Awesome! Can't wait. Portal is in my top 10 favorite games.

Valve is an amazing studio. Everything they've developed is innovative and strong. Just stunning. All of this without having made any major updates to the Source engine. Clearly, innovation wins out here, not tech.

Hoping for console releases. This would be a first day purchase for me.

I hope Kim Swift and her teammates are involved with making the sequel. Otherwise, we could see some straying from what made the first one so interesting.

Turned out confirmed for X360. Thanks Valve!

I want Half-Life 3 in an all new game engine with an all new story. But that is just crazy talk.

But Portal 2 is good enough for now. I hope it is coming to the PS3.

ROFL!!! That was a good one huh?

No really. I want it on my PS3. >:(

Didn't Kim Swift leave Valve?

What are you looking for in a new engine Alan? DirectX 10 support? That wouldn't be useful for the PS3. :)

I'm quite happy with it currently. Visually it's on par with everything else I've played recently, so games like Resident Evil 5 and Mass Effect 2. It supports all of my cores, it's DirectX 9 + shader model 3 happy, which for me is good, as I'm not ready to move to Windows 7.

Anyways, besides supporting Microsoft's newer graphic API, I'm wondering what else they should improve at the moment?

Yeah Swift left for Airtight games to pursue her own title.

Great cant wait to get it! But remember guys, Valve use a different Calendar ;)
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time

According to this Page Portal 2 will hit the Shelves at the Fall of next Year :D

Best News Ever.

I hadn't heard that Kim Swift left Valve. Interesting choice, to say the least. Still, she may have had input on the sequel prior to leaving depending on when development actually began, and there's still other team members from the first game that may be there and may be able to keep it true to the original.

If it goes in a completely new direction, I don't think I'd be happy, personally.

Thank you God. I knew listening to you was one of the best choices I ever made. :)

David Delisle, HL E3 might not be coming out at all ( http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/19/game-informer-no-half-life-2-episode-3-for-you
-in-2010/ ) and what valve is doing is more of premium DLC expansion/mission model than episodic content; look to Telltale Games for a true episodic release schedule.

I'm interested to see what they will be doing with portal and am hoping for some co-op levels but deep down inside I want a new Counter Strike. CS:S is dated when compared to other tactical precision FPSs. I don't have the link but in a video interview Gabe did ask for players to send in emails on whether they want a new CS or a new Portal, my guess the Portal people out numbered the CS people or it didn't matter as they already had their release schedule set. I can at the very least hope for a CS3 with the release of halflife 3 or episode 3.

@Jordan, "episodes" don't have a time constraint by definition. Look at Star Wars. An episode simply needs to be a "part of a sequence of a body of work". The term is loose and can be applied to a great many things. There is no "true" episodic content. I think perhaps this comes from not only televisions near ubiquity but also people's desire for more frequent content from Valve. ( <3 Sam & Max )

Word from Game Informer is that there will be a separate two-player cooperative campaign with new playable characters.

I'd always love to see a new CS. Just no barrels, please. They should keep the playable geometry simple like in TF2. But that's another discussion.