Free Software FPS Games Compared

An anonymous reader writes "Linux-gamers.net has posted a thorough, although harsh, comparison of free software shooters. It compares seven open source shooter games in a lengthy discussion. Few have gone to the trouble of comparing and carefully examining the genre before. The author ranks the games in the following order (best to worst): Warsow, Tremulous, World of Padman, Nexuiz, Alien Arena, OpenArena, and Sauerbraten. In making these choices, it claims to use gameplay, design, innovation and presentation as criteria and includes a short history of free software shooters in the introduction."

WTF, is it free or is it open source?

[Tibor the Hun]

Open source and free are not mutually exclusive as most of us know.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is free, but I don't think is open source. Maybe it is, it is based on either Q2 or Q3 engine, and Q2 engine is open sourced (or GPLed), maybe Q3 engine is as well.
But anyway, it seems as if the summary equates open source with free and free with open source.

Re:WTF, is it free or is it open source?

[Drasil]

The Enemy Territory source code has been released, had it been considered I'm sure it would have come in in the #1 or #2 spot. ET is based on the Q3 engine, which has also been open sourced. Generally I'm not a fan of shooters, but I've probably spent thousands of hours playing ET. It may be that games that were developed with a closed source model and then later the source was released were not considered, I dunno, it's slashdotted.

Re:It's like the games of yesteryears...

[Anonymous Coward]

It might be good, but I can't get past their website - big splash screen, with nothing but a tiny little "flag" icon at the bottom to get to the main site.

OK, fine - I'm not British (in fact, I'm of German decent) but I'm guessing this is a language rather than ancestry quiz.

Then the rest of the site hits me, slapping my eyes like the fish slapping dance.

Red and yellow text on orange background at the top and down both sides - all but unreadable - I defy you to be able to read that "shout box" thing (not sure what purpose it even serves). A "Pic of the Week" that's basically solid black with an red smear at the bottom. Light blue text on dark blue background for everything else.

And then a whole bunch of little link buttons on the other side, including one for validating WC3 CSS compliance, which, if you try, shows that there are errors in the CSS.

Why is it that open source so often implies a total lack of care for details and usability?

Re:Fun, but....

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry but other free software is slated as comparable or better then closed source software so why not games? These games suck.

Re:Fun, but....

[Anonymous Coward]

Right on! Because lord knows top-notch games like Portal never get their start from small-budget hobbyists working in their spare time.

Oh, wait...

Re:It's like the games of yesteryears...

[ardor]

Why is it that open source so often implies a total lack of care for details and usability?

Lack of natural selection. If a commercial game's user interface sucks, few people will buy and play it, unless its overly hyped. Reviewers tear apart the game, word of mouth names it a real stinker, it doesn't sale, developer either goes bankrupt or learns from the mistake. Or doesn't - and goes bankrupt, eventually.

Open-source projects don't depend on sales. While this allows for experimental genres and fresh ideas, it also takes away some incentive to polish the product's user interface (bugs OTOH are more likely to be fixed).

Re:Fun, but....

[edwdig]

Unless you're really trying to push the limits of your target platform hard, programming is a drop in the bucket compared to the work done by the artists and level designers. The level designers probably have more to do with good gameplay than the programmers.

Level design is also a REALLY tedious process. Making a good level requires replaying the level over and over slightly tweaking things to get them just right. It gets old fast, and you get really sick of the level in the process. And of course you have to deal with the issues that come up from playing the level that many times. It's very easy to memorize the level you're working on, and end up making the level way too difficult because of that.

Re:Three cheers for John Carmack,

[Rogerborg]

Because every developer thinks that they can write a better engine, and every producer thinks that an engine is only worth what you pay for it. Both of these observations are from personal experience.

Re:Tremulous second best? Hate to see the rest

[sahonen]

Exacto-friggin-lutely. I've always liked the Mario Kart approach to game balance. Where Counter-Strike consciously emphasizes the difference in skill between the two teams, Mario Kart tries to minimize it by giving better powerups and more speed to the players in the back of the pack, creating a close and competitive race even between players of different skill levels. This keeps the game fun and exciting for all players instead of simply handing an easy victory to the better player. Lopsided games are *never* fun for anyone involved, you always have the most fun in a game that's so close you don't know who's going to come out the winner. It's a shame that more game designers don't understand this.