5
Spoiler
So, here's the cake.
Armed with google search and...well, with google search and nothing else I scanned the internetZ to look out for more information about the catalog and everything related to it. All of a sudden, I ran into this page from the Sundance Institute's website
http://www.sundance....t-us/advertise/
That's pretty straightforward. Sundance charged a publishing company, Faircount Media Group, to take care of the advertising on the catalog. More precisely, the man in charge was a project manager called Steve Chidel. I immediately e-mailed him, asking for info. Here's my mail:
Spoiler
After 10-11 hours, the reply arrived. Please notice that the messaged did not come through Mr. Chidel's e-mail box, but from a googlemail account which ID is "youareontherighttrack". Here it is:
Spoiler
And that's not all. Since the mail came with an attached file on it. Quite interesting picture, I'd say.
http://i.imgur.com/wunW9.jpg
I'd say we are definitely, definitely onto something. All this stuff looks pretty much of an ARG to me, now it's everything up to us. The picture itself is plenty of hints, from the italian's leather gloves to the documents on the table. From a first look, it looks like a script to me. A GAME SCRIPT, the last line is self-explanatory: "Gameplay: the player deals with the 2 guards outside of the *can't see shit*".
Sadly I' haven't got plenty of time this evening, so I won't be able to stay in front of a pc for much longer. But regardless of that, I don't want to have all the fun: it wouldn't be correct, so I'll just pass the baton. Only 3 things:
-We already have a date: 3rd of march. It's not tomorrow, but we have less than a week left: let's try to gather more intel as possible before that deadline.
-A good first (well, second) step could be decrypting every writing on that document: they're not completely crabbed, but they're not straightforward either. Gear up with photoshop and try to get a clean representation, posting it on this thread: data-crossing between different translations could help sorting out the doubts.
-May god curse my forgetfulness! The berlinale! It's all a film-festivals tango, probably a film-festivals' catalogues tango!
http://www.berlinale.de/
Give it a check, dunno if there are german users on the forum but any help from them could be VITAL (especially if they could get their hands on the official catalogue).
That's all folks. As a dulcis in fundo, allow me to say a big, HUGE thanks to Nick@IO: he said several times that Hitmanforum would have been the very first board to know something about the next hitman game, and so it has been. Chapeau.
Also, I'd like to see Hitmanforum as the only "reference point" for this: there are many, many boards who are into ARGs (like unfiction or argnet), but please refer to this forum for discussion, speculation and most of all inputs. Nonetheless, HitmanSeries.ru (and his founder
c wat u did der ) played a big role indeed, so I'd appreciate to see a sort of "patnership" between the 2 communities: HF & HS united for glory, hehe.UPDATES AND TIMELINE (as 18/03/11)
14/2/11: Ol'good Фелло Acid Burn shared with the community his "accidental" finding on a film festival catalogue. The early scepticism has been swepped away by Nick's succesful efforts to "nourish" the gate, and HF detective machine got on the move.
25/2/11: First mail sent by PM in response to the info request. First speculations on the incomplete phone number (Toronto area), game scripts and a possible date, that looks to be the third of march.
3/3/11: 2nd pic sent by PM; artworks, coords and incomplete phone number still point at Toronto, precisely at the Exhibition Place facilities, where Wizard World Comic Con is about to take place. Also, Kotti and themurder2k5 supposed a possible link between the barcodes in the first 2 pics: after crossing them, they seem to indicate a date, 11/07/?? (yy/dd/mm), possibly aiming at the next Electronic Entertaiment Expo.
18/3/11: 3rd pic sent by PM; still Toronto recalls, plus a "06" present on the new barcode, therefore confirming the E3 speculation. Still something else to sort out to have a clear overview.
18/3/11: lsdsigma cracked the metadata on the last picture, thus revealing a link to a CG snapshot. The barcode and the shoot location confirmed the E3 speculation for good.
Edited by Retribution, 21 March 2011 - 07:47 AM.
