LambdaGeneration Community Join our new Community Platform — Share Half-Life news and community content. Built by fans, for fans.
We Are The Lambda Generation. LambdaGeneration is a website dedicated to the video game Half-Life. ( We're basically really passionate about crowbars, headcrabs and anyone who has goatee with a PhD in theoretical physics… )

“The Final Hours of Portal 2” Pulled From Steam Due To Malware Hack [UPDATED]

News & Rumors Other

[UPDATE: The application has been brought back online and, apparently, all malware is gone. Good riddance! You can now safely install and read Final Hours of Portal 2.]

Geoff Keighley’s “The Final Hours of Portal 2” is an interactive digital story that chronicles the development of Portal 2, from its inception in late 2007 to its release in early 2011. It’s a follow-up to Geoff’s previous “The Final Hours” articles, which he created as part of GameSpot’s “Behind the Games” series. The first one he ever wrote was “The Final Hours of Half-Life“, and if I’m not mistaken, the last one was “The Final Hours of Half-Life 2“.

Despite being a terrible PC port, having been originally designed for the iOS, it remains an insightful and very well-done interactive article of sorts; and I’m hoping Valve will bring Geoff back in for a possible “The Final Hours of Half-Life 3” (more recently, he actually did “The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3“). But wait a minute – what’s this?

“The Final Hours of Portal 2” Pulled From Steam Due To Malware Hack [UPDATED]

It would appear that, fairly recently, some malicious code was injected in Final Hours of Portal 2’s database. You see, in order to download all the assets and files that it requires, the application connects to the official TFHoP2 website. However, since Final Hours was not created by Valve, these are not Valve’s servers, and as such, they are completely out of their control. So, for all intents and purposes, TFHoP2 is a third-party application, with little to no association with Valve whatsoever. 

At least three of its file links actually send you straight to a malicious webserver that immediately starts downloading malware to your PC. You can find out more at the Steam Forum thread on the subject, posted by PotcFdk, who appears to have first discovered the issue earlier this month (although my anti-virus history shows it detected three trojan scripts within Final Hours, at the beginning of March). So, if you launched it not too long ago, I’d suggest you run a thorough computer scan using your anti-virus.

While at first, Valve stated (through Steam Support) that any instances of malware reports were simply false positives originating from users’ anti-virus software, they have since realized that this is a bit more dangerous than that. So, in response, Valve have completely pulled TFHoP2 from the Steam Store, and the application itself has been made unavailable, albeit temporarily, while they investigate the issue. Apparently, the site owner has already been notified, so hopefully Valve will keep us posted on any new developments. Here’s hoping the application will be clean, and back online in due time.

About this Article

11 Comments

  1. I hope he updates it with the new DLC!

  2. So, is it still available on iOS? Not that I use any Apple products, just curios.

  3. I thought its current offline state was because a new “chapter” would be added. Oh, well.

  4. Wow, can’t belive the publishers let this happen. Quite unprofessional for an application that scale. It is a shame wonderful things like this are ruined today by stupid hackers.

  5. Crap, I was planning on rading that today. Really dodged a bullet there….

  6. The thing I’ve wondered about the Final Hours series is exactly at what point Mr. Keighley gets access to all the information. He’s as in the dark about any future HL as the rest of us.

    • I’m guessing he’s invited to spend some time at Valve HQ at some point during the respective game’s development, offered some information, and… not much else, really.
      That said, I’m not sure if he’s in the dark with regards to HL… he’s probably spent weeks at Valve HQ in total, so there is a tiny chance that he might know something.

  7. RIGHT ON THE DAY I WANTED TO SHOW SOMETHING FROM IT TO A FRIEND.
    Head-desking all day.

  8. I was going to buy this yesterday, pretty thankful I didn’t now.

Leave a reply


Sign in via Steam to skip spam and contact fields.