This months game: AssaultCube

This game is a weird piece of the open source family. Unlike many open source games, it isn't quite comprehensive. The ammount of settings is more than enough, but everything else is a bit too simple. Only 4 weapons + double pistols + granades. About 10 game modes and about 20 maps (+ user maps) isn't much but it's enough. Simple graphics... Quite simple shooting physics... Boring effects... But one thing really keeps suprising all the time. THIS GAME IS FUN! YOU HEARD RIGHT! THIS GAME IS FUN! Friends and enemies going everywhere trying to steal flags or get frags. Bulets flying. Shotgun trooper comes out from the corner and... BANG! Numbers going: 5....4....3.(you quickly change your start gun)..2....1... And going again! IT'S FUN! IT IS REALLY FUN!



game name: AssaultCube
homepage: http://assault.cubers.net/
operating system: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
license: open source

graphics: 7
extensibility: 6
gameplay: 10
multiplayer: 10
singleplayer: 7
system requirements: 9
rating: 10

Good:

• intensive combat
• teamworking
• good connection menu
• lots of settings
• good game modes
• not so much crackers
• lots of players online
• simple but fun
  

Bad:

• No bots
• only 4 weapons
• no campaing
  

This months game: Freedoom

If you know Doom, there is allmost nothing to say about this game. This game is just as good and sometimes even better. Original Doom source code is free for everyone to download and edit, but the graphics aren't. So, this game is based on the original Doom code, but all monsters look different and all the maps have been changed but the most important thing is still there. And that is the fact that Doom is really good game even with changed graphics. Fight against the forces of hell and try to survive. 6 different weapons (fists conted), ultimate action and lots of fighting. Enjoy!


game name: Freedoom
homepage: http://www.nongnu.org/freedoom/
operating system: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
license: open source

graphics: 8
extensibility: 5
gameplay: 10
multiplayer: 7
singleplayer: 9
system requirements: 9
rating: 9

Good:

• based on original Doom
• everything, that is good in original Doom
• new graphics look good
  

Bad:

• multiplayer has few problems
• harder levels are really frustrating

This months game: Ultrastar

Ultrastar is a good excample how open source can beat big studios. Ultrastar is a Singstar copy to computer. How much better Ultrastar is than Singstar. Let's count. It's free (1), It's for computer (2), you can sing it with standard microphones (3), all songs are free also (4), It sometimes even looks better than Singstar (5), it has changeable themes wich are free also (6), there are more songs to Ultrastar than to Singstar (7), you can freely choose what songs you download so you don't have to by the whole game to get few songs you want (8), there are lot more places where you can look for help to Ultrastar than to Singstar (9) and Ultrastar is open-source game (10). 10 big reasons to play Ultrastar instead of Singstar. Singstar is good game but if you merge a good game and open source, the result is allways stunning. This game also shows that open source can do the same thing than studios. Good work guys!


game name: Ultrastar Deluxe
homepage: http://ultrastardx.sourceforge.net/
operating system: Windows (xp/vista), Linux, Mac OS X
license: open source

graphics: 10
extensibility: 10
gameplay: 9
multiplayer: 8
singleplayer: 8
system requirements: 8
rating: 9

Good:

• good graphics
• more songs from internet
• standard microphones (supports Singstar microphones too)
• has everything what Singstar has
• Singstar on computer!
• multiplayer on same computer
• lot of settings
  

Bad:

• no multiplayer trough internet
• song guality is sometimes poor
• few bugs

This months game: Xmoto

This is the graziest motorbike game ever. It's easy enough for starters but some maps give an ultimate challenge even to experts! And I can say that you won't run out of maps soon. If you download all maps, you will have about 1985 maps with a difficulty from wery easy to impossible! But the most graziest thing on this game is the mission. By default, it is something like this: Collect all strawberries and go to flower! LOL! There are many variations, but yep, this is the default. Maps are done with Inkscape vector editor and it allows also scripting with Python. And now something about playing: Xmoto has simple controls. Up-arrow makes you move, down-arrow makes you stop and left- and right-arrows make you change your balance. Simple isn't it? Well, it's far from it! In most difficultiest levels, you really have to put yourself into a ultimate challenge. Thight holes, physics, moving objects, scripting and other things can make proceeding wery difficult! If you get angry with some levels, you can just put film rolling and watch how experts have done it!

game name: Xmoto
homepage: http://xmoto.tuxfamily.org/
operating system: Windows (xp/vista), Linux, Mac OS X, PSP
license: open source

graphics: 10
extensibility: 9
gameplay: 10
multiplayer: -
singleplayer: 10
system requirements: 9
rating: 10

Good:

• good graphics
• difficulty from side to side
• LOTS of maps to play
• system requirements
• simple
• LOTS of fun
• level chategories
• scripting
• music

Bad:

• no multiplayer
• new maps are being flittered to low new level amount
• physics levels highscores not listed
  

Spring news: QtLobby 1.0alpha released!

QtLobby is a new lobby for Spring. It's under rapid defelopement and written in C++ using Qt class library. It's crossplatform. They are trying to make it user friendly, fast and bug free.

Spring News: Easy Facing Widget

A widget to rotate buildings with your mouse while placing.
How to use when placing buildings:

• Hold left mouse button and move mouse in the direction you want to face the building


• If you are placing a factory, it shows a green arrow representing the buildings facing
  
• Press META-key (Space) to rotate buildings when placing rows/queues with Shift

Tremulous News: Master list tightening

I'm sure everyone's noticed that a lot of servers on the master list have no name, and that this makes it sometimes very difficult to differentiate between them. As of a few minutes ago the new Python master server (undergoing live testing at master.tremulous.net:30700 if you remember) has started ignoring servers that do not report a hostname, so if your hostname is blank you may wish to consider filling it in with something more descriptive and unique.

Starting next Tuesday (the 18th) we will also be extending this same restriction to the default 1.1 master, so you may find that if you do not use a more reasonable name your players will no longer be able to see you on the server list. Note that this is not an invitation to name your server something else ridiculous, and if we find that people are continuing to use similarly illegible or homogeneous names, we will further restrict the acceptation criteria, or manually delist individual servers if necessary.

Work on 1.2 is, as ever, gently coasting along :)

This months game: Tremulous

Tremulous is a multiplayer aliens vs. humans shooting game, where you play via internet with over 30 players. Biggest games can have up to 60 players. When you start to play, you first choose the side. You cannot join if your side has too many players. Then you choose are you builder or soldier. And then... Its time to let the game begin. Tremulous has quite small maps and when there are many players you easily find yourself in the middle of a chaos. Aliens jumping all over and going on the walls, humans shooting around and hoping that they are shooting to a right direction with different kind of weapons, autoturrets and acid tubes attacking to nearby enemies... And everything you have to do is to join this caos and hope that you will get few kills so you could by new weapons or evolve to better alien. Both sides have main building. If it gets destroyed, you can not build any buildings and defense structures won't work. Other structures can only be built near this main structure or repeater (aliens have eggs). Trmulous don't have any bots or AI, so playing through the internet is the only option. This game don't need powerfull computer and it is surely worth of trying. This game allmost got the "Best free game"-price but Spring engine remains in the lead.



game name: Tremulous
homepage: www.tremulous.net
operating system: Windows (xp/vista), Linux, Mac OS X
license: open source (media isn't)

graphics: 8
extensibility: 7
gameplay: 10
multiplayer: 10
singleplayer: -
system requirements: 9
rating: 10

Good:

• quite good graphics
• different weapons and alien types
• system requirements
• gameplay
• structures
• game system allows strategic playing
• funny caos
• multiplayer
• game is never going so badly that you couldn't win

Bad:

• no singleplayer
• building system
• you lose your weapons if you die
• joining to a game can be tricky when everybody else have good weapons
• battles can be quite long

News: Coastlines Series. New Spring maps.

Coastlines Series is a new Spring map series by Nixa. Just finished maps are Coastlines Dry and Coastlines for NOTA (still Beta). Coastlines is 20 x 14 and it is for 6v6 – 8v8 battles. NOTA map is 5v5 32×24 sized map, and is complimented by a different metal layout and sea. Made using sapphire (l3dt) and wiced.

Site news

I have been busy for few months and some things haven't been done. I have made new logo for this blog and, for the first time, created a "My project" topic. I am planning some changes to news. News aren't just topics anymore. I am going to write a short text about the topics and I'm also going to put the topics separated from each other.

My project: logo for REVJ

About a month ago, I send a message to a forum on Sourceforge. I said I'm 2D and 3D artist looking for job. User called Alxtoth mailed to me and asked to make a logo for his program Reverse Snowflake Joins (REVJ). He said it should look like snowflake. I made few images and posted them to Alxtoth. He picked two images and said how I could make them better. I edited them and sended few images and he picked up this image (text is black in original). If you go to revj.sourceforge.net you can see the final image.

This months game: Frets on Fire

"Check this SH*T". That's what Frets on Fires tutorial says. That's what you can say about this game. FoF is a Quitar Hero copy where you play with your keyboard. You can download new mods and songs. I have seen a package wich contains over 300 songs!! If you have played them all, you can make your own song! Convert your favourite song to .ogg and import it to FoF. But one thing in FoF shows what is best in free games. It's tutorial. "You can now go and sell your keyboard on Ebay, because you SUCK". Think. Would you put that to game, wich is going to cost something? Nobody buys it! Free games don't have that problem. "But zie most important is zie ESC button. You will need it when you finally realise that you SUCK". LOL!!!!


game name: Frets on Fire
homepage: fretsonfire.sourceforge.net
operating system: Windows (xp/vista), Linux, Mac OS X
license: open source

graphics: 10
extensibility: 8
gameplay: 9
multiplayer: -
singleplayer: 9
system requirements: 8
rating: 10

Good:

• Guitar Hero copy
• graphics
• many songs and mods
• keyboard
• tutorial
• Guitar Hero importer
• Song editor (/maker)

Bad:

• no multiplayer
• no automatic song downloader
• song editing is quite boring
• runs slowly in older computer
  

Free game news

My news:

• I have my own Zazzle shop. Scroll page down to see some of my designs.

Dojo news:

• Dojo has now 15,000 registered players!

Springinfo.info news:

• P.U.R.E. version 1.2 has been released!

Netpanzer news:

• NP Tournaments Site

Battle for Wesnoth news:

• Wesnoth 1.6.3: Maintenance Release

Site news

This blog is not so popular and I don't have much time, so I am going to make few changes. First, I change that "This weeks game" to "This months game". Second, I don't list new Sourceforge-projects on the news anymore. If you want to help me to make this site better, you could help me to make this more popular and tell me internet sites, where I could find news to my free game news. Any comments welcome!

Free game news

News from Springinfo.info:

• Spring: 1944 “Operation Lyuban” (v1.06) Released!

I don't list new Sourceforge-projects anymore

This weeks game: Battle for Wesnoth

Battle for Wesnoth is a turn based strategy game, where you hire troops and try to kill your enemies. Moving units to different kinds of environments will affect to their stats and every unit have their own specials and skills. Game has singleplayer with bots, multiplayer via internet or at the same computer, map editor and add-on downloader. You can download maps, eras and many other things from the internet. Daytime changes along the game, and some units are stronger at the night or in the day.


game name:Battle for Wesnoth
homepage: http://www.wesnoth.org/
operating system: Windows (xp/vista), Linux (many different), Mac OS X
license: open source


graphics: 9
extensibility: 10
gameplay: 8
multiplayer: 8
singleplayer: 9
system requirements: 9
rating: 9


Good:

• extensibility
• multiplayer
• singleplayer
• bots
• many unit types
• units are personalic
• daytimes
• environment
• missions
• settings

Bad:

• multiplayer gets often boring when waiting for your turn
• battles can be quite long

This weeks game: Dojo Cubed Addict

Dojo Cubed Addict is a free J2ME-game for mobile phones. You can play it with computer too, but then it isn't so good. Cubed Addict is a multiplayer block mayhem, where you try to prevent your stack going too high by matching same coloured blocks to lines. When you match many blocks or create a big chain, a big gray block will fall to your opponents side. When your stack is too high for a too long time, you lose. You can use special items to help you. Dojo has big community, chat, buddies and many ohther things. Dojo has wery good graphics for a mobile phone and it supports Google Android. Dojo team is also making Badlands online -game.


game name: Cubed Addict
homepage: http://thedojo.mobi/
operating system: Windows (xp/vista), J2ME
license: freeware

graphics: 9
extensibility: 5
gameplay: 9
multiplayer: 10
singleplayer: 5
system requirements: 9
rating: 9

Good:

• good graphics
• community
• playing
• special items
• multiplayer
• tutorial

Bad:

• bugs
• network errors
• singleplayer
• computer version
  

Free game news

News from springinfo.info:

• CA stable release - 4744
• Springzine May Edition is out!

New game projects on Sourceforge:

• Java Game Library 2009-06-05
• C++ OO Sudoku Solver 2009-06-04
• Real Time Board Games: A Galaxy Divided 2009-06-04
• The Fellowship of The Game 2009-06-04
• OpenTowerDefence 2009-06-04
• Milvus Trekking Planner 2009-06-04
• Astrolabe Generator 2009-06-04
• Angry German Kid vs Jovi 2009-06-04
• Lytek 2009-06-04

Projects before 2009-06-04 were not listed.

Going to vacation!

I'm going to vacation for two weeks, so I don't propably write anything for two weeks. Sorry.

From the forums

From Spring-forum:

Post subject: Its time for 0.79
Posted: 31 Mar 2009, 11:41
Yeah, it really is.
So please, stop doing risky stuff and fix bugs instead :)


From Xmoto-forum:

Posted: Mar 25, 2009 12:19 am Post subject:
wheres irc? your nice thank you, ima make another level soon and i would like to irc with you


From Netpanzer-forum:

Re: Group keys don't work
Reply #3 on: May 15, 2008, 08:37:40 AM
I have tested
ALT+1
CTRL+1
CTRL+SHIFT+1
CTRL+ALT+1
SHIFT+1
And nothing work >:(


From Wormux-forum:

03-02-2009 20:41:34
Campagin scenario
that would be awesome!
I already know one mission:
Sniper-Penguin
you have only one player from the Tux team with 200 life points and you have to shoot down many quite stupid NPCs from distance.

Free game news

New game projects on sourceforge:

• Modified Servant MMORPG Engine 2009-05-28
• ScarNastics3D 2009-05-28
• Leges Motus 2009-05-27
• RPG Combat Grid 2009-05-27
• MFS 2009-05-27
• Eric's Java Sprite Engine 2009-05-27
• Soccer Commander 2009-05-27
• tellurian-scene 2009-05-27
• MyTestGame 2009-05-27
• rayGI 2009-05-27
• jDnD 2009-05-26
• Hydrox DPPt Damage Calculator 2009-05-26
• sChess.Net 2009-05-26
• Chrillz0r 2009-05-26
• Breaker1.0 2009-05-26
• OthelloV01 2009-05-26
• Calorie Balance Diet 2009-05-26
• Fretsweb 2009-05-26
• Kharlan Engine 2009-05-26
• STaBME 2009-05-26

Projects before 2009-05-26 were not listed.

This weeks game: Runes of Magic

Runes of Magic is a free freeware RPG-game. Runes of Magic is trying to copy WoW. It has really beatyfull graphics, huge world and many else things. The game is free, but if you want to pay, you can have many cool things. Every player have their own houses and clans can have their own castles. This game takes long to load and install, and after them, it downloads updates for about an hour. You can edit your character and choose from six types: Roque, scout, mage, knight, priest or mage. Each type have their own skills and when your character reaches level 15, you can choose other type. So your character can be scoutmage, priestknight etc. You can craft things and rise your crafting levels.

game name: Runes of Magic

homepage: http://www.runesofmagic.com/

operating system: Windows (xp/vista)

license: freeware

graphics: 10

extensibility: 6

gameplay: 8

multiplayer: 10

singleplayer: -

system requirements: 6

rating: 10

Good:

• hughe world
• graphics
• multiplayer
• skills
• crafting skills
• lots of things to do
• speaking system
• settings
• you manage without any payings

Bad:

• system requirements
• extensibility
• lots of walking
• boring
• payings

Free game news

News from springrts.com:

• Patch 0.79.0.2 released
• Patch 0.79.0.1 and server deployment

News from springinfo.info:

• Spring team is going to make monthly magazine: SPRINGZINE
• Spring 0.79 is out!!!!!

New free game projects on sourceforge:

• Dungeons and dragons and Dustin's tools 2009-05-23
• The Emerald Dream 2009-05-22
• 3D Battle City 2009-05-22
• Psyco Scape 2009-05-22
• Buzz Cast 2009-05-22
• Anex 2009-05-22
• bolztipp 2009-05-22
• FRP Character Builder 2009-05-22
• CHRealm 2009-05-22
• SteamCleaner 2009-05-22
• Mac Snake 2009-05-22
• Ladybug 2009-05-21
• The Defender 2009-05-21
• Forgotten Dream - audio 2009-05-20
• EnhSimJ 2009-05-20
• A Proper Empire 2009-05-20
• Glorious Ordeal 2009-05-20
• EVE Science & Industry Tool 2009-05-20
• Sudoku: Randy's Version 2009-05-20
• GSS 2009-05-20
• Fight it out 2009-05-20
• The Orange Block 2009-05-20
• SiPlus Half-Life Creations 2009-05-20
• ArcemuDatabase 2009-05-20
• SplF 2009-05-20

Projects before 2009-05-20 were not listed. You can find them at sourceforge.net.

Top 10 Linux-games

http://techgage.com/print/top_10_free_linux_games has listed top 10 free Linux-games. List is this:

#1 Battle for Wesnoth
#2 Frozen Bubble
#3 Enemy Territory
#4 Nexuiz
#5 Neverball & Neverputt
#6 Pingus
#7 Cube 2 (Sauerbraten)
#8 Armagetron Advanced
#9 Americas Army
#10 KMahjongg

From the forums

From Netpanzer-forum:

Re:Cheat Servers
Reply #4 on: November 20, 2007, 01:46:16 AM
Thanx Lo,Guess its too late now to fix my player stats, that server was running for nearly 2 days and sent over 90,000 losses with zero kills( i wasnt the only player affected). I was having a really good run this month up to that point.Will be changing my user name (just in case) for next month.
May the frags be with you all........ but not me Mad tanker.


From Xmoto-forum:

Posted: Oct 31, 2008 9:10 am Post subject:
Linden, a developer has already answered, so you don't need to reanswer it.


From Spring-forum:

Post subject: Re: System hangs, Ubuntu 9.04 64bit
Posted: 07 May 2009, 14:41
What has magic sysrequest to do with restarting xserver? Nothing!
CTRL+Alt + Backspace = Restart Xserver = deactivated!
Alt + Print/Sysreq + reisub = magic sysrequest = restart your pc safely (if your kernel is still alive...) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key


From Wormux-forum:

10-04-2009 08:26:04
Japanese localization
Yes, we can ;)

Free game news

Sourceforge is updating in 30 days. These changes were done:

• TaskManager will be replaced by TaskFreak!, dotProject and Trac(tickets).
• DocManager will be replaced by MediaWiki and Trac (wiki).
• Discussion Forums will be replaced by phpBB.
• Diary and Notes will be replaced by WordPress.

News from springinfo.info:

• http://springinfo.info/guides/ is here.

No new projects on Sourceforge.

Free games?

When talking about free games, you often think about flash-games. They are free, but there are lots of other types of free games. Often best free games are open source -games. They are good, because hundreds of people are making them and adding things they like in good game. Thousands of people are playing them and looking for errors and things to make better. But there are other types of free games like shareware and freeware. Shareware games are free, but limited. If you want to play whole game, you have to by it. Freeware games are free, but you can't edit them. When playing an open source game, you have to remember, that many people have given their time and skills whitout any pay. They make these games, so you could enjoy and have fun!

Free game news

Spring engines homepage spring.clan-sy.com has changed to springrts.com

New game projects on sourceforge:

• PyBowling 2009-05-13
• Mobile ALter Ego 2009-05-12
• GLQuake32 2009-05-12
• GoCatching 2009-05-12
• Rpg Auto Shift 2009-05-12
• Red Army 2009-05-12
• Galactic Empire 2009-05-12
• NGINE 2009-05-12

This weeks game: Spring

This game is really good example, how good free games can be. Spring is RTS (Real Time Strategy) -engine. It don't look as good as some expensive strategy games, but everything else is better. Spring has great pyrotechnics, hundreds of mods and maps, many players, quite good bots and great multiplayer statistics (singleplayer is quite poor). You can also download widgets and missions. When I discovered this game at the first time, I were amazed! You can play this game with quite poor computer, but if you have good computer, this game can use it perfectly! Dynamic water, realistic clouds and much more.



game name: Spring engine
homepage: http://springrts.com/
operating system: Windows (xp/vista), Linux (many different), Mac OS X
license: open source

graphics: 10
extensibility: 10
gameplay: 9
multiplayer: 9
singleplayer: 5
system requirements: 8
rating: 10

Good:

• graphics
• extensibility
• don't get bored
• open source
• multiplayer
• popular
• many developers
• many mods, maps and other things
• autohosts
• pyrotechnics, wreckages and effects
• much settings

Bad:

• some hosted games don't work
• installing may go wrong
• singleplayer
• bots (can't change difficulty and may not work in some mods)