This Week in Portal - The UpStream

This Week in Portal

posted Sunday Mar 7, 2010 by Scott Ertz

This Week in Portal

Do you remember Portal, the fantastic shooter puzzle game from Valve where you had to escape from a psychotic robot? It turns out that Valve remembers about it, too, and even updated the PC version of the game this week completely unexpectedly. Their release notes said,

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

Immediately we got excited and knew something was up with the radios. In digging into the audio files for the game, it was discovered that there were a number of new MP3 files all related to the radio. The new files include several Morse Code transmissions and the rest are SSTV encoded photos. The images all appear to be photos from inside Aperture Laboratories, possibly from the security cameras. There is definitely a lot of thought behind what is going on here.

The guess has been that all of these new challenges are leading up to a Portal 2 which Valve then announced officially. The official description of the game says,

Coming this holiday. Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007's Game of the Year and draws from the award-winning formula of innovative game play, story, and music that earned the original over 70 industry accolades. Features single and multiplayer co-op modes. The single-player portion of Portal 2 introduces a cast of dynamic new characters, a host of fresh puzzle elements, and a much larger set of devious test chambers. Players will explore never-before-seen areas of the Aperture Science Labs and be reunited with GLaDOS, the occasionally murderous computer companion who guided them through the original game. The game's two-player cooperative mode features its own entirely separate campaign with a unique story, test chambers, and two new player characters. This new mode forces players to reconsider everything they thought they knew about portals. Success will require them to not just act cooperatively, but to think cooperatively.

If we weren't already excited about a sequel, this would definitely do it. Co-op in Portal just sounds awesome. Are you guys excited about this new game? Have you played through the updated game and gotten the radios? Any ideas on what all of the pictures are going for? Most importantly, do you know the login for the BBS? Let us know in the comments section!

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