As Jake is saying, "this is awesome". Via Gamefreaks.

Actor Stephen Merchant, who put in a masterful turn as Portal 2's Wheatley, found giving life to the crazy little metal ball a lot tougher than his roles in front of the camera.

"I have to say, I found the entire thing really exhausting" he told MTV. "More than anything I've ever done before because I'm in this little recording booth, shouting down these imaginary corridors, imaginary gantries, pretending to fall off things and really trying to move around and live it as best I could. I know it sounds really pretentious, but really try to move around like this robot so my voice would feel like it was animated. I was really working hard to try and put myself in that environment, I guess, which is not something I normally do as a performer."

Indeed, he wore himself out so much during recording that he began dreading the trip to the booth. "When I finished it I was like, I can never do this again, I'm so tired. Honestly, I'm not just exaggerating for the interview. I was really tired. By the third or fourth session, I was not looking forward to it. I was just like, I'm gonna be exhausted after this. So, at the time, I was thinking, Oh, I don't fancy doing this again."

All sounds a bit negative, but don't worry, that was just at the time. Now that the game's out, and people loved it, he says he is "very pleased by the response people have had to it. What I was really pleased by how people seemed to respond to it in the way they do with a movie they've enjoyed, or a TV show they've enjoyed."

You can read the full interview at MTV below, but be warned, there be spoilers.

Stephen Merchant On His 'Exhausting' 'Portal 2' Performance As Wheatley, Interest In Returning For 'Portal 3' [MTV]

If you're going to review Portal 2, that's cool with me if you don't bring up Jesus. Seriously, I'm totally okay with that.

I reviewed Portal 2 here and I didn't once mention Jesus, or any other religious figure. It's a perfectly viable approach. So why would I have a problem with this Jesusless review of Portal 2?

(Note from Kotaku: Tom's about to spoil Portal 2, ok?)

Because the site is called Christ Centered Gamer. I followed a link to the review because I was genuinely curious to read a Christian perspective on Portal 2. Doesn't a game about an all-powerful being putting her hapless subject through trials resonate with a religion that sees fit to include the story of Job in its bible? Isn't there a cute analog to the Incarnation of Christ when GlaDOS is made flesh in a potato, tormented by a bird, bereft of much of her power, and brought to a closer relationship with Chell? Do I detect something Christian in Portal 2′s vertical movement, plunged into the depths and eventually reaching into the heavens? Doesn't Wheatley's easy descent into cruelty say something about human sin, even if he's a man-made simulacrum of humanity? Isn't Cave Johnson about as big a blowhard as Paul? Okay, I'm not really a Christian, so it's not my job to come up with that stuff, but that's the sort of thing I'd like to read about.

Instead, I got a review that's no different from what I could read on a boring ass secular site like Gamespot or IGN. It's all stuff that may as well be on the back of a box. Not a shred of insight, much less Christian insight. Which is really nothing new. So many reviews are dryly observational, minus any meaningful perspective, or much insight, or even context.

I poked around Christ Centered Gaming in vain, hoping to read about how Alan Wake's dark world might resonate with a Christian, or how a Christian might feel about the historical representation of his religion in Paradox's strategy games like Victoria II. No such luck. Instead, the Christian perspective is reduced to an absurd morality score, explained here, in which points are docked based on the presence of occult themes, profanity, violence, homosexuality, or disrespect for family values. In other words, the only potentially interesting observations are reduced to a numerical score that equates Christianity with facile morality. I suppose it's about as helpful as any review score.

Nolan North's greatest ever vocal performance is in Portal 2, where he plays Rick the Adventure Sphere, a character that appears only briefly in the game, but nearly manages to steal the whole show.

Being well short of 1,000 years old, Harrison Ford couldn't hope to play Rick in the movie we wish this shirt was actually based on, but that's OK. He'd probably only bring George Lucas and Shia LaBeouf along for the ride anyway, which would ruin everything.

The voice of evil supercomputer GLaDOS, Ellen McLain, and the face of test subject Chell, Alesia Glidewell, appear to get along just fine in real life—unlike their Portal counterparts—in this photograph taken during the making of Portal 2.

Photograph via Ashley King / Joystiq.

Complete with a red laser eye and motion-sensing sound bytes, video game replica prop master Ryan Palser's latest creation is only one assload of bullets away from being a really bad idea.

Palser has spent month's putting together this replica of my favorite characters from the first Portal game, and all of his hard work certainly shows in the final product. The custom laser-cut eye is a work of art, the plastic bits perfectly polished to a high sheen. Motion sensors cause sound files to play, wondering if you're still there, while the game's theme song plays at the touch of a button.

Unfortunately Valve changed up the turret design between Portal and Portal 2, so Ryan has labeled this one Portal Turret Version 1.0. Perhaps for version 2.0 he'll finally get around to adding bullets.

Hit up Ryan's Flickr page to see how the entire project played out from start to finish.

Portal Turret 1.0 [Flickr via Make - Thanks, Ayus!]

Practically anything said institutionally by Valve, or especially by its co-founder, Gabe Newell, is parsed for any potential meaning to the unannounced, eternally awaited Half-Life 2: Episode 3. So when Newell, in an all-access feature charting the development of Portal 2, said the game was "probably" the last one with any isolated single-player experience, Half-Life fans got really jumpy, given how story-driven that game is.

Newell sat down for an interview with a high school student who asked him to clarify those remarks. You can listen to the entire interview in that video above. It touches on many interesting subjects, but regarding single- vs. multiplayer, here is what Newell said, verbatim:

I think what we're trying to talk about is the fact is not that we're not thinking about single-player games-Portal 2 I think is a pretty good example of what we've learned over the years in terms of how to create those [single-player] experiences.

It's more that we think that we have to work harder in the future. That entertainment is inherently increased in value by having it be social, by letting you play with your friends, by recognizing that you're connected with other people.

Single-player is great, but we also have to recognize that you have friends and wanted to have that connected as well.

It's not about giving up on single-player at all. It's saying we actually think there are a bunch of features and capabilities that we need to add into our single-player games to recognize the socially connected gamer. Every gamer has instant messaging, every gamer has a Facebook account. If you pretend that that doesn't exist, you're ignoring the problems that you're taking on.

It's single-player plus, not ‘no more single-player.'

Later on, Newell is asked about the possibility of a direct crossover between Portal and Half-Life, as both games are set in the same continuity. Newell did not directly confirm such a crossover will take place, but he did say that setting both games in the same universe has a purpose.

"When you're thinking about games, you sort of want to think about how characters collide. In their current forms, Chell and Gordon are very similar characters. in terms of the phenomenology of their experiences. ... In terms of having these people coexist at same time and same place, that's ... part of the reason Portal and Half-Life are in the same universe."

Gabe Newell Interview: 5/2/11 [by user theythatare, YouTube]