Just a quick heads up for anyone who doesn't already know.
Portal 2 now has an official Level Editor, of the point and click together variety. The trailer for it is pretty much self explanatory, so here's the store page directly so you can view it yourself in all it's glory. By the way, it's a completely FREE update for those who already own Portal 2, and included in Portal 2 from now on for those new to the game:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/620/ (first video trailer is the official trailer from Cave Johnson himself. It's also funny.)
The game is on sale for 66% off till 5/10/2012(midweek madness promotion), bringing it's price down to $6.79 USD.
For those who don't already know, Portal 2 is a really good first person puzzle/action game, mostly puzzle, but it would be unfair to puzzle fans not to mention there are a couple timed parts in it's single player storyline(pretty merciful timers, and the timed parts all have very simple puzzles during them, so no worries about "elite gamer instincts"). I haven't played the Co-op, but I've heard that the official co-op puzzles have quite a bit more action to them due to the many things you can do with a portal deploying partner flying in the air.
Parents will be glad to know the game is rated E 10+, and contains nothing that the younger can't see. While the game's world does have a dark history to uncover, the storytelling is approached with a flavor of humor and "tell, not show" that means everything we see is only as dark and suggestive as our imaginations fill it in. Mostly, the game focuses on humor and a bit of emotional manipulation, and never takes itself serious enough to break the rating.
I do have to give one major warning, if you are motion sick, sometimes you will need to jump through portals and "fling" yourself around. Portal 2 has a few tweaks to the way the gravity works so that the motions are much less dizzying then the first Portal game, but the motion sickness is still worth noting.
The new editor means there will now be a massive flux of Steam Workshop powered custom level goodness for puzzle fans, by puzzle fans, to chew on. Portal 2 is now technically endless, gameplay-wise.
But mostly, it shows that Valve still cares for it's fans. Seriously, this editor must have been a ton of work since the game engine itself(the HL2/Left for Dead engine) doesn't even support this kind of "level loading" normally.
To release it for free is like giving us fans a great big "Thank You!" hug. Thanks Valve!
