LinuxGameCast Weekly 225 – Hit Mango

DoomRL goes open source! Square Enix counts to GO, Owlboy comes to Linux, and Mesa gets stable. Then Anima Gate of Memories faces the CHAIRQUISITION! All this, plus your hate mail.

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Steam News:

Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Qapla’
http://steamcommunity.com/games/250820/announcements/detail/289750654270118873

Something, something, xkcd 927.
Google, Carmack, Razr, Epic, Valve, Nvidia and AMD are all on board, so it at least bodes well for people sticking to the new standard
Looks like the different VR companies are starting to relize people don’t like getting face-fkd by a toaster.
An open standard will let devels treat different devices as a generic VR headsets.

Rocket Update
https://rocketleaguegame.com/news/patch-notes-v1-25/

I was testing the update for a full 12 seconds before Truggs invited me to play, he’s slippin.
They also pushed out a hotfix that may or may not resolve VSYNC and spite crash issues.
- I don’t play much online because spite crashes hurt rankings.
Seamless bot replacement sounds handy. And also sexy

Sounds like a hoot
https://twitter.com/flibitijibibo/status/806964779516620801

It looks like a well done hipster-pixel joint but I don’t get the hype surrounding it.
Supposedly this has been in the works for almost 10 years now.
Apparently the hype is real

Shadow Tactics
http://store.steampowered.com/app/418240/

Looks very similar to Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines/Beyond Call of Duty but with a japanese theme to it.
- They can’t stop comparing the damn game to Commandos

LauraGO
http://store.steampowered.com/app/540840/

Hopefully it’s a little more distinct than the obvious Hit mango comparison would have you believe
- I know they would love to GO all the things.
Still, another squeenix game (mobile though it may be) makes it to linux
Who knows. We could even hold out for a Final Fantasy port when the PC version comes out
- I would probably play that.
WHAR QWOP GO!??!

News:

Mesa
https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/ubuntu/pkppa

In the wake of Feral’s request for a less bleeding edge Mesa ppa Paulo Miguel Dias, you may know him as Padoka0, has set up just that.
He’s still offering his “two-to-three-times-a-week” Mesa git PPA for those interested.

Dave Airlie lays the smackdown on AMD gfx developer about the DC (DAL) unwanted hardware abstraction (Thanks Gnarlin)
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2016-December/126516.html

HTH is a $8.93B company considered small?
Granted they are not doing gangbusters like Team Blue but it’s not exactly a mum and pop company.
Dude has a point though. Nobody’s going to be abandoning the linux kernel if AMD jumps ship
- Monstercameron might through
Good on the kernel people for standing their ground

The GOG Connection
https://www.gog.com/connect

Got another 50 bucks worth of games
Just a bit over 60 for me, but some of them don’t have Linux versions.
Got Costume Quest, Stacking, Knock-knock, and Limbo $39.96

Vendetta
https://www.vendetta-online.com/h/news_32979.html

Oh good. I thought it was the other thing!
For those of y’all who don’t remember, this is that MMO that can be played across tablets and desktop
They have a new release out with better android support

LLAP
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/introducing-vulkan-psx-renderer-for-beetlemednafen-psx/

I love how many of these emulators are now getting Vulkan implementations. Such delicious overkill
This renderer is designed to better support upscaling, because who wants to play emulated games at their native resolutions

Doom Sauce
https://github.com/ChaosForge/doomrl

Clever girl.
It’s really a smart way to keep the project alive.
However, I was kinda shocked that it was not open sauce to begin with.
- Yeah, I thought they already had a github too

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: Anima Gate of Memories
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/380750/
Devel: Anima Project
Engine: Unity
Price: 19.99 / CDN 21.99

Wazzat: Anima: Gate of Memories is a third person action RPG that tells the story of two beings bound by an unwilling pact, an ancient monster and a girl who lost her past… Forced to stay together, their lives will take a unexpected turn when both discover that something darker than they could imagine is about to start, a war in the shadows in which they will have a leading role.

Mandatory Disclosure: They sent us keys.

Makes with the working

V-

Don’t get to use fast and Unity in a sentence often.
You can put everything on 12 and it still maintains 100+ @1080.
Seems to be properly multithreaded but it’s no Ziggurat.
Loses a Chair because you guessed it! USON!
Why is the Unity Scream of nope such a big deal?
Three words Brad… Big, Picture, Mode.
If I’m trying to play this on the livingroom Steam box I have to dig up a gerbil and plug it in so I can close that FKN screen.

J-

I played a bunch of this on the TV box. Venn’s point about the unity scream of nope is hella accurate
Beyond that, runs very well on the TV box as well as the desktop
Just use a 370+ branch driver. 367.44 caused a whole mess of nope

P-

I could almost forgive it for showing me the Unity screen of Nope, when we take into account how well it performs.
But 2016 is coming to an end and they are clearly competent developers, so I will still have to ding a chair.
With the FX 8370E and the Gigabyte GTX 1080, it never dips below 100 FerPS even when an entire room’s worth of enemies spawns in.
I did have one crash, during the end of the tutorial cutscene, but it’s been solid ever since.

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

V-

It’s pretty, curiously, nay. Spooky pretty.
That’s my polite way of saying it’s how the hell did you pull this off on such a limited budget pretty.
Properly done cell-shaded goodness with well designed (but sometimes sparse) level design.
That said, the Bearers walking animation is based on what exactly?
Listen here girlfriend, I have me some heels and learned to walk proper while playing the role of Dr. Frank N Furter and I don’t think I could pull off her momvments on a dare.
I really wish the cut scenes were animated.
- $omething tell$ me they they were $upposed to be.
I don’t know what’s worse, the writing for the Book or the poor bastard trying to voice it.
I mean it takes special sauce to make me cringe but that shite had me all up in the corner.
I get he was going for Left Hand from Vampire Hunter D but talk about swing and a miss, son.
The Bearer reads her lines like a lass at her first school audition e.g. deer + headlights.
However, that kinda works since it fits the character.
Sound effect are passable but the music really stands out.
It’s themed properly for each area and even includes a “something is about to skull fk you” track.
The OST is available for $4.99.
I just wish they spent the same amount of $$ and attention on the voice acting.

J-

All of the character models look nice
They just clash with the stock 2/3d unity assets is all.
The levels are big , but they’re not really filled with much
And yes, the voice acting. The source of most of the comedy from this game
The guy voicing ergo does a pretty good crispin freeman impression. Fooled me
Also, the lady singing in the intro section gives me a migrane. Nothing against her, just too high pitched

P-

Man, that voice acting!
The first proper boss actually says “I have come.” at one point and I lost my shit.
I blame that for not being able to beat it on the first try.
The graphics have a bit of cell-shading to them, which is often a good choice for projects with a limited budget.
Cell-shading makes it so you can use lower res textures and the game still looks good… and it will also perform much, much better than the average Unity title.
The background music I found to be very appropriate and it compliments the general atmosphere of all the different places well enough.
Even the combat music was just the right amount of campy.

Total-

Control

V-

The camera can eat a GLORIOUS bag of cocks.
It will sometimes turn the game into a top down fustercluck and it’s clear this was a decision by the developer.
Outside of pissing me off what were you trying to achieve by doing this nonsense?
Camera fuckery aside I found the controls on the Xclone to not only be remappable but responsive.
I guess you could play with /w a keyboard and gerbil… if you hate yourself.

J-

Everything is reasonably mapped on the controller
Except locking on to shit. The camera is your biggest enemy here
Switching the default camera to inverted does help, but not when you’re getting fucked in a corner by enemies
All the fight moves are mappable, so that’s pretty good if you want to come up with some kind of killer strategy

P-

The Steam Controller worked out of the box, all I did was adjust the back left paddle to copy the Right Trigger and all of a sudden I could use all the buttons!
- I love this controller!
Keyboard also works, but you don’t want to play this game with a keyboard.

Total-

FUN

V-

This game makes you get good.
It’s not Nintendhard but it’s definitely you gonna learn some boss patterns hard.
That’s right up my alley organ!
You start off in what I can only assume is the longest tutorial mission… in the world.
During this you learn to fight, you learn to dodge, and you really really hope some new enemies show up.
Then you spank the Red Lady, get a body for the Book, and curb-stomped by killy Mc. killyface.
After that the game basically FK’s off and says have at.
Direction much?
I mean, something? Anything?
This happened around the 2+ hour mark and I’m over here all like “where’s the popcorn? I’m not a clever man”
The little bit of exploring I managed after being told to have at resulted in two different boss fights that I was not prepared for.
At the end of the day this sudden lack of direction sucks nuclear donkey balls.
I know there is a LOT more just waiting to be played but I’m having a hard time finding the motivation because the games all “They some bad motherfuc*ers sneaking in the house, go nope them” and I’m all “you gotta do better than that, Brad.”
If this was an Early Access title I would give it 4 Chairs of hope but as a fully baked product I can only give it three.

J-

This game is competently done.
I can’t ding it marks for technical reasons, the controls (for the most part) are fine, it’s just not scratching any particular itch
The big open worlds are nice, but a bit of direction would be nice. Also, getting to the map is a bit of a pain. (Select, then LB)
I’m not that big a fan of the platforming segments though. If your camera isn’t in the right spot, you’re not gonna have fun
The game is pretty hard at times. You gotta get really good at the dodge/recovery mechanic, though aside from the difficulty spike between the tutorial and the rest of the game, it’s on a pretty good curve. You can walk into fights you’re not ready for, and the game will warn you as such, but you can always run away to grind another day
Also, not a fan of the whole “give you all the unlocks and then take them away” method of tutorial
The RPG elements seem a bit tacked on, although I get that they’re supposed to impart a sense of progression.
I can’t really hate on this game though. As I said before, it’s done well and the only sticking point was that I wasn’t really all that engaged with it.

P-

I like this game… a lot!
It’s refreshing to say this after the past couple of weeks.
As far as combat is concerned, it’s a spectacle fighter in the same vein as Devil May Cry. It even has the character switching ability similar to Dante’s transformations in that series.
The progression is only linear in the broadest sense of the word. You are going through the different “rooms” in order, so that you can unlock the next one and so on.
But inside the rooms, you can get anything from a fairly straightforward path, to “ZOMG, there are are so many paths! Where do I go?”
Barry Schwartz wrote a book called the Paradox of Choice, inside he describes how having so much freedom of choice (in the case of the book he’s on about shopping) causes a non-negligible degree of anxiety.
That applies to video games as well. Anyone who’s ever played Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Dark Souls, Salt and Sanctuary or even Anima Gate of Memories, will know exactly what I’m talking about.
And the more you progress, the more spoiled for choice you are because all those sidequests you’ve been stumbling onto, start piling up.
I love this in a game. I love this kind of mix between linear and non-linear storytelling.
From what I’ve played of the game so far, and I seem to be 1/3rd of the through, there was already enough mechanical variety and all manner of different storytelling techniques that I am genuinely impressed at how tight and well thought out the whole experience feels.
There are games that attempt to sprawl themselves out in an effort to be the Jack of All Trades, but most end up falling flat on their faces and fail in not even particularly spectacular ways.
And even the one sticking point I have about the game proper, the voice acting, it manages to be so bad it’s actually pretty damn funny.
At one point in the 3rd Chamber Ergo Mundus, the demon guy who’s stuck in the book, breaks into song with a bastardized version of Reading Rainbow. I’m not kidding!
“Enemy in the sky, I can kick twice as high.
Take a look, I’m in a book, you’re reading Ergo!”
At that point I lost my shit, yet again!