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Latest Comments by Anza
My favourite 2021 games played on Linux
21 Dec 2021 at 8:54 pm UTC

Quoting: undeadbydawn
Quoting: scaineZiggurat 2 [External Link]
Holy wow. A legit Linux-native non-pixel art full 3D FPS? How the hell did I not know this game exists?
It's mostly flying under the radar. It's in bit of a niche genre, but within rogue-lite shooters it's pretty good one.

Otherwise if you look for Linux natives, you have to appreciate what indie industry is able to produce. Those teams can be pretty small, so if they want to actually release a game, they have to cut corners somewhere.

My favourite 2021 games played on Linux
21 Dec 2021 at 8:32 pm UTC Likes: 1

Here's my list:

Valheim [External Link]

One of the few survival games that I have actually played bit more than just a bit. It can be as harsh though as if you're not careful and don't have proper contingency plan, you can lose your stuff in a place that's hard to reach without proper gear. Also because of procedural generation, few remaining content packs might need regenerating the world.

PS: screenshot in the article looks like a boat accident is about to happen

Ziggurat 2 [External Link]

In short, it's a rogue-lite arena shooter. Plenty of guns, amulets and perks to collect and it does have permanent progression system. As there's so much stuff, everything is not totally unique, but there are few things here and there that change the gameplay in some way. One thing that Ziggurat games are doing right is difficulty levels, which make them lot more accessible than most rogue-lites. Ziggurat 2 has gone way past the other roguelite shooters that I have played.

Rain On Your Parade [External Link]

Is it a bird? Is it a aeroplane? No, it's a cloud that will ruin you day. Game is pure mayhem with lot of references to other things mixed in. Hasn't gotten as much playtime as the others as there's levels are relatively smalḷ. Once you have beaten the game, you can replay the levels with more difficult objectives and now there's even DLC with more content.

Luck be a Landlord [External Link]

Luck be a Landlord is what you get when you combine rogue-lite with slot machine. What makes the game interesting that it has equivalent of card collection mechanic that adds layer of strategy. Interplay between "cards" is turned almost up to 11 and it's up to you spot the potential synergies and switch your strategy based on what you get. I have completed the game two or so times already. There should be content pack coming up though, hopefully soon.

I give honorary mentions to Loop Hero and Griftlands. I haven't spent as much time with either of them as they deserve. On top of that last time I checked, Loop Hero was broken for me and I haven't debugged what's going on.

Steam Labs Experiment 13 upgrades the store tag hubs
18 Dec 2021 at 2:48 pm UTC Likes: 5

I went past the carousels quite quickly. They do contain something interesting, but I noticed something far more interesting below them.

I think this was part of the previous experiment, but glad they have included in the latest one. The filters are far more useful than before for browsing bit more niche categories as you can also filter by subgenres.

I tried with some niche genres like point and click adventure, CRPG and rogue-lite FPS. Hits were mostly spot on, so it should be also possible now to find games from bit more niche genres. With this combining two genres by manipulating categories in URL is no longer needed.

AI Kingdoms arrive for Kingdoms and Castles in a new Beta
18 Dec 2021 at 10:25 am UTC

Quoting: kaimanThat must be the second big update out after I thought the game to be abandoned. Sometimes I cannot really fathom how those indie devs manage to survive. Unless they do it besides their day job (which would also account for the long time between updates).
Looks like at least it started that way. What I can quickly see that they have grown only slightly and added one person since. That's pretty much all I got from the news update where they talk about the progress over the years: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/569480/view/3103539804169980543 [External Link]

I have had this in my wishlist for quite a while, but based on the reviews it hasn't been ready enough. It looks like that progress is clearly going right direction and latest update will even add more playtime.

Valheim gets christmassy, armour stands and silences tamed wolves
17 Dec 2021 at 10:20 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: fabertaweI was already using mods to silence those pesky wolves... I have two (pets) in my castle and 20 guarding the entrance! Also using a mod for tamed animals and fire as I like to see my piggies in the dark. Good to see these two things implemented as I'd rather not use mods.

Right, time to put up the Xmas decorations :grin:
Funny thing about the fire was that it didn't matter if it was behind a wall or not. I had move my pig pen a bit because of that without accidentally letting the pigs out. There were workarounds for the lights as there are few things that shine in the dark. Yellow mushrooms being easiest to acquire as long as you dare to go to the black forest.

Linux needs to be pre-installed on more hardware to hit mainstream
14 Dec 2021 at 11:01 pm UTC

Quoting: gbudnyI don't understand it.

I need some explanation.

Linux is going to be more competitive than Windows - it sounds unrealistic.

Linux has been losing with Apple for the last 16 years. Linux can't even win with one Unix vendor. Really?

Apple has loyal users that aren't magically disappearing. They pay incredible money for the software and games for Mac.

You want to fight about first place on the podium, then first you should know how to win second place. That is the Apple position, and it's not going to be easy to win with them. It's about our wallets.
Speaking of UNIX, what's actually funny that Linux actually beat pretty much all the UNIX vendors, only one left with bit more significant presence is Apple. I think we are discussing about desktop though, server side is totally different market. Desktop users are not going to buy several computers without operating system and install then identical operating system in all of them.

Come think of it, desktop is one of the last markets where Linux isn't dominant.

The thing is though that Linux isn't Apple. It's ultimately up to vendors like Google with their Chromebooks and Valve with Steam Decks to make something that also non techies want to buy. Linux itself is not the problem as people buy quite lot of Android phones for example (Windows phones are not really a thing at the moment).

Linux needs to be pre-installed on more hardware to hit mainstream
14 Dec 2021 at 9:19 pm UTC

Quoting: toorThe fact they were underpowered was actually probably the reason Linux was preinstalled instead of Windows Vista in the first place, because it made sense on a technical aspect. Yet people would rather buy those with Vista.
I have Acer Aspire One, which is now collecting dust. I though about buying Asus EEE PC, but specs where annoyingly low. The thing is though that Aspire One had Linpus Linux and by default it booted into simple mode. For people used to Vista, it might have been bit of a shock. I actually quite quickly wiped the Linpus and installed Arch Linux.

EEE PC had Xandros, which might have been little bit better experience.

In the end those Linux netbooks might have been bit more popular with people who loved hacking them.

Valve broke Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Linux, Vulkan may come soon
13 Dec 2021 at 8:52 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: Eike
Quoting: CFWhitmanI work in an IT Department, and, "Don't deploy on Friday," is probably our number one rule. If you deploy something on Friday and it causes a problem over the weekend (and you are not the one on call), you will get bawled out.
Yeah, we found out the same in the last years. :)
How critical the product is might have something to do with it. I can imagine that Valve has no Friday deployments policy for store, but games might not have it.

If the product is actually critical, developers might have to do some work in the weekend and that's no fun.

Loop Hero from Four Quarters hits a million sales
11 Dec 2021 at 12:39 pm UTC

There was interview earlier (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZeVzpYQFf8). I think they mentioned few of the older games in that one and discussed bit about design philosophy. Being different is definitely intentional. Not just from the aesthetic side.

itch.io has another great charity bundle to help World Land Trust
6 Dec 2021 at 7:18 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: NezchanHighly recommend Hidden Folks, one of the best hidden object (or well, hidden people) games I've played.
Similar Linux native games are hard to find. Artifex Mundi games are in same genre, but they mostly seem to be aiming being mysterious.

Hidden Folks is instead funny and is more like Where's Wally (or Wally) experience.