I play almost exclusively on Linux nowadays, so I can share the games I tested if you want to add them to the list. There is surprisingly a lot of them that work flawlessly.
Let me know if you'd be interested.

Also, since you mentioned it, I played TLOU1 recently, and it worked fine for me. Only 1 crash in about 13hrs of gameplay, stable framerate and frametimes (Nobara 37, Proton, 7900 xt)

I'm not sure what was up with TLOU1 - it installed and started, but crashed during the initial load screen with the spinning dogtag.

I'm sure I got it running OOTB under either Pop!_OS or Linux Mint a month or so back when I first started investigating Linux seriously.

With all this testing under Fedora 40, I didn't spend any time looking for solutions, as I wanted to see what was possible on a mainstream distro without any tinkering with settings or config files. I only really bothered with Skyrim as I was surprised it didn't work and just had to change a setting in Heroic to make it skip the launcher, and edit the user .ini file to set the resolution, which was an easy fix.

Anyway, nice to see someone else mainlining Linux :)

I've now finished my experiment testing gaming on Linux and I'm surprised and pleased with how things turned out.

Of the 100 games I tested on Linux across Steam, Epic Game Store and GOG, only 5 didn't work. All those that were successfully installed, run and played, worked OOTB and needed no tinkering whatsoever, and as far as I can tell most were more performant than under Windows 11!

All games tested were single-player only apart from Path of Exile and Fallout 76. I did successfully test Elden Ring but don't play it online.

The 5 games that didn't properly work for me were Civilization: Beyond Earth, Generation Zero, The Last of Us Part 1, STALKER: Call of Pripyat, and Skyrim: Special Edition (which actually only needed minimal tinkering to get running, but there were no NPC voices or background music! I'm sure I can get this and most of the others fully working.)

You can see my collection where I detail my results here: Testing Linux Gaming (AMD GPU)

So I've decided that I'm now going to be using Linux as my main gaming platform going forward, so as to avoid the bloat, ads, telemetry and 'AI' nonsense that Microsoft has been increasingly incorporating into Windows.

I'll still have Windows installed on a secondary SSD, so I can play the few games I bought on Microsoft Store that I play online with a friend's son who I mentor (Forza Horizons 3, 4 & 5 and Minecraft) and some PCVR games... well, basically Half-Life: ALYX... Oh, and the few that I can't get working on Linux ;)

[double post doh!]

To fill the space, heres a picture of my tuxedo cat Happy, with her frenemy Rudy who is sadly no longer with us…

Well, if I have to choose between games, books, movies, series, etc. games and book are my top go to.

Media that I can consume passively kinda wears me down and leaves me numb and tired. But books and games are more engaging, books because I imagine the scene play out in my mind, and games because it is easier to get immersed into the world and feel like you are going on an adventure.

And well, I like that games give you a challenge and/or freedom of choice :3

+1

Books are the best.

I mainly play video games to fill up the void between birth and death.

I often worry that I am somewhat overgenerous with my scores, but looking at my completions and retires I've rated 22 out of 728 unique games with a 10/10... that's only about 3% which I think sounds about right. My average rating is 7.9/10 - possibly a bit too high.

For anyone here who is interested in gaming on Linux for whatever reason, I've started a Collection listing games that I've tested...

Testing Linux Gaming (AMD GPU)

These will be games from various stores (initially Steam, but also Epic Game Store, Gog, Itch and Humble) that I've been able to install, run and start playing without ANY extra configuration or tinkering to get them working, beyond using the launcher apps Lutris and Heroic.

I'm currently testing each game on the newly released Fedora 40 distribution of Linux (using the default Gnome desktop environment on both Wayland and X11 windowing servers). Depending on how I get on I might also test the most recent versions of Debian-based beginner-friendly mainstream 'distros' Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Pop!_OS (which is my favourite one for general stuff).

For reference, my PC specs are as follows:

CPU: Intel 13600K CPU
RAM: 32Gb DDR5 6400MHz
GPU: AMD Radeon 6700 XT 12Gb
SSD: 2Tb NVME 7300MB/ps

I'm using a 32" UHD/4K 60Hz monitor and I play most games at 1440p with max settings and limit them to 60fps. However, many games can be played at 1800p and even 4K.

I do also have an Nvidia RTX 3060 12Gb and I might do another list using that. However, gaming on Linux is known to be more problematic on Team Green, though it is said to be rapidly improving.

Obviously this is just a simple list recording my experiences... for more detailed in-depth results for thousands of games, please see the incredibly good online crowdsourced database ProtonDB.

1. Abolish crunch time- everyone in the gaming industry gets adequate time to work on what they're doing in good conditions at a fair, living wage.
2. Better consumer protections- your Joy-Cons shouldn't be drifting and you should've been able to buy a PS5 in 2021 without going through a scalper. Would also love to see fairer refund policies from the likes of Sony and Nintendo.
3. Reduction of plastic packaging for physical media. I'm all for physical media and game ownership, but buying a digital code should not come with a case. I'm also of the mind that the Nintendo DS, Switch, and DVD-size cases use an excessive amount of plastic.

Well said! And everybody else's wishes have been good to read too - it's heartening to see that people are concerned about the state of the industry and the way game devs are treated.

Beyond these important things, here's my personal gaming wishes:

- Half-Life 2: Episode 3
- a PC port of Shadow Of The Colossus
- Skywind gets completed and I get to play it before I die

I was wondering if it was possible to add the ability for users to click an option to always display their personal review score for a game on their Collection’s card notes for it, rather than the site-wide score? And maybe the system they played it on, and their play time?

I know we could manually add it in the notes, but that seems a bit awkward to me.

Thanks!

BEST MAIN MENU MUSIC EVER!

Anyone else having trouble deciding which category to put some games?

I just played Alba: A Wildlife Adventure and I found it could fit any any of the following:

07. A game you got for free
21. A game with a female protagonist
25-1. A game set in a world you would like living in
30. A game with a diverse cast
34. A bright and cheerful game
38. A game with a subtitle
41. A game with a short title (4 letters or less)

After much deliberation I went with 38, as I felt it might be less common than any other category.

I might change it to 25-1 though if I play another game with a subtitle. It was so charming!

Fixed!

Thank you! It's been bugging me for years but I only thought to ask the other day.

Oh, I didn't realise Pico was a standalone headset.

Which also means I didn't read the title properly.

oops.

No problem. Thanks for your response anyway. It did make me think further about it.

Is there any way I (or someone) can edit the title of my Blog to remove the offending HTML symbol code and replace it with the inverted comma that it's supposed to be?

WRONG: Jernau Gurgeh’s Ruthless Backlog Butchery Blog
RIGHT: Jernau Gurgeh's Ruthless Backlog Butchery Blog

Link

This is a juicy challenge that I've decided I'm going to sink my teeth into, now that I'm getting back into gaming again after several years of decline.

I put my master list where I track progress in my blog, but I've set up a collection as well.

I've got off to a good start by actually completing as many games in January as I did in the entirety of 2023!

✅ Starfield - 01. A new game (released within the past year)
✅ Cloud Climber - 06. A quick completion (less than an hour)
✅ Metro Exodus - 40. A post-apocalyptic game

I've decided I'm going to take part in the Gaming Challenge 2024, now that I'm getting back into gaming again after several years of decline.

This is going to be my master list to record my progress, but I've set up a collection as well (which is ranked in the order that I completed them).

❌ 0. Category not completed - Suggestion? Or currently playing!
✅ Completed Game - 0. Game category

✅ Starfield - 01. A new game (released within the past year)
✅ Sniper: Ghost Warrior - 02. An old game (released 10+ years ago)
❌ 03. A really old game (released 20+ years ago) - Half-Life 2? Homeworld?
✅ Bubble Bobble 04. An ancient game (released 30+ years ago)
✅ Minecraft - 05. A time sink (50+ hours)
✅ Cloud Climber - 06. A quick completion (less than an hour)
✅ LOVE 07. A game you got for free
❌ 08. A game you've been wishing and waiting for - Half-Life: Alyx!
❌ 09-1. A remake or remaster of a game - Black Mesa? Resident Evil 4? The Last Of Us Part 1? Shadow Of The Colossus?
❌ 09-2. A game that received new translations to other languages some time after its initial release
❌ 10. A game with 6+ endings
❌ 11. A collection of games
❌ 12. A game recommended to you by someone else
❌ 13. A game whose title could describe your life
❌ 14-1. A game with an alliterative title
❌ 14-2. A game whose title contains the name of a colour - Green Hell! The Secret Life of Dorian Pink!
❌ 14-3. A game whose title starts with a number - 12 Is Better Than 6? 911 Operator? 20 Minutes Until Dawn?
❌ 15. A game that heavily focuses on flight - AER? Ace Combat 7?
✅ Fortnite - 16. A game from a genre you don't usually play
❌ 17. A game that is themed around dogs or cats - Cat Quest!
❌ 18-1. A game that features multiple genres, or is a mashup of different genres
❌ 18-2. A visual novel or text-based game - Doki Doki Literature Club?
❌ 19. A game where you play as an antihero or a villain - Disco Elysium!
❌ 20-1. A game set in a historical time period - Kingdom Come: Deliverance! Plague Tale: Innocence?
❌ 20-2. A game set in the far future - The Expanse?
❌ 21. A game with a female protagonist - Alan Wake 2! Celeste? Deliver Us Mars? CAYNE? Resident Evil 2?
❌ 22. A game without any humans - Rainworld? Chuchel
❌ 23. A game where you play as a robot or an alien - Ratchet & Clank!
❌ 24. An arcade-style high score game - Centipede: Recharged
❌ 25-1. A game set in a world you would like living in
❌ 25-2. A game whose protagonist you would want to be friends with
❌ 26. A game where you play as a bug or an aquatic creature - Rainworld? Chuchel? Maneater?
❌ 27. A game that was adapted from another medium (book, movie, etc.) or a game that has been adapted into another medium - The Expanse? Call of Cthulhu?
❌ 28. A game you watched someone else play first (partially or in full)
❌ 29. Another person’s favourite game
❌ 30. A game with a diverse cast
❌ 31. A cornerstone to gaming culture - Half-Life 1 or 2? DOOM?
✅ Janosik - 32. A game that starts with the same first letter as in your username
❌ 33-1. A “threequel” (third part of a series) - Resident Evil 3? Wasteland 3? STALKER: Call of Pripyat?
❌ 33-2. A spin-off game - Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep?
❌ 34. A bright and cheerful game - Chuchel? Sail Forth? Yooka-Laylee?
❌ 35. A game containing a real or fictional religion - Resident Evil: Village!
❌ 36. A game that heavily features either fire or ice - Frostpunk?
✅ Hundred Days - Winemaking Simulator - 37. A game that heavily features money, gold, or economics
✅ Alba: A Wildlife Adventure - 38. A game with a subtitle
❌ 39. A game that surprised you
✅ Metro Exodus - 40. A post-apocalyptic game
✅ URBO - 41. A game with a short title (4 letters or less)
❌ 42. A game that had a red retirement rating on HLTB when you started playing it (10% or higher)
❌ 43. A game that one of your favourite artists worked on (artist, developer, musician, voice actor/actress, etc.) - Kid A Mnesia
❌ 44-1. A game you previously retired or put on hold - Will You Snail? Scorn? Bloodborne? Ghost Of A Tale? Last of Us Part 2? Subnautica? Hollow Knight
❌ 44-2. A game that you have beaten before and are replaying - Resident Evil 2? Gris? Spec Ops: The Line?
❌ 45. A game that is on someone else’s HLTB 2024 Gaming Challenge List
❌ 46-1. A studio's very first game
❌ 46-2. A studio's most recent game (at the time when you started playing the game) - Alan Wake 2!
❌ 47. A game that had its HLTB times on a purple/red/grey background at the time you started playing it
❌ 48. A game that has been a HLTB Game of the Month
❌ 49. A game listed on the HLTB stats page, or the stats page filtered for a single platform
❌ 50. A game chosen by the HLTB randomizer

Do you think there's enough of a demand? HL2B has lots of different weird and wonderful platforms listed, including obscure and short-lived things like the Amiga CD32, Evercade, Ouya and Google Stadia. So why not more standalone VR platforms?

The PC VR Platform category is there for all PC headsets because they all play the same games, you can use that instead of putting them under Oculus. There is basically no exclusivity any more on the PC and it was usually time based when it was still a thing (store/hardware locking was splitting the user base). The differences between the headsets are basically only the screens and controllers and they don't really make much difference to how those games are played. Having different platforms for all those games when they all run on PC and play basically identically on all headsets seems very messy,

Those other platforms all have/had exclusive games and platform dedicated versions.

The thing is, when I'm playing a game standalone on my PICO 4, it's not using the PC at all. It's an entire other separate platform.

And not all VR games on standalone VR stores will necessarily be on PC too.

It's sort of like arguing that Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and the Steam Deck should all be lumped under the generic heading of PCs, because they basically have the same underlying PC-based hardware now (AMD RDNA 2), and they mostly play the same games - both Xbox and Sony exclusives are made available on PC too now.

Also, if the Oculus Quest has it's own listing as a standalone platform, why not other headsets?

I could understand a generic heading like Android VR or Standalone VR, and would be happy to use that - but putting standalone games on a PICO VR headset under Oculus Quest or PC VR doesn't really fit.

I'm wondering about the inclusion of standalone VR headset platforms (and their related stores) other than just the Oculus Quest and Oculus Go.

Obviously there's the main contenders of the Meta Quest 2 and 3, but also the PICO range, and the upcoming Apple Vision... and who knows what others.

I recently got a PICO 4, mostly to use for PC VR*, but there have been a few big titles on the PICO's own store that I've been playing standalone, namely Arizona Sunshine 2 and Green Hell.

I just listed them under Oculus Quest and Oculus Store in my backlog, but obviously that's inaccurate.

Do you think there's enough of a demand? HL2B has lots of different weird and wonderful platforms listed, including obscure and short-lived things like the Amiga CD32, Evercade, Ouya and Google Stadia. So why not more standalone VR platforms?

Or should it be a catch-all things, rather than brand-specific? E.g. PC VR, Android VR (which the majority of standalone ones run on), ummm... Apple VR?

I know many gamers poo-poo VR, and I was not the least bit interested myself, but when I finally tried it I got really excited for its potential, and have enjoyed my time playing VR games as well exploring other interactive stuff like virtual art installations and virtual tours. In fact it's made me appreciate games again after several years of feeling more and more jaded.

* To be honest, I really just wanted to finally play Half-Life: Alyx, but didn't want to initially shell out for a Valve Index or HTC Vive or whatever. I was considering getting a Meta Quest 3 but the PICO 4 was a lot cheaper and almost as good according to reviews.

ignore... have moved to it's own thread

This has been the worst year for clearing my backlog since records began (2012). I only managed to complete 3 games:

The Gunk (PC, 8/10)
Superliminal (PC, 8/10)
Immortality (PC, 10/10)

These were all on PC Game Pass too, so not technically even backlog games.

I’ve started quite a few games, but not get very far in many. Though I have dropped almost 27 hours into Starfield.

Games just don’t hold my attention like they used to. But for some reason I still keep buying them, and adding Epic Game Store freebies to my library.

I also got myself a VR headset last month and that got me buzzing for a bit, especially finally being able to play Half-Life: Alyx. But even that hasn’t got me very enthused for the hobby again, and I find myself enjoying reading books more than playing games.

Hohum.

I did not expect to like Forza Horizon games as much as I do.

I’ve not ever been interested in driving games, especially racing games, or about playing multiplayer.

I only started playing them during the first 2020 lockdown in the UK, playing in a convoy with a friend’s car-mad autistic son to help keep him (and me) amused and in contact with people. And boy have we had a lot of fun in Australia, UK and Mexico the past 3-4 years!

My fave is FH4, being set in the UK and being able to race around (and cause mayhem in) places I’ve actually visited… especially being able to drive over the Ladybower dam that is only a few miles from where I live 😁

Half-Life 2… on the day of release in 2004.

It was Steam's first digital release of a full game, but my girlfriend had bought me it on disk (which I still have!) to cheer me up and keep me entertained because I was poorly and she was going away for the weekend.

Steam was awful then. Buggy, slow, constant outages, and so, so pointless.

Everybody hated it, and hated the fact you had to have it to be able to download and play a game you had just bought on disk.

Fun times, and the beginning of the enshittification of gaming ;)

Free Steam game through Fanatical : https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/12-is-better-than-6

Nice find. Had my eye on that game for a while. Love the art style.

Hyper light drifter...while i agree about the frustrating lack of direction, its still an amazing game with gorgeous visuals, soundtrack and combat.

@EMOesque
Noticed you retired Dauntless, which i don't blame you even though i absolutely loved it at first. Then i discovered monster hunter and completely forgot this existed. Until now😅

Watch Dogs (8/10)

I originally retired this game myself, but then I went back to it and really quite enjoyed it, as you can see from my review copypasted below...

You know what? I owe Ubisoft an apology. When I originally started to play this game, I gave it 45 minutes, uninstalled it and dismissed it as 'more open world Ubicrap'. And it is that, most definitely. It's chock full of the sort of filler side content, collectibles, busywork, minigames and time-consuming nonsense that we all know and love/hate. But if you ignore all that, and the fact that it didn't live up to the hype generated by that incredible and infamous E3 gameplay video, it's actually a pretty solid and fairly exciting action game and one that I enjoyed for most of my 25 hour playthrough. It has some genuinely interesting gameplay, fun and fluid world-hacking mechanics, great driving physics and acceptable combat, a good atmosphere, and though the characters are a bit one-dimensional, the story is not as bad as many have made out. I'll not be carrying on doing anything else post-campaign, and I doubt I'd play it again, but I'm really quite glad I gave it another shot.

F*ck Ubisoft though.

(Whoever goes next, I've got a LOT of games that I retired... about 50% as many as I've completed!)

Am I allowed to shamelessly nominate my own games?

Snow Bash - Snowball Fight Simulator 2023 - Local PVP, Windows/Mac/Linux/Browser - 2 minute gameplay

yeats - Yeet Earth At The Sun - Single Player, Windows/Mac - 15-30 minute gameplay