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Latest Comments by scaine
Quern - Undying Thoughts, a puzzle game inspired by Myst released day-1 on Linux
6 Dec 2016 at 11:55 am UTC Likes: 1

This Youtube review is short and to the point and convinced me to buy it once I've finished my obsession with Warhammer Retribution (already completed Dawn of War).

It's not Linux specific, but focuses on the game mechanic which might help you decide if the game is for you.

View video on youtube.com

Our latest user survey is done, Steam Controller seems to be the favourite
5 Dec 2016 at 12:22 am UTC Likes: 2

Might be nice to get an email (or banner, like you suggested) a month or two before you drop off the survey results.

And if you do drop off, it would be nice to see that boldly displayed on your profile page, so that if you visit it, it will remind you to update it.

I really, really like not being asked to complete monthly surveys. They were getting a big "again??" by the time you changed to the profile method. Much better this way.

Heavy Gear Assault now on Linux, some thoughts after testing it
4 Dec 2016 at 12:33 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: c927776
Quoting: ElectricPrismWithout steam I'm easily complacent, steam makes installing easy & management easy.
Same could be said about any other "store" from Apple, Microsoft, Google, Sony etc.

Steam client is bad, steam client forces you to use 32 bit binary's. Just NOW Store/Community tab in steam client stalled on me when I tried to play youtube video and that happened on Windows, I dont know why they are trying to be a Web browser when they suck at it. Im losing authentication with steam way to often and then I get kicked from multiplayer rounds in some games, fucking DRM, if Steam API/Authentication servers are down every game that depends on them is unplayable. As a guy who plays multiplayer games 90% of the time, that is a big problem.

Please stop propagating Steam because we all will regret it very soon, insist on games that could be played without any third party dependency.
If there were an alternative, I'm sure it would at least be popular with Linux players. However, there isn't.

And the whole multiplayer angle tends to work because of Steam - look at all the multiplayer games that refuse to launch on GOG due to a lack of SteamWorks. I remember the pain of having multiple gamespy skins in the 90's and early noughts - UT, Quake 2, Half-Life, Counterstrike, etc. They all did things slightly differently and it was tedious as a result. Different friends lists, different ways to filter, some were in-game, others launched from gamespy directly (which was often slow, particularly if you were disconnected), different options to build favourites lists, master servers failing all the damn time. And Workshop offers a simple way to distribute custom server content without being stuck in a capped queue before you're allowed to play.

Lots of reasons to dislike Steam, but choosing "multiplayer" seems an odd one to focus on. It's pretty much one of the reasons I don't mind Steam's DRM. That, and the game auto-updates, in-game voice, community hubs, workshop content and regular cut-throat sales of course.

I just wished they'd get the little things right.

A 2016 Thanksgiving retrospection about the open source game engine 'xoreos'
25 Nov 2016 at 5:36 pm UTC

Quoting: Keyrock
Quoting: z1lt0idI can't wait to play Witcher 1 on Linux using this open-source implementation.
As much as I love that game, I'll probably never play it again even when I can play it natively using Xoreos. I've thought about replaying it on several occasions, but when I do the nightmares of THE SWAMP return. I can't bring myself to go through that swamp again. That area was the worst. It's too bad, because I really liked the majority of the rest of that game, but that swamp is so awful.
Funny you say that - my 2011 play through (or was it 2012?) of that game ended at the swamp. Good game until that level, but it was so tedious that I finished up at some point, then never went back to it.

GOL interviews the developer of ‘The Station’, a first-person sci-fi story exploration game
24 Nov 2016 at 12:45 pm UTC

I love the attention to detail in the environments. Check out their "Making W.A.F.F.L.-ES [External Link]" video too - incredible that so much work goes into such a little robot that we only see in the main video for about 5 seconds! I hope they nail this one - it's a day one purchase for me...

The itch app has a new major version, still as slick as ever
21 Nov 2016 at 8:36 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: LukeNukemI seriously dislike that it uses a ton of JS for it. Seriously! Use it for WebApps, not for desktop apps!

Oh yeah, Gnome and many apps use JS for extensions/plugins... That's a little different in that they run purely as scripts through an interpreter, and interface with native code. Whereas an app built solely with JS... yeah-na. Please don't.
Why do you dislike it? I always assumed that stores like Itch and Steam use this model for efficiency - one set of rules to govern how an app's page might look.

The Linux & SteamOS port of Killing Floor 2 has been put on hold, it needs a developer
21 Nov 2016 at 8:28 pm UTC Likes: 5

Quoting: sarmadValve failed to market SteamOS as a competitor to consoles and instead marketted it as a competitor to Windows. They also failed to convince AAA studios to target the platform. Finally, they failed to convince retailers to carry Steam Machines in their stores. As a result, studios didn't take SteamOS seriously and didn't find it to be worth it to hire a Linux developer to do the porting.
But they did encourage Tripwire to hire a Linux dev? The problem is, he left, and Tripwire are struggling to recruit a replacement.

SteamOS was never touted as a competitor to either Windows or consoles, true, probably because doing so would be both suicide and (in the case of Windows) hurt their relationship with their primary source of income. A fine line had to be tread. It didn't work out in the way we were hoping, but while you're welcome to cast that at the feet of Valve, doing so would be disingenuous given that we wouldn't be having this conversation about SteamOS in the first place if they hadn't given Linux gaming an steroidal shot in the arm in the first place by supporting Linux when so few others actually did.

The Linux & SteamOS port of Killing Floor 2 has been put on hold, it needs a developer
21 Nov 2016 at 8:02 pm UTC Likes: 3

Glad I was sitting down when I read this! ;) I though they were still in EA hell, and from the sounds of the comments on the release page, it sounds like they still are, but they've decided to release it anyway and be done. I doubt we'll ever see this on Linux.

The original game remains the game I've played most on Steam (about 60% on Windows and 40% on the graphically glitchy Linux version), so my pessimism cuts me deep. But after two and a half years of Early Access drudgery and added microtransactions, my hype and excitement for the sequel is dead and gone.

To announce PS4 support while STILL in Early Access AND after announcing day-1 Linux support is a huge slap in the face to fans who are buying to help shape a PC game too. Tripwire have lost my faith.

Check out the new trailer for 'Tether', the great looking adventure and horror game built with UE4
15 Nov 2016 at 5:24 pm UTC

Stunning graphics. Amazing level of detail. Instabuy for me, although I'm a wuss when it comes to horror.

Alienware manager on Steam Machines lull: Windows 10 changed things
14 Nov 2016 at 6:42 pm UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: CorbenBut then there are coming big titles to Linux, thanks to all the hard work of all the porters and porting companies, so I cheer again. Just to realize, how much you have to fiddle around with those games, to make them work. There is always something you have to fiddle around on Linux, and it feels like it's a lot more than on Windows. Of course Windows also has its problems, but in general, it have to admit to get the impression, it's more stable in general. Even though it's running on even more different hardware setups.
The occasional indie game might be badly packaged, but it's rare. Windows requires a lot more nit-picky stuff to get games running than Linux. On Linux, you double click and the game launches. On Windows, it launches two, sometimes three, separate launchers - directX, .net framework at least. Then, if it's AAA, you might find that the game doesn't launch, or has terrible performance until you update your graphics driver. If anything goes wrong after that, the stock support answer is "update your graphics driver, update your computer" and until you do that, you're stuck. And until a few years ago, when they started asking for the directx output, they didn't even have an established way to get information pertinent to fixing your issue.

Sure, Linux gaming has less performance, and sure, we're missing a few triple-A titles, I might have bought. But it's a whole lot more reliable and consistent than my fifteen years experience of gaming on Windows.

I don't miss it at all, and luckily, no game will ever have the ability to make me reconsider Windows as an option. That ship has sailed.