Home / Software & Gaming / Are you helping to unlock Portal 2 early?

Are you helping to unlock Portal 2 early?

Carl Muller April 17, 2011 Software & Gaming

For the handful of people who still aren't aware, Valve have been involved in a rather cool marketing twist, before the Portal 2 launch. If people play any of 13 selected games, they can help unlock Portal 2 early via Steam.

Portal 2 is one of the most awaited games this year. The original title proved a massive seller for Valve, creators of Half Life and Left 4 Dead – and justifiably so too, because it combined humor, with addictive, intelligent puzzle game play.

April 1st was the start of a very entertaining Valve concept, to build up excitement for the launch. ‘Potato related' jokes and content started to appear in some games. Web users then started poking around inside the updates to make sense of coded images and messages.

This hunt for information led to a countdown timer on ApertureScience.com – ‘Aperture' being the fictional research firm which was featured in Portal and the upcoming Portal 2.

GlaDOS, the franchise's antagonist wrote “We need raw computational power to speed up the reboot process.”

So gamers can help the ‘reboot' time by playing Steam versions of 13 selected games, with titles such as Defense Grid even getting free PORTAL style levels with a recent update (including speech from the witty computer ‘GlaDOS')

Defense Grid April 2011 Portal 2 ARG Updates:

  • Two free new and original Defense Grid Levels with new voice acting and story.
  • Portal's GLaDOS invades the network and brings a new style of level design to Defense Grid.
  • New computer console off the main menu. Poke around in the old computer archives, try out puzzles, and learn some DG back-story.
  • Tesla towers now recharge faster and do more damage.

April 13 update:

  • CHAS level is now unlocked for everyone!
  • Recruiting is still important, so keep it up.
  • Tony has one more trick up his sleeve
  • Three more clues to find

Portal 2 may or may not be released a little early on STEAM, but it will hit retail stores for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Macintosh and PC on April 19th in North America and April 21st in Europe (sorry, but US get it earlier).

KitGuru says: Valve are certainly getting the ‘community' involved with this. Very cool.

Become a Patron!

Tags

Check Also

Call of Duty COD

KitGuru Games: Predicting the Next Half a Decade of Call of Duty Releases

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) famously once said: “The three absolutes in life are death, taxes and a new Call of Duty coming out every single year”. Sure enough, the US founding father has yet to be proven wrong, with Activision and a dozen studios having ensured that come the tail-end of any given year, there will be a new COD ready to release. And so, what can we expect from the franchise later this year? What about 2027, 2028 or even 2030? By looking back at the past two decades of Call of Duty games, their trends, progression and regression, I believe I can predict the next 5 years worth of annual COD entries.

2 comments

  1. Forrester
    April 17, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    Time to call in a few sickies this week

  2. FoxMontage
    April 18, 2011 at 10:09 am

    I’ve been playing that level of defense grid for the last week, it’s quite tricky- I had no idea it had anything to do with Portal 2! By the way, for those of you that haven’t played defense grid, it’s a fantastic game.

© Copyright 2026, Kitguru.net All Rights Reserved Standard Terms