So I've mentioned before but was waiting on an SSD upgrade, but I'm finally taking the plunge into Linux gaming now. Those of you that are using Linux for gaming, is Garuda the best distro? Should I try something else?

Main concerns are being able to run as much of my games as possible, with the biggest portion of my library being from GoG, the rest with Steam. I'd prefer to not have to spend hours on config files for every game. I do intend to keep a Windows partition to dual-boot, but for me to consider this a success, the vast majority of my single player games and emulation needs to be in Linux. I don't plan to share installs on an NTFS drive so I can play on one or the other or anything, if it's to run in Linux it will be on a proper Linux partition.

My Linux experience and knowledge is well above average, it's been my "productivity" desktop for about 4 years now. I've done some small-scale server administration going back 20 years. Command line doesn't scare me, but I'm pretty bad at getting things to work that I have to compile myself.

I know Trump is the hot topic right now, but no reason to be the only topic.

This is not something I typically use, but I figured some here might have some suggestions. I'm looking for suggestions of apps that would run on iOS and help with security, like saving passwords, generating unique random passwords, etc. I looked around and a lot of it looks to be paid or big tech. I'd really prefer something that's open source and works well.

Needs to be beginner friendly. I'm trying to help a kid grow up a bit and learn to be more diligent about security and not getting accounts compromised all the time like he currently does. Encrypted files backed up on own hardware, etc, etc, etc. like I do is just way over his head.

I mentioned in a couple other posts I'd post like this. I like to read through these posts for game ideas and it's been a while.

So to start off, I had mentioned Trepang2 being a new indie FPS game that came out just this last week and the style of it being so much like F.E.A.R. That being one of my favorite FPS games, I had to break my own rules and give it a shot. I got it for $30 on GOG and am almost 5 hours in. Finished 3/5 main missions, 1/6 side missions, and 1 of the combat sims that is basically a horde mode. There's intel to pick up around the level if you're the completionist type, along with gun mods and such. A lot of reviews I've seen complain it's too short or reference some YT video where they beat it in 2 hours already by speedrunning, but all in all I don't feel screwed for $30--and I rarely buy games for as much as $30 even.

The good part, it's a pretty well put together game. I haven't run into any real bugs. I don't think it's crashed once. The graphics look good-to-great. It's a bit impressive for a team of four guys to have made something that definitely would have passed as AA+ not all that long ago. Don't really notice wokeism. I'm sure some of you nitpickers could find that there's a choice for red shoes and how don't I know red shoes are a dog whistle for drag queens or something like that, but in the grand scheme there's nothing glaring so far. Map aesthetics reminds me of F.E.A.R. Slightly better as it's not all office buildings. Shooting mechanics and bullet time from that game as well.

What I don't like is more of a difference from expectation to reality. This game is not F.E.A.R. at all. It's much more like 2016 Doom. I find it useless to even try to stealth or really use any tactics other than sprint around like a maniac. On top of the fact that there's grenades constantly chucked at you, there's just too many enemies all over the place to really adopt any other tactics.

So yeah, if you want a crazy adrenaline shooter go for it. It's a fun game. If you want a slow creepy horror shooter, find something else.

Also, what all are you playing? I've been down with a bum foot all weekend so I've been playing this and Dante's Inferno (yeah the really old one from 360/PS3).

So I was looking on GOG for something else, came across a release from today for a game called Trepang2. I don't do much by way of gaming journalism so I hadn't heard of it. It's basically a F.E.A.R. clone, and that being one of my favorite types of shooter games I had to check out the demo. Yeah, it's basically F.E.A.R. in my 15 mins of messing with it.

Thought I'd bring it up, I'm never interested in new games, and this can be a gaming forum at times. I'll probably buy it this weekend full price if I don't find out the devs are trannies or something. I never do the whole "I want to support the devs so I'll pay full price" thing either. I guess I really want the early 2000s FPS game to take off in the indie market.

I was thinking about this after having read so much lately about Blackrock and the like that essentially have so much damn money they control they can steer countries.

I don't know if this applies to Blackrock specifically (like I said this is a shower thought not a researched document), but I do know that 401k/retirement funds make up a lot of dollars that some powerful management groups are out there using for whatever the hell they feel like.

I've got one. I've been a corporate employee for over 15 years now, in all honesty it's a good past time in that it's not all that difficult for the income. In all that time I've put in just small regular amounts to the 401k, enough for company to match it and that's it. That match is where the problem comes in, for me almost no matter what it's never a bad deal to put in those small amounts because part of your pay is tied to that match essentially. Yet, I really don't have much control over it. Sure, I can pick some different "funds" that are managed to pretty much do what they claim, but all they really have to do to keep everyone quiet is track the stock market like they say they will.

After all this time though, I think the 401k is my biggest asset, or if not it's close. I don't really dabble in other paper investments outside of the occasional stock trade or something and it's not much. I generally like tangible assets better, e.g. real estate.

I'm just one person out of tons that essentially are "forced" into this deal by making it so much of a no-brainer. Then you have those who parrot on things like "maxing out retirement savings" and things I totally don't believe in. I'm sure some buy into those too. All in the end, to give a few big corporate fund managers the power to do whatever the hell they want.

I was in the mood for more FPS games after I played through FEAR 2 last week. Thought I'd try out Halo Infinite, and well they've ruined another franchise as far as I'm concerned. I've played about 4 hours of the campaign and I'm not sure I will even bother to finish. Prior to this I've played every Halo campaign at least twice, most of them three or four times.

The SJW stuff I could have even managed to overlook, because I don't care about the story that much. Still, it's noticeable that it's all women except you as Master Chief and one really pussy man that's like a ship's pilot. New Cortana is not only uglier, but she's just fucking annoying. It's a totally different personality and not in a good way.

Open world, no thanks. If I wanted to play FarCry I'd play FarCry.

The weapons suck. Feels like a bunch of slow BB guns and water pistols. I want the Covenant Carbine back. The Promethean weapons were fun in Halo 4, but these "Banished" weapons are terrible. You can't avoid them that much either because in the campaign you have to pick stuff up and they seem to be what's available. Honestly it feels like a game that took all the fun out of the weapons for the sake of some competitive balance that I couldn't give a shit less about for a campaign. I don't want my favorite weapon to be a Plasma Pistol in a Halo game, and I'm pretty sure that's what I've held on to the most.

I haven't tried multiplayer because I'm not interested anymore. I went into the customization and well it's very much constantly trying to separate me from my credit card. Expected I guess.

So that's my rant at least. Glad I didn't buy it and it won't join my collection going all the way back to Halo 1. At least I can still play those if I want.

So I've sort-of been trending towards PC gaming, not in the hardcore camp outside a store for a graphics card way, but I bought a little APU-based mini PC that has been surprisingly good late last year.

It's hooked up to my TV (I will not do desk gaming) and I'd like to play some things that are really not controller friendly, like Age of Empires, Deus Ex, Stalker series, maybe some old Sim City etc. Was thinking a trackball would be nice since I can lounge around without needing a flat space to sit it. It's a weird market though, there's different types yet not much to choose from. Seems like maybe stuck with Logitech, which the way I've been not thrilled with their stuff lately I'd be as happy trying out one of the capital letter Chinese brands that won't be much different.

Anyone that's done this for light (or heavy) gaming have any suggestions? I haven't used a trackball since my laptop had one over 25 years ago.

I'm curious others thoughts on when (or perhaps if) this supply issue with chips and GPUs comes to an end. I have to think it will at some point, but I don't follow PC stuff much.

Reasoning is I'm trying to solve a dilemma. I was about to sell off my old Radeon card, I only replaced it because the fan was noisy. I fixed the fan, then got distracted and let it sit in a drawer. Now I'm in drawer clean out phase. So I put it in my PC to test it. The thing is, it is still more than enough graphics card for me and I've got a friend offering me $100 more than I paid for my GTX 1660 in December 2019. I think they are fucking insane myself (it's not even a good card), but the prices check out when I look online.

So, I'm thinking about selling it, because I'm pretty much only a couch/TV/console gamer. I may convert to PC and build a totally new HTPC when my Xbox wears out it's welcome, but we are talking 2023-ish. I can't imagine I'd even want a GTX 1660 in 2023. Do we think it will still be impossible to get hardware by then?