It's Oscar night! The Barbara Walters special is on in the background and I should probably be spending my time thinking about who is going to win this award or that award, but I'm not really paying attention (other than hoping In the Loop picks up Best Adapted Screenplay) because instead I'm just trawling my way through my e-mail press releases, and the first one that caught my eye--one which I notice hasn't already been covered here--is that Valve has announced Portal 2.
Valve are an interesting company (allow me this vague digression) because they're much more interested in making a personal connection with their consumers than they are with journalists (or at least, in my opinion.) For a lazy journalist, it must be infuriating! I mean, here's what the press release for Portal 2 says:
"Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, and Half-Life) and leading technologies (such as Steam, Source), today announced Portal 2 for shipment this coming holiday season.
Portal was originally released in 2007 and earned over 70 industry achievement awards."
That's it. It's a weird release, with a bunch of irrelevant information (everyone knows what Valve has already done, who can use information as vague as "seventy industry achievement awards"?) and absolutely no real information than "Portal 2 is coming out this Christmas."
Not even a wee quote from Gabe Newell that journos can use to pad out an article, where he's all like "The original Portal was well good, and this Christmas expect to learn that the cake is a TRUTH."
Compare this to what they did for the players! First, the original PC version of Portal recieved a mysterious update that allowed players to carry the radio through the game, finding 26 mysterious radio transmissions which, when found, would unlock a new achievement. Then, this set of a huge alternate reality game-like mystery in which the radio transmissions were decoded, allowing players to find more mysterious information.
And then, finally, the game was updated with a new ending--strongly hinting towards the sequel. You can read all about it here on the official Steam forum.
So loads of really great information, all hinting towards the new game in a really interesting way. Rather than a boring short press release in my inbox. Reminds me I should think of myself as a gamer as much as a journalist sometimes--maybe I'll go replay Portal and see that new ending myself.
