Nvidia card owners to get Portal: First Slice free

NVIDIA and Steam seem to be in cahoots for a new promotional gig which involves you, us, our NVIDIA graphics cards, Portal: First Slice, and nothing else. NVIDIA’s apparently celebrating something, and a quick look at the latest Steam hardware survey says it’s got something to do with plenty of gamers who aren’t shy about their NVIDIA GPU-powered gaming machines. More comin’ atcha at the full story.

The best things in life may be free, but when great games become free, that’s definitely something better. Word is that Portal: First Slice is being given away to all gamers who have NVIDIA graphics cards on their machines, and there’s no financial “Catch 22.” Yep, Portal: First Slice is being offered for free, though for a limited time only and with one special – almost insignificant – condition.

Those wishing to avail of this offer will have to have the Steam client installed. It’s not such a big issue if you have broadband, since the service is absolutely free. But over slower, erratic connections, Steam may not be your slice of pie – or Portal, in this case.

We can confirm that connecting to Steam is easy-peasy with dial-up connections (we do know there’s a great majority out there who can’t get decent broadband services yet). But updating and downloading purchased and free games at those speeds is a horror movie waiting to happen.

You may want to brave the impossible, however, because Portal: First Slice isn’t the only freebie offered. In fact, three other games are tagging along with Steam’s promo:

• Half Life 2: Deathmatch
• Half Life 2: Lost Coast
• Peggle Extreme

The promo entry is offered through the Via link below, but make sure to bring a truckload of patience with you. Apparently the news hit the most regular Steam visitors first, so they’re at the front of the download queue for now. Latecomers will just have to bide their time.