What's that? It's the weekend? It can't be already can it? Yes. It's time for the weekend chat about what we've been playing and what you've been playing.
There's been so many good Linux supported releases lately I've been a bit spoilt for choice including these just in the last week: DemonCrawl, UnderMine, The Battle of Polytopia, Littlewood, Monster Crown, Core Defense and Hellpoint (plus plenty more I've missed).
Recently though, I've been having masses of fun in Orcs Must Die! 3 on Stadia with a co-op partner. Getting to test out all the different trap combinations, it's genuinely good fun. It was fun enough by myself but now with a partner, it's far more amusing especially trying the later difficulties. Good manic entertainment.
As for actual Linux-desktop games, Jupiter Hell sucked me right in once more. Jupiter Hell is the spritual successor to DRL (D**m, the Roguelike) and it's one of the most furious roguelikes I've ever played. While turn-based, it's so streamlined and fluid it feels almost realtime. It's also quite gorgeous in places. Jupiter Hell has evolved quite nicely during Early Access and it's easily worth a look.
I also spoke to the developer of Haque, a rather fantastic glitch fantasy roguelike from 2017. As great as it is, the Steam build had a bug where a file was named "Haque_Text.zip" but the game was looking for "haque_text.zip". Linux case-sensitivity strikes again. They mentioned they will fix it as soon as possible.
Additionally: it appears that there's another big CPU security issue, this time not just affecting Intel. According to the paper it should affect Intel, ARM, IBM, and AMD CPUs.
Lastly, NVIDIA put up a new Vulkan Beta Driver 450.56.06 with the sole change listed as new support for the VK_EXT_4444_formats extension that landed with Vulkan API spec 1.2.149 that we reported on here.
Deals Reminder:
- F1 2018 is free on Humble Store
- Humble Choice giving away all 12 games this month for the Premium/Classic subs
- Valve's QuakeCon Sale has plenty of games that work with Proton - GOG also has a QuakeCon Sale
- Humble Raw Fury 2020 Bundle - 3 days left
-
Humble Double Fine 20th Anniversary Bundle - 5 days left
-
Humble also has a Game Design & Animation book bundle for anyone interested in that side of things
Unless something big / important comes up, we shall see you Monday for another week of Linux news.
Over to you in the comments: what have you been gaming on Linux lately and what are you looking forward to the most across this year?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
TobyGornow Aug 8, 2020
Finally, I'm trying to finish the games that I've started :
Tried Doom Eternal again, I do not like it and uninstalled it.
I've watched the ending of Batman : The enemy within, and it's a pretty darn good tv Show / Game if you like Batman with really easy QTE you can't miss (What's the point ?), a classic Telltale.
I've finished Hitman, great game, I love it, great port with good performances. The second installment is in my playlist.
I've played Beneath a steel sky & Beyond a steel sky, and it's still a blast, the sequel is really faithful with great writing and a nice 3d art. Happy to meet Foster again, I hope next time won't be in 26 years.
I've tried Beautiful Desolation and it suffer from graphical corruption, there's a workaround and will try again later.
Some quick play of Kingdom.
I've started a new playthrough of Borderlands 2 and this time I will see the end.
Last edited by TobyGornow on 8 August 2020 at 6:55 pm UTC
Tried Doom Eternal again, I do not like it and uninstalled it.
I've watched the ending of Batman : The enemy within, and it's a pretty darn good tv Show / Game if you like Batman with really easy QTE you can't miss (What's the point ?), a classic Telltale.
I've finished Hitman, great game, I love it, great port with good performances. The second installment is in my playlist.
I've played Beneath a steel sky & Beyond a steel sky, and it's still a blast, the sequel is really faithful with great writing and a nice 3d art. Happy to meet Foster again, I hope next time won't be in 26 years.
I've tried Beautiful Desolation and it suffer from graphical corruption, there's a workaround and will try again later.
Some quick play of Kingdom.
I've started a new playthrough of Borderlands 2 and this time I will see the end.
Last edited by TobyGornow on 8 August 2020 at 6:55 pm UTC
0 Likes
pskosinski Aug 8, 2020
The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Season Two, The Walking Dead: Michonne. I have those games from a Humble Bundle and now I feel bad that I payed for them so little because they are awesome. I used to hate "story-telling" games and I love The Walking Dead series by Telltale Games. I finished two first and I'm in the middle of the third now. I think it says a lot when someone hating a genre loves a game of that genre.
Tesla Force. The continuation of Tesla vs Lovecraft. It's in Early Access on Steam since August, 5th and it's awesome. Many things are not finished but I had a lot of fun playing it. Although, it seems a bit easy, but maybe only because I was playing previous version a lot. In theory, it's available only for Windows, but even that I'm using Linux (Manjaro) I could simply click "Install" button in my Steam library and it installed through Proton. It works perfectly out of the box, no tweaks needed.
Tesla Force. The continuation of Tesla vs Lovecraft. It's in Early Access on Steam since August, 5th and it's awesome. Many things are not finished but I had a lot of fun playing it. Although, it seems a bit easy, but maybe only because I was playing previous version a lot. In theory, it's available only for Windows, but even that I'm using Linux (Manjaro) I could simply click "Install" button in my Steam library and it installed through Proton. It works perfectly out of the box, no tweaks needed.
2 Likes, Who?
7 Days to Die :
I've been playing this game for years now. It has had big changes with each major release, and the new content has helped to keep the game fresh and interesting for veterans like me. Recently, the new Alpha 19 Experimental was made available in the Beta tree (and Alpha 18 is the stable version). There were lots of content changes with Alpha 19: The regular map has new buildings and new graphics improvements make the world quite different (so it is fresh to play again). I was really pleased that the other 3 regular maps (PREGEN 01, 02, 03) are all brand new layouts. Assuming you have played all those maps (or just want to create a random one) then that also keeps the game alive for repeated play-throughs.
With Alpha 19, there have been numerous balance changes and skill progression (perk trees) is different too. The food and water depletion is much harsher on A19 than A18. Some of the skills that you could manage without on A18 are worth having on A19 (e.g. I find I need to spec. into Stamina Regen else I am constantly out of energy when using tools.) On A19, the rate of progression has been slowed down, by restricting the level of the loot you find until your character is more experienced. Although this idea does work for making the game more of a survival struggle, because you are no longer able to find high level gear which would make your life easier, I find it is a little unrealistic to make loot level suddenly jump once an arbitrary game-stage is reached.
As I'm a veteran player, over the last year or so, when I've been playing, I have been pushing up the various difficulty settings in the game options. This helps to keep the game challenging and you can tune the game to your liking. I have played in many different ways, and here are a few examples:
- Zombie difficulty is set by Difficulty Level (1 Scavenger, 2 Adventurer (default), 3 Nomad, 4 Warrior, 5 Survivalist, 6 Insane) and I find the default is too low, and normally choose Warrior (but there are still higher levels beyond that if I wanted).
- Blood Moon Horde Night Frequency - This is when a massive horde of zombies appears at night and seeks out the player. The default is once every 7 days. I have played with the frequency set to 1 Day, i.e. Horde Every Night (on Nomad and Warrior difficulties). (It can be set to once every 3 days, once every random days, etc).
- Loot Abundance - This is a setting I've never touched before, normally it is at 100%. In my latest playthrough I set it to 50% and it makes the regular game much harsher, particularly the first few days. You really need to know what you are doing to play in the mode, else starvation or being killed by zombies (because you have inferior equipment so it is harder to fight) is inevitable.
- Numerous other settings can be tweaked beyond the most impactful ones I've mentioned above.
In my latest game, I have been playing with these changed settings - Difficulty: Warrior, Loot Abundance: 50%, Air drop map position: Off, Horde Max Size: 32, Zombie Day Speed: Jogging, Map: PREGEN01 - and the rest of the settings on defaults. Having Warrior and 50% Loot settings makes the game really difficult. You find hardly any loot, the zombies are tough to fight - It severely impairs your progress - It modifies the default game into more of a survival challenge. I found that I have been needing to focus on crafting equipment (e.g. tools) because finding a decent item is so rare. Playing in this mode, makes the game more like a traditional rogue-like, where you are at the mercy of RNG and you need to adjust your play depending on what you find.
RUST :
Nearly a year ago, FacePunch announced that they were stopping development of the Linux client. Up to that point, RUST had been one of my favourite Linux native titles. I have played 1000s of hours of RUST (on Linux). Following that announcement, I didn't give up hope because of Proton, and I continued playing the Windows client on Linux with Proton for a few more months. However, FacePunch ruined Linux play with Proton (on Custom Servers) by making Easy-Anti-Cheat necessary for your server to be included on the Game Server List. Their reasoning was - If a gamer joins "your" custom server they should know that EAC is enabled, and so the joining player is confident that they are safe from game cheaters (using hacks).
It was still possible to run a Custom Server with EAC turned off, but with the server not being in the Game Server List, no regular players would find the Server and play on it. So you'd end up with an empty "dead" server. After playing on dead servers for a couple of months, I finally decided enough was enough, and gave up on the game.
This wasn't entirely bad for me, because RUST as a game is a massive time-sink, it just doesn't play in a way that sensible people can progress. In the game, you get ahead by staying on the server accumulating resources and beefing up your base(s). The more time you stay online, i.e. Going and playing every day, the more you grow your little empire and the harder for someone else to beat you. As such if you are a casual player (e.g. I want to play for a couple of hours a week) then you'll get nowhere and your base will be destroyed.
Despite my comments above, and having not touched the game in 10 months, recently I've booted up to my Windows partition and played a little RUST on Windows. I absolutely won't go back to playing it avidly, like I used to when it was available on Linux. Still it is nice to have the option to jump to Windows in cases where I just can't use software on Linux. Literally a case like this is the only use for Windows that I have - To fire up a single piece of software, use it for a while, and then reboot.
Last edited by g000h on 8 August 2020 at 8:55 pm UTC
I've been playing this game for years now. It has had big changes with each major release, and the new content has helped to keep the game fresh and interesting for veterans like me. Recently, the new Alpha 19 Experimental was made available in the Beta tree (and Alpha 18 is the stable version). There were lots of content changes with Alpha 19: The regular map has new buildings and new graphics improvements make the world quite different (so it is fresh to play again). I was really pleased that the other 3 regular maps (PREGEN 01, 02, 03) are all brand new layouts. Assuming you have played all those maps (or just want to create a random one) then that also keeps the game alive for repeated play-throughs.
With Alpha 19, there have been numerous balance changes and skill progression (perk trees) is different too. The food and water depletion is much harsher on A19 than A18. Some of the skills that you could manage without on A18 are worth having on A19 (e.g. I find I need to spec. into Stamina Regen else I am constantly out of energy when using tools.) On A19, the rate of progression has been slowed down, by restricting the level of the loot you find until your character is more experienced. Although this idea does work for making the game more of a survival struggle, because you are no longer able to find high level gear which would make your life easier, I find it is a little unrealistic to make loot level suddenly jump once an arbitrary game-stage is reached.
As I'm a veteran player, over the last year or so, when I've been playing, I have been pushing up the various difficulty settings in the game options. This helps to keep the game challenging and you can tune the game to your liking. I have played in many different ways, and here are a few examples:
- Zombie difficulty is set by Difficulty Level (1 Scavenger, 2 Adventurer (default), 3 Nomad, 4 Warrior, 5 Survivalist, 6 Insane) and I find the default is too low, and normally choose Warrior (but there are still higher levels beyond that if I wanted).
- Blood Moon Horde Night Frequency - This is when a massive horde of zombies appears at night and seeks out the player. The default is once every 7 days. I have played with the frequency set to 1 Day, i.e. Horde Every Night (on Nomad and Warrior difficulties). (It can be set to once every 3 days, once every random days, etc).
- Loot Abundance - This is a setting I've never touched before, normally it is at 100%. In my latest playthrough I set it to 50% and it makes the regular game much harsher, particularly the first few days. You really need to know what you are doing to play in the mode, else starvation or being killed by zombies (because you have inferior equipment so it is harder to fight) is inevitable.
- Numerous other settings can be tweaked beyond the most impactful ones I've mentioned above.
In my latest game, I have been playing with these changed settings - Difficulty: Warrior, Loot Abundance: 50%, Air drop map position: Off, Horde Max Size: 32, Zombie Day Speed: Jogging, Map: PREGEN01 - and the rest of the settings on defaults. Having Warrior and 50% Loot settings makes the game really difficult. You find hardly any loot, the zombies are tough to fight - It severely impairs your progress - It modifies the default game into more of a survival challenge. I found that I have been needing to focus on crafting equipment (e.g. tools) because finding a decent item is so rare. Playing in this mode, makes the game more like a traditional rogue-like, where you are at the mercy of RNG and you need to adjust your play depending on what you find.
RUST :
Nearly a year ago, FacePunch announced that they were stopping development of the Linux client. Up to that point, RUST had been one of my favourite Linux native titles. I have played 1000s of hours of RUST (on Linux). Following that announcement, I didn't give up hope because of Proton, and I continued playing the Windows client on Linux with Proton for a few more months. However, FacePunch ruined Linux play with Proton (on Custom Servers) by making Easy-Anti-Cheat necessary for your server to be included on the Game Server List. Their reasoning was - If a gamer joins "your" custom server they should know that EAC is enabled, and so the joining player is confident that they are safe from game cheaters (using hacks).
It was still possible to run a Custom Server with EAC turned off, but with the server not being in the Game Server List, no regular players would find the Server and play on it. So you'd end up with an empty "dead" server. After playing on dead servers for a couple of months, I finally decided enough was enough, and gave up on the game.
This wasn't entirely bad for me, because RUST as a game is a massive time-sink, it just doesn't play in a way that sensible people can progress. In the game, you get ahead by staying on the server accumulating resources and beefing up your base(s). The more time you stay online, i.e. Going and playing every day, the more you grow your little empire and the harder for someone else to beat you. As such if you are a casual player (e.g. I want to play for a couple of hours a week) then you'll get nowhere and your base will be destroyed.
Despite my comments above, and having not touched the game in 10 months, recently I've booted up to my Windows partition and played a little RUST on Windows. I absolutely won't go back to playing it avidly, like I used to when it was available on Linux. Still it is nice to have the option to jump to Windows in cases where I just can't use software on Linux. Literally a case like this is the only use for Windows that I have - To fire up a single piece of software, use it for a while, and then reboot.
Last edited by g000h on 8 August 2020 at 8:55 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: CatKillerI've been playing Dishonored. I got most of the way through it on the PS3 back in the day but got distracted by something else and never went back to it.
That one and the sequel had good reports on protondb so I picked up both of them on Steam, although I've only tried the first one so far. It works perfectly in Proton, although the Xbox button prompts when I'm using a PS3 controller are quite irritating.
Still my number #1 game of all time. Although I played mouse/keyboard, so I didn't have the controller issue you're seeing. Also, if you like the campaign, I HIGHLY (HUGELY, DEFINITELY) recommend the Witches DLC. The play mechanic is even better in the DLC (time freezes when you blink). It's amazingly good fun, and it's a long campaign. Highly recommended.
3 Likes, Who?
Nevertheless Aug 8, 2020
For me it's Humankind Opendev (closed pre alpha, but they're still taking applications).
Civ VI is getting serious competition if you ask me!
Opendev is Windows only, but the scenarios work perfectly with Proton.
Civ VI is getting serious competition if you ask me!
Opendev is Windows only, but the scenarios work perfectly with Proton.
0 Likes
Quoting: scaineStill my number #1 game of all time. Although I played mouse/keyboard, so I didn't have the controller issue you're seeing.
It's not an issue issue, it's just that devs are lazy. As I understand it, Windows support for the PS3 controller was really inadequate compared to the Linux support for it, and Microsoft were pushing the Xbox controller as the One True "Standard" for controllers on Windows, so it makes sense that that's what they were lazy about. It's just irritating that they were lazy, and a bit of a pain that the game says that I should press X when it actually wants me to press square.
QuoteAlso, if you like the campaign, I HIGHLY (HUGELY, DEFINITELY) recommend the Witches DLC. The play mechanic is even better in the DLC (time freezes when you blink). It's amazingly good fun, and it's a long campaign. Highly recommended.
The bundle that I got has the DLC as well as the games, so I'll look forward to it.
1 Likes, Who?
Well, I finally finished Bioshock Infinite over a week ago now (though I have some DLC for this, but I'm not starting that yet; I will come back to it later). Oddly, since then, I played quite a bit of Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis on a Sega Genesis / Mega Drive emulator both on my computer and on the Raspberry Pi 3 hooked up to my TV (right now, I've got Kodi, RetroPie, and the Steam Link application on that, so it's a pretty handy entertainment device). I'm probably about done with that again for now, though I started a new game of Super Metroid on the SNES emulator on the Pi as well, and I might be tempted to go back to it. Yes, sometimes I waste time on the time sinks of my younger days even with new games piling up in my Steam library. 
I also fooled around with Eye of the Beholder from the GOG sale recently (along with some other ancient RPGs), which I never played before, but which, as expected, is reminiscent of Dungeon Master: Theron's Quest which I did play through on the TurboGrafx / PC Engine Super CD back in the day, and to a lesser degree Shining in the Darkness on the Genesis / Mega Drive (I had a lot of fun back then playing and mapping out the dungeons in that game).
The Braid announcement has got me considering playing through the original game (which I've never played, though I got it in a Humble Bundle long ago), and I have Salt and Sanctuary that I looked at a little, but didn't get really going on yet. And of course there is always that towering burden of the rest of my back catalogue of games.
That's always a little scary. More often than not, you replace the PSU and you're back up and running. However, sometimes you discover that the PSU took your motherboard and your CPU with it when it went. That's why I try never to skimp on my power supplies. I hope it works out well for you.
Yes, I found that fascinating when I discovered it (that PS3 controllers didn't work right in Windows by default). It used to be that I would tend to pick up PS3 controllers for my computer because they just worked (since I was using Linux), and I still like to use PS3 wireless controllers on Raspberry Pi boards for the same reason. It used to be somewhat of a hassle to get Xbox controllers working right on Linux (though you could do it). Now Xbox controllers mostly just work (especially in Steam), so I get them for my computers sometimes. I only realized later that PS3 controllers didn't just work in Windows, and I was shocked and confused for a moment until I thought about the Windows/Xbox connection and Microsoft's ulterior motives for everything.
I also fooled around with Eye of the Beholder from the GOG sale recently (along with some other ancient RPGs), which I never played before, but which, as expected, is reminiscent of Dungeon Master: Theron's Quest which I did play through on the TurboGrafx / PC Engine Super CD back in the day, and to a lesser degree Shining in the Darkness on the Genesis / Mega Drive (I had a lot of fun back then playing and mapping out the dungeons in that game).
The Braid announcement has got me considering playing through the original game (which I've never played, though I got it in a Humble Bundle long ago), and I have Salt and Sanctuary that I looked at a little, but didn't get really going on yet. And of course there is always that towering burden of the rest of my back catalogue of games.
Quoting: appetrosyanSadly, I’m trying to get my COMPUTER to resurrect. Dead PSU.
That's always a little scary. More often than not, you replace the PSU and you're back up and running. However, sometimes you discover that the PSU took your motherboard and your CPU with it when it went. That's why I try never to skimp on my power supplies. I hope it works out well for you.
Quoting: CatKillerAs I understand it, Windows support for the PS3 controller was really inadequate compared to the Linux support for it, and Microsoft were pushing the Xbox controller as the One True "Standard" for controllers on Windows, so it makes sense that that's what they were lazy about.
Yes, I found that fascinating when I discovered it (that PS3 controllers didn't work right in Windows by default). It used to be that I would tend to pick up PS3 controllers for my computer because they just worked (since I was using Linux), and I still like to use PS3 wireless controllers on Raspberry Pi boards for the same reason. It used to be somewhat of a hassle to get Xbox controllers working right on Linux (though you could do it). Now Xbox controllers mostly just work (especially in Steam), so I get them for my computers sometimes. I only realized later that PS3 controllers didn't just work in Windows, and I was shocked and confused for a moment until I thought about the Windows/Xbox connection and Microsoft's ulterior motives for everything.
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoBorderlands 3 FREE WEEKEND..... On my Windows 10 machine, because via PROTON doesn't work properly yet.I haven't played BL3 since April, but I have about 57 hours into it, all played using Proton. I wonder if there was a code regression.
1 Likes, Who?
I do not click any play buttons. I start my games from the terminal.
This weekend, as every weekend since 2 years or so, it's Overload. Multiplayer action via olmod, a few league games, but mostly just for fun.
This weekend, as every weekend since 2 years or so, it's Overload. Multiplayer action via olmod, a few league games, but mostly just for fun.
0 Likes
Hellpoint - GOG
I played and enjoyed the DEMO so much on Steam that I picked it up from GOG because it was on sale. The game has so many issues with input lag that I had to put in for a refund. So did my brother who also picked it up and experience the same issues but on a different distro.
Torchlight II - Steam
Picked it up with some friends for the online play via of the Fantaical bundle sale...Another game going into the refund pile as the online could not work well for all of us - Our Windows friends had firewall errors. This was an all or nothing buy for us and if we all can not play it's a no go.
Tekken 7 - Steam
Been using my main, GIGAS, online in ranked and have a great time. I think with news of the Season 4 more and more players and getting in and practicing. So far with 4 days of ranked play I've not had any lag or other issues (toxis ki chargers or what not). My Gigas is now Genbu which I am very happy about. I start re-learning Marduk.
Street Fighter V - Steam
Free weekend - Works great - Like the story line stuff in arcade. The online is terribad :( Uninstalled.
My experimental days are coming to end with all the bad game experience I'm having and I'm about to cut my game spending budget down to zero for the few years while I enjoy all of the stuff I already have.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - GOG
This one was a great hit. Been my personal favorite for a while but my friends jumped on and picked up a copy and we ran a few match Friday and Saturday night. Excellent times.
I played and enjoyed the DEMO so much on Steam that I picked it up from GOG because it was on sale. The game has so many issues with input lag that I had to put in for a refund. So did my brother who also picked it up and experience the same issues but on a different distro.
Torchlight II - Steam
Picked it up with some friends for the online play via of the Fantaical bundle sale...Another game going into the refund pile as the online could not work well for all of us - Our Windows friends had firewall errors. This was an all or nothing buy for us and if we all can not play it's a no go.
Tekken 7 - Steam
Been using my main, GIGAS, online in ranked and have a great time. I think with news of the Season 4 more and more players and getting in and practicing. So far with 4 days of ranked play I've not had any lag or other issues (toxis ki chargers or what not). My Gigas is now Genbu which I am very happy about. I start re-learning Marduk.
Street Fighter V - Steam
Free weekend - Works great - Like the story line stuff in arcade. The online is terribad :( Uninstalled.
My experimental days are coming to end with all the bad game experience I'm having and I'm about to cut my game spending budget down to zero for the few years while I enjoy all of the stuff I already have.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - GOG
This one was a great hit. Been my personal favorite for a while but my friends jumped on and picked up a copy and we ran a few match Friday and Saturday night. Excellent times.
0 Likes
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