Android gets Steamy! Humble goes monthly, Distance revamps reality, and Feral delays Aliens. Then SOMA faces our CHAIRQUISITION! All this, plus your hate mail.
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Links
Steam
http://steamcommunity.com/app/392940/discussions/0/490121928336484088/
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/09/30/steam-for-android-version-2-1-adds-community-market-trading-game-hubs-discussions-and-more/
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/523897653296978764/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/09/valve-blames-developers-for-lingering-vr-nasuea-issues/
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/523898291499139752/
https://www.feralinteractive.com/en/news/539/
http://steamcommunity.com/games/distance/announcements/detail/119700858989620072
News
https://www.humblebundle.com/
https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-2747-1/
http://www.wine-staging.com/news/2015-09-25-winehq-integration.html
http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/09/30/geforce-now/
http://recode.net/2015/09/28/epic-games-ceo-tim-sweeney-virtual-reality-is-the-future-and-we-are-100-percent-in-qa/
http://blog.wolfire.com/2015/09/Overgrowth-Weekly-Q-A-16
https://www.gog.com/game/victor_vran
http://kotaku.com/video-game-kickstarter-disappears-with-over-30-000-1733558273
https://xoreos.org/blog/2015/09/30/xoreos-0-dot-0-3-bastila-released/
http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/news/10-years-of-dxx-rebirth-happy-birthday-my-child/
https://github.com/Armada651/xray
Review
http://store.steampowered.com/app/282140/
Hate Mail
http://slexy.org/view/s20ulHiUdw
http://slexy.org/view/s2jNFxW3or
http://slexy.org/view/s21KIUEh6d
Steam News:
Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro
…so it begins
http://steamcommunity.com/app/392940/discussions/0/490121928336484088/
Someone should let VALVe know that’s been happening for longer than that shit game.
Someone should also let VALVe know that if you create a Steam bundle with just a single game in it, it’ll obfuscate the review scores.
But, unless these bits of common knowledge become widespread to the point of someone in the company having to deal with it on a daily basis, not going to do a damn thing about it.
Steam for Android Update
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/09/30/steam-for-android-version-2-1-adds-community-market-trading-game-hubs-discussions-and-more/
I can watch game streams? Hell, I might install it.
It’s nice that they’re putting some effort into the mobile app. Storefront and chat isn’t really an incentive to get it on your phone
Now with 2FA and streaming/trading built in, you can actually give people a reason to use it
Honey badger Xclone don’t care
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/523897653296978764/
Considering xbox controllers are the de-facto standard for controller based PC gaming, it’s a good thing they have these fixes in before november
Or you could quit being a little bitch
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/09/valve-blames-developers-for-lingering-vr-nasuea-issues/
You think 3D T.V. failed hard?
So basically, your controls need to match the VR environment you’re trying to support. Seems logical
It’s easy to blame game developers for everything when you’re VALVe and you don’t do shit.
Steamy Kodi
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/523898291499139752/
Seems it can also install the Plex.
Good that Steam is getting some media support, even if from 3rd party
Beyond that, having Kodi handing media on your steambox is a strong move because it already has a lot of exposure in terms of media centers. Makes it more of a known quantity.
With Kodi working you can get the unofficial Netflix and Hulu addons. And all the pirated stuff, too…
At that point, do you really need anything else?
Hello my baby!
https://www.feralinteractive.com/en/news/539/
We received the email notification Tuesday @ 4:55 EST / 9:55 London
I totally didn’t stay up until 5:00 A.M. so I could start the DL then make /w the sleeping.
Distance Revamped Reality Update
http://steamcommunity.com/games/distance/announcements/detail/119700858989620072
Unity 5 and everything else that was on the experimental branch is now available on the “stable” early access branch.
That was a sentence…
News:
Humble Grundle
https://www.humblebundle.com/
Goddamn this bundle is weaksauce
Only 3 games in the main bundle. But you get a COUPON!
Four more games you already own if you pay more than the average
Humble man, step up your game!
I would say \:D/ Skullgirls but we’ve had the Linux build for a few months.
At least they shipped the FSM damned thing.
R.I.P. Skullgirls joke 2013-2015
I bought it for $10 but put the sliders for both the Humble Tip and the Planetary Annihilation sliders down to $0.
Oh FK and NO
https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly
Q: What are the games playable on?
A: Steam for Windows. Sometimes more!
You want $12 / month ON THE FUCKING CHANCE some games have Linux support?
<ಠ_ಠ>How you have fallen</ಠ_ಠ>
We were talking about this the other day. It’s why overgrowth is in perpetual development
Who in their right mind is paying $12 a month for random games?
Store, that’s fine! Bundles, that’s great! Digital “Loot Crate” type thing with just random games? Fuck that shit!
If 95% was for charity, I might consider it. At 5% you’re just asking to be made fun of.
You just hate poor people. Classist
OppsBuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-2747-1/
Erm, shouldn’t Buntu push out the updates?
That said, it’s your responsibility to keep things updated.
Seems to only affect 304, 340 and 346 drivers.
Not sure if this is ubuntu specific or affects anyone using these drivers. CVE doesn’t seem to have been published on the NVD
Considering that Jockey is included in that list, I’m almost willing to put money down on it having been the cause.
Probably, the packaged versions of the drivers that Jockey installs are what’s causing the privilege escalation.
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2015-5950
Drink up!
http://www.wine-staging.com/news/2015-09-25-winehq-integration.html
Makes sense from a project perspective. They’re trying to keep everything under one roof
Firefox sort of did this with aurora. You have crazy-fuck-you-unstable (nightly), hardened but still iffy (aurora) and Regular firefox. Now it’s integration -> development-> stock wine
Hopefully this will speed up patch inclusion in wine and help make it the premiere win32 api
Wondering if this is how they’ll introduce the baseline DX11 support
Fedora’s been rocking the Staging branch since F21.
7.99
http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/09/30/geforce-now/
So they’re turning NVidia Grid from an Android thing to a PC thing and calling it GeForce Now instead?
No, they’re just upgrading Grid to a payed service and changing the name to have the PS4 users realize how much PS Now sucks in comparison.
That blog post is about as clear my throat after a stressful day.
So this only works /w the Shield and the Shield but not /w the Shield. Right.
NVIDIA, I love ya for the Linux discrete GPU support but unless this launches on PC it’s DOA.
Even then, you would need to put a server in my basement.
Seriously, Steaming on my local network (gigabit) has latency issues.
Onlive part deux
You know, if google fibre was everywhere, I might say that this has a chance to succeed
Who are they targeting here? The four people who own the nvidia set top box? Pedro with both of portugal’s shield tablets?
But again, there is hope in the form of steam machines, who license all of this tech from nvidia.
3D T.V 2.0
http://recode.net/2015/09/28/epic-games-ceo-tim-sweeney-virtual-reality-is-the-future-and-we-are-100-percent-in-qa/
VR will reach racing wheel adoption levels at best.
People kept referring to Valve’s VR as game changing. Like the steam controller, it’s one of those things that you gotta try for yourself.
It could be similar to the Wii effect for bringing in new gamers though. Ditch the hunched over the computer motif
DN4E Q&A #16
http://blog.wolfire.com/2015/09/Overgrowth-Weekly-Q-A-16
“Since 25 November 2008, Wolfire Games has released new Alpha tests every 2–5 months”
“Overgrowth was released 17 December 2013 as an Early Access”
Just read the reviews.
“About as stable as my ex girlfriend“ – StanTheDanMan
Coming on 7 years of development. You’re not making Metro. You’re making a rabbit fighting game.
Maybe they’re actually making a rabbot fighting game, that’s why it keeps taking monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday monday tuesday…
In 2008 this game looked proper impressive for an indie title.
In 2015 it just looks… dated.
VRN Free
https://www.gog.com/game/victor_vran
If you were holding off on this game because there wasn’t a DRM free version, you have no excuse
“If you were holding off on this game because
there wasn’t a DRM free version
you didn’t know how to pirate it…” There! FTFY.
Thank you pedro. That was the joke
This is a proper fun game. No bullshit, no muss, just fun.
Aaaaaand it’s gone
http://kotaku.com/video-game-kickstarter-disappears-with-over-30-000-1733558273
Protip: Don’t back games unless they have a demo.
Seriously, we were getting hammered /w “support mah Kickstarter” emails until we tossed in that requirement.
Kind of feel bad for the folks who got screwed early on in kickstarter’s lifecycle. But ultimately, this is a teachable moment.
oreos 0.0.3
https://xoreos.org/blog/2015/09/30/xoreos-0-dot-0-3-bastila-released/
Having played through the original campaign of NwN and seeing all of the unfixed bugs Bioware left behind, these guys have my full support!
ANd I’m for any project that attempts to extend the life of a game by re-implementing the engine
DXX gonna give to ya
http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/news/10-years-of-dxx-rebirth-happy-birthday-my-child/
And people say open source gaming is dead
To be fair, most of these are passion projects
XRay
https://github.com/Armada651/xray
Hmmm, visual studio. I’m sure there are some clever people out there who can sort this out with some good ol’ gcc make.
I’m far too lazy.
That said, I’d love to be able to play the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series on Linux without having to futz with WINE.
I bought the stalker complete pack a while ago during a steam sale. I wonder if I’ll finally be able to play it one day
Keep in mind, porting the rendering backend is the first in a laundry list of steps to fully port the game over
CHAIRQUISITION:
- Nooope
- Not sure if want
- Check it out
- Shutupandtakemymonies
Game: SOMA
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/282140/
Devel: Frictional Games
Ported by: http://knockoutgames.co/
Engine: HPL Engine 3
Price: €27.99 / US$ 29.99 / CDN$ 32.99
Wazzat: From the creators of Amnesia: The Dark Descent comes SOMA, a sci-fi horror game set below the waves of the Atlantic ocean. Struggle to survive a hostile world that will make you question your very existence.
Mandatory US Disclosure: The devs sent us keys.
Makes with the working
V-
Visit /home/NAME/.local/share/frictionalgames/Soma/Main/NAME_11000010589A1F2_user_settings.cfg
set LimitFPS=”false”
Then you can get 120+ FERPS @ 1080 /w everything on 11.
J-
Averages about 45-50 fps with everything on 11 at 4k
Sometimes it struggles to figure out what it’s supposed to be doing and you’ll get frame dips
I’ll tell you what happens when you try to enable__GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS a bit later
P-
Turn VSync off, FerPS cap out at 30.
Turn it to adaptive or on and set the refresh rate, then you can have your FerPS.
Screenshots? Never heard of them. I wanted to get one when I finished the game but it’s all just black.
Total-
Shiny / Sounds
V-
HL2 level graphics.
Seriously, even the cables are all _/\_
I would provide screenshots but that MOON feature does not work.
We love Frictional and they have been good to us but this is LGC.
Having a 30/60 FERPS lock on the PC tells me you spent more time optimizing for 3yr old laptop hardware vs actual gaming machines.
The PC version is a backport from the PS4 build.
Like previous titles Frictional really focus on the sound.
That’s what makes up for the less than stellar visuals.
J-
The sound design is fantastic. Really gets you on edge and that’s par for the course for frictional
Voice acting is alright
Was getting serious underruns after a while, so I gave the launch options the ol’ PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 and sorted that out
Also tried turning on __GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS=1 and HOLY MOTHER OF SCREEN TEARING BATMAN!
Not to be mistaken with the “glitchy” effect that populates the game
Yeah, the graphics are pretty dated. they get the job done, but it doesn’t get them any style points
P-
During the very last scene, I’m not sure if the graphical flickering is on purpose or just a fuck up of the Linux version.
It seems to have issues when I force it into a virtual 5.1 surround so I could use my headphones properly.
Underruns up the wazoo. Disabling and reenabling the headset in pavucontrol while the game is still running stops the underruns.
The textures are definitely low res, the poly count on some of the models is so low you probably have enough digits to count them with.
And the faux-tearing/glitching is enough to trigger my OCD.
That said, the ambient noises and background music were balls to the walls amazing.
The graphics, low quality as they may be, fit the type of game that it is. They’re not perfect but they’re not horrible either.
I’m guessing if they had pushed the graphics up to today’s standards, instead of 22GB the game would have taken up 50.
Level design is amazingly well done and, even at such low quality, it’s incredibly detailed.
Total-
Control
V-
J-
If you’ve played one amnesia game, you know how play this
P-
Total-
FUN
V-
Are the robot thingies supposed to be scary?
Last time I checked minor annoyances didn’t check that box.
I almost want to give an extra chair for the area where the FKR is trapped and you can electrocute his arse.
It’s screams were… satisfying.
J-
Despite the game starting in toronto, the subway trains look nothing like TTC ones
Nice touch with the CN Tower in the background
The monster isn’t scary. It kind of reminds me of a street shark. Parkoured my ass over that motherfucker
FUCK THAT FUCKING RADIO CONTROL UI! ALL THE WAY TO SAIGON!
Seriously, if you leave your mouse in one position for too long, it kicks you out and you gotta start again. Grrrrrgh
Some of the surprises are telegraphed pretty hard
Still, creepy atmosphere is what it promises, and it sure as hell delivers on it.
Frictional is pretty good at teasing the monster, but I find it a bit rubbish at actually delivering on it. Oh well.
Ultimately this game fails to capture the true horror…of living in Canada
P-
Having a game take place at the bottom of the ocean, off the coast of Portugal and in which the protagonist was born on July 16th, is a sure fire way to get me immersed.
In more ways than one.
Much like Venn, at the start of the game I was like, “this isn’t very scary”. Then came the very first scene which made me feel bad about my actions.
Then came the flavor text explaining what had happened in the place and the “reveal” of what exactly is going on and how the protagonist ties into it.
It definitely doesn’t have that overbearing atmosphere like Amnesia The Dark Descent did but even that can easily be justified by that same reveal.
Seeing the prototype boot up and the “mount -o loop <whatevs>” command put a big ol’ grin on my face.
Frictional’s games always have that “What it means to be human” undertone to them and I feel with SOMA they’ve nailed the moral conundrums that we would face in such a situation.
The only real issue I had with the game itself, outside of the technical kerfuffles, is how much of a Canadian dude-bro douchebag the protagonist is. He’s a fucking idiot!
I suppose it’s good to have a bit of variance on the whole “amnesiac in scary place” trope but, considering how many of typical horror genre tropes the game makes use of, would it have been so bad to have that in as well?
For the most part I could relate to Simon. Then right at the end, I wanted to reach into the game and slap that powersuit he’s in until the gel inside hardened.
I actually felt bad for something I had done in the previous sector because of how much of a dumb fucking idiot he was.
But, the fact that the game managed to make me feel so strongly about him and his fucking idiocy, it’s certainly praiseworthy.
Total-
Final -
Hate Mail:
Hax0r
http://slexy.org/view/s20ulHiUdw
http://slexy.org/view/s2jNFxW3or
Balls
http://slexy.org/view/s21KIUEh6d
Figured it out.
I marked the showzen NSFW because raisins.
Turns out you should only do that if the project contains nudity.
We can fix that…