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!
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
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.
If you like text-based adventure games, check out ifdb.org for a massive store of free and abandoned text-based games. You can play in-browser or on any OS with a native client, Linux and Android included
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
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.
You can even install Daggerfall Unity from GOG, specially using the Heroic Launcher.
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.
While it may not exactly match up with the body of your message, I think this would fit the subject line rather well:
…and cataclysm: dark days ahead.
with those two, i can survive indefinitely on (almost) any linux machine.
Well steam has proton, which can run many, many windows games at generally good speeds. I suggest looking at older games and indie games, as they will run best on your Xe. For example, the Heroes of Might and Magic series, particularly 3 and 5 are very good 4x/RPG hybrids. Find interesting games then go to protondb.com and see if its ‘gold’ or better
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
I recently played through every Deus Ex game on linux, first 2 are oibviously low end, and maybe Human Revolution , it came out in 2011. the original and Human revolution are pretty good if you like rpgs, Invisible war the second game is alright but pretty light on some elements that make those two great, cause it was made i think with thje original xbox in mind instead of pc.
Suikoden I and II are great PSX RPGs, if you can emulate. Shadowrun (Returns, Dragonfall and Hong Kong) are great and Linux native.
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 ;)
Tunic is a cute little old-zelda-like. It’s 3d, but very simple and has run on my steamdeck better than most things.
Mount and blade: Warband
Its on Steam
Absolutely yes, Warband is tons of fun and there’s no other game quite like it. The mods are great too, I’ve put so many hours into Floris and Prophesy of Pendor.
Don’t sleep on Gekokujo. Warring-states era Japan has a very different meta from the base game due to the firearms and lack of shields
using emulators could be a good idea. if battery life is an issue then NES, SNES and GBA RPG games could be a good choice
Between SNES, Genesis and GBA, there’s an enourmous wealth of RPG and adventure games out there
Hey, DOSBox is available on Linux! There are some hidden gems from the DOS era.
