After a fresh install of the system, Vendetta would not start... As soon as the update was finished and you press Play Vendetta, it would crash and take you back to the linux logon screen.

The fix is to remove the package compiz.

Verified this fixed the problem twice on my systems.

#apt-get remove compiz-core

Let it also remove the associated files.

Mint it too buggy, switching back to Ubuntu 11.10. No issues with it.

Who needs that compiz eye candy anyways. :P

Gentoo has compiz and related packages hard-masked for removal in 30 days...

It works on mine without a hitch. (LMDE 12 that is)