The Aperture Science Periodically Updated Post Publication System

Welcome to the Aperture Science Periodically Updated Post Publication System,
directed and written by F. Tido. At the end of the reading there will be cake. Post will begin in 5... 4... 3... *bzzzz*

I think that is what GLaDOS would say about this blog.

Hello there! You may be wondering what is this post about. This week I'm talking about a videogame I like. No, it's not TF2, although it's been created by Valve Software as well. I'm talking about a game like no other one you've seen: Portal.

Welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichement Center.

Portal is an FPS/puzzle game, which consist of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player's character and other simple objects using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (dubbed the "Portal Gun"), a unit that can create an inter-spatial portal between flat planes (Wikipedia). Basically, it's a new way of solving puzzles. A video example is worth more than nine thousand words, so...

As you see, after a while playing the game, you start thinking differently. Thinking with portals. You may be wondering why I am talking about a game released in 2007. The answer is that last week VALVE ANNOUNCED THAT PORTAL 2 IS GOING TO BE RELEASED! But the extraordinary thing about this is the way they have announced it. Valve are famous for letting players especulate before releasing something. They like to make us think. The point is that last week Portal was updated, after some years of inactivity. The only apparent change was that some radios were hided in the maps, and a new achievement consisted on getting those radios to secret spots where they would activate and emit messages in Morse code and SSTV code. I don't know very much about these, but some Internet user do, and after decoding the message, they found that the mysterious transmissions were a couple of images, which you can see right here. The images held another mystery. They had numbers that resulted to be a Telnet BBS number. After entering, ASCII images. Images from Portal 2. You can see the images in this post from HL2spain. But wait, there's more! Some days afterwards, Valve officially announced Portal 2's development in GameInformer Magazine. The jpeg counterparts of the ASCII images were there. AND best of all. Last Thursday Gabe Newell (Valve's Boss) recieved the Game Developers Choice Awards Pioneer Award. In the ceremony, this occured.

Newell: "That's what I get of working in Microsoft."

But that was not a common BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), but a modified one which you can see here. The error has been translated and it says "Suspended until E3". It seems we'll have to wait until then for more info. Finishing with the post, I earnestly encourage you to play Portal. It's fun, it's smart and it's Valve Powered. If you still don't want to play it, at least watch some of these videos. Maybe then you'll change yor mind. Portal Video-walkthrough

Thank you for participating in the Aperture Science Text Reading Comprehension Activity. The cake was actually a lie. We are sorry for having raised false expectations. We will stop enhancing the truth in 3... 2... *bzzzz*