Here are some of the games I've played recently:

Nuclear Throne: This is a really excellent twin-stick shooter, *best* played with a gamepad. But I'm not a big fan of gamepads, so I instantly put myself at a major disadvantage by playing it with keyboard and mouse. In the past week, I finally unlocked the Steroids character - I'm still a long way from completing the game, but gradually getting closer. The game is frustratingly hard (with K+M) but I just can't help coming back for another punishing serving.

Prodeus: This game is due to come to Linux (once it is out of Early Access). It is a retro-styled Doom/Quake FPS. I absolutely adored it during the beta playtest. Bought it a week ago (20% Humble Choice discount, before pausing HC) and installed it immediately (via Proton) - only 1.2GB drive space. I've played through a few levels so far, and loving it.

7 Days To Die: At this point I've put about 2.5k hours into this game, and it is a big favourite of mine. Regularly, I watch a number of Youtubers playing this game, and feel that despite their immense hours of playing, they always set the game *way* too easy for their videos. The game is a sandbox survival experience - You surviving in a zombie apocalypse in a destructible, buildable environment.

Here are my latest Game Difficulty Settings that I'm using to play 7 Days To Die - I call this the Ultimate Nightmare Challenge:

- Zombies set to run at Nightmare Speed all the time (the maximum).
- Zombies set to Insane Toughness (the maximum).
- Loot Abundance set to 25 percent (the minimum). [THIS SETTING MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE!]
- Random Generated World (you don't know where you are).
- Concurrent Zombies during Horde Night: 64 (the maximum). [As each zombie is 'killed' another one spawns to replace it.]
- The rest of the settings on defaults (e.g. Air drops don't display on map, Horde Night every 7 days, regular experience gain, etc).
- Playing it Permadeath, i.e. only one life, and if you die that's it with your game (no resurrecting).
- Not using any game exploits to 'cheese' the horde.

With this U.N. challenge you need to play very efficiently and make very careful choices, as well as doing so while dealing with extremely fast, extremely hard-to-kill, and extremely hard-hitting zombies. Running out of food is very easy, not having enough medical help, having practically no good weapons/armour, finding practically no ammo in loot. All these difficulties compound with one another, it is easy enough playing with one of these things put on hardest value, but when you put them all on hardest, then it really is a struggle particularly during the first week of play - In my opinion the first week of the game is the best bit. WOULD LOVE TO SEE A YOUTUBER PLAYING 7 DAYS WITH *THESE* SETTINGS !!! (UNLIKELY!)

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I have played it for a bit on Android. This game was designed for mobile and has extended onto PC via Steam. Although I did start off quite liking it, despite the somewhat quirky controls. (It'd be nice if the UI could be updated to be more intuitive and flow better, and be less clunky.)

It is probably one of the better Idle games to play, but at the same time, I felt it annoyingly grindy and time-wasting and I just wasn't keen enough to invest time into playing it. The combat bits of the game force you to stay attentive, else you die and lose items.

If you really like the genre, play it, and I found that it fits well alongside 'slow' youtube videos, watching the news, or other activity where you are only half-engaged. (If I'm actively engaged in the gaming side, I'd rather play something else.)

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Sounds like my cup of tea :)

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Nice to get the DRM-Free version - Thanks, GOG. Although I did already own the Steam version.

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On which note, I've been playing HyperRogue on my mobile, downloaded off the F-Droid app store. (I'm planning to move over to non-tracked LineageOS de-googled Android soon).

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There are plenty of reasons I like Linux and use it (instead of Windows or Mac):

- I like it, I prefer it to the alternatives.
- I like it for the Control it gives me, i.e. I set up Linux to work the way I want and not have it dictate to me when it is going to update.
- I like it because it is *not* a walled-garden forcing you to use a specific App Store.
- I like it because it is more secure - I'm much less likely to suffer a malware attack, a bad MS Office macro, or a virus.
- I like it because it runs better - It is a more efficient operating system than Windows, and I can trim it down further if I so desire (e.g. XFCE desktop environment) if I use it on low-end hardware.
- I like it because it is a sensible operating system, which is easy to administrate via simple text configuration files. (Hunting around Windows registry or convoluted Windows System graphical interfaces trying to find a rare control function is especially frustrating.)
- I like it because it doesn't take hours to run updates, when I choose to run them.
- I like it because I'm an advocate for privacy. Your computer should not be spying on you. Windows, Mac OSX, iOS, and Android are incredibly invasive mass-surveillance systems for their *true* masters - the corporations that built them.
- And so on. This the the tip of the iceberg.

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Quoting: TheSHEEEPWhere have you heard that Unexplored 2 won't have a Linux build?

Well, I looked and spotted it on Epic Store, here

Being an Epic Store exclusive means that "for now" it won't have a native Linux build. Maybe that'll change assuming it eventually appears on Steam.

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Quoting: JanneHow heavy is UnExplored on resources? Does it run on a laptop without running all cores at 100%?

It's low on resources. (If your laptop can run FTL, Slay the Spire, then it'll have no problems.) Quickly looking at my own installed copy, it is using 490 MB of drive space.

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I really liked playing UnExplored, myself. (For that matter, I also adore Pixel Dungeon, and derivatives, which I played on Android phone many moons ago).

There are plenty of hours of enjoyment to be gained within UnExplored. Even when you die, you have that bit more knowledge to apply to your next run. If you like FTL or Slay The Spire, you'll probably find it good. I particularly enjoyed the early play-throughs of the game, slowly improving, coming across new things (that killed you) then doing a new run (and surviving to go further).

Later on in the game, after many hours of play, I found myself "RNG-frustrated" that I'd had a good run (to get that far) but that I was stuck and no way I could get any further (without dying). Yes, it's proper permadeath (which is generally fine by me, as long as I can push through, but there comes a point when you don't want to go all the way back to the beginning again).

EDIT: Just to further clarify what I mean about the late-game frustration - It is like playing a game of chess, and seeing a number of moves ahead and realising that your current status means that you don't have the necessary position or pieces to be able to reach checkmate.

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F**K YEAH!

Wishlisted.

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