LGP Opens Beta Test for X2

zborgerd writes "Linux Game Publishing has announced the opening of their beta test for X2: The Threat. X2 was featured on Slashdot last month in LGP's mystery game contest. Linux gamers can apply for the beta at LGP's beta testing site. Per their usual policy, everyone who pre-orders the game from one of their resellers is automatically qualified to enter the beta test. X2: The Threat is Egosoft's epic space simulation that is often said to be greatly influenced by the the classic games of the Elite series. A third game in the series, X3: Reunion, will soon be available for Windows (and hopefully Linux and OS X as well, if the X2 ports attract a reasonable number of fans on these platforms)."

Comments

What technologies do these games use?

[CyricZ]

Do they use OpenGL, SDL, ClanLib, etc.?

Also, do they use GCC as their main compiler, or do they use Intel's ICC, or some other compiler that may generate better code than GCC? If they are using ICC, how are they dealing with the problem of ICC generating code that may be suboptimal when running on AMD chips?

Good to see a port, but...

[Jugalator]

It's pretty sad to see beta testing opening now on X2, when X3: Reunion's beta is wrapping up for the release candidates to start getting rolled out these days. X2 was released two years ago, and X3 both has hugely improved graphics and vastly redesigned sectors (much larger, with distancing and scale to feel more right), dynamic economy, and AI. Egosoft have a much larger team making X3 compared to X2 as well.

I wish there'd be a way for Egosoft to work more closely with LGP in the future so we don't get this huge lag between the ports and Windows releases, in case Egosoft don't want to work on the port(s) themselves.

Re:Choose a better game?

[michaelsimms]

I know what you are saying, and I agree in many ways. However there is really nothing we can do about it.

There ARE scenarios that will allow this to change.

1) Enough Linux users start buying the games that we can show sales numbers that make game makers NEED to get Linux versions.
2) Someone comes along and offers LGP $20 million, which is about the amount we figure would allow us to force the market more mainstream.
3) Enough people stop dual-booting that they only buy linux versions of games.

None of that is going to happen any time soon. So yes, I do understand your point, and I appreciate your willingness to make the purchase, but, until things change, we're fighting a very steeply uphill battle.

As a side note, I wont confirm anything about X3, but - there is likely to be a strong link between how X2 sells to if we do X3 also. THATS a brand new game!