Linux Gaming News

Heroes of Newerth (HoN) from S2Games is a DOTA like game that like all of their games supported GNU/Linux.
Sadly the GNU/Linux client was always a bit behind the Windows one, but now after the release of patch 2.6.22 they are finally in par.

I’m heavily addicted to HoN and for me the GNU/Linux client was always stable as a rock, while the Windows users crashed all the time – I kept playing.

Official Announcement :

Hi everyone,

We are proud to announce a MAJOR patch for our Mac & Linux game clients. For a while now, as our Windows client received features and updates, our Mac and Linux clients have been slowly falling behind. While we always strive to make sure Mac and Linux stay updated and compatible with the latest patches, we haven’t always been able to keep them feeling as feature-complete and polished as our Windows client.

Maintaining separate clients is a LOT of work – it really requires some dedicated attention (mostly from programming) to keep things running in top shape. Through the hustle and bustle of developing the game as a whole, it’s easy, if not paying proper attention, for small bugs to crop up here and there, building up over time.

A few months ago we filled a key programming position of a dedicated Mac + Linux programmer (along with fleshing out our QA staff) to give these clients the attention and time they deserve, and we couldn’t be happier with the results (up to DOUBLE the performance in some cases on Mac). We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to not only fix up the current client, but to make sure it is among the top performing native games for both Mac and Linux operating systems (and certainly the best client in the genre). This upcoming patch not only brings them up to speed, but makes sure they look and feel great, and have all the latest features that the Windows client has.

S2 has always proudly supported Mac and Linux for our games, even when sometimes it didn’t seem economically feasible. While some other companies may choose to take the “easy” route and drop support of these clients, we simply couldn’t accept that, we were determined to redouble our efforts.

Highlights contained in this patch:

• VASTLY improved performance and stability (up to 2x the performance of the current retail client)
• Awesomium Integration (HoN TV, guides, player ladder ,etc)
• Fancy new updater (similar to the one released recently for the Windows client – generally improves reliability of updating)
• New installer (does away with the disk-image method that was causing some update issues on Mac)
• Many miscellaneous bug fixes and stability improvements (fixed the most common causes of crashes, skybox reflections now work, and lots of other stuff)
• Retina display support

Some of the updates here were incompatible with Mac OS X 10.4, and as such, we have dropped support of it. Keep in mind this is just the mac/linux highlights of the upcoming patch, there’s other goodies that’ll equally affect PC + Mac/Linux.

We’re excited to bring you these updates and to continue giving these clients the love and attention they deserve to continue running at top notch. If you have any Mac or Linux gamer friends, now is the time to get them hooked on HoN!

If you still haven’t tried this game, even after it went free-2-play –  PLEASE DON’T !
This game is heavily addictive and will consume your life.
You have been warned !