Month: January 2026

Marvel Rivals Benchmarks: AI Super Villain or Open Source Hero | Windows vs. Linux | RX 9070 XT

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Marvel Rivals is published by NetEase, the same company that also publishes Where Winds Meet. Unlike its sibling, Marvel Rivals uses Unreal Engine 5. And as we all know, this piece of software can be as volatile as Deadpool. So, let’s have a look at how the hero-shooter performs on Linux and Windows.

Welcome back to a new benchmark battle between these two operating systems. Today, we answer the question of whether the proprietary AI-Super Villain or the Open-Source hero comes out victorious.

As I’ve done more often recently, I compared the beloved 🤭 Windows 11 to Bazzite’s Steam Gaming Mode and its KDE-Wayland session. Let’s go and find out which operating system has a field day in Marvel Rivals.

To do that, we grab Thor’s Hammer – don’t worry, no sleezy jokes today – and hope we can prevent Windows from sprinting ahead with a few well-placed lightning strikes.

I actually have no idea if Thor’s even in this game, but let’s just ignore that.

I also have a German version of this video.

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4 Open-World Titles In Linux vs Windows Benchmark Battle (ACShadows, BLands4, HFW, WWM) | RX 9070 XT

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I had a few games in my sweaty grasp this year that ran rather meh on Linux. In the last game I analyzed, I found out that the Mangohud performance overlay can negatively impact a game’s performance. Hogwarts Legacy stuttered heavily in my first test when I explored the world. This is a behavior that you wouldn’t encounter when just playing the game. I only ran into this issue because I always show the Mangohud performance metrics for my analysis videos.

That sparked a desire to retest a few games. I was already planning to benchmark Borderlands 4 a second time since Gearbox supposedly tuned the transmission for better performance. It so turned out that Borderlands 4 was joined by the robo-dinosaur-tamer Aloy, the two mass murderers Naoe and Yasuke, and the dude who fights with a baby in his arms.

And with that, I welcome you to another Linux versus Windows benchmark battle. This time, with four games instead of just one.

I don’t want to waste any more time beating around the FPS, so let’s get right to it.

I also have a German version of this video.

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Pragmata: The RE Engine Delivers! | RX 9070 XT Linux Performance & Impressions (Bazzite 43)

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(World Premiere)

Alright, alright. I admit, I’m exaggerating here. It is true for me, however. The unique thing about Pragmata is its use of the RE-Engine, which is like venturing into new territory for me. I have avoided the Resident Evil games and, by extension, the RE Engine because I’m officially in the scaredy-cat camp when it comes to horror games. As a result, Pragmata shines among the many Unreal-based stars in outer space.

And with that, hello and welcome to a Linux Gameplay Performance blog post.

The Pragmata demo was announced at The Game Awards 2025, and the game is slated for release in April 2026.

Will Pragmata’s launch into the Linux universe be soft, or will the trek to orbit be a rocky one?

Here’s a German version of the video.

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Total War: Three Kingdoms Benchmark-Battle Linux & Windows | RX 9070 XT (Bazzite 43)

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If you regularly watch Gamers Nexus benchmark videos or are just a strategy game enthusiast, Total War may be a name you recognize. It has been quiet as far as “Mystery Games” go in the Epic Games Store, but at the end of the year, Tim Sweeney handed out a household name in the strategy space for free. I took this opportunity by the hand to check out Total War for myself and, of course, also benchmark it.

And with that, I welcome you back to another Linux versus Windows benchmark battle.

I usually prefer to do a Gameplay Performance first, before diving into the benchmarks. However, I’m sad to say that Total War: Three Kingdoms just isn’t my cup of tea. Therefore, I spent only as much time in the game as I needed to record some B-roll and get the testing done.

But enough foreplay. Let’s get to the climax and the question of who’s packing more heat.

Yes, you heard that right. And there’s plenty more where that came from.

(German version of the video)

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My Year In Video Gaming 2025 – Game Of The Year And More

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Hello everyone.

This blog continues what I started in 2021. I cannot believe this baby is celebrating its fifth birthday.

This blog also exists as an English and a German YouTube Video.

2025 has been a challenging year for me from a health perspective. I’ve never had so many unpleasant, long-lasting issues at once. Don’t worry, I will not go into detail here. As a result, I didn’t have as much energy for gaming or working out as I would have liked to spend. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm for video games never faltered. It is much greater than for watching TV shows or movies. For example, I never finished the Fallout TV series, although I had no issues with it. I just didn’t care enough.

Video games were a different beast, though. I preferred watching streams or Let’s Play series over standard TV. I love the medium, and I envy everyone who has been able to turn this great hobby into their job or even just a viable second income stream. I’ve been drawn to voice my feelings about games on my mostly coding-focused blog, the-codeslinger.com. And while I always enjoyed the process of writing, it became less and less fulfilling over time. Even though you do hobbies for yourself, if it’s something creative like this, you still would like people to engage with it.

So, I’ve been thinking about whether and how to continue, and if it would make sense to finally separate the coding content from the gaming. And this led me to start a YouTube channel as a creative outlet. I love this visual medium so much. My channel focuses on Linux gaming, testing Linux gaming performance, and comparing Linux and Windows in benchmarks on my hardware. I’m not limiting myself to just Linux gaming, but it’s the niche I’m trying to occupy alongside other major gaming and benchmarking channels.

It just feels great to render a video that matches my idea of what I wanted to discuss. And I couldn’t be happier about the reception. Now, the content isn’t pushing crazy numbers or anything like that. But there are viewers, and for now, the process of making the videos and seeing the result is rewarding enough. It’s the total opposite of my day job and the perfect release valve for my (admittedly barely) creative side.

But that’s enough intro-talk. Let’s move on to what really matters.

You’re probably only interested if Expedition 33 is my Game Of The Year anyway.

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“The Codeslinger” Becomes “The Gameslinger”

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Happy New Year, everyone.

I’d like to start 2026 with a brief (I hope) public service announcement. I’ve been writing blog posts since July 2012, if WordPress can be believed. What started as a hobby and later became a job has now become just a job over the past few years. All of my blog posts in 2025 relate to gaming, and there are only five. I used to write so much more.

But times have changed. My priorities and how I deal with stress have changed. The software development industry has changed with the rise of AI. I have experienced firsthand how such tools can help with coding-related problems and, in a way, make traditional blogging less relevant. Asking an AI can be so much faster, even if it doesn’t immediately work. The turnaround is much quicker than trying to find something on Google, reading the blog, trying it out, and repeating.

Long story short:

  1. I don’t think writing a coding blog is the best use of my time at this point.
  2. I need distance from software engineering in my free time.
  3. I will focus on gaming topics as a creative outlet from now on.

In the past, I occasionally used YouTube to augment my benchmark videos to demonstrate how I tested. Starting in Q2 2025, this has become the primary outlet for real content, rather than just showing benchmark runs without commentary.

That is what I will focus on for now. Since I still pay for this page, I plan to gradually rename “The Codeslinger” to “The Gameslinger” to host my scripts and link to the YouTube videos. My game reviews still receive a surprising number of clicks, and I think I could expand my YouTube reach by also publishing written content. After all, I have written scripts anyway.

For now, the name “The Codeslinger” and the domain “the-codeslinger.com” will remain. I will start posting my scripts and linking my videos. Over time, I may redirect the domain to my GitHub account and try to get “the-gameslinger.com” or something like that for this site. I will also keep all my coding posts for posterity. But I don’t think I’ll add anything anytime soon.

I’d like to thank everyone who subscribed to this blog for the coding content. I hope you also enjoyed the gaming stuff and stick around for more of that.

If you are interested in what I’m doing on YouTube, here’s the link to the English channel, The Gameslinger EN, and here’s the German channel, The Gameslinger DE. In short: test game performance on Linux and also compare it to Windows. And some opinion pieces and reviews.

Thank you for your time. Have a great 2026!