Posts filed under 'Search for Bourne'
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
Last year, Google hosted a cross-promotional alternate reality game (ARG) for the Da Vinci Code movie. I played the game and quite enjoyed the various puzzles. I didn’t qualify as a finalist, though, at least in part because of an irritating scheduling conflict. In fact, the nature of the game and its popularity meant that only those dedicated fans with very flexible schedules really had a chance.
This year’s game is the Ultimate Search for Bourne, a tie-in with The Bourne Ultimatum. I liked the first two movies well enough. (Actually, come to think of it, I slept through part of the second, and I’m not sure I’ve ever got the plot straightened out.)
The game looks fun, too. As far as I can tell, you can’t really do anything today except look at the site and take a stab at understanding the gameplay. When the first real briefings becomes available, you should be able to use clues in it to find a place on a map where you can catch a glimpse of Jason Bourne through a surveillance camera. And I guess, if you choose the right camera (or cameras), you “win” for that day.
The prizes aren’t very important to me, though I can’t deny that I’d say no to an iPhone if someone decided to give me one just for playing a game.
What does matter to me is that there’s a chance this game will capture a little something of the spy genre, in an armchair sort of way. (Not real spying, of course.)
I can’t think of any truly great spy video games (Am I wrong? If so, please tell me. I’d love to try them out), but perhaps, if this game is a success, some daring and innovative game house could build on it to develop a sort of internet-based, global, massively-multiplayer version of “Assassin.” A top-notch game development crew could make this very, very fun.
EA ran Majestic. Supposedly, you would sign up and get phone calls, e-mails, and even faxes! And these would lead you to clues in a conspiracy game. It didn’t last, maybe because the price didn’t seem justified by the execution.
The Lost Experience did something similar. Unfortunately, it did it at a time when Lost basically sucked, so I didn’t pay much attention. Plus, the “game” wasn’t very fun and did require you to buy too much stuff, or much off other geeks on the internet who were willing to spend their money. So I didn’t participate.
Technology is better now, and we understand it better, too. Even if a game like the one I’m imagining would be heavily driven by advertising, it’d be fun. And if it weren’t—for example, if you had to buy a box in the game store just as you do with World of Warcraft and to pay a modest monthly fee—it just might become a success that would drawn the attention of people who don’t call themselves gamers.
What would make such a game work? A truly great ARG needs to use not just e-mail and phones, but the tools developed for multi-player FPS games and MMORPGs. A quick brainstorm turns up:
- A console website (or separately executed program, though that may eliminate some markeshare) as the single source of access
- Daily challenges (like the Google game) to find something online, succeed at a particular action goal, or achieve some other end; if there are real prizes, they could be tied to this
- Constantly available content, consisting mostly of the same sorts of things that make up the daily challenges, but tied to in-game rewards only (character advancement, revelation of plot, the chance to actually affect the ongoing plot, etc.)
- Action-based mini-games (building on FPS games, presumably)
- Puzzle-based mini-games with a spy feel to them (decoding messages, for example, or hacking a computer)
- The daily challenges add up to an ongoing narrative
- Rewards in the form of mini-episodes (three minutes?) of an ongoing spy drama tied to the game
- A strong community tool, to allow users to share stories
- Challenges unique to each player, so they can’t be “spoiled”
- The ability to group into a “cell” for team missions, where each participant must complete a certain challenge live, and all will be rewarded together
- Possibly ways to develop your character down different paths, so that, for instance, one cell member might disarm traps in the action mini-games while the other does the sharpshooting, while in appropriate puzzle games characters could have “clues” that make resolution of difficult, timed bits easier
- PVP in the form of competition with other players or cells on mutually exclusive goals, such that one cell might be trying to protect an ambassador’s life while the other is trying to assassinate her
- Possibly the ability to control a team of NPCs, at least in certain mini-games (like map-based games, where agent placement determines success)
- Possibly real prizes from sponsors (if the game is 1/10 as successful as something like WoW, daily giveaways of geeky, spy-like prizes from companies interested in the free advertising, branded with the game so that winners can boast about their success, might not actually ruin the game)
- An opportunity to delve into roleplaying while playing, with story-choices, text and voice chat, avatars, and so on
Okay, it’s all just a bunch of crazy ideas, at this point, poorly drafted and dumped on the page. But I think there’s real potential for a tremendously fun, successful game. Not long ago, I bemoaned the fact that all new games really seem to be new coats of paint on old games. A well-designed internet spy ARG—with daily challenges, demands that reach outside the game (like finding translations, locations, and so on)—could fit the bill.
In fact, I think after I hit “Publish,” I’ll draft an e-mail to an old friend of mine who’s a writer for several video game companies (some of which have spy themes), to see if what he thinks about the viability of this idea.
July 16th, 2007
Next Posts
