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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I wouldnt limit yourself to native linux. Check out protondb.com. You can even use non-steam games through steam for use with proton (or if you’re feeling more technical you could use other tools that are more hands on).
Absolutely! Currently running Diablo 4 on the SteamDeck using Proton Experimental. Runs perfectly on medium-high settings at 45-50 fps. It’s insane how far we’ve come. When I first started using Linux over ten years ago, running Windows games was nigh-impossible. And Valve finally released their Steam client for Linux, the selection of games was … very limited.
Yeah, that’s part of the reason why I didn’t re-install Linux until recently. I would install it every few years, but it was only recently that I decided to keep it.
I didn’t quite know about ProtonDB and what it could do, but I did know that a lot more games are compatible lately so I thought I’d try it out. Linux is doing great it seems!
Oh that’s cool as hell. I think I was aware this existed but never explored it in depth? I’ll look up how to install it right now and see what my options are. I have a decently sized Steam library so this is nice.
FTL
Second this, FTL also has a pretty decent modding scene too
Factorio works well (at a smaller scale).
I’m a fan of card games like Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons, and Monster Train run on practically anything. There’s hundreds of hours of fun in there if you’re into these games.
Have you ever played Deep Sky Derelicts or One Step From Eden? I have those two games in my library from somewhere (I presume Humblebundle) so I’m wondering if those two are good?
I haven’t played Deep Sky Derelicts but One Step From Eden is a good time. It’s much more of an action game than a card game though, and very fast paced.
Stardew Valley is really lightweight and Linux native.
Since you mentioned battery being an issue and that you just switched to Linux, have you looked into using TLP or Powertop to try doing some tweaks to squeeze out a bit more? It’s been years since I’ve used Linux on a laptop, but that’s what I used.
I played Stardew Valley on Switch, but I cannot recommend it enough. One of the best games I’ve every played.
Never actually heard of those software until now. I looked it up and found out something about TLP having default settings—does this mean once I install it, I don’t have to touch it again? Or do I have to do something like go into a terminal and install default settings after I install it?
I installed it, I just don’t know what the next step is.
Pretty much! The Arch Wiki has some decent documentation on it (despite the name, aside from package names, it’s pretty much distro agnostic these days)
All you need to do is ensure that the service is enabled. In terminal: sudo systemctl enable --now tlp.service
Came here to recommend the same thing. It’s very lower-end hardware friendly, and is such a satisfying (and calming) game.
Rimworld is pretty resource light and runs native on Linux. Has the benefit of being one o of the greatest games ever, too. If you’re into to that kind of game (colony resource management and light war crimes)
Rimworld is great, has a massive modding community as well
Cannibalism, etc.
Not too too sure if I’d enjoy it, however I might…used to play games like Virtual Villagers when I was a kid, so it might be similar? I’ll look into it!
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.
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.
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
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
You can even install Daggerfall Unity from GOG, specially using the Heroic Launcher.
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.
SanctuaryRPG is so good! I never got terribly far but it’s very attractive and so addictive.
Slay the Spire is pretty cool.
Man, I sure hope we got something from r/slaythespire here :(
Set it up and I’ll sub.
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.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
Tunic is a cute little old-zelda-like. It’s 3d, but very simple and has runs on my steamdeck better than most things.
I second TUNIC. Barely needs anything to run and the game is quite good.
https://r-roms.github.io/megathread/sony/ I found this absolute treasure trove of roms if you want. well I was waiting for my main gaming pc to be shipped I pretty much lived off old ps2 games like ratchet and clank 2
… NetHack. Always NetHack.
Best game to play during class.
This was my answer. It’ll run on anything and it has a lot of depth. They also have some newer tilesets that make the game much more accessible.
and slashem if you want to spice it up!
Suikoden I and II are great PSX RPGs, if you can emulate. Shadowrun (Returns, Dragonfall and Hong Kong) are great and Linux native.
