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Latest Comments by Anza
Soulstone Survivors might dethrone the likes of Vampire Survivors for me
10 November 2022 at 7:54 pm UTC

If you want to give it a go before buying, there's free prologue

Return to Monkey Island gets an official Native Linux version
5 November 2022 at 3:20 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: IggiTo those that finished it already: Do you really find the Secret of Monkey Island this time? And / or does it explain the ending of the second part?

Finally had time to finish it. Just on easy mode, I think I'll replay the game in hard mode later.

Anyway, answers to the questions are bit on the spoiler territory.

Spoiler, click me
It kind of does explain the Lechucks Revenge ending. Return to Monkey Island ending however twists things bit more. But in a way, could say that secret is found.

I can imagine why people might not be completely satisfied with the ending.

Loading bigger libraries should be faster in the new Steam Deck Beta
3 November 2022 at 10:35 pm UTC

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI've been following Linux discussions for too long. When it said "large libraries" I was thinking "I don't get it. How could, say, one person's GlibC be much different in size from another person's?"

Maybe somebody is linking GlibC statically...with whatever standard C libraries link with

Wonderful looking puzzle adventure Harmony's Odyssey lands on Linux / Steam Deck
27 October 2022 at 9:16 pm UTC Likes: 1

I played the demo some time ago and it's quite relaxed and easy game. Might be suitable for somebody who would be way too frustrated with regular puzzle games.

UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection gets Steam Deck Verified ahead of release
15 October 2022 at 3:07 pm UTC

Quoting: tuubi
Quoting: itscalledrealityMy snipe at Unix to Linux is to point out that the Playstations are traditionally Unix platforms. An OS that has traditionally not been used heavily for visual applications and is the cousin of Linux. So why did it take until almost 2022 to give us Linux gaming if we were playing on Unix the whole time?
Unix and Linux are cousins in a sense, but Linux is not Unix. And the game was ported to Windows, which is definitely not a close relative. Still, it's nice that they made sure (or let Valve make sure) that it works on Proton.


The Uncharted series looks fun enough, but I'll stick to games with official Linux support. I don't care if they're wrapped, as long as they do some QA on (desktop) Linux as well.

Also one important thing to keep in mind that similarity is on kernel level. That might help if you write drivers or kernel level rootkits, but not so much when making games. Games outsource things to drivers, libraries and game engine. And all of that on Playstation is proprietary.

Steam Mobile App gets a huge revamp out now for everyone
12 October 2022 at 7:43 pm UTC

UX design is quite important. I updated the mobile app and signed in normally. After sign in it opened the Steam guard page. I got bit confused that do I need to do two factor authentication on the phone too.

As I haven't used the application much I have noticed just few things.

  • some of the icons are slightly non obvious, shouldn't take too long to get used to them though
  • notifications are not in sync with desktop (though mobile application has some notifications that desktop doesn't have in the regular notification feed)
  • library doesn't have collections, so if you actually want to browse your library with the application, it could be hard to find what you want

The latest Godot Engine showreel is an impressive look at upcoming games
10 October 2022 at 12:41 am UTC

Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Anza
Quoting: GuestWhy do all these games look childish as if meant for elementary/high school children? Where are the serious games?

Just out of curiosity, what's your definition of serious? Games looks can deceive a bit. Cute looking game can be deadly serious.

I have never seen and can't even fathom a cutesy platformer or even a sprite game to be "deadly serious"

Maybe deadly serious is bit too much. But point is that games are one form of art. Maybe they're not in state where pure art games sell lot of copies, but being entertaining doesn't prevent games handling also other kind of things than just shooting bad guys until they're dead. Shooting bad guys until they're dead have been done from all kind of perspectives and in all kind of colors. But like movies, games are able to handle all kind of topics regardless of how they look.

There are games like these for example:

  • This War of Mine which is about war from civilian perspective (which does use quite dark colors to set the tone)
  • Papers, Please which gets inside a dystopia, but has cartoony graphics
  • On the cute side there's Spiritfarer, which is totally about death

The real answer the original question is though that Godot is currently favored by indie developers. Indie developers need to keep things simple if they want to release something. 2D is much easier to make look good compared to 3D. Also the original games that the retro games are based on, had quite bright colors, due limited color palette. Alternative to bright colors was brown mush.

Like Blender, Godot probably will find larger and more varied audience over time. At least now Unity has made some missteps, so more indie developers starting new game, might give Godot a try. Unity might be more realistic competitor anyway. Something like Unreal has lot of money thrown to it, though it's possible that Unreal at some point stops being a game engine as it has found other lucrative markets.

A few more picks from Steam Next Fest
9 October 2022 at 10:39 pm UTC Likes: 1

I played Dredge too and there's not that much to add. Based on store page description, horror seems to be integral part of the game. At least so far in the demo there's always safe haven, so there's bit of a breather before venturing out into night. Though it could be that towards the end horror intensifies, but at that point player might be hooked already. Alternatively strange just becomes the new normal and things are not as scary anymore.

So far night has just the right amount of uneasiness, so maybe they're doing things right.

If videos don't work and game is very unstable, just for latest Proton (no need for GE, Proton 7 seems to work fine).

I played bunch of other games too.

Worth checking out

Void Scrappers
Sort of mix between Vampire Survivors, shoot 'em up and pinch of roguelite. Basically you have bunch of weapons that shoot automatically, and by collecting scrap you get to choose from random selection what to upgrade. Enemies come from all around, which gives bit more Vampire Survivors vibe than traditional shoot 'em up where enemy placement is done manually and enemies might fly towards you in a straight line.

If the price is right, there might be something here. Only gripe could be that upgrade screens come so often that they interrupt the flow. I know, it's my fault because I'm collecting so much scrap, but still...

Maybe worth taking a look

Against the Storm

Kind of fantasy Settlers with somewhat unique setting and gameplay. It's not that easy game as buildings are enabled in random order. Odds are improved by offering player selection of three buildings. So usually you might not be able to use all the resources, but I assume it's possible to get by with what you have, if you know what you're doing. Tutorial might fool you a bit as that's quite linear and you get what you need when you need it.

So quite solid game, but with some potential design flaws.

Sole Saga

This might more blatant Vampire Survivors clone (which I haven't played, so can't be sure if there are differences). Quite approachable, even when the difficulty is bit on a roguelite level.

Inkulinati

Kind of medieval hand drawn line battler tactics game. There's commander unit, which has bit god like powers. Ink is used to buy units and dead enemies drop it and there might some sources around the map. I have feeling that this one might be good for people who beat these kind of games for breakfast, I rarely just have the patience.

Go play something else

Extinction Eclipse

Top down space RTS. There might be good game in there somewhere, but it demo doesn't really show it. It's quite basic and campaign seems to be missing something that's required to progress. Mission goals require more units than the unit limit allows and I couldn't figure out how to raise the unit cap.

Background story seems to be more epic than the game itself. Though based on the discussion forums there's slight possibility that the Linux port is not the latest version.

The latest Godot Engine showreel is an impressive look at upcoming games
8 October 2022 at 9:06 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: GuestWhy do all these games look childish as if meant for elementary/high school children? Where are the serious games?

Just out of curiosity, what's your definition of serious? Games looks can deceive a bit. Cute looking game can be deadly serious.

A few more picks from Steam Next Fest
8 October 2022 at 7:33 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: SpirimintThe best demo i got was "manor lords"! This is just a must for any base builder fan :)

I played it a bit too. It's quite solid medieval builder game. There's bit of survival aspect there too. My villagers were starting to freeze to death and then the game froze. I kind of get it why this is most popular demo right now.

Quoting: audiopathikI played Techtonica, The Eternal Cylinder and Super Buckyball Tournament on the Steam Deck and they all played great, Eternal Cylinder needed a little tweaking for better FPS.

The Eternal Cylinder is a narrated open-world about small creatures that constantly need to run from a collossal cylinder that plattens everything in its way. Your familiy grows as you find, hatch or free others of your species. You can switch control between them any time, each has its own inventory and the main mechanic: in the open world there are many plants, fruits, crystals and small creatures like fish and flies that can be consumed, some nuture, some grant a mutation such as becoming fat and having increased storage or growing larger legs to jump higher. Mutations can be combined.
High quality voiceover, surreal, reminding of Alice in Wonderland, fun.
The demo is extensive, I havent come to an end in 4 hours

I haven't finished the demo yet, but the world building really is something special here. Everything is just right amount of weird and alien. I guess only thing can go wrong with full game if it can't bring something fresh now and then until the end of the game.