First Person Project: The Jacknife Chronicles

Interesting machinima combining Half Life and Mirror's Edge (and Gary's Mod, and Portal just for kicks). Also covered here, here, here, and here.

Portal Update

Spoiler Alert:

From HalfLife2.net

Portal has received an update, one line, check it out:

Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations

Load Portal. The first chapter. You'll notice the radio will have a red light on it now. Pick up the radio, go through the first portal and then stand on the button (still holding the radio). The light will go green, a new achievement will unlock and the music will change to morse code.

The audio files are in the GCF which can be unpacked with GCFSacape. They are named dinosaur1.wav to dinosaur26.wav.

The morse code from those sound files has been translated and this is what it spells:

Quote:

#1-Dinosaur 1
I-N-T-E-R-I-O-R
T-R-A-N-S-M-I-S-S-I-O-N
A-C-T-I-V-E
E-X-T-E-R-N-A-L
D-A-T-A
L-I-N-E
A-C-T-I-V-E
M-E-S-S-A-G-E
D-I-G-E-S-T
A-C-T-I-V-E

#2-Dinosaur 5
9-E-J-0-7-D-3-7-2-B-B-6-8-2-6-B-D-8-1-D-3-5-4-2-A-4-1-9-D-6
(Which sanitysama says is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog")


#3-Dinosaur 12
S-Y-S-T-E-M
D-A-T-A
D-U-M-P
A-C-T-I-V-E
U-S-E-R
B-A-C-K-U-P
A-C-T-I-V-E
P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D
B-A-C-K-U-P
A-C-T-I-V-E

#4-Dinosaur 17
B-E-E-P
B-E-E-E-E-P
B-E-E-P
B-E-E-P

B-E-E-E-E-P
B-E-E-E-E-P
B-E-E-E-E-P


B-E-E-P
B-E-E-E-E-P
B-E-E-P
B-E-E-P

And if you turn all those Beeps into individual morse code it spells LOL.

The others are images as decoded in this thread on steampowered.

Completely unverified, but amusing if true.

Valve/HL Machinima

Some clips:

Smooth Few Films Releases A Portal Machinima.

A Day In The Life Of A Turret (Portal)

The Janus Syndicate has a clip of a man mistaken for Gordon Freeman.

Half Life 2 Anxiety (Hitchcockian)

Some short comedy sketches in Gmod and HL. Approx 40 min. in total. Very rude, crude, adolescent. From xcloud01.

Short Bits #1, #2, #3 part one, part two.

Another video of some short comedy sketches. Some work, some don't. From Katana314

Press Start

Portal, Portal, on the Wall...

If you haven't been paying attention in the last week or so, Valve released a new gameplay movie that showcases a new technology called 'Portal' (available on Google Video).

According to an interview with one of the employees of Valve (Kim Swift, hired on the spot after the demo of their game to Gabe Newell!) on IGN, the portal game will take place in the Half Life universe and will be available as a second single-player episode when Episode Two is released (ie. it will not be part of the continuing saga with Gordon, Alyx, and the G-Man, but will take place in the same storyline).

The gameplay video is absolutely amazing. Unlike the portals in Prey which are permanent fixtures in each level, in the Portal game you actually have a gun that can shoot a portal into a wall or floor. Shoot once for your landing, shoot a second time for take-off, step through (or jump, or fall) and voila!

The gun appears to be a gravity-gun as well, and you can use it to move objects through the portals. In the gameplay video several examples are shown where objects are tossed through the portal to knock out a turret. The entire game appears to be a giant puzzle game where you are presented with obstacles by the Aperture Science Corporation and you must complete them (is this a 3D platformer?).

Valve mentions that they will use this for future multiplayer games as well (I can't wait). Episode Two will also include Team Fortress Two (so that's two single player games/episodes, and a multiplayer add-on). Valve appears to have a very stylistically comical take on the Team Fortress franchise, which is probably for the best (also shown on IGN).

About the portals. Are these part of the portal storms mentioned in the half life storyline, or something else?