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.
Factorio
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.
Factorio might get a bit rough towards the endgame, but I would recommend it as well.
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.
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
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
RimWorld is great and runs on my toaster
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.
Garry’s Mod, Super Tux Kart
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.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.
Battle for Wesnoth: open source turn based strategy rpg.
I started playing Wesnoth something like 15 years ago because I was a kid who didn’t have access to ways to pay for games online. I’ve come back to it on-and-off years later - it’s a hell of a game for lasting that long.
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
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.
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.
With the blackout, I see the Gaming community will be assimilated into the LinuxGaming community and I’m here for it.
