I can't see myself ever buying a Steam Machine. I just couldn't talk myself into buying a personal computer purposely gimped to exclusively cater to gamers. And if the Steam Machine is just a generic PC with SteamOS pre-installed, what's the point? No, don't answer. I know what the point is. I know there's a big market for simple things in pretty packages. The target audience hardly includes grumpy nerds who have not bought a pre-assembled computer since the Amiga 500.

To sum up: Go Steam Machines! I would never buy one, but I'd happily recommend them to "real" gamers.

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Quoting: PozzuoliThe final question regarding AAA games is misleading. Every option suggests that I *have* bought a AAA game on launch day, which is not true. (FWIW I selected "average".)

+1. I've never even seriously considered buying an AAA game on launch day.

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Quoting: BeamboomIt never ceases to amaze me how these kind of games are still released. They could have ran on an old Oric-1? If you are a fan of these kind of games, why not just run an emulator on your PC and download the entire catalogue of games from the 80s?

A free tip: Games are supposed to entertain, benchmarks to test the performance of your system. You see the difference?

If old games are still good (and many of them are), why couldn't new games made in a similar style be good as well? In my opinion many of these new "retro" games are great fun, and often even better than the games they draw their inspiration from, especially if you're not prone to nostalgia. And the fact that they are still released does not mean you get any less of the graphically demanding games you deem worthy of your time.

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Quoting: ShmerlGood to see them considering GOG. I'm not sure why he assumes that Steam is the most active for Linux users. A lot of Linux users avoid DRMed platforms.

Well, most gamers likely do not care about DRM as long as they can play their games. Especially "DRM" like Steam that actually provides some useful features and isn't just about making your life miserable as a consumer. Granted auto-patching is pretty much the only Steam feature I actually like, so Galaxy will do the job just fine for me.

GOG is awesome and DRM is simply idiotic, but the fact is GOG is nowhere near as popular and well known as Steam. Even among Linux-users, I'd bet. Remember that Linux gamers are usually ex Windows gamers.

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These games are wonderful time-wasters (in the positive sense). But the actual reason I enjoy HOGs and HOPAs is that my wife loves 'em, and likes playing them with me. Yeah, I'm whipped, and that's okay. :whistle:

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Quoting: BeamboomPlease remember that the cost of adding a platform is not merely the porting job itself, it's also support and user handling. An additional platform to do patches on. Another platform to do QA on. And so forth.
And one shall not underestimate the cost of getting a decent port done, especially not if it implies adding support for a second 3D API (OpenGL).

Yes, I do know what Linux support means. That is why I picked that term over Linux port. I'd still say it is or would be a decent return for investment for most projects. Additionally, it would seem that the lions share of any large game project's budget goes to content and advertising, not platform-dependent code, although the big studios are not very forthcoming with hard numbers. Which is a bit weird, as movie studios seem to make a point of releasing budget figures for their blockbusters.

The additional api thing is only a problem if the game in question runs on an engine with poor portability design. A hefty percentage of new and upcoming games from the bigger studios are built on modern engines with existing OpenGL backends, but that of course does not mean they get released on minor platforms like Linux.

Quoting: BeamboomI'm telling you - the prospect of an increase of 30-50.000 copies sold if supporting an additional platform is not very lucrative for the players on the league we now talk about. The potential must become larger.

That's true. The platform must become more profitable, and I believe it will.

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Quoting: BeamboomOne mill registred users simply is not enough to defend additional development time for the big releases.

Using your math, that would mean maybe 50 000 extra copies sold. Multiply that by the price of a "big release" and then tell me that's not enough to pay for Linux support.

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Quoting: FrasierCraneHowever, it seems like Tim Schafer pushed it out prematurely and half-baked to get some quick cash for his company, which may be on a financial brink right now.

Or maybe they just saw no need to remake a game that's perfectly fine as it is. I'd bet they merely wanted to get it running on modern operating systems (and selling once again), and these little touch-ups are just a bonus.

Most of the "whiners" seem to have trouble with the concept of remastering vs remaking. Remastering refers to improving the quality or production value of an earlier work, and GF Remastered does that and more. I don't think Double Fine's marketing has broken any promises here.

Quoting: FrasierCraneFor being unplayable - it has for a long time been playable with ResidualVM.

ResidualVM has come far, but it's still not perfect. GF Remastered is without a doubt a better experience for the player. And Grim Fandango definitely deserves to be experienced, even if you're not patient enough or savvy enough to fiddle with alternative game engine implementations. (I am, but we're the minority.)

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Quoting: flesk

Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: fleskThe problems with character lines noted by the developer are very noticeable, as transitions between lines are sometimes very abrupt. It's not a huge issue, but it sounds a bit out of place and it means you'll get less time to digest what is being said before being thrown into the next line of dialogue.

I don't think this only happens on Linux. A friend complained of the exact same problem and I know he's running Windows 7. Not that I'm complaining if they fix it before releasing the Linux version.

Interesting. I've passed that on to their QA lead in case they weren't aware of it.

Thanks. The friend I mentioned said he already reported the bug (and others), but I have no idea where and how. His "bug reports" might very well have amounted to little more than a note on a forum somewhere.

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Quoting: fleskThe problems with character lines noted by the developer are very noticeable, as transitions between lines are sometimes very abrupt. It's not a huge issue, but it sounds a bit out of place and it means you'll get less time to digest what is being said before being thrown into the next line of dialogue.

I don't think this only happens on Linux. A friend complained of the exact same problem and I know he's running Windows 7. Not that I'm complaining if they fix it before releasing the Linux version.

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