LinuxGameCast Weekly EP175 – Spotted Dick Haggis

VALVe springs a leak! Divinity brings the Sin, Saints Row IV gets a “port”, and Intel tessells. Then STAR WARS™ Knights of the Old Republic™ II faces the CHAIRQUISITION! All this, plus your hate mail.

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http://store.steampowered.com/app/208580/

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Steam News:

Colour key: Venn Jordan Empty

~~Sale~~ Fail!
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/25/10665814/valve-steam-holiday-sale-security-problems

Sorry lads, you still can’t blame 300 hours in HuniePop on someone else.
Someone might have seen my wallet balance #OHNOES
Alright, it was a bit worse than that.
This might have upset me if Rocket League had been released on time.
At least it wasn’t truly “exploitable” in the sense that who was getting shown what was mostly random
If you could have picked the account you wanted to see, or walked through them alphabetically or something, then it would have been a total disaster.
I only ended grabbing one game, because that was one of the only ones on sale I didn’t already own. But then, that is most steam sales these days. So I went blissfully unaware of this until the aftermath

Vives
http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/18/htc-vive-vr-big-breakthrough-ces/

Unless the ‘breakthrough’ is not having to wear shite on my head-organ I’m not interested.
The “breakthrough” is apparently realtime hand/finger tracking.
Even if it involves plugging into a private AND sensitive orifice, I am VERY interested
- You would be
Wang added that next year, Audi will be installing Vives in pretty much all of its flagship stores to offer virtual test drive.
- This seems to add some credence to my theory that Telsa was looking for UE4 Devs in order to facilitate VR test drives.
- If I’m at the stealership I’m driving the real fk mothering thing, Brad.
What these folks need to do is start stripping away hardware until it’s more of a jack that you can plug into the back of your head.
- …or somewhere else
The white chainsaw in the rooms is price.
Say the headset is tree fiddy then the hand controllas are another one fiddy.
Then you need a 970+ GPU attached to a proper sized room-organ.
…and a new shiny i7 to top it all off. Imma start “budgeting” for this now.

We’re just getting the forecast in from Hell, and it’s snowing?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/373420

1.5 Years later, and one remake, of course
Now we’re just waiting on Dragon Commader. Oh wait, that won’t happen. Prove me wrong Larian
Now apparently DOS 2 is using the same engine. I wonder if they’ll have a creative excuse for why they can’t do a simultaneous release for that one
IT’S A REAL BOY NOW!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/373420 – only $26 – who’s up for the Pepsi Challenge?
I bit the bullet. Runs pretty well, though it crashes on exit and fucks with your desktop resolution settings
Also starts off as an itty bitty 720P window
As much as I love it when devs keep their promises and deliver, some of them are too little, too late
Well, it’s better than Stainless w/ Carmageddon.

Saints Row IV makes w/ the SteamOS
http://store.steampowered.com/app/206420/

Eagerly awaiting ThunderNipples AMD graphics assesment
YEAH eON
- Yeah, insta no buy.
- Shame I already own this game. Loves me some saints row, hates me some lazy Deep Silver bullshit.
- You guys ported Metro! You used to be cool!
J-just compare GRID from Feral to Saints Row IV from VP.
The random “hello desktop” NOPES got to me quickly
The jump button kept getting “stuck” down too, requiring an unplug/replug of the controller… mid-battle!
Great game, awful port.

Half off Hatred
http://store.steampowered.com/app/341940/
http://steamcommunity.com/app/341940/discussions/0/610573009237027292/#c487877107133608058

Bonus Soda: Seems the game becomes hella boring well within the two hour refund window.
The game literally traded on controversy and nothing else
Was Valve right to pull it? No, probably not
Was anyone right to buy it? The answers seems to be a resounding NO

Babby
http://store.steampowered.com/app/427730/?snr=1_7_7_230_150_1

I’ve seen some lets plays of this, and boy does it look fun
It’s great training for babysitters
- Or aspiring reaction Youtubers.
This is the best asymmetric multiplayer concept I’ve seen since the Friday the 13th game
It’s not an easy thing to do right but this game might just have enough LULZ

News:

Tessell for me baby

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/commit/?id=7738f3a988bfa27a7c48c364cfa2d51c0b57e5d9

Only good news if you have a Ivy Bridge IGP or newer
At this point, Intel is 4 extensions away from being openGL 4.3 compliant.
With all the AMD/NVIDIA fanboi BS it’s nice to see Intel plugging along.
Yeah for the more polygons! Additional triangles be praised!

AMD, get your shite together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcF36_qMd8M

It’s not like AMD is open saucing all the things out of kindness.
Nay, they are hella desperate to gain more than a 20% market share.
Thing is, the open sauce tools are the same bits that game devels didn’t want to use is the first place.
Some glue-stick munching troglodytes think NVIDIA should invest in R&D using their magical free money tree and just give it to AMD.
I do think there is something to be said to fracturing development like this. It doesn’t really help the software ecosystem as a whole. I’ve always championed open standards because of it. Because vendor lock in means you don’t need to compete
Still, like Venn said, AMD’s open source effort has been rather lackluster and isn’t done out of any sense of social responsibility or charity. They’re hoping to drive up the userbase. Hell, you don’t even have to look that far back to the whole Crimson debacle
Ultimately, while AMD’s hardware is there, their software isn’t and that will forever be their downfall. And if they don’t commit paid resources to these open source efforts, ultimately it’ll be for naught
The only way out of this mess is for an open standard to become popular enough that everyone will commit to it, similar to Vulkan fixing DX vs OpenGL
AMD seems to understand this, and getting the community involved is mos def “a good idea”
- Ironically, the latest scuttlebutt about the Vulkan delay revolves around AMD trying to pull back some of their Mantle tech.
They’re going to have to commit HARD AND FAST, or get really lucky… or maybe both
BUT!!1! if they do, it will be good for everyone: Linux the most, Nvidia the least
At the end of the day (take a shot) Linux is open source and there is ZERO excuse for their closed source drivers to perform like ass-sauce.

Speaking of
http://wccftech.com/amd-fury-x2-delayed/

Zen and Fury delayed, eh?
Team red’s cup is overflowing with promises
Totally missed the opportunity to name this card Tails.
AMD cocks something up? GTFO.

FlibijibibioNA 1.0
https://plus.google.com/+flibitijibibo/posts/CB9tuYV1TnF

Oh, press release: http://fna.flibitijibibo.com/fnapr.txt
Good for Ethan. He’s put a lot of work into the project and it shows. Most FNA games run flawlessly, and it’s great for breathing new life into XBLA games that aren’t getting new sales.
- He’s taken a dead platform and given it new life… probably a better life than it ever had before
He’s also moving to a monthly release cycle. Ambitious. Let’s see how it turns out.
Seeing how FNA strives for 100% XNA4 compatibility with no special “per-game” hacks, I imagine they’ll hit 100% stable eventually

Hey, Listen!
https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2015/12/20/hey-listen-wiimoteaudio/

Yup, not a lot of wii games used that feature. But Navi does.
Also only works on the current gen of wiimotes with the motion plus (accelerometer) built in.
Based on the improved bluetooth subsystem in windows 8/10. Not sure how this will affect linux builds
Imma just throw my Wiimote at the wall anyway, and save some time

15 years later
http://supertuxproject.org/
https://github.com/SuperTux/supertux/releases/tag/v0.4.0

~~More bugfixes, but WHAR NETWORK MULTIPLAYER?!?1?~~
- I R STOOPED… i was thinking SuperTuxKart
SDL2 \:D/
#checkoutmydancemoves so, much, cringe.
This thing controls like its on ice.
Though maybe this would be a fun project to tweak on…
The whole game is built in C++
There is no separation between the game engine, and the game it is running.
ALL C++

Merry X-mas, comrades
http://www.openra.net/news/release-20151224/

They added IRC support! ZOMG
Units defend by default so they don’t run off and get themselves killed, a la KOTOR2
Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert, and Dune 2000 all supported by one open source engine? I wish I wasn’t terrible at RTS

Still no Linux version or physical rewards
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stainlessgames/carmageddon-reincarnation/posts/1450655?cursor=12112857#comment-12112856

This the the second winter sale that Stainless Games has participated in without delivering a Linux build.
Since this launched with Linux as the FIRST stretch goal
- Steam for Linux arrived
- SteamOS launched
- Ariola Controlla
- Steam Link
- Street Fighter V announced… for Linux.
I’m not a big fan of nagging campaigns… but I think I’m going to start “reminding” them of their unfulfilled stretch goals whenever I see one of their self-congratulatory postings on social media.
Ugh, I feel like an SJW already.

Close
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/psychonauts-2

Just over two weeks left.
They’ll make it, no problem and I haven’t even backed, er, invested… well, thrown monies at them yet
Fig.co is a cool concept and this is their first big success campaign.
I wonder if it will take off and maybe give Kickstarter some competition?

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: STAR WARS™ Knights of the Old Republic™ II
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/208580/
Devel: Aspyr
Engine: Aurora
Price: $9.99

Wazzat: 5 years after the events of the award winning original, the Sith are on the verge of crushing the Old Republic. As a lone Jedi, will you follow the light side or succumb to the dark?

Makes with the working

V-

Can’t Alt+Tab, Brad.
Well I can but the game always regains focus.
Switching between 1080/2160 causes the game to revert to 720 (same shite it does on first launch) and the gerbil click-targets are off causing you to use the controlla or arrows to set the proper res.
60 @1080 and 2160.

J-

M-

Worked flawlessly at launch
Aspyr source port done almost perfectly
Community patch to fix things actively supported by devs? Very nice.

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

V-

Ass-Pyre originally ported this for mobile devices and I’m betting it looks passable on a 5 inch display @ 720/1080.
At 2160P on a 28 inch display… not so much.
I was thinking about using a re-texture pack but upgrading from meh to meh+ is hardly worth the effort.
I know the game claims to have shadows but FK and ALL if I can see them.
Voice acting is passable and the background racket is very Star Wars.

J-

Holy 2004 batman!
And these weren’t the greatest graphics back then either
Voice work is as good as you get for 2003 Video games. Standard stable of 7 Actors

M-

60 ferps at UHD
Being a droid on the outside of the ship looked pretty neat
Playstation 2 complexity geometry, even rendered at a high res, still looks dated
Does look very “Star Wars”

Total-

Control

V-

Ass-Pyre added controller support and it’s… funky.
We’re talking unwashed shirt that you wouldn’t wear to the grocery funky.
I noped on over to the keyboard/gerbil within the first 10min.
Gerbil-look requires holding down the right button because raisins but A and D work so get yourself some of that redundancy.

J-

Exactly how I remember them
Clunky

M-

The “intro tutorial” has you plant some explosives on a door which I couldn’t get to work, required switching to keyboard+mouse and restarting the game
Most awkward camera since Mario64
Seems like a gamepad-type game, better off on the keyboard+mouse

Total-

FUN

V-

I’ve never played this game so don’t expect any cocaine coated nostalgia glasses excuses.
Let’s start with the “combat”
This is the first game IN MY FK MOTHERING LIFE that made we whisper I wish this was 4X
Really, what the hell is this? 1X lite?
Me: Hey! That orb thingy keeps healing the bots so I best target it and give it a case of the nopes!
Game: Na, Brad; IMA stay right, FKN, here, locked on to a droid until you are killed to death.
Me: Fk that! *runs away /w a quickness and uses a medpack only to find that it only works if you click on ‘A To Use’ because a double click will take one away from your inventory and not do shite*
This game suffers from the early 00s “we want to tell a theatrical story but the tech is not quite there” syndrome.
+D20 in my Star Wars game?

J-

So I first picked up this game close to 11 years ago, back when I was really into the Star Wars D20 RPG, and I loved this shit
I Played through about ¾ of the campaign, Reassembled HK47 and was on my way to becoming a super bad ass Jedi. Then I hit a game breaking bug where if you’re too neutral, you can’t progress
My rose tinted goggles seem to have some scuffs on them
I don’t recall the pathfinding being that pants on head retarded sometimes
The AI when you relinquish control of your dudes is rock stupid as well. Let’s all run into minefields
Still, I had fun playing the game. It really does pick up once you get through the telos city bits
I’m trying to go through as a sith this time around, but I keep accidentally doing good deeds!
And now I’m at the part where you, as Atton, a ranged character, have to fight two melee fighters by yourself. So much save scumming

M-

Really wanted to like it
Typical of Obsidian to deliver a very ambitious project without even a touch of polish… like F:NV and PoE
Aspyr didn’t do much to clean it up either, other than “controller support” and making the graphics run at 500fps.
Community mod should just be part of the game. I’m sure there must be legal issues.
Chris Avellone is a good writer/designer, but this game didn’t give me the chance to appreciate it

Total-

Final –

Hate Mail:

Cry
http://slexy.org/view/s20faPXatZ

Probably because they missed wage payments and withheld bonuses for Crytek UK staff members in 2014.
Don’t want to build on a closed source engine that might nope.
Mix that /w a Windows only editor, subscription fee, and (if you got to ask) pricing for full source access.
That said, Deep Silver promises a revolution.
CryEngine had its years as Mr Universe, UE4 wears that crown now

Skeep
http://slexy.org/view/s2zw8FpeJS