Steam

The one and only Harry Potter game that has EVERYTHING! Except Harry Potter of course...
Explore the epic halls of Hogwarts, solve puzzles, attend classes, learn spells, interact with other students... the game seems endless.
Hogwarts Legacy is an open world 3rd person adventure with all kinds of features that most games never boast and its all there. All the magic, exploration, flying, potions, animals, enemies and much much more. The main storyline campaign is interesting, full of mystery, fantastic characters and plot.


The first issue you will notice in Linux is a very very long black screen loading before the menu. I've researched and found this happens on consoles and Windows. I'm not sure why it happens but it can literally take 20 minutes. Honestly its worth it! This game is SO MUCH FUN! I can't believe all the interactive elements and action. You really get to fly which is something I've wanted since Skyrim! There are some other...

Diablo IV is the next iteration of the franchise and you get everything you expect and more.


The graphics are amazingly detailed and the world is much bigger! Most of the maps are open-world as you can travel anywhere and even have a mount to help you across these massive lands. There are more interactive elements like snow, crates-n-barrels to destroy, but also many small villages with side-quests. Level up and use the skill tree to test out your newly found abilities. Even the blacksmith has some new features!

I'm not going to ruin it all, but you will like Diablo IV if you are a fan of Diablo!
For the most part it runs well in Proton. There is some stutter when starting but once it caches everything the game runs really well! I haven't noticed any crashing yet and I've already put in a dozen hours in co-op with my wife. This is the Diablo we've been waiting for as we have played through Diablo III about four times.

Mint 21.3...

The Metro to rule them all!


Metro Exodus boasts many features not seen in the previous games but also keeps the "spirit" of post apocalyptic shooters like STALKER, Fallout, Mad Max & Rage 2. Huge detailed open areas and extremely smart enemies will put you in the middle of a simulation where each move makes a difference between life and death. Enemies are stimulated by sight & sound and will act accordingly.

Explore large maps of Mother Russia's wasteland with all kinds of mutated animals, warring factions, hidden areas, safe houses and biomes. There isn't a single building or area that feels the same. You are truly exploring a detailed world with all kinds of loot, crafting, weapon mods and clever enemies. The amount of objects and locations littered around each map is staggering!

Stealth is definitely your friend, but when the push-comes-to-shove you can try an gun down your foes, but its not as easy as you would think. Enemies are...

It has been 10 years since I tested Tomb Raider in Linux and once again Feral is successfully at creating a Linux port that stands the test-of-time.


Not only is there a native port that still runs on today's hardware, it also runs on recent distro, kernel and drivers. I was able to play through the entire game with all settings on max without any serious issues. Yeah there is a bit of stutter here and there as with most games using Vulkan, but man this game is beautiful and worth the play through.

Mint 21.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535

...

Dead Frontier is a zombie MMO in a huge city full of buildings to loot and a lot of zombies. You will encounter some of the creepiest monsters you have ever seen! Talk to the local police for quests and then go door to door searching all kinds of places for ammo and loot. Explore building like:

• Apartments
• Grocery Stores
• Hotels
• Restaurants
• Local Businesses
• Homes

And much more! Join up with some friends or go solo as the city is so vast you will never get tired of exploring. Be careful with guns though, start blasting in a building and attract more zombies!


When I have tested Dead Frontier II in the past, it ran very slowly. Maybe it was my old hardware or maybe it was Wine, but the new Proton Experimental ran it like I was playing natively. Loading times were fast and I was able to run and gun without any performance loss... honestly this isn't a run-n-gun game, but when needed, the shotgun works great for...

Explore the 7 seas not as a nobleman, but as a dirty scoundrel of a pirate. Begin your adventure as Edward Kenway the pirate but later learn the ways of the Assassin! Explore a huge map of seas and islands to discover fleets of ships to attach and loot. Then take port on an island to find detailed civilizations and garrisons to explore and loot.


As with most Assassin's Creed games, Proton is able to handle it easily with my old spec computer. I do experience a few crashes here and there, but nothing game breaking! The oceans are beautiful and the towns so detailed with buildings, jungles and trees to traverse! I was able to crank all the graphical settings to high and this game is beautiful!

Mint 21.3 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535
Proton Experimental 8

...

Portal Revolution is a sequel after the initial test subject killed GladOS. You wake up once again in a strange experimental chamber as another test subject. The modding community has created some new features not seen in Portal or Portal 2 and some new A.I. characters who help along the way.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/601360/Portal_Revolution/

Portal Revolution ran perfectly in Linux as a stand alone Linux native game. I never had any performance issues or crashes... it was extremely fun and only a few puzzles required searching online for a solution. I love the bot voice-overs and the new character plots. I can't believe Valve has not created a new Portal with some of these new laser and Pneumatic vent features! Thank you Portal community!

Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535
Proton Experimental 8

...

The city of Harran is in a devastating zombie apocalypse and there are small factions of survivors who can't escape. Join a friend in co-op and explore a massive city using parkor skills to traverse any terrain! Loot buildings, level up skills, help the locals and of course... slay zombies in all manner of goriness you can imagine! There are so many ways to kill mindless biters... Dying Light is a zombie sandbox.


Initially I tried the native Linux version of Dying Light and it ran very well! I Think it ran better than with Proton, but unfortunately in co-op every time we entered a safe zone the game would crash. After researching I found that Proton handles the game well and we never had any issues with the crashing.
I doubt there will ever be a fix because Dying Light 2 has already been released and I'm sure they are working on another game at this point. Maybe Dead Island 2?

If you do want to try the Linux version, be sure to add this...

Östertörn, Sweden is over run with robots! Not your run-of-the-mill Lost in Space robot, but dangerous animal-like killer mechanical robots with you as their prey! Explore an enormous island with towns, forests, tourist traps and of course... a lot of robots to slay!


Generation Zero is a co-op and/or singleplayer campaign with a lot of focus on stealth. You can run out into the open and start laying them down with bullets, but it isn't gonna last long. Too many minions and not enough bullets. Proton handles the open-world games perfectly without any glitches or crashes yet. No launch options needed so far and I was able to run it mostly on Ultra with my hardware.

Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535
Proton Experimental 8

...

Survive a zombie apocalypse on the island of Banoi! This band of friends hack and loot their way across a massive resort island crafting weapons, tossing molotov's and slaying varying types of minions. Dead Island was released in 2011 and still looks as beautiful and detailed as many AAA games released today! I still can't believe the amount of detail in every object, plant, weapon and animation!


Dead Island in 2024 still has a native Linux port available in Steam and runs beautifully even in co-op!
One simple Launch Option:
This allows the game to use Vulkan instead of OpenGL and it shows! There are a few minior bugs but nothing game breaking! Its crazy to think developers were considering Linux back in 2011 when so many just rely on Proton these days.

Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535

...

Bioshock 2 is the second installment of the underwater euphoria franchise. Visit Rapture once again but 10 years later, this time as a Big Daddy! Adopt a LittleSister and save Adam to upgrade your skills but as always, you are not alone! Fight again all kinds of splicers, turrets and even a Big Sister. Learn to wield your skills along with your drill and guns! This ain't your first rodeo, so get out there and save Rapture!


I originally posted a PlayOnLinux guide back in 2014 and it has a ungodly amount of steps... there was also a memory leak with the textures on high that would crash the game. Ten years later Bioshock 2 Remastered runs PERFECTLY in Proton and you only need one launch option to bypass the "launcher".


Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535 Proton
Experimental 8

...

Enter the world of memory as Nilin where your emotions and memories are digitized and can be exploited! Will the world be a better place if we can erase all the bad memories? Nilin starts with no memory of who she is, but her brother hacked the system and allows her to escape. Explore the future with memory control where robots rule and the underworld is full of manic zombies.


Melee you way through hordes of zombies, soldiers, robots and mini-bosses using Proton. I was able to finish the game without any serious issues or repeated crashing. I enabled the super-sampling and set all video settings on high. The only real issue I had was mouse control. Remember Me feels more like a console game with the mouse because I couldn't fully control the camera like most 3rd person games. It works, but gets stuck when moving the camera around. No huge deal because its not a game breaker.

Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535 Proton...

Black Mesa is modder-built total conversion of Half-Life using the source engine. Anyone who has played a First Person Shooter on PC knows about Half-Life. It is one of the most original linear action sci-fi games ever made! Crowbar Collective has taken it upon themselves to create a reboot of Half-Life using more modern Source engine the entire game from beginning to end!


Black Mesa is so well done that I won't ever play the original Half-Life again! You will see some content from Half-Life 2 series but there is a lot of original content as well. I'm amazed at how detailed the models, objects and level design is... each level is so close to the original game but with beautiful lighting and detailed textures... I'm hooked! And for our bonus, they made a native port for Linux!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

I am still playing through the entire game with my daughter and so far its a bit easier than the...

Darksiders Genesis is the 3rd installment of the Darksiders franchise and provides a new top-down world view. Not only that, co-op has been implemented so you can jump, shoot, slice and combo all the minions at your noteworthy desire! Play War and Strife in singleplayer or co-op as War and Strife in this prequel to Darksiders 1. Work together to solve level puzzles, find secret areas and slay every single minion and boss!


Genesis ran perfectly from the first time I clicked Play! Of course I checked protondb to be sure it would run before I purchased two copies. I am able to play the campaign with my wife and no serious bugs or issues. In fact some of the protondb posts say there are game-stopping bugs, but I haven't seen any yet and we made it through 3 chapters so far. Also, my Xbox controller works perfectly in Steam and Proton.
No launch options here, just select Proton Experimental or Proton 8 and enjoy!

Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX...

Who doesn't know the story of Geralt and his monstrous adventures helping the people of Nilfgaard searching for his daughter? Play as the famous Witcher again and slay all kinds of hideous monsters who lay waste to the realm. Craft weapons, upgrade, use runes and wield magic at your disposal. The story and cut-scenes are cleverly engaging... even the side-quests are interesting and full of unexpected surprises.


I did a bit of research on ProtonDB before downloading and testing The Witcher 3. In most cases it ran beautifully, but I did see a bunch of posts about a Steam Launch Option to skip the "Launcher"

I have only experienced a handful of crashes, probably because I'm constantly taking screenshots, but other than that, it runs great with almost all the settings on Ultra.

Specs:
Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535
Proton GE 8-4

...

Play as Kate Wilson during the Great Population Flood and take on the terrorist group the Malthusians in a Tomb Raider-ish game with action, puzzles, climbing and amazing water effects.
The Hydro Engine was designed for Hydrophobia to create realistic water effects as you find your way through epic linear maps completely flooded in water. Kate even wields an interesting physics water gun with unlimited ammo cool down. This makes for some interesting puzzle solving with the surroundings.



https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/92000/

Hydrophobia is a pretty short game, but full off action and crazy waves of water everywhere. Proton was able to handle this 2011 engine without any serious issues. There were a few random crashes, but the game auto-saves everywhere, so just launch and continue playing. I've made a step-by-step guide for Hydrophobia years ago in PlayOnLinux, but now with Proton, it just runs without any extra...

In the Titanfall 2 campaign you will learn the bond between human and titan. Play as Jack Cooper and fight to save your commanders abandoned titan BT-7274. You will experience first person shooter and mech styles of gameplay throughout the campaign. Fight in your titan and also fight alongside your titan. Both styles bring unique gameplay as you communicated with BT-7274 and escape the enemy.


I initially tested Titanfall 2 with stable versions of Proton and EA Play failed to launch the game. But as expected... Proton Experimental paved the way! Now the game runs beautifully and the singleplayer campaign is pretty amazing! I was able to play with most settings on high and hardly any frame stuttering or frame rate issues. What a beautiful game!

Specs:
Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535
Proton Experimental 8




...

Gunslinger is another instance of the Call Of Juarez franchise with a story-tellin emphasis. Literally! Play as the narrator who slays famous outlaws of the old west. Utilize old classic weapons like The Winchester, Colt, shotgun and more... Play epic one-on-one showdown shootouts in slow motion!


Gunslinger has a great graphics style almost like Borderlands and it runs really well in Proton! Unfortunately the game is fairly linear and sometimes the story halts right in the middle of a firefight to introduce an enemy animation, dialog or simply change the story. Other than that, you won't get to use a lot of creative weapons or loot... mostly run-n-gun using classic western guns. Which is still pretty fun!

Specs:
Mint 21.1 64-bit
GeForce GTX 1650
Nvidia 535
Proton GE 8-4

...

Deep Rock Galactic is a Dwarf-ish spelunking mining extravaganza where you and 3 friends will dig for resources while surviving mobs of alien/bug-like monsters. Each Dwarf has a unique blend of weapons and tools, so it is important to work together! As you explore massive caverns or twisting caves keep an eye out for health because you will be attacked with random monster invasion and even bosses.


Its been about a year since I played over a free weekend and since then I've been waiting for a Steam sale. It finally happened and I picked up 3 copies! With 3 PCs running Linux Mint I didn't have any issues with two of them, but the third one caused a bunch of issues with Vulkan Shaders. Every time we ran it, those stinking "Processing Vulkan Shaders"!!! Then the game would freeze or crash! After some research and setting Processing to background we set Proton to version 7 and ran as "Safe Mode" it finally worked.
Now works flawlessly every...

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is an action RPG much like Grim Dawn-meets-Diablo 3-meets-Warhammer 40K Chosbane. Traditionally its is a top down looting, melee, projectile, magic slaying monsters game, but once you level up... there are a lot of features to choose from.

• Skill Tree
• Special Abilities
• Character Stats

For the most part, Wolcen ran really well in Proton. There were a few instances where our character started moving really slowly and couldn't attack. But it was so infrequent we didn't research how to fix it. Probably something to do with bandwidth or ping speeds.

Honestly Wolcen was much to easy for my wife and I playing in co-op. We were able to connect over Steam and play the same campaign, which is pretty long... but there was a sever update which completely removed all of our skill tree selections. As a reward for this unfortunate event, they gave us both 400K coins which meant we could purchase anything we...