Steam goes mobile! Feral brings the Storm, Surviving Mars gets a day one Linux release and all your multiplayer are belong to Google. Then Crest faces the CHAIRQASITION!
All this, plus your hate mail.
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Timm (paypal donation)
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Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro
Steam News:
- Surprise surprise, higher resolution rendering looks a lot nicer
- Shame a lot of VR games on teh market can’t really take advantage of it
- Shame we don’t get a lot of games which would show the real capabilities of Linux, regardless of VR.
- Apparently this one will do better for people with glasses.
Auto pixels
http://steamcommunity.com/games/250820/announcements/detail/1661138371528106606
- It sounds like it’s just adjusting the supersampling automatically now?
- People will start bitching when it detects their GPU is junk.
- Lowering the cost is good, but I don’t think telling people with 1060s their GPU isn’t good enough is accomplishing that.
- Sorta seems like valve is hedging their bets about the vive pro.
- I’m curious if we’re going to see a lower res headset or a more cheaply produced Vive 1 to try and tease new customers away from the rift
DOTArds
https://www.pcgamesn.com/dota-2/dota-plus-battle-pass
- So, improved hero leveling for a steady fee… At what point do we start shouting pay to win?
- I guess cosmetic items aren’t recouping server costs these days
- Do those exclusive tournaments aide at all in official ladder rankings?
- The Majors Battle Pass will be replaced with a brand new system, costing $3.99 a month.
- Access to the returning Battle Cup for free.
- It’ll include hero levelling, which will allow players to make progress as well as helping them improve, by earning Shards, a new form of currency that can be used to unlock rewards.
The future is mobile
http://toucharcade.com/2018/03/13/valve-has-dota-2-and-the-source-2-engine-running-on-mobile-devices-other-mobile-ports-are-possible/
- HL-3 mobile exclusive!
- Maybe we’ll start seeing some actual game distribution on steam for android
- That would involve VALVe giving a damn about that piece of junk android app.
- I’m willing to bet that’s in the works.
- Something tells me this has everything to do with the new MS streaming service.
Steam: Game Updates
Dying update
http://steamcommunity.com/app/239140/discussions/0/1697167168519178465/
- Looks like the latest update (5MB) has a wee bug.
- Being Techland anyone want to place bets on this getting resolved, ever?
- Uninstalled and removed everything but the base game, same issue.
- Hope they can track down that intern.
- This only seems to hit Linux and Mac users.
Steam: New Games
Space potatoes
http://store.steampowered.com/app/464920/Surviving_Mars/?newsId=38228
- Developed by Haemimont of Victor Vran fame.
- Basically returning to their Tropico roots but in Mars, this time.
- I think it’s less Tropico and more Cities: Elon’s wet dream
- Was watching Foxy playing this for a bit. Country is a weird soundtrack choice
- Also poor baby thinks -15 is cold
5min, dude
http://store.steampowered.com/app/816350/The_Flood/
- There was this “game” awhile back, which you “played” as a fly flying up out of the tree tops.
- If it’s free, it’s fine. If not, this is going to be the mother of all refunds.
- Unless it’s Frog Fractions 3?
- Short games like these are interesting experiments, but if you’re a developer hoping to profit of it there state of stream refunds is going to make that impossible
- Unless your plan is to inferno cop it
Gorgon
http://store.steampowered.com/app/342940/Project_Gorgon/
- Have you been looking for the opportunity to pay $30 for a yet to be finished MMO that will be dead by this time next year?
- It even says so in the trailer. “From the minds of the creators of a bunch of these failed MMOs”
- I’ve seen those buildings in several games.
ZZZzzzzzZZzzZZzZ
http://www.feralinteractive.com/en/games/lisbeforethestorm/about/
- This is punishment for getting Vulcanised Tomb Raider.
- Feral giveth and Feral boreth to death, apparently.
- It wasn’t the worst point and click interactive movie I’ve played.
- At least ferals being consistent with the series they’re porting
Never more
http://store.steampowered.com/app/736810/The_Raven_Remastered/
- Good on the devs for giving people who own the base game a free copy of the remaster
- That’s always nice.
- Though, I’d rather see more games along the lines of The Dwarves or Black Mirror (not that one).
News:
Flicker free
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/131853/en-us
- Occasional my arse-organ.
- Tried building and installing on 17.10, tried.
- Had to bust out IGNORE_CC_MISMATCH=1 to get it to build on fedora 26 due to a minor compiler version mismatch. Nothings exploded yet
- Whar graphics-drivers ppa version?
Believe it when I see it.
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/index.php/news/consumer-electronics/konsolen/45929-handheld-mit-ryzen-embedded-smach-z-zeigt-erste-benchmarks.html
- $700 for a ginormous Switch.
- Look at all the Windows games they’re sucking at on a technical level!
- The joke’s on us, because one day these things are going to be worth a fortune as collectors items
Ass-Topics
https://blog.aspyr.com/2018/03/14/aspyr-media-hot-topics-q1-2018/
- Still supporting the Linux.
- No ETA on CIV DLC.
- CIV IV cross platform is still in the works.
- Okay, so what can the Linux community do (besides hounding them on social media) to get more games?
- I’m talking tangible effect stuff.
- For better (or worse) porting houses will not be a viable business model in the near future.
- Ass-Pyre knows this and has begun the needed to steps to become a publisher.
- That said, the need for a publisher is quickly going away as well.
- This is pretty neat.
- Using Kuberentes to manage and scale out game servers.
- This is useful for a whole whack of games including stuff like rocket league, WoW, Speedrunners, etc
- The google folks seem to think that by keeping all of the services on the same “computer” (Read kuberentes cluster) transactions for accounts, matchmaking, etc will go faster.
- You know… Trusting the uncertain future of multiplayer only games to the googs doesn’t sound like a terrible idea!
- Granted, they’ll probably kill off some of the ones with a dedicated (but niche) fanbase every now and then.
- But given the track record of actual game companies with their servers and how often they kill off games, maybe this could be awesome.
- Especially with the focus on open sauce!
- People with means could keep that game going.
Citra Render (Steven)
https://citra-emu.org/entry/improvements-to-hardware-renderer/
- I never realized there was a decent 3ds emulator out there that was making progress
- Previously they’ve only been able to manage emulating a portion of the 3ds gpu on the host GPU, now they can emulate the whole thing
- Results in approximately a 2x speed boost on nvidia
- 26% performance gains on Intel means my Chromebook is on the way to becoming a glorified pokeymans machine.
Flare 1.0
http://flarerpg.org/index.php/2018/03/12/flare-1-0/
- Build your own diablo now has a 1.0.
- They’re empyrian compaign is good for prime time
- They also added an emscripten version for ready playing on ze web
- If Google advertised Exiled Kingdoms to you on the Play Store, this is the engine powering it.
Disassembly Raider
https://github.com/TOMB5/TOMB5
- All decompiled code is based off the PlayStation version.
- Current status is it builds on Linux but they’re only decompiling the code up to the title screen.
- Once that’s done, they’ll get into the game proper.
Iron warning
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingartgames/iron-harvest
- “we are going to evaluate Linux/Mac versions at a later point in time.”
- At least they are being upfront about it.
- Rocket league as an olympic sport would be absolutely hilarious
- Or maybe Gilf With Fiends?
- Ultimate Chicken Herse.
- That said, barring “violent” games really does drastically limit the number of existing games that could be considered
- Fencing and Judo are olympic sports and they’re “violent”, so where does one draw the line
- Maybe it’ll spur the development of competitive nonviolent games.
CHAIRQASITION:
– Nooope
– Not sure if want
– Check it out
– Shutupandtakemymonie
Game: Crest
Webzone: Crest
Devel: Eat Create Sleep
Engine: Unity
Price: £6.99 / US$9.99 / CA$10.90
Wazzat: Become a god in this indirect god sim. Influence and try to control your followers using commandments but beware, free will leaves these open to interpretation. Will you create a flourishing civilization or lead them into cannibalism?
Mandatory Disclosure: Devs sent us keys
Makes with the working
Venn-
- 30/45 @ 2160p
- 55/180 @ 1080p
- Saving a game caused me to tab out and crack open htop to see it was still working.
- Shite don’t close, yo.
- Alright, Vulcan nerve pinch causes it to hang but Exit button works.
- Properly multithreaded.
- Both fullscreen and windowed mode work as expected.
Jordan-
- The alt f4 thing is real.
Pedro-
- Those save times, though…
Total-
Shiny / Sounds
Venn-
- Polygon titties.
- Oh hell, menus upon menus.
- Sounds were noped out of the box.
Jordan-
Pedro-
Total-
Control
Venn-
- WASD logical gerbil / keyboard layout.
Jordan-
- Click on things. Proclaim commandments.
- Wait..
- 30 GOTO 10
Pedro-
Total-
FUN
Venn-
- You dropped my into the game proper after that little shite of a tutorial?
- I’m not a fan of hand-holding but WT actual F.
- Here’s some menus, a commandment, pick some berries and have at, fucko.
- 18min into the game and that’s where I would seek out the refund button.
- Is this a god game or a city management game with a bunch of extra steps?
- Commandments seems fk all useless.
- Damn thing basically play itself.
- Disclaimer on what I just said because daddy still don’t know what he is (or is supposed to be) doing.
- I gave you 45 minutes and 35 of them were spent randomly clicking about trying to make something happen… it didn’t.
- At $9.99 this is an example of getting what you pay for… and feeling a bit cheated.
Jordan-
- Hot damn is this shit boring.
- I mean, i get how it’s supposed to work. The turorial explains the mere basics, but everything has a tool tip
- But holy shit, I am just sitting here with my thumb up my ass
- Say what you will about the grindy nature of pokemon, but at least you’re doing something with your hands
Pedro-
- This is like Populous 2 without the point.
- The point being you had a clear goal and progression.
- Progression in crest seems to be completely optional and, most of the time, it looks no different than staring at the screen waiting for time to pass.
- Literally!
- You’re not playing a game, you’re giving the AI (if you can call it that) suggestions and may or may not get to it.
- I’m always up for a game that will change my mind about a genre… This isn’t it.
- In fact, I’d say this is the quintessential “god game” in its implementation and it’s fucking boring!
Total-
Final –
Hate Mail:
Trials
https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?qtwJRqo
http://store.steampowered.com/app/764410/Trials_of_the_Gauntlet/
RPG
https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?jfV7EJ4
