Well this quite a surprise. THE FINALS is one of the most popular new online FPS games that uses Easy Anti-Cheat from Epic Online Services, and as of a recent update — it works on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux.
So far, I haven't seen anything official from the developer to confirm it was actually enabled intentionally, and I purposefully held off on this initially but it's been a few days and it's continued working. I tend to err on the side of caution, since we've seen other games with EAC previously work without knowing why and then break again shortly after. Hopefully THE FINALS will continue working, since it's so popular with it regularly seeing over 90,000 people (peak count) playing on Steam each day.
It can be a little unstable though, with some reporting Voice Chat and a few graphics options can cause crashes. However, now it actually works, testing can be done and so Valve can fix up issues in Proton, and developers on the various Linux graphics drivers as they get reported.
Some shots taken on Kubuntu 23.10, click pics to enlarge them:
If you make sure you set it to use Proton Experimental in the game properties on Steam, you should be good to go for now. There's lots of reports filling up on ProtonDB now too from people playing it across Linux Desktop and Steam Deck.
With my own testing on Kubuntu 23.10 with an AMD Radeon 6800 XT on Mesa 23.3.3 on Epic settings pictured above with FSR set to Quality it has been running really smoothly overall.
Today I reached out to Embark Studios for a statement, so hopefully their team will be able to let us all know what's happening with it officially.
THE FINALS can be found on Steam free to play.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
The game is pretty spartan in how many mechanics it throws at you which I appreciate. 3 classes, a handful of weapons for each, and off you go. It works really well if you want something super competitive but also something quick to play for 15 minutes.
Unfortunately I let online games completely consume me so I had to uninstall it, but major props to the Devs for sticking true with what they said. I remember several discord messages where they claimed to want to enable Linux support, and it looks like they did it, though the silence is a bit weird. Perhaps it's a test of sorts.
Last edited by GetBeaned on 15 January 2024 at 3:09 pm UTC
TheRiddick Jan 15
Also it has a coin shop which I'd hope is only cosmetics but wouldn't be surprised if there is a pay2win element. Either way cheaters ruin games such as this where everyone expects to be playing on a more or less level playing field, but ultimately aren't due to ineffective anti-cheating methods.
Wouldn't be surprised if they implement kernel level DRM (blocking Linux) in hopes to stop cheating (it won't).
The only way to stop cheating is custom design anti-cheat into their OWN server and client code, relying on generic third party tools only cuts out the MOST laziest of cheaters!
Last edited by TheRiddick on 15 January 2024 at 3:12 pm UTC
Fall Guys works for a while now, the Steam version doesn't even need any adjustments anymore. Insurgency: Sandstorm works with EOS (the online variant without a local EAC dll), also no official statement. Predator: Hunting Ground works. Often only with Proton Experimental, but these games work. There had been some occurances where EAC/EOS was in "data collection mode" or so, where it seemed to work, but stopped working after a while without updates. The games mentioned are working for months now though, so I guess they must have been enabled for Wine/Deck/Proton by the publisher.
Maybe they want to have the option to disable it again, without people being able to complain, as they never officially enabled it.
Quoting: TheRiddickAlso it has a coin shop which I'd hope is only cosmetics but wouldn't be surprised if there is a pay2win element. Either way cheaters ruin games such as this where everyone expects to be playing on a more or less level playing field, but ultimately aren't due to ineffective anti-cheating methods.The shop is purely cosmetics from what I've seen.
jonathanhrl Jan 15
Quoting: CorbenToo bad when publisher don't give an update on EAC support after enabling it explicitly. Are they afraid of too many Linux gamers hopping onto their game and actually play it?
I think it's because an official announcement is perceived as a commitment, and some publishers don't want to commit to Linux (yet).
During the Beta and after release, a lot of people asked for Linux support, and if I'm not mistaken, Embark said they would look into it and share any news in this regard as soon as they have it. But the game is working since the last update, and they didn't share anything.
One community manager said that they will ask the developers about it since they didn't get any news about the support. Also, they only got the full team back from holidays last week, and communication is normally rough in those initial weeks.
I'm not very confident in any official announcement, but at least I hope that they confirm that the game is supposed to work on Linux and no one will get banned.
Tadas-Estidal Jan 15
Nice to see devs pulled the switch to have it on, on linux.
Edit : tried it on deck, default all low with fsr2 on balanced - mostly 60 with lows at 43ish.
After a few matches i feel like its completely playable(dont expect to be super competitive with high end pc gamers).
Last edited by Tadas-Estidal on 15 January 2024 at 5:12 pm UTC
Quoting: TheRiddickApparently is FULL of cheaters/hackers.
The only way to stop cheating is custom design anti-cheat into their OWN server and client code, relying on generic third party tools only cuts out the MOST laziest of cheaters!
I would add that the best way to stop a good chunk of cheating would be to remove any kind of battle pass / seasonal loot that you need to grind for after paying for it. There was always cheating in games, but the reason it's been more prevalent in recent years is because a lot of people are looking for ways to skip the built-in grind.
p.s. I'm not saying that this justifies cheating. I'm just saying it's creating an incentive for it for some people.
Quoting: TheRiddickApparently is FULL of cheaters/hackers.
Also it has a coin shop which I'd hope is only cosmetics but wouldn't be surprised if there is a pay2win element. Either way cheaters ruin games such as this where everyone expects to be playing on a more or less level playing field, but ultimately aren't due to ineffective anti-cheating methods.
Wouldn't be surprised if they implement kernel level DRM (blocking Linux) in hopes to stop cheating (it won't).
The only way to stop cheating is custom design anti-cheat into their OWN server and client code, relying on generic third party tools only cuts out the MOST laziest of cheaters!
i think the best solution against cheaters is not to ban then, but to put then to play against each other or bots that pretend to be real people using cheats.
they will swallow their own poison and learn the best way how anoying it is to destroy other people fun.
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