The surgeon simulator update came out on the 21st, HL2 turned korean on the 26th. This makes it unlikely the korean in hl2 was a coincidence, with the korean in surgeon simulator being obviously deliberate.
The korean text in the SS picture means 'the time is'. The 6 open spots in it suggest a date to me. Some joker said saturn will be between mercury and venus around september 27-30 when viewed from earth, the spot indicated on the surgeon simulator picture, but I dont really have a way to confirm this. I do know for sure HL2 was originally planned to be released on september 30th: http://www.gamespot.com/features/the-final-hours-of-half-life-2-6112889/ . I haven't really seen anything else convincing tying the surgeon simulator thing back to half life.
Even in an update that is about putting a valve related thing in their game? Even if it is a quote form the start of hl2? Even if steam support tweeted another thing from the start of hl2 in korean? This at the very least is a deliberate trolling instead of an actual arg.
Valve fucked up an update (it isn't the first time.)
In reference to this, they made a joke about it (prepare for unforeseen consequences, in korean)
WARNING: The most recent HL2 update has some issues. We're working to fix this, you can pause the update for now. 예측하지 못한 결과에 대비하라...
You don't tell people "pause the update for now" when you're trying to get them to participate in an ARG. They also fixed it pretty quick. Valve doesn't put stuff into patches and tell people not to check it out; they get cheeky about it. Remember Portal and the patch notes consisting of "Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations"?
They've repeatedly said this isn't an ARG. Both Gabe and Laidlaw have said this, as well as the support twitter.
Yes I'm saying all that despite all of them saying it's not an arg. The surgeon simulator thing is still a puzzle though. And it's still on a reward in an update that's about a valve thing. That part isn't speculation.
I chucked Bossa Studios head Henrique Olifiers an email to see what he made of this madness, and he replied.
“Yep, this was an interesting one to wake up to this morning, I give you that. The easter-egg is a fundamental part of an upcoming July update of the game, but nothing to do with a Valve title, I’m afraid.”
So there we go, nothing to do with Half-Life 3, sadly.
So it's not even in this version of surgeon simulator, what a tease.
So no Half Life 3 yet then? Phew, I haven't played the first two yet.
It's $10 on Steam for Half-Life and $20 for the Orange Box, which contains Half-Life 2, both Episodes 1 & 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 though that game's F2P now so I think it just gives you bonus hats or something?
So the Half-Life 2 beta has apparently concluded and that build has been pushed to final release...
...and now they're apparently doing a new beta to fix any issues caused by the last.
We have started a new Beta for Half-Life 2 and associated games. This beta will address issues discovered in the recent update and also help improve the recently released Source SDK update.
To access this beta go to the Properties page for each Half-Life 2 game you want to try and use the Beta tab to opt-in. To opt-out use the same tab.
Changes in this update are:
Added missing set_sdk_env.bat file for the Source SDK
Updated localization in all languages with improved strings suggested by the community
Added dmxconvert and maya plugins to help when using the Source SDK
Fixed bad material type on the boards at the end of d1_canals_01a
Fixed missing dxsupport configuration files, causing some users to default to lower quality graphics on higher end video cards by mistake
Fixed Vortigaunt model being incorrect if you started directly on ep2_outland_04
Practically every time The Orange Box goes on sale for 75% off I can't help but snag one or two copies.
They've become my standard "Welcome to Steam" gift for friends that are reluctant to adopt the platform. I figure tossing one of the finest gaming packages ever made at them should ease them into things, even if they just toy with Peggle and Portal for a while.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
After nearly fifteen years in development as a mod for Half-Life, and with our final mod release out of the way, the Sven Co-op Development Team is incredibly proud to announce that we are now focusing all of our effort on our next big project. We've been granted access by Valve to work on our own custom version of the Half-Life engine!
The majority of readers are probably asking themselves, “As an alpaca rancher, why is this showing up in my search results?”, a question for which there is no easy answer.
The rest of you are probably asking, “What exactly does this announcement mean?”
The next version of Sven Co-op will run as a standalone game using a custom build of the Half-Life engine.
The game will be FREE for all Steam users, including the official Half-Life campaign (for 2+ player co-op play). A Half-Life purchase will not be required.
Automatic updates will be available using Steam's content delivery system dubbed SteamPipe. This will allow us to perform more frequent and rapid updates as needed.
Updates and new features will be added to the Half-Life engine, as well as a series of improvements to Half-Life's level editor called Hammer.
Increased Half-Life engine limits to allow for much larger and more detailed worlds.
Stability, performance, and gameplay improvements for everyone.
We are grateful beyond expression to Valve for their generosity and efforts put forth to make this possible. We’re looking forward to working with one of the greatest game engines ever made, and we can assure everyone that there are many, many more updates to come.
More news and progress updates will be posted in the near future, so keep a lookout.
We have released an update to Half-Life 2. This update contains the fixes from the current beta. Changes for this update are:
Added missing set_sdk_env.bat file for the Source SDK
Updated localization in all languages with improved strings suggested by the community
Added dmxconvert and maya plugins to help when using the Source SDK
Fixed bad material type on the boards at the end of d1_canals_01a
Fixed missing dxsupport configuration files, causing some users to default to lower quality graphics on higher end video cards by mistake
Fixed Vortigaunt model being incorrect if you started directly on ep2_outland_04
Sadly, it seems they are slowing down on fixes for the HL2 series, and haven't updated Half-Life 1 in months. (there's still some stuff I very much desire they fix)
Maybe the 15th anniversary will see them go back to it.
We have released an update to Deathmatch Classic. This update contains the following:
Fixed 3rd party menus not displaying on the HUD
We have updated the public release of Deathmatch Classic. This update contains all the changes from the recent beta, thanks to the whole community for their help with testing and suggesting new features.
Changes in this update are:
Converted Deathmatch Classic to the new SteamPipe content system, for optimized delivery of the game
Added support for Mac OS X and Linux operating systems
Enabled Cloud support for save games
Improved OpenGL rendering pipeline and output to leverage the capabilities in todays GPU
Numerous bug fixes
Updates to Half-Life 2 and related games (Beta)
We have started a new Beta for Half-Life 2 and associated games.
To access this beta go to the Properties page for each Half-Life 2 game you want to try and use the Beta tab to opt-in. To opt-out use the same tab.
Changes in this update are:
Fixed slow game movement when sv_alternateticks is enabled
Fixed bad damage indicators if you changed resolution while playing
Fix exploding glass effect in the Episode 1 introduction to be correctly HDR enabled
Assorted SDK tool fixes
Updates to Portal (beta)
We have started a new Beta for Portal.
To access this beta go to the Properties page for Portal and use the Beta tab to opt-in. To opt-out use the same tab.
Changes in this update are:
Fixed slow game movement when sv_alternateticks is enabled
Fixed bad damage indicators if you changed resolution while playing
Assorted SDK tool fixes
We have released a Beta update for Half-Life and associated games.
Changes in this update are:
Added support for a crcclientdll key in liblist.gam to turn client.dll crc checking back on, useful for 3rd party mods
Make sure the Close button has keyboard focus when you see the disconnection dialog
Made the play command obey speak_enabled cvar Door movement sound fixes, make sure you stop playing the moving sound if you get disrupted
Fixed crash if you hit retry while in control of a func_tank
Fixed sprays not loading from the correct path causing them not to update
Fixed a crash if you started a local multiplayer game, disconnected and then loaded a save game
Protocol version 48
Exe version 1.1.2.2/Stdio (valve)
Exe build: 16:21:28 Aug 27 2013 (6151)
So there was some update of some kind; but I see no patch notes.
Also, development of Black Mesa mods is still ongoing; which a major update to the HL1 grunt voices pack; as well as updates to the On and Rail expansion
And apparently some russians ported the HL1 Xen levels to Black Mesa; though without the Gonarch apparently. I haven't yet downloaded this to verify how well done it is.
EDIT: Ah, they were updates to CS: CZ Deleted Scenes; which was ported to Steampipe on the 19th. Coolies.
Added support for a crcclientdll key in liblist.gam to turn client.dll crc checking back on, useful for 3rd party mods
Make sure the Close button has keyboard focus when you see the disconnection dialog
Made the play command obey speak_enabled cvar
Door movement sound fixes, make sure you stop playing the moving sound if you get disrupted
Fixed hang when loading maps with corrupt entity data
Fixed being unable to load map resource files if they started with the UTF-8 BOM
Fixed audio artifact in sound track Nuclear Mission Jam
Fixed hud_centerid to apply correctly in Half-Life 1 games
Fixed crash if you hit retry while in control of a func_tank
Fixed sprays not loading from the correct path causing them not to update
Fixed a crash if you started a local multiplayer game, disconnected and then loaded a save game
Valve also released an updated SDK last friday
We have released an update to our Half-Life 1 SDK. This update adds support for mods to allow them to build Linux and Mac OS X versions. You can get the tools via the "Half-Life SDK" tool in Steam, and the code is available via our GitHub page.
Posts
Basically: HL2 gets randomly patched into Korean and now Surgeon Simulator has some Korean text in it.
Confirmed: North Korea is the Combine homeworld.
It all makes so much sense
The korean text in the SS picture means 'the time is'. The 6 open spots in it suggest a date to me. Some joker said saturn will be between mercury and venus around september 27-30 when viewed from earth, the spot indicated on the surgeon simulator picture, but I dont really have a way to confirm this. I do know for sure HL2 was originally planned to be released on september 30th: http://www.gamespot.com/features/the-final-hours-of-half-life-2-6112889/ . I haven't really seen anything else convincing tying the surgeon simulator thing back to half life.
And random chotcki's with Korean on them are pretty common in the world. "Made in Korea" is a thing.
In reference to this, they made a joke about it (prepare for unforeseen consequences, in korean)
You don't tell people "pause the update for now" when you're trying to get them to participate in an ARG. They also fixed it pretty quick. Valve doesn't put stuff into patches and tell people not to check it out; they get cheeky about it. Remember Portal and the patch notes consisting of "Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations"?
They've repeatedly said this isn't an ARG. Both Gabe and Laidlaw have said this, as well as the support twitter.
So it's not even in this version of surgeon simulator, what a tease.
Must feel pretty weird for a small title to briefly get the Half-Life 3 spotlight shone on them.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
It's $10 on Steam for Half-Life and $20 for the Orange Box, which contains Half-Life 2, both Episodes 1 & 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 though that game's F2P now so I think it just gives you bonus hats or something?
That's a really good deal, is all I'm saying.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
...and now they're apparently doing a new beta to fix any issues caused by the last.
hl2, on its own.
another mindfuck i think, who doesnt own that game? i have like 6 copies of the thing alone.
strange, poor souls who missed the train
I finished HL2 for the millionth time yesterday, then went through Episode 1 again. Polish off the set with Episode 2 tomorrow or late tonight, maybe.
They've become my standard "Welcome to Steam" gift for friends that are reluctant to adopt the platform. I figure tossing one of the finest gaming packages ever made at them should ease them into things, even if they just toy with Peggle and Portal for a while.
bzzt!
It's... something much worse now
Source: http://forums.svencoop.com/showthread.php/41097-The-Big-Announcement?p=494183
Sadly, it seems they are slowing down on fixes for the HL2 series, and haven't updated Half-Life 1 in months. (there's still some stuff I very much desire they fix)
Maybe the 15th anniversary will see them go back to it.
Updates to Half-Life 2 and related games (Beta)
Updates to Portal (beta)
The bolded one is a welcome change as it made a couple of spots have ugly repeating audio
Still want to see the MP3 bug in mods get fixed, so here's hoping.
EDIT: Also it appears that they pushed out the beta patches for Op4 and Blue Shift to public releases, so correct music for everybody!
dunno if I really want to see their take, per se... but I do want the thing to be finished so I can judge it as a complete product.
hey man it hasn't even been half a decade yet.
Protocol version 48
Exe version 1.1.2.2/Stdio (valve)
Exe build: 16:21:28 Aug 27 2013 (6151)
So there was some update of some kind; but I see no patch notes.
Also, development of Black Mesa mods is still ongoing; which a major update to the HL1 grunt voices pack; as well as updates to the On and Rail expansion
HL1 Radio Chatter Swap
On a Rail: Uncut
And apparently some russians ported the HL1 Xen levels to Black Mesa; though without the Gonarch apparently. I haven't yet downloaded this to verify how well done it is.
EDIT: Ah, they were updates to CS: CZ Deleted Scenes; which was ported to Steampipe on the 19th. Coolies.
Valve also released an updated SDK last friday
I have no earthly idea what this means
a misspelling of 'anyone'? 'annoying'?
He's made a huge mistake.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126