My initial astonishment was because I paid SO LITTLE for the original Portal. I got it free, actually, but I believe it's still sold at around 10 bucks max? Maybe the priced jumped now that the sequel is out, I haven't checked.

I think I came off indignant, and I was more surprised than anything. I was not expecting such a high ticker. I was thinking it be more in the 30-39 range, at MOST. Perhaps it was a skewed expectation, but that's still the expectation I had.

The only thing I know about the game is that it's a sequel to Portal 1, involves more characters, and apparently has a co-op. That doesn't tell me much about it's objective quality. I've hardly heard from anyone how it actually plays (until this thread)

I didn't even necessarily want people to try to "convince me". Fifty bucks is hard for me to pay for almost any game (regardless of whether it's a puzzle, the latest RPG, a FPS, etc...). My comment there was just to try to head off the rabid fanboys who would likely start ranting bout how its PORTAL TWO GAWD!!! HOW COULD YOU NOT WANT TO PAY EVEN A MILLION DOLLARS FOR IT?!?!?! or the ones that would get all but hurt that I wouldn't want to pay that much for something THEY liked. I was just suggesting to them that instead of just raging at me like a retard, they could actually offer constructive feedback and information.

In response to your exact stateent, Jacob, how am I to know that "...Portal 2 [is] perhaps one of the very best puzzle games of all time, with good writing, humor, and great design..."? Obviously I haven't played it yet and no one has reviewed it extensively here yet. That was kind of the reason why I asked people to fill me in instead of ranting at me.