Last week at EA's press event, Valve captain Gabe Newell announced an enigmatic, first-person physics puzzler called Portal. You are gifted with a handheld tool that combines Half-Life 2's Gravity Gun with the power to shoot "portals" in any surface. You'll be tasked with finding routes across seemingly impassable obstacles and obtaining unreachable items with this new toy.
Yesterday, a low-res version of the Portal training video/teaser we saw at the event was leaked via You Tube (www.youtube.com ), so Valve is letting us share the official trailer with you today. You might want to hit that Movies tab now. But be warned: we haven't been able to find our socks for about a week now.
The central element of the game might seem suspiciously familiar for those who have played the portal-ridden Prey. But the true origins of Portal come from the impressive Narbacular Drop - a free game created by students later hired by Valve.
This single-player surprise add-on will ship along with Episode Two and its long-lost multiplayer sibling, Team Fortress 2 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this holiday season.
July 19, 2006
