Hello, ARG?
At today's Spike Video Game Awards, the hero [Portal 2](/games?search=Portal 2) Wheatley expressed how happy he was to be at the VGA. But everyone knows that Valve doesn’t do anything for no reason. Despite the video being blocked all over YouTube, fans managed to grab and dissect it. This led to a theory: Is the video with Wheatley a hint at HL3?
Here’s the video for those who haven’t seen it:
So, let’s break it down:
• Text at the top of the video: OBSERVATION SATELLITE "LANTHANUM"
• On the Steam forum, the code FMP2WH0912 - a coupon that gives a 25% discount in the Valve Store.
FMP2WH0912
P2 = Portal 2
WH = Wheatley
0912 = December 09, coupon release date
FM = FreeMan?
There’s a version that FM in the code might refer to transmission frequency, for instance.
OBSERVATION SATELLITE "LANTHANUM"
• Inscription in Russian!
• Lanthanum "Lanthanum" from Greek λανθανω [lanthanō] — λ
• Wheatley says "1 1 1" at the end.
• The Consumer Electronics Show will be on January 10-13, 2012, and 1 1 1 might mean 11/1 2012 CES. Perhaps Valve will show something at CES on the 11th?
• 1 + 1 + 1 = 3
• LANTHANUM in the periodic table is under number 57 and in group THREE.
• Lanthanum "Lanthanum" from Greek λανθανω [lanthanō] — to lie hidden.
If you go to the [Portal 2](/games?search=Portal 2) section on the Steam forums, you’ll see this:
And during the VGA, the Wheatley logo changed to this:
Moreover, the familiar author of the inscription "the cake is a lie" Doug Rattmann just posted on his Twitter page literally 4 hours ago:
It βegins. [Это началось.]
Transmission received. [Передача получена.]
AV - 10.0 | 8.2 | 12.6 | 15.2 | 7.8 | 0.2 | 17.9 | 6.9 | 21.1 | 3.7 | 21.2 | 20.4 | 10.7 - Connection Lost
| 52.1 | 14.7 | 71.0 | 79.0 | 15.5 | 53.4 | 8.9 | 63.2 | 85.0 | 14.1 | 68.9 | 30.3 | 53.2 | 42.8 | 68.5 | 14.2 | 64.3 | 43.9 | 18.3 | 84.6
MKB - 81.4 | 73.3 | 70.4 | 35.3 | 61.9 | 25.7 | 58.6 | 57.3 | 27.8 | 38.5 | 41.1 | 31.0 | 63.4 | 68.4 | 21.4 | 15.2 | 87.5 | 41.9 | 84.0
3.9 | 0.4 | 14.6 | 12.7 | 14.0 | 6.6 | 14.2 | 5.4 | 13.7 | 12.7 | 9.8 | 0.8 | 12.3 | 11.5 | 14.2 | 0.2 - Connection Lost
4.4 | 1.8 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 10.6 | 3.5 | 14.9 | 10.1 | 10.8 | 2.4 | 2.1 | 5.1 | 0.6 | 13.3 | 0.8 | 2.0 |
0.7 | 1.8 | 5.0 | 10.3 | 13.9 | 5.0 | 5.7 | 6.6 | 11.1 | 3.3 | 11.8 | 7.9 | 14.4 | 11.2 | 1.1 | 5.3 | 1.6
1.8 | 12.8 | 8.4 | 1.7 | 13.2 | 14.7 | 7.2 | 10.0 | 10.2 | 9.5 | 8.7 | 7.5 | 0.3 | 8.8 | 5.8 | 7.6 | 0.1
CH - 1.4 | 3.0 | 8.9 | 8.3 | 8.1 | 3.9 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 12.4 | 6.2 | 8.6 | 0.5 | 6.2 | 9.7 | 3.4 | 6.1 | 5.7
164.7 | 27.0 | 114.1 | 35.2 | 83.2 | 31.0 | 40.3 | 94.6 | 176.7 | 70.3
37.0 | 29.7 | 153.6 | 64.1 | 37.4 | 60.0 | 72.7 | 12.5 | 88.1 | 73.9 | 4.9 | 178.5 | 35.0 | 30.4 | 42.9 | 57.4
109.9 | 120.1 | 29.2 | 120.7 | 49.5 | 110.1 | 48.6 | 24.5 | 107.3 | 52.7 | 65.2 | 109.2 | 179.7 | 97.1 | 37.1
CH 2 - 34.4 | 30.2 | 40.9 | 111.7 | 0.3 | 171.0 | 107.6 | 54.7 | 85.9 | 116.7 | 85.1 | 120.4 | 122.7 | 0.7 | 70.0
51.6 | 5.2 | 59.6 | 60.4 | 19.7 | 30.0 | 39.9 | 1.2 | 23.8 | 0.2 | 69.0 | 31.7 | - Connection Lost
ЯK - 63.4 | 37.5 | 20.5 | 47.4 | 13.1 | 12.5 | 27.6 | 72.4 | 54.3 | 70.3 | 34.6 | 15.1 | 60.2 | 21.0 | 38.5 |
End of Transmission. [Передача завершена.]
It’s possible that the Twitter is a fake.
Now take another look at the video and pay attention to the letters and numbers on the right. Yes, it’s all the same. It doesn’t matter if the Twitter is fake or not, the numbers are the same as in the video. What do they mean? How to decipher them? What awaits us? DLC for [Portal 2](/games?search=Portal 2)? Or maybe HL3? Or perhaps Portal 3? We build our guesses, friends.
It’s worth noting that various games are adding achievements, and it's possible that different content will be added, and we might get another ARG.
Updated:
Updated [2]:
In addition to the coupon release, on the same day, December 9, Team Fortress 2 was updated. The so-called “grakets” were updated. They were added a while ago, and a set was immediately shown that is linked to the grakets. But what’s the point of updating them after so long? And now I present to you the story of the update and the grakets model:
On December 9, 2011, the Graket model was updated — now it has three hatches, from which three traps descend. At their bases, there are boxes with tools lying on the ground.
Another amusing thing I found was by a companion AQuaRity: Cool Sam threw an interesting picture on Twitter and added an inscription:
You'll see, all in good time [Все увидите в свое время]
The crux of the matter is that Cool Sam has already updated "for Christmas," but the update logs say nothing about the Christmas tree. A piece of ARG?
"Christmas tree? Absurd!" you might think. Oh, others thought so during the previous ARG when a potato was at the center of everything. I remind you that a list of HL3 achievements leaked online, and all icons are made in a "snowy" style, so...
P.S. The post will be updated as new significant information is found.