Portal 2 Beta Released For Linux 99
jones_supa writes "Yesterday Portal 2, a Source-based game that has been missing a Linux version, got a public beta release. The Steam game product page doesn't yet say the game supports Linux. To access the beta for Linux, right-click the game in Steam, select Properties and go to the Betas tab. Valve hasn't published the Linux system requirements for Portal 2 yet, but WebUpd8 tested it using Intel HD 3000 graphics under Ubuntu and it worked pretty well."
Awesome (Score:4, Informative)
It is like having and eating my cake, too (but, this time, the cake is not a lie).
Curse of the Linux-only gamer (Score:5, Informative)
I have to say, I loved Portal 1
So when Portal 2 was released in beta for Linux, I downloaded and played it immediately.
Having not played it before (last time I used windows was 1998)
I had no idea what the game should have been like.
Portal 1 was fairly sparse on the dialog front
"We regret to inform you that.....eeee...." lights flicker
So I didn't think much of it when Portal 2 was light on dialog
Played through to chapter 4 before I realised that there haven't been any dialog
Bug report here (no apparently fixed)
https://github.com/ValveSoftwa... [github.com]
The curse of the Linux-only gamer....
Ps. I've enjoyed the game so far, even sans vocals
Re:That is...if you even can get steam installed (Score:5, Informative)
Despite being a Slackware fan, it has to be said the package dependency issues are ALWAYS going to plague Slackware. It just doesn't have automated dependency resolution compared to just about every other distro on the planet.
That's both a wonderful thing (compiling from source is much nicer and only uses the things it needs to rather than everything under the sun) and a nightmare (when you want to just install a closed-source Linux binary that integrates a lot of libraries for every possible gaming-related library under the sun in order to run "Big Picture" mode).
Sound and load times (Score:5, Informative)
The bigger issues I've found in linux are
a) Sound. Using DOTA2 for an example, you get one option for the sound card, without any pulse/alsa channel or device selections. My system has a soundcard, HDMI audio, and USB headset. Switching outputs is easier in 'nix than windows (in the same area as volume control, you can redirect a playback stream: NICE), but getting the Microphone input to work consistently can be very frustrating.
b) Load times in Linux seem longer. For whatever reason, the assets also appear to be larger which is probably a contributing factor. Perhaps there's some licensing issues between how assets are compress between the two OS's, leading Linux to be a bit bigger.
That said, once the game is going DOTA2 and L4D2 are just as good in 'nix as windows. In fact, the window-switching is better/smoother so you can alt-tab without killing your game or dealing with annoying stutters.