Last month Nvidia teased the upcoming release of the original Portal for its Tegra 4-powered Shield gaming portable. Good news — Portal is available on Google Play today. Better news — so is Half-Life 2.
While the Shield is capable of streaming from a Nvidia-powered PC to the handheld screen, that's not what these releases are. The Shield versions of Portal and Half-Life 2 are running natively on the device. That means they're just virtual controls away from running on tablets or phones with similar internals. Neat!
I've been playing Portal on the Shield for the past week or so, and it's a pretty faithful port. I mean, as long as the voice acting and gameplay stays intact, any Portal port is a good Portal port.
I have not played Half-Life 2, but I did sort of know it was coming. Call it a hunch — or a neon green crowbar Nvidia mailed to my house.
Both Portal and Half-Life 2 are available exclusively for the Nvidia Shield on Google Play today for $9.99 apiece.