While we wait for Off-Topic forums, this seems as good a place as any for this.
Has anyone found anything hidden in the images, yet? I’ve gone through the source of the page and there is (sadly) nothing hidden in there. I’ve tried manipulating the links to the “To Be Revealed…” characters to see if I could get their image, but I knew it wouldn’t be that easy. (Unless FC wanted it to be that easy).
All I’ve found so far is the hidden word “Preview”. It appears that it’s being projected from very low (on the ground) off of the screen to the left. You can see the “PRE” part on the bar and “EVIEW” up on the wall. Screenshot for reference. Replace dots was needed because forum rules are a butt. EDIT: Apparently one cannot say b-u-t-t since that’s such an incredibly offensive word, so here’s a visual: ɷ
Funcom to the rescue with idiotic word filters for games with tiddies and dong physics.
I’ve tried checking for any signs to tie this to an existing FC IP, but it’s indistinct enough that unless there are hidden things in there I can’t say if this is Secret World related or an original IP. It’s clearly not Conan related and I don’t think it fits with AO. Some things to note: There’s a body hanging in the back room. There’s a passed out (dead?) guy in the bottom left. He’s not visible on the page itself without viewing the full image as a whole. There seem to be three distinct bottles with labels. One bottle says “CRUMPLER STOUT”. You can only see the CRU if you look at the bottle that’s by the feet of the passed out/dead guy in the bottom left. That’s only bottle oriented in that direction. Another bottle is very difficult to read, but seems like it might be “ZINEEN” or something similar? The third bottle has a skull on it, but if you look closely, the image doesn’t wrap around the bottle and looks like it was stuck on after the original background was created. It’s very square and flat. It doesn’t mesh properly with the rest of the image.
The backpack on the right has a Swedish flag on it, which reminded me of Amundsens backpack in TSW at first (0:21 sec):
Then again the backpack in the picture has more of a military look and it’s leaning against ammo crates. I tried to search for the numbers on the crates, and they seem to be of Czechoslovakian origin. The sign above the bar also points towards Sweden. Öppet means open in Swedish and the phone number (0302-xxx) belongs to Lerum, a town in Sweden with a population close to 18k.
Also since you mentioned the body hanging in the back room, there is a human skull on the bar as well and crossbow bolts in the picture on the wall.
Lastly, the whole scenery is lit by gas lamps, which are standing pretty close to gas tanks with “do not smoke” and “flammable” sings on them. Not to mention, that the lamps also stand on wooden ammo crates. Just saying…
Replace dots was needed because forum rules are a ■■■■. EDIT: Apparently one cannot say b-u-t-t since that’s such an incredibly offensive word, so here’s a visual: ɷ
Funcom to the rescue with idiotic word filters for games with tiddies and dong physics.
Agreed. I hate aggressive profanity filters. People shouldn’t get offended by words unless they are directly targeted at someone as an insult, in which case the forum moderation should intervene anyways. And if I can run around with a flopping penis in CE they shouldn’t be so sensitive on their forums xD
All stuff I noticed, but did not look into yet. Great info! Although, the flag on Amundsen’s backpack is the Norwegian flag.
I also noticed what I assumed were large darts in the woman’s picture. It’s a really low quality image, but I don’t think it corresponds to anybody we know.
I also noticed that the floor on the left looks like there’s a trapdoor? There’s light coming up through the floorboards and there looks like a metal latch, too. Is that where the “Preview” is coming from?
I also looked into Crumpler and it doesn’t really seem to mean a whole lot. At least according to Wikipedia and the first two pages of Google.
Unless you work with an advertising company named Centimeter Aktiebolag you might want to take another look at the phone number. Some crazy people might think this is an ARG and start calling the number
Aktiebolag means “Limited Company” according to Google. So Centimeter Aktiebolag really just means “Centemeter Limited” which is incredibly generic a name. However, it appears they’ve been around since 1991, so I really don’t think that FC has anything to do with them. https://www.allabolag.se/5564224649/centimeter-aktiebolag I can’t really tell what kind of business they are, though.
If you look on Google Maps for the address it just points to what looks like a residential house. Unfortunately, the area hasn’t been Street View-ified, yet so you can’t get down to ground level and look, but I really think this is a dead-end.
In a company index (largestcompany dot com) they are listed as " B73 Advertising and market research
73110 Advertising agency activities | Delivery of advertising material | Other advertising activities"
I would add the link, but the forum won’t let me. Maybe I’m not trustworthy enough…
EDIT: Guess I was right
Basic
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The more I think on this, the less likely I think it is. FC only acquired them in December. Around 3 months doesn’t seem like much time for them to have put anything together. Especially knowing FC’s ability (or lack thereof) to get things done quick…
EDIT: Apparently I’ve hit the limit on the number of replies a person can post in a day (WHY DOES THIS LIMIT EVEN EXIST!?).
Well, technically Funcom didn’t acquire them, Funcom and Cabinet came together to make a new babby rights-holding entity. So might have been in the planning before that. But considering Cabinet already had the Conan/Howard rights, I imagine there was already a working relationship.
EDIT: Apparently I’ve hit the limit on the number of replies a person can post in a day (WHY DOES THIS LIMIT EVEN EXIST!?).
Considering I’ve reached “trust level 1” after 5 posts and can now add links, I’d assume there are also higher trust levels to increase the number of possible replies. Probably a way to limit posts from bots, gold spammers and trolls.
Mutant: Year Zero for sure. “countdown to zero” + the reference to “The Zone” in the text on the page. (The Zone is a thing in that world.)
Also, remember that already last year it was announced that the studio Bearded Ladies was working on a game for Funcom. It was described as a “Tactical turn-based strategy game” a game genre that really works in the Mutant universe
So, that is what I get from this. A tactical strategy game. The characters in the bar (inside the Ark) is your squad and you send them on missions out into “The Zone”.
In addition. The Swedish flag; the rpg “Mutant: Year Zero” was created by swedes, and Bearded Ladies is a Swedish studio.
Last, but definitely not least. I kept an eye on Bearded Ladies online prescence since last year and nothing has been updated in years…well, until yesterday that is when they linked the countdown site on their facebook page
I don’t know anything about Mutant: Year Zero. However I’m wondering if this is going to be a mobile game? I only ask because I thought that I had read that Funcom is going to start doing mobile games.
