cake was pretty much all portal was about!

And yeah now you mention it, I do remember that being said about the WCC

Please tell me you're joking. GLaDOS' deception was a major theme, and the cake was used a few times as a vehicle for that. But "the cake" was far from a central theme of the game. And the phrase "the cake is a lie" is only seen/written once or twice in the entire game span.

Yeah what I really mean is cake was what people took away from the game, mind-blowing-dimension-twisting puzzles, cake being a lie and the companion cube's love were the things people really came away with.

I didn't mean that cake was a main theme of portal's narrative, just what people connected with.

I found the cake an entertaining subplot incentive but I still don't find it quite that major.

The cake was a tool.

That is, GLaDOS/Valve used it as a route to get to you. For GLaDOS it was an incentive to complete the tests, then later turned on the player when, as GLaDOS would say, they were baked. For Valve it was a storytelling tool, used for humor and also to add to the dark side of the game.

I see no reason for it to come back in the next game, maybe as a passing reference somewhere obscure, but with 3 writers they shouldn't have to reuse devices.

As for the companion cube, it's been spotted 3 or 4 times in various portal 2 previews, or at least we think it has (could there be other pink cubes?), but whether this is Valve teasing or will legitimately be there in the final game is beyond me.

Is the goo fluid dynamics or precompiled vertex animations?!

The latter or a variation thereof I am almost entirely certain.

Whatever the npc_surface used, the fluid dynamics are almost certainly a variation of that.

I thought it was all being handled by particles (or at least the in-flight fluids)? I remember seeing people recreating the gels almost shot-for-shot in Alien Swarm.

Didn't the article about DOTA say source was getting cloth simulation, surely fluid simulation isn't far off from cloth.

Hopefully it's all proper dynamics, using pre done animations would suck and be just another of source's botches

p0rtalplayer wrote:
First off unless the Borealis contains something equivalent to what the Nuke was in WWII, it's not going to help the rebels beat the combine at all. It might be a good boost towards that goal but I can't see the whole world being liberated in a single game.

From the ominous mentions of it in Ep2, I wouldn't be surprised if it contained a nuke (or something to that effect), and I don't think they're going to end the whole storyline in Ep3, maybe just the Episodic titles and move on to HL3

p0rtalplayer wrote:
Second, I've read some theories that make a lot of sense, specifically one that muses that the G-man is actually trying to use Earth in order to end the combine reign elsewhere in the Universe. This makes sense to me, and if it is close to true, then episode 3 COULD NOT satisfactorily be the end of the combine arc.

I LOVE THAT IDEA! If VALvE doesn't use it, they definitely should. Ep3 would have to be one HELL of a long game to wrap up the entire half-life storyline.

p0rtalplayer wrote:
Third, half life is Valve's biggest franchise, and Gordon Freeman is half life's biggest character. They can't just get rid of him for their big Half Life game.

Half-life has gotten too massive for them to just throw it away in one game, and even if they did end it, we might see a crossover in another game (where Gordon TALKS )

Back to Portal 2
We're all sad that there isn't any cake (delicious, moist or otherwise) in Portal 2, but Valve have said in multiple interviews that they are sick of cake jokes. And besides, if Portal 2 has cake, then what would we remember Portal 1 for?

p0rtalplayer wrote:
As for the companion cube, it's been spotted 3 or 4 times in various portal 2 previews, or at least we think it has (could there be other pink cubes?), but whether this is Valve teasing or will legitimately be there in the final game is beyond me.

I'm not sure if I seen one or not, but is one of them shown after GLaDOS says "..How have you been?" And there, it shows a long hallway or some sort. The companion cube is stuck in a wall on the right?

That was in a very early trailer, and if you look in the official released version, it's not there. It was an easter egg, and has been stated point blank by Erik Wolpaw, the Companion Cube will not be returning in Portal 2.

Like I said, what would make Portal 1 so special if Portal 2 has everything from it (including WCC and Cake?)

my Crackpot Theory
||My theory is more based on something everyone seems to ignore has a mere easter egg-

The all-knowing Vortigaunt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQLRS5o6vtU

This Vorty mentions many insights that can be interpreted as something much larger. My thoery is this:

The Vortigaunts know they are in a game. They know we are controlling them ("Something secret steers us both") and that there are more than one game ("you fell beneath the barriers", barriers being the time between the games' releases) and they want to escape. Gman and his "employers" want information the Vortys have; for they know how to leave the video game but have sworn not to tell others and have to endure it. ("this is more than anyone can bear, but we will preserviere") Gman and his "employers" know they are in a game and have actually "hacked" it so they are omnipotent entities in the game. however they cannot breka out and cannot hack the Vortys and thus resort to torturing them to try and make them willfully tell them. (the dead vorty in Nova Prospeckt)

Now how this connects to Portal 2, IDK. But I got this idea and it seems to fit pretty well.||

Sounds more like a cheesy science fiction movie than a video game plot...no offense...

And besides...is this not a portal 2 speculation thread?

I speculate that there will be fire at some point in the game. Lots of fire.

The "all-knowing Vortigaunt" was just an easter egg, nothing more. He gives you some half truth insight into the Gman and the driving force behind him and the Vortigaunts, but that's it. Valve might have been tapping on the fourth wall a little, but your idea makes it seem like they are trying to bust through it like the Kool-aid Man.

Anyone up for watching the Matrix later?

msleeper wrote:
alve might have been tapping on the fourth wall a little, but your idea makes it seem like they are trying to bust through it like the Kool-aid Man.

I'd like you to know the image this put in my head made laugh for about thirty seconds straight.

Anyone has noticed that L4D's spitter's acid looks very similar to that of the gells in Portal 2 when they splat?

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6308/c ... op0001.jpg [Can't be bothered to resize it]