Portal 2 delayed until April

Portal 2 won't be opening for a couple months longer. Valve today announced that the stand-alone sequel to 2007's breakout success won't be making its previously announced launch date.

Portal 2 will open to gamers the week of April 18, more than two months after its previous February 9 launch date. This is the second delay for the game, as Valve originally announced Portal 2 with a holiday quarter 2010 launch window. The company put a positive spin on the latest postponement, calling it the "shortest delay in Valve history."

Portal 2 follows the events of the first Portal, which saw gamers taking on the role of a human lab rat, Chell, who used a portal gun to create interdimensional openings on ceilings, walls, and floors in an effort to escape the Aperture Science labs. Along the way, players were guided through the diabolical tests by the deceptively sincere, yet altogether sadistic, artificial intelligence known as GLaDOS.

The game will feature a single-player campaign billed as being twice as long as the original's, but the real focus is on the new multiplayer cooperative mode. The co-op mode will tell a parallel story to the single-player adventure and last roughly as long. In it, players will take control of two robots, named simply Blue and Orange, and work together to tackle their own set of portal-related problems.

For more on Portal 2, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

[UPDATE]: Portal 2's global release window is now the week of April 18, not April 18 itself as originally reported. Valve has clarified that Portal 2 will launch in North America and Australia on April 20, with a European debut following on April 22. Dates for other regions will be announced at a later date. GameSpot regrets the error.