doityourzelf

Portal 2 takes place after Portal, long after enough for Aperture Science to be wrecked and covered with plant-life. What happened? Valve plans to explain some of that gap in the coming weeks, before we can play Portal 2 on April 18. “We’re actually going to release something that we’re not talking about yet that will give a little bit of the story of the interim time,” Erik Wolpaw, one of the writers on Portal 2 told me at PAX East today. “We’re doing that before release.”(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); I’m not sure how much detail we’re going to get. Valve is being cagey about how we [[link]] can once again resume the role of test subject Chell even if Aperture seems like it’s been through a long period of decay. “You [[link]] were in this cryo-chamber,” Wolpaw told me. “Maybe yours was just better or you’re tougher.” Portal games take place in the universe first established in the Half-Life games. And, yes, they do all fit together. “Portal is after Half-Life 1 and before Half-Life 2,” Wolpaw said. “Without getting into it too much, Portal 2 is further down the line.” I asked if that meant that Portal 2 is, say, after Half-Life Episode 2. He didn’t want to get into that. The Portal and Half-Life games co-exist, but they won’t crossover too much, Wolpaw said. “We tried to keep as light a touch about it as we did in Portal 1. Fans of Half-Life will notice some things, but if you haven’t played Half-Life they’ll just kind of pass right by you. You’re not going to see Gordon tromping through the facility.” He likened it to how the X-Files had an overarching plot but then also standalone episodes that were a little looser. “Aperture Science is kind of this fun-house of science, this bubble in the otherwise serious Half-Life universe.” We’ll have more from Wolpaw and about Portal 2 in the coming days. Fans of the game should note that the game is being demonstrated in a theater at PAX East, where a new character, Cave Johnson, founder of Aperture Science, is being revealed for the first time. He’s voiced by JK Simmons, who played J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movies. In Portal 2, it’s not clear if he’s alive, a recording, or what. But he is happy to give you some instructions [[link]] and to give instructions to those Aperture test subjects who are part praying-mantis. Didn’t see them in the demo today!