LinuxGameCast Weekly 276: Romancing The Cat

PC gaming is dead! NVIDIA springs a leak, RPCS3 goes AAA, and Steam has Ryzen. Then The Silver Case faces the ChairQAsition. All this plus your hate mail.

Special thanks to:
Brad Smithee (new patreon)
Michael N (new patreon)
AdmiralJT (USB ground-loop breakers)

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Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam News:

Input|
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta#announcements/detail/1465223015955198603

Launcher mode. AKA that thing that already worked under linux more or less

PC gaming is dead
https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam/steam-17-million-concurrent

So, china?
Definitely China and PUBG.

VR still a thing
https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/27/vr-headsets-pass-1-million-shipments-for-the-first-time-in-a-single-quarter/

One million headsets, this means PSVR, VIVE and Occulus combined
Looks like windows gamers are picking the rift just cuz it’s cheaper
- Makes sense, it’s not like you are going to continue using it after the novelty wears off.

Steamy RYZEN
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7g4ju6/actual_marketshare_of_ryzen_in_the_steam_hardware/dqgespg/

Also remember that the CPU only recently came out.
It’s not like people were chomping at the bit to trash their systems and buy some newsauce
Also China. Because China
That is a nice linear progression, but in September the FX CPUs were still leading.
I was a part of that in September.
Almost 1% and it’s not even Doctor WHO day.
AMD made multi-core cheap and performant.
It also lit a fire under Intel’s arse-organ.
I think it was the Star Citizen critters that are starting to test builds on Thread Ripper.

GG Glest
http://steamcommunity.com/app/578870/discussions/0/1489992713689154244/

Got the wet-stinky they needed and took it down to Chinatown.
There are far worse dollar bin games on steam. Give these guys some support

Rusty
http://store.steampowered.com/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/2152021858897811044

This critter still runs like arse even on the RYZEN box of business.
Fixed weird satchel behavior
- The polite way of saying ballsack issues

Skybox
http://steamcommunity.com/games/distance/announcements/detail/1458467616509347615

Optimized CPU performance and memory usage throughout the game because it ran so poorly to begin with.
Improved car explosion visual effect.
And a new skybox system.
- If y’all motherfu*kers are reworking the skybox you need to admit that it’s ready for release.
This does read like a post launch patch.

Hawt
http://store.steampowered.com/app/674930/Boyfriend_Dungeon

Something tells me Fighter from 8 bit theater would b e all over this game
This might actually get me interested in a dating sim, if the dungeon crawling is compelling enough
“Date your weapons” – I’m sold!
I’m with Jordan on my enjoyment of this game being very much attached to the actual dungeoneering.

Dominions 5
http://store.steampowered.com/app/722060/Dominions_5__Warriors_of_the_Faith/

Have you ever felt other 4Xs weren’t really scratching your hardcore strategy itch?
Enter the Dominion series.
Do you want thousands of different units, each with their own stats? Hundreds of resources? Tens of management “mini-games” with different impacts on your game?
This is it.
Dominions 4 was already a massive monster of mechanical complexity, 5 just cranks that up even higher.
Just don’t expect Civ level graphics, though.

Black Mirror
http://store.steampowered.com/app/581300/Black_Mirror/

Ctrl + F pig :(
Oh yay, another spoopy point and click game
This looks like it might be UE4 though

Drawful2
http://store.steampowered.com/app/442070/Drawful_2/
https://steamdb.info/app/442070/depots/

Seems like they are going to Linux their entire library.
Pictionary for horrible people
I’d like to see a bit more than a depot, though! Just sayin’…
Even if this is a hot WINE mess someone will end up gifting it to us.

Mobile game reloaded
http://store.steampowered.com/app/667600/Sky_Force_Reloaded/

Tell you this right now.
If you had added online multiplayer I would have just picked up three copies.
But you didn’t, Brad.
You brought it to Steam! Steamworks makes network multiplayer that much more easy.
Just do it!

News:

NVIDIA memory
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/7gm21i/nvidia_vram_bug_affecting_the_380_driver_branch/

Apparently this bug was introduced late in the 378 cycle and has to do with memory allocation of textures
There is a bug in the nvidia memory manager that they’re expecting to have fixed in 390
- They will have a workaround for it in 390, but according to Arthur Huillet, they have no fucking clue what’s causing it.
Turns out, this exacerbates the 3.5GB VRAM issue in the 970s.
Unless you’re strider, at which point you’re now saying: “I have a 970 and don’t see any of this.”
Switch between the latest 38*.** version and the old long lived branch while keeping an eye on the VRAM usage and come back to me.
I didn’t see any significant performance drops but with Mad Max between the current version and 375, the latest version of the driver uses almost a third more VRAM on the 1080.

Zoom zoom
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/codemasters-racing-2017

Stuff I have and a VP port I don’t want.
Chances are you already have DiRT Rally at this point, if not maybe pick it up from the $15 level.

Try try again
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy/release_the_gog_galaxy_client_for_linux

Keep trying guys. Remember, if you hold your breath long enough too, CDPR will also port Witcher 3 to linux
How about they get some stuff like incremental updates working first
We have a generation that thinks online petitions accomplish FK and or ALL.
Might happen! Just like Carmageddon Reincarnation could still come out on Linux.

Controlla
https://hothardware.com/news/ataribox-joystick-breaks-cover

It’s got a Home and Back button.
$3.50 says it’s only running Linux if you consider Android Linux.
Looks nice. Shame it’ll be ditched for the handy dandy 360 controller.

Dwarven Linux
https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/7g3afe/linux_release_is_up/

“I played the 64 bit version from the VM and generated a world fine.”
- Quality assurance ladies and gents!
- To be fair, it is dwarf fortress.
- You can literally run it in your terminal with ncurses.

Shells
https://itsfoss.com/gameshell-console/

They have about 5 times their asking price
Basically a tinkerable gameboy kit for kids. And adults with free time and disposable income

AAA PS3
https://rpcs3.net/blog/2017/12/01/rpcs3-begins-to-emulate-several-awaited-aaa-exclusives/

That’s some Last of Us progress. Still won’t go in-game, though.
More demon souls and dark souls 2 progress as well
- Demon Souls doesn’t have online services anymore, so you’re on your own

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: The Silver Case
Webzone: The_Silver_Case
Devel: GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC.
Engine: Unity
Price: £14.99 / US$ 19.99 / CA$ 21.99

Wazzat: The Silver Case – the debut title from world-renowned developer SUDA51 has been fully remastered and localized to English for the first time ever!

Mandatory Disclosure: The Devs sent keys.

Makes with the working

V-

The remaster was developed using the Unity 5 game engine
The main problem with the port was that the original source code had been lost, so the audio data needed to be extracted from the PlayStation disc version.

J-

SWEET MOTHER OF LOUD

P-

The game is downright unplayable in non-english locales
If you don’t add LC_ALL=C %command% to the advanced launch options the graphics are pitch black, you can’t load a game and you can’t progress at all.
This is <current year argument>
This kind of shit was bad enough when it first happened when Unity games started coming out, it’s even worse now.

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

V-

Remaster?
I went back and watched some PS1 gameplay and I think a better definition would be “mildly enhanced”
That said, I like the background music.

J-

I mean, “HD” remaster in this case just means that all the art assets are HD, which means fewer pixels
Otherwise, it kind of reminds me of some Strider-esque neue wave cinema
Which, you know, could work for the genre of the game, but the dialogue is super bad
Protip: Alternating mental cast members Bill Cosby, Snaggletooth and Frank’n’Furter make this a much more entertaining read

P-

I almost wish the locale bug made it so I couldn’t hear the sound effects because goddamn, that typing noise is so annoying and loud.
Graphics look like something out of the PS1 era.
And seeing as this came out in 1999, it probably was.
And even then, on the i5 6200U laptop it runs at 10FerPS
So it’s horribly unoptimized, on top of just looking like shit.

Total-

Control

V-

Oh sweet mother of flaming nope.
You get a bonus soda for attempting a point-and-click in the PS1 era.
You also get smashed in the face-organ with a Chair for keeping that bullsh*t in place.
You knew the control scheme was nightmare-fuel back in 1999.
Yes, you added a WASD option but getting to it is the problem.
Hell, I’ve counted three references to how the controls “might seem confusing” in the game proper.
Keyboard is somehow worse.

J-

Very much an early 3d console point and click game ported to PC
And yeah, the control scheme is a wee fucked up
You do get used to it though. The trick is to just not use a mouse when playing the point and click sections

P-

The controls work.
This seems to be the sole thing which did before forcing all locales to C, system-wide.
They’re still bad, though.
It does the Myst thing of letting you spin in place and move to another square on the map.
Not impressed.

Total-

FUN

V-

This is about as much of a “game” as Gone Home: You’re Drunk.
It’s a visual novel / walking simulator mixed with the occasional puzzle.
The criminal thing is the hot mess of what they claim to be a game interface.
I lasted a little over an hour before giving up.

J-

#bigdickchinchilla
This was always supposed to be an experimental game
When you have time, resource and budget constraints, sometimes the answer to your problems is to go way the hell out there
I never really played any of SUDA51’s other games, so I don’t really have a sense of what makes his sauce super special
It does some visually interesting things, which again ties back to the limitations, but it doesn’t really make up for the main deficiency
Since this is a text game though, the experience is defined by the text of the game. And hoo boy
I get the sense that the dialogue is supposed to be people talking normally, but hot damn. There are some points when people start repeating shit that I thought the game was glitching out
I also still have no idea who any of these people talking are

P-

I think I found my most hated game of 2017.
I thought nothing could top spaceBOUND in the “making me violently ill with anger” category, this year.
I was wrong.
This is the kind of game I hate the most.
The mechanics are there solely to make you work for SUDA51’s masturbatory stiffy over his storytelling.
The graphics barely even register, since all of the important bits are just glorified JPEGs which get smeared on screen to indicate something is happening.
There’s so much text on screen at any point I felt like I’d be better off with audiobook version of this game.
If you want to experience this game like I did, the best way would be to watch a let’s play of the original Myst on youtube (without fullscreening) which was recorded in 240×160, mute the audio, have someone tap along on an old digital typewriter right next to your ears and focus on the text below the video.
Are you bored yet?