Reply #1: Finished the single player story last night.

[Occulus]

Save up your cash and buy it. It's worth it. And I haven't even played the co-op mode yet!

I was going to write a Dead Space 2 review, but that can go to someone else; I'm not done with Dead Space 2 yet and am in fact very much stuck. I'll be writing a Portal 2 review instead (with screenies; I'll do my best to avoid too many big spoilers) in the next couple of days or so.

I. LOVE. This. Game.

Just a couple points: if you can play Source games on your PC reasonably well, Portal 2 will run just as well as the other Source games. It's a beautiful game, visually; the liquids (well, okay: slime) covering the floors in some areas just look fantastic. A couple new gameplay mechanics- the Aperture Science Hard Light Bridge and the Aperture Science Aerial Faith Plate, to name two- only add to the gameplay. The voice acting is very well done, and the plot expands quite a lot upon the thin skeleton exhibited in the original.

And, of course, GLaDOS is just the best villain ever. And she's not the only one.

Save those pennies and buy this game (preferably for the PC). It is most definitely worth it.

Also, if you have a PC and plan to get Portal 2 for it: yes, you can indeed play splitscreen coop on a single PC even though the mode isn't on the menu! It's an undocumented feature that requires a 360 for PC controller or a (free) 360 controller emulator, but as the Source engine contains full splitscreen (and multiscreen!) support, it is possible; I just got it working tonight myself and it functions nearly perfectly (and is completely playable). I don't know why Valve didn't code it in officially, but it's there and it works.

If you buy only ONE game on Steam this entire year, make it Portal 2. It's just that good.