LINUXGAMES

Version 0.8.1 of FreeCol, the turn-based strategy game based on the old game Colonization, has been released with various bugfixes.

Download: [ freecol.org ]

Phoronix updated last week to note that Linux Games Publishing’s private beta test for Shadowgrounds Survivor has begun.

Shadowgrounds Survivor is a third-person/top-down action game where the player takes control of three characters and faces alien invaders; there’s a teaser trailer at AtomicGamer, and you can read reviews of the Windows version at Metacritic.

S2 Games has released a patch, version 1.8.0, for Savage 2: A Tortured Soul (thanks again to vadi4!). Changes include interface improvements and new voice commands; it’s also recommended that any interface mods be removed before applying this patch until they can be updated for compatibility.

Thanks to vadi4 for pointing out that Vulcando Games’ 4X MMOG title Celetania is  updated every Tuesday and Thursday; the changelog is maintained here: http://www.celetania.com/releasenotes.php.

2D Boy updated their website with some statistics for the Linux version of their acclaimed puzzle game World of Goo:

Update 4: It’s only been 2 days since the release of the Linux version and it already accounts for 4.6% of the full downloads from our website. Our thanks to everyone who’s playing the game on Linux and spreading the word. Here are a couple of nifty stats:

• About 12% of Linux downloads are of the .rpm package, 30% are of the .tar.gz package, and 57% are of the .deb package.
• More copies of the game were sold via our website on the day the Linux version released than any other day. This day beat the previous record by 40%. There is a market for Linux games after all :)

mrgibson sent in a release announcement for Crazynoid, an Arkanoid/Breakout clone written in Java:
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Ryan “icculus” Gordon, has released an update to Human Head’s Prey for Ryan Linux. Changes:

• Fixed to allow up to 8 mouse buttons (not counting mousewheel).
• Fixed installer crash on startup in Polish locale.
• Fixed installer to import your CD key from existing install (such as one you got through Steam).
• More localization improvements in the installer.

More information and downloads can be found at the Prey for Linux page at icculus.org.

Wolfire Games has updated their website with a FAQ for Overgrowth, the upcoming sequel to their third-person action game Lugaru.

GemRB version 0.3.2 has been announced; the project is an open source clone of BioWare’s Infinity Engine, which was used in a few classic computer role-playing games. New features include:

• default cancel button, bound to the escape key
• tooltip animations and a shortcut (tab)
• wrapper python classes that simplified the GUIScripts
• trap detection, removal, triggering, xp, feedback, autopause
• modal effects
• proper xp award for dual- and multiclass actors
• double click (used in the map window)
• click-and-hold incrementing/decrementing
• accumulate kill statistics
• characters can move while the map is open
• sound on item equip
• arbitrary feat prerequisites in iwd2
• hard pause for all games (originally a ToB feature); triggered with ‘h’
• extended night areas (originally a bg2 feature)

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ prinas.si ]

Quake2World author Jay Dolan was interviewed recently on the TastyCast net radio show about his multiplayer-oriented Quake 2 source port. The project also has an updated physics model in the works.

Another new version of Scorched3D is out; version 42 adds:

• Optimized graphics rendering to take better advantage of hardware
• Scripting language support for weapons and server scripts
• Much larger landscapes supported
• Added multi-lingual support for chatting and player names
• Added localization support for dialogs and messages
• Some gameplay adjustments
• Better LAN/Internet communications for less timeouts
• Some new maps

Scorched3D is a 3D remake of the classic game Scorched Earth, where artillery pieces lob shells at one another across varied terrain.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ scorched3d.co.uk ]

Lunar Lander is a SDL-based clone of the original arcade game with progressively difficult randomly-generated levels.

Download: [ doof.me.uk ]

The Vendetta Online news page has an update regarding version 1.8.58 of the space combat MMORPG:

• Reworked Training Missions for new players.
• Three new PCC missions, branched from Orun Processor tree.
• Border Skirmish capship positional tweaks.
• Updated Voice Chat library.

Vendetta Online has a free trial period, after which there is a monthly subscription fee.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ Trial client ]

The tech site zMogo has posted a preview of Primrose, the next game from Jason Rohrer, who also created the acclaimed games Passage and Between:

Probably best known for Passage, a game about the inevitability of death, Jason Rohrer has made a name for himself as a primary figure in the growing movement of art-games. Until now his games have essentially been an experiment in artistic expression through game design, exploring themes like regret, death, and creativity with basic game mechanics.

But Primrose takes a break from the debate with some unique puzzle gaming in the same vein as Tetris. Like most good puzzle games, the idea behind Primrose is simple: your goal is to accumulate points by surrounding blocks of one colour with blocks of another colour on a 7×7 grid. When a group of blocks have been surrounded, they disappear, giving you a certain amount of points depending on how many blocks were collected. Then the surrounding blocks are changed to the colour of the blocks that were eliminated.

The developers of Mad Skills Motocross let us know about their new promotion:

“We have decided to release a free beta version of Mad Skills Motocross. There is a catch though, we won’t release it until we have 1001 fans on our Facebook fan page.

So if you want to get the beta version of Mad Skills Motocross when we reach the magic number of fans, just go to the fan page and become a fan. It is very important that you actually become a fan, otherwise we cannot contact you to give you the secret download link. Hurry up, things can happen quickly on Facebook.

On that page we have also uploaded concept art, screenshots and videos. To check them out, just go there. You don’t even need a Facebook user to access the page.”

The game uses Java and OpenGL and is expected to retail for $20.

We received the following announcement this week:

Defend the Earth from alien invaders in this action-packed, story-driven space shooter!

As mankind is beginning to venture out into the galaxy, a mysterious alien armada appears and attacks the Earth. Space Command calls on its best pilot, Rick Rocket, to take the controls of the X-01 experimental rocket ship and repel the invaders. Join Rick Rocket on an epic adventure across the Milky Way as he first defends the planet and then pursues the alien fleet. Help Rick discover who the aliens are and why they attacked the Earth!

Unlike most shooters, every mission in this game is different, with its own unique objectives and challenges. The full version features 48 missions, epic space battles set in a wide variety of locations, over 30 ships that show damage as they are hit, 12 powerups, colorful cartoon graphics, a superb music soundtrack, and more!

A trial version containing 8 free missions can be downloaded from here:

http://www.mygamecompany.com/downloads/rickrocketsetup_linux1_0.bin

Frictional Games, the developers of the survival-horror genre Penumbra series, were interviewed today over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

RPS: What can you tell us about your next project? What should we be looking forward to?

Frictional: Survival horror deluxe, so brutal that we can’t talk much about it without sending this interview to PEGI first! Nah not really, it’s a survival horror game for sure, set in the 18th century and we are going to continue exploring many of our ideas and hopes for how to develop the horror genre.

NVIDIA has released a new Linux display driver build, version 180.29, for 32-bit and 64-bit x86 Linux systems that utilize their graphics hardware. This is the second Linux display driver in the 180 series. Of particular note is that these drivers add OpenGL 3.0 capabilities to GeForce 8-and-up series cards. New features are listed after the break.

The README has more info on installation and configuration.

Download: [ nvidia.com ]

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The latest development of Wine, the translation layer capable of running Windows applications on Linux has been released. Changes in this release includes the following items:

• Gecko engine update.
• Better region support in GdiPlus.
• Support for cross-compilation in winegcc.
• Beginnings of MS Text Framework support.
• Many fixes to the regression tests on Windows.
• Various bug fixes.

Download: [ Wine 1.1.15 ]

The Quake Live Beta has begun. The game plays as expected: Within a matter of minutes one can have it up and running in Firefox. It supports plenty of maps, 4 game modes and most of what can be expected in the classic Quake series.

Currently it only works on Microsoft Windows (FF & IE) but according to the login info work is in progress for Linux and Mac support.