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Latest 30 Comments

News - You can grab a free copy of Immortals Fenyx Rising from Ubisoft
By Pyrate, 14 Nov 2025 at 9:14 am UTC

I realize most Linux folks don't like the Ubi launcher

Not only Linux folks. Ubisoft Connect was the bane of my existence and one of the more annoying things I had to deal with when I was on Windows. It needed updates every goddamn time I wanted to play R6 Siege. And it was obnoxiously amensic, asking me for my credentials in what feels like every single time I have to launch it to play the game, the 'Remember me' button didn't work. Not to mention the extra 1-2 min I'd have to sit for it to initialize or steal my data or something before Siege properly launches. The overlay is also garbage as it's very slow and unresponsive at times.

Probably the shittiest launcher out there as I had better luck with the likes of EA launcher which was notorious itself but admittedly less so recently, as they must've gotten their shit together.

I haven't used the Ubisoft launcher in months, so all of what I said could very well be outdated by now.

News - Ready for the Steam Frame, Khronos Group announced a new OpenXR "Best Practices Validation Layer"
By scaine, 14 Nov 2025 at 9:10 am UTC

Yeah, it's eXtended Reality. Basically slotting in an X to mean either A (augmented) or V (virtual), since it does both.

VR terminology is baffling. Monado vs SteamVR vs OpenXR, all with their own quirks and compatibility.

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By Pyrate, 14 Nov 2025 at 9:07 am UTC

I may seem like an amateur, and I am, but why not create a specific linux kernel for this kind of games ?

Because, how else are these clueless devs going to lie to their players and tell them they addressed cheating ?

News - SteamVR 2.13 brings a whole lot of bug fixes
By logge, 14 Nov 2025 at 8:33 am UTC

@Corben: This is amazing! I struggeled a bit with envision / monado, but getting it to work really is worth it! Performance gain is outstanding - from mere diashow to fluid running!

Monado seems to be quite picky right now - feels like SteamVR a year ago.

--edit--
Just found out that envision / monado needs to be started before steam, or it will hang with "Starting...." - is this a solvable problem with my setup?

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By shotm7, 14 Nov 2025 at 8:24 am UTC

I may seem like an amateur, and I am, but why not create a specific linux kernel for this kind of games ?
An other option is that when you enter the steam gamemode, and a game is launched, the steam environment with the game is sandboxed.
Third solution: reimplement user kick voting

News - ARC Raiders is expanding with a new map but first a multi-phase event to unlock it
By Xpander, 14 Nov 2025 at 7:52 am UTC

Completed the resources. I wonder what rewards we will get with that? merit points or whatever.
Honestly haven't had that much fun playing multiplayer game for a while. Never been into Extraction games before either.
But this game just oozes with atmosphere and amazing gameplay.

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By Eike, 14 Nov 2025 at 7:12 am UTC

That's the part I miss from these modern games - by making matchmaking and server infrastructure dependent on the publisher, we lost so much

Yes, so much yes. I had lots of fun in CoD 1 and 2. Until some... Black Ops 2 maybe? ... was doing automatic match making. Bye FPS.

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By Kithop, 14 Nov 2025 at 5:43 am UTC

I honestly feel spoiled for choice in games... I understand why some devs want to use kernel level rootkits anti-cheat mechanisms, but personally I don't find any competitive gaming that interesting anymore, these days.

Yeah, I grew up playing deathmatches in the likes of Duke3D, Quake, UT, Tribes, etc., and yeah, cheaters suck, but... I could always switch to a different dedicated server with some obscure mods or host my own. When the server OP is watching someone obviously cheat in-game, it's easy to just ban them and move on, because these servers were (and in many cases still are!) run as a community effort, with volunteers keeping the peace.

That's the part I miss from these modern games - by making matchmaking and server infrastructure dependent on the publisher, we lost so much. So if a multiplayer game doesn't let me host my own dedicated server I can opt to password-lock to my friends, I'm honestly just not interested. Give us standalone dedicated server binaries (hell, I'm even running one right now for Empyrion via wine), and let the community sort it out, no kernel rootkit shenanigans needed.

Of course, the real reason behind all this is so they can protect their investment in microtransactions and loot box garbage, so I'm not surprised they don't want little Timmy cheating in that fancy $$$ golden weapon skin without paying them for the privilege. emoji

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By RevenantDak, 14 Nov 2025 at 5:20 am UTC

I imagine it will be super easy to either dual-boot or run a Windows VM.

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By Highball, 14 Nov 2025 at 5:14 am UTC

I don't think it matters what anti cheat solutions Valve implements. They can already compile their kernel with eBPF(https://ebpf.io/) support. Then each game could dynamically program (or Valve could) the kernel for anti cheat. Okay, but that doesn't happen, as of yet. That's because, as game devs have stated, they just can't battle the cheaters on two fronts. Maybe one day Valve will offer a compelling solution that reduces the load of the game devs. I doubt it though, it's PC, so no matter the eco system, Windows or Linux, it's a free-for-all by design. As long as these games do peer 2 peer match making and hosting, I don't think any of this will change.

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By felipecrs, 14 Nov 2025 at 4:15 am UTC

What about those multi-kernel features proposed to Linux?

We could have a dedicated kernel for running certain games with all the accesses and trust needed by the anti cheat.

News - Valve reveal the new Steam Frame, Steam Controller and Steam Machine with SteamOS
By Cybolic, 14 Nov 2025 at 1:26 am UTC

Since several comments have asked about the price of the Steam Frame, several of the "hands-on" videos that have come out since the announcement, quote Valve as saying the Frame will be slightly less than the price of the Valve Index.
The Valve Index was (before the current U.S. discount) sold at 749 USD (headset + controllers - base stations; if including the base stations, it was 999 USD), so somewhere slightly lower than that should be the price of the Frame next year.

As for the Steam Machine, they've said it's going to be priced "more like a PC" than a console, which I take to mean that it'll be more expensive than the current-gen consoles. The current average price of the different Xbox and PS models is 565 USD (with "Pro" models going up to $750), so I'd imagine the Steam Machine will be priced similarly to the Steam Frame, probably a bit cheaper.

With no more information given, those are the best ballpark-numbers I can give.

News - Talking point - what have you been playing lately?
By Jahimself, 14 Nov 2025 at 1:00 am UTC

Sorry for becoming off topic, but as your choice matched my curiosity and hesitated between those 3 distro. I'd like to thank you a lot for your detailed answer clatterfordslim. I like it leightweigt with some ease to use, I might get tempted by cachyOS or return to xubuntu, I'll decided when the SSD will be in the PC :p
Is cachyOS working easily out of the box with old windows games if you tried any?

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By Jahimself, 14 Nov 2025 at 12:53 am UTC

I will be honest by saying that behind the anticheat on battlefield 6 lies a strategical step toward blocking valve from punishing those greedy studios in order to restrain our liberty and fullfil their secret desire of overwhelming power of people who just want to have fun freely.

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By ElectricPrism, 14 Nov 2025 at 12:50 am UTC

.01%

Presenting misinformation as fact because you "feel" that your exaggeration is true.

^^ Instantly loose all credibility in seconds, Do Not Collect 200 Or Pass Go. ^^

--

Regarding "Walled EAC Gardens" on Steam.
This is really simple.
Developers follow incentives.
Valve needs to incentivize developers to get their shit together.

If your game doesn't FULLY work on the new 2026 STEAM MACHINE, you are ineligible to be in the FEATURED GAMES BILLBOARD on the HOMEPAGE.

STEAM HOMEPAGE is a place for games COMPATIBLE with Steam Hardware.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

News - Hot on the heels of the Steam Frame announcement, SteamVR Beta 2.14.1 brings more fixes
By ElectricPrism, 14 Nov 2025 at 12:38 am UTC

"Fix Steam Link freeze for users with AMD video cards ("Error 250")."

Anything that improves AMD GPU support is very welcome. I know on Windows Nvidia is defacto but on Linux AMD is much more comfortable, and Linux Steam VR has been an area in need of some Quality of Life improvements, thou I haven't tried my Index lately since I lent it out.

News - You can grab a free copy of Immortals Fenyx Rising from Ubisoft
By Dana Souly, 14 Nov 2025 at 12:14 am UTC

As my age progresses i do not play so many games anymore - I've even stopped playing on my PS5.
I just don't bother about free games anymore.
At the moment I'm playing mostly Oldschool Runescape and if I want some variety, i check what I've installed on my too big Steam Library. I have so many unplayed or unfinished games.
But yet, here I am waiting for nostalgia games like HoMM: Olden Era, Moulder, Hark the Ghoul or Mina the hollower.
I've even installed TES2: Daggerfall not long ago.
What is wrong with me?
Why am I not excited anymore?
When did I lost my passion for gaming?
It's like the games are just an occupational therapy for filling out my empty life.
Click here, work there, a new level, a new skill, oh - shiny!
(don't worry about me, I'm already in therapy.)

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By johndoe, 13 Nov 2025 at 11:43 pm UTC

@Lofty Yes, I already did that with some friends a couple of years ago, but that works only for experienced users. Otherwise you end up installing the client on every friends pc... more hassle than its worth.
Many casual gamers don't even know what an IP address is and they do not care. Such things must be as simple as getting a beer out of your fridge;)

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By Liam Dawe, 13 Nov 2025 at 11:34 pm UTC

I’m surprised I still have to state the obvious here for certain people. Just because Linux has a low user share, doesn’t mean it won’t have cheat vendors and cheaters using it because they can get away with it.

It only takes one person with cheats to potentially ruin hundreds (thousands etc) of online matches.

So both can be factually true: low users, high cheats. Developers won’t be saying this kind of thing repeatedly if it was a flat out lie and no Microsoft aren’t paying them to do so, pure FUD.

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By johndoe, 13 Nov 2025 at 11:22 pm UTC

I agree that this would excellent, but it won't happen, because there's no money in LAN servers

Again, developers have to go back to the roots. Instead of selling nonsense like skins/items nobody needs for 2 bucks they can develop great DLCs which really enhance the gaming experience for say 25 bucks. And guest what? When the hoster (the one who started the server) has the DLC installed, all other friends need that DLC too.
Boom, the dev earns much more money within seconds/minutes.
Quality makes money... selling trash, not.

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By phil995511, 13 Nov 2025 at 11:06 pm UTC

I continue to call bullshit on these 'devs' statements about the amount of cheaters using Linux. Their numbers sound comically inflated.

Please do not forget that kernel level anticheat is not the holy grail against cheaters.
When BF6 came out this one streamer had access to a cheat ... only took hours.

The more money is involved the more cheating there is.

On the other hand - counter strike, a game that is also a trading platform runs on linux.


I agree with you, to say such a thing is to lie :

- It’s a vector for cheat developers.

- When we stopped support for Linux, we saw more cheat users exploiting Linux, than actual legitimate users.

- If a game supports Proton or Linux, they’re not serious about anti-cheat.


Globally, Windows represents 66% of PC users and Linux only 3%.

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide

Steam users on Windows accounted for 94.84% in October 2025, compared to 3.05% of Linux users at the same time.

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey?l=french

This statement must be true :

- When we stopped supporting Linux, users made up less than .01% of the total player base.


Developing cheat software for Linux isn't profitable either...

For this reason, there are no cheaters softwares under Linux.

There is no difficulty in running an anti-cheat system under Linux, unless one deliberately refuses to do so.

Windows has always engaged in unfair competition against Linux, and this continues ;-(

News - Of course dbrand is doing a Steam Machine Companion Cube
By Mohandevir, 13 Nov 2025 at 10:57 pm UTC

I wish it was actually called the 'gabecube' lol, gamecube was the first thing I thought of when I saw the reveal

Gabecube! Lol!

This said my first reaction was: "Now it really looks like a Steambox".

News - Of course dbrand is doing a Steam Machine Companion Cube
By Taros, 13 Nov 2025 at 10:52 pm UTC

Wasn't interested in the steam machine..... until now.

News - Anti-cheat will still be one of the biggest problems for the new Steam Machine
By Lofty, 13 Nov 2025 at 10:49 pm UTC

@johndoe i wonder if software such as tailscale could be used to create easy mesh networks over VPN where by a home computer can host the players and others join on the same network (also by using tailscale clients)

There has been a huge increase in computing power & stable internet since the LAN-to-WAN days , and with things such as tailscale (wireguard) you don't need a cloud server or a great deal of technical knowledge.

i mean you can use steam for 'remote play' and play a co-op game, it's not quite the same as i think it doesn't cater for 16+ players in one remote play session (but i could be wrong)