I read through the whole Portal 2 ARG that's documented in the Steam forums. My god, that's intricate. It spans from the Netherlands to Seattle, across 13 games, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other websites. Mindblowing.

Yup, that takes effort. And every bit that comes out is simply charming, weird, or both. People saying that Valve is evil can go lick a pole in midwinter. ^_^

Weird that Wonderful End of the World is so much higher than the rest of the potato packs.

I've only got Bit Trip and Audiosurf's potatoes.

And I'm up for co-op with a BGSFite when it releases. Steam ID:cecilff2

I think they just go for numbers of times started since countdown, and the possible number of people who might want to play (judging from their statistics), and thus TWEOTW has a lower number it needs to reach.

By the way, the thought of an actual GLaDOS@Home frightens me. That's like Shodan@Home. Brr.

I suspect foul play like the Golden Wrenches fiasco and a set time for the "early" unlock. They couldn't trust random numbers and people once, they can't trust people and random numbers now. We have no idea how many people might rally. This way it makes it look like the community did it and it makes them look awesome. At the same time it also makes Valve look awesome because they upheld their word.

"Gee Doug, what are we going to do tonight?"
"Same thing we do every night, Gabe..." ^_^

Delay Half Life 2: Episode 3!


They're Gaben, they're Gaben and the Doug Doug Doug Doug Doug.

Narf!



:laugh:

I just had a quick question, as I've never pre-ordered anything from Steam before. I bought the Potato Sack + Portal 2 pack, and one of the things it started downloading was Portal 2. This is the actual game, right? Meaning I won't have to start downloading it as soon it as it's released, just start playing?

If so, that's definitely not how I expected it to work, and pretty awesome. How do they protect the downloaded files from hackers?

geting it for the 360
gamertags for xbox 360 starlight777 and lighthouse777

ps3 lighthouse777

Everybody who has 1...2...3...Kick it: Launch it! Now! That's how GLaDOS wants us to work. Focus on one game and reach enough CPUs dedicated to it. ^_^
The current ongoing focus is announced on the Valve ARG wiki.

The downloaded files are encrypted through multiple layers, with a special key phrase that only the Steam servers have that unlocks and extracts the data on launch. After that, the files will be downloaded without encryption when you re-download.

Apparently the prediction is that we're only going to unlock the game about 10 hours earlier. Wish they'd launched this a week ago, when it could've actually made a difference.

Well, yes and no. The length of time it takes to fill each bar is determined by the number of copies of a game in circulation on Steam; thus, games like Kick It! and The Wonderful End of the World have shorter bars to fill and Killing Floor has a much longer one, because there's been far more copies of KF sold on Steam than Kick it!

TWEotW's bar is now complete because the ARG IRC / wiki group is choosing to focus on one game at a time, as already mentioned. TWEotW was the first target.

Progress on the bars isn't determined by number of times started, but by total playtime.

Also: potatoes (ones displayed in http://steamcommunity.com/id/tyraarane) count! They add auxiliary power and might serve as a sort of multiplier. There's a guide to all the potatoes in the Potato Sack games http://87.238.173.111/wiki/Potato_Sources; some of them can be obtained in a minute or less. (Easiest ones reposted here, because the wiki's been up and down like a drunken yo yo since yesterday.)





Current estimate is http://cpucount.zapto.org/. It was at almost 26 hours early when I went to bed last night, but as many U.S.-based Steam users stopped playing the games and went to bed last night progress slowed. I'd expect to see it kick back up again as more people come online.

I'm betting not even 16 hours early. I'm predicting late afternoon, and that's generous. Keep in mind that Monday's a weekday, which means no staying up late and less playtime during work hours.

Considering we got all of 50 minutes shaved off when Wonderful End Of The World completed (whoopty-freakin-doo), and how agonizingly slow Killing Floor is advancing, maybe not even then. Killing Floor has consistently had the highest number of "current CPUs", and has had one of the lowest (if not THE lowest) completion bar level.

Sooooo what was the point of this again?

Don't get your hopes up. It's best just to consider its original release date on Tuesday at 7 AM PDT to be accurate.

:meh:

Some of us are having fun with it, picking up new Steam friends and generally just enjoying the challenge. I'm finally taking the time to play The Ball and AaAAaAAA!!!, which I haven't played in ages. For a lot of us I think it's less "zomg must get Portal 2 a day early" and more of just having fun with the ARG. If you don't want to participate, then don't, but there's no reason to rain on our collective parade. :shrug:

Money. Valve makes a ton of money off of games sold on Steam. More so if people are buying en mass.

Edit
My bet is it get's launched at I think it was a 78 hour mark. Which would be tomorrow... around. late at night. Then again this info was known from day one when looking at the source page. A weird 78 hour clock was frozen in place, but people quickly left or got silenced on the matter. More evidence suggesting it's rigged. All the valve arg people solving the puzzle vanished. This is just another phase. Then this sudden drop in prices of portal 2 at retail outlets, makes me think it's going to get launched early. This was all planned well in advance. Simple really. Makes the community look good even though it was rigged it "brought" them "together". It also makes Valve look good for upholding their word, and they don't have to wait for a random time based upon how much people want Portal 2 early and work for it.

So Portal 2 launch is upon us? Loyal to my "no expectations, no disappointment" ideology (has worked perfectly so far ) i have not exposed myself to one tiny bit of pre-release information, no clue what kind of a game it's supposed to be. I have a free weekend next week, and there should be enough youtube gameplay by then to see if it's worth wasting the time with :hehe:

You haven't played the first Portal either?

Apparently you get a special something if you get 36 potatoes/1 golden potato. Some of the challenges are so ridiculous, though. I spent about four hours last night trying to finish "The Device Has Been Modified" with Gold on Audiosurf. Bleh.

Free GlaDOS hat in TF2? Episode 3?

I have, and loved it. But as i said i've not looked any information on Portal 2, so i don't know how much of the gameplay they have altered. Surely it's not just a graphical update or only new levels?

They've added a good bit.

All sorts of fun toys. Instead of tossing those evil little turrets around to make them shut down... would you like to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFRbGppLaUI&feature=player_profilepage? :flamethrower:

Ow! Owowowww! It burns! *BOOM*

:lmao: Fine Valve, sold :stare:

Ehhhhhxcellent. Another thrall. :chaos:

There's 2-player co-op levels now too.