I wonder how many game publishers are currently putting their titles on the historical lowest discount, just prior to the Steam Summer Sale (starts on 25th June) so that they snag gamers' limited funds early (rather than be "just one of the crowd").

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Funny how they use pixelated fonts but the rest of the game is not pixelated. Saying that, it looks okay regardless.

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I'm not happy with Ubuntu's decision to do this, although it doesn't especially affect me anyway (as I use Debian mainly). With any luck community backlash will cause Ubuntu's management to change their minds and reverse the decision. Like they did with the Upstart technology a number of years ago.

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Addressing 14's comment (just prior to this) about using a (Debian) system: Debian is designed in such a way that you can have very 'stable' reliable software, which is carefully maintained, but the repositories aren't as cutting edge. Then there is the 'testing' distribution which is still very reliable and it has repositories with more recent software, and you can *easily* distro upgrade between the 'stable' release and the next one up the tree 'testing'. Then the next is 'unstable' and the top one is 'experimental'.

For the purposes of sticking with the one system, you can do that with Debian, and you can distro-upgrade whenever you're ready to do so. When you distro-upgrade it generally goes without any hitches, i.e. you shouldn't run into problems and need to rebuild your system.

On top of all that, more advanced users can "mess around" by using backports or even installing software from more unstable versions. I actually run Debian 10 Buster (currently 'testing' but due to become the 'stable' version in a few weeks time) with the latest experimental Nvidia drivers (by messing around with the apt package management config).

If I want to upgrade the Debian 10 Buster to the next 'testing' release, I just need to run distro-upgrade commands and it'll all happen without fuss. Chances are, I won't bother upgrading to the newer software in 'testing' for a number of months, and when I do I won't take any chances and will backup my partition before running the upgrade.

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Finishing off with this: If Ubuntu does push through this change, I think it is going to generally be bad for the whole Linux ecosystem i.e. It will not encourage new users to move to Linux, and it might cause existing users to move away.

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I've been rooting for this game to come to Linux and also for it to be decent. I played some of the early Ultima titles, e.g. UW 1, UW 2, Ultima 7 and was blown away by Underworld back in the day. I've taken on board the various reviews and watched game play videos, and with the Update 3 it does appear that some of the bad things have been addressed.

It's probably fair to say that if it comes to Linux, up-to-date reviews continue to be reasonable, and it is available on discount, then I'd get it. Expecting it to be relatively mediocre, but still good enough to enjoy.

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Slightly amused by your pronunciation of Google "Stadia" - I had a look at a couple of official videos and the Google people are calling it "Stay-dia" not "Stad-ia" and I presume their pronunciation is the correct way. Meanwhile, when I was first exposed to "Linux", I pronounced it "Lyne-ucks" and not the correct way "Lin-ucks" but subsequently have used the correct way for 20 years.

Which leads me on to a few comments about Stadia:

Possible Positives for Linux -
- Encourages developers to use Vulkan and Linux-friendly libraries for producing Stadia-enabled titles.
- Not much extra work to jump from a working Stadia game to a working Linux game (particularly due to the first item).
- Even Windows-only games produced to support Stadia will favour Vulkan and Linux-friendly tech, so should work better on Proton and WINE.
- Increased popularity of Vulkan will encourage more studios to adopt it and more developers to learn it and use it.
- Actual Stadia games should run across any platform (e.g. Windows, Mac, Linux) via Chrome browser, so we wouldn't be excluded from using it.
- Games played on Stadia shouldn't need anti-cheat measures on the local computer, because the game software is running remotely. (Good for Linux gamers willing to adopt Stadia.)
- Stadia games would be able to run on any platform, and as such Linux gamers would not be locked out from playing (Stadia) games like they are locked out of Windows games.
- There wouldn't be the Game Support issues of games released on Stadia being played on Linux, as compared with the support of Windows titles played on Proton.
- Potential for more Windows gamers to jump to Linux, because Stadia games would work on Linux fine, and so they are not losing out by adopting Linux (also similar to the effect of Proton tech on Steam).

Various Issues -
- Google will be using Stadia for data-mining of players, which is not good for anyone who is concerned with privacy.
- Stadia gaming will require high-speed, low-lag internet and so would not be available to substantial numbers of users.
- Although base Stadia isn't subscription-based, the premium offering is, and this is leading gaming into a rental model (good for publishers), rather than an ownership model (good for customers).
- The customer will no longer own the game files.

Possible Negatives for Linux -
- Game exclusivity might prevent game availability outside of the Stadia play-system.
- It looks like Stadia games will not be available for download and will only be available for online play.
- In the future, there is potential that games could be released exclusively on Stadia (for reasons beneficial to developers/publishers) and not available for download at other vendors.
- Google's Stadia APIs could be detrimental to Linux game release owing to the extra work in making versions of the game with those APIs turned off or replaced.
- Stadia would be taking games away from vendors who do support Linux native titles (e.g. Steam, Itch, GOG, Humble) weakening their market position.

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I'm a regular subscriber. Generally I decide to "Pause A Month" on approx 23rd of the month, if I am not happy with the early reveal games. That way, I don't get inadvertently charged for a month I didn't want. I paused the last two months, because the early reveals were Windows titles that didn't appeal to me.

However, this new month - Moonlighter and Hellblade - early reveals - I can certainly have a bit of that.

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Just saying that I've always found native Dying Light to run decently well. Maybe it is your choices of processor, graphics, drivers, or Linux distribution which contributed to your poor experience. But the fact that I did not have a poor experience is my current position on this subject. On which note, 60 FPS on native Linux or 120 FPS on Proton - I'd still play the native one. 10 FPS on native and 100 FPS on Proton - sure, I'd jump to Proton.

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A little question for those who have played through the whole thing: I have finished the main campaign in the main game, but have never even looked at The Following. If I start The Following, does it begin you as a brand new player (with no skills, no equipment) and you play it from scratch, or does it just follow on from your main game with same skills / equipment stocked up?

I think I'd prefer it if it was a completely separate entity where you have to build up again, and you can play it completely separately from the main game. Can anyone let me know, thanks?

[Meanwhile, I did play the main game on an older system than the one I have now, and I feel that performance is fine on the native Linux without needing to resort to Proton. In fact, I'd only like to resort to Proton if the game being played is really bad on native.]

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Got it working (eventually). I had problems using innoextract to remove the game files from the GOG installer. My innoextract version is 1.7 so should be suitably up-to-date, but it just failed with errors on each of the GOG DOOM titles I own. As a test, I chose 3 other small games (at random) from my GOG collection and they worked fine (e.g. Evoland).

I resorted to using the FREEDOOM1.WAD from Doom Remake 4 instead. Can't say I'm happy to have my game files locked behind a proprietary installer. Sure, I can boot Windows or launch WINE to get the files, but I don't want to do that, especially any dependence on Windows.

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I'm fairly surprised by the low Linux statistic. In fact I feel it is so low, I suspect that something is off (i.e. There has been a calculation error or human error somewhere in the chain. Maybe not including results from other stores?)

Personally, I own Cultist Simulator (in my Steam account) and have played it on Linux. It has featured quite regularly on GOL getting Linux exposure. It was in a Humble Monthly, which should have attracted all sorts of buyers, including Linux ones. Also, it is DRM-Free on GOG which would attract Linux players who (a) don't favour Steam, and (b) are dead-set against DRM.

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