Will the cake be a lie here too? Portal 2: Desolation is an upcoming very high-quality looking mod and they have revealed the first look.
"'Desolation' tells the story of a cybernetically-enhanced test subject named Diana Mendez. After sustaining injuries, Diana is fitted with Aperture’s BRACE cybernetic system, featuring a suite of robotic upgrades including an integrated Portal Device. When a relentless threat emerges, she must embark on a perilous journey that will see her uncover Aperture’s mysterious past… and maybe even face her own."
It's been in development for a few years now and it's finally getting closer to release! This is a full standalone story mod too, not just a few levels stitched together. An original story, characters and location for an ambitious sounding experience - exciting!
Check out their new footage below:
Direct Link
We've spoken with developer Joshua Ashton, who many readers will know from their work with Valve on projects like DXVK (the Direct3D to Vulkan translation layer) who mentioned to us that Portal 2: Desolation will in fact use DXVK Native. Ashton mentioned how it's a native build of the game with DXVK Native being used directly as opposed to Wine, with a bunch of "custom stuff hacked in as well too like BC7 texture support and compute shaders in D3D9". So we should see some good performance from it on Linux.
You can follow the game on Mod DB and Twitter.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: EikeEverybody who hasn't done yet and is into some serious puzzling, do play Portal Stories: MEL in hard mode.What's actually different in hard mode? Completely different puzzles or just things like tighter time limits?
Quoting: tuubiQuoting: EikeEverybody who hasn't done yet and is into some serious puzzling, do play Portal Stories: MEL in hard mode.What's actually different in hard mode? Completely different puzzles or just things like tighter time limits?
Thanks for asking. :D
The hard mode used to be the only mode when the mod was released. (Read: It's The Real Thing!) As it was too tough for many people (I really struggled, too), they made some puzzles easier. The game doesn't have any time limits or such.
A usual circle of Portal Stories MEL was...
* This is impossible!
* Or, maybe...
* I might be able to reach the exit!
* Standing in front of the exit: WTF I need another box here?!?
* This is impossible!
* Or, maybe...
* Level done.
I think they removed the second part of this vicious circle for some levels. :)
It's really, really worth your mon.. wait, it's free! :)
And if nothing changed (i played it before there were different modes), the puzzles are really nice food for thought and satisfying once you finally solve them ^^
If this mod comes close to that, i'll be really happy
Last edited by Termy on 21 December 2020 at 11:24 am UTC
Quoting: JuliusAny further details why this isn't using the existing Portal2 OpenGL version?
Hmm probably because opengl is not that great ? When I see the port of Observer which uses OpenGL, it does not run quite good ... The windows version with dxvk runs better.
I mean, at the time these ports were done, there was only OpenGL, and the ports themselves are good. But there is a big chance that a vulkan backend will actually beat it nowadays. Vulkan drivers are in better shape, vulkan overhead is just overall better etc etc
wvstolzing Dec 21, 2020
(I have to confess the "Mel" game was a bit of a disappointment for me — it wasn't really the 'difficulty'; it was rather the fact that a number of solutions involved subtly breaking the rules the way a speedrunner would, like finding that precise pixel that would allow an otherwise impossible jump, etc. Not the most elegant examples of forcing the player to 'think outside the box'. Make it 'difficult' given the existing rules of the game world; expecting the player to guess (more like brute force) the precise way in which you've bent the rules doesn't really foster creative thinking.)
Quoting: wvstolzing(I have to confess the "Mel" game was a bit of a disappointment for me — it wasn't really the 'difficulty'; it was rather the fact that a number of solutions involved subtly breaking the rules the way a speedrunner would, like finding that precise pixel that would allow an otherwise impossible jump, etc. Not the most elegant examples of forcing the player to 'think outside the box'. Make it 'difficult' given the existing rules of the game world; expecting the player to guess (more like brute force) the precise way in which you've bent the rules doesn't really foster creative thinking.)
I'm not sure what you mean. Did you feel like you had to do it overly precise or that you didn't have to (but wanted to)?
I don't think the game calls for precise moves, but for thinking, which I absolutely prefer.
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