Sporknight Posted March 2, 2010 Posted March 2, 2010 Yesterday there was an update to Valve's Portal, which included a mysterious achievement, and hidden radios that played hidden signals. These radios, when brought to certain locations, would play encoded signals. From there...it gets complicated. Here's a good summary of what's happened so far: http://netshroud.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/portal-radio-transmission-update/ This is the thread on the Steam forums: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1168990 And this is a good TL;DR of that: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13767776&postcount=2291 The TL;DR includes links to ASCII images that everyone is now pouring over. Also relevant is that GLaDOS is v3.11 here, and Gabe is receiving an award at GDC on March 11th. SPECULATION GO! Quote
phill Posted March 2, 2010 Posted March 2, 2010 If this is a way to build up hype for a new portal game or something similar, I approve. Not only does it not insult the audience by shoveling the answers down their throats, it's an all around cool treasure hunt idea. Quote
Sporknight Posted March 2, 2010 Author Posted March 2, 2010 Judging by what we know about the Borealis from the end of Episode 2, we know Gordon will be tracking down and exploring the ship. I bet they're making a joint announcement of Episode 3 and Portal 2 at GDC. Hell, they could be the same game at this rate...Gordon trapped on the Borealis, being taunted by the GLaDOS onboard, while trying to escape with something that'll defeat the Combine...Or they could be parallel games, with a new test subject trapped onboard who has to work together with Gordon to escape. Two-player action puzzle co-op FPS with portals? Gordon fighting off the Combine while a new Chell solves puzzles? And whatever happened to Chell anyways? So many questions, so many ideas... Quote
phill Posted March 2, 2010 Posted March 2, 2010 pretty sure chell is dead If you time it right, she doesn't have to be, there is a video of that somewhere.... Quote
Arcana Posted March 2, 2010 Posted March 2, 2010 Hey, I beat Portal for the first time like two weeks ago. Maybe I'll try out some of this new stuff. I kind of got tired of some of the puzzles (especially the jumping ones) after 18 levels worth though. Quote
Zephyr Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 Sweet! I absolutely love Portal and would love to see them make a more in depth sequel. I could see them showing more connections from this to half-life, but I can't really see a merged sequel coming any time soon. This is a cool way to introduce things, it interests me. Quote
Black Mage Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 It took me five tries to launch Portal via Steam. I'm guessing a lot of people are getting the update. Quote
ZealPath Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 Cool, I noticed Steam updated Portal last night and was distracted so I forgot to check the (cryptic) update notes. I will definitely be taking a look at this, and if it ties into HL Ep 3 in any way, so much more the awesome. Always been a huge portal fan, but once you have (almost) all of the achievements it is what it is, nice to have something new to try. Quote
Zephyr Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 Valve is really good at the whole conspiracy game, clues within clues within clues... Even in TF2, a lot of clues have been found in the source code for their websites and stuff. Aperture Science has had a secret website for a long time now too, if you knew the right account you could see how much of the company's finances were dedicated to cake! Quote
Sir_Snooze Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 So, I booted up Portal just because of the update - I don't quite understand what to do with the new radios, though. I keep carrying them around, but I'm not getting any transmissions...I'll keep trying, though. Aperture Science has a website? That's awesome! I love how Valve throws its clues about in so many places. Only thing is, unless the Internets are very astute, we may miss them all entirely... EDIT: Apparently, the company spends $975,000 on something called INTUB-XLG and $1075 on flour. Then again, they did start out making shower curtains. Quote
JH Sounds Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 Why do you think that Chell is dead? You mean when the song by Journey plays and the screen suddenly goes black? Or am I thinking of a different ending? Quote
Red Shadow Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 kinda because she experienced an explosion, and then the last thing we see from what im assuming are her eyes is lying on the ground slowly blacking out while flaming chunks of metal fall down about her Quote
Kureejii Lea Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 kinda because she experienced an explosion, and then the last thing we see from what im assuming are her eyes is lying on the ground slowly blacking out while flaming chunks of metal fall down about her Couldn't that just as easily be her falling temporarily unconscious, though? Or collapsing from sheer exhaustion? I think it's fairly open-ended there. Quote
Sporknight Posted March 3, 2010 Author Posted March 3, 2010 Couldn't that just as easily be her falling temporarily unconscious, though? Or collapsing from sheer exhaustion? I think it's fairly open-ended there. Exactly. She could easily have passed out, and came to later, or have been found/rescued/captured by the Combine/Black Mesa/The Resistance. Keep in mind, she's already been 'engineered' with exoskeletal legs that keep her from being hurt by falls, so it's completely likely that she's okay. Quote
Sir_Snooze Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 Exactly. She could easily have passed out, and came to later, or have been found/rescued/captured by the Combine/Black Mesa/The Resistance. Keep in mind, she's already been 'engineered' with exoskeletal legs that keep her from being hurt by falls, so it's completely likely that she's okay. Fair enough, but what of the rest of her? I mean, the legs are fine, but she's not able to take hits to the chest (the energy balls kill her) or head (I checked by ducking near an energy ball). One of those things fall on her and she's cooked. I don't know how likely it is that she's okay - it's possible, certainly, depending on a host of scenarios that we don't see, but it seems kinda 50/50 for lived/died. In short, this is a damn good cliffhanger. Quote
Vivi22 Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 A new update just downloaded for me: PortalAdded valuable asset retrieval I look forward to seeing what other people find so I don't have to waste my time. Quote
Zephyr Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 I'd imagine the ending was ambiguous for a reason, if they need her to be dead, she'll be dead, if they need her alive, she'll be alive. Quote
DarkeSword Posted March 4, 2010 Posted March 4, 2010 I have never ever interpreted that ending as her being dead. Quote
JH Sounds Posted March 4, 2010 Posted March 4, 2010 So, um... They changed the ending to Portal? Quote
JJT Posted March 4, 2010 Posted March 4, 2010 So, um... They changed the ending to Portal? welp, guess that puts a wrench in the whole 'chell is dead' theory. Quote
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