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Freeware FPS Alien Arena 2007 Reviewed
Alienkillerrace writes "Linux.com has reviewed the brand new release of Alien Arena 2007, giving it a glowing review. 'New Alien Arena 6.10 blows away its FPS competition' claims that Alien Arena is now the very best of the freeware FPS games, surpassing even Tremulous."
Tremulous is a really good game. If Alien Arena 2007 better than that according to this guy, then it's at least worth checking out. /me is BruceCambellsGhost on Tremulous
This is less a review, and more a HOWTO. There's nothing there that isn't in the readme, and the only opinion is on the last line proclaiming that it is better than Tremulous. And even that has no justification.
(E-) Must try harder.
No warning that linux.com and /. are owned by same company?
Counter-strike is opensource/freeware now? Including the engine? Wow I really should come out of my cave more often.
There was a football mod for the original Quake. You had to kick a head (complete with blood trails) to the other goal. As I recall, players were armed with axes, to allow fouls.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Alien Arena looks more like Quake 3 / Unreal Tournament than Counter-Strike. Personally, I like Alien Arena better. ;)
Riiiight, because having access to the source makes a games soooooo much better to play.
what about warsow !? or even wop ? i find them a lot better than Alien Arena.
Association, American, or Canadian?
Brought to you by the numbers π, e, and 0x1B.
getting it for free does though. Especially when you spend the money on weed and play while high.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
OK, its not football, but it is the only Quake-based chess game I know of:
CHESS III ARENA
Ok, I don't truly mind that the majority of FOSS software has a geek mindset and the UIs tend to reflect and look like the UIs of the Win9x era.
However, can we ever get to the point that the 'best' horse that gets trotted out for OSS Gaming looks like the era of games released for Windows95?
It is just not possible for a high end gaming production to be FOSS?
One further sad note... I have seen games developed by newbie gaming developers that are picking up XNA and MS Game Studio and producing higher quality games in terms of playability and especially in the area of graphics/audio.
Can't we do better than your neighbors kids and his/her friends designing an XNA came in C# that runs on their PC and the XBox 360 as well?
PS. You should really have a 'review' of the game, when you write an article 'reviewing' a game, and not just a quick intro of key commands.
docs/license.txt:
It is only permissible to distrubute the game data(models, maps, textures, sound, etc) as a whole, and with the intention of being used with Alien Arena. It is not permissible to distribute individual portions or items of the game data without express consent from COR Entertainment. [...] Under no circumstances ALIEN ARENA 2007 as a whole be sold or used for profit, without express consent from COR Entertainment.
If you want a free-as-in-speech shooter that rocks, try Nexuiz.
OS Reviews: Free and Open Source Software
Linux Programmers have shown incredible technical skill. The issue is artists. It is very hard for F/OSS people to get art designers. Art Designers tend not to be F/OSS and not as knowlegeable to the technical side of things to help develop the beauty side of things.
Wolf:ET is the best freeware FPS released. Quite possibly the best PC game released. Also, half of the articles praise should be directed to the engine, not the game.
Don't get me wrong, personally I love articles like this. They worked hard to create a new versoin and want more people to try out the game. Getting the story posted on Slashdot helps get the word out. Considering the game is free I've got absolutely no problem with it. It's just frustrating for me that when I've submitted stories regarding new versions of Skulltag (another freeware game, which yes - also runs on linux) they've always been rejected. Is a Doom 2 port not considered cool enough these days?
After yesterday's CmdrTaco interview, it sounds like he's locked in a constant struggle with the marketing department. Perhaps this was a battle lost? Or maybe their evil mind-control rays are finally starting to work?
I'm still waiting for Unreal Tournament to be open source. I like it way better than other games based on the simple fact that I can sit down, raise cain for a few maps, then leave. I don't have time to learn a bunch of stuff just to play a game, but I do have time to sit down, get an adrenaline rush, then get up and walk away. I understand the draw that the other more complicated games have, but they aren't for me due to time restraints. I have AA on here (Ubuntu) and it's every bit as good as Q3 ever was. (a simple duh will suffice here). Frag on.
Karma: Bad is the liberal way of saying this guy won't drink the kool aid here on slash dot. I wear my Karma with pride
http://www.alienarena.org/downloads.php
Linux: Allowing geeks to afford herb since '91
Just disrupt the deflector shield with a tachyon burst.
Controls: 5 pts.
Graphics: 5 pts.
Sound: 3 pts.
Music: 2 pts.
Story: 5 pts.
Multiplayer (if applicable): 5 pts.
Runs on Linux: 50,000 pts.
Comment of the year
### Many otherwise excellent games have poorly designed characters,
Could you name them? Most of the free software games I know have poorly designed 'everything', its not a issue of graphics, its an issue that goes from bad code, over to the lack of tools right down to the complete lack of a solid core game design (aka nobody knows what the hell they actually want to accomplish). So fixing the graphics would help little to nothing to create a compelling game.
You are kidding. Quake was unplayable after the source was released. People could compile in their own hardcoded aimbots!
There's line of "football" Quake mods called Quake Pong by the way.
The goal of the game is to push around a huge steel ball into the opponents goal, hitting it with ballistic weapons to give it kinetic energy.
URLs :
Original QPong mod for Quake II. (Had wquite a few laughs with that one)
Newer QPong Arena mod for Quake 3. (Didn't test it).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
There is no entry on Apple Downloads or de-facto download standard site, Versiontracker too. If they submitted it to Softpedia, those guys would even review it. Using Apple downloads site for years, I know they would advertise it on front page as it is open source and uses OS X technologies.
I know it sounds lame but they should use Digg etc. like dynamic sites to advertise their game/work. One iPhone story less, would work for everyone
Who is being bitter? It's not me. I don't really understand why you don't get this. It's utterly hypocritical to go complaining about other people posting links to whatever games they like when YOUR post to a GLOBAL website PUBLICLY denounces one particular game in favour of your own. Now this doesn't really bother me in itself, I just find it a bit rich that you apparently want some kind of moratorium on other people posting their own thoughts on whatever game they like, when you're seemingly allowed to say whatever you like.
"When Tremulous was reviewed by this same guy last year, you didn't see *me* posting links to Alien Arena and trashing Trem."
Is the insinuation here that I have been trashing Alien Arena? I certainly don't remember doing so, maybe you can point it out. The only people that are making judgemental comments here are the players themselves; these are the people that you're ultimately trying to appease. If you're not satisfying them, you need to address their concerns, rather than criticising and blaming other developers.
And another thing. You have a pretty strong victim complex going on there. You seem to think that it's only Alien Arena which gets criticism. Look at any other news posting for any other game and you'll find the same repetitive drone of "this game sucks! X is much better!". Get over it, that's just the way it is. By complaining about this phenomenon, you do yourself no favours. You're not engendering yourself toward the players and especially not to other developers. Just let it wash over you and concentrate on making the game better.