Linux platform gamers - what are you playing?

[zixi]

Just curious really... I bought a new PC recently. It's meant installing stuff all over again. So recently I've been playing the game which is getting the mod manager to work nicely. Now everything is working well, I'm wondering about what the next game challenge to be so I'm thinking maybe Starfield  (currently silver at ProtonDB) or Baldur's Gate 3 (currently gold at ProtonDB). I've avoided the latter because I absolutely adore BGI and II and so far everything that says it's like a BGIII  has been bitterly disappointing... 

So, what are you playing? What kind of fixes have you had to resort to? 

I'm on Ubuntu 23.10 - Mantic Minotaur BTW.

[AaronOfMpls]

Late response, found this just searching for "linux" here, but...

I've been playing Skyrim a lot the last couple months, now that I got a Mod Organizer installer script to work.  Mostly LE, but also a little SE while I build up a mod setup for it.  I have a MO setup for Oblivion now too, but haven't played it much yet beyond testing that it and a few mods are working.  (I'll set up MO2 installs for Fallout 3 and New Vegas later, when I get the urge to play them again.  And probably Fallout 4 if I ever get it.)

I do dip into Morrowind from time to time via OpenMW.

As for other recent games: I played House Flipper (Windows via Steam) a lot in the past year; decorating in it can be surprisingly relaxing and/or time-wasting.  I found an interesting mix of survival/city builder called Tribe (Windows via Steam) that grabbed me -- though I overplayed it at first and burned out.  I got The Witcher series in a Steam sale last year, but haven't played far into it yet.  And a few others I might elaborate on later.

I also hang out in Second Life a lot, using the Linux version of the Firestorm viewer.  I play games with friends there most evenings, and am in a few roleplay groups there as well.  Having a Linux-native version already, I didn't need much tweaking to get FS working -- though I did need to install some 32-bit libraries to get SL's voice chat to work.  (Though that was 4 years and many updates ago now; dunno if that's still needed.)

And for casual stuff while filling time, Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection was in my distro's respository, and several of its games -- Bridges, Flood, Galaxies, Map, Mines, and Net -- have taken the fill-a-few-minutes niche that the old Windows games like Hearts and Minesweeper did.  I also have a few old Windows Entertainment Pack games (which I think my dad got free with a pack of Verbatim floppy disks in '94 or so!) like JezzBall and Dr. Blackjack, which Wine handles with zero tweaks needed.

As for less common plays, I have the Linux version of FreeCiv (fan game inspired by Civilization II and III) , and mean to get around to OpenTTD (fan remake of Transport Tycoon Deluxe) someday.

And I still play a few DOS games in DOSBox sometimes too, like SimCity 2000 and SimEarth.

 

As for getting games to work...  Some are Linux-native already, like Cities: Skylines, Civilization V, The Witcher 2 (haven't gotten around to playing it yet), or Russian Subway Dogs.  As for my Windows games, those on Steam I'll often use tweaks suggested on ProtonDB to get them running.  Most common is using a specific Proton version -- sometimes a newer one, sometimes an older one, sometimes seemingly just choosing any specific version at all.  

The Windows games I don't have on Steam are pretty much all older ones, which Wine mostly handles just fine.  Civilization II seems to have no more issues in Wine than it had in Windows 95.  And a GOG copy of SimCity 4 runs almost as well as the CD-ROM version did in Windows XP and 7 with some tweaks* -- though it still gets crashy if I've been playing a while, especially with a large city.

 

(OK, stopping now ... that took a good bit longer than I planned. )

 

* For SC4 tweaks, I'm using these flags after the .exe's path: -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -gp -intro:off -d:opengl -CPUCount:8 .  -f is fullscreen (-w would be windowed).  The custom resolution values are needed for widescreen (since its settings menu only has 4:3 ones), and my monitor is only 1920x1080.  -intro:off skips the intro movie.  And -CPUCount: tells it how many CPU cores to use (since by default it tries to stay on only 1 core).  For any other SC4 players, Simtropolis has a list of all these flags here.

Edited March 5 by AaronOfMpls
ytpo I belatedly caught

[zixi]

18 hours ago, AaronOfMpls said:

OK, stopping now ... that took a good bit longer than I planned. )

But it's interesting! Hello fellow Linux-player.  Sometimes I think it's just me and I have to visit the Linux forums for reassurance. But in reality I know that there are a lot of Linux gamers out there. I think I've come across quite a lot playing MW.

I'm playing OpenMW at present. I haven't touched Skyrim  (either version) for a while. Not long ago 7Kaa had an update to the AI - that will run native on Linux but I've installed a Wine version (ie the latest version) and at the moment I'm playing that. I really like it as a strategy game . I have Daggerfall installed - I've played it before on Linux (not via Steam) but this time I just can't get out of the first dungeon... and the cutscene when I die is driving me to distraction! 

I agree about Wine handling things very well now. I sometimes have to remind myself which games are playing natively or through Wine. It's a lot more obvious when it's through Steam.

 

Thanks for responding BTW!

[AaronOfMpls]

3 hours ago, zixi said:

Thanks for responding BTW!

Gladly -- you're welcome!

3 hours ago, zixi said:

I have Daggerfall installed

I have Arena and Daggerfall in DOSBox; grabbed both years ago when Bethesda had them as free downloads.  But having never played them back in the day, they've never really grabbed me enough to play very far into them as yet.

And you mentioned Baldur's Gate 3 in your first post.  It looks interesting, from what I've seen in Nexus friends' screenshots.*  And having never played any of the series, I'd be less worried about being disappointed by it.  On the other hand, I have enough unplayed and under-played games already, so I'll probably wait for a big sale if I ever do get it.  (Maybe look for a Baldur's Gate bundle deal and try the whole series.)

 

* especially wolfgrimdark's; he and I are both gay men with overlapping tastes in game characters

Edited March 5 by AaronOfMpls
no font size option on mobile

[dovahkiinbear164]

On 3/4/2024 at 1:08 PM, AaronOfMpls said:

As for other recent games: I played House Flipper (Windows via Steam) a lot in the past year; decorating in it can be surprisingly relaxing and/or time-wasting. 

 

I also have been playing the House Flipper series on Linux! It's a time waster for sure, but I really like interior design and architectural design. House Flipper 2 has some serious QOL upgrades that are worth it. In my experience, only modding SSE has needed a lot of work and extra fixes to get working. Everything else works out of the box with Proton. Oddly enough, native Linux games have given me issues and wouldn't work properly. So, I usually install the Windows version and run with Wine/Proton and they'll work. In addition to House Flipper, I also dump a lot of time into the Slime Rancher 1/2, the Subnautica series, and Planet Crafter.

There are definitely a lot of people gaming on Linux out there judging by how much attention my Linux guide gets. I just think the Linux community isn't very vocal. And it doesn't feel like there's a central place for people on Linux to hang out and chat about gaming, so the Linux gaming community feels very lonely sometimes. Also, I feel like I have to dig for gold to find anything about gaming on Linux. Information is so sparse!

 

[AaronOfMpls]

2 hours ago, dovahkiinbear164 said:

There are definitely a lot of people gaming on Linux out there judging by how much attention my Linux guide gets. I just think the Linux community isn't very vocal. And it doesn't feel like there's a central place for people on Linux to hang out and chat about gaming, so the Linux gaming community feels very lonely sometimes.

I think we're also still proportionally small compared to Windows and Mac users.  And yah, we're spread out across different distros, games, and online platforms too.

[AaronOfMpls]

4 hours ago, dovahkiinbear164 said:

I also have been playing the House Flipper series on Linux! It's a time waster for sure, but I really like interior design and architectural design.

As do I -- architecture is literally one of my oldest interests.  Though the game is also an odd mashup in some ways: a lot of US-styled architecture, but molded to more European-seeming dimensions and structural materials.

4 hours ago, dovahkiinbear164 said:

House Flipper 2 has some serious QOL upgrades that are worth it.

That doesn't surprise me.   I'll probably get House Flipper 2 eventually, once I've gotten through more of 1's houses.

And I'm pleasantly surprised they're still developing 1, too.

4 hours ago, dovahkiinbear164 said:

In my experience, only modding SSE has needed a lot of work and extra fixes to get working. Everything else works out of the box with Proton.

Not too different for me, either!  It was mostly just my Bethesda-game mods in Mod Organizer where I had trouble for so long.  With few exceptions, everything else I actually play either ran fine out of the box, or needed fairly minor tweaks.  Heck, even without Proton, my old 90s Windows games run better in Wine than they did in Windows XP or 7!  And my old DOS games have run fine in DOSBox no matter what OS I've used it on.

Edited March 6 by AaronOfMpls

[dovahkiinbear164]

15 hours ago, AaronOfMpls said:

As do I -- architecture is literally one of my oldest interests.

Then you'll love the HF2 changes. Architecture isn't so rigid. I often have to restructure the home first before I can start decorating. I need a nice well-designed and functional structure before I can feel more at ease to decorate. It's also much more inspirational to work from my own designs. I often found in HF1 that I would want to add extentions or tweak the layout, but options were limited and it really stunted my inspiration.

15 hours ago, AaronOfMpls said:

And I'm pleasantly surprised they're still developing 1, too.

I'm also surprised too! I'm kind of glad they are because the community for HF1 is still pumping out a lot of new furniture. I can't wait for the HF2 to take off a bit more. The QOL upgrades and community creativity will be amazing!

15 hours ago, AaronOfMpls said:

Not too different for me, either!  It was mostly just my Bethesda-game mods in Mod Organizer where I had trouble for so long.  With few exceptions, everything else I actually play either ran fine out of the box, or needed fairly minor tweaks.  Heck, even without Proton, my old 90s Windows games run better in Wine than they did in Windows XP or 7!  And my old DOS games have run fine in DOSBox no matter what OS I've used it on.

Good to hear! When I search other's experiences I see people running into a lot of problems for other games, so I wasn't sure how many people actually have a fairly simple time getting things running on Linux. And I've also found my older games work just fine on Linux surprisingly! The old PopCap games like Insaniquarium and Feeding Frenzy 2 work perfectly. I had troubles getting Army Men RTS working on Windows, but it runs just fine on Linux. Other childhood favorites like Stronghold Crusader and Rising Kingdoms works just fine too. It's nice to just be able to download a game and run it. I've had so many odds and ends issues when I was on Windows trying to get Windows games to work on Windows! Then nvidia drivers stopped supporting some code resulting in some games no longer functioning on certain GPUs, so I kept losing games I could run on Windows because of that too. Linux has been refreshingly functional.

[zixi]

17 hours ago, AaronOfMpls said:

I think we're also still proportionally small compared to Windows and Mac users

Yes, we are. But there's a lot of fun getting things to work. And it really isn't as awkward as it used to be. I'd agree that Wine is extremely stable. I rebought some games - like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 to run on Steam because it was easier to have them maintain it. I also repurchased Sims 3 for the same reason. But they're remarkably stable. I have fewer problems with them today than I had when they were first released.

It's really nice to hear other people having fun playing on Linux. 

 

@dovahkiinbear164 - I saw your guide to SkyrimSE and Linux. It is very good. And it's nice to see that other people have appreciated it. 

[mkh97]

I play and mod Fallout 4 on Linux (Manjaro distro). All the 5 mods I've published on Nexus was made on Linux. I'm actually surprised at how many things just works on Linux thanks to Wine and Proton. I'm very glad to be rid of Windows and all its bloatware. 50% of my CPU being used to collect telemetry on Windows when I am gaming? No thanks, forget it. Linux it is.