Quoting: TheSHEEEPSo I would still say its graphics are well done - if I (or anyone else) personally enjoy them or not doesn't matter in judging their quality.

The graphical effects were well done. But it's a great example of where pixel graphics appear to be more reflection of lack of resources than "artistic style". Because if it were latter, then I don't understand why the game would bother with the distinction between, say, a zombie, and a mutant human.

It did make that distinction, but god knows why. You couldn't actually distinguish between them because the graphics were a pixelly, muddy mess.

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I can see both sides of the discussion here. But honestly, you're both arguing from extremes. There's no way that TheSheeeep could defend the appalling, muddy, messy graphics of something like Teleglitch (despite its fun gameplay), and meanwhile Beamboom has already admitted that there are plenty of indies that have coherent, absorbing worlds.

And reading a book on how the brain works isn't going to change that. Teleglitch could have been amazing. Instead it was headache inducing (when you die, it tells you what enemies you killed and I was surprised to discover that I'd killed four different types of zombie... they were all indinstinguisable blobs). Drake 4 could have been a stunning, memorable, interactive movie, and instead it was simply dull and reinforced the limits of its gameplay over and over (you can climb up THIS WALL, but definitely not THIS WALL).

Counterpoint to Teleglitch? Noita (windows-only). Or Chasm (linux native).
Counterpoint to Drake 4? The Last of Us (PS4), Witcher 3 (windows-only), or for linux-native, look no further than the Life is Strange series, or the latest Tomb Raider.

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Great news! I've been following this for a while. Gonna be a long wait to mid-April!

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Quoting: no_information_here

Quoting: ZlopezI usually have the opposite problem. I open up my library on Steam and I think "I don't know what to play first!" :-D

Yes, indeed.

Speaking of which - has anyone played OneShot on Linux? I bought it and then found that it required jumping through a whole bunch of extra hoops. Having had to fix too many broken games lately, I just left it alone for now. There are so many other games I have that work perfectly.

I think there should be some kind of "report game" button on Steam so that games that don't actually work out of the box on linux get a red linux icon or something, to warn buyers.

I know Linux users have a reputation for "fixing" stuff, but honestly, if I get a game that doesn't run when I hit the "play" button, I give it a forum topic on steam and if the dev doesn't respond, it's a refund and move on. It's happened... twice? But there's no excuse. Either you're selling to this market, or you're not.

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This is fantastic. Along with Godot 4.0's eventual release with its full move to Vulkan, and the recently announced Epic megagrant, it looks like Godot is going from strength to strength. Very exciting!

I only hope Steam isn't soon flooded with asset flips based on this demo, like we saw with Unity! :)

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Funnily enough, I get Beamboom's point about AAA not just being graphics. That's spot on. For me though, what make's a game "AAA" is many things, but often (for me, as I say), hinges upon good acting. Voice acting, or movements in game. Not many indies get this right.

Some do though. Games like Mark of the Ninja, or An Elysian Tale have this in spades, but are from small outfits. Similarly, the Windows-only games from Spearhead Studios are indie but have IMMENSE story telling, voice acting, movement and polish - both Stories: Path of Destiny and the "sequel" (it's not really) Omensight are just amazing because of this, but of course, they'll never get true "AAA" categorisation. Both play near-perfectly in SteamPlay btw - the former is platinum, the latter should be platinum, but needs the media foundations installed to play the tutorial thumbnail videos sadly. It's a 20 second fix to install it, but pretty infuriating that Spearhead adopted such a shitty technology... for a sequel!! Both are still well worth playing though.

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Quoting: Patola

Quoting: BeamboomI don't play for score anymore, I don't play to win at a strategy board. I play for immersion. For fantastic experiences, gorgeous landscapes, excellent acting, touching characters, and a freedom to be and do what I want in a universe like the ones I see in the movies I love.
I don't sit on a machine capable of delivering me a holodeck experience just to play pong again. That's where you have me. Is that really something to patronise?

That was some brilliant writing. I am also from this time, also played games since PONG in "telejogo" circa 1979. And I also avoid small games like the Plague. And I am also angry at the developers that try and use Pixel Graphics as pretending "being artsy" instead of plainly saying it's the small budget. And I look for the same kind of experience as you, but never had read it explained so concisely and perfectly.

I guess I'm the counter point. I'm also from that era - I'll be fifty soon, but still gaming anywhere between 10 and 40 or so hours a week, depending on my social life. But most AAA titles last decade have bored me. For example, I loved the first two Nathan Drake titles on the Playstation, but only managed about 3 hours of the fourth. And the third was a drag from the midpoint on, although I completed it.

Similarly, I loved the first reboot of Tomb Raider, then played only about 4 hours of the second. I haven't bought the third yet, but likely will just to support Feral. It's not so likely that I'll invest much time in it.

Look at the candidates this year! Sure, we only have maybe four titles in that AAA bucket, but then there is:
SteamWorld Quest (beautiful hand-drawn graphics with intense card-based mechanic)
Supraland (stunning UE4 FPS)
Iron Marines (IronHide's usual high quality cartoon graphics and voice-acting)
Slay the Spire (hand-drawn cards, insane replayability)
Indivisible (fantastic animation work)
Pine (could almost be a Nintendo title, it's so pretty)
X4 Foundations (Massive, brave open galaxy sim/fighter)

...and I haven't even mentioned Streets of Rogue! :D

So I just don't get the negativity. I really don't!

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Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: BeamboomI don't play for score anymore, I don't play to win at a strategy board. I play for immersion. For fantastic experiences, gorgeous landscapes, excellent acting, touching characters, and a freedom to be and do what I want in a universe like the ones I see in the movies I love.
I don't sit on a machine capable of delivering me a holodeck experience just to play pong again. That's where you have me. Is that really something to patronise?

I think it's more a case of the attitude. We're a niche, a tiny one and nothing has changed on that. Seeing people repeat the "there's no AAA games" thing over and over again just gets tiring. We are where we are, a lot of us enjoying what we have.

Perhaps it'll be useful to consider whether we add a "Steam Play" category next year. I'm all for celebrating devs who support us, and while I also believed Beamboom to be pretty negative (although well explained in the follow up), I suppose I've played a handful of excellent Windows-only titles this year and perhaps that needs to be recognised. Titles like Void Bastards, Witcher 3, (the absolutely incredible) Noita, Deep Rock Galactic, A Plague Tale: Innocence, Risk of Rain 2 and Wolfenstein: Old Blood.

I suppose what's interesting about that list is that only one is a AAA title and wasn't even released (in any form) in 2019.

So what big AAA titles WERE released in 2019 that I actually missed as a Linux gamer?

PC Gamer notes the following titles:

Best Ongoing Game: Sea of Thieves
Best Remake: Resident Evil 2
Best Character: Untitled Goose Game
Best Action Game: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Best Setting: Control
Best Expansion: Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers
Best Comedy Game: What the Golf?
Best Strategy Game: Total War: Three Kingdoms
Best Design: Slay the Spire
Best Open World Game: Red Dead Redemption 2
Best FPS: Apex Legends
Best Adventure Game: Outer Wilds
Game of the Year: Disco Elysium

Looking at that list, I didn't miss much. Outer Wilds, and Disco Elysium. But I wouldn't have bought the first anyway, because it's an Epic exclusive and I could play the latter anytime with it's Gold rating in ProtonDB.

Some might miss RDR2, but it's not my scene. Sekiro is meant to be a nice Souls-like, but again, not my scene and it's Platinum anyway.

So I'm pretty happy with both the state of Linux gaming, and this GoTY. You only have to rewind five years to remember that we didn't have anything. And with just under 1% market share, that's not really likely to change.

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Quoting: einherjarHuh, I could not find DXVK in the category "Favourite FOSS project" :O

Wow, yeah, that's surprising. Especially consider that both Wine and Proton are in there! I'm amazed that no-one nominated it!

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Quoting: antisol

Quoting: scainethink about the end-game, which is perfect, seamless support for all Windows games, on Linux.

Firstly, that's not my end-game. I'm not particularly interested in running windows games on Linux. I'd rather have Linux games.

That's the point. Once SteamPlay hits its visionary goal, there won't be any distinction.

As for the rest of your post, it's weirdly pessimistic. There are literally thousands of games I can already "play like native" and this is only the first year. In fact, there are quite a few titles that run better on Linux now than Windows 10.

Sure, the goal is visionary. And it isn't just about wine. It's about Valve and others encouraging more open development so that future titles aren't really "Windows" games anymore. It'll take years, perhaps decades, but look at the impact Vulkan has already had in such a short time. Look at DXVK that followed closely. Look at the maturity of things like SDL. It's all coming together nicely, I think.

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