Hi everyone! So I just switched to Linux and I am a little unsure of what to play on my laptop.
It’s a presumably decent laptop, 16gb of ram and Iris Xe, but I find that it has battery issues trying to play anything fancy like Skyrim.
I’m looking into things like emulation, finally tackling my Itch.io backlog, and bringing out old classics.
I like RPGs and text-based choose your own adventure games, so if you have any recommendations I’d appreciate it!
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All Steam Deck verified games should play just fine on that laptop. While Intel Xe graphics are not the greatest, Steam Deck is restricted to 15W and you laptop is not.
Wait, what? Is that why everyone’s recommending steam deck games? I assumed Steam Deck verified games required something like, an okay GPU. Its actually the voltage? That definitely makes my life easier, lmfao.
Well, the TDP of the chip is only part of the equation; The main thing is that the Deck is limited in performance in ways that your laptop likely is not, regardless of clock-for-clock differences.
By the Steam Deck’s site, the verification means that:
- It plays well with the Deck’s inputs
- Can use the Deck’s native resolution or similar (1280x800 or 1280x720) without issues
- It “just works” without having to tinker with the game
- Every component of the game is supported by Proton if running a non-native game
Intel Xe doesn’t seem that bad, specially compared to older Intel GPUs (UHD 630-like). Correct me if I’m wrong, but they’re basically low power versions of Intel Arc. I still don’t think they’re on level with a RDNA 2 GPU like the Deck one.
This is what I have from Steam on my Linux laptop, similar HW, a bit older:
Baba Is You, The Binding of Isaac, Celeste, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Darkest Dungeon, Dicey Dungeons, Enter the Gungeon, FTL, Hollow Knight, Into the Breach, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Monster Train, Opus Magnum, Slay the Spire, Spelunky.
And traditional roguelikes are always good: Crawl, Brogue, Nethack.Factorio
Factorio might get a bit rough towards the endgame, but I would recommend it as well.
Also, shapez.io.
If you’re into automation games Factorio is perfect. I especially love the quality of life functions, everytime I think to myself ‘there has to be a easier way to do this’ I find out that there -in fact- IS a easier way to do it.
Suikoden I and II are great PSX RPGs, if you can emulate. Shadowrun (Returns, Dragonfall and Hong Kong) are great and Linux native.
Suikoden I and II are required playing for jrpg fans!
But emulation as a suggestion alone is good. You have access to so much of a field of human creativity if you’re okay copying the bits to your drive.
Edit: I feel obligated to say that I also like the other suikoden games. My rank is
II
V
I
III
IV
But I still enjoyed IV.
Small list from me: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Caves of Qud, Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead, ADOM, Reigns, SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition, King’s Quest, Liberal Crime Squad. The old Elder Scrolls Arena and Daggerfall are also currently available for free. I see Daggerfall is playable with DosBox/Lutris, I assume Arena is as well.
Pretty sure you can play Daggerfall Unity Native - https://gist.github.com/holmraven/fa82f6106f4367f9efb36a842c9f947f
Not saying it’s true here, but I’ve run into some games where playing the Windows version with proton runs better than the native Linux client.
You can even install Daggerfall Unity from GOG, specially using the Heroic Launcher.
Might be a bit off topic here. I really suggest to have a check at https://www.protondb.com/
Many Win-only steam games are performing great on Linux now.
Besides, I’ve played https://vita3k.org/ for a while. There are countless decent old games which can be played via emulators on linux
I’d suggest to check IFDB for the text adventures.
Ooh I didn’t know there was a database for interactive fiction! Thank you!
I want to stress that I am NOT liable for any loss of educational opportunities or employment resulting from this discovery ;)
I played this one a number of years back and enjoyed it: Christminster - a sort of ‘whodunnit’ set in an old University college.
If you want an old classic, I’ve been playing rollercoaster tycoon 2 recently and there is an open source engine for it (openrct2) that has native linux compatibility. The controls take some getting used to, But I think that artstyle looks totally amazing.
Or even the first RCT as it’s written in assembly. Can’t get much more efficient than that, even a potato can run it.
I’m also amazed by it. How can you write a full game that looks as good as Rollercoaster Tycoon when you’re shifting bits left and right on the stack? Some kind of wizardry, that’s what.
Even more impressive when you realize it was coded by one dude primarily, crazy stuff.
Same boat! Here are some i picked up;
- Planescape Torment - rpg & adventure,
- Darklands - old skool rpg & adventure,
- Spiritfarer - simulation & adventure,
- Papers Please - simulation & puzzle,
- The Captain - rpg & simulation,
- Shadowrun - rpg & strategy,
- Baldurs Gate II - rpg & strategy,
- Don’t Starve - action & adventure,
- Rimworld - simulation & strategy,
- FTL - strategy & simulation
Edit; formatting
RimWorld is great and runs on my toaster
Well steam has proton, which can run many, many windows games at generally good speeds. I suggest looking at older games and indie games, as they will run best on your Xe. For example, the Heroes of Might and Magic series, particularly 3 and 5 are very good 4x/RPG hybrids. Find interesting games then go to protondb.com and see if its ‘gold’ or better
Minecraft is often a good time and can run well on low end machines.
Text based and RPGs you say? Maybe it’s time to explore some MUDs?
For the King is also a nice chill game with a great system reqs:fun ratio. Currently on sale too.
OP, MUDs are a real treat if you’ve never experienced them, but you want to find a good, active, sane one. I highly recommend Discworld MUD, even if you’re not familiar with the Discworld book series. I’ve been there on and off since the late 90s. It’s amazing how much love this game still gets from admins and creators, and it’s 100% free to play.
Just keep in mind they’re no less addictive than their modern equivalent, MMOs.
I know that you can run TES 4 Oblivion decently well on Linux with a Windows emulator (WINE). I had a few odd graphics glitches like a gigantic texture of a tree just completely taking over the sky. I guess it wanted to be some kind of Yggdrasil tree or something.
It ran well though, and on a early 2010-era laptop. I don’t know about mod compatibility though.
WINE Is Not an Emulator 😉
Seriously, that’s what the acronym means, because it’s not an emulator, it’s a compatibility layer.
There’s also Proton for Steam games, or even non-steam games, though it’s a little more complicated to set up in the later case.
Oblivion’s excellent with mods, though I’m unfamiliar with modding Bethesda games on Linux.
hotline Miami, katana zero, osu.
Katana ZERO is an all time fav.
Really looking forward to the second half of the story in the upcoming free update.
“just wait for the dlc”
Is it coming though? I played it during the first COVID lockdown and it was already supposed to come out soon™
But yeah the first part is more than worth it in itself.
It’s been soon™ for years. The dev has been fairly quiet about it, but popped up now and then on his blog or twitter with new deets.
It was initially supposed to be just a small addition to the game, but has ballooned, and will now nearly double the game’s size when it finally drops. Each time I’ve checked though, there’s been some news.
And when I did just now to get links to the new music and gameplay that I found last time, I just now found out you can try out some new content in the game using a secret beta branch on steam. Its right there in the news feed if you go look at the game in your library.
Hotline Miami is FOSS??? WOOOOW
EDIT: I can’t read
lmao
Into the breach is a pretty underrated game to try out
And FTL. Amazing games. Slay the Spire also great.
And Alina of the Arena. It’s essentially Into the Breach meets Slay the Spire
