14 DAY TRIAL // Valve's Steam gamers seem to play more on NVIDIA hardware than all the other graphic platforms combined, according to a Steam Hardware Survey. And this is a reason for freebies, or at least this is what Valve and NVIDIA have come up with in what is more a marketing move than a "we love the gamers" statement. This means that the two companies have started a collaboration regarding development, distribution, events etc.
The first result of this great friendship is a gift people will probably appreciate, since it is indeed a nice move: Portal: First Slice, an extended demo of Valve's game is available for download (and for free, even if it is "extended"). All you have to do is create a Steam account, take a test and, if you have a NVIDIA graphic card, you will get right away your copy. If you're the lazy type of player, you should know that all the NVIDIA drivers will have a link to this offer included. But you still shouldn't be too lazy, since the download page states that this free gift is only available "for a limited time" (no end date is specified, whatsoever).
"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."
If you think Portal is not quite the game you'd like to play a little, even for free, other things are in the works and throughout the year competitive gaming events for Counter Strike and Team Fortress 2 will be held. Probably even more things will be announced and we'll keep you updated.