Linux

Linux (or GNU/Linux if you're nitpicky - and be sure to pronounce it correctly) is a family of free Unix-like operating systems.
Even though its desktop presence is still modest, Linux is immensely popular in pretty much every other field: smartphones and tablets (as Android is derived from it), netbooks (as Chrome OS is also derived from it), embedded devices, internet servers, scientific supercomputers, corporate mainframes, graphics renderfarms, and so on. Now that Windows 10 is quite literally spyware, and Apple's machines are as overpriced as ever, you are well advised to look into this.
Now you may ask: "Sure /tech/ies love this thing, but what about the vidya?" True, Linux has far fewer games than Windows. But these days we're seeing many more ports, thanks to multiplatform engines and digital distribution. Other than native games, there is Wine, a compatibility layer to run Windows applications. Indeed, Valve's Steam Play can deliver Windows games to Linux systems, automatically embedded on a customized Wine wrapper, so it appears to you like any native game on Steam. Check the compatibility list.
"But is this thing actually usable by non-super-nerds?" Yes, Linux is much friendlier these days, although the sheer amount of options can be intimidating. For instance, first thing to do: choose one out of hundreds of distributions. You could try them all, as most can be run as live media (boot from a DVD or USB stick, and run it without installing anything on your hard disk). But let's make this simple: Mint, Elementary, Solus, Manjaro, Lite. Pick at random, any of them should be fine for newbies... No, not Gentoo!
==Free games from repositories==
To download and install programs on Linux, one typically does not download executable files from various websites and run them by hand; instead, distros provide a software repository or package manager. If something is not in your distro's manager, you can still port the package over but you might need to puzzle out some missing dependencies. For those of us who love to tinker on the engine more than driving the car, you can get the source code for each of these and compile it by hand.
Picture 	Title 	Genre 	Description
 	0 A.D. 	Real-time Strategy 	Historical RTS heavily inspired by Age of Empires. Very nice graphics and a variety of historical civilizations to play as. No campaign mode (yet) but the multiplayer works and the AIs are decently challenging.
 	Battle for Wesnoth 	Turn-based Strategy 	Fantasy strategy game where much of the game's units, music, artwork, and campaigns are player contributed. The game plays on a hex based system, with terrain affecting the accuracy of attacks and unit movement. Six well-balanced factions are available for play at the start. It makes you really feel like you're commanding an army by having you level troops into hardened veterans, which you can recall for future battles. Dozens of custom units are available for single player and multiplayer by downloading player mods known as "eras". Fantastic quality considering it's freeware. Download stable version if you just want to play the game without too many bugs.
 	Beneath a Steel Sky 	Adventure/Point 'N Click	Classic adventure style game that follows Robert Foster on a journey through a cyberpunk-esque metropolis. Requires ScummVM to be played, but that is also a free install from your local package repository. Fun fact: the background art is drawn by Dave Gibbons of Watchmen fame.
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/freeciv/images/thumb/b/b3/Freeciv-2.1.0-beta3-sdl_slack11.0.png/200px-Freeciv-2.1.0-beta3-sdl_slack11.0.png	Freeciv 	Empire Building 	The awesome that is Sid Meier's Civilization, now with multiplayer that isn't hot-seat, custom tilesets, and you can tinker the hell out of the rules. It's been upgraded since to play more like Civ2. If you preferred the sort-of sequel "Colonization," check out FreeCol.
 	Frogatto 	Adventure/Platformer 	Old school adventure platformer with RPG elements like quests and buying powerups.
 	Frozen Bubble 	Puzzle 	It's Bust-A-Move, that game that's like Breakout plus Bejeweled where you break the walls by adding more bricks. Every Linux magazine from here to India puts this in their top ten list. Casual gamers can't get enough of this on Linux or any other platform.
 	Micropolis 	Simulator 	A free port of the original SimCity.
200px 	Nethack 	Roguelike 	Imagine Dungeons and Dragons in a very difficult, video game form. Death is permanent, the dungeon is always randomly generated, and you aren't going to win for a very long time. A spinoff of "Rogue," so it's a Rogue-like game, but everyone had a go at the source code to add everything including kitchen sinks. You can check out the game's wiki Here. Default interface is ASCII graphics in a term window, but you can download extra packages for a tileset or even isomorphic interface instead.
 	Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 	Roguelike 	This game is a modern take on the roguelike genre that doesn't stray too far from its roots. It keeps the randomly generated environments, turn-based gameplay and punishing difficulty of classic roguelikes. But reduces the amount of keystrokes to learn, replaces the ASCII with more descriptive tiles and improves the interface to the point it is playable by using a mouse. It also focuses on reducing the amount of spoilers required to finish the game without sacrificing its inherent complexity. Definitely one of the best modern roguelikes (others are ADOM and TOME4) around and probably the easiest one to get into that doesn't dumb things down too much (Dungeons of Dredmor) or is barely a roguelike (FTL, Spelunky, Binding of Isaac). You can get it here.
 	Oolite 	Space Combat, Trading 	The classic 8-bit galaxy-on-a-single-floppy space game Elite lives on. Better graphics (duh), a mod community and a wiki proves that Elite ain't dead.
 	OpenTTD 	City simulation 	Reimplementation of Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Pay off your debt by setting up highways, rail lines, and airports moving people and goods in between cities.
 	Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection	Puzzle, Casual 	Futoshiki, Lightup, Loopy, Nonograms, Sudoku, Untangle... all those Japanese puzzles that people install on their Blackberries and iPhones and buy cheap books of at Barnes and Noble, Simon Tatham already ported them to Linux and you can make each one as hard or as easy as you want. Also available on Android (which is Linux under the hood, so no surprise.)
 	Spring RTS Engine 	Realtime Strategy 	It's Total Annihilation re-implemented to use OpenGL and more computing power. When the kids in high school were pissing themselves over the strategy of StarCraft, the TRUE neckbeards-in-training were playing Total Annihilation. The game mods have taken on a life of their own, so you can use Spring Engine for real-time strategy games with rules (not just re-skinned units!) for WWII, Gundam, Star Wars, sci-fi, necromancers, or even a Tron game if Darwinia isn't crunchy enough for you.
 	SuperTuxKart 	Racing 	A cool mascot racer in the vein of Mario Kart. But here, all the characters are mascots of various free software projects, such as BSD's Beastie, GIMP's Wilber, and KDE's Konqi.
 	Torus Trooper 	SHMUP 	Another shooter from Kenta Cho. Remember Tempest? This is Tempest on steroids. You're racing down this tube, sometimes at over 4000km/h blowing shit up. The graphics and music help to put you in the mood too, kind of has the same feel as Rez. It's not a game with a whole lot of depth, but it's fun to play every now and then.
 	The Ur-Quan Masters 	RPG 	Star Control 2. Adventure across the stars, recruiting other aliens that got the shit kicked out of them since the previous game, or fend off the aliens that decided to kiss ass to the new murderous-squid overlords. Between exploring distant stars and doing mineral scans (Hmmmm...) you get into ship-to-ship action combat against different vessels with a rock-paper-scissors balance of abilities.
 	Widelands 	Real-time strategy 	Settlers 2. Economy-focused RTS.
==Free games in distro-agnostic packages==
These are still typically free software (or at least freeware), but do not use your easy-peasy package manager to install itself deep in your system. Most of the time, they are just binaries (or executables in Windows parlance) in downloadable tar.gz archives (which work like .zip files). Though, in some more rare cases, these may also include games that come as source code only -- you need to hunt down the right libraries through your distro's package manager, compile, and install manually (while trickier, this has the added bonus of increased optimization for your computer hardware, however marginal).
Picture	Title 	Genre 	Description 	Link
 	Abuse 	Platformer 	You got locked up in a prison where illegal genetic experiments take place, and all the inmates were transformed into monsters. A 2D platformer with a rather unique mouse-driven aim system, a gritty style, and merciless action. Was made free when the developer went bankrupt. Worth checking out. 	Mod DB
 	Dwarf Fortress 	Sim 	Comes with 2 game modes: Fortress mode where you set off with a bunch of dwarves to make your fort in the wilderness, and Adventurer: A roguelike with no purpose(yet). Addictive gameplay, very in depth damage system(even keeps track of how much damage each FINGER receives), and a game so confusing to newcomers it is recommended to read MagmaWiki thoroughly before playing, or watch the tutorial videos like 51ppycup's YouTube. It's definitely the most complex game you've ever played, and probably the most complex game you will ever play. It's worth the endeavor though.	Official site
 	EasyRPG Player 	RPG 	This interpreter runs pretty much any RPGMaker 2000/2003 game (originally only for Windoze). 	Official site
 	Heroes of Newerth 	Action-RTS 	It's DotA by S2 Games. Need I say more? Just run the shell script in terminal to install and you're good to go. Went F2P model because of competition from LoL. Some heroes are original, while others are ported from DotA. This'll hold you over until Gaben decides to port every Valve game (DotA2) to Linux. 	Official site
 	Katawa Shoujo 	Visual Novel	The story tells of a young man who, after suffering a heart attack upon hearing a confession from the girl he loves, is diagnosed with cardiac dysrhythmia and sent to a school where he meets several lovely and charming teenage girls who each suffer from a different disability. 	Official site
 	Marathon trilogy 	FPS 	The predecessor to the Halo series. The year is 2794 and you are a security officer aboard the UESC Marathon, a large, multi-generational colony spacecraft (converted from one of Mars's moons). As the ship and the Tau Ceti colony are attacked by hostile extraterrestrials, you find that something is amiss with the ship's artificial intelligences - one of which having gone quite insane after figuring out a secret greater than universe itself. 	SourceforgeSDL port
 	Revenge of the Cats: Ethernet	Team FPS 	Tug-of-war style territory fight with an unusual travel/heal/respawn mechanic. 	Official site
 	Typhoon 2001 	Tube shooter	Fan remake of Tempest 2000, one of the trippiest shooters ever. 	Mirror
 	World of Padman 	Arena FPS 	Wacky colorful cartoons and cleavage. Spray your color and run around on bookshelves. 	Official site
 	Xonotic 	Arena FPS 	This is very much like Quake (its engine actually is a massively improved version of the original Quake engine), but with even more jumping around; you'll see what I mean once you play it. Includes game modes like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, "Keyhunt" and more, both in Singleplayer and Multiplayer. Has about 10-30 people playing for any region at their respective daily "peak times", but hopefully there will be more once version 1.0 is released. 	Official site
== Commercial games ==
Picture	Title 	Genre 	Year Released	Description 	Where to acquire
 	Alpha Centauri 	Empire Building 	1999 	FreeCiv IN SPAAAAAACE. There's some story that gets revealed, and landmarks you can make use of even on a randomly generated world. More diplomacy and culture-changing options too. 	
 	Amnesia: The Dark Descent 	Horror & Survival 	2010 	You play as Daniel, an amnesiac who must investigate the mysterious Castle Brennenburg, with only two goals in mind: Find your memories, and kill the castle's owner, the mysterious Alexander of Brennenburg. VERY loosely based on Lovecraft's "The Outsider" (So loosely based that you will only understand the similarities after you beat the game). TL:DR; Decently hard puzzles. Loads of NOPENOPENOPE 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Aquaria 	Action-adventure 	2007 	Massive award-winning indie title created by Spelunky programmer Derek Yu and Crayon Physics Deluxe composer Alec Holowka. Aquaria features huge underwater environments with an emphasis on exploration, challenging-but-not-stupid boss battles and an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack. Before you ask: yes, there is a nude mod.
An absolute must-have for any Metroidvania fan. 	GOGSteam
 	Baldur's Gate 	RPG 	1998 	Role playing game based on the D&D universe; great story and characters, you have control over a party up to six heroes, and well, it's one of the best RPGs of all time. 	GOGSteam
 	Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn 	RPG 	2000 	You control a party of 6 characters, each with their own extensive personalities. If you carry both Good and Evil NPCs in the same group, or if you heckle them, they will often leave or try to kill you/each other. High charisma generally avoids more extreme reactions, however.
D&D rules are in effect, giving you the option to choose from almost any fantasy class or multi-class.
A pause feature allows for perfect management of the 6 (or fewer) characters in your control.
There are well over 100 different spells and 20 levels in the original, and more in the expansion. 	GOGSteam
 	Beat Hazard Ultra 	Rhythm Shmup 	2011 	Basically, a Geometry Wars/Asteroids clone, which makes levels out of your music tracks and repeateadly rapes your eyes until you eyegasm and become mindless seizing vegetable, which leaks saliva and breaks into convulsions. Yes, it's OBVIOUSLY not recommended for people who are photosensitive. Also, hard, at least, where music of my tastes is concerned. Try perfect playing lastendconductor on Tough difficulty with visual intensity on 200%. Now that's what I call "challenge". 	Humble
Steam
 	Braid 	Puzzle / platformer 	2009 	Use some very well-done time manipulation powers to save the princess. Or maybe it's a girlfriend. Or candy. Or the atomic bomb. Don't pay attention to the story, just pay attention to the myriad time-powers (and the ending is pretty good too). 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Broforce 	Platformer 	2015 	Testosterone: the video game! They got all the great heroes from the manliest action movies ever, and put them together in a crazy tough 2D platformer where pretty much everything is explodable. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars(aka Circle of Blood)	Adventure 	1996 	Great classic adventure game about an american investigating a series of murders in Paris which, of course, are related to something much bigger involving an ancient cult descending from the Templars. Made years before all the templar/DaVinci craze. Serious story, but nice bits of humor here and there. The sequels get gradually worse, although the second game is still good. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Cave Story+ 	Action-adventure 	2011 	A robot boy awakens in a dark cave and soon comes across a village of rabbit-like creatures being attacked by a mad scientist. A vast and rather challenging game, originally free but this paid version has upgraded graphics and improved gameplay. 	HumbleSteam
 	Cities: Skylines 	Simulation 	2015 	Love Sim City? Looking for something that was not ruined by developer incompetence and publisher greed? Say no more. 	HumbleSteam
 	Cook, Serve, Delicious! 	Restaurant Simulator 	2013 	What do you get when you take Warioware and Diner Dash, throw them into a blender, and set it on puree? A mess, for starters, but you'd also get something similar to Cook, Serve, Delicious! You start out with a basic 1-star restaurant, and gain notoriety through new recopies, challenges, and so on. Memorizing the correct order to make food is key, and you will likely curse at your computer when you mess up the layers of a lasagna. Free updates have brought weekly challenges and competitions as well, so if you prefer just making food over owning a restaurant, you can do that too. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Costume Quest 	Adventure / RPG 	2011 	Note: Best played around Halloween. You play as a kid trying to rescue your sibling kidnapped by troll-like monsters. However, this game has a nostalgic childhood-like feel to it. The dialogue, the attitudes, along with the general humor and plot can really take you back. In dealing with obstacles, you find, build, and use costumes and their abilities to proceed, such as a light-up toy sword to scare away darkness phantoms. The battles are a little simple, but play well enough and are rather cute and silly, being hilariously exaggerated through imagination. The game is a little short, but the DLC expansion chapter (which is included with the PC version) rounds it out nicely. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Crusader Kings II 	Grand Strategy 	2012 	Crusader Kings II lets you play as a historic European Dynasty and lead them from the Norman conquest of England in 1066 to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Through war, strategic marriages, incest, intrigue, and crusades you will expand your demesne and secure your Dynasty's future in the tumultuous Medieval Era. CK II has many pieces of DLC but the 4 major expansions are Sword of Islam (Allows playable Muslims), Legacy of Rome (Makes the Byzantium Empire much more unique to play as), The Republic (playable Merchant Republics and new trade mechanics) and The Old Gods (Adds a new 867 start date, playable pagans, and numerous game play mechanics like the ability to raid). In October 19, 2019, the game became free to play.	Steam
 	Darwinia 	RTS 	2005 	Get your RTS on with 8-bit troops in a 32-bit terrain. Very hacker atmosphere, terrific soundtrack, simple interface that focuses you on the fights and resources instead of min/maxing and spreadsheets. You'll be cheering every time your blocky little guys defeat a wireframe evil spider. 	GOGSteam
 	DEFCON 	RTS 	2006 	You remember the movie WarGames? With Matthew Broderick? It's EXACTLY like the game that he was supposed to be playing, only this time there's no namby-pamby AI that tells you it's a bad idea to throw nukes at the Commies. 	GOGSteam
 	Drunken Robot Pornography 	FPS 	2014 	Get your jetpack and laser blaster ready: you made the mistake of giving free will to your robot bartender and the son of a bitch built an army of giant robots to destroy the city! Unique indie mix of FPS and bullet hell, perhaps a bit "fluff" but still very fun. Quite unique in the FPS genre for having extremely vertical stages. Sadly, it in fact does not contain any pornography. From the creators of AaAaAA!!!. 	HumbleSteam
 	Dust: An Elysian Tail 	Platformer / Action-RPG 	2013 	A mysterious warrior wanders a fantasy land with a magical talking sword and a little flying sprite companion, trying to regain his own memories. A beautiful furry-themed indie 2D platformer with RPG and beat 'em up elements. Stunning painted backgrounds, top notch animation, great voice acting. Hard to believe one guy did most of the game all by himself. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Dustforce DX 	Platformer 	2012 	Very challenging and lesser-known platformer that draws obvious Super Meat Boy parallels with its wall-sliding action, online replay feature, and focus on speedrunning. This time there's dust on every surface, dust on rabid wild animals, and you've got to clean that shit up. Doing so while getting the highest rank in each level is crazy hard and technical. Don't miss out on the amazing sprite art or music, either. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Empire: Total War 	Strategy 	2009 	Empire Total War is a mixture of Real Time Strategy and Turn Based Strategy. In campaign mode, you play as one of 13 or so major nations starting at the year 1700. From there you manage economy, build improvements, be diplomatic, and attack people. When you attack, it switches to a RTS, with the troops you have at your disposal. Unfortunately, it's plagued with a shit load of bugs, even after The Creative Assembly released THREE goddamn patches. Interesting game, but don't start here, go for Medieval, or Rome first. Tip: Don't buy it as a single game but rather in the bundle with napoleon total war for the same price. 	Steam
 	Football Manager 2016 	Sports/Simulation 	2015 	Do you suffer from severe autism? Then this game is for you! Create your own manager and manage football clubs from all around the world. It's a good game with very deep and complex gameplay, but it's the best football simulator. It also has a big community of modders; just don't expect good graphics! 	Steam
 	Freedom Planet 	Platformer 	2014 	Glorious indie old-school 2D mascot platformer, with the sort of level design, physics, graphics and music you'd expect from the very best Mega Drive games. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Gish 	Platformer 	2005 	An indie platformer with an interesting premise: the main character is a 12 pound sack of tar, who can make himself hard, sticky, or slick. Tons of secrets and extra content add onto the already enjoyable gameplay and music, increasing playtime a bit. Newcomers will probably find the controls and the character's movements cumbersome and awkward, but you'll get used to it. Good for killing a boring afternoon. 	Official site
 	Half-Life Complete 	FPS 	2008 	An experiment goes terribly wrong, and everyone's favorite crowbar-wielding MIT Ph.D. has to deal with a ton of aliens invading and the black ops trying to cover up the whole mess. Come on, it's the goddamn Half-Life series, you can't not play this! 	Steam
 	Icewind Dale 	RPG 	2000 	(See Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and PlaneScape: Torment) You have the ability to custom create your entire party. While this makes for a fun combat group, it takes away the unique character personalities that are present in other Black Isle games. The Icewind Dale series are purely combat oriented, forget about a memorable story or great dialogs, what counts here is to clean the dungeons of hundreds of beasts. 	GOGSteam
 	Killing Floor 	FPS / Survival Horror 	2009 	Co-op zombie killing. Originally a free Unreal Tournament 2004 mod, until someone put a price tag on it. It's a nice alternative to Left 4 Dead. It has more zombie types, and only a few of them are the runner kind. Has classes which get various bonuses and can be leveled up in various ways. It also has hilarious British accents, and the game would be worth buying just for that. LOADS A MONAY! 	HumbleSteam
 	Knock-knock! 	Surreal Horror 	2013 	The latest game from Russian Studio Ice Pick Lodge, and unfortunately also the most poorly reviewed. This is the most accessible release in their library, but this does not detract from their trademark commitment to crafting avant-garde atmospheres with varying degrees of realism and a uniquely Russian sensibility. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Left 4 Dead 2 	FPS 	2009 	Despite being released just a year after the original, this is a damn fine game to sit down and play with your friends either online, or couch-session. Great graphics, nice additions to the gun list, and new zombies. If you played on Advanced on the first game, expect to get kicked back down to Normal. This game is harder than the first. Feels incomplete, due to the fucking retarded Survivor AI and bugs. Is a glorified expansion, with less fun. 	Steam
 	La-Mulana 	Metroidvania 	2013 	Freeware classic gone from MSX-style to remade for modern PC, and remastered to the max. Features better controls, better laptop, more settings, MUCH smoother animations and action, a rearranged soundtrack, and even some new story additions. Some puzzles, traps, and bosses have been modified, sometimes to be easier or harder. Bosses are generally more challenging though. If you never played the original, that's fine. There's enough differences to warrant giving both a go. For those not in the know, it's a mostly non-linear platforming adventure game. Dungeons are full of danger and riddles and require some non-lateral thinking and possibly note-taking to figure out. 	GOGPlayismSteam
 	LISA 	RPG 	2014 	A side-scrolling RPG where you play as a middle-aged martial artist called Brad on his quest to rescue his kidnapped adopted daughter in a brutal post-apocalypse where women have become extinct. The story starts dark and quickly descends into a tale of human misery. Notable for having up to 30 characters that can be recruited into the party, plus containing horrible moral choices. Also has a DLC ending called LISA the Joyful which essentially concludes the story. 	Steam
 	Lux Delux 	Strategy 	2005 	Risk done right. Over 700 maps, and you can make your own, SDK for hacking the ruleset (like having naval units, or canals, or remember playing nuclear Risk?). Comes with LAN and Internet play too. 	HumbleSteam
 	Master of Orion 1+2 	TBS 	1996 	Old-ass space 4X game with well-balanced and varied gameplay. Lots of tech and economy management, with optional tactical battles. Many different valid strategies to win the game. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Mercenary Kings 	Action/RPG 	2014 	While the Paul Robertson pixel art and the chiptune music may scream "Metal Slug successor" to you, this game is actually more like Monster Hunter Lite. You take on a variety of missions in the form of Mega Man-esque platformers, and collect materials and money to create better guns and stuff. Multiplayer is fun, too. Only caveat is that it is definitely as difficult as Monster Hunter. Prepare for a LOT of trial and error when it comes to gameplay. 	HumbleSteam
 	Neverwinter Nights 	RPG 	2003 	Do you like third edition Dungeons and Dragons? Well, this game is basically that, but in computer form. Play as whoever you want, read nice big blocks of text, and enjoy slow, somewhat lengthy turn-based battles. Plenty of mods out there for those who want them and tons of persistent worlds (mini-MMORPG's, ranging from action PvP to deep DM-heavy roleplaying) still online. 	Steam
 	Overload 	FPS/sim 	2019 	The legit spiritual successor to Descent, from many of the original team. The same delicious labyrinthine 6DOF design, only with modern visuals. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Pajama Sam (series) 	Adventure/Puzzle 	1996+ 	Quirky adventure series. Bit for children REAL MEN, but fun in any case. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Papers, Please 	Dystopian Document Thriller 	2013 	You are the immigrations inspector for Arstotzka, a Eurasian communist shithole. It is your job to inspect the papers of everyone trying to enter the country, turning away any and all who do not qualify.
A lot more engrossing than it sounds. Seriously, play this. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Penumbra (series) 	Survival Horror / FPS / Adventure	2007 	A FPS set in 2000 where a scientist is led to Greenland in search of his dead father. He falls into a mineshaft where he is only equipped with a flashlight(which runs on batteries) and a glowstick. The game blends a very unique physics element where you must click and drag items to pull them open/closed. Enemies include wolves, giant spiders, giant worms, and humanoid like creatures. Only weapons are a pipe and hammer. Has tons of puzzles. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Planescape Torment 	RPG 	1999 	Widely regarded as THE BEST RPG ever made. This is a very dark, story driven game. D&D rules are present, using the Planescape setting, with an amazing multiverse world where Good verse Evil blended with Law verse Chaos: featuring philosophy, existentialism, demons, angels, order and chaos beings, etc. (See Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Icewind Dale for more game style details.)Although this game focuses more on the RPG/dialogue part and a bit less on the Action/Combat, the combat sections are still awesome like in BG I&II, featuring even "cutscene spells" ala FF summons. Features a wide varied cast of colorful and unique companions even for a D&D adventure. The music, writing and story in this game are objectively THE BEST of any other RPG. Period.
Must play for any D&D/RPG fan. Also recommended for Fallout fans. (same team)	GOGSteam
 	Portal Bundle 	Puzzle 	2007 	Welcome to the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center. It is time to do science or die trying. 	Steam
 	Postal 	Isometric shooter 	1997 	Now this is the story all about how some guy's life got flipped-turned upside down, so he cracks and goes out on a shooting rampage. Unlike the sequel, or the movie, this game does not play violence or potty humor for laughs. It is absolutely straightforward in its unabashed depravity. It is disgusting and frightening. And it's also a hidden gem of a mercilessly hardcore game. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Postal 2 	FPS/Sandbox 	2003 	One of the most hilariously fucked up games ever. Survive a week in a crazy little hick town plagued by anti-gaming activists, cannibals, terrorists, bank robbers, radical environmentalists, ATF agents, and Gary Coleman! Will you refrain from using force, or will you leave a trail of mangled, charred corpses in your wake? 	HumbleSteam
 	Psychonauts 	Platformer 	2005 	Play as an carnival escapee who runs away to a summer camp for psychics.Original storytelling and well written humor compliments this game. Hailed as one of the best platformers of the PS2/XBOX generation, now "out of print" but available for download on steam and other places on the net. Whilst the game can be incredibly frustrating due to bugs and/or camera, the sheer brilliance of the music, visuals, level design, retarded amounts of originality and a feeling of childlike joy eclipe any problems it has. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Rochard 	Platformer / puzzle 	2011 	When an asteroid mining crew finds evidence of intelligent life out there, they're attacked by space bandits, and soon find themselves as targets of a nasty conspiracy. Excellent graphics and sound, some nice run-n-gun action, and a ton of crazy physics-manipulating puzzles. 	Steam
 	Shadow Warrior 	FPS 	2013 	A bodyguard / henchman / hired killer is sent to acquire a very special sword, but when a horde of demons gets in the way and slaughters everyone before he has a chance to, he realizes there's something weird about his corporate overlords.
Remember the 90s classic? Lo Wang was a sort of oriental Duke Nukem, but unlike the notorious DNF, this one is actually a good game... a fast-paced, damn fun, insanely over the top, ultra violent romp. From the same team of the also excellent Hard Reset. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Skullgirls 	Fighting 	2013 	I hope you brought a pillow to bite, because this game is about to push your shit in. Skullgirls is an indie fighting game that uses the lag-reducing GGPO-netcode, so now even Brazilians can laugh at you. It features an ever-growing roster of playable characters, a unique art-style and some of the most hardcore gameplay since Guilty Gear. If you ever get tired of having to wipe your pussy-ass tears after every match, there's always a Skullgirls General on /vg/. 	Steam
 	Spec Ops: The Line 	TPS 	2012 	In a near future, Dubai was annihilated by a series of freak sand storms. Months later, a radio transmission indicates that there might be survivors there after all. You lead a Delta Force team sent to investigate, but when you get there, you find there's some real crazy shit going on. 	HumbleSteam
 	Super Meat Boy 	Platformer 	2010 	Ridiculously good and hard platformer with an equally ridiculous premise: You are a running and jumping cube of meat trying to rescue your girlfriend (who happens to be made of bandages) from an evil fetus in a robot suit. Features 300 levels and tons of hidden secrets, including many playable characters from various indie games such as Captain Viridian from VVVVVV, The Kid from I wanna be the Guy, Mr. Minecraft and even a headcrab. Will also be patched with a level editor in January.
The 360 version is also good, but the selection of hidden characters is different and there's no level editor (but a bunch of exclusive stages in exchange). 	HumbleSteam
 	Team Fortress 2 	FPS 	2007 	Arguably the most fun of any multiplayer game with cartoonish graphics and game-play filled with constant explosions and hats pure chaos. Goes great with loud music. /v/ has an active server as well. Free to play. 	Steam
 	Terraria 	Survival / Sandbox 	2011 	LOL VIRAL. Aside from that, this game is wrongly called "minecraft 2D" what Minecraft's Survival Mode wanted to be and more. It's actually more focused on the rpg (Actual NPCs?!) and fighting (10 weapon types compared to minecraft's 2), and has a lot more stuff to do. It's really enjoyable and just recieved a HUGE update that adds tons of content. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	The Stanley Parable 	First-person Adventure 	2013 	A HL2 mod about some guy named Stanley who works for a company, pressing buttons, until one day everything changes. Very stripped down gameplay (WASD, mouse, and E), but focuses on story. A self-aware deconstruction of video games, but can seem pretentious. Multiple endings, short playtime, but worth checking out for the story.
There are two versions: the free one at moddb is Half-Life -ish, the for-pay one at Steam is Portal 2 -ish. The free mod has 6 endings, while the paid version has 18. Play the free one first to see if you like it. 	ModDBSteam
 	The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings 	Action-RPG 	2012 	The very brutal and rather titillating journey of a badass monster slayer in a gritty, morally ambiguous fantasy world. Think "Zelda meets Game of Thrones" and you'll kind of get it. 	GOG
 	Transformice 	MMO platformer 	2010 	You play as mice trying to get cheese into their hole. However, stages are hell-bent on killing you. Luckily, the Shaman player will help (i.e. troll) you with magic. 	Steam
 	Trine 	Platformer 	2009 	A very charming platformer where you control a thief, wizard and knight with the standard "stop the blight afflicting the land" storyline. Characters can be switched in real-time and each has a different ability - the thief has a grappling hook, the knight is a tank and the wizard doesn't have any real attacks but can create bridges or cubes from thin air. Beautiful graphics and music create great atmosphere. Excellent narration makes you feel like you're playing a bedtime story. It's a budget title, you should get it. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Undertale 	RPG 	2015 	If you've managed to avoid the annoying-as-hell fandom, this is absolutely worth checking out. A bullet hell-esque battle system that likes to switch things up during boss fights, an amazing soundtrack (fucking MEGALOVANIA, man), likable and well-written characters, and a narrative that, while nothing special on the story side of things, is incredibly well-executed... this just has a lot going for it. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Unreal Tournament 2004 	FPS 	2004 	Skip the first Unreal Tournament and get this one instead. Fast-paced arena FPS, based heavily on acrobatics and aim, recommended for its complexity and variety. Gametypes range from vehicle-based Onslaught mode to football-like Bombing Run. Unreal Tournament 2004 is commended for consistent developer support, and a once-massive mapping/modding community that produces quality content to this day. The single-player is boring but the AI is rather intelligent in all maps, especially deathmatch. 	
 	Uplink 	Strategy/Sim 	2002 	Hack computers. Don't get caught. Decent story, full of intrigue. Bring down corporations and destroy people's lives for money to upgrade your computer while searching for a mysterious virus. Don't let the appearance fool you, the later missions are hard and intense, and the game has quite a few secrets. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	VVVVVV 	Platformer 	2010 	With an art style based on Commodore 64 games and chiptunes for music, you might get the feeling that this is retro indie shit. Well, it's retro and indie, but also fun as hell. Flip gravity back and forth to leap across increasingly elaborate challenges in a quasi-sandbox alternate dimension to incredibly catchy tunes. You'll die, a lot, but a proliferation of checkpoints means you'll rarely lose more than a minute when you die. 	Official site
 	Wasteland 2: Director's Cut 	RPG 	2014 	From the producer of the original Fallout, this is what a modern Fallout would be if they made it for the old fans instead of casuals: a top-down, turn-based tactical RPG with a fuckton of possibilities and immense room for customization. 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap 	Platformer 	2017 	An amazing remake of the amazing Master System classic with beautiful, hand-drawn animations and a re-orchestrated soundtrack! 	GOGHumbleSteam
 	World of Goo 	Puzzle 	2009 	I shouldn't have to tell you what World of Goo is. Yes, they made a native Linux version. Is there a platform this game DOESN'T run on? 	GOGSteam
 	X3: Terran Conflict 	Space sim 	2008 	One of the best space simulators, you fly ships (any ships, from small to capitals), you trade, you fight, you build your own stations ( and empire ) you do missions, you pirate, you hire pilots to do things for you ( like sending them on trading runs ). Learning curve like in dwarf fortress, but its worth it. Note: This game is a bitch to play. Your starting ship is a piece of shit if you play custom games. 	HumbleSteam
==Videos==
Revolution OS
The Code Story of Linux documentary (MULTiSUB)
==External links==
* GOG's Linux page
* Humble Store's Linux page
* Itch.io
* Steam's Linux page
* Penguspy
* PCGamingWiki's Linux Page
* ProtonDB - Database for Steam Play
Category:Linux
Category:PC Games
Category:Visual novel
Category:Computer