LinuxGameCast Weekly 274: Robot Curious

GLXOSD is no more, Virtual Programming does us a favour, and Linus approves AMD DC for 4.15. Then Hand of Fate 2 faces the ChairQAsition! All this, plus your hate mail!

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Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam News:

Unofficial Steam sale
http://www.pcgamer.com/steams-new-currency-supports-causes-chaos-for-international-pc-gamers/

It would be nice if this problem could be solved by, I don’t know, setting a static price in USD for a game and then converting appropriately.
I get that in some places such a solution isn’t feasible because not everything is valued the same in USD as it is in other countries. But it’s a goddamn start!
Not surprising that some publishers have already jacked their prices up to “compensate”
It’s amazing how VALVe keeps cocking up even while they’re trying to do the right thing.

Little fix
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/1461843851749212399

Lookit valve, supporting the dx12. They know what’s up
Also, if you got old steamworks libraries in your games, your game should start up now
Never had a problem to begin with.
- People who tried to use the open sauce drivers to run Steam and even some of the games would disagree.

The flood continues
http://www.pcgamer.com/more-than-6000-games-released-on-steam-this-year-almost-as-many-in-the-10-years-to-2015/

In other breaking news, letting go of something from a height will cause it to accelerate towards the ground
There’s been so much hipster pixel trash and shovelware it’s actually disheartening to check the new releases every day.
Steam Direct accelerated the influx of bullshit allowing Steam to rubber stamp everything.
That, and Unity is getting too easy to use.
Do keep in mind a lot of the “shovelware” is not malicious.
It’s teens using a free engine and burning $100 of allowance monies to say they have a game on the Steam.
I would have done the same shite back in the day.

Multibots
http://store.steampowered.com/app/651560/Clash_of_Robots/

It’s now out and priced to sell @ $9.99.
Just kidding! It’s a fee to win mobile game available for the low low price of free on the Playstore.
Steam really needs a (mobile) tag / warning for these type of games.

Jackbox Party Pack 3?
https://steamdb.info/app/434170/depots/

Would be cool if this actually came out. This is a game basically designed for the aftershowzen
Shite son, Friday night trivia could become a thing.
I’d really like this one to be available.

…woof
http://store.steampowered.com/app/657730/Direwolf/

There wolf….There castle
This is Computer version of the tabletop game werewolf, occasionally known as mafia
Use logic and deductive reasoning to determine who is the werewolf
Toss it on the aftershowzen pile!
That directX Linux requirement, though

No O
http://store.steampowered.com/app/457140/Oxygen_Not_Included/

So space dwarf fortress
It gets bonus points for the hand drawn aesthetic
Whar Linux?

Oh Tannenberg, oh Tannenberg
http://store.steampowered.com/app/633460/Tannenberg/

Does this really justify a new game?
I mean, this really should be a mission pack for Verdun.
That said, both games seem to have a legitimate fan base.
This one is still multiplayer only.
As someone who fondly remembers Medal of Honor Allied Assault, and don’t get me wrong I love the multiplayer on that too, I’d like to see a nice single player campaign.

Trust
http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/the-trust-factor/

The continuing saga of VALVe trying to automate things without the in-house talent required to do it properly.
- In most situations, I’d agree.
Here, though, this is literally happening on the go as you queue up for a match.
It’s unfeasible to expect them to hire thousands of people to manage these.
That said, I do wonder just how your Steam lib2rary and your gaming habits affect the matchmaking.
Say you’re a youtuber like Jim Sterling who plays a lot of shovelware, are you going to be matched up against other shovelware players and everyone gets to commiserate together?

Arma Sync
https://twitter.com/Arma3official/status/930105427425218563
https://dev.arma3.com/ports

The entire premise of this tweet is just so shitty
“The lowest bidder we’ve contracted to toss a bone to Mac and linux users has shat out multiplayer compatibility for now. You’re still a second class citizen, go fuck yourself”
- It’s like they are doing you a favour.
It’s nothing short of amazing and infuriating it is to see the Linux gaming community at large thanking them for this.
Thanking them for shitting from on high on people who spent the same amount of money as everyone else for what is literally an inferior version.
We’re the assholes for pointing this shit out, apparently.

News:

Pulling AMD
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2017-November/157803.html

I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that -Linus
“I think this code is slightly better than STAGING quality but not massively so, I’d
really like to see that float/double magic gone and fixed point used, but AMD don’t seem
to think the accuracy and revalidation of the code is worth the effort”.
Dave is worried that if the code is left out much longer (4.15) distros will start carrying the code.
Dave is correct.
The backstory he provides is an interesting glimpse at their efforts to getting AMD to pull a Summer and have a Linux-friendly unified codebase for the hardware, to render things before the display server loads.
He says it’s not there yet, hence the whole spiel about having bits Linus may ding.
Aaaandd it’s in.
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=f6705bf959efac87bca76d40050d342f1d212587
Holy mother of patch
Well, the Linux users who bought AMD cards are certainly going to be happy
Will it be the silver bullet patch that finally makes AMD hardware competitive on linux? Probably not

RIP GLXOSD
https://github.com/nickguletskii/GLXOSD/issues/109

Dude straight-up tapped out.
This is not a stealth solicitation for donations.
He’s willing to foist ownership to anyone willing to take the project over
Such is a common death knell of these projects, but real life has to take priority
This is a very useful tool I’d be very sad to see die out.

Totes coming to Linux you guys
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/21183638/starcraft-ii-40-patch-notes-11-14-2017

So basically, if you want to watch your simulation play out, now you can. That’s it
Of course errybody’s going to hop on the “ZOMG ACTIBLIZZION FINALLY SUPPORTING LINUX” bandwagon.
I’ll believe it when I can play Diablo 3 natively

Nimbatus
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/strayfawnstudio/nimbatus-the-space-drone-constructor

Demo runs but hello chmod +x my old friend.
Download button wouldn’t work for me, right click inspect and I found this:
https://i.imgur.com/h757iLE.png
- What the hell?!
- http://www.nimbatus.ch/SuperSecretDemo/

Hipster click
https://sol705.itch.io/sol705

Fully voice acted, so that’s a thing. But when you get internet actors, YMMV. Just look at our resident star

Cities in motion not your thing?
https://www.skyscrapersim.com/index.shtml

Just ran across this critter and wanted to give it a plug.
Sorta sim-tower esque, but more emphasis on the actual building design

Voxel pew pew
http://openspades.yvt.jp/

Lighting effects look nice.
Still looks like budget Minecraft and that was programmer art!
It works but the shooting is even more basic than the models.
The lighting is really good, though!
It…builds
So basically an open source blockstorm

Linux on the go
https://magazine.odroid.com/article/linux-gaming-mobile-entertainment-system/

It’s a little less sophisticated than the pi “switch”, but it’ll get the job done, but if you need a tiny arcade box and don’t have a 3d printer, this’ll certainly get the job done
Doesn’t look anywhere near as sketchy as something our resident Tanzanian representative would do.
And you can slap android on it for media consumption.

CHAIRQqaSITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: Hand of Fate 2
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/456670/Hand_of_Fate_2/
Devel: Defiant Development
Engine: Unity
Price: £23.79 / €27.99 / US&CA$29.99

Wazzat: A new hero rises to challenge the Dealer in Hand of Fate 2! Master a living boardgame of infinitely replayable quests – unlock new cards, build your adventure, then defeat your foes in brutal real-time combat! Draw your cards, play your hand and discover your fate!

Mandatory Disclosure: They sent us keys

Makes with the working

V-

So far I have experienced 0 fuckery and that’s a rarity in the land of Unity.
80/90 @1080p and 30’ish @ 2160p.
This is with everything maxed the hell out.

J-

P-

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

V-

Graphically it looks next-gen compared to the original Hand of Fate.
However, the original looked a bit jank so set your expectations accordingly.

J-

Certainty an improvement over the first one
The David Warner-ass narrator certainly sounds super shitty when the RNG fucks you over

P-

There’s some z-fighting with some of the card textures which causes that weird flickering effect.

Total-

Control

V-

So, do we have any real camera control or is it just me?
Block and roll can become a tad unresponsive, Brad.

J-

The game seems to really not want you to button mash. Everything has a wind up animation and you gotta wait for it to finish before the next thing happens
Means that block and rolls never seem to land when you want them to
Takes some getting used to but every once in a while it still fucks you
Also, no correct prompts on the dual shock

P-

Nope, no camera movement still.
I figured out why sometimes your character doesn’t do what you’re telling it to even if you’re smacking the button.
It queues up actions as you press buttons.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just the cut off point in the queue and which actions are queued or done instantly that feel arbitrary at points.
I guess this is to prevent button mashing but it doesn’t work as well as you’d expect.

Total-

FUN

V–

I really really don’t like losing my equipment after each level.
They didn’t go full Arkam Knight with the combat system.
Once you figure out how to roll spam the battles become tedious and unchallenging.
FFS let me skip the dude talking bits.
Yeah, FK this RNG bullshit.
It’s not a bad indie game it’s just a bad genre.
For HOF3 they really need to bring in someone who understands what makes combat good.
Straight-up hack n slash is fun for a few minutes but without any depth it quickly becomes a chore.
Combos, attack progression and AI that acts less like sheep is a must.
Soooooo close guys… so, damn, close.

J-

They’ve certainly gone back and done some changes
I like how they’ve varied up the type of missions. It’s cool to see the same core mechanic recontextualized to create some very different experiences
Hell, they’ve even addressed some of the complaints we had with combat. Some, but not all
As Pedro mentioned, that action queuing thing gets real annoying. Your weapon helps determine how badly you’ll get screwed by it, but the differences are pretty superficial
They’ve also added a lot more card synergy
I’m not sure I feel about the fame mechanic. It’s already a crapshoot whether or not you get the equipment you put in your deck, this just makes you wait longer. I guess it’s to stop you from breezing through some of the early challenges
Regardless, the short missions means that you can pick up and play this game and have some decent fun doing it.
Good jerb guys

P-

Much like the first one, I liked it.
It’s like they took all of what made Hand of Fate what it was and expanded on it.
There are more minigames, there is a much bigger variety in mechanics and they even expanded the deck building aspect.
Now you get more weapon types, a companion, bigger map variety (there’s even some more openish type of maps) and the combat even feels a lot better.
It’s still not perfect.
The texture flickering and control queue make sure of that but, much like last time, I really enjoyed this one.
It’s a roguelite with real time-ish combat.

Total-

Final –

Hate Mail:

Performance
https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?1HdGL54