Half-Life 2 Portal video

By Tom Bramwell Published 19 July, 2006

See Episode 2 extra in action.

Valve has released a short video demonstrating how Half-Life 2: Episode 2 extra Portal will work - and you can watch it on Eurogamer TV now.

We're also told to expect a new video of Episode 2 by the end of the week, with footage of Team Fortress 2 expected to make an appearance tomorrow.

Those of you familiar with Narbacular Drop - one of the games featured in yesterday's freeware games round-up feature - will already have an idea of what to expect. You move around Half-Life-styled environments using a special weapon to create linked portals.

In this way you can navigate otherwise impassable environmental obstacles, cripple enemy weapons and even create amusing infinite loops.

The video walks you through how some of this will work, and although it's a bit slow-paced to begin with, it quickly picks up after the first example - and ought to have you reeling by the end of it.

Portal will ship with Half-Life: Episode 2 - hopefully later this year if Valve's estimates are accurate - along with Team Fortress 2. It'll appear on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

For more on Valve's recent Episode 2 announcements, head into the blue.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • oDii #1 6 years ago

    Must... have... game... now!

  • Roachdog #2 6 years ago

    Hmm for an extra, that has a lot of potential.........Prey could learn from it ;-)

  • login_name #3 6 years ago

    Now this looks like fun! Can't wait to see TF2 in action.

  • the_dudefather #4 6 years ago

    looks awesome, "if at first you dont succeed, you fail. and the test will be terminated"

  • karlidog #5 6 years ago

    That. Looks. AMAZING.

    I like the one-room-after-another puzzle structure. It's got a Cube vibe about it. Although I must admit part of me would love it to turn into a story-driven adventure partway though. It seems a bit of a shame to use such utterly amazing technology and effects on something without any narrative or scale. Not that that's what Portal will necessarily be, of course.

    Also, ooh, looks like the motion blur they took out of Episode 1 at the last minute has made its reappearance, and it's pretty.

  • trav #6 6 years ago

    I'd rather they kept this nice and simple and made the BEST. PUZZLE. GAME. EVAR.

    Can you imagine the nightmare puzzles that those crazy people on the internet could think up, create a map and let you download. This kind of game could melt your brain.

  • rinoaMW #7 6 years ago

    really amazing, and as someone else said - for a freebie its outstanding!

  • djchump #8 6 years ago

    @trav - Google the game Narbacular Drop - Valve hired the guys that made this to add it to HL2 as "Portal".
    AFAIK, Narb Drop uses this whole portal idea and also had user-created and downloadable levels ;-)

    Unfortunately, with all the news about Portal it seems that the Narb Drop website has exceeded it's bandwidth allowance, so you'll have to grab it from Fileplanet or somewhere else.

  • karlidog #9 6 years ago

    I was playing Narbacular Drop yesterday, after hearing the team were working at Valve now - you can see the good ideas in Narb, and after watching the video you can really see the evolution from that to Portal, but the game itself is a bit lashed-together and not particularly amazing fun (but still dead impressive for freeware). Well worth a look, though - it's amazing that a small team of bedroom coders got something like that working from scratch.

    Also, yeah, I've changed my mind about wishing this was narrative-based - I like the idea of it coming with loads of puzzle rooms, and them releasing a simplified level editor with an in-game UI so people could make their own puzzles without having to learn their way around a 'proper' level design program. And then them putting the best/most popular fan levels on Steam.
    Edited by 1 at 19/07/06 @ 12:31

  • tonynibbles #10 6 years ago

    Awesomer.

  • Raziel #11 6 years ago

    SOOOOO much better then I expected it to be when I first read it!

  • smelly #12 6 years ago

    I was about to say they've ripped off narb drop.. but I didnt know they'd hired the guys that wrote that.

    congrats to them!

  • useyourloaf #13 6 years ago

    This is not my discovery (shacknews post) but I find it too contrived to be anything but:

    Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device
    A. Shpd.
    Adrian Shepard

    Anyone?

  • trav #14 6 years ago

    But here is something to think about.

    After all the talk of this possible wonderful puzzle game, will Valve still only charge £20 for this, EP2 and TF2?

  • Dabs #15 6 years ago

    Although I must admit part of me would love it to turn into a story-driven adventure partway though. It seems a bit of a shame to use such utterly amazing technology and effects on something without any narrative or scale.

    It does have a narrative (I was lucky enough to have played a couple of hours of Portal, during a visit to Valve last April). It's a fantastic game, and frankly, I can't believe they're just giving it away free with Episode Two. If nothing else, at least it will allow lots of people to see what the fuss is about with it.

  • Kiigan #16 6 years ago

    Looks fantastic! Though I think maybe they should just hold on to the portal thing for HL2 chapter 3 or something.

  • karlidog #17 6 years ago

    Dabs: It does have a narrative

    You see, you shouldn't have said that. You shouldn't have said that at all. Because now I'll get absolutely nothing done until Valve release this :p

    useyourloaf: The A. Shepard thing is interesting - Valve have already confirmed this takes place in the HL universe, so I wonder if the player character (in a Guantanamo-style orange jumpsuit, I notice) in Portal is going to be what became of Adrian Shepard after the G-Man 'recruited' him. Lots of people are saying it's a Combine test facility or something, but from everything we've seen of them in HL2 and Ep 1, the Combine don't have any time or use for snappy company names, stylish logos and chirpy training videos. I wonder if it's going to turn out that the G-Man sold Shepard to someone else as a test subject, and his inevitable (?) escape from the portal test facility will intersect with Episode 3 or some later part of the story somewhere down the line...

  • bubble #18 6 years ago

    When did Narbacular Drop come about? The idea seems very similar to the Lionhead "Room" tech demo from a couple of years ago. Except, like, Valve have added a game to it.

  • zoidberg #19 6 years ago

    THIS RULZ SO MUCH ASS.

    I think Valve is making up with Portal and TF2 for charging $20 per episode. The three episodes are a full game in themselves so paying $60 for it seems too much. But with Portal and TF2 attached, HELL YEAH!

    The A. Shpd seems great and NOT coincidental.

    A narrative?! Hmm... Portal could have it, but it'd seem far-fetched even so.

    God I love this! My Valve shrine is growing bigger and bigger. I just hope they can get all of this out by Christmas. If it drags on into 2007 they'll lose their wad.

  • Mike S #20 6 years ago

    Looks massively confusing...

    Might be too much for my wee brain.

  • prettyboytim #21 6 years ago

    That looks FUCKING ROCK.

  • skillian #22 6 years ago

    I'll just say the same thing I said when this game was announced:

    Valve, we love you.

  • dcangel #23 6 years ago

    OK, this totally rocks. Hopefully Valve will make it available as a standalone package so I won't have to buy HL2E2.
    Edited by 1 at 19/07/06 @ 22:24

  • Sko #24 6 years ago

    Sure - they'll charge you the same price and give you TF2 and HL2E2 for free instead ;)

  • dcangel #25 6 years ago

    Really? Wow, that's so generous of them! :p