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Valve's fake, rigged, waste of time Progress Quest troll Portal 2 ARG

E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Good lord, it goes deeper.

Fiddle with the alpha layers on all this art and you get photos.

l5ITx.jpg
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
I don't typically do this, but

dat art :eek:

The "eye" cover is fucking incredible!
 
B

Baha

Member
I just bought the potato in Killing Floor but it took me over an hour, here's what I did:
-Since it was just me & my friend, he hosted the server with the Faked Players mutator set to 4 so that we would get waves intended for a full game of 6.
-Before the end of each wave, we left the last zed alive and ran around the map collecting weapons and dumping them outside the trader. Playing as support really came in handy for being a pack mule (lvl 6 support has 24 weight).
-We played on West London which in retrospect was a really good decision as it had plenty of weapon spawns and it wasn't too big so the last remaining clot wouldn't despawn if we were too far away as we would circle back into it's path often.

You can do this with 6 players and probably faster doing the same thing but only the person who buys the potato gets the aperture login screen.
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
All the photos are from locations in Seattle. Maybe that's where Aperture Science is housed?
 
D

Datwheezy

Unconfirmed Member
So if I recall, there was rumors of the Potato Pack during the Xmas sale, which means the idea was at least developed at that time. So, I'm wondering, did they have this all setup and ready around Xmas time for the February Portal 2 release, and when they pushed back the game (to have time to finish/polish it), they pushed back the ARG?

Or was the game delayed because they weren't done with setting up the ARG? Or, depending on what the final outcome of it is, did they push it back because that final item (prize/announcement/HL2 EP3 available for download
lulz
) wasnt finished?

I have a feeling the potatoes are going to lead to a tiered prize handout, similar to those challenges during that one sale last year. Hopefully this isnt all for TF2 hats though.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
geez, almost regretting not buying the three or four games I needed from the Potato pack now. I just couldn't justify $30 though
 
P

Palette Swap

Member
I love how this ARG keeps getting deeper.

Also, am I the only one surprised all that box art is for 360, considering it's supposed to be the the inferior version out of the 3?
 
B

Big Chief Crazy Cone

Member
Got my first (and likely only) potato. The pictures coming from the archives are awesome. As said earlier, the "eye" boxart with the Truman Show vibe is incredible. The yellow stick-man as the sun is a clever touch.

In unrelated news, I bought my first TF2 hat today: The Big Chief. I am now part of the problem : ( That's awesome that they raised almost 500k for Japan though
 
K

~Kinggi~

Banned
EatChildren said:
Good lord, it goes deeper.

Fiddle with the alpha layers on all this art and you get photos.

l5ITx.jpg
Click to expand...
Fuck, never thought of using alpha layers to replicate old black and white photos. Thats brilliant.
 
T

TheOGB

Banned
Big Chief Crazy Cone said:
Got my first (and likely only) potato. The pictures coming from the archives are awesome. As said earlier, the "eye" boxart with the Truman Show vibe is incredible. The yellow stick-man as the sun is a clever touch.

In unrelated news, I bought my first TF2 hat today: The Big Chief. I am now part of the solution : ) That's awesome that they raised almost 500k for Japan though
Click to expand...
Oh wow, really? Didn't even notice. I like it even more now. :D

and i took the liberty of fixing something for ya
 
S

Servizio

I don't really need a tag, but I figured I'd get one to make people jealous. Is it working?
I'm sad I'll only have a shot at one potato at most, since I only own Amnesia.

And that game is scary.

I really shouldn't be tempted to drop $40 for...Potato icons.

Also, I'm really impressed with just how elaborate this has all been. I mean, it involves at least 11 other companies besides Valve; the 10 involved in the potato pack and the hardware makers Razer. Content for the ARG has been delivered via email, website, tweet, Facebook, blog, and forum post, and has spanned the whole spectrum of media.

That really seems like a non-trivial amount of effort all to announce...Portal 2 unlocks early? TF2 hats? Portal 2 is being released, period? (I like how it's been the top seller for awhile now)

I really have no previous experience or context to put this in and formulate a reasonable expectation with. Where are we going with this, Valve? And how much is it going to cost me?
 
T

TheOGB

Banned
Gonna attempt to call it now: final result will be
TF2 hats and early realease/demo/something like that

That will lead to more ARG shit which will in turn lead to more HL3/Ep3 shit and nothing will be heard until E3
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I wonder why they are yet to pull photos from the other images. I know nothing about hiding shit in alpha layers, so I wouldnt know how difficult these things would be to find.
 
B

blamite

Member
So I finished the tonylanche game in Defense grid, and nothing happened. Has the login screen or whatever not been unlocked for this yet? I want a potato. >.>

I only have a few of these games, and I doubt I'll end up getting any more, but hooooly crap is this deep. Mega props to Valve for doing something this big.
 
S

Salsa

Member
So, if i buy the games from the potato pack that im missing now will i still get the TF2 items and be able to do this ?

Fuckin valve, i might just cave in, im scared of missing something :(
 
D

Dug

Banned
SalsaShark said:
So, if i buy the games from the potato pack that im missing now will i still get the TF2 items and be able to do this ?
Click to expand...
Yeah, as long as the pack is up you can get the items. Now sure if the potato hat drops immediately though...
 
D

D4Danger

Unconfirmed Member
SalsaShark said:
So, if i buy the games from the potato pack that im missing now will i still get the TF2 items and be able to do this ?

Fuckin valve, i might just cave in, im scared of missing something :(
Click to expand...

I gave up trying to collect all the TF2 stuff
 
S

Salsa

Member
D4Danger said:
I gave up trying to collect all the TF2 stuff
Click to expand...

I wouldnt get it for that alone, but i wanna see what this potatoes mean.


edit: god fuckin dammit not enough funds. Can anyone gift me 1..2..3 kick it and Beautiful end of the world ? 10 bucks total, i'll paypal asap next week.
 
?

(._.)

Banned
What the hell is going on? This some sort of crazy ass scavenger hunt? The build up to Portal 2 is incredible at this point.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
So apparently Audiosurf was supposed to be really hard? I played that like 20-second clip linked earlier and got the potato, but someone else was trying to do the full 2-minute song from the wiki, and it's apparently really tough on ninja mono.

I then tried aaaaaaa, and it's hard to even UNLOCK the levels the wiki suggests, let alone get all the potatos at the end of the first level. And then they tick down one percent per second and you have to scroll the level select around like 11 clicks just to PICK another level with more potatos? :/
 
F

From The Dust

Banned
Blizzard said:
So apparently Audiosurf was supposed to be really hard? I played that like 20-second clip linked earlier and got the potato, but someone else was trying to do the full 2-minute song from the wiki, and it's apparently really tough on ninja mono.

I then tried aaaaaaa, and it's hard to even UNLOCK the levels the wiki suggests, let alone get all the potatos at the end of the first level. And then they tick down one percent per second and you have to scroll the level select around like 11 clicks just to PICK another level with more potatos? :/
Click to expand...

why should they make this easy? :lol
 
Zomba13

Zomba13

Member
The Wonderful End Of The World level is damn hard. I can only get an A at best and you need an A+ =/

EDIT: Managed to do it :D Potato 3 get.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Actually, that's a FIVE MINUTE song that you have to get 100% perfect for the Audiosurf potato, and in a screamy metal style I hate. Baha, I'm glad you found the kinda-cheating way to get that. >_>
 
F

Forkball

Member
Yeah the AAAAAA one is pretty tough. You don't know what levels they're in or where they will appear, and they are pretty inconspicuous among the rest of the buildings. I found a level with three of them in, but it just showed a percentage that ticked down. The other games I have in the pack besides that and Audiosurf (which I have the potato for) are 1 2 3 (which crashes all the time now for some reason) and Super Meat Boy (lost the save after my harddrive crashed). I am content with my one potato. I'm surprised all 13 haven't been accessed yet.
 
B

blamite

Member
Well, it looks like I'll only get two potatoes. Audiosurf's, and Defense Grid's, whenever its login gets solved. I'm happy just to sit back and watch the madness unfold.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
Jintor said:
This shit is fucking insane. So much cooler than a simple image dump to major gaming websites.
Click to expand...

I liked the other ARG more, mainly because you didn't need to own 13 other games to participate. :p But yes, it's really insane.
 
S

Salsa

Member
not to quote myself but im gonna keep trying:

SalsaShark said:
Can anyone gift me 1..2..3 kick it and Beautiful end of the world ? 10 bucks total, i'll paypal asap this starting week.
Click to expand...

I FEEL LIKE IM MISSING OUT ON THE POTATOES D:
 
H

Hylian7

Member
EatChildren said:
They think that they need to connect the landmarks appearing in the alpha layers for all this artwork. That location they think will be the next clue.
Click to expand...
I know, but I have a feeling the dots on the box art have something to do with it.
 
T

TheOGB

Banned
okay what the fuck

I honestly didn't think this was insane before, but this is getting insane. I don't know if I've ever been in a rabbit hole so deep.
 
D

dave is ok

aztek is ok
This became the best ARG ever when they had videotape of the kid in the Netherlands taking pictures of clues and had a truck drive by with glyphs on it. And it's gotten progressively crazier since, nothing will ever top this - seriously

I'm at 3 potatoes, how's everyone else doing?
 
F

From The Dust

Banned
dave is ok said:
This became the best ARG ever when they had videotape of the kid in the Netherlands taking pictures of clues and had a truck drive by with glyphs on it. And it's gotten progressively crazier since, nothing will ever top this - seriously

I'm at 3 potatoes, how's everyone else doing?
Click to expand...

wat. video please
 
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