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Okay. The camera strategy worked. Both of yesterdays caught shots of Bourne.
But now for a complete spoiler of today’s challenge in the Ultimate Search for Bourne. Don’t keep reading if you don’t want the mission to be spoiled for you.
Our missions briefing tells us Simon Ross, our current contact, is a liar. We’re instructed to revisit the clue sites from the last two days to see if we can find a more accurate rendezvous location. Those locations are Google Group “Sightseeing in London” and a page at Priceless.com. Note that the Google Group is exactly the same, but the Priceless.com page linked to in the mission briefing is definitely different.
The Priceless.com page contains almost exactly the same text as the message thread in the Google Group that wasn’t relevant in yesterday’s challenge. “T.Gray” posted it on the Google Group, “T.Grey” did on Priceless.com.
The Priceless.com page includes a photo of what appear to be bus routes connecting to Waterloo Station, judging from the icons. This is an alternative to the image of the statue of Terrence Cuneo, an English painter whose statue features prominently in the station.
It’s easy to get distracted by red herrings today. Cuneo, the bus routes (or train routes), and all the Googling you could possibly do is a waste of time, as Agent Simon Ross has told us directly in the text—and with a big, bright-red circle on a map in the Google Group focusing on the Station—exactly where he is.
Just transmit Waterloo Station in the communication panel to solve today’s challenge.
As for camera placement, since my last two cameras both worked, I’m leaving them in place at the London Eye and Waterloo Station. For the third, I’m going with the camera at 62 South Audley Street, because searching for that in Google reveals that it’s the location of The Counter Spy Shop. This is a spy game, after all, so maybe Jason Bourne will stop by to pick up some surveillance gear.
The game won’t continue till Monday, so check back then if you need spoilers for day 11.
July 27th, 2007
I love Bollywood movies. It’s a lucky Sunday that I catch the four-hour Bollywood music video show on my local cable company’s “international” channel.
So I’m very excited that Bollywood3d is experimenting with game tie-ins to Bollywood movies. What they’re doing actually sounds a lot like what Google and Universal are doing with the Ultimate Search for Bourne. The games will come out before the movies they’re tied to, to build up hype and interest. But unlike the Search for Bourne, players will buy these games, and it sounds like real development may actually go into them.
Apparently, the Indian computer game market is slow, but Indian culture and history and its awesome movie industry make fertile ground for fascinating and fun video games. Will I be able to participate? I don’t know. I don’t speak one whit of any Indian language, and I probably wouldn’t qualify for the prizes even if I can participate.
But I’ll be watching in December, when the first game is scheduled to come out.
July 26th, 2007
Yay! Caught a shot of Bourne with my Waterloo Station camera yesterday. Did anyone get a shot of him with a camera placed at a different location?
Now on the the complete spoiler for today’s puzzle in the Ultimate Search for Bourne.
We’re instructed to contact Simon Ross again using yesterday’s contact information. In the instant messenger, we use handle CRUYFF74 and passphrase don’t silence the truth.
Simon tells us: “Taking the day off to visit these places I found on a Google Groups. If you can’t reach me on my mobile, I’m most likely on the Bakerloo Line on the Tube.” The Google Groups phrase is a hot link to a specific “Sightseeing in London” group, obviously created for the game. You can find it here: http://groups.google.com/group/sightseeing-in-london?hl=en.
Poking around at the site reveals two discussions about sites in London—including Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, and Saint Paul’s Cathedral—as well as a map that helpfully outlines the brown Bakerloo Line Ross referred to in his IM. Of the sites mentioned in the Sightseeing in London thread, only the London Eye stands out as a landmark anywhere near the Bakerloo Line.
So submit London Eye in the communications panel and the challenge is solved.
As for placing the cameras, I’ve decided to leave my first camera at Waterloo Station. Sure, it seems silly to put it in the same place, but other clues in the Google Group make detailed mention of it. For the second, well, why not go with the London Eye? If I get two shots of Bourne before tomorrow, I’ll be happy. If I get only one, I’ll be left wondering which nabbed him. And if I get none, well, then I really won’t know where to look for clues.
In the end, I found today’s challenge significantly more fun that the last few. Sure, it’s still easy, but there were other possible clues and red herrings at the web site. In the end, only the London Eye made sense, but you actually really do have to look to multiple resources to work this one out.
Go, Simon Ross! Now you’re acting like a spy!
(Incidentally, what happens if you put in the wrong answer? Would it be possible to sledgehammer your way through the puzzle by just entering site after site till you got a hit? Or are you penalized for mistakes?)
July 26th, 2007
This post contains no spoilers (unlike my other posts on the game). Instead, as in my first post about the advertising vehicle that is The Ultimate Search for Bourne, I thought I’d put the big question out there.
Is the game fun?
I have to answer, “Yes.” I enjoy solving the puzzles, poking around the web sites, and writing up quick blog posts about each challenge.
But it’s not huge fun. I don’t need this advertisement. I’m already a big-time fan of most Google products, and I’ll probably see The Bourne Ultimatum eventually.
And as a game, the Ultimate Search for Bourne has a few little problems:
- It’s too easy. Once you “get” how a day is likely to go, you can resolve the challenge in a minute or two.
- Camera placement may be random. This is an ongoing question, and today’s game may have the most obvious clues to camera placement so far . . . or it may prove that there’s nothing but luck behind it.
- The interface is buggy. On my Macintosh with Firefox at home, bits of the interface keep reloading. For the last two days, my wife has been unable to place cameras on her Mac or on my work PC laptop
- The game feels less and less like a spy drama every day. This is party because it’s basically the same game every day. The fact that, with almost no practice, it gets very easy also removes a lot of the cloak-and-dagger feel. And finally because the willing suspension of disbelief is harder to maintain the more I realize how the places and mysteries are calculated to create another day of play and advertise another tool or service, rather than to help a story unfold.
But I did say the game was fun, right? It is! I still believe, passionately, this could be the seed for a very exciting and innovative form of massively multiplayer roleplaying game. It has moments that do still feel delightfully cyber-spyish. And I still like solving puzzles that at least pretend to be tied into adventure and story, rather than just arbitrary rules resolutions.
And any chance at a free iPhone is hard to resist.
So what do you think? Are you having fun? What do you like, and what do you hate?
July 25th, 2007
Arg! Not one of my cameras caught a shot of Jason Bourne. No matter, though. It’s time for a complete spoiler for Day 8 of the Ultimate Search for Bourne. Stop reading if you don’t want to be spoiled.
Looks like we may finally be through with Dater Notes. The contact today, Simon Ross (British, apparently, in keeping with yesterday’s clue), prefers to communicate through www.priceless.com, and our mission briefing tells us we need to go there to find Simon Ross’s handle and pass phrase.
Unfortunately, this is a MasterCard ad site with a very annoying and loud voice over when you first load it. If you click the link in the Communication panel (or click here) instead of typing in the URL, though, you can skip the message and go straight to Simon Ross’s profile.
Our mission briefing has told us to look for official identification. A thumbnail under the image of the train opens a shot of Simon’s passport. No need to use the Image Filter in the Decryption panel (unlike yesterday’s challenge). You can read the information right on the image.
Printed in red ink is Simon’s handle: CRUYFF74. Handwritten on the right is his passphrase: don’t silence the truth.
Entering these in the instant messenger, we get:
You are one of the agents looking for Bourne? I may have some information. Contact me again tomorrow.
Submit this text in response to the daily briefing, and you’re done!
I think I have a better idea of camera placement, today. Simon mentions the Imperial War Museum in his “Priceless Pick,” and a quick Google search reveals that this is right near Waterloo Station, a choice for camera placement today. I went with that, and we’ll see if I do better than I did yesterday.
July 25th, 2007
Here’s a complete spoiler for today’s Ultimate Search for Bourne challenge. (So if you don’t want to be spoiled, please do skip this post.)
Today’s mission briefing tells us that Nicky’s left Tangier, and that Treadstone All Lies, the solution to yesterday’s puzzle, is all we have to go on to figure out where he is. If that were all we knew, this might be a challenging puzzle, but the mission briefing also tells us exactly what to do.
It suggests we use the passphrase to search for websistes, images, or videos. A plain Google search turns up nothing (though that won’t stay true as people post solutions), but a Google Image search pops up three copies (one in English, one in French, and one in German) of the Dater Notes Newsletter. This is an image file, so at last we have another reason to use the Decryption panel on the Search for Bourne web site.
I put the URL for the English version (http://www.daternotes.com/newsletter/newsletter.gif) in the Decryption panel, and Filter B revealed the word “London” hidden in the eyebrow of the laughing woman in the newsletter’s picture. (I tried the French and German images, too, but didn’t get any result. The application accepted the URL, but the three filter buttons weren’t hot. Either they only work for French and German versions of the game, or you only get to process one image.)
So if you want to be completely spoiled and have the immediate answer, just hit the Submit button in the communication panel and transmit London as you’re answer, and you’ve solved the challenge.
After submitting, I was rewarded with a video of the man from the very first video, offering a quick word of congratulations: “Well done in Tangier. Now see what you can dig up in London.” I’m not sure if this is meant to be a clue to camera placement. If so, I don’t see how, so my camera placements today were as random as they’ve ever been.
July 24th, 2007
Here’s a complete spoiler for today’s mission in the Ultimate Search for Bourne. The briefing informed me that I beat the CIA to Bourne’s locker. Here’s a complete spoiler for the mission.
The locker had a video I need Mustapha Nayet, the expert videographer, to descramble, so today’s mission involves contacting Nayet and asking for help. So it’s back to the Instant Messenger. If you need it spoiled: using Nayet’s Dater Notes profile, I find that his handle is probably mouslelion and assume that the underlined phrase Vive le maroc! is his passphrase.
Sure enough, Nayet chats me with two short IMs. They include a link (broken between the two messages but hot in the first) to a YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF8nFpSMUDU.
Watching the video leaves little doubt of what must be transmitted in the communication panel, but here’s a complete spoiler: The video involves looking at a scrap of paper in a garbage can with the word Treadstone on it, a flier on a lamppost with All on it, and a box of paper clips with the camera focusing on the LIES of “office supplies.”
Thus, transmitting Treadstone All Lies in the communication panel (I don’t think capitalization matters) solves the challenge.
You don’t actually need to follow the steps to finish if you’re not interested in going to Dater Note s and Youtube. You can just click Transmit, enter the password, and click Okay, and you’re done.
Incidentally, “Treadstone” is the top-secret CIA program that featured prominently in the first two Bourne movies. (No point in spoiling the plot details of those movies here. If you want to learn more, you can watch them yourself: The Bourne Identity
and The Bourne Supremacy at Amazon, or at Netflix here and here. Or read the Wik article.) I’m not sure how it can turn out to be “All Lies.” Perhaps that’s just a cloak-and-dagger password, but I think the more the events of the game tie in with the film, the more fun it is. (Of course, we don’t want the game actually revealing major plot details!)
My last camera placement (random, although a commenter thinks the videos may hold a clue) did catch a short of Bourne. Today, with two cameras to place, I chose (more or less at random; I realy didn’t see any connections to any of the possible locations in Nayet’s videos or profile) Marshan Stadium and Rue de Fez. So far, my random placements have done reasonably well; we’ll see if that applies today.
July 23rd, 2007
Here’s a spoiler, in detail, for today’s Ultimate Search for Bourne mission. It involves contacting Mustapha Nayet, a new contact in Tangier, Morocco, with whose help we will hopefully find a locker that contains clues that will keep us on Jason Bourne’s trail.
The repeating video in the surveillance panel has today switched to one that is presumably in Tangier. And it’s about time, too! I was getting tired of that shot of Paris. Apparently, my four camera placements yesterday caught two images of Bourne.
The videos section of the media panel also includes two new clips: a quick one from the guy who made the original video briefing congratulating me on “getting out of Paris . . . alive,” and what is presumably a clip from the movie of a chase scene involving Bourne, Nicky Parsons, and a man I didn’t recognize in an on-foot (and Vespa) chase scene through crowded Tangiers streets. The clip was exciting at first, but as it went on, out of context, it actually started to seem a bit dull. I watched it twice hoping to find some clue to camera placement for today, but no such luck.
Nayet’s profile on Dater Notes mentions that he likes to make movies, that he loves football (and doesn’t like it when people call it soccer), and contains no photos. It does contain three video clips hosted on YouTube. These three clips all contain, among other things, first-person shots of someone getting on an elevator, followed by a clip of a desklamp being turned on and off three times. The third clip even subtle has the numeral 3 flash on the screen after the lamp.
There’s also a close-up of the number 12 on an LED elevator panel in the second video and the number 45 on a building outside in the third.Since we’re looking for a locker, I figured these numbers made up a locker combination. I got it right on my first guess, assuming the printed numerals, in the order displayed, were what we wanted (and that the lights either meant we needed three numerals or something we don’t need to worry about today).
So, to spoil the answer: You need to transmit 12 3 45 (with spaces between) to complete today’s mission.
As for camera placement, I basically guessed again. In case you haven’t noticed, you can click on the different cameras to see their descriptions without committing to using them. Today’s camera locations are all in Tangier, but you can only place one. None of the descriptions inspired me, and after searching for further information on them in Google (and Google Maps and Wikipedia), I came up with nothing.
So I went with the Parc de al Mendoubia camera, which is at least familiar from Nicky Parson’s Dater Notes profile and was useful in following her to Tangier in the first place. In fact, that’s probably a hint that it’s not the right one to choose. If there are clues that I’m completely missing, well, I’d imagine they don’t overlap with yesterday’s. But I went with the familiar. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow if I made the right choice (unless the results are actually randomly generated, an idea I can’t quite shake).
July 20th, 2007
In the Ultimate Search for Bourne game managed to catch one shot of Bourne with my randomly chosen camera placements yesterday. Whoopie!
Today’s puzzle was perhaps the easiest yet. And I will here spoil the answer for those who don’t have thirty seconds to spare. If you don’t want spoilers, skip this post.
The mission briefing tells you to find out where Nicky Parsons. It explains that Bourne is following her trail, so if you can find out where she’s going you’ll be able to track him, too.
In fact, I already knew the answer, having poked around Nicky’s profile on Dater Notes a couple of days ago. And it took my all of thirty seconds back then. Godot had mentioned that she was in North Africa, but the pictures in her photo gallery included one of Mendoubia Gardens, for which Google’s first hit is titled “Mendoubia Gardens, Tangiers.” (A couple of other photos show shots of what appear to be places in North Africa, just possibly Tangiers.)
All you have to do is transmit “Tangiers” in the Communication window and you’ve solved the puzzle.
What with the exposition in the communication and the amazing simplicity of the puzzle, I found this the most boring day so far.
With four cameras to place—still in Paris to catch a last glimpse of Bourne before he leaves the City of Lights—I basically chose the four spots I hadn’t chosen the day before. If there’s any hint to where cameras should be placed, I haven’t found it. (Well, if I recall correctly, there was some indication on the first day, but none since.)
Incidentally, my wife’s three camera places caught two shots of Bourne. I hadn’t realized that was possible. I don’t know if it means anything or gives you a better chance at a prize. Or perhaps the system just granted her an extra shot because she started the game a day late and needs to “catch up.”
If anyone has insight into camera placement, please let me know.
July 19th, 2007
I’m still playing the game and not hating it, probably because it takes all of two minutes of my time. It’s fun and clever, even if it does have some bugs (like those mentioned in the comments here). Hardly the grave disappointment some commenters here seem to think it is. I mean, really, it’s just a mildly interactive ad, not an A-list game to get up in arms about.
One thing I especially like that I know many others won’t is that there’s relatively little guidance telling you what to do and what to expect. I understand that some find this frustrating. After all, if you’re hoping to win an iPhone, you want to make sure you’re doing everything right.
But I found enough information on the site and in the help files to figure out what to do. And really, it’s a lot more information than a real spy would have, so I’m willing to roll with it.
I did catch a glimpse of Bourne in a camera on the first day. On the second day, I wasn’t so lucky. I spent more than two minutes trying to determine if there was a hint in my correspondence with agent Godot about what the best camera locations would be—using Google Maps and Wikipedia, mostly—but in the end decided there wasn’t any. I placed one of my cameras on a subway entrance and another in the same spot as I had on the first day.
Unfortunately, neither spot worked. As I understand it, this means that I wasn’t entered in the drawing for an iPhone that day. We’ll see if I get luckier today.
From the narrative, it sounds as if we’re off to North Africa by the Straight of Gibraltar, tomorrow.
July 18th, 2007
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