Portal 2 Message Board older than one year ago

Even if you don't plan to get Portal 2 through Steam (and thus maybe play it early due to the ongoing Potato Sackathon), you can still enjoy some perks with your purchase. Perks like crazy savings.

Best Buy is offering the PS3 and 360 versions of Valve's reality-perforating puzzle game for $45, and the PC/Mac version for just $35. So now you have to face the awful choice between really early and really cheap, with the "custom bots" wildcard thrown in from GameStop. It's not a puzzle requiring impossible scientific devices or evasion of intelligent turrets, but it's a puzzle regardless.

[Thanks, Jaes]

#paginationTop, #paginationBot, .ui-page-list ul {display:none;} Hypothetical questions about the good guys are pointless. Marcus Fenix will never forsake his fellow Gears and fight alongside the Locust Horde. Link will never turn his back on Zelda. Spider-Man will always try to do the right thin...

On April 1, Valve launched the Potato Sack on Steam, a $38 bundle that contains a total of 13 middling-to-awesome indie titles. Today, it’s been revealed that the Potato Sack is more than just a cost-efficient means to get your hands on a lot of games: it’s also the key to unlocking Portal 2 on Steam before the title’s actual release date.

Nestled inside the Potato Sack was the beginning of an elaborate ARG that spanned e-mail, the games’ files, and the web. The supposed last piece to solving the puzzle was available at this Aperture Science Web site, which once had a countdown timer that ended at around 9:00AM PST this morning. Most fans believed, due to several not-so-vague hints, that when this timer was finished ticking down, Portal 2 would be unlocked on Steam. Oh, how tantalizingly close they were to the truth! 
     

On its countdown site--its post-countdown countdown site--Valve revealed another countdown of sorts called "Glados@Home." Confirming the speculation, Valve says that when this clock hits zero, you'll be able to play Portal 2, possibly early. How early you can depends on the catch of Glados@Home: the web site is somehow computing how much time people are spending in the Potato Sack games. When the allotted time is spent in each game, Portal 2 will unlock. Right now, it's saying the game will unlock in about 90 hours, which is... Tuesday, the day the game hits anyway on the PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PS3.

If you get real quiet right now you can probably hear a mix of sighs and groans from brick and mortar retailers, who are getting the carpet pulled out from under them a bit here. Assuming you guys fire up some indie games and actually get Portal 2 out early in the first place, that is.

Valve says it will launch Portal 2 early through Steam if enough players purchase and/or play The Potato Sack, a 13 game pack of indie titles on sale for $38. You don't need to purchase the games again if you already own them...

#yougotsteamed Now we know: Portal 2 will launch early—if enough people get together and play all the indie games in the "Potato Pack" on Steam. The countdown clock ended a noon, revealing the "GLaDOS@Home distributed computational grid status page, showing what appear to be real-time stats of how many people are playing the games of the Potato Pack, as well as a projected time to unlock Portal 2, which at the time of this writing is showing just shy of 94 hours. More »

If you thought the Portal 2 countdown clock lead to an early release of the game, you were right about the concept, but maybe your timeline was a bit off. The countdown, upon elapsing, opened a site for "GLaDOS@Home," which claims to need your computational cycles to facilitate an early release of Portal 2.

Functionally, that means "the more time people spend playing the Potato Sack games, the sooner before its April 19 release date Portal 2 will come out." Don't have the Potato Sack -- a collection of 13 indie games, recently updated with Portal-themed content -- yet? Get it here for $38.65, And think of it this way -- you cleared your weekend to play Portal, so now you have time for these other 13 games.

#thebitchisback The interactive marketing campaign surrounding sure-to-be-megahit Portal 2 has been dropping hints that the game, scheduled for release next Tuesday, might be released earlier. More »

(Musical accompaniment for this post)

The Portal 2 ARG is coming to an end, but GLaDOS, much like Senor Chang, can never die. Also, she has something planned with a final countdown.

The Aperture Science page would seem to imply that once the "final test" is solved Portal 2 will be unlocked early on Steam: "Tomorrow you will be given the final test. Then it will be entirely in your hands when I am freed." Our advice? FAIL THE TEST, because some of us have to work today.

[Thanks, Mavus]

The Valve-owned domain aperturescience.com tossed up a countdown whose timer expires at 11 a.m. EDT/8 a.m. PDT tomorrow. Rumors, abetted by Easter eggs, have hinted that the game is arriving a week ahead of its announced April 19 date. Hey, it's either that or Half Life 2: Episode 3. More »

Portal 2 is the sequel to a short puzzle game released back in 2007 alongside Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2 as part Valve's Orange Box. If you haven't played the original, you should right now. It features one of the best video game villains in existence...

Blast your way back into Aperture Science for an advance look at Portal 2 in the GT Preview!

Valve made a lot of noise at Sony’s E3 2010 press conference when studio founder Gabe Newell took the stage and announced that Portal 2 for PS3 would ship with Steam support, implying that users of the PS3 version would have access to the usual suite of Steamworks features, including the Steam Cloud, achievements, and various friends list functionalities. And, yeah, this is all true: in a press release floated by Valve this afternoon, the studio detailed all of the stuff you’ll be able to do in the PS3 version with a connected Steam account, specifically stating that users, via a version of the Steam UI overlay, will be able to access their Steam friends list, chat with other Steam users, accept and send game invites cross game, view Steam achievements, and send their save files to Steam's cloud for PS3-to-PS3 transfer.  
  

#valve Developer Valve calls the PlayStation 3 version of Portal 2 "the best console version of the game," for various reasons. For one, buying that version gets you a copy of the game for Steam too. But more important, to Valve at least, is that it brings the Steam platform to Sony's console. More »

At E3 last year, we learned that Portal 2 on PS3 would mark the debut of developer Valve's much-lauded Steam service on consoles, but we left wondering what exactly does that mean. Over the last ten months, we've managed to piece together a pretty comprehensive set of features; however, today, Valve issued a short press release that runs down a list, and even offers some new details.

Of course, Portal 2 on PS3 will offer cross-platform matchmaking with Steam friends, Steam achievements (in addition to PS3 trophies), and Steam Cloud support to save co-op and single-player game progress on PS3. Note: "Game saves and progress from a PlayStation 3 are incompatible with other platforms."

To access all these features, Portal 2 on PS3 will feature the familiar Steam overlay, giving players a quick way to access "both PSN and Steam friends," for text chats (and we presume voice chats), profiles, friend requests, and game invites. In order to access all these Steam-y features, you'll need to link your PSN account with your Steam account. Don't have a Steam account? You can make one "with the click of a button," Valve promises. And if you're wondering how that "free" Steam Play version on Mac or PC will work, Valve says, "linked players of the PS3 version of Portal 2 can also access and play their copy of Portal 2 on any PC or Mac by redeeming an in-box access code on their computer."

If this works as well as we think it will, we don't think we're alone in suggesting that all games ever should do this. Check out the associated Steam support page for plenty more in the way of details (and even some pics).

Valve today revealed details surrounding Steamworks integration into the PlayStation 3 version of Portal 2. The game includes several features, including: cross-platform play with PC owners, Steam achievements, and a free digital copy of Portal 2 on PC and Mac...

Более подробная информация о некоторых из Portal 2 поразительно передач.

More details on some of Portal 2's astounding gear.

The countdown to next week's release of Portal 2 continues and, in this day of digitally delivered games, there's no better sign that it's really happening than this: the pre-load. For those of you eager to return to Aperture Science and reacquaint yourselves with GLaDOS as soon as possible, buy the game on Steam and get that client downloaded.

Speaking of downloading things through Steam, if you purchased the Potato Sack bundle -remember, "13 hit indie games, 75% off"? - you can expect many of those to prompt you for an update. You see, Valve and those sneaky indie devs have been planting Portal 2 hints all over those games; today, things get a little more explicit.

Bit.Trip.Beat (above) has a Portal 2-themed level, GLaDOS and all; Killing Floor (gallery below) has some Portal 2-themed environments; and The Ball has seven new "test chambers" featuring the "Edgeless Artifact Cube." Also updated: Wonderful End of the World, Cogs, Defense Grid, RUSH, AaAaAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, AudioSurf, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Toki Tori. You'll find a video of Bit.Trip.Beat in action after the break. Got a video of another updated game? Share it in the comments and we'll update this post.

#portal Could Valve actually release Portal 2 ahead of schedule, forcing us to rethink the properties of the universal constant known as Valve Time? Because the developer of Bit.Trip Beat, one of the title participating in Valve's Potato Sack Pack offer and its associated alternate reality game, are hinting at that very thing. More »

Be the envy of all other test subjects with your very own sexy pair of Longfall Boots, courtesy of Aperture Science!

#investmentopportunity The fourth and final Aperture Laboratories investment opportunity video is here, harping on the benefits of not having Chell's shins forced into her nasal cavity when falling from great heights. More »

OK, I seriously have to run out of the door now but can’t do it before posting this. A new Portal 2 video that explains precisely what the shit those metal curves that are strapped to the protagonist’s legs are. Watching this, I let out an “OHHHHHH” of understanding so pronounced that it must have sounded to my neighbours like a moan of pain. Thanks to RPS reader Mike “Last Minute” Biggs for sending this in.(more…)

"But how does Chell survive all of those incredibly violent spills in Portal 2," you ask? "That's impossible," you add. Firstly, impossible? Really? This is a game about teleporting through holes in the fabric of space-time. Secondly, watch the trailer below. We promise all shall be elucidated.

Valve have released the climactic part two of their free Portal comic, Lab Rat, and while I’m not sure if there’s anything in there that quite tops the art on page 5 it does offer a great conclusion and a juicy scrap of insight into precisely who Portal’s protagonist is. If you’re looking forward to Portal 2′s release date (only one week from now! WHAT?!) you probably owe it to yourself to read this.

The second part of Portal 2's digital comic, Lab Rat, is now live at IGN. The comic, which fills in some gaps between Portal and its sequel, shines new light on protagonist Chell and the mysterious Rat Man, and may have some clues for those partaking in Valve's ongoing ARG. More »

Oh, the hornet’s nest of Valve’s fiction is opening ever-further. Now we have part one of an official Valve comic, which apparently bridges the gap between the two Portal games – as well as introducing another Aperture survivor. Plus, a talking Companion Cube. Or is it?(more…)

Just as you were warned, "tomorrow" has come, heralding the arrival of Portal 2: Lab Rat. The first issue has been posted over on IGN, spanning 14 total pages.

The comic is more than a prequel than anything else. Actually, we don't want to give away too much, but we will leave you with this little nugget: Companion Cube kills Dumbledore. We know, we know -- who woulda thunk a cube could wield a wand, let alone gain admission into Hogwarts?!

Watch Portal 2's Co-op Mode Multiplayer puzzle solving in Valve sequel...

As forewarned, Valve has released the first portion of its Portal digital comic at IGN. In it, we meet Rat Man, rank and file Aperture Science workers and learn more about the origins of GlaDOS. Read Portal 2: Rab Lat now. More »