Valve's big announcement about Portal's future has me singing that old familiar tune and dreaming of deliciously fancy cake.  I can not wait to play a full-retail sequel of the game that immediately became a classic for everyone who played it.  All of the great puzzles, the AI voice of GLaDOS, your sexy companion cube, and that iconic song that played during the final credits rank among some of gaming's greatest memories.  Ultimately, if you played Portal, you're a better person now--even if on everyone's birthday you tell them that "the cake is a lie."

So, in honor of Valve promising us more of what we want (but with co-op this time!), I've decided to get the Portal song stuck in all of your heads.  So here you go.  Listen to it.  After you listen to it there will be a party.  There will be cake at the party that you can eat.  It will be yummy.  You do like chocolate, don't you?  If not, it will be vanilla.  Oyster Asian aluminum packaging.  Enjoy.

Oh, and since you've got Portal on the mind now--watch this video, too.  The turrets have more going on than you may think.  They are a lot like us.  They are just misunderstood.  Poor turrets…

Valve released the details of their Left 4 Dead 2 pre-order offer earlier today.  Their offer, to those of you willing to fork over your hard earned cash in advance:  early demo access (woo…), a baseball bat with an American flag skin (yay…), and a 10% discount on the purchase price (that’s better).

These offers will be offered through Steam or through participating retailers starting immediately.  Early demo access begins October 27 (tentatively) and the game launches on the PC and Xbox 360 on November 17th.