Portal:First Slice free to nVidia users

[Daehawk]

http://www.steampowered.com/nvidia/

Have a Geforce graphics card? Want to get a free copy of Portal: First Slice? Come on down!

    The most recent Steam Hardware Survey shows more Steam gamers play on NVIDIA GeForce hardware than any other graphics platform. In an effort to further support this popular PC gaming configuration - Steam games plus NVIDIA hardware - Valve and NVIDIA have entered into an agreement to collaborate on development, distribution, events, and more.

    Effective immediately, all NVIDIA gamers may receive a free copy of Portal: First Slice, a special version of the award-winning new game from Valve, by visiting www.steamgames.com/nvidia and "Taking the test." Steam will then auto-detect the presence of NVIDIA hardware and make Portal: First Slice available immediately, free of charge. To make it easy for all NVIDIA customers to redeem this offer, a link to the Steam offer will also be included in all NVIDIA drivers.

    "More Steam gamers, including myself, play on NVIDIA hardware than any other GPU," said Doug Lombardi, vice president of marketing at Valve. "That's a testament to the company's long history of innovation and quality. By working together with NVIDIA to expand our development, distribution, and marketing efforts, we're increasing our ability to serve the millions of NVIDIA customers logging onto Steam and help us prepare for our next generation of content."

    Throughout the coming year, the companies will also be working together to support competitive gaming events for Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 and will continue to work together to define and support the breakthrough features of tomorrow's games and graphics hardware.

    "Valve's endorsement of our technology and tools is yet another example of how the world's leading gaming companies are working with NVIDIA," said Roy Taylor, vice president of content relations at NVIDIA. "Portal is the hottest new, award-winning title from Valve, and we're delighted that Valve will offer First Slice exclusively to GeForce customers."

[EngineNo9]

So how long is the extended demo for a 2-hour game?  I've never liked when they call this sort of thing "a special version", as if they're trying to fool people into thinking it is some special edition and not just a demo. 

[unbreakable]

If I already have Portal, is there any reason to get this?

[Knightshade Dragon]

  If I already have Portal, is there any reason to get this?

It's free?

[CeeKay]

maybe it's like the Half Life demo where's it's a level that's not in the game.

[ROTC1983]

That would be cool if there was some extra content inside of it

[Zarkon]

Clicked on it, and nothing happened.  Did it again and it worked, but then said I already redeemed it on another account.  What'd I do wrong?

[CeeKay]

Clicked on it, and nothing happened.  Did it again and it worked, but then said I already redeemed it on another account.  What'd I do wrong?

I assume you checked your Steam Games list?  maybe if you have the full version it doesn't show up.

[unbreakable]

  If I already have Portal, is there any reason to get this?

It's free?

Well yeah, but if it's nothing that's not in the full game, why bother?  I can just play Portal instead, and play more than one level or whatever.

[Lee]

Clicked on it, and nothing happened.  Did it again and it worked, but then said I already redeemed it on another account.  What'd I do wrong?

I assume you checked your Steam Games list?  maybe if you have the full version it doesn't show up.

I click on the "I have Steam installed" button, IE/Firefox asks me if I want to run a program, I click yes/allow and then nothing. Nothing shows up in my Steam games either.

Edit: Got it. Exit Steam completely, then run the above link. Steam will log on and ask you if you want to install Portal.

[hitbyambulance]

this offer is videocardist

[EddieA]

There are 19 "rooms" to do in the demo, and the first 5 or 6 took about 15 minutes to do.  I've never played the full version, but I'm guessing this is just the beginning of the game, and not anything new.

[Sarkus]

I have the full version and the "First Slice" thing doesn't show up at all.  Which I guess is not a surprise, but they should have been more clear about it.  The description is somewhat confusing as to whether it's just a demo or not.

[unbreakable]

The cake is a lie.

[Zarkon]

Still didn't work for me.

[unbreakable]

According to Cheap Ass Gamer's forum, "It also gives you Peggle Extreme, Half-Life 2 Death Match and Half-Life Lost coast for a free download as well."

I actually don't have HL2 DM, so that makes it worth it.  But people are reporting having a lot of trouble, so YMMV until it gets sorted out.

[JCC]

I downloaded all these today.

Portal was cute. I certainly liked the humor, and the puzzles were intriguing, although not at all challenging. I would like to play the whole thing, but if the demo is really 1/4 of the game (took me around 30 minutes) I am definitely not going to pay $20 to get the full thing. I really wish they would bundle this with just HL Ep 2, for $20-25 or something. The other odd thing for me is that Portal, while looking very plain jane (for a source game) ran worse than either HL2 or HL2 Ep1, which both look notably better. It wasn't exactly choppy, but I did dial down my rez a bit to make it more acceptable, which I didn't have to do for the aforementioned HL titles.

Peggle was also quite cute and fun. I blitzed through all the levels available in this "demo". I certainly like it, but I wouldn't pay for a game like this. Peggle with Portals was particularly amusing.

I already had Lost Coast, which is nothing special, and actually runs worse than - well all of the above source games I mentioned including Portal.

Haven't tried Death match yet.

[unbreakable]

Well, I tried signing up just to get HL2 DM, but it says I've already activated the bonus on this computer.

False positive because I have Portal installed?  That's all I can think of.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Well, I tried signing up just to get HL2 DM, but it says I've already activated the bonus on this computer.

False positive because I have Portal installed?  That's all I can think of.

I've received the same message and don't (and never have) have Portal installed.

[CeeKay]

Well, I tried signing up just to get HL2 DM, but it says I've already activated the bonus on this computer.

False positive because I have Portal installed?  That's all I can think of.

I've received the same message and don't (and never have) have Portal installed.

it's there, lurking, waiting to pounce on you.....

[Atragon]

I downloaded all these today.

Portal was cute. I certainly liked the humor, and the puzzles were intriguing, although not at all challenging. I would like to play the whole thing, but if the demo is really 1/4 of the game (took me around 30 minutes) I am definitely not going to pay $20 to get the full thing. I really wish they would bundle this with just HL Ep 2, for $20-25 or something. The other odd thing for me is that Portal, while looking very plain jane (for a source game) ran worse than either HL2 or HL2 Ep1, which both look notably better. It wasn't exactly choppy, but I did dial down my rez a bit to make it more acceptable, which I didn't have to do for the aforementioned HL titles.

Peggle was also quite cute and fun. I blitzed through all the levels available in this "demo". I certainly like it, but I wouldn't pay for a game like this. Peggle with Portals was particularly amusing.

I already had Lost Coast, which is nothing special, and actually runs worse than - well all of the above source games I mentioned including Portal.

Haven't tried Death match yet.

Don't forget, Lost Coast was a tech demo to show off the shiney that the Source engine could pump out.

[Hrothgar]

The other odd thing for me is that Portal, while looking very plain jane (for a source game) ran worse than either HL2 or HL2 Ep1, which both look notably better. It wasn't exactly choppy, but I did dial down my rez a bit to make it more acceptable, which I didn't have to do for the aforementioned HL titles.

In some of the developer commentary for Portal, they mention that for each portal another room is rendered.  Since you can look through a portal and into another portal, there can be lots of rendering involved.  They did say they cut it off somewhere, but I forget where, but it was something high (like ten or more instances). 

[Kestrel]

Thanks for posting the news and the link.

At first I thought I wouldn't get to take them up on this because I have a new Ati card to replace the low powered nVidia card that came with this computer, but then I remembered that my old computer has an nVidia card, so downloading it now.

BTW, I had Lost Coast already, but it seems that did not hinder me from downloading Portal, Peggle, and DM

[unbreakable]

It's kind of funny how I feel shafted because this doesn't work for me, especially since I doubt I'd play the HL2 DM anyway.

[IkeVandergraaf]

Portal was cute. I certainly liked the humor, and the puzzles were intriguing, although not at all challenging. I would like to play the whole thing, but if the demo is really 1/4 of the game (took me around 30 minutes) I am definitely not going to pay $20 to get the full thing. I really wish they would bundle this with just HL Ep 2, for $20-25 or something.

Portal has an awesomeness curve that starts out shallow, but gets really really steep at the end.  I enjoyed the game the whole way through, but it gets consistently better and better, and the last level is quite extraordinary.

[JCC]

Yeah, a buddy of mine keeps screaming at me just to buy Portal, but I am being stubborn and waiting for it to fall to the $10 range. I have too much other stuff to play now anyway.

I did play some HL2: Death Match this weekend which was quite a bit of fun. Of course some of the yahoo's on microphones are annoying. Particularly the ones who are able to combine racial slurs and gay slurs into one word. +1 for creativity, - 1billion for being a dumbass.

[leo8877]

Portal is an amazing gaming experience, but yeah you don't need to spend more than $10 on it if you're not going to buy the whole Orange Box.

[JCC]

Portal is an amazing gaming experience, but yeah you don't need to spend more than $10 on it if you're not going to buy the whole Orange Box.

All I would be buying the OB for is Ep 2 and Portal, so if it drops to the $20 range then I'll get portal that way.