Timeline for Portal? [SPOILERS]
From what i think... i reacon that Valve is too smart to try and include other peoples work into their own. To them it could be considered being Lazy.
More than likely we would be able to take a stroll through the Aperture Science facility, but i HIGHLY dought we would be able to use a Portal Gun on half-life 2; nor would we meet up with the character.
More than likely Valve would think of something even more intreging (spelling) and exciting than the Portal gun such as a WAY more improved version of the Gluon Gun from Half-life 1.
Portal would more than likely be based around the year 2000, which means that the character from Portal could have been taken hostage and stript of her weapon and was used to open up that portal in Episode 2.
Also...
Everyone may have already of known that but yeah... i spoiled it just in case 
So Episode 3 will be 1 HELL of a fun game... lots of battles, more monsters, guns, vehicles, solves mysteries and we may FINALLY find out who the hell the Gman is.
I would LOVE to find out who that bastered is but... then again i want it to remain a mystery... hard to explain but... games that have mystery make a game fun.
Her name is Chell. (/nitpick)
And who took away deep-quoting? How can we have 10-deep conversation trees? SLEEPER!!!!!!!!!!!!
bscly
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No matter how they eventually link up the two story continuities, they're going to have to fit the Portal technology into the Half-Life universe, and I think it's going to take some fancy explainin'.
Maybe I'm nitpicking, but it seems to me that everyone is just assuming the portal gun is an improved version of the teleportation technology that everyone already has (everyone = Combine, Vortigaunts, and human resistance), and that if the Combine get their hands on it they can easily open a portal to their homeworld(s) and invade in overwhelming numbers.
But is there any indication that the portal technology could be used in that way? I don't think so. To me, the Half-Life teleporters and Portals seem very different:
Half-Life Teleporters
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* Not quite instantaneous (i.e. you disappear, maybe spend a second in limbo, then reappear somewhere else)
* May be a "slow warp" (seen at least once in Episode One when Gordon and Alyx were MIA for a week)
* May or may not be interdimensional (to Xen, the "border world")
* Cancel momentum; require a stationary target
* Not permanent or self-sustaining (must be initiated by machines or Vortigaunts)
Portals
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* Instantaneous
* NOT interdimensional. (That is, both portal ends always open on the same dimension. At least so far.)
* Conserves momentum.
* Permanent and self-sustaining.
My biggest nit to pick from a story perspective is that they have never shown a Portal that goes from Earth to anywhere not-Earth, or indeed anywhere not in the immediate vicinity; why does everyone assume that Portals can be used to get to Xen or other Combine worlds?
</massive geek-out>
There is an (unused) skybox texture in the Portal GCFs.
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They put that there to screw with us!
*twitch*
So you are stating that Xen is a world in an other dimension IN a Portal?
No, I'm just stating that file is in the Portal GCFs, and it marked as a skybox texture.
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I think Valve is chomping at the bit to introduce the portal gun in a combat setting, maybe not in one of the episodes but definitely in a form of deathmatch. Of course there are practical challenges with doing so, like the rendering problem of having 24 players operating twice as many portals simultaneously (plus what colors would you make them? Maybe you would only see colors on your own portals, and everyone else's would be white?) Also, would portals be useful in combat, or fun? Deathmatches seem too fast paced for portals to do much more than help a player get special weapons, but maybe some people would find a way to use them to their advantage.
Half Life 2 could incorporate Portal with a simple plot point like "the portal gun doesn't work without a broadcast power source, or without proximity to a GLaDOS type computer network." That way the portal gun would only function in certain areas. Gordon could pick up the gun shortly after boarding the Borealis, play with it, then have it stop functioning as soon as he leaves. Or the limiting factor could be simpler, the lack of available surfaces. In Episode 2's outdoor environments there were relatively few flat non-metallic surfaces to make a portal on (although portals would have made getting to the car a lot easier.)
You could also have portals in HL2 without Gordon actually getting the portal gun. Chell (is that right?) as an NPC could assist him using portals, or could appear as an adversary, a paranoid character in the shadows using portals to trap him until she can figure out what his angle is.
Would kinda defeat the whole idea of the puzzle solving to have an NPC shoot portals for you.