Gaming on Ubuntu Linux

Hamish Taylor
Thursday, 14 August 2008 19:18

Opinion and Analysis

Not being a gamer I won't be able to give detailed critical descriptions on how the game-play is, how polished the game is and so on. But I can tell you a little about what games you can expect to find.
 
I installed all of these games from the Add/Remove Applications menu. Using the drop-down box, changing it to "All available applications" and then clicking on Games on the left-hand side reveals all the games that I am able to install. There are quite a few of them!

I am going to use the descriptions that are supplied to give you a bit of an idea of what you can expect from the small selection that I have installed.

* Battle for Wesnoth - A fantasy turn-based strategy game. Battle for control of villages, using variety of units which have advantages and disadvantages in different types of terrains and against different types of attacks. Units gain experience and advance levels, and are carried over from one scenario to the next in a campaign.
* Extreme Tux Racer - A 3D downhill racing game featuring Tux, the Linux penguin. The goal of the game is to slide down a snow- and ice-covered mountain as quickly as possible, avoiding the trees and rocks that will slow you down.
* FlightGear - A free and highly sophisticated flight simulator.
* Free Civ - A free clone of the turn based strategy game Civilization. In this game, each player becomes leader of a civilisation, fighting to obtain the ultimate goal: the extinction of all other civilisations.
* GL117 - A 3D action flight simulator featuring 20 missions, different fighters, a random terrain generator, lighting effects, sound effects, music, and joystick support.
* Nexuiz - A fast-paced 3D deathmatch game with high-end and complex graphics effects. It is intended to be played over the Internet or over a local network. Several different game types, such as classic deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag are available. Though it also supports a single-player mode and playing against the computer. The game brings deathmatch back to the basics, with perfect weapon balancing and fast paced action, keeping itself away from the current trend of realistic shooters.
* OpenArena - A fast-paced 3D first-person shooter
* Pingus - Free Lemmings(TM) clone! Your goal is to guide a horde of penguins through a world full of obstacles and penguin traps to safety. Although penguins (unlike lemmings) are rather smart, they sometimes lack the necessary overview and now rely on you to save them.
* QtNetHack - Nethack is a wonderfully silly, yet quite addicting, Dungeons and Dragons-style adventure game. You play the part of a fierce fighter, wizard, or any of many other classes, fighting your way down to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor (try saying THAT one backwards!) for your god. On the way, you might encounter a quantum mechanic or two, or perhaps a microscopic space fleet, or -- if you're REALLY lucky -- the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
* TORCS - The Open Racing Car Simulator, is a car racing simulation, which allows you to drive in races against opponents simulated by the computer.
* Warsow - A fast-paced 3D ego-shooter with colorful graphics which look like in comic (black lines around things; deliberatly surrealistic graphics) or similar to the movie "Tron".
 
Please read onto page 3 for more...