When Gabe Newell took the stage at Sony’s E3 2010 Press Conference, many of us in the gaming community were shocked. Here’s a guy who has been critical of the Playstaion 3 and is now bringing Portal 2 to the console, also stated that “The Playstation 3 version of Portal 2 will be the best version on any console.” Not before mention that the PS3 version would feature Steam support, auto-updates, and more. Personally, I brushed off that bit of info due to my ignorance and uneducated knowledge of Steam. Today, Valve has educated me and lived up to its promise, Portal 2 will have better features on PS3.
Valve sent out a press release detailing some of the key features available only on the PS3 version of Portal 2. The PS3 version of Portal 2 will feature cross-platform chat & multiplayer, and “persistent cloud-based storage of PS3 saved games.” This means PS3 players can communicate and play with PC/Mac players through Steam. Anyone who decides to purchase the PS3 version of Portal 2 can unlock a Steam Play copy of Portal 2 on PC/Mac at no additional cost.
“We made a promise to gamers at E3 that Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 would be the best console version of the product,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “Working together with Sony we have identified a set of features we believe are very compelling to gamers. We hope to expand upon the foundation being laid in Portal 2 with more Steam features and functionality in DLC and future content releases.”
“We designed the Portal 2 PS3 experience to be very straightforward for gamers,” said Josh Weier, project lead on Portal 2 at Valve. “PS3 gamers will be able to simply drop the Blu-Ray disc in the PS3, link to their Steam account from inside the game, and all their Steam friends (on PC and Mac) will be visible and accessible for chat and game invites.”
I can’t say I’m moved by these great features, but I can say that the PS3 version of Portal 2 should be the one to get. Portal 2 is due for release on the PlayStation 3, PC, Mac and Xbox 360 this April.
