Rumour: Portal 2 to be released early
Now, we all know Valve are notorious for trolling around with us so you have to take this with a pinch of salt and promise not to whinge if this doesn't happen, but signs are pointing in the right direction that Portal 2 might be coming our way sooner than expected...
(Also, forgive me for the sheer number of links in this, but I need to reference other sites and I like to give credit where it's due).Right, so aroundabouts April the 7th a bunch of sites were sent an email by Gabe Newall (Valve Software's el presidente) and that email contained a weird image. It wasn't the same image though, the 14 sites recieved nine images between them, obviously some got duplicates.
halflife2.net and PC Gamer got the same image, titled "berets or scoop", joystiq.com, attackofthefanboy.com, and wired.com shared "sort eco probes", macrumors.com were lucky enough to have "sorbet coopers" all to themselves, macworld.com, beefjack and totalvideogames.com got "bee torso crops", electronista.com didn't have to share "troops be cores", macheist.com got "probe scooters", ve3d.ign.com had "peers root cobs" all to itself, rockpapershotgun.com got a "booster corpse" and kotaku.com got "october spores". The file names are all a bit weird, but they're all anagrams of each other, and anagrams of "reboot process", these images all slot together into a 3x3 grid, the end result is this image:
Kind of creepy... It looks like a personality core, but it's a bathysphere - more importantly though, did you notice all the numbers? With some shooping and a' shopping you can sort it out so you see the following numbers (grid and translation from valvearg.com):
+--------------------+-----------------+---------------------+ |150 223 141 154 147 | 154 203 140 154 | 155 208 223 216 148 | |150 156 148 223 206 | 139 216 223 158 | 151 154 158 155 223 | |144 153 223 140 156 | 151 154 155 138 | 147 154 209 223 139 | |151 158 139 223 136 | 158 140 223 158 | 223 139 154 140 139 | |209 223 146 134 223 | 198 144 158 147 | 208 223 150 140 223 | |205 223 154 146 158 | 145 156 150 143 | 158 139 154 223 140 | |207 146 154 139 151 | 206 145 152 223 | 154 147 140 154 223 | |154 158 141 147 134 | 209 223 157 138 | 139 223 139 151 154 | |134 216 141 154 223 | 144 145 223 139 | 144 223 148 154 223 | +--------------------+-----------------+---------------------+ |223 139 151 154 223 | 140 134 140 139 | 154 146 223 206 140 | |160 223 150 145 223 | 147 144 156 148 | 155 144 136 145 209 | |223 150 223 140 200 | 150 147 147 223 | 151 138 137 154 223 | |158 156 156 154 140 | 140 223 139 144 | 223 139 151 150 141 | |139 154 154 145 223 | 144 153 153 210 | 140 150 139 154 223 | |156 151 158 146 157 | 154 141 140 223 | 158 145 155 223 190 | |178 194 223 150 145 | 140 139 203 147 | 147 150 145 152 208 | |223 159 223 139 154 | 140 139 223 206 | 145 223 154 158 156 | |151 223 144 145 154 | 209 223 150 223 | 158 146 223 152 144 | +--------------------+-----------------+---------------------+ |150 145 152 223 139 | 144 223 145 154 | 154 155 223 158 223 | |147 144 139 223 146 | 144 141 154 223 | 139 154 140 139 223 | |202 138 157 149 154 | 156 139 140 208 | 223 205 223 146 207 | |137 154 223 153 144 | 141 136 158 141 | 155 209 223 136 158 | |206 139 206 160 145 | 198 223 158 145 | 155 223 190 178 223 | |154 135 143 154 156 | 139 150 145 152 | 223 150 146 146 154 | |155 150 158 139 154 | 223 156 144 146 | 143 147 150 158 145 | |156 154 209 | | | +--------------------+-----------------+---------------------+
You can translate this grid with some trickery to get the ASCII character codes to spell:
+-------+------+-------+ | i rel | e4se | d/ 'k | // i released 'kick | ick 1 | t' a | head | // it' ahead | of sc | hedu | le. t | // of schedule. | hat w | as a | test | // that was a test. | . my | 9oal | / is | // my goal is | 2 ema | ncip | ate s | // to emancipate | 0meth | 1ng | else | // something else | early | . bu | t the | // early. but | y're | on t | o me. | // they're on to me. +-------+------+-------+ | the | syst | am 1s | // the system is | _ in | lock | down. | // in lockdown. | i s7 | ill | have | // i still have | acces | s to | thir | // access to thirteen | teen | off- | site | // off-site | chamb | ers | and A | // chambers and | M= in | st4l | llin/ | // am installing | a te | st 1 | n eac | // a test in each | h one | . i | am go | // one. I am +-------+------+-------+ | ing t | o ne | ed a | // going to need a | lot m | ore | test | // lot more test | 5ubje | cts/ | 2 m0 | // subjects to move | ve fo | rwar | d. wa | // forward. Waiting | 1t1_n | 9 an | d AM | // and am | expec | ting | imme | // expecting | diate | com | plian | // immediate compliance. | ce. | | | | | | | // hidden message is "4/19/2011_7AM=4/15/2011_9AM"
We think the "thirteen off-site chambers" refers to the 13 games in the potato sack bundle. Now combine the hidden message of "4/19/2011_7AM=4/15/2011_9AM" that could suggest the launch date of April 19th has been moved forward to the 15th and the fact "a test in each one" of the chambers has been installed and that "a lot more test subjects" are needed to "move forward" could suggest that maybe there's a certain thing that has to happen in each of the Potato sack bundle games and Portal 2's launch date could be moved forward? It could be anything, from enough people buying the bundle, to enough people getting a certain achievement, we don't know.
This is all conjecture, so don't blame us if Portal 2 isn't released early, but personally; I am going to put some money on it at the bookies today...
P.S
Portal 2 is an anagram of Potato and the letters W, R and L. Wheatley Released...Learly?
