Portal *THEN* and *NOW*
This is a portal then and now and what I think of it
Alright we all remember the old trailer of portal and how amazingly awesome it was, so time to begin.
THEN:
Back when they first showed portal they showed us these really weird and strangely cool looking portals.
They also had that INSANELY sweet blurry gun that was thin.
They also showed us the playermodel which was a Male
The final image is of the buttons, they went from These blue buttons to the red ones
Finally, Many challenges were not included in the final release of portal, who knows why.
NOW:
What we have now is what we asked for in terms of portals
With the commercial release of Portal they changed them from Dimensional rifts to Fire.
WHY DID THEY DO THIS, we asked for it, they showed us the original plan for portals, which was based off the logo SPIRL, but people started saying they liked FIRE portals better, the original portals were not fire, BUT DIMENSIONAL RIFTS. We asked for fire and we got fire.
I dont know why they went from that cool thin gun to this ugly POS blocky thing and got rid of the awesome motion blur.
We then went from a MALE playermodel to a Female one we have come to know as CHELL, who she is and what relevance she plays we still dont know. But what is for sure, Aperture seems to be all about women.
My Final point is about the buttons, we went from LIGHT BLUE to DARK RED, I prefer the blue in some aspects, but the red is really nice too
SO MY QUESTION TO YOU IS, WHAT DO YOU PREFER, YOU CAN CHOOSE TO MIX AS WELL, THEN OR NOW?
Motion blur on the weapon make the player look like a chipmunk who forgot where she left her glasses. Pretty strange if think. They explain that kind of thing in one of the powerpoint presentations they showed recently. Also, I think Chell is REALLY ugly, I prefer my own test subject ^^
Yeah Ive been trying to add those Portal gun animations that CHell has to a Citizen model but all I get is game crashes 
mostly *NOW*
1. the dimensional rift portals "LOOK" neat but seem that they might be a bit distracting. the less obtrusive fire portals are better imo.
2. as far as the gun. i don't really care. having not got to play with (or really see) the other gun, i can't really make an opinion on it, but i have no problem with what we have
3. as far as the male/female models. i like the chell (female) idea better. most chicks don't have a game where they can identify. plus there are lots of reasons why this fits into the story line. also. it seems more right to lock up women and use them for whatever testing purposes we want. also. i like to be inside a woman from time to time.... so (aside from RL) this helps
4. big red button: much better. more visible. seems "testy" like something you'd see in a test area like "Hey asshole. look at me, i'm a big red button. push me bitch!"
also:
i agree. she's butt ugly. shoulda just recycled the alex model 
Depth of field (Not motion blur!!! 
) on portal gun was probably a special effect like the DOF for the TF2 trailers, not actually generated by the source engine.
The fire portals look amazing, the original ones look hellishly ugly and almost dangerous to step into, which was one thing they didn't want, they had to make portals safe to stand inside.
Male to female player model? who cares, shes a charcter in the bigger scheme of things. GLaDOS has a distinctly female character so perhaps she just perfers testing females... who knows, I dont mind either way. THey even said when the trailer was released that the male was a placeholder character...
Blocky portal gun? what are you even talking about? I cant see any difference other than it looks less shiney and a little bit older, but then so does the rest of the test chamber environment so it blends right in.... My reaction to you suggesting the 'original' gun was better was this "what the hell its almost identical, what a retard"
The button, it doesnt look blue, it looks untextured....
With the only exception being the DOF which I would always love in games I undoubtedly preferr what we've got to the trailer and I think you are looking into this way too much, go look at how much the first ep2 trailer differs from the actual game... thats a mo0re radical change
1. The fire edges are far better to spot than that weird "burned" dimensional effect. It's easier to spot and indentify portals.
2. The colored light on top of the Portal Gun is a clear identification of the last portal you fired. Other than that I never look at it.
3. Indeed, somehow women simply fit Portal better. GLaDOS is female, the turrets sound female, Aperture Science even got female events (Bring-Your-Daughter-To-Work-Day). And to tell you the truth, I don't think Chell is ugly at all. It's just that the colour of her eyes doesn't match the rest of her face...
4. For the buttons the same as the portals: they're far easier to spot and identify when they're as red as a bullseye.
All those decisions were taken for clear reasons. Of course this is not an offence against you. It would indeed have been cool if those things were left the way they were. But perhaps they would have changed the game experience. In early gameplay videos of Portal you can see that many enviroments originally were much darker, which kinda ruined the 'clinic' atmosphere. But if you want to change things to Portal, you're free to do that. I would try them to see what the game would be like if they didn't change it. But I'm almost sure they did all those things for very clear reasons.
"Duct Tape is the answer."
I'm a big fan of the "old" Portal.
1) If you look at the old portal real good, the edges look horrible. And do you think that a computer like mine can handle that? My portals are colored ovals today and those portals would just made the game too big to handle. The spikes lowering on to you should been kept, but only in the advance maps. But we are mappers, so we can make it ourself!
2) As for the sex change, I don't care, you don't feel any different, do you?
3) The original portal gun, they should have kept at least only accessible through Hammer. But It had more feed back when firing, so that made it cool.
4) The button and other elements back then were untextured.
So overall, half should have stayed or been accessible some how.
The more you give, the less appreciated it will be received.
1) If you look at the old portal real good, the edges look horrible. And do you think that a computer like mine can handle that? My portals are colored ovals today and those portals would just made the game too big to handle. The spikes lowering on to you should been kept, but only in the advance maps. But we are mappers, so we can make it ourself!
2) As for the sex change, I don't care, you don't feel any different, do you?
3) The original portal gun, they should have kept at least only accessible through Hammer. But It had more feed back when firing, so that made it cool.
4) The button and other elements back then were untextured.
So overall, half should have stayed or been accessible some how.
This map has all the Original Beta levels
http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/40710
I prefer all the new models, as Valve designed the game so that important elements, like the buttons, stood out against the sterile white and blue of the testchambers.