How Interested Are You In XCOM 2 For Linux?

[Michael]

That said, benchmarks can wait a day or two.

As said in the article, there are no benchmarks to be done since XCOM2 Linux doesn't have a benchmark mode.

[castlefox]

I am very interested in Xcom2. But I dont have, and will never have NVIDIA proprietary graphics I will have to wait on this game

[numasan]

I bought the last XCOM the day it came out, and after 15 years of gaming drought, I am so happy to see and play these AAA games on my prefered platform. But... I have played maybe 1½ hour of XCOM1, and just wasn't sucked in to the gameplay. I knew this already when I bought the game though, since I mostly wanted to reward the developers and show that we Linux gamers are here. If I have money to burn, I'll probably buy XCOM2 just to see the intro sequence and the first level, but really, I already have to many games in my Steam library I havent even installed yet, Despite all that, it is so good to see more high profile games come to GNU/Linux, and that there are something for every taste. GG!

[chepati]

First impressions: I like the game very much! Will anxiously wait to finish work tomorrow so I can do a xcom2 weekend marathon.

I am running LFS (linux from scratch) with very up-to-date versions of everything. My CPU is intel i7-5960x, Asus X99-A mobo, Corsair 16GB 2400 DDR4, 1TB 7200 rpm WD disk, Nvidia 980 with binary driver 352.79, kernel 4.4.0, latest fluxbox to get plasma 5 out of the way. I am playing at 4K resolution on a 28" Asus monitor. Game performance is good. I can't see what FPS it's running at, but my gut feeling is 40-ish, dropping to 17-20 during some kill animations, or explosions. The game automatically set itself to the minimal preset, which is the worst out of five (minimal, low, medium, high, maximum). If I manually override to maximum, I feel frames drop to low teens and becomes barely playable. Again, this is with a single nvidia 980 at 4K resolution. I don't expect much better results under windows either. Thing is, I use SLI under windows, but am yet to set it up under linux. Once I do, I'm sure the results will be more impressive.

One thing I loved about the game is that it is a *native 64bit* binary!!! I hate 32bit binaries still dominating the gaming world in 2015/2016.

As far as the game itself goes, what can I say -- it's a strange feeling. I played XCom1 a lot (sadly not the original ones) and I loved it. Playing this one feels like I am playing the same game, yet a very different one. It feels fresh and exciting. And I've only played 2-3 missions so far, barely scratched the surface. One thing I like a lot is that life in your HQ is more ... dynamic. Used to be in XCom1 you just clicked on the labs, the workshop, the barracks (or whatever they called it), the comm room and that was it. Now it seems the base is bustling with life and I saw some cool "cutscenes" that gave a sense of purpose, of activity at the HQ.

Very nice game. Kudos to Firaxis and Feral!

[jamdox]

I'm still pissed about how half-baked beyond earth was, so I'm boycotting firaxis for now. I'll get this and rising tide once the price goes down, way down.

[DanLamb]

Phoronix: How Interested Are You In XCOM 2 For Linux?

Tonight's the launch for XCOM 2 while those really excited about this game can already begin pre-loading it on Steam. Are you interested in this successor to XCOM: Enemy Unknown?..

I don't want Steam on my work laptop. If I can buy, install, play this without Steam, I'll do it. Otherwise, it's not worth the headache.

[GraysonPeddie]

I suppose I would like to try out strategy sometime. When I think of the genre "strategy," I think of it as building and rebuilding roads and towns during the time of war. Or something like that. I did not get the whole point of the genre.

[Beherit]

My first impressions so far are mixed. The gameplay is great, 11/10. It feels like a natural evolution of the first game, a bit like the difference between Borderlands 1 and 2.

Unfortunately, I have "one of those" system configurations that are badly affected by a bug/several bugs that make the game lag so bad it's unplayable at times. The Steam forum is full of reports from angry and disappointed buyers about this. It seems to affect many, but far from all users.

It seems to affect Linux and Windows users alike, with most reports coming from those using SLI and/or high-end GeForce cards (980/Titan/etc).

I found a strange workaround that didn't remove the stuttering and lag completely but made the came playable: I launch it with Steam in offline mode.

[kneekoo]

I didn't play any of the X-Com games so far, although lately I've been looking at them with more interest, and X-Com 2 looks really good. I already have the first one, so chances are I will dig in someday. Until then, patches will run through and I'll get a smooth experience with it. )

I have too many games I didn't play, so I have a long queue.

[ElectricPrism]

I don't want Steam on my work laptop. If I can buy, install, play this without Steam, I'll do it. Otherwise, it's not worth the headache.

Steam = Headache 0_o

What a strange point of view, I purposely only buy games on Steam. Steam manages my game library so I don't have to personally download, store, and update games and game patches. Not only that but without steam it would be likely that each of my Linux games would require workaround and all have different library dependency hells to overcome. eg: Unreal 2004.

I am extremely grateful that I can shell out reasonable amounts of cash for the services they provide.