For coming out in April isPortal 2, Valves follow-up to its surprise first-person puzzle hit of 2007.

However, lets remind ourselves: this is Valve!

Theyve not yet made a less-than-great game.

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The game opens with a mix of the new and the familiar.

He wishes to escape the facility, but he needs your help.

Also returning, unsurprisingly, is GLaDOS, who Wheatley unwittingly wakes as you tiptoe through her chamber.

So what story could we tell now, in this environment?

That was a big challenge, which we eventually came up with a solution for.

And we poked around at it, but just didnt have the resources to make that happen.

EW:Its weird.

Its hard to measure length in the twoLeft 4 Deads, because theyre designed to be replayable.

Its like apples and oranges.

EW:Its the version of a train ride, I suppose.

Theres a lot more packed into Portal 2 than there was inPortal 1.

Portal 1was puzzle, puzzle, puzzle, and GLaDOS talking.

We didnt want to do that again.

We had all these great Valve artists and animators and musicians, and we wanted to utilise them.

You say the creative process started with GLaDOS, and where you wanted to take that character.

When did the other, new characters come into it?

It just gives us a lot more opportunity to introduce these new characters.

And we wanted to keep that.

We didnt want it to be a cast of thousands, galaxy-spanning epic.

And even though were introducing new characters, its also about your relationship with those characters.

Its not about you watching these four new characters arguing with each other.

Youre not saving the world, youre in this situation, and youre dealing with it.

InPortal 2you have Wheatley, who is voiced by Stephen Merchant.

I guess, this must be the biggest name or voice Valve have had in their games so far?

EW:It depends.

Chet and I didnt quite realise how famous Stephen Merchant was in the UK.

Hes kind of a cult figure in the US.

But weve used a lot of characters actors in the past that were known.

Or even Robert Guillaume [Eli Vance inHalf-Life 2].

Or Robert Culp [Dr. Breen inHalf-Life 2].

I guess Stephen Merchant is the most famous at the time we made the game.

Although I guess Robert Culp back in the day was way more famous than Stephen Merchant is now.

It wasnt specifically that we wanted Stephen Merchant for his fame.

The dialogue in Valve games is in general so strong, but thats only part of the process.

EW:Thats a little bit.

The actors definitely need to be invested to do a good job.

And for a game thats supposed be a comedy, the timing is very important, too.

A lot of that is us being able to see the entire process through from beginning to end.

Could you give me a little more detail about that?

How does that work out at Valve?

CF:Probably the biggest thing that we do is that the writers are a part of the team.

Theyre not hired from the outside.

They dont come in a write a script and throw it over, because you have to adapt.

Its not like we have the finished script, and there you go.

That script changes continuously.

Were embedded right there with the game, like any other part of the team.

Day in, day out, changing the lines, trying different things.

You dont know what the persons going to do in the future.

So you have to write this joke that turns really quick right there.

Its not like writing for another medium.

And I cant even imagine how that would work.

It would be tough.

But we try and integrate them a little more tidily.

Thats something that was quite innovative about Half-Life, with its seamless first-person perspective.

Yet it seems that, even years later, using cutscenes is still the dominant style.

EW:I play games that have cutscenes.

Double Fine games (Psychonauts, Brutal Legend).

CF:Saints Row 2!

Were going to stop it now, to tell you a story.

It had better be friggin good.

So in some ways we benefit.

The pressures a little bit off, because the games still going.

Youre still in the experience.

Were not stopping it.

However, when you press the button, you jump.

Thats quite a comment on Valves history of silent protagonists, isnt it?

So it served both purposes.

It reinforces his idea that maybe youre brain damaged.

So we do that a few times in the game.

And then were coming up with the general gist.

Youve mentioned Double Fines games andSaints Row 2.

What other games do you look at for good comedy?

It seems to be such a rare quality in the gaming landscape.

A lot of comedy is crackerjack editing, which you dont get in games.

Whereas, when comedy fails, it craters hard.

Theres nothing enjoyable that you could take away from it.

So its just tougher.

I like theSaints Rowgames a lot.Saints Row 2.

Partly because they embrace the absurdity of the open world thing.

CF:GTA IVhad a wacky world, but you were being super-serious in the wacky world.

EW:Tonally, theres something weird there.

So I guess in that sense, you benefit a little in comedy.

In Aperture, there are puzzles.

Its this absurd place.

And instead of fighting against certain conventions, you just embrace it.

We find a fictional reason for it.

And then Tim [Schafer]s games work because hes a genuinely, genuinely talented comedic writer.

So when he stops a game to do a cutscene, Im perfectly happy to go along with it.

I dont think that was serious drama, even in Japan…

I guess I like absurd games.

Thank god theres the mitigating factor of the whole team.

If I was by myself, Id makeGod Hand, and wed be out of business in a week.

Gentlemen, thank you for your time!

Portal 2is released April 22nd for Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Mac.