LinuxGameCast Weekly EP197 – Flaming Katanas

CRYENGINE opens the source! F1 2015 comes to Linux, NVIDIA releases drivers for the 1080, and we celebrate the anniversary of the Half-Life 2 Episode 3 announcement. Then Shadwen faces the CHAIRQUISITION!


Special thanks to our Patreons:

  • Ben M

Steam News:

Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Vulkan for AMD on SteamOS
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/364042703856198459/

  • Interesting.   Hopefully the work valve does in getting this running will help with the rather complex amdgpu-pro setup for other distributions.   Cuz AMD doesn’t seem to want any of it
  • WTH counts as a Bonaire?
    • I was looking into it.  Looks  like the 7790 and RX 2XX series.
    • Alternatively, an island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea
    • Specifically, R9 260, R9 260X and the R7 360.
    • Which tells you how long AMD has been rebranding their GPUs instead of creating new ones.

THAR Vulkan button
http://www.dota2.com/news/updates/22000/

  • 131MB update.
  • You need want to be in the Steam Beta.
  • Download Vulkan DLC
  • Enable with -vulkan
  • No noticeable increase in FERPS.
  • Getting 116 /w OpenGL 118 /w Vulkan.
  • GPU utilization:
    • 45% OpenGL
    • 70% Vulkan

Belated Performance
http://steamcommunity.com/app/203160/discussions/0/357287304420332226/

  • Well, they’re addressing the issues people are having with VPN Vifs
    • I honestly hope this is the last we’ll see of that issue.   Seriously guys, the last 3 games you released had this issue.
  • Mesa specific performance increases are always welcome.  
    • I wonder if they’ll publicly discuss some of what they did.   
    • Having that knowledge out in the open could help other devs make the most out of the only functional AMD drivers under linux.
  • The AMD CPU improvements are also noticeable.
  • The only place left where the performance tanks noticeably, on the SteamBox with the High preset, is in Shantytown.

Busted
http://www.insidemacgames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=37476&st=1900#entry440716

  • Mac users know their MC HAMMER.
    • Yeah.  Linux Users can’t touch this
  • If this does pan out, it will hopefully mean we’re getting DoW3.   Whenever that happens
  • Hopefully it won’t suck like all the other warhammer games on linux.   Or perform better than company of heroes 2

Confirmed
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/17067-The-Escapist-Celebrates-10-Years-of-Waiting-for-Half-Life-2-Epis

  • spoken of in hushed whispers and dank memes
    • Aaaaaaaaaand you lost me
  • Still, it’s a cutting reminder to never bank on promises.   Unless that one redditor is to be believed
    • Or if you believe everyone  who decompiles the latest source 2 demo and  realizes some of the names reference HL3 because that’s what the engine was originally designed for.
  • As someone who recently finished EP2… come the FK on!
  • You know what else changed in 10 years? The quality of articles at the Escapist.
  • I used to rely on the Escapist to make sense of the all the Kotaku, D-Toid, Polygon, etc., mess. They’d often present the news in a much more neutral, well balanced way.
    • (note to self) include more D-Toid and Polygon articles next week.
  • And now you have fluff pieces on a daily basis.
  • It’s like Phoronix with less benchmarks.

I like their reasoning
http://steamcommunity.com/games/329280/announcements/detail/597103984572870522
http://store.steampowered.com/app/329280

  • Even if I dislike the RTS genre.
  • Hope they are prepared for everyone who bought the game to leave a negative review.
  • “$30USD in shop assets” ain’t going to cut it.
    • Early access is the embodiment of Caveat Emptor.   It was the same shit with Storm United.   Except they were kind of up front about it.
    • I still don’t know which is worse though.

Zoom zoom
http://store.steampowered.com/app/286570/

Soul Flibits
http://store.steampowered.com/app/460970/

  • Requires FlibitOS

Waist of Time
http://store.steampowered.com/app/463720/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpl2ZwT4rq0

  • Goat Simulator has run its course.
    • You could say that the goat…has been milked
  • Everyone bitches about it not being free in 3.. 2..

Totally not ripping off The Binding of Isaac
http://store.steampowered.com/app/418150/

  • Someone is trying very hard or not hard enough, I’m not sure which.
  • “The Madness of Little Emma”
  • The Binding of Isaac
  • “The Madness of Little Emma is a difficult action platformer with roguelike elements. Full game is featuring over 250 items with insane synergies, varied enemies, and numerous secrets and mysteries to discover.”
  • Remove platformer and put in just game and you’ve got yourself a broken english description of The Binding of Isaac
  • Of course, Isaac has the whole motherly abuse subplot going for it.
  • This game has a “little brother” disappearing (like, I don’t know down a trapdoor in his room) and Emma goes out to try and find him.
    • 0 originality.
  • And that thing at the end of the trailer is a Left 4 Brad Witch!
    • I  had no idea you were in this game.  Why didn’t you tell us sooner?

News:

Yolo swag 430
https://mesamatrix.net/?commit=75d10dff0bda6de2a31e26eb8e950adc5fd3994e#Version_OpenGL4.3-GLSL4.30

  • Well, call me Ms Cleo.   Not even three days and they pull that out
  • And that adds a third Gen8+ extension to the Skylake only statement.

There you go
https://plus.google.com/+AaronPlattner/posts/1Mdv8aAnWbW
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/102879

  • …I was kidding about the Ms. Cleo thing.
  • This is pretty much the same driver from last week, with added 1080 Support

Vulcans don’t cry
http://www.dsogaming.com/interviews/crytek-dx12-vulkan-async-compute-global-illumination-ray-tracing-physically-based-rendering-e3-demos/

Come git it
https://github.com/CRYTEK-CRYENGINE/CRYENGINE

  • Remember kids, unless Stallman knights it with his flaming katanas it’s not Open Sauce™
    • Which he won’t, because you’re not allowed to redistribute or even use this for anything other than games.
    • And you’re bound by the usual Crytek EULA and Terms of Service.
  • You hear that Mr. Roberts?
    • That is the sound of Star Citizen devels screaming motherfuc*kers!
  • “If there is content that would require it to be rated “Adult’s Only”, chances are it violates our EULA.”
  • :( !
    • Damn, there goes my million dollar idea for a game where you’re a schoolgirl trying to seduce tentacle monsters.
  • Ah the pay what you want model.   When you just can’t compete with UE4
  • Still, good on them for releasing the sauce.
  • My request for the community is, since CryTek’s too busy implementing DX12, how about we implement Vulkan?
    • And by we, I mean you. No, not you. The other one!
    • The one that’s been all over the Vulkan sauce the day it was released.
  • And when they say anything other than games, they mean it.
    • Which includes Serious Games which was a TIL moment for me.
    • “Serious games are simulations of real-world events or processes designed for the purpose of solving a problem.”

Mighty No. Meh
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/05/the-new-mighty-no-9-trailer-is-weirdly-condescendi.html

  • If you backed the game, you have my condolences.
  • The VO on the trailer is targeting 12yr olds, in the 90’s.
    • Kinda sounds like Matt Mercer
  • Not the 20/30/40+yr olds who backed the damn project.
  • Ha.  Sequelitis Reference.
  • The gameplay looks like a nice modernization of MegaMan X
  • Making their kickstarter backers cry like anime fans on prom night.

ELeague
http://www.ibtimes.com/what-eleague-esports-csgo-everything-you-need-know-tbs-debut-2373100

  • Awww, that’s cute.   TV broadcasters are trying to get into the Twitch/YTG market again.
  • People thought that YTG wouldn’t take off because of the lack of custom emojis.   Now there aren’t any
    • Unless they set up a hotline that lets you spam them by sending a text for $0.99
  • They are broadcasting the same footage on twitch earlier in the week, so friday is for people who don’t know how to VOD or want to play catch up with commercials
  • Honestly though, it might get a bit of a push from Valve backing it, but the market is so saturated with gaming tournaments already.   That you can watch online.   At your convenience
  • Matches will take place at Turner Studios in Atlanta
    • ….Venn
    • *moves*

Portuguese Metal Slug-vania (sent keys)
http://greedyguns.com/

  • They’ll be having a kickstarter come May 31st
  • They’ve already passed through Greenlight
  • And, wouldn’t you know it, they sent us keys BEFORE the kickstarter campaign started.
  • Shtie don’t work, straight-up core dumps.
    • They fixed that core dump.
      • With a Unity screen on nope.
        • At least the Logitech F310 works, even though the buttons are not the ones they describe on the little tutorial tips.

CHAIRQUISITION:
CHAIR– Nooope

CHAIRCHAIR– Not sure if want

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Check it out

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Shutupandtakemymonies


Game: Shadwen
Webzone:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/425210
Devel: Frozenbyte
Engine:
Trine 3 Engine Frozenbyte Engine 4
Price: €16.99 / USD$16.99 / CDN$ 18.99

Wazzat: Shadwen is a 3rd person stealth-action game where the only rule is to remain unseen. Stay hidden – or the ruthless guards will kill you on sight!

Mandatory US Filth Discclosure: They sent us keys


Makes with the working

V-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • It’s 2016 but I’m dinging it a chair for 2025 Venn.
  • He might want to replay it at something higher than 1440p.  

J-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • Hey!   They fixed the fullscreen @UHD issue from trine 3 and their old demo

P-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


Total-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


Shiny / Sounds

V-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Darkness, Imprisoning me. All that I see. Absolute… well, darkness.
  • Mushy, brown tinted, darkness.
  • But that’s enough about the colour palette.
  • Let’s talk about Really? o_0 what is wrong /w your face
  • Right, moving on to the sounds.
  • If you were expecting a bitching Trine esque soundtrack you will be disappoint.
  • Because all you get is muted background noise interrupted by the occasional lady grunt.

J-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • The visual aesthetic is consistent with the setting
  • The soundscape is also competently designed
  • I don’t know why Venn expects loud music in a stealth game though
  • However, the visuals look like an early ps3 game.   They got away with this in trine 3 because of the cartoony aesthetic.   Doesn’t really work here

P-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • They have their own screen of nope with the basic graphical options and resolution settings, limited as they are.
  • Still, the game looks very pretty even if you don’t exactly enjoy their choice of character stylization.
  • The brown/purple/orange visuals are very reminiscent of 2009-2016 Ubuntu releases but, in my opinion, they lend this game a nice visual atmosphere.
  • And that atmosphere is compounded by a very good sound design as well.

Total-CHAIRCHAIR


Control

V-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Pedro mentioned they did something fky /w the gerbil.
  • Explains why their is something fky /w the gerbil.
  • Every aspect of this game’s control-organ can be encapsulated in one word, jaaaaaanky.
  • Fky arse camera control because gerbil.
  • A grappling hook that only sorta kinda works if you pause, take aim, and pray to the deity of your choice.
    • And get this, they borrowed the busted grappling hook (scroll wheel) length mechanic from Trine 3.
  • Playing the ground game is no better since collision detection is often too busy playing Trine 2 (The last good game from Frozenbyte) to realize that you are stuck between an empty space and a hay bail.
    • In all fairness, this probably comes from the main characters inherent need to STICK TO EVERYTHING!
  • And don’t get me started on little A.I. kid.
    • I never seen a bot eat so many chicken wings more on rails.

J-CHAIRCHAIR

  • It is complete horseshit that I can’t use my super fast scrollwheel as a zipline.  HORSESHIT.  -1 Chairs
  • Dragging things with the hookshot using the scroll wheel seems to be a bit of a crapshoot as well
  • I actually ran into an input bug that only allowed me to rotate my camera 90 degrees.  It was fun
  • I honestly don’t see this game working all that well on a controller.   I also don’t want to go through the trine 2 exercise of figuring out a sane controller mapping

P-CHAIRCHAIR

  • First thing I noticed when I started the game was the weird sticky mouse cursor which seemed to move at different speeds for no apparent reason.
  • Checked the FerPS, they were holding steady at around 90-ish in the menu. So that couldn’t be it.
  • So, I decided to tweak the sensitivity in the options menu. It has absolutely no effect on the cursor itself.
  • There is some sort of software interposer between how the OS handles the mouse and the way the game interprets said input.
  • And, as is often the case with those (see Source games if you’re not using Raw Input), it causes mouse deceleration.
  • Why can’t I disable this?
  • Also, the only way you’ll have full controller support, is if you use a mouse to help you set the bindings in the options menu.
  • Guess I don’t need to expound on why that’s a problem when SteamOS is a thing, hm?

Total-CHAIRCHAIR


FUN

V-CHAIR

  • When you start off you’re all outside and shite.
  • It’s a bit neat with all the exploring and swinging.
  • That all ends when you enter the city, which is apparently located in Barrow, Alaska.
  • So, what elks can you do?
  • You can run about, stab.
  • Walk, stab.
  • Swing, stab.
  • Jump off things, stab.
  • Craft shite, stab.
  • Close game, stab.
  • I’m at the three hour mark and simply no longer care, stab.

J-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Pedro will get into more detail regarding this, but this really is a puzzle game.
  • Sort of like a more extrapolated hitman go
  • However, where Hitman Go had a relatively simple set of rules to follow, this is  a little bit of a fustercluck
  • Most of the time, I’m dark souls pivoting around enemies to stab them between the ribs.   Not very assasinny
  • Also, I really don’t get the point of trying to protect the little girl’s innocence.   
  • Listen, I don’t have time to explain medieval politics or power vacuums to a 6 year old girl.   If I don’t kill his entire standing military ALONG WITH THE KING, another one of these assholes will pop up and we’ll be having this exact same conversation a year later
  • Still, the babysitting mechanic wasn’t as overt as I thought it’d be.   She doesn’t expose herself or you to the guards
  • But yeah, there’s a lot of waiting, a lot of sneaking around, and a whole lot of yawning
  • The superhot movement thing really only works for the swinging so that you have enough time to aim your hookshot
  • I used an Item I crafted once.  You have to look through every chest to find the pieces and it takes FOREVER
  • But it’s boring.

P-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Some games take a specific mechanic and integrate it into the core gameplay.
  • They make everything else compliment that mechanic.
  • In Shadwen, the whole “time stops when you stop” thing is completely unnecessary!
  • It was a completely superfluous mechanic to the gameplay they already had.
  • The game would work perfectly well without it. How do I know this?
  • Meet my Tissot T wristwatch. It sat on the Q key, the whole time I was playing this game.
  • And I played all the way through it. So take my word for it when I say, it was a tacked on mechanic.
  • The core mechanic in this game is the whole “Escort quest” thing.
  • You have to take Lily along with you on your mission to Assassinate the King.
  • And this is where they put the little twist in the typical Escort Quest paradigm you have in other games.
  • You can get to the end of the game with or without exposing Lily to your neck stabbing or the corpses of previously neck stabbed guards.
  • It creates a challenge for people like me who like to artificially handicap themselves in videogames. Not that I – specifically – would need need to further handicap myself but I do like a challenge!
  • It’s a puzzle game of figuring out which way you’re going and then working your way from the end of the map back to Lily, killing/distracting guards and hiding the corpses of the ones you killed.
  • And in my opinion, while not exactly revolutionary, it’s a nice twist on the puzzle genre. It would definitely be worth three chairs.
  • Except it has problems.
  • It claims to have full controller support, but only after you’ve gone in and mapped everything in the options menu.
    • If you have a Mistress of your own, you can get around it by using the Mouse & Keyboard mappings.
  • Then there’s that stupid mouse deceleration happening, which the only thing it did was make sure I never used the inventory to craft anything else beyond the grappling hook.
  • Also, every now and again, the AI will break.
    • This isn’t a big issue on guards, since they’re pretty brain dead already.
    • But the moment the AI breaks on Lily. Get ready to reload that checkpoint and do everything all over again, cuz that little runt won’t move and if she doesn’t move you can’t progress.
  • And the whole “time stops when you stop” which, as I mentioned, adds nothing to the game.

Total-CHAIR


Final –CHAIRCHAIR


Hate Mail:

Vulkan button
https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?DgDSxSp

  • Glad to see I’m not the only one on the CS:GOFuckYourself boat.
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