What are you up to Valve?

[Energy Surge]

So apparently Valve updated Portal Sunday.

March 1, 2010 - Portal Update Released
Updates to Portal have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.
Portal
-Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations

The forums are abuzz with interesting news. There's a new achievement which involves finding a radio on each level and bringing it to a certain spot where it will pick up a signal and plays an audio file.

I thought this was cute, someone tried looking in the game code for the secret:


Some of the audio files are Morse code. They say things like:
INTERIOR TRANSMISSION ACTIVE EXTERIOR DATA LINE ACTIVE MESSAGE DIGEST ACTIVE
9E107D9D372BB6826BD81D3542A419D6 (Which is an MD5 hash of "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog")
SYSTEM DATA DUMP ACTIVE USER BACKUP ACTIVE PASSWORD BACKUP ACTIVE
BEEP BEEEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEP BEEEEP BEEP BEEP (Yes, it decoded into text of a Morse code.)

The others images were discovered to actually be SSTV images, when converted from audio to pictures they look like this:


The forums have picked apart everything and found an MD5 hash hidden in the images. Someone wrote a brute force program to hash phone numbers in Valve's area code and they found a number that matched the hash. It turned out to be a BBS phone number which anyone with an old analog modem can connect to and get a GLaDOS login prompt. The Morse code provided the credentials, backup is the username and password. Logging in with those makes the BBS spit out ANSI art for Portal.


Just what is Valve up to? A new announcement coming soon? Portal 2? Half-Life 2: Episode 3? Either way all I have to say is BEEP BEEEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEP BEEEEP BEEP BEEP

[Power_Wrist]

I think it will be a new IP, perhaps using Aperture Science as a framing device.

[kitaman27]

Well looks like they announced its Portal 2

[Energy Surge]

So I've been reading up on the news for Portal 2...

SPOILERS for original Portal
(If you haven't played Portal shame on you, go play it now!)

Spoiler: show

So everyone loved and was surprised by the ending song in Portal that they've got Coulton on board again to write and compose for the second game. They're 99% sure they'll end with a song again, but they know it won't be able to create that level of surprise that Portal had because everyone will be expecting it this time. So they're looking at ways to integrate the song directly into the game, but not as a rhythm mini-game, something that will manage to surprise everyone again. So it's safe to say Coulton will be writing more than one song for Portal 2. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

[Energy Surge]

In case no one one's been keeping up with it, here's some Portal 2 news. Some may be spoilers, but nothing really too drastic.

Spoiler: show

Chell will be reprising her role, and as we can see in the screen shots the Aperture Science Enrichment Facility has seen better days. The story takes place distantly in the future, so Chell probably got here through stasis or something. Anyway it's far in the future and there is no signs of any other people in the facility. It's just Chell and the machines. GLaDOS is still alive, as everyone is well aware. Her personality spheres will play a larger role being present around the facility providing more witty banter for our amusement while we solve puzzles.

Of course there will be new puzzle elements to test you along the way, one such addition is aerial faith plates that launch you into the air. The Portal gun itself won't behave any different but they've tweaked the Portal physics some so there are new things that pass through the portals now. There are now thermal discouragement beams, that can be reflected by reflective cubes. Also vents that create suction can suck things on the other side of a portal.

Another new mechanic will be the co-op, in this mode each player will control a robot test subject, each player will have their own portal gun, and both players can use each others portals in addition to their own. I can foresee some pretty crazy puzzles with both players being able to portal themselves around.