LinuxGameCast Weekly EP157 – Pump Asset Captain

Team Fortress 2 drops the ball! Hairbraned visits Hong Kong, VALVe talks security, and XBOX 360 emulation on my Linux? Then Cradle faces our CHAIRQUISITION! All this, plus your hate mail.

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Steam

News

Review

http://store.steampowered.com/app/361550/

Hate Mail

http://slexy.org/view/s2xoNYKYFO

Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro Mike

Secure?
https://steamdb.info/blog/valve-security-one-year-on/

Not having a universal bug bounty is a bit worrisome.
- Seriously. Trying to give away community items is just terrible. The only people you’re going to get trying to find bugs are kids.
A few wet-stinky could be the difference between a having an exploit reported vs being sold.
They now offer bounties for “economy breaking” and “remote code execution” bug reports!
Who wants a stupid $1000 bounty for your exploit when you could have a uber-l33t TF2 hat:
Why can’t I use Google Authenticator for two factor? HOTP and TOTP are thing.
Meanwhile, the Android steam app is AWFUL.
They need to fix the dual-auth to work with Googs voice numbers.
Yeah, multiple two factor authenticator support would be nice. My yubikey is sitting around collecting dust
Still, some improvement is better than none.

Rock the vote
http://www.thejimquisition.com/2015/08/steam-vote-rigging-and-shady-connections-the-curious-case-of-bob-middleton/

If you ever saw a Jim Sterling video over the past year, you know who digital homicide is.
They are the premier pushers of shovelware on Steam.
Sketchy developers doing sketchy shit.

Ball-carrying
http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=17833

I’m not a huge fan of TF2 but this could be interesting, questionmark.
“-That Rocket League-thing-game has everyone foaming at the mouth with hype, we should do something like that.”
- Didn’t even think about that. Seems legit.
“-We can’t release a new game that doesn’t end in 3 or we’ll be crucified!”
“-New TF2 mode it is!”
The last TF2 Alternate mode I played was Mann vs Machine. It was alright
They seem to be attempting to keep things fresh. Gotta sell dem hats
Partially developed by Bad Robot. That’s kind of weird. #lensflare

#crowbar
http://store.steampowered.com/app/354900/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_1

Kill all the headcrabs. The game
That’s quite literally it.
Installing in Linux is just as easy as hitting the button in the store.
You need to own the original Half-Life, but you don’t need to have it installed.
Good way to destroy your left gerbil button.
They’re still modding HL1… WHAT YEAR IS THIS?!?
- We deactivated the Empty Mark I for asking that.
- Let’s not have a repeat.

Hong Kong
http://store.steampowered.com/app/346940/

Always love me some Shadowrun
Still haven’t finished dragonfall, but I definitely want to check it out
20 bucks for what is essentially DLC is a bit steep, but Harebrained do good work, and you’re sure to get a lot of content.
- DLC might be a bit harsh. They did upgrade the engine. Dragonfall could have been DLC.
Backed it on Kickstarter and gushed over the 6 month turnaround.
Downloaded it release day. Clicked play. It opened on 1 monitor with the resolution set to what looked like all 3.
Edited ~/.config/unity3d/hbs/srhk/config to set the resolution manually to 1080p windowed mode.
…and the game ignored it’s own config file.

Pump-Action Captain “review” Pump Asset Captain
http://store.steampowered.com/app/378280/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_1

I might pick it up based on this unbiased review.
- Seriously, the guy selling the engine thinks it’s grrrrrrrrreat.
- There’s a rasin we say “Full Disclosure” if we were given keys, Brad.
Leadwerks now officially has ⅓ as many games as Unigine!
Dear FSM: this game looks awful!
Why?! Why would he not only defend, but promote this game?
Does the desperation at Leadwerks stretch to the point of stupidity?
This game is awful! Riding it like a flagship into the W.W.W. is just about committing suicide on your engine.
Killer app this is not.
Folks, I think it might be time to start thinking about writing leadwerks off. It’s a relic of a Pre-UE4 time.

DiRT Slowdown
http://store.steampowered.com/app/201700/?snr=1_5_1100__1100

Double the memory requirements
It’s generally accepted as the worst of the series
http://steamcommunity.com/app/201700/discussions/0/530649887216444600/
- ^Empty Sauce all in your face-organs.
Well, now I going to have to try this out for wheel support and multimon… I am not hopeful. Thank FSM for refunds!
- I think they have a DEMO, Brad.
  - …and it’s Windows-only… figures.
The graphics seem to always pick screen 1 by default, which is the 4k
The G27 is completely unrecognized
This game has a Garbage rating /w WINE
- At least, until DX11 support is introduced.
- At which point I hope VP files for bankruptcy cuz they ain’t doin’ shit.
So, on one hand-organ at least people can play it on the Linux.
OTOHO I only support 100% native ports.

Planetary Annihilation: Titans
http://store.steampowered.com/app/386070

Where did this come from? I hadn’t even heard a whisper…
Free for Kickstarter backers of the original… which I am one of.
Last time I heard anything about this game it was beyond busted.
Physics don’t work like that.
A robot that big would literally throw those proto-planets off their orbit the moment it started moving.
RTS isn’t really my bag, but it might be cool to smash planets

News:

I need about …nine fiddy
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-950-2GB-Review-Maxwell-MOBA

What is MOBA? I am old.
Only $20 less vs the 960.
Also not PCI powered. For me, that was a huge selling point of the 750/TI.
I’m hoping that maybe the 940 might fill that niche.
- Doubt it. Might get a low-profile version at best.
At that price point you’re better off with the 960.
Like Jordan said, if it was PCIe only (75W), people would be able to get this one as an upgrade for an old PC that has an old power supply without the extra 6(+2)PCIe cable.
As it stands, The GTX 750ti is still your best bet and from $100-$150 it’ll play most of everything on Linux.

RIP VP
https://www.winehq.org/announce/1.7.50

Initial D3D implementation.
Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson?
Still very preliminary.
From the changelog it looks like they can create a dx11 context… but not draw anything to it. Yet.
- No worries! I’m positive Virtual Programing will contribute to open source development!
Needless to say, it is going to get pretty interesting for linux using Radeon owners
My crazy pipe dream is that Wine ends up as the new standard Win32/WOW64 API

we shall wake
http://www.weshallwake.com/#

It even includes a little self-contained JRE.
I like how the screenshot they dub SPEED doesn’t have any shaders.
- Crazy conspiracy theory: It was nuking the performance and they felt guilty.
  - Java can haz shaders???
Some serious DBZ aerial combat and fighter customization…
…but Java
You people and your constant Java whinging. Don’t worry, daddy’s here to give you some nipple milk
Had to run dos2unix on their shell script for the linux version. WTF
I like it. Sort of reminds me of lugaru. And unlike overgrowth, I can play it now!

Humble Bundle of Linux-friendliness +1
https://www.humblebundle.com/

Android games …everywhere
At least it’s net new stuff?
It has 4 games I didn’t already have so I bought it.
I’ve had a bit of fun (20+ hours) with Crimsonland. It’s not perfect, but if you like dual-stick shooters of the non-bullet-hell variety, you could do worse.

New GOG
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/news_a_year_of_linux_on_gog_new_installers/page1

–Patches. Differential patches. No one likes downloading lots of data for an update, now you’ll be able to grab future patches for big games with frequent updates.
- Congrats on catching up with steam in 2004
Good on them for moving to a more distro-agnostic approach though
The old .tar files were apparently confusing Linux users. This make Mike sad.
OTOH if the new installers are going to handle the diff patching, I’m okay with that.

SOMA Penguins
https://twitter.com/frictionalgames/status/635181907530137600

Ported by the same guy who did Shadow Warrior
Is that Fedora I spot? Yes, yes it is!
- Awesome
Clearly the shadow warrior guy knows what he’s doing. I hope he gets a lot more work.
Watch out Icculus!

10th anniversary of Rigs of Rods
http://www.rigsofrods.com/entries/214-10th-anniversary-of-Rigs-of-Rods-0-4-5-Nextstable-released!

So, it’s been ten years since I first encountered cmake.
If only they could make an actual game to go with the awesome vehicle mangling physics.
- They have, just not for Linux.
- It’s not based on the same engine, but BeamNG Drive pretty much copied the vehicle structure simulation from rigs of rods and made it run on Torque 3D.
- There’s also Next Car Game: Wreckfest, which is windows only as well, but that is more along the lines of FlatOut.
Seriously, the world needs a Gran Turismo with chassis deformation physics just like this. Linux exclusive, of course.

A Game Boy emulator for your terminal
https://github.com/dobyrch/termboy

GameBoy over SSH: The Emulator
No aalib? Or libcaca for that matter? Just ncurses…
- There’s some alsa there, though!
And it compiles, but it don’t run.

360 progress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMLfzM9n0M
https://github.com/benvanik/xenia

Working with the cell processor sounds something like decoding hieroglyphics without the Rosetta Stone.
Quite the impressive progress, all things considered.
Who knows, we may one day have 360 compatibility in our lifetime.
Requires Windows 8.1+ and written in Python 2.7? Good luck with that.

HLE New World Order
https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2015/08/19/new-era-hle-audio/

HLE vs LLE: tl; dr – chipset vs instruction level emulation
2 versions of microcode: AX + Zelda
- AX shipped w/ dev kits – most external
- Zelda used by Nintendo internally – way more advanced / powerful
LLE worked… mostly… for Zelda ucode games… not so much for AX
- multichannel mixing FAIL – just use mono output
- even then, it was asynchronous, prone to underruns
HLE for AX happened first because LLE for AX was so busted in Dolphin 4.0
HLE for Zelda is now almost there, much better, not perfect yet
Significant win for less powerful systems, much more efficient
Big win for Wii emulation too, since Wii = 2x Gamecube + duct tape

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: Cradle
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/361550/
Devel: Flying Cafe for Semianimals
Engine: Unigine
Price: €/$ 12.99 – CDN$ 13.99

Wazzat: Cradle is a fascist, sci-fi first-person-view quest designed for right-handed players to explore the surrounding world. The story is built around the relations of the protagonist and a mechanical girl who by quirk of fate found themselves amidst the desert.

Makes with the working

V-

I just did a doubletake at what J-man is about to bring up.
I can only confirm there is no 4K res options.
Yes, guys and goils; three of us have 4K displays and two /w a 980.
And aaand at 1080 it runs like butta /w everthing on 11 ..until you move.
Did I mention that it refuses to work with Steam overlay?
I hit Shift+Tab and the game locked the gerbil into the window and there was no way out.
Good old Ctrl+Alt+F2 to the rescue.

J-

No 4K option.
To be fair, that’s probably a good thing considering how shit this runs at 1080, on a 980
Hard pressed to be pushing 40 FPS on high

P-

I finished the tutorial and walked up to the train stop.
The FerPS went from 45ish down to 25 when I did a slow 360º.

M-

After 5-15 minutes of playing 45 fps suddenly drops to 5 fps.
Tried different drivers, rebooting, etc. #nope #patchplz #hahanever

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

V-

They spent some proper time on the sounds and good on them!
It looks nice, really, really, nice.
Cohesive art design, this has it.
Hey! Look! Oil Rush water! Neat!
But something is missing.
Yeah, trees are missing limbs, Brad.

J-

It’s uningine, so it’s kind of pretty
The soundtrack is just kind of there though
Everything looks nice until you get up close and look at it
Might have blown my mind in 4k, but we’ll never know.

P-

The tutorial looked nice, if a little dark.
It did feel a little hand holdy, though.
There were sounds, I guess.
Nothing to write home about.

M-

Nice models, good geometry. Outside fields look natural.
Muted colors in most places makes things look old a worn.

Total-

Control

V-

J-

It loses two chairs for it’s painful inventory management system
Holy fuck, for a game that requires you to combine items in various ways, you could have at least spent some time to not make it clunky as all hell.

P-

In 2015, a game that doesn’t allow you to rebind controls.
I might have given it two chairs if it had the arrow keys mapped to mirror WASD.
But it didn’t, Brad!
I can’t play your first person game if you force me to play with WASD.

M-

Stupid pick up the object and it floats in front of you mechanic.
While it’s floating there, you have no controls to orient it.

Total-

FUN

V-

This is Myst 3D.
Ironically Myst was composed /w hypercard (not really a game engine) and in 2015 this was composed /w UNIGINE (not really a game engine)
This is what I like to call a scrapbook game.
Where you spend a chunk-organ of time collecting bits-o-story
Unfortunately this often involves picking up and moving shite
Only Frictional knows how to do that properly, son.
The random ‘block games’ can eat a bag ‘o floppy dicks.
I ended up losing interest after an hour
After reading the endless complaints about how the game just STOPS (not really an ending) I have little incentive to finish it.

J-

Myst is an apt comparison for this
However, instead it distracting me from needing to wait for my therapist, this just made me bored
Click all the things to all the other things
The performance of the game doesn’t help with the experience either
It puts the lotion in the basket

P-

I didn’t play past walking up to the train stop thing.
I refuse to play elitist/fascist games that assume everyone is right handed, or has two symmetrical and functional hands. That’s a really bad move Brad.
Wanna know what the best part is?
They’re ignoring everyone who tells them about this.
Go to the Steam forums and look up Controls.
I also sent them an e-mail about it. No answer.
Well then,

M-