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Steam is Introducing a New Version of Steam Play, Allowing Windows Games to Run on Linux

This... this may be huge.

A new beta of the Steam client on Linux will allow you to play Windows-only games on Linux. Currently only a few games are in the list of supported titles BUT in true Linux-user fashion, you can enable it for every game and try your luck.

This works using Proton, a fork of Wine, a Windows compatibility layer that many on Linux use to run Windows software and games already. Proton provides the following improvements:

Windows games with no Linux version currently available can now be installed and run directly from the Linux Steam client, complete with native Steamworks and OpenVR support.

DirectX 11 and 12 implementations are now based on... Read All

This... this may be huge.

A new beta of the Steam client on Linux will allow you to play Windows-only games on Linux. Currently only a few games are in the list of supported titles BUT in true Linux-user fashion, you can enable it for every game and try your luck.

This works using Proton, a fork of Wine, a Windows compatibility layer that many on Linux use to run Windows software and games already. Proton provides the following improvements:

Windows games with no Linux version currently available can now be installed and run directly from the Linux Steam client, complete with native Steamworks and OpenVR support.

DirectX 11 and 12 implementations are now based on Vulkan, resulting in improved game compatibility and reduced performance impact.

Fullscreen support has been improved: fullscreen games will be seamlessly stretched to the desired display without interfering with the native monitor resolution or requiring the use of a virtual desktop.

Improved game controller support: games will automatically recognize all controllers supported by Steam. Expect more out-of-the-box controller compatibility than even the original version of the game.

Performance for multi-threaded games has been greatly improved compared to vanilla Wine.

They are taking on the daunting task of going through the entire Steam library and finding which games work well. So far, the supported list is as follows:

Beat Saber

Bejeweled 2 Deluxe

Doki Doki Literature Club!

DOOM

DOOM II: Hell on Earth

DOOM VFR

Fallout Shelter

FATE

FINAL FANTASY VI

Geometry Dash

Google Earth VR

Into The Breach

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

Mount & Blade

Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword

NieR: Automata

PAYDAY: The Heist

QUAKE

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Star Wars: Battlefront 2

Tekken 7

The Last Remnant

Tropico 4

Ultimate Doom

Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Dark Crusade

Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Soulstorm

They've hosted Proton on Github (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/) so you can download it and make custom versions, and the Steam client will let you use your version instead of the built-in version. I can imagine this leading to Proton configs for specific games that don't necessarily work in the built-in version, thus letting you easily use multiple configs straight from the Steam client.

Proton supports Mac, and I bet enterprising nerds will release some custom Proton configs for running games on Macs, but as of now Valve says they don't have any plans for building this into the Steam client for Mac. Plans may change if demand is there, but their language on it seems pretty firm that they have no plans for it.

This is exciting because one Wine config doesn't necessarily work for multiple games, so getting Wine games running in Linux frequently requires making new Wine configs, with their own directory structure, and therefore with their own Steam install. So to install 20 Steam games with no native Linux version, you may have 10 or more different Steam clients installed and a messy file structure.

Some people will argue that this is a step back, and that developers don't need to target Linux now because Proton will pick up the slack. Others argue that this gets more gamers on Linux, leading to more reason for developers to target Linux. Who knows how the market will react, but I'm excited because this gets Linux closer to Windows in game support, and while over 3000 games on Steam currently support Linux natively, it's been harder to get some of the bigger publishers/developers on board, and even some indies. What do you think? Does this make you more likely to use Linux for gaming?

Original announcement: https://steamcommunity.com/games/221410/announcements/detail/1696055855739350561

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/21/2018 at 10:37pm

That first list of games is fun. I like they added Doom and Quake though there are lots of ways to run that on Linux.

That said it’s good to start with the easy stuff and move up from there. This is awesome news because to-date Wine has been a chore to configure properly so if Valve can do it, that’s awesome.

I’m wondering how much further Valve is gonna five in Linux support? I really am hoping for a handheld but that’s prob wishful thinking.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/21/2018 at 10:41pm

This isn’t just Linux, this is to get games running on a Mac too!

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/21/2018 at 10:46pm

Spoke a bit too soon. Whereas the underlying software does support the Mac this isn’t supported on Mac in Steam quite yet.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/22/2018 at 01:38am

Yeah I meant to add a bit about that to the post. Updated!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/22/2018 at 01:39am

My only issue now is that my gaming rig doesn't have enough space on it to test this out.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/22/2018 at 01:40am

Too bad! I have a desktop that dual boots between the latest Ubuntu and Windows. When this hits mainline Steam I’ll check it out.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/22/2018 at 01:08pm

Maybe I’m just a beta junkie but I’m always running the steam beta. Never had any issues with it for what it’s worth. They do a good job of getting things pretty stable before it even heads to beta.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/22/2018 at 01:59pm

Yep. Just have other stuff to do

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/27/2018 at 02:54pm

Looks like the community has play tested about 2k games so far https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/08/27/steam-for-linux-adds-1000-perfectly-playable-windows-games-in-under-a-week/amp/

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/27/2018 at 07:27pm

Wow, that’s intense.

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 31: Ant-Man and the Wasp

In this episode of Cheerful Ghost Radio, we visit the Quantum Realm and review the new cog in the Marvel Cinematic Universe machine, Ant-Man and the Wasp! We discuss our favorite things about the film and a few issues we had, and consider how it might affect Infinity War Part II and the wider MCU.

While we have you here, after a brief hiatus Cheerful Ghost Games Club is back! We'll be reviewing Kirby's Adventure in an upcoming episode and we want your input. Come play Kirby's Adventure with us and we'll include your thoughts in the episode!

https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/events/163/cheerful-ghost-games-club-kirby-s-adventure

Lightfield HYPER Edition: "Now this is Pod racing!"

Timogorgon gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Timogorgon gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Disclaimer: Lost in the Garden provided me a review copy of the game.

Good evening my fellow happy haunts!

I can’t say I’ve ever played a racer quite like Lightfield before. You’re ship can fly and you’re not restricted in what direction you can fly. However, you gain a significant speed boost by “snapping” to a surface. Your goal is to move from checkpoint to checkpoint while staying snapped to a surface as much as possible. The courses are designed so that there is no clear best path between the checkpoints leaving it up to the player to experiment and to keep improving on their lap times.

The game feel very fast and frenetic as you twist and turn through the courses.... Read All Disclaimer: Lost in the Garden provided me a review copy of the game.

Good evening my fellow happy haunts!

I can’t say I’ve ever played a racer quite like Lightfield before. You’re ship can fly and you’re not restricted in what direction you can fly. However, you gain a significant speed boost by “snapping” to a surface. Your goal is to move from checkpoint to checkpoint while staying snapped to a surface as much as possible. The courses are designed so that there is no clear best path between the checkpoints leaving it up to the player to experiment and to keep improving on their lap times.

The game feel very fast and frenetic as you twist and turn through the courses. One second you’re snapped to the side of a building, then you release your grip so you can jump down to a tunnel below you (or is it “above” you? It’s hard to tell after a while). Most of the time this feels great, but that freedom does mean it’s pretty easy to get turned around or lost. Especially on a track you’re not familiar with.

The controls are very simple although I can’t imagine trying to play this without a controller. They feel nice and tight while snapped to a surface, but feel sluggish and floaty while flying. That could be an intentional design choice, but I found it a little frustrating at times when I’m trying to get back to a surface while my ship chugs along through the air.

Several people (including Travis) praised the soundtrack for the game. I’ll be honest and say I disagree. The music was ok at first but it wore on me pretty quick. It wasn’t long before I shut the music off completely and just loaded up my own soundtrack to play in the background.

There are several modes to play through including an “exploration” mode and a “Campaign” mode that serves as the games tutorial. I went through the first couple campaign courses but once I got the hang of the game I found it far more fun to just jump into some racing.

Overall, I very much enjoyed my time trying out the game and I plan to sink many more hours into shaving off precious seconds from my lap times. I give this game a solid Rad!

Oceanhorn Early Impressions (Switch Version)

Oceanhorn is very much inspired (some reviewers argue to a fault) by the Zelda series. There are a lot of similarities here: swords, bombs, action-adventure game, magic, etc. Personally, I don't mind how much Cornfox & Bros (the developers) have borrowed, or been inspired by, from the Zelda series, this is a fun game.

The story starts out with the hero's father going to fight the monster Oceanhorn. Soon after the beginning cinematic of the father's fight, you take over as the hero to search out three emblems and defeat Oceanhorn.

The world you traverse in, is very much inspired by Wind Waker. As the hero, you travel to various islands (levels) via the sea using a... Read All Oceanhorn is very much inspired (some reviewers argue to a fault) by the Zelda series. There are a lot of similarities here: swords, bombs, action-adventure game, magic, etc. Personally, I don't mind how much Cornfox & Bros (the developers) have borrowed, or been inspired by, from the Zelda series, this is a fun game.

The story starts out with the hero's father going to fight the monster Oceanhorn. Soon after the beginning cinematic of the father's fight, you take over as the hero to search out three emblems and defeat Oceanhorn.

The world you traverse in, is very much inspired by Wind Waker. As the hero, you travel to various islands (levels) via the sea using a boat. While you are traveling on the boat you can shoot down monsters, mines, crates and barrels and collect experience and money.

The game plays out using an isometric camera angle. The visuals are really good. Cornfox & Bros definitely put a lot of time into the art. The controls are very similar to the controls of a Zelda game, so people should have no time picking this up.

I have been enjoying this game so far. That being said, I have run into a few bugs and have a nitpick with the character's voices in the game.

The first bug I ran into was: one cinematic did not run to completion. It started up and then all of a sudden ended and cut to the next interactive part of the game. This is not a huge problem as you can replay the cinematic from the pause menu, but it did take me out of the game for a second.

The second bug I ran into was the game crashing. I have only run into this once, but the game crashed out to the switch menu. This was disappointing, but luckily the last save that happened was pretty close to the crash, so I could continue on with my adventure without too much backtracking.

My nitpick with the character's voices is that they seem disconnected from the characters of the game. They come across more as voice over than characters speaking. To me this doesn't kill the game, but it is something I wish the devs spent more time on.

Overall, despite the few issues I have had with the game, I am quite enjoying it. To me this game reminds me of a indie take on the Zelda series (which it is). The game itself is very laid back and fun to explore. I look forward to finishing the game.

A Day at the Races: Lightfield HYPER Edition Review

Travis gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Travis gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

There's a bit of a theme for me today eh? Two racing games! A Day at the Races continues with Lightfield HYPER Edition! A big thanks to the folks at Lost in the Garden for providing us with review keys!

Lightfield HYPER Edition isn't exactly a racing game. There are races, yes, and that's the main focus, but sometimes this feels more like the parkour of Mirror's Edge or trick lines in the Tony Hawk games than a racing game.

You control a ship that can defy gravity and fly through the air, or snap to surfaces. You gain speed while snapped, and quickly lose speed when you aren't snapped, so the goal is to get from checkpoint to checkpoint in the most efficient path, while... Read All There's a bit of a theme for me today eh? Two racing games! A Day at the Races continues with Lightfield HYPER Edition! A big thanks to the folks at Lost in the Garden for providing us with review keys!

Lightfield HYPER Edition isn't exactly a racing game. There are races, yes, and that's the main focus, but sometimes this feels more like the parkour of Mirror's Edge or trick lines in the Tony Hawk games than a racing game.

You control a ship that can defy gravity and fly through the air, or snap to surfaces. You gain speed while snapped, and quickly lose speed when you aren't snapped, so the goal is to get from checkpoint to checkpoint in the most efficient path, while staying on surfaces as much as possible. Each track has the standard race challenge, but also others that have you pull off ledge jumps, rotations, find collectibles, etc.

The controls are simple, well-executed, and mostly intuitive. You're going to crash a lot and make some bad moves, but you never feel that the game is fighting against you. Basically you use the analog stick to steer, the trigger to accelerate, and a face button to snap. Those are all the controls you have, and they're all you need.

The first track is intense but mostly in two dimensions. Once you progress to the second track, you will quickly have no idea which way is up. In fact, it's best to just try to forget the concept of up and down. Just find the nearest surface that gets you to the next checkpoint and HOLD ON. But that difficulty curve ramps up fast, and that may be my biggest complaint with the game. I felt very lost on the second track. But that's the kind of game this is: it doesn't hold your hand at all and throws you in the deep end, for better or worse. Mostly better, I think. It pushes you to practice on the previous levels until you really get the gameplay, and then introduce new concepts on that solid base.

Lightfield is frustrating at times. Not in a bad way, but in an "I really want to get this right" way. Back to Mirror's Edge, if you've played this you know how a parkour run can just crash and burn when you miss a jump or a grab, and that same feeling grabs you in the gut when you miss a snap in Lightfield. But when you pull it off, it's a great feeling, and this frustration/satisfaction loop makes the gameplay really addictive. Time trial mode is a single lap that just keeps repeating, and I think I probably went about 30 rounds without stopping once, trying to get my run just right.

The other challenges interested me less. None of them are bad or boring, but I LOVE the time trials and races. They're a good way to break the intensity but I didn't put as much effort into doing as well as possible on those.

The visuals and soundtrack are very compelling, and fit the game perfectly. This is a very stylized game that perhaps resembles an updated Star Fox low-poly look, but with some intense 80s color schemes. The soundtrack, composed by Zanshin, complements the sci-fi vibe and helps drive the intensity of the gameplay.

If you're looking for a very non-traditional indie racing game, this might just be your jam. It is for me.

Keep an eye out for another review of Lightfield HYPER Edition coming soon, by our friendly neighborhood monster from the Upside Down, Timogorgon!

A Day at the Races: Burnout Paradise Remastered Review

Travis gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Travis gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

I still can't hear the Guns 'n' Roses song, Paradise City, without thinking about Burnout Paradise. I bought it shortly after getting a PS3, and played the hell out of it. I'm not a racing game aficionado, but I've played a few dozen over the years and this one might be my favorite of the arcadey racers. So my interest was piqued when I heard about the remastered version that released a few months back, but I decided to wait for the PC release (even though I ended up buying it on PS4 instead... more on that later). Origin Access has it up now for a 10 hour demo before the launch next week.

Burnout Paradise Remastered is the full game with all the post-launch content... Read All I still can't hear the Guns 'n' Roses song, Paradise City, without thinking about Burnout Paradise. I bought it shortly after getting a PS3, and played the hell out of it. I'm not a racing game aficionado, but I've played a few dozen over the years and this one might be my favorite of the arcadey racers. So my interest was piqued when I heard about the remastered version that released a few months back, but I decided to wait for the PC release (even though I ended up buying it on PS4 instead... more on that later). Origin Access has it up now for a 10 hour demo before the launch next week.

Burnout Paradise Remastered is the full game with all the post-launch content except for the time-savers pack that just unlocked all the cars for you.

I'm not going to review the game itself here, because that's been done before, very thoroughly. I'm reviewing the changes in the remastered version. But in brief, Burnout Paradise is a different take on racing games. It's an open-world racer, where every street is a challenge. There are hundreds of gates, billboards, and jumps to discover, races or other challenges at every intersection, and full-street time trials to compete with others around the world. Criterion added a ton of post-release content: some paid and some for free: motorcycles, legendary cars that resemble famous cars from movies and TV, toy cars, Big Surf Island (a huge area with new challenges and cars), Cops and Robbers (a new mode in which you play as... well... cops and robbers), and more. In contrast to other open-world racing games, the world feels full. Everywhere you look there's something to do.

And it does all of that amazingly well.

I fired up Burnout Paradise Remastered on PC and initially I couldn't see much of a difference. The original already looked great, and I may have some rose-colored glasses. But I went back to the original and yeah, they've smoothed things out. The first frame of reference is your car, which really doesn't look very different, but when you drive around the city, the remaster becomes more apparent. The lighting and shadows are better, it's more optimized (I was getting a more consistent frame rate on the remastered version), the textures for the world elements are improved. It's a nice new coat of paint.

As it happens I then went through some email and saw that it was on sale for 50% off on PSN, so I grabbed it there and played it on my PS4 Pro and wow. This is where it really shines. In addition to the improvements I saw on PC, this runs in 4K with a steady 60fps (it will run in 4K on your PC as well if you have the monitor for it. I unfortunately do not).

This is also currently the only way to get the Big Surf Island and Cops and Robbers DLC packs on PC.

Overall, this is just great. The visual improvements aren't huge but they're noticeable, especially if you have something that can run it in 4K. I love it and can't wait to burn up the streets more. Overall, it's a Must Play, but I have to give it two ratings:
1. If you don't have the game, this is a Must Play. It's the definitive version of what's already a Must Play game.
2. If you already have it on a console with all the DLC, it's a Rad. Maybe wait for a sale. There's nothing truly groundbreaking about the additions, but they're improvements.

Valve May Soon Launch Steam.tv, a Game Streaming Site to Compete with Twitch. Maybe?

There's been speculation about this for a while, but earlier today Steam.tv launched to the world, appearing to be the long-assumed-to-be-coming Twitch competitor from Valve.

But it left us as quickly as it arrived!

Before it blinked out of existence, presenting merely a white page, it looked like the screenshot on this post. While it was up, all that was available was footage of the International, a Dota 2 competition. You could sign in and chat via voice or text using the new Discord-like chat that Steam recently released. You could invite groups of friends to watch videos with you and chat about it together.

But alas, someone was a bit quick on the trigger. In a... Read All

The History of Bethesda Game Studios

Noclip is a YouTube channel that focused on crowdfunded video game documentaries and they did an excellent video on Bethesda Games Studios that you need to watch. It covers the history of the studio from the first Elder Scrolls game all the way through Fallout 4 and then teases the upcoming doc on Fallout 76.
Buckle up for an hour and a half of Bethesda documentary goodness that includes a discussion with the writer of the now infamous Skyrim "arrow to the knee" meme.

"Embark on a quest through the history of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. With insight into the development of everything from Arena to Fallout 4, Noclip takes you on a journey through the creative... Read All

Diablo III Coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2018

https://us.diablo3.com/en/switch

Diablo III is the third in the primarily PC-based series, but it has been a mainstay on consoles since 2014, with releases for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Today, Blizzard announced plans for Diablo III: The Eternal Collection for the Nintendo Switch! It’s the game we know and love, with the Reaper is Souls expansion and the Rise of the Necromancer DLC. And in addition, you get some neat Zelda bonuses. Ever wanted to dress up like Ganon, hang out with a cucco companion, or have a triforce portrait frame while playing Diablo? Now you can!

You can play couch co-op on a single Switch, locally with up to four Switch consoles, or on... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/16/2018 at 05:55pm

BTW Doom Eternal is also coming to the Switch. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/doom-eternal-for-nintendo-switch-confirmed/1100-6461091/

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/16/2018 at 06:28pm

Yep, I think they mentioned that in the keynote. Not a shock since Doom and Wolf 2 were ported.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/16/2018 at 08:36pm

It is interesting that Nintendo has opened up to such games.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/16/2018 at 10:15pm

Yeah they've always geared toward more family friendly titles. Not entirely. Doom/Quake/tons of other FPS games on the N64, the Resident Evil games did really well on Game Cube, Mad World and No More Heroes on the Wii, ... not sure about the Wii U, I didn't follow it much, but they at least had Assassin's Creed.

But thinking about Doom 2016 on a Nintendo console does seem a little weird.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/16/2018 at 10:31pm

Yup yup! Anyway, there's a new Diablo season, are you interested in doing it? This season's theme is "greed" which I noticed means treasure goblins have a higher chance of spawning. I'm tempted to play this season, tempted to go with a Witch Doctor.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/16/2018 at 11:38pm

I have only played one season really, and man... I REALLY played it. I'll probably dive back in a few months from now but I like the occasional really deep dive with a solid break. Keeps it fresh.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/18/2018 at 01:26am

Ya know, this makes me think we're probably far away from Diablo IV.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/18/2018 at 01:28am

Yes. At best if they are heavily in dev is like 3 years. They would have just started it and Blizzard takes a bit so 3 years is a best case unless they’ve been rolling on this for a couple years now.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/20/2018 at 07:33pm

Despite already owning Diablo 3 on the PC, I think I will get this for the Switch. I could see me getting more time to play it on the switch.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/20/2018 at 07:59pm

Yup. I haven't played through the Necromancer content yet and I think this might be a really good way to do that.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/20/2018 at 11:06pm

I think the Necromancer is really good. I enjoyed playing a male and a female one. So, yeah I definitely recommend it!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/21/2018 at 01:09am

The necro is nuts. You can kill a bunch of demons and then EXPLODE THOSE DEMONS to kill other demons!

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Jeff Vogel - Failing To Fail

A friend shared a recent talk Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software gave recently at this years GDC and i've been keeping it around for the right time to write about it. It's only available at the GDC Vault and not a YouTube video I can embed above, so sorry about that. Anyways, I recommend you check it out at the link below because not only is Jeff someone I admire but it's a really great talk about how not to fail in the games industry. Jeff admits that the kinds of games Spiderweb makes are not hits and that he makes just enough to have a good middle class life serving his niche audience. Usually the only stories people focus on in gaming are the rags to riches stories... Read All