For Linux, I recommend the DualShock 4 (PS4) and DualSense (PS5) controllers. They have native support built into the kernel, so you don’t need to install drivers. They’re great in Steam, emulators, Wine, and most native linux games. They work in both USB and bluetooth mode. Motion controls work. Touchpad works. Rubmle works. Dead zones are nice and small.
The only features I’m not sure about are the DualSense haptics and adaptive trigger feedback. There was work happening on those when I last looked a couple years ago; I haven’t checked recently.
A few people have reported lag with certain bluetooth adapters. I haven’t seen it with any of the hardware I’ve used, but if you encounter it, you can always get a different bluetooth adapter or exchange the controller for some other model.
There’s a portion of the map where you and the gang are wanted dead or alive because of the ferry heist. Entering it for most of the game will get you a maximum wanted level, headhunters will show up, and eventually the game kills you. That restriction is lifted in the final act.
The world opens up once you get out of the snow and settle down in the Horseshoe Overlook camp. You’ll still have linear story missions to do, but you can start those whenever you feel like, and explore as much as you want.
After you beat the story you can go to the area from the first game as a fun little bonus. The main area of the game opens up in chapter 2 after about 4 missions
It’s a driver issue while they support the same connectivity tech a trigger could be read as an analogue sticks veriticle axis, without driver support the device can’t be read well by the system.
Reccomendation 8bitdo ultimate Works with Linux and Windows you can switch to console it’s mainly setup for switch, Hall effect sticks so no drift.
Consoles have used different wireless tech/protocols but mostly use bluetooth now. Bluetooth devices should be able to work on pc but may require extra hassle like non standard protocol and no official drivers if they weren’t intended to be used that way. For the ones that do work the main takeaway is no additional dongle if your system already has bluetooth, but there may be addititonal input latency.
2.4ghz is kinda silly naming because bluetooth and wifi are both 2.4ghz, though wifi also has 5ghz, but it usually refers to presumably proprietary protocol over 2.4ghz and uses a usb dongle. It will generally be faster/lower latency but that isn’t even guaranteed as the 2.4ghz mentioned never refers to any standard.
The latency difference will only be noticible to cats or birds or something unless the controller tries to pass the headset audio to the pc. Bluetooth audio has a noticable delay compared to most ‘2.4ghz’ options, particularly noticable in rhythm games, games with inputs timed to audio cues, voice chats where everyone else has low latency audio and fast internet, and probably other stuff I’m not personally into.
Deciding your controller comes down to a lot of things. If the means exist in your area, try as many as you can to determine your most comfortable size, shape and layout. Other than that you absolutely must do yourself a favour and get a controller with hall effect sticks. The console companies all love stick drift. Don’t be fooled by Sony’s replacable stick controller either, the sticks are always out of stock and if you can solder you can get a regular controller and swap to hall effect yourself, both sticks, when drift starts for like $5 CAD vs $25 for 1 that will eventually die in the same way.
But probably just don’t give m$ sony or nint your money since they all get drift and I have replaced the battery and charge circuit on 8 separate ps4 controllers and drifting sticks on so so many of every big3 console controller. 8bitdo has a few stick and trigger hall effect controllers which I can mostly recommend, I have the hall stick only version of the ultimate controller and several of their older regular stick controllers. They are noted for their very close replica feel of snes dpad and face buttons but the configuration and firmware update software was windows only last I checked. I also quite like retro fighters controllers but all of their hall effect options are on closed preorder pending fulfillment. There are other highly regarded non big3 brands that I haven’t tried that seem to have pretty solid feature set and build quality too.
The used market is also an option. Arrange for testing though, and pass or haggle on drift, charging problems, filth, etc. Ifixit teardown guides for swapping parts or just cleaning the shells and button caps in soapy water with a soft rag. Watch out for devices originally sold with ‘soft touch’/‘smooth grip’/etc finish as all of them have degraded and become sticky even unopened in box by now.
If you can get a controller with Hall effect sensor that would be top. Else just get an Xbox series controller and call it a day. If you’re generally ruff with your joystick, you might look into cheaper controller, as all with no hall joysticks might start to drift earlier.
I’m very happy with my xbox series controller but others have less luck. But my mainboard has Bluetooth, so I can easily connect the controller. Some say you need the adapter, but I don’t, probably because it uses the newest Bluetooth version protocols.
The best controller was my original Xbox cable controller. It lasted me 15 years or more.
Like others said, driver support for console controllers is pretty good through the board.
My suggestion: try them out, maybe in a local store on their demo stations (pretty regular around here at least) or by ordering and returning the one you don’t like.
I personally like the controller layout of the XBox controller more than the PlayStation one. But it comes down to preference. So definitely test drive to find the best suit for you.
It’s really hard to beat a branded Xbox controller, these days. I was extremely skeptical for a long time, then I gave one a shot, and there’s no going back.
The story is pretty dumb. I wouldn’t say it’s bad necessarily, I just think it’s dumb how often we get into whole town shootouts, amd then just pay 80-90 bucks to make it go away. Oh, and fuck Micah, that guy can get lost.
Except… for the combat. By the end of the game, they need 50 bad guys to even pose a challenge to our Max Paine protagonist. But not in the cut scene, of course. By mid-game, you’ve killed more cowboys than cholera.
There is a beautiful quick-draw mechanic that’s only necessary in 2 (optional) side quests.
Wouldn’t even be in my top 10. I loved the world, I just wished the story would go away and just allow me to experience it by myself. To. Me it felt like amazing technology being wasted on a decidedly average game
I agree. Stunning. It’s not for everyone, but, those who can appreciate the slow, beautiful, revealing beauty and enjoy taking their time, this game is as good as it gets.
Those that mash buttons to skip cutscenes, may as well give it a miss and try something else
I love the idea of paying one-time to play offline, but it’s not currently very possible to do in-app purchases on a ROM like GrapheneOS, which you mentioned in the post as being something users (myself included) have. Will there be a way to pay outside of the in-app purchase dialogue to get access? (i.e. donate through bmac, then link account to app temporarily to confirm) I’d definitely like more of my money to go to you, rather than a play store fee.
Additionally, will there be a direct APK download at all, or will it only be available through the Play Store? (obviously privacy-preserving frontends like the Aurora Store exist, but it’s nice to have an APK download too 😊)
Thank you for making privacy the default setting, while still letting users share more if they want to. This is something I always love to see!
I’d 100% sign up for the beta right now, but since my GrapheneOS phone doesn’t have the ability to use the Play Store beta features, I’ll hold off on that so I don’t take someone’s spot :)
Depending on how the legislations now post-DMA go, it might be possible to also handle payments throughout our Portal instead of app stores. The app stores, especially Apple’s, has still a bunch of rules in their ToS about this where they might remove the game entirely if you’re not using their payment system. Android is slightly more lenient on this regard though.
The cuts Patreon already takes (a whopping 14% in total, after which we then play VAT) already affects us enough that I would definitely love to rather have my own systems, but also they offer a lot of convenience to the users that we couldn’t at this point.
But overall it would be great if we could provide a direct payment system straight from Portal, as we could price that one also significantly cheaper than using Google’s or Apple’s systems when we don’t need to pay their cuts. It’s something I really want to do to be able to make the pricing as affordable as possible, and everything depends on if it’s both feasible and allowed by the app stores. But can’t promise this, as there are a lot of factors in play whether it’s feasible to provide our own systems and if it’s allowed by the biggest stores.
When it comes to direct APK downloads, maybe if we can get a good pipeline for those. I think the most realistic option is that we’ll pick the one for an “extra release pipeline” that we can automate most easily to our current systems. Could be Aurora Store, F-Droid or some other depending on what kind of automation options they offer.
I’m not an expert on what automation options they might offer, but I know Aurora Store will essentially just pass through anything you do on the Play Store since it’s just a frontend, and for F-Droid you can host a repo where you place any updated APK to automatically make it available to anyone linked to your repo.
I know alternative payment options are probably a nightmare to properly set up and integrate, so it may not be worth the increased cut of revenue you’d get, but I’m really glad you’re considering it!
I look forward to trying the game when it comes out :)
Oh yeah, I wanted to recommend an f-droid release as well, but thought you had to open your source up for that.
I hadn’t thought of making your own repository where you don’t have to do that \o/
I’m not an expert on the process, but anyone making a custom repo should be able to store the F-Droid repo on GitHub.
It looks like you wouldn’t need to make the app open-source either, as it should be capable of just accepting an apk file. (and possibly auto update from any GitHub releases page, not sure on that though)
Again, not an expert, I haven’t made an F-Droid repo yet myself, so I may have understood something wrong, but it looks relatively straightforward according to their guide
This wouldn’t make it available to users through the default preinstalled repo in F-Droid (which is heavily privacy-focused and limited in scale) but it would allow any user to just click a link or scan a QR code to add your repo to their F-Droid app.
With the release of the Dark Souls 2 Lighting Engine mod, I’ve been motivated to pick that game back up again. I played DS2 for the first time about a year ago, got maybe a third through, and then kind of fell off. It’s fun to be back in Drangleic! Last time I was rolling a Paladin-type character with Faith and melee weapons, this time I’m interested in making a huge-sword type build and pivoting to hexes in the later game. The lighting mod also let’s you mod in HDR if your monitor is capable, and boy howdy does it look incredible with the improved lighting and HDR 🤩
Edit: here’s some screenshots i took capturing how bright Majula is, and capturing the added shadows.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne