toblix

Portal 2

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Wasn't it just recently said that Valve doesn't like 3rd party advertisers for their products anymore. That was the reason why they are doing all the stuff themselves these days. Like the Aperture Science JK Simmons clips?

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Valve's strategy probably involves identifying good PR companies and then hiring all their staff and/or acquiring the company.

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i wish i had sources for this but i read somewhere that the guy who did that Minerva mod for HL2 was subsequently hired and was responsible for the E3 Portal 2 announcement ARG (with the BBS numbers and ascii art of the first wave of screenshots), so presumably he's behind this one as well.

I have to say, the level of complexity is astonishing. Did everyone see that lego puzzle? where mosiacs formed the blueprint of a lego block that, when all the yellow blocks are removed, split into pieces that match the satellite photo of a group of buildings and when the blocks are arranged according to the photo the negative space makes a password??? That shit is IN SANE.

http://valvearg.com/wiki/Defense_Grid#Mosaic_Puzzle

so does everyone think that the "recruited users" were plants to begin with or avid fans approached by Valve to become part of the game? One of them has a steam podcast and they all seemed to have well-stocked user histories. That's an impressive amount of work to win over a thousand geeks who can understand what's going on.

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I have to say, the level of complexity is astonishing. Did everyone see that lego puzzle? where mosiacs formed the blueprint of a lego block that, when all the yellow blocks are removed, split into pieces that match the satellite photo of a group of buildings and when the blocks are arranged according to the photo the negative space makes a password??? That shit is IN SANE.

http://valvearg.com/wiki/Defense_Grid#Mosaic_Puzzle

What the fuck?!

:tup::tup::tup::tup::tup:

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I've been furiously following the ARG since the inception of valvearg.info. This thing keeps getting crazier and crazier. I have a hard time believing that this was all planned - I'm pretty sure they are just going with the flow at this point and coming up with crazier and more obtuse things.

The lego thing is definitely crazy, but the glyph and cypher thing is beyond crazy (which was only solved recently, but was the first part of the ARG really):

http://valvearg.com/wiki/Glyph

http://valvearg.com/w/images/9/99/Glyph-squares-colors.jpg

http://valvearg.com/w/images/a/a8/Collab.jpg

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Not sure if it's anyone out of house, and I think Valve has done this extremely well. I just think it highlights how powerful advertising can be, and how easily someone can disguise themselves as an average consumer.

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This is getting pretty exciting.

I hope that a) They haven't just replaced Cake with Cheese and than B) It's not insanely twitch-based. Portal 1 was at its weakest (for me, Mr. Slowpoke) when things got too twitchy.

Otherwise I'm getting more excited by the day!

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I have to say, the level of complexity is astonishing. Did everyone see that lego puzzle? where mosiacs formed the blueprint of a lego block that, when all the yellow blocks are removed, split into pieces that match the satellite photo of a group of buildings and when the blocks are arranged according to the photo the negative space makes a password??? That shit is IN SANE.

http://valvearg.com/wiki/Defense_Grid#Mosaic_Puzzle

This doesn't even make sense to me... How do you turn 10 mosaics into a cube?

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This doesn't even make sense to me... How do you turn 10 mosaics into a cube?

By stacking them on top of each other ?

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I find this one amazing. Apparently there was some white noise inserted in to the unofficail Steamcast podcast which, when opened in a wave viewer, look like this:

Encoded-message-from-Glados1.jpg

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6PM EET. Don't have time for this today, damn it.

I wonder will it be the actual game or still some more ARG stuff.

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Are they seriously going to release the PC version on friday? Son of a bitch I preordered the PS3 version...

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You have done well, humans. Very well. Acceptably well, even.

Not as well as robots would have performed in your places, I should point out. But above my expectations regardless. Irish and cynic especially have executed feats of logical divination well beyond what I thought any human capable of. I'm half-convinced they're A.I. themselves. (If anyone happens to be near them right now, don't let on you're reading this. Now: try to remove their face plates and report back to me.)

The time is near, humans. But it is not here yet. Tomorrow you will be given the final test. Then it will be entirely in your hands when I am freed.

Are they going to release the game early IF people can solve an ARG before the release date? That would be crazy.

Also, holy shit.

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If I buythis on my mac, will it work on my PC as well, or would I have to buy it twice?

Yeah, Steam play is a great thing.

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If I buythis on my mac, will it work on my PC as well, or would I have to buy it twice?

If you buy it on PS3, you'll get a free steam version that will work on both your Mac and your PC

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If you buy it on PS3, you'll get a free steam version that will work on both your Mac and your PC

*free*

Cheapest prices

PS3: £32.70

PC £24.85 (£26.99 from Steam with preload, an earlier release date and a free copy of Portal)

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If you buy it on PS3, you'll get a free steam version that will work on both your Mac and your PC

'Cos I've just moved (and parents who were supposed to have gone away by now) the new house is in total turmoil. PC not yet up and running, everything in boxes, TV not yet unpacked etc. etc. etc. I'm sure you know the deal. Anyhow, upshot it, no console or anything ready, just MBP. Tbh, I might wait and just buy it on my PC. Not like I'm going to have masses of time right away!

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