Sunday Linux Gaming Wrap-up

It's Sunday, I have my coffee ready next to me in my favourite mug and it's time to take a look at things we've missed for Linux and Linux gaming around the web.

Obviously there's a lot for us still to cover, with plenty in my email inbox waiting to be covered over the next few weeks. Apologies if you emailed in and haven't heard back, but rest assured everything eventually gets seen to!

In early October, Boiling Steam took a good look at Wonderboy III:

Wonderboy 3 is, all in all, very nice and a good example of how 2D-style games can still deliver even in 2017. They aren’t obsolete at all.

Well worth a proper read, if you're interested to know how it runs on Linux.

Ubuntu 17.10 released! Say goodbye to the Unity desktop environment, as it has officially been thrown to the wolves. GNOME Shell with a customized layout is now Ubuntu's official desktop environment. I've been on it since release and it's very stable, but I did install the normal GNOME Shell session to customize it as I like. Take a look at the OMGUBUNTU release post if you're after much more info on what's new.

We still have two Linux port teasers from Feral Interactive which still haven't been revealed. The most recent one being "O VAIN ILLUSION OF GLORY AND GRANDEUR" and the other, which seems to be coming soon according to their radar is "ONE RETURN TO WEST NORWOOD, PLEASE".

Mesa 17.2.3 released, as the latest update to the major release of the open source graphics drivers. The ANV and RADV Vulkan drivers gained multiple smaller fixes. EGL improvements and updates to freedreno, nouveau and radeonsi are included too. Interesting to note, is that a developer from Feral Interactive had a patch land for that release too. Feral developers have done multiple patches to Mesa recently, all focused on the RADV Vulkan driver.

Phoronix has noted, that the OpenGL/GLSL shader cache for the Intel Mesa driver is being worked on again, with a bunch of patches being submitted. Phoronix also took a good look at Radeon graphics performance with Ubuntu 17.04 vs. Ubuntu 17.10, although their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive benchmark for xorg is a little broken it seems.

Crazy Justice, the cel-shaded Unreal Engine third-person shooter that will have full Linux support hit 170% of their goal on Fig with the crowdfunding campaign now over. Thanks to that, they've managed to blast through a few of their stretch-goals, with these extra goals achieved it will get more characters, more game modes, improved facial animations, characters will be able to climb on obstacles and walls and more. Sounds like it's going to be fun! Going by what the developer said to me, they are regularly testing Linux builds too.