GlaDOS hints at early Portal 2 release

There have been quite a few discussions in the offices lately about which platform people are going to get Portal 2 on. We all plan on playing it on PC, but the PS3 version comes with Steam Integration and a PC copy, so the normally easy choice is a bit more confusing. Chances are these discussions will be rendered moot, because it seems that the game may unlock early on Steam.

 

Clues can be found in the ‘Potato Sack’ Alternate Reality Game that Valve is currently running. On April 1st the Potato Sack was released on Steam, a bundle containing 12 (now 13) of the best indie games around. Soon players were finding odd images and references in the games, which led to trails running between games and even into the real world. 

 

Overnight new Portal-themed content turned up for the various games that finally gave us a look at who is supposedly behind the odd content and early release. Then the wiki where people have been coordinating clue solving started getting strange message printed on it like this “What is more likely, that you are being stalked by a homicidal computer, or that this is all just a paranoid delusion of your unstable minds. I mean really, you're people. And aren't people supposed to be sane?” 

 

Slightly batshit-crazy developer Alex Dejobaan, creator of  1... 2... 3... Kick It (Drop that Beat like an Ugly Baby) and AaAaAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, outlines the progression of the ARG quite nicely here. Dejobaan’s game Kick It was supposedly released by Steam before it was ready, making it the thirteenth member of the Potato Sack and playing into the whole ARG.

 

It seems our old friend GlaDOS has apparently been working away at the steam backend, trying to find a way to release another game early. The indie games have just been a test of sorts, likely for the purposes of science.

 

Common consensus is that this game GlaDOS is so intent on releasing into the world is Portal 2. This intersects nicely with coded images sent to major US websites last weekend by Valve, in which the phrase ‘4/19/2011_7AM=4/15/2011_9AM’ appears. 

 

It was recently announced that the global unlock time on Steam for Portal 2 would be 7am EST on April 19th (curiously this is the same date that the Terminator 3 version of Skynet goes online) . So the logical conclusion from this message is that Valve is going to bring the Steam release forward a week (it began preloading for those who have preordered a few days ago). It is still unclear if this isn’t another deception, or whether the unlock will only be for those who have completed the Potato Sack content (which adds potato icons to ones steam profile), but one doubts Valve would be so exclusive.

 

So while we wouldn’t suggest telling your friends that you have weekend-long leprosy and can’t leave the house just yet, there could well be a chance that this weekend will be filled with Portal hopping silliness. For Science.