It's been quite a while since I played a game on my Linux box, so when I took a break the other day, I got the latest version of this awesome game called Nexuiz. So what exactly is Nexuiz?Nexuiz is a first-person shooter which started as a Quake modification in the summer of 2001. Made by Alientrap Software, it is a free/open-source game: source code is free software and data is free content. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Nexuiz currently utilizes DarkPlaces, a significantly modified Quake engine.
You can download Nexuiz from its project website HERE, or if you are using Ubuntu, just get it through Synaptic Package Manager.
Sounds and Graphics:
I always thought that Alien Arena is the best first-person shooter game for Linux, but when I've tired Nexuiz, I began to think twice. I was blown away by Nexuiz's smoother and more compact graphics. The game environment was just stunning.
I had no trouble adjusting the screen resolution to 1440x900 in order to suit my 19 inch display. I also had an option to further enhance the graphics by adjusting the lighting and shadowing and add some extra eye-candy by enabling offset mapping, bloom, and high dynamic rendering.
The audio sounded great on my 2.1 Labtec Speaker. The music background and sound effects were loud and clear.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is deathmatch with the most excessive possible speeds and weapons, giving incredibly intense fast paced action. Along with deathmatch, there are multiple game modes such as team deathmatch, capture the flag, domination, and many mutators and weapon options like rocket arena and instagib. The user can fight through the single player campaign, going through over 20 levels, or play online using the Nexuiz server browser.
Recommended System Requirements:
- 1 GHz Pentium III or AMD Athlon
- Geforce2 Video card
- 512 MB of ram
- Linux Kernel 2.2 or better with glibc
Conclusion:
Nexuiz is highly entertaining and is somewhat addictive especially when played online or in multiplayer mode. This game has a mix of violence though, so I wouldn't recommend it to kids or even to adults who have violent crime records (hehe). Anyway, I really had fun playing Nexuiz, and I'm keeping it because I'm going to be playing it over and over again.
Here's my quick rating for Nexuiz 2.4:
Sounds and Graphics: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Total: 8/10
Its fresher and feels like a 3d Cartoon Game so to speak.
Nexuiz is a cool game, I like the 2.4 version much more than the 2.3 version.
Huge Improvements, two thumbs up to the development team!
I personally believe Open Arena is the Best Free Open Source First Person Shooter. The game play is first rate, the competition is fierce, and it never gets boring.
i highly recommend that all Linux users should download and install these free first person shooter games:
Open Arena
Urban Terror
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Alien Arena 2008
Warsow
World Of Padman
Saurbraten 2
If you host game servers, please consider hosting some for the above games. Turn your empty quake 3 arena server into an Open Arena server!
The PCLinuxOS software repository has Open Arena, Nexuiz, Tremulous, Saurbraten, Alien Arena, and many other great free games are a few click in Synaptic away from being playable, online, for free.
I play them all online under the name SlippJigg.
See you in the game!
SlippJigg
Thanks for the comment. I will be trying it soon.
Thanks a lot for the comment and for the additional info.
The current version is 2.4.2, its 8 months old, but 2.5 is under heavy testing with the help of the community (release in some weeks), and whoaa... gonna be fantastic :) Its going to contain at least 5 new, unique weapons, like the hook-gun, or the portal gun, that you can know from the game Portal. Give this game a try, and don't forget to check out their website periodically to inform about the newest version :P