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Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun has released on Steam and it works out of the box on Steam Deck and desktop Linux thanks to Proton 8. With thanks to Focus Entertainment for sending a pre-release key.

To get two notes out of the way first: the videos are currently broken, with it giving a Proton test screen. This is usually solved when Valve can recode them into a different format, which they give out with the shader cache. Another issue is that on Steam Deck, external controllers didn't work right at all. On desktop Linux controllers worked without a problem.

It’s a blend of Warhammer themed visuals with the retro feel of 90's shooters, what everyone calls boomer shooters. It’s a homage to the classics much like DUSK, Ion Fury, Prodeus, ULTRAKILL and the list goes on and on. We’ve certainly not been short on retro shooters these past few years. Here's my video thoughts:

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Stuff like this continues to show that you developers don't need to constantly chase realism, there’s plenty of room for games like this to be a whole lot of fun, which it is. I’ve been playing it on Medium and I’m surprised by how good the combat felt here, I might have to play again bumping the difficulty up and that’s saying a lot, I don’t often replay games on a higher difficulty because I’ve just enjoyed it that much and feel like I want it to hurt me plenty.

The video features the gameplay on Steam Deck but on desktop Linux the performance was great as well. It also sees the momentary shader stutter, which will no doubt get smoother later on when Valve has a cache ready. On all max settings at 2560x1400 with my NVIDIA 2080 Ti and AMD Ryzen 5800x it's been looking great!

Pictured - Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun on Fedora KDE 38.

Overall, if the video issue doesn't bother you and the external controllers aren't a problem for you on Steam Deck (if you don't dock it), then it's an easy recommendation. 

You can buy it on Humble Store and Steam.

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Nod May 25, 2023
They really missed the boat with the soundtrack, obviously they should have used Realm of Chaos by Bolt Thrower ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlTMjXMK3dc&t=1351s&ab_channel=CKRock
Jarmer May 25, 2023
Quoting: MaathShould I not be offended by the term "boomer shooter?" "Boomer" has become a derogatory term since the "OK Boomer" meme to signify older people whose opinions, knowledge, and experience we no longer care to hear. I assume it is being used at least partly in that way here, since the games in question hearken back to the mid-90s, which would have been Gen-X era (maybe millennials, though I suspect they were mostly too young). Likely most baby boomers don't even play video games.

Or maybe I'm over thinking it and it just rhymes better than Gen-Xer FPSer.

The phrase never made sense to me whatsoever. Boomers were already 50 years old in the mid 90s so yeah, almost none of them would have played doom / quake. My father is a boomer and he's 80 years old now! Wouldn't even know what the words Doom / Quake / FPS / etc mean.

My guess is that "boomer shooter" just sounds good rolling off the tongue and is way easier to write / read than "Genx Shooter" so it stuck.
Purple Library Guy May 25, 2023
Quoting: Jarmer
Quoting: MaathShould I not be offended by the term "boomer shooter?" "Boomer" has become a derogatory term since the "OK Boomer" meme to signify older people whose opinions, knowledge, and experience we no longer care to hear. I assume it is being used at least partly in that way here, since the games in question hearken back to the mid-90s, which would have been Gen-X era (maybe millennials, though I suspect they were mostly too young). Likely most baby boomers don't even play video games.

Or maybe I'm over thinking it and it just rhymes better than Gen-Xer FPSer.

The phrase never made sense to me whatsoever. Boomers were already 50 years old in the mid 90s so yeah, almost none of them would have played doom / quake. My father is a boomer and he's 80 years old now! Wouldn't even know what the words Doom / Quake / FPS / etc mean.

My guess is that "boomer shooter" just sounds good rolling off the tongue and is way easier to write / read than "Genx Shooter" so it stuck.
Yes, well, speaking as early GenX myself, when it comes to anything like that you have to remember: We don't exist. Just like for quite a while everyone was still "Millennials" even if they weren't; the people who came after Millennials just got rolled into them as far as all the pundits were concerned.
F.Ultra May 26, 2023
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Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: MaathShould I not be offended by the term "boomer shooter?" "Boomer" has become a derogatory term since the "OK Boomer" meme to signify older people whose opinions, knowledge, and experience we no longer care to hear. I assume it is being used at least partly in that way here, since the games in question hearken back to the mid-90s, which would have been Gen-X era (maybe millennials, though I suspect they were mostly too young). Likely most baby boomers don't even play video games.

Or maybe I'm over thinking it and it just rhymes better than Gen-Xer FPSer.
That and you get the added bonus connotation of "things go boom".

Not to mention that the term is completely wrong as well. Every one who was around at the time knows that the proper term for these types of games are Doom Clones.
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