Alien Arena version 7.53 is now released (thanks irritant!):
Extended use of VBO for big performance increases
Signifigant improvements to bot AI
“Dm Lights” server option
Improvements to menu code
Improved stats algorithms
Entity definition files
Optimized and improved vegetation rendering
Variety of bug fixes and code cleansing
Two new maps
Optimizations to IQM and MD2 rendering
New “Ultra” skill level
Speed hack detection improvements
Version 7.53 features some very signifigant performance gains for people who like to run the game on higher settings, as well as some very nice improvements/bugfixes to the bot AI. We have also added two new maps, as well as the entity definition files which now allow for custom reconfiguration of a map’s entities, plus a number of other updates and bugfixes. For a complete changelog see http://icculus.org/alienarena/changelogs/7.53.txt
Alien Arena also has some new 3rd party content portals where you can grab the latest and greatest 3rd party levels as well as some of the “retired” classics:
Ever wanted to know how many Linux users have purchased the Humble Indie Bundle? Ever wanted to see how the average payments for MacOS have varied across every promotion? Perhaps you’re interested in the amount of money contributed by Windows for just the “Indie” branded bundles?
Wish granted!
With approval from the Humble Bundle guys, I am proud to present the results of a couple of days’ worth of work: The Humble Visualisations, a set of self-updating charts, graphs and calculated statistics that explore and compare the performance of Humble Bundles past and present.
One of the most exciting aspects of the bundles is that they mark the first time many of the games have been ported to platforms other than Windows, with each title offering full support for play on a Mac or on Linux. “The most ambitious aspect of a Humble Bundle is definitely the cross-platform porting,” Esguerra agreed. “Some developers are ready for it from day one, but usually a game is Windows-only and needs to get ported to Mac and Linux. Ryan Gordon and Edward Rudd have been instrumental in this, but a lot of developers will do ports internally as well.”
The Humble Bundles have done more for gaming on the Mac and Linux than maybe any other single thing in the past few years, as the team can go to developers who may be leery of cross-platform work and both provide talent to help with the porting and point to a proven business model so the developers understand that porting their game is a winning strategy.
Also, the current offering has been expanded to include the soundtracks from every title!
This latest version of Bastion is built to run right in your web browser, using Google’s new Native Client technology. This really is the full Bastion experience, featuring our highly acclaimed 1080p artwork, musical score, reactive narration, and play experience, all built to run fast and smooth just like our Xbox 360 and PC versions. And, much like those versions, you can play through the prologue for free. The full game can be unlocked for $14.99.
We’re very excited to have Bastion now available on Chrome since it makes getting into the game easier than ever before, and opens up the experience to tons of new players… including players using computers other than Windows-based PCs.
The Chrome version of Bastion requires:
- Processor: 1.7 GHz Dual Core or Greater
- Memory: 2 GB
- Hard Disk Space: 1.0 GB
- Video Card: 512 MB graphics card (shader model 2)
(Note: Gamepad controllers are not supported in this initial release.)
Moreover, Ubuntu Vibes has some tips on getting the game to run if you have issues.
(indie platform No Time to Explain now has extra content available in the form of “Season Two” for everyone who has purchased or will purchase the game going forward)
Details of the next Humble Indie Bundle have once more leaked, because Steam’s Content Description Record Viewer Thingamie is so ludicrously easy for people to spy. And it looks like it’s going to be a bit of a corker, as spotted by DIY Gamer. In the pay-what-you-want collection it seems there will be Super Meat Boy, BIT.TRIP.RUNNER, Jamestown, Nightsky and Shank. That’s the first wave, and then there’s even better to get added in.
The awesome people at Gaslight Games have announced on their blog that the cheeky roguelike Dungeons of Dredmor will be having a patch this week to address Linux issues:
- 1.0.8: is just about done, and should be out either Thursday or Friday. So he shalt simply wait until then, and pass the savings on via Steam and Desura (and yea, to the Humble Bundle customers besides.) All praise to Krong, for he doth not force you to run the auto-updater more so than usual.
and yea:
- Linux Humble Bundle users: let it be known, Krong feels your pain from his throne covered in the flesh of the finest penguins. We hath addressed your issues, and lo, we hath rolled our fixes into Dredmor patch 1.0.8 – for it is good patch, and it doth fix the random crashes and the general instability.
As promised, S2 Games released version 2.5 of Heroes of Newerth this past weekend; there’s a rundown here of the new features, which include mentoring, reworked matchmaking, live spectating, new avatars, new items, and other improvements
LinuxLinks let us know they’ve taken a look at the various ASCII-based titles out there:
The idiom ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ can be extended to ‘don’t judge a computer game by its graphics’. Whilst the games featured in this article have extremely basic graphics, they have many redeeming qualities beyond evoking fond memories of the early days of computer gaming.
Text-based games are often forgotted and neglected in the Linux press. However, there are some real ASCII gems out there waiting to be explored which are immensely addictive and great fun to play.
The purpose of this article is to identify our favourite ASCII based games. There are no fancy graphics here, just great gameplay coupled with the urge of always having just one more play.
Version 1.07 of The Dark Mod, which brings the gameplay of the Thief series to Doom 3, was released. Changes include international localization, vine arrows, improved combat, unlockable mines, and improved textures and AI. It’s also noted that while this is still a mod that requires the retail version of Doom 3, changes are afoot:
This release does not include a new Doom 3 executable nor any improvements from the GPL release of the Doom 3 source code. You must install TDM in the same manner as with previous versions. The Dark Mod team will begin the process of integrating the Doom 3 source code shortly but it will take time to fully merge the code bases. The Dark Mod can not be a standalone release until all the Doom 3 art assets and animations have been fully replaced. If you wish to help with that effort, please visit The Dark Mod forums and post in the “I Want to Help” sub-forum.
As Tiny & Big in: Grandpa’s Leftovers enters beta phase this month, developers Black Pants Game Studio posted this trailer recently to show the game’s current state:
The game’s predecessor, Up That Mountain, has a demo available you can play now as well:
Set in land where common physics apply, but everything else looks different. You are Tiny, a technophile guy with a ray cutter, a gripping device and a fine attitude towards the world. But now your nemesis Big stole the only heritage your grandpa left you: A nice pair of white, fine rib underpants! And he‘s surely up to no good, why else would he take them up that haunted mountain… A quaky spot…
