If you’ve yet to try Valve’s mind-bending first-person puzzler Portal, you now have no excuse. The original Portal is currently free on Steam until September 20th.

Valve was inspired by teachers who’ve worked Portal into their classrooms and wants to encourage other educators to do the same. “One of the biggest challenges in teaching science, technology, engineering, and math is capturing the students’ imaginations long enough for them to see all of the possibilities that lie ahead,” the company said on the program’s website.

Videogames in the classroom aren’t entirely new, as games like Oregon Trail have been staples of computer classes since the 70s. But the complexity of modern games offer educators a myriad of possibilities, whether it is teaching problem-solving and teamwork in Minecraft or discussing the philosophical questions raised by Portal.

Meanwhile, you can benefit from Valve’s educational ambition by downloading Portal for free right now.

Source: Learn With Portals

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  • mlkmade - Saturday, September 17, 2011 - link

    Of rsome reason I first read this as "Pipeline Now Free until Sept 20" and my reaction was "ANANDS CHARGING FOR NEWS NOW?!"

    Then I re-read it.

    Phew~
  • inighthawki - Saturday, September 17, 2011 - link

    There was also no excuse for not grabbing it for free during the Mac Launch, which lasted two weeks.
  • Kelemvor - Saturday, September 17, 2011 - link

    Is it free if I get it before 9/20 or since it's steam, and has to be online, can I only play it until 9/20 and then it will stop working?
  • inighthawki - Saturday, September 17, 2011 - link

    Free forever
  • Spivonious - Monday, September 19, 2011 - link

    Free forever. They did this last year too. Fun game, but I don't think I would have paid anything for it.
  • Spoelie - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link

    Not even if you got some cake with it?
  • tombetz - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link

    Tried to set up an account on their web site, it kept prompting me to prove I was a human over and over again, no matter how many times I entered the Captcha correctly.

    Then I installed Steam at their tech support's suggestion, and created (successfully) an account using Steam's prompts. Noticed that Portall was no longer free, even though today is the 20th. Tried adding it to my account, and "WE WERE UNABLE TO". So I click on "usernam'es account" to see if I need to add a CC first, and get a login prompt. Okay, so I log in again (all this within Steam, mind you) and no Steam prompts me to prove I am a human EVEN THOUGH IT ISN"T PRESENTING ME WITH A CAPTCHA!

    Broken as hell. If they can't even write user registration code correctly, how broken must their game software be?
  • mckirkus - Sunday, September 18, 2011 - link

    Tried it out, was glued to my PC for over two hours. Great game, simple to get into but also very deep. Hope that movie gets made with this is a the premise.
  • bupkus - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link

    Hey, F***TARD. Quit posting your shlT
  • DNJB - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link

    Portal can't hold a candle to Oregon Trail or Carmen Sandiego.

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