So. Apparently Valve have updated Portal with some kind of cryptic radio morse code kind of thing.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/01/not-a-lie-valve-upda.html
There have been assumations of Valve linking the franchise to the Half Life universe (links through link above).
I'm excited. I just don't know what I'm excited about. Ideas?
Replies
haha. Good call.
Thats how i feel about the HL series and other shows like Lost. Its sorta of a unique excited. you just don't know what.
Find me a marketing person that could have come up with that and I will give you a nickel.
Not to mention carrying that damned gnome through Ep.2
Worth it though. Gave me a real sense of accomplishment.
http://blackopsservers.com/blackops/portal/index.html
Here's a slightly out of date summary. Face Punch and Steam are still pulling together clues. So many layers.
There even seems to be a possibility that they've gotten Dinosaur Comics involved. Today's Update: http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1663 coupled with references to dinosaurs. Coincidence? Quite possibly.
great campaign
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/9306/portalasciilarge2.png
And someone on the steam forums posted a nice recap of the events, for those wondering what the hell is going :
-Portal gets surprise update yesterday afternoon
-People see new mystery achievement
-People play and see the radio in the beginning room now has a green light
-Carry it around and notice it makes strange broadcast interference noises in certain places
-Locate and place all 26 of these mystery radios for achievement
-Smart people yank wav files out of game content folders and run them through steganography programs
-Produces 26 weird cryptic image files in a numbered sequence
-Some dude runs the number string through an md5 hash translator and gets a landline number
-Internet traces it to Kirkland, WA (near Valve HQ)
-People find out its not a phone/fax line but a data line hosting a BBS and telnet it
-Use a clue from one of the files to figure out the BBS user/password login info
-End up with a bunch of weird ASCII artwork
-We're trying to figure out wtf it means
QFT
It's working for Valve though. I just uninstalled Portal some days ago and now I want to install it back.
Nerdgasm!
I am excited about whatever hez excited about...
On the serious note: I only played Portal until the training man says "this is where we take the training wheels off" and gives you some impossible stage to clear.....After 4 hours of playing with bouncing orb I gave up on the entire game.
I hope this new portal brings more than the previous portal.
What Portal were you playing? You must've been playing Portal: Prelude if there was a dude in it. Prelude was a poorly paced/polished mod; even I gave up on it.
The original is critically lauded for a reason. Get it.
mmmm... robot love!
Yeah valve takes a while but that's because they want to make sure they get their stuff right, and it's damn worth it in my opinion.
^This^
It was a short, sweet puzzle game, with the potential for endless expansion using only the tools/concepts found in Portal. I suppose the same could be said for L4D.
However, the link exists to the Half Life universe, so perhaps they're planning to release info about Ep. 3 (even though it may not be released til '11)
However, my real hope is that it is "Portal 2" but instead of being a continuation of the puzzle style gameplay, it's more of a full fledged exploration of the Aperture Science universe.
Also, here's hoping for a new engine.
What I wouldn't give for a non text file based material system... Oh and some updated wiki entries that cover some of the new stuff since 2007.
If this is real, and they were putting this out in the middle of 2008, it sounds about right that they'd almost be ready for release, or atleast the spool-up to release (comments about this being Valve, and releasing whenever they damn well please, being put aside).
It'll certainly be interesting to see how they handle it. With all the extra mystery they've added and the evident cross over with Half-Life, they run the risk of overcomplicating things and losing what Portal was and what made it such an unusual and endearing title.
seconded. I'd love a friggin UI for materials. I dont think i'l be touching source again any time soon until the tools are imporved. Dont get me wrong, great engine, but its very time consuming to produce good results
It wasnt a dude..it was a girl just comes out of the room and walks through the lessons.
Just one of the few images that valve has sent out to various mac sites.
Any one else excited?
(I still think working this hard just for it to be "episode 3 half 2" is just nonsense, Didnt they make it painfully clear enough at the end of ep 2 that portal was in the same universe? But seriously criptic messages and audio sequences etc are just insane.)
http://www.xfire.com/video/2393cf/
I MUST KNOW
edit*
so it turns out that painting came after the ascii art.
-nothing to see here, move along :::::P
Valve is so cool.
Looks like a body form for gLaDos, portal gun arming. SWEET!
hopefully this isn't as much of a let down.
Portal 2!