This story recounts how one parent was offended that his 10-year-old adopted daughter had to listen to Wheatley say: "What's wrong with being adopted? Well, no parents, for a start."

What I would like to say is that he was evidently completely oblivious to such golden lines as:
"Ha! Was that your bullet-riddled body, flying out of the room? It was- aww, those were the crap turrets, weren't they? Yeah..."
"If we're lucky, she won't find out all her turrets are crap until it's too late. [laughs] Classic."
"We could get one of the crap turrets. We could put it in the scanner and see what happens."
"Yes! Go and catch one of the crap turrets, and bring it back!"
"Oh no, you've got it, you've got it! Yes! Put him in there! Let's see how this place likes a crap turret."

This suggests one of two things: either this parent really doesn't mind about swear words, or possibly this 10-year-old was gaming so fast Wheatley never got to play those lines. In which case, she is a ninja.

BUT this is all old news that nobody wants to talk about any more. The real question is:

Why does GLaDOS - and Wheatley, for that matter - include observation rooms in the new test chambers?

Why are the observation rooms there? I imagine they're built into the framework of the Enrichment Centre. I'm even more confused about the layout of that place than I was after the original game, since suddenly it seems every room can be magically transformed into a different one by tweaking the panels. My solution was to stop taking anything the game threw at me seriously, and that worked like a charm.

As for the rest, stop looking at things so closely and looking for answers. First and foremost it's a game and things are done to suit a game world. Never forget that.

msleeper wrote:
I don't know where you live, but "crap" is pretty far from a swear word.

As for the rest, stop looking at things so closely and looking for answers. First and foremost it's a game and things are done to suit a game world. Never forget that.

Yes it's a game, but it's fun to find logical reasons for how things happen.

Also if you are refering to how there can be observation rooms when the chambers are made of panels/movearound; if you look closely, the chambers arnt 100% panels and the observation rooms are built on the inside.

Anyways, Wheatley was just smashing preexsting chambers together and using old ones. And also, all the chambers vary between mobile and what seems to be fixed in place, such as the one where Wheatley manually overrides on the wall and most chambers that contain actual puzzles. All the moving ones are just big boxes if you notice.

Valve put them in for the sake of increased detail, it takes the place of the skybox in giving light and making the world look bigger than it actually is. It also fits in terms of atmosphere since they give the map a more creepy vibe, knowing that people could be watching you from them.

The Irate Pirate wrote:
It also fits in terms of atmosphere since they give the map a more creepy vibe, knowing that people could be watching you from them.

Agreed. When I first played portal 1 when I was a wee boy, the observation rooms were very eery and scared me a little. I guess valve thought they would use the fear of the unknown to their advantage.

Also on the argument of the moving test chambers; remember that not all TC's are mobile. There are varying different chambers, from the enrichment spheres, to the stationary one (seen in potal 1 and the opening of portal 2), and the mobile ones seen under the reign of Wheatley. Most of them, including some sphere, have observation rooms even a couple you can get into.

Observation rooms are a crucial source of lighting in both Portal and Portal 2. They're not as necessary in the latter, because of the improved lighting system and increased number of lighting methods/instances/etc., but let's face it, chambers would get monotonous with just light strips. Observation rooms provide light, provide a focal point of interest, provide something for the player to observe and speculate about, and more or less just look good. Any "testing protocol" justification is really just a bonus.

iWork925 wrote:
The Irate Pirate wrote:

It also fits in terms of atmosphere since they give the map a more creepy vibe, knowing that people could be watching you from them.

Agreed. When I first played portal 1 when I was a wee boy, the observation rooms were very eery and scared me a little. I guess valve thought they would use the fear of the unknown to their advantage.

Sleeper, I don't really think crap is worthy of being censored.

Yeah, I always feel the same way, especially knowing there's another human, except a really crazy one who watches you from hidden spots and writes stuff on walls, sees things and sounds like a chicken.

And my reaction to the video:
Shouldn't the kid feel cool because it was coming from a dumb, immature, AI designed to make bad choices? Plus it's a villain, what do you expect? It's like I say that some show where say the joker traps batman in a cage and then some news reporter says it's bad because of animal abuse.

Godzilla (Lazars) wrote:
Yeah, I always feel the same way, especially knowing there's another human, except a really crazy one who watches you from hidden spots and writes stuff on walls, sees things and sounds like a chicken.

I've heard the "Ghost of Rattmann" soundtrack, so I know what you're talking about, but I don't remember ever hearing the chicken-sounds in the game. Which part was that?

NuclearDuckie wrote:
Godzilla (Lazars) wrote:

Yeah, I always feel the same way, especially knowing there's another human, except a really crazy one who watches you from hidden spots and writes stuff on walls, sees things and sounds like a chicken.

I've heard the "Ghost of Rattmann" soundtrack, so I know what you're talking about, but I don't remember ever hearing the chicken-sounds in the game. Which part was that?

When you obtain the half-enabled ASHPD for the first time. It's rather quiet and more audible near a few of the panels with drawings.

second light bridge puzzle above the ceiling, and "pull the rug" light bridge + laser puzzle, in the office and up the fan shaft. There may be more that I don't remember or haven't found yet.

NuclearDuckie wrote:
Godzilla (Lazars) wrote:

Yeah, I always feel the same way, especially knowing there's another human, except a really crazy one who watches you from hidden spots and writes stuff on walls, sees things and sounds like a chicken.

I've heard the "Ghost of Rattmann" soundtrack, so I know what you're talking about, but I don't remember ever hearing the chicken-sounds in the game. Which part was that?

I think it's the one at the beginning of the game where there was a hard light bridge, and a button that makes a lift go down. You place a hard light bridge where you see a big, square hole, and you go in it. After exiting, the panel shuts (you can't get in there anymore for that test) and you hear what's probably Ratman.