Game Reviews: Nexuiz, Sauerbraten, Urban Terror
Free Game Round-up
Andrew Scagnelli
Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: Opinion
This week, The Stute game review will focus on three first-person shooters that can be downloaded, free of charge.
Nexuiz (http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/, Windows/OS X/Linux)
Nexiuz is the most traditional of the three games reviewed here. It features a typical, almost storyline-free, death-match centered game designed for online play. The game has a decent following, with plenty of populated online servers, as well as a ladder and league for more organized competition.
Technically, it is the most advanced, using a very heavily modified Quake engine to power its, sometimes impressive, visuals. However, this comes at quite a cost: some levels are too dark, and, at times, the fast action can come to a crawl when the frame-rate stutters uncontrollably. Also, it is the only one of the three to be completely open-source and new levels and characters are welcome additions to the game.
Sauerbraten (http://www.sauerbraten.org/, Windows/OS X/Linux)
Sauerbraten is not as much a game as it is a technical demo with satisfyingly difficult single- and multi-player game. The key added feature is the game's ability to edit levels in-game. This feature works great for level designers, as a level can be rapidly designed and prototyped without ever leaving the game. The interface for editing levels has a very slight learning curve, something typically unheard of amongst game editing tools. Even better, the online mode "coopedit" allows a map to be designed by multiple players, and then enjoyed the very next round.
Sadly, Sauerbraten won't be as interesting to non-level designers, but is still a curiosity worth looking at.
Like Nexuiz, Sauerbraten is open-source; however, not all the game content, such as some models and textures, are open-source.
Urban Terror (http://www.urbanterror.net/news.php, Windows/OS X/Linux)
Urban Terror began its life as a mod for Quake 3 Arena back in 2000 and, with the release of Quake 3's source code in mid-2005, is now available free-of-charge. The game's style is very close to a faster-paced Counter-Strike, coming in as the most refined of the three. Unfortunately, the game also comes with the weakest visuals, being based on the now-outdated and almost unimproved id Tech 3. In addition, this is the only one of the three not to make large portions of the game open-source. While the base engine's source code is available, the maps, characters, textures and game code are not available.
Nexuiz (http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/, Windows/OS X/Linux)
Nexiuz is the most traditional of the three games reviewed here. It features a typical, almost storyline-free, death-match centered game designed for online play. The game has a decent following, with plenty of populated online servers, as well as a ladder and league for more organized competition.
Technically, it is the most advanced, using a very heavily modified Quake engine to power its, sometimes impressive, visuals. However, this comes at quite a cost: some levels are too dark, and, at times, the fast action can come to a crawl when the frame-rate stutters uncontrollably. Also, it is the only one of the three to be completely open-source and new levels and characters are welcome additions to the game.
Sauerbraten (http://www.sauerbraten.org/, Windows/OS X/Linux)
Sauerbraten is not as much a game as it is a technical demo with satisfyingly difficult single- and multi-player game. The key added feature is the game's ability to edit levels in-game. This feature works great for level designers, as a level can be rapidly designed and prototyped without ever leaving the game. The interface for editing levels has a very slight learning curve, something typically unheard of amongst game editing tools. Even better, the online mode "coopedit" allows a map to be designed by multiple players, and then enjoyed the very next round.
Sadly, Sauerbraten won't be as interesting to non-level designers, but is still a curiosity worth looking at.
Like Nexuiz, Sauerbraten is open-source; however, not all the game content, such as some models and textures, are open-source.
Urban Terror (http://www.urbanterror.net/news.php, Windows/OS X/Linux)
Urban Terror began its life as a mod for Quake 3 Arena back in 2000 and, with the release of Quake 3's source code in mid-2005, is now available free-of-charge. The game's style is very close to a faster-paced Counter-Strike, coming in as the most refined of the three. Unfortunately, the game also comes with the weakest visuals, being based on the now-outdated and almost unimproved id Tech 3. In addition, this is the only one of the three not to make large portions of the game open-source. While the base engine's source code is available, the maps, characters, textures and game code are not available.