More Portal News

Adam Foster has been confirmed as the creator of (at least part of) the Portal ARG. Also known as: I (and x hundred other people) flippin' called it!

Compare the images below, after the jump. The 1st and 3rd images, the clean ones, are taken from Adam Foster's Robots and Retro flickr set. The 2nd and 4th images, the 'corrupted' ones are two of those derived from the dinosaur sound files.

Portals Within Portals: Valve Releases ARG

It's times like these that make me love the Internet and its people.

As of yesterday (March 1st), Valve gave Portal a minor and cryptic update: 'Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations' along with a new achievement, 'Transmission Received' who's description was merely '?'.

This was just the beginning of a sprawling, exceptionally complicated ARG (nicknamed the Dinosaur Mystery after the name of certain audio files) which the gaming community turned all its power towards solving, with astonishing and ingenious methods. Read below for the full story so far!

Team Fortress 2 - WAAAARRRR!!!

Hey, waddya know, it DOES mean war!

Further to the teasing hints released previously, Valve have announced the release of a special double-class update featuring the Soldier and the Demoman.

The War Update, as it is known, will give both class a three new weapons and one class with get a special, as yet unknown fourth weapon. The question is which one? That depends on who kills the most of the opposing class in the next three days. For example, should more Soldiers kill Demomen than visa versa, they will be given the fourth weapon and visa versa.

Valve 'Would Love TF2 Movie'

You've got to love the Meet the Team videos. Seriously, it's like a law or something. Valve have been lovingly crafting them since Team Fortress 2 came out in Oct 2007 and each has been a blast and a technical improvement upon the last. Each player has their favourite: personally mine is Meet the Sniper simply for its last line, though Meet the Spy is clearly the most detailed work.

Anyway, the point is Kotaku have a few quotes from Valve's writer Erik Wolpow and desinger on TF2 Robin Walker that you should read. Among them are some insights on the origins of Meet the Team, statement of desire for a TF2 movie or short and a reitteration of plans for a TF2 comic (which seemed to pass me by the first time).

With Meet the Spy, Valve have shown what they can do with three minutes twenty seconds. To be honest, I believe even a relatively short film at 90 minutes would be pushing their creative ability and I know they don't have the time for it. To make it viable, Valve would either have to hand it over to someone like Pixar, who have plenty of experience and resources to make full length digital animation, or create a whole new branch of their company to handle the project.

So a full length movie of Team Fortress 2 is pretty much out of the question. But a ten minute short is absolutely plausible. Even better for Valve, it could be a source of revenue. Just sell it on Steam and iTunes, maybe to specialist short film TV channels. Wouldn't even have to charge people much for it, given the huge fan base Valve have. Yeah, so keep your fingers crossed for hot RED on BLU action.