Portal 2 Message Board older than one year ago

#music It's our singular honor to be the first to present two live cuts from the massively talented, massively bearded troubadour Jonathan Coulton's upcoming album "Artificial Heart". You may know Jonathan from his fan favorite songs "Skullcrusher Mountain", "re: Your Brains", "Code Monkey", or—very likely around these parts—"Still Alive (GLaDOS's Song)" and "Want You Gone (Love Theme from Portal 2)". More »

After seeing something completely astounding, our first instinct is to rip it apart to see just how its innards work in such graceful harmony with each other. Thankfully, the amazing Wheatley-puppet creator Jennifer Sorrell is giving us an inside look at her personality sphere with in-progress photos, descriptions of materials and process, and humble assertions (lies) that her Wheatley didn't turn out to be perfect.

Wheatley was Sorrell's first foray into puppetry, but we're guessing it's not her last. Check out the complete behind-the-scenes build on her cosplay blog, and request she make a 1-1-scale puppet of GLaDOS next. The office has been looking pretty bare recently.

If you've played through Portal 2 with Valve's audio commentary on, you might remember one of the artists mentioning that Wheatley, with his metallic eyelids, would be a physical impossibility as his is in-game. Well, to that I say BEHOLD: Terrifyingly detailed...

#portal During the creator's commentary in Portal 2, Valve animator Richard Lord called the eye portion of lovable personality sphere Wheatley's design a physical impossibility. Cosplayer Furin's talking Wheatley puppet seems to have done well enough. More »

We're not shy about this proclamation: This Portal 2 Wheatley puppet, by deviantART user TRP-Chan, is the best thing you'll see today. Not the best video game puppet, or best YouTube video you'll see today. We mean the best thing!

Birth of your first child? Sorry kid, but you're taking second place today. Getting married? Sorry husband/wife, but your anniversary will be permanently marred by memories of this puppet. We're also going to take this opportunity to predict that Valve is going to reward the artist with a trip to Valve HQ because, well ... look at it.

Valve’s in-game TF2 item store is about to become an out-of-game item store. They’re trialling something called Steam Trading, which primarily involves swapping your TF2 unlocks (i.e. those damnable hats, mostly) for other games.

It’s an old-fashioned barter system in new-fangled clothes. What happens is you invite someone on your Steam friends list or who you’re in a group chat with to trade, and can offer up your various TF2 items to the other guy. In return, he or she can offer you other TF2 items – or to gift a game to you. You can’t do this with any old game in your Steam library – only games you’ve purchased from the store as a gift, or received as an Extra Copy.(more…)

Valve, creator of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source) and popular recording artist The National, today are announcing the winners for their music video contest based on "Exile Vilify", a song penned by The National specifically for Portal 2, which is the year's highest rated multiplatform game release...

#portal According to YouTube user Khaff 3, "This is my own way to make my thanks to the creators of Portal 2 for making such a WONDERFUL videogame!" More »

For a lot of people, Friday means pay-day, which means a weekend full of extravagant spending: a little boutique shopping, perhaps a night at da club, etc. If you're like us though, and the majority of your pay checks are followed by staying in rather than going out, fear not. Huge weekend sales mean you can still feel like a big spender without having to blow an entire check, all from the comfort of your own home.

Origin's $5 PC offerings are back, along with a slew of fairly-recent console titles like Dead Space 2 and Portal 2 for 40 percent off. Both sales run until August 9, and every console game purchased comes with a complimentary PC copy of Need for Speed Shift.

Direct2Drive, not to be left out of the fun, has both Bulletstorm and Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition marked down to $11.95 a piece. No sale expiration date is listed for either title, which could mean that both are ending right this very second, the thought of which instills a primal fear directly into the shopping cortex of your brain.

#portal The very talented Ellen McLain, a singer by trade but best-known to you lot for her voice-acting work in Valve games, is apparently returning this week to her most famous role: that of bitchy artificial intelligence GlaDOS from the Portal series. More »

Thanks to a somewhat limited release line-up which included Portal 2, Alice: Madness Returns, Shadows of the Damned and Darkspore, EA saw sales in its packaged goods division slip during the first quarter of its 2012 fiscal year. The four titles (among other back catalog releases) raked in a net non-GAAP revenue of $195 million, a decrease from the $298 million packaged games pulled in during the same period last year.

However, a steady increase in digital sales softened the blow to the company's bottom line, pulling in a total non-GAAP revenue of $524 million, down from $539 million from last year's first quarter. EA's counting on both digital sales and packaged goods (supported by big-name releases like Battlefield 3 and the back-on-track Madden 12) to continue to grow as the year goes forward, and has increased its net revenue guidance for the entire fiscal year by nearly $100 million.

You solved all the normal puzzles in Portal 2, which is good for a human test subject. But you want to be great, don't you? You want to be the best tester at Aperture. You want GLaDOS to love you like your mom never did. Don't you? CVG is here to help with 10 secrets to impress in Portal 2.

As if we needed more proof that everything is better with a portal gun, the boys at Dorkly put one in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and the results are awesome. Any weapon that allows chickens to do the dirty work for you is a good weapon.

But really, name one thing that wouldn't be better with a portal gun. We dare you. Heavy construction sites don't count. Neither do fault lines. Or volcano cores. Fine, name four things. We dare you.

#spoilers Yes this Portal 2 video is packed to the gills with spoilers so look away if you're not into that sort of thing. Look away and watch a video of a kitten playing with a potato. DO IT. For the rest of you, watch this video it's so great. [thanks Russ] More »

First there was one free official soundtrack collection for Portal 2, and now there are too. That’s eighteen more tracks of exciting bleeping, on top of the 22 we’ve already had. There’s a third one yet to come – but will it include The National’s ode to abject misery and Jonathon Coulton’s latest Portal creation? We will probably find out at some point in the near future: that is my official statement on the matter. Yes, you may quote me on it.

Meantime, get over here to grab Music To Test By Volume 2, or just have a peer at the reliably entertaining list of track titles below. SPOILER ALERT: one of the titles is on the spoiley side if you’ve not played the game.(more…)

Asimov was dead wrong about the robot apocalypse -- as it turns out, our benevolent overlords at Aperture Science are pretty kind, after they've tried to kill us, at least. Valve has released Volume 2 of its Portal 2 soundtrack for free download, much like its predecessor, Volume 1.

The second installment of "Songs to Test By" contains 18 new tracks and 14 ringtones for iPhone and Android devices. New songs include "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day," "I AM NOT A MORON" and "PotatOS Lament," and you can now have the orange or blue portal sound as your messaging ringtone. Volume 3 is "coming soon" so turn up your cell phones and get ready to really impress the opposite sex with your nerd-noise machines this summer.

Updates to Portal 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Portal 2

• Added Steam Summer Sale item "Goo Gear Snorkels"
  
• Added configurations for multiple new video cards
  
• Localization fixes for various languages
  

Volume two of "Songs To Test By," Valve's soundtrack to Portal 2, is now available. 18 tracks of free music, plus some bonus ringtones and chimes for your iPhone and Android mobile. [Think With Portals] More »

#merch While Valve sells its own collection of Portal 2 merchandise, nerd internet store Think Geek is doing its own bit for science, first with testing gel and now with these classy posters based on the hit first-person puzzler. More »

A couple of days ago we reported on the Portal 2 Summer Mapping Initiative, a competition held in honour of the frankly frightening creativity of the Valve fan base. If you enjoyed Portal 2, and who didn’t, you might want to give them a go. The official winners and runners up created a big chunk of content, dumping easily a typical single-player game’s campaign worth of playtime into your lap, for no pennies. I’ve been playing the top-rated co-op maps, because the stark terror of being trapped in a testing facility that mostly wants to kill you is best experienced with company. Let me tell you about it!

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#21stcenturyimuse One of the highlights of Portal 2, like it was with the first game, is its music. Most will agree that it's a wonderful soundtrack, perfect to accompany the on-screen action, but just why is that the case? More »

The contest is over, the winners have been chosen, and you can now pick up the winning maps from the "Summer Mapping Initiative" contest being held by Valve for Portal 2. A map called "Patent Pending" took the top prize by offering a wide mix of mechanics, another called "Infinifling" that's focused on "mid-air portaling techniques" ended up in second place. "Edifice," based in some of the destroyed Aperture chambers, picked up an honorable mention. All of the maps are free to download; just get the file, put it in your maps folder by following the instructions on the official blog and use the dev console to load it up and play.

Congrats to the winners. Valve's also hosting a Portal 2 music video contest for the song by The National included in the game. The deadline on that one is coming up in the middle of July, so you've still got time to film and upload it to YouTube. Good luck!

Ah, summer. The lazy days, the warm breezes, the gigantic storm clouds, rain showers and lightning storms ravaging the local area. You know, I think I’d be better off staying inside. But that’s alright, because the Portal 2 Summer Mapping Initiative winners have been announced! Or rather, one winner and two plucky runner ups. Who’s it going to be? Drumroll, please…

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#wearthis Remember Matt Parson's 'Portalmon' mash-up design? For the next 48 hours, you can now buy it as a lovely t-shirt for €20 (plus modest shipping). More »

#lemons What really set Portal 2 apart from the first game was its clever use of gels, each providing new ways to zip around a level (and occasionally stump the player). And now you can own some of your very own. More »

The majority of of Valve president and co-founder Gabe Newell's keynote address yesterday at the Games for Change Festival was dedicated to his perception of games as educational tools. And that was fitting for the event, which is dedicated primarily to the educational and socially beneficial elements of gaming, and fitting for Valve Software, a company known most recently for releasing a game steeped in science.

Newell explained: "The interesting thing about Portal 2 is it doesn't sort of fit the traditional simplistic model of what a game is. It's not a collection of weapons. It's not a collection of monsters. It's really about science. It's about spatial reasoning, it's about learning physics, it's about problem solving. And often, during the course of the game, you're going to be solving problems with somebody else. The social model inside of it is collaborative and not competitive."

After rolling a short clip of the game for audience members, Newell went on to profess, "There seems to be this distinction between games that are educational, and games that are going to be commercially successful. I'm not really sure I buy into that." Citing sales of Portal 2 as proof, Newell pointed out that Valve has seen "$165 million dollars in gross revenue" from the game since April 18. "We can do this. We can make educational, commercially successful games, which are gonna help us both on the game side and on the educational side." He reaffirmed this to me in an interview after the speech, saying, "I just don't believe in this distinction between games and educational games. A lot of times [the label] 'educational games' is a way of being an excuse for bad game design or poor production values."

Valve is planning to share a modified version of its Portal authoring tools with schools, allowing them to teach physics in a fun and engaging way...

#lookatthis With Portal 2's arrival, lemons replaced cake as the game's edible meme. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, read up here) So before this one is totally played out, let's acknowledge one of its more creative applications: these prop lemon hand grenades, by flickr user ammnra. More »

During his talk at the Games for Change festival today, Valve chief Gabe Newell mentioned that the company has begun working with schools to build a curriculum based on Portal 2. Check out our liveblog of the event for more. More »

Sales of Portal 2 have reached three million copies sold since launch, stated Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve Software, during the Games for Change festival in New York City today...