Linux Game Cast 518: Another Ornery German

Epic releases Linux binaries for Unreal Engine 5, overclocking the Intel Arc A380, Valve warns customers about overheating Steam Decks, and Heroic Games Launcher adds support for GOG Cloud Saves.

Special thanks to:
mfoxdogg – Tunic, Temtem


Listen:


Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
04:40 2 hot 4 Steam Decks
07:15 RetroDECK v0.4.4b
08:55 Non-Linux games & apps on SteamOS
10:40 Ex Zodiac early access
13:40 6 years of Death Road to Canada
23:10 Overclocking the Intel Arc A380
27:35 Official Unreal Engine 5 Linux binaries
31:25 GOG cloud saves for Heroic Game Launcher
34:20 Unofficial Amazon games client for Linux
36:50 Goverlay 0.9
40:09 Gamemode 1.7
43:29 Review: Pawnbarian
53:24 Email


Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam: News

Hot Decks

  • Yeah, don’t run hot electronics in the heat. Coming up next: “You eat and breathe out of the same hole. What could go wrong?”
  • Prime time for people to start working on heatsink mods.
  • It’s important to point out that your Deck will thermal throttle around 100C internal.
  • You think this would go without saying but if both Nintendo and VALVe feel the need to reiterate it, my faith in humanity once again bottoms out.


RetroDECK v0.4.4b

  • Some fixes for stuff we can’t talk about or Jonny Nintendo’s Lawyers are gonna come after us
  • Some symlinking to help find PS1 bioses
  • Some emulator configs have been reset due to new config changes, so you may need to rejigger some custom configs you set up
    • That’s a big no no for me.
    • I have this nasty habit of customising controls in just about everything I touch, should the opportunity arise.


Nonsteam Games

  • Hey, it’s a guide about what the fuck a wine prefix is and how you can use them
  • I’m sure strider will be incredibly upset to find Lutris described as a wine prefix manager.
    • I mean.
  • It’s good to put all of this information in one place though, as more and more people are using proton, it’s going to help to spread the knowledge of how it actually works under the hood
  • It’s fairly comprehensive too, very well done!

Steam: New Games

Ex-Zodiac

  • One of the GODOT games from the Steam Next Fest in 21.
  • It’s got FoxStar,Harrier Space, and motorbike modes.
  • Played a bit of the first leve, seems legit.
  • 10 Bucks for early access star fox seems reasonable

Steam: Game Updates

6 Years of Death Road to Canada

  • Ride-able attack chickens.
  • Seeking testers for the new AI.
  • Nice AI gun logic breakdown.
    • The tier list format holds!
  • Online co-op would still be most welcome.
  • Death Road to Hyrule seems to be their next project on the horizon
    • Please add online coop to that one
  • You can test the new hotness by picking the test branch.
  • Should help with the AI not dropping a better weapon for the sake of literally every new one that drops.

News:

OverArc

  • Overclocked it almost trades blows with a kneecapped 1650.
  • On average the A380 managed an additional 20fps.
  • The stock configuration routinely showed 35W & 55W overclocked.
  • Remember kids, TDP refers to maximum theoretical load.
  • That seems just barely passable given the 1650 is 75W and this Gunnir is 92W, which requires an extra 8-Pin PCIe power connector.
  • If you have an old PC and you have the 8-Pin PCIe connector to spare, get an 8GB RX 570.
  • AV1 dedicated encoder it is.


Epic binaries

  • They knida snuck that one out.
  • Yes, you could always compile from source but these are “official”.
  • This eases getting UE5 running on Linux significantly.
  • 20GB download.
  • It launches but yells about not having 515 Nvidia drivers.
  • I was able to get into the FPS template.
  • These are definitely nice but I don;t think they are for us.
  • I think they’re for all of those disney digital set designers
  • Just working due to SDL2 is super cool though
  • New version of the editor for what is looking to be the default engine going forward is available on Linux.
  • This is a good thing.


Epic GOG Clouds

  • Cloud Save all the things.
  • GOG Cloud saves and Epic overlay
  • It will grab the EAC and BattlEye runtimes and get the lib for EAC to drop it in the game folder.
  • If the game is said to support it in areweanticheatyet.com there will be a little icon to reflect this in the Heroic page.
  • And you can set it to prefer system libs now too.


Amazon games

  • Amazon has games, TIL.
  • This is an attempt to make Amazon Games useful for Linux users, who want to play titles obtained thanks to Prime membership.
  • I could be getting free games with mah Prime TILx2.
  • Might not work with online games.
  • Could do with a release package.
  • Yeah, you can buy games on amazon. Now you have a shot a playing them under linux
  • Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is free on Prime gaming now if you want to check out a dope Final Fantasy tactics inspired game.
    • It has a native linux version but amazon only provides windows downloads


Goverlay 0.9

  • You can now run vkcube in gamescope.
  • They added a frame counter and GPU throttle monitor to their mangohud
  • Pretty simple release, but not everything has to be groundbreaking new tech.
  • Small increments are good too.
  • I keep meaning to try this but end up digging around in the mangohud config since it’s logically documented.
  • This version was compiled with GLibC 2.34, which means it doesn’t work in 20.04 based distros.
  • I think I remember someone writing an article about how ABI breaks are a problem of the past and don’t happen anymore.
  • And then another article early this year about Win32 is the stable API.
  • Compiling it on Debian 11 requires lazarus and libqt5pas-dev.
  • Everything seems to work.


Gamemode 1.7 (mfoxdogg)

  • Oh hey, feral is still releasing linux stuff that isn’t Total War reskins!
  • They added a gamemode list command so you can see what running processes are using it
  • Gamemode now respects $PATH
    • That will probably stop the issues some games had where they wouldn’t start at all if you ran them with gamemode manually.
  • The gamemode group gets automagically created now if you’re using systemd

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies


Game: Pawnbarian
Webzone: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1142080/Pawnbarian/
Devel: j4nw
Engine: Unity
Price: £7.19 / $9.99 / $11.49

Wazzat: Pawnbarian is a quick-playing, turn-based puzzle roguelike. Play cards to move your hero like a chess piece, and conquer challenging dungeons full of cunning monsters!

Mandatory Disclosure: was included in the Stand with Ukraine bundle



Venn:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

  • Launches ootb and on the correct monitor.
  • Full / windowed mode.
  • Controller support.

Fun?

  • If you like chess, skip this one.
  • This is RNG dungeon crawler that takes place on 64 squares.
  • Granted, your moves are limited to chess pieces … for the most part.
  • You do have the ability to upgrade your pieces.
  • You click-and-boop enemies while staying away from their area effects.
  • Playing with a mouse is a little exhausting but the controller works well enough.
  • It’s really comfy to play on mobile… because that’s what it was designed for.
  • I don’t react well to getting wrecked by bad RNG.
  • Not my kind of game.
  • At least it’s priced the same on mobile & desktop.


Jordan:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

  • Launches OOTB
  • It has resolution settings by dear god does it take forever to cycle through them in windowed mode. Please just give me a drop down
  • You Vsync or Ferps targets
  • Controls worked fine. You can use a controller but I just clicked on shit like a scrub
  • The visual style is pretty simple, lots of random capybara inspired monstrosities, but it’s a chess game. IT doesn’t have to puke rainbows

Fun?

  • Eh, I get it
  • I can definitely see some comparisons to into the breach being made here because a lot of the game is just analyzing what’s going to happen in the next couple of turns and trying to plan a little bit ahead
  • The enemies all have special abilities, like the fucking nimble assholes who take forever to kill and then the game spawns an entire board full of them
    • Or they can summon more pieces, react to specific stuff (cantrips and movement), etc
  • You also get a couple different classes including the shogun which is playing a completely different game. I don’t know what it is, but he has a fun little charge mechanic
  • I just don’t think the chess bit clicked with me the same way time travelling giant robots fighting space bugs does
  • The strategy stuff is solid, and if you are a chess fan I think you’ll probably find a way to like it
  • No Mega-chess-a-tron though. Minus 1 chair


Pedro:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

  • Launches out of the box on the Desktop and the Deck
  • Vsyncs correctly to whatever screen you got going on
  • Controllers work out of the box
  • Though I ended up playing it mostly with the touchscreen on the deck.
  • There’s some generic epic adventure music going on the in the background
  • And the graphics are one step up from your typical Chess game

Fun?

  • I had the rules of chess forcedly seared onto my brain.
  • I was even coerced to join the chess club in school at some point.
  • I hate chess, I find it boring and exhausting.
  • The perfect combination for me to never play it if I can’t help myself.
  • But, I don’t mind some of the spins that have appeared around chess.
  • Even the simplest ones like the Knight’s move challenge, where you have to get a knight to every square on a typical chessboard without repeating.
  • I don’t even mind the more exotic ones like Into the Breach, where the chess aspect isn’t even entirely obvious from the start.
  • Pawnbarian falls neatly between those two examples.
  • It’s a roguelike with 3 different dungeons and multiple characters, each with their own spin on chess pieces.
  • And the enemies and the levels are their own spin of chess as well, there’s even environmental hazards.
  • And much like Into the Breach, I’m willing to excuse the chess-ness of it all because this is a really fun and simple game.
  • And more importantly, quick-paced. So that I can fail quickly and get right back into it.

Verdict:

Venn:
Jordan:
Pedro:


Hate Mail:

Blizzard of crack

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