Portal 2 Screens Feature Return of a Cubic Companion

[Tom Goldman]

Portal 2 Screens Feature Return of a Cubic Companion

Our beloved, metal friend from Portal is definitely making a return in Portal 2.

Valve has released a host of gorgeous new screenshots for Portal 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Portal-2-Playstation-3/dp/B003O6E3C8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299005209&sr=8-1] that show off the intricate dangers players will face when the game is finally released next month. Also, the companion cube is back!

The screens run the gamut, showing energy platforms, Portal's infamous elevator, and buttons on the ceiling amongst tubes that look like they were made for hamsters. One screen also features the weighted companion cube being shot at by a laser beam. Someone save it! Use a portal!

[gallery=150]

It's probably not the exact same companion cube that we saw in Portal, considering how (*SPOILER ALERT*) we were forced to euthanize it in an incinerator. I'm happy to see it make a return, but have fears about how GlaDOS will make us kill it this time.

Or, perhaps there'll be a way to save the companion cube? Multiple endings anyone? Either way, simply from these screens Portal 2 is looking like an amazing and varied experience. Portal 2 will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on April 19.

Source: PC Gamer [http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/01/12-new-high-res-portal-2-screenshots-confirm-companion-cube-comeback/]


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[messy]

This is a triumph

 

[UFriday]

Well guess what Glados, it looks like I DIDN't kill him!
OT: Those images look wonderful. I cannot wait for this game!

 

[manythings]

I've never gotten the big deal about the companion cube. I had it for about 6 minutes before the end of that section.

 

[PayneTrayne]

I just imagine the Companion Cube holding onto the edge of the incinerator with his li'l nubs only to await the return of a moving form to exact his revenge.

In Soviet Portal: Cube kills you.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I've never gotten the big deal about the companion cube. I had it for about 6 minutes before the end of that section.

This. It's a box with a heart on it. Big whoop.

 

[FoolKiller]

Yay for the companion cube. I'm looking forward to the co-op missions for this. I'm sure that its fun and interesting.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

What is this?
Blatant pandering to the people who talk about portal five times a day?

 

[SturmDolch]

I can't wait to play the game.

I can wait for the annoying references that people will spout non-stop.

"HURF DURF I miss ma companion cube dat i had for liek 5 min bfor killin it"

Companion Cube was way overrated. If the massive hubbub didn't start on the internet about it, it would have been a small plot point to me. Yes, the graffiti on the walls had people saying how sad they were for killing it. But those people were insane.

I wonder what annoying new phrases Portal 2 will spawn.

GladOS gives a plate to the main character. The shape on it vaguely resembles a pie. Graffiti on wall in random room proclaiming, "Pie for breakfast!"

"PIE FOR BREKFAST LAWL!! I LUV PIE NAO!" now spouted all over the world, 2 billion times a day.

For fifteen years.

 

[Woodsey]

Like I said on PCG:

People are asking for a new engine why, exactly?

 

[Megacherv]

I suspect that GlaDOS will make us kill many of them in multiple ways

 

[Jim Grim]

I've never gotten the big deal about the companion cube. I had it for about 6 minutes before the end of that section.

This. It's a box with a heart on it. Big whoop.

Well, that was the joke.

I guess we'll just have to trust them to use the companion cube in a cool, new way, and not just as a passing reference to a joke they made about 2 or 3 years back.

 

[Hungry Donner]

I'm not a companion cube fan but I understand it's appeal - it's an obvious symbol for the series. I'm not suggesting some deeper meaning about the fate of the cube and the series itself, it's just that Portal has a purposefully start aesthetic and this leaves little that would be easily recognizable outside the game itself.

The orange and blue portals are iconic, but not particularly versatile. The personality spheres stand out but they're not much more important that the cube itself, and they aren't as distinct. Chell has fun footware but she's largely nondescript.

The cube isn't very important in the game but it is very recognizable.

 

[CommanderKirov]

Welcome back dear... I've missed you.

*smirk*

 

[Xan Krieger]

I've never gotten the big deal about the companion cube. I had it for about 6 minutes before the end of that section.

This. It's a box with a heart on it. Big whoop.

Agreed, it's a box that's used to solve a puzzle, not an actual character you get emotionally attached to. I could beat the crap out of that cube and not shed a tear because it's a freakin box.

 

[Distorted Stu]

CAN. NOT. WAIT.

Those pictures look amazing.

 

[DTWolfwood]

im curious if Valve themselves ever thought the Companion Cube would turn into such a meme!

 

[Vanbael]

I never gave up on you companion cube. No other inanimate object has really better personality then the companion cube. I love the companion cube just because of the innocence and the the obsession that past test subjects had over it. Hopefully there will be the same kind of revelations about the companion cube as in the regular portal. After all, if it won't stab you then what will the companion cube do?

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

Or Valve is trolling. I think that's a valid alternative.