Portal free till September 20

Valve has released their ridiculously awesome hit game, Portal, free for the taking until September 20. Using Valve’s game distribution/community software, Steam, you can pluck Portal right out of the internetz and start playing.

The offer comes as part of a “Learn With Portals” project by Valve to help kids learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (possibly also robot machine gun sentries… who knows?). Encouraging kids to get into Portal is, in their estimation, a great way to foster learning.

The game puts you in the role of an anonymous “study subject” in the Aperture Science Facility where you’re given a special gun that creates “portals” in the walls that connect so you can travel through them, even if they’re not physically adjacent. More puzzle game than shooter, Portal gets the player thinking not so much about how to score headshots and capture flags, but how to meddle with space, dimensions and gravity to survive. It’s one of the most innovative games of the last ten years.

Valve has a bit of history where making Mac gamers happy is concerned: When Steam was first released, they offered Portal for free to Mac users just for downloading it, and offered incentives and deals for Mac gamers for several months after. Still a money-grubbing corporation full of razor-toothed sharks? Sure, of course. They all are. But a free Portal is pretty awesome.

Source: The Loop