Portal 2 is a sequel that we have all long anticipated (though not as long as we've been anticipating Half-Life 2: Episode 3) since Portal blew everyone's mind. Portal was successful, arguably perfectly for what it was intended to accomplish, and it was simply out of the question to not make a...

Just minutes ago, Portal 2 was released on Steam. But not before Valve rewarded all of the people who strove hard for those Potatoes. People with the Gold Potato (awarded for getting all 36 Potatoes) got the game about an hour early, and it has slowly been expanding to the people with fewer Potatoes. I got the game about five minutes early (I have 3 Potatoes).

Enjoy Portal 2.

Earlier today, GLaDOS began overclocking the CPUs from which she was drawing power for an early boot up, using the Potatoes we had all collected. The Potatoes are very quickly draining, so make sure that you play the five games yet to be completed (Defense Grid: The Awakening, Killing Floor, Amnesia: The Dark Decent, Super Meat Boy, and The Ball).

In the meantime, the number of active subjects at GLaDOS@Home has changed from ZERO to NINE. At least eight people have been confirmed to be playing, right now. No leads yet as to who the ninth will be.

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Since April 1, Valve has been conducting an Alternate Reality Game involving the recently released Potato Sack, in which one can collect Potatoes by completing certain tasks within the thirteen Indie games in the pack. Some of these potatoes unlock special Portal-like content for the Indie games, such as Portal-themed levels and the like. Until April 15th, it was unclear what other purposes these Potatoes might serve.

However, Valve recently revealed a purpose for the Potatoes: an early launch for Portal 2. The web page functions as such: there are thirteen Indie games in the Potato Sack, and so there are thirteen progress bars, with a large progress bar at the top averaging the thirteen to show overall progress. Each individual bar fills up based on hours that Steam users have played that game, with the goal being proportional to the number of sales that game had. Thus, a very popular game like Killing Floor, which has had many sales, requires far more hours to complete its progress bar than a relatively new game like 1 2 3 KICK IT!, and so it requires higher cumulative play time to complete than the newer game.

Now, where do Potatoes come in, you might ask? At the bottom of the new page, listed as Auxiliary Power, is the number of Potatoes thus far collected across Steam. Valve has revealed that, when a certain number is reached, GLaDOS will begin overclocking the CPUs, meaning that all subsequent hours spent in game will have a multiplier applied to it. How many Potatoes have to be collected or just how large a multiplier is yet to be determined.

So buy the Potato Sack and get playing, if you want to see Portal 2 release early. And check out this well organized wiki detailing the ARG so far.

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Valve has recently released a series of teaser videos narrated by Aperture Science CEO Cave Johnson for Portal 2 called the Aperture Investment Opportunities. While the videos don't necessarily reveal much about gameplay, they certainly inspire continued confidence in Valve's sense of dark humor, which was a very important element to Portal's success. My only regret is that there are and will only be four of them: Panels, Bot Trust, Turrets, and Boots. If there was any doubt that Portal 2 would not retain the same level of dark humor, it should be well erased by now.

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In preparation for the release of Portal 2 on April 19, Valve has released a comic (which can be found here) detailing the events between the two games, as well as some of what happened before Portal. This comic, called Lab Rat, follows a crazy employee who is likely responsible for all of the drawings and writing found during Portal, as well as giving some much needed background on Aperture Science and Chell. While it was neither as profound nor as long as The Sacrifice comic, it is still a really good read, I highly suggest it.

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In celebration of Halloween, Valve is selling a myriad of various horror genre games at a discount, varying from 33% off to up to 75% off. Big name games on the list include S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games at 75% off, Left 4 Dead games and Team Fortress 2 at 50% off, Dead Space at 50% off, Resident Evil 5 at 50% off, Aliens vs Predators at 50% off, BioShock at 75% off, and Silent Hill: Homecoming at 50% off. Check out the list here.

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Valve has released another DLC for Left 4 Dead 2. This includes the new campaign, The Sacrifice, which explains how the survivors from Left 4 Dead got to where they were in The Passing. The DLC also includes a port of the campaign No Mercy from Left 4 Dead, now with the new items, weapons, and special infected introduced in Left 4 Dead 2. To accompany the release of The Sacrifice, Valve storywriters put together an amazing comic and a pretty decent teaser trailer as well, which tied together everything in Left 4 Dead, giving the series one of the deeper plots I've seen. If you haven't yet, you must go read the comic. And then play the campaign.

So Valve has released this new game, available on Steam, called Alien Swarm. Its a four player cooperative top down shooter. It features eight characters who fit into four classes, and has quite a variety of weapons and accessories. The game play is really solid, the upper difficulties are challenging but not impossible, and the graphics are spectacular. But, the amazing thing about it is that the game is free. Its the sort of game I'd expect to pay at least $10-$20 for, but Valve's released it for free. As it stands, there is only one level that constitutes seven missions, but based on the user interface, it is likely that more will be coming. Not to mention that Valve has released mod tools for the game. Overall, the game is really good, and I highly recommend it.