gaming

Manual Samuel is a clever comedy 2D puzzle/action game where you are forced to control every single one of Samuel's extremities:

• Eyes
• Breathing
• Hands
• Feet
• Balance

This is no easy task because you have to do multiple things at once using multiple keys. Its hilarious watching him fall over or throw hot coffee in his own face. Each scene is a new challenge to make Samuel do normal every day things manually.


Proton in Steam runs the game almost perfectly. The only problem I had was fullscreen. The game thinks its in fullscreen, but the top of the window is visible and the Linux panel is still visible. So I minimized the panel and just left it like in the video.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.100
Proton 5.0-9

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Before Sleep is a creepy nightmare runner where a freaky creature is chasing you in a dream maze. As you find notes which tell you what you need to escape, the creature speeds up. It can follow you anywhere you go... hurry and get the items before it catches you.


I was able to play Before Sleep without any problems in PlayOnLinux with ProtonGE and DXVK. It ran great, probably because the whole maze is made up of square rooms. So easy to model and render real-time on my GeForce GTX 1060.

https://gannydespy.itch.io/before-sleep

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.100
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
DXVK 1.7 64-bit

Beyond The Thaw is a short demo of a first person winter survival. You wake up from a plane crash in a forest during a harsh winter. Packs of wolves are on the move and you need to stay warm.

https://dazvolt.itch.io/beyondthethaw

This game is beautiful! Amazing visuals and stunning snowy blizzard-like environment. You really feel like you are controller the character and stuck in this hopeless forest.

Beyond The Thaw is developed in Unreal Engine 4 and ran really well using ProtonGE and DXVK. I was able to extract the game and run it in PlayOnLinux without any issues. It is fairly short and you aren't given a lot of direction on what to do. So plan to retry several times.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForece GTX 160
Nvidia 440.59
ProtonGE-5.9 64-bit
DXVK 1.7

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Sons Of Tyr is a multi-player RPG in a Viking world. Create your character and follow the tutorial to equip you with necessary beginner weapons and armor. Then explore your Viking island hub where you can upgrade NCP areas to purchase new weapons, armor and gear.


Then head out on a boat, kill bandits and loot nearby islands. There are animals and even giants roaming around the islands.

https://synergy-studios.itch.io/sons-of-tyr

The current version is free on itch.io and ran well in Wine. I did experience a problem playing multi-player on a LAN. When I hosted the game and we traveled to an island my character would reset and loose all inventory items. Otherwise, playing single-player was a lot of fun.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
Wine 5.0 64-bit
DXVK: 1.7

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https://joeydrewstudios.com/batim

Bendy And The Ink Machine base on a cartoon made back in the 30's where you (an animator) re-visits the old studio and find that something has gone terribly wrong. Expect jump scares, spooky cartoon-esque environments, survival elements and puzzles. This first person horror adventure doesn't disappoint. It may be short, but currently on sale during the Steam summer sale.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/622650/Bendy_and_the_Ink_Machine/

The best part? Its a native Linux game available on Steam.

You can also download the demo in itch.io as well
https://joeydrewstudios.itch.io/batim-demo

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Timeout is a brilliant point-n-click 2D 3D action adventure mystery. Everyone live by time. If your time runs out, you die. So of course the world has commercialized buying & selling time to stay alive. Investigate a case where fake time is killing people because they are deceived into purchasing a clever deal on time.


Timeout demo ran perfectly in Linux. I was able to play and control my character without any graphical issues or performance issues on my GeForce GTX 1060.

https://christopherlee.itch.io/timeout

A Forbidden Place demo is a creepy lowpoly pixel horror/puzzle mystery. Read the mysterious notes about the library and enter the surreal realms of the Librarian.

https://banzaibonsai.itch.io/a-place-forbidden

This demo is fairly long for an introduction to the game and setting. I never had any issues with ProtonGE in PlayOnLinux and was able to play through the entire demo.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
Geforce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
ProtonGE 5.9

I picked up ENSLAVED™: Odyssey to the West™ Premium Edition during a Humble Bundle sale. After checking https://www.protondb.com/ first of course. It runs GREAT in Proton!
I was using Proton 5.0-8 but I'm sure it runs fine in Proton 5.0-9 as well. Cutscenes, gameplay, performance, load/save all worked as expected. Definitely worth the sale!

150 years after a global war, a survival ship crashes in America. Play as Monkey (the beefy strong tempered tough guy) who is forced to escort Trip (the young beautiful woman) through city rubble, puzzles and mechanical enemies. Work together and traverse your way across dangerous terrain using parkour, weapons and Trips special abilities.


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Dungeon Nightmares is a simple dungeon maze terror game with a perfect balance of:

• Jump Scares
• Spooky Environment
• Exploration
• Roguelike
• Procedural Generation
• Small Download
• Replayability

https://kmonkey.itch.io/dungeon-nightmares

Explore the maze-like dungeon looking for gold, candles and notes about what to do. Your goal is to survive each night without dying.... find the artifact and escape your nightmare!

Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
Wine 5.0 64-bit
DXVK: 1.7

Snake Pass looks like a kids game from Nintendo, but after playing it is quite a realistic snake challenge. Slither up and around bamboo objects to collect bubbles, coins and medallions to complete each level. It was definitely created with a controller in mind, but I was able to play with keyboard & mouse.


This is one of the most original ideas I've seen in a long time. Moving a snake in any direction with gravity as your enemy is quite difficult. There is a rhythm and synchronization with movement in order to traverse the objects. Once you reach the top where a coin or bubble resides, its quite satisfying.

Performance was great in Proton with my GeForce GTX 1060. Never had any game-stopping stutters or save/load issues. It just ran awesome!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/544330/Snake_Pass/

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
Proton 5.0-9

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I initially tested Dungeon Siege III in PlayOnLinux back in 2015 and posted a guide. I was able to finish the game and really enjoyed it!


Now I'm replaying Dungeon Siege III in Steam with Proton and even co-op with my wife and two controllers.
So far Proton is handling the game perfectly! It's even funner playing co-op and the adventure is just as interesting and action-packed as before.

My GeForce GTX 1060 is able to handle the game without any issues and the environments are beautiful!

If you see Dungeon Siege III on sale, definitely pick it up!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/39160/Dungeon_Siege_III/








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Lurk In The Dark: Prologue is a Japanese first person horror game playing as Marcus Brown, a detective investigating murder case in Babels Hill Top mining town. What he doesn't know is that he's entering a nightmare of his own.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1094030/Lurk_in_the_Dark__Prologue/

You can play the initial episode called "The Guilty" for free with Steam and Proton. It is an incomplete demo as you have to purchase the DLC, so the ending will feel very incomplete. Prepare yourself for dark scenery with evil lurking around the corner and difficult clues to the puzzle.

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Janga is a silly yet clever sandbox game. You begin on a white planet and begin to plow the surface with your blow pipe. Strange huh? Yeah well, turns out it is a lot of fun. These random heads (called Gluttons) that you can shoot and explode to help you change the surface. Then you can eventually get new pipes like a earth pipe, love pipe, grass pipe, vacuum pipe, tree pipe and plant pipe... maybe even more.

https://concretegames.itch.io/janga


One of the coolest features is gravity. You can eventually jump and as you bring life to your tiny planet you can run faster and jump higher. At some point you will be able to leap out of orbit and float to another planet.

Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
Proton 5.0-9

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It Lies is a short free horror game where you play a little girl looking for her dog in a field of wheat. What could possibly go wrong, right?

https://toomanyteethgames.itch.io/it-lies

You can call out for your dog and search in the direction of its barking... but be careful, there is something else out there that mimics the bark.

Is it human?
Is it alien?

Search through the vast wheat field and find notes about the creature and what others have discovered about it. It Lies is a Unity 3D games which runs great using stable Wine and DXVK

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
Wine 5.0 64-bit
DXVK: 1.7

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Ever Forward is a clever puzzle game where you play as a little girl in a fantasy world. Walk her around beautiful islands with waves crashing all around the beaches and cliffs shooting out of the ground... but beware of the corruption. In order to purge the land of corrupt darkness she will need to enter it and solve the puzzles with her companion cube.

https://patheagames.itch.io/ever-forward

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59
PlayOnLinux 4.3.4
Wine: 5.7-staging 64-bit
DXVK: 1.7 64-bit

Initially the game ran really slow with Stable Wine 5.0
So I cranked down the display settings and tried with Wine 5.7-staging and it ran perfectly.

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Remember DOOM 3?

The first time I played it I was awe struck with the beautiful graphics, creepy monsters and scripted events. Like visions of hell, floating objects, automated machinery and monsters crawling on the walls.

Doom 2016 is a re-creation of Doom 3 better in every way. Glory kill minions with your bare-gloves, parkour across levels to reach power ups and level up your weapons and skills. This is what everyone wanted! An epic bloody horror space action FPS with all of our favorite monsters.

In Linux Proton 5.0-7 handles Doom 2016 (vulkan) perfectly! I was able to launch, configure graphics settings and play without any problems. Game-play and controls handle nicely with my GTX 1060. This game is beautifully made. Every objects looks hand-crafted and all the gory details are there. Anyone who loves FPS shooters has to buy this one.

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A Plague Tale: Innocence is story of a french girls and her little brother during the black plague. You will be immersed in tale of horror when they are forced our of their castle as she witnesses the murder of her father and servants. Use stealth tactics to escape unseen and maneuver your environments. Your sling will come in handy to serve as a distraction or weapon. Keep in mind your completely responsible for your brothers safety.

Proton 5.0-7 handles this game really well. I only played the demo, but it ran great without any crashing or stuttering. I was able to handle almost all the settings on high with my GTX 1060. No need for launch options.

Graphics: Amazing!
Story: Stunning and unpredictable
Animation: Exceptional
Audio: Crisp and Realistic
Realism: Immersed

Specs
Mint 19.3. 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia: 440.59

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Remember those cheesey old zombie shooter games at the arcade? Bad voice acting, over-the-top scenarios where you follow the game on-rails shooting zombies? Yup, they have one for typing lessons.

Typing Of The Dead

Search online for a free download and install with PlayOnLinux or Steam (Proton)

It runs in super low resolution, but the game runs great and you can even play co-op over a local network. Of course the textures are super low quality and of course the animation is really bad... but its really fun to type the words in place of shooting guns.

Specs:
Mint 19.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia 440.59

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Ever wanted to play Minecraft?

Nope, because I've been playing Minetest. Its an open source free-to-play Minecraft clone. Of course its not quite as polished, but the vanilla game has a lot in it:

• Endless world (almost)
• Exploration
• Resource Gathering/Farming
• Crafting
• Building
• Day/Night Cycle
• Host/Client - LAN Connection

Host your own world, invite your friends and explore, build and craft cities together. Its educational and very fun to explore huge cave systems, massive mountains and vast oceans.

There is even a community developing mods to improve the base game with all kinds of new features.

Customize Minetest

In Mint you can use the software manager to install Minetest vanilla, but also a bunch of amazing mods to make it more functional and interesting.

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A few years back I was able to play through all of How To Survive - A 3rd person survival action game based on several tiered islands. As you slay zombies, search for food, water and resources... you can craft a bunch of neat gear and weapons. The goal was to survive night & day and leave the island alive.

The game ran well in PlayOnLinux with Wine and only a few minor issues, but I was still able to play through the entire campaign cooperatively with my wife.



How To Survive 2 is a promising sequel that ultimately fails. From the beginning it didn't play in PlayOnLinux with Wine or even Proton. There were reports of an anti-cheat in place that was not compatible with Wine. Sure enough it didn't work in Proton either. So I would check back every few months to see if it was fixed or some kind of good result. One day it happened, someone posted on protondb.com that How To Survive was now working Proton. Gave...