So, bioware uploaded a whole bunch of QR codes late 2010, as a teaser towards a new (and at that point unannounced) game that would turn out to be ME3.
The first code uploaded was this:
Which scans to reveal some binary: 001101010011010100101110001110000011010000110101.
This in turn decodes to 55.485, the atomic weight of iron. It wasn't much of a hint towards anything on its own so let's move on to the next one.
The second code is this:
More binary, this time: 0010110100110001001100100011100000101110001101011011000001000110
This decodes to give -128.5°F
http://masseffect.wi...m/wiki/Aequitas
Notably:
-Aequitas has a mission in which you locate and shut down a reaper artefact that's indoctrinating people.
-Aequitas has a bug (?) that causes it to often be highlighted as having a playable mission. It is possible that it will have a role to play in EC or post-EC content.
^Still vaugely interesting, but the temperature on the wiki was wrong and should have been -85 degrees C which doesn't line up. Explanation here: http://social.biowar...086/10#12164320
So, moving swiftly along:
This is the third code:
It scans to give the following binary:
01101000011101000111010001110000001110100010111100101111011101110111011101
110111001011100111001101101001011100110010111001100111011011110111011000101
110011101010110101100101111011011110111010101110100011100000111010101110100
001011110111001101101001011100110010110101101000011011110110110101100101001
011010111011101100101011011000110001101101111011011010110010100101110011010
00011101000110110101101100
Which, when converted to text, gives us the website for the UK intelligence services:
http://www.sis.gov.u...me-welcome.html
Fourth code:
My phone really struggled scanning this off my laptop screen [smilie]http://social.bioware.com/images/forum/emoticons/pinched.png[/smilie]
This one was also binary, not posting the code here because it'd be several lines long.
But you get linked to this image:
I don't think very many people got the significance at the time, but the first song on the album is "london calling".
Here's the lyrics:
Highlighting mine, because I read that verse and had to go back to listen to the song to check I'd not been trolled tremendously.London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared, and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls
London calling, now don't look to us
Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust
London calling, see we ain't got no swing
'Cept for the ring of that truncheon thing
[Chorus 1:]
The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, and I live by the river
London calling to the imitation zone
Forget it, brother, you can go it alone
London calling to the zombies of death
Quit holding out, and draw another breath
London calling, and I don't wanna shout
But while we were talking, I saw you nodding out
London calling, see we ain't got no high
Except for that one with the yellowy eyes
[Chorus 2: x2]
The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin
A nuclear error, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, and I live by the river
Now get this
London calling, yes, I was there, too
An' you know what they said? Well, some of it was true!
London calling at the top of the dial
After all this, won't you give me a smile?
London calling
I never felt so much alike [fading] alike alike alike
Interesting, right?
The fifth and final clue was this:
Which scans to give:
01101000 01110100 01110100 01110000 00111010 00101111 00101111 01101000
01111001 01110000 01100101 01110010 01101101 01100001 01101110 01101001
01100001 00101110 01110000 01101000 01101111 01110100 01101111 01110011
01101000 01100101 01101100 01110100 01100101 01110010 00101110 01100011
01101111 01101101 00101111 01101001 01101101 01100001 01100111 01100101
00101111 01001001 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110101 01110010
01101000 01100111 01101100 01010011 00111001 00101110 00110101 01101110
01110111
Which, when converted, gave a link to this image:
A red herring.
See, I wasn't sure if "red herring" was a phrase used outside the UK (maybe someone can enlighten me on this) but the wikipedia description is better than my own anyway:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herringA red herring is a clue which is intended to be misleading, or distracting from the actual issue.[1] For example, in mystery fiction,
where the identity of a criminal is being sought, an innocent party may
be purposefully cast in a guilty light by the author through the
employment of deceptive clues, false emphasis, "loaded" words or other
descriptive tricks of the trade. The reader's suspicions are thus
misdirected, allowing the true culprit to go (temporarily at least)
undetected. A false protagonist is another example of a red herring.
Now, if you're like me, you're probably already relating this to the end sequence, perhaps even the crucible, the idea of the ending as one giant trick.
I don't think the purpose of these clues was to provide hints towards a Mass Effect 3 release, because some of it just wouldn't make any sense at all without having played the game...
I think it was to provide hints on that people would find and interpret later.
Which would mean this was in the works as far back as 2010.
The further I go into this whole thing, the more I'm reminded of NIN's "Year Zero" game from back in 2007.
So Bioware, did I win? Do I get a cake?
Modifié par TSA_383, 21 mai 2012 - 09:01 .
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