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What's in the box? Possible HL2: Ep. 3 viral?
uberneko
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU_reTt7Hj4
Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but someone on another forum posted this video with speculation that it is Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Events in the video are reminiscent of Half-Life 2 and there are LOTS of sound effects used from the game.
The YouTube simply links to www.whatsinthebox.nl which doesn't seem to be much other than a site for a movie with a lot of work done by "Tismit". The page shows the cube in the video that kind of pulsates with a question mark and if you put your mouse over it it turns red and changes some of the text at the bottom to red question marks. The counter under the cube appears to say "Read Fast" sometimes.
So...any clue as to what viral this possibly is?
Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but someone on another forum posted this video with speculation that it is Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Events in the video are reminiscent of Half-Life 2 and there are LOTS of sound effects used from the game.
The YouTube simply links to www.whatsinthebox.nl which doesn't seem to be much other than a site for a movie with a lot of work done by "Tismit". The page shows the cube in the video that kind of pulsates with a question mark and if you put your mouse over it it turns red and changes some of the text at the bottom to red question marks. The counter under the cube appears to say "Read Fast" sometimes.
So...any clue as to what viral this possibly is?
uberneko on
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Perhaps some kind of Half-Life/Lost crossover? I'd buy 10.
Anyway, this doesn't really look anything like Half-Life, though. Probably someone's demo reel movie or something.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
It might be an opposing force style spin off though, and I think sega flashes up in the scrambling letters/digits under the cube.
The first phone highlight made me think it was a very elaborate commercial, but then it also highlighted phones of other brands.
The source of the website contains this:
<!-- Every medium, as its ancestors -->
<!-- Every pro, has his anti's, now you think about that -->
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
This seems very much like a future Earth where stuff like a brain interface is commonplace. Notice that the tower also seems to be man-made, a company called 'Babel Industries'. There are definite comparisons and nods to Half-Life - too many, in fact - but this is in no way Episode 3.
EDIT: It is interesting, though. I picked out 'dead' and 'saga' as well as 'read' and 'fast' from the word scramble. I think 'qwer' and 'wasd' are in there, too.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
There's bits of missing audio, like no sound when he throws the backpacks down, for instance, that makes the video seem far less immersive.
Probably just a student reel.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Have you ever been to Nijmegen? It's empty all the damned time.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
"LARGEST SINGLE COLLAPSE IN HISTORY SINCE BLACK MESA"
I doubt this officially has anything to do with HL2 or Lost.
but it'd be super rad if it did.
All I'm saying is that it shows too much street space, and the chances of it being empty at the time it would have been shot are way too low. It might have been possible if it was shot this summer, but right now it gets light really late in Holland.
Also, I realized way too late that this was shot in the Netherlands
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If this is official it is a portal/hl2 tie-in.
Portal gun for Mr. Freeman.
I said it.
If this is right someone can eat my dick or whatever you guys do these days.
*edit*
It is possible that the info section* of the youtube page might be truth telling since it says "Character audiotrack missing" on the video overlay. Maybe once the full version is put up it will answer some questions.
*
Steam, PSN, XBL, Xfire and everything else JamesDM
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Yeah seriously. O_o
timsmit thibaut niels
thibaut niels timsmit
thibaut niels timsmit
timsmit thibault niels
conspiracy theorists note that Niels is reminiscent of Niels Bohr the physicist and that Tim Smit is "a Netherlands-born British businessman, famous for his work on the 'Lost Gardens of Heligan' and the Eden Project" according to wikipedia
Regardless, some guy on rockpapershotgun says it's a busy street, and another guy says the lab they're in has got some seriously expensive equipment there. Also, he says that it was shot in the University of Nijmegen, and that ties in with this obviously mathematical picture from their website.
I think they're the first names of three different persons. It's easier to keep things secret if you don't give out a full name, I assume. Note how it says "writers" and not "writer".
I hate to say that regardless of whether this is Valve produced or independent of Valve, it's pretty damn cool. :P
The plotlines for Episode 3 have been written long before Valve acquired the Narbacular team. It will be referenced, but I strongly doubt it will be in any way integral to the narrative. Aperture Science will be referenced, but I don't think you will be running around with the portal gun, at most in a very small arena on the ship itself.
Niels is a common Dutch name, as is Tim, and Smit is common surname in the Netherlands. I've never heard of the name Thibaut before, but a quick visit to Wikipedia shows that it is an existing surname. Most likely they are simply the names of the creators, not some obscure reference.
From what I've heard of Episode 3's setting, this is like saying that in the original Half-Life Black Mesa was referenced, but it wasn't an integral part of the narrative.
That's not true.
The Borealis is an Aperture Science vessel which has been sought out by the Combine. Something is aboard, almost certainly an experiment similar to the one which brought the resonance cascade in Black Mesa.
My guess ; the combine want to reopen a portal to their realm using this. After Gordon destroyed the citadel in HL2 their link with the homeworld was cut off. This was mentioned in Episode 1 I believe, and in Episode 2 you closed the last remaining portal using the rocket. The City 17 citadel was not only the hub of combine control, and Dr Breens office. It was the primary citadel tower linking all others around the world. They are also shut down.
Sure, there will be portal technology. But I doubt that it will be the portal gun. Furthermore, all of the Chel and Glados stuff is not canonical I dont think, takes place in a spurious timeline outside of the main HL2 one. Perhaps analogous to Adrian Shepard's fate. He's there. But also kinda not there.
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For me the most interesting part of that was what he did with the red cube near the start, where it looked like it was actually interacting with the portal storm. Also, the scenes out of that window looked like they could have been done in Source.
Either way, as a short it's very well produced.
I can kiiiiiiiind of make this out, but I would never have thought that's what it said if you hadn't mentioned it first. Is there a version out there with higher resolution?
Valve aren't known for viral marketing. I can't think of a single product they have advertised in this way. Of course, times may be changing what with the $10m marketing budget for Left 4 Dead, which proved money well spent with both versions being in top tens for months and months.
It uses some copyrighted material, also misappropriates sound effects to incorrect objects - eg the sound of gunships applied to some new design for the chopper.
Furthermore, does it not use direct audio from Episode 1 for the voice of the Overwatch?
I don't think this is even remotely related to Valve at all. Why market Episode 3 in this way, unless it is not being included in some bumper Orange Box style pack and needs some standalone marketing. They have never advertised like this before - what is different?
I totally agree. Valve would not copy sounds completely from their older games, furthermore, the film is absolutely filled with product placement (like 5 references to Samsung, broadly in screen?). It could be viral marketing, but rather for Samsung than for Episode three.
obviously this is a full game where you play as the companion cube's brother.. box.
I would not rule out the possibility of this being associated with Half-Life.