By Jim Rossignol on September 30th, 2011 at 7:53 pm.

Valve send word that their free DLC for Portal 2 will arrive on October 4th. Man, I totally already said all that in the headline! Here’s what I didn’t say, which was what Valve said: “In “Peer Review”, you and a friend will continue the story of loyal bots P-Body and Atlas as you puzzle your way through a mysterious new co-op test track and once again match wits with GLaDOS. The DLC also features a single player and co-op Challenge Mode, and leaderboards to compare Challenge Mode scores with friends and the Portal community.”
In other Portal news there’s more Songs TO Test by over here, and I’ve posted quite a special Portal fan video below. Thanks, Jeep!


Here’s hoping for a nice steep sale to go with it. It’s nice to see Valve giving this one some good post-release support.
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Its already only costs £20…
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Yes, it’s a $30 Steamworks game. That’s why I’m hoping for a sale.
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Best game of the year and we’re already expecting a sale below the price of £20 after just 6 months?
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“Best game of the year and we’re already expecting a sale below the price of £20 after just 6 months?”
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Well… fact is hardcopies of Portal 2 can be bought for 15 to 20 euro for several weeks now. So the Steam price should be well below that. But instead Steam asks 50% more! You’ve got to be very careful when buying on Steam. In some cases Steam asks even 200% to 400% more than what a regular retail hardcopy would cost you.
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“Expecting?” Not really. Hoping for? Sure, why not? I’m not planning to buy it until it’s at an acceptable price point based on its platform limitations and length, there’s no chance I’d ever drop $30 on it. When Valve gets around to offering it at a price point that works for people like me is up to them, of course, and if they’re still making good sales figures at $30 I’m certainly not going to blame them for keeping it up there.
As to “best game of the year,” I’m sure it is for you, I’m equally sure it won’t be for me.
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it’s 50% off dude
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To be fair to Valve, we are having an Indian summer over here in the Netherlands.
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Same here in the UK. Dunno what’s going on, but I miss my rainy days and my complaining about i… Oh, I’m complaining anyway. Well I miss the rain at least.
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Wow… same here in Québec, September was awesome, almost no rain and pretty hot, dunno what’s going on either… but ain’t complaining of course!
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Aw, I liked the other post more.
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Part of it, as a memorial:
Free DLC – my favourite kind of DLC. Yessir, I do enjoy not having to spend money, because then I can save it, store it up and build things from it, like a bed or a hat or a bookcase or a winerack. Portal 2′s first major chunk of DLC, now known to be know as Peer Review, will be resolutely no-pennies, and is due for release on October 4. But what will it contain? Stuff.
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thanks a lot Gnoupi, you deserve e-pastries !
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Free DLC again? Why cant they just stop with all the freeness and mod tool nonsense.
Whats next, free GAMES?!? Im shocked.
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Alien Swarm
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Portal 1. Twice.
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Sarcasm.
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Sarcasm? Never played that…
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Terrible news, friends.The scene release group known as Valve has struck again, announcing that they have already cracked the upcoming Portal 2 DLC! This DLC will soon be available to the masses via a new, dastardly form of DRM (tentatively dubbed “free”) which keeps anyone from paying the developers anything at all. I for one will not stand for it.
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Confession to make: I’ve not even finished the original Portal: it beat me. Beat me, I tells ya!
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I managed Portal but I still haven’t got more that halfway through HL2. I am ashamed :(
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How? How is this even possible?!
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nah that’s ok, it took me 3 years to sit down and get myself to finish HL2…
you just need to decide “ok, this week-end, Portal/Half-Life 2 !”, so : no multiplayer, no forums/comments, no news (well, do the minimum), only actual gaming :D
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Me too, I haven’t finished the first Portal yet. I got as far as the last ball on GladOS but after dying multiple times gave up. I should look up the ending on Youtube …
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Guys there’s a cute turret comic hidden in the Portal 2 Soundtrack website. :D
http://www.thinkwithportals.com/turret_comic/
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Thank you!
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Well, that explains why they can sing. It’s a feature!
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Oh hells yes.
Absolutely loved Portal 2, my personal game of the year so far. The single player was great but the coop was phenomenal; very much looking forward to more of it.
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DLC is such a cold term. They should call it something like an “Aperture Science Interactive Electronic Entertainment Enhancement Supplement”.
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How are you not making titles for Valve?
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And if you play your ASIEEES with a friend, we’ll throw in a free ASSTUS (Aperture Science Soft Textured Ursidae Simulacrum)
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Please note:
Aperture Science accepts no responsibility for damage resulting from the improper use of the Aperture Science Interactive Electronic Entertainment Enhancement Supplement.
Aperture Science accepts no responsibility for damage resulting from the proper use of the Aperture Science Interactive Electronic Entertainment Enhancement Supplement.
Aperture Science accepts no responsibility for damage resulting from accidental use as an Aperture Science Interactive Electronic Entertainment Enhancement Suppository.
Remember: Science is fun! Lets keep unnecessary suffering to a necessary minimum.
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I love you, Valve. My heart goes aflutter when you approach and I ogle your rear as you walk by. You’re the whole package, and not some shallow butterface like Ubisoft or EA. Be mine, Valve, and we’ll run off to a gumdrop palace in Neverneverland where they play nothing but the hamster dance song all day.
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Yay that it’s finally coming.
Yay soundtrack volume 3.
Boo Valve and their stupid Valve Time.
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I think this is the Valve Respect Chain at work, which I mentioned on the forums, and I’ve no doubt extends to their actual development people. What I suspect is going on here is that instead of Valve pushing people toward deadlines with excessive, soul-crushing crunch time (a la EA), they instead just extend the deadline.
They know we’re okay with it, so long as it’s good when it does arrive. Would it be good if part of it was developed in a rushed way (crunch time)? Well, mostly, but it would show, there’d be that lack of polish and professionalism. So instead, they just extend deadlines and give their development people more time to do stuff right at their own pace.
This is what we call Valve Time™.
I wish more developers and big publishers utilised Valve Time™. So far, only ArenaNet seems to other than Valve themselves.
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I’m not okay with it.
If you say you’re going to deliver in a month’s time, you deliver in a month’s time. If you can’t, you go “Sorry, but this is going to take longer than we anticipated”. You shouldn’t have to go “Oh, it’s just Valve being Valve” because it gives them an air of being exempt from normal business procedures.
Yes, they’re high quality games, but it’s clear Valve haven’t even got the faintest idea of how to stick to a deadline so they should probably pull a Blizzard and just stop giving dates.
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Blizzard does it too.
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No, they don’t. Blizzard say “Soon” like it’s going out of fashion. They rarely give dates unless they’re 100% certain of them.
Valve give actual time frames (e.g. “In August”) and then consistently fail to meet those time frames.
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, this ruins the whole theorie of them not being able to count to 3. Hence not having released Episode 3 / Half-Life 3.
http://i.imgur.com/lucGv.png
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That’s missing a Counter-Strike game (Soon to be two). The original Half-Life story was also made up of three parts (Half-Life, Blue Strike and Opposing Force).
Mind you, those two HL expansions were by Gearbox so likely don’t count. But still, CS is on its third ‘release’ iteration now, the fourth is on its way.
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But, But…
It doesn’t have the numer 3 next to it!
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And this is the first instance.
It’s baby steps. Like Bob always said, baby steps.
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Free is good – oh, wait … co-op only? Damn – maybe I should rethink my “friends are overrated” philosophy.
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I actually managed to find a friend who was willing to co-ordinate on Portal 2 co-op, only for us to spend hours trying to make the damn thing work. For some unknown reason we were getting truly massive amounts of lag—seconds’ worth. As in for the host the other player just didn’t move, and for the guest you couldn’t move. But occasionally you’d teleport somewhere.
No idea why since both of us have fine connections and all the sundry Steam/Source ports were forwarded. Most annoying.
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“The DLC also features a single player and co-op Challenge Mode, and leaderboards to compare Challenge Mode scores with friends and the Portal community”
That’s what I thought, but there’s single-player goodness too
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How dare they! I refuse to buy this!
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Have you guys noticed this??
http://www.thinkwithportals.com/turret_comic/#1
From the music page
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it’s almost time to redoing some testing! thanks Valve
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That video is amazing, so well-made.
Compy 386 – Strongbad reference!
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Plus Office Space’s “PC Load Letter”. Also, at 12:23, Futurama.
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I do think they really nailed it at times in that.
And the fact it’s 20 minutes long – damn, some work really went into it!
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Marvellous
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Excellent news, the co-op mode was fantastic.
Hopefully they’ll work in a self-contained single player story that makes use of the much-hyped F-Stop at some point as well.
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Great news :D
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hei guys now that we have all the songs from the game,my question is: what’s your favorite song?
mine is “the turret song”,so “cara mia addio”..of course i love “want you gone” and the less recognizable but really good “the friendly faith plate”,i like electro music..
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Those are all good choices. I’d add Robots FTW. Also Exile Vilify / Chell in the Rain, but that’s old news now.
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Top sex films, Sex tool for sell that you will like them ,welcome to http://url7.me/5ph4
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Yay, finally!
I have been looking for a sex tool for sell that you will like them for a long time!
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You misled me, Jim. You said it was due on the fourth, but next Wednesday is the fifth. Considering what time of day Valve usually unlocks these things, it might even be the sixth in the UK!
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I was just listening to the soundtrack in the background as I flicked through a book, then all of a sudden I got a chill down my spine and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up – it was the GLaDOS theme. Slow, deliciously menacing, and dripping with contempt. The music of Portal 2 is so evocative, but I keep even forgetting it is there it complements the action so well.
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Sweet! Some more single player action, very good news. Hopefully whaterever they add is somehwat intellectually stimulating. Enjoyed Portal 2 but it was pretty easy.
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FREE DLC = PATCH?
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No.
= extra content. For free.
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Well, once upon a time good developers did used to give extra content in patches; an extra multiplayer map or two wasn’t uncommon, or some new units if it was an RTS. The Unreal Tournaments are a great example of free stuff in patches and bonus packs, back when Epic loved us.
DLC is just today’s buzzword. (I remember when the paid-for ones were mission disks or expansion packs…)
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Who cares what it’s called as long as its free ;)
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Next Wednesday = 5th
Why every gaming site is saying it is 4th?
“Oh yeah, by the way, before we forget, the first Portal 2 DLC, “Peer Review” will be out next Wednesday. For free.”
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I’m kind of hoping they would take advantage of the new test subjects found at the end of the co op with this.
Imagine if for this DLC you play a random test subject and instead of reloading, when you die you respawn as another random test subject. Your previous play being revealed to have been a recording shown to the next test subject along with Glados saying something sarcastic like “try not to get yourself killed like he did”.
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it’s a good idea but from what i read all the new test chambers will be focused on P-body and Atlas so i think we will not see that..
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