Open Source FPS Game Alien Arena 2009 Released

Alienkillerrace writes "The open sourced, freeware FPS game Alien Arena 2009 has been released (Windows and Linux). The improvements to the game engine are very significant, and have surely raised the bar for free games of this genre. All surfaces in the game are now rendered using GLSL, not only improving the visual quality, but the performance as well. Interesting new effects like post-process distortions using GLSL have been implemented, as well as light volumes, better per-pixel lighting (reminiscent of UT3), and shaded water. Equally notable is that the sound system has been completely rewritten using OpenAL, allowing for effects such as Doppler, and adding Ogg Vorbis support. The game is free to play and available for download on its official website. It has a stats system and a built-in IRC client in its front-end game browser."

Comments

Wow, it has technical specs.

[Chelloveck]

But is it fun?

Re:Wow, it has technical specs.

[ZosX]

Perceived value. The value of something increases in peoples' minds with the cost. It all has to do with how informed the consumer is. A lesser informed consumer would see something that is free as worthless, otherwise, why would it be free?

Re:Wow, it has technical specs.

[Lisandro]

Seriously. I hear that argument with OSS games every time - "yeah, it might be fun", but it looks like crap". Now we have a relatively good looking game, and we get this. It's a fairly classic multiplayer FPS - if you liked Quake 3 or the UT series, you'll be enjoying it.

I find it funny no one seems to apply this argument to most commercial games lately. Most of them look glorious but are shit to play.