TIGSource Forums

http://store.steampowered.com/freeportal/

Looks like it's intended to get Mac user onboard with Steam.

Yay! I can finally finish this game.

Just saw this somewhere else, definitely needs a bump.

-SirNiko

Whoa, this is unexpected. o.o

Oh no, first humble bundle and now Portal! Someone really tries to cripple my game development by offering huge load of great games at once when I have so little time for gaming and development :whome:

Definitely downloading though :)

Edit: Now when I looked into my Steam account I noticed that my list of games seems to be even large: Indiana Jones The last Crusade, Indiana Jones The fate of the Atlantis, WoG, Penumbra, Lugaru, Aquaria, Samorost, Gish and now Portal  :crazy: I guess I have to preserve most of them to summer as now I have to study to get in college :P

I'm happy that Steam for Mac is finally here though playing Portal is kinda useless for me (still waiting for TF2).

On another note I just played Portal with NIN's Ghosts I-IV in the background and it was infinitely more creepy. If I didn't know what will happen I would get seriously scared.

Have downloaded just last night, valve are winners.

I guess this was just a way for them to get more people on steam.

That was my summation. I was probably going to get Steam for my Mac anyway though, so I don't see it as a problem.

A partly agree with Alastair. At least I had to get it now.

Guaranteeing massive press on Day 1 for their Mac release by giving out a game for free that was practically free in the first place in the Orange Box, and cheap otherwise.

Oh you Valve, you are such brilliant trolls to your fans, and we come endlessly back for more.

Bastards! Now I had to register at Steam and play all day long.

At least they throw us a bone. Activision would probably make us pay monthly fees just to use the service.

Don't get me wrong. I love Valve games and the idea behind Steam.
But I swear Valve employs a team of psychologists to determine how best to nerdgasm their fanbase.

(http://i.imgur.com/pONHs.png)

I thought thye made it free a while ago... maybe it just seemed free to me. :(

And also I do not agree with that pic with SquareEnix being neutral. They've sued so many fans of their works they probably should be included in the evil catagory. But that's just my opinion.  :gentleman:

They manipulate and sue people who copy them, but so do all the bottom line, who all also have a tendency to abuse their customers in old ways (EA), new ways (Acitivision) and ways never thought possible (Ubisoft).

Lucasarts is good?

How can be the guy who released Indiana Jones: Fate of the Atlantis, The Dig, Full Throttle and stuff be anything but good?

How can the people who in the last 10 or 15 or so years released nothing but absolutely abysmal Star Wars games in hopes of milking even more money out of the franchise be good? EA, Activision and Ubisoft used to be good too if we're going that far back.

This has been a very good week.

I got my friends to play some cool indie games with the humble indie bundle, and now they're gonna play portal :)

zynga is neutral?

LucasArts hasn't been relevant for years in gaming now. Maybe it should be switched in that image.

Aren't Chaotic Good people that are good people, but play by their own rules? Maybe Double Fine is a better pic?

Yeah, I would go with Double Fine more then Lucas Arts. Also, how is Zynga Chaotic Neutral? Isn't Cracked's 5 Creepy Ways Videogames are Trying To Get You Addicted  (http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html)their play book?

@Hangedman, great post!

Great article.

I hate zynga. All I ever see on facebook now is posts about farmville, which gets really annoying. What's even scarier is how so many people did what zynga said and flooded to the escapist forums to vote for them in those polls to decide who the best developer was. They didn't deserve to make it so far!

Yay, more GLaDOS! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDj1fYlwR00)

Poor Judgement: "Black Mesa" Tattoo :lol:

Zynga play by no rules but their own bland formulaity.
Thus, chaotic neutral.

Although, definitely replace Lucasarts with DoubleFine.

I dunno if Zynga is that neutral, case in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YaVVpK1G4

Come on guys it's a thread about Portal, and I suppose Steam/Valve, not Zynga. Anyway I completed Portal, and really enjoyed it. I'm not a big FPS player, I usually find them repetitive and boring, so it was nice that they did something a bit different with the genre.

I've played through it twice and I might do it again just before portal 2 is released. I loved pretty much everything - the atmosphere, the story and most importantly the gameplay. It's main flaw was that it was so short. And Still Alive was an awesome suprise :)

It is short, but I don't think it's too short. The second half of the game did begin to feel a bit padded out after a while. I think it was sensible of them to not try and make it a full priced stand-alone title.

I suppose you're right.

But it just seemed like one of those games where you don't want the awesomeness to end. I'm really looking forward to portal 2 now!

It's short, but for me at least that makes me play through it far more often. It's short enough to play again in an evening when you get the urge. Kinda like VVVVVV. I think i've played through it maybe 5/6 times over the years.

I agree, Portal is long enough that it does a good job of exploring the gameplay idea of the portal mechanic, and short enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome. It's short, but memorable and peple are likely to still reference it for a good while. Much better than most padded AAA titles that people forget completely after a year.

I never played Portal because I have a Mac, so this is great.  Does anyone know if they will be following suit with releasing L4D or TF2 for Mac?

I imagine if the source engine goes Mac any source game should be available to play as they all run on some sort of version of the engine. Which makes it ridiculously easy to port maps to other games. (See TF2 maps in L4D2.)

What's that Valve?
I still need to make a steam account and leave it online all day to play Portal for free?

Too bad, Valve.  :gentleman:

It's not really that much of a fuss is it? Besides, you could just use offline mode.

Steam also doesn't cut off the game you're playing if you lose your connection. It's happened to me (losing connection), and I only found out after I stopped playing (by my own choice).

And yeah, there is offline mode. It's a little bit of a hassle, but it's there.

So, not too bad, Valve. :gentleman:

Yep TF2, L4D, CSS and HL will all be available. I'd say next wednesday will see TF2.

I actually leave my steam on 24/7. It's my main go to IM program actually. It's easier to reach me by steam than by e-mail. :D Plus then I can select any game I have in my list without having a thousand desktop icons. Steam rocks in most regards.

So are you right, or is Valve right? (http://i41.tinypic.com/35cg6cy.png)  Either way its too much effort for me to bother with.

I just played it in offline mode now so I don't know why it says that on there  :shrug2:

Ehm, you need to download it ofc.

THEN WHY CAN'T I DOWNLOAD IT OFFLINE??? FUCK YOU VALVE!!! >:( >:( >:( >:(

OH GODDAMMIT
TURNS OUT MY INTERNET WASN'T CONNECTED WHEN I TRIED TO DOWNLOAD IT, SILLY ME.

But no really, why does it say internet is required to play when it isn't? :shrug2:
That's a bit confusing.

Well it's just listed under System Requirements. You need to download it, start it once while online and then you're golden.

It's easy to be suspicious, and rightly so, but so far Steam has been a fairly class act. I don't think you have much to worry about.

Also, many people find that the online features are quite decent. It's nothing like Ubisoft's crazy DRM

And actually you can get games that have DRM built into the games off the shelfs without DRM on steam. Which is nice since everything comes with DRM these days. Plus the great deals you get on steam, like all 3 Penumbra's for $5.

And honestly, who doesn't have internet these days and plays games on a PC? Who has a PC these days period with no internet? And you don't have internet, how are you talking to us?!  :epileptic:

my effin laptop couldn't handle it -.-

biggest disappointment of my LIFE  :facepalm:

I got L4D2 for my birthday and my computer decided to stop working that day :(

EDIT: At least you have it on your steam account ready to play if you ever get a better computer or something

I'm an anti steam for life. I didn't like their system since the day they announced it. That's way too much power in the hands of a single develloper, and they are trying to become a distribution giant.
Their system is basically the same uber-closed shit that exists for the Apple iphone.

Isn't that what everybody is trying to do? Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Valve, Facebook. It doesn't usually bother me unless they're being anti-competitive.

Well steam has been a huge boost for a lot of indie games. And apparently steam is very easy paper-work wise to get on compared to something like Games for Windows. And speaking of power in the hands of a single developer, Microsoft, Google.

Steam is just convienient, and that's why I like it. I like the fact that I don't have to worry about CDs and serials. Don't get me wrong. I do have my pet peevs about it. My biggest one being lack of Japanese made games. I'd love to see all the PC Falcom games on there. Then again, I play them in Japanese so I guess I'm the minority...

Yeah but they're always portrayed as the little guys Vs the evil publishers.

Yeah, at least 84% of indie games are on steam.

Valve, so far, has treated me pretty well as a customer.

I guess it's not impossible for them to eventually become a big dick giant and change their previous ways and act more like EA/Ubisoft/Actision, but I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Definitely prefer them over the alternatives Direct2Drive and GamersGate. Impulse is a great product, however their deals really can't compare to Steam's and the only advantage is that you don't have to run Impulse in the background.

dude i would love to play l4d2 but laptop sucks and i wont be getting a new one

ever -.-

Ever's a long time you know.

Just out of interest, how much money do developers make from a game on steam? What percentage of the money goes to them? And what's this compared to XBLA?

They're probably not allowed to say, llol.

I'm happy with Steam and if Valve suddenly turn evil I just pirate all the games I already bought so I can play them again.  :)

What about the multiplayer games though?

TF2 wouldn't be as fun if there wasn't such a big community :(

Well I don't see it happening any time soon. Multiplayer games die and by the time Valve is evil I'm sure there will be other multiplayer games to fill the gap. ;)

Well, Steam is a convenient place to keep track of all the digital downloads you've bought through them, and a unified multiplayer platform that makes it easy to play online.

Otherwise it's still just one more hoop you have to jump through to play your games; it's a nice hoop admitably, but still just a hoop.   It can also easily turn into a vicious bear trap if Valve decides to make it so.

I really hope that doesn't happen with steam. But I don't think that's going to happen. Valve is getting it right at the moment and players are increasing, so why would it change any time soon?

Well, if steam becomes popular enough that it becomes the de facto distribution platform and you have to go through them for a majority of games, they'd be in a position to do whatever they want really.

And since all your steam games are tied to your steam account, they really have you by the balls there if things go bad. :concerned:

If that did happen, I'd easily be able to find cracked copies of the games I've already paid for.

Anyways, even if you worry that steam will turn evil and hold all our games hostage some day, getting portal for free isn't going to do any harm. I'd just get it, play it, and enjoy it. If you just want to take advantage of this offer, there's nothing more to it.

Yup, no harm in grabbing it for free is there...
Still, I find it odd on steam, how l4d2, costs less than l4d.

The biggest downside to all this is that I'm gonna be hearing people say "the cake is a lie" for the next month. Again.  :tired:

(http://www.gamesprays.com/images/icons/Thumbnail_icon264.jpg)

Yeah, that's true. Maybe someone will reference a turret or something as well if we're lucky.

 :crazy: :facepalm:

It's almost as bad as people regurgitating lines from Monty Python....

The cake is a lie!

 :whome:

ive heard a lot about this game... maybe its about time i play it..