Portal 2

[Venetia]

just beat it.

holy crap, so a couple things

1) the ending credits song isn't as good as portal 1. not bad, but.. nowhere near as good as still alive
2) the final boss fight was cool and friggin epic. it potentially opens up where portal 3 could take place
3) ?????
4) i had this deep feeling of.. emptiness after i beat it. i was not expecting the reaction and outcome

Spoiler

glados as a potato was friggin hilarious, and the part where cave johnson is talking about lemons.. so funny

agree on all those points. but i feel like the portal 1 last boss was harder.

Spoiler

yeah cave johnson was THE BEST non-character ever.

and the co-op ending was tooo shorrrrtttt.

i'm glad they too were tired of the meme and didn't go overboard about cake. only saw one joke about cake on a sign. the sarcastic confetti made me lol though.

 

[Twirly]

gubid you might want to put spoiler tag in your post because it might spoil a bit ;(
but yeah

Spoiler

the end where you grab the portal gun and see the moon i knew what to do, it felt so awesome

 

[Jason]

Spoiler

 

[Gubid]

Spoiler: Spoiler Info, dont read if you havent finished game unless you really want to

I felt the game was well rounded, but I have to say I was a little scared that when you put wheatley in the core replacement thing that the game was done already. I was like, bull crap I just paid $60 to play for 1.5 hrs to win it. I really liked the fact that hey put Glados in a Potato. That was very entertaining. Made Glados not seem so bad after it all. She does a much better job of maintaining the place for sure.

Spoiler: This is the super spoiler, dont read if you havent finished.. seriously, it ruins everything

I thought the idea to finish Wheatley by pulling him into space by portal to the moon was great. Very cool mind you. I was kinda hoping to see other humans when she exited or something so that we could fan fict our selves out with what would happen next. Like.. did she still have the portal gun when leaving the testing facilities and the like. And yes, the companion cube.. what bigger role does it play in everything, if any.

 

[Glitchfinder]

Spoiler: This is the super spoiler, dont read if you havent finished.. seriously, it ruins everything

I thought the idea to finish Wheatley by pulling him into space by portal to the moon was great. Very cool mind you. I was kinda hoping to see other humans when she exited or something so that we could fan fict our selves out with what would happen next. Like.. did she still have the portal gun when leaving the testing facilities and the like. And yes, the companion cube.. what bigger role does it play in everything, if any.

Spoiler: Really don't read this unless you're most of the way through the game, at the earliest

The portal gun apparently required moon rock-based surfaces to make portals, which meant that the portal gun is useless outside the facility. Which is total bullshit, as far as I'm concerned, because the moon is made of the same stuff the earth is, and is mostly basaltic rock.

 

[Venetia]

Spoiler: Really don't read this unless you're most of the way through the game, at the earliest

The portal gun apparently required moon rock-based surfaces to make portals, which meant that the portal gun is useless outside the facility. Which is total bullshit, as far as I'm concerned, because the moon is made of the same stuff the earth is, and is mostly basaltic rock.

Spoiler

i was confused as to why they needed the white paint stuff to be moon rock at all. you can also make portals on any light-colored surface in the compound, including concrete in office hallways and ceilings in recording rooms (even in rooms that were constructed and cordoned off before they even had the moon rock). Hard to believe they would manufacture like half the facility--even parts like ventilation shafts--out of moon rock.

maybe they just thought moon rock was special back then somehow but in actuality, it could work on anything composed of a similar elemental makeup? (and cave wasted a lot of money for nothing)?

oh well games don't have to make sense I guess!

 

[Anski]

Spoiler

A lot of it REALLY -REALLY- -REALLY- had me thinking that Portal 2 had started after Episode 1 of Half Life, what with the world being ruined by the Combine Portal, Aperture Science included. Valve's already said they're in the same universe, just not when. For all we know, it might still be after that time.

 

[Ceiling_Cat]

Spoiler

We still don't know for how long exactly Chell was in stasis. I gave it a shot playing with commentary this morning, and was severely disappointed by the lack of explanation of the ways this game trolled you psychologically with subtle things like the un-saveable turret in the incinerator or the companion cube you couldn't take along either way. I'm sure I'm not making things up here, this game trolls you hard on every step. Or at least that's what Ca... I mean, GlaDOS is doing. If someone zips through the game without acting naturally, they're missing out on a lot of additional stuff put in there, especially in the 60's Aperture.
edit: It's also a good idea to delay the final battle a little and listen to the cores. (except the I'm in space "astronaut"SPAAAAACE... for obvious so much space reasons)

I'm the man who's going to BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN! With the lemons!

 

[psiclone]

first custom map released for portal 2

http://www.fileplanet.com/219938/210000 ... d-Map-v1.0

 

[Venetia]

Spoiler

A lot of it REALLY -REALLY- -REALLY- had me thinking that Portal 2 had started after Episode 1 of Half Life, what with the world being ruined by the Combine Portal, Aperture Science included. Valve's already said they're in the same universe, just not when. For all we know, it might still be after that time.

Spoiler

well aperture is pretty god damn derelict and run-down.

undoubtedly, shit went bad for them around the time of the combine portal opening. they probably went on lockdown and then glados got bored and started testing nonstop. chell was one of the last subjects she had left (before finding the hidden cache of subjects behind vault #2).

in the beginning of portal 2, wheatley wakes you up and says that people start getting brain damage after only a few months of stasis, and then jokes about how chell most DEFINITELY has it after all THAT time.

additionally, if you find the secret location of the Borealis ("ship overboard!" achievement), you'll find that it's gone. so it is definitely some time after the events of HL1, as that ship mysteriously blinked away to the arctic north between then and HL2. glados signed off on the borealis blueprints (you can find this if you look at HL2 texture files), which means that she'd already entirely taken over.

my guess would be that chell's release into the "real world" took place before HL2, but perhaps not TOO long before it.

 

[Gubid]

It sounds to me that I have to go and play some Half Life. I have never played it

 

[Glitchfinder]

Spoiler

well aperture is pretty god damn derelict and run-down.

undoubtedly, shit went bad for them around the time of the combine portal opening. they probably went on lockdown and then glados got bored and started testing nonstop. chell was one of the last subjects she had left (before finding the hidden cache of subjects behind vault #2).

in the beginning of portal 2, wheatley wakes you up and says that people start getting brain damage after only a few months of stasis, and then jokes about how chell most DEFINITELY has it after all THAT time.

additionally, if you find the secret location of the Borealis ("ship overboard!" achievement), you'll find that it's gone. so it is definitely some time after the events of HL1, as that ship mysteriously blinked away to the arctic north between then and HL2. glados signed off on the borealis blueprints (you can find this if you look at HL2 texture files), which means that she'd already entirely taken over.

my guess would be that chell's release into the "real world" took place before HL2, but perhaps not TOO long before it.

Spoiler

You said you took time to smell the roses, yet you never noticed that the project board for the potato that grew was signed by our one and only Chell? I took this to mean that Chell was actually a kid when GLaDOS took over, and that she was brought to work for the bring your daughter to work day. GLaDOS goes haywire that day, forces everyone to become test subjects or die, and Chell subsequently spends the rest of her life testing, until you meet her in Portal 1. That also explains why she managed to survive, presumably after everyone else died. She started as a kid, and HAD to get good at it, fast. Plus, kids are more adaptable.

 

[Gubid]

Spoiler

You said you took time to smell the roses, yet you never noticed that the project board for the potato that grew was signed by our one and only Chell? I took this to mean that Chell was actually a kid when GLaDOS took over, and that she was brought to work for the bring your daughter to work day. GLaDOS goes haywire that day, forces everyone to become test subjects or die, and Chell subsequently spends the rest of her life testing, until you meet her in Portal 1. That also explains why she managed to survive, presumably after everyone else died. She started as a kid, and HAD to get good at it, fast. Plus, kids are more adaptable.

Did you read the comic for it in the extras section? They imply from that that after Chell had been re-captured shortly after the first portal and was then put into statis and then there is a bit more info there with some guy and his companion cube. Good read.

 

[Venetia]

Spoiler

You said you took time to smell the roses, yet you never noticed that the project board for the potato that grew was signed by our one and only Chell? I took this to mean that Chell was actually a kid when GLaDOS took over, and that she was brought to work for the bring your daughter to work day. GLaDOS goes haywire that day, forces everyone to become test subjects or die, and Chell subsequently spends the rest of her life testing, until you meet her in Portal 1. That also explains why she managed to survive, presumably after everyone else died. She started as a kid, and HAD to get good at it, fast. Plus, kids are more adaptable.

Spoiler

yeah i saw that. but it implies:

1.) chell was a kid at some point during the HL1 crisis (year: 2000. Chell's approx. age is 8-12).

2.) Portal 1 took place while shit was still going badly and things were still haywire (year: approx. 2010? Chell's approx. age is 18-22).
When you wake in P1, GLaDOS says: "Are you trying to escape? Things have changed since the last time you left the building. What's going on out there will make you wish you were back in here. I have an infinite capacity for knowledge, and even I'm not sure what is going on outside. All I know is I'm the only thing standing between us and them. Well, I was. Unless you have a plan for building some supercomputer parts in a big hurry, this place isn't going to be safe much longer."
Chell was either testing during this, or stasis does not stop aging. We don't know. But since you start out on the "easy" courses, and since GLaDOS doesn't meet Chell with any familiarity, we can only assume that GLaDOS either wiped her memory and is putting on airs, or that stasis doesn't cease aging.

3.) Chell is pulled back down into Aperture after escape, and placed into another stasis. (per the changed Ep1 patch ending).

4.) Chell wakes and goes through 1 "brain exercise" between P1 & P2, presumably not long after P1. (Tutorial). The "Rat Man", having become enamored with her, risks his life to prolong her stasis indefinitely as everyone elses' is starting to shut down.

5.) Portal 2 takes place long after the brain exercise. As GLaDOS is offline, and cannot maintain the compound, everything has gone to shit. It would have to be not TOO long, or Chell'd probably have significant problems. But it couldn't be TOO SOON after, as the compound is overgrown with potato/weeds and is dilapidated.
(Year: Anywhere between 2015 and 2020. Chell's approx. age: anywhere between 23 and 32.)


HL2 takes place in 2020, so it would make a lot of sense for Portal 2 to also take place then.

i feel nerdier for having written that :specs:

 

[Gubid]

Spoiler

The only thing that doesnt make sense about that is that when you wake up the second time it says you have been in statis for "999" I dont recall whether the first one said weeks or months. Weeks could maintiain a somewhat reasonable timeline to what your suggesting above.

Also the 'rat man' was only trying to return power to her cell as the whole block had been without power for a few moments. He was able to return power to it, but in doing so accidentally set the wakeup to unknown.

At least that is how I remember it.

 

[Cryranos]

I am LOVING this game.

When I thought that GlaDOS could not get funnier, she does!

 

[Glitchfinder]

Spoiler

The only thing that doesnt make sense about that is that when you wake up the second time it says you have been in statis for "999" I dont recall whether the first one said weeks or months. Weeks could maintiain a somewhat reasonable timeline to what your suggesting above.

Also the 'rat man' was only trying to return power to her cell as the whole block had been without power for a few moments. He was able to return power to it, but in doing so accidentally set the wakeup to unknown.

At least that is how I remember it.

Spoiler

About the 999 thing. Listen closely. There is a significant pause between two of the nines, and if you listen very closely, you can hear that the computer bugged and it's volume went down to barely audible for one, meaning it was actually 9999.

 

[Venetia]

Spoiler

About the 999 thing. Listen closely. There is a significant pause between two of the nines, and if you listen very closely, you can hear that the computer bugged and it's volume went down to barely audible for one, meaning it was actually 9999.

Spoiler

i forgot about that.
it was in days, not weeks or months or years.

if you take it at face value, and not as a bug because the stasis passed some unforeseen limit, she could've been in stasis for:

~ about 3.5 months,
~ 2.73 years,
~ 27.3 years,
~ 273 years,
~ 2736 years,
etc.

Also: My bad. The Combine Portal opened in either Dec 2003 or 2008 (per a wall calendar in HL1). So HL2 could also take place in around 2030.

Considering the level of decay, it'd be anywhere between 27-273 years. Which would place Chell at either exactly the HL2 timeframe, beyond it, or vastly beyond it.

(But, considering the fact that most of the machinery/software/audio tapes still work and the fabric/wood isn't absolutely gone, it's probably more like decades than centuries.)

(Additionally, if brain damage was noted after a few months, the max limit of days a programmer'd allow for was probably not more than 9999. And, it could just have been straight bugged at that point and the amount of stasis-days could be ENTIRELY variable.)

Spoiler

AND,

it's also possible that Portal 1 took place at ANY POINT.
If GLaDOS had kept the compound running and in good condition, and had a vast reserve of energy/materials, then it's possible that Portal 1 took place at any point in time at all. Could have even taken place during HL2, and the Combine getting pissy @ Freeman was the thing she was concerned about. Then Portal 2 could be taking place at any damn point a long while after all the HL events entirely.

It did look rather peaceful & deserted after Chell was tossed out :P


So Chell aging 10-20 years between the fall of Aperture and Portal 1 is unexplained.

 

[Toams]

I just recalled that the levels that were shown to demonstrate the new mechanics before the game was released aren't actually in the game. Which is a shame, because I really liked some of those things. They seem to be more action and timing-focused, instead of hard-puzzle.

Examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaZ75vU112Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcf99_DZZew

At the end of that second clip there's also these other short fragments of levels with crushers, and panel action, and paint on walls and shit, which I haven't seen in the game either.

So I hope there's going to be DLC (well there is, and it'll be free, because valve) which will include these levels. Would be strange if they didn't because they look very finished, but still..

 

[Gubid]

In a couple of the extra clips at the end they showed what looked like one of the levels in the game, but then it changed completely around a single turn. Amazing how that happens huh? I have heard that they are going to do a fair amount of DLC but that it may not be free. I mean, you can already change your characters looks, but you have to pay for that, so I would expect some to be free, but not all.