Valve explains what makes PS3 Portal 2 so good
Valve has explained why Portal 2 on PS3 will be "the best console version" out there - even though there will be no keyboard or mouse control.
Project Lead Joshua Weier has said that there is "no chance" the game will support a USB keyboard and mouse control scheme.
"The whole game is built around playtesting, which extends to the hardware and how people use it. We have people internally who played on the PS3 — we use it all the time — and we constantly iterated it. Luckily, Portal 2's not a super twitchy, complicated game, so we just focused on making a comfortable controller experience."
There's no Move support planned either, in case you were wondering. As a sort of consolation, however, the game will not require a hardware install, and takes up a measly 22MB with saved game files.
Weier and his colleague Erik Wolpaw, writer on Portal 2, sat down with the Playstation.Blog to answer a whole bunch of questions submitted by the community.
The pair explained that the company "learned a lot" from the release of The Orange Box, which featured PS3 versions ported by a third-party. By the time Portal 2 came around, Valve had much more console knowledge under its belt (through hiring former Naughty Dog staffers, among others), and was prepared to develop the game into a fully-fledged PS3 title.
The new console release will finally bring Steam functionality to consoles, and Josh took great delight in sharing detail on cross-platform play.
"This time around, you can actually play with your PC and Mac friends on your PS3, which is a pretty big deal. They show up as any old friend on your Steam friends list — you don’t even need to know whether they’re on a Mac or PC. You’re playing the same content, the game works the same way…it’s super-seamless for everyone. We’re all about giving gamers choices. Being able to hop into the game, find a buddy, and not care what platform he’s playing on is a pretty cool thing."
The pair go on to confirm that - ideally - the PS3 version will be updated at the same time as the PC and Mac versions, with the same content. Some tweaks will still be platform-specific (video card compatability was mentioned as an example), but overall the intention is to "keep them in lockstep".
The interview itself is long and full of interesting details about the upcoming game, but the lads at Valve kept the most important information until last, with Erik stating simply, "The cake has been retired, it’s gone."