Linux Game Cast 531: Entirety of Shrek

Steam in a Snap, Vampire Survivors hits 1.0, Intel releases Linux drivers for ARC, punching DOOM, and Vulkan extensions in Venus.

Listen:

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:38 House of the Dragon podcast
01:02 No ARC 770 GPUs
01:20 eBay pricing returning to normal
STEAM NEWS
07:15 Steam in a Snap
10:39 Steam Deck boot animations get looong
13:53 EmuDeck 2
16:07 New games in Proton 7.0-5
NEW GAMES
18:45 Jackbox Part Pack 9
20:53 Flying Neko Delivery
GAME UPDATES
22:57 Vampire Survivors 1.0
NEWS
32:37 Intel ARC Linux drivers
38:59 Vulkan extensions in Venus
42:53 js13k game jam winners
45:21 Speed Dreams 2.3.0 Beta 1
47:27 Punch-out DOOM
REVIEW
49:21 LEGO Bricktales
EMAIL
01:03:04 Name that Klingon
01:05:56 Quern review

Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam: News

Steam Snap

https://github.com/canonical/steam-snap

K, I’ll race ya.
sudo apt install steam
If you have the need for bleeding edge Mesa it might be an option?
If only there was a Flatpak.
I guess shipping the latest and greatest mesa with steam means one less PPA unless you want up to date mesa everywhere

Deck client update

Small-ish update for the stable client.
If you want the better or “safe” external monitor support, you’ll still need the beta for now.

EMU Deck 2

The cloud storage features integrates with OneDrive, Google drive, etc
Scummvm support is a little late to the party
If you already have EmuDeck installed on your deck, and you should!
Just run the updater shortcut that it puts on your desktop.
Comes with an improved GUI
You also get ScummVM, DooM, and the Vita emulator for the 2 exclusives that may be worth it to play.
- Wipeout 2048 and Soul Sacrifice

Proton 7.0-5

Vermintide 2 still eats shit it you try to join games. Hosting is fine
I didn’t know Nancy Drew followed in Indiana Jones’ footsteps
T’is an RC for now, on Friday as I’m typing this.
Something tells me it won’t be that by the time Saturday rolls around

Steam: New Games

Jackbox Party Pack 9

5 games in this one.
Junktopia and roomerang seem like they could be a fun chaotic stew

Flying Neko Delivery

Kiki’s delivery service the game
Honestly I’m surprised we don’t see more of these. I guess flight sim stardew valley could be a bit niche

Steam: Game Updates

Vampires 1.0

Yes, there is a Linux version.
It’s still stuck in the Beta branch limbo.
It works though, and you want to use it on the Deck because it uses a lot less resources than the Proton version.
There’s a few new chievos, which actually unlock stuff in game, and they reworked a few of the existing ones.
New skins and 2 different play modes.
Oh and a new map that will probably have you coming back to it a lot.

News:

ARC drivers

https://dgpu-docs.intel.com/installation-guides/ubuntu/ubuntu-jammy-arc.html

The page is up aaaand it’s a fk mothering PPA.
Ubuntu only.
DKMS only supports kernel 5.17.
- Like, I’m kinda impressed.
That’s some GIMP help file level nonsense.
I expect to see RHEL and (sometimes) Debian for “pro” anything drivers.
Really Intel?
You gonna do us like that?
I guarantee most of those server workloads you’re after aren’t running Ubuntu
Ok, proprietary Intel drivers.
Hopefully they don’t fuck up as much as AMD’s do.
I’m sure it’d be fine if you want the proprietary stuff for OpenCL and QuickSync, the latter of which is still a proprietary affair on Linux to this day.
You are going to need the Intel version of a *.run before I’m playing the home game.

Vulkan extensions in Venus

We heard you like protocols in your protocols.
Yes, that is Vulkan for your virtual guests handled by the mesa driver on the Host.
VirGL already existed to do this for OpenGL without requiring VFIO,
Now Venus has a Vulkan button!
This is all kinds of neat.
Having native Vulkan acceleration in vGPUs opens up some very cool possibilities for preservation
The performance is shit but hey it can only get better. Right?

js13kGames 2022 winners

How much of a game can you can into 13 kb of JavaScript?
The winners are the best that folks were able to manage
Tindeath was pretty funny.
Raising fighting spirits is okay as a lightweight slay the spire clone

Speed Dreams 2.3.0 Beta 1

Resizable window support is nice
SDL updates as well
I like racing games but the heavy sim type ones I just can’t get into.
Certainly has come a long way since the TORCS days and I will not deny how impressive the tech keeps getting but… it feels like I’d need to be one of those kinds of people to enjoy it.

Punch DOOM

It’s what it says on the tin. Play punch out in doom
They had a release earlier this year that added zdoom support. GZdoom users can su ck it. BZdoom and XZdoom users can go invent it.
Wanted to toss this in after Tubes recommended a video about it.
It’s neat and something new using the DOOM engine.

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope
– Not sure if want
– Check it out
– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: LEGO Bricktales
Webzone: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1898290/LEGO_Bricktales/
Devel: ClockStone
Engine: Unity
Price: £24.99 / $29.99 / $34.99

Wazzat: In this puzzle-adventure, use an intuitive brick-by-brick building mechanic to solve puzzles and bring your creations to life! Experience a charming story as you explore beautiful LEGO® dioramas and help the people inhabiting them.

Mandatory Disclosure: Thunderful Publishing sent us keys on Curator Connect

Venn:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

It’s openGL but rocks 130 @ 2160p with vsync noped.
No camera control in the overworld but camera control in building mode because reasons.
You think the controller is bad for building?
Try the mouse.
First time I’ve gone back to a controller in recent memory.
There is a soundtrack if you listen really hard.

Fun?

The problem with any LEGO building game is you have to come up with rules.
Everyone over the age of 3 knows rules do not apply to LEGO.
Yes, I immediately found myself arguing with what the game would and would not allow me to get away with.
Not much room left for creativity.
It’s all, blocks go here, citizen.
You build a LOT of bridges in the first hour.
Well, the first 30 minutes is spent learning how to do the building.
If you are looking to recapture the nostalgia of building with blocks I can’t recommend it.
This feels like a $10 game with a $19 licensing fee.
That said, $30 of LEGO gets you what, seven bricks? Could be a bargain if you look at it like that.
At the end of the day if you’re looking for a creative building game for younger family members during this holiday season might I suggest, Besiege.

Jordan:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

Launches OOTB
Holds 80+@ UHD
Behold those legoland graphics where all the voxels have many little lego logos on them
Graphically it’s okay
The controller worked out of the box, but hoo boy that building control is pretty awful
Loni was watching me and described it as “The worst parts of lego meets the worst parts of video games”
There’s definitely a soundtrack but it stays out of the way for the most part

Fun?

If you’re gonna make a game about building legos, you gotta at least make the lego building good
And hoo boy this game gets frustrating when it comes to placing bricks
There’s a multi-part tutorial that teaches you about rotating and layering, but whatever aim assist this game has going for it is actively trying to sabotage my bricklaying
It’s just unpleasant. Beseige had a better building mode
And if that’s the meat of the game. There’s some mild exploration, but compared to something like lego star wars it really does pale in comparison
Fixed camera for the overworld segments, except for in the pause menu
The puzzles themselves are okay. You can go as bare bone or as extra as you want, but I kept trying to find the shortest route so I could stop building

Pedro:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

Launches out of the box on Desktop and the Deck
It does some interesting shenanigans with the frame rate.
Leave the controller idle for a few seconds in game, or 5 seconds in the menu, and the FerPS get locked to 30.
It unlocks properly as soon as you touch a button/analog stick/touchpads
That’s some visible Deck optimization going on there, in a LEGO game.
No rebindable controls, minus one chair.
The music loop is fairly short, but it is basically elevator music so it’s inoffensive.
The graphics look good, even if not being able to spin the camera outside of construction mode is a bit shit!
And some of the controller icon prompts are a little small for the screen on the Deck, the bumper/trigger icons specifically.

Fun?

Yes… as it turns out.
The music may be uninspired and the controls/camera limitations are unwelcome, but it’s a good puzzle game.
Maybe a little too easy on the brain meats, but it’s LEGO physics.
There is no 1 correct solution to any of the puzzles past the tutorial and, the more complex they get, the more different-er ways you have of solving them
The solution can be as practical or visually appealing as you wish it to be.
And you even get to go back to some of them with infinite pieces to make it as pretty as you want.
And like all good puzzle games do, everything is visible on screen and the only time you need to move the camera is if you want to line up a piece accordingly.
It’s good, and much like last week, if you have a proto-human asking for a Steam Deck of their own LEGO Bricktales is very much a must.