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Games

No Halo3 Beta For Me

I bought a copy of Crackdown when it came out a few months ago, and was quite happy with the game. It was fun to play a GTA-style game on the side of the good guys for once.

An added benefit of buying Crackdown was an exclusive invite to the Halo 3 beta, which went live this past Wed. Or was supposed to. Of course demand was higher than expected, and the download was delayed a few times throughout the day.

I was finally able to download, and I start the beta through Crackdown – which takes about 10 minutes from start to finally getting in the game after going through the Halo 3 lobby and matchmaking. And each time I try to play, I get an error: “The disc is unreadable” – which is kind of funny as there is no disc.

There are a few threads on the Bungie / Halo 3 forums about this, with other folks having the same issue, and no clear cut fix. Quite frustrating, to say the least.

doh!

Gaming on (Foresight) Linux

Linux seems to always get a knock when it comes to gaming. I know personally I believed the FUD, before making the switch to Linux full time 2 years ago and learning otherwise. What Linux doesn’t have in quantity as a gaming platform, it does make up in quality.

A lot of the open source and freeware get the publicity, but id software and Epic, among other developers, makers of Quake and Unreal Tournament respectively, continue to put out native Linux binaries of their software.

With the upcoming Enemy Territory: Quake Wars release, I installed Quake IV, Doom 3 and the original Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory on my desktop today. Since I did a clean install of Foresight a couple months ago, I wanted to make sure I work out any kinks before ET:QW’s release.

Everything worked like a champ – I downloaded the Linux installation files from id software’s bittorrent server, installed those in /home/silwenae/games (I’m lazy, didn’t feel like chmod’ing /usr/games), copied the pak files over, and ran Doom 3 and Quake IV. Mapped my keys, cranked the video settings, and I was online in minutes fragging away.

The only small glitch I ran into with Quake IV, and this hasn’t happened in my two or three previous installs, was that it started in Spanish. A quick Google search turned up the fix: Go into your home folder, and in the .quake4 directory (which is hidden, hit ctrl-h in Nautilus to view hidden files and directories), and then the q4base directory, and edit the Quake4Config.cfg file with your favorite text editor, and change the value of sys-lang to english, and you’re all set.

Everything worked great out of the box, I didn’t have the funky Alsa / OSS sound issue I had in the past with Ubuntu, even that worked flawlessly.

Who said you couldn’t game on Linux? Come get some!

Quake Wars gets a release date

Michael Larabel, of Phoronix fame, has a blog post noting that Gamestop has started pre-orders for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and Best Buy will begin pre-orders on April 12th, with the game being released on June 5th, the first time I’ve seen a release date assigned.

As I’ve noted previously, this is the first time in a long time I’ve been this excited over a game release. Since I gave up Windows 2 years ago after being a hardcore gamer for many years, I’ve cut way back on my gaming, and have pretty much turned into a console gamer. I still play Battlefield 2 about twice a month at a buddy’s house who has an extra PC set up for me, which is quite fun when playing with friends in a squad. I’m hoping ET:QW takes the squad based, objective elements to a new level for a first person shooter. That, and it’s the Doom3 engine, so it will be gorgeous. Once UT2k7 comes out later this year, I should have plenty to keep me busy gaming on the Linux platform.

I did have UT2k4, Doom3 and Quake IV installed on my Linux PC, which reminds me I need to get it installed on my new Foresight installation, and throw up a wiki page for installing 3D games on Foresight.

Games Delayed

Two of the more high profile games to be released this year, with already announced Linux versions, have been delayed. Both stories courtesy of Blue’s News.

Activision’s latest quarterly statement highlights ET: Quake Wars has been delayed to their fiscal 2008 year, which runs from April 2007 to March 2008.

Unreal Tournament 2007 has undergone a name change to Unreal Tournament 3, with part of the name change reflecting the title’s delay until later in 2007, when it was originally scheduled for 2006.

I’ve built my new machine with a fancy Core Duo, and can’t wait to play both with native Linux binaries this year. Let’s hope for no more delays!

The Must Have Game of 2006

The must have game of 2006 for me is Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. With the Strogg invading Earth, the two sides do battle with unique classes, weapons and vehicles.

The Enemy Territory website has been updated from the placeholder it used to be.

And even better, Gametrailers has the two and half minute trailer in high definition. Watch it in your browser, or click on the link on the right and download the Windows Media or Quicktime HD versions.

Stunning – I don’t see myself ever playing Battlefield2 after this comes out, and with the already announced Linux support, I”ll be in heaven.

EA could lose exclusive NFL gaming rights

It’s a long shot at best, but if the current collective bargaining agreement were to expire, and anti-trust rules go into place, EA could lose their exclusivity to the NFL players and teams come 2008.

Gamersreports has the story.

I’ve meant to post a gigantic rant for some time on EA exclusive license to the NFL, as it relates to Madden for a long time. I wish I had when it was still relevant, and who knows, I still might.

ET: Quake Wars to have Linux Client

From the preview over at Planetquake4:

Other features include in game voice chat, absolute Linux support (though may not be 100% done at the time of shipping), Punkbuster for anti-cheating, and stopwatch mode for tournament play.

Sweet! Enemy Territory: Quake Wars will run on the Doom3 engine, and is being developed by Splash Damage, who did the original Enemy Territory. Quake Wars pits Strogg vs. Humans as the Strogg invades Earth, and will the two sides will have entirely different classes and vehicles.

I’ve been talking this game up for a while, and I’m very excited they officially announced Linux support.

Via linuxgames.com

Second Life on Linux!

It’s here! I received the email yesterday to participate in the alpha test of Second Life’s Linux client. It’s Alpha – it has a few graphic glitches, but it’s working. It seems to run fast so far.

The client is very Mac OS-ish and very intuitive. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to play as I needed to watch Jack with my better half out shopping, but I’m really looking forward to spending some time this weekend with Second Life.

Obligatory screenshot right after I logged in:

secondlife1