Post- Half Life future hinted at in Portal 2 (SPOILERS!)

[BlazeXploder]

The potatos stayed intact for 230 years? No way. Even the big potato plant (by Chell, I love that easter egg) would have died. I say that something happened which tore through the centre (the reactor blowing or something?) which sapped the colour out of everything (radiation could screw that stuff up easy, and with the testing it wouldnt be a shock for Chell to survive radiation) but left the centre intact. This wouldve, however, affected the local circuitry, but not have a widespread EMP wave, due to the lead and concrete all over aperture, thus breaking the clocks, but not the overall announcer or all the robots, which would have been in other areas of the compound. A computer then reverts to it's failsafes; usually reseting the date, such as old laptops resetting to 1980, Jan 1st at 0.00; or activating safety measures (waking up test subjects). That wouldve gone through till it had to pull the information of length of stasis out, where it would return null and force an errored response. Therefore, I think it is less than 50 days later, but the lack of central control allowed the centre to fall apart. I think the wheat field is simply a place where the combine havent arrived; it would be only a matter of months after the combine invasion.

 

[Lanthanide]

In a facility falling apart on itself, a clock is one of the last things that I would expect to work.

Really? You think in a massive facility the size of Aperture, the clocks would be one of the first things to break? Even the power reactor that GLaDOS says that Wheatley has decided not to operate correctly and is in imminent danger of exploding?

And really, 2,739 years?

Like I said, the 6th 9 was glitchy, so it could easily have supposed to have stopped at #5. The look of aperture is more concordant with ~274 years than it is with ~2739 years.

What I'm trying to say is that just because the thing said 999999 days, doesn't make it legit.

Of course not. But you can't just discount it out of hand, either.

As for Opposing Force, that wasn't developed by Valve and isn't considered to be 'canon'. I'm sure that whoever wrote Sheppard's diary had no idea that there were calendars in the game that said December on them - that's the sort of detail that obsessed fans discover, not someone who is working on a game for a living.

Many sitcoms for example have people who have the task of "continuity", to ensure things are kept relatively straight between episodes and over long story arcs. It's not surprising that these sort of mistakes are very easy to make without someone specifically tasked with looking out for them.

The potatos stayed intact for 230 years? No way. Even the big potato plant (by Chell, I love that easter egg) would have died.

That's probably the best rebuttal for a time period of anything longer than a decade at the outside, really. Although the potato plant could have only recently germinated. Then again, see my note above about continuity - Valve put potatoes in the game because they were funny, they didn't necessarily stop and think that it broke continuity.

I say that something happened which tore through the centre (the reactor blowing or something?) which sapped the colour out of everything (radiation could screw that stuff up easy, and with the testing it wouldnt be a shock for Chell to survive radiation) but left the centre intact.

Right, so "radiation" that "sapped the colour of everything" and yet somehow was cleansed so the facility wasn't dangerous to her health. If this really was supposed to be the backstory behind why Aperture is so dilapidated, you think they would include at least some sort of reference to it in the game, like GLaDOS or Wheatley saying something about "now all the radiation's gone", or maybe even the announcer - all he talks about is potential apocalypse including meteors or animal kings.

Instead, the explanation for aperture being so dilapidated is that it is a significantly long time since the events of Portal 1. And they way they hint this is by having the announcer say 99999+ days at the beginning and showing how rusted and overgrown everything is, the two every-day familiar processes that generally only happen over significant lengths of time.

This wouldve, however, affected the local circuitry, but not have a widespread EMP wave, due to the lead and concrete all over aperture, thus breaking the clocks,

Because aperture uses analogue wall clocks to keep time, and it's not an integral part of the announcer or GLaDOS? You do know how important time keeping and synchronisation is in computer systems, right?

but not the overall announcer or all the robots, which would have been in other areas of the compound. A computer then reverts to it's failsafes; usually reseting the date, such as old laptops resetting to 1980, Jan 1st at 0.00; or activating safety measures (waking up test subjects). That wouldve gone through till it had to pull the information of length of stasis out, where it would return null and force an errored response.

Seems more likely it would just report "error" or 0 days than 999999. It's possible, I suppose.

Therefore, I think it is less than 50 days later, but the lack of central control allowed the centre to fall apart. I think the wheat field is simply a place where the combine havent arrived; it would be only a matter of months after the combine invasion.

The hotel room certainly looks more lived in than simply 50 days. Note that the very first time we wake up is after 50 days. The second time it looks very very different (just look at the bed, for example).

~100 days from Portal 1 also isn't long enough for all of the extensive plant growth found in the early chambers.

At the end of Portal 1 we end up on the surface, which is a parking lot. ~100 days later, we end up on the surface, and suddenly the parking lot has been replaced with a field of mature wheat, as far as the eye can see. I don't think so.

 

[ríomhaire]

But then in the half life: opposing force manual under Shepard's diary thing, it says that he went into the Black Mesa Research facility in March, which isn't December.

They were being trained for a mission to Black Mesa in March. There's rather a large difference.

 

[altceva]

The message is really simple guys: you end up a in wheat field. What harvests wheat? Erm... a COMBINE, maybe?

 

[Light_Science]

Maybe Wheatley moved his chamber to a different location,thats why its not under the parking lot.This field maybe miles away from the parking lot,Aperture is so big.

 

[Jonathan9427]

The message is really simple guys: you end up a in wheat field. What harvests wheat? Erm... a COMBINE, maybe?

My head just exploded.

 

[Jonathan9427]

The message is really simple guys: you end up a in wheat field. What harvests wheat? Erm... a COMBINE, maybe?

WOW. My head just exploded. Nice observation.

 

[The Monkey]

Humanity is definitely present. Glados said early in the game that she saw some humans outside. If centuries have passed (as all evidence point to) and the combines were still in power, surely they would've replaces humans with androids by now! Thus, the humans defeated the combine. That's at least my conclusion.

 

[Lanthanide]

Why is it a field of wheat? Why is Wheatley named Wheatley? Coincidence? As altceva says, "combine" harvesters are used to harvest wheat.

Wheatley is secretly a combine spy!

 

[susko]

Glados could very well be "joking" about humans outside. How about using test subjects to repopulate earth after combine harvested everyone? Maybe Glados will try to make the whole earth a giant lab!

 

[deathcheckedin]

We can all agree that this takes place after the half Life 2 story arc (which I hope ends with Ep. 3....The Combine thing is getting old). However, because the field is ambiguous and doesnt give us any hints as to where the field is, we can assume that it's not the same place we found Chell at the end of Portal 1. Portal 1's ending had roads, had signs of a civilization that had forgotten about Aperture when the Combine invaded. At the end of Portal 2, we are left with a field, but no signs of Combine at all. The idea is....is that if Gordon where to fail or be put back into stasis in Ep 3, the world would be completely alien and Combine like

 

[Taco Wiz]

What's interesting is that when we see the Earth during the scene on the moon, it appears to have water.

*wink*

 

[GeniusX]

"This test may contain trace amounts of time travel.." anyone?

 

[Tyro76]

Was anyone else suprised to NOT see a looming citadel or flying gunships during the ending of portal 2?

 

[steels12]

I still think it's supposed to say something like 9 years, and the '9' is just repeating because the voice is broken.

well no, that couldn't be. the repeating 9 is because the sleep clock is on a counter (like this -> Hours: [0][0] Minutes: [0][0] Seconds: [0][0]

and chell was asleep so long that the counter hit the maximum limit so it would just say 9 9 9 9 9 9 9, but it crashed before it could finish.



And for the record, Black mesa was located in Nevada so i would assume that City 18 would be somewhere near there.


P.S. DEATHeVADER, how do you KNOW that aperature is located in Michigan?

 

[Tunnelsnake]

During the end of Portal 2 when GLaDOS kicks you out into the wheat field, you don't see any combine activity or any evidence of combine activity. Does anyone think this means that Gordon rid the Earth of Combine?

 

[deathcheckedin]

During the end of Portal 2 when GLaDOS kicks you out into the wheat field, you don't see any combine activity or any evidence of combine activity. Does anyone think this means that Gordon rid the Earth of Combine?

Read the first post of the thread. That's the point of this thread

 

[wallcat]

Honestly, I'm not sure how "connected" the Portal and Half-Life series are. Obviously I understand that Aperture Science is a part of the Half-Life universe, but I don't think that the people working on Portal 2 were thinking about the Half-Life storyline when they had a peaceful ending.

Yeah, I agree. It's totally vague, but then again, that's how Valve operate. Hehe.

All this "trying to figure out how far in the future Portal 2 is" via that clock is nonsense. I'm sure that all that the 9999999 is supposed to tell the player is that, whoops, Aperture Science is ****ed and the computers are all broken. I doubt it was at all a measurement of time. For all we know, it could have been as little as ten years later - don't trust broken clocks.

That's what I think. Apeture Science was in a bad state, and as I recall from Portal 1, GLaDOS was always getting stuff wrong... mind you, that might have been intentional.

I remember in Portal 1, GLaDOS saying something like : "Thing have changed since the last time you left the buidling. What's going on out there will make you wish you were back in here. I have an infinate capacity for knowledge and even I'm not sure what's going on out there."
Hmm, kinda makes you think...

 

[Acepilotf14]

tbh it was probably just a cop out to keep from -really- tying the series together. When they make vague explanations like that it means they don't really want to say but they can leave the possibility open for themselves if they want to, or to ignore it later if they feel like it.

It's a trick in GMing. I use it all the time.

 

[wallcat]

GMing?? Gimmicking?? lol

Perhaps Valve like holding onto their franchises... keeping people interested, never giving a definate ending. I mean, I bet in HL2 EP3 not all will be explained, still, and one will have to purchase Portal 3 / Portal 2 EP 1 (lol) to find out? Just a guess.

 

[Arto572]

Borealis was supposed to contain portal technology.

Maybe Gordon can go to the future, maybe he can go back 20 years and stop the Resinance Cascade from happening? Possibilities are ENDLESS