Free Portal Extended Demo for NVidia Users

[jpub]

www.steampowered.com/nvidia

You also get HL2: Deathmatch, HL2:Lost Coast Tech Demo, and Peggle Extreme, a 10-level extended 'demo'.--
Christopher Angel, aka JPublic
The Works of Christopher Angel
"Camaraderie, adventure, and steel on steel. The stuff of legend! Right, Boo?"

[Rod.H]

Joy, only two of those ain't in the Orange Box. The ones that are, well it doesn't affect them.

[Bob Schroeck]

What's this Steam thing you have to sign up for first? It sounds like some kind of extended gaming network, from what I can see on the page, but I couldn't find an explanatory link anywhere.

-- Bob
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I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life, and I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from Now We Are Six through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So theeeeeere....

[Kokuten]

Steam is Valve's version of Xbox Live - it's an online central point for game authorization and control, and supports matchups for online play, online purchase, and automated updates and patching..
It sucks. No real easy way around it, though.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Epsilon]

Steam is Valve's community gaming program. They use it to distribute and monitor their games, using a similar paradigm as many P2P networking stuff.
Essentially you can purchase games from Steam that are released by Valve. Steam auto-installs the game, autodetecting stuff like vid and sound cards and so on. You can then use Steam community programs to get involved in their online games, stuff like Team Fortress 2 and so on. From what I hear the community support is top notch as is the text support and feedback stuff. Steam games are also really cheap and easy to use.
The downside? You can't play any games you've purchased/instaled via Steam unless Steam is on your computer. Valve can also yank your Steam account at any time, effectively rendering you incapable of playing any of their games. They do this as an effort to prevent piracy and 99% of the time those whose accounts get yanked are pirates, hackers and so on. The other 1% of the time...
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Epsilon

[Bob Schroeck]

Meh. Not worth it for me. I will have to pass this one by then.

-- Bob
---------
I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life, and I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from Now We Are Six through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So theeeeeere....