Portal 2 releasing early?

[BlueWeasel]

What engine does Portal 2 use and how's performance? I've got an OC'ed E8400 with a single 4890 and I prefer to run at 1920x1080.

Knowing Valve's history, I figure the game scales very well.

 

[blinblue]

I thought Portal 2 was decent. Portal 1 was fresh, Portal 2 not so much (though they did add more stuff like lasers and gel). I thought the cave levels were a bit too long, and I'm disappointed they didn't stick in more Half-Life references.

What I really dislike is how Valve went the path of CoD by charging $45 for a 5 hour single-player game. At least CoD has multiplayer for replay value...

Portal 2 has multiplayer as well. And I'm sure there will be tons of usermade levels to keep people occupied for the foreseeable future.

But I paid $35 from Amazon, and 5 hour single player plus all the multiplayer stuff is worth $35 to me

 

[hdeck]

What engine does Portal 2 use and how's performance? I've got an OC'ed E8400 with a single 4890 and I prefer to run at 1920x1080.

Knowing Valve's history, I figure the game scales very well.

it runs on the source engine

 

[f1sherman]

Frankly when I see what cr** everyone ships nowadays and what they ask for it,

I'd say Portal 2 is damn good money value

 

[Childs]

What engine does Portal 2 use and how's performance? I've got an OC'ed E8400 with a single 4890 and I prefer to run at 1920x1080.

Knowing Valve's history, I figure the game scales very well.

Performance shouldn't be a problem. I'm RECORDING at 1080p, 8xCSAA, everything max, and I'm getting 120fps. I have an i7@4Ghz and 570, but if you can run any of the recent games at 1080p this shouldn't be a problem.

One thing Valve needs to improve on is the level loading. Their approach was better when games took 1 min to load a level, but now its sort of jarring to see load screens so often. I will admit the scale of some of the levels isn't something we see all that much, but they should take some cues from the open world games and stream the data in the background or something. I guess all that stuff is easy when you are not the one who has to do it.

 

[BlueWeasel]

it runs on the source engine

I figured it did but thought it had been throughly updated/overhauled. Is it essentially the same graphical engine that powers the original game?

 

[Grooveriding]

I figured it did but thought it had been throughly updated/overhauled. Is it essentially the same graphical engine that powers the original game?

Same engine, but the graphics are much improved over the original game.

 

[zerocool84]

Performance shouldn't be a problem. I'm RECORDING at 1080p, 8xCSAA, everything max, and I'm getting 120fps. I have an i7@4Ghz and 570, but if you can run any of the recent games at 1080p this shouldn't be a problem.

One thing Valve needs to improve on is the level loading. Their approach was better when games took 1 min to load a level, but now its sort of jarring to see load screens so often. I will admit the scale of some of the levels isn't something we see all that much, but they should take some cues from the open world games and stream the data in the background or something. I guess all that stuff is easy when you are not the one who has to do it.

The load times are killing me. Each level isn't that big so I'm blaming this on consoles because of their small ram. Too much loading too often. I'm 1.4hrs into the game and Portal 1 had much larger levels so far and had almost no loading. Yes the levels aren't as detailed as 2 but even if the level is small it takes forever to load.

 

[silverpig]

What does this have anything to do with what was quoted? Are you saying he should play all the HLs before Portal? That's absurd.


Anyway, Portal 2 is thus far fantastic as I hoped. A few chapters in to the single player and I'm a huge fan of the new mechanics I've run into (lasers and light bridges). The humor is top notch and I'm excited to try co-op some time with somebody else who hasn't played it yet.

Yes he should. They're just awesome. It's not required or anything, but I'm glad I went through them all.

 

[dighn]

omg it's finally released! sweet. now they can focus on hl3

 

[zerocool84]

omg it's finally released! sweet. now they can focus on hl3

They're currently working on Left 4 Dead 3.

 

[sandorski]

Spoiler

 

[f1sherman]

omg it's finally released! sweet. now they can focus on hl3

u bastard

 

[greenhawk]

The load times are killing me.

not sure what game you are playing, but they are fine for me. Loading from dieing takes longer than the level changes that I have noticed.

The first 3 stages are training levels I found / reruns of the originals.

Though level sizes for some in stages 7 and 8 were massive enough to keep me happy.

 

[nitromullet]

Spoiler

This is why you have to get games like this on release day and pay full price. If you don't, you will already know way too much about the game before you ever play it.

 

[greenhawk]

Finished the game last night

Same, about 9 hours at a guess while listening to all the talk (and doing stupid things to see what the game would do).

Got stuck on about 3 stages overall I suspect (ie: more than about 10 minutes, or what felt like 10 minutes anyway). One in stage 7 and 2 in stage 8 (some of those stage 8's, geeeeee).

The stage 8 one with the 3 turrets had me a good long time.

I posted before of what I thought of some of the stage 7 challenges, I should have saved that comment for stage 8.


Some parts appear consillized a bit, but I can over look it (portal positioning felt like a "snap-to-grid" at times, laser and items through the portal before it looks "formed")

Just have to say though, the ending was not a climax I was expecting, but then I can not say what I would have done to make it better.

 

[coldmeat]

As much as I love these games, I find her voice really annoying. I want to hear all the dialogue but at the same time I want to rush through the game so I don't have to suffer through her voice more than I have to.

 

[coldmeat]

Some parts appear consillized a bit, but I can over look it (portal positioning felt like a "snap-to-grid" at times, laser and items through the portal before it looks "formed")

I've noticed this too and I'm only about 1 or 2 hours in. You barely need to aim at all. I'm not sure if it was like this in the first game, but I don't think it was this bad.

 

[coldmeat]

LOL I love the test room for the turrets.

"Uh, what am I supposed to do here?"

"Well, I did my best"

"Oh no, I'm one of the bad ones aren't I?"

"Uh, Blam Blam Blam! I'm not defective!"

 

[ViviTheMage]

haha, she said neckbeard.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

I haven't played it yet as my copy hasn't come in yet but 5hrs of gameplay for a $50/$60 game still sucks.

no thats stupid. thats like saying 5 lbs for $50 sucks.

 

[dakU7]

I've noticed this too and I'm only about 1 or 2 hours in. You barely need to aim at all. I'm not sure if it was like this in the first game, but I don't think it was this bad.

Sorry, but I'd rather pay 60$ for 5 hours of portal than 20 hours of call of duty. This is coming from a heavy FPS fan.

 

[zerocool84]

not sure what game you are playing, but they are fine for me. Loading from dieing takes longer than the level changes that I have noticed.

The first 3 stages are training levels I found / reruns of the originals.

Though level sizes for some in stages 7 and 8 were massive enough to keep me happy.

I'm further into it and yes load times still suck. I don't remember the last time there were this many loading screens for a PC game. Like I said before it's probably because of consoles not having enough RAM to store the levels on. Plus it even says do not turn off your console while it's saving.

I'm still enjoying it though. I'm at chapter 6 and it's "different" scenery which is good. I was getting bored of the same basic Portal levels. Finish it up tomorrow.

 

[coldmeat]

I thought it was just the Source engine itself that required so much loading.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I barely notice the loading ... takes all of 5 seconds, maybe to load.