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Portal Gets A New Ending

Retconning your ending before even putting out a sequel is pretty wild, if you ask me.

So... something is up with Portal. Earlier this week, folks started dissecting some new files that appeared in mysterious patch. After decoding them with ham radio SSTV decoders, a bunch of even more mysterious images popped up, leaving people with a BBS phone number, some blueprints or something, and... a bunch of stuff labelled "dinosaur."

Another update was pushed out today, and this one makes changes to the ending of the game. Here's the new ending. Keep in mind that by watching this, you'll be seeing the end of Portal. The very end. If you don't want to see the end of Portal, don't watch this video, is what I'm saying. Portal ending ahoy. Watch out for "spoilers," if you "catch" my "drift."
  

  
 The bit about assuming the correct party escort submission position and the part where a robot or something drags you away is new, by the way.

I'm no super-sleuth, but I feel like I can say with some authority that Valve is up to something. Maybe it's a Portal sequel, maybe it's Episode 3, maybe Episode 3 is the Portal sequel, maybe getting all the radios and then beating the game unlocks the Borealis for use in TF2, or maybe they just got really unsatisfied with the ending in Portal and decided to shake it up for no reason whatsoever!

OK, it's probably not that. One thing I will say, though, is that it's kind of neat to use Steam's automatic patching to push sneaky stuff like this out to players.
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

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selbie

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Edited By selbie

The what in the what position?

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Joeyoe31

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Edited By Joeyoe31

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABEEEEEEE

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ImBigInJapan

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Edited By ImBigInJapan
@PapaLazarou said:
" @theMuse said:
" This video reminded me just how aged the source engine is. TF2 doesn't show it, but any of the other source engine based games do. "
 Well Source is like 7 years old. Designed to be released in 2003, delayed due to that hacker who stole the Code. Frigging when you look at Half-Life and then Half-Life 2 that was a 6 year gap and man Half-Life looked so old. I think Source has done amazingly well to still look up to date. You can be playing Left 4 Dead and the character faces and animation still look better than most games today. The physics inside the game are still better than most other games around. Like you'll be playing an UE3 game and frigging all their worlds feel very static, rag dolls still have no weight to them.   I love Source but it does need to be replaced with a newer engine and I'm hoping they'll use HL3 to launch it on. "
 
I have a hypothesis that this is the reason that the next Half Life has taken so long to surface. With the secretive way Valve operates, though, that is total speculation... not that I really mind - I'm getting the next HL whenever the heck it comes out regardless of the engine it's on, but for future projects Valve really needs to take a look at their engine. It's not like the days when the superiority of HL2 gameplay was pretty much indisputable. A lot of developers have taken the lessons Valve taught to heart (and some are still struggling, of course).
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Kovski

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Edited By Kovski

Oh i thought they would retcon the whole silly part of the game that came after completing the 
test chambers, because the first part of the game was a really solid and fresh kind of puzzle game  and the whole "something is terrible wrong"-feeling I got when I first encountered the broken walls and messages of "cake is a lie" was more of a really nice bonus. But the part after the test chambers just felt out of place and broke the whole atmosphere of the game for me and is a part of why i never feel like replaying the game again. I hoped that Valve understood it really just was meaningless and desperate way to fill out the game time so they decided to retcon that part, but i guess they never did and it is a bit too late to do anything about it anyway.

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MattyFTM

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Edited By MattyFTM  Moderator

Valve sure know how to do viral marketing. I'm already excited for whatever valve are hinting at with this stuff, and I don't even know what it is!!

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august

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@Kovski said:

" Oh i thought they would retcon the whole silly part of the game that came after completing the  test chambers, because the first part of the game was a really solid and fresh kind of puzzle game  and the whole "something is terrible wrong"-feeling I got when I first encountered the broken walls and messages of "cake is a lie" was more of a really nice bonus. But the part after the test chambers just felt out of place and broke the whole atmosphere of the game for me and is a part of why i never feel like replaying the game again. I hoped that Valve understood it really just was meaningless and desperate way to fill out the game time so they decided to retcon that part, but i guess they never did and it is a bit too late to do anything about it anyway. "

The whole point of the game is to make you want to escape, to break the test and get out. I really have never heard the opinion you're espousing and find it genuinely bizarre.
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James0890

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Edited By James0890

You've got to love Valve, they are incredibly successful with Steam which gives them free reigns to do this kind of stuff, could you imagine any other developer/publisher doing something like this?
 
Also in regards to previous posts, I hope they keep Source for HL2:EP3 and Portal 2, Source is amazing well optimized and it looks fantastic, why change that?

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Andheez

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Edited By Andheez

Ive said all along that Episode 3 and Portal would be merged, why else would they put them in the same universe?

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Edited By Lind_L_Taylor
@ThatFrood said:
" This, along with the news that Steam is coming to mac osx? Those Valve people are crazy. Crazy like a fox. "
Exactly. They're not Crazy Insane.
 
Btw, why wasn't there a warning that the video was a spoiler? wtf!
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mthe1337one

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Edited By mthe1337one
@Lind_L_Taylor said:

" @ThatFrood said:

" This, along with the news that Steam is coming to mac osx? Those Valve people are crazy. Crazy like a fox. "
Exactly. They're not Crazy Insane.  Btw, why wasn't there a warning that the video was a spoiler? wtf! "
quote from article:
" Watch out for "spoilers," if you "catch" my "drift." "
 
=\
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wiII

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Edited By wiII
@Kovski said:

" Oh i thought they would retcon the whole silly part of the game that came after completing the  test chambers, because the first part of the game was a really solid and fresh kind of puzzle game  and the whole "something is terrible wrong"-feeling I got when I first encountered the broken walls and messages of "cake is a lie" was more of a really nice bonus. But the part after the test chambers just felt out of place and broke the whole atmosphere of the game for me and is a part of why i never feel like replaying the game again. I hoped that Valve understood it really just was meaningless and desperate way to fill out the game time so they decided to retcon that part, but i guess they never did and it is a bit too late to do anything about it anyway. "

 Wow, that is a strange point of view.......  I guess one mans nice bonus to pad out the game, is anothers ingenious game design.  
 
The element of escape is great for both story and gameplay.  Game starts out mysterious, in a clean, somewhat safe, test environment.  Slowly you get hints along the way, all while you are learning portal techniques through subtle hints on the test chambers walls.  Then the escape comes and  help/hints/safety/clear goals go out the window.  You are left just with your previous knowledge from the test chambers.    Great  "ramping up" puzzle design rapped nicely around a interesting story.
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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

I forgot I never actually finished Portal. 

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Whisperkill

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Edited By Whisperkill
@Meatsim said:
" I forgot I never actually finished Portal.  "
BLASPHEMY!!!
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woltkezero

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Edited By woltkezero

Ok folks... heres the deal.  They are Rolling out Steam for the Mac.... rereleasing Portal/Team Fortress 2/Half-Life 2 on Opening day.  I say cool.  
 
And Previewing Portal 2 :-) 
 
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Claude

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Edited By Claude

And I get a new reason to play. Damn you Valve, backlog bitches, I've got a backlog.
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Edited By Lind_L_Taylor
@mthe1337one said:
" @Lind_L_Taylor said:

" @ThatFrood said:

" This, along with the news that Steam is coming to mac osx? Those Valve people are crazy. Crazy like a fox. "
Exactly. They're not Crazy Insane.  Btw, why wasn't there a warning that the video was a spoiler? wtf! "
quote from article: " Watch out for "spoilers," if you "catch" my "drift." "  =\ "
I was kidding!  =P
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Edited By august
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Edited By pepsicolagirl

awesome