Latest 30 Comments

Nice. This and their - as far as I have seen - great modding support hopefully creates a sizable modding community.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I still think that things like these should be responsibility of parents and not state. I don't really understand all the "Protect the children" laws as they are usually just a way of control in disguise.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

My understating of the mandate is the same as Jef's and I do think that all the legislators thought of is that a responsible parent, setting the account for their kid, would put a real birth date, which would then be used by apps to decide what content to serve. There are just two tiny problems - it will be facile to circumvent by any half-brained kid, and it will be heavily abused by app providers by shaping the content (especially ads) depending on the age bracket. All around a shitty idea, but completely in line with the times we live in.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Hoping this is Valves answer to the Stop Killing Games campaign. Which would explain the focus on offline play, but may not be limited to it.

Which could mean it will not be an isolated event.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I hope they remove Enigma from other games as well.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

That's interesting, I thought CS2 and CSGO are the same game, just rebranded.

I suppose it would be good to have CSGO available with just community servers, similar to CS Source and CS 1.6.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Obviously not a fan of kernel level stuff (and who knows how their implementation will work), but it's great for Linux adoption. I mean how often did we hear "Yeah, but can it play Multiplayer XYZ like on console?"

One argument less against Linux and something like the Steam Machine. Will be interesting to see how this is developing.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Nice, I would like to be able to play Battlefield and EA Sports FC on my Linux computer

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Coming soon from EA, Linux "battlefield VIII Doritos Baja Blast edition" kernel to play the latest gaming slop.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

It wouldn't surprise me if they still have the idea that they could make some sort of integration into the Linux kernel to make it as "safe" as the windows version. They might be possible if you limit yourself to a single target (like Steam Deck), but I don't think it is feasible in general.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Okay, I gotta admit: I didn't expect that o_O

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

It makes sense if you consider that Americans BigTechs (Apple, Google and Microsoft) are trying to lobbying all the Governments worldwide for their anti-competitive practices.

Comment found it on the web:

Since Apple and Google convinced the whole world that "app stores" are the only way to install software, that means according to politicians, every computer must verify age. For the app store that everyone must be using.

An app store is an anti-competitive moat, designed to use censorship to optimize the profits of a company. The government has now enshrined into law a protection for these quasi-monopolies. Of course "they're not a monopoly" because "there are two companies". But we didn't used to need app stores at all. Computers used to allow anyone to install and run anything they wanted. Not anymore though. You will only do what The Companies allow you to, because Profits.

This is the only sensible comment I see in this thread. I would just add Microsoft to the list, as they are still trying to enforce their ecosystem (failing repeatedly of course, but still trying).

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Quoting: CaldathrasThis looks like it could be fun, especially if it sticks to real species instead of made-up ones.

It has admittedly been a while since I last played, but I'm fairly sure Megaquarium uses all real species.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Quoting: gbudny@Hamish

Thank you for the article.

Can you play Quake: The Offering for Linux with GeForce2 MX 400?

Quoting: dubigrasuThat Nvidia white splash brings back sweet memories, the first "serious" card that I used for gaming on Linux was a Geforce4 MX, and it was the card I used to play Doom 3 with.

You reminded me of how painful it was to play Quake 4 on Linux with this graphics card back in 2005. I remember that Doom 3 didn't have a better performance, but it was a long time ago. I started to enjoy playing both games when I had a more modern computer with an Intel 2 Core Duo.

Well, at the ridiculous (as we see it now) resolution of 640x480 it wasn't that bad. Probably the framerate wasn't also that great, but something like 30 fps was so sweet for a PS1 player like me, accustomed with 24 fps or less, add some overclocking, some graphical tweaking, the TV placed 2 meters away (less sensitive to low fov and fps)...it was great! 😄

From what I understand Quake 4 was more graphically intensive than Doom 3, but I did played it with the same card (...I think?), both awesome games. Apparently these Linux versions had some features disabled, which would explain them running better on Linux, but my eyeballmeter couldn't see a difference back then. It still was a blast.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Quoting: Mountain ManTo be fair, we're still far behind Europe where you can and will be arrested for posting "offensive" messages on social media.

You can be punished for say calling someone an a**hole. Not for stating an actual opinion. (You do not really believe that a person is a backside - it's not an opinion, it's all insult.) I fail to see a problem with that.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Quoting: omer666My Linux PC at the time was a Pentium III too, but it was equipped with a Matrox G200, which I was very satisfied with. I don't really remember what kind of performance I was getting though...

[Edit] Or maybe it was a G400... now I can't remember 😅

On my list of nice to haves would be, alongside any kind of Voodoo card to experiment with, a Matrox G400 Max as it seems like it would be a good showcase of the best the free graphic stack was capable of at the time. Good luck not breaking the bank on any of those though.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Quoting: hell0And the return of that api can only be changed with root access to the device.

And that will never be true either. Because what API it calls is a browsers / apps decision. It can always return yes and never ask the OS. So getting a portable version of a browser always saysing yes is done half asleep by kids.

It is not a sane implementation. It is plain stupid.

Because it does nothing. And it does not put any responsibility to the device owner. The responsibility is there already. It just puts more information to companies, and more control to big tech, and less freedom to people.

Politics is always about power. Do not let nice words mince your thoughts. It is never about you. me or any people. It is just about power and influence, by any means necessary to get this power.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I had an MX 400 but that was in a PowerMac G4 Superdrive.
It was the very first proper GPU I ever owned, and as an OEM offering, it was very capable.
I ended up replacing it with the mighty ATI Radeon 8500 which was in another league...

My Linux PC at the time was a Pentium III too, but it was equipped with a Matrox G200, which I was very satisfied with. I don't really remember what kind of performance I was getting though...

[Edit] Or maybe it was a G400... now I can't remember 😅

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Nice, with that, the game returns to my wishlist (after a long abscence).

I'm in no hurry to buy though, for one thing, this is a remake of a game that I felt was already "modern enough" with the 2014 windows-HD release.

For another thing, unlike many, I never felt this title "stood out" that much among the RE-games. Finally, due to the prolonged use of DRM, this version already feel like quite an "old title" (relativly speaking)

So...cheap enough price and I'll buy at some point.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Quoting: LinasMost likely they realized that it did not protect anything either.

The publisher pays for DRM. Those numbers likely stopped making sense.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

It starts with asking for your birth date, but how long before they want more - and for other places to create similar laws? It's a slippery slope.

No, it's not a slippery slope. Please stop spreading this fallacious argument. Many politicians in the US and abroad are pushing for actual ID scanning now. CA could've done that here if that was truly their endgame.

If age verification systems of some kind are inevitable (and this blog has speculated in the past that they are) then this is the most privacy-respecting solution that has been legislated so far to my knowledge. An on-device and completely fungible input of some kind that is then abstracted before being broadcast elsewhere. It's so privacy-respecting that it's actually completely useless if the parent doesn't set up the device before the kid uses it.

We'd much rather have this law become the model than the laws similar to what Texas and the UK have passed, where they want each individual website to separately verify ages by having the user give them personally-identifiable information like IDs and selfies. This would lead to dozens of companies and "trusted partners" handling personally-identifiable information in potentially wildly differing ways. Such a situation nearly guarantees this info getting leaked on a long enough timeline.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I really wasn´t expecting this.

The game was already great. With automation it might become one of the greatest.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I've moved my desktop PC to the living room, and missing the HTPC feeling. I might give Bazzite a spin to have consistency with the Deck.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I believe this is among the most sane implementation of age gating I've seen so far.

As defined, it can be (should be) entirely on device and only provides the relevant info. The responsibility falls with the device owner to perform the age check and not some dodgy third party.

Sounds like a much better solution than most parental control softwares available today, which are either invasive, fallible or both. Instead of a website/program displaying a popup "are you over X" it'd call an api which answers yes/no. And the return of that api can only be changed with root access to the device. I really don't see any harm in that, it does not provide any more info than you already do when answering the same age popup on steam/a porn website/etc.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Quoting: CaldathrasIronically, before I discovered that Linux was viable, I had always used ATI GPUs in my gaming rigs. I suspect that a big part of my choice was that ATI was Canadian.

Yep, ATI cards seemed to be more common out here in Alberta largely for that reason too I suspect, in comparison to Nvidia or even 3dfx at least based on what my family encountered while working in IT. Granted, they were not putting Voodoos in many business or home user machines. But we have salvaged many a Radeon card.

Quoting: gbudnyCan you play Quake: The Offering for Linux with GeForce2 MX 400?

Yep, it runs just the same as with the Rage 128 Pro, you are limited to the glquake.glx binary for 3D acceleration.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

@Hamish

Thank you for the article.

Can you play Quake: The Offering for Linux with GeForce2 MX 400?

Quoting: dubigrasuThat Nvidia white splash brings back sweet memories, the first "serious" card that I used for gaming on Linux was a Geforce4 MX, and it was the card I used to play Doom 3 with.

You reminded me of how painful it was to play Quake 4 on Linux with this graphics card back in 2005. I remember that Doom 3 didn't have a better performance, but it was a long time ago. I started to enjoy playing both games when I had a more modern computer with an Intel 2 Core Duo.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

I can't help but read that headline as "Resident Evil 4 remake has enema, protector DRM removed" 💩

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

As a parent, this is not thought through and completely unnecessary.

My kids use mostly family devices. So they would have my age verification or that of my wife.

To add injury to failure, I would not provide my kids with an account actually telling their age. In an age where information is power, I would not put their information out there. Or as late and little as possible. Especially considering the many data breaches.

This has nothing to do with parenting. This will not improve anything or secure anything. Nothing will but you. Parenting stays the same job. Watch your children, watch their actions and try to keep them as secure as possible.

The only one looking at what kids do should be the parents trying to protect them. Not OS and application developers trying to exploit them.

Age verifications change nothing. Parenting does. And parents need to take the time and be responsible to actually do their job.

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Quoting: Mountain ManTo be fair, we're still far behind Europe where you can and will be arrested for posting "offensive" messages on social media.

And my home, Australia, is doing everything it possibly can to try and mimic Europe... 🤔

Quoting: loggeI am sorry to inform you that the term "protect the children" is actually used everywhere where a law would otherwise be hard to enact. All these laws popping up everywhere recently are not about children, never were and nowhere will be.

The famous selling point for every piece of legislation - "If you actually care about the safety / well being / etc of the children, you'd support this!"

Give me a break.

Quoting: Caldathras

Quoting: Purple Library Guynone of the politicians care if it works or ever will work.

Absolutely. Politicians only care that they appear to be doing something about a perceived problem. All that matters is that they stay in office and continue to collect from the gravy train.

This describes 99.9% of politicians globally... And yes, that even includes the politicians I support or mostly support.

The days of "What can I do for My People?" are long gone; now it's only "What can I do for myself?"

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment

Quoting: Doktor-MandrakeHopefully enough people will buy Capcom titles on GOG to try and show those suits at Capcom that they don't need all this drm nonsense

Well, for my part, I rarely buy Capcom games but, if I do, I will only buy them on GOG.

That being said, the only Capcom game that I have is the first Dragon's Dogma. Have yet to play through it, though...

View this comment - View article - View full comments - Report this comment