134-516: The Weighted Companion Cube , or simply the Companion Cube , is an item featured in the Portal series of video games by Valve Corporation . Initially featured in a single level of the original Portal , Test Chamber 17, as one of Aperture Science 's ubiquitous Weighted Storage Cubes with heart symbols printed on the outside, it is given to the game's main character, Chell , as part of
268-452: A Titanfall sequel. One such "action block" was inspired by the success of the battle royale game genre led by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds ; this prototype, which applied gameplay mechanics of previous Titanfall games in a battle royale format, was considered very successful and the studio decided to expand this model. The designers decided that having the pilotable Titans (large mecha ) from their previous games would not work well in
402-532: A mascot for Valve's games, and has also been referenced in other, unrelated games as Easter eggs . Critics have remarked on the Companion Cube's significance as a storytelling device that highlights the dangers of blind obedience to authority, and players' attempts to subvert said authority by "saving" the Cube, even in the form of external fan works , have been widespread. Other interpretations have compared
536-649: A "Weighted Cube", effectively a crate. These puzzles require the use of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, the portal gun. The gun can shoot two portals, colored differently for identification, on any flat surface that is painted with a specific paint containing moon dust. Once both portal ends are placed, the player can walk the character between them, or carry objects with the portal gun through them. Portal ends can be re positioned as often as necessary, but certain actions, such as walking through "emancipation grills" or moving
670-563: A Chinese mobile company. The mobile ports are set to release by the end of 2022. In April 2021, Electronic Arts announced that the mobile version of the game would be titled Apex Legends Mobile , and would begin beta testing in the coming months. In July 2021, Apex Legends was hacked by individuals wishing to draw attention to persistent problems with cheating in the Titanfall series that had been unaddressed by Electronic Arts and Respawn. Large banners pointed players of Apex Legends to
804-480: A Companion Cube icon was added to Geometry Dash along with the game being released on Steam, in 2015, the Companion Cube was featured in a LEGO Dimensions Portal 2 pack, in 2017, a Companion Cube skin was added to Dota 2 for the character Io, and in 2020, the Steam version of Apex Legends added charms that included the Companion Cube being hugged by the character Wattson. Valve has also released merchandise of
938-467: A U.S. patent for the ping system in 2021, the company announced that the ping system patent and four others related to game accessibility would be made available for free to game developers to use without fear of litigation starting in August 2021. IGN awarded the game score of 9 out of 10, summing up the review by saying "Apex Legends is squad-based battle royale done right, complete with cool heroes,
1072-419: A battle royale game. McCoy affirmed that they had to convince Electronic Arts to allow them to make this game: " we decided to make this game. Not to be throwing EA under the bus, but this wasn't the game they were expecting. I had to go to executives, show it to them, and explain it and...not convince but more, 'Hey, trust us! This is the thing you want out of us.' [...] This is a game where we had to say, 'This
1206-455: A battle-royale setting and instead focused on creating strong character classes which felt appropriate for the Titanfall franchise. They also found that some maneuverability features of prior Titanfall titles, such as wall-running, would make gameplay too challenging in a battle royale format, as identifying the direction of threats would be too difficult. Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella told VentureBeat that Apex Legends , as
1340-677: A bridge from a limited set of parts to cross a river or chasm, using physics simulations to test if the bridge will hold up against traffic crossing it. Bridge Constructor Portal adds in elements from the Portal series, such as portals, as part of the construction challenge. The game is set within Aperture Laboratories, with the puzzles monitored by GLaDOS. The game released on December 20, 2017, for personal computers and mobile devices, and later in 2018 for PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , and Nintendo Switch consoles. Aperture Hand Lab
1474-444: A fan-made video game released on March 3, 2012, that combines elements of the video games Super Mario Bros. and Portal . In August 2011, Dan Trachtenberg released a fan film based on the series called Portal: No Escape . The video would later go viral. The Portal games have found application in educational aspects outside of game development. The first game was praised as an example of instructional scaffolding where
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#17327919961881608-518: A film adaptation of the Portal series. In 2016, Abrams stated that he still has plans to direct these films in the future, with both films in the writing stage. Abrams confirmed in May 2021 that the film adaptation was still in the works as they were still working on a script for the film from Warner Bros. Pictures . Portal Prelude is a 2008 single-player mod that takes place before the events of Portal . A remastered version using Nvidia RTX Remix
1742-421: A final sudden death round begins. Respawn stated this scoring system "prevents total blowout games from dragging on for too long" and also "lets more competitive games keep the heat going for longer". Rather than skydiving onto the map and gathering equipment like in the battle royale mode, players spawn in a "shop" where they can purchase equipment and charges of their Legend's abilities using materials earned in
1876-540: A fraudulent event. However, as Apex Legends was already ready for release at this point, Castro felt the approach was an appropriate marketing strategy. Because of the game's performance in terms of player-count and viewership on streaming services, Castro felt vindicated in this decision. This approach was uncharacteristic of any prior EA title. The game is built using a modified version of Source engine ; Source had previously been used for Titanfall 2 , however for Apex Legends several necessary adjustments to allow for
2010-541: A free DLC for owners of the original game on PC. It was released on December 8, 2022. Portal 2 was released as a standalone game in April 2011 on both computers and consoles. It is considered as one of the greatest video games of all time by numerous publications and critics. It received acclaim for its gameplay, pacing, dark humor , writing, the voice work of McLain, Merchant, and Simmons, and its challenging but surmountable learning curve . Portal: Companion Collection
2144-620: A full-scale VR game in 2017, Valve experimented with Portal , but found the portal systems disorienting in VR; instead, they returned to the Half-Life series and released Half-Life: Alyx in 2020. In April 2022, Erik Wolpaw urged Valve to make Portal 3 saying "I am also not getting any younger. We are reaching the point where – it's crazy to think – [we're] literally going to be too old to work on Portal 3 . So we should just do it." In September, Ellen McLain also called for Portal 3 saying she
2278-486: A game since ' All your base '". World of Warcraft featured an Easter egg based on the Companion Cube outside of Stormwind, during the game's 2008 "Love is in the Air" Valentine's Day festivities. Fan Magnus Persson created a fully functioning Companion Cube PC, which Wired called "a triumph" in reference to " Still Alive ". Another fan, Stephen Granade, turned a Rubik's Cube into a Companion Cube, albeit noting that it
2412-440: A live-service and free-to-play battle-royale game, was a new challenge for the studio and represented a new way for them of developing games. Their design philosophy was focused on "chasing the fun" and designing all the mechanics around team-based play, rather than solo play. The final decision on major design factors, such as the size of the teams, the number of teams and the size of the map, were all based on what felt "most fun" to
2546-584: A local Chinese firm is a requirement for Western media companies wishing to make their products legally available in the country. In January 2020, EA confirmed to investors that it was working with a local partner in order to bring the game to PC in China, though it did not mention the partner by name. Respawn established a new Vancouver, British Columbia, studio, within the EA Vancouver campus, dedicated to supporting Apex Legends in May 2020. As part of
2680-641: A new co-operative campaign, and a second that incorporated an easy-to-learn level editor that allowed players to make their own test chambers and share these through the Steam Workshop to others. Further on this, Valve has created a special version of the Portal level editor to be used alongside its "Steam in Schools" program as a means of using the game and editor to teach students about physics, math, and other lessons; Valve released this version of Portal 2 free for educational use. Exploring options for
2814-469: A number of "personality cores" that would fit onto GLaDOS to prevent her from turning against them. Despite this, on the day she was officially activated (coincidentally on " Take Your Daughter to Work Day "), she turned against the researchers and killed nearly everyone in the facility with lethal doses of neurotoxin gas. In the games and the comic Lab Rat , one employee Doug Rattmann survived due to his schizophrenia and distrust of GLaDOS. In trying to find
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#17327919961882948-466: A patch applied to the Steam version of Portal in March 2010, provided clues heralding the official announcement. The Potato Sack game, launched on April 1, 2011, led to the reveal of "GLaDOS@home", a spoof of distributed computer challenges, to get players to cooperate on playing the independent games as to unlock Portal 2 on Steam about 10 hours before its planned release. The Final Hours of Portal 2
3082-555: A portal, which flings them out of the other side to gain speed and distance that normal jumping and running could not generate. A leapfrogging effect can be used by placing portals in series during this flinging, gaining further momentum with each use. Portals will also allow light and other objects to transfer through them, and numerous puzzles involve using portals to manipulate bouncing energy balls, lasers, "hard light" bridges, and tractor beams to access new locations or direct objects to specific receptacles that must be activated to open
3216-472: A reactor failure, but inadvertently awakens GLaDOS, who had backed up her personality. Though they defeat GLaDOS by putting Wheatley in control of the facility, Wheatley is overwhelmed with power, sending Chell and GLaDOS, GLaDOS being temporarily reduced to a small computer powered by a potato, to the old core of Aperture, where GLaDOS rediscovers her relation to Caroline. They return to the surface where they are forced to defeat Wheatley before his ineptitude with
3350-411: A source at the studio. Respawn therefore decided that attempting to market the game as part of the Titanfall series would have been difficult and would risk alienating Titanfall fans. They, therefore, opted to treat the game as a new intellectual property (IP). Respawn were also concerned that as they at that time had recently been acquired by EA, players would think that EA had forced them to make
3484-523: A superb communication system, and polished mechanics" Apex Legends received critical praise for the perceived diversity of its playable characters. Several characters are LGBTQ , including one non-binary character, though some reviewers felt that the nature of the game did not allow for a narrative which properly highlights this diversity. Eight hours after its launch, Apex Legends surpassed one million unique players, and reached 2.5 million unique players within 24 hours. In one week it achieved
3618-424: A surface with a portal will cause the portals to dissipate. A critical feature of portals is that they retain the speed of the object traveling through it; as stated by GLaDOS to the player in the first game, "Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out". When portals are placed on non-parallel planes, this can create the effect of "flinging". Commonly, one uses gravity to build up their momentum when they fall into
3752-449: A time limit, before expiring and fully eliminating the player. Season 9 introduced a new permanent mode named "Arena". In this mode, players form into three-player squads and fight against another squad in a 3v3 team deathmatch over a series of rounds to determine the winner of the match. Teams win when their team has at least 3 points and is 2 points ahead. Additionally, if a game should drag on to round 9 (where both teams have 4 points)
3886-429: A total of 25 million players, with over 2 million peak concurrent, and by the end of its first month it reached 50 million players in total. Within the first month of its release, Apex Legends made $ 92 million in revenue across all platforms, the highest amount earned by any free-to-play game during its month of launch. As news and popularity of Apex Legends spread, analysts saw the game as something to challenge
4020-475: A way to defeat GLaDOS, he finds that Chell , one of the human subjects kept in cryogenic storage within Aperture, has a high level of tenacity, and arranges for the events of Portal to occur by moving her to the top of GLaDOS' testing list. GLaDOS remains driven to test human subjects despite the lack of humans. The player is introduced to Aperture in Portal , which is said by Valve to be set sometime between
4154-405: A way to make the player familiar with how Aperture Science's incinerators worked in order to use them to destroy the personality cores in the final battle against GLaDOS. They hit upon the idea to have GLaDOS force Chell to destroy the Cube in the incinerator, believing the idea to be a "perfect thing" and "way stronger" emotionally, and attributing its success to "design arguments" between members of
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4288-409: A website outlining their concerns. In February 2022, Respawn announced that a native version of Apex Legends for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S was "coming very soon..." and that it would introduce new features specifically for the next generation consoles. These versions were released on March 29, 2022. Apex Legends Mobile released on May 17, 2022, for iOS and Android devices. The game
4422-595: A worthy competitor to other battle royale games. Apex Legends surpassed 25 million players by the end of its first week, and 50 million within its first month. By April 2021, it had approximately 100 million players, making it one of the most played video games of all time by player count. Apex Legends is an online multiplayer battle royale game featuring squads of three players using pre-made characters with distinctive abilities, called "Legends", similar to those of hero shooters . Alternate modes have been introduced allowing for single and for two-player squads since
4556-440: Is "algorithmically controlled" by GLaDOS. The desire to save the Cube also manifested in the many fan created works based on it, which "liberate" it from the game itself. The Cube has been called an "object of desire", as it is purposely described by GLaDOS using the language of affection. While the relationship between the player and Cube appears to be platonic at first, the romantic and sexual implications are shown shortly after
4690-401: Is a compilation of both games and Still Alive content released for Nintendo Switch on June 28, 2022. The port was developed in collaboration with Nvidia Lightspeed Studios . The Potato Sack was an A.R.G ( alternate reality game ) conceived by Valve and 13 indie video game developers as a prelude to the release of Portal 2 . Portal 2 had been announced by a similar game, where
4824-493: Is a digital book written and created by Geoff Keighley released on May 17, 2011. This digital book gives insight on the creation of Portal 2 . Keighley had previously worked as an editor at GameSpot , writing several 10,000-word "Final Hours" pieces on various games where he visited the studios during the late development phases to document the creation of the game. One piece, "The Final Hours of Half-Life 2", allowed Keighley to interact with Valve during 2003 and 2004 and talk with
4958-516: Is a roomscale VR video game co-developed by Canadian studio Cloudhead Games and Valve, released free for Windows on June 25, 2019. It is a tech demo set in the Portal universe that showcases the functions of the hand, knuckle, and finger tracking technology used by the Valve Index . Aperture Desk Job is a free game set in the Portal universe released on March 1, 2022. It is a demonstration of
5092-399: Is a single-player mod for Portal 2 released on April 18, 2014, developed by Ruslan Rybka, also known as Stridemann, and released by SignHead Studio. Portal Reloaded is a 2021 single-player mod for Portal 2 developed by Jannis Brinkmann. Portal: Revolution is a 2024 single-player mod for Portal 2 developed by Second Face Software. It serves as a prequel to the original game. Mari0 is
5226-404: Is believed to have earned $ 45 million in that month alone. In February 2021, EA's CFO, Blake Jorgensen, confirmed that Apex Legends has surpassed $ 1 billion in revenue. In April 2021, right before the release of the game's 9th season, Respawn announced that Apex Legends had reached a playerbase of over 100 million people and was expected to pull in $ 500 million that year. In May 2022, it
5360-577: Is built atop of a stripped-down version of the Steam client, "Steam for Schools", that is designed to be used in schools, allowing instructors to control the installation of the games and lesson plans on the students' computers. These tools, as well as copies of Portal 2 and the Puzzle Maker, are being offered for free for all educators. Apex Legends Apex Legends is a 2019 battle royale - hero shooter video game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts , set in
5494-412: Is crowned the "Apex Champions" of that match. Players who become knocked down in the course of a game can be revived by their squadmates. Should a player be killed completely, they can still be resurrected if their team member(s) collect their respawn banner , which appears at the place where they died, and bring it to one of several beacons on the island. The banner, however, must be collected within
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5628-403: Is intended to bring with it the release of a new playable character, usually new weapons and purchasable cosmetic items. The game's first season started on March 19, 2019. Associated with seasons are time-limited battle passes that reward players with new cosmetic items, should they complete in-game challenges during the season. Alongside new cosmetic items, seasons can also bring changes to
5762-488: Is kept in indefinite suspended animation , but he is shot by a turret in the process. He then enters a stasis pod himself, leaving his fate afterward unknown. A board game version of Portal , developed by Cryptozoic Entertainment with oversight from Valve, was released in 2015. Titled Portal: Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game , the game is based on players manipulating their tokens – which are representative of unwitting test subjects – through various test chambers in
5896-481: Is uniquely tenacious among the test subjects held by Aperture, Rattmann moves her to the top of the queue of testing subjects, thus starting the events of the first Portal . After Chell defeats GLaDOS, Rattmann escapes Aperture, but returns against the Companion Cube's objections when he sees the Party Escort Bot dragging an unconscious Chell back inside and into a disabled cryo chamber. He ensures that Chell
6030-459: Is what we want to do. Help us get there.'" Concerned that a standard six-month marketing campaign for the game would have generated negative publicity from disgruntled Titanfall fans, Castro claims they eventually took inspiration from musical artist Beyoncé whose release of her self-titled album came as a surprise to fans—a strategy which proved financially successful. Wanting to generate some buzz about this new product before its release,
6164-547: The Half-Life series) for government funding. Johnson acquired the rights to a disused salt mine in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where they started building a labyrinthine set of offices, laboratories, facilities, and test chambers. During this time, Johnson became poisoned from exposure to moon dust, a key component of the paint needed to support portal technology, and became increasingly deranged. In Portal 2 ,
6298-484: The PlayStation 3 platform, after previously stating the difficulties in supporting this console, but that it would include support for cross-platform play between personal computers and PlayStation 3 players through a limited Steamworks interface. Valve brought in writer Jay Pinkerton formerly with National Lampoon , and Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek to assist Wolpaw with the larger story. They built on
6432-450: The "conversion gels" as part of Portal 2 . Valve included a co-operative play mode, based on their own observations and stories from players about working out the solutions to Portal ' s puzzles in a group environment. With this feature, they sought the ability to enable cross-platform play of Portal 2 between computers and consoles through Steamworks. This led to a surprise reveal by Newell that not only would Portal 2 be on
6566-437: The 2011 Games for Change Festival at New York University , Gabe Newell stated Valve's intention to direct Portal and Portal 2 towards education. Newell stated that Valve "doesn't see divide between making a game that can do well and be educational", and was already working with schools to develop lesson plans around the game. In one example, Valve brought in students from nearby Evergreen School to watch them interact with
6700-605: The ALGS began on July 7, 2022, consisting of 40 teams around the world with a total US$ 2 million prize pool. The first place belongs to Darkzero Esports, with the prize of US$ 500,000. Apex Legends received "generally favorable" reviews for most platforms according to review aggregator Metacritic ; the Nintendo Switch version received "mixed or average" reviews. Some publications, including Destructoid , Game Informer , GamesRadar+ , and PC Gamer , called it one of
6834-400: The Aperture Laboratories. The goal being to test the most lucrative chambers while attempting to stall the progress of other players. Valve had approached Cryptozoic with the core concepts of the board game, which the publisher found only needed small modifications in gameplay for the purpose of balance. The Lab is a VR game developed by Valve that as part of its partnership with HTC and
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#17327919961886968-475: The Aperture systems causes the facility reactors to become critical and explode. GLaDOS is returned to her original place and returns the facility to normal. GLaDOS then lets Chell go, realizing that the prospect of trying to kill her is too much trouble. Instead, she turns to two robots of her own creation, Atlas and P-Body, to locate a mythical store of additional human subjects kept in cryogenic sleep for her to continue testing on. In addition to these characters,
7102-834: The Battle Armor mode (April 28, 2020 to May 12, 2020). Apex Legends has a cast of 25 characters, divided into 5 classes. Many of the character designs are based on Titanfall . Aside from the cast of characters in the main game, there were two exclusive characters that were only playable in Apex Legends Mobile . Developer Respawn Entertainment had previously developed Titanfall (2014) and its sequel Titanfall 2 (2016), both of which were published by Electronic Arts (EA) who eventually acquired Respawn Entertainment in 2017. According to design director Mackey McCandlish, initial design on Apex Legends started before Titanfall 2 had shipped in 2016 and as of 2018
7236-442: The Companion Cube herself, a form of disposable tool utilized by the player to progress through the game. The Companion Cube has also been shown to demonstrate how fans are willing to go outside the bounds of the game's logic in order to "rescue" the Cube, a form of resistance that is similar to hacktivism and culture jamming . Kim Swift , head designer of Portal , noted that many players were willing to do almost anything to save
7370-540: The Companion Cube is a sentient object and a key to her survival, before having Chell dispose of it in an incinerator in order to leave a test chamber. Both games feature other personality cores that were constructed to keep GLaDOS in check; the first game includes three cores, the Morality, Curiosity, and Intelligence Cores, voiced by McLain as well as a snarling Anger Core voiced by Mike Patton . In Portal 2 , three more such cores (beyond Wheatley) are introduced including
7504-522: The Companion Cube may be sentient, it is unclear whether this was solely to psychologically torment Chell. However, in the comic Portal 2: Lab Rat , Doug Rattman's Companion Cube is shown speaking to him, possibly as part of a schizophrenic hallucination. Following the game's release, the Weighted Companion Cube quickly increased in popularity among fans, spawning a wide array of official merchandise and fan works. It has since become
7638-407: The Companion Cube, including jumping into the incinerator themselves. Others attempted to exploit or glitch the game in order to escape the test chamber with the Cube, such as jamming the doors with security cameras so that the player could leave the room despite not having incinerated it. This places players entirely into the role of Chell, with both player and Chell trying to escape a situation that
7772-432: The Cube's disposal to animal testing and other experimental science , and the relationship between Chell and the Cube – a symbol of femininity – an example of queer romance. The Companion Cube was initially conceived as part of the gameplay of Test Chamber 17, due to players constantly forgetting to bring the crate along with them. Making the Weighted Companion Cube visually distinct and stating it as being so informed
7906-537: The GLaDOS voice. Portal 2 also features the song " Exile Vilify " by The National . The concept of Portal came from Narbacular Drop , a student project from the DigiPen Institute of Technology . The game included the aspects of placing portals on any flat surfaces and using them to maneuver around levels. Valve's employees, attending a DigiPen career fair, saw their game and shortly later offered
8040-681: The June 2020 EA Play presentation, Respawn announced that Apex Legends would be brought to the Steam storefront for Windows players, as well as to the Nintendo Switch by late 2020. Further, the game would support cross-platform play across all supported platforms on these releases. Cross-platform play was introduced into the game with the Aftermarket Collection Event. In a blog post by Respawn in late October 2020, it
8174-489: The VR headset, the HTC Vive . It was described as a "room-scale" VR experience, consisting of about a dozen small experimental experiences that highlight the use of VR; such include experiencing a fully panoramic view that has been stitched together from a number of photographs, a physics game where the player attempts to launch personality cores into piles of boxes using a catapult, and a bow-and-arrow based game. The Lab
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#17327919961888308-421: The ability to climb over short walls, slide down inclined surfaces, and use zip-lines to traverse an area quickly. Over time, the game's safe zone will reduce in size around a randomly-selected point on the map; players outside the safe zone take damage and may die if they do not reach the safe zone in time. This also confines squads to smaller spaces to force encounters. The last squad with any members left alive
8442-504: The antagonist GLaDOS 's sinister testing initiative. After carrying it through the entire level and ostensibly anthropomorphizing and "bonding" with the Cube, the malevolent AI forces her to unceremoniously dispose of it in an incinerator device. Companion Cubes later re-appear in the game's sequel with a slightly different design. The original Companion Cube is shown to have survived the events of both Portal and Portal 2 , appearing as part of an ending gag. While GLaDOS has suggested
8576-490: The best takes on the battle royale genre thus far, and a worthy challenger to Fortnite Battle Royale 's dominance of the genre. Critics lauded the combat in Apex Legends . Destructoid referred to the gunplay as the best they had experienced in a battle royale thus far; however, they felt let down that some of the mechanics from the previous Titanfall games were not present. Javy Gwaltney of Game Informer , on
8710-584: The character of the Aperture Science facility, providing a deeper story for GLaDOS and Aperture's CEO Cave Johnson, as well as developing several concepts for "personality cores" ultimately to the creation of the Wheatley core character. Portal 2 was similarly released with high praise with a 95 out of 100 score on Metacritic. Valve has continued to support the game through the release of two separate downloadable content packages, one introducing
8844-541: The compilation, was instead considered the highlight of the five. Its success led to the creation of the much longer Portal 2 , which included both single player and cooperative player modes; it too received near-universal critical acclaim. In addition to the challenging puzzle elements, both games are praised for their dark humor , written by Erik Wolpaw , Chet Faliszek , and Jay Pinkerton , voice work by actors Ellen McLain , Stephen Merchant , and J. K. Simmons . A number of spin-off media have been developed alongside
8978-409: The core of GLaDOS (also McLain). Sometime after Johnson's death, the old sections of the facility were vitrified , and a more modern facility was built atop the ruins. GLaDOS was built to control the facility and monitor the tests, but researchers found that the computer had villainous tendencies, threatening to kill the entire staff before it was shut down in time. The Aperture researchers constructed
9112-453: The creation of the new content and what new features players could expect in the future from Portal 2 . To help the players develop the fictional history of Aperture Science, Valve created a digital comic to tell the story of the "Rat Man", a schizophrenic who is unseen in the games themselves but creates murals and scrawlings that guide Chell in both games. The comic, "Portal 2: Lab Rat", takes place both during and after Portal , explaining
9246-522: The cube, including a plushie and fuzzy dice in 2007. In 2024, it would also appear as a purchasable prop in Sky: Children of the Light , in commemoration of the game releasing on Steam for Early Access. The Companion Cube has been cited as an example of experimental science 's "sacrificial logic". Respawn: Gamers, Hackers, and Technogenic Life compares the fact that it must be "euthanized" for
9380-460: The current season map with a new point of interest (known as a "Town Takeover"), which is themed around one of the legends. (Christmas 2022) In addition to these major events, there were occasional minor events which only introduce cosmetics available to purchase (such as "Summer of Plunder" and "Arena Flash Events" which ran from season 9 through 10 and had 6 events occur.), or limited-time game modes (without limited-time collectible items), such as
9514-454: The debate over pain in animals when used in scientific and medical research. Writing for Game Studies , Michael Burden and Sean Gouglas stated that Chell's obedience to GLaDOS resembled the Milgram experiment , with the Companion Cube test chamber most emphasizing blind obedience to authority under the mantle of science. They further noted that Doug Rattman's scrawls warned Chell that she was
9648-444: The developers and were strongly guided by " gut feeling ". Design director Mackey McCandlish also stated that with Apex Legends , they were looking to challenge the conventions of the still relatively young battle-royale genre and to add their studio's unique touch to that class of games. They felt that the choice of three-man squads and a limit of 20 teams gave players on average a greater chance to win and also felt more in line with
9782-403: The developers spent 100 to 200 hours a day trying out the game, a process which executive producer Drew McCoy called "probably the most important part of development". To refine the game's non-verbal communication system, the studio play-tested the game for a month without the use of voice chat and applied fake names to the play-testers to predict how most players would experience the game. With
9916-404: The development team from 8 to about 30-40 programmers. Initial ideas for Portal 2 retained the idea of solving puzzles through scientific concepts, but eliminating the use of portals altogether; these versions did not fare well with test audiences nor with Gabe Newell, Valve's president; these ideas were dropped though saved for potential reuse in a different game by Valve. Portal 2 development
10050-426: The development team. The Companion Cube first appears in Portal 's Test Chamber 17, where Chell is given it as a necessary tool to progress through the level. After being used to reach higher platforms, it must be taken with the player and used as a shield. The player must use the Companion Cube to activate three devices and jump across multiple platforms, before being forced to incinerate the cube. The Cube returns at
10184-406: The dominance of Fortnite Battle Royale , and by February 8, 2019—four days after the game's release—EA had seen its largest growth in stock value since 2014 on the basis of Apex Legends ' sudden success. Throughout April, the game was estimated to have earned $ 24 million in revenue, representing 74 percent less than the amount it earned during its first month, as the game failed to sustain
10318-485: The end of Portal 2 , where it is discharged from the facility by GLaDOS following Chell's egress, still bearing burn marks from its supposed incineration. Outside of the Portal series, the Companion Cube is featured in the Portal Escape Chamber DLC of Escape Simulator , which was officially approved by Valve Corporation. The Companion Cube is also present in the game Terraria as a pet. In 2014,
10452-408: The entire Titanfall team at Respawn Entertainment was working on the project; however, executive producer Drew McCoy stated that work on the game did not begin until the spring of 2017. He also confirmed that the game had approximately 115 developers working on it, making it the studio's most labor-intensive project. Titanfall 2 , by way of comparison, had around 85 developers. According to McCoy,
10586-418: The entire team jobs at Valve to help expand on their idea. Valve originally saw Portal as an experimental game to be included with its upcoming compilation, The Orange Box , alongside its release of Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Team Fortress 2 . To give the game character, a minimal story, tied loosely with the Half-Life world, was written by Valve's Erik Wolpaw . He needed a character to guide
10720-415: The events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2 . The player-character Chell is awakened by GLaDOS for testing. Chell resists GLaDOS' lies and verbal ploys and succeeds to defeat GLaDOS' core, the destruction creating a portal implosion that sends Chell to the surface, unconscious. Rattmann, who has helped Chell by writing warning messages and directions to maintenance areas on the facility walls and had observed
10854-448: The events that led to Portal 2 . The Rat Man's artwork appears early in Portal 2 , where it retells the plot of Portal . Michael Avon Oeming , who had worked on comics for Valve games Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead , and Valve in-house artist Andrea Wicklund drew the comic. Ted Kosmatka wrote most of the story with input from the Portal 2 writers. The 27-page comic was made available online in two parts about two weeks before
10988-411: The exit for each test chamber. A number of other mechanics, such as lasers, light bridges, high energy pellets , buttons, cubes, tractor funnels and turrets, exist to aid or hinder the player's goal to reach the exit. The Portal games are noted for bringing students and their projects from the DigiPen Institute of Technology into Valve and extending their ideas into the full games. The portal concept
11122-410: The facility. Most of the tests involve using the "Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device" – nicknamed the portal gun – that creates a human-sized wormhole-like connection between two flat surfaces. The player-character or objects in the game world may move through portals while conserving their momentum. This allows complex "flinging" maneuvers to be used to cross wide gaps or perform other feats to reach
11256-560: The final battle, escapes Aperture, but on witnessing a robot dragging Chell's body back inside, sacrifices his escape to assure that Chell is put into indefinite cryogenic storage. He himself is critically wounded but appears to make it to another cryogenic chamber, though his ultimate fate is not revealed. Portal 2 takes place an unknown number of years after the events of the first game; the Aperture facility has fallen into disrepair without GLaDOS. A personality core named Wheatley ( Stephen Merchant ) wakes Chell from her sleep to help her stop
11390-489: The game in an educational setting. As part of this effect, the company promoted Portal for free use by any user during September 2011. In speaking at the 2012 Games for Change Festival, Newell said that the response to these efforts was praised by educators. Their efforts culminated in a "Teach with Portals" program that Newell announced at the Festival. The effort is built on a standalone "Puzzle Maker" that incorporates
11524-403: The game in the future, though claimed that game progression and in-game purchases cannot be transferred across systems due to hardware limitations. McCoy has also expressed the desire to eventually bring Apex Legends to iOS , Android , and Nintendo Switch . According to anonymous reports, Tencent Games is working with Electronic Arts to bring Apex Legends to China , as partnering with
11658-417: The game includes numerous laser-seeking turrets that seek to kill the player-characters, though are apologetic for it; most are voiced by McLain, though some defective ones in the sequel are voiced by Nolan North . GLaDOS introduces Chell to the " Weighted Companion Cube ", appearing similar to other Weighed Cubes (crates) in the game, but decorated with hearts on its sides; GLaDOS attempts to make Chell believe
11792-408: The game map. One player in each squad is the jumpmaster , selecting when the squad should skydive out of the aircraft and where to land with the concurrence of the other squad members. However, players are free to deviate from the squad's path. Once on the ground, the squad can scavenge for weapons, armor, and other equipment that is scattered around buildings, or in crates randomly distributed around
11926-426: The game mostly completed, Respawn's director of brand marketing, Arturo Castro, began working on how the studio would name and market it. Castro recognized that the game featured many elements which players would expect from a Titanfall franchise game, but lacked core elements such as Titans, Pilots and a single-player experience. Additionally, it had already been reported that Respawn was working on Titanfall 3 from
12060-403: The game operates from a female rather than male perspective. Matt Margini of Kill Screen compared the Companion Cube to other video game sidekicks that must be escorted through levels, calling it both an object of "annoyance" as well as "disproportionate emotional investment". Johnathan Neuls of Ars Technica praised the Companion Cube as "probably the strongest inside joke to come out of
12194-599: The game's release and was also bundled with the game itself. Dark Horse Comics has published "Portal 2: Lab Rat" in a printed anthology of Valve comics, Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories , in November 2011. In the comic, Doug Rattmann (also known as The Rat Man) is a scientist working in the Aperture facility. He escapes GLaDOS's initial neurotoxin attack, but suffers symptoms as his schizophrenia medication runs out, causing hallucinations of his Weighted Companion Cube talking. Noticing that Chell
12328-474: The game's release. The game is free-to-play and monetized through microtransactions and loot boxes , which allow the player to spend both real money and in-game currency on cosmetic items, such as outfits for the Legends and new colors for weapons. Each match generally features twenty teams of three-player squads . Players can join friends in a squad or can be matched randomly with other players. Before
12462-449: The games, and several of the game elements have become parts of internet memes . Both Portal games take place in the fictional "Aperture Science Enrichment Center". Aperture Science was founded by Cave Johnson (voiced by J.K. Simmons ) and originally sought to make shower curtains for the military. Its research happened upon the discovery of portal technology, and soon became a direct competitor with Black Mesa Research Facility (from
12596-431: The increased draw distances and the large game map were made. Apex Legends is believed to be pushing at the technological limits of its game engine and as a result, the game compromises on dynamic display resolution , with the quality of the image and frame rate suffering particularly on console versions and on lower-end PC devices. Prior to launch, McCoy confirmed there were plans to implement cross-platform play to
12730-418: The irrelevant Fact Core, the bold Adventure Core, and the space-obsessed Space Core, each voiced by North. The player controls the main character (Chell in both single player campaigns, or Atlas and P-Body in the cooperative campaign) from a first-person view, running, jumping, and interacting with switches or other devices. The player-characters are able to withstand large drops, but can be killed by falling in
12864-464: The island shrinks over time, forcing players to keep moving or else find themselves outside the play area which can be fatal. The final team alive wins the round. In "Arenas" , players form into three-player squads and fight against another squad in a 3v3 team deathmatch over a series of rounds to determine the winner of the match. Teams win when their team has at least 3 points and is 2 points ahead. Work on Apex Legends began around late 2016, though
12998-462: The level editor for Portal 2 that was released as free content for the game in early 2012. Valve had built the Puzzle Maker with the aid of educators, as to make it suitable for lesson plans as well as making it as easy for teachers to use to construct such plans. The Puzzle Maker is not limited to physics, but designed to be modular so that other fields, such as fundamental electronics or chemistry, could be included. The "Teach with Portals" initiative
13132-523: The level's exit. Portal 2 introduces "mobility gels" that can paint surfaces, including turrets and cubes, that can also move through portals though not directly by the player. The gels can create a surface that repels the player (Repulsion Gel), increases the player's speed (Propulsion Gel), or allows the surface to accept portals (Conversion Gel). The games' credit sequences feature the songs " Still Alive " and " Want You Gone " composed by Jonathan Coulton , and, in its original form, sung by Ellen McLain in
13266-488: The map and additional gameplay elements. In addition to the season contents, Apex Legends features limited-time events. These events offer unique, limited-time cosmetics themed to the event (for example, in the case of the Holo-Day Bash, Christmas-themed outfits) that can be earned in-game. Events also provide unique limited-time game modes (such as shotguns and snipers only). Some events also introduced changes to
13400-422: The map, while keeping an eye out for other squads. Apex Legends includes a nonverbal communication "ping system" which allows players to use their game controller to communicate to their squad certain directions, weapon locations, enemies, and suggested strategies . While the game offers movement options similar to other shooters, it includes some of the gameplay features of previous Titanfall games, such as
13534-500: The match, each player on the squad selects one of the 25 playable characters (as of season 19), with the exception that no character may be selected more than once by a squad. Each character in the squad has a unique design, personality, and abilities that provide different playstyles to the team. Starting with Season 16, each legend is assigned to one of the five unique class styles: Assault, Skirmisher, Recon, Controller and Support. All teams are then placed on an aircraft that passes over
13668-598: The other hand, claimed that the omission of the Titans and other elements from previous Respawn games was not a problem and found the combat to be satisfying and the gunplay powerful. He added that the addition of heroes can make for more exciting combat than in other battle royale games. Reviewers praised the non-verbal communication system in the game (known as the "ping system") with most considering it to be highly innovative. Polygon 's Khee Hoon Chan opined that it "rendered voice chat with strangers largely unnecessary", and
13802-455: The player explores these long-abandoned areas of Aperture, learning that the company had moved from testing on the country's finest, to paid volunteers, who were often homeless, and ultimately to forcing its own employees to participate in testing. Near the point of his death, Johnson ordered his lifelong assistant Caroline (voiced by Ellen McLain ) to be the first test subject for a mind-to-computer transfer ; her personality would ultimately form
13936-470: The player obtains the Cube as they can find a wall of graffiti depicting human figures with their heads replaced by Companion Cubes, including a nearly naked human-object hybrid pin-up wearing a red bra and matching underwear. The fact that the Cube is obviously depicted by Rattman's graffiti in a feminine, sexualized way has led to interpretations of the relationship between Chell and the Cube, or between them and GLaDOS, as queer in nature, and evidence
14070-467: The player that it was of importance and was to be used and reused for the duration of the Test Chamber. The Cube was made to appear "vulnerable" rather than ubiquitous through GLaDOS's dialog, conditioning players to feel responsible for its well-being and want to take it along. In early versions of the game, the player was forced to simply abandon it and move on. However, the developers were seeking
14204-400: The player through the game, coming onto a polite but humorous artificial intelligence, which would ultimately become the character of GLaDOS . Portal ' s release with The Orange Box received near-universal praise, with the standalone game earning an aggregate Metacritic rating of 90 out of 100. With success of the game, work on an expanded sequel began nearly immediately, expanding
14338-527: The previous rounds to prepare for the next fight. This variation of the game borrows mechanics from other shooters such as Counter-Strike and Valorant . The mode is the first permanent deviation away from the battle royale format. It would later be removed in Season 16. Now Season 20 update, Breakout, introduces significant changes with upgradeable skill trees for playable Legends, offering MOBA-like progression and promising intense battles. Each new season
14472-535: The project remained a secret right up until its launch. The game's release in 2019 came as a surprise, as until that point it had been assumed that Respawn Entertainment was working on a third installment to the Titanfall franchise, the studio's previous major game, although a number of Titanfall characters appear as minor characters or playable Legends. Apex Legends received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its gameplay, progression system, and fusion of elements from various genres. Some considered it
14606-426: The rest of the content of The Orange Box as a "safety net". Portal has since been repackaged on Windows as a standalone game in April 2008. A Mac OS X client was introduced simultaneously with the release of the Steam client for that platform in May 2010; as part of its promotion, the game was released free of charge for both platforms during which at least 1.5 million players downloaded it. Portal: Still Alive
14740-450: The sake of progress to real-world animal testing , especially because GLaDOS implies that it may or may not be sentient. GLaDOS claims that "an independent panel of ethicists" have absolved Aperture Science or its test subjects from "moral responsibility" for the death of the Companion Cube, but continues to obscure whether or not it can feel any pain, suggesting that only "eight out of ten" engineers agree that it "cannot feel much", much like
14874-469: The same level of interest generated by its launch. In July 2019, EA told investors that the game had 8 to 10 million players a week and also credited Apex Legends with the company's recent upturn in live services earnings as their Q1 2020 financial results exceeded expectations. With the release of season 3 in October 2019, Apex Legends reached a playerbase of 70 million people internationally and
15008-527: The same science fiction universe as Respawn's Titanfall series. It is offered free-to-play and is continuously updated under the games as a service model; the game was originally released for PlayStation 4 , Windows , and Xbox One in February 2019 and was followed by versions for Nintendo Switch in 2021 and both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2022, with all supporting cross-platform multiplayer . A mobile version designed for touchscreens
15142-501: The staff as they completed work on Half-Life 2 . Keighley wanted to recreate a similar work for Portal 2 , with focus on making it an interactive work for the iPad . Keighley was granted "fly on the wall" access to Valve when Portal 2 was being produced. The initial iPad release was written by Keighley with work by Joe Zeff Design, a studio that had also produced digital applications for Time magazine. The interactive work provides movie clips and short applications to demonstrate
15276-484: The student is first given an environment to learn new tools with sufficient hand-holding, but these facets are slowly removed as the student proceeds. At least one college, Wabash College , introduced Portal as part of required coursework; at Wabash, the game is used as an example of Erving Goffman 's dissemination on dramaturgy , The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life . At a mid-2011 presentation at
15410-521: The studio secretly arranged for about 100 social media influencers to travel to their studio to try the game and then instructed them to "tease" news of it on their social media accounts during halftime of the Super Bowl LIII , the day before Apex Legends ' formal release. Respawn CEO Vince Zampella felt the approach was "gross", according to Castro, as he found it reminiscent of the infamous Fyre Festival "hype" which later turned out to be
15544-403: The studio was not sure what their next game would be after completing the post-release support for Titanfall 2 , though they knew they wanted to keep making Titanfall games. As with the development of Titanfall 2 , the studio broke into several small teams to create "action blocks", small game prototypes that showcase a gameplay element, a weapon, or similar feature of a game that would fit into
15678-418: The toxic water of the facility, crushed to death, passing through laser grids, or fired on repeatedly by turrets. Both games are generally divided into a series of test chambers; other sections of the game are more exploratory areas that connect these chambers. Each chamber has an exit door that must be reached, often requiring that certain conditions have been met such as having weighed down a large button with
15812-463: The type of intimate gameplay they were hoping to achieve. McCandlish claimed that the studio felt the need to create a "defensible space" in the battle-royale mode which could not be easily imitated and that the communication system, the three-man squads, and the smaller playing area were all aligned with this goal. As part of the development process, the game underwent extensive play-testing to ensure that all elements felt fun and balanced. Collectively
15946-605: The various features of the Steam Deck handheld system. In the game, the player works as a quality assurance checker for toilets manufactured by Aperture Science in its early years. They are guided by the personality core Grady through the steps, but as the game progresses, mishaps in the automated factory lead Grady to suggest that the player develop a weaponized toilet as an invention to pitch to Cave Johnson. In February 2013, Valve president Gabe Newell and film director J. J. Abrams announced that they were to collaborate on
16080-413: The various mechanics of the game and stages of the game's development. The work was later ported into a non-interactive eBook, and into an application with the same iPad interactivity on the Steam platform. With the iPad and Steam version, Keighley is able to offer live updates to the work; upon release of the "Peer Review" downloadable content pack, the work was updated with an additional chapter discussing
16214-744: The victims of the shootings. Respawn and EA announced the Apex Legends Global Series in December 2019, consisting of several online events and twelve live events during 2020 with a total US$ 3 million prize pool. The Global Series follows a similar approach as Fortnite Battle Royale by using multiple tiers of events to qualify players. Players will qualify for the Global Series through Online Tournaments. Top players and teams from these events will be invited to either regional Challenger events or to global Premier events, where
16348-493: The winners have a chance for a cash payout and invitations to one of the three major events. Three Major events will be held for one hundred teams to accumulate points in the Global Series to vie for placement in the final Major event as well as part of a US$ 500,000 prize pool. The fourth Major event had up to sixty teams competing for a portion of a US$ 1 million pool. Year 2 of the ALGS began in September 2021. Year 3 of
16482-521: Was "always solved". Portal (series) Portal is a series of first-person puzzle-platform video games developed by Valve . Set in the Half-Life universe, the two main games in the series, Portal (2007) and Portal 2 (2011), center on a woman, Chell , forced to undergo a series of tests within the Aperture Science Enrichment Center by a malicious artificial intelligence , GLaDOS , that controls
16616-576: Was a standalone version of Portal with additional content for the Xbox Live Arcade , released in October 2008. The game included new achievements, additional challenges from the existing test chambers, and additional non-story levels based on those found in the Flash -based Portal: The Flash Version created by We Create Stuff. In September 2022, Nvidia announced it would release an updated version of Portal with real-time ray tracing , as
16750-463: Was announced at the 2016 Game Developers Conference , and was released free on April 5, 2016, following the public release of the HTC Vive. Valve licensed the use of Portal to Headup Games and Clockstone Software, the developers of Bridge Constructor , to develop Bridge Constructor Portal . The game follows the same type of gameplay as Bridge Constructor , where players are tasked to create
16884-483: Was briefly available until its discontinuation in 2023. Before the match, players form into two- or three-player squads , and select from pre-designed characters with distinctive abilities, known as "Legends". The game has three gameplay modes - Trios, Duos and Solos. In "Battle Royale", up to 20 three-person squads or 30 two-person duos land on an island and search for weapons and supplies before attempting to defeat all other players in combat. The available play area on
17018-435: Was emblematic of Apex Legends ' accessibility and astuteness. Destructoid likewise enjoyed the mechanic, predicting that it would become the new norm for the video games industry in battle royale games. Rock Paper Shotgun called it the "gold standard for non-verbal communication in games" and noted that, while not an entirely new concept, Respawn Entertainment had refined the idea. While Electronic Arts had received
17152-416: Was introduced by the game Narbacular Drop and led to the basis for the first game. Another game, Tag: The Power of Paint , formed the basis of surface-altering "gels" introduced in Portal 2 . Both games have received near-universal praise, and have sold millions of copies. The first game was released as part of a five-game compilation, The Orange Box , and though intended as a short bonus feature of
17286-630: Was published by Electronic Arts and developed by Chinese company Lightspeed and Quantum Studios, a subsidiary of Tencent and the developer of PUBG Mobile . The game was shut down on May 1, 2023. Shortly after Apex Legends ' launch, it was seen as a potential esport competition, and Respawn had anticipated establishing events once the game had been established. As early as March 2019, various esport team sponsors began to assemble Apex Legends teams for these competitions. ESPN launched its EXP program to showcase esports events running alongside other ESPN-managed sporting events. The first such event
17420-515: Was released in 2023. Portal Stories: Mel is a single-player mod of Portal 2 released on June 25, 2015, developed by Prism Studios . Portal Stories: VR is a single-player virtual reality fangame of Portal 2 released on May 16, 2016, developed by Prism Studios . Aperture Tag: The Paint Gun Testing Initiative is a 2014 first-person puzzle-platform video game developed by the Aperture Tag Team. Thinking with Time Machine
17554-533: Was restarted specifically to keep the portal concept but adding new elements to freshen the gameplay. During this period, Valve had witnessed another student project out of Digipen, Tag: The Power of Paint which allows the player to spray paint onto surfaces to alter their behavior, and brought them into Valve, though not initially as part of the Portal . The Tag team had found a way to incorporate their paints with real-time fluid dynamics code previously made by Valve, and soon their concept for paints had become
17688-490: Was revealed that the Steam version will launch on November 4, the same day as the launch of season 7. However, the Nintendo Switch version was delayed to March 9, 2021. The Nintendo Switch version of Apex Legends was developed by Panic Button , known for their Switch ports of the DOOM series and Rocket League . Electronic Arts also confirmed that mobile launches on iOS and Android were in development in collaboration with
17822-550: Was the EXP Pro-Am Apex Legends Exhibition, run on July 11, 2019, alongside the 2019 ESPY Awards . An EXP Invitational event with a $ 150,000 prize pool took place alongside the X Games Minneapolis 2019 from August 1 to 4, 2019. However, as a result of the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings that occurred over that weekend, both ESPN and ABC opted to delay broadcast of the event out of respect for
17956-443: Was willing to star in it and asked fans to "write in. Email Valve. You've got my blessing". Portal was initially released in October 2007 as part of a compilation game called The Orange Box , alongside Half-Life 2 and its two episodes and Team Fortress 2 . Valve considered including Portal as a bonus feature of the compilation; the game was purposely kept short such that if it did not meet expectations, players would have
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