Unusual Physics Engine Game Ported To Linux 117
christian.einfeldt writes "Halloween has come early for Linux-loving gamers in the form of the scary Penumbra game trilogy, which has just recently been ported natively to GNU-Linux by the manufacturer, Frictional Games. The Penumbra games, named Overture, Black Plague and Requiem, are first-person survival horror and physics puzzle games which challenge the player to survive in a mine in Greenland which has been taken over by a monstrous infection/demon/cthulhu-esque thing. The graphics, sounds, and plot are all admirable in a scary sort of way. The protagonist is an ordinary human with no particular powers at all, who fumbles around in the dark mine fighting zombified dogs or fleeing from infected humans. But the game is remarkable for its physics engine — rather than just bump and acquire, the player must use the mouse to physically turn knobs and open doors; and the player can grab and throw pretty much anything in the environment. The physics engine drives objects to fly and fall exactly as one would expect. The porting of a game with such a deft physics engine natively to Linux might be one of the most noteworthy events for GNU-Linux gamers since the World of Goo Linux port."
It's Only $5 (Score:5, Informative)
Dirt cheap compared to most games even on Steam so I'll definitely see how well it runs on my Ubuntu box.
Not recent ports (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, they've had the Linux version of these games available for quite some time... The only thing new is the $5 special pricing for the complete collection of all three... But, if you haven't already got them before now, then definitely go get them for $5!
$5 each platform? (Score:2, Informative)
Poking around the checkouts I see that you buy the game individually for each operating system as opposed to buy once, run anywhere. If my main mac dies (again) I'll have to shell out again to play it on a Windows or Linux machine. Not a huge fan of this sort of arrangement, I liked Braid where I've paid for it once and have access to Windows and OSX copies.
Re:Not recent ports (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Welcome back to 03-22-2007 02:55 PM, everyone. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's Only $5 (Score:4, Informative)
lack of object highlighting
Options -> Game -> Flashing items
Re:It's Only $5 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So... (Score:3, Informative)
Uh, even my 8600M GT can handle most graphic effects in a stunning fashion if not amazing. I don't know what you're talking about but both Nvidia and ATI cards are handled pretty darn well on Linux nowadays.
People even use it for gaming! [eveonline.com].
Maybe you should try running Linux. It's clear you aren't currently.
Re:What's with the sudden interest in Lovecraft? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's Only $5 (Score:3, Informative)
If on, items will flash shortly when nearby.
...so it could be that they stop flashing after a while (and then you need to roll over), but I can't remember seeing that happen. I guess I just grabbed them before they stopped flashing.
Re:It's Only $5 (Score:5, Informative)
Windows Minimum Requirements:
OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Processor: 1.5Ghz
Memory: 512MB
Disc Space: 2.0GB
Video Card: Radeon 8500/GeForce 3
(GeForce4MX not supported)
Linux Minimum Requirements:
Same hardware as Windows
Kernel 2.6 or higher(2.4 untested)
glibc 2.3
X11R6 with 3D acceleration
For x86_64 CPU, 32-bit environment
must be installed
Re:Performance (Score:2, Informative)