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Linux finally has a another decent racing game. It’s not a traditional racer by any measure, but still good. Performance is top quality too.

I say “another” because I class Distance as an awesome survival racer, but DiRT Showdown is much closer to a real racing game for us.

Note: I purchased a key to it myself when I saw it was released (by accident), but was later given a key to unlock a beta to help test it. Really liking Virtual Programming’s turnaround in attitude here, I absolutely applaud it.

About the game
Race, crash and hoon your way through a world tour of motorised mayhem in DiRT Showdown! Crowd atmosphere, social gameplay and accessibility are all ramped up in this turbo- injected shot of driving delirium. Smash down the accelerator and earn the adulation of frenzied crowds at hyper-energised events at iconic locations. Trick, speed and smash your way to victory, then do it again.

My thoughts
Port issues - Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.
Sadly, it’s not perfection yet.

The game will hang sometimes and not recover, VP don’t know exactly what’s causing it and my logs aren’t providing the answers yet. They have tried to fix the bug, but it still happens. Hopefully more reports will help them find why it’s happening. Please do send your logs to them if the game hangs for you. The eon.txt file can be found in the games install folder. It’s a rare bug that’s hard to nail down, so more people reporting it will get it fixed easier.

The game’s audio (OpenALSOFT) is locked to whatever the default current output is. If you plug in a USB headset, the game will not switch to it, or even allow you to switch to it in PulseAudio Volume Control. You need to load the game with the audio device you want set as the current output for it to work. This does not affect normal jack output for headphones. Not a major issue really. You can make it possible to move audio devices by using this file, and simply place it in your home directory under the name “.alsoftrc” and set “allow-moves = true”. Do that at your own peril, I’m not responsible for breakage, but it works for me.

If you have multiple monitors, you can force the game onto a monitor using this:
Quote--eon_force_display=*monitor*

Where *monitor* starts at 0

Gamepads can be a little strange, but my F310 mostly works fine. I say mostly as now and then I need to rotate both sticks around in the menu, and then it's somehow calibrated again.

Performance and gameplay
The first thing to note is performance, which really can’t be far off Windows, as it’s really quite impressive. It’s not really a question of if it’s close to Windows or not though, but the fact that even my old 560ti I dusted off to test was completely playable on High settings. It goes without saying how well it runs on my 970 really. If you’re interested, my previous benchmark article is here.

Note: You will want to turn the announcer audio down, it will only let you go down to 50%, but you will thank me. Most annoying thing to have in a racer, ever.

DiRT Showdown is more about smashing your opponents to put them off than simply racing around. Some game modes are even just all out car smashing battles, and I have been enjoying it rather a lot.

I’m a little torn between which is my favourite mode right now. Elimination is probably one of the most intense, as you are on a timer, and each time it reaches zero the person coming last is knocked out. That really does get your heart going a little bit, and I enjoy it every time.

I think my second favourite mode is probably 8-Ball, as the race has sections that overlap, and crashes will be plenty. There’s nothing like smooth sailing in first place, to be utterly annihilated by an oncoming car from your right, and then you’re last. It’s hilariously frustrating! It’s more amusing to be coming second, and see first places get literally swept off the track by an oncoming racer, and you sail past into first place.

One thing which really annoyed me was the particular event type called “Smash Hunter” that has you driving around a concrete area, and all you’re doing is knocking over coloured blocks. Who in their right mind thought “this is awesome”, I want them fired. Nothing about that game mode is fun, but the rest of the game really is.

My other critique is the choice of colours: why can’t I have a pink car in every class? The limited customization isn’t a major issue, but it would be nice to have and it would make the game feel a bit bigger.

Another annoyance is the score counter in the “Rampage” game-mode, you’re constantly crashing into others to get points, and the counter is constantly going. It sounds like there’s a cricket constantly in the room.

Final thoughts
Honestly, each time I boot it up I completely forget that it’s not native, and I just enjoy it. That’s exactly how it should be, this game has somewhat changed my mind about non-native porting solutions. It will completely change my mind when the issue of it hanging at random points is fixed.

Is it worth the £9.99 asking price? Absolutely. I've already put 13 hours into the beast.

Check out DiRT Showdown on Steam. I look forward to racing with some of you, and annoying you as I give you a little shunt. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Racing, Sports, Steam
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About the author -
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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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68 comments
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GustyGhost Aug 17, 2015
Though it's not native, I'm glad to have a third major porting house to tackle game ports.
Linas Aug 17, 2015
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  • Supporter Plus
Downloading... Will report back when I have something to complain about. ;)
aristorias Aug 17, 2015
it is really sad to see the linux world completely focus on nvidia/intel.
We already have an intel monopoly and the same will happen with nvidia.
Everybody has some kind of responsibility, especially reporters - free or not.
Why? Free enterprise! Just saying ...
Samsai Aug 17, 2015
Quoting: aristoriasit is really sad to see the linux world completely focus on nvidia/intel.
We already have an intel monopoly and the same will happen with nvidia.
Everybody has some kind of responsibility, especially reporters - free or not.
Why? Free enterprise! Just saying ...
What are you on about exactly?
chrisq Aug 17, 2015
Downloading, will report back, as I have a special interest in racing games.
Linas Aug 17, 2015
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: aristoriasit is really sad to see the linux world completely focus on nvidia/intel.
We already have an intel monopoly and the same will happen with nvidia.
Everybody has some kind of responsibility, especially reporters - free or not.
Why? Free enterprise! Just saying ...

AMD brought this on themselves. I used to be an AMD user, both CPU and GPU. But with every release fglrx driver was getting worse and worse. Crashing, not being able to change screen brightness. Then they dropped the card from the driver altogether while the open source driver had no 3D support yet. That was the last straw -- my next machine was Intel / NVIDIA.
ElectricPrism Aug 17, 2015
Quoting: Linas
Quoting: aristoriasit is really sad to see the linux world completely focus on nvidia/intel.
We already have an intel monopoly and the same will happen with nvidia.
Everybody has some kind of responsibility, especially reporters - free or not.
Why? Free enterprise! Just saying ...

AMD brought this on themselves. I used to be an AMD user, both CPU and GPU. But with every release fglrx driver was getting worse and worse. Crashing, not being able to change screen brightness. Then they dropped the card from the driver altogether while the open source driver had no 3D support yet. That was the last straw -- my next machine was Intel / NVIDIA.

He speaks the truth. We built only AMD ATI for many years until their product become inferior and their drivers mere duck-tape and barely functional. I would rather shell out the extra $300 on CPU+GPU than waste weeks rooting for the underdog products of a dysfunctional corporation and only receive subpar performance.

My suggestion to you - go sell your AMD on ebay or local and buy a nVidia card if you want the "best" linux gaming experience. It's sad, and it's not the way it should be - but it's the way it is right now. Maybe the future will be different - that's up to AMD, in the meantime I won't suffer from their bad choices.

--

This video looks great! I can't wait to buy this and hopefully it's "most excellent", party on linux dudes.


Last edited by ElectricPrism on 17 August 2015 at 6:14 pm UTC
Pangachat Aug 17, 2015
No executable :( Maybe tomorrow then. (SteamOS)
wojtek88 Aug 17, 2015
@Pangachat the same for me - in my case on Ubuntu. I already had this game in library and when I try to install it it does no Disk space required, available and estimated download time - have anyone experienced such an issue before?
Bons Aug 17, 2015
Quoting: wojtek88@Pangachat the same for me - in my case on Ubuntu. I already had this game in library and when I try to install it it does no Disk space required, available and estimated download time - have anyone experienced such an issue before?

Had that too, just restart steam client and it was ok.
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