Mysterious Video: Is Valve Going Viral?

[ascense]

Apparently there is a way higher quality version on youtube( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU_reTt7Hj4 ). Awesome video, a half-life movie would be great.

Back on topic, that's all filmed in holland/the netherlands (you can see by the houses and the writing on the bus), so I doubt it's valve, though the bus and empty streets seem strange...

Edit: fixed url

 

[Lyiat]

I'm going to try to figure out the letters. I'll post them here.

 

[Wanderer1911]

Wow, that was great. I am totally convinced that it?s a teaser put out by valve, like for half life 2 episode 3 or something.

 

[The Shade]

If it is the 7 Hour War, as some have speculated, that may explain why the Combine soldiers aren't wearing the Overwatch uniform. They haven't been fully established on the world yet, and as such are just wearing basic HazMat suits.

 

[Lyiat]

OTIONST WHAT IS IN THE BOX RSTIMCREASTEIRCTORPHYBAUTTIMSMISTHTIMSEEUSEDIMSCEECTMITLDITIONRERELUOOSTDAR

... I have no bloody clue what that could possibly be broken down into.

 

[ingsoc]

We have been working on this for a while. To save you guys some time, check out the lengthy post at the top of this page that a fellow poster at another forum has worked up. Nice summary. Check it out.

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27633&start=30

 

[ingsoc]

Oh, and remember the Game Developers Forum is next week. Coincidence?

 

[Goldeneye103X2]

It does look like something fanmade, but the fact that it's so mysterious, so many great effects, and seriously, how can you get an abandoned bus, clear streets, and millions of parked cars if it's just something like five people doing this. So i'm just guessing it's a bit of both.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Looks cool as hell whatever it is. Anyway the website that it links to http://www.whatsinthebox.nl/ is no where near helpful. But may I just say in the website's source code are the comments:




I think that clears things up. ???

 

[The Shade]

I think that clears things up. ???

That is very possibly the least helpful thing I have ever heard.

Maddeningly unhelpful, wouldn't you say?


Curse you, mysterious filmmakers! You've rekindled my sense of wonder! Just when I thought I'd stopped caring about who the G-Man was!

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I think that clears things up. ???

That is very possibly the least helpful thing I have ever heard.

Maddeningly unhelpful, wouldn't you say?


Curse you, mysterious filmmakers! You've rekindled my sense of wonder! Just when I thought I'd stopped caring about who the G-Man was!

it gets a lot more helpful. Go to the website and move the cursor over the box and some letters in the thing at the bottom are replaced with question marks. I can't be bothered to check them all, but as I see the letters that are removed make a sentence. unfortunately the sentence is a random mix of letters, which obviously means it's a new type of shaving cream.

 

[The Shade]

I think that clears things up. ???

That is very possibly the least helpful thing I have ever heard.

Maddeningly unhelpful, wouldn't you say?


Curse you, mysterious filmmakers! You've rekindled my sense of wonder! Just when I thought I'd stopped caring about who the G-Man was!

it gets a lot more helpful. Go to the website and move the cursor over the box and some letters in the thing at the bottom are replaced with question marks. I can't be bothered to check them all, but as I see the letters that are removed make a sentence. unfortunately the sentence is a random mix of letters, which obviously means it's a new type of shaving cream.

Well, obviously it's shaving cream. The question now is what kind of shaving cream are we dealing with?

 

[errorfied]

Also, whenever you drag your mouse across the box it turns red, and at the bottom, by all the sort of production things, loads of question marks come up and hide letters.

Most perplexing.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I think that clears things up. ???

That is very possibly the least helpful thing I have ever heard.

Maddeningly unhelpful, wouldn't you say?


Curse you, mysterious filmmakers! You've rekindled my sense of wonder! Just when I thought I'd stopped caring about who the G-Man was!

it gets a lot more helpful. Go to the website and move the cursor over the box and some letters in the thing at the bottom are replaced with question marks. I can't be bothered to check them all, but as I see the letters that are removed make a sentence. unfortunately the sentence is a random mix of letters, which obviously means it's a new type of shaving cream.

Well, obviously it's shaving cream. The question now is what kind of shaving cream are we dealing with?

There's also a message hidden in the fast moving numbers below the box, I could only read FAST, READ, and SAGA before I had an epileptic fit. So it's obviously the long awaited Gillette Obscure "The most obtuse a man can get"

 

[chromewarriorXIII]

I took a screenshot of when you put your mouse over the cube and when you don't.

Here they are:

Spoiler

Spoiler

When I clicked on the link I saw "fact" or "fast" in the four little letter/number spot below the cube for about half a second.

 

[Doug]

Very curious - the video looks high quality, not an individual fan or 2, I don't think. And from the website, I'd have to guess its a game or movie of some type. Not sure its a Valve video though - all the audio elements exist in the Half Life 2, so its possible its been taken from there.

Anywho, very interesting, I'll have to watch for more info!

Seems like the 7 hour war at the start, but this seems unlikely - the Human wing of the Combine overwatch are unlikely to have been around during that time. Parallel world? After all, the Combine central government of their interstellar empire is based in an alternate dimension.

 

[The Shade]

I think that clears things up. ???

That is very possibly the least helpful thing I have ever heard.

Maddeningly unhelpful, wouldn't you say?


Curse you, mysterious filmmakers! You've rekindled my sense of wonder! Just when I thought I'd stopped caring about who the G-Man was!

it gets a lot more helpful. Go to the website and move the cursor over the box and some letters in the thing at the bottom are replaced with question marks. I can't be bothered to check them all, but as I see the letters that are removed make a sentence. unfortunately the sentence is a random mix of letters, which obviously means it's a new type of shaving cream.

Well, obviously it's shaving cream. The question now is what kind of shaving cream are we dealing with?

There's also a message hidden in the fast moving numbers below the box, I could only read FAST, READ, and SAGA before I had an epileptic fit. So it's obviously the long awaited Gillette Obscure "The most obtuse a man can get"

FINALLY! I don't think I can take much more of this "Yes, he has a beard" or "No, he doesn't have a beard" nonsense at parties. All I want is a little ambiguity. Is that too much to ask?

 

[Doug]

That was pretty cool.

Oh hell yeah it was!

 

[Doug]

Looks a lot like Escape From City 17, as seen in Escapist News here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.88006

Think about it, sure, this has Valve knowledge of it, but considering the costumes of the "Combine", I would have to say it is fan/indy made, much like the aforementioned video. The rest? Fan hype and hope - sure, eventually we are going to get something on Episode 3, but unless you count Valve's very dedicated fans, I doubt very much this a viral campaign.

Well, the condition of the cars and the presence of advanced technology luxury goods (i.e. phones and MP3 players) in the disguarded bags leads me to blieve if its set in the HL2 universe, its before the Combine occuption of Earth, or very early into it.