Enemy Territory: 1 - America's Army: 0
Nov. 26th, 2005 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuNow that I'm running all Linux all the time, I can't play some of the games I enjoyed when I was running under Win98. I miss Battlefield 1942 in particular. Nonetheless, I am far more satisfied with my experiences with SuSE 9.3 than I ever was running Win98 (or SuSE 9.0 for that matter). SuSE 9.3 is vastly superior to 9.0 when it comes to running media files of all sorts. Under 9.0 I could seldom view any sort of video--movie trailers or fan-made vids and the like. 9.3 (after downloading some multimedia support updates, admittedly) will display every video format I've tried so far. And both of them are more stable, and easier to manage, than Windows could ever hope to be.
But I've also been wanting to play some games. But there isn't nearly as much support for games in Linux as under Windows. Nonetheless, I found America's Army for Linux a few nights ago and downloaded it. On the plus side, it's free. On the minus side, while my system just barely meets the minimum hardware requirements, it falls short of the recommended hardware standards. As a result, motion was sometimes choppy and lagged a bit. I also have been having trouble getting thru the final "basic training" mission--the MOUT House. That's where your character runs thru the house and has to shoot the bad guy targets, not shoot the good guy targets, and do it all in a sufficiently short time. You have to score a minimum of 10,000 points to pass. I varied from a low of about 400 points (I got triggerhappy and shot way too many good guys) to about 2,000. After trying for a couple of days I wasn't getting anywhere--and until you finish basic training, you can't do anything else. That gets old real fast.
So tonight I went looking for other Linux-enabled games. And I found, downloaded and eventually figured out how to install Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. This is an online, multi-player version of Return To Castle Wolfenstein, a game I played and enjoyed a great deal back when my PC was running All Windows, All The Time. I need to study up on the manual and figure out how to find my way around the "Limbo" screen (which is where you choose weapons and your character's MOS and so forth) before jumping on a server--but the game is fully functional and superior to America's Army in two important ways. First, I can hop onto a server and start playing any time I like. Second (but probably actually more important in the long run), this game has considerably lower hardware requirements--I'll have no performance issues with my machine when I'm playing it.
So I've uninstalled America's Army. As soon as I brush up on my understanding of the game interface, I'll be playing Enemy Territory.
But I've also been wanting to play some games. But there isn't nearly as much support for games in Linux as under Windows. Nonetheless, I found America's Army for Linux a few nights ago and downloaded it. On the plus side, it's free. On the minus side, while my system just barely meets the minimum hardware requirements, it falls short of the recommended hardware standards. As a result, motion was sometimes choppy and lagged a bit. I also have been having trouble getting thru the final "basic training" mission--the MOUT House. That's where your character runs thru the house and has to shoot the bad guy targets, not shoot the good guy targets, and do it all in a sufficiently short time. You have to score a minimum of 10,000 points to pass. I varied from a low of about 400 points (I got triggerhappy and shot way too many good guys) to about 2,000. After trying for a couple of days I wasn't getting anywhere--and until you finish basic training, you can't do anything else. That gets old real fast.
So tonight I went looking for other Linux-enabled games. And I found, downloaded and eventually figured out how to install Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. This is an online, multi-player version of Return To Castle Wolfenstein, a game I played and enjoyed a great deal back when my PC was running All Windows, All The Time. I need to study up on the manual and figure out how to find my way around the "Limbo" screen (which is where you choose weapons and your character's MOS and so forth) before jumping on a server--but the game is fully functional and superior to America's Army in two important ways. First, I can hop onto a server and start playing any time I like. Second (but probably actually more important in the long run), this game has considerably lower hardware requirements--I'll have no performance issues with my machine when I'm playing it.
So I've uninstalled America's Army. As soon as I brush up on my understanding of the game interface, I'll be playing Enemy Territory.
