UT2003 Gone Gold, Ships with Linux Support

SiW writes "This announcement should be music to a Linux gamer's ears: Unreal Tournament 2003 has just gone gold, and supports Linux (client and server) out of the box!" It's not often that I get to play a new game without rebooting. I'm really looking forward to this.

Comments

I wonder who will actually use it.

[Vinum]

You know what would be funny? If UT actually put some code in there to send statistics back to its HQ to see how many people actually ran a copy of it on Linux. And no... 50 people replying to this post saying they will does not count as part of statistics :P

Even more importantly, if those stats could be found from certain slashdot admin. :) I always thought it would be funny if slashdot put peoples USER-AGENT header next to their posts too...

Re:I wonder who will actually use it.

[TheLinuxWarrior]

The registration tool will probably tell them which version you installed. (If you register the game that is)

To me, it doesn't matter if I actually use it or not.

I've never played UT before, but I am impressed enough that they shipped a native linux client and server that I will buy the game. If for no other reason than to support future gaming on linux.

I'll also be emailing them and letting them know that their support of linux was a factor in my purchasing decision.

I wonder if user bitching caused this?

[garcia]

I was a little pissed off when I heard that they were not going to do Linux support right off the bat. I couldn't understand why they wouldn't at least put up the binaries on FTP/WWW and let the geeks download it after they bought the Windows version...

I like this idea a lot better though :) We don't have to have a poor showing on the shelves (yes, we will) and we still get the binaries out of the box.

I don't play games on my computer, but I think that this is the best way to go. Just bundle both in the same box and forget about it.

Thanks for letting me rant my hangover off.

Re:Linux support..

[rhakka]

1. Every hit I've seen has some kind of effect, ranging from covering your target in electricty to blood sprays, sparks, or the "green glow" when you cover them with link gun secondary

2. Laggy? 90% of the demo servers are some yahoo hosting a 20 person non dedicated game on his home cable connection. Find a good server (search by ping, lower is better for those who dont' know) and look for player max counts of 14 or less if you want to be pretty sure the game is going to be smooth. Also, avoid anything called "Another UT2003 server", as whoever is running it is so clueless they couldn't even change the default name of the server, and it will most likely suck.

3. Very different then UT, but still also the same.. just like a good sequel should be. The new movement tricks and faster weapon speed alone drastically change combat, the weapons are weaker on the whole (until you get good with them, instead of just being able to kill kill kill with no ability), game moves faster, and adrenaline replaces most of the powerups. Just like UT?

Also, just a personal note, Bombing Run is a wildly good, fast paced, sports like game. You owe it to yourself to give it a shot. Even if every other game mode were utter crap, it would be worth checking out simply for that one gametype. Picture rugby with guns and you've got the basic idea.

Just what I want...

[Telex4]

Another Unreal game! I've mucked aroud with the demo, and it's not really markedly different from UT2 (except it runs natively on my machine). Same weapons, same taunts, same levels, and its all really boring.

I mean, CTF... the classic CTF maps were back in Quake1/2 CTF and Team Fortress Classic (2fort being the best). The idea of them is to divide the level up into areas which you can defend in different ways, giving the game some tactical depth. The level with the demo is just one big open space full of spikes, with two little rooms at each end Boo. Dull. And the lightning gun is horrid... I suppose the idea is that the old sniper gun was untracreable, and therefore too good on open maps, but why not just give it tracer bullets? The lightening gun just feels, well, rubbish.

On the plus side, it's nice to see they've used Loki's installer program (and update program) which work like a treat. Hopefully in the next releases they'll also know they'll be able to ship the UNIX versions in time, and so will write that it runs on various UNIX based OSs on the box. Oh and maybe they'll support more drivers than Nvidia :(

OS X version: DECEMBER

[blakespot]

OS X version coming in December

blakespot

Re:No gaming on Linux here

[13Echo]

I use a 1400 MHz machine at home with 1024 MB of RAM, 3 hard drives, and a reasonably good videocard. I made the transition from Windows to Linux this year, and I was surprised to find that if you have the right hardware- there are games to be played. There are even plenty of good 3D games. My computer is by no means top-of-the-line anymore, but it will still run all current Linux games at good speeds. I'll be upgrading the machine by sometime early next year. I take Linux gaming pretty seriously as a hobby. The platform works great for that stuff, it just needs a bit more of a boost from the game companies.

That said, I understand what you mean about giving up on your favorite games. Giving up on MOH:AA was one of the biggest decisions that almost made me not want to switch completely, but the benefits have outweighed that single game for me.