I recall seeing an email somewhere in which Valve stated there would be a massive surprise at E3 this year. Most thought they would announce Half-Life 2 Episode 3. So what happened? I already knew about Portal 2.

Yes that was the massive surprise - them talking about something everyone already knows about instead of something new. Indeed no one was expecting that.

We already have an E3 thread. http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1098855-e3-2010/

Portal 2 with STEAM. ON THE PS3. That's about it, really. It was surprising indeed since Valve always considered that platform minor, whatever happened is up to anyone's guess.

Yep, let's continue this over there