First Experience of the Discord Games Store

A while back, I wrote about how Discord was taking the fight to Valve; the giants of digital video game distribution. Discord has begun to work on a variety of services which looks to bring the video game launcher experience to a more streamlined routine. Now that we’ve had the Game Store on Discord for around a month, I thought I’d share my experience with the store along with the launcher they’ve built. Finally, I’ll let you know if I think this’ll disrupt the market, or if Steam will sit pretty for quite some time.

Discord vs Valve: Discord’s New Game Library

Hoo boy, it only felt like a few months ago that I reported on the new game’s hub on the Discord app. Sure, that wasn’t such big news, but this time around, Discord are bringing themselves in direct competition with video-game monolith, Valve. They are creating a Game’s Library/Store, akin to that of what Steam users are currently used to. This is all well and good, but what do Discord think they can do differently? This is currently being tested in Canada*, but this is what the rest of the world can expect once it’s moved into more countries around the world. Along with this, today’s article will contain a few of my personal opinions on the matter.

Top 10 – Companions

Ah yes, the companion. Unlike the sidekick, the companion is something that might not necessarily follow you because it believes in the same things as you do. Instead, a companion is there because it wants to be by your side, for whatever reason.

CS:GO, Gambling and Valve

If you have been reading the recent gaming news about Valve and Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), you may know all about this already. This report is not here to tell you more information, it’s just to cover what happened and give you my opinion on what happened and how I feel about it.

Top 10 Charming Villains

Villains are often rather evil beings, capable of destroying their opponents through raw might, or cunning plans. However, not all villains are content with outright destruction. Some prefer to take a more manipulative, or vocal route. Some like to make people their personal pawns, mentally enthralled to them. In fact, it could be said that some villains are even more charming than their protagonist counterparts.

This week, we’re celebrating our personal Top 10 list of antagonists who happen to be pretty charming, for one reason or another. Now, I command you to read all of this article, then comment in the comments below, or over on Facebook and Twitter. After all, we could be the most charming villains of all… If we actually bothered to try.

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Top 10

10. Lust – FMA

If there was one character from anime that epitomised using her charms to win her enemies over, before going ahead and being brutal, then Lust would be at the top of the list. She only makes it in at number 10, as she’s not the most charming of all of the villains on this list, by a long way. But she doesn’t need to even say too much, for most men to have an aching, throbbing heart. What did you think I was going to say there?

She’s a beauty and as such, she is a real charmer to men who are most sinful to the deadly sin of Lust. Beautiful, yet deadly, she strikes out at Edward Elric and his brother Alphonse Elric with long, extending claw-like nails which can even pierce the toughest of metals. She’s often talking people into and out of things the homonculi don’t want to see happening, so Lust acts as their communicator for the most part, getting their message across… Sometimes even peacefully!

9. Bane – The Dark Knight Rises

While the original version has unquestionable physical superiority, tactical brilliance and a certain amount of charisma to back it all up, Nolan’s adaption (played by Tom Hardy) possessed far more gravitas than his comic-book counterpart. Bereft of chemical augmentation and instead bound by a crippling deformity, Bane portrays so much in his body language, even the way he stands in a room shows a terror inspiring fearlessness and dominance.

Little wonder that the man who left the Pit commands a city, demands the allegiance of a criminal army, and put the fear into the Bat himself. In a few words he can make trained military men doubt even while he himself is bound at their feet. His allies quake in his presence and only one human being can instil fear in him, the daughter of the demon. Not even the Clown Prince can command such an audience without holding an entire TV station hostage.

8. Dr. Wallace Breen – Half Life 2

Collaborator, but what hope have we to advance if we do not collaborate and work together?

Breen may only be a puppet to the Combine forces that seek to enslave humanity, but even under the illusion of leader of all humanity he still has a certain benevolent tone to his tyrannical propaganda lectures to his people as his masked police force beat down on the populous for throwing trash around. He seems oddly caring, forward thinking, and determined that humanity needs to advance despite what costs may come, and that those who fight against these changes are narrow minded fools who would drag the species into stagnation and extinction.

Or we could be food, slaves, or subjects of dangerous scientific experimentation to create highly powerful soldiers to protect and advance the terrible interdimensional empire Breen serves as a kind of traitorous maître-de.

7. Hans Gruber – Die Hard

It’d be a cheap disservice to the memory of Alan Rickman to place him in a list where he does not belong, and to give him an unjustly high ranking in the process.

But there was no way we were letting Hans Gruber get away without a mention. Everyone’s favourite Christmas film features a criminal mastermind so thoroughly charismatic that he even has maverick action hero John McClane convinced he’s just an innocent victim in need of saving, if only briefly. Cold, cunning, exceedingly clever, he always has time for a polite chat with the people he’s going to kill, and has one of the most elegant back-and-forth villain to hero patters in cinema history, mocking, probing and funny as all hell.

Little wonder that McClane tries to keep Gruber alive at the end of the film, and so often the stunned look from the plummeting thief is the most memorable moment and not his quips, his glibness, and his classical education. Constructing a terrorist attack in order to execute an enormous heist is simple brilliance, and no one else could have done so with such theatrical aplomb.

6. The Master – Doctor Who

The Master is a primary antagonist of the British classic Doctor Who, of which has seen countless fantastic iterations. When one thinks of The Doctor, it doesn’t take long for people to bring up The Master, who is not only an intellectual equal to The Doctor, but perhaps even a superior. When The Doctor and The Master were studying in Gallifrey, The Master would always outperform The Doctor. Whilst being out right brilliant, if there was one weakness to The Master, it is his thirst for dominance.

Forever engaging The Doctor in conversation, The Master is known for often being rather pleasant to chat to. Although this may be the case, it doesn’t stop him from being vile and pure evil, often with murderous intent. He’s talked people to kill themselves to be turned into robots, only for those robots to go back in time and then kill their former selves, to create some incredibly crazy time paradox. The Master might be intelligent, but if this is what intelligence does to you, then I’m going to remain blissfully unaware.

5. Jareth the Goblin King – Labyrinth

“Your eyes can be so cruel, just as I can be so cruel” – Jareth

Yes, we’re feeling a little bit soppy about the passing of both David Bowie and Alan Rickman. Couple this with Lemmy of Motorhead and now the death of Glenn Frey of the Eagles. Oh, this has been a dreadful start to 2016, hasn’t it? However, let’s look past that right now and let’s look at why Jareth belongs on this list.

Labyrinth is a cult classic film; It’s one that many people in the world consider a great film, yet when it was released, critics didn’t think much of it. With his stunning good looks, even by attractive human standards, Jareth plays with protagonist Sarah’s heartstrings and knows how to wind her around his little finger. He knows what makes her twitch, he knows how to make her skin crawl at the right moments and how to get her to obey his commands. Jareth knows it, he knows he doesn’t need to resort to his minions to get to her. He knows in his mind that he can make her his bride, which would mean that all of his professions of love for Sarah would have been for something all along.

If you’re not charmed by Jareth and by extension David Bowie, I’m not sure what you are charmed by. Gender and sexuality knows no bounds when it comes to this great. Thank you, Bowie, for Labyrinth.

4. Kuja – Final Fantasy IX

Now, a lot of people might turn around and suggest other antagonists from the Final Fantasy series, although I will immediately stop to point out that none of them were charming. They were usually very verbose and intelligent, such as Kefka and even Garland. With all this in mind, how could we single out Kuja to be the most charming of all of the villains from the franchise? He has some very defining features which make him so:

When we first meet him, we don’t have a clue who he is really. He’s just some guy who watches as you are beaten down by a very powerful foe. He points out who may be trouble to the Queen, who he seems to act as a kind of advisor for. As you play through, you find out that he has been a weapons dealer for Queen Brahne, but further to that, he’s also acted as an advisor of kinds. He would tell the Queen about what places are next to attack, instilling confidence in the Queen that she was doing this to make Alexandria the most powerful city in the world. He wasn’t lying, either, as they unleash ridiculous powers, before he finally turns on the Queen and kills her.

Manipulative, but all the time he acts charming. He tries to get Garnet to be his, as if they were in a play the whole time. He’s dashing and makes heads turn, but most important is his intellect, coupled with his incredibly dangerous sensibilities: Kuja is a charmingly destructive force to be reckoned with. Also, how many men do you know can pull that look off?! Very few.

3. Light Yagami – Death Note

Hold your horses folks, you might need to understand a little bit about why we’re bundling Light as an antagonist in this list.

See, Light Yagami is indeed generally pretty much a good guy. He fights the good fight, but his methods are all wrong. He doesn’t do the honourable thing, more taking justice into his own hands, a vigilante. Whilst this isn’t so bad unto itself, he does literally go around killing people with the Death Note. Sure, it might be villains that he’s killing off, but he’s doing basically what the villains were doing in the first place, which basically makes him a bad guy.

Part of the joy of Light’s works is that he’s very manipulative, but it’s all for the perceived notion of ‘good’. Whilst a brilliant and highly intelligent mind, able to make people do whatever he wants them to, he’s also incredibly self-absorbed. He believes he cannot be wrong, but in going around murdering criminals, he’s only mimicking the criminals. Perhaps what he does is for the greater good over all, but it doesn’t stop him being a villain in his own right. What do you think? Villain or not?

2. Magneto – Marvel

The Brotherhood. What a name, and what a leader. “Villainy” becomes a somewhat difficult term to apply to someone like Magneto, he’s a man that made it through a genocide and has vowed to never see another – at least not against his own kind. In his loathing of nazis he has in his way become very similar to them, despising the “lesser race” and making every effort to kill or convert them, and seeing the efforts of those mutants who would find peace as treacherous and abhorrent.

And yet there are times when even he concedes that there is a greater good worth fighting for, puts aside his hatred and his anger to join forces with the X-Men of Xavier’s Institute and fight for life itself and not the differences that divide it, before sliding back into his resentment. And the sad fact is that he is often absolutely right, his point is so often proven by fearful and fear-mongering humans that countless mutants can’t help but follow by his lead.

1. Hannibal Lecter – Silence of the Lambs

Who else?

Here is a man who’s very brilliance lies, not in the counterplay of his intellectual brilliance and culture against his feral and primal crime, but in his personality. Something in Hopkins’ snake-like charm, at once threatening and beguiling and his mastery of conversation makes him no mere villain, but a nemesis. Locked within a cage he still presents a threat with only words and information as his weapon, and with that and only that he manages to walk from his glass box a free (but hunted) man.

I will, at some point, get around to watching the widely acclaimed series based on the original books, but for now I’m content to rewatch Silence, Hannibal, and yes even Red Dragon to an extent – the Tooth Fairy was a good concept worthy of recognition – but I needn’t have seen it to know that here is a monster born with a silver tongue.

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Honourable Mentions

Amos Zelig – The Shivah

Avid fans of GeekOut might remember a while back, when I started including galleries in video game posts where possible, I reviewed a game called The Shivah. It’s a game about a rather bitter Jewish Rabbi, who was sort of on the path to redemption for his actions. Along the way, there’s a murder mystery to be solved, along with trying to suss out what’s going on in the world of the synagogues. There’s a lot of deception and deceit in this game, which mostly comes from one man…

Amos Zelig, another rabbi for another synagogue, on the face of it is one of the most honest working rabbis around. People seem to agree with this too, as he runs a way more popular service than you do. However, he does this through lies and deceit. Amos is a cold blooded man, who talks people into a variety of different things. He doesn’t hesitate to kidnap, to murder, to do anything un-Jew like. Why? It’s true what they say; Money is power.

Gabe Newell – Steam

Curse you Newell, you’ve got us all dancing to your merry tune, tempting us with trinkets and toys so that we forget the failings of your past, and your negligence! Where’s Half Life 3? Where’s Half Life 2, Episode 3? Something, anything? Why have you forsak- 50% off whatnow? All right, we’ll bite but you’re not getting away wi- Steam Machine? What’s that? Ohh, that looks pretty cool actually, I’m not a console person but I think I could get to grips with- HEY WAIT A MINUTE!

Now we’ve been loyal customers, and yes you’ve changed the way the PC gaming industry works, and no we wouldn’t have such platforms as Good Old Games or the Humble Bundle if it weren’t for Steam. Valve have produced masterpieces of games, the legendary Portal and Portal 2, the beloved Team Fortress 2, and the infamous saga Half Life, Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Half Life 2: Episode 2… AND THEN WHAT? Cliffhanger? Really? Nothing, after (counting – because you clearly can’t) nine years?!

Trading cards you say?

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Charmed, I’m sure. But these villains have now had their say, from those romantic types, to the downright terrifyingly fearsome. You can’t help but at least listen to what they have to say for themselves and their plans. Regardless, they’ve said their piece now and we’re here to say they are our entries to this list, but the conversation needn’t end here!

As always, please remember to vote for next weeks’ Top 10 topic. If you want to get involved with one of our Top 10s like Murray did last week, please just get in contact with us. If you felt our list was good, let us know, but equally let us know if you disagree with any of our entries, or if we missed someone you feel deserves a space in the list that we just didn’t even put up here. As always, leave your comments below, or over on Facebook and Twitter. See you next week for another Top 10!

Steam Workshop & Modding

Note: This article came to mind thanks to the recent developments from Valve’s Steam platform. For some quick information about this, it appears that Steam are letting mod developers put a mandatory price on their mods. These are my views, but it’s also an open discussion to each and every one of you about the situation of video game mods and payments.

Valve recently announced that starting with Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the Steam Workshop will be introducing the ability for modders to put their creations on the Steam Workshop for a small download fee. This has led to mass hysteria amongst the Steam community, with gamers getting seriously upset about this revelation. Things got worse however when the developer of the Skyrim mod Wet & Cold, declared they were going to charge for the mod. More on the Wet & Cold situation later in this article.

In what’s been called a Paywall, the Steam community has launched a petition to get this reverted or at least for Valve to listen to the fans on this matter. It’s no big surprise then that I wanted to sign this petition, as an avid fan of video games and the PC gaming scene. Let me give you a quick bit of background, so you can better understand why I’m writing this post. I’ve been playing video games ever since I could. I beat my first game when I was a very small child and I never looked back. My family were also involved in gaming in some capacity. I’ve been so much an advocate for PC gaming, that I wanted to see them get bigger and better.

When I was just 11 years old, I gained a copy of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, one of my all time favourite RPGs. I then discovered wonderful resources online, with these incredible things called mods. A way to make video games bigger… Better… And they were made by every day people like you or me. This, was fantastic news… and since I played that game, I kept up with the modding scene and I’ve learned a lot about it. People donate to modders who need the support, as they do a lot of work for the scene. In return, these modders put out wonderful resources for the community, for free.

With Valves efforts to help the community, they’ve actually caused quite a rift. I can imagine that when you look at what Valve proposed with these set prices for mods, it sounded quite sensible. I want you to visualise something for me here. I’m going to create my first AAA game and let’s call it The Legend of Fantasy. If that game exists, I apologise for using your likeness. I charge £35 for The Legend of Fantasy, a price tag befitting of a AAA game. It allows modders to go ahead and mod the game to their will.

A modder, let’s call him Frank Lee, decides that he wants to make some new textures for the big baddy in the game, to turn him into Thomas the Tank Engine. It sounds absurd, but this has happened in the past and y’know what, it’s damn good fun. Fantastic, but to avoid copyright, he creates Thamos the Steam Locomotive. Heh… I’m creative. He then decides to charge £3 for this. Frank Lee has put together some textures, some sound files and some basic animations for his work. £3 is slightly more than one twelfth of the full price of the game. The game has 90 hours worth of content in it. Suddenly, you begin to see a problem.

 

Credit: Metro

Okay, so let’s be fairer. That £3 is just a recommended price. That’s okay, you can pay less. This is brilliant! I can pay what I feel is right to pay. But wait, even that is limited to a selection of prices? Whilst this could just be sour grapes, I’m adamant that this is not the way to do it. I’m adamant that all people need is a really simple donate button. Provide them a donate button, some people will pay and pay nicely. Others will enjoy their mods they have always had. Some people truly have a bit of extra wealth that they don’t mind sharing with the world. If only Valve would listen to reason and drop this… But alas: Is this the future of modding we’re now seeing?

Still, so long as the money is going to the right place. Right?

If only… 75% of the funds do not go to the mod creators, but instead to a mix of Valve and the developers of the original game. Gabe Newell has now gone on record to explain that this was set by the games developers, Bethesda, but it is still uncertain as to how that split works. So you know that £3 mod? You’re paying just 75p to the mod creator. It’s a real shame, but Gabe Newell believes that this will not destroy the modding community and he’s right. The modding community, however, will now be torn… And players ultimately will be equally as confused. Do we end up in a situation where you get altruistic modders and professionals turning modding in a way to earn a quick extra buck? Only time will tell.

Credit: Wet & Cold Steam Workshop

So Wet & Cold, what does this have to do with anything? Unfortunately, the mod developer was trying to earn some cash off their hard work… And this appears to have caused a little bit of confusion. See, many people believed the Wet & Cold mod contains other mods assets and they’ve been hit with a DMCA Take Down Notice. Whilst the authors are claiming this is not true, only time can tell with this. I wish them luck, but it’s important that Valve come and act as a mediator before all of this gets out of hand! As such, this brings up an important question: If quality contant is what Valve are aiming for from this paid mods service… Why is the quality control so lackadaisical? Why was this DMCA take down request allowed to happen? Was this a single isolated incident? According to other sources; Nope.

What are your views on Valves paid mods decision? Do you think they’re getting too much hate, or do you believe this decision ultimately is a bad one? Perhaps you think it’s a good decision? Whatever your views, please share them below and let’s discuss this change in PC game modding. Alternatively, drop us a message over on Facebook or Twitter.

TBC – Steam Controllers

This is an exciting era of video games we’re in right now, I mean this is on par to the excitement that was around back at the beginning of video games. We’re in this era where the PC is proving it’s a weighty behemoth that really can contend with the dedicated gaming consoles, but as well as that we’re finding new companies come about because of how accessible the hardware is these days.

You might not be excited by all developments in gaming, but at least all consoles and hardware have had some form of impact upon the video games industry. Say what you will about the OUYA, it’s done a good job with a small market share. Say what you will about Valves Steam Machines too, will they be a hit or a miss? We’re going to find out over the coming years.

However, one upcoming peripheral that we’ve not looked into much is the Steam Controller. I’ve called this article “TBC”, which stands for To Be Confirmed in this case, as we’ve not yet had our hands on a Steam Controller.

Initial thoughts on the Steam Controller

I’m personally quite excited for it. It’s really different to what is currently on the market with the Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers. The Sony PlayStation controller is also a far cry from the Steam Controllers design and functionality.

with this in mind, does that actually make this a good thing? I’d argue it’s not always a good thing to change what isn’t broken, but there’s no harm in being innovative. The Steam Controllers major difference maker is the dual trackpads it boasts. Valve claims that these trackpads “enable the high-fidelity input required for precise PC gaming in the living room“. This is a heck of a quote, but what it more or less is trying to say is that it can compete with a mouse and keyboard combination.

Although, this particular picture looks a bit… different.

Whilst this could very well be true, using a mouse and keyboard is likely going to remain a much simpler experience for most people, even though there’s a lot more going on. I want these dual trackpads to be easy though and I hope the functionality of them both are the same as most controllers: One for movement, one for camera. If that’s the case, then perhaps moving away from an analogue stick or arrow keys is a good idea. Arguably, you would be able to get better precision from a trackpad than you would an analogue stick, but a lot of people are already accustomed to analogue sticks.

There’s not much else that’s unique about this controller. It has vibration built in, the same as most controllers. It has buttons for your actions, the same as most controllers. It’s wireless, same as a good number of controllers (not all controllers!) So this is nice, but what else makes it stand out other than the trackpad replacements to the traditional analogue stick? The biggest claim on this controllers resume is “lets you play your entire collection of Steam games on your TV—even the ones designed without controller support in mind.” This is an impressive piece to boast, which is a major boon for the device.

Will the Steam Controller be a success?

This is a hard one to determine.

Currently, we’ve got our plug n play controller of choice for the PC, in the Xbox controller. I personally have an Xbox 360 controller which I sometimes rig up so I can play games with it. There’s something so comforting and simply about the Xbox 360 controller, that I’d say it was almost a must for PC gaming to have a controller. It also allowed me to play games that haven’t got a proper Keyboard/Mouse set up.

Not much can compete with THIS rig

The only way for the Steam Controller to be a success is to not over-complicate the controller. With this in mind, they’ve gone ahead and given us Dual Trackpads which is something I’ve not seen in a controller before, although I certainly have seen trackpads on a gaming controller (OUYA, for one). The Trackpad is something I do not use very much, but with this said it seems like Valve are aiming to make the Dual Trackpads an integral part of gaming with the peripheral.

The last point is the price, which at $49.99 it isn’t the cheapest controller on the market at all. My Afterglow AX-1 Xbox 360 controller has been a great starter controller, as it’s the first controller I’d picked up since the 90’s (Where I played with a Sega MegaDrive, a Gameboy and a PlayStation 1.) The Afterglow has a lovely glowing special effect which can be triggered and it only cost me £18 from a Tesco superstore. The Steam Controller is going to be £33.84 as of time of writing. This is a lot more expensive than the Afterglow and it’s using technologies alien to people.

Source: Engadget

Final verdict

I believe Valve will deliver a great piece of hardware, worth tinkering with and playing games with. I do wonder however if they’ve priced themselves too highly and have done too much to isolate their controller from other controllers. After all, whilst it is great to stand out, to be a bright red sore thumb isn’t that appealing to many people. I’ll eagerly anticipate the release of the Steam Controller and likely get myself one.

What do you think of the Steam Controller? Did you even realise it was actually a thing that Valve were working on? What do you think about the dual trackpads? It’s over to you now so please put your comments below, over on Facebook or Twitter and let’s discuss this new, intriguing piece of gaming technology.

According to the official page, Steam Controller is being released in November 2015.

The Week In Geek – 17/11/14

This week we’ve had a much better week for news, I can tell you! From browsers making some interesting partnerships, to Valve becoming a lot tougher on their criteria for certain things, oh… also we talk about the return of a major UK convention that Joel and I adore. So come join us as we relive the Week in Geek!

Linux Gaming

After a conversation brought up on a fantastic post, I thought I’d talk about gaming on Linux. So before we delve too deep into what games are available, let’s talk about what Linux is, what is the point of Linux, what are the benefits (And the negatives) of using Linux and how you can get started.

My Linux distribution

At the time of writing, I’m not using the optimal distribution for my Linux build. I run a Linux-based Operating System (OS) called Ubuntu and I’m running Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin). Now you might be wondering “What the heck does a Precise Pangolin have to do with this?” – Each major revision of Ubuntu has a codename, this one happens to be Precise Pangolin. Perfect.

I picked this build as it was the Ubuntu Long-Term Support (LTS) which means that if anything goes wrong, your build will be supported officially. The LTS lasts for 2 years before it goes onto the next LTS (So the next one will be version 14.04, set to come out this year). Now, this might be a lot of jargon for people who don’t know what Linux is all about or what it can do for gaming. Carry on below!

Hardware

My hardware is pretty outdated in all fairness. I have a GeForce 9600 GX graphics card with 4GB of RAM. I run an Intel i3 which is overclocked at 4ghz p/core and with a 750w Power Supply Unit (PSU). I use a 7200RPM 126GB HDD, but I’ve got a 500GB one just… Sat here… Doing nothing!

So my hardware isn’t very well optimised by any stretch of the imagination. So how can I do gaming!? Well, on this rig, which wouldn’t be too expensive to buy now-a-days (£200ish, I’d wager!) I was even able to play games such as Skyrim. So don’t think “My computer is too old for gaming” – ever! Unless your computer cannot run a modern operating system. With this being said…

My transition to Linux

Tux, the Linux mascot.

My transition to Linux was met mostly with me being really stubborn, unwilling to move and over glorifying Windows. Let me break this down, though:

I started with praising Windows and Microsoft in general. I was saying how “Windows has made it all easy” to which the response to me would always be “Yes, but you also don’t know enough of what’s going on.” To me, that didn’t matter. Computing was easy with Windows and that is where everyone was, so why should I go to something that might require a few more seconds of set up time and it’s less popular?

I decided though, that I’d give this whole “Linux malarkey” a try, since hey, I call myself a technology lover! So, I boot up a virtual machine and I get a hold of this one called “Ubuntu”, which just so happens to be the most popular (Citation needed) distribution of Linux. I grabbed myself some software to run a virtual machine (VirtualBox) and grabbed an Ubuntu iso.

Please note: This software is free and open source, hence I was able to grab an ISO, which is one of the ways the developers distribute their operating system. Don’t believe me? http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop for more information.

The day Windows collapsed (For me)

Windows 8 had been released and I didn’t like the way it looked, not one bit. I was playing on my computer as per usual, when suddenly and dramatically, it gave me the dreaded Blue Screen of Death! Cue the dramatic music. Yes, it all happened around the time Windows 8 was released – But I’m not blaming Windows 8 for anything, it literally just happened that way.

So, after some examination, I decided: “I need to reinstall Windows.” – It was pretty far gone. Memory issues (not hard drive space, but issues allocating memory properly.) No idea how it managed to get that bad, not my magical Windows… But, I didn’t have my Windows 7 disk. This wasn’t looking good. Head in my hands, I looked at… It. That Ubuntu distribution which I had also put onto a pen drive in the month – Just because it was so easy…

Reformat. Boot from USB… And there it was.

The Ubuntu installation wizard was there in front of me… And it is no harder than installing Windows. In other words, it was very easy.

See? It even tells you what you have and don’t have. -Disclaimer- This was taken from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GraphicalInstall

Why I have not gone back

Several reasons:

From a really intuitive command line (Typing sudo apt-get install (Package name) will search repositories for any package by that name and will then proceed to install it) to a very customisable operating system, Linux/Ubuntu is a techies heaven. With all the source code editable, you can do whatever you want to do with your computer. This, to me, made it very appealing.

But what about all the games I lost out on? Sure, there have been a number, including the phenominal Saints Row 4 (I am a big fan of the Saints Row series)… But, we know there has been a shift for more Linux gamers recently.

A request

I’m one man. Statistically, that makes me irrelevant. I understand this, but if you’re a developer and you’re reading this, I’m not going to tell you to “Produce games only for Linux”. I’m going to ask you, instead, “Please, consider making your game available on Linux as well as Windows and Mac.”

I won’t pretend to know everything about porting your game, as I barely know anything at all about such things! However, there are lots of resources for porting your game over to Linux now-a-days. With this being said, I won’t keep on at you all if your game isn’t on Linux, it’s not for everyone and the world understands. It doesn’t matter what language you use, for the most part, there are ways to port your game over… And I, a Linux gamer, would be incredibly interested to hear from you if you’re planning a Linux port!

My personal Steam list

When I started on Ubuntu, Valve just announced and released Steam for Ubuntu. This was an incredible turn of events for me and when I started, I only had around 10 of my roughly 100 games for Linux. It was quite a sad time, but hey, I persevered and I am glad I did.

Now, as you can see, I have quite a filling list… A lot of these games: I’ve yet to play!

My steam library – Well, a fair bit of it. 54 of my 121 games are available on Linux.

If you think you see a game on that list you’d like to see reviewed on this site, let me know and I’ll do it for you guys. Just for you guys. Don’t tell anyone else. Okay, tell everyone else.

Let me know what you’d like to see and if you’d like to see more information on Ubuntu, please do visit http://www.ubuntu.com/ . More free open source software is a great thing, but if you do end up downloading Ubuntu and enjoying it, please consider donating to them, as it helps keep them going. It gets them coffee in the mornings to develop nice apps and updates to your computers for free.

One thing to note, a majority of my games are what are considered “Indie” games. Take what you will from that, I’ll review whatever is on the list.

The other games on my list (not many more) are:

• Rush
• Secret of the Magic Crystal (I was gifted this. Oh boy.)
• Snapshot
• Space Pirates and Zombies (When I first tried, it crashed first time… I’m sure I can get it to work)
• Strike Suit Zero
• Super Hexagon
• Superfrog HD
• Surgeon Simulator 2013
• Team Fortress 2
• Thomas Was Alone
• Toki Tori
• Trine 2
• Worms Reloaded

Thanks to all the readers who make this worthwhile :) You rock.