Portal 2 Releasing On 4/20/11: Valve Taking Care Of PS3 Owners

Originally Posted by darklordjames


What is is with you and terrible thread titles?

Originally Posted by joeblow

Yes, this isn't a FPS so precise aiming isn't as much of an issue.....

Valve man praises Sony’s attitude as he details Portal 2’s cross-platform chat and multiplayer, cloud-based saves, and more.

Valve has said that Sony’s progressive attitude led to it introducing Steam support to consoles for the first time with the PlayStation 3 release of Portal 2.

The PS3 version of the sequel to the much-loved Portal, due for release in April, will feature cross-platform multiplayer, allowing users to face off against players of the Mac and PC versions. It will also feature persistent cloud-based storage of game save files, and cross-platform chat. In addition, PS3 buyers will be given a free download of the Mac and PC versions by linking their PSN and Steam accounts.

Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of marketing, praised Sony's openness to the idea of Steam on PS3. “Sony just seems really open to the idea,” he told us last week. “People at [publisher] EA introduced us to some people at Sony and we were like, ‘It would be really cool if we could do something with Steam and they were like, ‘Do it!’

“Just working with them in general has been very easy going. I think they see having an open platform console as a strategic advantage for them, and so they’re running with it.”

Lombardi welcomed Sony’s attitude in a world where most players own more than one gaming platform. “The customer doesn’t think exclusively about where they’re playing their games or how they’re playing them,” he said. “Most customers have multiple devices. They don’t want to have to buy this version and buy that version, and not be able to play something because they have that version – they just want to pay their money, get a good entertainment experience and they want it to work.

“I think Sony’s allowing developers and publishers more freedom now, so hopefully we’ll see this idea of an openness to allow applications and games across platforms start to proliferate a little bit more. Or it may just go on to be one of those things that only Valve does!”

Lombardi admits that one planned feature wasn’t ready in time. “We’re using the cloud so that you can save to Steam from your PS3, but we’re not involved enough to say that you can pick up your progress on the PC using your PS3 save – we ran out of time.

“It’s achievable, but it’s hard, so next time!”
Valve first announced it would be introducing Steam support to the PS3 version of Portal 2 when president Gabe Newell took to the stage at Sony's press conference at last year's E3. Portal 2 will be released for PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac on April 21.

Originally Posted by tool1075

Portal was great (I'm a PC gamer)

However, I just got a PS3.

I have problems playing first-person-shooter type games with a gamepad (I need a mouse to look around and aim - it's much better).

So.....

This news about buying the game on PS3 and getting it through Steam on your PC for free is awesome. Two games for the price of one.

As soon as I figure out the best way to use a mouse and keyboard on my PS3, I will start playing first-person-shooter games on the PS3.

Apparently the XIM is the best way to do it, and the XIM3 may be out soon. I almost built my own XIM 1, but I think getting the XIM3 will be worth it.

Anyone else play with a mouse/keyboard adapter? (I've read, heavily, about the different dedicated mouse and mouse/keyboard adapters for the PS3, etc, and I think the XIM is the only real option for true PC-like control).

Sorry if this is derailing the topic...



Except for the fact that precision aiming of the portals is sometimes crucial.....

Auto-aim, which seems to be a console invention, makes games suck - so either Portal with a gamepad will suck, or be really hard compared to the PC version. I like consoles for 3rd person games, platform type games, racing games, fighting games, etc...

Remember in the first Portal game when you had to fire Portals in mid-air at certain points? You know how hard it is to quickly turn around in a split-second with a game-pad?

First-person games with gamepads are laughable when compared to mouse control. I have yet to witness anyone who can control one with a gamepad with equivalent mouse precision. It's just not physically possible.....

Even the hardcore little console nerds playing call of duty are using mice with a XIM or eagle eye, or dedicated other type of mechanism...

Originally Posted by tool1075

Auto-aim, which seems to be a console invention, makes games suck - so either Portal with a gamepad will suck, or be really hard compared to the PC version.

Originally Posted by number1laing

If PC gamers took half the time they spent griping about controllers and actually tried to get used to them instead... they wouldn't be griping. It's not as good a method for FPS games but it really is perfectly adequate. There are more people today playing FPS games with a terrible gamepad than there ever have been playing them on the PC with a mouse. Not even Quake, etc., did Halo/COD console numbers.

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."

I'm not sure how much detail we're going to get. Valve is being cagey about how we 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 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."

Originally Posted by number1laing

If PC gamers took half the time they spent griping about controllers and actually tried to get used to them instead... they wouldn't be griping.

Originally Posted by Terial

For example, Amazon right now has the PS3 version on sale for $5 off and then you get a $20 amazon gift card....

Originally Posted by Terial

Besides Valve saying that if you buy PS3 you get PC for free, i do not see it on any order site.
Does anyone know how this will work?

Originally Posted by moothemagiccow

Aiming with a thumbstick is really bad and I haven't played with a mouse since the 90s. I can actually hit targets with a Wii remote/move without having to constantly nudge the cursor.

Thumbsticks are especially dreadful in cover-based games where you get about half a second to aim before someone explodes your skull. If it's not intuitive and it's not something you can learn quickly, what's the point? Would you give the same advice for using the cursor in PS3's web browser?

Originally Posted by tool1075

Portal was great (I'm a PC gamer)

However, I just got a PS3.

I have problems playing first-person-shooter type games with a gamepad (I need a mouse to look around and aim - it's much better).

So.....

This news about buying the game on PS3 and getting it through Steam on your PC for free is awesome. Two games for the price of one.

As soon as I figure out the best way to use a mouse and keyboard on my PS3, I will start playing first-person-shooter games on the PS3.

Apparently the XIM is the best way to do it, and the XIM3 may be out soon. I almost built my own XIM 1, but I think getting the XIM3 will be worth it.

Anyone else play with a mouse/keyboard adapter? (I've read, heavily, about the different dedicated mouse and mouse/keyboard adapters for the PS3, etc, and I think the XIM is the only real option for true PC-like control).

Sorry if this is derailing the topic...



Except for the fact that precision aiming of the portals is sometimes crucial.....

Auto-aim, which seems to be a console invention, makes games suck - so either Portal with a gamepad will suck, or be really hard compared to the PC version. I like consoles for 3rd person games, platform type games, racing games, fighting games, etc...

Remember in the first Portal game when you had to fire Portals in mid-air at certain points? You know how hard it is to quickly turn around in a split-second with a game-pad?

First-person games with gamepads are laughable when compared to mouse control. I have yet to witness anyone who can control one with a gamepad with equivalent mouse precision. It's just not physically possible.....

Even the hardcore little console nerds playing call of duty are using mice with a XIM or eagle eye, or dedicated other type of mechanism...