Portal 2

[spaceboy]

with any luck I should be getting the Orange Box sent to me as it's next on my Blockbuster queue and it says available...I'm looking forward to Portal to get really primed for P2.  I may check out Half-Life, but I'm not sure I've got much room to look at it right now.

no chance to look at those vids right now, but I plan to... :)

[mmosu]

It's really fun space, I think you're really going to appreciate what a well executed little game it is  :-X
It is short - after posting last night, I started and finished my second playthrough.  It only takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours once you know the solutions, but it's still fun to listen to the story and bounce around the rooms.  :-D

[Art Blade]

nice to watch those vids, the first one I already knew, but the second was new to me -- fun  :-X :-()

[mmosu]

Played around a bit with the "advanced mode" that is unlocked after the first playthrough.  I wasn't trying super hard, but I can already tell that these puzzles are unholy abominations of the original rooms they are based on.  In the very first one what was previously a solid floor has become flooded with a pool of acid, so the amount of "safe" space you have to stand on is less than 20% of what it was in the first playthrough!   :D

If I'm lucky I'll solve these before P2 releases  :-D

[fragger]

Advanced mode is tough, especially the one where your "help cube" becomes a ball. Those balls of plasma or whatever they are just bounce of it at all kinds of angles - nasty :-\\ The first part of the last advanced puzzle is very difficult, iirc it took me as long to figure out a way through that as it took to play the whole regular game first time round...

There's a fun "weapon" in HL2 called a gravity gun (it's proper designation is a Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator) which lets you grab any inanimate object lying around and fire it like a projectile - cinderblocks, barrels, planks, anything. I once dropped a bad guy with an old toilet - talk about getting "canned" :-D This device was apparently what gave rise to the idea of the Portal Gun, you can see its roots here.

Just lift –

[smg id=3224 align=center width=500]

And shoot!

[smg id=3225 align=center width=500]

You can't really tell from these shots, but whatever you fire travels at a respectable velocity and distance, depending on what it is. A cardboard box won't go far or do much damage, but a cinderblock is lethal!

[mmosu]

That's cool, I've heard my buds that were in to HL talk about the gravity gun before in hushed, revenrent tones  :-()
It does bear a strong resemblence to the portal gun with the three "prongs" that extend from the muzzle.  The gravity function of the portal gun doesn't allow objects to be fired through, just carried.  I can see why, it would have made a few of the puzzles too easy.  It's the same reason they don't allow you to set a portal by shooting through another portal - originally the game mechanic allowed for this from what I understand, but they quickly realized that it allowed for some overly-simple solutions to many of the chambers, so they took it out.

PS - happy 1,000 posts to me  :-D :-X

[Art Blade]

congrats on making The Jackal, mmosu  :) :-X 1,000 posts is a good start  :-D

[PZ]

 :-X :-D

[fragger]

Hey mmosu, 1K posts, well done :-X Here, have a kudo :)

[mmosu]

Thanks guys  :-() :-X

Turns out Advanced mode isn't as bad as I though it was going to be.  I'm on room 18 right now, it's tough but going well.  I'm going to do a playthrough with the developer commentary next.

[Art Blade]

go on mate, show them  :-D

[mmosu]

Well, I finished advanced mode  8)  As fragger said, the last one was extremely difficult, the room with all the turrets took me the longest to figure out. 
After that I started a playthrough with the developer commentary enabled and that has been very cool  :-X  They use the commentary to draw your attention to aspects of the game development that aren't immediately apparent.  For instance, many of the commentaries deal with how the early levels were carefully designed using feedback from testers to "train" the player to utilize the portals in different ways and also to fine-tune the testing chambers by "pruning away" solutions that creative players came up with that were too easy.  In many instances it seems that adding an extra wall or something simple like that was sufficient to do this.  That is a fascinating process to me, and apparently Valve does a lot of beta testing to get their games so polished. 
Some of the other commentaries dealt with physics issues encountered with the portals.  Especially interesting were two particular clips that talked about the rendering of objects visible on the other end of a portal, and another that talked about the shift in the effects of the force of gravity that must occur at the instant an object passes through a portal.  Both of these issues were a big deal during development, and the solutions they came up with were very cool  :-X 

[Art Blade]

thanks for your comments, although I'm not interested in the game itself, I keep reading everything you guys post. Those comments about how you enjoyed the game and about how Valve does a great job are interesting  :)

[fragger]

Cheers, Art :)

mmosu, I never checked out the dev commentary - in fact, I don't think I even noticed the option :-[ I should do it, it sounds interesting :-X I hate to imagine the graphical and mathematical challenges the devs would have faced concerning the physics involved in the portal views, especially the angled ones. It's quite a remarkable job, really, what they did.

[spaceboy]

hey guys, I got my rental yesterday of the Orange Box and got through 16 of the 19 chambers.  I didn't check the difficulty level so I assume it is on normal.  How are the chambers different in Advanced?  I don't get how they could make it more difficult unless they add turrets in all levels, or change the basic level structure.

Dev commentary sounds interesting too.

btw, I love it.  What a cool game, I can only imagine what's in store for P2.  I really like the those changes in gravity issues when you have to jump off something high to have enough speed coming out of the next portal to clear the gap etc.

A really neat one is where you have to do just that been the first time through you won't make the barrier so you have to shoot another portal in the ground while falling so you can go through the portal you just left but at a greater velocity.

The comments from GLADOS are hilarious!

One of my favorites:  Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death.

I found a list here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127708/quotes

[spaceboy]

I can only imagine this has to be one of mmosu's favorites:

Please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any test protocol but is an unintended side effect of the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid, which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth.

[Art Blade]

 ^+-+

I like this one for a polished finish: "...followed by death."  ^+-+

[fragger]

space, the Advanced levels are the same as the ones you've played already but with clever alterations. Some of the changes are devilishly subtle and some less so, but they all nonetheless impact greatly on the skill level. Nothing so heavy-handed as the addition of extra turrets or enormously radical level reconfiguration! It's generally a case of small changes having large consequences ???

[Art Blade]

having large consequences ???

.. "followed by death" ?  ^+-+

[mmosu]

.. "followed by death" ?  ^+-+

Most likely  :-()

fragger's right about the "devilishly subtle" part - remember the first chamber where you see the turrets?  In advanced mode, turrets in that chamber are encased in metal boxes that prevent them from being tipped over!  CURSE YOU GLaDOS!!!  :D :D :D :-D

And yes space, that is my favorite GLaDOS line  :-D :-X  I LOL'ed pretty hard on that one.

[spaceboy]

I'm a little stuck in Chamber 18.  Not that I don't know what to do (I think) but that I can't execute it.

I've gotten to the one room where you start off with a huge fall to your left (obviously to get speed into a portal) and the main room has no floor, just deathly water and platforms of various heights.  I assume I put one portal on the first platform and one in the drop.  I've been able to jump into the drop and come out the platform shooting high into the room but from there I can't continue.

My problem is that it takes so long to orient myself and shoot a new portal.  Again, I assume the goal is to get a new portal in a higher platform so when I go back into the one I just came out, I know come out of the higher platform.  My first problem is getting a shot out at the higher platform to make the portal.  The second problem is getting back into the previous one.  I have a hard enough time falling directly into the one from a stationary jump, but after turning about in the air...forget about it.

Is there any trick or is it just in execution?

I got so annoyed I kicked it out and put in Killzone 3, picked up my sharpshooter and laid waste to some Higs  ;D

[mmosu]

That's the right solution, and yes it's probably one of the most difficult executions in the whole game.  I find it easier if you enter the drop portal looking down at about 45 degrees from horizontal - that way when you come rocketing out of the second portal, you don't have to adjust the aim so much, just shoot.  It's also much easier if you can quickly move the portals along - bouncing back and forth a few times between two stationary portals increases the chances you'll lose your orientation in the air and start flipping around out of control.  Also remember the order the portals were set in, and when you start make sure you refire the "drop" portal at the 2nd platform, the "1st platform" portal at the 3rd platform, and so on.  It's just like leapfrog . . . just insanely difficult and intimidating  :D

[spaceboy]

cheers, thanks mmosu.  I found a vid on youtube that showed it done too.  I guess I just need to w@&k on orienting myself quickly when coming out of the portal.  I wish the portals were a bit bigger, or my hips were a bit thinner lol as I actually miss getting through sometimes when falling from a distance.  It's kind of picky on getting you through there.

[fragger]

That level had me stymied for a good while too. I also had a problem with getting the blue and red portals mixed up, so I ended up shooting the wrong colour ahead and landing back on a solid platform way up in the air, then having to portal my way back to the start or reloading :D I felt so happy when I finally got through that chamber, it's arguably the toughest one.

Stick with it space - there's a cool twist to it all coming your way soon ;)

[spaceboy]

Thanks guys...got through it all now.  Once I forced myself to keep my left thumb off the left stick it all went smoothly.  As long as I only moved/aimed with right stick I could keep bouncing in and out of the portals until I got the shot down. 

Boy does the "escape" go on longer than  I thought!  Great fun though.  I just loved all the stuff GLaDOS says.  The part right where you are to be incinerated is great.

I'm not sure I'll go through on Advanced.  I may just wait to get more Portal fix in 19 days when P2 comes out.  Really a great game, too bad it took me this long to check it out.