Portal 2

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TheJockGit
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Portal 2

Post by TheJockGit »

Looks like we get it in Summer...or Spring.. depending on what break its refering too http://store.steampowered.com/news/3559/
:boogie:
Baliame
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Post by Baliame »

Says Christmas, so it's Christmas.
FatherJack
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Post by FatherJack »

The underlined letters are a new login for the BBS, showing some more ASCII pics. Some claim they hint at co-op.
Grimmie
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Post by Grimmie »

Yeah, "Christmas" is America's answer to political correctness for Christmas.

Edit: FUCKING. WORDFILTER. :lol:
Stoat
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Post by Stoat »

The underlined letters were a clue to another BBS, by the way.

Also: Slow reveal pictures, coming to an end ready for April 1st. lol.
http://gameinformer.com/mag/portal2.aspx

The Enrichment Centre looks a bit dilapidated. How long would that kind of growth take? Eeeeeeeeee.

edit: I spent too long typing out pointless theories.
Last edited by Stoat on March 6th, 2010, 0:00, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by FatherJack »

Baliame wrote:Says Christmas, so it's Christmas.
I've been following Realm Lovejoy's (Portal team) tweets and blog and she's said she's been superbusy at work the last two months, but now seems quieter. Since she's art and design, I guess a lot of that work is done, but it may be a while more to get all the coding and testing done.

I don't know which way round they do stuff, whether they use plain-textured placeholders and the arty bits are polish at the end, or they design levels around the style of the art using finished building-blocks.

Of course a lot of the engine is in place, but matching actual levels to the concept art they keep teasing us with takes some time.

Christmas sounds likely.
Baliame
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Post by Baliame »

I'm pretty sure that while arts is done, mappers are brainstorming and constructing map skeletons. Placeholders work to an extent (and they are also used - you know, those orange or gray grid textures you've probably seen if you've ever played a "dev" or "orange" map in CS:S), professional mappers usually build map geometry first with placeholders and only then worry about arts.

Mappers have to brainstorm, because there are a number of factors to take into consideration, depending on games, for example in an FPS, a tight corner can make a whole map be a worse chokepoint than TF2's dustbowl, and the same goes for puzzle games, just think about how a misplaced portal-able area can ruin a really challenging puzzle.

After the geometry (the skeletons of the maps) is done, the next part up is arts. Textures are applied to placeholder surfaces and the map gets littered with props. After this phase, the arts team probably deactivates.

Now that the arts are out of the way, all visible change the mappers have to do is adding the content to the map: triggers, ambient sounds, moving targets, finding the perfect lights for the rooms, and whatever else a puzzle game has to offer.

However, the map is not done yet, due to the complex way Source maps work. Considering we're talking about a game that provides about 5 hours of gameplay (if it's anything like the original Portal), this phase probably takes about a month. This phase is all about whatever you don't see - area portals, vis-optimization, all the stuff that makes a map run a lot smoother, basically, without all this, the game would feel like playing Crysis on a C64.

Right, before this becomes TLTR, off to sleep.
buzzmong
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Post by buzzmong »

Portal 2 meedja from IGN:

Part 1:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5THiN8szSKM[/media]
Part2:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq2mZoKkqMw[/media]
Part 3
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGlyQmmvj0w[/media]
buzzmong
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Post by buzzmong »

I'm not sure of the accent of the new NPC though, quite jarring.
Stoat
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Post by Stoat »

buzzmong wrote:I'm not sure of the accent of the new NPC though, quite jarring.
I wondered about that, though it wasn't so bad on second viewing. Still, I think it needs some effect on it. If they've been produced while GLaDOS is off, as part of the background running of the facility, they may well have been upgraded over the last few hundred years. Proper regional English accents in games are very welcome, but I'm not sure it fits so well in this scenario.
Wired wrote:Sadly, Doug Lombardi from Valve told Wired.com that the Wheatley voice in the E3 demo is placeholder audio provided by Valve animator Richard Lord. Lord’s performance may or may not appear in the final game.
Part of me hopes it stays- suitably autotuned.
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Post by spoodie »

The voice would make for an interesting and possibly contentious choice. It certainly has some charm, together with the animation.

I'm not sure about all this increased complexity. It means the loss of the purity of the original game, which is maybe consciously reflected in the messy environments. However with this increased variety Valve can produce a more substantial game. I'm worried it may make me have to think too hard.
shot2bits
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Post by shot2bits »

Stoat wrote:
Part of me hopes it stays- suitably autotuned.

:above: that, i wasnt too keen on it at first but it grew on me by the end of the video
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Post by Dog Pants »

Just got round to watching those videos. Looking good.

I like the new guy. "Turn round, I can't do it with you watching" had me lolling.
It looks a lot more cinematic than the original.
The new puzzle elements look good.
Turrets remain very cute (like the one who goes "wheeee!" when sucked into the tube).
It looks like it might be too hard, relying more on timing and coordination than problem solving.
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Post by friznit »

:above: I've been doing some Portlage and while I enjoy the puzzling bits, anything that requires Unreal Tournament style twitch reflexes to target womp rats whilst flying through the air just annoyed me with need to constantly save/reload
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Post by Stoat »

friznit wrote:anything that requires Unreal Tournament style twitch reflexes to target womp rats whilst flying through the air just annoyed me with need to constantly save/reload
Valve have said that they don't want any twitchiness in it. Remember it's coming out for consoles too. I can't quote them exactly, but the gist was "We don't want Portal 2 to be harder. The fun of Portal was in figuring out the solution".
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Post by Dog Pants »

I hope so. The video makes it look like you need a lot of crazy split-second timing, but that might just be an attempt to make it look cool.
Grimmie
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Post by Grimmie »

I think the first trailers for Portal I also had a load of twitchiness in it, but that's because it looks better on film than wandering around trying to figure out WTF is going on. :D
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