Yes, Portal 2 fans - Valve has not forgotten about you after all! In little over a week, Portal 2′s second post-launch DLC pack will be safely nestled inside your hard-drives.
Category: Portal
Released on the 21st of March, ThinkGeek’s Life-Sized Inflatable Portal Turret is… well, precisely what it says on the tin. It presumably sold like hot cakes, because people are crazy for whatever has Portal written all over it. But that doesn’t mean buyers haven’t put it to good use. While it seems to be designed for use in water, it also seems to work just as well in… the air.
Back in 2007, the launch of The Orange Box was a pretty big deal. You had Episode Two, the long-awaited TF2, and the very intriguing Portal – all in one box, for just $50. So Valve went above and beyond in promoting the thing. They partnered up with EA for the retail release and for promotional activities. And only last year for Portal 2, did Valve start handling its own promotional stuff. But it seems like their earliest experiments with it go all the way back to the time of The Orange Box. And only now can we actually see what they were up to.
If there’s one thing that Valve is absolutely crazy at, it’s concept art. And Portal 2 had a lot of it. If you’re a Potato Fools’ Day veteran, you probably still have the hidden DLC archives tied to your account, which in total contain nearly a hundred Portal 2 concept art images. Maybe you even have the Portal 2 Collector’s Edition Guide by Future Press. But we haven’t seen all the delicious imagery Valve conjured into existence throughout Portal 2′s nearly 4-year development cycle. And it seems like they’re well aware of that - which might be why they’re going to make sure we do see it!
There’s a few things that make me sad. Like… not being able to go to GDC 2012 and consequently not being able to attend Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw’s live post-mortem of Portal 2. But there are some things that make me happy, like when I remember that it’s all gonna find its way online. But then I remember I’m sort of… supposed to push it out there as well - and that makes me go right back to sad mode.
Exterminating Koopa Troopers isn’t a very challenging activity for Mario – but imagine how much easier it would be if he had some more advanced technology at his disposal. And I’m not talking mushrooms and fire flowers, I’m talking portal devices and grav guns. However, until we set Mario up with a Tau cannon or a Displacer, he’ll have to make do wi- What’s that? Someone gave Mario a portal gun? They made a video game about it?
The world of digital distribution business is a wild one indeed. You know… “Dog Eat Dog”, and all that good stuff. And all that dog food s**t is starting to affect the brick-and-mortar game industry as well. Which is why in March of 2011, GameStop acquired Impulse, a digital distribution platform previously operated by Stardock. And now, Impulse is doing pretty well for itself, and in certain departments, it performs far better than Steam. But I can assure you I’m totally not talking about pricing. Steam is doing really well with pricing - I mean, who could ever say that Steam pricing sucks; and that Impulse has pricing which is… well, better? It’s ludicrous!
But I digress: there’s loads of digital distribution platforms. Some have come and gone, some are still alive after years in the business, and others have just been born. Which is why it’s so surprising that Impulse has just entered an interesting business arrangement with Valve. For the first time ever, Valve games can be purchased on a digital distribution service that’s not Steam. Read on!
Some more updates from PlanetPhillip. Even in the New Year, Phillip is still doing some tremendous work over at good old PP.
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