The Portal 2 E3 Demo Will Give You a Headache

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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The Portal 2 E3 Demo Will Give You a Headache

Valve has released its E3 2010 demo showing all of the new Portal 2 goodies, and the physics-based puzzler will probably break your brain.


Let's be honest here - there are a lot of people out there who didn't get to go to E3 2010 to see all the latest games. The Escapist certainly did [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/tag/e3+2010] (except for all of those manning the fort at home, ahem ahem), and as such it remains our duty to tell you about everything we saw on the floor and whether it was good or bad.

But why tell you when we can just show you?

Valve has released its awesome-looking win the favor of Steve Butts [http://www.amazon.com/Portal-2-Playstation-3/dp/B003O6E3C8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1278432601&sr=8-1] - in multiple parts over the course of the last week, and it seems to be shaping up as a nice successor to the beloved first game. The trailers show a ton of different new mechanics showing up in the sequel. Above, you can see Wheatley, the new Aperture AI who is slightly more helpful to the player than our nemesis GLaDOS.

It's when we start getting into the puzzle elements, though, that my brain starts to hurt. For cryin' out loud, I had enough trouble getting my head around the idea of "Goes in Portal A, comes out Portal B." All of these new elements - let alone the new elements put together - are going to give me a freakin' aneurysm or something.

The Excursion Funnel, as you can see, acts as an antigravity tube of sorts.


The Aerial Faith Plates are springboards that propel anything that hits them into the air (or in whatever direction you please).


Here we see the Thermal Discouragement Beam, which is pretty much a big goddamn laser that you can use to your benefit, or (more likely) to be killed by.


The Pneumatic Diversity Vent sucks and blows. No, seriously. It also looks to be a great way to get rid of multiple turrets at once.


Repulsion Gel is like the Aerial Faith Plates in that it bounces things, except given its liquid nature you can use portals to spread it along.


And finally, we have Propulsion Gel, which makes you go really, really fast. Perfect for those times when you need to get past the non-OSHA-compliant parts of Aperture's laboratory.


It's making my brain hurt just thinking about them.

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Fox242

El Zorro Cauto
Nov 9, 2009
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It looks scary man, just plain scary. I'm just waiting to see if our own beloved Yahtzee will like this game.
 

dfcrackhead

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Apr 14, 2009
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I hope this doesn't end up like Trine did in Yahtzee's review, there's a completely complicated solution, but if you just do the most simple, obvious things, it works just as well
 

Sennz0r

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May 25, 2008
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Holy crap that shit's mindbending.

I hope it's longer than the first installment. Looks fantastic though.
 

jamesworkshop

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Sep 3, 2008
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The Austin said:
I can already tell that Wheatly is going to be a fan favorite.

I hate him

I'm glad valve revealed that its only a placeholder Voice acting so they had something in time for E3
 

deth2munkies

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Jan 28, 2009
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I got worried that it wouldn't be as good as the first one because the gimmick would be old.

I was wrong.
 

Vanguard_Ex

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Mar 19, 2008
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I'm starting to think that Valve have actually got Gods working in their level design...
 

SomeBritishDude

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Nov 1, 2007
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Old, but these are better quality than the originals so whatever.

Also, for those of you who agree with me in thinking Wheatly's voice acting is a bit sub par it's because he's a place holder. The lines are good, the voice makes him sound like a patronising childrens tv host.
 

Sneaky Paladin

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Jan 21, 2009
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Oww brain is hurty hurty. Those are some pretty complex mechanics if you have to use them in unison.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Wait, so you can channel gravity beams, liquids, and strong air currents through portals?

I...
That...
Ow... my brain...

 

Natdaprat

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Sep 10, 2009
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I like the complexity. Just when I thought console gaming was getting simpler, Portal 2 comes by and smashes our minds with a hefty reminder followed by a tumour.
 

savageoblivi0n

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Aug 7, 2008
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ummm...all i can say is just...wow....amazing...and trying to imagine having to work all of that with a partner in coop? the timing some things will require? just....ow...it's gonna be insane
 

Mr.Mattress

Level 2 Lumberjack
Jul 17, 2009
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It's not that complex actually. All it is is Goop, Platforms, and Tools. Easy to know. It's trying to understand how they work and how to make them that's complex.

Still, this looks epic... I am gonna get it.