PC & Tech Authority takes a look at the current state of Linux as a gaming OS

For a long time the Linux gaming scene was stagnating, relegated to a limited number of open source games and a few popular but very old closed source games such as Doom 3, Quake 4, Unreal Tournament 2004 and whatever game you could force to run using WINE, an open source software for running Windows applications on Linux. Let’s face it, most gamers who have attempted to run games on Linux in the past probably spent more time wrestling with installers and searching for the right drivers than actually playing the game on their specific Linux configuration.

However, recent developments have given the Linux gaming scene a much-needed shot in the arm and is turning the OS into a viable gaming platform.

It started with the Humble Indie bundle, which has long been a driving force for the development of Linux games and meant that popular games such as Trine, Torchlight and Braid were brought across to Linux. More importantly, however, 2012 saw two key game engines that drive most of the modern PC games ported to Linux - Unreal Engine 3 and the Unity engine.

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