Five Popular 3D Action Games in Linux

After posted Three Racing Games for Ubuntu's article, now I will tell you about other genre games here, the 5 popular 3D Action games that run in Linux.

Nexuiz
Nexuiz is a 3d deathmatch game project, created online by a team of developers called Alientrap. Nexuiz is a free, cross platform, first person shooter distributed under GNU General Public License by Alientrap Software. It started back in May 31 2005 with version 1.0 using DarkPlaces, a significanlty modified quake engine. The current version, 2.2.3, was released on January 26, 2007.

While Nexuiz has improved in all areas, it still stays true to its mission to bring deathmatch back to the basics, with perfect weapon balancing and fast paced action. The engine received a massive overhaul, resulting in a huge performance increase in the 50-500% range and much more smoother netplay. It runs faster, renders more beautiful, introduces sharper effects and brings you even closer to the action than ever before.

Taking advantage of the improved engine, Alientrap and contributors added new maps, retouched and rebalanced the guns and reworked most texturing effects. The new maps, textures and general additions to Nexuiz have almost tripled the file size since 1.0 and almost doubled it since the last release 2.2.3.

Nexuiz 2.3 brings along a new way for gamers to compete with each other and measure their skills: the new team mode 'Keyhunt'. Moreover, the online experience is enhanced by the new netcode, which also feels safer as 2.3 sports an anti-wallhack function. The offline singleplayer campaign offers improved, more human-like bots while the new maps add a fresh thrill to both offline and online play. For a totally original way to experience Nexuiz we created 'Nexuiz Pro', a server side mod that drastically changes the physics and weapons. Do not shy away from its name: it's just as fun for the young and old, for the new and experienced players.

Features of the Nexuiz:

• Multiplayer (up to 64 players)
• Ability to generate bots for practice sessions
• Dynamic lighting system similar to Doom 3

You can download this game at here.


Enemy Territory Quake Wars is the ultimate online strategic shooter: An objective-driven, class-based first person shooter set in the Quake universe. This game is a first-person shooter follow-up to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. It also has the same science fiction universe as Quake 4, with a story serving as a prequel to Quake II.



Quake Wars is the second multiplayer-only game in the Quake series after Quake III Arena. The gameplay is almost the same as Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, but with the addition of controllable vehicles and aircraft, asymmetric teams, much larger maps and the option of computer-controlled bots. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is being developed by Splash Damage for the PC using a modified version of id Software’s Doom 3 engine and MegaTexture rendering technology.

You can view more and download this game from here.


America's Army
Amrica's Army is one of the most popuar PC ation games played online. It provides playes with the most authentic military experience available, from exploring the development of Soldiers in individual and collective training to their deployment in simulated missions in the War of Terror.


America’s Army is a tactical, multiplayer, first-person shooter owned by the United States Government and released as a global public relations initiative to help with U.S. Army recruitment. The first version, Recon, was released on 4th July 2002. Now, it has in version 2.8.2.

It’s the first well known computer game used for political aims. The game is used as a playable recruiting tool and critics have charged the game serves as a propaganda device. A counter on the homepage of the PC version shows over eight million registered accounts as of 2007. GameSpy tracked the game usage and reported an average of 4,500 players at any one time between 2002 and 2005. It is enough for America’s Army to rank in the Top 10 Online Games chart.

Download this game at here.


Tremulous
Tremulous is an open source team-based first-person shooter with a game play that is similar to Gloom(a quake 2 mod) and Natural Selection (a Half-Life mod).


The game features two teams, humans and aliens, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The game has been downloaded over 200,000 times and was voted “Player’s Choice Standalone Game of the Year” in Mod Database’s “Mod of the Year” 2006 competition and has been nominated as a finalist in the Sourceforge Community Choice Awards.

Download now Tremulous by click here.


Alien Arena 2007
Alien Arena 2007 (AA2K7) is the latest version of a freeware online deathmatch game that was first introduced to the public in October, 2004. Since that initial release, nearly every aspect of the game has been revamped, in fact, all of the content and code from the November 2005 release of Alien Arena 2006 has been redone as well. It's like an entirely new game, and it may shock people just how much it has improved in less than a year's time. With over 30 levels, seven modes of play, loads of mutators, built-in bots, 11 player characters, 9 weapons(with alt-fire modes), the game has an endless supply of replayability. With so many new features, AA2K7 is nearly an entirely new game when held in comparison to it's predecessor.

With the trials and tribulations of software development, endless hours of playing, gathering feedback, COR Entertainment has been able to not only fine tune and perfect it's flagship game, but add completely new dimensions to it.



Using the CRX engine, which is based on the Id GPL source code, AA2K7 now includes modern effects such as real time vertex lighting and shadows, lensflares, light blooms, reflective water, textured particles, stainmaps, 32 bit color, shaders, fog, and much more. Built into the game is a easy to use server browser which allows the user to query information about each server. CRX features rewards systems, as well as colored player names, winner podiums, and weapons stats. The best thing about the CRX engine however, is it's netcode and speed. Even on a modest system, you will get excellent framerates, and movement is still extremely smooth and fast, even on high ping servers.

Bot AI has been improved with each release, and for AA2K7, a number of improvements and enhancements have been made. These bots are among the most human acting bots in any game, and also some of the toughest if you choose them to be. They are fully configurable using an external editor, and skill levels can be set in game.

Alien Arena is a fast paced, furious frag fest with arenas ranging from the small, to the massive. With a large built-in player base, it's never hard to find a good match going on, at any hour of the day. The community is friendly, as well as prolific. Dozens of maps, models, and various accessories have been created by community members to add on to the game experience.

Alien Arena features team based gameplay as well, such as Team Core Assualtl, a mode in which players must work together to disable their enemy team's central metal spider. Don't forget about the Team Deathmatch, Cattle Prod, Capture the Flag, Deathball, and All Out Assault mode(in which players can enter vehicles) either. For the 1v1 players, Alien Arena now features a duel mode!

Download AA2K7 at here.