PC gamers quickly stood up in anger when Microsoft announced that Portal would see an exclusive expansion-esque release on the Xbox Live Marketplace with the upcoming Portal: Still Alive arcade game. That anger subsided when we found out what was in the Arcade title. As we recently reported, Valve's Doug Lombardi confirmed that the Xbox Live Arcade release of Portal: Still Alive would be comprised of the maps found in the Portal: Flash Version Map Pack which has been on the PC since May. Haven't picked up the completely free maps yet? Download them now to add to your collection. For free. Did we mention the price? It's 0MS points, which by our calculations equals to about FREE. Download the Portal: Flash Version Map Pack now! (it's free!)...

Keyboard-and-mousers up in arms over the recent announcement that Xbox Live Arcade would be receiving exclusive Portal content in the form of Portal: Still Alive need not fret: apparently the forthcoming bonus content has already been alive on the PC for quite some time.Valve Software's marketing VP Doug Lombardi explained to Gamasutra writer Chris Remo that the content from Portal: Still Alive has actually been lifted and revamped from Portal: The Flash Version MapPack. Portal: The Flash Version was created as a tribute to Valve's puzzle-shooter hybrid, and Flash Version MapPack is simply an extension of that tribute. Download the map pack and follow the instructions to assimilate the Flash game's maps into your copy of Portal."So if you're a PC Portal owner who, like me, was feeling excluded by Still Alive's bonus content, fear not: you get to play that content first, and for free," says Remo....

The folks at Novint have demoed their unique force feedback PC game controller the Novint Falcon by, among other means, using Valve's Half-Life 2. The demo allowed people to use the controller to "feel" effects like weapon fire recoil, the weight of holding objects like barrels and even feel textures in the game world. Now IGN is reporting that Novint and Valve are planning to expand their relationship.The report states that Valve plans to support the Novint Falcon beyond just Half-Life 2 to cover all of the games covered in their Orange Box collection (Half-Life 2, Episodes One and Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal) along with Counter-Strike Source and the upcoming Left 4 Dead. Novint will also release a special Orange Box version of the Falcon controller later this year. A new pistol grip attachment for the Falcon should start shipping to stores soon....

Have you ever wished you could make your own casual, web-based games? Your day has come, dear reader. Electronic Arts is exploiting its The Sims franchise with The Sims Carnival, a casual games portal that allows you to create your own games and even customize existing ones. The site has just gone into open beta, so it's now available to the public.The tools seem to be a bit on the easy-to-use side of the easy-to-use/powerful balance, but hey, fun is the most important thing, right? If you just want to play games, there are already quite a few on the site. Presumably they were created participants in the prior, closed beta phase.We're hoping this one does better than past attempts by The Sims to take on online gaming....

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours. Spore system requirements revealedEA has published the system requirements for both Spore (due out September 7) and the Spore Creature Creator, which will be released on Tuesday, June 17. A precursor to the release of Spore, the Creature Creator aims to let players release their creativity with "228 drag-and-drop, flexible parts." Belief & Betrayal demo releasedBig Download is nothing if not diverse. Within the last few hours, we've give you racing, and we've given you shooting -- now we offer adventure, mystery, and intrigue all wrapped up in the Belief & Betrayal demo. Interview: Vic Davis of Armageddon EmpiresThere's a new strategy game taking the internet by storm, and it's called Armageddon Empires. Fusing turn-based strategy, traditional board game methodology, and collectible card games, it's an extremely deep and amazingly fun game. Vic Davis recently sat down with Big Download to discuss his game and what it is like being an indie developer making a living off his work. ...

Valve has already announced to not expect a sequel to their acclaimed 2007 puzzle shooter Portal this year but apparently they are already thinking about the voice cast for Portal 2. According to Kotaku, casting sheets have gone out (via a subscriber based entertainment industry web site) to voice talent for auditions for Portal 2.The actual voice sessions are due to begin in July.The story has an extensive character study of one of the new characters in Portal 2 (complete with a drawing/portrait of said character) so if you don't want to learn more about the game's storyline don't go to the provided source link. You have now been given a sufficient spoiler warning...

Gaming blogger That Girl commissioned the creation of a specially-made "companion quilt," pictured above. Obviously, it's a riff on the weighted companion cube from Valve Software's Portal. We thought this was great, so we had to mention it. That said, Big Download reminds you that the weighted companion quilt will never threaten to stab you, and in fact cannot speak.The quilt was made by an Etsy artist who goes by the name Punzie. She makes all sorts of video-game themed bedding. Check out her inventory and buy something if it looks good to you! To Punzie, we say: "Unbelievable! You <subject name here> must be the pride of <subject home town here>!"[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]...

There is a tendency among the hardcore to think of casual games as the trite, twee younger sibling of more "serious" games -- your Tomb Raiders, your X-coms, your Starcrafts of the gaming universe. This perception stems from the idea that a simple game must be simple to create, and therefore reaches an equally simple audience. This, in turn, relies on hewing to old stereotypes: women and older people don't play games, therefore if that demographic is playing a game, it must be easy, right?Without trapping ourselves by making our opponent's argument -- after all, the hallmark of the casual game is that it is easy to pick up and learn -- we can instead focus on why it is that hardcore games do not attract that market, and what it is that casual games offer instead. To sum it up in a word, it's depth. But wait, isn't depth what people usually say these games lack? To answer that, we need to revisit what "depth" in games really means....

If you haven't played Portal yet and experienced all the weird and funny goodness of Valve's award-winning puzzle shooter (Cake, companion cube, "Stay Alive") then there are now no more excuses. Valve has now made available Portal:First Slice, a 11-level free demo of the game, for all PC games. The demo was released back in January and could only be played on PCs that had an NVIDIA made graphics chip but now this new move let's the tons of ATI based PCs or anyone else check out a fairly generous portion of the full title. The Steam web site has also gotten a revamp as well. It's a fairly minor update but Valve says the new design was created "to better showcase the growing number of titles and publishers on Steam."...

Portal has inspired a lot of creativity from downloadable music, public art and a slew of internet memes. Finally that creativity has gone to the next level of amazing.Augmented Reality Portal is inspired by the popular first-person puzzler from Valve. Two devices have the ability to copy and paste each other's content into the other while allowing for special video effects to be added all in real-time. Sure, we're still a long way from searching for cake in an industrial science lab but we're advancing one step at a time....

Remember the slick flash based version of Portal? As fun as it was in 2D, the team at WeCreateStuff have re-created their flash vision into new content for the real Portal. Adding an impressive 40 levels from WCS's Flash version, additional bonus levels and features, the Portal Flash Version Map Pack is sure to add hours of teleportation fun.Experience the world of Aperture Science, before the end-days of GLaDOS, as a different test subject in more puzzle based action. The map pack, which is free, is available now at a light size of 40 MB. Pick it up today and find out where that cake is already, will ya?...

If you've been hoping for a sequel to Portal to show up this year, it's time to be disappointed. Valve Software's Doug Lombardi told Eurogamer that we shouldn't expect a new Portal by Christmas. He said that since Portal was revolutionary, "its successor has to be equally revolutionary," and that means the team will be taking its time to make it a much better experience than a more-of-the-same offering.A few things he said in the interview implied that Portal 2 might be a much bigger and more expensive game than its predecessor. "Half-Life 2 was the right decision," he said. "It was painful, six years and upwards of 40 million dollars to develop, but that paid off. That's our recipe." So what would a $40 million Portal look like? We won't find out this year![Via XBox 360 Fanboy]...