America’s
Army is a tactical, multiplayer, FPS (first person shooter) owned by
the United States Government and released as a global public relations
initiative to help with U.S. Army recruitment. The first version,
Recon, was released on 4th July 2002. The current version 2.8.2 was
released on september 2007.
Edit: Latest Linux available version is 2.5
It’s
the first well known computer game used for political aims. The game is
used as a playable recruiting tool and critics have charged the game
serves as a propaganda device. A counter on the homepage of the PC
version shows over eight million registered accounts as of 2007.
GameSpy tracked the game usage and reported an average of 4,500 players
at any one time between 2002 and 2005.
Tremulous
is an open source team-based FPS (first person shooter) with a game
play that is similar to Gloom (a Quake 2 mod) and Natural Selection (a
Half-Life mod). The game features two teams, humans and aliens, each
with their own strengths and weaknesses. The game has been downloaded
over 200,000 times and was voted “Player’s Choice Standalone Game of
the Year†in Mod Database’s “Mod of the Year†2006 competition.
Tux
Racer is a newbie friendly, open source, 3D computer game starring the
Linux mascot, Tux the penguin. Like many open source games, the replay
value of Tux Racer is extended by easy modification of the game. New
maps can be created by making three raster images to indicate height,
surface, and object placement. The last release of Tux Racer was
version 0.61, 29th October 2001.
Nexuiz
is a free, cross platform, FPS (first person shooter) distributed under
GNU General Public License by Alientrap Software. It started back in
May 31 2005 with version 1.0 using DarkPlaces, a significanlty modified
Quake engine. The current version, 2.3, was released on May 31, 2007.
Available for Linux, Mac and Windows.
Several notable features of the game include
* ability to multiplay up to 64 players
* ability to generate bots for practice sessions
* dynamic lighting system similar to Doom 3
Alien
Arena is a completely free FPS (first person shooter) started by COR
Entertainment in 2004 comprising of a science fiction ambience and a
Quake like gameplay. This game is playable in single player mode
against bots, but the action and thrill lies at the online multiplayer
mode. Features of the Alien Arena 2007 include an internal server
browser for finding other people to play online and an external program
that acts as an IRC interface. There are 6 game types and 6 game
mutators that changes the gameplay. Cattle Prod is a new game type that
requires you to herd robotic cattle to earn points. Alien Arena 2007 is
playable in Linux, Windows and FreeBSD.
TC:Elite
happens to be a total-conversion modification of Wolfenstein: Enemy
Territory by Team Terminator and Groove Six Studios. The game is free
and playable across all platforms. Notable features include iron sights
aiming (no crosshair), multi layer object penetration, letterbox / wide
screen view modes, lag compensation, client side bullet prediction and
support for PunkBuster, the anti cheat software.
TORCS
is an open source 3D racing simulator using OpenGL technologies. It is
runnable on all Linux, FreeBSD, MacOSX and Windows platforms. There are
50 different cars, 20 tracks and 50 opponents to race against. The
multiplayer mode can accommodate up to 4 human players. Several of the
simulation include damaged models, collisions and aerodynamics like
ground effects, spoilers, etc. Development is currently being carried
out to enable online racing mode.
Winner
of the Assembly Demo Party 2006, Frets on Fire is a music video game
that uses the keyboard to play along with scrolling on-screen musical
notes to complete a song. The player has to imagine the keyboard as a
guitar and pick it up to play. One hand will be used to press the
‘frets’ (F1 to F5) and another will be used to press the ‘picks’ (Shift
or Enter). Colored markers that appears are to be played by pressing
‘frets’ of the correct color and ‘picks’ at the correct moment. There
are also song editors and tutorials featured in the game. This game is
really addictive.
Scorched
3D is a 100% free turn-based artillery game modeled after the classic
DOS game Scorched Earth ‘The Mother Of All Games’. Operatable across
all operating systems. What started as a 3D landscape generator has now
become a cool 3D game that requires skills to master. Players are
supposed to take turns homing in to hit the target by adjusting the
angle, rotation, power and a weapon of choice every other turn. Hits
and kills will generate income for you to buy better weapons and items.
Note that items are as important as weapons.
ManiaDrive
is a free clone of Trackmania, the great game from Nadéo studio, and is
an arcade car game on acrobatic tracks, with a quick and nervous
gameplay (tracks almost never exceed one minute), and features a
network mode, as the original. Lots of crazy driving involved.
Enjoy HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008