Glest: Alien Invasion
Gearhead2
Chromium BSU
Hot on the heels of Glest 3.0 is... Glest 3.1! Great to see the rejuvenated development of a poster Free Software game. This version continues to add multiplayer features such as in-game chat. Oh, and a new menu background. Eye candy! :-)
The mod scene for Glest has also never been healthier. The latest mod to show up (although currently just a WIP) is Glest: Alien Invasion. Pictures speak etc - see the images.
In the grand scheme of things, websites aren't that important. Or are they? Gearhead2 is a mech-based rogue-like. Maybe you like the sound of a [mech-based] rogue-like. To everybody else, the term 'rogue-like' tends to mean 'no graphics', so when you visit a web page like the homepage of Gearhead2, combined with the knowledge of it being a rogue-like, I bet the vast majority of people go no further. It looks awful, the screenshots link doesn't work, and because in the lay visitor's mind the game isn't graphical, it's game over already.
The shame of it is, Gearhead2 looks like a really promising game. It has a 3D version with a snazzy UI (it's predecessor Gearhead does not). Mechs are cool. There is a well supported forum. Somebody needs to just delete every bit of HTML on that Gearhead2 homepage and put up something 1. functional (i.e. working links) and 2. web layout !circa 1998.
Last but not least for today, Chromium BSU, the frantic top-down shooter, is under new maintainership. The Debian maintainer of the game has access to the Sourceforge project for Chromium BSU so will be applying patches that have been collecting for a few years in the various distros. Whether it'll see further development of the game is unlikely but it's good to avoid the usual bitrot of forgotten projects. Also I noticed the sequel project Chromium BSU 2: Second Strike, but despite there being source in SVN, it didn't really get off the ground.
In Internet-lameness news, I can't believe my Portalized exclusive barely made a dent on digg. I mean, utter rubbish which is merely a Portal influence gets 1000s of diggs. How come a [possibly open source] improvement on Portal's game dynamics not even break double-digits? I mean, I got more damn "diggs"* on FSDaily! The Internet won't do what I want. It's officially lame. Want to correct this ludicrous aberration? Go forth and DIGG!
* Is digg a new verb? What would you call it on FSDaily? FSDailied? :-?
I think the problem is that Digg is full of retards. :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tpb3d.net/showthread.php?tid=1750
ReplyDelete"They were hoping, yup they were hoping that TPB3D would go the way of Coaster Madness and disappear into nothing. Some tweedled their thumbs and others wanted you in the tpb3d community to fail. Ain't happening! See, there is a thing about something owned by an entire world community, something that no one corporation owns and something that not only isn't going away, but is here to stay the course. It's called ownership and the world community has taken what our main slogan has claimed from the very start "The Future Is Ours!" into the hands of everyone. The genie is not only out of the 3DTPG bottle, but our wish will soon be your computer's command. For the very first time, TPB3D game code has been posted and this is just the start. It may be nothing right now, but it is quite significant indeed, because not only to models, a Game Design Document (road map) and community exist, but now, so does coding as small as it may appear, and it is only the very start.
..."
Grabbed a copy of Glest, and was pleasantly surprised. AI was a bit rough, but otherwise, it was quite nice. If it gets some more polish, this will be killer.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's nice to see some maintenance on Chromium, there aren't many shmups on 'nix.
you're too right about gearhead's webpage charlie...i've been trying to follow gearhead2 but the website just sucks...it's hard to tell if the game's even being worked on when it's obvious the home page hasn't been updated in years.
ReplyDeletehere you go charles
ReplyDeletehttp://gearhead.chaosforge.org/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=5&topic=769&page=0
wow , was just about to add the same comment at the digg , sometimes the people fav the links without even looking at it
ReplyDeleteNice to hear Glest doing great in its progress , the AI still quite promising , but not that much as Warcraft III ....
BTW : Warzone , needs to make the graphics more interactive with more details .
Hmm, if I had found this blog earlier then I would've Dugg it earlier :P
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I've had a few stories make it to the frontpage, so now that I've found your blog, I might get some of yours on there too ;)
(Though I guess this one would've had more success in the Linux/Unix section)