Viral Portal Updates, explanation and your thoughts?

[agentmaine]

OK, so over the past 72 hours, there has been a MASSIVE steam thread about the recent portal updates.
(found here) http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1168990
The main idea is that it is an announcement of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 or Portal 2 (both of which have been confirmed in the past)

Valve has been extremely dormant over the past 3 years releasing only L4D and L4D2 with no other announcements or anything.

Next week, Gabe Newell is getting an award at GDC. 3/11 to be exact
While only a small part of the hype, a notable point is that there are hints to a GLaDOS version 3.11

Cool right?
Read the first 40 or so pages of the thread if you are interested

More importantly, Something I want to say that hasn't been said yet, is that what if they are not announcing HL2:E3 or Portal 2. There are images from the recent Portal updates that suggest that Gordan Freeman is INSIDE the aperture facilities. What if Half Life 2 E3 IS portal 2?
It would actually make sense.

 

[Delock]

Valve has been extremely dormant over the past 3 years releasing only L4D and L4D2 with no other announcements or anything.

...I'm sorry, but releasing two games is extremely dormant? And haven't they been working with TF2?

Anyways, it would be interesting to see a new Portal game, and Valve handles sequels pretty well so I'm not that worried about this being a problem. What I do think about it however is that it may relate to why they haven't released HL2:E3 yet (you remember the whole business with Apeture mentioned in E2 right?). Perhaps you might be dealing with more than just orange and blue portals.

 

[Hiphophippo]

More importantly, Something I want to say that hasn't been said yet, is that what if they are not announcing HL2:E3 or Portal 2. There are images from the recent Portal updates that suggest that Gordan Freeman is INSIDE the aperture facilities. What if Half Life 2 E3 IS portal 2?
It would actually make sense.

I've been toying around with this for awhile now. I'm not totally sure there will be an episode 3. With a wait this long I think they've been working on something bigger than just another episode.

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

Valve has been extremely dormant over the past 3 years releasing only L4D and L4D2 with no other announcements or anything.

Releasing two games and constantly updating TF2 counts as "extremely dormant?"

EDIT: Curses! I've been ninja'd again!