The cake is not a lie! At least this Portal 2 themed cake, made by Redmond-based Mike’s Amazing Cakes. The Portal 2 cake is certainly one of the best looking gaming cakes we’ve seen in a while, but after all, it is made by a professional. Now all all we need to do is to have a little tasting to make sure the quality is up to Aperture Science standards. You hear us Mike? Send over a sample and testing will commence!

Valve is one of the most influence names in the gaming community with several of their hardest hitting games sure to go down in history. Of course they have the highly popular Half-Life and Counter-Strike series but they also have the somewhat newer Portal series. If you’re a fan of this series you’ll know that the company has recently released the second addition appropriately dubbed Portal 2 which includes things like co-op play and many new puzzles to portal your way through.

However, once beating both modes of the game there isn’t much you can do besides try to beat your own personal high score. Luckily, Valve has just remedied that today as well as they have just pushed out a level creator for the game. That’s right, you can now create your own puzzling levels for Portal 2 and all it takes it a simple download within the Tools sections of your Steam account.

Valve has seen hit after hit make it big on the market and their latest release Portal 2 is no different. This game expanded on the first title and gave gamers a full fledged arena to make their way through utilizing the iconic portal gun. However, while the second game is considered by most everyone to be a great game, some have said that it’s a bit short. Luckily, thanks to the emergence of online virtual retail outlets that’s nothing a little DLC can’t fix.

In fact, despite just hitting the market gamers are already wondering when Valve will get around to releasing the first Portal 2 DLC pack. Well, Valve’s VP of marketing Doug Lombardi has just come forth to say the following:

“We will be announcing some DLC for it, so folks can keep a look out for more content coming this summer.”

While this isn’t set in stone, Valve has been known to be good about releasing DLC for their titles so the summer is ddefinitely something to look forward to.

If you have Portal 2, how are you liking it?

The original Portal was a breath of fresh air for all gamers, as it offered wonderful gameplay, lots of humor and style. All while being quite limited to only a few hours of gameplay and with minimalistic visuals. After much anticipation, the sequel is here, and it delivers across the board for any Portal fan — any videogame fan, period. Not only does it offer great puzzles, lots of humor, but also sports a wonderful story and characters.

Portal 2 has the same ground principles as Portal 1, you’re still armed with your trusty Portal gun, where you create entrances and exits to Portals in order to solve puzzles. Portal 2 ups the ante by introducing several new gameplay features, including gels that propel you, light bridges, tractor beams, jump pads and lots of other stuff. The puzzles are far more intricate this time, and are still based around the same principle: open the door to exit the level. Usually this is done by transporting companion cubes to activate a switch etc. And while the puzzles are a lot more intricate and complex, they never feel impossible, and you can usually beat any level with a few tries and some creative thinking. And you’ll be doing a lot creative thinking in Portal 2.

There’s also multiplayer in Portal 2, with co-op gameplay. Here, you play as two bots, and you have to work together to solve the puzzles and get through the levels. Teamwork in Portal 2 co-op is a must, and you won’t solve a single puzzle without working together. Since this can be a little tricky if you can’t talk to the person (Portal 2 supports VOIP), there are a set of tools you can easily access in order to communicate with each other — a great touch many games seem to be forgetting these days when it comes to co-op.

Visually, the game looks an order of magnitude better than Portal 1. But Portal 2′s visuals still don’t fully stack up with the recent shooters like Crysis 2. What the visuals in Portal 2 do, is create an amazing atmosphere, with wonderful lighting effects, shadows, and art design. There is a lot more details and style in the world, and despite still using the aging Source engine, it manages to be just enough for a game like Portal 2.

Overall, Portal 2 is the must have sequel to Portal, it offers everything the previous game had, only a lot bigger, better, and with a ton of new features (like co-op). It’s our first must buy game of 2011.

The Good:
Amazing gameplay and puzzles
Never feels frustrating or impossible
Lots of humor
Great atmosphere and story
Cp-op is a blast

The Bad:
Somewhat dated visuals
Too many loading times

Overall score: 9/10

While Portal 2 is getting all the news coverage in the gaming industry these days (our review will be published tonight), its predecessor, Portal 1, has been a critical and commercial success, that much was known. But what we didn’t know was that the game has sold and impressive 4 million copies to date through its bundling with The Orange Box, and through separate sales.

What’s surprising is that Valve only included retail sales numbers on not sales on Steam, where the game has been a top seller for years. It’s not hard to believe that Portal 1 could have easily sold more than 5 million copies to date. It’s successor, Portal 2, which is a standalone game, has been on a pre-order frenzy and looks like it’s gonna be a top seller. It should, be cause our initial experience with the game have been nothing but pleasant. Full review coming up later today.