Alien Arena 2011 Released - Overview & Screenshots

Alien Arena 7.50 (a.k.a. Alien Arena 2011) was released yesterday and it comes with several new notable features regarding the physics engine, as well as two new maps, updated player and skins models, new music for various maps, revamped in-game IRC client, as well as several bug fixes and improvements.


Alien Arena is a free, open-source first-person shooter for Linux, Windows and Mac which takes place in retro science-fiction environments, with a fast pace, support for single player and multiplayer games, a host of interesting game modes besides the usual DM or CTF, like Team Core Assault, Deathball, Instagib, Vampire, Regeneration, Low Gravity.



Here are the main new features for this release:
- Ragdoll physics using the Open Dynamics Physics Engine
- two brand new maps, Total Annihilation and Neptune's Lost City
- rewritten in-game IRC client
- updated player and skin models
- fixed LOD meshes for all player models
- faster particle rendering
- True Type Font support
- new music for various maps
- various bug fixes, code cleanups and improvements



New map - Neptune




To compile the Alien Arena source in Debian/Ubuntu, type in a terminal:

sudo apt-get build-dep alien-arena
sudo apt-get install libode-dev
./configure
make
sudo make install

Important notices
The executable is called crx, and it is located in the /usr/local/bin/ directory (if no other path was specified at the command-line to the configure script). To run it type crx in a terminal or press Alt+F2 and type crx followed by Enter in the run box that appears.

The configuration directory for Alien Arena is located in ~/.codered/, where ~ is your home directory (e.g. /home/USER/.codered).

Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/search/label/games
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Quick Look at 0 A.D. - Free Linux RTS Game

0 A.D. is an open-source, 3D real time strategy game with an ancient warfare theme, developed by Wildfire Games, and using the Pyrogenesis engine.

0 A.D. started originally as a mod concept for Age of Empires II, but in 2009 Wildfire Games licensed the code under the GPL and announced it will be open-source, available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.


The game is currently under heavy development, and the latest alpha was released on October 19 2010 (Alpha 2 'Bellerophon') and it currently includes the following features:

- 3D graphics using OpenGL
- 1 civilisation units & buildings
- fog of war
- group movement and basic unit formations
- population limits
- repair command
- minimap
- unit following camera mod
- building rotation keys

Considering it's still in alpha, the game doesn't have yet an AI opponent, however multiplayer works (the in-game manual explains how to play over Internet). Regarding single-player, you can still try the game to see the current features and adjust to the gameplay.

The developers didn't fix a date for the final release, but the final game is expected in 2011 or 2012.


Installation in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

To try it in Ubuntu, use the 0 A.D. PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wfg/0ad
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install 0ad

Run the game by typing 0ad in a terminal or press Alt+F2 and type 0ad in the run box that appears.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/search/label/games
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Two Free Linux Civilization-Like Games: Freeciv and FreeCol

While most of the proprietary games get all the attention on Windows, on Linux it's the other way around. Of course, this is because we're stuck with only few choices for mainly any type of game, from arcade to shooters or strategies. But there are good, if not great, alternatives in Linux.

Today I will overview two Linux games which are a very good alternative to the famous Civilization series from Windows, Freeciv and FreeCol. They are both open-source, free, and usually come included with every distribution.

Freeciv
Freeciv is based on the client/server model, so the server is started automatically when you start a new game. It provides two different client interfaces: GTK2 and SDL (see below on how to install and launch).


Freeciv 2.2.1


To install in Ubuntu, type in a terminal either one of the following commands:

sudo apt-get install freeciv-client-gtk2 # (for the GTK client) sudo apt-get install freeciv-client-sdl # (for the SDL client)

To launch the game, press Alt+F2 and type freeciv in the run dialogue that appears or go to Applications->Games->Freeciv. If you installed both packages (even though there is no need to do it), to launch it either type freeciv-gtk2 or freeciv-sdl.


Starting a new game

Picking a nation



The SDL client allows you to run the game in window mode and fullscreen and to change the resolution.


SDL client



GTK2 client - in-game screenshot


Freeciv Homepage
Freeciv FAQ
Freeciv Forum

FreeCol
FreeCol is written in Java, so it has a slower interface, but other than that, it looks and behaves great. Freecol resembles the Colonization game, under the slogan 'the Colonization of America' but having better graphics and being actively developed. FreeCol runs in fullscreen but it doesn't steal control from the window manager, so it allows you to use Alt+Tab in order to access your other opened applications.


Installation in Ubuntu. Just type sudo apt-get install freecol in a terminal. The version included in the Maverick Beta repositories is 0.9.2.

FreeCol homepage
FreeCol forumSource URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/search/label/games
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Wesnoth 1.9 Brings Awesome New Features

There is no question Battle for Wesnoth is the most played turn-based strategy game on the Linux platform, being probably the most polished, full-featured and addictive game in its category. In this article I will talk about development release 1.9, plans for the upcoming 2.0 release and the brand new features offered at the time of writing. For users who will want to try this game for the first time, keep in mind that the version reviewed here is a development version, that means it will be buggy and incomplete, with a lot of features stripped down or not working. Try the stable, 1.8.4 version instead.


Wesnoth 1.9.1 development release - main window


Battle for Wesnoth gained a great deal of popularity due to many factors: it has great single player and multiplayer support (including campaigns, skirmish games vs AI for SP and online or hot seat modes for multi player), great 2D unit graphics and portraits, a gamestyle which borrows a lot of good concepts from other games, but also brings in new ideas, powerful community which contributes greatly to improving and writing various add-ons. There are also countless other features Wesnoth provides: background music licensed under a free license, support for many languages, possibility to create new maps, units, game modes, eras, terrains etc using WML (the Wesnoth Markup Language - which, by the way, is pretty easy to use and learn), configurable hotkeys, and it can be run in fullscreen or windowed mode.

In the past I have reviewed Wesnoth 1.6, and in the mean time a new stable version was released, 1.8, which also brought new campaigns and many other improvements, especially at the lobby, general game speed and unit portraits.

However, the release I'm going to talk about is development release 1.9.1, which was uploaded to SourceForge just a few days ago. 1.9 sounds very promising, especially since it will turn into Wesnoth 2.0 once it gets full-featured and stable.


Notice the new terrain changes


Currently, only a few new features are visible, like the selection hexagon which looks very neat now compared to the one in previous versions, which used a terrain-highlight style. Also, the graphical cursor is now enabled by default.


Another nice change can be observed in the several new terrains, which are more polished and blend better one in another.

The networking code has been completely rewritten, which is finally great news, because there were always connection issues in the past versions, especially with client disconnects.

Also, a new campaign is available, called 'Dead Water' and including 13 merfolk intermediate scenarios.


Dead Water campaign



Another thing about campaigns: the story at the beginning of each campaign includes now Back and Forward buttons, alongside the classic Skip button. This is surely useful if you missed some part and want to read it again.


Back and forward buttons


I'm going to talk a little about a new, very useful feature: the planning mode. Codenamed 'Whiteboard', the planning mode was developed as a GSoC 2010 project and allows you to test visually possible moves, including recruiting, attacking and recalling and check the best enemy moves for the new layout. This let's you see 'what would happen if I'd do this'. To enable the planning mode, use Shift+P or go to Actions and tick the Toggle planning mode option. To execute the planning mode, press X, to delete it, press H, and to reorder actions use PG_UP/PG_DOWN.

Considering it is still in a testing phase and there is more to add until released, I won't talk about bugs or other technical problems found. However, I'll mention here just one drawback: Wesnoth 1.9 is very slow at the moment, but hopefully this will get improved with time.


What can I say in the end? I'm a dedicated Wesnoth user and I can't wait until this turns out into a brand new and stable 2.0 release.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/search/label/games
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First-Person Shooter Game for Linux: Warsow Review

It's been a while since I last reviewed a shooter game for Linux, and one of them was World of Padman (reviewed here), which was a cartoon-like, funny first-person shooter. Well, the same goes for Warsow, the game I'm going to talk about in this article. Every graphical aspect of Warsow indicates we're dealing with a cartoon-like universe, from the character models to weapons and maps.


Warsow 0.5


Warsow is a free, open-source game providing a fast-paced gameplay and taking place in a futuristic, cartoon-like world. The game features several popular game modes which are characteristic to almost any FPS, but also some particular ones. To list them: Capture the Flag (CTF), Free for All (FFA), Team Deathmatch (TDM), Clan Arena, Instagib, Race and Duel. Three new game modes have been introduced in version 0.5, the last release of Warsow: Team Domination, Headhunt, Bomb & Defuse.


You can play online joining one of the servers in the servers list or you can play a local game. The good thing about local games is that Warsow implements bot support. First start a game and then press ~ to open the console and type: g_numbots NUMBER_OF_BOTS e.g.:

g_numbots 6

This will add 6 bots to the game.

There are a lot of online servers, and you can find players at any time. Playing online increases considerably the fun, especially since there are a lot of custom maps, for example the remake of the Quake 3 map DM17 below:


Players of games like Unreal Tournament, Urban Terror or Enemy Territory will be thrilled to see that Warsow offers the so-called 'trickjumps' too, which usually require skill and time to learn. Here they are called 'walljumps', and can be combined with several other techniques, like quick acceleration (dash), dodging, unlimited acceleration on ramps (ramp slide) or double dash jump. These combined can make the difference between a truly skilled player and the average gamer.


Warsow comes with some nice background music, and the sounds seem like they're taken from an animation movie for kids, which makes it really funny.

Warsow can run in fullscreen or windowed mode, and provides a lot of options to setup the player, configure the graphics, sound, voice messages and keyboard controls.

Along with the features mentioned above, Warsow also provides a dedicated scripting system, called AngelScript, which provides the community with ways of developing new maps and mods.

According to an updated posted on September 5 on the official Warsow blog, the next version, 0.55, will feature several new maps, a tutorial map, a new chat console and a new crosshair featuring a damage indicator in a Quake Live style.




Conclusion
Final thoughts: Warsow is a lot, I mean a *lot* of fun. It's very fast-paced, giving the impression that you're racing around and fraggin', doesn't need an expensive video card to play (runs very well on my Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM and nVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS), comes with both single player and multi player support and offers many interesting modes beside the well-known ones. So, if you haven't tried it yet, don't hesitate to do it now.

Official website
Download Warsow
FAQ - you really need to read this is you want to learn how to master WarsowSource URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/search/label/games
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TORCS Review - The Open Racing Car Simulator for Linux

As the title suggests, TORCS is a free and open-source racing simulator available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. I'll list here some of its features:

- 3D graphics using OpenGL
- 42 different car models
- 30 racing tracks
- 6 racing types
- different camera angles



Torcs 1.3.1



The graphics are a little old, but the racing experience is pretty neat. TORCS comes only with single player mode, offering several racing modes, like Quick Race, Non-Championship Race, Endurance Race, Championship, Challenge Race and Practice.


The official website offers links to several more tracks, cars and robots (AI drivers), like this or this. You can install these new tracks and car models by downloading and extracting the archive for each, and then copying the tracks in:

/usr/share/games/torcs/cars/ (for cars)
/usr/share/games/torcs/tracks/road/ (for road tracks)
/usr/share/games/torcs/tracks/oval/ (for oval tracks)
/usr/share/games/torcs/tracks/dirt/ (for dirt tracks)

Replace the path with the one where TORCS is installed if you compiled it manually and used a different installation prefix.

One of the beautiful features that really impressed me is the possibility to increase or decrease how the time passes. For example, pressing Shift++ (Shift and +) will increase the time, and thus making the speed look like it has doubled or tripled. To go back to normal time, just press the - (minus) key. The feeling is amazing!


I encountered crashes (output in console was segmentation fault) several times when starting a new race, I guess this is a small problem, but it does not happen often. Hopefully this will be fixed in 1.3.2.


Overall, TORCS is pretty decent for a racing simulator, with one minus being the old graphics, but otherwise, it can keep you busy for hours.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/search/label/games
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Free RTS Game for Linux: Warzone 2100

Warzone 2100 is a free, open-source real-time strategy game available for Linux, Windows and Mac. This game was originally closed-source, developed by Pumpkin Studios and published by Eidos Interactive in 1999, but in 2004 it was officially licensed under the GNU GPL.

The latest version is 2.3.4, released earlier this year, on August 12. Let me list some of its features:

- single player and multi player modes
- 3D graphics engine, allowing the use of a 3D camera and angle rotation
- tons of units and upgrades to choose from
- allows fully customisable units


The battles take place in an apocalyptic future, after the world was destroyed by nuclear missiles. The game comes bundled with only a few over a dozen maps, but the official website offers many more, which can be easily installed.

The game can run in fullscreen or windowed mode, and allows to configure the difficulty level, graphics performance items like screen shake, fog, or shadows, and it also provides a way to change the keyboard bindings for all the available actions. There is also an independent random map generator for Warzone 2100 called Diorama, available for download at this website.

The game offers a somewhat different gameplay compared to other RTS names, offering the player the possibility to completely customise the units, by choosing from a very wide number of different upgrades with different purposes. For example, you can build up a combat vehicle by choosing from the types of wheels, turrets, and these can be upgraded after you reach a certain level of development, which can be acquired after building several Research Centers and doing manual upgrades. Same goes for defensive structures like walls or towers.


Viewing the world from a different angle


To install it in Ubuntu, just type sudo apt-get install warzone2100 in a terminal, or use the Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center graphical installer.

Considering Linux really lacks native RTS games that can match the ones available for Windows, Warzone 2100 is a pretty decent alternative for those of us who need to run Windows games in Wine.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/search/label/games
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3 Wonderful Open-Source Games to Install After Installing Ubuntu

Battle for Wesnoth
Battle for Wesnoth is one of the most popular turn-based strategy games for Linux, if not the most popular. Completely free and open-source, it provides both singleplayer campaigns, as well as online multiplayer, hotseat or LAN support. The game takes place over various maps composed from hexes, and in each hex a unit at a time can be deployed. The player has to take advantage of various terrain types (which increase or decrease defence), use wisely the types of attack and abilities each unit has. Wesnoth currently comes with 6 factions (Loyalists, Rebels, Knalgan Alliance, Undead, Northerners and Drakes), but the add-on server has a whole bunch of custom eras and new factions.


Wesnoth 1.6.5


Scripting is handled in Wesnoth by WML, the Wesnoth Markup Language, which allows for building entire scenarios and campaigns.

Wesnoth is in a continuous change, with every new release bringing more features and gameplay innovation. The current stable release is 1.6.5, but soon 1.8 will be out, and it will include new unit portraits, WML (Wesnoth Markup Language) improvements, updated campaigns and more. 1.8 will also allow the user to directly upload user-made campaigns and scenario from in-game add-ons menu.


Dark Forecast, one of the most popular survival maps


To install Wesnoth in Ubuntu, type in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install wesnoth

SuperTux
SuperTux is a 2D jump and run Mario clone, with the difference that it uses its own maps, enemies, and the main character is... you guessed, Tux, the story taking place in Antarctica. It is licensed under the GPL and it is free of charge. SuperTux has very nice graphics, especially since it has support for software and OpenGL rendering, 26 levels and 9 types of enemies.


Except for the official website, there is also a fansite for SuperTux, with screenshots, user-made maps and a forum.


SuperTux 0.3.1


To Install SuperTux in Ubuntu, type in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install supertux

World of Padman
When it comes to Linux shooter games, there isn't only one choice. Games like Nexuiz, OpenArena or Sauerbraten were a good fit here too, but I decided upon World of Padman.

Based on the Quake 3 engine, World of Padman is a fun, cartoon-style first-person shooter with maps, weapons and characters inspired from the Padman series. It features nice, colourful graphics, popular modes like FFA, TDM or CTF, and weapons which will definitely make you laugh the first time you'll see them.


World of Padman


Although it is not included in the repositories, WoP can be easily installed like this:

- download the Linux installer and Linux patch installer from here
- make them executables:

chmod 755 padman.run
chmod 755 wop_patch_1_2.run

- and install both of them, padman.run (or worldofpadman.run, depending on the name of the file) first, and then wop_patch_1_2.run:

./padman.run
./wop_patch_1_2.run

Updated: Jan 2, 2010
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/search/label/games
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Full Review: Nexuiz 2.5.2 - Free First-Person Shooter for Linux

Nexuiz is one of the most popular shooter games which emerged after the open-sourcing of the Quake 3 engine, featuring a fast-paced game style and several game modes, like the popular DM or CTF. Nexuiz is a free, GPL-licensed, first-person shooter developed online by the Internet-based team Alientrap, and it comes with ports for Linux, Windows and Mac.


Nexuiz 2.5.2


Ever since it was launched, in May 2005, Nexuiz went through a lot of changes and evolved with every release. The 2.5 series bring many improvements, featuring new graphics, new maps and an even faster gameplay. The latest version is 2.5.2, a bug-fix release to the stable 2.5 release. To test the latest Nexuiz, download the Zip archive from the official website (direct link here), uncompress it, and then run the binary specific to your OS (the archive includes binaries for Linux, as well as Windows and Mac).


Nexuiz - choosing the player model


Nexuiz 2.5 offers a futuristic interface, with fast access to settings and other configuration options. One of the nice things which bumped out when configuring the keys was that Nexuiz allows for switching between fullscreen and windowed mode just by pressing a key, even if the game is running. Older versions of Nexuiz used Shift+Esc in order to open the console, but it looks like in 2.5 you can use the classic ` key.


The server browser


Besides multiplayer, Nexuiz also includes support for bots and a singleplayer campaign. It comes with 15 player models, 13 weapons and 24 official maps, music and original character and weapon sounds.

Nexuiz will run smoothly on older machines at 1024x768, but you will need a decent video card to enjoy it on higher resolutions at a steady framerate. However, lowering texture details and particle details will help if you have an older video card and CPU.


Overall, I think Alientrap is doing a great job by continuously developing this game, which became one of the favourite FPS games for Linux users, together with other well-known names like OpenArena or Tremulous.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/search/label/games
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