The reason I'm not keen on wrappers such as eON and Wine is because it harms the future of OpenGL. Why is this important? Well OpenGL is the open standard, the Open Document Format to Microsoft's DOC, open standards make everyone's lives easier from users through to developers.

As a (non-games) developer I don't want to backslide into a world where I can't "write once, run anywhere". Microsoft have already tried to drop OpenGL support from Windows once, I don't trust them not to do so permanently in the future. If that were ever to happen then everyone loses, the work required to make applications and games available natively on any platform would increase dramatically, and inevitably many companies and open source teams would be unwilling to make the commitment.

This isn't a battle of Linux vs Windows, open source vs closed source but of Open Standards* vs Proprietary Standards.

* An 'Open standard' is not analogous to 'open source', it doesn't just mean that the standard is readable by everyone but that no one entity decides what goes into that standard, a wide range of people with different interests contribute to a standard and it's reviewed by a community before it can be published. This compares with a proprietary standard which may be readable by all, but where the design decisions are made only by one entity to serve only their needs.

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It is indeed very beautiful, shame that it's a multiplayer fragfest though, hasn't that been done to death?

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Feral did port the first two games, so although it's strange to give the Linux port to them when it means duplicating work done for the Mac port by Aspyr it's not infeasible. It could be that Aspyr are just too busy, they've already said that they are porting multiple games to Linux right now, that's going to keep their fledgling 'Linux' team occupied.

Perhaps 2K have contracted it so that another company get Aspyr's port as a starting point? Perhaps someone else is doing it? Maybe 2K are even doing it in-house?

The clues given by Feral about their next linux game are ambiguous. They seem to apply more strongly to Total War (meh), but it's possible to make a reasonable case for Bioshock Infinite. We know both games have appeared on SteamDB for linux, and Feral did the TW port for Mac, so realistically Feral aren't the ones doing Bioshock - unless Feral are doing both and only put one on the radar?

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Well that certainly casts doubt on my theory. Well I hit google and found this:
http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Soldier%27s_Field [External Link]

As I noted before, the image appears to show soldiers in front of a field type landscape. So perhaps a reference to Bioshock Infinite after all.

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The linux/mac icons on the feral radar weren't there yesterday ...

They had said they would be adding linux games to the radar. In fact they did it once previously but then removed them because it wasn't clear which games were for which platform.

"Everybody wants to rule the world" is a brand new addition. I immediately think of XCom, but they've already released that so it must be something else? The picture, when blown up appears to show ranks of soldiers armed with rifles or pikes, so based on the games Feral have previously ported I'd say it has to be one of the Total War series - Napoleon maybe? The artwork style seems to be a good match - https://www.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-games/napoleontw/media/ [External Link]

https://www.feralinteractive.com/library/upcoming/teaser.php?codename=Everybody+Wants+to+Rule+the+World [External Link]

Of course Feral gave us a clue about this game a short time back. It was a picture of a King Penguin, but some people, probably including Feral thought it was an EMPEROR penguin. Napolean declared himself Emperor of Europe, and walked like a penguin (short legs, arm clasped to his side). Mystery solved?

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Quoting: LinasI am about 60% finished with Dead Island. Great fun, and runs great, even if it is flawed in many ways. But that is not Linux specific.

It's running OK? I'd avoided it because I was hearing terrible things about the linux port.

I recently finished Borderlands 2 (first play-through), still got a couple of the GoTY DLCs to complete (Tiny Tina, Hammerlock) but I'm taking a break from that to look at the X3 series. X3: Reunion isn't exactly what I was hoping for (An X-Wing type game). So far it's proving a bit frustrating with key objectives not marked on any map so you're blundering around for an hour in three dimensions looking for things like gates, only to get murdered by pirates sending you right back to where you started (Save points are an issue). My Saitek joystick isn't supported (no option for in-game calibration) which is another negative.

I've a large backlog of games to work through, should be able to make a dent this Christmas considering there will be lots of free time and nothing at all to watch on TV but repeats.

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Quoting: dubigrasuBut calling people crackpots for their choices is not helping having a sane discussion at all.

As I said before I make a distinction between those who stuck with 32bit out of inertia and those who did so because they think that 64bit is somehow inferior. I wasn't calling people crackpots for their choice, but for the reasoning behind their refusal. As a developer I've heard many people argue why 32bit is 'better' and almost without exception those arguments have ranged from bizarre misconceptions ( "I don't have enough RAM to run 64bit" ) through to loony conspiracy theories ( "64bit is just a way to sell more processors, it offers no advantages over 32bit" ).

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The disappointment that something doesn't work on your platform is valid, and something long term linux users will be very familiar with. The disappointment that it doesn't work because you refuse to switch from a 32bit install to a 64bit install (at no cost) isn't IMHO.

I draw a distinction between those not wanting to upgrade because they are happy with what they've got, and those who refuse to upgrade then complain they are missing out on some application or feature.

All the programmers I worked with were among the very first to switch years ago when only the only desktop processors supporting 64 bit were made by AMD, how else do you ensure your code builds and works correctly in 64 bit environments? :) These days there are far more likely to be 32 bit only bugs than 64 bit bugs (narrowing conversions etc).

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Quoting: Cheeseness

Quoting: lucifertdarkWhat's wrong with the X-Com port? I know I've only spent a few minutes playing it but I haven't had any game stopping bugs or performance issues, so what's wrong with it?

Astro is disappointed by the lack of 32bit support for X-Com. This is a valid and rational disappointment (although some of the ways in which that disappointment has been expressed are a bit uncool).

I don't want to drag out the argument at the expense of discussing what we're here to discuss, but is it really a valid disappointment? It's a bit like complaining that they no longer make 8bit games. 64 bit processors and operating systems have been in households for over a decade now, linux having supported it far longer than Windows et al. What possible valid reason is there for still using 32bit? And if using 32bit really is necessary for some reason (aside from ancient hardware), then you can always dual-boot it with a 64bit distro.

The only people I've ever encountered who still run 32bit distros on 64bit architectures are crackpots who talk about 64bit not being ready for production use. They tend to actually know nothing about it because they aren't programmers.

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"Lego Batman 3" features Penguin, a character called Condiment KING and it's a game that a Feral team have recently been working on for OSX, unlike Arkham City which they finished working on two years ago.

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