2024-07-25 gaming news
The first major content update for my game Dudelings: Arcade Sportsball is now available. This update includes new maps, a new game mode, Steam Achievements and more. Check it out with the link below!
This week, we saw the "Restructuring" of Humble Games—what does that mean for your favorite titles from the Humble Brand? Plus, we have new releases of Proton Experimental, ChimeraOS, and Bazzite. We'll discuss. Also, what does iFixit have in store for Steam Deck fans? And I asked you what's the best controller to use with the Steam Deck and the results of this poll actually shocked me. All this and more today in this week's Linux Gaming news! Let's get into it.
Our lead story is pretty sad. Humble Games has shut down. This is yet another publisher of indie titles biting the dust in a sea of change for the games industry.
Humble Game's closure was made public by several now former employees announcing that they had lost their jobs and there was "nobody left."
This was followed—several hours later—by the official Humble Games Twitter account publishing some softly-worded, jargon-laden, AI-sounding slop about how the label was restructuring.
In these challenging economic times for indie game publishing, Humble Games has made the difficult but necessary decision to restructure our operations. This decision was not made lightly; it involved much deliberation and careful thought, with the goal of ensuring the stability and support of our developers and ongoing projects. Additionally, the restructuring of operations at Humble Games will have no impact on operations at Humble Bundle.
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We are acutely aware of the profound impact this decision has on our team members at Humble Games and deeply empathize with everyone affected. Our team's contributions have been world-class and invaluable, supporting the launch of our games since we started publishing in 2017. We are committed to navigating this transition with as much empathy and understanding as possible.
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Supporting our development partners and assisting former team members remains our top priority. We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved. Thank you for your support and compassion during this challenging period. It is deeply appreciated.
It's important to note that Humble Games and Humble Bundle are separate entities within the Ziff-Davis/IGN brand. The fact is, this wasn't a Humble Games decision. This was a higher-up decision.
Next up, let's talk about ChimeraOS. This is a big update for ChimeraOS 46 has a bunch of improvements. If you're not familiar, ChimeraOS is pretty neat. I've done a full video on Chimera here. But as a quick overview, it's a Linux distribution that's designed for one thing: gaming. ChimeraOS is so influential, in fact, that I believe they inspired Valve to re-base SteamOS from Debian to Arch Linux.
So what's new in ChimeraOS? Well, first is their new InputPlumber. This is basically a completely free and open source alternative to Steam Input and it's integrated into OpenGamepadUI.
Chimera also has a killer feature in their remote management. Where you can access and manage your Chimera install from from another machine on your local network. They've added a feature that lets you launch any game on your system with a URL.
They've also added Emulation Content Sharing where the OS can host ROM files and more. This will be neat for people who aren't interested in setting up something like retroNAS.
Alone with these more notable inclusions are the upgraded drivers for ayaneo, GPD, OneXPlayer, and the OrangePi NEO. Full TDP control for AMD 8000 series devices and the Steam Deck.
In fact, they now have "full support" for the OrangePi NEO and so much more. Check out the release notes with the link in the description!
So Bazzite Linux version 3.6 has a new release out with surprise support for the ROG Ally X. This is a big deal since the Ally X is not on the market yet and Linux support tends to arrive after the device ships.
So how did this happen? Well, YouTuber and friend of the channel FanTheDeck has early access to the Ally X started testing and reporting to the Bazzite team. This means they've got everything ready for the release of the Ally X from day 0. That's pretty neat to see!
Otherwise, Bazzite 3.6 includes improved support for the original Ally, but also the Lenovo Legion Go as well as improved hardware support across various handheld devices.
Proton Experimental just had a major new update that made a whole bunch of games playable and fixes a bunch more.
In this release, we saw Onimusha: Warlords, Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier, Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, King of Fighters 1, and others become Playable. Then we saw many game-specific fixes. For example, font rendering in Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet was fixed. They fixed Burnout Paradise Remastered crashing when a video input device is plugged in. They fixed Ubisoft Connect requiring a manual log in with Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. And those are just the big ones. There are over 51 fixes and features in this new experimental release and that's super exciting!
Are any of your favorite games on the list of either newly supported or fixed games? Leave me a comment and let me know. And while you're down there, make sure you like that smash button. It's the best way to tell YouTube you want to see more videos just like this one. I usually upload every Monday and Friday, so get subscribed so you don't miss them. And now, back to it!
It's no secret that I love iFixit's toolkits. They're well designed, durable, and high quality. Plus, I love the mission of iFixit:
if you can't fix it, you don't own it.
Repair is a critical right and something that's worth defending with every ounce of strength. So that's why I support their products.
They just recently released their Steam Deck Toolkit and it's very exciting. This is specifically for the Steam Deck and it includes everything you need to open up and service your Deck.
It includes a precision bit driver, along with three precision bits including the PH0, PH1, and TR6 bits. It also includes a spudger, tweezers, opening picks, an ESD-safe brush and precision cleaning brushes as well as an anti-static wrist strap. Plus a carrying bag.
Again, I'm a big fan of iFixit. You'll find a link to the
iFixit toolkit below as well as
affiliate links to some of their other products.
Finally, I want to talk about the surprising results of the image poll I posted on Wednesday. I asked "What's the best controller to use with the Steam Deck?"
The answer was genuinely shocking. And I'm not just saying that. I thought for sure that the DualSense would win by a wide margin. Instead, the Xbox One/Series controller topped the chart with nearly half of respondents choosing it over the other options.
The DualSense was #
2 with 32%, the Steam Controller came in third with 17%, and the Switch Pro controller was last with only 5% of the total votes.
That's gonna do it for this video. Make sure you check out this video where I talk about the best controllers to use with your Steam Deck.
-- Chapters --
00:00 Introduction
00:39 Humble Games "restructuring"
03:42 ChimeraOS 46
05:30 Bazzite Linux 3.6
06:25 New Proton Experimental Release
07:41 iFixit's new Steam Deck Toolkit
08:46 Why is everyone a fan of the Xbox Series controller
While we're only about half way through 2024, we of course knew to expect plenty of sales and events on Steam next year so here's a look at what's to come from Valve.
Liam Dawe (GamingOnLinux)
Friendica software. To learn how to make your own, go look at https://friendi.ca
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