LinuxGameCast Weekly 224 – Love Gloves

VR comes to Steam! 0 A.D. gets a new Project Lead, Darksiders comment on the Linux port, and Zenimax goes after DoomRL. Then Dead Age faces the CHAIRQUISITION! All this, plus your hate mail.

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Steam News:

Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Sale
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-12-01-steam-winter-sale-start-date-confirmed

  • No dad noooo!
  • Unless Tyranny goes on sale for stupid cheap, I don’t think there’s much I’d be interested in
  • Unless Feral drop some DiRT bombs, it’ll probably be another “meh” sale.
  • The three of us live in a bizarre world where we have more games than we can play.

Steamy VR
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/286511/OSVR_support_has_quietly_come_to_Steam.php

  • More hardware support is good hardware support
  • Still waiting on that steamvr linux support there, brad

Port? What port?
http://steamcommunity.com/app/462780/discussions/0/154642321538015745/#c154642321538070060

  • Just admit you’re not competent enough to deliver a Linux port and to damn cheap to pay someone to do it.
    • But Vinn, if we string people along, they might pick it up on sale so we can make some money off of them
  • “Maybe Warmastered Edition will get a Linux port one day”
    • Judging by your current track record, no. No it won’t. Stop stringing people along, it’ll be better in the long run.
      • See my above point
      • Performant, bug free, Linux ports just don’t just fall out of the sky, you know
        • Rufus would like to have a word with you

Space Cars
https://rocketleaguegame.com/news/starbase-arc-blasts-off-december-7/

  • New spaaaaaaaaaaace arena and DLC car.
  • And they are redesigning two of the OG Rocket Cars… nope, no way that could go wrong.
  • Steam workshop integration is also coming down the pipe. How long until people start cloning dlc into free mods?

Aesthetic Transactions: Global Offensive
http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/2016/11/17081/

  • Every time I wonder if people actually buy into this stuff I am continually disappointed
    • They do and apparently they do so enough across a multitude of genres that VALVe gets to make a profit of it from CS:GO, DOTA2, and TF2 still.

Quo vadis Myst
http://store.steampowered.com/app/512790/

  • Big thanks to the devs for sending us keys.
  • Based on the description it seems like it’s myst with some resident evil style puzzle mechanics.
  • I already had my fill of myst type games, but if you’re a fan, give this one a look

Anime Gibberish
http://store.steampowered.com/app/380750/

  • It’s borderline enjoyable.
  • Voice acting managed a solid laugh out of me for all the wrong reasons.
    • It is definitely Devil May Cry 2 English voice acting level.
  • Maintains 100+ ferps /w everything on 11.
  • Another big thanks to BadLand games, the publisher, for sending us keys.
  • Interestingly, they had already sent me an email about this game when the Mac version came out.

Da Dorfs
http://store.steampowered.com/app/403970/

  • The only reason I even know about this game is because Blind Guardian is doing some music for it (And also an album that’s been in development hell for the better part of 10 years goddamnit! WHAR DEMONS AND WIZARDS 3 HANSI!!!)
  • This already looks better than “We are the Dwarves”. Hopefully it plays better too
  • Linux could do with a new tactical RPG.

News:

MineBlocks Alpha 6
https://github.com/MovingBlocks/Terasology/releases/tag/v1.3.0

  • It continues astound me how many open source minecraft clones are out there
  • I guess as a programming experiment it’s pretty interesting, but you’re not making a dent in OG Minecraft
  • Settle down Walter!

Doritos (Thanks Anthony)
https://itsfoss.com/project-novatio-linux-console/
http://www.project-novatio.com/

  • Supposedly they have a magical chip that will allow you to play windows games natively on linux
    • Sure. Hardware wine. Coil wine?
  • Poorly rendered 3D concept art with nothing to back up their claims?
  • Sign me the hell up, son.
  • They list their phone number. If anyone in Shatrealm has free international calls, you know what to do!

NeverLutris Nights
https://lutris.net/games/neverwinter-nights/

  • The Lutris installer has been updated to support the latest version of the game.
  • Well, it works.
  • If you didn’t already have the game, I hope you got a chance to pick it up while it was free.
  • Neverwinter Nights is my all time favorite Linux game, no questions asked.
  • The Multiplayer was amazingly done because as long as the server was playing on didn’t use any third party HakPaks, you could literally join in and play regardless of what Module it was running.
  • Not to mention the plethora of 3rd party mods and haks that are still floating around. They did a pretty faithful recreation of tomb of horrors
  • Of course, if you’re like me and you bought the game years ago, well, tough titties for you, not getting the game for free on GOG

Open Sauce Metroid
https://www.crowdsupply.com/onpon4/hexoshi

  • Interesting to see an open sauce project using crowd funding.
  • Cloned the Git but that shite don’t launch.
    • Holy crapton of python dependencies batman
    • You basically need all of the sge_* packages from pip, then it runs
      • Good candidate for a AppSnapFlatPack.thingy.
  • Controller support should be one of the initial goals.
  • Haven’t figured out what shoot is yet

Dick move, Bethesda, dick move
https://twitter.com/epyoncf/status/804482084702187520
https://doom.chaosforge.org/

  • So, remove the trademark bits from the webzone?
  • “How dare you attempt to bring a fun doom game to linux. Fuck linux” – Zenimax
  • They may have had a point in court that DoomRL has been around for a long long time and if Bethesda didn’t defend it until now, they don’t get to do it.
    • In fact, as early as 2005 Doom the Roguelike has been a thing.
    • Bethesda didn’t acquire the rights to the Doom IP until 2009.
    • For 7 years, they’ve had the rights and didn’t do anything until now.
    • And the only reason they’re doing it is because they know one guy could never afford to stand up to them in court and make the Prior Art argument.
  • Not only is Zenimax not putting any games on Linux, as they’re now actively attacking those that do.
  • And of course, Jupiter hell gets announced and has a kickstarter. Can’t keep a good project down
  • Fuck you, Zenimax! Fuck you.

0 Leads
https://play0ad.com/november-news-from-wildfire-games/

  • Thankless job.
  • Should be interesting to watch since the project seems to be running alright.
    • Yeah, leadership transitions are always sticky. If it’s just a matter of keeping on course then there shouldn’t be too much problem

CHAIRQUISITION:
CHAIR – Nooope

CHAIRCHAIR– Not sure if want

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Check it out

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Shutupandtakemymonies


Game: Dead Age stupid monkey RNG
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/363930/
Devel: Silent Dreams
Engine: Unity
Price:14.99 / CDN 16.99

Wazzat: Survive a zombie outbreak with “Final Fantasy”-like turn-based combat and permanent death. Manage survivors, craft materials, and make difficult decisions. Defend your camp against hordes of the undead to prevail in this non-linear rogue-lite (comparable to FTL). Innovative Indie Survival-RPG!

Disclosure: They sent us keys


Makes with the working

V-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • Unity scream of nope -1 Chair.
  • Run 60ish on 11.

J-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • The game can’t make up it’s mind about underrunning or not

P-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Unity screen of nope: -1 chair
  • Get to the main menu and the first thing I hear is static, opened pavucontrol and I see the game audio stream flickering in and out. Buffer Underruns! You know what means: PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 %command% and -1 chair.

Total-CHAIRCHAIR


Shiny / Sounds

V-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Why for the love of FK and all did you do this in 3D?
  • The 2D art is passable but the 3D bits look like the side project of a teeager who has a mild interest in art / design.
  • Seriously, even the rigging on the zombies is shite.
    • Yeah, I know you were going for some humour but all you did was add to the fugly.
  • You should have went mull-metal Darkest Dungeon.
  • If this thing had sounds I didn’t notice.

J-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Oh god the 3D models really stand out, and not in a good way
  • It really does clash with the aesthetic of the combat system
  • 3D final fantasy style games have moved away from the “dudes in a column” configuration and typically leverage the 3D camera to show a more dynamic scene
  • Also, what’s with all the zombies just derping around in the background
  • Sounds are definitely there.

P-CHAIRCHAIR

  • First impressions with this game didn’t exactly sell it.
  • The 3D models look like what you’d get from a $20 pack off of the Unity Asset Store.
  • The combat animations are simple but different attacks all have different animations to some degree and they’re immediately recognizable after just a few rounds. So I guess that’s a positive.
  • Sounds, though, are overly simplistic and obnoxiously loud.
  • And that is if you can hear them, because if you don’t set that PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC to 60, they’re just a garbled, static-y mess.

Total-CHAIRCHAIR


Control

V-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • Point-and-click.
  • The combat menu is wicked simple.
  • The resource management menu is a bit on the cluttered side.

J-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

P-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


Total-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


FUN

V-CHAIR

  • It’s boring, Brad.
  • All you do is fight zombies and buy / sell shite.
  • And the fighting is the most generic click-and-wait one swing thing i’ve ever seen.
  • I mean, you know if you can win the fight just by looking at whatever the RZG spits out.
  • Then all you are left with is a resource management game that is passable at best.
  • 477 positive reviews and 471 purchases is fishy as all hell.

J-CHAIR

  • I get what they’re trying to do, but I don’t think it really works
  • The massive number of hit points your characters have in comparison with the enemy threw me off at first, but it’s how the game manages to pace itself.
  • Still, I feel turn based final fantasy style combat isn’t the best match for zombie apocalypse
  • The FTL influence is very clear, but I feel they missed a bit of the point
  • Resources aren’t all that scarce in FTL. You’re guaranteed at least one shop, and there are other events that can give you resources
  • Plus, one of the cool things about FTL is the exploration, which this game has none of. Just jump from encounter to encounter
  • Resources here are uncommon (makes sense, zombie apocalypse and all), but
  • It does what it can to emulate the conditions of zombie apocalypse in a turn based context, and it sort of works. It’s just not very fun
  • Two games that do this a lot better are Organ Trail and Death Road to Canada. Play those instead

P-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Honestly, the presentation was so bad I didn’t even feel like this game could do anything to change my opinion.
  • But, as I keep saying, I’ll take a game which looks like complete ass and so long as the base mechanics are sound, chances are I’ll find something to enjoy and I’ll be damned!
  • I did find something to enjoy with Dead Age.
  • They say it’s got roguelite elements like you’d see in FTL but I think I can find an even better comparison.
  • Dead Age is what This War of Mine would be if you put zombies in it and you don’t tell me that the people I was playing guardian angel for were miserable, all the goddamn time.
  • This War of Mine was one of those games that, besides the already oppressive and overbearing atmosphere, would rather tell me people were feeling sad, or hungry, or cold, or miserable, than it did making me care about those “poor widdle people”.
  • People in Dead Age are badass!
  • Disproportionate Unity stock assets but badass, nonetheless.
  • Even if the models aren’t store-bought, the default Unity shader configs make a lot of games look very similar.
  • But Dead Age manages to show us that even with stock assets and default shader configs, so long as you make the mechanics of your game sound, players will find something to like about it.
  • And while I didn’t hate the turn-based combat, the micro-management crap that you have to do while in camp is what killed it for me.
  • Your character is rescued from the zombies and the moment he gets to camp with the complete strangers he is immediately put in charge, that right there threw any and all willing suspension of disbelief I had right out the window, and into a zombie’s ass!

Total-CHAIR


Final –CHAIRCHAIR


Hate Mail:

Dying
http://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?BDlbBNN

Sven
http://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?G6QvB7X

  • I didn’t mean to imply you were downplaying their contributions, if anything I downplayed them and with good reason.
  • I love the Xoreos project and want to see it succeed, but clearly the random contributors aren’t enough, you lot need a hell of a lot more of them.
  • And preferably, not random contributors but people who actually want to stick around and help.
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