Valve Rewards Gamers For Helping Unlock Portal 2

For those just tuning in, Portal 2, one of the biggest games of the year, was released today. Over the weekend though, Portal developer Valve offered gamers a chance to play the highly anticipated first-person-puzzler early, by participating in a potato-themed alternate reality game. Gamers dedicated enough to participate in the full ARG were rewarded by Valve for all their hard work with the Valve Complete Pack.

It all began on April 1 with what appeared to be an April Fools joke, a pack of indie games entitled the “Potato Sack.” Soon, games in the potato sack began receiving updates, mixing bits of potato and Portal content into their levels. Certain actions within the games would award players with a potato for their Steam account, with 36 potatoes available in total.

When a countdown timer ticked to zero this past Friday, gamers were tasked with assisting GLaDOS in rebooting her servers, a crowdsourced affair involving playing the various potato sack games. When the collective computing hours had been added up, Portal 2 finally unlocked a few hours ahead of schedule. In addition, dedicated ARG-ers who collected the full 36 potatoes from across the various potato sack games were met with an additional reward: The Valve Complete pack, a game pack containing every Valve game, including the full Half-Life and Left 4 Dead series.

For a full chronicle of the Portal 2 ARG, check out the ValveARG wiki.

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