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Most Popular Free, Arena-Style FPS?
anomalous cohort writes "I am a casual gamer. Go or Chess are my games of choice when I am up for a serious intellectual gaming challenge. Otherwise, I just want to blow off some steam in a free, arena-style FPS such as Alien Arena, Nexuiz, Sauerbraten, or Tremulous at the end of a long day. Either way, it is very rare for my gaming experience to exceed 30 minutes. The problem is that attendance for these games has dropped off over the years. Finding a game with about two humans and two robots is perfect for me and very rare these days. My question is this: What is currently the most popular free, arena-style FPS for the casual gamer that you know of?"
That reminds me, how is the Quake Live beta coming along?
OpenArena
You can also try Urban Terror. I have played it for a few months and can attest that the maps are fun, gameplay is great, there aren't many cheaters (if any) and the general behavior on the servers is alright.
Quake Live is awesome. It's really fun. BUT, needs more people, frankly.
To that end... I have some invites. Ask nicely. :)
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
I personally love Warsow (www.warsow.net), a Q2-based free (GPL?) FPS, and also World of Padman (www.worldofpadman.com) is quite fun at times, and I think both still have relatively active communities and some servers up at times. Other options include FEAR Combat (projectorigin.warnerbros.com/fearcombat/main), the free multi-player part of F.E.A.R., or free online-only games such as WarRock (www.warrock.net), though both options would require a relatively beefy graphics card. A game I also love personally is Iron Grip: Warlord (http://igwarlord.isotx.com/), which isn't free but they have a demo which allows you to go on-line, it's an FPS tower defense style game, and a lot of fun to play...
It's possible to see a list of Alien Arena players online here:
http://chaingun.org/browser/
The servers with the most real, breathing, living players are listed first.
This makes it slightly easier to find servers with real people on. The trouble is that there are quite a few servers and people tend to flock to small subset as group (obviously wanting to play together). It's hard to find any pattern as one set of servers may be popular for a few days and then another set of servers.
Evenings are a good time to play - it seems that most people are like the OP and want to let off a bit of steam after work. And what better way than with a nice big chaingun? :)
As for most popular, that's bit of a loaded question. They all play differently - really it's down to personal choice. All of the free FPS mentioned in the article are excellent and have a dedicated following. They're good quality considering they're produced by the effort of a few dedicated souls just for the hell of it, so it's worth giving each a try to see what appeals. :)
Wikipedia also has a list of free FPS, which includes some other gems not mentioned in the article (like Warow, OpenArena and Cube):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_first-person_shooters
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I'll probably be modded down for this, but there's also the very neat BZFlag. True, players are tanks instead of humans, but technically it's still a "Free, Arena-Style FPS" (okay FTS).
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...can't you just drop the $12 on an older game like Q3A? Even if you got a measly 5 hours of play during the entire lifetime of your ownership, it would be hard to argue that it's not worth that price. It's fun, there are still tons of players, and you can pick it up and drop it without drama. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate and understand why there is free software in the world, but really good, comprehensive games almost universally cost money. The exception is probably id's free gift to the world Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, which you can download and play completely free of charge and it even has an available Linux client. However, this is not an "arena-style" fps, so I guess it doesn't quite fit the bill. It's class-based, but doesn't generally use timed rounds and there are a variety of map styles. I suppose it's possible to find a server that has arena-like settings.
Sauerbraten wins this one by far. The gameplay is addictive and the graphics are actually very good, which is something that isn't quite common in FLOSS games. God knows how many hours I've lost to this piece of software alone.
http://sauerbraten.org/
Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
You must definitely check Combat Arms. Free to play, microtransaction-based upgrades and customization (not really needed to play though, as you can "steal" weapons for a while)
Not "arena" per se, but ET is lots of fun, class-based. Graphics are a bit outdated (2003ish) but you can't beat the gameplay.
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Why? Quake Live has fewer maps, it is not NEARLY as customizable, lagcode resulted in significant relearning and fudging of previously-tight timing, and in all you just felt like all of the browser-based revisions to the game were completely unnecessary, like they were filling out a concept that really didn't make much sense in practice.
Lack of Customizability
New maps and mods have to be added by central servers, top-down style. By comparison, Q3 has had such longevity because of bottom-up modding and map creation by fans. The result of QL's method is that gameplay and map choices instantly stagnate because there's no easy outlet and proving ground for new maps and features.
In-Browser Game Selection Doesn't Work
Rather than have this bizarre browser-based launcher, honestly they should have just spit-polished Q3 itself, added some ad-code to make money, and left the rest untouched. The browser is slow to navigate and find the best server for a duel using the browser map selection, compared to Q3 where I was used to using 3rd party server trackers and instantaneously connecting.
Lag/Netcode Seem Geared to More Casual Gamers
Currently, most Q3 duels take place in the CPMA mod. The physics for CPMA is frankly screwed up (apologies to those who actually like the strafe-jumping-gone-mad movement--I guess I'm not hardcore enough to remember when it was cool in Quake 1), but you can play with vintage Q3 settings and the lag/netcode is decent. A high ping is noticeable, but usually consistent enough to compensate because you are able to see your lag in the timing of your shots appearing on the screen.
By comparison, in QL, the lagcode/netcode seems to tend to mask the lag you experience, making your shots appear instantaneous even if they aren't in fact. This is likely to make it more accessible, but the result is less predictability for hardcore players. A duel means much less when you feel like the game isn't being straight with you about where you are actually shooting.
Overall
Q3 is still unrivalled as a 1v1 duel and straight-FPS TDM game. Carmack admitted he believes as much in a recent interview, so it's a shame he doesn't see how the lack of customizability, dumbing-down of the server interface, and dumbed down lag/netcode really cripples the game meant to be a replacement for Q3.
I haven't gotten a chance to play this yet, but Tribes 2 has been released as freeware. Just a couple weeks ago it was patched to allow network play on unauthorized servers, which are the only servers anymore. Seeing how recent this development is (as of Jan 2), I'd expect Tribes 2 multiplayer to be on the upswing.
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