Portal 2

"Portal was a test bed. Portal 2 is a game."

- Doug Lombardi

Portal 2 is the sequel to Portal. First hinted in the update made to Portal in March 2010 as part of the Portal ARG, it was announced on March 5, 2010 to be released in fall 2010, but was later announced on June 9, 2010 as delayed until an unspecified date in 2011, until it was said to be released on February 9, 2011. This date was again delayed to April 19.

Portal 2 was previewed in the twelve page cover story of the April 2010 issue of Game Informer, revealing some plot details and new gameplay features. It has also been confirmed that GLaDOS is indeed still alive, and is slated to return as the main antagonist. In addition, Game Informer and other sources have also confirmed a co-op mode for up to two players with its own separate campaign. The co-op campaign will have its seperate credits, and takes place after the singleplayer story. Valve was also scheduled to unveil the Portal 2 World Premiere on June 14, at their E3 2010 press conference, but later canceled the showing of Portal 2 on the 14th through a humorous e-mail, to be replaced with a "surprise". The game was shown in the form of a demo at Valve's own booth instead, and on June 15, the first Portal 2 trailer was shown during the Sony press conference, with the "surprise" apparently being its release on the PlayStation 3 console, which was originally not the case.

Characters

 * Cave Johnson
 * Chell
 * ATLAS and P-body
 * GLaDOS
 * Wheatley

Confirmed enemies

 * Aperture Science Sentry Turret
 * GLaDOS

Development
In 2007, Kim Swift stated that future Portal developments would depend on the community's reactions, saying, "We're still playing it by ear at this point, figuring out if we want to do multi-player next, or Portal 2, or release map packs." On January 31, 2008, Lombardi confirmed that "more Portal" would be forthcoming, and promised that the additional content would not just be "more puzzles"; an interview with Kim Swift on February 21, 2008 revealed that a full sequel, Portal 2, would be coming. Swift also stated that the team creating the Portal sequel were deciding upon the design they should implement and that a multiplayer Portal "from a technology standpoint is possible", though Swift had previously stated they tried a Portal multiplayer deathmatch variant, but admitted that "it's less fun than you'd think."

On June 10, 2008, Kotaku reported that Valve was seeking voice actors for the character role of Aperture Science CEO Cave Johnson and suggested that the second game may be a prequel to the Portal events. However, it was later suggested on Kombo.com it could be a sequel, with Johnson as another AI.

On April 8, 2011, lead writer Chet Faliszek gave an interview to Beefyjack where he discusses a variety of topics, including allusions to how Portal 2's story will fit into the overall Half Life universe and the secret to Valve's success when it comes to producing games being lots of playtesting.

On April 13, 2011, Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of Marketing, posted details of Portal 2's PS3 Steam integration on the official US Playstation Blog. He noted that it will "offer cross-platform matchmaking, gameplay, friends, chat, and achievements" and will also allow players to save their progress, in both the co-op and single-player mode, to the Steam Cloud, which means gamers can continue any saved game on the PS3. Achievements will sync up as well. All in all, these features will, according to Lombardi, make the PS3 version of Portal 2 "the best console version of the game."

Reception
So far, Portal 2 has achieved critical acclaim, garnering a 96 out of 100 for the PC and PS3 versions, and a 95 out of 100 on the Xbox 360 version on Metacritic.