• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Portal 2 |OT| Sleep. Spuds. Science.

Izayoi said:
On that note,
I can't be the only person super disappointed to see literally no reference to Half-Life other than Cave complaining about Black Mesa. Like, seriously, just nothing? I really feel that Valve dropped the ball in that respect.
I feel like it would be kind of hard to
put in overt references to Half-Life and the Combine and the G-Man and stuff when it's a game about fake cake doors, mantis men, giant animal kings, computers getting turned into potatoes, and THE MOON.
 

Red

Member
TheExodu5 said:
Across the chasm.
Well I give up. Coated it all white, orange, blue, still stumped. Tried jumping across but the roof is too low. Can't find any other portal walls so I'm stuck dicking around on this platform. I don't get it.

Maybe it'll be obvious later but I've been in this room for over an hour and have made no progress.
 
It blows my mind that people are throwing a hissy fit over the DLC. Really? You care that much about Valve throwing in doofy, optional customization options that you don't need, add nothing to the game (though putting animations up there Day 1 is a bit suspect) and are there precisely because you gave them so much money with the Mannconomy?
 
EmCeeGramr said:
I feel like it would be kind of hard to
They did it in Portal. Its just that a giant change in tone happened in the final stretch of the game. Pretty big spoiler
Which doesn't really happen in Portal 2.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
So best Valve game or just best game of 2011?

going to pick this up in an hour, your answer will determine whether I ride the escalator up or walk up the escalator
 

dralla

Member
the fuck? chapter 6
in the giant room when you first hear JK Simmons on the loud speaker, big broken bridge in the middle. i have no idea where im even supposed to go
 
Lostconfused said:
They did it in Portal. Its just that a giant change in tone happened in the final stretch of the game. Pretty big spoiler
Which doesn't really happen in Portal 2.
Portal 1 was more serious, though. There was a good amount of humor, but it wasn't any where near as comedic as Portal 2 is.
 

Jenga

Banned
Rez said:
So best Valve game or just best game of 2011?

going to pick this up in an hour, your answer will determine whether I ride the escalator up or walk up the escalator
Best game of 2011.


Best Valve game?


Well, it's up there. Not sure if it can displace the Two Kings. (HL1 and HL2)
 

TheExodu5

Banned
Crunched said:
Well I give up. Coated it all white, orange, blue, still stumped. Tried jumping across but the roof is too low. Can't find any other portal walls so I'm stuck dicking around on this platform. I don't get it.

Maybe it'll be obvious later but I've been in this room for over an hour and have made no progress.

Maybe we're thinking of the wrong room, but I'll try to explain:

Coat the angled wall near the blue pool with white goo
Coat the bottom level with orange goo
Using the orange goo, run to the blue pool, having your portals set up on the angled wall so it shoots you to the second level.
Put some white goo on the patch of the second level, which will coat the ceiling
Use that ceiling and set a portal to coat the ground with blue goo
Go through the angled wall jump again...this time it will make you bounce off the blue goo you've put on the second level
 
I finished the single player. I couldn't stop playing. Fun game.

It was definitely easier than the first. But the engine is better. New puzzle elements. Beautiful set-ups. Cave Johnson is a hoot. So is the new bot.

But they definitely dumbed it down a bit
for consoles
. I don't mind that they took out the hard skill parts (where you had to quickly shoot the right portal in the right spot while flying). But I wish the puzzles were a little harder. I had to look up some solutions on portal 1 where as this one wasn't as hard. There are a view clever ones but they put so many subtle hints in with lighting, only so many portal-able walls, etc.

Will there be additional user created levels coming?
 
EmCeeGramr said:
Portal 1 was more serious, though. There was a good amount of humor, but it wasn't any where near as comedic as Portal 2 is.
I think the tone is similar at the start of both games. But Portal 2 becomes more comedic starting from the middle of the game while Portal actually became much darker and more serious at the end.

Portal 1 was clean and sterile and everything was fine but things grew more serious, disorderly and dirtier as the game progressed which was all part of the changing tone.

Portal 2 just ramps up the comedy and sticks with it for the whole game. It never hits the "we are serious now this is serious game" phase

Edit:
I contradicted my self a bit didn't I? Well if you were paranoid enough Portal felt oppressive and Orwellian almost with the way GLaDOS acted. But that was just a subtext. But in the beginning of Portal 2 GLaDOS is also very creepy and disturbing but overtly.
 

cdyhybrid

Member
TheExodu5 said:
Drop repulsion gel on top of the turrets.



No way. Not even close. This game was far, far harder than the first.

Yeah I just figured it out. I was playing for like 5 hours straight and I think my brain was fried. Took me like 2 minutes after a food break, haha. Thanks guys!
 
TheExodu5 said:
No way. Not even close. This game was far, far harder than the first.
I disagree. Those levels in the first where you had to shoot the right colored portal at the apex of your bounces several times in a row. Those were more difficult.
 
cdyhybrid said:
Can anyone give me a hint? I'm stuck on this level.

LINK TO SPOILER IMAGE BELOW

http://i55.tinypic.com/ictsew.jpg
This is the the one I had most trouble with too. I'll give you a few hints. The hints get more specific so look at them one at a time as you need them.

Hint 1:
Move the blue gel in the beam

Hint 2:
Reverse the beam with blue gel in it

Hint 3:
Drop the blue gel on the turrets using the beam
 
Yeah, Portal 1 was way easier and I don't know how you can say the sequel is "dumbed down." I replayed it twice just before Portal 2 came out, and the game's concepts purposefully never go far beyond flinging yourself with momentum.

Lostconfused said:
I think the tone is similar at the start of both games. But Portal 2 becomes more comedic starting from the middle of the game while Portal actually became much darker and more serious at the end.

Portal 2 starts out a little more light-hearted though, with Wheatley and GLaDOS's constant snipes. Portal 1 plays it a bit more dark with its humor.
 

bananas

Banned
Just finished the Single Player and holy shit that was awesome.

Hilarious too. The beginning of chapter 9 is probably the funniest thing in a game ever.

GlaDOS: Well, this is the part where he kills us.

Wheatley: Hello! This is the part where I kill you.

"CHAPTER 9: THE PART WHERE HE KILLS YOU"

Achievement Unlocked - The part where he kills you"

Achievement Description: This is that part."

Also, I'm proud of myself. Didn't look up help at all. Though I almost did for the
1982 part of the Cave Johnson bit with the lemon and only the white gel. Freakin' aggravating.
 
speculawyer said:
I disagree. Those levels in the first where you had to shoot the right colored portal at the apex of your bounces several times in a row. Those were more difficult.

The one with the acid/chemical/water pit? You didn't need timing at all for that one. You can keep bouncing forever up and down never losing any momentum. You can take all the time you need to figure out where and how to place your next portal.
EmCeeGramr said:
Portal 2 starts out a little more light-hearted though, with Wheatley and GLaDOS's constant snipes. Portal 1 plays it a bit more dark with its humor.
I felt very uneasy the first time you run into GLaDOS. Much more so than in any other part of either game. She really did make me feel kind of scared there for a bit.

Edit: But I guess you are right.
 

Red

Member
TheExodu5 said:
Maybe we're thinking of the wrong room, but I'll try to explain:

Coat the angled wall near the blue pool with white goo
Coat the bottom level with orange goo
Using the orange goo, run to the blue pool, having your portals set up on the angled wall so it shoots you to the second level.
Put some white goo on the patch of the second level, which will coat the ceiling
Use that ceiling and set a portal to coat the ground with blue goo
Go through the angled wall jump again...this time it will make you bounce off the blue goo you've put on the second level
I've tried exactly this a few times now and keep hitting the ceiling before I make the jump. I don't get it. I literally have like 70% of the whole room coated white now just for convenience's sake, zapping portals all over the place to try new things.

AH fuck, did it a couple more times and it worked. I kept bouncing too high, like the repulsion gel was canceling out the propulsion gel. Whatever, done now. Thanks.
 

Sober

Member
Lostconfused said:
Edit:
I contradicted my self a bit didn't I? Well if you were paranoid enough Portal felt oppressive and Orwellian almost with the way GLaDOS acted. But that was just a subtext. But in the beginning of Portal 2 GLaDOS is also very creepy and disturbing but overtly.
Remember, at the end of Portal 1 you pretty much killed the other cores attached to her. I replayed it recently, also the captions tell you her voice becomes less robotic and detatched when you destroy the morality (I think?) core. She probably doesn't want to kill you in Portal 2 cause she
was programmed to keep running tests. There's not much inhibiting her in Portal 2 so why she doesn't kill you outright is for testing purposes, I'm guessing
.
 

Izayoi

Banned
Jenga said:
I'm hyped, aren't you?
I would've been more hyped if
they had shown a little extra after the credits - you know, just a hint. What was there was cute, yes, but it really didn't give us any kind of tease which is what I was hoping for.
 
JakOfTheShadows said:
This is the the one I had most trouble with too. I'll give you a few hints. The hints get more specific so look at them one at a time as you need them.

*hints removed*

One of the best puzzles in the game no doubt.
 
speculawyer said:
I disagree. Those levels in the first where you had to shoot the right colored portal at the apex of your bounces several times in a row. Those were more difficult.
The first game did have a greater emphasis on twitch based puzzles, but I definitely felt that Portal 2 puzzles were more complex and was the harder of the two games.
 

Jenga

Banned
Izayoi said:
I would've been more hyped if
they had shown a little extra after the credits - you know, just a hint. What was there was cute, yes, but it really didn't give us any kind of tease which is what I was hoping for.
They spent like half the game
building up Aperture. imo, they made the Borealis even more exciting because it's supposed to be even better then all the other stuff they made
 

NYR

Member
Does Portal 2 support 7.1 audio?

I'm getting the PCM dialog on my receiver when I'm playing the PS3 version...usually that means it does, but I don't remember it being mentioned anywhere that it did?
 

Izayoi

Banned
speculawyer said:
I disagree. Those levels in the first where you had to shoot the right colored portal at the apex of your bounces several times in a row. Those were more difficult.
It depends on what your definition of "difficult" is. Portal 1 is more of a twitch game, whereas Portal 2 has much more thought and just puzzle solving involved. I had more trouble with Portal 2 than I did with Portal 1, which I breezed through with no problems.
 

MrPliskin

Banned
speculawyer said:
I disagree. Those levels in the first where you had to shoot the right colored portal at the apex of your bounces several times in a row. Those were more difficult.

They weren't more difficult puzzles, they just required more twitch reflexes.

Portal 2 > Portal 1 as far as "thought" for puzzles, hands down no contest.
 
What I felt to be really funny was the correlation to my playing habits with puzzle games (Braid, Portal) and
GLaDOS' and Wheatley's addiction to them as well.
All they want to do is test and test. Test all day and never stop. When a test is complete, they get this wonderful feeling and want to keep that feeling going, and never want to stop.
I'm the exact same way when it comes to puzzle games, and I got this way when I played Portal 2. I couldn't stop playing. After each test, I'd just keep going and going. I loved it. I finished more than half the game in one day (only due to me being exhausted. Probably would have finished the whole thing.) It was the same way with Braid, I sat down and finished the game in one sitting, and was unable to pull myself away until I finished it.
Just thought that was funny
 
Holy fuck the middle part of the game is just amazing. From
the new GlaDOS Stephen Merchant to the Aperture Inoventions 1952, so awesome the EPCOT Walt Disney feeling, the same that Iron Man 2 had.

The music is just fantastic and the scenery sets are awe inspiring.

Stopped playing, need to think about what I played.
 

LM4sure

Banned
Can't believe they have a Portal store. What a bunch of bullshit! Yeah, let me pay $5 for stupid shit. haha, to suckers that waste their money
 

Medalion

Banned
This game is amazing already!

It's funny, atmospheric, and I get the same feeling I had when I first played Portal especially now the mindgames are more obvious that GlaDos wants to kill from the getgo and not just pretend to be your pal.

I am currently at the Advanced Aerial Faith plate stage. I just downloaded the PC game probably half an hour ago after I bought the PS3 version and claimed this copy.

I want to enjoy this on PC first and then go to the PS3 version later on to compare.

This game is so funny... very dry biting humor, it's only appropriate they got a brit to voice one of the main characters.

Very impressed so far!
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Again vocalising that those disappointed at the lack of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 hints or content have only themselves to blame. Valve didn't 'drop the ball' or screw up or anything. They made it very, very, very clear that while they were still part of the same universe Portal 2 was doing as much as it could to distance itself from the Half-Life franchise.

Going in expecting Half-Life in Portal 2 was extremely foolish to begin with. It upsets me to see people having forced themselves into a corner of disappointment because of this.
 
EatChildren said:
Again vocalising that those disappointed at the lack of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 hints or content have only themselves to blame. Valve didn't 'drop the ball' or screw up or anything. They made it very, very, very clear that while they were still part of the same universe Portal 2 was doing as much as it could to distance itself from the Half-Life franchise.

Going in expecting Half-Life in Portal 2 was extremely foolish to begin with. It upsets me to see people having forced themselves into a corner of disappointment because of this.
I had steeled myself for this to begin with. The article revealing Portal 2 even mentioned that they weren't going down that route.
 
EmCeeGramr said:
Yeah, Portal 1 was way easier and I don't know how you can say the sequel is "dumbed down." I replayed it twice just before Portal 2 came out, and the game's concepts purposefully never go far beyond flinging yourself with momentum.
But you are comparing a game where already knew the solutions to one where you didn't.

With Portal 1, I eventually gave up on some puzzles and looked up hints. I didn't need any hints or walk-throughs to get through Portal 2 (single player).

Maybe I've just gotten smarter since I played Portal 1. :)
 

MrPliskin

Banned
The one thing that bothers me...(and I'm definitely over thinking this)

you are fighting Wheatly, and the roof falls in to show the moon...

...then you leave the lab, and all you can see is fields and a shack...where the hell were you just fighting?!
 
MrPliskin said:
The one thing that bothers me...(and I'm definitely over thinking this)

you are fighting Wheatly, and the roof falls in to show the moon...

...then you leave the lab, and all you can see is fields and a shack...where the hell were you just fighting?!
The moon is in the sky, and it went from day to night between the fight and waking up and leaving.
 
EatChildren said:
Going in expecting Half-Life in Portal 2 was extremely foolish to begin with. It upsets me to see people having forced themselves into a corner of disappointment because of this.
So it'ssilly for people to have expectations for a sequel based on its predecessor? Really? I guess its my fault for not following every interview that Valve game out to know that I shouldn't have any kind of expectations at all.
 
Played an hour or so of the game. It easily one of the funniest games out there.
I also read the comic which was a lot better than what I thought it would be. Check it out if you haven't.
 

Ourobolus

Banned
Just beat it. God that was amazing. The later chapter puzzles were really well-done, had a couple head-scratchers there. That game was just pure fun, end to end.

You know what's a little irritating though? After getting all of these tools and using them constantly to solve puzzles, I keep forgetting that sometimes I just need to place two portals and walk through them. Heh.

The writing in the game was absolutely top-notch. Each and every character is just pure joy to listen to.
 

golem

Member
Jenga said:
It depends on what you think.

There is no humanity, but the Earth is just fine.

I'm hyped, aren't you?
I believe GlaDOS at one point said she didnt see any deer above, just humans... of course she may be lying
 

bananas

Banned
MrPliskin said:
The one thing that bothers me...(and I'm definitely over thinking this)

you are fighting Wheatly, and the roof falls in to show the moon...

...then you leave the lab, and all you can see is fields and a shack...where the hell were you just fighting?!

My minds fuzzy on this but
doesn't Chell pass out after being rescued? When she awakes GlaDOS is rebuilt too, so it implied that time had passed.
 

Nessus

Member
EatChildren said:
Again vocalising that those disappointed at the lack of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 hints or content have only themselves to blame. Valve didn't 'drop the ball' or screw up or anything. They made it very, very, very clear that while they were still part of the same universe Portal 2 was doing as much as it could to distance itself from the Half-Life franchise.

Going in expecting Half-Life in Portal 2 was extremely foolish to begin with. It upsets me to see people having forced themselves into a corner of disappointment because of this.

This. A million times this.

They even said in interviews that the connections between the two in Portal 2 would be even less significant than in Portal 1.
 
Top Bottom