LINUXGAMES

Activision issued a pressrelease today announcing that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars has gonegold for Windows. As announced earlier this month, it should arrive atretailers by October 2nd:

To date, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars has won more than 15 awards and has beenheralded as one of the most anticipated new titles in 2007 by nearly a dozenpublications.

“The opportunity to develop Enemy Territory QUAKE Wars has been mind-blowinglycool!” said Splash Damage Owner and Creative Director Paul Wedgwood. “Thepassion and effort put in by our team at Splash Damage, combined with theamazing direction and mentoring we’ve received from id Software has led to anaward-winning game that we’re incredibly proud of. Our team can’t wait to joinfans across the globe to fight in Earth’s battle for survival!”

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars for Windows PC is rated “T” by the ESRB andcarries a suggested retail price of $49.99 for the regular edition and $59.99for the Limited Collector’s Edition. To learn more about the game and tosecure a pre-ordered copy, visit http://www.enemyterritory.com/.

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars takes place in the year 2065 and gives gamers thechance to play as the GDF or Strogg in one of five unique character classes,either online or offline with computer controlled AI teammates and opponents.Employing an arsenal of weapons, vehicles and deployable armaments, playersengage in an action-packed test of skill and coordinated teamwork through aseries of combat objectives. Persistent character growth and achievementsreward players for teamwork, while clearly defined mission and classobjectives guide new players to meaningful contributions on the battlefield.

The community page forQuake Wars also notes that a demo and SDK for mods are being worked on.Although these announcements are Windows-centric, have no fear, for the Linuxclient is in development as well.

Speaking of, the official QuakeWars Linux FAQ has updated beta builds for the dedicated server, andsolutions for common issues encountered to date.

Some new content came out of LeipzigGC:

• Nine screenshots@ Shacknews – in a few of them it looks like the GDF has arctic warfare camoin addition to the desert pattern we’ve seen before.
• A new trailer@ Gametrailers.com that showcases the on-foot and vehicular combat.
• An interviewwith Splash Damage’s Paul Wedgewoodthat details the objectives on the Island map.
• Anotherinterview with Wedgewood @ Kotaku, where he says the game ships with 12maps divided into 4 campaigns.

Finally, if you want to get a leg up on the game’s nuances, the Quake Wars4 Newbies page has a lot of documentation on the game’sclasses, maps, weapons, vehicles, and config options.

Lifehackerconducted an interview with Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, and games cameup:

Lifehacker: The readers have also commented that they arestaying away from Linux because it is missing big name softwarepackages—especially games. Is there a strategy to overcome this traditionallyunconquerable Linux roadblock?

Mark Shuttleworth: Games are a particularly difficult thing to address onLinux. Obviously that’s less of an issue in a corporate environment or amongstprofessional developers who may well have multiple computers and have a gamingmachine for their own personal use separate from their development machine. Itis not something we particularly want to address at this stage. That industryhas very specific economics that we can’t really influence.

We’ve mentioned Linux-based in-flightentertainment before, but here’s a new one: ArsTechnica has examined the Red Hat-powered Panasonic ex2, whichincludes:

An expansive library of PC and Nintendo games covers nearly every game genre –puzzle, classics, trivia, action, adventure, strategy and more. Plusmultiplayer options engage any number of passengers in friendly competition,from one-on-one bouts to cabin-wide trivia challenges.

So far, the system is slotted for airlines I’ve never flown on, but if any ofour readers get a chance to use them we’d be interested in hearing somehands-on impressions.

A quick patch release for Endgame:Singularity, a rogue self-aware AI sim, to fix the very easy difficulty setting.

Download: [ emhsoft.com ]

Silver Tree, a single playerparty-based 3D RPG project, has had its first release:

The game is heavily in development, but most of the major intended gameplayfeatures are already present. Players can explore the world, build a party,fight enemies, gain experience and assign skills, and acquire equipment.

It’s also noted that the developers have previously worked on Battle for Wesnoth, which stands among the mostconsistently and highly praised open source games.

Download: [ silvertreerpg.org ]

Eurogamerhas reported that there will be a PC (which may just mean Windows) demo of Unreal Tournament 3 before thegame ships.

Also, inUnreal.deinterviewed Epic’s Mark Rein about thegame at Leipzig GC.

Gametrailers.com hasalso posted two videos of a developer walkthrough from the GC event whichshowcases the weapons, vehicles, and Warfare game mode.

The LordsAWar! project, which forkedfromFreelords, is an effort todevelop a Warlords II clone.The included changelog for v0.0.2 mentions new menu items, a quick-start algorithm, andfog-related fixes.

Download: [ lordsawar.com ]

Version 0.0.5 of irrlamb, a 3Dgame that involves physics and challenging gameplay, has been released. Installationinstructions are available; ze changes are:

• New gameplay mechanic: grapple
• Added more levels
• Added springs
• Added basic sounds
• Added code to limit frame rate
• Changed replay file structure. Old replays are incompatible.

Download: [ google.com ]

Version a11 of the “Stupid and AngryBot” for Quake 4 was releasedlast month, which allows Q4 players to deathmatch against an AI opponent:

Arguably as Stupid and Angry as ever, now with the zesty tang of new andpossibly oddly broken features, Bunnyhopping! Oh the humanity of a barely incontrol jumping death dealing computer algorythm!

The horrors of science have unleashed a mutant version of SABot – the Golem.Freed from the shackles of doomscript Golem rampages in different but possiblyequally stupid ways. A new gametype Go! Go! Slipgate! Bring the powersinks toyour slipgate before the time limit and indescriminate death. There can onlybe one survivor. Results may vary, see your doctor if pain persists.

Download: [ quakeunity.com ]

Planewalker Games let us know they’ve posted a new article, “Inside the Engine“, which explains the level generation process for their upcoming role-playing game, The Broken Hourglass:

2D environment maps are usually shrouded in mysterious data files, but we demonstrate how areas can be created simply by using a few tricks to create silhouette and surface renders of the same map players will see in-game. This should open up area creation to a wide range of modders who are more interested in staging and rendering intriguing environments than they are in manually describing polygons or editing coordinate files.

There are also other articles, backstory, and screenshots available; the project utilizes an internally-developed engine based on their experience with modding BioWare‘s Infinity Engine.

Gambatte, a Game Boy and Game Boy Coloremulator, has been announced:

“Cycle-accurate” seems to be apopular term among emulatorauthors these days, and as such you could easily say thatGambatte is a cycle-accurate emulator. The development ofGambatte has been ever so slightly accuracy-focused (I havenightmares of hex editors and flash carts chasing me,bellowing deadbeef while hurling badf00d at me), and thenumber of files in my hwtest directory is currentlycounting more than 1200. There’s always more stuff thatcould be tested of course.

Although some popular emulator features like save statesand joystick support are missing I still think doing arelease is worthwhile, at least for those of us that caremore about accuracy than usability features and justsuperficial compatibility. There are many great Game Boyemulators out there however.

Download: [ sourceforge.net]

DOSBox version 0.72 – here itis:

• Fixed unitialized variable in joystick.
• Some bugfixes and speedups to the 64 bit recompiling core.
• Fixed sign flag on soundblaster dma transfers (Space Quest 6intro)
• Fixed a bug in keyboard layout processing code and fixed certainlayouts.
• Fixed Dreamweb.
• Improved speed unlocking when running cycles=max.
• Fixed a crash related to the tab completion in the shell.
• Improved aspect correction code. Should now be like how a real monitorhandles it.
• Fixed a bug in the xms status report code. (Blake Stone 1.0shareware)
• Added a lot more keyboard layouts.
• Fixed crash related to changing the scaler before a screen wascreated.
• Enabled auto cpu core selection for recompiling core as well.
• Made the used joystick selectable when 4axis is specified.
• Added some hints for inexperienced DOS users to the shell.

DOSBox is pretty much what it sounds like, an emulator for the Disk Operating System used on PCsfor most of the 1980s and early 1990s. There’s a game compatibilitytable on the website (hooray Crusader!).

Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

A new build of Thunder&Lightning, an open source action simulator featuring pilotable aircraft and tanks, has been released. Here comes the changelog!

• New MFD modes: a target view and a missile view deliver spectactular sights
• Decoy flares that distract incoming missiles from their target.
• Tanks and the carrier turret fire much more precisely now and have become really dangerous to aircraft.
• Some new graphical sugar, like lens flares for missiles and decoys and new smoke effects
• Performance enhancements in the AI scripts make a greater number of enemies possible
• Your mission has been made slightly more challenging
• Several bug fixes, including one in the pixel shader of the water rendering that caused ugly artefacts on NVidia hardware

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ tnlgame.net ]

We received a release announcement for Kamyran’s Eye 2, a graphical fantasy-themed roguelike role-playinggame:

Beyond standard roguelike ingredients it has an emphasis on story and adynamic world with different factions, shifting alliances, armies thatfight each other and destroy cities.

A demo is available for download; you can also buy the full version from ManifestoGames for $10 US.

Screenshots: [ View ] Demo Download: [ phk.at ]

Pingus, one of the most popular andlong-running Linux game projects (we’ve mentioned it at least as far back as 1999),is now at version 0.7. Inspired by Lemmings,Pingus has a built-in level editor and multiplayer. Changes:

• switch from ClanLib to SDL
• new anti-aliased fonts
• better support for resolutions larger then 800×600 (see –geometryWxH option)
• s-expression based file format (converter scripts areavailable)
• PPC and 64bit support
• language support for Czech, German, Finish, Italian, Norwegian, Serbian, Turkish, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, Fench and Polish
• level editor temporarly removed
• a little less fps then the ClanLib version
• no new levels or other main features

Screenshots: [ View ]Download: [ seul.org ]

The official website for Penny ArcadeAdventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness has been launched(with trailer);based on the popular webcomic anddeveloped by Hothead Games using the Torque engine, PAAis an adventure game in the classic SCUMM vein with the addition of turn-based combat.Moreover, Kotakuhas posted their impressions from the PAX event:

After the comic panel style intro featuring your customized character, youjoin up with Gabe and Tycho to solve the mystery of the giant marauding robotthat opens the game by tromping it’s way through your yard. Once your team istogether you can use their various powers (individually and together) to plowyour way through such iconic enemies as hobos, clowns mimes and even barbershop quartets.

There was also a question-and-answer session that Slashdotcovered:

The game will be available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux at launch.They’re really hoping to get more platforms out there as well, such as XboxLive and the PlayStation Store. They’re going to be offering it themselvesfrom their website, but are also considering other digital distributionmethods like Steam.

It’s mentioned that Ron Gilbert is working onthe game; additional episodes to continue the story are also planned. Finally,Wiredhas nearly a dozen screenshots up.

Engadgethas word that the GP2X F-200 will ship thisOctober from Play-Asia;the GP2X is a Linux-based open-source handheld game platform that encourageshobbyist development. TheF-200 adds new gamepad design and a touchscreen. How many of you already havea GP2X F-100? There does seem to be a lot of software available forthem…

SDL-Asylum, a SDL-based port of the 2D puzzle shooter Asylum, has been announced.Changes:

• Fixed the dreaded jumping-onto-platforms bug.
• Jumping up into passages exactly two blocks high should no longer be unnecessarily difficult.
• Rewrote Makefile and README to be more helpful.

Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

The Villa of Darknesshosts Java-based roguelike projectsinspired by classic console game series, such as Castlevania and Metroid. The mostrecent release is CastlevaniaRL version 1.26, which has graphical and text modes.

Download: [ santiagoz.com ]

BeyondUnrealpointed out these forum posts (one | two) with impressions of Unreal Tournament 3′s new Warfaregametype from the Leipzig GamesConvention:

Today I was able to play two rounds of Warfare and also listen to a litteintroduction of Warfare in Leipzig at the GC. There were two presentations:one at the midway booth and one at the Intel booth. I played one round at eachbooth.

IGN has a new GC-based preview withbrief overviews of the game’s major features. There’s also a videodemonstration of Warfare by Epic’s Mark Rein that runs for seven minutes.