Valve's Portal Part of the Half-Life World

1up had the chance to sit down with Valve to talk about Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. They've come away with some great information, with probably the most exciting information focused around Portal. In a writeup of the visit, Matt Leone reveals that Portal is actually a part of the Half-Life 2 world. The protagonist is a new character, and eventually the fascinating puzzle/fps title will hook back into the Half-Life story at large. From the article: "'The origins of this character will be clear... eventually,' says Swift. Given that Portal has now been in development for just over a year, we wouldn't be surprised to see a few retroactive references pop up in Episode 1 as well, but for specifics we'll have to wait to hear more from the creepy narrator that taunts you while you play (yep, the same one from the first trailer)." For video and all the details, check out yesterday's episode of the 1up show.

Mod him up!

[ichigo 2.0]

Thanks man, this'll come in handy if slashdot gets slashdotted! Mod the parent up informative!

Old-ish

[the-amazing-blob]

The fact it's in the HL universe has been known for a while. The only new info I found was that you don't start out with the two-portal gun.

Re:

[SCPRedMage]

Right-o, it was stated when the title was announced, if I remember correctly. Nothing to get excited about here.

Re:

[Chibi-Hikaru]

So if I want to play Portal is it an expansion so I have to buy HL2 or is this a stand alone title?

Re:

[drb_chimaera]

Portal is being released as part of Half Life 2 Episode 2 (Due Feb next year I think) - Its a standalone expansion to Half Life 2 and the follow on to Episode 1.

Re:

[kafka47]

If you want to play Portal right now, you could try it's predecessor, Narbacular Drop [nuclearmon...ftware.com].

This won the student showcase prize at the Independant Games Festival, and the designers used it to demonstrate the concept of the 'Portal mod' to Valve.

/K

TF2? No thanks.

[remembertomorrow]

http://fortress-forever.com/ [fortress-forever.com]

Re:

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Note to anyone replying.

Original as in HL2, not HL1.

Re:

[Kreigaffe]

You bought it on a CD?

Ew. Major ick.

Use STEAM. Buy everything via Steam. I've never had any problems with any content purchased and downloaded via Steam -- aside from, yes, the first month or two of Steam in which EVERYTHING was broken.

Seriously, Steam's looking to be one of the greatest innovations in entertainment delivery in the past decade. Or two. Who knows. Bored? Open steam, click on a new game you want, you get charged 5/10/20 bucks, and bam a lil while later there's the whole game. Gotta re

Re:

[AbRASiON]

Whoah there cowboy.

Before you go implying someone is a dipshit for purchasing the CD, you have to look at some of the reasons why they might do it.

There are of course a tonne of possible reasons but here's one which sticks in my mind and pisses me the hell off.
A HEAP of damned software stores dropped it to 10$ and some even 5$ within the first month.
ONE QUARTER of what we saps paid for from steam.

What happened to "digital distribution cuts out the middle man and saves you $$$"

What an absoloute joke.

Re:

[Kreigaffe]

True -- for older titles, you probably will pay less in a store.

But when I got HL2, I got the silver package.. which included DOD:S.. and it was 60 bucks. Less IIRC than it was in a store, and the very day it was released I could play it.. since I had pre-ordered, and pre-downloaded, the program in its entirety.

Really, though, for an extra 5 bucks I'll stick with purchasing via Steam. It saves me about that much gas anyway, but by using Steam you get to indirectly support 3rd-party modders. Some of thos

Re:

[trekie9001]

Another, very plausible reason for buying the CD is that the user may have a dial-up connection or a very unstable connection. Plus, installing the game from a CD is almost always faster than downloading from Steam.

Sheppard

[Admodieus]

Some people thought the character in Portal might be Adrian Sheppard from Opposing Force fame, but this seems to put that thought to rest. I'm still hoping for a bigger role for Sheppard in Episode 2 or 3.

HL Portal = Acme magic hole

[master_p]

It seems to me that the portal is nothing more than the Acme's magic hole, the one cartoon characters use to trick their opponents...as a multiplayer game element, it may have some value, but as a single player game it would really mess the exploration aspect of an FPS game.

Re:

[msoya]

Perhaps you missed that the singleplayer game was designed around it? It would probably screw up most FPS levels, but these levels are designed to be solved using it. I fail to see how this will mess up any aspect of the game.

What is your point?

Re:

[master_p]

My point is that it would make exploration very difficult; exploring a 3d world is difficult enough as it is...adding portals to it would make it confusing and disorientating.

Re:

[msoya]

...and the point of the game is to escape from a confusing and disorienting 3D world using portals. I found Narbacular Drop fun and interesting, and Portal's pretty much the same - it was occasionally disorienting, but that was the point of the game.

Clearly the game is not for you, so don't buy it.