Valve pushes Portal freebie

Valve is making the original Portal available for free this weekend on Steam. For those of you unaware of the innovative game, Portal is a first-person platformer, in which one has to solve a series of puzzles using a teleportation device. Launched in 2007, Portal was critically acclaimed as one of the most innovative games …

[Captain Underpants]

Hmmm. I'm hoping this is a way of getting extra eyeballs on Portal 2 so that the free DLC gets extra attention when it's launched next week sometime.

[Grey Area]

Looking forward to the cake

[Ralthor]

Didn't you hear?

The cake is a fruit!

[Boris the Cockroach]

I built

a total perspective vortex out of my slice

Now all I need is a test subject to put in it

[Anonymous Coward]

This was a triumph..

i'm making a note here

"Huge Success"

[David Austin]

Get it

Can't recommend it enough to anyone that doesn't have it already. fantastic design, some of the best gaming humor going, and as all the fat was trimmed, a small, but perfectly formed campaign with endless re-playability.

[neek]

Re: Get it

> Can't recommend it enough to anyone that doesn't have it already.

I would wholeheartedly agree, however I showed Portal to my brother in law, breathlessly expecting him to go "oh, wow" and be glued to the screen for hours like I was, and he just doodled about, picked up a companion cube, said "mmm" and didn't want to play any more. It doesn't take everyone the same way. I think he wanted guns and aliens.

[Promotor Fidei]

Great unless

you happen to live in Germany where Steam only supplies the Low Violence version.

Which unfortunately makes me feel very violent as I am an adult and do not need others to decide what is too violent for me to see. I know there are workarounds like importing the game and then registering it with Steam, however this removes the convenience of Steam in the first place.

Why is there a low violence version of Portal anyway? I understand the whole concept of the game does not include violence?

Yeah..Steam is coming out of my ears.

[Michael Habel]

Deja Vu??

Wow I remember the last time they made this free, like Promotor Fidei I to live in Germany, and hate all the censorship. But, was not aware that a low violence version would be needed, seeing that the Player is supposed to be an Android. An albeitly non-green chocolate factory version though...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Deja Vu??

No. The playing as a robot only happens in Portal 2 Coop mode. In Portal and in single player Portal 2, you're a female human named Chell.

[KLane]

Semantics check, please!

Does 'where until 20 September, it is completly free' mean the game can be downloaded for free and played this weekend only, or does it mean it can only be downloaded during this weekend and playable indefinitely?

[Jon Double Nice]

Portals 2 has the best callback ever

and it is "1.5 volts" - sheer perfection

[Dapprman]

Not in teh UK

I'm presently looking at the Valve Steam store (11:40 Saturday the 17th) and the only free things are demos and extras. The game is still £14.99.

[I understand now]

Actually

It is free in the UK. Go on http://store.steampowered.com/app/400/ and you'll see it just has the option to Install rather than purchase. Beneath it is the orange box, portal bundle and valve complete pack which arent free.

They've not displayed it particularly well admittedly.

Grab it while you can.

[E_Nigma]

Try again, when you type a title in the search box, it shows the lowest non 0 price you can get it for and since Portal can be bought in the Orange Box and in the Portal Bundle (Portal + Portal 2), it displays the price of one of those instead 0. But it's still free which you can make sure by opening the game page.

So it's just a really dumb bug in Steam Client which affects the very few games in the Steam Store which are both free and can be purchased as parts of bundles that aren't free.

[Ed 12]

learn with portals

Use the link from the Learn with Portals website linked in the story and it will take you to the steam site and the free download.

[Clive Galway]

learnwithportals.com down?

When I go there I get a holding page - "Business profile for learnhwithportals.com".

When I view the google cache for that page, it looks like the actual site.

Anyone else getting this?

FYI learnwithportals.com is translating to 205.178.189.129 for me

[William Towle]

@Clive

> When I go there I get a holding page - "Business profile for learnhwithportals.com".

> FYI learnwithportals.com is translating to 205.178.189.129 for me

I see a parked domain at that IP address too (did that result from your typo?), but learnwithportals.com (apparently 63.228.223.103, but doesn't give the same page) is OK.

[irish donkey]

Bad idea...

I seem to have lost a weekend since I installed it

[william_7]

so is steam needed?