Thanks to GamingOnLinux for reminding me to post what I’m sure a great many of you have been waiting to hear: S2 Games’ DoTA-inspired real-time multiplayer strategy game, Heroes of Newerth, is now in OPEN BETA! You no longer need a key to play and provide feedback! Also, if you pre-ordered before the beta opened, you get:
in game Golden Nickname, Golden Shield, and Taunt (SMACKDOWN!) ability
Moreover, Zachary “Colin Baker” Slater will be conducting interviews with S2 Games at tomorrow’s launch celebration in San Francisco, so if you have any questions for the developers, please post them below before 4PM PST!
Zachary “Clock Master” Slater has interviewed Forest Hale, creator of the DarkPlaces engine, about the recent controversy involving Nexuiz becoming a commercial, game console-targeted project:
Zachary Slater: Can a GPL game engine be used on consoles like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3?
Forest Hale: Not directly, however copyright holders have the right to provide other licenses on a case by case basis, in this case, id Software has a technology licensing program with reasonable prices, I am providing IllFonic with a license to my modifications and the modifications of many contributors (with whom I had to individually arrange licensing for this purpose over the years, and contributions I can not re-license I will have to remove or replace).
All my cards are on the table, as the DarkPlaces engine is developed in the open.
So IllFonic has a license from id Software for Quake engine on Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, and a license from me, which collectively allows them to use the DarkPlaces engine.
The GPL code and open assets for Nexuiz have forked under the new project name of Xonotic.
Joystiq has word from PAX East that the turn-based adventure series, Penny Arcade Adventures, has been cancelled. Two episodes have been released for Linux and other platforms to date; you can read my original review (sans screenshots, oops) of Episode One here.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun has posted an interview with Wolfire, developers of the Linux fighting game Lugaru and its upcoming sequel, Overgrowth. I thought this blurb was particularly interesting:
Early preorders are an extension of our open development process. You won’t see us claiming to have a perfectly finished game ready yet, but when we have a new feature, we’ll post about it, make a video about it and explain how it works. If people like what they see and want to help us, they can preorder and get early access to our editor tools. We’ve been super psyched about how much early support we’ve gotten.
The expansion pack brings 3 new immersive levels, each one requiring particular skills to approach and complete. What starts off as an investigation, continues with a high profile chase and ends with a complex job of hacking a highly secure computer network.
The official Quake Live website has word of an update to the free browser-based version of Quake III: Arena:
We took QUAKE LIVE offline for just a short period today to update our statsdaemon, a necessary adjustment to our back-end systems so that we could continue our work on improving scalability.
In addition to these back-end changes, we are now also running additional servers, including ‘Large Clan Arena’ servers running 8v8 Team Sizes, and for our Team Deathmatch fans we are now running ‘InstaTDM’, ‘Team DM 2v2′ and ‘pro TDM 2v2′ servers.
Many moons ago, Phoronix pointed out that a tech demo video for Primal Carnage, a cooperative multiplayer FPS which utilizes the cross-platform Unigine.
Primal Carnage is being developed by Lukewarm Media, and is slated for release on Linux around year’s end. And hey, it has DINOSAURS :D
A reader sent in the following announcement that I am only just getting to because I’m incredibly behind and negligent:
Driving Aces is a Classic Car Race played with cards. Be the first to reach 5000 miles. It plays like Touring, Right Of Way and Mille Bornes. This version is you against the Penguin!
It’s available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. The Linux version is free and requires no registration.
The game is also multi-lingual and includes a built in language editor.
The author of BOH, an action game, let us know about a new update with the following changes:
adds acceleration to the turning of the main character when standing (allows to turn by small degrees and, at the same time, to change totally direction more quickly);
makes enemy fields harmful like traps;
adds sound effects to enemy fields and conveyor belts;
improves the sound volume balancement of clusters of squares (enemy fields, conveyor belts and traps);
intensifies the hit sparks effect;
increases a bit the weapons shoot rate (so killing enemies is a bit easier);
replaces the “USE ENHANCED/STANDARD WEAPONS” option with the “DIFFICULTY: normal/easy” option, which affects also the spawning rate of enemies;
removes the “ENABLE/DISABLE BARRIERS” option;
adds the “NAME REQUEST: once / per session / always” option;
adds walls graphics to the themes “C64″, “default” and “warm”;
extends the illumination range of rotating lamps;
adds music and recoloring of graphics to the mission report screen;
adds 10 new short pieces of music;
improves some graphical elements, sound samples and music pieces;
simplifies menus and adds the number of the non-secret missions;
modifies the automatic theme switching so that it will not occur after selecting another video mode or another different automatic theme switching option;
Thanks to a reader for letting us know that Commander Genius, an interpreter of the Commander Keen series and the succesor of Clonekeen and ClonekeenPlus, has been updated and released.
Brad Carney, former lead developer of the popular DOOM source port Skulltag, has (finally!) released source code from the project, in this case version 97c2 of the game (thanks Doomworld!):
After years of standing in the way of this, I have finally decided to allow for the release of the Skulltag source code. After all, let’s be honest: No longer running Skulltag has given me a different perspective on this issue.
The release of the source code is something that Torr has wanted to do for awhile now. For security reasons, we’re releasing the source to the older 97c2 first. I have given him permission to release any subsequent versions that he desires. After all, who am I now to stand in his way?
While the current release of Skulltag is Linux-compatible, the source as released is not, at least for now.
Parallels can be drawn to Introversion’s Uplink but Digital is very much its own experience. While Uplink was driven by the game elements of upgrading your deck and breaking into systems in a cool cyberpunk-esque world, Digital keeps its focus on characters and storytelling and draws instead from the unglamorous nerdy reality of the pre-internet digital world. The tools at your disposals are primitive, but are interactive enough that it doesn’t just feel like passive story.
Thanks to SlickMcRunfast for pointing out Tiny and Big, a fascinating new action/puzzle game:
Set in a land, where common physics apply but everything else looks different.
You are Tiny, a little, technophile guy with a ray cutter, a gripping device, a bad habit and
a fine attitude towards the world. But now your nemesis Big stole the only
heritage your grandpa left you: A fine pair of white, fine rib underpants and
he‘s surely up to no good. Why else should he climb that haunted, ancient mountain
in the desert. Where noone goes…
