Everything you wanted to know about Linux games

[Dedoimedo]

Hi all,

Here we go: you are a Linux user and you have a game you want to play. No worries. Just remember the game title; I'll take care of the rest. In this article, we will learn how to find and install Linux games, including game repositories, manual downloads, WINE, Cedega and CrossOver solutions for Windows games, virtualization, DOS games via DOSBox, browser games (Flash and Java), and more.

This is an absolute MUST for anyone even remotely interested in Linux AND games.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/games/linux...ow-to-get.html




Took me quite a few hours to write this, so comments and suggestions are most appreciated.

Regards,
Dedoimedo

[569874123]

While this website has not been updated in a while and it has a feel of a semi-finished project, it contains a reasonable list of game titles. Even if Playdeb game repository is outdated for modern releases of Debian and Ubuntu, it can be a good start in your quest after Linux games.

That has changed in the past couple of days.

[Dedoimedo]

Oh-oh, I'll check and if what you say is true, then I'll update the article. Thanks a lot!
Dedoimedo

[569874123]

I would also suggest trying the following applications:
http://www.playonlinux.com/en, http://forumubuntusoftware.info/view...hp?f=63&t=3343 and http://www.ubuntugames.org/pt/repositorio/iug.
Btw nice article and keep us informed on all the updates .

[Sealbhach]

I really enjoyed looking through your site. You write very well, I particularly liked the writeup up you did on GTA Vice City.

.

[oldrocker99]

Considering the main reason XP and Vista users are, well, afraid to move to a far superior OS is that they can't play games. This page is a great place to point them to. Congratulations!

[th3voic3]

I think a major problem with the Linux Gaming Community is its own low expectations. I still use Windows for gaming, because games like Sauerbraten, Warsow and so on are simply not "just as good as its windows counterparts".

This reaches to high ratings that simply aren't deserved. You can see the same on winehq. Games get platinum ratings if they still have some bugs, because people don't expect the games to run flawlessly in the first place.
Our goal should be to have high quality games on linux. If we want that goal to come true let's be honest with ourselves and rate linux games as they are.

You just can't convince a Windows gamer, accustomed to games like CoD 4 and Crysis, to switch to linux if you show him games based on the Quake 3 engine. And yes I am aware that you can run CoD 4 on linux with wine, but then you have to live without surround sound, because wine doesn't support it. We have to overcome these things if we truly want linux to be a suitable gaming platform, which sadly means hope for more developers to support linux.

[Dedoimedo]

th3voic3,

I'm honestly convinced that quake-based games are good. Not perfect, but good. On the same note, some of the top-notch Windows games are simply overrated.

I tried Crysis. My opinion: meh. A 2001-made Operation Flashpoint is 100 times more fun.

I might be getting "older" or maybe my taste is like that, but most good Windows games came out somewhere in 2000-2005 or so. After that, you get the late-DOS-era syndrom when games on CD were first published. Games that are huge in size and miniscule in quality. Not all, mind, but some.

A few more examples:
SimCity 4, last good Sim builder. SimCity Societies, disappointment.
OPF, good, Armed Assault, meh.
Vice City GTA, good, San Andreas and Stories, meh.
Need For Speed III & IV, good, latest releases, meh.
Caesar III, good, Caesar IV, mediocre.
Red Alert, anything beyond Yuri is a disappointment.

I think that when you could not focus on graphics, you focus on content and that's when some pretty awesome games were made. Take Transport Tycoon Deluxe or StarCraft. Legends.

Today, you have games that require 20GB hard disk space and 2GB video ram just to run. And for what? Same thing you get in 10% that. Besides, if you haven't noticed, realism in modern FPS is achieved by cluttering maps with unnecessary details, haze and reflection effects which blur things into realism.

Take America's Army 3 versus 2, Pipeline map for example. In v2, it was merely snow covered refinery, very few details, easy on the eye and good to play. In v3, it's no longer snow, they added random concrete blocks, piles of leaves and trash, broken windows and roof tiles, electricity poles, etc ... for what? So that you can claim realism? Clutter does not mean it looks like in real life, unless we're talking Mad Max 20 years after the big boom.

All this said, Linux gaming is inferior to Windows gaming. I still do most of my gaming in Windows machines, and most of my favorite games are Windows-only.

But if you want decent games, reasonable graphics and high-quality play, you can find a lovely collection of titles that should keep you immensely satisfied/occupied for a while.

If you've played UFO: Enemy Unknown (1994 and such) and now managed to play Alien Invasion, you're in heaven. Urban Terror is also superb. Savage 2 is great. And so on.

Take care,
Dedoimedo

[569874123]

Most of the b2p games that r a "reference" in windows like cod4 and crysis, usually have extremly good graphics, but a generic or cloned gameplay.
While the f2p games like urban terror for example have unique gameplay, in urban terror's case it is a mix of plataforming and a shooter, rigs of rods is another example with very unique physics, and so on.
Ofc some will prefer graphics over gameplay and some vice-versa, to each it's own.
Btw windows gaming is only sucessful cause of how gamers were brainwashed that u cannot get good free games, graphics have to be the best and linux means command line.
If someone had much more resources than windows and wanted to help open-source gaming they could easily, only with marketing, brainwash people again, but this time to like everything that is open-source.

[Irritant]

"On the same note, some of the top-notch Windows games are simply overrated."

I could not agree more. You know, I found something quite ironic the other day, and surprising. I was upgrading the shadowing system in Alien Arena, and was testing a number of games to see what they did for shadows, whether they used shadow maps or stencil volumes, and when looking at the Unreal 3 engine, found something utterly surprising - that the engine's shadowing system was extremely weak! Heck, the player shadows aren't even affected by dynamic lighting! This, the *mighty* Unreal 3 engine, that is supposed to be so state of the art, doesn't even have a decent shadow system!

I know that is nitpicking, and the engine overall looks great, but I found it interesting for all the bashing that some people give the Quake based free fps's, that a good number of them have some aspects of their engines that are actually superior to what is widely considered a AAA commercial game engine.