Steam Powered

About a week ago I noticed that certain local bus stops had pictures of small robots holding big guns and the words Portal 2 above them. It was kind of obviously a computer game, but I had not really heard of it, as I have only recently got back into computer games recently.

I discussed this with a friend who knows a lot more about computer games than me. She revealed that it was a spin off of a game called Half Life that I had kind of heard of and was made by the same company. She seemed slightly dubious about my suggestion that this company was Electronic Arts along with the suggestion that you play as a robot in the game. Apparently it was a first person shooter where you create portals to take you to different parts of the world.

I decided to do some investigation on the internet and found out that all of our assumptions were right, but at the same time wrong. The game itself looks awesome. It is a first person shooter in that you have a gun and there is a first person perspective, but as far as I can tell you don't shoot at people or aliens like in most typical first person shooters. Instead, you shoot portals. There are two colours of portal. Whatever goes in one portal comes out the other with its linear momentum intact. You can use these portals to get to inaccessible parts of the map, but you can't travel to wholly new areas with them as you have to be able to see where you want to place the other portal. So basically it is a puzzle game and probably makes more sense if you look at videos or actually play the game rather than read my explanation.

In the game you play a character called Chell, who is a female. At first I thought it would be a female robot, but no it is a definite girl/woman with a nice pair of boots. So where do the robots I saw on the posters come in? Well it seems that there is a single player mode where you play Chell and a co-operative multi-player mode where you play as one of two robots called Atlas and P-body. Essentially you are doing the same kind of thing, but there are more portals and it is all a bit involved.

On reading the Wikipedia article on Portal surprised to read that players on the Mac, PC and PS3 version can play the co-operative mode together. As a PS3 owner I found this very exciting news. One of the reasons that people consider the Xbox 360 to be superior to the PS3 is because there are more users. This means that there is more of a community for online games. I don't see why Xbox 360 and PS3 users can't play each other online. PC users can play against each other despite the fact that the specifications of their machines may vary wildly. Also PC users can play against Mac users on games such as Starcraft II. The limitation is that very few games are available on Mac because Mac users spend all their time editing videos or writing blogs about Portal 2. Anyway, it seems that the reason that Xbox360 users and PS3 users can't play together is not technical, but commercial. The initial cost of a console, at least when they are first released and manufacturing costs are higher, is subsidised by the manufacturer on the basis that once you have the console you will want to buy games which they can get money back for you from. So if you have bought a console game new, even one produced by a third party, such as Electronic Arts or Activision then some of your money will be going back to Sony or Microsoft (or Nintendo if you insist). A lot of the most popular games such as Activision's Call of Duty series have online multi-player components that are actually better than the more traditional single player mode. If you want to play these on an Xbox you need to pay Microsoft a monthly subscription to use Xbox Live. The PS3 has something similar, but less reliable version called PSN, which is free. There is also a paid for version called PlayStation Plus. I don't have it. Anyway, the point is that Microsoft and Sony's desire to keep a tight reign on these networks so that they can make money out of them is basically what stops PS3 and Xbox 360 users playing together.

If you have watched any of the videos that I have painstakingly linked to (except maybe the last one) you will have noticed the humour involved in the game. It actually features the voice talent of Stephen Merchant. Presumably not wishing to be outdone by his mate Ricky Gervais who did a cameo in the brilliantly satirical GTA 4. I like the way that they are treating computer games as an art form on a par with cinema, by taking all aspects of it seriously and getting the best talent in.

The final incorrect assumption was that Portal 2 is an Electronics Arts game. It is distributed by Electronic Arts but produced by Valve. Further digging found out that PS3 version of the Orange Box was done by Electronic Arts. This is related to the following comment from Valve co-founder Gabe Newell: 


"The PS3 is a total disaster on so many levels, I think It's really clear that Sony lost track of what customers and what developers wanted," 

The reason that Electronic Arts are doing the distribution for Portal 2 is because although Valve are a relatively big company they don't have a lot of retail experience as they distribute most of their PC games via Steam. Valve developed Steam, which is like PSN or Xbox Live, in as much as it is a portal for people to download game, play online and show off how good they are by means of trophies. It also allows users to save games in the cloud, so that you can carry on playing on somebody else's computer and your saved games don't go AWOL if your hard drive dies.

Anyway the really exciting thing about Portal 2 on the is the portal that comes with it. You actually get a cut down version of Steam for the PS3. This is a massive U-turn from Gabe Newell. What it means for the PS3 user is that you get a constantly updated version of the game, ability to save to the cloud, ability to earn Steam and PS3 trophies at the same time and a free download of Portal 2 for Mac or PC, and the ability to play co-operative multiplayer with PC or Mac users. What it means for the future is presumably more downloadable games for the PS3. Also, the highly anticipated Battlefield 3 has a PC history and is produced by Electronic Arts. Presumably the Steam portal could be used to allow PS3 gamers to play alongside PC users on this and other similar games. Just speculation, but exciting none the less.

Steam is not available on the XBox 360. This is because Microsoft are being very protective of Xbox Live. The ever outspoken Gabe Newell has described Xbox live as a train wreck. Essentially his gripe is that Microsoft only allow a certain amount of free downloadable content (they want you to pay for stuff) and Steam generally does a lot of free updates.

The irony of the situation is that while Newell praises Sony for the open nature of the PS3, other people are less happy about Sony removing Linux support for the PS3 and the weekend that Portal 2 is released PSN is down due to hackers. Oops.

I think that Steam coming to the PS3 is a good thing. I think the world would be a better place if there were a common standard for all consoles in the next generation. Call it the X-Station 460 is you will (the Playbox sounds a bit rude). So as long as you have a console that meets that standard, regardless of who makes it, you can play games. If you happen to have a better console the games will look better, just as is the case with PC games at the moment. I think that having a common portal (Steam) and one that already supports multiple platforms (Mac and PC) is a massive step towards that.

The problem at the moment seems to be Microsoft and their addiction to Xbox Live cash cow. It is massively ironic as Microsoft made its considerable name with Windows which is basically a standard that lots of different manufacturers all work towards making their machines compatible with. Even Sony's overpriced range of laptops use Windows. Why can't they embrace a common standard for gaming too?  Also, as I understand it the idea of the original Xbox was that PC games could be played on it and vice versa. This never happened, but why does the Xbox 360 not embrace the de-facto standard for PC gaming?

Anyway, I have not got Portal 2 yet, so it might be rubbish for all I know.  I am waiting for the sunny Bank Holiday weekend to be over. I will probably download it on my Mac too.