standards, I reckon.
But GLaDOs, oh, it’s so good to hear you again.
29/06/2010 at 12:03 Curvespace says:
“Ahhhh mum’s been at it again…………Tastes like….Chicken!”
(someone will get this reference)
29/06/2010 at 12:07 Gary W says:
They should get Tak Fujii or that Dance Masters guy to do the voice.
Anyway, good to see that there’s an annoying ‘bot’ that tells me exactly what’s happening. Can I have a giant quest compass in the middle of the screen also?
29/06/2010 at 12:09 The Dark One says:
I liked the voice and you’re a bunch of jerks if you aren’t of the same mind.
29/06/2010 at 13:17 The Hammer says:
You’re just factually incorre- oh.
29/06/2010 at 18:14 El Stevo says:
I hope they leave this voice in as an option.
29/06/2010 at 12:29 Mad Hamish says:
I’m guessing most of the people objecting to the voice are english, which is understandable I guess. If it was Irish it would annoy the hell out of me, especially if it was a dub.
But I liked the voice acting, watching it I had no idea it was a place holder take. Now I’m not some american here the english accent has no foreign charm for me but damn it if I didn’t warm to the little orb guy.
29/06/2010 at 12:57 benjamin says:
At first I hated the voice but it kind of grew on me. Loved Glados though! She looked and sounded so delightfully mental!
29/06/2010 at 13:15 Gabriel says:
Cool!
Now we can watch those videos that have been on youtube for weeks, but in HD!
Shame part 2 and 3 weren’t as awesome as the first one.
Needs more Wheatley!
29/06/2010 at 13:29 Ilinx says:
It definitely sounded placeholdery, but I still liked it all the same. Anyone else think it sounded a little bit like Noel Fielding? With a bit of computerizing, it could work.
I thought there were also rules about having to use proper voice actors for games – something to do with actors guilds or summat? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
29/06/2010 at 13:32 Ilinx says:
Ugh, that was a reply to the 2nd post. Oh, just forget it.
29/06/2010 at 13:32 Marcin Tasz says:
Am I the only one who loves what they’re doing with GLADos? The voice is done perfectly, and its turning into more sing-songy as it goes along. I love the way the line of “How have you been?” is almost sung. If they can keep her doing the voice with slight modulation, half singing the lines, in tune with the music the entire game… Wow. Just Wow. Also, the emotion and plain craziness conveyed in the line of “I’ve been really busy…. being dead. Because you murdered me.” is wonderful.
29/06/2010 at 13:36 dartt says:
I also hope they change the voice. I don’t mind the accent at all but I don’t think the actual delivery is very strong, not up there with what I’ve personally come to expect from Valve voice acting.
I do hope it doesn’t stay as it is, a robotic filter might help iron out the wrinkles but employing a pro would be ideal; good voice acting requires talent and it seems a shame to make do with an amateur when every other aspect has such a professional finish.
29/06/2010 at 14:35 Diziet says:
Please god let that be a place holder, it would kill it for me. also is it ricky gervais? It might explain it..
29/06/2010 at 17:03 Samuel Bigos says:
If Valve had Ricky Gervais as a placeholder, what would they get for the real voice-over? :D
29/06/2010 at 14:46 tomeoftom says:
Having the NPCs actually held in the player’s hands is super-clever, for a lot of reasons.
29/06/2010 at 14:48 mlaskus says:
I love Wheatley’s approach to hacking passwords.
29/06/2010 at 17:31 Polysynchronicity says:
IT’s the same method I used to use to crack combination locks as a kid. 000, 001, 002, 003, 004…
In hindsight there was probably a better way to do it.
29/06/2010 at 14:58 Scundoo says:
Good go, that voice was terrible!
It was like Ewan McGregor as Obi Kenobi. Urk…..
29/06/2010 at 14:59 Scundoo says:
*d
29/06/2010 at 15:48 suibhne says:
I can’t believe nobody’s commented on the oddness of Wheatley being carried in front of you as if he’s floating in midair, with no apparent interaction with either your hands or your portal gun.
29/06/2010 at 16:29 Taillefer says:
Should have been Eddie Izzard trying password: “Jeff”.
Actually, now I’m going feel disappointed that he isn’t in it. Or Is He?
29/06/2010 at 18:22 Vandelay says:
Eddie Izzard in Portal would be amazing.
The voice definitely did stand out when I watched this after the videos leaked a while back. It is obviously a place holder though. Was still laughing at the dialogue.
29/06/2010 at 16:37 sigma83 says:
I found the turret saying ‘Hello?’ so perfectly sad. Listen to it again. It’s actually pretty heart-tuggy.
29/06/2010 at 17:31 FernandoDante says:
What are you British wankers all whining about? I thought that voice was pretty funny.
29/06/2010 at 18:00 indirectx says:
Thought the voice was fine. Loved the animations though, the eye rolling and the “no, thankyou.” animation was excellent.
29/06/2010 at 18:08 Megazver says:
The video is awesome. The voice was a bit rough, but I liked it. I hope they put in an option to use either of the voice-overs.
29/06/2010 at 18:11 egoben says:
I didnt find the voice so bad, maybe because I am from germany.
But the video: hilarious! AAAAAA, AAAAAB :D
Also GLaDOS is as fun as shes ever been.
29/06/2010 at 18:36 IncredibleBulk92 says:
MTV are saying it’s a temp voice too.
Thank god
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/06/29/portal-2-e3-demo-in-glorious-direct-feed-hdits-like-you-were-there/
29/06/2010 at 19:30 Camilo says:
Too excited to keep typing.
29/06/2010 at 21:33 BarerRudeROC says:
I personally think that Wheatleys voice is perfect.
29/06/2010 at 22:27 GetOutOfHereStalker says:
i’m calling it glados is a comebine and here’s why.
glados has smooth rounded edges like a mac combine stuff has smooth rounded edges like a mac also steve jobs is a traitor
29/06/2010 at 23:39 GreatUncleBaal says:
Kinda felt that the last bit – meeting GLaDOS again – was spoiled somewhat by the new companion’s interjections – “You know her?” – “You did WHAT?” – it would have been just as funny (funnier in fact) and more sinister without any comedy sidekick spiel. I agree with people who feel this should be just you exploring a puzzle with GLaDOS as your tormentor – no more is really necessary.
But perhaps a minor point, as it’s mostly looking to be another utterly brilliant game.