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RTCW Single Player Demo & Linux Binaries

Ant was fastest on the mouse to report that Id Software has a single-player demo and a set of linux binaries available for Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Blue's News has some more information and a mirror.

254 comments

  1. OK.. wats wit the icon by josquint · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Y a quake Icon?

    /.

    1. Re:OK.. wats wit the icon by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 1

      Most likely because RtCW is based on the Quake III engine.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
    2. Re:OK.. wats wit the icon by jimmcq · · Score: 1

      Y a quake Icon?

      First of all, it is an id game. Secondly it uses the Quake engine.

    3. Re:OK.. wats wit the icon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      RTCW uses the same engine...i think

    4. Re:OK.. wats wit the icon by subgeek · · Score: 1

      probably becuase rtcw is built on the quake 3 arena engine. they just worked on the textures a whole lot more. pretty pretty textures.

      rtcw is fun and addictive. it is strangely refreshing to have an "old school" feel with the treasure and secrets.

      --
      you probably shouldn't have read this.
  2. Geez... by ackthpt · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I got the demo CD about a month ago... did this just become a news item?

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Geez... by StuffMaster · · Score: 0

      no, but you suck

    2. Re:Geez... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the post is about the linux version, not windows

  3. For Halflife users... by FortKnox · · Score: 1, Troll

    Honestly, why spend the money if you already have Halflife? It runs on linux (well), and with the Day Of Defeat Mod, you have a better game then RTCW (although the DOD mod is multiplayer only right now).

    Honestly, I didn't think RTCW is all that, and don't know why people are going nuts about it. Its living on name alone, IMNSHO.

    Most Halflife, Quake, and UT mods have already explored most of the FPS phenomenon if you just check them out...

    --
    Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
    1. Re:For Halflife users... by Fishstick · · Score: 2

      I think its a good game. I like the atmosphere of the SP game. It isn't new or groundbreaking, but it has kept my interest since I got it for x-mas. (flame-throwing a room full of nazis and hearing their screams of agony... well, *I* like it!)

      --

      There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
      Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.

    2. Re:For Halflife users... by FortKnox · · Score: 3, Informative

      Try DOD. Seriously. Play as an Allies, with a big gun and go after those nazi bastards. Play with a sniper rifle, go into a building that's been ripped up with holes in it, and get the feeling from the movie "enemy at the gates". Seriously, I get so much more out of DOD than RTCW.

      The levels, alone, make all the difference...

      --
      Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
    3. Re:For Halflife users... by Pyrosz · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have played both DOD and I now own RTCW and I much prefer RTCW. RTCW is not living off the name alone and in reality has very little to do with the original game (iD's original that is). The multiplayer aspect is only half the game experience as the single player game is very good and will draw you in and make you stay up later than normal playing it. As for the multiplayer... it rocks! Its very different from DOD and should be looked upon as such. It offers some serious team based play and a few different game modes that make each map play a little different. Its much faster paced than DOD but doesnt lose its strategy elements and in fact makes things feel more harried (sp?). It runs very well on my system and now that the single player binaries are out I can stop booting into Windows to play that part of it.

      --

      An optimist believes we live in the best world possible; a pessimist fears this is true.
    4. Re:For Halflife users... by ObligatoryUserName · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, but Evenbalance is now supporting Punkbuster for RTCW, and not Half-Life/Conterstrike. All the cheaters made multiplayer Half-Life a waste of time. Also, RTCW multiplayer is better by virtue of its populatrity. With online games, it is often the cluster of people around the game, rather than the game itself that is most important. (Of course, if the game sucked, you'd never good sized group of people in the first place.)

    5. Re:For Halflife users... by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 1

      If you can get it to run. I have installed it through Wine and am tryng to start it up, but all I get is a screen full of what looks like a random piece of memory dumped to the display. damn.

    6. Re:For Halflife users... by Fishstick · · Score: 1

      Have to give it a try, then. I haven't had half life installed on my machine for a whil, have to dig it out this weekend and install the mod. I've stayed away from mp games lately because of my sucky connection since @home went under and AT&T threw us onto their sucky network.

      --

      There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
      Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.

    7. Re:For Halflife users... by WildBeast · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I bought HalfLife the day it went out, loved the single player game but the multiplayer aspect of it was so horribly slow. Waited a few months and it was still laggy as hell so I finally gave up on it.

      Maybe by now they released a few patches to improve the multiplayer experience but it's kinda late I'm already hooked on RTCW.

    8. Re:For Halflife users... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Gee, Maybe I don't have halflife.

      Not directing this towards you, but this board is very confusing. Do slashdot users want more games for linux or don't they?

      RtCW comes out with native Linux binaries and you people bash it with statements like "Half Life is better, we don't need RtCW".

      The only reason my primary OS is Windows is because of games. I bought RtCW for Windows and was excited when I saw it had linux binaries available. I installed them, copied the data files over from my windows partition and bam! I'm playing RtCW on linux without problems.

      Every app that is ported to linux is a step in the right direction. This article wasn't doing a game comparison, it was trying to point out the cool fact that developers are noticing Linux.

    9. Re:For Halflife users... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Um, maybe because Halflife isn't Return To Castle Wolfenstein?

      Honestly, do you know how stupid your suggestion sounds. Thats like saying "Hey, we already have Doom, why waste the money on Duke Nukem 3D/Quake/Shogo/Thief/Max Payne". Halflife has already had its day, and I don't think that there is anyone (except you) out there who isn't bored to death of it already.

    10. Re:For Halflife users... by Klowner · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you haven't played Half-Life with the new netcode you're missing out. It's excellent, best lag-hiding netcode I've ever seen. I can play with a 300ms ping (26k dialup) and usually enjoy myself on a decent server. Unlike RTCW which is unplayable with 300ms lag.

    11. Re:For Halflife users... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, maybe you shouldof checked the link.

      Day Of Defeat is almost the same game as RTCW. Its axis vs allies, has a lot of the same stuff, and has about the same size community.

      He wasn't talking about halflife, he was talking about the mod.

      Now who looks like an idiot??

    12. Re:For Halflife users... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, Half-Life. Is it still totally unusable on a dual monitor system?

      For those who don't know what happens: you'll see your game in 800x600 max, but it can't change resolutions for some strange reason (really, really, really shitty DX and GL support, even software (!!!) mode sucks ass) so you see the game in the top left corner with the next frame being rendered right beside it, both duplicated below. Not to mention it looks like shit. Oh, you mean I have to pay $50 for the 'expansion pack' which only has (somewhat) better textures just so I could play the game on a system less than 2 years old? Please, even Quake 1 scales better than HL.

      As for tactical shooters, there's lots of other ones that came out in the last 2-3 months, and you can bet your ass there will be some kick ass mods for RTCW.

    13. Re:For Halflife users... by fondue · · Score: 2, Insightful
      This argument could just run and run (and RtCW would still be better, but I digress).


      Basically, I find it helps to realise that Half-Life is effectively the R-Type of the FPS genre. Developers can now go on and make more graphically impressive, complex, realistic, deep and engaging FPS games, but millions of sad pedants will come back with "ah, but it's not the same as Half-Life, now there was a game..."

      Let's let people make their own minds up. There's a place for Half-Life as well as RtCW. Plus scads of other sub-genres of the FPS. It's not such a tragedy that Wolfy doesn't do anything stunningly new, at least it does what it does very well (and for that matter, name another FPS - ack! except HL! - that has stealth, survival-horror, objectives, big big levels and kick-ass multiplayer out of the box?).

      Just my dual helping of minor currency.

      --

      Preferences > Homepage > Customize stories on homepage > Authors > Zonk > Uncheck

    14. Re:For Halflife users... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I never understood why people are so gung ho about Half-Life.

      Let's start with the single player game. To be honest, it was good, but not great. For me, the best aspects were the AI of the soldiers, the interaction & use of NPCs, the scripted in game sequences, and the opening level. But there were a lot of things that detracted from the single player game. Most of the level design was pretty lame and forgettable, the character models and animations were OK but the rest of the graphics sucked, the sound sucked, the Xen levels REALLY sucked, the final boss battle was cheese, and the ending was a real letdown. At the time, I enjoyed the single player games in Unreal and SiN much more than Half-Life, although both of those games also suffered from lame endings.

      Multiplayer Half-Life is also overrated. As other people have mentioned, cheating is rampant on HL servers, and I get a lot of laggy connections. And like the single player game, the graphics and levels are pretty lame. I briefly enjoyed CS before it was overrun with cheaters, but I'd rather play UT multiplayer any day.

      Besides, RTCW offers something new and different (at least slightly). I for one am pretty bored of playing UT, and I never liked Q3A or MP HL.

    15. Re:For Halflife users... by Maserati · · Score: 1

      I don't have DoD, but I am beta-testing CounterStrike 1.4. Maybe I'm mising something in CS due to the people I've played with in the beta so far. But, while CS has its points, RTCW beats it for intensity of action and sheer unmitigated carnage and destruction. Part of the RTCW advantage is the pawnign system, which gets players back into the game faster (4 minute waits to play CS again really burn me).

      --
      Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
    16. Re:For Halflife users... by Darren+Winsper · · Score: 1

      Hmm...you often don't play against really good CS players. In CS, if you have a high enough lag, you can die before you see your killer jump round the corner. He'll see you, aim and shoot you down leaving you wondering where that shot came from. Camping (Which is perfectly legit even if some people complain about it) is impractical on a ping higher than 150, for pretty much the same reasons.

    17. Re:For Halflife users... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Halflife, ww2 games and mp-fps'ing in general

      First off, I enjoyed the singleplayer part of RTCW. It was polished visually, had atmosphere and entertained me for a couple of days. Graphically, it blows halflife right out of the water.. but when I was done with it, I found myself thinking 'meh.. was that it?'.

      Multiplay: I've only tried the demo. To assess it properly, i should probably play the real deal online, but the demo gave me the following impression:

      Atmospheric, intense, definately DOD inspired, but lacking the realism. I like to feel mortal, when I play mp fps, not like some duke nukem on a comic'ish rampage. The idea with resurrection through, may make for an entertaining game, but
      I prefer realism in a ww2 scenario, even if we're only talking entertainment.

      DOD is not to be tossed aside. This is truely a quality MOD for halflife, worthy of a place in the shelf amongst games such as RTCW

      I just had to add medal of honour. Again, I have only played the demo (if you do, make sure to try
      'the hunt'. You havent tried the real deal, before you've played that map. I can recommend the SP demo as well). THis is a game that I will buy. Its got what RTCW lacks: A sense of realism - and the level design and sounds are terrific. It might not be as pretty as RTCW in all aspects, but I still found some things, such as vegetation in the game much more pleasing.

      I have to defend halflife. This is, without a doubt the best purchase I have made, in terms of games, ever. Besides being an excellent, if dated single player game with a decent deathmatch, its got numerous mods. I'm not talking a few alteration in the gaming rules or physics here.. I'm talking total conversions. Here's a few:

      - DOD - Popular World War 2 scenario with excellent maps and models and a marvelous gameplay. Its free, and version 2.0 should be arriving anytime soon.

      - Counterstrike: Needs no introduction. The latest release is supposed to combat a lot of cheating that has been plaguing one of the most popular mp games on the net.

      - Science & Industry:
      As an employee for one of two competing coperations, you use violence in the firms interest. Protect your scientist and decide what they research, while obstructing the opposing firms developments.

      - Team fortress classic:
      Team fortress with loads of interesting classes and maps, and its own set of visuals.

      - Vampire Slayer:
      A less known mod, that I've grown to love during the last couple of weeks. Pick a slayer or a vampire and duke it out in rounds. The vampires, only armed with their fangs and a special power of choice must use their speed and stealth agaist the considerably armed slayers.

      There loads of other mods, but these are some of the most popular. Despite halflife's age, new ones keep popping up, and a lot of them are real beauties, not some shoddy halfassed conversion with one or two new guns or maps. THe most popular mods are games very different from the original HL dm.

      Drop by Planethalflife.com at some point and visit the mod section.

      THere might have been a lot of fps' since valves masterpiece, but none have yet succeeded it, in popularity, and that my friends, make for one hell of a gaming scene.

    18. Re:For Halflife users... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously, I get so much more out of DOD than RTCW.

      Is this because you haven't played RTCW??

    19. Re:For Halflife users... by joshjs · · Score: 1

      It works the other way around as well, though. Many's the time I get killed by a high-ping player after I think I've gotten around a corner already. On his screen, I haven't, and I'm dead.

      What's a counter-terrorist to do?

    20. Re:For Halflife users... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but it doesn't have all of the stuff, the graphics look like shit and the sound engine is laughable. Go ahead and play your unprofessionally made, dated Halflife mods while us intelligent gamers bask in the glory that is RTCW.

      You know, if you're still playing HL, you really ought to upgrade your video card to one that can handle modern games.

    21. Re:For Halflife users... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lacking in the horror, but.. how about Goldeneye on the Nintendo64 that came out all those years ago -- didn't that precede Halflife ? It had a load of scripted character-interaction/events.

      Anyway, I think RTCW is bloody brilliant. It's a game that's been designed by GAME DESIGNERS, who obviously spent a lot of time designing the graphics, levels (they loop upon themselves beautifully), without needing to spend much time on the code base.

      It seems as though a lot of people are narky that they used the Quake3 engine and that the game feels "too Quake3-ish".. but if you ask me, the engine feels as though it was -made- for a single-player, mission-orientated game when I play RTCW.

    22. Re:For Halflife users... by Darren+Winsper · · Score: 1

      Ah yes, I'd forgotten about that, the servers I play on nearly always have no HPBs on them. It's even worse when they don't kill you. You walk round a corner and are pulled back by an HPB trying to kill you. It's very difficult to deal with the disorentation of just being pulled somewhere by an imaginary force.

    23. Re:For Halflife users... by sydb · · Score: 1

      No no, that's your slashdot browser window.

      --
      Yours Sincerely, Michael.
  4. My kid is using these by jtotheh · · Score: 1, Funny

    My kid hates M$oft and so has gladly run RTCW in Linux(Debian).

    My kid can beat your kid at video games!

    1. Re:My kid is using these by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
      My kid can beat your kid at video games!

      That's interesting. My son's name is Thresh. They should play together sometime

      psxndc

    2. Re:My kid is using these by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if you kid beats mine, i'll beat his parents.

  5. ID the brain of the geni by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Id has always been the one forthcoming for linux. I been play ROW , the AI is incredible

  6. Good luck by Xawen · · Score: 1

    Man, I tried this thing on Linux when I first got it. I've never seen my Linux system turn into a smoking mass of Windows wannabe freezage before, but that sure as hell managed to do it. We'll see if the new ones work any better after the link clears up some...

    1. Re:Good luck by pfharlock · · Score: 1

      Works great for me dude, don't know what your talking about. Try turning on DRI support.

    2. Re:Good luck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you have a Radeon? There's a bug in the drm module, so it will lock up, right at the moment the game would normally start. Not sure if a new version of RTCW will fix this, only if you're lucky. The bug should be fixed however in the latest xfree cvs tree (this cost me days... for just a single line fix).

    3. Re:Good luck by Xawen · · Score: 1

      I don't have a Radeon, but I do have an ATI card, and DRI support is turned on. You're description is right though, it locks up right where the game should start. It's ok though, I don't have a problem booting to Windows to play. Hey, that partition has to be good for SOMETHING right?

  7. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by SirSlud · · Score: 2

    Um, an AI where the enemies don't wander around aimlessly? The ability to jump? The ability to walk under and over corridors? The ability to play on teams? I'm sure this is flame bait, but I'm bored.

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  8. d'oh by josquint · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    sorry.. brain fart.. i think i knew that for some reason :)

  9. Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Geeyzus · · Score: 1, Redundant

    I think it is cool that id supports Linux. And I know that everyone on /. loves Linux and the promise of Linux gaming. Not to mention that if Linux did develop into a major gaming platform, many more people would use it in the mainstream.

    However... is this sort of release really going to be downloaded and used a lot (outside of Slashdot)?

    ALL hardcore gamers use Windows for gaming. It is simply a fact. All the games are published for Windows, and even if they make it to other OSes, they make it to Windows first.

    I can see people from /. and other geeks downloading it just to see how it works, but this is as a novelty, IMO. You download it, get it working, say "this is cool I am gaming on Linux" and get back to work never to touch it again.

    Even if they did release for Linux, how many more units would they ship? Is the demand really there? I don't like Windows any more than the next guy but games are developed for Windows, played on Windows, and the AOL using rubes that buy the games all use Windows...

    Mark

    1. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      No, you are right. We should just forget about Linux and use Windows for everything and then shoot ourselves in the heads.

    2. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Paradoxish · · Score: 3, Insightful

      However... is this sort of release really going to be downloaded and used a lot (outside of Slashdot)?

      If it was used only by the people on slashdot that'd still be a pretty large audience. This site has a big base of regulars, posters, and lurkers. Why do you think that within minutes of a small to mid-size site link being posted here the server ends up going down?

      I can see people from /. and other geeks downloading it just to see how it works, but this is as a novelty, IMO. You download it, get it working, say "this is cool I am gaming on Linux" and get back to work never to touch it again.

      People who would do that weren't really that interested in playing it in the first place. It's the same thing as people who download the PC demo, try it for five minutes, and move on. I'm guessing there's a large segment of Linux users who do a lot of gaming on their Windows machines, but would rather be doing it on their Linux box (I know I fall into this category). For them, it's a godsend. And in terms of appeal, I'm sure the percentage of Linux users who will stick with it is probably proportional to the amount of PC users who will.

      --
      If you need to interpret my post, then you don't get it.
    3. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by perljon · · Score: 1

      And things in the computer world never change, and things that are now have always been, will always be. good thing you weren't friends with Christopher Columbus, George Washington, THomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Larry Wall, etc. We'd still be living in caves talking about how how wheels will never work, good old fashioned muscle is the only way to travel and work.

      --
      This isn't the sig you are looking for... Carry on...
    4. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by psavo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well one reason could be that Linux performs better on P4/2.2GHz than WinXP does. If more games would perform better. the more people would play on Linux ;)

      --
      fucktard is a tenderhearted description
    5. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 2, Informative

      What we need is people to log in to ID's ftp and download the 8mb file that is required to play the buy version on Linux since the CD does not contain Linux binaires. Will the next game be available on Linux if there is no one getting the binaries needed? hmm I don't know.

    6. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by xSterbenx · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I can see people from /. and other geeks downloading it just to see how it works, but this is as a novelty, IMO. You download it, get it working, say "this is cool I am gaming on Linux" and get back to work never to touch it again

      How else is Linux Gaming going to get popular, then? I too am someone who only uses Windows for the games, and would definitely like to see Linux with a stronger video game selection. However, the only way this will ever happen is through support, and part of that support comes from downloading demos, giving feedback to the developers, and passing it on. It will only remain a noveltly as long as people let it.

    7. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dunno why this is tagged intresting...but I guess it's their web site.

      I don't know about the next person, but I appreciate not having to reboot my machine just to play a game in between doing work (chill out time).

      Thankyou to iD, and all the other Linux gamers and game companies. I use Linux, and appreciate the games - I am so sick of playing mahjong all day :)

    8. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm a hardcore gamer, meaning plays 2-3 hours a night usually, who in the last few weeks has moved from w2k to linux because I was tired of the gradual degradation leading to reformat cycle. I play 3 games... quake 3 which I downloaded abinary from id for, tribes 2 bought from local loki outlet, and rtcw not yet running, but probably will be downloaded this weekend. In some ways you're right in saying this is a novelty... When I first installed I posted on the linux forum of the local games community site asking how to get a modeline for 640x480@125hz.. the reponse I got was stunned disbelief that anyone would run those settings... which proved to me that the linux heads there arent really gamers. Hopefully as distros get even easier to install more gamers will come across.

    9. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could shoot yourself first and then you wouldn't have to use Windows.

    10. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by The+Cat · · Score: 1

      All the games are published for Windows, and even if they make it to other OSes, they make it to Windows first.

      Gee, I don't know. Our Mac version was first out of the gate popularity-wise (and is still in high demand), and our Linux version was the first one that worked correctly. We've gotten far more compliments for supporting Linux than Windows.

      The difference is that we didn't start with a Windows version and then port to other platforms. We started with a platform-independent version, and released simultaneously. It never even occurred to us to release only for Windows, and I think a lot of games companies think this way.

    11. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd bet linux users could find more creative ways to kill themselves... like say having their contents of their body placed on a disk with e2fs and then hit the power switch. oh no!

    12. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I own four titles from Loki. I've pre-ordered the Linux version of RTCW. I use Winex to play Starcraft and Total Annihilation under Linux. I'm planning on using it for Half-Life, when I get time to get back into that game. I have not purchased any games for Windows in a long time. I purchase Linux games first, Mac OS X second, and PS2 last.

    13. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by cscx · · Score: 1
      LOL that is the most biased benchmark I've ever read...

      One Intel D850MVSE mobo with Northwood P4; 512M PC800 RDRAM; two Maxtor D740X 20G ATA-133 drives on the mobo's onboard ATA-100 controller, one booting Win-XP Pro on FAT and one booting SuSE 7.3 Pro on ReiserFS and both installed clean and subsequently patched; and a 64M DDR GeForce AGP4.

      Jesus H. Christ. Cut off it's balls why don't you. XP runs best on NTFS. Most likely the author was running XP with all the visual goodies turned on, font smoothing, the spiffy new desktop, etc... (note: you can disable them very easily...) and running console and or IceWM on Linux.

      And I quote:

      It's extremely difficult to compare the performance of a given system on both Linux and Windows.

      Now go recompile your kernel, you zealot.

    14. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can see people from /. and other geeks downloading it just to see how it works, but this is as a novelty, IMO. You download it, get it working, say "this is cool I am gaming on Linux" and get back to work never to touch it again.

      I disagree. I play either RTCW or Q3A every night, and only on linux. The games that I own that are windows based never get played because it is a pain to reboot.

      Also most of the the game servers on the web are running on linux. Even Halflife has a native linux server.

    15. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Afrosheen · · Score: 2

      I seriously doubt the fat filesystem had any bearing on *how fast a 3d game ran*. Last time I checked my drives weren't spinning when I was playing RTCW, only when it was initially loading. Visual FX don't make a damn bit of difference when you're gaming either. Go back under the bridge little troll.

    16. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by cscx · · Score: 1

      You do realize that this came from The Register.... they hate MS why wouldn't they have a reason to rig a benchmark? I've seen more FUD come from The Register than from all of michael's articles on /. combined.

    17. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by batboy78 · · Score: 1


      This is actually an excellent marketing idea, if every gaming company would simply have a few binary files that are free to download to play the retail Windows version of games on Linux. Now if only more compainer would do this i.e, Blizzard

    18. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Frums · · Score: 2

      Actually a strong argument can be played for playing on Linux instead of Windows, at least for Quake 3 engine based games. Just today The Register posted an article discussing how Quake 3 on Linux (on a p4-2.2) achieved significantly higher (80.2 vs 72.7) framerates with identical hardware (dual boot machine)

      While Windows is still the general platform of choice for gaming because that is where games are, don't knock Linux games when they perform better than the same game on Windows

      -Frums

    19. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by asv108 · · Score: 2
      All the games are published for Windows,

      Last time I checked there wasn't a windows port of tuxracer ;)

    20. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by ponos · · Score: 1

      Linux can be a BETTER platform for gaming.

      I play Quake 3 regularly on a Geforce2 Pro that
      is nicely supported under linux (Thanks NVIDIA!).

      Here are some differences to make you think
      a little bit (these apply on my system):
      - Linux runs 15-20 % faster. I don't know why.
      It does. As a matter of fact, I am only
      able to use FSAA under linux (due to speed
      difference).
      - Windows XP insists on using 60 Hz refresh rate
      in games (why?). This bothers me most.
      - Linux caches the files MUCH better and the
      loading time is considerably less. The
      difference is astonishing if you are loading
      off a CD.
      - Linux does not crash. You can play Quake
      while doing heavy stuff (e.g. compiling
      the kernel or compressing to mp3, simply
      renice the process)
      - I feel much more comfortable with multiplayer
      gaming when I have a proper firewall setup. Windows 98 (popular gaming platform) will not
      protect you adequately.
      - You don't have to reboot when you take a
      break from work.(imagine having to reboot
      for every short Quake 3 15' break you take)

      Petros

    21. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by asv108 · · Score: 1

      nvr mind there is one!

    22. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by rootmonkey · · Score: 1

      "ALL hardcore gamers use Windows for gaming. It is simply a fact."

      Nice attitude, Windows is all there is for gamers please move along nothing to see here folks. Oh and the console is dead? Please.

      I have a linux box running as my general purpose server at home. I plan to download and run my rtcw server on my linux box.

      --

      Yes but every time I try to see it your way, I get a headache.
    23. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by emerson · · Score: 2

      Last time I checked there wasn't a windows port of tuxracer ;)

      Check again.

    24. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anecdotal, yes, but I found tribes2 completely unplayable on my PII with a GF2 in win98, but the Linux port was quite snappy.

      There was at least a 15-20% FPS difference, and no random pauses every 5 seconds in Linux.

    25. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by almightynayr · · Score: 1

      I Play every game they make for linux.. I consider my self a HardCore Gammer.. I have a subscription to at least 3 gaming magazines and spend time every week playing.. Would you guess that I do not have any copy of windows installed anywhere in my house? Like lots of gamers dedicated to linux I get the extra dosage I need from console systems like the Playstation2.. I have people over all the time and unless you have 3-4 GAME worthy machines console systems are more fun.. -Ryan

    26. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by drzhivago · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just so you know, the version of Windows used was Windows XP. Windows XP has been known that it can perform slower than Windows 2000 or 98 in tests.

      (see The Register for an article discussing Win2k vs XP performance)

      Also, since both OSes achieve framerates higher than 60, its not going to make much difference when actually playing the game.

      A difference of only 7.5 fps is not insignificant, but its not very significant either. I am willing to believe that the same tests can be repeated by others, and get results that show the same, and the opposite from what The Register saw.

      So what can you conclude from the Register article? That both systems play the game well.

      Greg

    27. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Archie+Steel · · Score: 1

      ALL hardcore gamers use Windows for gaming.

      No. Many hardcore gamers play on consoles. I just got an xbox and it rocks. First-person shooters, however, are notoriously harder to control with the typical game controllers. Also, I have a small LAN at home, which means I can have local multi-player games. So I usually play FPS on computers. It so happens that my favorite FPS are all available on Linux (Half-Life, Quake III, RTCW).

      You download it, get it working, say "this is cool I am gaming on Linux" and get back to work never to touch it again.

      No, I install it, get it working, say "cool, I don't have to reboot to play this game" and then I proceed to beating the game over the course of a couple of days, then I take it online to beat the hell out of some Windows gamers...

      Even if they did release for Linux, how many more units would they ship?

      Actually, the idea (in the case of RTCW) is to release binaries that make the game playable on Linus, so people buy the same game. Which means that they do sell more units. Sure, the numbers will be marginal when compared to the Windows audience, but a sale is a sale! Also, I suspect the id people - being the technical geniuses that they are - of appreciating the fact that Linux is the superior OS...

      --

      Reminder: find a new sig
    28. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Fembot · · Score: 1

      By the time the linux binaries are out I have finnished it under windoze (which I reinstalled to get it to work). Ironicaly the windows version of this struggled to work for quite a while since it swore blind I had a glide compatable card (I used to and I still had a wrapper), but multiplayer ran better under linux that windows which was nice. And ill still have single player with a symlink just cos its nice to have when people say linux has no games

    29. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by gol64738 · · Score: 1

      heeheehee, i remember this same argument when people contemplated playing games on the then new windows 95. people were saying, 'duh, everyone knows that hardcore gamers play all their games in DOS, so playing them on win95 is rediculous.'.

      ...and look how that has changed.

      myself, and most of my friends only keep a windows parition around for games, nothing more. if games were available on linux instead, then i woulnd't have a need for windows at all.

      plus, i'm tired of rebooting into windows just to play a game, then rebooting back to linux to be productive. sheesh.

    30. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Archie+Steel · · Score: 1

      Well, I don't know about benchmarks, but Setiathome runs much faster on Linux than it does on Windows 2000 (my guess is that WinXP's performance is pretty similar to Win2k). We're talking about 60% faster, here...and that's on the exact same hardware (with graphics turned off in both cases)!

      XP runs best on NTFS.

      Not for games. NTFS is notoriously bad for gaming (although it does speed up defragmenting you HD considerably).

      Most likely the author was running XP with all the visual goodies turned on, font smoothing, the spiffy new desktop, etc... (note: you can disable them very easily...) and running console and or IceWM on Linux.

      How can you talk about bias! You don't even know the specs of the benchmark, and already you assume that they have been stacked against your personal favorite, i.e. it's simply impossible that WinXP would be slower, so the benchmark must have been rigged.

      Ha! You're in no position to call anyone a zealot!

      --

      Reminder: find a new sig
    31. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know _alot_ of people who were/are very into gaming with Quake3 on linux. I personally like the feel of my linux machine over any windows combination. It was just so much more responsive on my hardware.

    32. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Osty · · Score: 1

      How can you talk about bias! You don't even know the specs of the benchmark, and already you assume that they have been stacked against your personal favorite, i.e. it's simply impossible that WinXP would be slower, so the benchmark must have been rigged.

      Or perhaps he assumed from the lack of information that the Register had something to hide? For instance, they did not say what video drivers they were using (yes, this can make a huge difference), and as the previous poster mentioned, they said nothing of what else was running in the background. Not to mention the fact that while they were using an nVidia GPU, and obviously had to be using nVidia's drivers (else they'd not get any 3D acceleration, and Q3 wouldn't run), they claimed that they couldn't get X to do better than 16bpp or 1024x768. Could it be that Windows XP performed better in 32bpp? We'll never know, because the Register didn't say.


      Anyway, the point here is not that the previous poster automatically assumed the benchmarks were flawed because they went against XP, but that they were flawed because the Register declined to give as much information as possible about how the systems were set up (yes, they gave some info, but not much), why exactly they couldn't use 32bpp, or even what demo they were using to test Quake3.

    33. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thats just the default, you can easily set a higher refresh rate with the NVidia refrsh rate tool.

    34. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Archie+Steel · · Score: 1

      Or perhaps he assumed from the lack of information that the Register had something to hide? For instance, they did not say what video drivers they were using (yes, this can make a huge difference), and as the previous poster mentioned, they said nothing of what else was running in the background.

      Well, since the author said that he had just made a fresh install, we can assume that he put the latest drivers (or at least those that came with the software release/distribution). On the drivers question, the possibility is there (though a 10% performance hit would mean that WinXP built-in drivers are quite deprecated...). As far as applications running in the background, I think it's implied that there were none others than the bare minimum, i.e. those you can't turn off without making your machine stop. Sure, he didn't explicitly say it, it's one of these cases where you have to trust the journalist. As far as we know, there might have been more programs running on the Linux machine, not the WinXP, which means that its performance could have been even better, who knows? But bear in mind that, because of Linux memory management architecture, running multiple applications will be less of a performance hit than on a WinXP machine...

      they claimed that they couldn't get X to do better than 16bpp or 1024x768. Could it be that Windows XP performed better in 32bpp?

      If it performed better in 16 bpp, I don't see why it would not at 32 bpp...Are you saying that WinXP is more efficient at higher color depths?

      Anyway, the point here is not that the previous poster automatically assumed the benchmarks were flawed because they went against XP, but that they were flawed because the Register declined to give as much information as possible about how the systems were set up (yes, they gave some info, but not much), why exactly they couldn't use 32bpp, or even what demo they were using to test Quake3.

      Come on, he could have given a lot more information, and still the response would have been the same. Hey, I have an idea! Rather than assume that the reviewer was biased and that he rigged the benchmark in Linux's favor, why don't you run your own benchmark and prove him wrong? That way you'll know for sure, and you'll stop making allegations just because you don't like the results.

      --

      Reminder: find a new sig
    35. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by glwtta · · Score: 2

      Having read The Reg for a few years now, I'd say it's very unlikely that they purposefuly tried to stack things against Windows and conceal it from the readers - say what you want about their quality, but they just don't do things like that.

      But yes, they do (for the most part) like Linux and they do (for the most part) hate The Great Beast of Redmont. More importantly, this whole hardware and benchmarking kick they've been on, only started a few weeks ago. They just aren't the [H] and are pretty new to the whole thing (from what I know at least) and I wouldn't rely on their benchmarks as being able to hold up against the exacting standards we are used to.

      All that said, I find it completely plausable that QIII would perform better (actually, make that "run faster" to be precise) under Linux than WinXP - for many different reasons (not excluding the ones that make XP look bad).

      No need to get your panties in a knot - just one benchmark on one persons two systems - interesting, but hardly conclusive.

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    36. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by glwtta · · Score: 2

      If it performed better in 16 bpp, I don't see why it would not at 32 bpp...Are you saying that WinXP is more efficient at higher color depths?

      Different results at different colour depths aren't that uncommon, at least when hardware is being compared (remember when teh Radeon first came out and was put up against the GeForce all over the place?), though I am not sure if the same difference would occur on the same hardware with a different OS - not like I know anything about it.

      I was actually hoping that someone would clear something up for me - I run X at 16 bits but it cites the same number of colours as I used to have in Windows under 24; I also vaguely remember reading something about Linux and Windows doing these things differently - am I just making things up again, or is it true? Or something that doesn't apply to 3D? just curious...

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    37. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by abigor · · Score: 1

      Resorting to the old "The Register sucks!" argument may or may not be justified, but you're just too knee-jerk. Though judging by your posting history, you are a Windows zealot...

      Windows XP was also shown to be significantly slower running Q3 using a GeForce2 on identical hardware (dual boot machine.) Your desktop options don't affect game speed, incidentally.

    38. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Tipsy+McStagger · · Score: 1

      they're running a dual boot machine with 20Gb hard drives. At that size HD there isn't really any difference between the filesystem speeds to affect Quake and it makes life way easier when you want to write to the windows filesystem from linux during the tests (this is a longer term review, not a one-off benchmark). I don't consider this to be any real bias - more a real life situation for someone running a shit hot dual boot system..

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23693.htm l
      http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1227

      The Register are not top be taken at face value - in another post at their site their selling "Integrity - We've heard of it" t-shirts. Their reporting is pretty on the mark and far less scary than slashdots - I laugh with the Register rather than at Taco ;-)

    39. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that I play my all time favorite, UT, under Linux.

    40. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by madrouter · · Score: 0

      I've been running linux and IRIX exclusively for the past 4 years, and I have not been a gamefan since the days of DOS (system shock, anyone?) Just last summer, I bought Soldier of Fortune for linux, and I absolutely loved it.

      Then I went back and bought Quake3, Unreal Tournament, Heretic2, Quake 2, Halflife, Descent3, myth2, Fallout1&2, RTCW, starcraft and commandos2

      I can't help it....I'm addicted, I play about 2 hours a day or more and I never have to look at at a windows splash screen.

      I also like to play pingus and pysol.

      Do your sanity a favor, ditch windows. People that say you can't game on a linux box are just whiny jackasses. If it weren't for linux, I'd have to do all my gaming on IRIX (reversi and quake1&2 are about it)

      With wine and Transgaming wineX, many decent games for windows are given a chance on linux. Maybe I can't run EVERY game (System Shock 2 and Mechwarrior 3), but there are plenty good games to choose from.

    41. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now that's a (+5, Funny) if I ever saw one!

    42. Re:Novelty or highly demanded and used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have to laugh every time I hear the phrase "hardcore gamer." I can't think of anything more pathetic. Except maybe for people who label themselves "power users."

  10. Thanks ID! by mojo_nixon · · Score: 1

    Despite poor sales of their Quake3 linux port, the release of a demo for linux shows the future of commercial gaming on linux platforms is still possible... I recall reading how support for the linux client was a difficult task, I wonder if it will be curtailed for a linux RTCW release?

    1. Re:Thanks ID! by mark_lybarger · · Score: 2

      i have no idea why sales were so poor? maybe the fact that you can't find it on the shelves anywhere! i look for linux games every time i'm in best buy, and never see anything. just last week, i saw quake 3 and some railroad tycoon. these were 10$ each. i don't know how long quake 3 for linux has been out, but for 10$.. that's chump change. the game installed easily and is well worth the money. my point is, they'll sell more boxes if they put them on the shelves!

    2. Re:Thanks ID! by drsoran · · Score: 1

      Quake 3 for Linux has been out for a long time. Maybe the lackluster sales is the reason it's not on the shelves not the other way around? 95% of gamers are going to have Windows on their machine to play games. Another 4% will use Macs and less than 1% will use open source operating systems for gaming. 76% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

    3. Re:Thanks ID! by Xibby · · Score: 2

      I got my Linux version of Quake3 from a retail store, just after it was released. (yes, the actual linux version with tin box and everything...)

      The store clerk said they couldn't keep it on the self. Yup, they were selling like, 5 copies a week.

      And this was at the Mall of America, not a low trafic mall by any means.

      Putting out a retail version of Quake3 was a nice test, obviously it told them that the market wasn't ready yet. But every now and then you do see Loki games on store shelves. MicroCenter had them for awile. I've yet to see newer titles like Tribes 2 show up though.

      Oh well, TuxGames is a great store. :)

      --
      I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
    4. Re:Thanks ID! by mark_lybarger · · Score: 1

      i love the tin box. mine's a little dented, but i don't care. it's a tin box!

      hardware i can order online and schedule time later to install/play with it, but software? games? i really like to get it at a store so i can take it right home open the new package, and play with it.

    5. Re:Thanks ID! by fmaxwell · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Despite poor sales of their Quake3 linux port, the release of a demo for linux shows the future of commercial gaming on linux platforms is still possible...

      I have a couple of friends in the computer game industry and Linux games, as commercial ventures, are usually nightmarish. Providing support is difficult and expensive while compatability issues abound due to the number of distributions and versions of Linux out there. While many in the Slashdot community claim that Linux users are the technical elite, many Linux users are just kids with no understanding of programming or even how to get around in a Unix shell.

      Then you get the dark side of the open source mentality -- "I've never written a line of code in my life but I want to download gigabytes of software for free." If half of the people that decry the lack of quality commercial Linux games actually bought bought the games that were offered for sale, there would be a booming market. As it is, companies, bouyed up by e-mail campaigns requesting that they release their game for Linux, actually do release the game and it sits on store shelves gathering dust.

      I watched Quake III, in the tin-box for Linux, sit on the shelves of Microcenter for months. It was eventually marked down to $9.99 and had a sticker slapped on it saying that you could download what you need to play it on Windows!

      Linux is a viable, thriving market for computer games. Yeah. Right.

    6. Re:Thanks ID! by TotallyUseless · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is a large reason the mac version didnt sell as well in my opinion. When I went to buy the game, the store had the Mac version, for 49.99 It had the pc version for 29.99. I bought the much cheaper pc version, went home, copied files from cd to my drive, and downloaded the mac binary. I greatly appreciate the fact they released a mac version, and I wish I could have supported it, but I'm no fool, and not was not going to pay 20 dollars more for a game that I would have ended up having to download the binary update for anyway.
      This pricing/availability problem isnt the fault of id tho, if anything it is the retailers, and activision. Activision doesnt buy any shelf space for linux titles, and the retailers can sell the windows version cheaper because they sell a lot more of them (surprise surprise!) This results in greatly skewed results for OS sales for a few games, quake based games in particular it seems. id seems to realize this tho, which I suspect is why they keep releasing versions for other OSs and pushing licensees to do the same despite the 'horrible sales figures.'

      --

      Time for some tasty Shiner Bock!
    7. Re:Thanks ID! by swv3752 · · Score: 1

      The price skew was even worse for the Linux version. Usually it was $60 and finally dropped to $50.

      --
      Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
  11. RTCW 1.1 Patch for windows Released by DeadBugs · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those like me who have had problems with RTCW 1.0 you can get the Patch Here

    --
    http://www.kubuntu.org/
  12. But where's the Mac version?!?! by nbvb · · Score: 2, Interesting

    For those of us about to ROCK...

    Where's the Mac version?

    1. Re:But where's the Mac version?!?! by m2 · · Score: 4, Informative
      For those of us about to ROCK...

      If you could enter to the FTP site you could note there's an OSX directory there... but since the whole thing is slashdotted, you can't. I'm really sorry. Just be patient and wait a few hours, by then everyone will have stopped clicking the pretty links...

    2. Re:But where's the Mac version?!?! by liquidsin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah?!!?!

      why do us mac users always get shafted on games, and instead only get stuff like photoshop and illustrator that work properly, unlike windows that gets broken graphics apps and all the games? what's with that?

      btw, if you want games, get a ps2...much better than a win box ;)

      --
      do not read this line twice.
    3. Re:But where's the Mac version?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The PS2 owns the PC as far as games go. MGS2 is quite simply the best game ever made. The attention to detail is amazing (ie. realtime shadows, reflections, hair, physics) and its just so damned fun. Its hard to believe that the opening sequence (the one where Snake starts running and drops his cloak when he jumps off the bridge) is all done in realtime.

    4. Re:But where's the Mac version?!?! by TheKingOfCowards · · Score: 1

      The mac version of RTCW will be finished by Aspyr here is the link http://www.aspyr.com/mini-sites/rtcw/ . I allready pre ordered my copy. According to Aspyr the mac version should be out by late january or early febuary.

  13. Politics by pyrrho · · Score: 1

    Is it appropriate to have more of this. Castle Worlfenstien picks on Nazi's, fine, I hate nazi's, but when you shoot people, it's decidedly anti-german in practice.

    Would anyone mind if instead of germans screaming "ya" and dying like Quake monsters it was cowboys and digital Coronel Custers screaming "yeeha". I mean, if you know history, there are genocidal forces in most cultures history, maybe they could pick on them a bit for ballance?

    I'm an expert because I played the Original Castle Wolfenstien (still a great game in emulator land)

    --

    -pyrrho

    1. Re:Politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We already have Deer Hunter and Beer Hunter and Redneck Hunter. What more could you ask for?

      Also, if you're into equal-opportunity killing, you can always play Civilization.

    2. Re:Politics by GypC · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, I think an Old West game where I could play a rogue Indian brave wasting cowboys would kick ass!

      I'm a white American male and I suspect most of my kind would feel the same. That it would kick ass! Heheheh. I love typing that.

    3. Re:Politics by FortKnox · · Score: 1

      What about grand theft auto 3 where you get points for killing cops?

      You're bringing up a troll we haven't seen in a while. If you can't handle the reallife-like killing, you shouldn't play the game (and stop watching the news). FPS games are for people that know how to identify "real" with "imagination".

      --
      Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
    4. Re:Politics by fiftyfly · · Score: 1

      I'm a Metis Canadian male and I suspect most of my kind would feel like they'd shot themselves in the foot

      --
      "Sanity is not statistical", George Orwell, "1984"
    5. Re:Politics by Afrosheen · · Score: 1

      Actually a game where you could shoot jews would be so controversial it'd never get released, but it's ok to shoot germans and americans 'in context'. Remember, this is WWII stuff, not modern day events. Strange how there are a whole slew of these games all of a sudden huh?

    6. Re:Politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah and I suppose that UT is decidedly anti-black when I shoot one of the black player models. Dude, its just a game, get over it.

      Besides, I don't see anything wrong with blasting some warm lager drinking, Mercedes driving, Kraftwerk listening Germans.

      "Du bist ein arschloch!"

    7. Re:Politics by Skip666Kent · · Score: 2

      Is a 'Coronel Custer' anything like a Beowulf Cluster?

      --
      **>>BELCH
    8. Re:Politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't believe nobody has joked about this yet.

      How about a game where the protagonist is a CIA agent infiltrating the al Qaeda network, hunting Osama bin Laden. The game starts in Iraq as he's gathering intelligence on the movements of Saddam Hussein preceding an assassination attempt when he stumbles on link a between Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda, jointly plotting an attack on the US. Next he's in Hamburg trying to infiltrate a meeting, and finds out about transfers of biological weapons. He's about to investigate when the World Trade Center is destroyed, and he's sent to NY to secretly recover documents from a foreign consul previously located in the WTC that would blow his cover.

      Our hero is then is sent in to Afghanistan to fight some big squad style firefights to free Kabul, then infiltrates the Tora Bora caves on a solo mission to find bin Laden. He stumbles on a huge underground facility and then is captured and meets bin Laden. They keep him alive as a bargaining chip and evacuate through a secret exit into Pakistan, where he is loaded on a plane and manages to escape, sabotages the plane, steals a parachute NOLF style and is picked up by the Navy.

      While being debriefed, he finds out that bin Laden and his remaining followers have relocated to an island in the southern Phillipines, the suspected home of Abu Sayyaf, and he's sent in to infiltrate the island. He discovers a massive germ warfare plant, built by bin Laden to take over production from the Iraqis, who had most of their facilities destroyed in the Gulf War. He destroys the plant, but Osama slips away.

      While our hero has been chasing bin Laden around the globe, the US has been kicked out of Saudi Arabia and the President is getting worried because undercover agents have found that key leaders of the former nuclear weapons programs in Iraq and Iran have relocated to Saudi Arabia and are on the payroll of Osama's family's construction business. The protagonist goes to Saudi and discovers they have a working 20 MT bomb ready to be put on a freighter and detonated in NYC harbor. Of course, the hero and bin Laden end up fighting it out on the ship in a Saudi port with the bomb ticking away.

      Basically, the game would be like NOLF but more James Bond like and more serious. So tell me, if a game like this showed up on the shelves next Christmas, would you buy it?

    9. Re:Politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually I would prefer purple dinosaurs and teletubbies dying.. oh and that damned blue and steve guy...

      but then some people think I'm sick
      h

    10. Re:Politics by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      I think Geronimo would be an appropriate title.

      Jaysyn

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    11. Re:Politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      oh that... it's just your childhood peeling off, you'll get over it. I hope.

    12. Re:Politics by pyrrho · · Score: 1

      >FPS games are for people that know how to identify "real" with "imagination".

      freudian slip? real and imagination are supposed to be distinguished from one another, not identified together! But I know what you meant. It doesn't scare me to allow this kind of game, but I think this culture could use a quick reality check on their fantasies... you can CHOOSE fantasies... it's worth quite a lot of note to observe what fantasies are desired.

      --

      -pyrrho

  14. Tux Games by BadBlood · · Score: 5, Informative

    While not yet posted on their website as of 15:07 Eastern Time, www.tuxgames.com will sell RTCW with a linux-based installer.

    This is for those folks who want to show their allegience to Linux gaming by purchasing from a company dedicated to bringing it mainstream and properly tallying Linux sales.

    I have no affiliation, just a friendly notice. :)

    --


    Praying for the end of your wide-awake nightmare.
  15. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But it's still point and shoot, right? I'll give you jumping, teams, and the requirement of some semblance of aiming. Everything else is just a fleshing out of the original game, AFAICT

  16. Using Linux by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 2, Troll

    I have been playing the full multiplayer version on RH 7.2 for some time and it runs like a breeze.
    Once you get the proper display drivers installed for OpenGL. I realized that I was lucky that NVIDIA provide Linux drivers that enables me to take proper advantage of the card. Note that the default install of RH won't utilize the Geforce chip properly so that you can play games on it.
    I have a "old" Geforce 1 and have been looking at the ATI 8500DV. But I have just switched from Windooze to Linux this week so I was checking ATI's site for Linux drivers and it quickly shows that it is not a choice if you want to play games. Their site says that they do not support Linux and then direct you to some sourceforge pages. Pheew good thing I checked that out. Now I am going for a Geforce 3 istead.
    Anyway RCTW works great with the .10 kernel that ships with RH. Only "problem" I have is that I'd like to run a lower resolution(1024x768) in the game than on my desktop(1280x1024), but when you choose full-screen and a lower resolution than the desktop, the games sits in the lower left corner of the screen and the rest is garbage. But that goes for all the games I have tried, like Tux Racer.

    A final hurdle is that you cannot make a Linux install from the CD, which gave me a lot of problems. You have to copy the data files from a INSTALLED version on a windooze setup which was impossibe for me since I had deleted the Windooze. I had a second drive in my PC with a FAT32 partition with my old data. So I had to install windooze again just to get the files.
    Please, PLEASE, make a Linux program that can extract the data from the Windooze installer. I don't need no fancy GUI, just a command line tool that will let you extract the files from the CD that you need.

    1. Re:Using Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You need to define other resolutions in your XF86Config-4 file... go thru the Xconfigurator and select the game's resolution on the page where you select the resolutions you want available. It's a bit of work, but eventually X will automatically swap to the correct resolution when you start the game.

    2. Re:Using Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Only "problem" I have is that I'd like to run a lower
      resolution(1024x768) in the game than on my desktop(1280x1024), but when you choose full-screen and a lower resolution
      than the desktop, the games sits in the lower left corner of the screen and the rest is garbage. But that goes for all the games I
      have tried, like Tux Racer.


      Umm.. do you have 1024x768 defined as a valid resolution in your X configuration. All I can say is that Tux Racer, Quake III, Railroad Tychoon, Myth II (after running loki_update), etc. work for me when I run at different resolutions (either higher or lower). I can't speak to RTCW though.

    3. Re:Using Linux by Afrosheen · · Score: 2, Informative

      The problems with your games running at a lower res and taking up a corner of the desktop is your XF86Config file. You need to define more (smaller) resolutions that it can switch to.

      Also they clearly state in the installer (you know, that readme that you clicked through without reading) that wine can be used to extract the game from the cd. Sheesh.

    4. Re:Using Linux by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the replies :-)
      I know that I have not set other resolutions than the one that my desktop uses, So it sound like that is the solution. Going to test it right away thanks.
      Dang. there goes my excuse for having to buy a new graphics card that can handle the resolution. :-)

    5. Re:Using Linux by puetzk · · Score: 2, Informative

      ati provides driver docs instead, which is better. ATI's cards work out-of-box on linux, instead of needing new drivers from nVidia. they direct you to the sourceforge page, because they support the standard XFree86 DRI interface, which is maintained on sourceforge. But really, all you need is a recent enough version of XFree (4.1.0 for Radeon DDR, 4.1.99.x/released-as-4.2.0 really soon for 7500).

      Now, I'll have to admit in fairness that the 8500 isn't supported yet (for 3d). But my 7500 is kickin' ass and takin' names in linux, and (unlike nVidia's cards) actually runs 2d well too :-)

      I found a crash about 3 days back - now it's already fixed in X CVS, and I have a new build :-) Try that with nVidia's closed drivers.

      --
      The Matrix is going down for reboot now! Stopping reality: OK. The system is halted.
    6. Re:Using Linux by pfharlock · · Score: 1

      you can install the windows castle wolfenstein CD on a linux box with wine. In fact I can play the game with full accelleration under wine. Only down side is occasional pop in the sound, but otherwise wine runs the game fine. Now that the linux single player version is out I don't have to use wine anymore.

    7. Re:Using Linux by GregGardner · · Score: 1

      I'm not a huge fan of closed-source drivers, but nVidia's closed source drivers kick some serious ass. Not only that, but because of the way nVidia cards work, their drivers work for every card from a TNT to the GeForce3. When the next generation GeForce comes out, the _same_ drivers you use today will work with the new card. Try doing _that_ with the ATI drivers. FWIW, the nVidia drivers are very stable (for me in my limited experience) and I have had no problems with them crashing.

      Of course I would rather have them release their specs/docs, whatever so that the open source community could create open source drivers(yes there is the nv driver, but it sucks and doesn't do OpenGL, AFAIK), but as far as closed-source commercial drivers go, they have done a really good job.

      I have no idea what you mean by implying that the nVidia cards don't do 2-d well...

    8. Re:Using Linux by red_gnom · · Score: 1

      I went through that dilemma already. I have an ATI 7200 SDR 64MB. It rocks on Linux and Windows. The difference in the image quality is clearly visible in higher resolutions, such as 1600x1200. On this territory nVidia is not a competitor to ATI or Matrox. Not yet.

    9. Re:Using Linux by mallan · · Score: 1

      But my 7500 is kickin' ass and takin' names in linux, and (unlike nVidia's cards) actually runs 2d well too :-)

      First of all, how easy was it for you to install drivers for your 7500? Was it as simple as downloading two files and RPMing them? Or did you have to download the entire X tree, rebuild X, rebuild your kernel, rebuild, rebuild? So let's say you find a new bug in your Radeon driver every three days, are you going to want to keep rebuilding everything every couple of days? No thanks. I havn't had an NVIDIA crash or bug in about a year.

      As for 2-D, Radeon performance lags way behind the GeForce. Last time I ran x11perf, my GeForce2 GTS score was more than double what my Radeon AIW was. For reference, why not have a look at http://www.linuxhardware.org/features/01/03/19/035 7219.shtml, then run some benchmarks of your own.

      --
      "Good people drink good beer"
    10. Re:Using Linux by gid · · Score: 1

      I run a 1600x1280@85 hz desktop on a sony tinitron 21" at work, on a gf2 mx card. The clarity is great, I don't have a single complaint.

      The xfree86 nvidia drivers suck at higher res though, the 1600x1280 with those was unuseable.

      Granted I'm not the pickest person in the word, but I'd like to think I have pretty decent eye for quality.

    11. Re:Using Linux by brer_rabbit · · Score: 1
      Umm.. do you have 1024x768 defined as a valid resolution in your X configuration. All I can say is that Tux Racer, Quake III, Railroad Tychoon, Myth II (after running loki_update), etc. work for me when I run at different resolutions (either higher or lower). I can't speak to RTCW though.

      Do you manually need to switch the resolution or does the application do the switch automatically? I've got the same problem, guess I need to fill in my config file with additional resolutions.

    12. Re:Using Linux by gatesh8r · · Score: 1
      Only "problem" I have is that I'd like to run a lower resolution(1024x768) in the game than on my desktop(1280x1024).

      Simple fix here: There is a section called "Screens" in /etc/XFree86Config-4 where you can change the depth (it can be 16 or 24, where 24 is really 32-bit colour) and the resolutions that are available (Should be "Display" "1280x1024"...) Add other resolutions in the matter of "heightxwidth" and that'll fix it. Just make sure that they are added after the 1280x1024 else your screen will shrink.

      --
      Karma whorin' since 1999
    13. Re:Using Linux by jabapi · · Score: 1
      I don't know if things have been changed since the Golden Times when I was still playing with my belowed Amiga. By that time Quake 1 could be installed on Amiga by
      • Getting the Quake
      • Joining the install dir .dat files together (join 1.dat 2.dat 3.dat quakedat.lha)
      • Unarchiving this brand new quakedat.lha
      It could be that the join formed a zip archive and unarchiving the zip file took you to the lha file and unarchiving that was the final step. I don't remember the procedure that exactly, but anyway...
    14. Re:Using Linux by ee96090 · · Score: 1

      From the readme (though I haven't tried it):

      2. Extracting the necessary files without installing:

      Recommended only for System Administrators and advanced users. It is possible to extract the necessary files without running the installer. To do so, simply open the update using any unzip program. Once you have it open, you'll want to replace these original files (located in the RtCW root folder) with the new versions located in the update:

      Anet.inf
      CGAME_MP_X86.DLL
      QAGAME_MP_X86.DLL
      UI_MP_X86.DLL
      Wolfmp.exe

      Source:
      http://www.activision.com/games/wolfenstein/down lo ads/images/Update_readme.htm#Extracting%20the%20ne cessary%20files%20without%20installing:

      --
      Gustavo J.A.M. Carneiro
    15. Re:Using Linux by 1010011010 · · Score: 2

      http://web.mit.edu/installers/www/installer-faq.ht ml

      Common Features of the Windows installers:

      The installers are created using the WISE 5.0 installation software. Installation programs created by WISE offer three command line options. These options are:

      1. /M Manual Mode The /M option runs the installation in manual mode. You will be prompted for the locations of your Windows, System, and Temp directories. You can specify any directories, if they do not exist they will be created. Any changes to INI files will be saved into the Windows directory that you specify. With this option you can have the installtion file run without installing any files into your real Windows and System directory. You can then manually copy the files to their proper destination. This option can also be useful for clients that have unique Windows installations.
      2. /X Extract Mode If you run the installation executable with the /X option, list of the files contained will be displayed. You can select some of the files to extract them from the installation. If you place a directory name after the /X option all of the files in the installation will be extracted into the specified directory.
      3. /Z Extract Mode The /Z option performs the same function as the /X option except that Windows is exited after the extraction.

      --
      Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
  17. For Mr.OT Moderator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    DOD is a game extremely similar to RTCW, only its a free mod of Halflife. Halflife DOES run on Linux already, and runs WELL on Linux.
    In fact, DOD has been out longer than RTCW, so its a more mature game AND the halflife engine has worked under linux for a LONG time, so all the bugs are worked out.
    OT moderation is REALLY being abused lately.

    1. Re:For Mr.OT Moderator by drik00 · · Score: 1

      Hi, i'm an ANONYMOUS coward and I really LIKE mixing in ALL CAPS when its NOT really NECESSARY.

      --
      Beer, now there's a temporary solution -- Homer Jay S.
  18. I guess we should all give up. by SethJohnson · · Score: 2, Insightful


    I guess we should all accept the way things are. Stop trying. Stop supporting and developing alternatives. The war has been lost. Just like rape, we have no choice so we might as well sit back and enjoy it.

    Your sentiment here is best captured by the "Resistance is futile" slogan so often associated with Microsoft. I'd like to know what you think differentiates yourself from those you describe as "the AOL using rubes that buy the games [and] all use Windows".
  19. damn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought RTCW was Real Time Clock Whistle, then find out it's some lame assed game.

    feh

  20. OS X version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has been out for quite a while...

    1. Re:OS X version by TotallyUseless · · Score: 1

      you have been misinformed for quite a while. The only version released so far was the Mac OSX test. The port for the full game was given to Westlake Interactive tho, so that they could add support for OS9, having worked on previous Q3 engine games on the mac. The OSX/OS9 version is apparently in late beta, and scheduled to arrive late jan/early feb

      --

      Time for some tasty Shiner Bock!
  21. Awesome. but....MP has been out a while... by CDWert · · Score: 3, Informative

    The MP has been out a while and the SP ran fin under wine, transgamings, winex, and plain vainlla CVS , all except sound lag on SP under wine.

    What IMPORTANT is they DID it, they said the would and did is also imortant this is the kind of cross plattform movability you get with OpenGL.

    RTCW is a ton of fun, I hadnt bought a game in over 10 years, Im not really the Gaming Type, BUT Me, and my two sons are Hooked on this, since we have Linux workstations at home, It RUNS FAR more stable on Linux than it does on My wifes W2k box, much nicer all the way around.

    Just in case any of you wonder my handle is

    "Major Dick"

    See you at the Happy Penguin Server tonight :)

    --
    Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
    1. Re:Awesome. but....MP has been out a while... by Adrian+Voinea · · Score: 1

      Just in case any of you wonder my handle is
      "Major Dick"

      ... nice handle, man, sounds like the name of a porn star ;)))

  22. For what it's worth, I'm a Linux gamer by DG · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I live in a Windows-free world, so I guess I'm a Linux gamer.

    The downside is that there's not much in the way of games. The upside is that those that are there are pretty good.

    My "game machine" is a P1-233 with a PCI GF-MX200 in it. Plays Q3 just fine. And I've been making my way through the Loki ouvre and having a ball with it.

    I'm almost finished SOF, and then there's Descent 3 waiting in the wings.

    Am I typical of the bleeding-edge, overclocked, 3000 FPS gamer that Windows seems to attract? Hell no. But I AM using Linux as my gaming OS, and I AM having fun with it, and I'm using a machine that's over 5 years old.

    Which is pretty cool, as far as I'm concerned.

    DG

    --
    Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
    1. Re:For what it's worth, I'm a Linux gamer by ZxCv · · Score: 2

      Aha, a machine that is over 5 years old, definitely. But I suspect those games wouldn't be nearly as fun if you didn't have that fairly recent GF video card. ;-)

      --

      Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
    2. Re:For what it's worth, I'm a Linux gamer by psavo · · Score: 2

      (I'm different guy from parent post, but my system is about same: PPro180@233+GF2MX-PCI)
      Thank you very much, but my Snes9x runs _very_ well. And most of the other games I _want_ to play. Most notably myst/civ2/monkey islands/Indyjones&atlantis..
      I don't think it's written anywhere that you gotta have universes fastest system to have fun. I sure do have fun.

      --
      fucktard is a tenderhearted description
    3. Re:For what it's worth, I'm a Linux gamer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude.

      Do yourself a favor and upgrade.

      Sheesh.

      It's not cool having crappy old hardware.

      It's very, very, VERY lame.

    4. Re:For what it's worth, I'm a Linux gamer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you're l33t for spending $2000 a year on the latest fancy schmancy parts to run WinXP 2050 on?

    5. Re:For what it's worth, I'm a Linux gamer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      much cooler than not paying anything (because you're ass broke) and pretending that you're having fun.

  23. I use it! by codexus · · Score: 1

    It's true that I do a lot of gaming on Windows but I often buy a linux version of games when available (even if I have the windows version). At work, for example, I have not installed Windows (and yes I do play games at work ;) and even at home I like to be able to quickly go for a few online games when I need a break from my linux coding.

    Being able to run the game on linux also allows me to avoid buying more windows licences. Since I don't need to have windows installed on all the machines in a LAN game.

    So RtCW is not only one of the best games of 2001, it's also one that supports alternative operating systems (OsX and linux)!!

    --
    True warriors use the Klingon Google
  24. FTP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    not to be a troll, but linking to a ftp that only allows 200 connections?
    They reach that number easy just by the number of loosers looking at it through IE.

  25. Mirrors? by Cyph · · Score: 1

    Anyone going to be nice enough to post a mirror of wolf-linux-1.1b.x86.run? idSoftware's FTP is full already.

    Thanks.

    1. Re:Mirrors? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      www.3dgamers.com have 3 mirror sites.

    2. Re:Mirrors? by FlowerPotAdmin · · Score: 1

      Apparently that didn't stop me from getting on:

      "ftp.idsoftware.com
      -
      Welcome to ftp.idsoftware.com
      -

      Connection from 128.253.214.170 logged
      You are user 203 of 200 available connections.

      Average throughput for this server is 996.320 KBps.
      89529 people have visited this site in the last 24 hours.

      Please e-mail xian@idsoftware.com if you encounter any problems."

      Need I say more?

      --
      -Justin
      That's enough posting for now lads, there're trolls afoot.
    3. Re:Mirrors? by davidhedbor · · Score: 1

      There's a mirror of the SP stuff at ftp://david.hedbor.org/wolf/. Download and be happy (just finished the last SP mirroring).

  26. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by SirSlud · · Score: 2, Offtopic

    Different classes in multiplayer. Grenades. Interactive turrets you can use. Ladders. Water effects. Walls and buildings that can explode, break, etc. The flame thrower (already being talked about as revolutionary).

    Of course its still point and shoot! It's an FPS, sheesh! What exactly are you looking for? The smug feeling of knowing CW won't change our most basic perceptions of the world we live in? :) CW is quite simply one of the best single-player (according to reviews, community) FPS games in awhile. Couple this with the fact that the Lords of FPS (ID software) helped them with development and gave it their blessing, and you have a game that may not be mindshattering, but is supposedly top-rate entertainment for FPS fans.

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  27. *click* by jeff13 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Firing for effect!
    i LOVE this game!!!

  28. Re:I know I'll get moded down for this, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    the fact that it was modded interesting means that it's more interesting that any crap michael posts. browsing to goatse.cx is a better use of my time than reading michael's articles.

  29. I don't see the point by codexus · · Score: 1

    of running a windows game on linux through half-working emulations when there is an excellent game that has native binaries. Besides the half-life engine doesn't look as good as the quake 3 engine.

    --
    True warriors use the Klingon Google
  30. Re:did you know? by stoolpigeon · · Score: 1

    "Germany has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world."

    You must be making this statement within a very narrow context.

    You must be setting very specific parameters for timespan and how you define violent crime. And even if your parameters are not objectionable I question that there are any actual facts to support this assertion.

    And just broaden your time frame a bit and the whole thing is laughable.

    Too bad you can't blame the holocaust on video games

    .

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  31. european mirrors plz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    could someone mirror the files ? thanks

  32. Who cares, look around... by banky · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    There's a better article at Blue's about an upcoming Farscape game; it looks moderately OK, and will probably be out before the new eps.

    --
    ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
  33. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me Doom or give me Doom 2.

  34. OpenGL platform independent by Gambit-x7x · · Score: 0

    As far as I believe most of the game is using openGL witch is platform independent so major changes has to be done to other part of the game...probably like memory management and hardware support

    --
    Who controls the information, controls the world...
  35. Soon... by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 1

    I'll be downloading these binaries as soon as I get home from work. Hopefully, they'll run under FreeBSD. Otherwise, I'll have to go into my garage to dig up one of my working Linux boxes. :) Oh well.

    1. Re:Soon... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      think about what you said, then go dig out that box

    2. Re:Soon... by bastard01 · · Score: 1

      do the nv drivers even work in freeBSD? I am just wondering because I was thinking about trying it sometime.. sorry that this is off topic, but I was just wondering....

  36. List of Mirrors by deicide · · Score: 2, Informative

    A list of mirrors (which may need some time to propagate) is at:

    http://www.fileaholic.com/

  37. Install on windoze first required? by SCHecklerX · · Score: 3, Redundant
    I was just about to try the mp demo (now I won't bother :), and noticed you had to have the junk extracted under windoze first.

    Does the new installer for linux require an existing windoze install, or is there a way I can play this thing without having to boot to windoze and install it there first?

    1. Re:Install on windoze first required? by Time+Doctor · · Score: 1

      You can use wine, or vmware, or whatever to install the required pk3's.
      The mac version will have an uncompressed file tree so Linux users can just copy the pk3's. (Presumably the installer may also in the future have an option for owning the mac cd).
      Or you can buy it from tuxgames (who will presumably have a way to bypass the installshield junk) http://www.tuxgames.com/.

      --
      Check out ioquake3.org for a great, free, First-Person Shooter engine!
  38. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by SirSlud · · Score: 2

    Sure man, Doom / Doom 2 are awesome games. If you like those, pick up serious sam EBWorld did a survey of all the big gaming sites and magazines, and Serious Sam walked away with best game of 2001. It's 20$. It's Doom (complete with funky sense of humour, 300 enemy battles on absolutely HUGE maps, 20 story tall final baddie) with 2001 level graphics. It's amazing; if you deem FPS's of today a little too involving, Serious Sam is non-stop heart-pouding action. No story, no dialog, no stupid NPCs, just shooting and shooting and ambushes and shooting and armies and shooting. If you think you like Doom over other FPS because of the awesome enemy spawning and item placement and non stop action, Serious Sam is your leap into the 2000s ... and at 20$, you have no excuse not to give it a shot! Shit, I'd have spent 50$ on it .. it truely was one of the most enjoyable games I've played and completed in YEARS.

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  39. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by ZaMoose · · Score: 2

    Except for the fact that the Germans don't speak German! Just pseudo-Sgt. Schultz Germisch dialogue. You have no idea how "annoying zees sort uff sing isss".

    --
    I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
  40. In case you're wondering... by dnaumov · · Score: 4, Informative

    RCTW wasn't actually developed by ID Software. ID merely "produced" it. RCTW's multiplayer part was developed by Nerve Software and the singleplayer was developed by some other developer who was recently bought by Activision. Can't remember the name though.

    1. Re:In case you're wondering... by rootmonkey · · Score: 1
      --

      Yes but every time I try to see it your way, I get a headache.
    2. Re:In case you're wondering... by Seanasy · · Score: 2

      Yeah, but the Linux port was done by a guy at Id.

    3. Re:In case you're wondering... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now if that isn't irony with him not knowing that, I don't know what is! ;)

  41. Re:Calculus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sure...
    a primitive of sqrt(r^2-x^2) is
    (x/2)sqrt(r^2-x^2) + (r^2/2)arcsin(x/r) + C
    so, for x=r you have
    (r^2/2)arcsin(1) which is pi/2.r^2/2
    for x=-r, you get
    (r^2/2)arcsin(-1) which is -pi/2.r^2/2
    so that the difference is pi/2.r^2.
    Am I correct ?

  42. Message to everyone at ID. by Damon+C.+Richardson · · Score: 1

    Thank you Thank you Thank you!

    --

    Last one in jail is a fascist.
    1. Re:Message to everyone at ID. by Afrosheen · · Score: 1

      Point your irc client at irc.openprojects.net, join #nvidia and thank TTimo in person. He's a nice guy but has been irritable lately because everyone's been pestering him about the port.

  43. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by ZaMoose · · Score: 2

    Actually, if you can find it at Best Buy, it's only $10. And the "sequel" comes out in two weeks.

    --
    I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
  44. RtCW from a Counter-Striker's perspective... by Cynical_Dude · · Score: 3, Informative

    ... or anyone that is reasonably adept at first person shooters.

    While the (full) game is gorgeous, as you will see if you download the demo, it seemed a bit "short" to me.

    I completed the game on hard setting in 4 hours and 50 minutes play time. Sorry, but that's just not the kind of value I was expecting.

    Replay value is IMHO low, since the sluggish handling (as opposed to, say, Counter-Strike) makes it hard to use your carefully honed FPS skills.

    As an example, any long-time Counter-Striker will automatically aim for the head of the enemy. While headshots exist in RtCW, they are not easy to land and generally seem very random, although every shot will go exactly where you aim. Even Counter-Strike's very random firing pattern feels more precise.

    The final boss I managed to kill on my second try. On hard setting. That was disappointing.

    Overall, I'd rate the game B+ for eye candy, coolness and first-time wow factor. After 5 hours though, it drops off fast.

    1. Re:RtCW from a Counter-Striker's perspective... by Maserati · · Score: 1
      Single-player RTCW isn't all that hot. The meat of the game, and the more-than-your-money's-worth part, is the multiplayer. Which rocks. Hard. And has high replay value. I nuked my SP saves by mistake, but the reinstall fixed MP so i'm happy.p


      The beach map (in the demo) is like being an extra in the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, crossing a beach under intensive fire. Against a good defensive team, expect to spawn 2-3 times just getting off the beach. Between snipers and artillery the beach is a deadly place to be, with death finding you without warning and only the slightest clue as to what got you.


      Respawning isn't a damning factor, as a few have said with reference to CS. It makes it worthwhile being the first man through a door, even if you get nailed it isn't a 3 minute wait to play again. And with medics being able to revive casualties (that haven't been completely gibbed), it can be worth waiting so you don't start over all the way back at the spawn point.

      And don't get me started on the teamplay. The four classes are all vital (don't forget the Engineer has EIGHT grenades plus an SMG) and must play well together for success. The TK problem sorted itself out fairly quickly, and its safe to play with FF on again.


      The heck with this, I'm gonna go play ! [same ID in RTCW] Frag you later !

      --
      Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
    2. Re:RtCW from a Counter-Striker's perspective... by lurwas · · Score: 0

      Counter-Strike incorporates very modern weaponry, that are more effective and more precise than World War 2 weapons, that the Wolfenstein weaponry is based on.

      Counter-Strike graphics are seriously outdated.
      Counter-Strike doesn't incorporate single player missions.

      Everytime I play Counter-Strike, there's always someone complaining about too much HS. So, it's probably a good thing that Wolfenstein didn't follow it's lead on this point.

      Sluggish handling? Come on, you're just used to Counter-Strike...if you we're used to Quake, you would think that Counter-Strike was sluggish.

      Counter-Strke incorporates bugs that have followed it since version 0.9 beta.

      I've tied to be a nice puppet and like Counter-Strike, but I can't seem to like it, sorry. I think Counter-Strike plainly suck. But why is Counter-Strike so popular among gamers? I have no clue, why is Windows so well used?

    3. Re:RtCW from a Counter-Striker's perspective... by tempfile · · Score: 1

      This isn't true. RTCW's shots don't go exactly where you aim. The weapons have different levels of accuracy, from the wildly spraying Venom Gun over the more accurate pistols, the more accurate 9mm machinegun, the Sten and the 7.62mm machine gun to the paratrooper and sniper rifles.

  45. This release won't be. by roystgnr · · Score: 2

    By releasing the single player game so long after the multiplayer-only binaries, I suspect that Id has ensured the existance of lots of players like me, who bought the game for a fun multiplayer experience without the hassle of frequent reboots, but who weren't somehow "morally" above rebooting to Windows for a couple days to play through the single player game a month ago. Also, the RTCW single player game, although it's the best such that I've seen from Id, just doesn't cut it compared to Deus Ex or even Halflife. I could easily imagine busy people buying this for the (most fun shooter I've ever seen) multiplayer experience and ignoring the single player game altogether.

    It takes a whole lot (Deus Ex is the only example I can give you right now) to get me to buy a game without a Linux port at this point. Linux is enough of an improvement over Windows for most of the productive things I do on a computer that my desktop spends most of it's time there; why would I want to have to spend minutes rebooting every time I want to take a break and goof off?

    1. Re:This release won't be. by 303 · · Score: 1

      the reason that the sp was released later than the mp is that;
      a) the two were developed by two different companies (nerve and grey matter).
      b) there is only 1 person (ttimo) working on the linux port and multiplayer was the priority.

      id really had nothing to do with the process except develop the engine. to say rtcw is an id game is incorrect.

  46. Re:did you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "Germany has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world."

    That's because German cops scare the piss out of everybody.

  47. Re:Calculus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    That's not even challenging. Don't you know that exp, sin and cos are just 3 faces of the same coin when you understand complex numbers?

    e^(au) sin(bu)
    = e^(au) * (e^(ibu) - e^(-ibu))/(2*i)
    = (e^(au+ibu) - e^(au-ibu))/(2*i)


    integrate w.r.t. u

    = (e^(au+ibu)/(a+ib) - e^(au-ibu)/(a-ib))/(2*i) + C
    = ((a-ib)*e^(au+ibu) - (a+ib)*e^(au-ibu))/(a^2+b^2)/(2*i) + C
    = e^(au)/(a^2+b^2) * ((a-ib)*e^(ibu) - (a+ib)*e^(-ibu))/(2*i) + C
    = e^(au)/(a^2+b^2) * [a*(e^(ibu)-e^(-ibu))/(2*i) - b*(e^(ibu) + e^(-ibu))/2] + C
    = e^(au)/(a^2+b^2) * [(a*sin(bu) - b*cos(bu))] + C


    Don't expect to become anything more than an engineer. And leave Malda alone.

  48. Re:Calculus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's no such thing as complex numbers in Calculus! Engineers r00k j00r nutz...

  49. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by dzym · · Score: 1

    Doom had a "funky sense of humor"? Give me a break. It is/was a great game, but ... humor?

    Serious Sam is the worst sort of crap to come out in ages. It's not even that fun the first time around--the gameplay consists of shooting several large swarms of monsters in one large courtyard, walk into the next large courtyard, and repeat.

    Placement? What placement? The monsters teleport in. Items float about in the centers of these monstrous courtyards.

    The final baddie is a big joke too: Where's the thrill of dodging 3 rockets in quick succession, the maddening race against an insanely fast and inexorable spray of chaingun bullets? The most "dangerous" attack the Serious Sam boss features is a spray of easy-to-dodge fruity color light bolts! And oh look, you can't kill it with all the guns you've been busy collecting, you have to play jump-into-the-hoop to blow it up!

    There's a better comparison between Serious Sam to Duke Nukem 3D, in that multiplayer support is fairly decent on both games, and co-operative play is actually quite fun in Serious Sam... for the first couple of times. The large level sizes just make deathmatch a painful and not very enjoyable exercise.

    "Best Game of 2001" my ass.

  50. Re:Calculus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did you do that on paper or blast it to Matlab?

  51. Re:did you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    actuallz, I completelz made up the statistic!
    (i'm the original poster)
    I think I DID hear abuot the taxes though, and the adult stores part, but only maybe about green blood.

  52. Re:did you know? by dtfarmer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Germany has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world.

    This kind of logic is ridiculous. Germany's rate of violent crime is directly a result of them selling RTCW in adult only stores...... This is about as ridiculous as people citing gun control laws as responsible in the UK.

    We couldn't possibly have worse crime in the US because we put too much stock in rehabilitation...., or because people don't take the time and care to learn to use weapons for self-defense....., or etc....?

    No, wait - you've convinced me. If we take RTCW off the shelves we will be so much better off as a society..... But why stop there, let's just ban the XBox, too (not such a bad idea, now that i think about it). And Personal Computers (so you can't play RTCW or MS Flight Sim). And box cutters - you know they're dangerous after 9/11 proved it. And....

  53. Re:Mirrors? (Get RTCW Here) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    get on IRC and join #linuxwarez on efnet.. Many people there are dcc sending it upon request..

  54. Are you a fruit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    DoD is a poor TC for HL. It doesn't really capture any of the atmosphere of that era at all. Half Life was a good game, made better by some well-made mods and TCs, DoD is not one of them.

    Our clan had a LAN with some friends, and RtCW beat out DoD without a fight.

    BTW, you might want to try Urban Terror (urbanterror.net) if you like Q3 and CounterStrike. It's not perfect, but loads of fragging fun.

    DoD is for people who are trying to squeeze all that's left out of HL without spending a dime and getting a new game.

  55. Halflife on Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Pardon my ignorance please, but how did you get HL running under linux? Wine/Emulator? I poked around on google but couldn't find anything regarding natively running HL other than multiplayer server set up info. Thanks.

    psxndc

    1. Re:Halflife on Linux? by descentr · · Score: 1
  56. FPS innovations: by super-flex-o-matic · · Score: 0

    shoot some nazis and dogs ( wolfenstein )
    shoot demons and aliens ( doom )
    shoot more demons, alien soldiers and dogs ( quake )
    shoot fat aliens, demons and soldiers ( quake II )
    shoot even more aliens, demons and soldiers ( quake III )
    shoot nazis again ( rtcw )

    hell were are the dogs in RTCW ?
    this steps of inovation definetly show you, of what level the target audience for such games is. think they can be fooled by repetitive gameplay?

  57. They shoulda shipped already by Wee · · Score: 3, Interesting
    They should have shipped RtCW already. The multiplayer binaries have been out for a while (late November if I recall). So they've been waiting on the single player binaries. Meanwhile, people that aren't absolute Linux fanatics have become pissed off, bought the win32 version and downloaded the Linux MP binaries.

    While I can appreciate Tuxgames' wanting to package a complete game, I (like many other people) primarily want to play the MP version. And I assumed that when I ordered it early last Decemeber that it would ship as soon as they had packaged it. But that wasn't the case. I wrote tuxgames and asked them what they were waiting on, and they told me to join the mailing list so I could find out when it was going to ship. Not especially helpful.

    If you make it hard to show support then only diehards will. If you make it easy, then id gets to see plenty of Linux gamers. For example, everyone at work has been bugging me to set up a server on our game machine. I've been telling them to wait until I get my copy. Now many of them are beyond the game, having played it for the last two months straight. So I'll get my copy, put it on our game machine and it won't get played very much because everyone's moved on. At least I'll have shown my Linux support. If they would have shipped with MP only and then emailed me a download link to the SP binaries when they becamse available, I'd have been very happy I bought from Tuxgames. I would have been playing on Linux with my Win32 friends damn near after the game went GM. As it is, I'm just grumpy that I paid for a game over two months ago and am just now going to get it.

    I almost bought a Win32 copy a couple weeks ago, and maybe I should have. It just seems to me that waiting two and a half months is asking a lot simply to show "support" for a single-player portion of a primarily multiplayer game (how many of you still play Quake2 or Q3A in single player mode?). Besides, id ought to be able to gauge Linux support from their ftp logs, right?

    I guess sometimes I feel left out enough as a Linux gamer without having to tell people why I'm waiting to set up a RtCW server...

    -B

    --

    Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.

    1. Re:They shoulda shipped already by Afrosheen · · Score: 1

      Quit all this whining already, just be glad that TTimo busted his ass for a few months and the port is available. He didn't HAVE to port it, and Id didn't HAVE to feel the need to pay him to do it.

      Your co-workers will play the MP levels on your server forever. The single player aspect of any game loses it's charm after you beat it, but you can play it online indefinitely.

    2. Re:They shoulda shipped already by Wee · · Score: 2
      Quit all this whining already, just be glad that TTimo busted his ass for a few months and the port is available. He didn't HAVE to port it, and Id didn't HAVE to feel the need to pay him to do it.

      I pay for something that I thought was going to be released very shortly after I paid for it. It wasn't. How am I whining?

      If TTimo hadn't ported it, I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. But he did, Tuxgames offered it for sale, took my money and sat on it for nearly three months when they could have released an MP version. How am I whining?

      Quit beind altruistic. My beef, whining, whatever, isn't with id. I'm glad it was ported. You can safely say that id's making more money than they otherwise would have if it wasn't ported. I just wish Tuxgames realizes how hard it is to support them.

      -B

      --

      Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.

    3. Re:They shoulda shipped already by Afrosheen · · Score: 2

      Maybe I misinterpreted your post. When you say "they" should've shipped RtCW already, I took it as meaning they as in Id, who ultimately releases the game. "They" as in Tuxgames doesn't make sense. TG was waiting for a *full* version of the game including the sp binary. I bet alot more people would've been pissed off to get the mp binary with no singleplayer in the mail rather than wait for the full version. Maybe you're an exception?

    4. Re:They shoulda shipped already by Wee · · Score: 2
      Maybe I misinterpreted your post.

      I think we're in the same boat as far as misintepreting. It's been a bad week so far. I've been grumpy lately... :-)

      You're probably right, though. Likely lots of people would have been pissed. I can imagine people playing the single player and then trying MP stuff maybe. But I can also see folks wanting to get online and start playing. If they hadn't already given their money to Tuxgames, they probably didn't wait and went and bought a Win32 copy.

      It's the same thing that happened to Q3A. People weren't willing to wait. They knew they could get the Linux binaries off id's ftp site. So that counted as a Win32 sale. Although I admit most of that was probably server people wanting a Q3A server and also a playable copy for their Win32 game machines.

      -B

      --

      Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.

  58. Re:Hmph by pfharlock · · Score: 1

    Maybe you didn't set it up right? I run a GF2 mx 400 and all the games I have run flawlessly, not to mention all the loki demos I don't own.

  59. Re:Hmph by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe not, but I have an Intel 740 AGP on the box I'm running red hat on and am using this package. It claims to work and it does work okay, but the random disfiguring pretty much kills any chance of me using it for anything but the server things I am currently using it for, and those run fine from the command line....

  60. Re:Hmph by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    By the way, I'm impressed at the courteous response to my part question/part bitch and moan/mostly troll post.

  61. I'm a hardcore gamer by StormyWeather · · Score: 1

    I'm 26, and I'll admit it. Between my unhealthy addiction to my PS2, and my 200+ days on Everquest before I finally woke the **** up, I am an obscessive compulsive gamer. I check Penny Arcade every day even if there is not a new strip out. I walk around in the gaming store for hours just reading the back of boxes, even if I have already read everything about the game on the best damn review site on the net

    However outside games I use Gnucash, Gphoto, Kword, VI, The Gimp, and all the other great stuff I can find that is GPL. I also use a couple of proprietary programs under linux, but I won't advertise for them here.

    I absolutely pine for the day that I can use my fastest machine with my best video card/mouse/processor/ram for linux instead of MS Windows and feed my gaming twitch at the same time!

    Not one of my friends would NOT like to escape to Linux to play games. Just ask them the next time they are in DAOC or some other direct X game that doesn't play nice with the windows key, and end up getting booted out by a miskey. Gamers hate 2 things above all others. Lag and that GD windows key.


    Kharma Martyrs ?

  62. WOOO HOOOO!!! by _01001001 · · Score: 1

    Finally......

    --
    "Neither life nor happiness can be acheived by the pursuit of irration whims." --Ayn Rand
  63. This makes no sense. by The_Iconcolast_666 · · Score: 0

    There are over 150 posts.... WHY? You should be playing the game... TROLLS!

    --
    Waiting for your mother.
  64. Benchmark time by Nailer · · Score: 2

    Its pretty intereting to note that in the last few months a few sources have been getting osme pretty good results when benchmarking Linux against Windows for gaming - specifically Quake 3 on GeForces. Hover a proper installer would be great. The CD uses Wise installer archives. There is a free Unix Wise archive extractor (sorry, lost the URL :( )but it needs to be updated for the latest archive format.

    * This months Atomic (a well known Australian overlocking / hardware geek mag)

    * The Register

    It was inevitable, but I'm glad its happening. Onward penguin soldiers.

    Now if Slashdot would post the news that Tuxracer 1.0 is avaliable for ordering I'd be a happy man.

  65. Re:Calculus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you know multi variate calculus and know what a Jacobian is, just set it up as a double integral, then transform to polar coordinates. It makes the problem completely trivial.

  66. Re:Calculus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Real engineers (which does not include most CS weenies) eat, sleep, and breathe complex numbers. But unfortunately they have been infested with the mild heresy that sqrt(-1) = j.

  67. Too Troo... by Skip666Kent · · Score: 2

    I've played the RTCW demo on Windows and have been seriously underwhelmed. They've slid downhill ever since the first Quake as far as I'm concerned. I think they really need another Romero to help channel their technical abilities into a more exciting and presentable package. No Id game has creeped me out the way the original Quake did, until Half Life. I really liked the quasi-medieval-sci-fi angle to the whole thing which was entirely original, and eventually panned in favor of a 'safer' alternative.

    Oh well. It ain't my company!

    --
    **>>BELCH
    1. Re:Too Troo... by wackybrit · · Score: 1

      ID needs another Romero? Hahaha. Oh yeah, let's all kick down with that wonderfully packaged game Daikatana!

  68. Obi-Wan has taught you well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But you do not know the power of the dark side.

    Int e^(au) sin(bu) du
    = Im [Int e^((a+bi)u) du]
    = Im [e^((a+bi)u) / (a+bi)] + C
    = e^(au)*Im [e^(ibu) * (a-bi)]/(a^2+b^2) + C
    = e^(au)*[a sin(bu) - b cos(bu)]/(a^2+b^2) + C

    1. Re:Obi-Wan has taught you well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know there is analyticity in you. The Emperor hasn't driven it from you fully.

  69. Re:Calculus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0



    Can someone please post a Perl program to handle this one?

  70. Flamethrower? by Pope · · Score: 1

    Granted, I only tried the OS X multiplayer version like a month or more ago, but what's so revolutionary about the flamethrower? Marathon had one a looong time ago, and in low-g levels one could use it as a pseudo-jetpack.

    --
    It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
  71. http://64.81.127.133/files/wolf_spdemo.exe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://64.81.127.133/files/wolf_spdemo.exe

  72. The most inovative MP FPS, T2, still rulez all. by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    I dunno, maybe it's an american thing, but all this conveyor-belt stile Nazi fragging just isn't in my game (pun intended).
    And talking about the o-so-hailed multiplayer expierience, Tribes 2 still kicks the ass of every other game up and down the street.
    And Loki has a very good boxed T2 in their programm for quite a while now.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  73. This is really getting OT by Murphy(c) · · Score: 1

    Although your post strikes a lot of resemblance with a Troll, you do raise a good question.

    Were the "enemies" portrayed as Germans ?

    Before even playing the game, it is something that I wondered about. Back in the wolfenstein3D age, it wasn't much of a problem, but now, in our so politically correct times surely people would react to it.

    And I think that greymatter/id did a great job at show that the bad guys were SS. All the bad guys wear the typical black uniform and the red armband with a swastika (albeit it's not really a swastika but a cleverly made logo that supposedly symbolizes nazi).

    Also killing any civilians will abort your mission, and you will have to start the level again.

    Murphy(c)

  74. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by Archfeld · · Score: 2

    Nothing really, it is a conglomeration of some good things from many sources, but there is NOTHING NEW in the game. Not that that makes it a bad game, I really liked the variety of sniper rifles in the single player. I've not played the multi player yet so I could not comment.

    And for the bank AC, mouse look, online play, and half way decent AI, though there is still MUCH room for improvement in RtCW. The holes in the AI show up at extreme range. They will just stand there and watch their buddy take a sniper round to the skull, without reacting in any way. Beyond that the game was a bit steep on the $$'s side but 10 hours of fun.

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  75. your sig by rppp01 · · Score: 1

    Actually, that is funny, your sig. The meaning of gruntle is "To grunt; to grunt repeatedly". So I guess a happy employee should be grunting while at work! :-)

    --
    They stuck me in an institution, said it was the only solution, to...protect me from the enemy, myself
  76. smp issues by brer_rabbit · · Score: 2

    I wonder if they fixed the SMP issues -- reportedly, the Windoze side of things will take advantage of two processors, but on linux RtCW can only use a single processor. I haven't been able to get the linux side of things going to actually test this on my SMP system though.

  77. Just downloaded it by glwtta · · Score: 2

    Haven't played enought to say anything about gameplay yet, but it certainly looks sweet as hell with all the eye candy jacked up and at high resolution (runs like a champ too - better hope BillyG doesn't see it, he might have a heart attack)

    Just might have to go out and buy a copy - will that make me one of the 50 or so people who've bought Linux games? ;)

    Oh yeah - anyone know how I can get it to display fps? Just idle curiousity...

    --
    sic transit gloria mundi
    1. Re:Just downloaded it by Time+Doctor · · Score: 1

      /cg_drawFPS 1
      in the console

      --
      Check out ioquake3.org for a great, free, First-Person Shooter engine!
  78. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by drik00 · · Score: 1
    i'm not going to name any innovations, but i will ask you this:

    What innovations have been made in music since Beethoven's 9th (the first symphony*i think* to use a chorale group)???

    Wolf3d created/popularized a genre, just as the Beatles did with rock'n'roll, and Run DMC did with rap, and Marilyn Manson did w/ shock-rock.

    if you dont like FPS's, dont bitch, and dont play them.

    --
    Beer, now there's a temporary solution -- Homer Jay S.
  79. Re:Eye candy, but's what new? by nrc · · Score: 1
    Wolf3d created/popularized a genre, just as the Beatles did with rock'n'roll, and Run DMC did with rap, and Marilyn Manson did w/ shock-rock.
    Marilyn Manson created/popularized shock-rock? What are you, fifteen years old? Marilyn Manson is a cheap plastic imitation of the original. The sad part is that he doesn't even get the joke.
  80. Doh! by arsaspe · · Score: 1

    Great. So just as I finish single player rtcw in windows, out comes the Linux binaries. I could have avoided all that dual booting.!!!!

    1. Re:Doh! by 3th3rn3t · · Score: 1

      yeah ! bad timing altogether ! meanwhile, we are STILL WAITING for those "german-language-shouts" addon. come on, "its ze amerikan" is not remotely as funny and cool like "es ist das amerikanische
      " or whatever :)

      ps. NO, i am NOT an SS/Nazi fan. ;b

  81. Don't Blame the Game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    The handling in RTCW is not sluggish, it's just your lack of familiarity with the feel of the engine. Don't blame the game: Be more aware of the bias of your senses.

    I know this because I'm the opposite of you: I play Counterstrike very rarely (basically only at LANs). It's a Quake 2 engine. I played Quake forever, and then moved to Quake 3. In the Q2 engine, I can't move or aim at all. Movement feels slow, jumping is terrible, shots aren't landing where they should, and so on.

    I know how I should be playing. Despite my low CS playtime, I'm hardcore enough that I've read every websource out there and chatted to good players to know what to do. It's just that the Q2 engine is not my engine.

    My engine is the Q3 engine, which is the base of RTCW. And so despite the "more realistic" randomness of shots in RTCW, I can repeatedly get head shots and drop enemies quite rapidly, racking up the points. (on beach, min 30, highest was 120) But I'm often 0-12 in CS.

    So if you want to kill Nazis and you're a CS player, play the Day of Defeat mod. If you're a Q3 player, get RTCW.

    Anyone who wants to claim they really understand first-person shooters and make commentary on game mechanics should first unground themselves from their favorite game.

    1. Re:Don't Blame the Game by tempfile · · Score: 1

      Hate to burst your bubble, but CS is a mod for Half-Life, which is a beefed-up Quake 1 engine.

  82. ATI 7500 thank you. by Odinson · · Score: 2
    I have been looking for a solid confirmation of the 7500.

    I don't care to buy hardware from a company that might oprhan me or DRM me, when their priorities change(only a fool would argue that Microsoft dosn't carry a big club in their xbox deal). GPL is required for software infrastructure in my book.

    Do you know what the highest Linux card that works with video capture and 3d is? Is it the 32meg Radeon AIW? Is there a 7500 aiw type tv card?

  83. ok, got the linux side working by brer_rabbit · · Score: 2

    can anyone comment on whether RtCW can use >1 processor? Maybe I should just check the Windows side, but I'd rather not reboot. :) I can say with certainty that it doesn't use >1 processor on linux, at least according to "top".

  84. way to go id by den_erpel · · Score: 1

    Very good that ID still spends time to port their magnificent games to Linux.
    I hope they continue to do so, because there deffinately is a public for Linux fps.
    And as long as they do so, I'll continue to buy their games and love playing them.
    I just hope that if they release a Linux release of one of their future games, they
    don't wait months to release it after the win32 version.
    I definately think this unfairly skewed the distribution. I for one bought a win32 version but only played it in Linux.
    Same goes for RTCW, only a pitty of the packaging system, ...

    --
    Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
  85. Lucky for you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was able to meta-moderate this moderation to "Unfair". Down with negative moderations.