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Portal 2 |OT| Sleep. Spuds. Science.

_Isaac

Member
Finished it the other day. I loved it. I thought it was quite a bit better than the first Portal. The voice acting was great although Merchant sometimes seemed like he was trying too hard. The writing also seemed like it was trying too hard with the Glados lines early on. It all worked out in the end though. The game gets better and betters as it goes.
 

deleted

Member
Hawkian said:
Woo! I'm here til around 6:00 EST, then going out to dinner and seeing my family a while, then I'll be back at 9ish, if you want to do some tonight.

Perhaps it will work tonight. I have to work on weekends, so I don't have too much time to game then.
 
REV 09 said:
The writing, voice acting, and scripted events are the best parts. think about some of the most significant parts of the game and then think about what you as the player actually did during those parts; it likely wasn't much. The puzzles are ok, though the novelty of Portal 1 has worn off.

Maybe I should phrase it as, "Portal 2 is a better experience than it is a game." I've mostly been walking across bland catwalks looking for spots where I can use my portal gun.

I'm currently on Ch 8.

It won't change.
 
Portal 2 primitive core gamestructure has a lot of potential, like some youtube movies have shown. Too bad the simple puzzles and level design let that potential to be wasted.
 
Omotesando said:
Portal 2 primitive core gamestructure has a lot of potential, like some youtube movies have shown. Too bad the simple puzzles and level design let that potential to be wasted.
Nice, dude. The level design in Portal 2 is fantastic, just like in all the Half-Life games.
 
Dax01 said:
Nice, dude. The level design in Portal 2 is fantastic, just like in all the Half-Life games.

The art is fantastic, wat I meant was the simplistic setup, of finding a white surface to put a portal on, which numorous posters in this thread have labeled it as boring. Even the fantastic (one of the best looking levels this generation) (chapter 7 or 8) I think, is basically portal a white surface, fall through another portal, hooozah!

The rooms in chapter 8 or 9, (don't really recall or care), which supposed to be the meat of the game, are compeleted within 2 minutes and is (mimicing GlaDOS' voice): BoooorinnnnG!

Some youtube movies have showed and also what I really felt playing the game, a fantastic core gameplay, which has been put to use on a very basic experience
through finding a white surface and putting boxes on red buttons.
 

Sibylus

Banned
Portal 2's difficulty and singleplayer campaign was impeccable, it put the focus on solving the puzzles, instead of flawless execution. It takes quite a bit of effort and skill to make puzzles like in Portal 2, ones that take a bit to see the solution, but also don't induce players to rip their hair out in attempting them. The design may appear simple from our end, but it's anything but primitive.

Knowing how to beat the puzzle a half hour or more before actually executing it successfully, frankly that's horseshit. That sort of thing is simply frustrating and repetitive for most of us playing, and it has no place in the main game. Further, it's a cheap way of padding out the length of the game and is by far the laziest and simplest way of designing puzzles. That is primitive design, and to suggest otherwise is simply laughable.

Between what the community and Valve are making for coop, SP, and challenge rooms, folks who want a twitchier obstacle course won't be left wanting. That's certainly a better outcome than requiring everyone to possess the skills of speedrun nutters to beat the game.
 

StuBurns

Banned
The game design literally can't be perfect for everyone, just because it is for some doesn't mean it is for all.

They have to design puzzles that hopefully five million people are going to be able to solve without asking a forum or looking on youtube, but also have to put some effort into thinking and not just see the set ups and instantly know how to complete it.

It must have been a very difficult task. For me it worked very well, it wasn't hard, and it wasn't easy, I didn't have to look up anything, I didn't ever want to pull my hair out either.
 

Sibylus

Banned
I agree, tailoring the difficulty to the majority and throwing in some challenge maps/modes on top is about as close to perfect as one can get. Doing it the other way around would exclude a massive portion of the audience.
 

JackEtc

Member
bytesized said:
Hey guys, how does Portal 2 run compared to Portal 1? Does it need a much beefier machine to run it?
I can actually run Portal 2 better than the first one, oddly enough. I have everything maxed out on Portal 2, which I can't usually do for source games.
 
So with PSN being down I kept holding off playing this until I could redeem my PC copy but today I cracked. One big final fuck you from me to Sony for being so utterly shit. The PS3 version wasn't actually too bad, but I would've prefered all of the bells and whistles that came with the PC version (KB/M, 60fps, higher resolution, FRAPS, etc).

I finished it in one sitting which took roughly eight hours. There goes my entire Sunday! I got stuck quite badly in one or two places for a considerable amount of time, and then twigged both times I was overthinking it and the solution was much easier than the weird things I was trying to do. Maybe it was fatigue setting in, I don't know. The difficulty was definitely much harder than the original and all of the new gameplay mechanics were wonderful. I absolutely loved the different gels, beams etc etc and nothing ever felt repetitive. Each challenge was a great combination of what you had already been taught and one new slight twist. Valve at their very finest.

Perhaps the most impressive thing was the fact that I was laughing at pretty much every single line of dialogue. Although Wheatley
being the bad guy
was extremely predictable, I thought Merchant did a wonderful job with him and I was pleasantly surprised just how much he featured in the game. GLaDOS
becoming somewhat of an ally
was most definitely unexpected, however, and I think her character developing so much throughout the game is really impressive. Also, a
potato? What the fuck? Bye bye, cake meme, you've been outdone!

The pacing of the game was masterfully done and I loved the way you went
from the broken down old test chambers, to the brand new ones that were created before your eyes, to the 19xxs Aperature and then back again to Wheatley's chambers/death traps.
These gradual change in tones really helped the narrative progress at a nice pace and I feel now that I've seen every inch of that huge, weird area. I will say that I don't think Portal 3 could be based in Aperture Science again, because I don't see what more Valve could do with it. Then again, I don't think Valve would use it again, so I'm not really worried about that.

My only complaint?
No Half-Life tie-in whatsoever.
I didn't expect much at all, but after the winks and nods in past Valve games, I was hoping there'd be something. I assume the ending means that
the Combine were defeated since the world looks vibrant and beautiful
but I dunno... I would've liked something else. That is literally my only complaint though.

One of the best games ever made to put it simply. Better than the original in every way, which seemed unimaginable even a few weeks ago. Valve absolutely knocked it out of the park and this might be their best game yet... it's definitely on-par with Episode 2.

Can't wait to jump into co-op with my girlfriend tomorrow now, and then replay it on PC as soon as Sony sort out their system. So good.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
You guys are being pretty gracious... Omotesando's complaints are laughable. This game (and most Valve content) represents the absolute pinnacle of balanced, refined level design and it's plain to all but a tiny minority of gamers that it would never make sense to structure a game around.

The fact that I felt challenged and spent more time than I expected to on numerous puzzles but never had to consult a FAQ once means that they did as good a job as can be done in this regard.

There are numerous things that would be valid complaints about this game, but this simply isn't one.

My only complaint?
No Half-Life tie-in whatsoever. I didn't expect much at all, but after the winks and nods in past Valve games, I was hoping there'd be something. I assume the ending means that the Combine were defeated since the world looks vibrant and beautiful but I dunno...
I would've liked something else. That is literally my only complaint though.

Er... there's more than that.
 

StuBurns

Banned
Foliorum Viridum said:
My only complaint?
No Half-Life tie-in whatsoever.
I didn't expect much at all, but after the winks and nods in past Valve games, I was hoping there'd be something. I assume the ending means that
the Combine were defeated since the world looks vibrant and beautiful
but I dunno... I would've liked something else. That is literally my only complaint though.
There are winks and nods.
 
Aight guys just picked it up for the 360, 35 bucks is just way too good a deal.

Me and my buddy are gonna have a blast with coop. With me so far away from most of my friends, this is going to be awesome. I didn't play the first Portal so I'm sure I'll stink to start off.
 

Numpt3

Member
Foliorum Viridum said:
My only complaint?
No Half-Life tie-in whatsoever.
I didn't expect much at all, but after the winks and nods in past Valve games, I was hoping there'd be something. I assume the ending means that
the Combine were defeated since the world looks vibrant and beautiful

Did you not find the dry dock?
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Foliorum Viridum said:
A line or two of dialogue, but nothing else? Unless I missed something obvious.

I mean, I didn't see anything as blatant as the powerpoints in the first game.



Uh. I don't think so?

I mean, it's not much, but yeah, you sure as hell missed something. :p

There are a couple things besides that too, though certainly nothing major. Depends what you want spoiled. I'd go pose a couple questions inthe spoiler thread.
 

StuBurns

Banned
Foliorum Viridum said:
A line or two of dialogue, but nothing else? Unless I missed something obvious.

I mean, I didn't see anything as blatant as the powerpoints in the first game.
There is very much a powerpoint level thing you missed.
 
I just Youtubed the
dry dock
and fuck that is an awesome tie-in :(

I feel kinda sad I didn't find that and have that as part of my playthrough now. Damn.
 

Numpt3

Member
Foliorum Viridum said:
I just Youtubed the
dry dock
and fuck that is an awesome tie-in :(

I feel kinda sad I didn't find that and have that as part of my playthrough now. Damn.

I didn't see it on my first play through either, only saw it the second time around after I heard about it in the spoiler thread.
 
I'll definitely go there myself on my PC playthrough :)

Well, I suppose that means my only criticism of the game isn't actually accurate so... perfect game confirmed?
 

Jasoco

Banned
I give up. Now that it was announced the Xbox version will be getting free DLC, I can't wait anymore. I can't afford a PS3 right now, but I don't want to wait any longer so I'm getting it today for my Xbox. I'll forego the Steam freebie for now because I just can't get a PS3 right now.

I just hope I can find my HDD.
 

Yaboosh

Super Sleuth
Holy crap. I loved it. Just finished single player, and while it didn't have NEAR the emotional impact that the first one had, it was still a damn good experience.

Does the coop have narrative elements or is it mostly just a bunch of rooms connected together?
 
Yaboosh said:
Holy crap. I loved it. Just finished single player, and while it didn't have NEAR the emotional impact that the first one had, it was still a damn good experience.

Does the coop have narrative elements or is it mostly just a bunch of rooms connected together?

There's a story, though it's fairly minimal at first, but there's plenty of insight into the way Glados thinks about things like science, cooperation, robots, and humanity.
 

SHAZOOM

Member
Four_Chamber said:
Aight guys just picked it up for the 360, 35 bucks is just way too good a deal.

Me and my buddy are gonna have a blast with coop. With me so far away from most of my friends, this is going to be awesome. I didn't play the first Portal so I'm sure I'll stink to start off.
Same. I couldn't pick it up at $50 on Steam (tight budget) but $30 is perfectly within my means.
 
Botolf said:
Portal 2's difficulty and singleplayer campaign was impeccable, it put the focus on solving the puzzles, instead of flawless execution. It takes quite a bit of effort and skill to make puzzles like in Portal 2, ones that take a bit to see the solution, but also don't induce players to rip their hair out in attempting them. The design may appear simple from our end, but it's anything but primitive.

Knowing how to beat the puzzle a half hour or more before actually executing it successfully, frankly that's horseshit. That sort of thing is simply frustrating and repetitive for most of us playing, and it has no place in the main game. Further, it's a cheap way of padding out the length of the game and is by far the laziest and simplest way of designing puzzles. That is primitive design, and to suggest otherwise is simply laughable.

You're confusing two entirely different critiques, which are typically not being made by the same people anyway. One is that there are far fewer timing-based puzzles requiring split-second precision, which is not a complaint I'm hearing very often and one I don't agree with. The other, which is entirely valid, is that the puzzles are much more restrictive and hand-holding in terms of guiding the player to what to do by only making portalable those surfaces required for the puzzle, as this guy explains well. It's not a matter of knowing how to solve the puzzle but having difficulty executing, it's a matter of knowing how to solve a puzzle within 5 seconds of walking in the door just by looking around.

I enjoyed speedruns of the first game because the fact that all the walls of most chambers were portalable meant people could devise new and fast ways to solve puzzles other than the intended solution. I don't foresee speedruns of 2 being nearly as interesting because for the most part the only solution possible is the intended one.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
faceless007 said:
It's not a matter of knowing how to solve the puzzle but having difficulty executing, it's a matter of knowing how to solve a puzzle within 5 seconds of walking in the door just by looking around.

While I don't disagree that having more surfaces portalable would have made the game more difficult and time-consuming, and I think I'd have enjoyed the added layer of complexity, this particular complaint is definitely best viewed in light of the fact that some people are going to play this game without even having ever seen Portal 1.

Yes, I was able to determine solutions to certain puzzles very quickly. But for every person like me playing the game, there is someone who doesn't understand that you can exit a portal, shoot a new one, then turn around and go back through to get to a new area. Look at iJustine's "walkthrough" if you need an example of the kind of people Valve wanted to be able to eventually complete (given enough time... yeah).

I don't foresee speedruns of 2 being nearly as interesting because for the most part the only solution possible is the intended one.

I've only watched one, but it was sub-two hours and fucking incredible.
 

Kritz

Banned
I'm really disappointed in the Internet making (joke spoiler (as in, this spoiler could spoil a joke for you. A spoiler about a joke in the game. Not a... yeah, whatever))
lemons
the new "cake is a lie".

Didn't everyone get super fucking tired of Cake is a lie? Yet there are minecraft videos and tshirts and all other kinds of bullshit about (the same spoiler but with more words)
Cave Johnson's Lemon rant
. The joke isn't even a punchline by itself, it was funny because it had great delivery.

I fucking hate Internets sometimes. I really do.
 
Kritz said:
I'm really disappointed in the Internet making (joke spoiler (as in, this spoiler could spoil a joke for you. A spoiler about a joke in the game. Not a... yeah, whatever))
lemons
the new "cake is a lie".

Didn't everyone get super fucking tired of Cake is a lie? Yet there are minecraft videos and tshirts and all other kinds of bullshit about (the same spoiler but with more words)
Cave Johnson's Lemon rant
. The joke isn't even a punchline by itself, it was funny because it had great delivery.

I fucking hate Internets sometimes. I really do.
Completely agree with this.
 

Zerokku

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
Kritz said:
I'm really disappointed in the Internet making (joke spoiler (as in, this spoiler could spoil a joke for you. A spoiler about a joke in the game. Not a... yeah, whatever))
lemons
the new "cake is a lie".

Didn't everyone get super fucking tired of Cake is a lie? Yet there are minecraft videos and tshirts and all other kinds of bullshit about (the same spoiler but with more words)
Cave Johnson's Lemon rant
. The joke isn't even a punchline by itself, it was funny because it had great delivery.

I fucking hate Internets sometimes. I really do.
Actually haven't seen too much of that. Everyone I've seen has just been spouting
SSSSSSSPPPPPPAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCEEEEE!!!!
 

cornontheCoD

Neo Member
Kritz said:
I'm really disappointed in the Internet making (joke spoiler (as in, this spoiler could spoil a joke for you. A spoiler about a joke in the game. Not a... yeah, whatever))
lemons
the new "cake is a lie".

Didn't everyone get super fucking tired of Cake is a lie? Yet there are minecraft videos and tshirts and all other kinds of bullshit about (the same spoiler but with more words)
Cave Johnson's Lemon rant
. The joke isn't even a punchline by itself, it was funny because it had great delivery.

I fucking hate Internets sometimes. I really do.


Every meme from the portal games was dumb when repeated by fans, because they are just like the lemon thing: funny delivery. Not all of the jokes are funny solely based on delivery, but for some reason, the ones that fans latch onto aren't funny when out of context.


Edit: also, for some reason, none of the videos on the panels in the elevator rooms work for me. Anyone else have this problem?
 
I wasn't even laughing at the
"with the lemons"
part, it was the delivery on the
"I'M THE MAN WHO'S GOING TO BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN."
that cracked me up.
 

Kinyou

Member
Kritz said:
I'm really disappointed in the Internet making (joke spoiler (as in, this spoiler could spoil a joke for you. A spoiler about a joke in the game. Not a... yeah, whatever))
lemons
the new "cake is a lie".

Didn't everyone get super fucking tired of Cake is a lie? Yet there are minecraft videos and tshirts and all other kinds of bullshit about (the same spoiler but with more words)
Cave Johnson's Lemon rant
. The joke isn't even a punchline by itself, it was funny because it had great delivery.

I fucking hate Internets sometimes. I really do.
You mean something like this? : (spoilers) Because I thought that was kind of funny
 
big ander said:
I'm confused. I thought he was talking about a 2 hour speedrun for Portal 2.
Oh, my bad. For some reason I read that as commenting on speedruns of the first game. I guess because the second game hasn't been out long and I don't expect speedruns to be tried yet!
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Foliorum Viridum said:
Sub 2 hours? I'd have to try hard to take longer than 90 mins to finish Portal going quite slowly! :p

http://speeddemosarchive.com/Portal.html

Sub 15 minutes. Now that's a speedrun!
Um.

big ander said:
I'm confused. I thought he was talking about a 2 hour speedrun for Portal 2.
Yup. Don't try to tell me that's not impressive for Portal 2!

EmCeeGramr said:
I wasn't even laughing at the
"with the lemons"
part, it was the delivery on the
"I'M THE MAN WHO'S GOING TO BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN."
that cracked me up.

The real gold in all of that is the very end:
Burning people! He says what we're all thinking!
 
Oh no, 2 hours for Portal 2 is definitely a great starting point. My brain must've been frazzled from my session of the game :p

Could you provide a link? I'd like to watch it! :)
 
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