Del.icio.us
Reddit.com
Facebook
Slashdot.org
Google Bookmarks
N4G
Stumbleupon.com
Go to whatisicarus.com. Go on. Stick it in a new tab, have a look, and then come back and tell us what you found. We'll still be here, we promise.
Black background? Smoke? A small grey fleck of something with a slightly segmented pattern? Pretty dull, yeah? Well how about if we told you that unidentifiable grey thing was very probably an unidentifiable grey thing with DEEP, EARTH-SHATTERING SIGNIFICANCE to the next title from Irrational Games, developer of BioShock and System Shock 2? Pretty important grey thing now, right?
Back in Jauary, it was revealed by the medium of LinkedIn profile that a programmer at Irrational was working on something codenamed Project Icarus. The project was dated as 2008 - present, making it very much Irrational's current, post-BioShock project, having passed Bio 2 to 2K Marin.
'But what is Icarus?', the world asked. And coincidentally, that very question now exists in URL form. On a site registered to 2K. 2K being Irrational's parent company and publisher. And on top of all that, Irrational has sent out invitations to a big project reveal in New York on the 11th of August this year. All ties in pretty nicely, does it not?
One interesting point to note though, is that Rockstar Games is also referenced in whatisicarus' registration details. What this means, if anything, is currently anyobody's guess. Rockstar is Irrational's sister company under 2K, so it could be a co-production (doubtful) or something as simple as some sort of cross-promotion effort.
Also interesting is that the site's content appears to have changed already, albeit very slightly. If Joystiq's screenshot from earlier on hasn't been manipulated in any way, then the pattern of the smoke has shifted and the grey dot itself has moved. This is obviously of MAJOR IMPORTANCE, and we currently have Radar's entire scientific research budget dedicated to getting to the bottom of it. Though that's only about £8:50.
Current options are:
- The grey dot is a tiny metallic island in a nighttime sea, viewed from high above (as if viewed by Icarus himself!). It is the setting of Irrational's new game, and this website contains a screenshot from the game's first-person intro sequence.
- The grey dot is actually light at the end of a very long tunnel, or at the top of a pit. This means that Irrational's new game will involve a lot of running down smokey tunnels or falling down smokey pits.
- The grey dot's segmented colouring and dark surround are because it is actually the view down a black-and-white kaleidoscope. This explains the slight change in the grey dot's configuration over the last few hours, and proves that Irrational's new game will be set in Victorian times (when all entertainment was slow-moving and in black-and-white), and will cast you in the part of an old craftsman of children's amusements.
- OMG THE GREY DOT IS THE SETTING FOR GTA V!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- We should stop getting excited about uninformative video game teaser sites as there is no prize for working it out first, and they exist only to generate exactly this kind of hysterical fan-driven hype with minimal effort needed from the publisher. And everyone will find out the answer at the same time via the actual reveal.
But what do you reckon? Any more likely theories? Any even sillier? And how excited are you for Irrational's new project? Let us know in the comments, or via our pulsing opinion orbs on Facebook and Twitter.
