Portal 2 is coming next week, or is it? According to countless sources, (we'll just call them "The Internets") we may be getting a heaping helping of GLaDOS this Friday. How is this possible? Try and keep up: On April 1st, Valve released a collection of independent games called "The Potato Sack" on Steam. Each of these games has been "infected" with a form of Portal 2 content. Long story short, there are a ton of clues and hints that point to Portal 2 coming early, that is, if enough people play the "Potato Sack" indie games.
Arstechnica.com has a pretty good breakdown of what's been going on. Their most intriguing tidbit of info comes from a message containing the line "4/19/2011_7AM=4/15/2011_9AM." Super sharp readers may notice Portal 2's announced release date is equal to tomorrow's date. This message was found in an update fo Bit.Trip Beat, part of the Potato Sack collection. ArsTechnica also points out that "Potato" is very similar to "Portal Two." Let's do a quick visual inspection. P-o-t-a-t-o, P-o-r-t-a-l T-w-o. It checks out. Those guys are geniuses.
Then there's the ValveARG Wiki, which has a ton of spoiler-tastic information. Check it out. It will boggle your mind. G4 has a nice video of the Portal 2 content in a handful of the indie games. Check out the following video of Portal 2's infection of Bit. Trip Beat.
If you're still confused, here's a quick breakdown of what's been going on. Don't let the first 15 seconds of music fool you, it's very informative.
Tell us, dear reader, have you been following the Portal 2 AR game? What do you think of this style of marketing? It obviously works on us, because we're covering it. Do you think it's a flash of brilliance, getting indie developers and game journalists to push your product? Or do you think it's insane to put this much time and effort into what is essentially a huge commercial? If Portal 2 is released early, exactly how will that work? Will it only affect Steam users, or will PS3 users be able to get in on the action, due to the Steam/PS3 agreement? Let us know your thoughts, hopes, and dreams.