Portal 2 PC User Review Backlash

Just glancing through the first five pages of the Steam forum for Portal 2 the only time the word console even comes up is when listing variables. Huge backlash indeed.
 
This game is one of the best games I've ever played, and I really dont get the impression it's a console port. It's a well made game and I've done far worse with 50 bucks.
 
wizdum said:
You're forgetting that none of the games in the Orange Box were new.
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Incorrect sir. Orange box is the only place initially you could get HL2:EP2, Portal, and TF2. So 3 of the 5 were infact new.
 
benhizen said:
One thing that kills me about this being a console port is that the loading is no longer seamless. I have never played a valve game with loading screens. (Besides TF2 between matches of course).
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I take it you never played HL1 or HL2, both of which had loading screens.
 
wizdum said:
"The only reasons I dislike console ports is because they usually have worse graphics (with no options to modify graphics settings beyond hi-med-low), and they have few options to modify the control setup. Portal 2 doesn't have any of those problems.
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I've already stated my opinion of the rest of your post above, but this is an area I can't agree with.

Name one console port (relatively recent e.g. within the past 5 years) which has worse graphics on the PC than the console and/or has few to no options of modifying controls?
 
Wow, I can play Portal 2 on my 2560x1600 8xAA 16XAF, on my older hardware, and the game does not even break a sweat.

I am loving it so far. I would have loved to to have paid $9.99 for it, but I wanted it too badly so I shelled out $40.00.

I hope Valve makes a ton of money on it.
 
demingo said:
How is comparing what you get for your money trolling?
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You're comparing a bundle of 5 games to a single individual title.
3 of those 5 games have 6-8 hours each (the HL's), Portal is roughly 5, and TF2 being a MP-centric title is essentially infinite. So you're taking a bundle of (a minimum) of 23 hours not counting TF2 and comparing it to a single player-centric game of 6-8 hours that they threw a 4-5 hour co-op mode into.

Tell me, where exactly is that a fair comparison?
Forget the price. The games have been on sale repeatedly now.

demingo said:
I'm suprised so few people value their money around here.
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Oddly enough, maybe take into consideration that people bought P2 on sale. IE Amazon. $55 for Ps3 version with free PC ver code + $20 future credit. Not essentially $35 dollars shipped, but damn close when all's said and done.

demingo said:
So again, $50 is $50. And years ago, $50 bought you 5 games instead of 1. Thanks for proving my point.
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And again, your point is apples to oranges.
How about comparing P2 to Portal 1 standalone? Or HL2 standalone? either of the Episode titles by themselves? Or TF2 by itself?

The only congratulations I'll give you is you found a bundle title to compare a single title to. Congratulations. You know how to skew the results in your favor. :rolleyes:
 
86DRIFTER said:
I don't understand why people are angry that Portal 2 is a console port solely due to a string of text.
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When the string was label as console, which implies that the game itself was primary develop for it.
Why not the other way around? Then we can clearly see it was primary for PC first, but apparently its not.

There are tons of other problems that clearly shows its a console port since L4D2.
L4D2 was flavoring console in my opinion. The Horrible FoV, removed body model when looking down...etc...

The same route follows by Portal 2, but this time PC textures are worse than consoles....

They fail too many QA on PC than they did for consoles, some settings complete flavor consoles while the opposite to PC. With the string error this time, I am pretty sure their primary platform isn't PC now.

Not going to say if the game is a "console port" or not, but its clearly develop for console first from many of the evidence.
 
So, what's the deal with the texture quality and FOV issues that I've read about? Any truth to that?
 
benhizen said:
One thing that kills me about this being a console port is that the loading is no longer seamless. I have never played a valve game with loading screens. (Besides TF2 between matches of course).
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You mean just like Portal? And HL2? And Ep1? And Ep2? Guess those were all ports too. (What's the difference between a loading screen and just freezing the game world to load really?) Seems like it was just a choice so you weren't staring at a frozen elevator while loading.
 
Nytegard said:
I've already stated my opinion of the rest of your post above, but this is an area I can't agree with.

Name one console port (relatively recent e.g. within the past 5 years) which has worse graphics on the PC than the console and/or has few to no options of modifying controls?
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Every single one of the "games for windows live" games. If a game is a console port and isn't neutered, then I don't care if its a console port or not.
 
CHAoS_NiNJA said:
I am an admitted Valve fanboy. I've loved most anything they've done and have defended them for eons.

....Console ports, however, crosses the line. The Mann Co. store is also something that needs to go, as its one of the main reasons TF2 is gone in a huge slum for me and plenty of other people. Moreso then the store is again, the idea of Valve, one of the last great PC devs, putting out a fucking *console port* of its most hyped game yet. This is the beginning of a very disturbing trend, and we should NOT defend it, we should in fact be vocal, so as Valve does not go the way of Epic and Crytek: former PC devs who turned their back on their core fanbase in order to earn a quick buck on consoles by exploiting the lowest common denominator.
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AMEN BROTHER
 
Nytegard said:
I've already stated my opinion of the rest of your post above, but this is an area I can't agree with.

Name one console port (relatively recent e.g. within the past 5 years) which has worse graphics on the PC than the console and/or has few to no options of modifying controls?
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Iron Man 1 used the PS2 version of the game for the port. Mercs 2 did as well I believe.
 
illdklli said:
So, what's the deal with the texture quality and FOV issues that I've read about? Any truth to that?
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Seems there is a bug that happens to some people where no matter what you set the texture quality is poor. It doesn't appear to be wide-spread. With the FOV it seems to be the same as every other Valve game, but it can't be changed in the console and I think I heard something about some people running into issues with it at triple screen resolutions.
 
So is the "Do Not Turn Off Your Console" message while saving really the only indication of console influence? If so, people REALLY need to shut the hell up with the console port accusations.

As far as the price and DLC, I agree. But that's more my currently empty wallet talking.
 
WHAT IS WITH ALL THE NAME CALLING?????


If you cannot express your opinion without calling people idiots, retarded and various other names then you won't be posting here.

Someone doesn't like a 5-6 hour game...who cares.

You love Portal 2...who cares.

There is absolutely no need for name calling. At all. Period. Sheesh!
 
zero2dash said:
You're comparing a bundle of 5 games to a single individual title.
3 of those 5 games have 6-8 hours each (the HL's), Portal is roughly 5, and TF2 being a MP-centric title is essentially infinite. So you're taking a bundle of (a minimum) of 23 hours not counting TF2 and comparing it to a single player-centric game of 6-8 hours that they threw a 4-5 hour co-op mode into.

Tell me, where exactly is that a fair comparison?
Forget the price. The games have been on sale repeatedly now.
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While they all have been on sale now, at release, it was $50. Portal 2 will be onsale later too. I'm talking day 1 prices. I'll address some more points later on.



zero2dash said:
Oddly enough, maybe take into consideration that people bought P2 on sale. IE Amazon. $55 for Ps3 version with free PC ver code + $20 future credit. Not essentially $35 dollars shipped, but damn close when all's said and done.
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Yes, sales happen. They happened on older games too. I'm simply going off of MSRP for the new product. People bought orange box, hl2, hl1 etc on sale to. Going by standard prices of what the publisher/developer thinks the game is worth, not discounts given at retail.


zero2dash said:
And again, your point is apples to oranges.
How about comparing P2 to Portal 1 standalone? Or HL2 standalone? either of the Episode titles by themselves? Or TF2 by itself?

The only congratulations I'll give you is you found a bundle title to compare a single title to. Congratulations. You know how to skew the results in your favor. :rolleyes:
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If I were to compare Portal 2 stand alone to Portal 1, you would then introduce a massive cost difference. Same goes for TF2 and the episodes, none of them were $50 when they were sold standalone. Once again, saying it was a bundle proves my point as you got a lot more for your $50.

Now, HL2, I will give you, was sold standalone. However, lets look at value. HL2 did a few things.

The first huge one, was the new engine, the visual difference and technical changes from the Source engine to Source2 were far larger than from the version of Source2 used in Portal to Portal 2. I'm ok with paying more when a game comes with a major engine update that did wonders for visuals. HL2 looked far better than HL1. Portal 2 does not look far better than any other Source2 games.

Next, HL2 included more content. We got full editors shipped with it. We got a 10 hour (depends on person) or so story mode. We got multiplayer in Counter-strike that came with it. Then you also got HL2: Deathmatch shortly after. You also got the release of "The Lost Coast" This added maybe 45 minutes of gameplay, but that wasn't the major feature. It updated the Source engine with several new features that mod developers could use. This engine update cost nothing. It was free and HL2 has some amazing mods at no cost.
 
F*cking newbs paying more money for shorter games... :p How did spending money on that potato sack marketing crap pay off for ya!

Yes the pc industry is going down the consolized shitter and you all keep defending these companies. :rolleyes:
 
The constant loading is the only "console" feel to me. If this wasn't on console, I think there would be half the loading screens.
 
chameleoneel said:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...mplete-Collection-to-Portal-2-ARG-Completists
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*

Also, are you guys seriously blowing up over a loading/saving screen graphic? Lets pretend it was never there, along with any other little gui or menu quirks. Is there anything about how the game runs/looks/or performs that is any different from what we've come to expect from the source engine?

Lets not confuse that with minor bugs and glitches. Any problems at all are not reason to point fingers at a shoddy port job. HL2 shipped with several problems. I remember when Episode 2 had some rogue textures that if you "looked" at, would crash the game. People (including me) were having to run through sections of the game while looking at the floor, to get far enough away from these textures that there was no longer a chance for them to be loaded and rendered on screen. Even Valve and Source are not immune to some problems. This has nothing to do with anything else.
 
How much you wanna bet that the next steam update removes "Console" and replaces it with "PC" or "Computer"








Actually it would be hilarious if they replaced "Console" with "Wii"
 
Sparkhard said:
How much you wanna bet that the next steam update removes "Console" and replaces it with "PC" or "Computer"

...

Actually it would be hilarious if they replaced "Console" with "Wii"
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I'd love you see Valve have some fun with this!
 
After beating the PC version of the game I will say that the graphics are astounding especially for the source engine which was released seven years ago. It also runs great with no drops under 60 fps at 1440x900 with 8x MSAA at the highest settings possible. Very well produced and polished game too. The game was short on content for $50. Would be a good buy at $35. Other than that the loading wasn't bad, it loads very fast even though it loads often.
 
Sparkhard said:
How much you wanna bet that the next steam update removes "Console" and replaces it with "PC" or "Computer"








Actually it would be hilarious if they replaced "Console" with "Wii"
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It would be funnier if it said, "Please. Do not turn of your Cake while saving."
 
demingo said:
While they all have been on sale now, at release, it was $50. Portal 2 will be onsale later too. I'm talking day 1 prices.
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Yeah, it'll be on sale soon enough. (I'm sure it'll get a sale during the summer weeklong sale they do)

Look at it this way ~ I'm sure you'll agree with this:
Portal 2 is a marquee title.
Orange Box was a collection (for the most part) of marquee titles thrown into 1 ridiculously cheap package.

Valve loves gamers, so they did what they did with the Orange Box. (Ironically, Orange Box was my first Steam title, only because before then I was pretty much a console-only gamer.)

Portal 2 is now being sold on it's own merit; it's not a pack-in/shoe-in filler title anymore. Given your expertise of the OB titles and what they brought I'm sure you know this about P1.

I loved P1, I've played through P1 several times. My wife played through P1 before I did and she's not a FPS gamer let alone one that uses a KB+M. ;) The point being - P2 could have come out for $100, I probably still would have bought it. I'm a huge fan, my wife's a huge fan. Getting 2 copies of the game by buying the Ps3 version for 1 price is a steal. Granted, I've only sunk roughly just over 1 hour into the game so far but I'm already completely happy with my purchase (and we didn't get to try co-op together yet, which will surely be even more icing on the cake).

I'd say so far it's GOTY for me. Definitely deserves it's place along with P1 as a game that everyone should play before they die as well as one of the best games of all time.
 
shansoft said:
but this time PC textures are worse than consoles...
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they are most definitely not worse on the PC. There IS a bug where sometimes the game loads low quality textures, regardless of your settings. Its a bug, it happens.
 
I for one, am sick of the PC Hammer Legion members and their idiotic rants about the length of the game and paid DLC... Portal 2 is freaking fantastic. No wonder studios and devs are progressively moving towards consoles and away from PC's all together...

4chan fodder must have nothing better to do with their time other than review bombing DA2 and now Portal 2 on Metacritic.
 
chameleoneel said:
they are most definitely not worse on the PC
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+1 absolutely
Game looks better with everything maxed out on my w2710 @ 1080p than it does on our 46" plasma through HDMI on the Ps3. Textures are much better on PC (you can look at Wheatley's eye during the first 20-30 minutes of the game and tell this).
 
mtbush said:
I for one, am sick of the PC Hammer Legion members and their idiotic rants about the length of the game and paid DLC... Portal 2 is freaking fantastic. No wonder studios and devs are progressively moving towards consoles and away from PC's all together...

4chan fodder must have nothing better to do with their time other than review bombing DA2 and now Portal 2 on Metacritic.
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Have fun paying $60 for your 4 hour console/pc games...I think you belong in the XBox 360 forums...
 
There seems to be some major confusion as to what a 'console port' is.

Strictly speaking, a console port would be something that was developed for a game console, say the PS3, then manipulated in some way to enable to the game to run on a PC. The Source engine is a multi-platform engine: it has binaries for OS X, Windows, the X360 and the PS3. There is no need to manipulate a Source engine game to run on a Windows PC — it's already done.

The game itself shares some assets with its console counterparts. That's to be expected. This fact doesn't make it a 'console port'.
 
chameleoneel said:
*

Also, are you guys seriously blowing up over a loading/saving screen graphic? Lets pretend it was never there, along with any other little gui or menu quirks. Is there anything about how the game runs/looks/or performs that is any different from what we've come to expect from the source engine?

Lets not confuse that with minor bugs and glitches. Any problems at all are not reason to point fingers at a shoddy port job. HL2 shipped with several problems. I remember when Episode 2 had some rogue textures that if you "looked" at, would crash the game. People (including me) were having to run through sections of the game while looking at the floor, to get far enough away from these textures that there was no longer a chance for them to be loaded and rendered on screen. Even Valve and Source are not immune to some problems. This has nothing to do with anything else.
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Basically, the rapid PC fanboys who wish to see the destruction of everything console looks for anything, and I mean anything to whine about with multiplatform games. This rings especially true traditionally PC only games. Unfortunately for them, all Valve gave them is a single word.
 
Wait, saving on the PC version throws a 'do not shut off your console' warning? All this time it was running so smoothly, not a single bug in sight, all the textures were crisp and clean - but now that I know it's a port, screw this garbage game. I demand a refund.

That was sarcasm in case anyone isn't sure.
 
obs said:
Basically, the rapid PC fanboys who wish to see the destruction of everything console looks for anything, and I mean anything to whine about with multiplatform games. This rings especially true traditionally PC only games. Unfortunately for them, all Valve gave them is a single word.
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That's really a good point. The more solid the PC version of a multiplatform game is, the harder they look for something to bitch about. In this case they've taken it to the extreme: a single word.

The fact that they can't find any substantive consolization to complain about is very telling.
 
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