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Wine Software Entertainment Games Linux

Fragging on Linux and TransGaming 267

Posted by Zonk from the penguin-for-the-win dept.
Kez writes "HEXUS.net has an article looking at the current state of Linux gaming and the broad number of supported games both natively and through emulation. Included in the article is a chat with the Product Manager of TransGaming - the creators of Cedega (formerly known as WineX.)" From the article: "Well, Linux certainly isn't most peoples' thought for a games-based PC. Especially one being taken to a big tournament LAN party. However, by design or trickery, none of the tournament games at the event were out-of-bounds to my Linux machine, and rousing games of Call of Duty, Quake 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004 were shared by the HEXUS.net collective and any other gamers who felt like joining in." We ran a story about a similar article back in February.
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Fragging on Linux and TransGaming More

Fragging on Linux and TransGaming

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  • printer-friendly layout (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:01PM (#11855677)
    http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/review_print. php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD0xMDEx [hexus.net]

  • Cube (Score:5, Informative)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:04PM (#11855697)
    Cube [cubeengine.com] is worth checking out, runs nicely in Linux, and also on the PC so your linux-lorn friends can check it out to. Lots of fraggin' going on there.

    • Re:Cube (Score:5, Insightful)

      by yahwotqa ( 817672 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @09:04PM (#11856042)
      Yes, but the game itself feels like shareware from early 90s.

      • Re:Cube (Score:5, Interesting)

        by smchris ( 464899 ) on Sunday March 06, 2005 @01:09AM (#11857188)

        My feeling too. But then I assume you also ran it single-player. If you just look at it as arenas, they have to be pretty nice for tournaments.

        I'm mostly annoyed that cursor key movements aren't the same as IDs.

        • Re:Cube (Score:2, Insightful)

          by yahwotqa ( 817672 )

          We used to play it quite a lot over LAN here - some 4-5 players, most of the time. Don't get me wrong, it _is_ fun, but there's still the feeling that something's not quite right.

          The player weapon models, for example - those made me feel like playing shareware, like I wrote above.

  • Unlike most other Linux gaming articles (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bersl2 ( 689221 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:06PM (#11855708) Journal
    This one seems written by somebody who knows his way around the landscape.

  • List of games (Score:3, Informative)

    by Virtual Karma ( 862416 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:06PM (#11855711) Homepage
    Here is a link for games that run on linux [linux.sk]. You can check out the high end and low end games listing.
    • Or even better, the Linux Game Tome [happypenguin.org], which is the original site to list games, and also the primary site where Linux game authors post their updates.

    • Re:List of games (Score:3, Interesting)

      by joeljkp ( 254783 )
      Or even better, Icculus' list [icculus.org] of actual commercial games that run natively on Linux.

  • Heh (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cerberus4696 ( 765520 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:11PM (#11855746)
    I've actually found that the Linux version of UT2004 actually runs a bit better under Linux than under windows. I think it has something to do with the way windows allocates virtual memory; when I run under windows, the game eventually starts stuttering as windows valiantly tries to compensate for my woefully small amount of RAM; under Linux, it seems to keep chugging along just fine.

    • Re:Heh (Score:5, Funny)

      by cot ( 87677 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:22PM (#11855798)
      "I've actually found that the Linux version of UT2004 actually runs a bit better under Linux than under windows."

      Well, that stands to reason. I'd wager that the Windows version of UT2004 runs better under Windows than Linux.

      • Re:Heh (Score:3, Interesting)

        by jrockway ( 229604 ) *
        Incorrect. I remember seeing some benchmarks a while ago about running UT2004 under Wine. The windows version under wine was faster than the windows version under windows.

        Just goes to show you that Windows isn't good for anything. No security, and games are slow too.

    • Re:Heh (Score:2, Interesting)

      by c0l0 ( 826165 )
      I've made similar experiences with Quake III with Punkbuster enabled. On WinNT 5.x, it seems impossible to get the game to run without SEVERE stuttering for the first 5 or so minutes it's been loaded - even on my 3.5GHz rig with a RAID0-setup. Under Linux, I fire up the binary, and get my 125fps from the very beginning of all the fun. That's just another good reason for Linux being my OS of choice. ;)

      • Re:Heh (Score:2, Interesting)

        by mike5904 ( 831108 )
        How much RAM, and what kind of video card do you have? I've found that Quake3 will run perfectly fine under XP, on the order of 150fps at high detail and 1600x1200 settings, with my 2 year old graphics card, 512MB of memory, and 2.4GHz processor (no disk striping either). I get a little bit less, around 135fps under Linux. Your problem really sounds like a configuration issue.
    • Same here. I found the game plays pretty much the same on both Linux and Windows, but load times on Linux are a fraction of those on Windows. Had similar experiences with Quake 2 & 3 aswell.

    • I know exactly what you mean. (Score:5, Funny)

      by fluxrad ( 125130 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @09:01PM (#11856020)
      I've actually found that the Linux version of UT2004 actually runs a bit better under Linux than under windows.

      That is so true! For some reason, Linux version of UT2004 takes a huge performance hit in Windows.
    • If this becomes a trend you'll get A LOT OF CONVERTS.

      Tonnes of people tweaking for that 3 fps lead.

  • TransGaming: Unchristian company (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:12PM (#11855749)
    TransGaming is both insulting since it references transubstantiation (Catholic cultism) and transexualism (disgusting liberal plot). We, the righteous OSS community need to boycott these heretics.

    • Re:TransGaming: Unchristian company (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:27PM (#11855828)
      TransGaming is both insulting since it references transubstantiation (Catholic cultism) and transexualism (disgusting liberal plot). We, the righteous OSS community need to boycott these heretics.

      Are you kidding? Heretic is a great game...

  • Screw WineX, Cedega... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by darth_silliarse ( 681945 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:16PM (#11855773) Homepage
    It's because of apps like this no-one wants to adopt Linux as a gaming platform. The road will be long and hard but we must stop buying stuff like this and also stop buying Windows games, only when the companies realise there is a genuine market for Linux games will there be any progress. I can hold out, can you?

    • Re:Screw WineX, Cedega... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Currently the majority of games that define "the gaming world" do not run on Linux. Give a true gamer the choice of sticking with Windows to play their game or not play their game under Linux, what will they choose? Obviously they'll stick with their game in old Windows. By having programs such as Cedegra it allows users to get a taste of gaming in Linux and show the Game companies that hey Fragging in Linux is indeed possible and inevitable. With that being said, emulation is just a crutch, once a critical

      • Re:Screw WineX, Cedega... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by adam31 ( 817930 ) <adam31@@@gmail...com> on Saturday March 05, 2005 @11:43PM (#11856836)
        Not trolling (not my intent at least), but the 'majority of games that define the "gaming world"' don't run on PC Windows either... They run on GC, PS2, X-Box, DC, PSP, GBA.

        Go get one and enjoy the world of games, online and offline, that exist. Appreciate linux for whatever reason you decided to install it, but bickering about Respect Aw Communitay is not worth the effort when you can get a console for half the price of a year-old video card!

        It's hard enough for publishers to make money off PC games already without having to worry about linux.
        And if it makes you feel better, I'm positive that Linux games will flourish when the Cell gets a foothold.

    • Considering Linux has a small marketshare, and is an absolute nightmare to support (due to all the different distros), WineX/Cedega could be a very good way forward. Testing and possibly tweaking a DirectX on Cedega is one hell of a lot easier for a games company to do than a full Linux port.

      There will not be a genuine market for Linux games until people stop dual-booting because they use Windows for games. Chicken and egg scenario.
      • or maybe it's the small marketshare...
    • It's because of apps like this no-one wants to adopt Linux as a gaming platform.
      Not true. If that would be true, game developers would take care that the games runs in Wine/Cedega. They are not - the linux market is not important. If the market would matter, the game developers would use stuff that is easily portable (OpenGL, SDL), if they are not limited by the enviroment (for example the need to use a DirectDraw gfx engine).
      The only game I can think of that took care of wine compatibility and had no na
    • I'm sorry, but I'm too much of a gamer to just boycott games until the publishers/producers start pumping out games designed specifically for Linux. While it's a great idea, I'm afraid that it won't work. I think that they won't start doing this until consumers start buying computers installed with Linux regularly. The executives and marketing/salespeople just don't see the potential yet because most Linux users either build their own machine or install Linux onto a manufacturers machine.

      Personally I would
    • I hear this argument a lot but I think it is kind of naive... Game developers are focusing their efforts on Windows games. By reimplementing a stable Win32 API for Linux, this makes getting these games on Linux much simpler and cost-effective for the game developers.

      It's because of apps like this no-one wants to adopt Linux as a gaming platform.

      Wrong. It is because the Linux user-base does not represent a target demographic that the game companies can reap reasonable profit from. Cedega does not pr
    • Publishers follow the majority install base. Developers follow whichever platform is easier for them to code for. WineX and other emulation technology increase the install base of Linux, attracting publishers. Developers follow whichever platform is easier for them to code for. WineX and other emulation technology allows developers to have Linux targets without having culture shock.

      Yes, WineX is a half-baked alternative to native solutions. But you presume that the native solutions would have existed i

  • Square peg -- Round hole (Score:5, Interesting)

    by spaeschke ( 774948 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:19PM (#11855785)
    I see the usual suspects again rear their heads: Quake 3, UT2004, etc, etc, etc.
    Love Linux on a server, as a games machine you've got to ask yourself why you're ponying up cash for a graphics card that is only going to be used by a handful of games. And if you're such a gamer that Cedega is a must for you, why are you even bothering to screw around with a kludge when you could just dual boot.
    I guess I'm just not hardcore enough to be that much of a purist that I'd jump through so many damned hoops just to be MS free. I enjoy having access to a huge library of games, and I really enjoy not having to deal with botched textures and subpar performance just to make sure it runs on my pet OS. I'm a gamer first and foremost, and in this day and age that means Microsoft.

    • Re:Square peg -- Round hole (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:34PM (#11855863)
      I enjoy having access to a huge library of games, and I really enjoy not having to deal with botched textures and subpar performance just to make sure it runs on my pet OS. I'm a gamer first and foremost, and in this day and age that means Microsoft.

      Your focus is gaming, and you're right to choose Microsoft. But for me, I actually use Linux to do work, and I enjoy being able to launch Quake for a quicky, or play Xpilot online while something compiles. Dual boot isn't really an option for me, and I'm glad many games run on Linux, even if they may not give tip-top performance as under Windows. So you see, for some it's not a matter of "pet OS", but a simple question of practicality.

    • Re:Square peg -- Round hole (Score:4, Interesting)

      by mlmitton ( 610008 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:39PM (#11855891)
      Why do we bother? Network externalities. For a number of reasons, I run Linux instead of Windows. I like (but don't love) gaming, and there's no question Windows is the place for that. However, if people don't use games on Linux, then there never will be any games for Linux. It's a chicken and egg problem that *somebody* has to step forward to try and solve. It'll be hard to convince game publishers to be the one to solve it, so that leaves Linux users.

      Those of us who use Linux may need to boot Windows to play a particular game (if we have dual boot--I don't), but why not use Linux when a game is available? And why not let game publishers know that you would rather play, and be more likely to buy, if the game were released under Linux? It has to start somewhere, and that means us.

    • Linux probably will never be a primary platform for commercial games. But as with most open source the availability of games is close to reaching a "good enough" state for most users. Honestly, no one needs 20.000 different first person shooters. There are rarely commericial games with new concepts. Only one for each group need sto be playable (native or via an emulation layer) to reach a "good enough" for the majority of users.
      And since open source is a process the games will improve and improve. Freeciv,
      • Flightgear is not good enough. You don't understand flightsimmers: we need realism. I tried flightgear, with a supported joystick, and it was hard to use (I didn't figure out how to take off) and unrealistic, in terms of aircraft panels. Add to that the fact that addons pretty much define how good a flightsim game is, and it is clear that flightgear isn't even close yet. Also, I have a large console (yoke, switching, throttle, prop control, mixture) that only works with MS FS2004. Now, X-plane, which h
    • why are you even bothering to screw around with a kludge when you could just dual boot.

      As a windows user, would you find it acceptable for your games to close all your open windows when started and take 5 minutes to load? No? Then I'm sure you can see why dual booting is a pretty poor solution, even compared to emulators like WINE.


      PS: Botched textures? Huh? Oh, you must be an Radeon owner..

    • I play OpenTTD (http://www.openttd.org [openttd.org]) Hell of a cool one for old Transport Tycoon lovers.

  • Interesting answer (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Adam9 ( 93947 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:29PM (#11855833) Journal
    FTA:

    Q: Which Linux distributions cause the most headaches for your support people? Which ones Just Work? And which one do you use yourself, given the choice?

    A: Currently I would have to say Gentoo causes the most support requests. With bleeding edge packages and a million and one different configurations in how you can use it, Gentoo has the most support requests by far.

    I wonder if this is true for other packages out there. (This comes from me being a gentoo user)

    • Re:Interesting answer (Score:5, Funny)

      by termos ( 634980 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @09:48PM (#11856289) Homepage
      Official Gentoo-Linux-Zealot translator-o-matic

      Gentoo Linux is an interesting new distribution with some great features. Unfortunately, it has attracted a large number of clueless wannabes and leprotards who absolutely MUST advocate Gentoo at every opportunity. Let's look at the language of these zealots, and find out what it really means...

      "Gentoo makes me so much more productive."
      "Although I can't use the box at the moment because it's compiling something, as it will be for the next five days, it gives me more time to check out the latest USE flags and potentially unstable optimisation settings."

      "Gentoo is more in the spirit of open source!"
      "Apart from Hello World in Pascal at school, I've never written a single program in my life or contributed to an open source project, yet staring at endless streams of GCC output whizzing by somehow helps me contribute to international freedom."

      "I use Gentoo because it's more like the BSDs."
      "Last month I tried to install FreeBSD on a well-supported machine, but the text-based installer scared me off. I've never used a BSD, but the guys on Slashdot say that it's l33t though, so surely I must be for using Gentoo."

      "Heh, my system is soooo much faster after installing Gentoo."
      "I've spent hours recompiling Fetchmail, X-Chat, gEdit and thousands of other programs which spend 99% of their time waiting for user input. Even though only the kernel and glibc make a significant difference with optimisations, and RPMs and .debs can be rebuilt with a handful of commands (AND Red Hat supplies i686 kernel and glibc packages), my box MUST be faster. It's nothing to do with the fact that I've disabled all startup services and I'm running BlackBox instead of GNOME or KDE."

      "...my Gentoo Linux workstation..."
      "...my overclocked AMD eMachines box from PC World, and apart from the third-grade made-to-break components and dodgy fan..."

      "You Red Hat guys must get sick of dependency hell..."
      "I'm too stupid to understand that circular dependencies can be resolved by specifying BOTH .rpms together on the command line, and that problems hardly ever occur if one uses proper Red Hat packages instead of mixing SuSE, Mandrake and Joe's Linux packages together (which the system wasn't designed for)."

      "All the other distros are soooo out of date."
      "Constantly upgrading to the latest bleeding-edge untested software makes me more productive. Never mind the extensive testing and patching that Debian and Red Hat perform on their packages; I've just emerged the latest GNOME beta snapshot and compiled with -O9 -fomit-instructions, and it only crashes once every few hours."

      "Let's face it, Gentoo is the future."
      "OK, so no serious business is going to even consider Gentoo in the near future, and even with proper support and QA in place, it'll still eat up far too much of a company's valuable time. But this guy I met on #animepr0n is now using it, so it must be growing!"

      -

      • Re:Interesting answer (Score:4, Insightful)

        by agraupe ( 769778 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @10:50PM (#11856589) Journal
        Disclaimer: I am a gentoo user.

        Some of that is true, some of it isn't. Firstly, gentoo, for me, isn't about speed or cutting-edge releases: it's about customizability and software management. Portage has never given me any hassles, other than taking up time (which I'm willing to put up with), and I know that, for each program, I get a build with my favorite features. I like debian for this same reason (ease of software managements). I also like the customizability, which comes not only in the form of USE flags, but the fact that most things must be configured to taste. Was doing the first kernel compile easy? Was setting up my soundsystem foolproof? No to both questions, but in the end I think I have a better system. But, yeah, it's a niche market. Why others can't accept that is beyond me...

    • I would think Fedora would be next up there, with it's 'exec-shield' and 'prelink' features that interfere with Cedega.

      I currently use SUSE and have had no problems at all.

      I did have problems getting cedega to work when I was using Fedora and then Gentoo (Gentoo wasn't as bad as Fedora though).

  • Random Thoughts (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:36PM (#11855866) Homepage
    I have a few random thoughts on this issue.

    First Loki is mentioned in the article, in a way that seems to imply that they would be more successful today thanks to the larger installed base (which sounds plausable). That said, it made me think of something. What about Aspyr? They seem to specialize in porting Windows games to the Mac. If they are doing that (which would probably require moving the games to OpenGL and OpenAL if they don't use 'em already), then shouldn't it be a quick walk from there to Linux? Seems like as long as you are moving platforms, the little extra effort for the increased market share you can sell to seems like a good idea.

    Second is Tux Racer. Why do these articles always mention Tux Racer. It was cute that it existed 5 years ago, but the last time I tried it (a year to so ago) it still seemed amaturish (not bad, just simple and not as polished as a "real" game). It just doesn't seem like it should be an example that is trotted out every time one of these articles comes out.

    Too bad we can't just get more people to use OpenGL and OpenAL/SDL/whatever in the first place so things no NEED full ports to be sellable on Linux/BSD/OS X/whatever. If MS were to somehow lose 20%+ market share quickly, the scramble to move these Windows only programs to other OSes would be fun to watch.

    Last but not least... why do I have to pay so much? I moved from PC to Mac and would have to rebuy all my games. The data files are where most of your money is tied up. Write portable, and sell one box with one DVD that works on Win/Lin/Mac. Or just sell a Windows version and when the Linux/Mac version are ready make the files freely downloadable so anyone with a Windows copy run under Linux/Mac.

    If (seemingly) every big console game can come out on all three consoles within a year (usually at the same time), then surely you can launch a computer game that runs on the big 3 OSes (Win, Lin, Mac) without 2+ year porting times. The difference between a Mac and a Linux box are MUCH MUCH SMALLER than between a Cube and a PS2.

    • Last thing (sorry to reply to myself). If even little guys like Chronic Logic and many other "Indie" places can release a game that runs on Win/Lin/Mac, then WHY CAN'T MR. JUGGERNAUT EA do the same thing? That's right, they can, they just don't care.

      A little forethought during planning and early development and it would be easy for them.

    • The real problem is that most "PC" games are fast becomming just ports of console games. PC gaming is increasingly becomming an afterthought in the "big leagues". What's really needed is for a cross platform PC/linux/mac kit to push into the mainstream. The big corps like dealing with MS...MS drops LOTS of cash and sells lots of units...WOW with 800k units sold is a "bad-to-medium" game in the Xbox world!!

      There needs to be an PC game industry wide wake-up call before the consoles completely shut down

    • Re:Random Thoughts (Score:2, Insightful)

      by NeoOokami ( 528323 )
      Last but not least... why do I have to pay so much? I moved from PC to Mac and would have to rebuy all my games. The data files are where most of your money is tied up. Write portable, and sell one box with one DVD that works on Win/Lin/Mac. Or just sell a Windows version and when the Linux/Mac version are ready make the files freely downloadable so anyone with a Windows copy run under Linux/Mac. Now you say that after mentioning Loki and Aspyr, outside porting houses. Now if Aspyr lets you just download t
  • Except for a white login screen, meaning you have to click around to find the password box and the login button. I'm surprised that something that isn't so ridiculously high profile (Doom 3, etc) works on WineX...

  • Garage Games (Score:4, Informative)

    by mlmitton ( 610008 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @08:46PM (#11855921)
    The article really should have mentioned Garage Games [garagegames.com]. Marble Blast and Gish are two of the funnest games I've ever played. If a good game to you is based on eye-candy, then this isn't the place for you. But if a good game is based on game-play, these were the best $20 I've ever spent.
    • Ditto! Gish is the best platform game i've played in ages, and at $20 is a steal.

      And i disagree about eye candy, i think it looks damn good, if a bit too dark. The cartoony design of the characters is great.

  • Too late, man (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dolda2000 ( 759023 ) <fredrik@dolEEEda ... inus threevowels> on Saturday March 05, 2005 @09:10PM (#11856072) Homepage
    We ran a story about a similar article back in February.
    I think someone is trying to make up for all the dupes lately by showing the /. editors actually can remember a previous article once in a while.

  • wierd setup (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Yonkeltron ( 720465 )
    Most people i know have tried cegega and aren't impressed. they claim it's both tough to install and even harder to configure correctly.

    i haven't tried cedega myself, but a simple apt-get install wine has worked perfectly on most systems i use.
    • On Gentoo, it's a simply 'emerge point2play' after you download the .tar.gz and copy it to the right directory.

      It's available as a .deb and a .rpm for other distros, so I would guess it's a simple one-step process.


  • To an old-timer like me "fragging" meant killing your squad leader (typically a lieutenant) in Vietnam usually either for getting someone busted for smoking pot (or similar), or insisting on going on dangerous patrols (which usually were pointless.)

    But, hey, now KIA is a car brand but to me it still means "Killed In Action", not the most attractive name for a car.

  • Well, I have to say... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SQLz ( 564901 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @10:33PM (#11856515) Homepage Journal
    I played Max Payne 2 all the way through at 1280x1024 with almost all detail options on and it ran like a dream. Not a single crash, the FPS was great, and it felt native. In fact if I didn't know and saw someone playing it, I would have guessed it was native. I usually prefer native games but if WineX can deliever even a few top notch games that will never be ported to Linux (political/busines reasons), then I'd call it a success. I mean, if they can get 10 games to run like that on Linux, thats like a 100% increase in recent high quality games from the platform. (not counting old Loki stuff, its way to out of date)

    I'm a gamer and I've used Linux exclusively for work since 1997 and have always booted into my Winetendo partition for games. Not having to do that to play a game as good as Max Payne 2 is great.

    Those of you clamoring "native or nothing", good luck. There has been no significant rise in native ports for years. We get 1 or 2 big titles thats it. So, if WineX can deliver 1 or 2 more a year, thats fine with me.

    • Re:Well, I have to say... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Bios_Hakr ( 68586 ) <xptical AT gmail DOT com> on Sunday March 06, 2005 @01:31AM (#11857279)
      The problem is that you don't really know what you are missing.

      I was curious, so I benchmarked UT2k4 under Linux and WinXP. I ran the test at 640*480 up to 1280*1024. All options were set to full on.

      Linux always beet WinXP in every test. I was amazed. But then I started looking at the details.

      Under Linux, I was missing FSAA and FSAF. Sure, you can tweak the xf86config file, but under WinXP, it's an in-game option.

      Under Linux, the scenes just looked shittier. Even with both platforms set with AA/AF off, the WinXP scene looked cleaner. Lights were brighter and hilights, shadows, particles, etc all looked better.

      And don't even get me started on bump-mapping.

      Anyway, under Linux, the games run at a decent framerate, but you are always missing a lot of things that add to the atmosphere of the game.

  • linux console (Score:2, Insightful)

    by dahlek ( 861921 )
    Too bad the Indrema (sp?) went nowhere...

    If there was a gaming console based on linux tech (openGL, SDL, Linux the OS, etc), then games could be easily cross-ported to the linux PC I would think, a bit like XBOX and Windows...

    I think that a linux console would be the single best way to slap the world and jump-start linux native gaming. To most ordinary folk, the OS running under the hood wouldn't matter - as a console, it would be: load the dvd, turn on...

  • This is the main drawback for me` (Score:3, Interesting)

    by PhreakinPenguin ( 454482 ) on Sunday March 06, 2005 @04:32AM (#11857681) Homepage Journal
    I hate to admit this, but gaming is the sole reason myself and alot of people I know haven't switched completely to linux. While their are alot of games that are "playable" under Linux/Wine, the bottom line is that performace wise, they don't match up to a Windows system. I don't blame the Open Source community for this, in fact I don't really blame anyone. But as long as people, read geeks, don't get equal or superior game performance in linux, they are always going to have a Windows system laying around.
    • that is the idea!

      That is why the "Dark Forces" threaten *any* company that dare port their games to Linux
      .
      * Half-Life had just about been ported to Linux [linuxgames.com] but then ... silence.

      * Tribes 2 was ported and was extremely successful, then all of a sudden - all distributors were explicitly prohibited in making more copies. Despite huge demand.

      * For sometime people have been lobbying to get WarCraft ported to Linux [blizzpub.net], the current signature holds 12'000. Not only that was ignored, but the attempt to have a Linux fre [freecraft.org]
  • I'm fortunate that the games I like are all running on native Linux - things like Doom3, Unreal Tourney, Enemy Territory (actually, it's ET I play the most, I enjoy the team-based online games). It's doubly fortunate since I don't have Windows.

    ET also has a great mod - True Combat Elite - which is a complete mod of the game in the vein of Counterstrike. TCE is a bit more 'serious' than ET is - it's less cartooney and much more strategic (and a good set of headphones is helpful because sound is more importa

    • Re:Linux fortune (Score:3, Insightful)

      by TheToon ( 210229 )
      Seconed, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a gem of a game. The objective based and role based team play is better than anything else out there imho. You'll get bored with counter strice, but never with ET! :)

  • Fraggers need only apply. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by yoshi_mon ( 172895 ) on Sunday March 06, 2005 @06:19AM (#11857856)
    While it's always good to see some games from genres other than FPS come up when Linux gaming is discussed there is still a huge gap there.

    Of the 10 games I have installed on my Win32 machine right now only 2 of them fall into the FPS genre. That leaves 80% of the games that I normally would expect to play out of what most people would think of in terms of Linux gaming.

    I'll grant that some of the the games could be run in WINE and even one of them, good ol NWN, is directly supported. However if gaming on Linux is to become the reality I think that it should not be so one sided as to expect that people will switch just because of FPS games.
  • Maybe if Bungie ported Halo 2 to Linux, then most slashdotters could see that it was just a game like any other and we wouldn't see so many Halo 2 intro/retro/plectro spectives in the games section.

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