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The Stanley Parable has finally been released for Linux after a bit of a delay, and it’s one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had in a long time.

Disclosure: Key provided by developer.

About the game (Official)
The Stanley Parable is a first person exploration game. You will play as Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will follow a story, you will not follow a story. You will have a choice, you will have no choice. The game will end, the game will never end. Contradiction follows contradiction, the rules of how games should work are broken, then broken again. This world was not made for you to understand.

But as you explore, slowly, meaning begins to arise, the paradoxes might start to make sense, perhaps you are powerful after all. The game is not here to fight you; it is inviting you to dance.

Based on the award-winning 2011 Source mod of the same name.

My thoughts
Runs great for a Wine port. - Jokes aside, it’s not a Wine port. Recently some people downloaded it due to an accident on Linux with Windows files, and Wine launched it. This led to some fun trolling by the developer.

I had heard of The Stanley Parable before we posted about it originally, but I had never played it from my time on Windows. I had no idea what to expect, the description didn’t give me a clear picture and so I went in blind.

What I came across with this game is definitely an odd experience. It’s odd because you don’t actually do all that much. I know, I’m not selling it to you right now, but I didn’t say it wasn’t interesting—which it most certainly is.

The voice over work by Kevan Brighting is simply amazing, and really fits perfectly with the pace of the game. I’ve played a lot of games in my years, and I’m already putting the narration of this game in a pretty high place.

Some people may not see it as a game, but a game doesn’t have to be all about action, explosions and whatever else. It reminded me a little bit of Gone Home, only with a lot more comedy, and less throwing things around.

It’s very hard to say a lot about the game, without spoiling all the little funny quirks of it. You really will just have to take my word for it being fun, or the 17 thousand positive Steam reviews for it.

As for how it ran, being a Source engine based game it’s not surprising how well it ran, as it was always above 200 FPS for me. Top notch, but not surprising as it’s not exactly rendering a lot at a time.

Final thoughts: If you like figuring things out, exploring and having a chuckle about how it reminds you of “that one job I had”, go buy it.

Check out The Stanley Parable on Steam. There’s also a demo, so you have nothing to lose. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Adventure, Steam
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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Xpander Sep 9, 2015
and video here as well :)

quick notes: runs well over 200 fps on everything very high, simplescreenrecorder with nvenc has issues keeping up with some weird high framerates that dont equal in 60fps increments... so few drops in the video due that, but the actual framerate is smoothly over 200

View video on youtube.com
manus76 Sep 9, 2015
have only one thing to say: frigging' high time! ;-)
Stupendous Man Sep 9, 2015
Yay, finally! I've had this game in my library since forever. I can't even remember why and when I bought it, seeing as it wasn't available on Linux.
zais Sep 9, 2015
Great Tehlu!!!
Downloading it.
chriskringel84 Sep 9, 2015
Wow, even the demo got ported? Great, because I love the demo. It's like an additional bonus chapter if you already own the game, and if you don't own the game it's a great prologue to the game. If you had played the game, you want to play the demo, and if you have played the demo, you want to play the game, and if you played the game, ...

You may come across some problems installing the demo, because Steam client and Steam store will link you the the main game's page, if you search for the Demo and click on it.

But you can install the demo (it works in all cases: owning TSP, having TSP installed, not owning TSP, not having TSP installed). From your command line do the following (you can do this while Steam is alreaddy running, but it should work otherwise also):

Type: steam steam://rungameid/247750


(see also: https://steamdb.info/app/247750/ )

And that's it. Wait a moment and Steam should install it.

You can get these numbers (App ID) by e.g. typing "stanley parable +demo +steamdb" into Google. Somehow also on Windows it got difficult to find and install demos on the graphical interface of the Steam client/store. So that is the best way atm.


PS: Sorry for my English and logic, I'm really tired this evening. But also excited for The Stanley Parable. And the demo is so damn good! :)
MayeulC Sep 9, 2015
Bough it long ago, but it remained in my inventory in case it was never ported (to gift it to someone else). I guess it's time to unpack the gift \o/

Man... I'm back to school tomorrow, it's 21:16 here at the time of writing. I'm not sure if it's a gift after all :D

Edit : my steam inventory seems to be "unavailable for now". I guess lord Gaben has an eye on me, in the end ;)


Last edited by MayeulC on 9 September 2015 at 7:19 pm UTC
mulletdeath Sep 9, 2015
I had already played this a little in WINE, and that was before I knew to wait 2-3 weeks before playing it so it would count as a Linux sale. So, even though GranPC won't see my sale, I'm still grateful for getting to play natively now!


Last edited by mulletdeath on 9 September 2015 at 11:59 pm UTC
Gran PC Sep 9, 2015
Quoting: mulletdeathI had already played this a little in aWINE, and that was before I knew to wait 2-3 weeks before playing it so it would count as a Linux sale. So, even though GranPC won't see my sale, I'm still grateful for getting to play natively now!

That's ok! I'm not looking at sales numbers much!

Thank you for playing the game :)
khansei Sep 9, 2015
my wireless xbox 360 pad doesnt seem to work very well.. To bad
neowiz73 Sep 9, 2015
To play it or Not to play it?... that is the question... I may or may not give it a try.
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