Games on Linux

One of the major disadvantage of Linux is luck of games. Most of PC games are only run on Windows. However, as a casual game player, I can see there is a lot of improvement in recent years.

First of all, there are more and more games officially support Linux. Steam, a popular game distribution platform, can run on Linux. Steam also maintains a Linux distribution, called SteamOS, which is specialized for using Steam. In Steam, I can search the games supporting Linux. Recently, I have bought two games, Civilization V and Cities: Skyline, from Steam. Both are running smoothly on my Ubuntu box.

If the game only support Windows, there is still a hope that it can run on WINE. WINE is similar to a Windows virtual machine (VM), but it simulates Windows on OS level instead of hardware level. The performance of WINE is much better than traditional VM, especially on 3D graphics. However, WINE is not prefect. The community of WINE is keep improving it. You can get a list of Windows software which can run in WINE here. In my past experience, with some tricks mentioned in the WINE page, I can run Windows version of Steam. In the Steam, I can run AOE II, AOE III, and Simcity 4 Deluxe. Recently, I follow the guide to install League of Legends (LoL). It is also running fine on my Ubuntu box.

Last but not the least, the open source community also developed a lot of open source games for Linux. I found the most impressive one is SuperTuxKart.

Happy gaming on Linux!