Linux has game

A couple other genres

Not every gamer loves the FPS. In fact, there are many among us who don't even really like the genre. So even though there are a couple great ones built for 'nix, some gamers may still feel left out. That is, of course, if that was all there were.

If I were to write on even the best game from every genre, this article could be pages long and still be full of omissions. So, I figured that I'd give you a couple more of my favourites - the real-time strategy and the flight sim. Both of these types of games have well-known franchises on Windows machines - so how does Linux compete?

Battle for Wesnoth

Link - Free
Welcome noble warriors, to the realm of strategy games. And we'll take the plunge into the great pool of free strategy games with The Battle for Wesnoth. This game is part of the Gna! Project, an initiative similar to GNU and designed to provide a development platform for free software. However, it isn't an open-source project. Subtle differences, which have some consequences, but for the end-user that only wants to game, the result is the same - a free piece of software.



Time to step into the time machine and travel to the kingdom of Wesnoth, a magical place where some weird things have been happening. One plot puts you as the legimate heir to the throne, but some evil force has taken it from you, and you must fight to regain it. But that's not the only option - you could choose to become an officer that is sent to guard a border, or try to free your brother from an undead army led by a foul necromancer. As you can see, plenty of plot lines to fill hours of gameplay. Or, if you get bored of all of those plots, there is always the multiplayer mode where a traditional battle awaits. There you can challenge up to 8 people to fight for the title of King, or Queen, of the Kingdom of Wesnoth.



While graphically this game is years behind its Windows counterparts (it looks similar to Warcraft 2), it is head and shoulders above most of them in terms of gameplay and plot. Also, with its 200+ unit types, 16 races and 6 factions, it offers a great basis for lots of epic battles. And this doesn't even include all of the add-ons that are available through the in-game add-on manager. Mix that with the turn-based gameplay, and a true strategy game is born. No rushing into something 'guns blazing', because you'll be defeated in less time than it took you to issue the attack. As an added bonus, the game is translated into 35 languages, something you don't see often. And with its minimum requirement of a 1GHz CPU, and 256MB of RAM, it won't cost you an arm and a leg just to get the game running.

And now for something completely different...

Flight Gear

Link - Free
What is that, you say? All those criminal activities like hacking and slashing aren't your cup of tea? Maybe you would rather enjoy a relaxing evening flying around an island? Well, never fear, Linux offers one hell of a flight simulator that outshines Microsoft's counterpart - and guess what, it's free too. Being a glider pilot myself, I can say that the level of realism implemented supercedes that from the Microsoft's series by a lot. Even the well known flight sim Fly! isn't nearly as realistic as this one. I guess that is because a lot of skilled and motivated real-life pilots work on and help to improve this simulator, instead of a group of programmers assisted by a pilot.



The realism level isn't only apparent in the aircraft models. Their flight characteristics are as real as possible, making it often frustrating for new digital pilots. But never fear, the realism can be turned down for a more arcade style of flying. What also is great in this simulator, is the fact that the digital cockpits of the various aircraft are rendered with such a level of realism, that they are actually usable. There's nothing worse for a pilot on his final approach to have to switch between looking outside and looking at his instruments. And last but not least, dynamic weather. Flying in a constant 5 knot breeze is peanuts. Flying through a thunderstorm, now that's a challenge!



So, we have realistic aircraft models and realistic weather models, now the last thing we need is a realistic world. And guess what, that factor in the equation is accounted for too. But the hugeness comes with a downside - hardware requirements. Particularly for OpenGL, these are considered steep. A 2 to 3 Ghz CPU, coupled with a OpenGL enabled graphics card, is recommended. But these are specs that most recent PCs already have. As with almost all free software, there is a huge list of add-ons that can be downloaded. More planes, more airports, more cities, all freely available.

Just a taste

This is only a small sampling of the immense list of games that run natively on Linux. And while there are plenty of sites that list native Linux games, I've found it easiest to just go through the package manager offered by most popular distributions. Gentoo, for instance, has a huge repository, with hundreds of great, fun games. And the ease of install through portage or Debian's apt-get is something Windows can learn a lot from.

Of course, for many of you, these non "brand-name" games may not be your thing. After all, where is Call of Duty or Oblivion? Don't worry - most of them run on Linux too. You just need a handy little middle-man...