195 replies to this topic

[abarbarian]

LilBambi, on 21 July 2012 - 02:30 PM, said:

Ah, OK, they did a Lulu book:

LibreOffice 3.4 Getting Started

Hadn't realised she was doing audio books.

http://www.lulu.co.uk/

  

[LilBambi]

Well, this was Lulu.com actually but I hear ya.

[sunrat]

I suppose you've all heard that Valve is bringing it's Steam game client to Linux. Here's an interesting bit of related news:
Valve's L4D2 Is Faster On Linux Than Windows

[securitybreach]

sunrat, on 01 August 2012 - 10:18 PM, said:

I suppose you've all heard that Valve is bringing it's Steam game client to Linux. Here's an interesting bit of related news:
Valve's L4D2 Is Faster On Linux Than Windows

Yup and so has Stallman: GNU founder Stallman calls DRM’d Steam for Linux games "unethical"

[abarbarian]

sunrat, on 01 August 2012 - 10:18 PM, said:

I suppose you've all heard that Valve is bringing it's Steam game client to Linux. Here's an interesting bit of related news:
Valve's L4D2 Is Faster On Linux Than Windows

If that speed bump is carried over to all the games Valve plans to bring to linux then Windows will have a fight on their hands.

[sunrat]

Valve are definitely unhappy about Windows 8, partly because of the new app store. Blizzard also have stated similar dissatisfaction. Maybe Linux will become the gamer's choice OS.

Valve Boss Gabe Newell Says ''Windows 8 is a Catastrophe''

[abarbarian]

http://worldofgnome....gnu-backgammon/

Quote

GNU Backgammon is a fun backgammon game, match and position analysis tool, statistical estimator and random generator based on a neural network. It can serve you as an application to use when you want to kill some minutes of your free time playing the wonderful game of backgammon, or improve your playing strength through game analysis and  playing against a very strong engine.

http://www.gnubg.org/

Quote

GNU Backgammon (gnubg) is for playing and analysing backgammon positions, games and matches. It's based on a neural network. In the past twelve months it has made enormous progress. It currently plays at about the level of a championship flight tournament player. Depending on its parameters and its luck in recent games, it rates from around 1900 to 2000 on FIBS, the First Internet Backgammon Server -- at its strongest, it ranks in the top 5 of over 6000 rated players there) and is gradually improving; it should be somewhat stronger than this when released. Since almost all of the CPU time required during supervised training is spent performing rollouts, and rollouts can easily be performed in parallel, it is hoped that users will be able to pool rollout results and collectively train it to a level stronger than any individual could obtain.

Sounds very interesting. I might have to try building an Arch package later in the autumn.  

[sunrat]

Interesting you should mention it now, I installed it a few weeks back and have played quite a few games.
Warning - GNUBackgammon cheats by using AI from the world's top players! There should be a NoobBackgammon as well so I can win. (forgive me the N word in this context please) I reckon I win one out of five games. Last time it threw itself two double sixes and a double five to finish while I got two throws of 2-1. Still, it is a great game and very challenging.

[abarbarian]

sunrat, on 01 September 2012 - 09:46 PM, said:

Interesting you should mention it now, I installed it a few weeks back and have played quite a few games.
Warning - GNUBackgammon cheats by using AI from the world's top players! There should be a NoobBackgammon as well so I can win. (forgive me the N word in this context please) I reckon I win one out of five games. Last time it threw itself two double sixes and a double five to finish while I got two throws of 2-1. Still, it is a great game and very challenging.

Does it work ok, is it stable etc ?
Did you have to build it yourself?

Dig into the customisation menues to tweak it to suit you.

Quote

The GNU Backgammon engine can play in 8 pre-set different levels or tuned by the user to the desirable playing strength. Depending on its parameters and its luck in recent games, it rates from around 1900 to 2000 on FIBS, the First Internet Backgammon Server — at its strongest, it ranks in the top 5 of over 6000 rated players there) and is gradually improving.

[sunrat]

abarbarian, on 02 September 2012 - 06:36 AM, said:

Does it work ok, is it stable etc ?
Did you have to build it yourself?
Dig into the customisation menues to tweak it to suit you.

It's been totally stable so far.
I installed it straight from the Debian repo; the package is called gnubg.
I may tweak it to be a bit dumber, but I like a challenge as it should make me a better player eventually (and maybe I can beat my friend Johnny in Saigon next time I'm there ).

[abarbarian]

Thanks sunrat. I installed on my Arch. Ran really well until I tried to change my opponent to "world class" then it froze the session. Guess it could not stand the pace or may be it was shocked that anyone would want to play at a higher level.  

Or maybe the idiot player just needed to press the Esc button to get back to a fully working window.  

Edited by abarbarian, 13 September 2012 - 12:28 PM.

[sunrat]

Woohoo! I just won my first match in GnuBackgammon. I turned the AI down to "Advanced" instead of the default "Expert". Still it was a close battle, 6 points to 7.
Reminds me of when I played 401 games against a housemate over a few months. I won, 201 games to 200.

[abarbarian]

sunrat, on 03 September 2012 - 08:45 AM, said:

Woohoo! I just won my first match in GnuBackgammon. I turned the AI down to "Advanced" instead of the default "Expert". Still it was a close battle, 6 points to 7.
Reminds me of when I played 401 games against a housemate over a few months. I won, 201 games to 200.

Way to go whooopeee. I'm managing to win individual games at EXPERT but have not won a set yet.

This is probably the best looking backgammon game I have ever played on a pc. The 3D mode is super and the  choice of boards etc is excellent.
Only fault I have against it is, it is very time consuming.

[abarbarian]

http://www.bit-tech....-tech.net feed)

Quote

Indie first-person-terroriser Amnesia: The Dark Descent has raked in ten times the $360,000 it cost to produce, according to developer Frictional Games.

In a "21 months in" report posted on the studio's blog, Frictional Games co-founder Thomas Grip stated that optimistically, the game has sold 1.36 million units, including copies sold as part of the Valve Potato Sack and Humble Indie Bundle promotions. Excluding these offers, Amnesia: The Dark Descent sold 710,000 units on its own.

In terms of monthly sales, the game currently shifts 10,000 units at full price, even after nearly two years on the market.

Well done that team and not a DRM in sight.

You can get the demo from here

http://gameupdates.o...ils.php?id=4315

Quote

Welcome to gameupdates.org!

Tired of waiting in line for your downloads? Download directly from our dedicated seeders. gameupdates.org is a community based site where everyone is able to upload & download patches, demos and mods for the latest games.
All downloads are based on the BitTorrent protocol so you must have a BitTorrent client installed to download files. gameupdates.org is FREE for everyone and you don't have to register to use it.

Well that team for using torrents.

The more folk who use torrents for legal purposes the better. Give the man the finger use legal torrents.

[abarbarian]

http://www.bit-tech....-tech.net feed)

Quote

The IndieGameStand, which launches on September 26, will aim to promote indie games by offering developers a low barrier to entry route to exposure and publicity. Each title will be offered on a pay-what-you-want basis for 96 hours to help developers build a following and generate buzz around their releases.

Games available through the site will be DRM free and 10% of the amount paid will also go to a charity of the developer’s choice. At launch, the site will accept funds through PayPal, Google Checkout and Amazon Payments.

Downloaded games will be accessible from a central “digital game wallet” and several titles will also come with Steam or Desura keys. IndieGameStand is even offering refunds to anyone who may be unhappy with their purchases.

[securitybreach]

abarbarian, on 13 September 2012 - 12:33 PM, said:

http://www.bit-tech....-tech.net feed)



Well done that team and not a DRM in sight.

You can get the demo from here

http://gameupdates.o...ils.php?id=4315






Well that team for using torrents.

The more folk who use torrents for legal purposes the better. Give the man the finger use legal torrents.

Great game!! The only problem is I couldn't figure out how to get it working with my multi-monitor setup and XMonad. When I tried it before, it would launch the game on all of my monitors instead of just the main one. I ended up beating the game on my windows partition so I never tried it again. I may have to check it out again and figure out what the issue is.

[sunrat]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent sounds too scary for me.
Just a note on the mentioned user mods that are possible. I've been playing GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony a bit in online multiplayer lately and have encountered several nasty modders/hackers. One is invincible, you can pump dozens of bullets in and he won't die. Another one I ran over with a bus and he immediately put me and the bus 500m in the air and falling. It spoils the game for everyone. Still, most mods like new maps, weapons, vehicles etc. are a plus.

[abarbarian]

http://gameupdates.o...ils.php?id=4814

Quote

A custom story for Amnesia: The Dark Descent in which you once again take on the role of Daniel, roughly one year after his ordeal at Brennenburg. Daniel has been doing quite well since his escape, but one night, a loud crash awakens him. It is up to you to investigate the source of the disturbance, and find out what it all means.

You might like this free mod then Josh.

Come on sunrat yer not scared of the dark are you

[sunrat]

abarbarian, on 14 September 2012 - 07:33 AM, said:

Come on sunrat yer not scared of the dark are you

There might be zombies!

[abarbarian]

sunrat, on 14 September 2012 - 09:02 AM, said:

There might be zombies!

Ah I see. Well I can guarantee no zombies in these.

Quote

The Slender Man was created at the Something Awful Forums in a thread entitled "Create Paranormal Images." He is described as wearing a black suit strikingly similar to the visage of the notorious Men In Black, and as the name suggests, appears very thin and able to stretch his limbs and torso to inhuman lengths in order to induce fear and ensnare his prey. Once his arms are outstretched, his victims are put into something of a hypnotized state, where they are utterly helpless to stop themselves from walking into them.

Not much is known, as no specific information has been found about origins, but his objective and habitat are made very clear. He has the need to kidnap children, and is seen right before the disappearance of a child or multiple children. He seems to prefer fog enshrouded streets and wooded areas as a way to conceal himself from being noticed. It should also be noted that children have been able to see him when no other adults in the vicinity could. Children also have dreams or nightmares concerning The Slender Man before their disappearance. Confiding these stories to their parents are met with the usual parental admonition: overactive imaginations.

The original Slenderman game

Slender: The Eight Pages v0.9.7


Slenderman's Shadow 5 episodes from the modding comunity

https://corecapator....t-pages-v0-9-7/

https://www.nytimes....eview.html?_r=1

An a final word from the New York Times,

Quote

A player’s imagination will always be more powerful than even the most impressive, high-resolution graphics. That’s doubly true in horror games. It’s what we don’t see that truly frightens us. Slender: The Eight Pages is the most recent evidence. This free computer game is simple, even crude, and yet it serves up bracing thrills.

I thought I had better give some of the above a real time run through. All I can say is ----------------rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrun.

Edited by abarbarian, 15 September 2012 - 06:55 AM.

[abarbarian]

http://www.thepowerb...-plus-giveaway/

Quote

We are getting closer and closer to the release date of Steam For Linux, and with that release will come the hotly anticipated L4D2 for Linux!
No prices have been announced but we want to make sure that you get a chance to give it a shot. We will be giving away a copy of L4D2 to a lucky Linux user, maybe more.
Want the details? Entering the contest is simple.

[abarbarian]

Hope this is ok here.

http://www.gameupdat...d=5152&dllist=1

You can get the torrent from above or the official site

http://release.blackmesasource.com/

Quote

This game has been Greenlit by the Community!

The community has shown their interest in this game. Valve has reached out to this developer to start moving things toward release on Steam.


Requires only a FREE installation of the Source Sdk Base 2007!

We are releasing Black Mesa to the world for FREE on September 14th! Give us a THUMBS UP to help our game get on Steam! When we are on Steam we’ll be able to reach more players and make installation and future updates easy for everyone!

Prepare for an experience that you will find Nostalgic, exciting and fresh. Black Mesa is a re-envisioning of Valve Software's seminal game Half-Life. You will re-visit the inaugural role of Gordon Freeman and his memorable journey through the Black Mesa Research Facility.

Expect tremendously detailed environments to explore, a huge cast of characters and experimental weaponry. All-new music, voice acting, choreography and added dialogue give way to a more expansive and immersive experience than ever before. In a nutshell, play Half-life the way we think it was meant to be played!

Features:
Play for FREE! You need not purchase anything!
8-10 Hours of single-player gameplay, up to the Lambda Core chapter.
Feast your eyes on over 2,000 custom Models and 5,000 custom textures – more than HL2!
Experience over 2,000 choreographed scenes and over 6,500 lines of dialogue from all new voice acting!
Subtitles in English, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, German, and Finnish!
Immerse yourself in an all new soundtrack and over 2,300 custom sound effects!
Feel the impact of custom systems such as the Face Creation System, Custom Gib System, Deathcam and more.

11 hours left to final download.Wouldn't fast broadband be nice. Reports from chums say this is the biz. I love HL.

Sorry Josh I forgot these links.

http://linuxo.com/ca...ack-mesa-source

Quote

Black Mesa is full of funny references and jokes. There is one such incident in game where a can of cola is shown with a rather unique branding of 'Linux Cola, 100% Open Sauce'.

Black Mesa developers haven't done this to offend anyone but 'sauce' is rather a pun for source. They are saying that the game is 100% open source.

An if you want to play it on a Buntu.

http://linuxgamecast...ith-winetricks/

Edited by abarbarian, 17 September 2012 - 03:16 PM.

[securitybreach]

abarbarian, on 17 September 2012 - 02:32 PM, said:

Hope this is ok here.

http://www.gameupdat...d=5152&dllist=1

You can get the torrent from above or the official site

http://release.blackmesasource.com/







11 hours left to final download.Wouldn't fast broadband be nice. Reports from chums say this is the biz. I love HL.

Nah, as this has nothing to do with Linux (yet).

After adding the links, it seems fine...

[sunrat]

OK, I tried Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Wickedly scary.

[abarbarian]

Just the sort of game you should be playing with the nights drawing in   That will have primed you up for the Slenderman games