LINUXGAMES

Ryan “icculus” Gordon and Running with Scissors have released a free version of the Postal 2: Share the Pain multiplayer first person shooter due to the Postal movie release:

To celebrate the release of the Postal movie, Running With Scissors has released a free download version of Postal 2: Share the Pain. This is the complete multiplayer portion of the game, with the single player campaign removed.

The single player mode is still available for sale from RwS’s website, of course.

Postal 2: Share the Pain (Free Version) Download: [ AtomicGamer | 0day.icculus.org | treefort.icculus.org ]

A new version of OpenArena, an open source first-person shooter which utilizes the ioquake3 source port of id Tech 3, effectively replacing the original Quake III: Arena’s copyrighted assets, has been released.

• Fixed “Getting stuck bug”
• Fixed logging bug
• Fixed UI crash
• Fixed overflow in Multiplayer list + Some of beast’s changes to server list (longer names)
• Instantgib and All rockets disabled during single player startup
• Clears nextmap after single player
• Using protocol number 69, this should only now show servers running 0.7.7 (In other words, no more lotsofservers with ‘invalid game folder’ error)

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ openarena.ws ]

Shrapnel Games has released a new patch for Dominions 3: The Awakening; version 3.17 includes these updates to the fantasy-themed strategy game:

• Three new nations inspired by biblical and near eastern giant-myths.
• Hinnom, giants of primordial times and gruesome appetites.
• Ashdod, descendants of the ancient Nephilim.
• Gath, humans led by the last of the giants.
• New spell: Manifest vitriol – summon the green lion of alchemy.
• Shattered Souls – tartarians are insane and might act randomly.
• Some new longdead graphics.
• New modcommands: #speciallook, #hero6.
• Some new events.

The feature list is too lengthy to enumerate here, but if that’s not enough, there’s also lots of discussion about the game at the Something Awful forums.

Demo Download: [ atomicgamer.com ] Download: [ atomicgamer.com ]

• There’s a new version of ETQWPro which establishes compatibility with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 1.5 and fix various bugs.
• Splash Damage’s blog has a new article examining the Dusk mod and several user-made map projects.
• The authors of the Doom 3 mod project Mind posted that Last Man Standing’s calimer will be assisting them in creating a Linux version. Moreover, calimer let us know that he’s also helping the Zombie Slayer and Full Metal Jacket: Demon Wars teams.

S2 Games released the version 1.4.8 patch for Savage 2: A Tortured Soul, their mixed-genre fantasy-themed multiplayer game, last week:

• All structures now have a minimum armor value. Attacking the structure will not cause its armor to degrade past its minimum armor setting.
• The beast static charge spire has had its range increased to 900 to match the cannon tower
• Spawn portals have had their duration reduced to 90 seconds, health reduced to 300, and will not die when the officer who placed it dies. This is to encourage more strategic placement of spawn portals and encourage their protection
• Sacrifice will now cause the player to move at 85% movement speed, down from 90%
• Imp damage reduced to 30-38 from 35-42
• Revenant’s ranged attack damage increased to 60-65 from 50-58
• Revenant’s quick attack damage increased slightly
• Devourer soul cost increased to 9
• Steambuchet’s secondary ranged attack has had its range increased to match its primary attack
• Decreased range of tempest’s meteor slightly
• Ranged Siege can no longer aim past map blockers, which is on most mountains
• Conjurer health reduced from 390 to 370
• Summoner melee attack damage increased slightly
• Fixed an issue that was causing commander centurion armor to sometimes be out of range when zoomed out
• Fixed an issue that was causing voice commands to stop working after disconnecting from a server
• Fixed an issue allowing commanders to cast spells on enemy players through the fog of war
• Fixed an issue allowing commanders to select enemy players and structures through the fog of war
• Fixed “extended” mouse buttons, they will now work as intended when bound to an action
• Spectators now properly spawn in the middle of a map rather than in the corner
• There is now a 5 second delay on the ability to ping the minimap
• Fixed various glsl shaders
• Fixed skybox seams on gl2 renderer
• Fixed gl2 renderer shadow settings not being properly applied without a restart
• Morning has been re-worked. The hell shrine is now between the two bases and there is a gold mine in the north. The walls have been moved further south and stronghold/lair moved slightly north.

There’s also a second Free Content Patch in beta-testing.

Download: [ s2games.com ]

Word War vi, a Defender-style retro shooter inspired by the vi text editor, is at version 0.12 (changelog).

Video: [ View ] Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

Phoronix has a new article up looking at open source performance on the AMD R500 chipset:

From the release of Mesa 7.1 Release Candidate 1 to Multi-Pointer X being merged to master to the R500 3D milestone, it’s been an exciting past 24 hours for the X.Org community. With the open-source 3D support for the Radeon X1000 “R500″ GPUs now reaching a parity with the Mesa support for earlier ATI Radeon product families, more Linux users can now consider turning to an open-source driver (xf86-video-ati or xf86-video-radeonhd) for their video driver needs. In this article we are looking at what Linux games work thanks to this latest Mesa R500 support.

A reader notified us of the release of nPush version 0.6. It’s a GPL’ed terminal logic game similar to Sokoban and Boulder Dash where players collect all the gold on the level while dynamiting rocks to reach the exit.

Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

LinuxLinks let us know they’ve published a followup article:

In response to our request for users’ thoughts on their favorite Linux games, we received, as anticipated, a flood of emails. Hundreds of games were recommended for inclusion in this compilation, with a few people eulogizing at great length why a particular title could not be omitted. To say that strong emotions were stirred by our previous ’42 of the Best Linux Games’ feature is an understatement!

After careful deliberation, we have whittled down the recommendations to a list of 42 more highly compelling Linux games, trying not to focus unduly on any one particular type of computer game genre. Hopefully, there should be something of interest here for all types of gamers! All of these games are great fun to play.

The second release candidate of Wine 1.0, the free implementation of Windows on Unix, has been released. This release, yet again, is a bug fix only release as the project is in a code freeze now.


Download: [ Wine 1.0-rc2 ]

Version 1.5 of Wolf4SDL, a SDL-based source port of the classic first-person shooter Wolfenstein 3-D, was released recently (thanks Linux Game Tome):

• Mac-enstein like view size
• Support for resolutions being a multiple of 320×240
• Full playability with only a game controller
• Support for sounds >= 64kB
• Several bug fixes.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ uni-karlsruhe.de ]

Someone pointed out this Sauerbraten map which painstakingly recreates the Federation Starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701, no bloody A, B, C, D, or E!):

The Constitution Class Starship Enterprise from the show; 26 decks, 2 million+ square feet, 1.2 million blocks (after optimization). Not really a practical deathmatch map, as it’s WAY too big and the design was not optimized for DM (e.g., lots of rooms with only one entrance or exit, etc). It’s also not set up for single player. Think of it more as a sort of modern art- it exists for it’s own sake.

Sauerbraten, also known as Cube 2, is a free multiplayer/singleplayer first person shooter, built as a major redesign of the Cube FPS. Quadropolis hosts lots of user-made content for the game, including ranked maps and mods.

Download: [ quadropolis.us ]

Joystiq conducted an interview last week with Penny Arcade’s Jerry “Tycho” Holkins about the recent launch of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, an adventure RPG based on the popular webcomic:

For me the journey is in no way over. Encapsulated in my answer to those questions is the totality of the project. For me the totality of the project is going to continue on for at least another year. Even from now … the story is four chapters long, and I’m more than halfway through the second game.

Version 0.8 of Wormux, an open-source multiplayer strategy game inspired by Worms, has been released after a few public beta builds. This is the first major version to have network support; other changes can be perused at the announcement post.

If you’re interested in contributing to the project, there’s documentation for developers at their Wiki.

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

AMD has released the May Linux ATI Catalyst display driver update for their graphics card line; changes include bugfixes and new features for the control software.

Download: [ amd.com ]

m77 sent in a link to Battery, his Java-based browser game featuring top-down aerial combat. The project is also looking for additional contributors; if interested, please contact the author.

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

Hothead Games and Penny Arcade have announced the release of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One for Linux via the new Greenhouse game distribution platform:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – May 21, 2008 – Hothead Games today announced that “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One” is now available worldwide simultaneously via Xbox LIVE Arcade (except Korea) and via the Greenhouse digital distribution platform (www.playgreenhouse.com) for the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions. “Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One” is expected to offer players six to ten hours of gameplay, and is priced at $19.95 for the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions and at 1600 Microsoft points via Xbox LIVE Arcade. The game has been rated “M” for Mature by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board for all platforms.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One is an RPG-Adventure game set in the deranged 1920s universe of New Arcadia, delivered to gamers via accessible episodic releases. Players join Gabe and Tycho, the crime-solving team of the Startling Developments Detective Agency, to combat savage enemies and solve mysteries hidden deep in the sinister heart of New Arcadia. The game is the result of close collaboration between Hothead Games and Penny Arcade, featuring distinct artwork and characters designed exclusively by Mike “Gabe” Krahulik, story and dialogue by Jerry “Tycho” Holkins, both brought to life by the Hothead team.

Key Features:

• Create-a-Player System lets you design and develop your own character, seeing it come to life in 3D and in the comic-style 2D cut scenes
• Dynamic turn-based combat system, over-the-top animations, and team-up moves during enemy battles
• Classic adventure game play combines with RPG elements to unravel the game’s mysteries and puzzles
• Authentic Penny Arcade story and dialogue written exclusively by Jerry Holkins
• Includes Gabe, Tycho, Annarchy, the Fruit F*cker and many other favorite Penny Arcade characters, plus new characters designed by Mike Krahulik

A demo is available, and there’s also a prequel comic at the Greenhouse frontpage.

Game Trailer: [ View ] Demo Download: [ atomicgamer.com ] Purchase Episode 1: [ playgreenhouse.com ]

Version 1.5 of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, a multiplayer-focused first-person shooter set during the post-apocalyptic Strogg war, has been released by id Software and Splash Damage. There’s been many changes since 1.4, including:

• User interface improvements – “new customization options for turret lock-on warnings… mine trigger warnings can similarly be toggled on or off”
• New customization CVARs – “it’s now possible to set mouse sensitivity on a per-vehicle basis… new cvars for quickly switching spawn points”
• Ranks and statistics – “in-game scoreboard once again correctly displays player ranks”
• Bot improvements – “bots now understand the battlefield even better than before and will act more like a human player would”

The update comes in patch, full, and server-only flavors.

Patch Download:[ atomicgamer | other mirrors ]

Eat the Whistle a GPL’ed Amiga soccer game is now at version 3.6 with localization and packaging improvements.

Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

Thanks to hitnrun for letting us know about the Game & Watch Simulator:

This is a generic engine for simulation of Game & Watch games, starting with ports of the Madrigal Game & Watch Simulators. It is designed to run anywhere SDL is available, with emphasis in handheld machines (editor’s note: like the GP2X).

Download: [ sourceforge.net ]