The Latest Feral Interactive Newsletter Was Rather Interesting

I've not tried Total War yet, only bought it.
But Xcom was easily one of my best gaming moments of 2014, the best single player game this year imo (with Borderland 2 on a strong #2, closely followed by Last Light).

Quoting: dubigrasuGive me Borderlands, Bioshock or something similar for a change.

Uh, Bioshock Infinite and Borderlands 2 have been released (by Aspyr, but still), and, yes, it would be nice to play the originals of both games, but I am not complaining one bit.

Yes, there have been so many games, it's sick. I have grown...picky about which games I buy. There is even now such an embarrassment of riches for Linux gamers, I'm able to say, "Naw, naw, naw...Oooh!" I certainly have enough shooters. I have a raft of indie games I wouldn't have bought had they not been available for Linux. I have several AAA games, and love having them to play natively. I can remember when the only commercial game (that I wanted to play) was Neverwinter Nights. Now, I have a couple of dozen games I can't resist loading up and having fun.

Life is good!

And Merry Christmas to all!

Quoting: oldrocker99

Quoting: dubigrasuGive me Borderlands, Bioshock or something similar for a change.

Uh, Bioshock Infinite and Borderlands 2 have been released (by Aspyr, but still), and, yes, it would be nice to play the originals of both games, but I am not complaining one bit.

I'm strictly talking about Feral here and my hope to see the initial Borderlands and Bioshock titles ported to Linux as well (like they did for Mac.)

Quoting: flesk.......and they've been teasing LEGO games a whole lot, which is a franchise I'd buy pretty much anything from, given the chance.

I'm an avid LEGO fan (the bricks too, not just the games!), and if they released even one of them I'd buy it in a heartbeat. :D
So please Feral. LEGO FTW!!!

This post reminds me of an idea I've been mulling at.
I think so far it's quite plausible that Linux ports of games are on average not moneymakers, not directly at least. And yet it's happening, and seems to be happening faster and faster. I see two basic reasons. First is Valve, which gave a major impetus and made the whole notion seem sane and acceptable. But the reason it's kept on so far even though there's still no signs of a Steam Machine to create large scale Linux sales, the reason it seems if anything to be accelerating, is cultural.

Basically, desktop Linux here is clearly piggybacking on Everywhere Else Linux. The desktop at this point is about the only significant computing space where Linux is not prominent or even dominant. Linux rules supercomputers, dominates webservers, reigns over the cloud, takes names in embedded, enhances the enterprise, pervades hobbyist computing. So anyone involved much in programming probably is involved in Linux culture some way. It runs their clever raspberry pi device, or they cut their teeth on the LAMP stack, or whatever. Even if they're not directly involved, there's an awareness that Linux is deeply intertwined with programmer/nerd culture in a way that Mac OS is not even though it has a bigger desktop share. You can see in this post, that general enthusiasm for Linux as an idea and a hacker thing rather than as a vehicle for gaining sales. So give game developers, collectively, a respectable reason why it's not insane to port to Linux, and lots of them really want to do that. All they needed was an excuse and an atmosphere where they're not reflexively mocked for the very idea. Valve provided that, and now it's feeding on itself--every game released for Linux just reinforces that it's a normal thing to do.
How long it can last if actual market share doesn't shift (eg. Steam Machines are not released or tank on arrival) remains anybody's guess.

I agree that SteamOS is going to be the big push for Linux gaming. Right now I have a USB thumb drive with SteamOS ready to install on a second system once I get all of the new parts for my new system to complete. I am really curious if it will handle low end hardware any better than a basic install of Ubuntu itself or if it will be the same or even worse, slower. It is probably within the realm of possibility that Valve isn't really taking their time so much as they are making sure that it is stable and performs well. Of course, we know that this all depends on Valve getting the Steam Controller to work extremely fluidly with all of the games under SteamOS as well. Without that, their idea of a Steam Box isn't going to work. Its all about the ease of use for the average end user and not the hard core user. To play something like Civilization V from my couch without a keyboard is a really mind blowing thought.

Nice name-check at the end.
Liam, take your rightful place amongst Linux royalty (you have to build the crown yourself but it fits better than any hand-me-down).

Seriously, you make a good point. I have played a lot of great indie games that I wouldn't have played if I had perhaps had more choice. Now that choice is getting much greater, I need to try and remember those fantastic developers that have been with us for a long while.