LinuxGameCast Weekly 385: Rest In Pedro

EA drops the banhammer on Linux gamers! LunchHouse Software revives Valve’s cancelled Portal sequel, open-source Diablo engine devilutionX reaches 1.0, and we recap our favourite games of 2019.


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Timestamps:
04:53 Steam awards 2019
08:18 Canceled Portal sequel F-stop
10:53 New Supraland beta
12:53 Savage
14:33 Infferno
16:03 Danger gazers
18:53 Tiny Thor
20:33 NetherWorld
22:03 Elteria Adventures
25:25 Shameless self promotion
33:10 EA drops the banhammer
37:10 Decade of GODOT
40:35 Developer blames Linux for Stadia performance
45:55 VietDoom
48:20 devilutionX
50:55 Age of Empires reverse engineering
52:55 Games we liked in 2019


Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam: News

Steam Awards 2019

  • No native linux games this time
  • How the hell did DayZ make the cut?
  • Good news being most titles can be played with Proton.

 

F-stop

  • I remember watching a documentary on Valve / Portal some time ago and this was brought up.
  • They would not say what the mechanic was at the time because it might be used later.
  • Bit of a letdown.
  • It’s an interesting mechanic. I can kinda see valve shelving it if after a while it got kind of stale
  • One thing I think might be kinda nice is if valve released some of their abandoned games on github, just for people to poke around at them

Steam: Game Updates

100K Supraland

  • I can totally see how a game like this would be completely overlooked in early access
  • That’s not a slight against the game, it’s really good, but I can see the hard sell
  • Apparently we’re getting some DLC at some point.
  • Development is still ongoing.
  • The developer also put the kibosh on a co-op mode. Apparently he’s not willing to synergy it

Steam: New Games

Savage

  • Man boobs, the game.
  • For those of you who REALLY miss your commodore

 

Infferno

  • An Isometric shooter with … *GASP* … online co-op
  • Could be fun for 10 bucks, but based on the screenshots all the levels look kinda samey
  • Also I hope there are more enemies than “green booger” and “orange booger”
    • There is also a bumpy wiggle thing.

 

Danger Gazers

  • Another self described “post apocalyptic shooter which happens to be a roguelike”. This one’s top down
  • A lot more leaning into the random nature of the roguelike with some random events
  • Looks like your standard run backwards simulator.

 

Tiny Thor

  • #bringbackgingerthor
  • It definitely gets the Genesis aesthetic down
  • I wonder if you get an achievement for going through the entire game without shouting “Tiny Thor” like “Tiny Rick”
  • This legit looks like Owl Boy level level graphics.
  • Has a strong late Genesis vibe to it.

 

NetherWorld

  • That description has me interested.
  • DIalogue heavy boss rush, eh?

 

Elteria Adventures

  • Not Fortnight MMORPG?
  • Might have missed that release date, Brad.

News:

EA Kneecaps Linux users

  • I want to get all internet outraged but… the hell did you expect?
  • We’ve said it before, so let’s say it again!
  • You are playing roulette when using WINE to play online.
  • The biggest problem with this will be the Windows ass-banjos jumping in and claiming they were banned for playing on Linux as well.
  • Happens, every, single, time.
  • As it stands this seems to be an isolated incident.

 

Decade of GODOT

  • From Portuguese indie games to the arguably premiere open source game engine in 10 years. Notbad.jpg
  • 3.2 is due to be released sometime this month and then the vulkan brnach takes over as master so that 4.0 can get released

 

Linux spins Stadia

  • My boy Paul showed up in the blog comments.
    • “Pro-audio/music creation scheduling is MUCH more demanding that video, and a bit more demanding than games. Linux handles this stuff just fine – it just gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot if you don’t fully understand what you’re doing.”
  • He knows a thing about low-latency because Ardour, Jack, etc.
  • Paul also goes into detail about how linux does require some tuning for latency sensitive applications as well

 

Then Linus Spins

  • Linus basically says you really shouldn’t be using spinlocks in user space
    • In fact, implementing your own locks tends to be a bad idea.
  • The Mutex based solution was apparently the correct one to implement

 

VietDOOM

  • From the creator of Brutal DOOM.

 

devilutionX 1.0

  • It’s mostly playable at this point.
  • They are even fixing bugs from the original game.
  • Added support for the Switch.
  • Still need an option to make it turn-based, like the original.
  • I sunk a lot of time in D1 back in the day. D2 was objectively better, but my little nostalgia encrusted blood pumping organ does a flutter when I think back to duping items in Tristram
  • I’m still waiting on the Hellfire expansion support. Not cuz it was any good, I just still have the disk
  • Still gotta live that 640×480 life


Openempires

  • Reverse engineering Age of Empires II.
  • It’s, a work in progress.
  • Still no ranged combat, but that seems to be the last on the list

Games we kinda-sorta liked in 2019 Chair award presentation showcase expo gala extravaganza blowout!

Mars Power Industries

  • A pretty good example of wordless storytelling with some sorta obtuse mechanics to back it up

 

Runefall

  • If we had a fk these type of games but damn if I didn’t spend some time playing if category.
  • Turns out using match 3 as a movement mechanic is fun.

 

Shadow of Tombs

  • Our single AAA entry this year was coritsy of Feral.
  • Second outing of Vulkan powered Laura and this one played rather well.

 

Dicey Dungeons

  • I’m a big fan of the variety of the dice interactions that each of the classes has, makes for some pretty rich gameplay
  • When RNGjsus doesn’t fuck you

 

Supreland

  • Easy to overlook, but it’s a shame if you do. It has solid gameplay, puzzles and a decent sense of humour

 

Pathway

 

Babba is U

  • Huge fan of games smarter than I.
  • Not that I have made much progress but it’s fun knowing that adventure awaits.

Favourite game of 2019?

Venn
Native: Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Proton: Nier

Jordan
Native: Fell Seal: Arbiters Mark
Proton: Nier

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