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Portal 2 |OT| Sleep. Spuds. Science.

F

freenudemacusers

Member
I just finished 1 & 2 in a back to back marathon lol. I feel dumb for skipping out on these games; probably the most engaging FPS I have played in a long time.

Quick question:
How long did the round robot say I was asleep for? It sounded like 999 months but my volume was down at the time...
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
macuser1of5 said:
I just finished 1 & 2 in a back to back marathon lol. I feel dumb for skipping out on these games; probably the most engaging FPS I have played in a long time.

Quick question:
How long did the round robot say I was asleep for? It sounded like 999 months but my volume was down at the time...
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, there a handful of 9s (3 or 4) but the voice breaks down before it's able to attribute a qualifier to the amount. It's not important in any way.
 
F

freenudemacusers

Member
JaseC said:
If I recall correctly, there a handful of 9s but the voice breaks down before it's able to attribute a qualifier to the amount. It's not important in any way.
Click to expand...
Ah ok; I missed a lot of the early dialog so I wasn't sure if there was a hint buried in there or whatnot.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
macuser1of5 said:
Ah ok; I missed a lot of the early dialog so I wasn't sure if there was a hint buried in there or whatnot.
Click to expand...

Nah, just a red herring if anything. It formed the basis for many of the theories surrounding the particular time period in which the game is set, but Valve have said there's nothing to the counter.
 
S

StuBurns

Banned
It just means it's past the counter's maximum count I think. The Final Hours does give a specific number, but there's nothing in the game that indicates a logical time in terms of decay, certainly things like paper would not be there tens of thousands of years later.
 
N

Nessus

Member
macuser1of5 said:
I just finished 1 & 2 in a back to back marathon lol. I feel dumb for skipping out on these games; probably the most engaging FPS I have played in a long time.

Quick question:
How long did the round robot say I was asleep for? It sounded like 999 months but my volume was down at the time...
Click to expand...

It's not him, it's the automated voice of the cryosleep chamber.

In the tutorial it says you've been asleep for 50 days following the events of Portal 1. When you wake up the second time it says "9 999 999" before being cut off.

It's a bit of a joke meant to indicate that a lot of time has passed and that the counter that keeps track of the passage of time has maxed out, but if you do the math, and assume it's accurate, it ends up being over 10 000 years.

Most people agree at the very least a few hundred years have passed since the first game.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Nessus said:
Most people agree at the very least a few hundred years have passed since the first game.
Click to expand...

But there is no point on agreeing on when the game takes place considering that element has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on how one develops his/her understanding of the game's narrative.

Edit: Attempting to discover just when the game took place has led to such stupid theories as "Cave is Chell's father!" If the chamber robot didn't (attempt to) quantify how long Chell had been unconscious for all we'd have are vague references such as Wheatley's "most test subjects do experience some cognitive deterioration after a few months in suspension. Now you've been under for… quite a lot longer" and GLaDOS's "it's been a long time".

Edit 2: Not that I'm taking you to task on the matter, but rather just pointing it out.
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
SO VALVE WHERE IS THAT DLC HUH?
 
S

StuBurns

Banned
The years ahead thing is just to distance the IP from Half-Life I think. I get the feeling they regret linking them as they did.
 
C

Cartman86

Banned
StuBurns said:
The years ahead thing is just to distance the IP from Half-Life I think. I get the feeling they regret linking them as they did.
Click to expand...

Now we know the earth doesn't get destroyed in the Half-Life 3 :(
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
StuBurns said:
The years ahead thing is just to distance the IP from Half-Life I think. I get the feeling they regret linking them as they did.
Click to expand...

I dont know about regret, so much as ready to establish Portal in its own somewhat self contained universe. I mean, they're still part of the same universe and Valve deliberately notes this, but Portal was the way it was specifically to speed up development and give the game a sense of existing universe. With Portal 2 they wanted to do less Half-Life, more Portal, and the only logical move was to step it either as a prequel or distant sequel.
 
S

Sibylus

Banned
Cartman86 said:
Now we know the earth doesn't get destroyed in the Half-Life 3 :(
Click to expand...
No indication about the war's outcome, though, just that there's still things growing and that the sky is still blue.
 
S

StuBurns

Banned
EatChildren said:
I dont know about regret, so much as ready to establish Portal in its own somewhat self contained universe. I mean, they're still part of the same universe and Valve deliberately notes this, but Portal was the way it was specifically to speed up development and give the game a sense of existing universe. With Portal 2 they wanted to do less Half-Life, more Portal, and the only logical move was to step it either as a prequel or distant sequel.
Click to expand...
Possibly yeah, and while there are some very small references to HL, in the first game they made it very clear the two were pretty closely tied, this time they had one big reference, and it was practically a fuck you to anyone who wanted HL info from Portal 2. It seemed to me like they were making it very clear these two have nothing in common beyond art assets from here on out. But who knows, HL3 could still take place at AS, or the P2 DLC could kick off an ARG towards the reveal of HL3 etc.
OldJadedGamer said:
They have until September 22nd.
Click to expand...
Gabe said "mid-September", so who knows, they could make it.
 
B

BannedEpisode

Member
Botolf said:
No indication about the war's outcome, though, just that there's still things growing and that the sky is still blue.
Click to expand...


Except:

The oceans arent drained, which you can see from the moon. If Im not mistaken that was one of the things the combine were actively doing. Thats a strong indication that they failed I think. But who knows for sure?
 
S

Sibylus

Banned
BannedEpisode said:
Except:

The oceans arent drained, which you can see from the moon. If Im not mistaken that was one of the things the combine were actively doing. Thats a strong indication that they failed I think. But who knows for sure?
Click to expand...
True, but it still says nothing definite about the war's end (aside that it wasn't catastrophic enough to destroy the planet or its livability). Maybe humanity lost and civilization collapsed. Maybe mass extinctions ran in tandem with that. Maybe the Combine won a Pyrrhic victory and never really claimed the fruits of their victory for whatever reason. Maybe humanity won and the planet recovered.

It's open enough that we can't read many things into it.
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
BannedEpisode said:
Except:

The oceans arent drained, which you can see from the moon. If Im not mistaken that was one of the things the combine were actively doing. Thats a strong indication that they failed I think. But who knows for sure?
Click to expand...

This was something intended during production, but never actually included or alluded to in the final games. Its quite possible its not considered canon.
 
D

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
kai3345 said:
lolwut? you really think all of that vegetation would have overrun the facility in just a few years?
Click to expand...


Can't have been that long, otherwise all the paper we see would have degraded long ago, to say nothing for the pretty good shape the science projects were still in.
 
B

-bakalhau-

Member
Depends on the vegetation really. I don't know much about veg, but while some trees take 20 years to grow, I know there's some plants that grow extremely fast. I guess taking a look at the first levels then running sme google searches would produce quick results.
 
N

NBtoaster

Member
-bakalhau- said:
Depends on the vegetation really. I don't know much about veg, but while some trees take 20 years to grow, I know there's some plants that grow extremely fast. I guess taking a look at the first levels then running sme google searches would produce quick results.
Click to expand...

It's implied that all the vegetation stems from a single potato
.
 
C

cooljeanius

Member
NBtoaster said:
It's implied that all the vegetation stems from a single potato
.
Click to expand...
Really, all of it?
(Yes, I saw the tree growing out of Chell's potato, but I didn't see that as being connected to all of the rest of the vegetation in the rest of the facility)
 
G

Glass Rebel

Member
cooljeanius said:
Really, all of it?
(Yes, I saw the tree growing out of Chell's potato, but I didn't see that as being connected to all of the rest of the vegetation in the rest of the facility)
Click to expand...

I guess. It was somehow modified since she used stuff from her father's lab.
 
E

Ellis Kim

Banned
Tried to show an autistic kid that my mother was looking after the joys of Portal 2-- ended in failure as his mom came to pick him up as he exclaims "Portal sucks! Its nothing but training!" which he refers to as the opening puzzle tutorial rooms that lead you to Glados throwing you down a pit.

I don't know what made me think that having him play Portal 2 was going to be a good idea. Writing went over his head, so half of the appreciation goes out the window already.

I never thought of Portal as an acquired taste :/
 
D

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
Ellis Kim said:
I don't know what made me think that having him play Portal 2 was going to be a good idea. Writing went over his head, so half of the appreciation goes out the window already.
Click to expand...

Admit it, you were hoping form rainman-like comprehension after which you would download and put him through the most challenging puzzles you could find and post videos of him solving them in 30 seconds.
 
E

Ellis Kim

Banned
DrForester said:
Admit it, you were hoping form rainman-like comprehension after which you would download and put him through the most challenging puzzles you could find and post videos of him solving them in 30 seconds.
Click to expand...
XD
 
L

Laurentius

Member
Has this not been posted yet? Just had Steam do an update on Portal 2:

Updates to Portal 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Portal 2
Preparations for launch of Portal 2 updates this September
Click to expand...

DLC in September?
 
B

BY2K

Membero Americo
I don't like that the patch update only has this one line. I say they hidden something in the game that has a link with the DLC.
 
N

Nessus

Member
EatChildren said:
This was something intended during production, but never actually included or alluded to in the final games. Its quite possible its not considered canon.
Click to expand...

It's still strongly implied by the ~20 foot drop in sea level and all the beached ships during the canal section.

The one aspect Valve undeniably abandoned during production was the Combine altering the atmosphere, though. No Air Exchange.
 
T

The perfect Dark

Banned
The Lamonster said:
Game is short as shit. I'll be getting the DLC day one because I thirst for MOAR
Click to expand...
meh that's a shame 'cause it's damn great.

Co-op doesn't count for me. Don't get me wrong, I will play through it with my girlfriend (Splitscreen) but in my opinion the SP is way more important in a videogame....especially when it's done SO good. Valve = best game-developer of all time.

But come on....4 years? 4years? and a 5-7 hours campaign? :/
 
P

Prophet Steve

Member
The perfect Dark said:
meh that's a shame 'cause it's damn great.

Co-op doesn't count for me. Don't get me wrong, I will play through it with my girlfriend (Splitscreen) but in my opinion the SP is way more important in a videogame....especially when it's done SO good. Valve = best game-developer of all time.

But come on....4 years? 4years? and a 5-7 hours campaign? :/
Click to expand...
Multiplayer doubles the playtime. Also they haven't been working on it for 4 years. A lot of time are for declined concepts.
 
S

Shotgun Kiss

Member
The perfect Dark said:
meh that's a shame 'cause it's damn great.

Co-op doesn't count for me. Don't get me wrong, I will play through it with my girlfriend (Splitscreen) but in my opinion the SP is way more important in a videogame....especially when it's done SO good. Valve = best game-developer of all time.

But come on....4 years? 4years? and a 5-7 hours campaign? :/
Click to expand...

According to "The Final Hours of Portal 2", Portal 2 originally didn't have GlaDOS or portals in it at all; it used another gimmick entirely. However, playtesters were disappointed, so they started over from scratch.

The gimmick that was originally planned for Portal 2 is being kept under wraps, as Valve are looking to turn that into a brand new game.
 
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