Portal: Still Alive explained
There is much confusion over what exactly Portal: Still Alive, an upcoming Xbox Live Arcade release of Valve’s excellent platformer-thing, is. After all, it was announced amazingly vaguely during Microsoft’s E3 press conference, and there was little followup. So I asked Valve’s Doug Lombardi, and he explained it to me.
Portal: Still Alive is a standalone version of the original Portal that can be purchased through Xbox Live Marketplace. In addition to Portal itself, it will include a number of levels that are not part of the game’s story, and do not feature story-related elements such as GLaDOS voiceover.
The game is exclusive to Live Arcade, at least for a while, but PC players can get basically the same experience right now anyway. Here’s why.
You may have seen Portal: The Flash Version, a clever Flash-based tribute to Valve’s game. You are slightly less likely to have seen the Portal: The Flash Version MapPack, which recursively ports the Flash game’s levels to Portal itself.
Still Alive’s bonus content consists of 360-certified versions of the levels from that pack. So if you’re a PC Portal owner who, like me, was feeling excluded by Still Alive’s bonus content, fear not: you get to play that content first, and for free.
Tags: portal, portal: the flash version, recursiveness, valve
July 19th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Just thought I’d peek in and say hi. Saw you at the “Big Show” and remembered you from some other press junkets. <3
We should get together sometime and do some podcastings. Yes, I pluralized it, leave me alone.
Candice
July 20th, 2008 at 8:12 am
[...] exactly what Portal: Still Alive for the XBLA is going to be? Well, wonder no more. According to Valve’s PR, this is a standalone version of Portal that comes bundles with the Orange Box, but with some [...]
July 20th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
[...] Still Alive are actually the Flash maps we reported on a while back, Valves’s Doug Lombardi has explained. For the uninitiated, Portal: The Flash Version is a free 2D flash implementation of Portal, and [...]
July 20th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
[...] Editor At Large Chris Remo has returned from Los Angeles in one piece, and he posted something E3-related on his own blog that’s a) informative to fans of GlaDOS and b) worth reprinting here, if you like . [...]
July 21st, 2008 at 9:24 am
[...] The bonus levels are simply culled from Hen Mazolski’s Portal: The Flash Version MapPack, Valve marketing VP Doug Lombardi told former Shacknews editor Chris Remo. [...]
July 21st, 2008 at 11:36 am
[...] version of Portal, with some new maps and puzzles for Aperture Science fans. Thanks to some investigation by Chris Remo, however, it’s now known that the actual content in “Still Alive” is taken [...]
July 21st, 2008 at 8:25 pm
[...] Portal: Still Alive explained [Remowned] [...]
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:23 am
[...] Portal: Still Alive explained [...]
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:55 am
I don’t know if that makes me feel happy or sad.
The Flash Version map pack was amazing fun, but I beat it. Easily. A long time ago.
No new content for this game makes me sad, I really thought that Valve would come out with free maps and challenges for this game like they’re doing with it’s FPS counterpart, TF2.
Oh well.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:37 am
[...] Still Alive no es más que una versión individual del Portal original que puede ser adquirida mediante el Xbox Live Marketplace. A modo de bonificación extra, incluirá [...]
July 30th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
hmm.. usefull info :)
August 18th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Thanks for screwing over the people who bought the Orange Box, EA! Whatever happened to Valve saying they wanted to release free DL content for Portal? And wtf don’t we even have the option to download the new maps as simply new content for the retail release? So annoyed…
August 26th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Fans looking for a real sequel will have to wait.
http://croutondays.d3p0.com/this-was-a-triumph/
September 25th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
im kinda sad. the new portal content should be downloadable content on xbl arcade insted of a whole game wich could cost 15 to 20 bucks. i would buy the DLC for a few bucks rather then having to buy the game again to get the additional content. plus i know the game will take up alot more space on my hard drive than some DLC would. then again…i am anxious to play some new portal. even if it is just some extra stuff. im just confused as to its relase date. i thought i heard this september. but i must have heard wrong.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
i love still alive but it needs a story but the new maps rock:)
March 17th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
cant we the marketplace owners of the portal on xbox live marketplace get a map pack cant you valve guys release one on marketplace please
March 24th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Improper use of the word “recursively” makes this article worthless.