portal-2 posts

So no Portal 2 DLC yet but knowing Valve we will be getting regular content updates for this game for a long time.

• Steam has new automatic updates for Post Apocalyptic Mayhem, Left 4 Dead 2 (with the repeat of the Survival Versus mutation gameplay mode, Dino D-Day and Portal 2.
• A newly added trademark may be the name for the next Hitman game.
• Who is the bald guy that is pictured in one of Valve's intro movies? Reddit has the answer.
• In the "This is a real product" category, the Garbage Truck Simulator 2011 game is coming this May.

There's something that's up in Portal 2 land. Game Informer's web site reports that it received a memo today. That memo leads to an web site address with the above image and countdown clock that happens to expire at 9 pm Eastern time tonight or less than two hours from this news post.

Game Informer speculates that this could be the first Portal 2 DLC release thanks to the memo mentioning "Pneumatic Diversity Tubes". These tubes were shown in videos for Valve's puzzle shooter sequel in 2010 when the game was first announced but for some reason didn't make it into the final build of the game. Will this be the first of many DLC releases? Stay tuned.

Update: Looks like whatever the update is will have to wait; the site is currently down.

Update 2: False alarm: It's just the creators of the Valve ARG Wiki thanking Valve and the game developers of The Potato Pack for their role in the Portal 2 ARG.

An extensive behind-the-scenes feature on the making of Portal 2 is now available to read, but at the moment the only format for the article is via downloading an app for the Apple iPad. GameTrailers.com host Geoff Keighley is doing something a little different for his feature The Final Hours of Portal 2.

The article can be downloaded for the iPad via iTunes for $1.99. For that amount you get a huge 15,000 word feature that shines a spotlight on all of the development behind Valve's hit puzzle shooter sequel. It chronicles Valve's efforts to make the game, including a canceled plan to make a prequel to Portal set in the 1950, via exclusive photos, videos and other "interactive experiences". It will be interesting to see if this experiment in game journalism is a sales success. There's no word if the app will be made available for other platforms.

It's been a long wait but the PC game perhiperal maker Razer has finally announced that its long-in-development Razer Hydra PC game motion controllers will finally be released this June. The product will come with the full version of the just released puzzle shooter Portal 2 that will include six exclusive levels that can be played only with the Razer Hydra controller.

In addition to the Portal 2 support, Razer says the Hydra will be able to support playing over 125 PC games out of the box. A full list of supported games can be found here. Two of the controllers are included in the $139.99 bundle along with the wired base and Portal 2. Each controller wil have four buttons and true six degrees of freedom for controlling PC games. Pre-orders for the Hydra begin in May.

As expected, developer Valve has moved quickly and released the first patch for the PC version of Portal 2. The patch, delivered automatically via Steam, has a number of bug fixes and a new feature that enables joystick support in the game.

Among some of the bug fixes listed in the patch notes are dealing with the "unrecoverable black screen in elevator save" and also fixing a "GC memory leak". There have also been some "various localization content improvements" including adding "support for English subtitles in Turkish builds". Various fixes for unnamed game crashes have also been put into the patch.

So we suspect a lot of you lost some sleep last night to try to complete Portal 2. Don't worry; we feel the same way.

• Steam has new automatic updates for a number of games including Team Fortress 2, King Arthur The Roleplaying Wargame, Audiosurf, ProtoGalaxy, the Mac version of Civilization V, and Garry's Mod.
• Retailers in the UK are breaking the embargo on the planned Friday launch of Portal 2 due to the PC game being released early on Steam.
• As promised the fourth DLC pack for The Settlers 7 has been released.
• How much work has been put into Duke Nukem Forever? Between 6,000 and 7,000 man months, according to Gearbox's Randy Pitchford.

Portal 2 is already being praised as one of the best games of 2011, if not of all time (ignore the Metacritic trolls). Now it looks like the puzzle-shooter sequel from Valve will be getting an extensive behind-the-scenes feature via Gametrailers.com host Geoff Keighley.

Keighley, who previously did a huge "The Final Hours of Half-Life" feature for Gamespot way back in 1998, will apparently return to Valve for an article called "The Final Hours of Portal 2". A teaser site for the game is already online but there's no word on when the article will be released or what kind of format (written word, video, both) the feature will be presented.

We have been wondering when there will be a Portal 2-Team Fortress 2 crossover and, well, we were not disappointed. Developer Valve has announced in a funny post on the Team Fortress 2 web site that owners of the multiplayer first person shooter will find that a number of its hats can be used by Portal 2's co-op robots if players own both games.

Specifically, the TF2 hats that are available in Portal 2 are the Mann Co. Cap, the Prince Tavish's Crow, the Pyro's Beanie, the Fancy Fedora, the Master's Yellow Belt and the Tyrant's Helm. Have fun making the bots look sillier than they already do.

With Portal 2 now out in stores in the US and available on download via Steam, the puzzle-shooter sequel will have issues trying to replicate the sales success of the original. Gamespot reports that the first Portal game, released in 2007 as part of The Orange Box collection, has sold nearly 4 million copies, according to figures provided by its developer Valve.

The game's sales figures do not take into account the number of copies that have been sold via Steam, according to the article, which means that the true number of copies is likely much higher. Indeed, the game was given away for free for two weeks in May of 2010 via Steam as a way to celebrate Portal's Mac release.

So Portal 2 has finally come and its getting great reviews so far. Look for our final verdict in the near future. In the meantime we are making this bits & bytes post all about Valve's latest game.

• The Metacritic web site's review page for Portal 2 is being hit with low user created scores for things about the game that are, at best, an exaggeration and at worst not true. Rock Paper Shotgun sets them straight.
• According to numerous reports, including our own James Murff, gamers who collected all 36 potatoes in the Potato Sack indie game ARG got free copies of all of Valve's games today via Steam.
• Yes there is a direct Half-Life 2 Episode 3 reference in the game, but it's a bit of an Easter Egg.
• Check out the Lego Portal 2 robots.