What is Digg?142 Comments
- Wailord, on 10/11/2007, -22/+67No OS X?
Boo.
*goes back to playing Plasma Pong* - Phenax, on 10/11/2007, -0/+39Sorry Wailord.
We have planned Mac support, in fact it may work on Mac via X11 -- I'm not positive on that.. It's just a matter of porting the rendering to SDL. Even after I do that, though, I have no Mac boxes to sufficiently test it on. Though it should be coming along in one of the next few versions. - AstralSin, on 10/11/2007, -4/+32the image they have there is old and outdated, the game looks much better now.
here, check out some official screenshots of 6.05
http://cor.planetquake.gamespy.com/arena/aa2007/aa2k7_22.jpg
http://cor.planetquake.gamespy.com/arena/aa2007/aa2k7_23.jpg
http://cor.planetquake.gamespy.com/arena/aa2007/aa2k7_24.jpg
http://cor.planetquake.gamespy.com/arena/aa2007/aa2k7_16.jpg
http://cor.planetquake.gamespy.com/arena/aa2007/aa2k7_17.jpg
http://cor.planetquake.gamespy.com/arena/aa2007/aa2k7_20.jpg
http://cor.planetquake.gamespy.com/arena/aa2007/aa2k7_18.jpg
http://cor.planetquake.gamespy.com/arena/aa2007/aa2k7_19.jpg
http://cor.planetquake.gamespy.com/arena/aa2007/aa2k7_21.jpg - Phenax, on 10/11/2007, -6/+23There is no story, there is a single-player similar to Quake 3.
Well, as an amateur developer and avid death-match player (picked up Quake 9 years ago, still playing it) I must say this bit about graphics. In reality, there are few people with good enough systems to play the game with advanced facial expressions, specular 8-pass bump-mapping (We have bump-mapping though), or anything like that. The people that do are likely not getting a very enjoyable frame-rate. Even if those were available I doubt I'd use them in reality, as they aren't exactly the largest enhancement to the game.
Although a nice model format and possibly rag-doll physics are an idea to implement in the future. It will be painstakingly hard to implement but it would be *very* enjoyable.
No, it's not a clone. It has influence from Unreal Tournament and Quake because we found them very enjoyable games.
I've made some really great friends in the community and in the length of my death-match career had some of the best matches in this community. I just plain enjoy it. Development is going fast and I'm going to stick on until the end. Many other people are very loyal to this game so we've obviously done something right. I don't know why Nexuiz or Warsow get so much advertisement (rightfully so!) why we often don't get as much.
And of course we encourage our members/regulars to digg and comment here. Is there something wrong with that? - Phocion55, on 10/11/2007, -2/+16Awesome! Just pulled down the latest source from the SVN repo (svn://svn.icculus.org/alienarena/trunk). Throwing up a server on one of my boxes now!
Alien Arena has made some HUGE strides in the past year. Totally revamped weapons (the screenshot in article is old), new games modes, Galaxy server browser and IRC client, mapping tools, dev tools, BSD support, bug fixes, DEB package support, ebuild support - THE WORKS!
Great to see the community expanding.
Cheers! - BuzzLightyear, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14I've just tried it. For a free game it's great.
The Bad:
--The maps are very dark and the textures look very old fashioned. It looks very much like a poor man's Quake2.
--The gameplay is ok, but feels imprecise as you don't move smoothly but seem to roll/pad around like you're drunk!
--The weapons are dull and all seem very average and "fair". It needs a railgun, grenades, sniper!
--Very hard to tell who's on your side, lighting doesn't help.
--Sounds are uninspiring, very average 80's synthesiser.
The Good:
--The graphics are smooth and fast on my machine (WinXP, P4 2.8, 2Gb, X850XT, 1280x1024)
--Netcode seems good, no jerking. Online game browser simple but quick.
--The setup menus are very easy and fast to use, hooray!
--Only 200mb download.
--Linux, nice one!
Overall my impression (from 5 mins of playing) is that it's very good for a free game, it just needs some better content (textures, maps, sound etc.). Good work and thanks for putting your time in to make free games. The multi-platform-ness of the project is superb and will earn a lot of support. - Phenax, on 10/11/2007, -1/+14That is the Subversion way of getting it.
Subversion allows you to get the latest changes. It's not the official 6.05 release, in fact it's ahead of 6.05.. but you might want to take his advice and get it.
Unfortunately I don't think it's in Ubuntu's main repository at the time of this post, but we've got a guy working on it.
Here's the (easier) way of installing the 6.05 release in Debian-based distros such as Ubuntu
Download these files:
http://icculus.org/alienarena/files/alien-arena_6.05-0ubuntu1~feisty1_i386.deb
http://icculus.org/alienarena/files/alien-arena-data_6.05-0ubuntu1_all.deb
and then open up a terminal in the directory you downloaded them to, and type in 'dpkg -i alien-arena*.deb
Hope you enjoy! - Phocion55, on 10/11/2007, -1/+131. sudo apt-get install build-essential libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libsdl1.2-dev libxxf86dga-dev xorg-dev subversion
2. svn co svn://svn.icculus.org/alienarena/trunk alienarena2007
3. cd alienarena2007/source
4. make && make install - CptCancer, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13That rug really tied the room together.
- Chienne, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12Well now... the claims I'd heard that the graphics had been totally revamped weren't kidding - it looks awesome!
I've updated the page accordingly - thanks for the headsup! - maddev, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9Here is the direct download link for the Windows version:
http://games.internode.on.net/filelist.php?filedetails=9305 - Fulkron, on 10/11/2007, -4/+10Well if you spent your money on all of those commercial FPS games, then by all means play them instead. I don't want to pigeonhole this game by limiting to one group of people, but Alien Arena appeals more to gamers who don't have money to blow on commercial games, or the machines powerful enough to run them well. What makes this game good? I can't speak for others, but here are the reasons I like it: I find it fun, the other players don't call my sexuality or the integrity of my mother into question every time I score a frag on them, and the developers aren't some secretive, monolithic organization; they're average joes and they make it a point to hang out with the rest of the people on a regular basis and even listen to their ideas (when was the last time you got to frag with and/or bounce ideas off of a developer from id?). There's quite a bit of quality custom content, from models and skins, to HUDs and crosshairs, to entire maps, and I've dabbled in almost all of these at one point or another. The game modes run the gamut of creativity: there's vanilla stuff like instagib, deathmatch, team deathmatch, and ctf, but there are some interesting games like Deathball (football with guns, more or less), Team Core Assault (disable the other team's 3 shield power nodes and then destroy a giant metallic spider thing before they do the same to you), and Cattleprod (gather abducted cows from a central location and lead them to your base, all while preventing your enemy from 1. shooting you, 2. shooting your cows, and 3. rustling more cattle than you). The weapons are pretty standard, but most FPS games out there have that same problem (there's the default weak weapon, the shotgun-like weapon, at least one rapid fire gun, some manner of rocket-propelled explosives, a sniper rifle, and usually grenades thrown in there for good measure).
Is AA the type of game that you'll want to run out and preorder as soon as you hear about it, and then stand in line at some godforsaken hour just so you can be granted the right to spend your hard earned cash on it first? Nope. But hey, at the very least, if you don't like it because it's too similar to the stuff you paid good money for, you don't have to worry about taking it back to the store and demanding a refund. - banthis, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5http://www.gamershell.com/news/39251.html
:D - Chienne, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5...the download server can handle thousands of diggers hitting it, I wouldn't stress about that :)
(That said, I'm not sure what's in it m'self... hmm...) - fafpak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6For those of you posting above and inquiring about spy-ware, there is none, I assure you. If you are suspicious download the source from svn://svn.icculus.org/alienarena/trunk and review it (or get someone who can translate it for you if you aren't technical).
This is a beautiful game with an incredible and diverse community. Hope to frag some of you later!
--[SiN]FeelDBurn - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8love this game both on Windows and Linux!
- Phocion55, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5@brownb2: No spyware. The source code comes with the application. Check it out for yourself.
- Johnnytwoshoes, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4http://red.planetarena.org
- BrainInAJar, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5any idea if it'll run on Solaris ?
- AstralSin, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6its also in gentoo's portage and will probably be in ubuntu's aptitude package managers
- KnightMareInc, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6been looking for a new FPS to play, gonna check this out.Thanks.
- Puppetfunk, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5So is it a Single Player or a Multiplayer Game?
- Phenax, on 10/11/2007, -4/+8In my humble opinion, yes.
It has several modes ranging from the usual free-for-all kill-everyone game modes to tactical team-play. The graphics are quite good for what they serve. Map design is great allowing map control but nothing too extreme. Some original weapons and some that are quite known in the death-match world.
The community is great. Developers are responsive, players are helpful and contributive. And the game is being developed very fast, new versions are to come out in the future for sure. We've already began working on the next version! - Data33, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4The aliens look kinda like the ones from Mars Attacks! :p
- xerus, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7The people who are saying things like this probably already have played it, seeing as how its been under development since 2004.
- CallumS, on 10/11/2007, -5/+9Alien Arena ROCKS!. A huge improvement to 6.04, the new weapon models are awesome and it has extremely smooth game play, WELL DONE :)
- sneeka2, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6Just for reference: plays fine in a virtual XP machine under Parallels 3 on Mac OS. ^_^
- CaptCrazy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4@ lovingdigg It might be the same version. For the game website go to red.planetarena.org and hit download there for a list of official download locations.
- CaptCrazy, on 10/11/2007, -4/+8What exactly makes it suck?
And what do you classify as a 'good' free game. - offkey, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4buzzlightyear : the disruptor gun is very similar to a railgun and the alt-fire mode on it is a sniper with 3x power, just wanted to let you know ;) who is on your side is displayed by the two lights above players heads, either red or blue. As for the darkness, all that can modified in the video settings to your suiting. The weapons all have pros n cons as to when n where you use them, have a tinker around :) maybe see you for a game sometime
- guywhodoesstuff, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6Looks fantastic, great job on developing it.
- Johnnytwoshoes, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Yup Nex is a fine game, many of the members of both communites "hang out" together on IRC, and play both games.
- funkydopeloven, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3i like that the accessory pack zipped, is larger than the actual game exe XD
dl'ing it now to give it a whirl - blankis, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6Played an older version.
HUGE step up. - DrunkenDevil, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5Is it good?
- jordn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Another very good free multi-platform game is Nexuiz:
http://www.nexuiz.com
http://alientrap.org/nexuiz/newmedia/4.jpg
graphics aren't as sharp, but very enjoyable to play. - Phenax, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3A lot of our players also play Nexuiz.. me included.
It's a fine game kudos to their developers as well :D. - jake86, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Oh hells ya...
It's totally cool, i may have found a way to wast my summer away.... - AstralSin, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4no one in the community submitted it. it was submitted legitimately by Chienne, who we'd never heard of before. thanks, btw :)
- derjames, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3cheers for this...
- Boomh4u3r, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Oh I'm having a blast! Thanks digg!
Boomh4u3r...hit me up on AA '07 - derjames, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3does anybody know the official webpage?...
- Phenax, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Anyone with a dual core system and nvidia on Windows having framerate problems, turn multithreading off in your nvidia settings panel.
- darwin81, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6I'm mostly a *nix geek, but I like my occasional FPS fix so this is perfect for me. Congratulations to the developers!
- Phenax, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4It also works for FreeBSD and in theory most Unices.
- AstralSin, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4yeah, some of us have been playing it for a long time. we didnt submit this though, we're just responding to it. i think we have every right to do that.
- livejamie, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3alienarena is not for your typical gamer who's just looking for a place to play every once in a while, if you dig deep you'll find yourself immersed in a community of passionate gamers all focused on efficiently blowing each other's heads off. some of the nicest people i've ever known are found within that community and i'm so happy i stumbled upon it.
oh and the game is fun as all hell too. :) - Johnnytwoshoes, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Don't confuse a retro "theme" with the capabilities of the engine, which overall falls in the range of being slightly more advanced in many areas than UT2k4, which you had mentioned.
Here's a rundown of some of what would be considered modern effects(i.e, things that you wouldn't find in say, Quake 3, but maybe in UT2k4, Doom 3, and Source)
Real time lighting, per vertex and per pixel - quite modern, more advanced than UT2k4's version
Real time shadows - certainly more advanced than UT2k4 in that regard
Lens flares - work same as in UT2k4
Bloom(optional, off by default) - UT2k4 does not have that
Shaders system - most post Q3 engines have some form of it, and so does Alien Arena, not really modern, but still worth mentioning.
Dot3 bumpmapping(optional, off by default) - not present in Q3 or UT2k4
Real time water reflections using ARB fragment shaders(optional, off by default) - this is decidedly more advanced than UT2k4
So clearly you can see that the engine does indeed offer some effects that are considered modern. It does have some areas that are currently deficient in comparison to some of the more recent engines/engine demos, but those are always being pushed forward. By technical comparisons, the visual experience falls somewhere between UT2k4 and current modern engines. It's missing a few things like deluxemapping but those are forthcoming. The game art of course is not going to be on the level of UT2k4, but it's certainly decent, and certainly the 2000+ poly models are an improvement over the 400-900 poly models that you would see in Q3 or even Doom3 for that matter by a technical standpoint alone. Whether the end user finds them as visually appealing, may or may not be a matter of taste, or the execution of the art, but there's little to argue about the technical aspects. - turpenine, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3@phenax, I am sure there are lots of people with macs willing to help you test if you just ask. Hell you could just run osx86 on your pc to get some of the feel.
- Endeavorer, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Its a very very fun game! Highly recommended.
There have been a few complaints about the graphics quality.
Just so that you all realize, when you install the game the graphics are set at minimum.
Once you turn them up to max it looks damn right sexy! -
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