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Jagged Alliance Gold Released On Steam For Linux
By pb, 23 April 2014 at 2:13 pm UTC

Just wait for GOG to finally roll out Linux support for all these dosbox-wrapped classics! I really hope to be able to play most of them out of the box (w/o configuration tweaks). It should be this way on Steam as well, instead we're seeing dosbox titles released as Windows only (like Descent or classic Tomb Raider). :-/

Want A Free Strife MOBA Closed Beta Key?
By , 23 April 2014 at 2:05 pm UTC

I would love a Strife beta key. I am a big fan of all of the moba games (League of Legends, Dota, and Smite.) I think I would love the new system to get rid of negative behavior as the gold system is simiar to smite. Please give me a beta key.

-Kyle

Jagged Alliance Gold Released On Steam For Linux
By hardpenguin, 23 April 2014 at 1:57 pm UTC

Yup, DOSBox title (you can get it on GOG too). I love the sequel from 1999, to me it is one of best games ever created. It even was (is?) available on desktop Linux (and Android) thanks to fan-made project Stracciatella. Playing it with Wine was much easier though :)

DRM Boosts Profits & It's Here To Stay
By berarma, 23 April 2014 at 1:55 pm UTC

Quoting: XBONEWell unfortunately strictly speaking the same technology that is used for DRM can be applied
to prevent modifications to the system and vice versa. If you can prevent modifications to the system
then you can prevent cheating and also malware.

When discussing about DRM often I get the feeling we talk about different things. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, i.e., someone is managing in some way your right to use the software.

When someone says "it doesn't annoy me, so it's not DRM". It's changing the meaning to "something that annoys the user". Annoying the user has never been a goal for DRM, whether it annoys or not depends on the DRM system and the user tolerance.

DRM isn't meant to prevent breaches either, that would be another thing with another name, but it's mixed in to make DRM more appealing to users.

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By , 23 April 2014 at 1:55 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: manny
Quoting: entropyWasn't Gabe Newell saying recently that it turned out to be easy to convince publishers to support Linux? Gearbox obviously disagrees.
Engines my friend, engines.

Unreal engine3 doesn't have linux support out of the box. So porting takes more efforts and time.

I expect we'll get more support with UE4 games. I expect chances will be higher once they start using UE4 for games, (maybe a future borderlands3).

If Icculus as a single developer can port UE3 games, a big company like Gearbox should be able too without "wasting" too many resources.

Apart from that, I agree. Having engines supporting Linux as a target out-of-the-box might help significantly. Same goes for the other major game engines that have announced Linux support.

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By , 23 April 2014 at 1:49 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: entropyWasn't Gabe Newell saying recently that it turned out to be easy to convince publishers to support Linux? Gearbox obviously disagrees.

Engines my friend, engines.

Unreal engine3 doesn't have linux support out of the box. So porting takes more efforts and time.

I expect we'll get more support with UE4 games. I expect chances will be higher once they start using UE4 for games, (maybe a future borderlands3).

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By , 23 April 2014 at 12:52 pm UTC

Wasn't Gabe Newell saying recently that it turned out to be easy to convince publishers to support Linux? Gearbox obviously disagrees.

Jagged Alliance Gold Released On Steam For Linux
By Pinguino, 23 April 2014 at 12:46 pm UTC

I'm all for boosting Linux sales (heck, I'd be willing to pay for Battle for Wesnoth on Steam, even though it's free otherwise), but 10 dollars is a little too salty for me (yes, Steam has spoiled me).

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By Lordpkappa, 23 April 2014 at 12:16 pm UTC

Quoting: MetallinatusCouldn't care less about Borderlands.... I WANT WATCH_DOGS FOR LINUX!!!!!

I want Rome II (confirmed, but when?) ;) and Evolve for linux.

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By Metallinatus, 23 April 2014 at 11:32 am UTC Likes: 1

Couldn't care less about Borderlands.... I WANT WATCH_DOGS FOR LINUX!!!!!

DRM Boosts Profits & It's Here To Stay
By , 23 April 2014 at 10:40 am UTC

QuoteThis is my favourite quote:
Quote
So long as we’re concerned about things like data privacy, accounting sharing and hacking, we’ll need some form of DRM
DRM prevents hacking now apparently. Silly, silly people.

Well unfortunately strictly speaking the same technology that is used for DRM can be applied
to prevent modifications to the system and vice versa. If you can prevent modifications to the system
then you can prevent cheating and also malware.

With a combination of a TPM, Intel TXT and Secure Boot you could essentially make a DRM
system that was 99% unbreakable. Even the game binary would be encrypted and you would
first have to connect to a server, verify you were running an approved kernel before it would
release the decryption key to you. Because you were running an approved kernel you would be prevented from accessing memory directly to get the decrypted code. You would have to start probing the ram
directly, so then they would start encrypting ram to the CPU, and so on.

Also this would mean that any game server you connect to could also verify if you were running an approved kernel or not and chuck you off if you were running a modified kernel for assumed cheating.
This is VAC taken to the next level.

This technology is already being used in computers, phones and servers to prevent malware.

This would not kill gaming on Linux but would prevent you running your own OS kernel
this seems worrying what they have in mind and seemed to be what they had in plan for the
xbone before everyone complained.

It is RMS's worst nightmare!

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By Lordpkappa, 23 April 2014 at 10:06 am UTC Likes: 1

Bad move Gearbox, if you'll start to use opengl over dx maybe you'll see development cost to decrease and a far better way to support all the paltform, i hope that with the port of Unreal Engine 4, Cryengine and Unity the Linux support will be no more a problem...

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By Radegast, 23 April 2014 at 9:39 am UTC Likes: 6

QuoteI wouldn't get your hopes up too much...
Hehe, Gearbox could use this as their company motto

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By GoCorinthians, 23 April 2014 at 9:39 am UTC

Yet remains Watch Dogs, Dark Souls, Dying Light on Windows...and some few indies games!

2014 is really a linux games year for my steam library purchases

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By Liam Dawe, 23 April 2014 at 9:28 am UTC Likes: 3

Quoting: alexThunder
QuoteI never get my hopes up about anything Randy & Gearbox do since their utter failure with Colonial Marines (not on Linux), they utterly lied about it including showing game-play trailers that weren't in the game! Thankfully that was my last Windows purchase, hopefully forever.
Sounds like you're butthurt, or why else would bring that unrelated stuff up? :P

Of course I am, I paid out for two pre-order copies ~£60 of Colonial Marines based on "actual game-play" videos from Gearbox, to which it all turned out to be lies.

What's not to be "butthurt" about that?

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By alexThunder, 23 April 2014 at 9:26 am UTC

QuoteI never get my hopes up about anything Randy & Gearbox do since their utter failure with Colonial Marines (not on Linux), they utterly lied about it including showing game-play trailers that weren't in the game! Thankfully that was my last Windows purchase, hopefully forever.

Sounds like you're butthurt, or why else would bring that unrelated stuff up? :P

Anyway, too bad. I was always close buying this game, but there was always be something more interesting. A port for Linux would have been my chance to catch this up. Too bad :/

Well, maybe we'll see future titles of that branch. Still, with all the DLCs out there, wouldn't that boost the profitability of a port even though there's a comparably small market share?

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By , 23 April 2014 at 9:23 am UTC

Quoting: MilesWait, what?? I thought they were open to it. See if I ever bother to buy their games on ANY platform now. >:(

He only said he was going to look into it.

DRM Boosts Profits & It's Here To Stay
By Cybolic, 23 April 2014 at 9:17 am UTC

The only impact DRM'ed games (I mean SecuROM and the likes, not Steam) have had for me is that I will either not buy them based on user reports or I will buy them, but end up playing a cracked/"illegal" download anyway since Wine and DRM often don't go well together.

I fail to see what good DRM does for anyone. Legitimate users are punished and illegal downloaders still have access to the games.

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By , 23 April 2014 at 9:01 am UTC

Wait, what?? I thought they were open to it. See if I ever bother to buy their games on ANY platform now. >:(

Don't Get Your Hopes Up On Borderlands 2 On Linux Says Randy From Gearbox
By , 23 April 2014 at 8:28 am UTC

I'm not one of those people, but it does run well in Wine.

To be honest, I'm not surprised he's being short sighted on this one -- other than the Borderlands games, Gearbox haven't made very many smart moves (Duke Nukem Forever as well as Colonial Marines).

Sentinel, A Tower Defence Game With Dynamic Music Available For Linux
By , 23 April 2014 at 8:26 am UTC

Only played it for a short time, but really like it so far -- the towers shooting with the beat (the scrolling translucent line) and the limited amount of power makes for some very chaotic gameplay.

Nuclear Dawn FPS/RTS Hybrid 7.1 Released, Bringing Linux Out Of Beta
By , 22 April 2014 at 10:59 pm UTC

Quoting: walteris 9,99 EUR already the 75% off price?

No, Steam currently lists it on 2,49 €, guess will be the same for USD. I bought it, 2.50? Less than two cokes ;D.

Star Citizen Video From PAX, Featuring Game-play & Looking Stunning
By , 22 April 2014 at 10:56 pm UTC

Quoting: Thijxx
Quoting: grumpy-datMeh, hardly an eve online replacement. Eve has far more to it, in every respect from what I can see so far with the exception of the UI the player uses. Hell, for all the hype it's just another air combat game set in space with spaceships..whoop-t-doo. Fine if you like that sort of stuff, might as well play team fortress and save yourself some cash though.
Eve is an old school buggy game with terrible customer support, no actual first-person flying around, extremely hard on new players, badly documented, slow on updates, mainly for killing and not for exploration or other activities, also non-Linux and the Mac version is pathetic.
Eve is waiting to die for a couple of years now and here comes the funeral!

I think eve is a different target as well. I don't know if I understood SC properly, but it seems like only a fighting thing. I personally prefer the mining / trading stuff over fighting (afterall, I'm better in that than in fighting ;D), but I didn't read anywhere that's part of SC.

Star Citizen Video From PAX, Featuring Game-play & Looking Stunning
By , 22 April 2014 at 10:54 pm UTC

Quoting: ttyborg
Quoting: STiATThat looks ... so great. I could bite my a** I didn't pledge.
You can, here.

I know, but well .. supporting it now for getting into beta seems pretty lame ;-). But I'll keep thinking about it.

The GDC Video On Approaching Zero Driver Overhead in OpenGL Is Now Up
By , 22 April 2014 at 10:50 pm UTC

Quoting: MikeThis is something that will iron itself out. Developing on OpenGL is getting easier and easier with big names like Valve also highlighting its advantages. The migration will be something that happens in time but exponentially (due to the network effect), when the Linux/Mac market shares keep growing and devs realise that rather than developing on DirectX then porting to OpenGL, it's much easier and cheaper to develop directly on OpenGL for all 3 platforms. This will happen with indie devs first, but will eventually make its way into the big names. I don't think it will take long for devs to realise that the extra step in moving from DirectX to OpenGL is pointless, considering most new games now are multiplatform (PC/Mac at least) it doesn't take a genius to realise that spending months creating imperfect ports of games is an unnecessary hassle.

It seems like the end to the Microsoft monopoly will never come, but these are changes that happen very suddenly. Just remember how 6 years ago Internet Explorer still had 80% of the market, but now it's relegated to insignificance or people who just don't know how to change their browser. The same will happen to DirectX and maybe someday Windows itself. Technology is no longer at a point where it makes sense for one company to impose its standards on everyone else.

It's mainly just a disrupt which is needed. What Valve did is create a standard for driver vendors and game developers to target to. One distribution, one test environment. That's what they wanted. That's what they need to support. This was mainly not needed for the game developers - they mostly won't care anyway. Rarely they develop their own engines nowdays, they mostly license engines and develop games on them. There still can exist problems by the game implementation, but as you see with Unity3d nowdays - games are suffering the same bugs in the same versions of Unity3d. Hardly any developer studio develops low-level OpenGL/D3D code and engine anymore, since there are a lot of options out there fitting their needs. Of course there are exceptions, especially looking at EA.

The GDC Video On Approaching Zero Driver Overhead in OpenGL Is Now Up
By , 22 April 2014 at 10:43 pm UTC

Very interesting talks, very detailed description. I like the apitest, and running on windows and linux it perfectly shows the different results. Though, the options are let's say the "real" ones in OpenGL dev, they don't cover the circumstances you are in, so you maybe end up seeing a different solution working better for your problem.

What I think as well is one of the problems they didn't mention. OpenGL features so many pathes to get to a solution that you're likely not to end up with the best solution for your problem. In D3D you mostly have 1-2 pathes to go, which is in general easier for the developers.

This certainly has to do with all the new extensions, having so many to choose from can be great, but a burden too.

Project Zomboid Survival Game Has A New Major Update, Our Video & Thoughts Included
By , 22 April 2014 at 9:07 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: GoCorinthiansOk. got it sometime ago on my library but never tried out because no sound under OpenSUSE but now its ok. SteamOS is fine too.

After 200hrs on Rust lets try another zombie game.

JAVA? what hell! nothing is perfect...

Whats wrong with java? Good for an indie dev, cross platform has a great 2d library.

The GDC Video On Approaching Zero Driver Overhead in OpenGL Is Now Up
By , 22 April 2014 at 7:38 pm UTC

OpenGL is not the problem, AAA titles and others are considering it already only for having a Mac port.

Once having OpenGL, doing Linux isn't too much of a deal graphics whise. The thing really more challanging is input handling and sound systems (if they don't use an abstraction already). OpenGL mostly isn't the part devs are worried about in Linux if they already did a Mac port.

ReignMaker, A City Building Political Strategy Game With Match-3 Tower Defense Combat
By Speedster, 22 April 2014 at 5:46 pm UTC

Do new citizens start wandering through your town when your population increases past the max town hall requirement of 1600? It's hard to keep track of whether new ones appear when you have so many wandering around, but I think some new ones moved in...