Patreon Logo Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal Logo PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
Latest Comments by scaine
RPG 'GOKEN' is now officially available on Linux
11 Aug 2017 at 12:40 pm UTC

I'll be picking this up. It looks beautiful. Might even break my no-EA rule for this as it looks pretty complete.

What have you been playing on Linux lately and what do you think?
10 Aug 2017 at 6:04 pm UTC

Newly released Full Throttle Remastered [External Link]. Not quite finished it yet, but brings the nostalgia on in large chunks. Superb stuff.

Tacoma [External Link]: Finished it in just under 3 hours. It's disappointingly short, but only because it's so engaging. I enjoyed it more than Gone Home and I really, really enjoyed Gone Home. Just not as nice as Soma, I guess, which felt a bit more engaging. I'd still recommend it though, provided you don't have hang-ups on the words "walking simulator". I hate that term. Judge it on the experience.

Deus Ex: MK [External Link], since I got my new shiny GTX1080, I'm playing this at 60fps and... just what a game. Incredible graphics, insane attention to detail and a stealth mechanic that actually works.

Flamebreak [External Link]: A hidden gem, surely. I keep coming back to it. One of those games that rewards true skill, but is easy to slip back into. A bit like Rocket League in that respect.

And I tried a bunch of cheaper titles I've picked up recently: Root [External Link], SolarGun [External Link], Near Death [External Link] and Cloudbase Prime [External Link]. None of them hugely stand out, but they're all fairly decent. Well, apart from SolarGun - no tutorial, no story, no explanations... and I can't get past the third room! I must be doing something wrong. Still, it's only £1.

Slime Rancher already has a pretty sweet post-launch update with maps
8 Aug 2017 at 3:54 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: pete910Why's this remind me of World of goo ????

Also pet peeve, The platforms should be win/mac/linux...

PC could be any OS

Sorry, small rant
Haha! Technically the platforms should be win/osx/linux. Or technically it should be win/osx/gnu+linux. Any Stallman fanatics in here today?? ^_^

The vague use of PC does drive me absolutely nuts, but I guess you have to pick your fights and I think this one was lost about a decade ago when Apple fired out those condescending "I'm a Mac [External Link]" adverts. <sigh>

GOG adds the Linux version of Brigador: Up-Armored Edition
6 Aug 2017 at 8:47 pm UTC Likes: 1

There seems to be a bit of confusion between a) support Linux ideals and b) what's best for Linux.

Regarding ideals, I suppose my store choice would be as follows:
a) Itch.io
b) Humble
c) GOG
d) Steam

While regarding what's best for Linux, I'd argue:
a) Steam
b) Whatever, doesn't matter.

This is because, obviously, market share. Developers use this to determine whether they can be bothered to release their game on our platform. I'd like to be idealistic, but I'm going to save any such notion until we are more than a rounding error on Windows sales. More than, say, 10%, maybe. Then I'll think about spouting my ideals.

Until then, I'll buy on the sales platform that gives developers the greatest incentive to support my freedom-loving platform. Anything else, at this point, is just counter-intuitive to Linux support.

To me, anyway. By all means, prioritise your sales (particularly, if, like Itch.io, it's a Steam-key anyway!), use Wine, whatever. But stop conflating "ideals" with "support". If you support a minor store that doesn't feature in development decisions, you're actively hurting Linux as a platform. Your ideals are conflicting with your desire to support Linux.

Linux game sales statistics from multiple developers, part 5
4 Aug 2017 at 8:18 am UTC

Just to pitch in here too - when I bash on companies like Apple, I don't do so because I'm bitter that if only they changed their practices, Linux use would "explode overnight". I do it because they deserve it. Anti-competitive behaviour should be called out when you see it, not justified as a Shareholder strategy. Infuriating.

And to clarify, I doubt Linux use is ever going to "explode". There won't be a discernible "year of the Linux desktop". The move to Linux is subtle, in stages, for most people. And that implies slow, organic growth over decades.

GOG adds the Linux version of Brigador: Up-Armored Edition
3 Aug 2017 at 6:21 pm UTC

Quoting: TheBardJust to point that it is avaibable on itch too [External Link]. I'm not sure its a good idea to encourage people to buy on a site where out platform is so much disregarded (GoG), when there are alternatives with the same benefits (DRM-Free) but which clearly supports us as a legitimate platform (Itch).
Didn't realise it was Itch - thanks for that. Sadly, I already purchased on Steam, but hey ho. You use what you like, right? I'll support GOG more when Galaxy releases and in the meantime, I'm happy to give Itch more money where I can.

I need to get back into this - it's a cracking good game, although sometimes the explosions and destruction is just so intense you actually lose track of what's going on.

Linux game sales statistics from multiple developers, part 5
3 Aug 2017 at 6:11 pm UTC

Quoting: slaapliedjeLet's break that down;
CUPS: Open Source project bought by Apple. Still open sourced.
WebKit: Forked from KHTML, but is updated from various people. Still open sourced.
Swift: I'll give this one to Apple, cool.
Darwin: Open source kernel, but they don't keep it all that updated.
OpenCL: Already covered that it was kind of dropped. Not sure if they invented it or not.
Bonjour/Zeroconf: pretty sure that's a standard called mDNS, no?
USB-C/Thunderbolt: Intel created this.
FireWire: Same thing as above.
HTML5 vs Flash? everyone was behind this, even Adobe...
mDNS was based on an open paper which was adopted by Apple and Microsoft. mDNS/Bonjour is Apple's name for zeroconf, Linux called it Avahi, not sure what MS did.

CUPS was around for a while, Apple didn't buy it, but they did eventually head hunt the main dude behind the company that did.

Don't know much about the rest, but it does seem to me that Apple get credit for stuff that's been around for years. I wouldn't mind, if they actually offered anything (literally, nearly anything, even just "credit", jesus!) back to the projects they use. But since they won't hardly even give anything back to their own shareholders, it hardly surprises me that they don't give anything back to the giants upon whose shoulders they stand.

Better late than never, GOG now has the Linux version of Dust: An Elysian Tail
3 Aug 2017 at 2:04 pm UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: elbuglione
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: elbuglioneStop GOG advertising!!!

They are not Linux friendly
Yes, they are. Just because they haven't put out Galaxy yet, doesn't make them hostile to Linux. Don't be a moron.
In all your notes, I do not see the same level of dedication for itch.io as for GOG.
And itch.io is REALLY Linux friendly
You've got to be kidding. Nearly every article written on this site about itch.io screams its praise. Despite being a tiny store selling mostly indie games, everyone here raves about it, but you somehow you see "dedication" to GOG instead??

What are you on?

Linux game sales statistics from multiple developers, part 5
3 Aug 2017 at 8:22 am UTC

Quoting: manus76Does it all impact linux gaming in any way? In other words: do you think there would be a lot people suddenly installing a linux distro on their computers if Apple changed its practices?
The biggest thing that happened in linux gaming is Steam, and even now, couple of years later with a relatively mature client and several thousands of games we don't see billions of people abandoning MacOS let alone Windows and moving to linux.
I don't think anyone really seriously suggested that would happen. For my part, all I was saying is that Apple is now a competitor to Linux, and so we don't benefit from their existence in the way we might have before, back when "well, you've done Mac, it's a tiny step to Linux" was a valid argument.

Quoting: manus76What makes people think that a couple of games more on 'our platform' would suddenly change that?
Less barrier to migration basically. If Windows gamers lost literally zero games by migrating to Linux, there would undoubtedly be a bigger slice of people willing to try it. It might not be a landslide, but I think we'd see much healthier growth.

As it is, there are too many reasons (okay, mainly one reason: 'muh games!') to stay on Windows.

Tacoma, the sci-fi narrative adventure has released with day-1 Linux support, some thoughts
2 Aug 2017 at 7:05 pm UTC

Quoting: lidstah
Quoting: scaineEvent[0] seems dead in the water for a Linux port.
Noooooooooooooooo :(. Well, Tacoma might be on my wishlist then, since I'll - normally - be on holidays in two f*****g days and thus will have some time to play some games :)
Haha! I'd better qualify... I haven't actually heard anything! But that's kind of the problem - silence.

They were super-positive initially [External Link] in November last year, then hit a Mac problem [External Link] that took priority (grrr!) a couple of months later, then... nothing. It's been 6 months without an update, so I'm pretty disheartened and trying to be realistic.

Which makes Tacoma, AWESOME. I'm off to buy it now.