Portal 2

krudler

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Just a few levels past the light bridges now and I'm finding it far too easy. The level design so far pretty much gives you a road map of how to proceed by virtue of having so few wall panels that can actually hang portals. I'm enjoying it, but there's no challenge compared to the original.

I was thinking the same. errr, yeahh, that changed pretty quick lol

Healium

I saw this yesterday, and it's after getting a huge spike in views since then. Plus, it gets funnier every time I see it. Frankly, I had to resist creating a new thread, because I think it deserves one

Left 4 Portal 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lICcfdftF0

Colibri

Darn religious holiday keeping shops closed :P I want this todayyyyyyyyyy

jenga-jen

Trying to find somewhere that has this in stock for Xbox 360 for the OH >_<

Coupled with the fact the PS3 network's down.... *sigh*

If anyone sees copies anywhere in Dublin lemme know please?

Notorious

jenga-jen wrote: »

If anyone sees copies anywhere in Dublin lemme know please?

Game in Dundrum has a ridiculous amount. It's closed today though.

kearneybobs

jenga-jen wrote: »

If anyone sees copies anywhere in Dublin lemme know please?

I think Tesco in Rathfarnham (among a few other stores) is open. Not too sure though. Ring and check

calex71

xtra-vision is open today I think, as well as some of the tesco shops.

Not sure about the tesco in rahtfarnham but the one in nutgrove is closed i think, remember seeing a sign during the week , not the sign could have easily read open but I wasn't paying too close attention but there is an xtra vision right beside that one which will be open.

Colibri

Does anyone know if Tesco sell PC games? :P

kearneybobs

Colibri wrote: »

Does anyone know if Tesco sell PC games? :P

Nope. But they do sell the PS3 version which you get a copy for the PC inside the PS3 box.
BUT you cant register the PC copy because the PSN is down. It's killing me. Want my first playthrough to be on PC. Resisting temptation to do it on the PS3 though.

Colibri

kearneybobs wrote: »

Nope. But they do sell the PS3 version which you get a copy for the PC inside the PS3 box.
BUT you cant register the PC copy because the PSN is down. It's killing me. Want my first playthrough to be on PC. Resisting temptation to do it on the PS3 though.

I was in the same dilemma. Ended up wanting the PC version - simply because I just find it more convenient to game on my laptop than on my ps3 (with an SD TV). Cross play too so it's no difference to me


edit: oh and the price

johnny_ultimate

Just finished the SP and have not a bad thing to say about it. Ending was the best I've seen in a game for a long time - funny, exciting, funny, epic and funny. Wouldn't say it was too short at all - much longer than the first, doesn't outstay its welcome, plenty of variety & new tricks. All the new gimmicks work much better than I imagined they would, and the last couple of 'tests' where you have to put them all together are ingenious level design. A few head scratchers for a while (when you know what you have to utilise, but how being the question) but nothing beats that grin when you figure it out.

Honestly, this game is close to perfect, Valve again proving themselves masters. Would have liked more

Half-Life links bar the token Borealis cameo and a brief mention of Black Mesa

and

the ending song isn't quite as hilarious as Still Alive (but still hilarious)

but serious nitpicking. Portal 2 is the kind of imaginative, perfectly paced, gameplay driven and well-written game we don't get nearly enough of. It's more than a worthy sequel, and I have co-op left to go (thanks Sony for the involuntary delay).

quarryman

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Just finished the SP and have not a bad thing to say about it. Ending was the best I've seen in a game for a long time - funny, exciting, funny, epic and funny. Wouldn't say it was too short at all - much longer than the first, doesn't outstay its welcome, plenty of variety & new tricks. All the new gimmicks work much better than I imagined they would, and the last couple of 'tests' where you have to put them all together are ingenious level design. A few head scratchers for a while (when you know what you have to utilise, but how being the question) but nothing beats that grin when you figure it out.

Honestly, this game is close to perfect, Valve again proving themselves masters. Would have liked more

Half-Life links bar the token Borealis cameo and a brief mention of Black Mesa

and

the ending song isn't quite as hilarious as Still Alive (but still hilarious)

but serious nitpicking. Portal 2 is the kind of imaginative, perfectly paced, gameplay driven and well-written game we don't get nearly enough of. It's more than a worthy sequel, and I have co-op left to go (thanks Sony for the involuntary delay).

Thanks for that. Pretty much summarises my opinion too.

Here's my problem now though; I decided to play something else once I'd done with portal and NOTHING compares. Everything else feels inferior.

BopNiblets

Did anyone else not get their cross game items such as TF2 hats in Portal 2 and Portal 2 badge in TF2?
I can't seem to find them...

Healium

Just finished the co-op. Nearly put my controller through the TV with the last few levels. The very last level took us at least 20/30 minutes.

Raaaaaaaage.

Satisfaction of solving it, though

johnny_ultimate

quarryman wrote: »

Here's my problem now though; I decided to play something else once I'd done with portal and NOTHING compares. Everything else feels inferior.

Here's my problem with games in general. I love investing hours and hours into RPGs as much as the next gamer. But there's another type of gaming, the one that doesn't have you doing repetitive tasks over and over. They are games that don't overstay their welcome, instead taking mechanics and stretching them to their maximum and refusing point blank to overstay their welcome. Braid's one example, Vanquish another. Money never comes to mind with these games for me: Portal 2 may only be ten or so hours long (twenty with co-op, and that's hardly bad value!) but minute for minute there's more joy than your typical scene in Portal 2 than, for example, Elder Scrolls. That's a great game too, but traversing the same basic dungeon fifteen times eventually makes some of those 120 hours a grind. Game developers that understand pacing are super rare, the whole 'value for money' issue a strange argument for me. I'd rather nine or - hell - even six perfectly paced hours than one hundred stretched ones. I got fed up of the likes of Dead Space 2 and Dragon Age before they were over, despite their strengths and extended running times. With Portal 2, I was never bored. No trial is the same. There's always a new twist on existing physics.

I assure anyone who may question spending fifty euro on what is perceived to be a short game that it truly is worth the investment (or indeed wait until the inevitable Steam sale!). Portal 2, without any hyperbole, is seriously a one in ten thousand game, the rare kind that does our hobby proud.

killerhitman

Stephen Merchant voices Wheatley, the personality sphere

knew i recognised wheatlys voice from somewhere

quarryman

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Here's my problem with games in general. I love investing hours and hours into RPGs as much as the next gamer. But there's another type of gaming, the one that doesn't have you doing repetitive tasks over and over. They are games that don't overstay their welcome, instead taking mechanics and stretching them to their maximum and refusing point blank to overstay their welcome. Braid's one example, Vanquish another. Money never comes to mind with these games for me: Portal 2 may only be ten or so hours long (twenty with co-op, and that's hardly bad value!) but minute for minute there's more joy than your typical scene in Portal 2 than, for example, Elder Scrolls. That's a great game too, but traversing the same basic dungeon fifteen times eventually makes some of those 120 hours a grind. Game developers that understand pacing are super rare, the whole 'value for money' issue a strange argument for me. I'd rather nine or - hell - even six perfectly paced hours than one hundred stretched ones. I got fed up of the likes of Dead Space 2 and Dragon Age before they were over, despite their strengths and extended running times. With Portal 2, I was never bored. No trial is the same. There's always a new twist on existing physics.

I assure anyone who may question spending fifty euro on what is perceived to be a short game that it truly is worth the investment (or indeed wait until the inevitable Steam sale!). Portal 2, without any hyperbole, is seriously a one in ten thousand game, the rare kind that does our hobby proud.

Spot on.

My preference is RPG (with Oblivion being my all time favourite) but I will always acknowledge quality in another genre - Portal 2 is an example of that.

Healium

"Orange, did you know that you're not Blue's first co-operative partner?"

chrislad

Loving it so far. The worst review I have seen, from GameSpot I believe, lists the loading times as a fault. Says something like they're not long but you notice them. Talk about scraping the barrell!

JK Simmons is very good. The voice acting is fantastic. Stephen Merchant is excellent and it's actually very, very funny. You actually stop playing the game to listen.

"Neurotoxins falling to non-lethal levels. Warning. Neurotoxins falling to non-lethal levels"

Mr E

I'm avoiding spoilers, so I'm being very careful on this thread not to read anything that'll spoil it for me. I'm in what I assume is the 2nd half of the game (JK Simmons' part).

Absolutely loving it so far.

I'm hoping Valve releases DLC in a few months that unlocks challenge maps (or even a challenge map mode on the whole game that makes everything harder)

I can picture a lot of those early levels being really tough with the floor covered in water...

oneshotfinch

There's only around two or three test chambers for each idea (repulsion gel, light bridges etc) so I'd like to see challenge map DLC.

What I love the most about the game is the extra details. For example

When you get to The Part Where He Kills You, Hilarious. When you teleport off of the platform he has you trapped on, and then start to run away, and he says "Where are you going!? Come back!" If you actually go back, it's hysterical. He says, "Oh, I didn't think you'd actually come back. i wasn't ready for this. . . so . .. uh. . " Anyway, if you have't heard it, get to that point, and Turn back. Also. . . Jump into the pit when he tells you to.. Even more hilarity.

johnny_ultimate

Yeah challenge rooms would be a worthy addition. The advanced rooms in the first were more a combination of portal skills and twitchy trigger fingers. The SP in this is just portal skills. I certainly think that's a great design decision - none of the trials involve split-second timing - indeed, the one or two vertical portal challenges (i.e. the ones where you're in free-fall between two portals trying to blast an opening on one side) are the closest it comes to that, and even with them you can take your time and line up the shot. But yeah, having the seriously twitchy and hardcore advanced maps would be the most worthy DLC addition IMO - I'm extremely glad the SP sticks with a stable, accessible difficulty curve, but would be nice to have the super hard ones as an extra

And one more thing, and ending spoilers ahoy:

They need to make Portal 3 where they get outside Aperture in the haste. They keep taunting us with glimpses of the outside world, but we've still been confined gameplay wise to the Aperture buildings. Bring on whatevers beyond that cornfield! Let's venture forth with companion cube in hand! I still think there's a slight possibility Half-Life 3 or whatever might run with that idea.

Oh, and I still can't get over how awesome the moon portal was.

calex71

Some great humor and HL references so far. I'm at the part in chapter 6 where

you find potato GLaDOS being pecked by a crow and attach her to your portal gun

The Freeman

liked the game up until chapter 4 or so and got tired fo going in to chamber after chamber, felt like the same thing over and over again.
have exclusive gamestop skins for co-op bots if anybody wants them also.

calex71

The Freeman wrote: »

liked the game up until chapter 4 or so and got tired fo going in to chamber after chamber, felt like the same thing over and over again.
have exclusive gamestop skins for co-op bots if anybody wants them also.

\Oh Ill have them if they are xbox ?

kearneybobs

The Freeman wrote: »

liked the game up until chapter 4 or so and got tired fo going in to chamber after chamber, felt like the same thing over and over again.
have exclusive gamestop skins for co-op bots if anybody wants them also.

I'll take me please, if they are for PS3

The Freeman

will send pm kearney and its for ps3;)

Overheal

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Here's my problem with games in general. I love investing hours and hours into RPGs as much as the next gamer. But there's another type of gaming, the one that doesn't have you doing repetitive tasks over and over. They are games that don't overstay their welcome, instead taking mechanics and stretching them to their maximum and refusing point blank to overstay their welcome. Braid's one example, Vanquish another. Money never comes to mind with these games for me: Portal 2 may only be ten or so hours long (twenty with co-op, and that's hardly bad value!) but minute for minute there's more joy than your typical scene in Portal 2 than, for example, Elder Scrolls. That's a great game too, but traversing the same basic dungeon fifteen times eventually makes some of those 120 hours a grind. Game developers that understand pacing are super rare, the whole 'value for money' issue a strange argument for me. I'd rather nine or - hell - even six perfectly paced hours than one hundred stretched ones. I got fed up of the likes of Dead Space 2 and Dragon Age before they were over, despite their strengths and extended running times. With Portal 2, I was never bored. No trial is the same. There's always a new twist on existing physics.

I assure anyone who may question spending fifty euro on what is perceived to be a short game that it truly is worth the investment (or indeed wait until the inevitable Steam sale!). Portal 2, without any hyperbole, is seriously a one in ten thousand game, the rare kind that does our hobby proud.

wow, spot on. The reason I havent finished Oblivion, barely scratched Fallout 3, got bored midway with Shadow of Chernobyl, etc.

When you put it that way who honestly needed another game to dump 20, 30, 40 hours into? Don't get me wrong I have 200 hours on Teamfortress 2 since Orange Box, but I can't imagine placing that much time (or even a quarter of it) in every title I played.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

if I remember your post correctly you got bored about 1/10th of the way through shadow of chernobyl..

D4RK ONION

Forgot to mention, they took out peek-a-portal-ing! That'll severely reduce speedrunners' times and the depth they can go to with glitching. I'm glad they removed it obviously, it was an abuse of portal 1's mechanic, but it was a lot of fun, helped me with some of the advanced chamber trials.

Potential-Monke

Got round to finishing this today, and as someone said above, it's the best 9 hours €50 will buy you (in gaming terms). Every minute of it was a joy to play, and what an ending, perfectly paired with an excellently aptly named achievement. And i haven't done the co-op.

Bring on Portal 3.

johnny_ultimate

Overheal wrote: »

wow, spot on. The reason I havent finished Oblivion, barely scratched Fallout 3, got bored midway with Shadow of Chernobyl, etc.

When you put it that way who honestly needed another game to dump 20, 30, 40 hours into? Don't get me wrong I have 200 hours on Teamfortress 2 since Orange Box, but I can't imagine placing that much time (or even a quarter of it) in every title I played.

Don't get me wrong, there are many games I've poured 100 or so hours into with few regrets. But not every game has to be that long, and when some games are simply using futile rewards as an incentive for silly levels of grinding - CoD? - that's not good game design. Doing the same thing over and over for hours an end can be appealing, but it's not necessarily the stuff of great games. It's the reasons why film, for example, have certain running times - some directors can achieve a lot with four hours, but others can do the same in 90 minutes. You never hear people complaining about that, and it's one of the gaming community's particular peculiarities: that bulk always equals better for some reason, which I'd strongly disagree with.

There'll always be games that reward effort and time commitment - fighting games, for example, or TF2 as you say. If you enjoy it, you should keep playing. But other games that have stories to tell, ideas to play around with, pacing to consider are much more appealing to me than a repetitive shooter with tacked on mulitplayer. Portal 2 is, like the first, a poster boy for considered design

Potential-Monke

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

It's the reasons why film, for example, have certain running times - some directors can achieve a lot with four hours, but others can do the same in 90 minutes. You never hear people complaining about that...

But the reverse is also true, like you can't imagine Inception being as good if it was only 90 minutes, or the same for the Deathly Hallows Part 1. That film is 2 1/2 hours long, but it needed every minute of that time to instill what was happening in the book.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

But other games that have stories to tell, ideas to play around with, pacing to consider are much more appealing to me than a repetitive shooter with tacked on mulitplayer. Portal 2 is, like the first, a poster boy for considered design

The best example i can give of this is the Legacy of Kain series. Sure, you can ply through it, but it has one of the longest stories to be told in every game, and it was the voice acting and hours of dialogue that made this game the special prize that it was.

johnny_ultimate

Potential-Monke wrote: »

But the reverse is also true, like you can't imagine Inception being as good if it was only 90 minutes, or the same for the Deathly Hallows Part 1. That film is 2 1/2 hours long, but it needed every minute of that time to instill what was happening in the book.

I totally agree. I've seen four hour films that needed that time, like I've read 1000 page books that needed that! All depends on the situation, but the reality remains that stretching games out to reach some perceived need for an extended running time can seriously damage the final product. And yet you can't blame developers when you see the backlash short games get But the best games, films, books are the ones that are as long as they need to be. I thought Persona 4 (despite lots of dungeon crawling) genuinely needed a 70 hour runtime to tell its story well. But not every game does, and therefore the increasingly vocal cries of those who will bemoan any game that doesn't reach the 20-30 hour mark in single player really seem to me like they're basically criticising a game for having the guts not to compromise the gameplay or story!

Ciaran500

D4RK ONION wrote: »

Forgot to mention, they took out peek-a-portal-ing! That'll severely reduce speedrunners' times and the depth they can go to with glitching. I'm glad they removed it obviously, it was an abuse of portal 1's mechanic, but it was a lot of fun, helped me with some of the advanced chamber trials.

I'm sure they'll manage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLhcoPW5Puo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHgdDROszt4

calex71

Guys is there a level select when you finish story mode?

Healium

calex71 wrote: »

Guys is there a level select when you finish story mode?

No You have to trawl through every chamber, if you're achievement hunting

Got my 1000G today. Suck it, Calex

Basq

Just finished it.. absolutely loved it!

It's been a long long time since I got that immersed in a game.

Worth every penny of my €40... superb!

Mooaarrr please!

calex71 wrote: »

Guys is there a level select when you finish story mode?

Nope, doesn't look like it.

calex71

Healium wrote: »

No You have to trawl through every chamber, if you're achievement hunting

Got my 1000G today. Suck it, Calex

Fortunately being the seasoned achievement veteran here I made a save at the start of every level

/ has 'nam flashback........ Charlie ????

Edit: You can make yourself useful and help with 'still alive'

Basq

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypd_K9V2tlM

Healium

calex71 wrote: »

Fortunately being the seasoned achievement veteran here I made a save at the start of every level

/ has 'nam flashback........ Charlie ????

Edit: You can make yourself useful and help with 'still alive'

Still Alive is to get through all of test 4 without dying, right? If you die, you have to start back at chamber 1. The 2nd last level caused us huge problems before, so we both were expecting to lose it there.

Got the achievement first time 'round. Cue robot dancing and hi-5's.

calex71

Healium wrote: »

Still Alive is to get through all of test 4 without dying, right? If you die, you have to start back at chamber 1. The 2nd last level caused us huge problems before, so we both were expecting to lose it there.

Got the achievement first time 'round. Cue robot dancing and hi-5's.

Ah just had a look at the ones I had left, "Professor Portal"

After completing co-op, complete Calibration Course online with a friend who hasn’t played before

Is going to be a right pain at this stage, wondered why I was getting so many friend requests when I started :mad:

Healium

calex71 wrote: »

Ah just had a look at the ones I had left, "Professor Portal"

After completing co-op, complete Calibration Course online with a friend who hasn’t played before

Is going to be a right pain at this stage, wondered why I was getting so many friend requests when I started :mad:

Sucks to be you.

It's right here in your file.

D4RK ONION

Ciaran500 wrote: »

I'm sure they'll manage
[YOUTUB]tLhcoPW5Puo[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUB]gHgdDROszt4[/YOUTUBE]

Oh transgenic, is there anything he can't do?

krudler

Finished there, loved every minute of it, it was the perfect lenght imo, much longer and it would have dragged they got it just right, long enough that you'd want to play it again over a weekend but not so long that you just want to get to the end, and its loud out loud hilarious for the majority of the game, Stephen Merchants lines are comedy gold the whole way through.

johnny_ultimate

There's a level select on the PS3 version - you just press new game and you can choose your chapter. Coop I don't know because, ya know, PSN

Healium

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

There's a level select on the PS3 version - you just press new game and you can choose your chapter. Coop I don't know because, ya know, PSN

You can pick a chapter, but you can't pick specific chambers, which is a bit tedious if you're an unlikeable, liked-by-nobody fat orphan who's backtracking achievements like Calex

ShaneU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9jplTRwmdo

SeantheMan

Will anyone be getting the app "The final hours of portal 2" for $1.99...sounds great..can't wait to get it when i get home

The Final Hour of Portal 2 takes you deep within the top-secret office of Valve, creators of Half-Life, for an unvarnished, behind-the-scenes look at the making of its latest game Portal 2. Journalist Geoff Keighley was granted unprecedented “fly on the wall” access over the past three years to create this staggering 15,000 word multimedia experience. From the hush-hush Portal prequel that was shelved to the last minute scramble to complete the game’s story, readers will experience a gripping and dramatic tale brought to life with exclusive photos, videos, interviews, interactive experiences, and other surprises.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-final-hours-of-portal-2/id432031492?mt=8#

calex71

Speaking of apps, http://www.appbrain.com/app/portal-soundboard-(glados)/com.stealthcopter.portal