Grand Theft Auto style mechanics blended in with some Minecraft blocky style and city-building, that's sort-of a basic overview of what you can expect in Voxel Turf.

Hard to really properly describe it, as there's just so much to it. Want to build a city? Go ahead. Want to get involved as a person and fight for territory against gangs? There's plenty of that too and so much more. Released back in 2017 it's been steadily improved and after a break of updates lasting many months it appears the developer is back with some big stuff here.

Returning players can expect to see a whole new biome, a revamp of the outback biomes with red stone and the plains now have patches of dry grass and salt lakes. Not just new content though, there's a big overhaul of performance with more multithreading and it should all be faster overall. Nice.

Watch video on YouTube.com

Need to be sold on it a bit more? From the developer:

Voxel Turf is a block based city builder/action adventure game. Build cities or destroy them. Start businesses or rob them. Nurture your citizens or subjugate them. Build a real estate empire, or perhaps just drive around and blow stuff up. Its your choice! Voxel Turf allows you to be the force of benevolence or the agent of chaos in a city of your creation.

- Have you ever played an open world game and thought "if only I could build something here?"
- Or a city builder and wanted to drive around and interact with your creation?
- Or even a building game and thought "if only these buildings would come to life?"
If so then Voxel Turf is the game for you!

You know Voxel Turf is also great? It's another game developed on Linux with the developer having their main machines and development done all under Linux so it sees first-class support.

Buy and play Voxel Turf on Steam .

Might and Delight have certainly created some unique experiences, with the Shelter series putting you directly into the shoes of various animals and it's back in Shelter 3.

It's a role-playing game but not one where you're fussing with skills and equipment, instead it's about the rawness of nature itself and animal survival. A game where wisdom, empathy and leadership play an important role in your survival, according to the developer.

"As a new mother you must protect your calf, but you must also take responsibility for the whole herd, protecting old and young from lurking predators and the threat of starvation. What’s more, the matriarch has given you the responsibility of steering the herd to an important destination and difficult choices will need to be made on the way."

Now with an aim to launch at the end of March, Might and Delight have shown off a brand new trailer that you can watch below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

"Landscapes and fauna are rendered in mesmerising patterns and scored with an enchanting soundtrack by Retro Family, conjuring a magical world to lose yourself in. From lynx cubs to elephant families, from the tundra to the jungle, the next Shelter incarnation migrates to new territory, evolving into a new, magical game world and an experience that you won’t forget. "

Looking really good, I'm not sure how much my heart will be able to take when one of the herd dies - it looks so damn sad. Elephants are truly majestic creatures so it's an intriguing animal to focus on. Once we see a confirmed release date we will let you know.

You can wishlist / follow Shelter 3 on Steam .

On a related note Might and Delight are also working on the 'TMORPG' (a tiny online RPG) called Book of Travels, check out some preview gameplay here .

Ready for your next story-based RPG? The Way of Wrath plans to fully support Linux and it's currently seeking funding on Kickstarter and it does look quite good.

With an open world setting, a full story and a hand-crafted world The Way of Wrath sounds rather promising. Blending together "tactical party-based combat, detailed branching dialogue and a rich, dynamic story (Baldur’s Gate, Divinity: OS) with the interactivity and immersion of 3D open-world games (Gothic, Zelda, Skyrim)".

Check out the trailer:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Planned Features:

• Classless RPG system. Customize your character’s appearance, origin, skills, and reputation.
• Full RPG story experience. Solve complex quests, gather loyal companions, and befriend, antagonize, or romance interesting, characters.
• Handcrafted open world. Explore a beautiful snowy landscape and survive its environmental hazards. Hunt, fish & perform mystical shaman rituals.
• Choice & consequence. Experience the aftermath of every action and shape your story.
• Fort management. Build traps and siege equipment. Craft weapons, armor, and tools of war.
• Turn-based combat. Fight in tactical battles against foes with unique AI tactics, gear, and skills.
• Days are story turns. Each in-game day the map updates with new encounters, quests, and character storylines move forward based on previous day decisions.

Linux is clearly stated as a release platform with consoles being stretch goals:

Current platforms: PC Windows, Mac, Linux (Steam, GOG)

Stretch Goal Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Playstation, X-Box

Fund it on Kickstarter here and follow it on Steam .

They have until March 7, 2021 to hit their €23,000 goal.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the dungeon-crawling action-RPG Sword of the Necromancer is out now.

"Turn your foes into allies using the forbidden powers of the Sword of the Necromancer and help Tama reach the dungeon's depths in order to gain enough power to bring Koko back from the dead. Gather a little army of monsters, equip yourself with weapons and relics and level up to take on the guardians that stand between you and your objective."

Watch video on YouTube.com

Features:

• Turn your foes into allies: use the Sword of the Necromancer to revive defeated monsters and make them fight alongside you.
• Gather weapons and relics: each weapon is different from the others thanks to the procedural weapon generation system, which gives them various effects and attributes.
• Fight with all your might: defeat your enemies using a variety of weapons and objects and dominating the fluid head-to-head battle system.
• Level up: enhance your character by fighting enemies and upgrade your stats. Improve your summoned monsters by fighting alongside them.
• Death is not the end: Each try gets you closer to the Necromancer. You will lose all your equipped weapons and monsters, but you will retain half the level you achieved in your run.
• Learn the truth: Discover Tama and Koko's past as you advance through the dungeon.
• Local co-op play: Use the Flask of Homunculus to create a copy of the playable character and play with a friend in local co-op game.

Sadly, the Linux version is currently a bit of a mess. They're using GameMaker Studio, which is somewhat notorious for not having the best Linux support overall. In this case though, the developer has bundled a ton of unnecessary dependencies which is causing issues so it won't launch on most Linux distributions right now. However, I've told them exactly how to fix it and it can be done quite quickly (and you can do it manually too). Even once fixed, it still has the usual GameMaker Studio problems with gamepad support being rubbish.

Find Sword of the Necromancer on Steam .

Wasteland 3 from inXile Entertainment has a big new free update out with the Robots & Rangers" patch, and it's looking to be a good one for all players.

"In Wasteland 3 you take command of a squad of Desert Rangers, lawmen and women in a post-nuclear world, trying to rebuild society from the ashes. More than a century after the bombs fell, you’re fighting a losing battle to keep your beloved Arizona alive. Then the self-proclaimed Patriarch of Colorado radios, promising aid if you'll do a job he can only entrust to an outsider—rescue his land from the ambitions of his three bloodthirsty children."

Originally released in August 2020, the Linux version came just before the year was up in December and since then they've clearly been busy on fixing up bugs and expanding the game elsewhere. Here's what's new in 1.3.0 "Robots & Rangers":

• New difficulty mode: Tourist - Tourist mode is easier than Rookie, letting you enjoy Wasteland 3’s story, with combat difficulty taking a back seat.
• New cosmetics! New Hair, Beards, and Pants have been added to character creation.
• The Handmade Wizard and Knight costumes will let you roleplay all your Robots & Rangers fantasies. Once players in have completed the quest 'Cornered Rats' they will find that a lootable crate has been delivered to Ranger HQ, outside of the base structure, near the transition waypoint that leads to Downtown Colorado Springs. Equip the costumes at the wardrobe in Ranger HQ or the clothing shop in Downtown Colorado Springs ... and attack the darkness!
• Intelligence now gives +1 skill point for every point of Intelligence spent, up from +1 every other point. This change applies retroactively to existing save games.
• The Book Learnin’ and Answering Machine achievements are now achievable.
  Note: The missing Book Learnin’ note becomes available after passing a Leadership skill check when first meeting the Patriarch and then speaking to Magistrate Silas Watkins in Downtown Colorado Springs.
  The missing cassette tapes "Kidnappers in Trouble" is in the Gett Family Homestead in a new container. "A Proposal" is in the Machine Commune, just west of Vivisecto.
• More actions are now able to be bound to keyboard and mouse, most notably camera panning. The game will also unmap double-bound keys to prevent input conflicts, and warn you about missing keybinds before you leave the menu.

There is quite a lot of additional bug fixes, a few improved animation and sound effects, a balancing pass, UI updates and the list of smaller details goes on that you can see in full here .

Note: for the Linux version, it's been reported that on AMD GPUs you may need to turn off Ambient Occlusion to prevent graphical glitches. Hopefully that will be solved in either a Wasteland 3 patch or a later Mesa driver update. There is an open bug report that needs more testing for AMD GPUs on the Mesa bug tracker.

You can buy Wasteland 3 from GOG , Steam or the Humble Store .

Skellboy Refractured, the new and fresh release from UmaikiGames is out with Linux support as an expanded version to the game that originally released for the Nintendo Switch. Note : key provided the developer.

"Sometimes, when there is nobody up to the task, old heroes have to rise from the grave to save the day! Crush your enemies and make good use of their guts - literally, as you can augment Skippy with your foe's body parts and weapons! Help Skippy, the cubic skeleton, to fight off Squaruman's endless forces of undead and vicious foes in this rectangular action packed cardboard adventure!"

A very charming game, and very silly too. What really sells it is the graphical style with the perspective. The world is 3D and you move around in a 3D space but the characters look flat and 2D. It's been done before (what hasn't?) but how they've done it here does look fantastic.

Watch video on YouTube.com

I had a lot of fun play through different bits of this one, with some quite surprising scenes. It's supposed to be family friendly too, and with local co-op support it could be a good one to play with a significant other or a younger gamer wanting something a little different.

This is an action-RPG through and through, with you running across hacking and slashing your way through various different enemies. The fun part is switching between different body parts including you legs and skull on top of the weapon you're using. All of them have different effects so it's however you feel like playing. Some equipment, or body parts, have active abilities too like blocking projectiles or firing a seed at enemies (it gets weird) which makes it all the more interesting and often amusing. The description on some of the items was rather on-point too.

There's even boss fights, which I don't want to overly spoil but even they are a genuine delight in difficulty, design and weirdness. The first one for example, which happens quite early on, makes you fight off a strange creature that needs you to jab it in its many eyes.

Not particularly difficult, it even has a little platform on its back to help you jump up to it but it's so well designed like most parts of the game it's just lovely.

Feature Highlight:

• An expansive singleplayer experience across the interconnected Kingdom of Cubold full of square charming characters and edgy villains!
• A true action-rpg adventure that will test your skill and rewards exploration!
• Swap your bones for 100+ different body parts and items of friends and foes with (more or less) useful effects!
• 5 unique weapon types to clobber any foes you face!
• Special enemies and bosses that will truly test your mettle!
• A Vibrant 2d pixelart style that comes to life in a 3d world!
• Includes some rocking chiptune tracks and sounds!

As far as I could tell, the Linux version runs great.

You can buy Skellboy Refractured on Steam .

Getting real close to release now is the huge 2.6 upgrade for the Beamdog classic RPGs now including Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition.

They've gradually moved from one game to the next, opening up an opt-in Beta you can try for each right now on Steam. Each of them needing some feedback to ensure you can properly play it including double-checking the save system is working correctly.

2.6 is a big upgrade for Beamdog's enhanced version of the Infinity Engine and while it won't solve every last issue in each of the noted games, it's still a needed update for them all.

Want to get involved? They need Linux testing too (the Beta is Steam only, other stores when ready). We've reported on the Baldur's Gate Beta testing before but now  Icewind Dale is included and the Baldur's Gate titles also got fresh updates. See the links below for each for more info:

- Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
- Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
- Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
- Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

You can see the full changelist here . Some highlights for all include:

• Changed to 64 bit executables; 32 bit operating systems are no longer supported
• Hundreds of bug fixes including many spell fixes
• Improved pathfinding
• Improved multiplayer stability
• Added Adventurers of Neverwinter content to all games
• Added French, Italian, German, Ukrainian and Polish text localizations to Siege of Dragonspear
• Added French text localization to Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition
• Added Brazilian Portuguese and Chinese (Simplified) text localizations to Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

Need to buy a copy? Links below:

- Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition - GOG / Steam
- Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear - GOG / Steam
- Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition - GOG / Steam
- Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition - GOG / Steam

Love your open-world games? How about farming life sims? The Ranchers looks like another great entry into this more casual and laid-back part of the gaming world. Releasing on Steam sometime "early" this year, RedPilzStudio could be onto a hit here. As for Linux support, the developer confirmed it very clearly on Steam .

"After years of living in the metropolis' stressful and hectic life, you finally decide to leave everything behind to buy your first lot of land in the country and start a new life, in the quiet, close to nature. However, your skills as a farmer and manager will be put to the test to make your Ranch a prosperous business and earn the villagers' respect and esteem. And who knows, maybe find love and start a family."

There's no trailer for it just yet but the developer has shared some screenshots of what to expect (click to enlarge):

Feature Highlight:

• CREATE YOUR RANCH - Raise animals, grow crops, reclaim resources, buy new lots of land, and much more. You'll have plenty of space to create the Ranch of your dreams.
• DEVELOP YOUR RANCH - Craft objects, machines, and transform your basic resources into elaborate products to attract villagers, fill daily orders, or sell them in different markets for maximum profit.
• MANAGE YOUR RANCH - Optimize your Ranch's resource consumption, sign water, electricity contracts, or build your water wells, wind turbines, and solar panels and sell your surplus to the village.
• ONLINE COOPERATION - Invite 1 to 3 players to join you in your Ranch online! Your friends can help you develop your Ranch, fulfill your goals, or explore the vast open world of The Ranchers together.
• AUCTION MARKET - You can sell your resources to other players via the online auction market to maximize your profits. The auction market is directly accessible from within the game and from the companion application on iOS and Android. It seems that in The Ranchers, money never sleeps!
• A GIGANTIC OPEN WORLD - On foot, horseback, scooter, pickup, or yacht, explore a gigantic open world where mines, wild islands, shipwrecks, and dangerous monsters abound. Use your skills to recover ultra-rare minerals, gems, etc., to make and improve your tools, donate them to the village museum, or sell them at the auction market to other players.

I am an absolute sucker for these types of games including Stardew Valley, Littlewood, Farm Together and more. They're great when you're totally worn-out by everything else.

You can wishlist / follow on Steam .

More turn-based tactical RPG goodness is coming to Linux (whenever it's finished) with The Iron Oath, and Curious Panda Games have released some more up to date footage.

"The Iron Oath is a turn-based tactical RPG within a medieval fantasy setting. Lead, recruit and manage a band of mercenaries who will age, retire and die. Fulfill contracts over decades and centuries, and build your company's renown while navigating an ever-changing world."

Originally funded on Kickstarter where the team managed to raise around $94,524 back in 2017, so it has been in development for a little while now. In March of 2020, they also announced that Humble Games picked them up as the publisher but they have 100% control still.

Now they have both funding and a publisher, development sounds like it's going really well. In the latest update they mentioned it's hit the "Alpha" stage and they showed around 20 minutes of new footage! See it below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Need a further refresher on it? Here's what they say is planned for it:

• Tactical turn-based Combat : Proper planning and execution is vital to your success. Utilize the strengths and shelter the weaknesses of each unique character class. Deadly foes, traps and destructible objects means one misstep could be your party's undoing.
• Time Progression : Time passes as you navigate the world. Your characters will age and the world around you will change dynamically through various events.
• A Large and Dynamic Overworld : The known world consists of 5 unique regions and biomes, each with multiple hubs to visit. Cities can be overtaken, destroyed and rebuilt; while various factions can emerge, rise and fall. A playthrough can potentially last hundreds of years, resulting in many changes to the initial world state.
• In-depth Management : Control your company's finances, roster and happiness. Manage political relationships by forging alliances and creating enemies. As time progresses, your characters will age, retire and frequently die in combat, requiring you to recruit and train their replacements. Gain wealth and renown by completing contracts, and invest in upgrading the many facets of your organization.
• Unique Characters & Development : Every recruitable character has their own personal backstory, incorporating events that have taken place during your playthrough. Their persona is subject to change as their careers progress. Based off their traits they will interact and converse with each other, in addition to offering their input on any decisions you face. As they gain experience and rank up, you can customize each class by augmenting their abilities to perform different functions.
• Decisions Matter : You will be faced with many choices throughout your journey. Choices bear consequences, and they can have a minor or major influence on your characters, your company and the world itself.

Want to follow it along? You can wishlist it on Steam .