When it comes to FPS games based on realism, Linux is in shortly supply. Day of Infamy [Steam] is another game that, for me, has closed a gap I needed.
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Note: My copy was personally purchased. Other copies for our streamers were provided by Evolve PR.
I was caught off-guard by just how fun I found Day of Infamy, for a more realistic and harsh experience it sells the brutalities of war damn well. From the chatter between the troops, to seeing your comrades burnt to a crisp by a flamethrower, it has a lot of variety to it.
One of the problems with FPS games from smaller developers is that they end up focusing too much on online PVP gameplay, but New World Interactive have gone a similar way to Insurgency here with the addition of co-op modes against AI enemies. This has really helped me to enjoy the game, to be part of a team all working together against the same enemy.
The game has a pretty high skill ceiling, since reaction times and accuracy play such a massive role in the game. While it has a class system and a levelling system, you don’t gain any gameplay advantages by levelling up, so it keeps it balanced by relying on your real skill with a mouse.
The class system is fantastic though, with each having a real role to play in the battles. The Officer for example is able to call in support, but they need a Radioman to do so. Certain objectives may require TNT to be destroyed, so you need a player carrying explosives and so on. It makes the team-play that much more exciting to work together.
I think what surprised me the most, was the support you can call in. Hearing an air raid siren go off to seeing the actual bombers doing a run on the battlefield and having a mad panic to find cover, it’s incredibly intense. It has a lot of surprises like that, which is why I am surprised it’s not more popular.
Trying to capture a screenshot of one of the smaller planes doing a run was tricky due to how fast they are, but look at that glorious shot of it behind a tree.
It’s one of the few games that gets my heart going so much I end up losing focus, panicking as if it’s a real war going on. From being pinned down by a machine gun, to an enemy rocket heading towards my face, the game certainly is entertaining. I mentioned before about how it sells the brutalities of war and it sure does, especially considering troops can end up being dismembered by the various weapons in the game. Seeing corpses with limbs torn off is pretty normal in this game, even if it’s a little grim it’s certainly on the realistic side of warfare. At one point I was blown up by enemy bombers the death screen showed my lower leg in front of me — gross.
Graphically, the game isn’t amazing. It’s acceptable, but it does have a slightly dated look to it. Thankfully, the excellent gameplay truly makes up for the less than stellar visuals here. Graphics don’t make a game and in this case it’s not a big issue. Some of the effects are fantastic though, like the flamethrower which looks as dangerous as it is in the game. The good thing about it not having incredibly detailed graphics, is that it runs well on lower-end machines and on my machine it's incredibly smooth thanks to this which really helps me enjoy it.
The Linux version does currently have some issues though. One of them is slightly amusing: The soldiers on the loadout screen all have solid white dead-eyes, making them look like Zombies. It’s a very minor issue, so it’s not really worth being too bothered about.
The other issues are slightly more concerning, which is that the group system doesn’t seem to work at all on Linux. Also, Steam doesn’t even show you as being in a game when you play Day of Infamy. It initially shows you as in-game on your own Steam list then when it’s loaded it shows you as not in a game as well which is likely related.
The more time I put into Day of Infamy, the more I love it. So far every interaction I’ve had with the community has been great too, everyone seems so helpful in giving tips on how to do better.
If you’re looking for an FPS on Linux be sure to put Day of Infamy to the top of your list and you won’t be disappointed.
hardpenguin Mar 28, 2017
Either it's difficult, realistic, or a great combo of both. I'm horrible even in the training and will probably be camping out there for a while... too scared to face the public server masses on this one! Must conquer the bots first.
Maybe there is enough interest to form a GOL squad? Although, with the last statement I've probably just made my odds of invite 1:$(alot) :D
My guess would be a faulty startup script. I suppose that if it spawns another process and then immediately exits the script, that is could look to steam as an exit from the game. Should be an easy fix if that is the case.
hardpenguin Mar 28, 2017
Quoting: GuppyHow does it play compared to day of defeat?More realistic and a bit slower. Also, I would say the maps are bigger. Other than that, pretty similar. Some maps are even directly influenced by Day of Defeat maps.
Gutterdrums Mar 29, 2017
Quoting: EhvisCould be that the group stuff and the game not staying as "playing" are related.
My guess would be a faulty startup script. I suppose that if it spawns another process and then immediately exits the script, that is could look to steam as an exit from the game. Should be an easy fix if that is the case.
Definitely. I always have /tmp/dumps/*.txt files, usually "std out" where it redirects to, and sometimes game specific ones.
After a couple years on Steam now, I've realized that the problem with ~90% of all launch errors are directly related to the Steam run time.
Recently, I've started just (1) starting Steam in native mode (or the LSI installed from the AUR - the Solus helper app) and (2) dropping down one "desktop layer" or whatever people call it, lol, and start the game from a terminal.
I also have found many issues with the overlay and typically run without it. Even when using my Steam controller, the GTK app "SC" works great.. just need to export a config file from the library to local so that SC can pick it up.
Leave a reply/message if anyone wants to play co-op on Day of Infamy.. (or if you're on Rising World.. another one that's worth 10X the $11? or so)
This left me with a pretty bad image of NWI. Not sure if they have still even fixed the issue.
Quoting: AtexAlso adding to the not being able to see that you are in game issue is that the bug most likely causes faulty hour tracking. I bought the game some time ago and was annoyed by some of the bugs it had in common with insurgency which weren't fixed for ages and I asked for a refund but I couldn't get it because steam support said my playtime was 10+ hours while my profile was saying 2 minutes and my actual playtime was around 90 minutes (probably had added playtime on their side until I shut down my computer/steam).
This left me with a pretty bad image of NWI. Not sure if they have still even fixed the issue.
Steam seems to round using a different numeric system for a lot of things...
I was curious today about why the store would say that a game was overwhelmingly positive while https://steamdb.info would show something like 60%, which I would call "mixed" on their scale. Especially if the ratings are all 5's and 1's.. kinda the definition of "mixed". I love the area of recommendation engines, work with them a lot in my job, and spent way too much time in grad school studying the various theories and formulations on the subject.
However, I don't think that Valve is dumb re: marking or sales, which would mean it's not by accident. I would bet that in 100 lines of Python or less you could outperform their current model. (Negative, mixed, positive, etc.)
So I tested my theory that they are inflating the overall summary by scoring a few with IBM's Watson public API specifically looking at the review sentiment correlation to Steam's rating for five different reviews for one game. Sorry for anyone who cries foul stats.. this was a lunch break exercise :)
I am now more certain than not that they are doing something along the lines of ignoring/throwing out negative phrases/chunks in a review and just scoring the strength of any positive tokens they can find. Sound biased? Um.. yeah. I agree.
Also, I want to note that the community site noted above was 5/5 in my testing (relative strength.. e.g. were they close enough for the summary to make sense). For example, one I tested showed an overarching theme of fear and anger, (e.g. not "positive") but was a "positive review". Just in case -- I have absolutely zero affiliation with the site --
TLDR: take the Steam ratings with a grain of BS. The steamdb.info rating seems to be a much more accurate model, given the small sample tested and my observations quite a while.. and obviously a good mix of trusted community curated reviews is the golden standard.
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