“We may have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.” --Captain Malcolm Reynolds

Lutris is cool! It definitely streamlines the process of running things with WINE.

It could have gone through some major changes since I’ve tried it, but I found Heroic to be just a bit more plug-and-play in the sense that it handled the fancy Galaxy stuff like auto-updates, play-time stats, achievements, and cloud saves.

Literally just click install and go, like a drop-in replacement for Galaxy.

I also like that you can choose a Linux build (if it exists) or a windows-with-Proton approach depending on the game.

The only game issue I had was Undertale’s Linux build that had a bit of dependency hell and wouldn’t start…so flipping it to EXE-with-Proton worked like a charm.

Coolest part though? You can totally have both.

I’d personally use Lutris for things like old games that aren’t from digital platforms, or for RetroArch.

I like Heroic for managing cloud saves and handling achievements with GoG titles.

Either way, both are viable and you’ll get your games running somehow! Just different approaches. No harm in seeing which you like most!

Random ProTip while we’re at it: If you couch game, you don’t need to give that up with Linux either! Steam Link can be its own separate program from Steam itself, so it runs a lot leaner. If you have an Nvidia card you can also check out Sunlight/Moonlight for game streaming.

We truly live in exciting times. Happy gaming. :)

I’ve seen videos of people doing this for fun to see what happens.

Sadly now it’s not even fun “for teh lulz” kinda compromise, either. Everything is just a million varieties of crypto miner or ransomware now.

“Hey c’mahhhn it’s my birthday, you wouldn’t delete mah account on my birthday, I’m just’a lil’ birthday boi!”

Their Galaxy client seems like it’ll never get there. Fortunately we have Heroic Launcher, and it pretty much rocks! I’m fully confident I can enjoy the vast majority of my games on Linux now.

Haha so many times I’ve heard stuff playing that sounds catchy in like random sandwich shops, and hunt down where I can get a clear detection on it.

It’s actually pretty impressive what the average smartphone mic can pick up … For better and worse. =\

But I’ve found some favorite songs that way. It beats the old days of trying really hard to discern some words in the lyrics and hoping a search engine would help!

It even works for the music library!? Jellyfin is crazy rad.

And the story is set in modern times but it sounds like an 80’s arcade cabinet. Bwoop-bwoop pew pew!

Granted some people are so focused while gaming that they look like drowned salmon, but streamers have proven you can still be emotive and act whilst gaming lol.

by calling MS support.

Which hopefully wasn’t a 1-800 number flashing obnoxiously on the screen. 😂

Unless you’re Bruce Wayne, in which case when asked you might say NA NA-NA NA-NA NA-NA NA…

I’ll see myself out.

It has nothing to do with fun, they just want the carrot being dangled in front of their nose.

This might explain the marketing that seemed to start with mobile games and now infects AAA MP titles:

“PLAY NOW AND GET 34 GAZILLION WORTHLESS EMERALDRUBYGEMCOINS and a RARE DROP POPSICLE MAGIC DOMINO”

Like…a newcomer would have zero idea what the heck they’re even talking about but somehow it seems to work, to entice players with worthless free…server database adjustments?

Hardly any focus is on the games being unique or exciting (Surprise, they aren’t!) It’s all about a reward-based impulse, like training a bunch of rodents to use a casino.

In an alternate timeline Fireworks MX went open source and people might use one or the other but everyone’s happy. Lol

if they changed the workflow to be like Photoshop, it would leave those of us who know how to use Gimp but not Photoshop high and dry

That’s a VERY good point. I think a good example would be how Blender has evolved in the last decade or so.

It started out very “in-house” and unconventional, but it had very specific UX principles in mind rather than just aping “ThE iNdUsTrY”. Coming from learning 3D MAX to OG pre-3.5 Blender was really difficult. Right-click select?!

But like Blender, I feel like GIMP could benefit from having easily adjustable settings that could line up with what a particular user finds intuitive. Certain layer behavior seems to be the big one here. The settings are there, they’re just awkwardly small buttons or buried in menus.

(Adding the universal transform tool was a VERY nice jump in the right direction.)

Blender’s UI / UX overhaul caused a bit of screeching, but overall was instrumental in balancing accessibility with familiarity to existing users. It made those options very accessible and modular.

For instance, I always use left-click-select, but I use the “Blender way” for everything else. If someone’s coming from Maya? There’s the “industry standard keymap” for them.

Sorry for the ramble. LOL

WW2 again, I don’t mind learning the era but I’ve relearned the same thing over and over again

When your history class is written by the same folks responsible for the History Channel circa ~2002-2010.

Dang, I was really hoping this would be one of those stories that goes like:

“How long will that take?”

“It’s a lot of data…like a month?” (But I actually wrote a Python script that compiles and formats it perfectly in like 5 minutes.)

“You’re such a hard worker!”

StarFox 64 is so perfect in that arcade-game way, where you can technically finish it in a sitting but it’s so cool to figure out different paths and stuff. :D

“Okay guys, let’s ROCK N’ ROLL!”

In case you haven’t seen it, this video might make you very happy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXLmDRwxAUU

Oh sweet nobody’s mentioned it yet! One of my personal favorite “book-feeling games” is an FPS series.

Linear, tightly focused, and feels like a novel because it’s based on one:

Metro: 2033 and Metro: Last Light. (Haven’t played Exodus yet)

You play a young fella named Artyom. Living in formerly-Russia’s metro tunnels with other survivors after a nuclear apocalypse devastates the surface.

Your settlement comes under threat from seemingly psychic creatures called “the Dark Ones”, and you’re sent on a quest to go get help.

Across the way is a bit of a “coming of age” adventure. You run across really interesting and well-acted characters, sneak past hostile factions, contend with scary (and diversely behaviored) mutants, and risk dangerous excursions on the surface. This is a dark world where gasmask filters are precious and bullets are literally currency, but somehow it’s still beautiful and fascinating.

(That intro guitar melody will stay with me forever.)

Like any good hero, Artyom finds himself in one bad situation after another, and along the way if you pick up on the hints, may even come to understand the world around him and the role he plays in it.

There’s a morality system that’s more subtle than “be boyscout or be a villain”, and “ranger difficulty” is an amazing way to play because it makes gunfights feel tense and realistic.

You can only take a few hits in this mode, but unlike in most games, so can your enemies! It makes things feel much less “bullet spongey.”

Everyone begged for an “open world” experience and we got Exodus which is supposed to be awesome, but something will always stay close to me about this post apocalypse story that takes you on a focused, well paced, and at times emotional ride to save a transformed world.

And that’s just the first title mostly.

You won’t be running between towns for hours or making rubber bands and glue into machineguns. You’ll still feel like you’re surviving, but know exactly where you’re supposed to be going.

They go for super cheap on GoG and Steam all the time. Well worth the experience. :)

“Proper story’s s’posed to start at the beginning…”

“Kid just rages for awhile.”

That game is still fantastic.

I try to think with this approach of grace as well.

It’s uncomfortable for us to realize that the descent to mass murdering supervillain is simply the festering of frustration and helplessness combined with blame and opportunity to act that hatred.

It’d be fascinating to see what happens if he was set up with a lovely Jewish art teacher that believed in his ability to improve.

Seriously would people nowadays be streaming old archive footage of “Painting Happily with Adolph Hitler” (holy crap that was awkward to type) and would Bob Ross be citing him as an influence?

Would History Channel have any material?

Of course the “fun” part of this thought experiment is that evil seizes power wherever there’s opportunity, and some other maniac would have taken the role, inevitably.

People are absolutely responsible for their own actions, but also the truth is that a series of neglects and bad influences, especially in formative years, can program someone into a monster that just requires the catalyst to act on it before they cease to be human any longer…

So he’d be just another BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Bayer, GM, IBM—oh geeze this list is long.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_in_the_Holocaust

Yeah, can this guy tell us again how companies are morally good life-saving constructs and the uber-rich wouldn’t just find some other atrocity to profit from? 🤔