Just a few days ago Steam for Linux left beta and made it into the main release with 100 games at its side. For a long time the operating system has had the reputation of being an absolute no-no for gamers (unless they were willing to settle for second class frame rates by running through WINE) but now this looks set to change. With more and more of the background components being ported over developers are looking at making the transition to, which is great!

To celebrate the launch Valve decided to throw one of their trademark sales with every Linux game being between 50% to 80% of normal price. This of course meant I bought five new games and set myself back another £15. Worth it? Totally. Amongst my purchases was a little game called DEFCON. Here’s a description taken straight from their store page:

Inspired by the 1983 cult classic film, Wargames, DEFCON superbly evokes the tension, paranoia and suspicion of the Cold War era, playing on the fascinating aspects of psychological gameplay that occur during strategic nuclear warfare. You play a General hidden deep within an underground bunker.

It’s brilliant fun, especially with people you actually know. The first time I actually played it was a LAN party and a break down in communications lead to it quickly living up to the tag line – ‘Everybody dies’. Indeed, it seems the only wining move is not to play. I’ve been playing quite a lot of it recently as it’s great for just setting going and then just leaving it running in the background (a full game can run for up to 6 hours) while you do other things and just occasionally checking no one is in the process of launching their entire payload. Brilliant fun, but also scary that this is an actual thing that could happen.

Conclusion: Nuclear war really is quite terrifying. Also, never trust America.

Josh