linux

Grow Home

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Grow Home is a game for four year olds. So my only excuse for enjoying it so much is that while it is meant to be played by four year olds, they are clearly meant to be playing it through the convenient medium/controller of an at-hand adult, as the controls require far more precision than the kiddies possess themselves.

The game was released for linux about a year ago but as with so many Steam sale purchases I only found the time to sit down with it over the holidays [Editor’s note: Written, if not actually published, Xmas 2016].

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Delivery or Deliverance

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I have just requested a refund for my 2013 Kickstarter contribution to the development of Kingdom Come: Deliverance from the Czech developer Warhorse Studios. I’m conflicted in doing so but I think it’s the right thing. Here’s my reasoning.

Warhorse promised support for Windows, linux and OS X in the Kickstarter but has since failed to put out a linux/OS X beta and failed to meet a self-imposed deadline at E3 for signalling their intentions regarding platforms. That is to say they were supposed to tell backers and the public whether the promised platform support would be abandoned.

Instead Warhorse studios no longer advertise linux/OS X support on the website and their community manager has recently stated that support “might unfortunately not happen on day 1 of release, but we don’t know about any details yet”. Which can be read pretty much any way you want. That support will eventually happen, will happen but be broken as f**k or will not happen at all.

If I were of a more cynical and angry disposition I might make allusions to a scene from the film of the same (sub)title (no, not that one; that one) But I think that would be stretching it. Linux users aren’t getting viciously shafted here even though it feels like we’re up shit creek without a port. Still, I don’t think Warhorse deserves my money anymore.

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First impressions: The Long Dark

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This was to have been an obituary. “Here lies Lorrie Olson who died of thirst after three days because she couldn’t find a container to carry snow for meltwater in.”

Turns out you don’t need a container for snow. Seeing as it’s everywhere, The Long Dark simply treats it a ressource you always have in infinte quantities. Lucky for Lorrie I figured this out just in time, having settled her in front of a roaring let’s-all-die-of-thirst-in-oh-say-five-minutes fire.

The Long Dark just launched for Linux/SteamOS and I just spent two hours surviving three days. And what three days they have been. Remember that time when we ate raw venison and got food poisoning because I was still figuring out the controls? What larks. And then when we ran out of water and were completely dehydrated and found a box of salty crackers? Man, Fate has a nasty sense of humour. Fortunately it also had stoved some carbonated beverages away in a cupboard for me or I wouldn’t have been able to swallow those crackers. Quite literally.

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