Portal 2 now open for business across multiple platforms

As she threatened over the end titles of the original, the maniacal software known as GlaDOS is very much still alive and prepared to roll out a whole slew of new brain-bending puzzles in today's release of Portal 2.

While not a traditional adventure game, puzzle fans enjoyed the original Portal’s reliance on spatial intelligence and strategic use of strange devices over twitchy fingers and wired reflexes to escape the danger-laden maze that is GlaDOS's home, Aperture Science. This latest venture once again sees involuntary subject Chell thrust into the testing facility, though both the facility and the tools at Chell's disposal have gone through some changes. While she still sports the portal gun that rips holes in space and gives the franchise its name, she will also make use of a variety of gels, beams, and other bizarre tech as she navigates the inner sanctum of Aperture Science's laboratory, which is now overrun by environmental hazards and turrets gone amok.

Chell is also equipped with new footwear called the “Longfall Boot” that prevents her from falling on her face as she jumps from precarious ledge to shifting platform in an attempt to make it back to the world outside. Video-based evidence of this technology in action is the spotlight of this latest trailer, featuring the voice of J.K. Simmons, one of the many well-known actors lending his talents to the game.

Along with a more robust single-player campaign, Portal 2 introduces co-operative play into the series as players can buddy up online as a pair of slapstick robots, ATLAS and P-Body, engaging in their own run through Aperture’s deadly test chambers. Whether alone or with friends, if four-dimensional thinking, sardonic wit, and the masochistic tendencies of errant programs sound good, you can pick up the game today for PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.