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Portal 2 |OT| Sleep. Spuds. Science.

H

Hixx

Member
Requeim said:
You guys are getting pretty carried away here in this thread.
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tbf Steve Merchant's performance is the best I can remember in a game in a long, long time. I mean the great writing obviously helps but he does his bit brilliantly.
 
R

Requeim

Member
HixxSAFC said:
tbf Steve Merchant's performance is the best I can remember in a game in a long, long time. I mean the great writing obviously helps but he does his bit brilliantly.
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It's just a guy talking with a bristol accent for fucks sake. The writing is indeed amazing, but the performance is not THAT special.

GRRRR
 
D

Datwheezy

Unconfirmed Member
StuBurns said:
The genius of Portal is so much in the writing. We always hear about professional writers being involved in games, but I wonder how many studios really have full time writers on staff like Valve. It's even more odd that it's a comedy, I know a lot of people love the Tim Schafer stuff, but outside of Psychonauts I don't think his games are that funny.

The hyperbolic reviews were pretty embarrassing, but it is a phenomenal game. I'd put it second this generation behind the original I think. Maybe my opinion will change once I've played the co-op.
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I share very similar taste in games as you (Ico and Portal being 2 of my favorites of all time) and I can say that co-op only made me love the game even more. It is an absolute blast playing with someone else, and the 2nd half of co-op has some of the most fun Portal puzzles yet in the series.
 
T

Treefingers

Member
Requeim said:
It's just a guy talking with a bristol accent for fucks sake. The writing is indeed amazing, but the performance is not THAT special.

GRRRR
Click to expand...
When 90% of video game voice overs are terrible, it's pretty special.
 
H

Hixx

Member
Requeim said:
It's just a guy talking with a bristol accent for fucks sake. The writing is indeed amazing, but the performance is not THAT special.

GRRRR
Click to expand...

if it was that easy nobody would be pointing out what a good job he's done.
 
D

Datwheezy

Unconfirmed Member
Requeim said:
It's just a guy talking with a bristol accent for fucks sake. The writing is indeed amazing, but the performance is not THAT special.

GRRRR
Click to expand...

This just in: all you need to be a great voice actor is an English accent. I probably just ended poverty in England. Homeless? Go do some voice acting for videogames.
 
S

StuBurns

Banned
Merchant does a lot of voice acting, it's an incredibly lucrative business for advertisements actually, although he is very wealthy anyway.

Anyone know if he'd played Portal? I know he does play games.

Datwheezy said:
I share very similar taste in games as you (Ico and Portal being 2 of my favorites of all time) and I can say that co-op only made me love the game even more. It is an absolute blast playing with someone else, and the 2nd half of co-op has some of the most fun Portal puzzles yet in the series.
Click to expand...
I'm looking forward to it certainly, it's going to be a couple of weeks for me I think though.
 
M

MrPliskin

Banned
Requeim said:
It's just a guy talking with a bristol accent for fucks sake. The writing is indeed amazing, but the performance is not THAT special.

GRRRR
Click to expand...

cover_280141042010.jpg
 
S

Subliminal

Member
Requeim said:
It's just a guy talking with a bristol accent for fucks sake. The writing is indeed amazing, but the performance is not THAT special.

GRRRR
Click to expand...

I'm with you, The beauty was in the writing, not the performance. they could've got anyone from the vague west of england to do it and it would've sounded similar.
 
R

Requeim

Member
Subliminal said:
I'm with you, The beauty was in the writing, not the performance. they could've got anyone from the vague west of england to do it and it would've sounded similar.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised to see a small GTA 4 style backlash at some point with this game, people are really building it up
 
Revolutionary

Revolutionary

Member
StuBurns said:
Merchant does a lot of voice acting, it's an incredibly lucrative business for advertisements actually, although he is very wealthy anyway.

Anyone know if he'd played Portal? I know he does play games.
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In the Final Hours of Portal 2 he admits he's never played a Valve game. :(

As for his performance, I think he did a great job with the talking over himself, stuttering, ad-libbing, etc. It's more than just the accent and people who think it's just because of the accent are complaining about the wrong thing.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
StuBurns said:
Merchant does a lot of voice acting, it's an incredibly lucrative business for advertisements actually, although he is very wealthy anyway.

Anyone know if he'd played Portal? I know he does play games.


I'm looking forward to it certainly, it's going to be a couple of weeks for me I think though.
Click to expand...
No, he hadn't.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
You guys realize you don't need to backtrack in Chapter 6 and 7? You can access the things you need through grates, usually under your feet that look back on previous rooms.
 
R

Requeim

Member
Treefingers said:
You're saying it's overhyped?
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It's a valve game. How could it not be at least a little overhyped?

I don't know man, i really like the game, maybe my issue is more with the portal fanbase and the reviewers at this point
 
T

Treefingers

Member
Requeim said:
It's a valve game. How could it not be at least a little overhyped?

I don't know man, i really like the game, maybe my issue is more with the portal fanbase and the reviewers at this point
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I just don't see how it doesn't warrant the high reviews. It's an incredible game that has very few flaws.

GTA 4 on the other hand had tons of flaws.
 
M

MrPliskin

Banned
Requeim said:
It's a valve game. How could it not be at least a little overhyped?

I don't know man, i really like the game, maybe my issue is more with the portal fanbase and the reviewers at this point
Click to expand...

Yea! HOW DARE PEOPLE ENJOY THESE GAMES THIS MUCH! RAWR!!

Don't give-in to the man, right? FIGHT THE POWAH!
 
R

Requeim

Member
Treefingers said:
I just don't see how it doesn't warrant the high reviews. It's an incredible game that has very few flaws.

GTA 4 on the other hand had tons of flaws.
Click to expand...

Well, to many people the GTA 4 flaws weren't that apparent at first, that's why there was a backlash. Otherwise it would just have gotten low reviews.

MrPliskin said:
Yea! HOW DARE PEOPLE ENJOY THESE GAMES THIS MUCH! RAWR!!

Don't give-in to the man, right? FIGHT THE POWAH!
Click to expand...

Yeah i'm obviously hating on the game because it's popular.
 
T

Treefingers

Member
Requeim said:
Well, to many people the GTA 4 flaws weren't that apparent at first, that's why there was a backlash. Otherwise it would just have gotten low reviews.
Click to expand...
Okay but what are these flaws that you see in Portal 2 that make you think it's overhyped?
 
R

Requeim

Member
Treefingers said:
Okay but what are these flaws that you see in Portal 2 that make you think it's overhyped?
Click to expand...

I think the gameplay is fine, but i would have liked some more twitchy puzzles akin some of the ones in the first game. I also think they expanded the story from the first game nicely enough in this, even if the twists and turns are somewhat predictable. Some of the jokes are pretty good, but a lot of the humor feels so forced, like they are really trying to successfully recreate "the cake is a lie" (and judging by the spoiler thread, they sure have). It's also not very long for the price if you don't care for co-op (the first game was amazing in this way).

As i said, i do think it's a good or even great game, but i don't see what is truly special about it, especially in comparison to the first game.
 
D

dralla

Member
ok so I'm having problems with steam and their customer support is no help. basically i can't log in to my account, either on PC or PSN, says the name/pw isn't right. so I went to make a new account on PS3 through Portal 2 and when I clicked 'make new account' I was magically logged into my account. I could see the cloud bar at the top and the cloud icon on my saved games. Now my account PSN has been linked to my Steam account but now I can't log back on and customer service says that my name and e-mail "aren't in their system". the fuck is going on :[

really all I need to know is, when I saw the cloud icons on the main menu and saves, does that mean I was in steam or does that show up when on PSN by itself? My PSN name and Steam name are the same and have no friends on Steam, so when I pulled up the Steam friends list it is empty. I did see an icon with the robot from co-op and my steam/psn name in the top corner. I'm not 100% sure I was logged in but I'm pretty sure I was
 
B

big ander

Member
Requeim said:
I think the gameplay is fine, but i would have liked some more twitchy puzzles akin some of the ones in the first game. I also think they expanded the story from the first game nicely enough in this, even if the twists and turns are somewhat predictable. Some of the jokes are pretty good, but a lot of the humor feels so forced, like they are really trying to successfully recreate "the cake is a lie" (and judging by the spoiler thread, they sure have). It's also not very long for the price if you don't care for co-op (the first game was amazing in this way).

As i said, i do think it's a good or even great game, but i don't see what is truly special about it, especially in comparison to the first game.
Click to expand...
I completely disagree on the humor. I found the second game to be a refinement and expansion of all the hilarity of the first. A more diverse cast, great VA, and perfect writing let that happen.
That said, I would have liked some more timing or twitch based puzzles. I saw that those were hardest for people in the first, but that was what made them more rewarding. I'm expecting to see more of those in any DLC.
 
C

CrookedRain

Member
dralla said:
ok so I'm having problems with steam and their customer support is no help. basically i can't log in to my account, either on PC or PSN, says the name/pw isn't right. so I went to make a new account on PS3 through Portal 2 and when I clicked 'make new account' I was magically logged into my account. I could see the cloud bar at the top and the cloud icon on my saved games. Now my account PSN has been linked to my Steam account but now I can't log back on and customer service says that my name and e-mail "aren't in their system". the fuck is going on :[

really all I need to know is, when I saw the cloud icons on the main menu and saves, does that mean I was in steam or does that show up when on PSN by itself? My PSN name and Steam name are the same and have no friends on Steam, so when I pulled up the Steam friends list it is empty. I did see an icon with the robot from co-op and my steam/psn name in the top corner. I'm not 100% sure I was logged in but I'm pretty sure I was
Click to expand...
You know that PSN is down right now, right?
 
M

Mr. Spinnington

Banned
Requeim said:
It's just a guy talking with a bristol accent for fucks sake. The writing is indeed amazing, but the performance is not THAT special.

GRRRR
Click to expand...
i don't seem to remember UK-based EDGE complaining about merchant's terrible voicework
 
I

Ickman3400

Banned
Requeim said:
I don't. I would rather have seen something truly crazy and fresh like a competetive multiplayer mode or something.
Click to expand...

Nothing says fresh like competitive multiplayer /barf

The game is fine as it is. I just beat it and didn't think it was amazing, just ok, but I wouldn't have even palyed this if they stuck multiplayer in. Talk about a game that doesn't need it..
 
S

Sciz

Member
Requeim said:
I don't. I would rather have seen something truly crazy and fresh like a competetive multiplayer mode or something.
Click to expand...
So you don't like the mode that's almost entirely complex, twitchy puzzling because... it isn't something completely different?

Valve's already gone on record saying that they tried competitive Portal and that it doesn't really work.
 
B

big ander

Member
Requeim said:
I don't. I would rather have seen something truly crazy and fresh like a competetive multiplayer mode or something.
Click to expand...
Personally, playing this game with another person is completely different to me. It made the entire mechanics of the game feel fresh. I can't wait to play more co-op.
 
S

StuBurns

Banned
Dax01 said:
I don't think any of the writing felt forced at all. There are so many great lines in Portal 2, whereas Portal 1 had "The Cake is a lie."
Click to expand...
That line is just some random crap that caught on, I don't think Erik even wrote it, I believe it was Kim. Some of the writing in the first game is incredible.

"That thing you burned up isn't important to me. It's the fluid catalytic cracking unit. It made shoes for orphans. Nice job breaking it, hero."

Absolutely on par with the standard of Portal 2, if not better.
 
R

Requeim

Member
ZephyrFate said:
I mean, you can say this, but until you can prove why it just seems akin to subtle trolling.
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You can't exactly prove something that's purely subjective. You obviously thought it was the most heart-wrenching soulful performance of all time, i thought it was okay. Also, labeling any criticism as trolling has been a common occurence in the portal threads. I'm really sorry i don't consider it the best game of all time, i'll just leave now.
 
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