When Valve first released Portal along with the Orange Box, they had no idea how good the feedback would be. It sparked the world's largest inside joke, won over 40 industry awards, and mutilated how you ever looked at the puzzle game.

This huge success garnered attention from a large audience, and fans quickly developed a pine of great magnitude for more Portal. Well, after three years, the appetite was finally tended to, and very few was known about the new title until the last couple of months.

An interesting, yet completely reasonable reaction to the recent overload of demo's and previews, is a general feeling of exclusion. Based on forums and gaming web-sites, gamers are excited yet have a feeling of unavoidable frustration to come with this game, come release date.

The game is to be a full-fledged title, that will  warrant a standard play-time of a regular title, rather than a bonus with a package of games. This allows Valve to go all out, so to speak, and incorporate a plethora of new features that will blow your mind to timbuctu. For instance, propulsion gel will increase your speed, allowing you to  get across certain obstacles. Another would be faith plates, which bounce the player in certain directions.

With these new variations to the standard "get-in-get-out" basis of Portal, players will conquer puzzles of a much more grander scale, and tackle the impossible. Yet, not everyone wants to go there. With the already challenging Portal concept, gamers are quite terrified of what's to come.

But what a lot of people don't take in to account, is that Valve has a knack for making games. They are professionals, and  what comes with that is how they regulate their games in a very unique way. Before they incorporate a mechanic or feature, they quickly balnce it from many different angles, addressing every possible problem imaginable.

Because of Portal's basic, complex nature, Valve will have to anticipate and regulate. Going into adding more features, will come with blending and balncing it with other features to subtly change the aspect and suggest solutions based on the environment.

What the fear boils down to is: gamer's are scared they aren't smart enough. Valve is a pioneer in touching base with all types of gamers, and will no doubt be able to keep the frustration factor at an encouraging and almost benificial level; or in other words, keep it fun.