portal-2 posts

Tomorrow we will have an important announcement concerning the future of Big Download. Stay tuned.

• Steam has released a new automatic patch for Portal 2 that's has a number of bug fixes and improvements.
• As promised the fourth episode of Telltale's Back to the Future game series has been announced.
• The family oriented super hero MMO Marvel Super Heroes Squad Online has officially launched.
• It looks like we will get a reveal of the next Assassin's Creed game soon via its official Facebook page.
• Will you be in Plano, Texas on May 7? Then you might be able to check out a demo of Rage.

We knew that there would be free DLC for Portal 2. It was just a matter of time before it would be announced. Today Valve announced that its puzzle-shooter sequel would officially get its first free DLC pack this summer. The pack will be free for all of its platforms (PC, Mac, PS3 and Xbox 360).

The pack itself will contain "new test chambers for players, leaderboards, challenge mode for single and multiplayer modes, and more." Of course the free DLC pack with the promise of more to come just makes Portal 2 a bigger bargain than it already is.

[Via email press release]

We have to say that the first real trailer for Trackmania 2 looks mighty impressive. Combine the great looking graphics with an easy-to-use track editor and this could be our new Saturday night thing when it comes out.

• Check out this fan-made Lego model of Portal 2's main enemy GLaDOS.
• Voting has begun for fans to pick the best user-made robot for the upcoming Shoot Many Robots.
• The Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Complete Soundtrack is now available to purchase from Sumthing Digital.
• As promised, the first episode of Telltale Games' new game series Hector Badge of Carnage is available on Steam with a 10 percent discount for its first week.

It's almost a no-brainer that Valve would be providing post-release downloadable content for Portal 2. The developer has always been good about releasing new (and free for PC owners) content for its games over the year. However it's always good to get the official word that new stuff for the puzzle shooter sequel is on its way in the near future,

At the end of a (spoiler filled) interview with Valve team members on the Fast Company web site, Valve's marketing head Doug Lombardi states, "We will be announcing some DLC for it, so folks can keep a look out for more content coming this summer. We'll be putting more details out about that in a week or so. We'll support that with more videos or more comics." Hopefully we will see stuff that was cut from Portal 2 that was shown in the game before its release such as the Pneumatic Tubes.

Things certainly picked right up in terms of PC gaming news today ... and we also heard news about some online issues happening to some console? We are not sure:

• Steam has new automatic updates for Fate of the World, Homefront, and Left 4 Dead 2.
• StarCraft II has a new beta patch that's available in the public test server.
• iBuyPower has announced it will sell custom gaming PCs on Wal-Mart's web site.
• You can now buy a plushie doll that look like Portal's 2 turrets.
• Turbine will take over the operations of the European servers of Lord of the Rings Online starting June 1.

Few games resonate with players as much as the original Portal, released in 2007. The sequel takes what started as a short and relatively experimental concept and kicks it up several notches to a fully fleshed out game that tops its predecessor. Portal 2 expands the gameplay in just about every respect with more characters, a longer storyline, and additional new experimental technologies added to the large scale portal themed puzzles. The puzzles are much bigger and have more moving parts, but they're generally as easy to figure out as those from the first game, although one or two have some pretty tricky solutions.

Check out all Portal 2 downloads

As good as Portal 2 turned out there were some elements of Valve's puzzle-shooter that didn't make the final game. One of them was the pneumatic tubes that were shown in early preview videos of Valve's game.

In a new interview on Electronic Arts' UK web site Valve's head writer Erik Wolpaw reveals that one of the game's new gel effects was also removed from the final version of Portal 2. He says, "At one point we had a new Gel that allowed players to walk up the side of walls." While the prospect of playing Spider-Man sounds fun, Wolpaw confirms that the gel was not put into the final game because, " ... the effect was so disorientating that it made people (nauseous)."

Of all of the games that were involved in the Portal 2 ARG promotion, the one that most resembled Valve's puzzle shooter series is The Ball from developer Teotl Studios. This weekend The Ball dev team posted up its own behind-the-scenes account on making the original Portal 2 content that was put into its own puzzle-shooter.

After putting in a couple of obscure content items in the game, the big new addition is a new challenge level where players navigate the Ball through a series of Portal-related test chambers. The level took about a month to complete. The article also gives clues to some hidden items in the game's terminal screens.

It's not exactly a shock but Valve's puzzle-shooter sequel Portal 2 finds itself on top of Steam's top 10 best selling PC games list for the past week. A bundle containing both Portal 1 and 2 was in second place this week and the original Portal game reentered the top 10 list in the number eight position.

The full top 10 list is as follows:
1. Portal 2 - Valve
2. Portal Bundle -Valve
3. Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition - Rockstar North/Rockstar Games
4. Metro 2033 - 4A Games/THQ
5. Crysis 2 - Crytek/EA
6. Total War: Shogun 2 - The Creative Assembly/Sega
7. Operation Flashpoint: Red River -Codemasters
8. Portal - Valve
9. Fable III - Lionhead/Microsoft
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike - Treyarch/Activision

With the Portal 2 ARG event now completed, some of the Potato Sack indie game developers involved in the unique marketing event for Valve's puzzle-shooter are taking about their involvement. Two Tribes, who had two games in the the ARG (Toki Tori and RUSH) posted up an article on their web site that talks about putting the Portal 2 themed content into their games over the length of the ARG.

Othe developers like Gaijin Games (Bit.Trip Beat) and Hidden Path Entertainment (Defense Grid The Awakening) also talk about their work on the ARG which started out with Valve inviting all the developers last December to work on the project. The result was a ton of extra free content for all 13 games (levels, puzzles, and more). Much of it will remain in the game after the ARG is finished.