Latest Comments by kaiman
Baldur's Gate 3 on Steam Deck is 'absolutely wild' and aims for 30FPS on Medium
3 August 2023 at 10:10 pm UTC

Quoting: soulsourceBe as it may, I might buy the game today and try it myself. If it doesn't work with good performance on my AMD GPU I'm going to be sad.
I've bought it on GOG and both the Vulkan and DX11 versions are running fine on my RX 6600. The only thing I did was setting a custom executable instead of the launcher. Played a bit with both versions but didn't spot major differences.

The only bad thing I noticed so far is that it will not work unless Galaxy is also running. Kinda defeats the purpose of buying from GOG in the first place.

AI-powered news sites are dumb and Redditors managed to trick them
22 July 2023 at 8:35 am UTC Likes: 4

I await the day when AIs write articles based on articles written by AIs. Right now, the whole scheme only works moderately well because there is comparatively more human-written content to "borrow" from. Once the scales tip, one can only hope that this causes the whole fad to collapse on itself.

Infinity Engine replacement GemRB 0.9.2 improves Planescape: Torment support
12 July 2023 at 4:19 pm UTC

Quotesupport for EE-style saves
I'd rather the EE editions would have offered support for non-EE-style saves :-). But maybe here's a potential conversion utility in the making ...

Happy Birthday to GamingOnLinux - 14 years old today
5 July 2023 at 6:55 pm UTC Likes: 2

Happy Birthday. I had to be dragged here kicking and screaming, but now I visit almost every day! Though I must say I do miss linuxgames.com and happypenguin.org. Though I guess when they are gone and gamingonlinux is not, you've done everything right! Great job!

I also noticed that Liberapay is conspicuously absent from the support options? What's up with that?

Morrowind modern game engine OpenMW 0.48 is readying to release
4 July 2023 at 5:15 pm UTC Likes: 1

Ah, the fond memories! I think Morrowind was the last big open world game I played before internet access and therefore spoilers became ubiquitous. Experiencing everything first-hand, and without much hand-holding, is really an experience I miss in modern games. Though I guess nowadays I'd lack the time and maybe patience for games of that kind.

The downside, of course, was that I totally missed the release of the two expansions, though I did get some of the initial free DLCs. Imagine that! Free! DLC! For free!

So great to see OpenMW progress, to preserve such a memorable part of gaming history! Peak Elder Scrolls, so to speak :-).

Crusader Kings III: Wards & Wardens releases August 22 focusing on child rulers
20 June 2023 at 6:41 pm UTC

I'd have rather seen the Love and Lust event pack win first place, given how little time you'll spend as a child, if everything goes according to plan. But looking at the actual features, this doesn't look so bad after all. Seems rather nice, actually.

Nova Roma is a new city-builder from the Kingdoms and Castles developer
13 June 2023 at 5:03 pm UTC Likes: 1

Upon reading the headline, I was going to write that maybe they should turn Kingdoms and Castles into a proper game first before starting on the next one.

But after reading the article, I'd rather play Nova Roma instead :-).

It's not that I didn't enjoy Kingdoms and Castles for an evening or two, but it didn't really offer much once the city was established and fortified. Nova Roma sounds like it might have more complex and/or varied production chains and then also other mechanics that might make the game entertaining for a bit longer.

AMD Radeon RX 7600 announced for $269 with 8GB VRAM
24 May 2023 at 4:57 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: MiZoGPhoronix benchmarked rx 7600 on Linux already
While slightly faster than the Rx 6600, there isn't enough difference to even think about switching. Though it appears to be cheaper than my Rx 6600 was a year ago (unless those $270 are excluding VAT, in which case there's no difference either, meaning it's still too much for what it offers).

A new Civilization game is in development and XCOM designer leaves Firaxis
18 February 2023 at 9:43 am UTC Likes: 1

Having played nearly every Civilization (I only skipped V), I start to get a bit tired of the formula. I had high hopes for Civilization: Beyond Earth, with its non-linear tech-web, but it turned out you couldn't really research into drastically different directions. You had to pick all the techs at the center first, at which point the game was practically over.

The main game by now is really held back by the 4000 years of history it has to adhere to. It doesn't allow for a lot of change. Maybe if it would start in the present and extend into the far future, that would be fresh. Civilization: Call to Power (which wasn't even part of the franchise) at least expanded the late-game into the future with features like orbital cities, etc., and I think that could be taken much further. Pair it with diverging tech routes for a bit more asymmetry between the nations and you'd have one happy customer :-).

Ubisoft just broke their games on Linux desktop and Steam Deck
1 February 2023 at 7:33 pm UTC Likes: 4

Good I've been boycotting Ubisoft (and EA) for the past 15 years or so.

Though, I would have been really, really hard pressed to keep it up, had Ubisoft released the new Settlers as originally announced. Luckily, they botched that, too!