Portal receives new achievement, radio transmissions

The weird and cryptic world that both Portal and Half-Life seem to inhabit was made just a little bit weirder today with the update that Portal was given.

Officially, the update reads, “Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations,” which of course makes absolute sense. Wait, it doesn’t make sense to you?

Unofficially, the new content adds puzzles involving buttons and in-game radios that, when solved, provide blips of sounds. As more people play, more will be uncovered but right now it all sounds very surreal. What else do you expect from Valve, though?

Not only is the only new achievement not officially noted, titled “Transmission Received”, but it seems like all the messages added in the update are in Morse code. Even weirder, one intrepid forum poster on the Steam forums has apparently deciphered images out of the noise provided. Which, of course, has been responded to with much disbelief. Regardless of the legitimacy of the images, there have been a number of resounding cries of “GAAAAAAABE” heard throughout the land.

This all has, naturally, set the rumor mill spinning. It’s a puzzle in Portal so it might be a hint at the sequel. Or maybe it’s a hint at the new episode in Half-Life 2. Considering that they both exist within the same game world, it could be any number of things really. It could even be an announcement for Half-Life 3! Okay, maybe not that one. One thing’s for certain, though, it’s most definitely a conundrum. (Cue rimshot.)

Read [Kotaku] Also read [Steam]