Who says video games can’t change the world? The people at Valve - the company behind Half-Life and the game-changing digital distribution channel Steam - have shown their commitment to education by giving away the highly cerebral, physics-based puzzler Portal for a limited period.

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A few days ago news emerged of an amazing real life replica of the cute and deadly AI-imbued turrets from Valve’s original Portal, created by cinematic animator and apparent prop master Ryan Palser.

The project to create such a replica was meticulous indeed, and Palser has documented the entire process, from start to finish, on his profile page at Flickr with images and text descriptions of every step.

Apparently, only two of these Portal Turret replicas have been made, and Epic Games’ Creative Director Cliff Bleszinski put in an order for one of them…

… and he very recently received it in the mail.

From a Twitter post by Bleszinski:

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Valve has made good on its promise and unleashed its digital distribution service, Steam, on Apple’s range of Mac computers running Mac OS X.

This will give Mac users access to an initial selection of 57 games to download and play through the service (all listed below), while new games will be added to the roster every Wednesday.

These games will all feature Valve’s ‘Steam Play’ functionality, which enables gamers to purchase one copy of the game via Steam, and then play the game on a computer imbued with the power of Windows or Mac OS, all through a single Steam account. It’s the Valve way.

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Speaking to videogame consumer site 1Up, head of Valve Software Gabe Newell has made the not inconsiderable statement that the developer’s upcoming and recently announced Portal 2 is “the best game we’ve ever done.”

If you take into consideration that this is the company that has brought us games from the Half-Life franchise, the Left 4 Dead franchise, and games such as Team Fortress 2 and the original Portal, this is one lofty comment.

Newell discussed expectations for Portal 2, after the original games stratospheric reception, and how the game may be received by fans:

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Some avid Portal fan has gone and made (or got her boyfriend to make) a replica Portal gun for use with a cosplay outfit she is making.

The Portal gun (or Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, for you science types) is the device used to create portals through which to travel, in the awesome 2007 first-person puzzle game, Portal. The game has deservedly gone on to become a fan favourite for a multitude of reasons, not least of which is the lovable Companion Cube, the end song, the demented Glados… and the game itself.

Now, to make her Portal cosplay outfit super authentic, someone has asked her boyfriend to create this real-life Portal gun. Even though it doesn’t create real portals, the replica is as lifelike as they get, with the proper lights, materials used as well as decals to add an extra layer of authenticity.

Check out more pictures of the replica Portal gun over here.