Valve's Portal Hitting Nvidia Shield Next Week

By Kevin Parrish
published

You'd think that this would pave the way for other Source-based games.

Various reports are pointing to May 12 as the day Valve Software plans to launch its classic game, Portal, on Nvidia's Shield handheld. As reported during GTC 2014 in March, this won't be a case of streaming the game from a Kepler-based gaming rig; this will be the original game ported to Android and optimized for the Nvidia Shield.

From what we've heard so far, this version will drip pure awesomeness for $9.99 USD. The Android version will be an exact replica of the original PC title, which initially launched in October 2007 as part of the Orange Box bundle, and released as a stand-alone product in April 2008. That means the game is over six and a half years old… how time flies!

Read more: Nvidia Shield Review: Tegra 4-Powered Handheld Gaming

For the uninitiated, Portal is a first-person puzzle platform developed by Valve Software. Players take control of Chell and her Portal Gun, aka the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, who is trapped within the Aperture Science complex. She must navigate through room after room of varying difficulty designed by a mad-crazy AI called GLaDOS.

On Metacritic, the game scores a 90 out of 100, and a user score of 9.4 out of 10. The highest score on the critic reviews was given by Armchair Empire, saying it was "one of the best experiences of the year." AceGamez and IGN are at the bottom of the list, assigning a score of 80 and 82 of 100, respectively.

If anything, getting Portal up and running smoothly on Android should pave the way for additional PC games using the Source engine. There's no doubt that fans would pay for those games again, just as they will with the current Portal release. The only obstacle, it seems, is to shell out $199.99 for the Nvidia Shield.

More: Shield Remote GameStream: How Far Will You Go to Game?

Kevin Parrish
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Shodoman
    IGN is on the bottom of the list... Oh, the irony!

    P.S: The CAKE is a lie!!!
    Reply
  • darkchazz
    Does valve think they can get much revenue with a shield only game?
    Just release this on google play for everyone and I'll buy it right away.
    Reply
  • lordjakian
    Can it run Crysis?
    Reply
  • damianrobertjones
    Man... All I seem to hear lately is 'Google Play'... It seems to be the new cool thing to say
    Reply
  • icrf
    Does valve think they can get much revenue with a shield only game?
    Just release this on google play for everyone and I'll buy it right away.
    I think it comes down to having physical controls which most Google Play users do not have, and Valve doesn't want to attempt to make some terrible on-screen thing that users would just complain about.

    Plus, Nvidia may have fronted them some cash for the dev work.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    13252546 said:
    Just release this on google play for everyone and I'll buy it right away.
    If I had to port Portal to a touch-screen, I think I would get nightmares about how to get the controls right: some places in the game where you need to almost simultaneously move, aim, place portals and possibly other stuff are already hard enough with mouse+keyboard or X360 controller.

    As a player, I have a hard time imagining myself simultaneously doing 3-4 things using on-screen controls, touches and possibly accelerometers, gyros and magnetometer. It is doable but having to fight against a significant input method handicap usually ruins the fun - it makes games a lot more frustrating than they should be.
    Reply
  • artk2219
    This is pretty good news, and honestly the first thing that came to my mind after portal was Counterstrike on android. You would need a controller or something like shield, but it would be kind of cool.
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    HMDI out to a TV, Bluetooth game controller and turn your Android tablet into a console. Or just use a Surface Pro and load up the original from Steam.
    Reply
  • TheinsanegamerN
    If Valve can express success on Shield, maybe more big time developers will get on board. put, say, GTA V on the newer shield 2 (or shield, if at all possible) and, say, some good platformers and shooters, and the shield may finally become it's own viable gaming platform.
    Reply
  • IndignantSkeptic
    No! this is unacceptable. I've been waiting ages for Valve Software to add Android to Steamplay along with Windows, Mac, and Linux and now they want to make people pay again for games they already bought. No they can't do this because then there is probably no going back; Android will never be incorporated into Steamplay then. I didn't wait for nothing! I will never accept that people have to pay full price again for a game whenever they want to play it on a different platform, and if you think that is acceptable then there is something wrong with you, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
    Reply