Getting Gamers on Linux
Continuing on with my series of posts from my articles in Full Circle Magazine. The next article is about how we can get gamers on to Linux, this is taken from Issue 22.
Linux is great! We all know that, but there are two major things I believe need resolving before we can say Linux is ready for the mainstream. The first is video editing and the second is gaming. Gaming is a very important part of the success of Linux, so there is much work to do before we can safely say that Linux is the platform of choice for gaming. In order to achieve this, I believe there are three key areas that need addressing: games, distribution, and services. Each of these areas is important for gamers, especially PC gamers.
The number and quality of games available for Linux is probably the most important area. Although it has many great games, it needs more games from major developers, such as EA or Activision. The big PC games need to be ported to Linux, such as World of Warcraft, Counter Strike, Battlefield, and Call of Duty. These are the games that all the gamers are playing. There is no point in trying to move gamers to Linux if they can not play the games they love. Linux does have ways to make it easier for people to switch from Windows to Linux, thanks to great work from the Wine team. Games like Counter Strike do work in Linux. However, the support is not perfect. I much prefer native games to games played using Wine. It's important that we try to convince developers to develop games for Linux, and to port games to Linux. Hopefully, as OpenGL gets better, it will be easier for developers to do this. We may be able to help, by making the transfer from DirectX to OpenGL as easy as possible.
So, you may be thinking, now that we have these major games for Linux, how will we get our hands on them? The best solution for Linux is digital distribution. I do not see Linux games ever being in shops. It would be far better to have a website or online store from which we can download Linux games. I believe a service like Steam is the best solution to getting games onto Linux. This solution is looking likely to happen, since Steam is apparently coming to Linux!
The final area is the services. There are many services which PC gamers use on Windows. These mainly consist of communication methods. The two major services are the gaming networks and the VOIP services. The gaming network is heavily used by gamers for talking to friends, joining games with each other, and for clans/guilds. The biggest network is Xfire, with over twelve-million users. It is important that this service is accessible for gamers on Linux. Luckily, there is a plugin for Pidgin, called Gfire (gfire.sf.net). The second major network is fairly new: Steam. This online store now provides a social networking side for gaming, which is used in a similar way to Xfire. Sadly, there is no way to use the Steam community feature yet, unless you use Wine. The VOIP services are very important for clans/guilds to use during a match. The whole team needs to be in a VOIP channel to be able to talk about tactics during a match. The two main services are Teamspeak and Ventrilo. Teamspeak has a native Linux client, but Ventrilo does not. However, Ventrilo does work very well in Wine.
If we are able to achieve success in all these areas, then we'll have a platform for Windows gamers to move to. I believe it is possible to achieve the last two areas, because we can develop these services within the Linux community. The difficult part is getting the developers on board. Apple is having a hard time trying to get the developers on board with their platform, so it is likely that Linux will have a bigger challenge.
Recap of E3 2010 Press Conferences
E3 2010 is now over! We know more what games are coming out in 2010/2011 and we have seen gameplay of the games we are all looking forward to. There has been many big surprises, as well as disappointments. In this post I am going to quickly go through my highlights of the three main press conferences as well as other game highlights of this year.
Microsoft
The first press conference of E3, delivered on what we expected and already knew. The only stand out, which was unexpected was the deal with ESPN. ESPN matches will be shown through your Xbox 360, in SD and HD. Its for Gold members only, but the biggest surprise was that there is no additional charge!
We got the demos we expected from Call of Duty, Gears of War 3, Fable 3 and Metal Gear Solid Rising. The renamed Project Natal, Kinect, was shown again with new games, which all seem to be very similar games to what we saw on the EyeToy for PS2, many years ago. Microsoft also announced Video Chat, which was expected since it is a video camera.
The finally bit of news was the re-design of the Xbox 360, called the slim. It was leaked before the event. Its alot smaller, black, but looks worse than the original 360, if thats even possible! It has built in WiFi N, which is nice and a 250GB HDD. Sadly, its still Microsoft's proprietary HDD, instead of a laptop drive which the PS3 uses.
Nintendo
Nintendo had far the best press conference of E3!
They showed off the Nindeo 3DS, a 3D DS without the need for glasses! It even has a 3D camera. It has a very strong game line-up as well; Kid Icarus: Uprising, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D, Assassin's Creed, Resident Evil, Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition, DJ Hero, Mario Kart 3DS, Star Fox 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time!
There was two stand out game demos as well. The new Zelda coming to Wii, which will use the Wii-Mote to control the sword and shield. By far the biggest news and excitement from the entire E3 was the announcement of Goldeneye! Finally a remake of the greatest game of all time is coming to Wii. Goldeneye 007 was originally on the N64, due to its incredible FPS gameplay and mulitplayer, it has gone down in history as one of the best games of all time. Years of licensing issues, Nintendo has finally brought it back. This game alone may force me to buy a Wii!
Sony
Sony had a game conference. Mainly showing off big titles, pushing the PSP more and showing the games which will use PlayStation Move.
The demos of PlayStation Move has re-estiblished my view good about the Wii-Mote (buttons and an actual controller) and using cameras to track the controller to give far better control and the use of the Z-Axis, since the Wii can only use the X & Y Axis.
Killzone 3, Medal of Honor and Dead Space 2 were all demoed, which looked amazing. The rebirth of Twisted Metal hits the PS3. Gran Turismo 5 has finally got a date, November 2010, and it looks brilliant, could be the best looking game of 2010! Before E3, Valve announced that Portal 2 will be delayed till 2011, but they said to look out at E3 for their big announcement. Well, we got it, and it was a huge disappointment. Portal 2 is coming to PS3.
Defcon Review
Struggling to find anything to write about, so I will continue with my series of posts from my articles in Full Circle Magazine. The next article is a review of Defcon taken from Issue 21. Also, just updated to WordPress 3.0! First post written with the landmark release of WordPress.
This month, I am reviewing one of my favourite PC games. Defcon is a cross platform RTS from UK developers, Introversion Software. The game is based around nuclear warfare. You select a nation, and fight in a nuclear war with up to 6 nations. The game is based on the film War Games. The game features both single players and multiplayers, but they are the same - except you will face AI-controlled nations, or real people controlling the nations. The game is not free: the full game costs £10/$19.50. However, the demo gives you a good idea what the game is about.
As soon as you start the game, you get a sense of bad times. The vector graphics represent a 1980's military computer, and the music of people slowly dying. As I have already said you have the choice of a single or multiplayer match. They are both the same, but in single player you can have from 2 to 5 bots in your match, whereas in multiplayer you can have up to 6 players. You select a "nation", which includes Europe, North America, South America, USSR, Asia, and Africa. A match takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to complete, but there are also several game types, such as Speed Defcon (15 min. match), Office mode (6 hour match) and Diplomacy mode (everyone is in the same alliance, until someone attacks). However, in the demo you can play only standard Defcon.
In a match, you are presented with a world map showing all the nations and cities within. The match is separated into 5 parts. In Defcon 5 & 4, you begin by placing your units. You have 3 types of buildings, and 3 types of units to place, during this time. The buildings are Radar (to see where missiles and other units are), Silos (to defend and attack nations), and Airfield (for launching fighters and bombers). The units are Submarines (for launching missiles), battleships (for destroying other ships), and Aircraft carriers (for launching fighters and bombers). Once all your units are placed, you can move your units into position. When you reach Defcon 3 & 2 you can now start naval and air attacks. Finally, you will reach the best part of the game, Defcon 1, Nuclear warfare. Select your silos for attack, move subs into position, and launch your nukes at the cities in the enemy's nation.
It may seem simple enough, but it's all about chance, and where and when your enemies will launch their nukes. You may lose your entire fleet before Defcon 1, which can have a bad effect during Defcon 1. You may launch your nukes too soon, then you're wide open for attacks. When your silos are launching their nukes, they can not defend at the same time. You may launch your nukes too late, when your enemy's defences are strong, or you may run out of time. You may even be attacked by people in your own alliance. Anything could happen. No game is the same. This means there is no winning strategy which works every time. There are no winners in nuclear warfare; Defcon follows this belief. In order to "win", it's not about how many people you killed, it's about losing the least.
Defcon is an excellent RTS, best played online. It is simple and easy to pick up, but can be hard to find ways to win. Once you think you have cracked it, you probably haven't. The style and look of the game is everything, but it is worth trying the demo. The demo is a good way to experience both offline and online matches. The game is for Linux, but also Windows and Mac. All three operating systems can play together, so get your Windows and Mac friends to play. You can download Defcon from www.introversion.co.uk/defcon. The file is a .tar.gz file, but it's just a few lib files and a shell script which you run in the terminal -- no need to install. Defcon works perfectly on Ubuntu 7.10, 8.04 and 8.10 (haven't tried it on any other Ubuntu versions).
Steam Bethesda Sale!
I Love Steam!
Mainly due to their awesome sales. Yet again, another great sale. As of today you can now pre-order, the next Fallout game, Fallout: New Vegas. Along with the pre-order, three Bethesda titles are on sale.
Fallout 3 & All DLCs = £14.99 (50% off)
Oblivion & All DLCs = £6.80 (66% off)
Morrowind & Both Expansions = £3.25 (75% off)
I already have Fallout and Oblivion, which are two of my favourite games, as well as being highly rated by the press. I am planning to get Morrowind (I have now purchased it, to complete my Bethesda Collection), which is the game I missed. Buy them now!
BYG Foot Review
To continue with my series of posts from my articles in Full Circle Magazine. The next article is a review of BYG Foot taken from Issue 20.
The soccer season is in full swing in England, with Liverpool riding high. So, this month I have decided to review an open- source soccer management game. BYGFoot is a well developed management game which features 1000s of players from all around the world. You can manage in 25 countries, as well as lead your nation to victory in the World Cup.
BYGFoot is like any other soccer management game: choose your team, select the best players and lead them to glory. The game has all the basic features to manage your team. You select your team and formation; however, it can be hard to move your players around. You choose your formation by typing in a 3 digit number that adds up to 10 (442, 443, 119). Transfers and loaning players is standard. Choosing the right offer and offering the right contract is done well. Managing finances is done very well, however it is hard to keep in the green after buying a player in your first year.
BYGFoot also has some unique features that I have not seen in other management games. You can decide how big your stadium is and how secure it is and save memorable matches. However, it is still lacking in features, which often can be seen during a match. It also doesn't have real player names, but you cannot complain too much about this, since the project will need licenses. However, you can rename the players if you wanted to.
When match day comes, you have your best team ready and your tactics perfect. The let down is that during a match, you get a basic text commentary and basic stats, but it's hard to get a real understanding of how your players are performing. There is not enough information to understand what tactics to switch to, if you're losing 2-0 at half time. Usually, I would sub two players if their fitness was low, for example.
BYGFoot is an excellent attempt to bring a soccer management game to Linux, and for the most part, it delivers. It has features that allow a manager to choose his or her team and lead them to success. However, it lacks in a few advanced features, such as player licenses and information during matches. It still offers an excellent soccer management experience on Linux. This is definitely a game that any soccer fan needs to check out. Version 2.0.1 can be found in the Ubuntu repositories.
5 Indie Games, Pay what you want!
Wolfire Games, an indepentant game developer, has set up a 7 day sale on 5 indie games. These include World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD and Penumbra. I only own , World of Goo, which is brilliant, but the other 4 games look excellent too. All the games come to a combined total of 480. However, the sale allows you to pay what you want for all 5 games, and some of the money goes to two charities! So you can pay as little as 1 cent (which is just wrong), and some people have paid up to $500!
The problem is I'm not sure how much to pay, I don't want to pay up to $80, since I already own one of the games and the others will be hit or miss if I enjoy them, but I'm not going all cheap skate and pay $5 or less. I'm thinking $20-$30 is a good price. I will have to decide soon, you only have 7 days! Please donate and get some great games! DRM-Free and works on Linux, Mac and Windows!
EDIT - In the end I decided to pay $30, Bargin!
Open Arena Review
I have decided that I want to expand my content more by posting my Linux game reviews and articles on my website. These reviews are written by me, which are taken from my section 'Ubuntu Games' from the Full Circle Magazine. All these articles will be post 2 or more weeks after they are featured in the magazine.
To kick off this new set of articles, I will start with my first review for Full Circle. Taken from Issue 19, a review of Open Arena.
Open Arena is the open source equivalent of Quake 3 Arena. Like Quake, Open Arena is a first -person shooter that is heavily based around multi-player deathmatch arenas. You fight it out in arenas, either online or against Al-controlled bots. There are several weapons you can use, such as the usual machine gun, shotgun, rocket launch and rail gun. There are 4 modes you can play: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag and tournament.
As soon as you install the game, you have the option of playing the game in either single player mode or multiplayer mode. The single player mode is good for players who are new to the game. It gives you a chance to get used to the fast-paced gameplay, and explore the many arenas. The AI-control bots are fairly intelligent and can put up a good fight. There are about 20 maps which
you can play through. These are the same maps that are used on multiplayer, so the single player mode gives you the chance to explore each map before you play online.
Finally, the multi-player – the main part of Open Arena. This game, like Quake 3, was designed with a focus on the online mode. You can play either over a LAN or over the internet. When you join a match, it is incredibly fast-paced. Stand still for a second, and your head will be shot off. Grab a gun, run and fire.
Open Arena requires no real tactics; unlike Counter Strike, you just have to go with the flow. There are about 70 servers for Open Arena, which are all fairly active. Each server has different maps to play on, and different game modes. For players new to online FPS games, it is not the best game to start out with. Many players are very fast, and have very good aim. I was on one server, where every time I spawned I would be shot by a rail gun. This happened 20 times in a row!
Open Arena has an active community of developers, always busy developing new versions of the game. In the past, they have added new game modes, new
graphics, and new maps. The latest version of the game is 0.8.0. However, on the Ubuntu repos, the latest stable version is 0.7.7. I would recommend installing 0.8.0, because it has all the new content, and most of the Open Arena servers will be using that version. You will be able to download the DEB file from PlayDeb.net.
Open Arena is an excellent free alternative to Quake. It is very well developed, and the game is perfectly balanced. Graphics are very dated, but with most online FPS games, it's more important to have a high frame rate than good looking graphics. I would strongly recommend this game to any hardcore Linux gamers, especially FPS fans. However, I would not recommend this to gamers new to FPS, it is just far too fast.
Gaming on Acer Aspire Revo
The Aspire Revo is a well 'spec-ed' machine; decent Atom CPU, plenty of RAM and the brilliant nVidia ION chip. So you would think I should be able to play some modern-day games, so I did.
First up is a Diablo-like RPG called Torchlight. The game is designed to run on low spec computers (it has a 'Netbook Mode'), but can be up-scaled to very good graphics for more powerful computers. The game ran very well on the Revo, with the high graphics option.
Next, I wanted to push the Revo to its limits, and try an RTS. Company of Heroes was the candidate, a modern RTS which can push even the high-end computers to their limits. The game automatically selected medium to high graphics, thanks to the powerful ION chip. Frames per seconds (FPS) varied from 25 down to 5. Even when I lowered the graphic settings down, it was still same story. The game was very dependent of the CPU, and the Atom not up to the job of running a RTS.
My next games were both Source games. Counter Strike Source selected my graphic settings to high, and the game performed well, with fps between 30 to 60. Left 4 Dead was more of a challenge, its more modern game with alot of action on screen. It selected low graphics, and my fps ranged from 35 to 20. First Person Shooters are more suited on the Revo, since the CPU is required less.
I wasn't expecting it to work, but I gave BioShock ago. To my amazement, it played fine on high graphics, though I did turn the settings down to medium to get a better FPS. Again, a First-Person shooter which doesn't require alot from the CPU.
Fallout 3 is a demanding game, and did cause problems on the revo. It ran very well, with graphics at medium settings. However, the game was unstable on the revo, and crashed often. Likely to be the Atom slow things down.
QuakeLive was my final test, obviously it was no trouble on the Revo. Its just Quake 3, full graphics running at over 100fps!
There was no point testing out old games, since they will run after testing these demanding modern games. The Revo performed well, mainly thanks to ION chip. The Atom CPU is a let down in these tests, since it is not powerful enough to cope with these games, especially RTS. It does appear that if you have 'Net Top' with an ION chip, avoid RTS games.
Full Circle Mangazine Issue 33
FCM Issue 33 is now out, with a ton of great Ubuntu articles and news. My section, Ubuntu Games, is in again this month. This issue, I have reviewed the Linux version of Bejeweled called Gweled!
Amazing Deals on Steam!
Steam is my favourite place to get PC games, mainly down to the ease of use and the amazing weekend deals, I have in the past got Fallout 3, Company of Heroes, Portal and STALKER with 75% off.
To celebrate the Holiday season, Steam has got a huge sale on, with most of the games at a discount. Until 3rd January, THQ, Atari, 2k and Ubisoft have all their games with a 50% discount. I took advantage of this by buying Company of Heroes Tales of Valor for £5!
Also, each day there are special deals which will change. Highlights include:
- GTA 4 - £5
- Battlefield 2 + Add-ons - £3.74
- STALKER - £1.74
You have until the 3rd January, so make sure you check it out.
Me!
Ed Hewitt, 19, Studying @ Derby Uni, Blogger, Ubuntu user, Columnist & Podcaster for FCM, Gamer, Admin on Gfire.- Spotify is saved. Usa by the end of the year!
- Back home from work. 2:30am, time for IT crowd!
- Half way through my shift. Time for a double expesso.
