It was a massive year for Linux gaming, so here's a look at who won and a big congratulations to all who did!
Note: These are just the top charts, there were plenty more entries in each category.
I wasn't honestly sure who was going to win this, as there's some pretty hot competition there! Well done to 0 A.D. who do put in a lot of effort to make a professional project.
The lead Deus Ex: Mankind Divided had is quite amazing, but not surprising. It does look absolutely gorgeous and I am personally a big fan of it!
Another Feral Interactive ported title here and again not very surprising. I completed it during a livestream and the overall story was pretty amazing. Even if the end was a little on the odd side.
This one I am genuinely surprised by, as I honestly thought it would turn out completely differently. I was fully expecting one of the survival games to take the crown, but I'm pleasantly surprised by the results here. Massive competition in this category, so well done to all who made the top!
When it comes to free games and their updates, it's pretty hard to compete against something from Valve like Dota 2 which had a massive overhaul. I'm still scared to boot the game up and waste an entire day yelling at people, or being yelled at.
Some people may feel this is a little unfair, but Life is Strange episode one is a free game and it is very good, even if it is but a taster of what's to come in later episodes.
It looks like the most anticipated game will arrive soon!
I'm surprised here, since the game was released in a rather unstable state and still to this day has a number of issues. Not my personal choice for the winner, but the people have spoken!
I absolutely love the mellow tunes in Life is Strange and I've been guilty of sticking the soundtrack on myself for some background noise, really great stuff.
Ever the hot topic of discussion. Talk of Wine always heats up our comments sections when it's mentioned. You have to marvel at it though, as it's really quite amazing. It's the project that enabled me to stay on Linux as much as possible in my early days and kept me going. Now I run this website, so it's my own personal choice too.
Quite easily my most played released on Linux from last year. I have over 49 hours in Rocket League now, so I won't even try to debate this one. A fantastic game and seriously fun to play with friends and the wider community!
Okay, I won't argue against this one. I'm slowly making my way through The Following myself and I'm finding it to be truly fun. Lots of zombie smashing, an buggy that has a bunch of upgrade options and plenty of open-world to explore. Loving it myself!
Speaks for itself. I hope to see more surprises this year.
Not really surprising is it? The amount of games Feral Interactive have ported to Linux is quite amazing. They are already teasing their next release too, so 2017 is going to be fun.
Come chat in the comments about how last year went and how you think this year will go! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Note: These are just the top charts, there were plenty more entries in each category.
I wasn't honestly sure who was going to win this, as there's some pretty hot competition there! Well done to 0 A.D. who do put in a lot of effort to make a professional project.
The lead Deus Ex: Mankind Divided had is quite amazing, but not surprising. It does look absolutely gorgeous and I am personally a big fan of it!
Another Feral Interactive ported title here and again not very surprising. I completed it during a livestream and the overall story was pretty amazing. Even if the end was a little on the odd side.
This one I am genuinely surprised by, as I honestly thought it would turn out completely differently. I was fully expecting one of the survival games to take the crown, but I'm pleasantly surprised by the results here. Massive competition in this category, so well done to all who made the top!
When it comes to free games and their updates, it's pretty hard to compete against something from Valve like Dota 2 which had a massive overhaul. I'm still scared to boot the game up and waste an entire day yelling at people, or being yelled at.
Some people may feel this is a little unfair, but Life is Strange episode one is a free game and it is very good, even if it is but a taster of what's to come in later episodes.
It looks like the most anticipated game will arrive soon!
I'm surprised here, since the game was released in a rather unstable state and still to this day has a number of issues. Not my personal choice for the winner, but the people have spoken!
I absolutely love the mellow tunes in Life is Strange and I've been guilty of sticking the soundtrack on myself for some background noise, really great stuff.
Ever the hot topic of discussion. Talk of Wine always heats up our comments sections when it's mentioned. You have to marvel at it though, as it's really quite amazing. It's the project that enabled me to stay on Linux as much as possible in my early days and kept me going. Now I run this website, so it's my own personal choice too.
Quite easily my most played released on Linux from last year. I have over 49 hours in Rocket League now, so I won't even try to debate this one. A fantastic game and seriously fun to play with friends and the wider community!
Okay, I won't argue against this one. I'm slowly making my way through The Following myself and I'm finding it to be truly fun. Lots of zombie smashing, an buggy that has a bunch of upgrade options and plenty of open-world to explore. Loving it myself!
Speaks for itself. I hope to see more surprises this year.
Not really surprising is it? The amount of games Feral Interactive have ported to Linux is quite amazing. They are already teasing their next release too, so 2017 is going to be fun.
Come chat in the comments about how last year went and how you think this year will go! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
It's interesting that there are at least two games in the "most anticipated for 2017" category for which there is absolutely no indication that they will come this year (or at all).
No huge surprises in the result. Although, while I expected Feral to win the favourite porter, the margin is quite a bit bigger than I expected. I think the most important reason for them to win is not the number of releases, but their community involvement.
No huge surprises in the result. Although, while I expected Feral to win the favourite porter, the margin is quite a bit bigger than I expected. I think the most important reason for them to win is not the number of releases, but their community involvement.
2 Likes, Who?
cRaZy-bisCuiT Jan 30, 2017
Interesting to skim through the results. Still I'm not to happy with Feral Interactive. They do make perfect quality ports, there's no doubt about it. I do appreciate that as well! Still they do split the Linux and MacOS community by porting games that doesn't have a cross-platform multiplayer. It would be better not to have ported Warhammer at all, if there's no chance to get Multiplayer working. There are ~400-500 people playing the game on Windows at weekends. Most of the time there's not a single Linux game being hosted. We don't even have to talk about quickmatch ranked matches....
Last edited by cRaZy-bisCuiT on 30 January 2017 at 11:37 am UTC
Last edited by cRaZy-bisCuiT on 30 January 2017 at 11:37 am UTC
0 Likes
Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTInteresting to skim through the results. Still I'm not to happy with Feral Interactive. They do make perfect quality ports, there's no doubt about it. I do appreciate that as well! Still they do split the Linux and MacOS community by porting games that doesn't have a cross-platform multiplayer. It would be better not to have ported Warhammer at all, if there's no chance to get Multiplayer working. There are ~400-500 people playing the game on Windows at weekends. Most of the time there's not a single Linux game being hosted. We don't even have to talk about quickmatch ranked matches....
We try to bring cross-platform multiplayer to our games, but sometimes this just isn't possible due to operating system differences.
Total War: WARHAMMER isn't out for Mac yet, but when it is, Linux gamers will be able to play with those on Mac.
If you're looking for people to play with, check out the Mac & Linux multiplayer group on Steam.
22 Likes, Who?
I was surprised to see, that Star Citizen will come to Linux. I didn't knew that.
I also want to thanks to Feral Interactive for doing really awesome job. Their 1st place is well deserved.
I also want to thanks to Feral Interactive for doing really awesome job. Their 1st place is well deserved.
0 Likes
For the poll next year, I would like to be able to check all porters as favorite Linux game porters ;)
6 Likes, Who?
abelthorne Jan 30, 2017
I'm a bit surprised to see Faeria in the best free games released in 2016, as it's technically still in early access and not even officially on Linux, though it works pretty well. The game is supposed to have its official release in march (I guess it'll get a Linux/SteamOS icon then).
0 Likes
boltronics Jan 30, 2017
Feral Interactive's done well this year and I agree that much of our love for them is related to their positive interactions with the community. Having said that, I personally feel that some of their releases could use a bit more testing at times (I'm still suffering the 0byte DoW2 download bug every time I open Steam). More importantly, I'm often put off by the sheer number of titles they release that claim to only work on Nvidia, and the (usually completely pointless) warnings that have to be clicked past on many of their games when running on AMD drivers - drivers that more often than not work flawlessly. It detracts from the overall experience. Do they really have to show them every. single. time?
A stable Mesa release should appear this year with OpenGL shader caching, at which point I sincerely hope Feral switches off all such warnings and updates their game requirement pages. I'll be watching to see if this happens and factoring Feral's reaction (or lack thereof) to such releases when voting on Favourite Linux game porter of 2017.
However 2017 should be a great year. Already with Mesa 17.0.0-rc2 my Fury X is running far more stable than ever before. I anticipate Wine will have a large number of D3D11 titles running well, and AMD cards should have almost all of the features games want from free software drivers including FreeSync, Audio over HDMI/DP and a more competitive (perhaps even superior?) Vulkan implementation by way of RADV. Speaking of Vulkan, I eagerly look forward to games making use of multiple GPUs, and hope to see at least a couple of titles that make full use of available hardware. We already know Feral Interactive is set to release Vulkan ports in the near future.
Things that I don't expect will happen in 2017? Well, I'm not holding my breath on AMD living up to their promises about freeing up source code for their proprietary Vulkan implementation (not that it seems we need it at this point). We probably won't see GoG release GNU/Linux builds of their Galaxy client, which will surely eventually be cancelled and turn into vaporware when they work up the guts to make the announcement. I can't see anybody using VR on GNU/Linux with free software drivers this year, at least not as a supported experience by game developers. I doubt Telltale are going to start releasing GNU/Linux ports this year either, despite previously expressing interest.
Things I'm on the fence about? The LEDs on my Fury X GPUs still don't work since AMD replaced Catalyst (fglrx) with AMDGPU Pro. I don't understand how AMD can push people with their most expensive consumer GPUs through an "upgrade" path that drops such an obvious feature. I'd like to think AMD will sort this issue out at some point this year, but I've yet to see any indication AMD are interested in fixing it. It will certainly make me think twice about purchasing high-end cards from them in future unless the support is already 100%.
I'd love to see Bethesda, Ubisoft or EA test the waters with a GNU/Linux release or two this year. To be fair, Ubisoft already did in late 2015 with Grow Home, but then for 2016 decided not to bother porting the sequel Grow Up (yet, at least). Too bad they didn't try porting a more well known title, and too bad they released the GNU/Linux port so long after Windows, so not exactly a fair test.
Bethesda is in the best position to start adding GNU/Linux ports. Surely Bethesda took note of how much interest there was in running Doom under Wine - many months after the game was released, no less. Further, unlike EA (with Origin) and Ubisoft (with Uplay), Bethesda don't have a store client. That's one big road block they don't have to contend with. Lastly, Bethesda is the most likely of the three to release a Vulkan-only game, which presumably means less QA work for them to deal with. If they released a game with GNU/Linux support this year, I wouldn't be too surprised (but would be very happy).
Despite my general pessimism, it still looks like 2017 has quite a lot going for it.
A stable Mesa release should appear this year with OpenGL shader caching, at which point I sincerely hope Feral switches off all such warnings and updates their game requirement pages. I'll be watching to see if this happens and factoring Feral's reaction (or lack thereof) to such releases when voting on Favourite Linux game porter of 2017.
However 2017 should be a great year. Already with Mesa 17.0.0-rc2 my Fury X is running far more stable than ever before. I anticipate Wine will have a large number of D3D11 titles running well, and AMD cards should have almost all of the features games want from free software drivers including FreeSync, Audio over HDMI/DP and a more competitive (perhaps even superior?) Vulkan implementation by way of RADV. Speaking of Vulkan, I eagerly look forward to games making use of multiple GPUs, and hope to see at least a couple of titles that make full use of available hardware. We already know Feral Interactive is set to release Vulkan ports in the near future.
Things that I don't expect will happen in 2017? Well, I'm not holding my breath on AMD living up to their promises about freeing up source code for their proprietary Vulkan implementation (not that it seems we need it at this point). We probably won't see GoG release GNU/Linux builds of their Galaxy client, which will surely eventually be cancelled and turn into vaporware when they work up the guts to make the announcement. I can't see anybody using VR on GNU/Linux with free software drivers this year, at least not as a supported experience by game developers. I doubt Telltale are going to start releasing GNU/Linux ports this year either, despite previously expressing interest.
Things I'm on the fence about? The LEDs on my Fury X GPUs still don't work since AMD replaced Catalyst (fglrx) with AMDGPU Pro. I don't understand how AMD can push people with their most expensive consumer GPUs through an "upgrade" path that drops such an obvious feature. I'd like to think AMD will sort this issue out at some point this year, but I've yet to see any indication AMD are interested in fixing it. It will certainly make me think twice about purchasing high-end cards from them in future unless the support is already 100%.
I'd love to see Bethesda, Ubisoft or EA test the waters with a GNU/Linux release or two this year. To be fair, Ubisoft already did in late 2015 with Grow Home, but then for 2016 decided not to bother porting the sequel Grow Up (yet, at least). Too bad they didn't try porting a more well known title, and too bad they released the GNU/Linux port so long after Windows, so not exactly a fair test.
Bethesda is in the best position to start adding GNU/Linux ports. Surely Bethesda took note of how much interest there was in running Doom under Wine - many months after the game was released, no less. Further, unlike EA (with Origin) and Ubisoft (with Uplay), Bethesda don't have a store client. That's one big road block they don't have to contend with. Lastly, Bethesda is the most likely of the three to release a Vulkan-only game, which presumably means less QA work for them to deal with. If they released a game with GNU/Linux support this year, I wouldn't be too surprised (but would be very happy).
Despite my general pessimism, it still looks like 2017 has quite a lot going for it.
6 Likes, Who?
Equally surprised and disappointed that Valley isn't anywhere among the winners.
Probably for most people the game went well bellow the radar, although it was mentioned here few times.
Do yourself a favor and try it, is been a while since I was so surprised by a game.
Probably for most people the game went well bellow the radar, although it was mentioned here few times.
Do yourself a favor and try it, is been a while since I was so surprised by a game.
4 Likes, Who?
i still can't understand how is War Thunder best free game released in 2016? wasnt it released for linux back in 2014 even?
Also i don't get the Civ VI hype, but thats me, i never got into the Civ V.
Deus Ex indeed has really good graphics but sadly its pretty much unplayable on my setup. i cant tolerate those few places where it drops down to 25FPS.. no matter what graphics settings enabled.
Also i don't get the Civ VI hype, but thats me, i never got into the Civ V.
Deus Ex indeed has really good graphics but sadly its pretty much unplayable on my setup. i cant tolerate those few places where it drops down to 25FPS.. no matter what graphics settings enabled.
0 Likes
Mountain Man Jan 30, 2017
Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiTIt would be better not to have ported Warhammer at all, if there's no chance to get Multiplayer working.Whaaaaaa?
3 Likes, Who?
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