GAMING ON LINUX GAMING ON LINUX The tastiest brain candy to relax those tired neurons OPEN UP XCOM: Enemy Unknown The invasion has begun! COM: Enemy Unknown, a high-profile reboot of Not your traditional base building. Xthe XCOM series has been released on Linux to great fanfare. XCOM: Enemy Unknown mixes base building, research Liam Dawe is our Games Editor and the founder of gamingonlinux.com, and turn-based combat in one the home of Tux gaming on the web. absolutely beautiful package and just goes to show how far ou might expect us to say Linux has come in developers’ this, but opening up the and publishers’ minds for us to source code of a game can Y get such a high-profile game. better for everyone. It’s a hot topic and one that has been talked about The original XCOM is one about it. There’s a pack more. We highly recommend for years, but it seems that bigger of the best strategy games available for it called “Enemy taking a look at this one, as the developers still don’t quite ever made and this reboot Within”, which adds a ton of importance of games like this understand that they can still sell really does it justice. It takes new content including new on Linux cannot be overstated. their game even if the source code is the original and amplifies multiplayer maps, new types http://store.steampowered. available for free. The first thing to note is that for a everything that was good of aliens and much much com/app/200510 game to be open source it doesn’t mean that the media needs to be. So, the games engine can be open, but the art, music, voiceovers etc can still be closed assets, meaning the engine by itself wouldn’t be the game. This Civilization: Beyond Earth way it keeps the developer’s revenue A classic redefined and coming to Linux! streams open. True, this it may open the developer up to game clones, but ow! Another unless your game were extremely high-profile game simple that wouldn’t be an easy task. Having the code open actually Wgetting a Linux enables others to port the game to version! Remind us to check if platforms that the original developer hell has frozen over. Civilization: may have never considered or been Beyond Earth is the next able to do themselves, opening up iteration of the extremely more places to sell their game. Ports aren’t the only thing opening up the popular Civilization franchise, code allows, as it will also stop the although it shares certain game from falling behind with newer aspects of Sid Meier’s Alpha operating systems to enable code Centauri as well. The Civilization changes to support computers as Tile-based gameplay has series are usually included in they get more and more complex. never been so beautiful There is also the fact that if you Steam’s most popular games, manage to get a community behind it so it’s another barrier removed other coders can help improve the for Linux gamers. set on another planet some It will most likely be available code itself to optimise it and give For those who don’t know interesting looking creatures from Steam just as the others feedback for future projects. If it’s a turn-based strategy game are bound to be found too. are, so you will have to set any anyone from Frontier Developments is reading – open source is good! full of exploration, diplomacy, The game is due for release fears about Steam aside if you http://forums.linuxvoice.com research and combat. this autumn, so we still have a wish to play it. Considering this iteration is bit of waiting to do. www.civilization.com 10 www.linuxvoice.com GAMING ON LINUX Homefront The Revolution ALSO RELEASED… Viva la Linux Revolución! rytek is spoiling Linux gamers this year with a beautiful new Cfirst-person shooter. The original Homefront was by a completely different developer and is only coming to Linux thanks to Crytek porting its CryEngine to Linux as well. One thing Linux is lacking is big-name Quest of Dungeons FPS games to draw in more gamers who For those of you who like your simple, but fun like their Call of Duty-like games, so this dungeon crawler games, Quest of Dungeons could hit a sweet spot for a few Linux will fit that bill nicely. It comes complete with converts. The game is set in the near procedural dungeons, procedural weapons, boss monsters and a ton more. future as America has been conquered by Don’t let the simple graphical style fool you, an unspecified army, and you play the role as this game has hours worth of game-play of a member of the resistance. The game and it’s not easy either. isn’t your standard run and gun shooter http://store.steampowered.com/app/270050 either, as it’s more of an open world first person shooter. We’re intrigued to see how far the open world aspect goes, as the developers promise that the city will react Maybe the redcoats have come back? to your decisions. It sounds like fun and we can’t wait to www.crytek.com/games/homefront/ get our hands on it. overview Interstellar Marines Kill Fun Yeah ADOM: Ancient Domains of Mystery Pew pew pew! An insane 2D action platformer. ADOM is an extremely popular true roguelike game with an ASCII graphical mode for those after a nostalgic/retro vibe and a tiled-graphics mode to play your adventure with. It’s bursting with content, like a story, RPG mechanics, exploration across the lands and into dungeons and caves and it just keeps going. It can be a little overwhelming though if you haven’t played a proper roguelike before. www.ancardia.com Another first-person shooter to sink your Kill Fun Yeah is an absolutely insane online greedy gaming fingers into is Interstellar 2D action platformer, and when we say Marines. We’ve known for a long time that insane we mean it. This is the type of the game would be coming to Linux, and game where you can quite happily sit back now it’s finally a reality. It’s early days yet with a beer and watch a friend die over for this shooter as it is an “Early Access” and over. The game is extremely amusing title, so if you do fork out for it, prepare for its use of crazy weapons that you can for an incomplete experience, but still a redirect after you fire them, with fun one. ridiculously enjoyable results. Anomaly Defenders It’s one of the few first-person shooters It has a couple of different game- The last in the Anomaly series is now out on to really try to do things differently even modes to keep you interested too, such our digital shelving units and available for this early in its development. Maps as deathmatch, team deathmatch and Linux. Anomaly Defenders is a tower offence game that sees you launching your counter can turn from day to night, completely capture the flag, although they always give attack agains aliens that have invaded the changing the way you play it during a capture the flag a silly name. earth. It has the standard Anomaly features match, and it makes it a completely Kill Fun Yeah has already stolen plenty of and solid gameplay, so it’s not to be missed! original, unique challenge to play. time from us, so be warned you may get a https://linux.gamesrepublic.com/bundle/ http://store.steampowered.com/ little addicted. strategy,anomaly-defenders-anomaly-2,368.html app/236370 www.killfunyeah.com www.linuxvoice.com 11.