Quite possibly the most anticipated game to be revealed during the past E3 was Valve's Portal 2. The sequel to the genre-bending title promises more of what we loved - engaging AI characters, challenging puzzles, and a brand new perspective on both the platform and shooter genres. Sadly, however, the iconic developer has announced that the game has been delayed until April 18th, 2011, missing its original February release date. The bright side of the delay is that the Portal 2 delay will mark the shortest lapse in Valve's history.

A rather humorous press release from the company let the world down gently:

"Valve today announced that Portal 2 -- the sequel to the ground-breaking title that won over 30 game of the year awards, despite missing its original ship date -- will now be available the week of April 18th, 2011. This two month slip not only marks the shortest delay in Valve's proud tradition of delays, it represents the approaching convergence of Valve Time and Real Time. Though this convergence spells doom for humanity, it will not affect the new Portal 2 release date."

Two months isn't exactly the end of the world, but we're talking about Portal here! While I knew that it was unlikely that Valve's original ship date would be met, I had some hope that I'd be playing it sooner than the week of Easter. I guess I just have to comfort myself with the fact that the extra development time can only mean improvements to what looks to be an early Game of the Year contender.