Another week down, plenty of new games have released or been updated and we're about to begin another cycle. Let's have a chat.
With the recent huge Stellaris 2.7 update, we were going to be diving into a fresh multiplayer game with excitement to look at all the new visuals. Sadly though, it appears the latest update has numerous problems that caused all sorts of lag and sync issues. Thankfully, Paradox keep around older versions on Steam you can opt into with the 2.6.x series still working well. Issues aside, Stellaris is such a fantastic RTS overall to sink a great many hours into.
Into the Breach has also been sucking up more time lately, as a small and focused strategy game it's pretty close to perfection. I'm really not surprised it has reviewed so well. Subset Games also continue to tweak the Linux build to ensure it's running smoothly.
Across today though I've been quite sick, so thanks to Stadia I've been able to just sit back and relax with a flawless Assassin's Creed Odyssey experience to just zone-out with. It's nice to have another option if your net is good enough. The developer of firefighting game Embr also sent over a pre-release Stadia key to us, and it's quite amusing. Something to look forward to when it arrives in Early Access next week (no Linux desktop release for now).
I'm also highly jealous of everyone who has a VR kit now that Half-Life: Alyx is available on Linux. Hopefully it's working well, it looks pretty incredible and sounds like Valve did a really fantastic job on it. Half-Life: Alyx has now passed twenty-five thousand user reviews on Steam too!
Additionally, while I've not played it myself, it appears DOOM Eternal became the first game to get the brand new Denuvo Anti-Cheat (different to the DRM). This made it instantly unplayable on Linux under Steam Play Proton. Another thorn in our side. However, according to TechRaptor who spoke to Michail Greshishchev, Product Owner at Denuvo Anti-Cheat they said:
We've been tracking the Proton issue immediately after launch and are committed to delivering a fix soon. This isn't a request coming to us from a publisher or anything like that - we genuinely respect such an enthusiast community and regret introducing this incompatibility on day 1
So at least there's some sort of hope on the horizon about DOOM Eternal single-player working again on Linux under Proton.
Quick tip for parents: currently on Steam the LEGO NINJAGO game is 100% off making it free to keep, seems to work well in Steam Play proton. That deal will last until May 22.
Over to you in the comments: what have you been gaming on Linux lately?
NBA 2K20 on PS4, because I have the itch and my Timberwolves need another wing to pair with Okogie, Culver and Beasley. We've been losing a bunch, but now that I get more minutes, we're suddenly on a 4 game winning streak.
Star Wars: Fallen Order on PS4, it was on sale a while back, and it gives that old Jedi Academy vibe. Only on my second planet, so time will tell, but so far it's fun.
- Path of Exile via Lutris
- Dungeon Siege II - via Proton in Window Mode
Natively:
- Borderlands II & Borderlands Pre-Sequel (Currently I have a bug that prevents the games from starting)
- Northgard
- Hitman - Free Trial
- Grey Hack
and the usual suspect Minecraft
Street Fighter 5. Very nice, but i still miss the parry of street fighter 3
Train Sim World. Nice game to play while you're watching some streams or listening to some podcasts
Quoting: omicron-bPlayed through Red Faction Guerrilla (Proton) just because I liked the first game as a child, turns out the game is quite fun.It's the only Red Faction game I've played to any great extent, and I absolutely loved it. There's nothing quite as cathartic as smashing up Martian buildings with a big hammer. :)
Quoting: soulsourceI've been "playing" Elite Dangerous.Oops. I picked up a 6000t transport contract a month or two ago, playing solo. I wish I could blame alcohol, but my only excuse is that I hadn't played it in a while and I'd forgotten how much that is. It wasn't too far, fortunately, but that was the whole evening gone.
I would have to lie if I said I was completely sober when I accepted a tourist contract two weeks ago. A tourist contract to "Dancing with Giants", 33k lightyears from LHS 331, where the contract started.
Quoting: PatolaThank you. Wishlisted all your suggestions, except for Paper Cut that I couldn't find. It is not on Steam, right?
Ah damn, sorry that's a typo, my bad: Not Paper Cuts, but BUDGET Cuts! Yeah it's on Steam and it is marvellous. It's just never been cooler to sneak around.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/400940/Budget_Cuts/
There's a sequel to it too, but I've not tried it yet. Judging from the user reviews it seems to essentially be "more of the same", but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing in this case.
Last edited by Beamboom on 18 May 2020 at 12:01 pm UTC
I managed to break my rx 5700 XT!! Not Good!
Now waiting for my brand new 50th anniversary edition!
Quoting: FaalhaasTested Half-Life: Alyx native, but my NVIDIA causes more stuttering in Linux than in our beloved Windows :). So I am hoping buying an AMD will solve that my next hardware upgrade.
By the way, shouldn't Steam list Half-Life: Alyx as a Linux (Steam Play) game now?
All I can suggest for nvidia is to choose settings so that 99.9% of your frame times fall within the HMD refresh rate. Setting it to 80 Hz can help with that and is still plenty smooth. Otherwise you can reduce the rendering resolution (which defaults to 150%) or in-game settings. Second is to select legacy reprojection for the game (and all games). As far as I can tell, legacy will just skip a frame if a frame time is missed. This is not great, but massive better than whatever mess reprojection is trying to put on the display (which looks more like two frames blended together). And also why you want to frame times to be consistently good. If you can get that set up, it's perfectly fine. And it's actually not that hard on Alyx because the game is very well optimised for high fps.
They might consider the game to be in beta and let it be thoroughly tested before putting it on the store.
Quoting: YourPalMarkTaking my first steps into Deep Rock Galactic. Plays great on Linux via Proton!
It's a great game. Got a little burned out on it myself during Early Access but will probably pick it up again soon.
Quoting: VulphereStill continuing with Valkyria Chronicles (1).
Love that game although I've still not actually finished it. Started playing it using Steam through Wine years ago but it kept crashing and I eventually got fed up of losing progress. Then I picked up a second hand PS4 disk and got nearly to the end (stuck at a big fight with a page an a half to go in the 'book'), and then I got it on sale on Switch. It's a great 'comfort food' game for me.
Quoting: X6205CODE VEIN with Proton works flawlessly
Got this to play with the girlfriend and, although it does work great with Proton, the way co-op works is a little weird.
I have been playing a lot of Assassin's Creed Odyssey on Stadia, Asphalt Legends on the Switch and Tabletop Simulator, Rocket League and Dying Light on PC.
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