Linux and Games

Open-source games
Open-source can’t help to match the budgets and break-neck development pace of commercial games, but some of them are still great fun, and they won’t cost you a cent to check out.

Shooters
The FPS genre is well represented in the open-source world, in no small part thanks to iD’s engine source code releases. There’s now a wide selection of games based on these engines, and one of the best is Nexuiz, a multiplayer shooter that shuns realism in favour of classic sci-fi deathmatch gameplay.

It uses a heavily modified version of the Quake I engine called DarkPlaces, but you can barely recognise it here: Nexuiz has an impressive array of graphical effects that can bring mid-range video cards to their knees. There’s a good range of gameplay options on offer too, including modes like instagib and vampire, and it even has some decent bots to play against if you don’t want to play online.

Alien Arena is another sci-fi deathmatch shooter, though its presentation draws on ‘50s B-grade sci-fi for inspiration, with cheesy weapons and bug-eyed aliens in space suits. It runs on a modified Quake II engine called CRX that adds modern eye candy like light blooms and real-time lighting and shadows.

Since the release of the Quake III code, some of the more popular mods have become stand-alone games. Urban Terror is perhaps the best known example: it’s a semi-realistic tactical shooter that’s been around almost as long as Counter-Strike, and offers similar gameplay.

Another is Tremulous, a team-based shooter with a sci-fi setting and a combination of FPS and RTS elements. The two teams on offer – human and alien – are comprised of very different classes, but they’re well balanced, which gives the gameplay a lot of depth.

There are at least a few non-Quake shooter engines out there, and Sauerbraten is definitely the neatest. Instead of having an external map editor, Sauerbraten lets you edit both item placement and the actual level geometry and texturing from inside the game. It’s primarily a multiplayer game, but it has some support for bots as well.

Strategy
Strategy games aren’t as well represented as FPS games, but there are still some great options. For old school Civilization action, there’s Freeciv, an improved clone of Civilization II. It uses GTK for the user interface rather than custom controls, but the UI fits the game nicely. The AI plays a pretty good game in the latest versions, but online multiplayer with friends is still the best option.

Perhaps a better option for single players is The Battle for Wesnoth, a turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme and a focus on combat. It has a number of campaigns to play through alone, as well as online multiplayer support.

The best RTS option is Bos Wars, a sci-fi RTS along the lines of StarCraft. It started life as FreeCraft, a cloned WarCraft II engine compatible with the original WarCraft II game data, which became a generic RTS engine called Stratagus after legal nudging from Blizzard. It’s not quite as mature as the turn-based alternatives but it’s still good fun, especially in multiplayer.

Pick-up-and-play
If you’ve got ten minutes to burn, these are the games to reach for, and because they stick with simple concepts that are well-executed, they’re some of the most fun open-source games available.

Neverball is a great example: based on Super Monkey Ball, it’s a frustratingly addictive blend of puzzle gaming and twitch-action that has you guiding a ball through precarious maze-like levels. There’s a smooth difficulty curve that takes you from the simple through to the hair-pullingly-insane. It features solid mouse controls but a gamepad with an analogue stick is definitely the best way to play. It also includes Neverputt, a similarly crazy mini-golf game.

If I can mention only one classic puzzle game, it has to be Crack-Attack. It’s based on Tetris Attack for the SNES, and like any good puzzle game it’s simple to learn but hard to master. It also has a great head-to-head network multiplayer mode.

Everyone loves Guitar Hero, and Frets on Fire does a pretty good job of bringing the experience to Linux. It comes with a few songs, but you can grab more from fan sites, or import songs from the original Guitar Hero discs. The keyboard controls are surprisingly good, especially if you have a wireless keyboard that you can stand up with, but it also supports guitar controllers like the USB X-Plorer for the Xbox 360.