portal-2-mac posts

Valve's Source Engine technically debuted in 2004 with the release of Half-Life 2. While the developer has made a number of improvements to the Source Engine since then, many of its tools are still hard to use. Indeed the engine's Hammer level editor has changed little since the release of the original Half-Life in 1998.

In a recent interview on the Steamcast podcast, Valve head man Gabe Newell admitted, "our current tools are... very painful." He added, " ... we're spending a tremendous amount of time on tools right now." Newell didn't give a time when the revised SDK would be released but did say, " "when we're ready to ship those I think everybody's life will get a lot better."

Portal 2, the highly anticipated puzzle shooter from Valve, is now available for pre-order via Steam. The game has two special deals for pre-order buyers. First gamers get 10 percent off the game's regular $49.99 price. The other pre-order bonus is a free downloadable copy of the original 2007 Portal game. Since the game is coming out for both PC and Mac it qualifies for SteamPlay, meaning people who purchase the PC version get the Mac version for free and vise versa.

There are also pre-order specials for getting Portal 2 at GameStop (special skins for the game's robots in the co-op campaign) and at Amazon.com (a $5 credit toward most Amazon.com purchases)

The Steam pre-order page for Portal 2 also contains the system requirements for both the PC and Mac versions of the game. You can check them out for yourself after the jump:

If you want to make a new level or mod for the upcoming puzzle shooter sequel Portal 2, you may find you new level being played by someone on an Xbox 360 and PS3 as well. At least that's what NowGamer is reporting. In a chat with Valve's Chet Faliszek he states that while the mod tool themselves will remain with the PC version, " ... the content that comes out is agnostic, and so we will be seeing that on all the platforms. Depending on the platform you're on I should say, will depend on how we're delivering it."

While it's easy to see how mods could co-exist on the PC, Mac and PS3 versions of the game (all three will use Steamworks and will have cross-platform multiplayer) we have some doubts that Portal 2 mods will find themselves playable on the Xbox 360 version simply due to Microsoft's previous history of not allowing such mods to show up on its console.

Intel's new version of its Core PC processors, previously known by the code name "Sandy Bridge", were officially announced earlier this week. At Intel's CES 2011 press conference, Valve's head man Gabe Newell took the stage to demo the upcoming puzzle shooter Portal 2 running on the new processor.

According to a story over at the International Business Times web site, Newell praised the technology in the new Intel Core processors stating that Portal 2, due out in April, was made with the new processor in mind. He's quoted as saying, "It's a real game changer for us. This allows for a console like experience on the PC." We are not quite sure what that means, exactly. We will email Valve to get a little clarification.

Hard to believe we will be getting both StarCraft II and Civilization V in the same year. It will be interesting to compare sales of the two games when Civ V comes out next week.

• PC Gamer's week of Valve Software interviews makes for some interesting reading even if all the newsworthy stuff was leaked beforehand.
• From now until 1 pm Eastern time on Monday Direct2Drive has BioShock on sale for $9.95 and Supreme Commander Gold Edition for $14.95.
• A still-in-development notebook with duel touchscreens where the second screen takes the place of the keyboard? Wild.
• Gratuitous Space Battles' creator Cliff Harris gives a timeline for his upcoming projects including the mysterious "Game IV".

While Valve has talked about its plans for the separate co-op campaign for Portal 2, PAX Prime was the place where Valve showed off a large chuck of gameplay from the co-op section of the puzzle shooter for the first time. GameTrailers filmed Valve's presentation off a video monitor at PAX Prime.

The video gives a nice slice of what players can expect in the co-op campaign where players control two robots armed just with Portal guns as they figure out how to traverse through the Aperture Science puzzles and locations. There are some funny moments in the video including a failed attempt to get through one puzzle that resulted in the robots giving each other hugs. How cute. You can check out the video after the jump. You can also see some new co-op screenshots that we have added to our Portal 2 gallery.

All of us here at Big Download can't wait to play Portal 2, particularly the cool sounding co-op campaign mode. But developer Valve apparently had some early plans for the puzzle shooter that involved giving us ways to use the Portal gun tech in a more competitive multiplayer mode.

While on the surface that sounds like it would be a blast to use Portal guns in a multiplayer setting, 1Up.com reports that Valve discovered otherwise. Valve's Erik Wolpaw states that the team worked on the concept for a bit with a mode that had one team move a ball from one side of the level to the other with portals with the opposing team trying to stop them. Wolpaw states that "it quickly became apparent that while it's fun for about two seconds to drop portals under people and things like that, it quickly just devolves into pure chaos." Instead Valve came up with the co-op campaign that includes puzzle solving which he states, "was just a much more rewarding path."

Download HD Portal 2 'Co-Op' Teaser Trailer

Developer Valve has a reputation of bringing in both people and games that it likes and turning the titles into full commercial games. It did so with the Counter-Strike mod and also bought both the team and the concept of the team's game Narbacular Drop that eventually formed the basis of the first Portal game. That title, a small two-hour game that was released in 2007 in Valve's Orange Box collection, combined innovative gameplay with humor. That was enough for Portal to become a cult hit and win a ton of :Game of the Year" awards.

So what do you do next with such a concept? If you are Valve you not only make a more fully fleshed out sequel in Portal 2 but you also bring in yet another amateur game team to expand on the original's portal-based gameplay. We got to see a presentation of Portal 2's gameplay at Valve's E3 2010 meeting room. It was the only game we saw at E3 that wasn't an example of live gameplay but we did get some commentary on what we were seeing from Valve's Erik Johnson.

This is one of those stories that we actually hate to report about because, well, we feel kind of forced to at this stage. When Valve announced that their Portal 2 event at E3 2010 was canceled to be replaced by a "surprise" a lot of folks, including us, speculated that the "surprise" might actually be a reveal of the long, long in development Half-Life 2 Episode 3.

While we still think such a reveal might actually be in the works (hey anything is possible) some images have popped up on the interwebs that show the classic lambda symbol with the words "Freeman June 14". The image comes from the Twitter page of the founder of GamerTag Radio but Rock Paper Shotgun (without actually naming its source) has already declared the image to be a fake. However we think that while this could very well be a Photoshop dealie, it's still possible that Half-Life 2 Episode 3 (or maybe even Half-Life 3) could be the surprise and someone outside of Valve is just trying to stir the pot. If that's the case, well, mission accomplished.

We are still two months away from E3 2010 but invites to various press events for the big trade show are beginning to be sent out. Today Valve sent over word to the media via email that they will be holding a press event in Los Angeles for Portal 2, the sequel to their acclaimed puzzle-shooter that they first announced last month.

Aside from a few folks from Game Informer this will likely be the first time the media will get a chance to see the game in action. It will be held the evening of June 14 at the Regal Movie Theater, just down the street from the Los Angeles Convention Center where E3's exhibit halls will officially open for business on June 15.