That's interesting, I didn't know that! That makes the option of using an HTPC as a 'true' gaming platform (in addition to being a media center) a lot more likely.
Do most of the recent games (Need for Speed, Counter Strike : Source, Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 3) run well, or is it mostly older games?
CS:S has a native Linux version that runs very well!
Assassins creed 3 has "garbage" rating on WineHQ (http://appdb.winehq.org/) and Far Cry 3 has "silver". So the answer for those is probably no.
@jiggy2011 Thanks, that's very helpful! I meant NFS: Most Wanted, which came out in 2012.
CS:S on Linux is definitely awesome news, and makes me more confident of Linux gaming becoming viable in the near-term. I think the Steambox/Steam Linux, Ouya and other such systems are definitely helping improve adoption.
To be honest, I wouldn't spend much time trying to get something running under Wine unless it had a very high probability of success, and a moderate number of (easy) steps. After all, I already have the game running under Windows, and gaming's meant to be a casual activity I undertake after work :)
It's awesome that the option is available for Linux enthusiasts, however!
Edit: Ah, damn it, I meant CS:GO, not CS:S! I see that it's running fine under Wine, however!
FYI, CSS isn't recent :P CSS even runs natively on through Steam for Linux :) You can check how specific titles run under wine here: http://appdb.winehq.org/
Do most of the recent games (Need for Speed, Counter Strike : Source, Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 3) run well, or is it mostly older games?