Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Linux Games

I've been checking out some games for my Linux machine recently (that almost sounds like an oxymoron). I'm not going to go all whiny on you with a "Linux does have games!"-post, but will just review a few of them (the most popular ones).
  • Planet Penguin Racer (a fork of Tux Racer): I never wanted this game, when all those Linux-sites/posts/magazines said: "hey look we have a racing game with a penguin" it just looked too kidish. However: it is quite entertainable, and making some maps is quite fun. This is a nice quickie-game for the people with direct 3d rendering enabled ;).
  • Neverball: a game where you tilt the play field to make a ball roll and pick up coins. It's fun and looks quite nice but I suck at it.
  • Freecraft: it's an RTS, with poor graphics (sorry), I didn't like it that much and wish there was a good RTS game for Linux. I don't have anything against sprites (I loved Age of Empires 1 and 2, Age of Wonders, Starcraft, Kohan, etc...), but this can look better.
  • Globulation 2: also an RTS. Also not bad but I don't like it that much.
  • Tuxkart: fun for a while but not fantastic.
  • Frozen Bubble: the game everyone knows, and still great fun too!
  • Pingus: a Lemmings clone. Well done game, will keep the oldskool puzzlers really entertained!
  • Rocks And Diamonds: an all-in-one Boulderdash clone. Which I absolutely love because I can even play the Supaplex levels.
  • Wesnoth: another instant-classic, hexgrid fantasy strategy game, well done graphics and great tactical fun both online and offline.
  • Crimson Fields: Battle Isle clone, not bad but the graphics aren't that great.
  • Advanced Strategic Command: also a Battle Isle clone: better (traditional) graphics and AI, but the interface/polishing could be better.
  • SCUMMVM: absolute favorite. Grab this program together with some fat old-Lucasarts-adventures torrents and relive all those classics... A fantastic game for those long train-trips. Ah... the memories of playing Broken Sword 2 and really diggin' the characters and story. They don't make such games anymore since Grim Fandago[1].
That's it. It's not F.E.A.R., no Civilization 4, no GTA and no Age of Empires 3, but it is enough to kill a few minutes. After all, my Linux computer is my work machine, so the less I play, the more work I get done...

[1]: Actually I'm lying: Dreamfall, Fahrenheit (a.k.a. Indigo Prophecy) and others are great recent adventure games.

No comments :

Post a Comment