I got The Orange Box for Krismas and the first game I played in it was Portal as I’d been lusting after it ever since I saw the first teaser trailer for it. It’s really is as awesome as all the hype around it says it is, but maybe you’re not convinced. Maybe you’re not sure you want to fork out the $50 for The Orange Box or the $20 for Portal by itself. Maybe you’d like a little… taste… before you plunk your money down.

Well if you own an nVidia Geforce graphics card then you’re in luck:

The most recent Steam Hardware Survey shows more Steam gamers play on NVIDIA GeForce hardware than any other graphics platform. In an effort to further support this popular PC gaming configuration - Steam games plus NVIDIA hardware - Valve and NVIDIA have entered into an agreement to collaborate on development, distribution, events, and more.

Effective immediately, all NVIDIA gamers may receive a free copy of PortalTM: First Slice, a special version of the award-winning new game from Valve, by visiting www.steamgames.com/nvidia1 and “Taking the Test.” Steam will then auto-detect the presence of NVIDIA hardware and make Portal: First Slice available immediately, free of charge. To make it easy for all NVIDIA customers to redeem this offer, a link to the Steam offer will also be included in all NVIDIA drivers.

“More Steam gamers, including myself, play on NVIDIA hardware than any other GPU,” said Doug Lombardi, vice president of marketing at Valve. “That’s a testament to the company’s long history of innovation and quality. By working together with NVIDIA to expand our development, distribution, and marketing efforts, we’re increasing our ability to serve the millions of NVIDIA customers logging onto Steam and help us prepare for our next generation of content.”

Nothing like using the same tactics as crack dealers to get people hooked on your game. Works for me anyway. If you’re an ATI graphics card owner then just trust me that the game is awesome and worth the money.