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Portal 2

HarMGM

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Sirloin

Sirloin

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Just finished it now, what a wonderful game. The ending is just brilliant. It wasn't particularly hard, but I don't think thats a bad thing, I got quite frustrated with the first one at points, whereas this one flowed really well.

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Wiper

Wiper

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It's cheap and it gets the job done, whereas if you go to Waitrose you get the best cheese but it's really expensive and full of cunts. :lol:

NB: I play PC games and shop in Waitrose

I'd never even heard of Waitrose until I went to university, and never had the opportunity to go to one until 2010, when I was 26. On the other hand, I've been PC gaming since I was ten (or three, depending if we're counting non-IBM compatibles), and didn't have a proper console until I was fourteen, and since then have played with both. Am I some sort of peasant/master-race hybrid?

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NecroMorrius

NecroMorrius

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FWIW the Bit Tech review is uncannily similar to my own gut reaction. They still give it a very high score (as would I) but their noted issues with it are exactly the same as the ones I had.

The difficulty curve is one area where Portal 2 definitely fumbles, however; mainly because it’s as flat as a pancake. Most of the singleplayer levels can be easily breezed through in just a matter of minutes and, while Valve has disguised this ease by constantly rolling out new toys to master, it’s clear that Portal 2 isn’t going to furrow anyone’s brow for very long.

The pace of the singleplayer campaign remains Portal 2’s biggest weakpoint, however. In some ways it seems that Valve’s almost unable to win, as it gets caught up in a damaging spiral of cause and effect. The impressive detail of the levels necessitates too-frequent disruption from load screens, for example.

The difficulty and the pace of Portal 2 conspire against each other especially. While the brevity of individual puzzles is offset by their greater numbers, the fact that none of the many puzzles is any harder means Portal 2 often feels like it’s been a bit padded. You may be breezing through puzzles and hurtling through chambers at an unprecedented rate, but only rarely does it feel like you’re moving noticeably closer to an identifiable goal. More often you’re just jumping blindly from one chamber to the next; an odd thing to take away from a sequel focusing on more overt rebellion than the first.

Oddly, Valve seems to have encouraged this feeling at some points of the game. Several times are you told about the surprises waiting for you five or six chambers down the line – a tactic which doesn’t work as well in the sequel as it did with the cake-based promises of the original. Portal 2’s ending is oddly structured for a Valve game too,

stripping control from the player and unfolding as a video cutscene rather than in-game action – the first time the tactic has been used in a game in the Half-Life universe.

I think I'm just disappointed on account of it being less than perfect, as was the case with L4D2, which is a stupid standard to hold any developer to, even Valve. I also think I'm wrong and need to reevalutate, so I'm looking forward to playing it again without the weight of expectation, and playing the co-op where the puzzles are hopefully more difficult.

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NecroMorrius

NecroMorrius

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I'd never even heard of Waitrose until I went to university, and never had the opportunity to go to one until 2010, when I was 26. On the other hand, I've been PC gaming since I was ten (or three, depending if we're counting non-IBM compatibles), and didn't have a proper console until I was fourteen, and since then have played with both. Am I some sort of peasant/master-race hybrid?

Nah the two aren't connected, it was just an analogy. Real PC Gamers don't have time to shop at Waitrose (too much 1337 fragging) and they can only afford own-brand pot noodles because they've spent all their money on watercooling 7 graphics cards.

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Uncle Nasty

Uncle Nasty

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FWIW the Bit Tech review is uncannily similar to my own gut reaction. They still give it a very high score (as would I) but their noted issues with it are exactly the same as the ones I had.

I think I'm just disappointed on account of it being less than perfect, as was the case with L4D2, which is a stupid standard to hold any developer to, even Valve. I also think I'm wrong, I'm looking forward to playing it again without the weight of expectation, and playing the co-op where the puzzles are hopefully more difficult.

No matter how it turned out, Morrius, you were always going to be disappointed. It's why I stopped looking forward to new Halo games. You just feel that little bit more dead inside every time a game doesn't live up to your expectations.

Portal 2 is, well, Portal 2. Ain't perfect and feels pretty much how I'd expect a sequel to Portal to feel. It was never going to be able to carry the enormous weight of expectation that you invested in it.

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RubberJohnny

RubberJohnny

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I'm finding the difficulty fine, everything is at just the right level of taxing, although I do agree about the loading times, having played through HL2 recently they feel more frequent than in that game, probably due to the increased visual detail and larger environments. They do need to sort out level streaming, but this is an engine complaint, not a game one, really.

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Vimster

Vimster

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I'm finding the difficulty fine, everything is at just the right level of taxing, although I do agree about the loading times, having played through HL2 recently they feel more frequent than in that game, probably due to the increased visual detail and larger environments. They do need to sort out level streaming, but this is an engine complaint, not a game one, really.

I wouldn't be surprised if the loading screens were deliberate breaks between puzzles.

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Jarik

Jarik

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Are there advanced puzzles to tackle after the completion of the game like in the first, or is that role filled by the co-op mode?

I'm pretty sure that more maps wll be coming either way though, so it dosen't really matter.

EDIT: Amazon order dispatched! Should hopefully get it tomorrow with 1st Class delivery. :)

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layten

layten

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NB: I play PC games and shop in Waitrose

Same.

PC MASTER RACE HIGH FIVE!

You've posted that twice now!

(Beli3ve)

That was in our glorious PC Master Race Valve thread, this ensures those dirty console only peasants can see the light of our glory.

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MK-1601

MK-1601

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Just finished the single player mode. So mild spoilers ahead possibly.

The game does spend an awful lot of time repeating the same (solutions to) puzzles that were in the first game. Until quite far in it felt like Valve's answer to how they could follow up Portal was to just spend a fortune on elaborate scenery and incidental animations. (Indeed, the plot is little more than an excuse to radically change the scenery for each of the three 'acts'.) The 'testing area that reconfigures itself as you play' selling point seems to be almost entirely cosmetic.

The humour occasionally grates. The Cave Johnson bits in particular were essentially endless variations of the same joke. (Although the 'metajoke' of Aperture's unfolding history is excellently realised.) I think in Portal 1 the twists had more impact because it plays it very straight for a very long time, whereas Portal 2 has a constant undercurrent of wackiness.

Pleasantly surprised at how well the engine holds up, with some very impressive set-piece areas.

I'm glad they did away with all the meme-generating stuff from the first game as well (i.e. virtually no cake and companion cube references), although I'm sure the same numpties who went on about all that shit for months in a desperate attempt to show their 'gamer cred' are going to latch on to the (obviously intentionally stupid) 'potato' theme.

Overall I would rate it a 'buy'. I didn't think the original Portal was particularly amazing. But this one has a bit more meat on its bones.

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Bojangle

Bojangle

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I'd like to know this too.

Spoilered to be safe, nothing story related.

Can't speak for what co-op is like,

but there's no advanced test chambers or challenges like the original Portal once you're done with the single player. That said I'm certain we'll see DLC at some point.

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Dom B

Dom B

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I keep *just* missing

tried crouch jumps and everything :S

Oh. Maybe I'm remembering a different bit then, but have you tried running and jumping onto the gel and bouncing happily over the gap?

Whatever you do don't crouch, it counteracts the repulsion gel.

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