Portal 2 ARG ongoing, Half-Life hints draw Internet's eye
Last week, we thought we have the Potato Fool's ARG stitched up - play indie games, contribute to the possibility of an early release of Portal 2.
But wait - there's more. And it's Half-Life flavoured.
A pair of new puzzle pieces have appeared online, suggesting the game is still ongoing.
RPS reports the Valve ARG wiki received an encrypted file, currently considered a genuine Valve release.
Decrypted, the file revealed a text report intended for "C.J." - possibly Cave Johnson of Aperture Science - and a reference to an ice-breaking ship, which may tie in with Half-Life canon.
See the full text below. You may now spin your "secret Half-Life 2 Episode 3" theories.
A morse code sequence reportedly broadcast during the unofficial fan show Steamcast is a slightly more spurious inclusion in the game - but Valve's co-operation with indie devs so far suggests the developer may well have approached fan communities as well.
The message reads "it’s not over the others have been compromised".
At time of writing, the GLaDOS@Home project has completed six of its targets, with seven games still available as CPU loans to everyone's favourite homicidal AI.
Accordingly, the PC and Mac launch of Portal 2 via Steam is now only 33 hours away.
Otherwise, the game releases on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 19 in the US, and April 21 in the UK, Europe, and Australia.
—LOG FROM [ REDACTED ], BY J.H. TO C.J.—
1. We designed the entire thing to be very, very durable. It was easy to get the materials since everyone’s been thinking
it’s a simple icebreaker ship. Ha.
2. We have made sure to strip it of anything not necessary, so that we have plenty of space for it. It doesn’t have any
backup supplies in the event the crew runs out of food, though. And there isn’t much food onboard in the first place.
3. In the event you need to send it off all of a sudden, use the OR box with code ‘hb1′.
That’s all, C.J. Not much else I can tell you other than this won’t leave a blight on our record. Mesa is going to be sore
when they see what we’ve done.