Will the portal gun....
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Wow this got long
Valve hasn't ruled out putting the Portal Gun in Gordon Freeman's hands or putting it in some sort of multiplayer game.
It remains to be seen how well it can work outside of the puzzle genre - in Single player FPS I can see it being used to get to better combat positions and shooting enemies through portals. For example you have an enemy base of some kind far away and you are out of crossbow ammo you can use the Portal gun to
- Bring yourself closer to the enemy (could be bad with so many enemies close by).
- Bring the enemy to you one by one by shooting a portal at the ground beneth them.
- Shoot a portal nearby the enemy and shoot them through it using other weapons while simutanously using the small portal window as cover.
There are many interesing combat possibilities the Portal gun could bring to Half-Life but also a lot of problems with giving the player so much freedom - so much of a FPS is getting from here to there something that the Portal gun makes almost trivial. Perhaps, like Bug Bait, it will only be advalible/useful to the player for shorter number of tailor made scenaros. Interestingly people also said that the Gravity Gun gave players too much freedom and that level design would be too hard with it. Perhaps one solution is to have Portals in Half-Life without the Portal Gun - i.e. having Portals in pre-set locations which are manipulated with switches throught the level. However this would probably take away too much player choice making Portals little more than cosmetic changes for doors.
As for multiplayer the Portal team "have lots of ideas for multiplayer with Portal for future projects." I'm thinking that it would be useless for the fast pace action of Deathmatch but something in the vein of "Counter-Strike with Portals" or any other team based game that have locations which matter (attack/defend gameplay). Multiplayer co-op also has potential - both puzzle based and combat based have possibilities.
As for how iconic it will become I'm not sure but everyone I've talked to about it thinks it is an awesome concept and the Orange Box looks set to be rather popular so who knows? It might depend upon how widely known the Portal character becomes - everyone knows Gordon Freeman and associate the Crowbar with him due to HL1 and the Gravity Gun to him due to HL2.
Valve hasn't ruled out putting the Portal Gun in Gordon Freeman's hands or putting it in some sort of multiplayer game.
Gabe Newell said:
It remains to be seen how well it can work outside of the puzzle genre - in Single player FPS I can see it being used to get to better combat positions and shooting enemies through portals. For example you have an enemy base of some kind far away and you are out of crossbow ammo you can use the Portal gun to
- Bring yourself closer to the enemy (could be bad with so many enemies close by).
- Bring the enemy to you one by one by shooting a portal at the ground beneth them.
- Shoot a portal nearby the enemy and shoot them through it using other weapons while simutanously using the small portal window as cover.
There are many interesing combat possibilities the Portal gun could bring to Half-Life but also a lot of problems with giving the player so much freedom - so much of a FPS is getting from here to there something that the Portal gun makes almost trivial. Perhaps, like Bug Bait, it will only be advalible/useful to the player for shorter number of tailor made scenaros. Interestingly people also said that the Gravity Gun gave players too much freedom and that level design would be too hard with it. Perhaps one solution is to have Portals in Half-Life without the Portal Gun - i.e. having Portals in pre-set locations which are manipulated with switches throught the level. However this would probably take away too much player choice making Portals little more than cosmetic changes for doors.
As for multiplayer the Portal team "have lots of ideas for multiplayer with Portal for future projects." I'm thinking that it would be useless for the fast pace action of Deathmatch but something in the vein of "Counter-Strike with Portals" or any other team based game that have locations which matter (attack/defend gameplay). Multiplayer co-op also has potential - both puzzle based and combat based have possibilities.
As for how iconic it will become I'm not sure but everyone I've talked to about it thinks it is an awesome concept and the Orange Box looks set to be rather popular so who knows? It might depend upon how widely known the Portal character becomes - everyone knows Gordon Freeman and associate the Crowbar with him due to HL1 and the Gravity Gun to him due to HL2.
See, using the portal gun during combat seems like it would get your arse kicked, just like if you try and use the gravity gun at the wrong time during combat, both take time (IE- making each portal in the right place during combat, IE- grabbing, aiming and punting an object while under fire with the gravity gun)
Escaep
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It would be cool if you made it to where you could grab enemy soldiers, hold them over a portal, and it kinda rips em in two.
You know how many separate models you would need for that?
MorganFreeman911
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Too many to count.
msleeper
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I posted this idea for an MP Mod based off of Portal.
It would be setup very similar to Ricochet, where 2 people would "race" to get through a maze, whoever gets there first wins the round. When the 2 people complete they would go into a spectator mode until everyone has completed, at which point new pairs are made and it starts over again.
It would be setup very similar to Ricochet, where 2 people would "race" to get through a maze, whoever gets there first wins the round. When the 2 people complete they would go into a spectator mode until everyone has completed, at which point new pairs are made and it starts over again.
Escaep
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Didnt say it was practical, just said it would be cool.
Narvi
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I seriously doubt you're going to use the portal gun as Gordon Freeman.
Simply because Valve is never going to include a Freeman model in game. Unless the portals are out of sight of each other.
Reginald
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Oh yeah... My problem solving mind really didn't think that one through...
Azner
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F*cking halo
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Havok1610
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I think for the potal gun to be used in MP, it requires more functionality, like punting objects, or maybe a fireing mode like the grav gun...
Iron_cube
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kupocake
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We'll see more of the Portal Gun, but it'll be quite a feat to put it into a FPS for more than say... a Super Grav Gun style end of Episode Massacre. 'Combat' with the Portal gun basically involves one shot killing anyone with falling or environmental damage. I don't know exactly what it would like to have NPCs travel through portals, but I expect it'd be difficult to achieve.
Zenith Lee
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Not necessarily.
While HL2 never included fully-reflective mirrors, it does have reflective water. It reflects every objects and NPCs, just not Freeman himself. It's almost as if Freeman was an invisible ghost.
The same approach/policy can certainly be used if portal guns are included in future HL installments, which I wish they would be.
Narvi
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Er, no. Unless the portals have some weird distortion effect, or are completely opaque, you're going to need a model, since you're actually seeing yourself from an external camera. It's not like reflections at all. You don't really tend to notice your own shadows or reflections, do you? But if you turn out to be invisible to cameras, people will go 'wot'?
Zenith Lee
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Or... as the ancient debate back from HL1: just give Freeman a facemask along with the HEV suit.
(This debate came from the fact that in the Xen levels of HL1, there are many corpses in HEV suits, and they always have helmets and facemasks. Also, without a facemask, features such as zooming, HUD, radiation/biochemical protection etc. would be unexplainable.)
Or just have GlaDOS put the warning label "MUST USE FACEMASK WHEN OPERATING ASHPD" on the portal gun. (lol)
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Scurfy
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I could imagine Gordon meeting "her" (whats HER name btw?) with the Portalgun in her hands and helping him reaching spots somewhere ... 
I feel like I may just get murdered for saying this but...
Whats the big deal with giving Gordon a model? I mean we know what he looks like from various sources like the game box, artwork, menus etc.
Up until now he hasn't needed a model. Really he could of had a model all this time and we'd never have known because you don't ever get a chance to actually see him.
Whats the big deal with giving Gordon a model? I mean we know what he looks like from various sources like the game box, artwork, menus etc.
Up until now he hasn't needed a model. Really he could of had a model all this time and we'd never have known because you don't ever get a chance to actually see him.
Zenith Lee
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I could imagine Gordon meeting "her" (whats HER name btw?) with the Portalgun in her hands and helping him reaching spots somewhere ...
"Her" name was Chell. At least that's what everyone (including the credits) called her. Or, as GlaDOS put it, [subject name here].
I'd die laughing the day when Chell told Gordon,
"You can call it an 'Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device', IF YOU REALLY WANT TO."
Crash Happy
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I think Tweek is right, if Valve wanted to change their minds now and use a model so that they can incorporate portals then they can. So far they've chosen not to but if the idea was worth it I think they would. It's their rule, they can choose to change that if they wish. As it is I don't think they will, the portal gun is great in it's place but in a more traditional fps I can't see it.
