[EatChildren]

Right on the heels of the announcement, information from Game Informer's Portal 2 cover story is beginning to trickle onto the interwebs, and some of it is quite surprising!

A lot of time has passed since the events of the last trip to Aperture Science. So much time, in fact, one might call it hundreds of years. You read that correctly! More than a century has passed since the events of Portal, and much has changed. The labs are overgrown with foliage, a striking green contrasting against the clinical whites. Chell somehow returns as the protagonist, and the always delightful murderous AI GlaDOS returns as the antagonist.

Where Portal was seen as a 'test', Portal 2 is seen as a 'game', with all new mechanics introduced to keep things fresh. While the portal gun remains unchanged, the game world introduces a number of new ideas; reflection cubes will reflect lasers, special paint splatter will trigger special reactions (such as making surfaces bouncy), and physics will now play a stronger part in portal challenges. Placing a portal near an air vent sucking in air will allow you to direct that pressure, and physical reaction, to other areas of the level via the secondary portal.

Co-op now confirmed, players will find themselves not in the shoes of mere humans, but instead bipedal robots. Each robot will possess a portal gun and work together to solve devious puzzles in their own separate campaign. Communication being the key, Valve have focused on enhancing feedback; those playing on PC will be able to use a picture-in-picture box to see what the other player is doing, and players will be able to place information icons around levels to quickly direct each other to do the right thing at the right time.

Exciting times ahead! Keep your eyes peeled to Half-Life Fallout for more information as it breaks.

[Inimitable]

AND THEORIES REGARDING THE CONNECTION TO THE HALF-LIFE TIMELINE ARE SUDDENLY THROWN INTO DISARRAY

FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU---


...But honestly it sounds awesome, and the picture-in-picture is something I've never seen before in coop. Sucks we'll probably have to wait til forever to play it though!

[Pie21]

My God this sounds epic. One of the few full-price games I'm going to be able to justify buying. Even Just Cause 2 is looking like it might miss out, and it looks fantastic.

[Rykane]

Sounds great, just wish it was coming sooner than Winter tbh. To be a pessimist here i think they will most definitely delay the game and it will go into 2011 but i hope it doesn't

[PsychAggie]

The Co-op is interesting. I wouldn't rule out Half-Life connections just yet. The Borealis did do a disappearing trick once. I'm not going to rule out time travel. Also a hundred years from when? Never did get a definite time period for Portal or Half-Life have we? Or did I miss that memo?

[EatChildren]

Thats true. Aperture Science labs hasn't travelled through time though. Its been dorment for hundreds of years, hence the overgrowth. How Chell survived this long (if she's even human) and how long it takes place after Half-Life 2 is impossible to know.

The assumption is that Portal took place around the time of the 7 hour war, mostly for what GlaDOS says towards the end of the game, like "Things have changed since the last time you were outside. Things up there will make you wish you were back in here. I have an infinite capacity for knowledge, and even i'm not sure what's going on outside. All I know is that i'm the only thing standing between us....and them. Well, I was. Unless you have some plans to build some supercomputer parts in a big hurry, this place isn't going to be safe much longer".

[PsychAggie]

EatChildren, on 07 March 2010 - 04:47 AM, said:

Thats true. Aperture Science labs hasn't travelled through time though. Its been dorment for hundreds of years, hence the overgrowth. How Chell survived this long (if she's even human) and how long it takes place after Half-Life 2 is impossible to know.

The assumption is that Portal took place around the time of the 7 hour war, mostly for what GlaDOS says towards the end of the game, like "Things have changed since the last time you were outside. Things up there will make you wish you were back in here. I have an infinite capacity for knowledge, and even i'm not sure what's going on outside. All I know is that i'm the only thing standing between us....and them. Well, I was. Unless you have some plans to build some supercomputer parts in a big hurry, this place isn't going to be safe much longer".

True that Aperture Science hasn't. But you know maybe Gordon and Alyx are having a nice leisurely stroll on the deck of the Borealis and it decides to start popping into different time zones. Could put you right back into Portal 2's time zone. Right now I'd believe anything. And as for Chell with that spanky new ending one could think after 'assuming the party escort' position she was cryoed or some other nifty form of preserving until Event X forces her out into Portal 2's timeline.

I forgot about the 7 year war being the most probable time spot for Portal. I just would real like to know a sort of year date for all of this. I guess early 2000's is the most logical.

[Berrie]

It confirms some of things I was thinking, still a hundred years! How has that place been kept hidden for all that time.

Colour me intrigued.

[EatChildren]

You never know. I kinda hope time travel is kept as minimal in the Half-Life plot as possible, but mostly travelling backwards through time.

Valve dont seem interested in giving a clear yes/know on what is/isnt canon, timelines, stuff like that. Partially because they like to keep the mystery of their lore, and also because they're happy to **** up 'canon' material in favour of better gameplay. As someone on GAF pointed out, that incident where Gordon and Alyx slow teleport to Kleiners lab didnt come about via some wonderous stroke of writing, but because they couldnt work out a better way to pass the time and get Gordon from a-to-b.

It worked in the end, but thats there way of plot writing. I could see this setting for Portal 2 being less "Okay lets set it 100 years in the future", and more "Okay how do we make the environment new and fresh. Lets have it overgrown, the facility decaying, and wonderful greens contrasting on white. Cool. Now how did this happen? Hmm? Sure, 100 years in the future, fine".

But this is Valve so much like Portal's little clues I assume Portal 2 will again hint a the events of the Half-Life saga. Interestingly, if Aperture Science remains isolated and left alone hundreds of years after the first game, does that mean the Combine were defeted, or does that mean nobody is around to find it?

[XJR]

Chell must have been put into stasis or she'd be dead.

/thread

[PsychAggie]

EatChildren, on 07 March 2010 - 05:02 AM, said:

But this is Valve so much like Portal's little clues I assume Portal 2 will again hint a the events of the Half-Life saga. Interestingly, if Aperture Science remains isolated and left alone hundreds of years after the first game, does that mean the Combine were defeted, or does that mean nobody is around to find it?

That is a very interesting question. Maybe Gordon fails and the Combine whisk everyone off to topple another planet. Maybe everybody gets nuked. Maybe Aperture Science is inside of a floating mountain......wait, wrong universe. Maybe GlaDOs killed all of the Combine that did find it and they just said eff it.

XJR, on 07 March 2010 - 05:05 AM, said:

Chell must have been put into stasis or she'd be dead.

/thread

OMG!!!! GlaDOS is the G-MAN!!!!!!

[EatChildren]

Maybe the whole invasion was some obscure science adventure conducted by GlaDOS and co and the rest of the human population are holding hands with the Combine in the next room enjoying their delicious success cake. And then at the end Chell will open a door and GlaDOS will be all like "SURPRISE!" and everyone will cheer and there will be a banner saying "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!".

[PsychAggie]

EatChildren, on 07 March 2010 - 05:11 AM, said:

Maybe the whole invasion was some obscure science adventure conducted by GlaDOS and co and the rest of the human population are holding hands with the Combine in the next room enjoying their delicious success cake. And then at the end Chell will open a door and GlaDOS will be all like "SURPRISE!" and everyone will cheer and there will be a banner saying "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!".

[neva-]

XJR, on 07 March 2010 - 11:05 AM, said:

Chell must have been put into stasis or she'd be dead.

/thread

Or she's not human

or a clone

Spoiler

or a lie

[Berrie]

Spoiler

Or a cake.