Portal - Something's Going On

[Hermiod]

In the past week, Valve patched Portal with a mysterious "fix".

Portal

• Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations

The patch added radios throughout the game that need to be picked up and carried in order to receive a newly added achievement.

Then came the bizarre stories about strange image files within the game that led people to an old style dial-up BBS. (Yeah, I can't confirm this part - it sounds very odd)

Now, things get even more interesting. The patch also changed the ending.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7lgqS-yq88[/yt]

 

[Kibbin]

Ashabawha?!?!
So instead of making you're get away you seem to be dragged back by some robot thing you can't see. When you said they had changed the end I assumed they had done a george Lucas and remvoved the guns and replaced them with walkie talkie sort of thing. Does anyone know why they've done this? Is this to link into the sequel?

 

[Hermiod]

^I am about 75% sure it's leading in to a sequel announcement at GDC next week.

Valve have something else up their sleeves as well.

 

[watermelony2k]

Valve is great at this viral stuff. It's most likely going to be portal 2. The stuff about the hidden images is completely true. Soundbytes were also scattered across the game, which you can hear by picking up the radio in the beginning level of Portal and carrying it to certain locations.

Here's a timeline of the events that have transpired for the past few days, leading up to the reveal of the new ending:

http://www.halflife2.net/2010/03/01/portal-update/

 

[Rii]

I don't have the patience for shit like this. Wake me when you have something to say, Valve.

 

[Kibbin]

yeah but could they not have done this lead up without rewritting the end?

 

[The Evil Dead]

Cripes, it's been two and a half years since Episode 2.

 

[data_lover]

maybe there will actually be cake.

 

[Hitman]

Here I go to play Portal again...

 

[Rincewiend]

Any of you got this?

http://portalmaps.wecreatestuff.com/

Based on Portal: The Flash Version, our very own Hen Mazolski brings us all the levels and concepts back to the original Portal version, in this huge mappack!

This time, experience Aperture Science from a different perspective, before the time of the original Portal, as a different test subject.

This mappack includes ALL 40 levels from WCS's Flash version, additional bonus levels and features. All together, we've got here over three and a half hours of amazing gameplay.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

This makes me wish I had the PC version rather than the Xbox one.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Portal 2 on Game informer cover

Valve is known for making quality first-person shooters: The Half-Life series redefined how players think about the FPS genre, while titles like Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead took team-oriented multiplayer action to a whole new level. But among Valve's stable of popular shooters, one game stands alone: the mind-bending puzzler, Portal. A small-scale experiment that was squeezed into 2007's The Orange Box alongside some powerful heavyweights, the love Portal received from fans was beyond anything Valve could have imagined, winning it a full-fledged, standalone sequel. Our 12-page cover story gives you the first details on Portal 2's new gameplay mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists.

 

[Hermiod]

Let me be the first to say this.

This was a triumph!
I'm making a note here,
HUGE SUCCESS!
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Thanks to this news I think I'm going to sit down and replay Portal tomorrow.

 

[Reverend]

Trumping up interest in a sequel by patching the original game? Points for originality.

 

[EyalM]

YAY!

 

[firehawk12]

The Joystiq podcast brought it up and I totally forgot about it - Kim Swift left earlier this year. I wonder if that means anything for Portal 2.

 

[Kibbin]

Here's a news story leaked over Portal 2 details, thought I'd share

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98925-Portal-2-Details-Leaked

 

[Hermiod]

^I wonder how this fits with Portal being part of the greater Half-Life universe ?

Remember, in Episode 3, Gordon and Alyx are off to an Aperture Science ship to find something that Eli says should be destroyed.

 

[Chaos Descending]

^^^ Tough to say. Maybe the greater Half-Life saga ends with the humanity banishing the Combine from Earth, but mankind dies out anyway.