selectparks - Valve 'Portal': Dynamically Linked Architecture.

Valve has released an eye-opening trailer demonstrating their upcoming 'Portal' system, an addition to the existing Half Life 2 engine, whereby a portal creating 'gun' can be used to create wormhold like 'links' between surfaces of the game architecture; teleports are 'painted' onto walls and floors as a function of play.

This can be used to instantaneously transport yourself, other players and objects around the scene with often complex and hilarious results. As Joystiq writes, the possibilities for level design this offers are immense. I like to think of it as a dynamic hyperlinking system for first-person gameplay.

See the video here (not embedded to be kind to our low bandwidth readers). Big thanks to The Chad.