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Flathub seeks funding to add payments, donations and subscriptions
4 March 2023 at 3:26 am UTC Likes: 1

If I could pay a lump $100/yr for all the open source software I use, I would do it. But you have to donate to projects of varying sizes right now. It is... kind of difficult to manage unless you're going to break out a spreadsheet and make a nice chore out of it.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is a Vampire Survivors styled spin-off
4 March 2023 at 3:18 am UTC

Single player looter shooter? To each his own, but not my jam. One of the many reasons I love Deep Rock is because I can jump into a co-op game with random players and pretty dependably have a good time without griefers.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive keeps breaking player records
26 February 2023 at 5:36 am UTC

I don't like CS:GO. I like the Insurgency games far better.

Walk around a corner and die instantly? Then wait for the round to end? Give me a break. The Battlefield games were always way more up my alley. More dynamic combat and objectives.

Minecraft 1.20 adding Archaeology, Cherry Blossom Biome and a Sniffer mob
26 February 2023 at 5:29 am UTC

What do you guys think about the secure chat system feature that came out a couple versions ago?

Valve tricks Dota 2 cheaters and then bans 40,000 of them
26 February 2023 at 5:20 am UTC

Quoting: GuestDota is free so all 40 thousands cheaters came back the same day on new account. In the old days punkbuster was giving hardware bans instead. Wikipedia says hardware GUID can be spoofed so it might be the reason why it's not in use anymore. I don't think this ban wave will change anything.
Since the game has been around forever now, they could change new sign-ups to require referral. Remember when Gmail was like that? You can only refer if your account is mature. If the people you refer cheat, you get warnings and an eventual suspension. It's like co-signing a loan.

Ubuntu flavours to drop Flatpak by default and stick to Snaps
26 February 2023 at 5:12 am UTC Likes: 1

Since Ubuntu is seen as friendly to newcomers, it's a shame those newcomers will have to figure out how to install and configure Flatpak that first time they try to install one but their system doesn't recognize the command. Mint, Pop OS, and Elementary OS are handling Flatpak support better.

I'd still recommend Mint over Ubuntu to Linux newbies. That is if they feel they don't know enough to decide. What I've done in the past in an attempt to snuff my bias is show screenshots of the desktop interface of various distributions and let them decide based on appearance of window managers and how the desktop is organized.

Shader cache downloads being a nuisance? Valve may have solved it
18 February 2023 at 3:22 am UTC

Quoting: rcritEvery time I restart the client I get 20+ downloads immediately, plus recompilation and today was no different. I restarted just now and got 21 downloads for a total of 2.6GB (with associated fossilize_replay processes).

Or maybe this is its last gasp and next time things will be golden.
I noticed the same happening to me. I'm not sure if it has gone away because I haven't been able to get on Steam for a while. But you're not alone!

Shader cache downloads being a nuisance? Valve may have solved it
18 February 2023 at 3:09 am UTC

Quoting: Schattenspiegelok so now we have only a few hundred kb downloads and half an hour of shader pre-compiling in the background...for however many people use this feature and dare to have more than one game installed ... this seems a bit wasteful energy wise, does it not?
It would happen during gameplay anyway, so it's only a waste if you don't play the games you have installed. If that's true, then you are wasting money and material on your hard drive too.

Your same thought has crossed my mind, too. It's partly the reason why I only keep games installed which I've played within the last 12 months.

Godot Engine 4.0 gets a first Release Candidate
11 February 2023 at 6:12 am UTC

I made it pretty far into the Unity online courseware. This news makes me want to play with Godot again. This time, I wouldn't have the constraint of using Unity since the friend who was learning with me and wanted to use Unity fizzled out.

Steam Next Fest - February 2023 edition brings lots of demos
11 February 2023 at 6:08 am UTC

Nice suggestions. I added a couple to my wish list.