Portal 2 officially announced, and more weirdness abounds

Brian Ambrozy 5 Mar, 2010 at 2:12pm ET Article published in Gaming

Valve sent out a press release today confirming what we all already knew: Portal 2 is coming. While sparse on details, the press release mentions a Holiday 2010 release.

However, there is more mystery afoot. Valve has been exceptionally cryptic with their announcements, and today’s news is no exception. If you go to the news page on their website, certain letters in the announcement are underlined. Extracting the underlined letters brings us:

D R A T T M A N N H 0 N E E

Shenanigans are afoot.

Comments

5 Mar 2010 ~ 2:37pm AlexDeGruven Well, the Internet Anagram Server comes up with a few interesting results (assuming that the 0 is meant to be an 'o')

http://wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=DRATTMANNHONEE&t=1000&a=n
5 Mar 2010 ~ 2:43pm Thrax It's actually a login to an FTP which posts these materials.

I've tried copying the ASCII bits as a .AIF file (aperature image format) and playing it back in various audio programs. I've tried saving the ASCII data as image formats to no avail. I've also tried loading it up as a .CSV in excel (the comma-delimited elements are certain CSV), also to no avail.

I'm stumped.
5 Mar 2010 ~ 2:47pm Thrax And here's what it looks like decoded. It's an APF Image Format opened by this BASIC program.
5 Mar 2010 ~ 2:52pm AlexDeGruven I've always loved the sense of humor in the Valve developers. I can't wait to see how this progresses.
5 Mar 2010 ~ 3:29pm UPSLynx This Portal 2 stuff is exciting, but I just want Episode 3 :/

I expect something big to go down when Gabe talks at GDC.
5 Mar 2010 ~ 8:26pm Snarkasm Those images are fantastic. Fucking want. Now.
6 Mar 2010 ~ 12:02pm QuadyTheTurnip Awesome idea, or very awesome idea: Gabe will announce that Portal 2 IS Episode 3. Two halves to the game, alternating between Gordon Freeman and Chell?
6 Mar 2010 ~ 2:03pm primesuspect That is an intriguing hypothesis, Quady, and not beyond the realm of possibility. The vague hints at a looming tie in (will Gordon get the Portal gun? Chell is Alyx's mother?) are all hinting at something like this.

I'll put it this way: if any company could pull off a coup like that, it would be Valve... and it would be the gaming wow of the century.
6 Mar 2010 ~ 2:31pm Koreish A buddy of mine had this exact same hypothesis. We already know that the Portal Universe and Half-Life universe are connected so it really isn't that big a leap to assume that they may be the same game.
6 Mar 2010 ~ 10:39pm UPSLynx Gabe has said that portal gun will not be in Episode 3, and they are saying Portal 2 is standalone with an MSRP of $49.99

and I don't believe any of those statements to be fact.
7 Mar 2010 ~ 5:48am Snarkasm A $50 followup to a $20 game that was more like $7.50 when purchased with the Orange Box might make me cry a little bit inside.
7 Mar 2010 ~ 9:59am mertesn

Snarkasm wrote:

A $50 followup to a $20 game that was more like $7.50 when purchased with the Orange Box might make me cry a little bit inside.

Unless there were 150 challenging levels to complete and expected first-play completion time was in the neighborhood of 70 hours.

But yeah, I don't believe the price or lack of tie-in either.
8 Mar 2010 ~ 11:22am FLUFFY! :D this will keep me entertained while i wait for episode 3!