Portal 2

I agree I preferred the placeholder voice. I don't think Stephen Merchant isn't trying though.

I say we petition Valve to get the placeholder to do the real thing. He was way funnier.

Petitions suck. I wrote a reasoned letter to Gabe Newell and told him that Merchant's performance was flat and unfunny and he'd better step it up.

It's not really that there's something wrong with Merchant in my opinion. It's just that the first guy was better. He was that role.

Bracing myself for unfunny jokes repeated by unfunny people.

If you hated the original Portals jokes why are you even posting on this thread?

To remind us how superior he is to all of us because he didn't like Portal.

I preferred the placeholder voice but Merchant is fine. What's more interesting to me is that it looks like this time we will get a fleshed out game, and this pleases me greatly.

How was the first Portal not fleshed out?

It really lacked a sense of variation. I mean, on its credit, it was a very short game, but at the end I didn't really feel a sense of accomplishment. It was a fun experience, but I would have been much more critical of it if it wasn't free.

I have to agree. The game was a blast, but its shortness isn't just a matter of how many of my hours it could consume before running out. It was always introducing something, then introducing something else, then introducing something else. It wasn't until, like, the very last level before Glados (you know the one with the really tall room full of turrets and the claws that drop turrets in your path) that they were able to spend some time milking what they already had for its full potential, and that wasn't long enough. They showed off everything the engine was good for, but didn't really have time to capitalize on it, to really play out any part of it.

Portal 2, from that demo, looks like it probably will.

^ Pretty much that. The first Portal was fun and all, but IMO, it felt more like a tech demo than a finished game.

Think of it this way: There were two rocket turrets. In the entire game. I don't think anyone is going to deny that the rocket turret had more potential than that. They just didn't have time to use it fully.

Hmmm. Maybe that was what was...MISSING, this whole time.

I like the non-placeholder voice. The placeholder's accent is pretty fake. (Cue me feeling like an idiot when it turns out it's not fake.)

Anyway the non-placeholder just seems...better. Doesn't feel like he's trying too hard or overacting, but that's a good thing.

Still, I don't think petitioning valve could do any harm. It might encourage them to give their placeholder voice actor a real role in later games.

But the bad accent and overacting were awesome.

If you hated the original Portals jokes why are you even posting on this thread?

Because Portal itself is an okay puzzler?

Anyway, wonder what they'll do with co-op.

Yes, I heard there is a co-op mode using Chell, a personality core, and a turret].

On second though maybe those were just rumors.

but IMO, it felt more like a tech demo than a finished game.

I'm pretty sure that that's because it was. I remember reading an interview somewhere about how the original was so short because they were just testing the waters for this idea... and when the idea met with overwhelming success they decided to make a full game out of it.

Actually, it's just a modified turret and a Personality Core that fell off.

Co-op trailer

could they have given us a shorter teaser?

The character designs are pretty cool though, does co-op have a storyline to it as well?

Supposedly, they're just trying to escape.

Do you know what I'd like to see? Portal: Deathmatch.

Nothing but a bunch of people, another bunch of portal guns, a stage laden with hazards and deathtraps, and a score count.

As long as there's no real guns and it gets creative in the ways where you can kill people (Portal Cut? Goomba Stomp? A headbutt or something if you're going fast enough? And, of course, loads of deathtraps and turrets.) and that would be insanely fun.

Valve says they considered it, and said it was fun for 10 seconds, then got annoying and dull.