Isolationism

Or, How a recent Windows user became depressed/frustrated within weeks of switching to Linux.

Would-be Linux converts, beware: Despite all the Digg articles you’ve read about how strong gaming on Linux has become, you’d be wise to do your own investigation. I’ve been doing mine for days now, after having had a craving to escape into another world for a few minutes to unwind—and so far, my search has come up nearly bone-dry. Let me explain.

First and foremost, let me state right now that money isn’t the primary concern here: I’m not suggesting for a moment that just because I use Linux, everything should be free. If the game is there and the price is right, I’ll pay to be able to play, just like I always did for Windows.

Next criteria: I don’t care for the Deathmatch genre. I know it’s one of the most popular out there, but it’s always the same thing: The fastest trigger finger (or, more often, the best cheat) wins, and the less capable/experienced you are, the faster you die (and thus, the less you get to play). Being pounded back into the stone age doesn’t do much for helping your confidence, either, slimming your chances of improvement (never mind enjoyment) considerably.

Decent graphics are a must. Call me a whiner if you want, but the Linux community at large cares little for so-called “Eye candy,” which is why even its primary Linux advocate, Canonical Inc., is struggling to achieve any real progress in this department (read Mark Shuttleworth’s blog for some examples). I’ve even seen Linux users shot down on mailing lists for asking questions regarding aesthetics, with answers ranging from “The UI insignificant,” to, “You’re getting it for free, stop whining.” I agree that gaming graphics aren’t directly related to the desktop features, but even screensavers are similarly criticized. What do Linux sysadmins care if I want to sit and watch/play with virtual fish for a few minutes a day to help relax? They can recompile sendmail all they want without even booting X; their needs don’t match mine, and that attitude isn’t going to help Linux adoption (which you might go so far as to form the impression that that’s exactly what those zealots want).

As a segue from the graphics department, I want something with some world-immersion. Cards, board games, arcade plinkers and console emulators are fun, but they’re not what I’m looking for in a game (which is a bummer, as these seem the most plentiful in both availability and low-to-free cost variety).

Online gaming is fun, but if that’s the sole play mode, forget it. I have a son that demands a lot of attention, and a lot less free time than I used to: I can’t stay up all night and sleep in all day anymore, and playing an online game (even when it isn’t all about pitting yourself against everyone else) when you’re shaky just plain sucks; being pulped and letting down your team is even worse than being pulped all by yourself.

Subscription gaming is also a deal-breaker. Yeah, I know you game designers need the income stream to pay the bills, but it’s a waste of my money to pay $10+ (USD, no less) a month for a game I may not even get to play once (or that I do get to play, but only for a couple 20 minute sessions because my kid starts crying or there are a mountain of chores to do around the house). Paying in advance to reduce the total cost is an even bigger mistake, since I’d be layout out hundreds of dollars up-front for something I can’t refund once I’ve committed—and that’s always assuming the game is going to be around in a couple years and your company doesn’t go tits-up. The proof is in the pudding that no matter how big you are, you can still release a phenomenal failure of an MMORPG.

It may as well also be added at this point that the game has to run on amd64; It’s great that you’re releasing on Linux, but it does me no good if it doesn’t work on my processor architecture (even if it’s just compatibility via pre-compiled 32-bit libraries).

At the end of the day, my search turned up the following games that seemed remotely promising:

• Freespace 2 Open—When Volition went down the drain, they released the source code to their massive space combat hit, Freespace 2, under a somewhat restrictive covenant agreement. It means, though, that users have adopted and improved upon the original, and you can download and play the result, including some additional fan-created missions and the like. Pretty cool, although I’m waiting for the latest version to be released for amd64. This is probably my best bet at a good fit to my criteria. The game is incidentally available for both Linux and Windows platforms, if you’re a Windows user and are interested in checking it out.
• Scorched 3D is a delightful remake of the old 2D classic, Scorched Earth which you may recall from your youth. The gameplay is nearly identical to its predecessor, but with dramatically updated graphics in—of course—the third dimension. Users of older systems, beware: Scorched 3d requires the use of a modern 3D graphics card to render its attractive visuals. While the game does offer a single-player mode (yourself against any number of computer controlled bots), it’s rather dull unless you’re playing against other human opponents, especially friends (yes, it’s networkable, and includes a sever component). It is also a Deathmatch-style game by definition, but is a little less “trigger finger” styled in that it involves more physics guesstimation. Unfortunately this means it’s also phenominally easier to cheat, and there are a few “sure fire” ways to win which makes competition a little less exciting, especially if not among friends.
• Vega Strike is another cross-platform space-shooter in the style of Wing Commander, Freespace et. al, except by an author who very proudly observes his is written from scratch and is completely open-source with no restrictive covenant (at least, none beyond the GPL). However, while the engine looks capable, and the gameplay is designed to be flexible (single-player or networked play), the project is far from complete and by all accounts is still quite rough around the edges. The most attractive models for the engine so far are mods by the Star Trek fanboys—not exactly a great way to lend the project credibility in its own right free of commercial IP.
• ManiaDrive is a decent-looking driving simulator. It looks like playing alone would get pretty boring after a few minutes, though—online play might be a bit more exciting, as at least you’re not pitted against one another to the death. I can’t even play it though, because the source code isn’t available for the game—only the engine—and only x86 (32-bit) Linux is supported. The game engine wouldn’t even compile on my box. Maybe the Windows version works fine, which is all that matters to the developer?
• Nexuiz is an attractive-looking Quake/UT clone … that is all about online Deathmatch. Pity, looks really nice, but I won’t even bother downloading it. Similar story with Tremulous, although it seems a bit less polished. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory looks even nicer, and is commercially developed and designed (yet free)—but suffers from the same problem; it was designed entirely to compete with the ‘Battlefield: 1942′ series which is one of the worst “campaign mode” games I’ve ever played—except Wolfenstein:ET is online-only, even though it does have several different modes of play besides Deathmatch (like teamplay and capture the flag).
• Vendetta Online makes my heart ache. It is a commercial product and gorgeously designed, and it works brilliantly on AMD64 in Linux; in fact, they have clients for both 32-bit and 64-bit Linux, Windows, and OSX (!) which is remarkable. The graphics are absolutely stellar and the world is enjoyable to explore; gameplay is essentially a cross between Wing Commander: Privateer and Microsoft’s surprise-hit title Freelancer. I want very, very badly to love this game. The problems: Ship handling is a bit awkward for me. I concede that it’s always going to be a bumpy adjustment period for a flight sim, but I’ve played most of them and this one has been the hardest for me to dive into to date. The menu interface is also massively cluttered by trying to jam everything into one screen; they should really take a page from most other games on this one (Freelancer is a great example but not essential).

  The real killer, though, is the MMORPG-style world, and the hefty pay-to-play price tag. I know USD $10/mo. seems like a pittance, but assuming I play the game for one year a retail box is still less than half the price for me, even if the extended playability isn’t there. I’m pretty depressed about this one, because its other faults I could live with—but I just can’t justify paying that kind of money for something that isn’t my primary form of entertainment. Guild Software: Please call me if you ever release a standalone version that I can buy solo mission packs for; I’ll be there with bells on.

• It would be criminal not to mention The Ur-Quan Masters (a.k.a. Star Control II), which Toys For Bob has generously donated to the open-source community. It’s a fantastic game that I enjoyed playing very much in my youth, and have enjoyed replaying again somewhat recently—but its graphics and gameplay styles are somewhat dated now (the game was developed to run at 320×200 pixels in 256 colours!), and almost all of the fun was the rush of discovering an enormous and exciting world where who-knows-what could happen; it’s considerably less enchanting when you’ve already won the game over a decade and a half ago. Toys For Bob have expressed an interest in creating a sequel, but Activision will probably never give them the rights to do it (at least certainly not under the Star Control franchise name).
• Last but not least, I have to mention TransGaming’s so-called gift to Linux gamers, Cedega Unlike everything else I’ve listed above, Cedega itself isn’t a game, but rather a set of Linux-native libraries based in the Wine project that enables gamers to play Windows-based titles on Linux. It’s not free, but for a reasonable price you can play some Windows titles natively on Linux. This seems like the most exciting prospect yet! Let’s see what Windows games I own (and love) and would want to (re)play on Linux:
  • Grim Fandango: Playability of 3. Can’t seem to find the CD-ROM, though. Great.
  • Psychonauts: Most promising example of a playable game yet, although I don’t really want to play it anymore: I got to one of the last levels (Meat Circus) and spend frustrating hours falling down again and again and again and having to restart the level. Eventually I just gave up.
  • Splinter Cell series: Playability is in the shitter. This likely means you can’t even install/run the game. Great.
  • Myst (I-V, Uru, RealMyst): Playability’s all in the shitter, except for Myst III which gets 3/5. How the game could be rated anything other than 0 or 5/5 is beyond me, as you would imagine that you can either understand and solve the puzzles, or you can’t. What this in fact means, most likely, is that you can solve most (if not all) the puzzles in Myst III, except the illusion of escaping to another world is shattered by poorly-supported visual effects or sound glitches or something.
  • Sam & Max (Episodes 1-2 from Telltale Games): Hahaha nope.

  From the gist of the short list of supported applications, Cedega is primarily designed to support MMORPG junkies and warcraft-style game players, and to hell with everything else. I realise a lot of what works is based on the luck of the draw, but the “Officially Supported” game list is pretty telling of TransGaming’s priorities—as is the relatively brief list of “5/5″ playability games (only three of which, it should be noted, are officially supported by the company).

Well, that about wraps it up for Linux gaming. With a couple “watch this space” exceptions, it looks like if I want to
unwind with a game or two, I’ll be stuck doing it in Windows for a while to come. Bummer.