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Open Source Shooter Nexuiz 2.5 Released
Michael writes "A new version of Nexuiz, a GPL-licensed, first-person shooter, has been released. There are over 3,000 changes in Nexuiz 2.5, including new maps, new game-modes, enhanced graphics, new audio, and other major changes. Phoronix has posted a preview of this Nexuiz 2.5 release, with screenshots showing the impressive graphics and how it has raised the bar for open-source gaming. Details about the Nexuiz project are available at SourceForge."
Oh shit, my Linux-based toaster can't pop out one of the slices.
It sure looks spiffy and has all kinds of buttons and dials and a big internal gear with a "K" stamped on it. It has a 1000-shade-of-toast resolution, but it still can't even pop out one of the slices half the time. Just goes to show that nerds have their priorities straight. Just like they can write treatises of how the world should work, but they can't even pick up a woman on Friday night. There's an analogy there, albeit not a car one.
Yeah, just like open source OSes are just begging for viruses :D.
Wow they've really raised the bar on that one. They've now managed to get where Windows gaming was a decade ago. Give it another 4 years and they might get up to the quality of a game released at the turn of the 21st Century.
And that's the problem with gaming on Linux. Its not seen as that important unlike server stuff so it gets very little developer attention so can basically only progress at the speed that a few people can work at with the time they have spare after work and family commitments. They're also forced to use woefully out of date game engines if they actually want to get something out the door at any point. Even if you use WINE or Cedega, you encounter such problems as Counterstrike: Source only running in DX8 or not being able to connect to Punkbuster enabled servers in Battlefield 2. On the whole, it's a mess.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
Come on, I'm plying on the PS3 at Killzone 2 and Resistance 2. The graphics is not comparable at all... Are we sure, Michael, that this is a new game? Cheers,
What a stupid reply. The parent made a point and gave good arguments for it. You just replied quoting some unprooved stereotype. Preventing cheats in games is indeed completely different than writing a virus, since you rely on client side security. And as you might know, client side security is always a bad idea.
Kudos to the developers and for someone who likes this kind of games it's probably good fun to play, but seriously, you can't really call this 'impressive graphics' or 'raising the bar for OSS gaming', can you?
It looks like they just took the Quake 2 engine with Quake 3 sound clips and recreated all the levels en textures.... badly...
Worst of all: from the video it appears there is literally zero innovation in the gameplay, its just adhd shooting and running with the same futuristic weapons all over again.
I can understand it's hard to create something that compares to a commercial game in terms of graphics and content, but you'd excpect some more creativity in the gameplay. There must be some guys with really crazy ideas they can try out.
I see complaints that the engine is "old" and that the graphics aren't up to snuff with more modern games. I say "So What?!".
I like FPS and own all of the UT series of games as well as some of the older id games. I still find myself going back to UT2K4 over and over even though I have a later "better" UT3. Why? It's not the graphics, it's not the engine, it's not the sound - it's the gameplay. UT2K4 is FUN for me. Fun doesn't require super duper grpahics it simply requires engaging gameplay. With all of the custom maps, weapons, and other things added to UT2K4 it's a ton of FUN to play. Looking at the movies for this game it looks FUN just like the old Quake games were. Okay maybe the graphics aren't quite as good as a modern shooter but I don't appear to be paying $50 for it either AND honestly many of those bells and whistles found in expensive games don't add to the FUN. Kripes I had FUN playing the original Wolfenstein. the original Quake, why couldn't I also enjoy this one? Folks don't like the maps? Build better ones - just like what has been done with UT, Quake, Doom, and others. Stop bitching about that stuff and fix it if you really have heartburn with it...
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
First person shooters have never been and will probably never be a competitive aspect of opensource. The major reason is because they are extremely content-intensive, and the collaboration advantages open source has in creating code just don't apply to things that require sound and art studios.
That out of the way, your complaint is totally invalid. While Nexuiz might not be an innovation to the genre, and might not smitten you with the highest res graphics, it still proves the concept of open source by taking something that already existed (the original Quake 1 source code) and continually improving it with user contributions. Hardcore gamers will definitely appreciate the never ending flow of UI and gameplay improvements. And if someone ever has a better idea, they can take Nexuiz and expand on it, whereas without that open source foundation, not only would they be delayed by years of extra work, they might not even start.
And I'm sure if you go to the trouble of reading the changelogs, you will have a much greater appreciation for all the work that has gone into it than you do just as some guy who plays the latest console releases.
Meanwhile, checkout TA: Spring for a RTS, and Wesnoth or Freeciv for turnbased strategy. If you aren't impressed, I suppose you aren't in to strategy games.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
That sounds lovely and all - I appreciate the immense amount of work the developers put in, but they ended up with a game that looks 10 years out of date. So what you're saying is that FOSS FPS games are made by people with the best intentions and skill, but end up being terrible when compared to closed-source commercial games.
Why don't we just consider it a new aspect of gaming... ?
- May the best hacker win...
Cheating is simply not an issue.
Wrong. You may not see something as obvious as an aimbot, but the best cheaters never get caught. In a twisted way, cheating without being detected is a skill in and of itself. I've used cheats off and on before in a variety of games and haven't been caught once. It's more widespread than you think because the evidence isn't always visible to you.
I'll take a wild guess and say your problem could be the ATI
Kicking people for not being good is just bad. Yeah, noobs are a pain when they're on your team, especially in Tremulous where feeding is a problem. But for most cases, at least when I've played, you can votekick people who are really feeding or newbies who won't listen to reason.
But I really don't like automatic newb kicking, a.k.a. "winner stays on". If you're a really competitive player, than sure, having a newbie on your team sucks. Ideally you shouldn't have one and there are so many players that there's some kind of matchmaking system, or ranked/unranked servers. But the instant you start alienating new players who are trying out the game that you're playing is the instant you start strangling your game to death.
New players are, in a sense, the next generation. When you're small community you can't afford to give up your ability to grow. Can you imagine if that newbie rule was in place, 1.2 was released, and a bunch of newbies joined, but were subsequently kicked out of every other round? Most would just stop playing then and there. They don't want to be second class citizens, then ones you want just want to suck at the game in peace.
Maybe I'm conjecturing too much. I honestly don't think that being nice can actually save Tremulous, or any other game, by itself: the developers are the natural leaders who make stuff happen, and it is hard to do anything without your leaders.
Also, "loser stays on" is also kind of a bad idea, as it's really easy to fake being worse than you actually are just so that you can stay on. It wouldn't be as great in Tremulous as you'd be directly making the other team stronger, but I can still imagine people who would rather lose than be forced to not play because they're too good. The point of people playing your game is so that they can play your game! Not sit out...