Widescreen Gaming Forum

Also, I'd like to take a second to point out, that Portal 2 is NOT using the original Source engine as you so blatently claim. It's using the Orange Box engine (practically every game since the Orange Box has used the Orange engine), which by a general search turns up that the engine is only from 2007.

The Portal 2 engine is actually unique, built upon the enhancements of the AlienSwarm engine which in turn was built upon Left 4 Dead 2, which was built upon L4D, which was built upon Source 2007 (formerly the Orange Box engine.)

Whether you call it a 2011 engine or a 2001-2004 engine it still is impressive graphically in my opinion. I mean what else would they do?

Even though the engine itself is fundamentally traced back all the way to the Source engine that powered HL2, the capabilities and the enhancements that were added to that engine since then is still fairly modern. Many of us has gone through this engine in some form or another, be it Orange Box, L4D, or Portal 2. Sure it doesn't push hardware. But that isn't what Portal 2 is trying to do. It's not trying to push hardware. Crytek1 and 2 pushed hardware. idTech 3 pushed hardware. Frostbite 1.5 pushed hardware. And you see what games are developed to expose the features of the engine on those hardware.

I had fun playing Portal 2. The moment the game came out, I went on a marathon run and played it 'till I actually beat it. It never occurred to me that I should have stopped and taken a break. The thing is... I wanted to solve more puzzle. And I wanted to see what lies ahead. Some of the puzzles are designed quite nicely. And while the environment doesn't really do anything much, that's the whole point. Portal 1 gave us a glimpse as to how the world looks, and what you got to go through. Portal 2 gave us a continuation of what happened and delved further into that world. Co-op? Man... Co-op is crazier. My first run on it is a blast. But voice communication is an absolute must. NEVER go into co-op w/o VoIP to communicate with your science partner.

I like the game and it is a worthy sequel. There is more that Valve could have done, and I'm sure anyone could have said that. I just hope that the additions being planned for Portal 2 will keep us coming back to playing it.

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t3h bl0g | Old Warriors Soceity | my BFBC2 stats

Portal 2 was a great sequel, it had me guessing at times and it looked fabulous. Couldn't ask for anything more. Portal 2 is a different beast from almost anything else out there, and so has it's own standard, and it passed the previous one.

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