Epic Thread about Portal 2

[mendhak]

So since this is on slashdot, I'll just copy what's there.

"It appears Valve has begun another ARG (Alternate Reality Game) similar to the one that led up to the release of the original Portal game. A recent Portal update unlocked a new achievement which has uncovered various hidden images and sounds containing references to the Portal and Half-Life universe. Many believe this to be part of the run-up to the announcement of Portal 2 and/or the next installment of the Half-Life series. A thread on the Steam forums has already reached over 1 million views ( ) as people piece together the information. Another thread summarizes the information found so far. Based on clues from the ARG, some are speculating an announcement at the 2010 Game Developers Conference where Valve's co-founder Gabe Newell is to receive this year's Pioneer Award."


The summary thread is pretty good.

Quick summary - apparently the static noise in the new radios in the Portal game were run through Slow Scan TV programs, and the image produced was

http://i49.tinypic.com/s4b7zn.jpg

The numbers led to a BBS

The BBS had more images on it, one of which was

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2801/...b95fd393_o.jpg

and

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/116597/Portal/human.png

[BackWoodsCoder]

This is pretty sweet, I loved the first portal.

[JuggaloBrotha]

I would love to see at least 1 more Portal game...

[mendhak]

I want HL2E3 to include the Portal gun. Make it so.

[kleinma]

I own the original half life CD still from waaaay back when it first came out. I also played counter strike from original beta (before valve owned it) through source, way before steam existed and you had to play on the world opponent network. Valve makes some pretty good games.

First of all, I hope this would be a new (or at least heavily updated game engine) from source (which is several years old now). If it is just a new portal game, I could see them just releasing it on the existing source engine. However if it was a new half life title (which would likely include new counter strike and day of defeat, and possibly TF) then I would hope for some engine improvements.

I never played portal until I bought it recently on the 360 arcade. So far I have enjoyed it a lot, while some of my friends can't even wrap their heads around the concept.

[NickThissen]

That's awesome. Unfortunately I can't be bothered to read 550 pages... I wish I were following this from the start (although that would probably have done nothing good to going to classes etc ).

New HL or Portal game info soon seems obvious.

[kleinma]

just read the summary link...

[NickThissen]

Yes I did but it's more fun seeing how these things are figured out.

[kleinma]

too much free time + caffeine = figured out

[kregg]

Since I regularly browse the Steam forums, I was practically there watching all this stuff update.

It was so crazy - it was like every time I went one page forward, 3/5 more pages were created in that split second.

I also love Valve's amazing PR stunt to get us interested in HL2:E3/Portal 2/some combination of both (what I'm guessing). I wish more companies did this sort of thing rather than just announce their latest project.

[NickThissen]

I wish more companies did this sort of thing rather than just announce their latest project.

I dunno.. Then it wouldn't be this awesome anymore. Can you imagine that IW did the same thing for MW3? I bet everyone would hate it.

[kregg]

I dunno.. Then it wouldn't be this awesome anymore. Can you imagine that IW did the same thing for MW3? I bet everyone would hate it.

I can see where you are coming from. Because it came from Valve, and everyone knows Valve love doing this sort of stuff, it's acceptable (and friggin' awesome ), but IW?

Well, to be honest, I personally dislike IW after they butchered the PC port of MW2. Not that I actually liked the COD series...

[NickThissen]

Well IW was just an example. I meant that, now that Valve has done this (and done a very good job of it too) I can't see anyone else doing it any time soon as it would just be a rip-off from Valve.

[kregg]

Good point.

I'm tired.

Let's eat cake.

[DeanMc]

I agree, this has more to do with style. It is valves style to buddy up to the community this way and so it works for them. Lol now imagine if Bethesda did this for horse armour!

[kleinma]

One thing you might see on a future call of duty title is WoW style subscription fees to play online.

[NickThissen]

I thought IW is no longer working on call of duty, but it's now a new studio; Sledgehammer Games. But let's not get offtopic

Have the images been interpreted yet?

[kleinma]

I thought IW is no longer working on call of duty, but it's now a new studio; Sledgehammer Games. But let's not get offtopic

Have the images been interpreted yet?

It is basically publishers doing what publishers do best, which is fire the talent that makes a game great, and milk the name of a good franchise to death to squeeze every dollar they can out of it.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...suit-filed.ars

[BackWoodsCoder]

I thought IW is no longer working on call of duty, but it's now a new studio; Sledgehammer Games. But let's not get offtopic

IW is still slated to do the modern warfare series, TreyArch is the one producing the title that's releasing this fall, and sledgehammer is working on a new concept approach to this series.

I've hated treyarch's COD games, and I didn't really like the 3rd person multiplayer modes in MW2 so I'm most likely passing on sledgehammers version as well. I personally don't see IW making another game after three, they'll probably wrap up the story and move onto something else. As kleinma pointed out these guys are just milking the brand name at this point and people are going to move onto other things once the series becomes stale.

I'm already bored of MW2, multiplayer is sucking these days and once I finish up the spec ops I don't see myself playing it too much. Time for some new games to come my way, looks like march is going to be a big RPG release month.

[kleinma]

The main reason I like MW2 is because its one of those games MOST of the people on my friends list own, so it makes it an easy game to get a good group of people I know playing. It gets less stale when you aren't playing with a bunch of idiots who for some reason think the voice chat feature of the game entitles them to do their american idol auditions to everyone else playing. (that and the high pitched 9 year olds who think its cool they know a few curse words).

I was a big counter strike fan, so the "search and distroy" multiplayer option is more fun and requires more team effort than deathmatch.

[NickThissen]

Cool. I was watching someone live stream the BBS, the progress bar finished and now Portal 2 is officially announced. And the announcement contains another clue (underlined letters) which turned out to be a new login/pass for the BBS. The guy I'm watching is failing rather hard though he hasn't typed the login correct yet.

[BackWoodsCoder]

The main reason I like MW2 is because its one of those games MOST of the people on my friends list own, so it makes it an easy game to get a good group of people I know playing. It gets less stale when you aren't playing with a bunch of idiots who for some reason think the voice chat feature of the game entitles them to do their american idol auditions to everyone else playing. (that and the high pitched 9 year olds who think its cool they know a few curse words).

I set my mic to friends list only for this very reason. I tried playing with it on, but pub matches never are one for much teamwork. Just the aforementioned 12 year olds acting like a hard ass. I think my main problem with it is the past 20 or so games I've played (mainly domination) people never went for objectives. It's one thing to capture and defend, but when you just run out of the gate to get to your favorite camping ground, and ignore even getting the first flag, it makes for a frustrating match. To top it off if no one helps you get flags you'll spend more time getting blasted then you will earning points.

I do enjoy playing with my friends still and if I hop on and a bunch of them are in a party, I'll most likely join. I still like the game, I just wish the pub matches were better. There's not much I feel is unbalanced in the game (save for two perks), but it's really hit the point where they need to release some new maps.

Oh, and that stupid care package glitch was crazy annoying when it was unpatched. You couldn't play a single game without someone ruining it at the end with never ending harrier strikes and chopper gunners.

[kregg]

Portal 2 officially announced.

Also,

It gets less stale when you aren't playing with a bunch of idiots who for some reason think the voice chat feature of the game entitles them to do their american idol auditions to everyone else playing.

[kleinma]

I set my mic to friends list only for this very reason.

never noticed that feature... is that a MW2 setting, or a console setting (and if console do you use 360 or ps3?)

One thing we can do on the 360 is that for big team games (like ground war) you can be in a party chat with friends instead of the main game channel chat, which does mitigate the idiots. It just doesn't work for all game types, as some force you to be in the game channel to play.

[BackWoodsCoder]

It's a 360 console setting. So you can't just flip it on and off, if you want to flip the switch you have to exit out of the game to do so. I believe it's in the voice settings portion.

[mendhak]

Portal 2 officially announced.

Also,

I'm tired of waiting for it already.

[kregg]

I'm tired of waiting for it already.

You know what Valve are like - they spend ages on something and it turns out really brilliant. Besides, I'd rather them take their time than rush and release another L4D2. *shudders violently*