Ok, so I played a few other games since the last post, I come to that in a different blog post. I only wanted to get one thing about Portal 2 off my chest real quick. spoiler free

To set things straight right from the beginning. I really love this game! The controls (I played PS3 version, which played as good as Portal 1 with mouse&keyboard.), the setting, the characters, their development and voice work, and also the graphics are holding up pretty well - in large part because of the unseen amount of 
dynamic environment, which effectively breaks the solitude. I really liked the fact that they got rid of most of the momentum and timing based stuff, and made the game more puzzle orientated. I had a great time, and beside Dead Space 2 it is a GOTY 2011 contender for me (so far obviously).

But is it just me or are the actual puzzles way easier than in the first game? I finished the game in two rather short sittings, even quite late in the evening. Maybe I developed a severe case of "portal vision", but it felt like that you really spend the most of the time just transversing the room with relative ease, and look at everything that is availale. The presentation of the puzzle then already gives so many clues about the solution, that they end up being quite simple. Especially if you take into account that the respective newly introduced mechanic is likely the key to success. Most of the times a puzzle took me longer than average, it was simply because I overlooked a spot, not because the solution was so tricky. I just recently finished the first game, and I remember it to be less handholding and less dependant on visual clues.

I hope Valve has more up in his sleeves when it comes to DLC.