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Posted on: May 18 2011,11:29
I heard very negative things about Portal 2 at lunch today.
-It was developed for consoles, and is nothing more than a port. (Really fucking nice considering PC users are the ones who made Portal famous.) -The graphics suck (again, it's a port) -The single player is 4 hours long. -It's nowhere near as charming as the first game.
Now that was all from one source who happens to be a nerd who does a lot of internet surfing. He says he's read these reviews from users, NOT gaming site/mag reviews.
It's also important to note that Valve didn't develop this game. Which begs the question, what has Valve been up to for all this time? I realize they're pushing new stuff out for Steam, TF2, and Left4Dead, but what is the Half-Life team doing...?
TPRJones I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
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Posted on: May 18 2011,11:52
I bought it. Â It is by far the best value I've ever had in entertainment per dollar spent, even at full price. Â And I'm not normally someone that buys new games at full prices.
* Â It is not a port from console. Â I remember that myth started because of some single word in a configuration file somewhere that someone thought sounded like it was referring to a console thing instead of a PC thing. Â I may have to google that up to find details again. Â Regardless, game quality is not just equal to but better than the first Portal, so no worries here.
* Nope, graphics are - again - better than the first Portal. Â Some people complain that they don't like the styles of various parts of it, but then they often end up arguing over which parts they think suck. Â Me, I think it was all spectacular. Â But I do have my favorite sections in terms of art style.
* On my third replay I rushed through everything as quickly as I could and timed it, and finished in just under 8 hours. Â I'm no slouch, but I'm not perfect either, so I could see someone finishing the whole thing in about seven hours if they really pushed it and shaved off every single bit they could in a high-speed perfection run. Â My first play-through took 15 hours, but I was taking my time a little. Â The four hours thing started because Steam can't tell time. Â After playing through it for 10 or 12 hours the first time, when you are done Steam will say you just played for four hours. Â But look at the clock, look outside to see that the sun has gone down and you just lost an entire day, and you'll realize it was more than four hours.
* It's plenty charming. Â The story compliments the first game beautifully, and is a rich tapestry of plot and characters that is breathtaking to behold. Â The game is also full of dozens of tiny little semi-hidden character moments that if you are paying attention will make you smile. Â But if you are one of those people that are trying their damndest to cram 12 hours of game into 4 while hating on the look of it because you only like ugly brown/grey fps games, then I could see where you would probably miss out on the true depth of the story here.
Your source's sources are idiots that wouldn't know a good game if it were to grab them by the balls and introduce itself. Â And Valve did indeed develop this game. Â It's been their single largest production effort ever since a couple of months after The Orange Box came out.
Anyone who enjoyed the story and gameplay experience of the first Portal should immediately purchase the second one at full price. Â Period. Â The only exceptions would be people that didn't care about the story and really only enjoyed playing the challenge modes to see how they could glitch the game. Â I can see where that really hardcore group could possibly dislike the slower pacing and massive amounts of story in the new game. Â It also relies more on puzzle-solving and less on twitch skills, which also might annoy some hardcore players. But they should stick to COD:BLOPS or whatever and leave good games like Portal 2 to those who can appreciate them.
TPRJones I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
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Posted on: May 18 2011,11:59
Sorry I didn't post a review sooner. Ever since I bought Portal 2 I keep playing it and forgetting to review it. I think I need to play it again tonight. For the ... eighth time? I'm losing count.
The multiplayer is a blast, too, I should mention.
Also, the SDK tools were just released last week. Already community maps are coming out, and some of them are quite good. Most are crap, of course, but that's the way it usually works. The 10% that are good are very good.
It's also important to note that Valve didn't develop this game. Which begs the question, what has Valve been up to for all this time? I realize they're pushing new stuff out for Steam, TF2, and Left4Dead, but what is the Half-Life team doing...?
Not getting enough done with HL2:EP3 because there will be no Valve games at this years E3.
My buddy bought this mofo this past weekend, for a lack of decent 2 player co-op FPS shoot 'em up 360 games available.
QUOTE
It was developed for consoles, and is nothing more than a port. (Really fucking nice considering PC users are the ones who made Portal famous.)
Played the 360 version. Didn't crash, didn't freeze, didn't trap us in the environment (I'm looking at you, Bethesda, why can't your shit do that)?
QUOTE
The graphics suck (again, it's a port)
Bullshit. Graphics looked better than most FPSs I've seen.
QUOTE
The single player is 4 hours long.
Co-op mode took longer than 4 hours to beat, but that's probably because I hadn't played the first game and had to acclimatize myself to things. I'll say the co-op mode definitely comes in at under ten hours if you know what you're doing. 6-7 levels broken into 6-9 parts each or so. And that's just what I've seen so far in standard co-op.
QUOTE
It's nowhere near as charming as the first game.
Never played the first one, but the dialogue the computer voice has is relatively amusing. The robots, without having any spoken dialogue, seem to have actual personality and depth, particularly when you execute commands from the "gestures" menu in unison.
-------------- Diogenes of Sinope:
"It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
"Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them."
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Posted on: May 20 2011,11:40
QUOTE
I read somewhere that Valve seems to have their hands full running Steam, and isn't committing a lot of time to game dev.
I'd say that's obviously BS.
The people who make the games are different from the people who work on Steam. Besides the engine for Steam has been done forever. Everything now is patches and updates.
Plus, as TPR pointed out, Valve did design Portal 2, and they apparently didn't half-ass it. They're constantly updating TF2, L4D2, etc.
I remember reading that Valve sort of stopped at Ep2 because they didn't like where things were going. I don't think they meant story, but rather technology and the episode format.
Let's also not forget that the portal gun in a game charger in terms of level design. If they bring that over to Half-Life, which is rumored, no matter how much they had designed before, they'd have to completely start over.
TPRJones I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 12384
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Posted on: May 20 2011,14:07
There's a community map for Portal 2 that has gravity switching effects, changing the direction of gravity in certain regions of the map. It's not good enough yet to be Escheresque, but give them time.
I miss Quake's grappling hook and Thief's rope arrows. And Thief's AI actually went in the direction a sound was made instead of Fallout 3's omniscient AI that always zeroes in on your position unless you do serious stealthing.
-------------- Diogenes of Sinope:
"It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
"Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them."
Group: Super Administrators
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Posted on: May 20 2011,15:12
(TPRJones @ May 20 2011,17:07)
QUOTE
There's a community map for Portal 2 that has gravity switching effects, changing the direction of gravity in certain regions of the map. Â It's not good enough yet to be Escheresque, but give them time.
TPRJones I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 12384
Joined: May 2004
Posted on: Jun. 27 2011,13:32
From Portal 2 I also learned that the "Gay Ben" that I've been listening to do Valve commentaries for many games now is actually "GabeN", aka Gabe Newell.
Huh. That would make more sense. It seemed a little odd just how aggressively out of the closet "Ben" was for a video game commentary.
TPRJones I saw The Fault in our Stars opening night.
Group: Privateers
Posts: 12384
Joined: May 2004
Posted on: Sep. 19 2011,11:15
There's a lot of potential there. It would make for some really REALLY insane multiplayer.
In case you didn't notice, a stealth update to Portal 2 went through last month in preparation for some DLC to be released soon. I keep checking back every day, but nothing yet...
