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Nah, too much of a long rifle is affected by operator muscle control. If you want him to get experience and familiarity with the utility of ballistic mathematics in a real world scenario, you'll need a proper artillery piece with analog numbered attitude controls and variable powder loads.

Or just give him the somewhat recent 3D remake of Scorched Earth, it's similar physics but with fewer police coming to your door about noise complaints (or worse). It's also freeware.

Scorched Earth

Seconded.

Newer incarnations, most of which I've never tried: Scorched 3D, a browser-playable Java version called Scorch 2000, and others.

xmoto is nice, but there's so much more :)
some i have played and did like enough :

http://ufoai.sourceforge.net/
http://www.openttd.org/
http://www.wesnoth.org/
http://wz2100.net/
http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/
http://www.bzflag.org/
http://chromium-bsu.sourceforge.net/
http://freeciv.wikia.com/
http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/v5
https://sourceforge.net/projects/koules/ (original page seems to be down)
http://neverball.org/

scorched earth, worms, etc were all great, but this open-source 3d version is a riot, especially with some of the mods

Or how about...

Scorched 3D

Free in both ways, networked and local play, installers for most platforms (including Windows and Ubuntu). And a whole extra DIMENSION, baby.

You should try Scorched 3D, then.

Very good remake. Good graphics, runs on pretty much any hardware, Linux and Windows version, multiplayer. And seeing half the island disappear after firing something very overkill is really awesome.

It's just as likely that the explanation that Amazon gave was legit and that a technical error caused them to be removed (it wasn't just negative reviews, but ALL reviews on Spore retail which went away). Remember never attribute to malice that which can be more easily explained by a simple fuckup. They probably have never had that many comments on any single object before and some limit was simply exceeded. They fairly quickly reposted all comments and never removed the volumes of negative feedback on the other versions of the game. My favorite DRM free games are freeciv and Scorched 3D.

Excellent themable 3D remake of Scorched Earth:

http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/

Meat Fighter!

http://www.meatfighter.com/

And there's always Tux Racer:

http://tuxracer.sourceforge.net/

Linux Games..

http://savage2.s2games.com/main.php
http://www.eve-online.com/
http://www.wesnoth.org/
http://www.flightgear.org/
http://www.freeciv.org/
http://www.sauerbraten.org/
http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/
http://wz2100.net/
http://www.cubeengine.com/
http://lincity-ng.berlios.de/
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/
http://www.wormux.org/
http://www.secretmaryo.org/
http://www.ufoai.net/
http://www.bzflag.org/
http://tremulous.net/
http://www.eternal-lands.com/
http://www.enemyterritory.com/

Perhaps you could stop with the "No games for Linux" BS already as you obviously have your head up your ass.

http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/

Where are the commercial game ports for Linux? No one wants to make them, obviously, save for the FPS crowd (and there's only an Unreal Tournament for Linux because Epic passes the buck to Icculus to get the job done, not because they have the in-house talent to do it themselves). There are a few commercial games for Linux, yes, but only a few, and there's very little variety between them. In the open source world we have a few good games (the majority of them being FPS's, what a surprise), Battle for Wesnoth if you like strategy games (turn based ones, that is). Then we have the unfortunate, ugly ripoffs like "Secret Maryo Chronicles," and other games that look like they were developed for a C64. Plenty of selection, not a lot of quality.

The following publishers develop comemrcial linux games:

http://www.pompomgames.com/
http://www.garagegames.com/
http://www.introversion.co.uk/
http://frictionalgames.com/
http://sillysoft.net/
http://www.basiliskgames.com/
http://www.guildsoftware.com/
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/
http://www.rune-soft.com/
http://grubbygames.com/
http://www.caravelgames.com/
http://www.planewalkergames.com/
http://www.graalonline.com/

There are also the high profile ones such as neverwinter nights, the doom and quake series, unreal, etc.

There are many high quality independant titles such as neverball, you mentioned wesnoth, crimson fields, flight gear, torcs, the spring project, total annihilation 3d, tecnoballZ, powermanga, tile racer, pingus, clonk, freeciv, ultimate stunts, planeshift, scorched3d, VDrift, silvertree (not complete, but being created by the wesnoth guys so likely will not be vapor), ufo: alien invasion, scourge, etc.

http://spring.clan-sy.com/
http://www.wesnoth.org/
http://torcs.sourceforge.net/
http://www.flightgear.org/
https://icculus.org/neverball/
http://ta3d.darkstars.co.uk/
http://linux.tlk.fr/games/
http://tileracer.model-view.com/
http://pingus.seul.org/
http://www.clonk.de/
http://freeciv.wikia.com/
http://www.ultimatestunts.nl/
http://www.planeshift.it/
http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/
http://vdrift.net/
http://www.silvertreerpg.org/
http://ufoai.sourceforge.net/
http://scourge.sourceforge.net/

Many of these are very impressive independently made free games. Perhaps they lack the multi million dollar marketing budget and won't make your geofrce 8800 gtxz 45 x super elite ultra melt, but theya re *fun* games, and they are numerous. Also keep in mind this publisher and free game list is only what I could find in 1 hour of searching.

Then there are freed older commercial games such as warzone 2100, homeworld, descent 1 and 2, doom, quake, etc.

Lets not stop t

There are still lots of interesting small games being produced, but it's the kind that get spread by hearsay (or reddit et al), like Downhill Pakoon (downhill racing, open source, Windows only), Scorched 3D (tanks, open source), the Yeti games (precision, Flash), Crazy Cube (puzzle, Flash), and Bloxorz (puzzle, Flash).

Check out Scorched3D. *VERY* fun game, and the latest version looks just great.
Armagetron Advanced is also a great free game, even though the grafics may not be your cup of vodka.

Additionally, you might find some very fun and good looking games by checking open source game- or 3D- engines. The showcase forum at ogre3D is a good start.

The point is: there are some great looking, fun Open Source games out there they don't get reviewed or advertised in such a way that you'll hear about them often.

I've killed some time on this since it's a pretty interesting idea. It turns out there are plenty outside the D and F range. It does seem to like pages with a single Flash object and not much else, so that's bad. It also makes some pretty arbitrary decisions which don't mean squat to many sites. There are some sites that get enough traffic that speed is a factor but not so much that a content delivery network is really necessary, for example.

I skipped the actual link and score on sites that are pretty much just representative of the sites around them. I wanted to include them by name, though, to show where they fall. I've stuck mostly to main index pages, and I've noted where I've gone deeper.

A: Google (99%), Altavista main page (98%), Altavista Babelfish (90%) (including upon doing a translation from English to French), Craigslist (96%), Pricewatch (93%), Slackware Linux, OpenBSD, Led Zeppelin site at Atlantic (100%), supremecommander.com, w3m web browser site (96%)

B: Apache.org (87%), the lighttpd web server (84%), Google Maps, which also got a C once (84% in most cases), Perlmonks (84%), Dragonfly BSD (85%), Butthole Surfers band page (81%), 37 Signals

C: One Laptop Per Child,, ESR's homepage, the Open Source Initiative (78%), Google News (73%), Lucid CMS (74%), Perl.org (75%), lucasfilm.com, Charred Dirt game

D: gnu.org, The Register, A9 (66%), kernel.org, Akamai (64%), kuro5hin.org, freshmeat.net, linuxcd.org, Movable Type (61%), Postnuke, blogster.com, Joel on Software (67%), Fog Creek Software, metallica.com, gaspowered.com, Scorched 3D (68%), id software (64%), ISBN.nu book search

F: MS IIS (49%), microsoft.com, msn.com, linux.com, fsf.org, discovery.com, newegg.com, rackspace.com, the Simtel archive (26%), CNet Download (29%), Adobe (58%), savvis.com, mtv.com, sun.com, pclinuxos.com, freebsd.org, phpnuke.org, use.perl.org, ruby-lang.org, python.org, java.com, Rolling Stones band page (56%), powellsbooks.com, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, getfirefox.com

My site for my company (96%) gets an A (no, I'm not going to get it slashdotted) which is pretty simple but has a pic and some Javascript on it. Several sites I have done or have helped design with someone else get C or D ratings.

I got taken by Freeciv this year. More recently, Scorched3d.

Yes, it's true, I only play open source games.

Clearly some reasonable talent went into the game, but i doubt i will get much replay value out of it, as its essentially a beefed up version of Scorched Earth, so itll really be the same game over and over again, therefore killing its value.

Totally off topic, but Scorched 3D has to be almost as addicting as the original (though it takes a little longer to get the hang of it). Best of all, it's free, open source, and available for just about any OS you prefer.

Of course, I try to shill this game, and the site is down. Go to the Google cache for download links.

Scorched 3d is fun for 2+ players. How can you go wrong with something based off of "The Mother Of All Games"?

If you liked the original Scorched Earth, then Scorched 3D takes the original and sticks it into the modern era. Best of all, it's free, runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, etc., has hot-seat multiplayer and networked multiplayer and looks gorgeous. Oh - and there are modifications, so if you feel the need for planet-cracking weaponary, you can try the Apocalypse mod.

Scorched 3D

Cheers,
Toby Haynes

Especially with the facelift it just got...!

http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/

The current version of what I have in PCI Express terms would soak me about $600. I could just scrape together the $300 for the new board, as long as I could just move my 1.25 GB of DDR memory and my current video card over. I also have a backup video card, which I nearly gave away but plug in from time to time when I'm debugging hardware, since it's a fairly simple little thing with 64 MB of memory and good enough (Actually it's more than good enough for Scorched Earth 3D

Maybe when I get my pickup paid off I can think again about dropping a fat wad of cash on a whizzy video card, but not at the moment.

Here's a few "Good" open source games. There are quite a few others out there. Sure, there may not be UberLeetHardcoreGamerOrgyOfTheMonth, but there are high quality ones out there if you look, plus Opensource ports of many classic games (not listed)

Planet Penguin Racing- http://projects.planetpenguin.de/
FlightGear- http://www.flightgear.org/
Armagetron - http://armagetron.sourceforge.net/
Vega Strike (see also the WC Privateer remake)- http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/
Frozen Bubble-
      http://www.frozen-bubble.org/
      Live java version- http://glenn.sanson.free.fr/fb/play.html

Quake 3 - http://liberatedgames.org/game.php?game_id=90
Scorched3D - http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/
ChromiumBSU - http://www.reptilelabour.com/software/chromium/

This is just what I could think of in a few minutes- There is a really great 3d Nascar style game on the Suse 9.2 DVD, but I can't remember it's name while I'm at work.

The venerable Scorched Earth on steroids and modernized:
Scorched 3D.

MidTown Madness II for PC (it's like from 1999 or something, the new version is only for Xbox.)

Scorched Earth 3D (real nice up-to-date 3D version of a classic)
http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/ (it's free!)

For those that are interested, here are my prized OSS Windows applications and their links. Sorry for such a long post, but hopefully this'll be interesting to someone.
Entertainment:
Audacity
Version: 1.2.3
License: GNU General Public License
Link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Sourceforge Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/
A fast multitrack audio editor and recorder for Linux, MacOS, and Windows. Supports WAV, AIFF, Ogg, and MP3 formats. Features include envelope editing, mixing, built-in effects and plug-ins, all with unlimited undo.
Battle for Wesnoth
Version: 0.9.1
License: GNU General Public License
Link: http://www.wesnoth.org/
Sourceforge Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wesnoth/
The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme. Supports online multi-player.
Blender
Version: 2.36
License: GNU General Public License
Link: http://www.blender3d.org/
Open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for Windows, Linux, Irix, Sun Solaris, FreeBSD or Mac OS X.
CDex
Version: 1.51
License: GNU General Public License
Link: http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/
Sourceforge Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdexos/
CDex is a CD-Ripper, thus extracting digital audio data from an Audio CD. The application supports many Audio encoders, like MPEG (MP2,MP3), VQF, AAC encoders.
Celestia
Version: 1.3.2
License: GNU General Public License
Link: http://celestia.sourceforge.net/
Sourceforge Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/
Celestia is real-time 3D space simulation which lets you travel through our solar system and to over 100,000 stars in our neighborhood.
Glest
Version: 1.0.9
License: GNU General Public License
Link: http://www.glest.org/
Sourceforge Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/glest/
Glest is a project for making a free 3d real-time customizable strategy game. Current version is fully playable, includes single player game against CPU controlled players, two factions with their corresponding tech trees, units, buildings and some maps.
Scorched 3d
Version: 38.1b
License: GNU General Public License
Link: http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/
Sourceforge Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/scorched3d/
Scorched3D is a 3D remake of the popular 2D artillery game Scorched Earth. Scorched3D can be played against the computer, other players and remotely across the internet or LAN.
VLC Media Player
Version: 0.8.1
License:

Come on, no one remembers the original Scorched Earth? Now there is an open source, 3d version: http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/.

You might enjoy this then. (No, I didn't write it, but I play it on TV!)

I've got the karma whore link for you
Scorched 3D

Great game, turn-based (sort-of, you can change the way moves are made), lot's of fun and it look great too runs on about everything but the kitchensink. Scorched 3D Need I say more.... Have fun blowing ppl up.

• UT2004 (Also Unreal - 2003 work as well)
• Neverwinter Nights
• SAVAGE: The Battle for Newerth
• Enemy Territory
• Quake3
• Americas Army

• Forzen Bubble
• Scorched3D
• Legends (Tribes2 Clone)
• Chromium (Space Invaders Clone)

I mentioned this above, but anyway - you might like to try out the open-source, cross-platform and very cool Scorched Earth 3d

Pete.

I thought it rather amusing that all the classic old DOS games that the guy mentioned are in fact available as source ports for Linux (and probably most other OSs).

But in case you didn't know, you can get a very damn cool version of Scorched Earth in 3d here: http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/ (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, source, etc.)

I played it with a bunch of friends at a LAN party recently, several of whom had played the DOS Scorched Earth before (I hadn't). Fan-fucking-tastic game. 'Twas a very satisfying moment when I was the first to discover that you could buy mini-nukes as weapons... *evil grin*

Guy who had just been hit with the nuke (along with everyone else who just heard the explosion): "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT???!?!??!"

Pete. :-)

Well, poster, all the stuff you listed is major publishing mainstream content. It is widely known that usually, and even more so in times of low sales, slow economy, etc., mainstream publishers will shun any and all risk and put out nothing but surefire titles, i.e. either sequels or stuff with a movie license.

So if you look for originality, you're simply looking in the wrong place.

Some of the original games I've bought and/or played (some are free) this year:
(note: I'm Linux-only, so these games are as well, you might find even more in the windos or console world)

Marble Blast
3D roll-marble-around and complete puzzles game.
Originality factor: Combining marble games with FPS and turning it into a fast-paced, thrilling action game.

Bridge Construction Set (only played the demo on this one)
Build a bridge game. Simple, fun, addictive. It is a sequel to an older game of the same kind, by the same guy.
Originality factor: I don't know any other games of this kind, the idea is brilliant.

Orbz
Shoot-yourself-around-the-track game. Somewhat tricky to describe what exactly it is about.
Originality factor: No other game of this kind exists, AFAIK.

Scorched 3D
3D Clone of Scorched Earth.
Originality factor: While the idea is old, this is one of the few games really benefiting from the 3rd dimension, and it was done greatly. It is one of the few "clone" games that are actually more original than most of the "original" games you find which just rehash a basic idea (FPS, RTS, ...) without adding anything new.

Savage
A blend between RTS and FPS.
Originality factor: Combining two genres in a unique blend. No, it wasn't done this way before. It's not an RTS with first-person perspective for the commander, it actually is a full-blown FPS for all the non-commander players.

BattleMaster
Ok, shameless plug, this is my own game. I do, however, honestly think that it's quite original.
(it's a turn-based, multiplayer strategy game)

You will note all of these games come from small or independent developers.

Games are really like music in that regard: If you are looking for originality, look to the small and unknown. If you are looking for polished, perfectly produced, know-what-you-get stuff, shop in the mainstream.

Yeah, other than the stupid thing wouldn't compile without hand-tweaking Makefiles and when it did run it crapped out trying to figure out my video settings (I'm not the only one to have this problem too...).

Try few free (of cost) games:

strategy

FreeCiv - new version was just released, FreeCiv is not as good as Civ3 in single player, but it's very playable in mp

TEG - if you want simple strategy (it's risk clone)

lgeneral - panzer general clone

action

RTCW ET - IMHO best team action game

Cube - simple multiplayer FPS, with nice graphics

Armagetron - 3D tron implementation

sport

CannonSmash - table tennis simulation

foobillard- billard simulation

misc

Scorched 3D - scorch (or for younger slashdot users: worms) clone

It's got simultaneous network play, works on Windows, MAC and Linux. and has almost all of the old weapons ( They're still missing rollers, but that's about it ). Best of all it's Open Source! (I'm thinking about giving them some roller code myself ;-) )

Hmmm, google yielded this: Scorched 3D. Maybe that's the one he's talking aboot...? Says it's an OpenGL remake of the original. I may just have to check that out....

slightly offtopic I know... but I imaginet he title must have got a few of you thinkin how you could get ahold of scorched earth again...

I enjoy Scorched3D, a pretty good 3D remake of the game

And the orignal Scorched Earth.

Remember, No Kibitzing!!

I own a civic, you insensitive clod!

Anyway, X works fine for me. It's fast, flexible, solid, and pretty fast. With accelleraetd NVidia drivers, games like Scorched3D runs faster in Linux than in WinXP (same computer, dualboots)

Essentially what happens is a game company lanches with a hot idea, a sexy game everyone has to have and a console maker feels they have to have, too. All is right with the world and there's money in the coffers. Then after a few games, or extentions of the first successful title, it's a scramble. Take anything, a dead horse which can spare a little more hide for whipping, and dress it up. Reviews say it stinks, nothing like their glory days, etc. The only company which seems to be eluding this downfall is EA, but in my book they're still rehashing old titles every year, 2002 football, 2003 football, etc.

It's not really unlike what happens with rock bands. The great songs they've played in clubs and garages for years are finely honed, they cut an album, it's hot, they're stars. Then the sophomore jinx kicks in and they release a mediocre second album and disappear.

What boggles my mind is the wealth of original ideas explored back in the day on C64, Apple][ and Atari 65xx processors. Almost all were designed by some guy in his basement, submitted to the emerging game companies, and sold 10,000-30,000 copies. You rarely hear their names anymore, but that's like the band analogy, they had one great idea. Imagine mining those things, finding the owners to get that stamp of approval (to keep the lawyers out of it later) and do a new release. I know a lot of those games still kick ass in emulators. Imagine what a Gavin Camp could do with them, with OpenGL, etc.

the 3d version mentioned in the article is still working.