GAMING ON LINUX The tastiest brain candy to relax those tired neurons Virtual Reality is a hot topic in gaming right now, and Linux isn't being left out in the cold. A company called Oculus VR has created a headset named the Oculus Rift – sounds cool, right? It's a strange-looking device that looks like it should be in Star Trek. The good thing about the Oculus Rift is that it has Linux drivers ready, so it fully supports our platform. Alongside the driver support from Oculus VR we also have Valve; the company behind Steam. Valve is pushing out a Virtual Reality API for game developers, which also supports Linux. The Oculus Rift is a VR device that sits over your eyes strapping you into your game, and that's where my problem is. Gaming is supposed to be a social thing, isn't it? Being strapped into some device feels so lonely. Not only that, but it's quite restricting not to be able to see anything else. The other problem I have is that a game is supposed to be a game – why do people now want to emulate real life to the point of strapping things over their eyes? This is why I'm hoping that it's a fad, like 3D televisions, 3D movies and the 3D mode on Nintendo's latest hand-held console, which is more of a pain than anything else. Oculus VR will need to solve issues like eye-strain and resolution before it's taken seriously. So, to end on a question again for you lot: will Virtual Reality take-over our gaming lives, or will it fade away into oblivion? You decide! Project Zomboid Craft your perfect hideout, wait for all this to blow over. Brains braaaains braaaiiins! The game devs at The Indie Stone have graced us not only with a major patch for the hit Project Zomboid, but have also introduced tons of new features, including the first version of their its persistentmultiplayer. So, now you can go raiding supermarkets for tins of food while your friends on another Linux PC stand watch for zombies outside with a baseball bat. Anyone is free to run a server for it, as The Indie Stone is giving away the server tools (be warned though that it's pretty rough), though it is fairly easy to get running on a Linux box. The player models have also been overhauled, so they have more animations, and the game looks fantastic. When complete, Project Zomboid will have a sandbox survival mode, a single-player story, split screen co-op and online multiplayer. http://projectzomboid.com Strife A ‘second generation' multiplayer online battle arena from S2 Games. S2 Games shouldn't be a new name to people who have been following Linux gaming for a while – the company has just given out a whopping load of beta invite for its new multiplayer online battle arena (or MOBA for short) called Strife. I was lucky enough to be invited and delighted to report that Strife is already fantastic. It aims to be a more minimalistic MOBA when compared to games like Dota2. For example, a lot of things are hidden from view to begin with, although you can pin different information to the screen to suit your playing style. Strife plays with the MOBA experience by introducing a pet system. Pets have their own unique abilities, and can be levelled up using food that you acquire after games. There's also a crafting system, so you can create your own items to use in-game and gain the advantage on your opponents. This really is one to look out for, especially given S2 Games' history of great Linux support. http://strife.com Planetary Annihilation That's no moon! No wait, it is a moon – and it's coming this way! So, you have looked up at the moon and thought to yourself “I wonder what it would look like if it smashed into the earth”? Well you don't need to wonder about that any more. The developers of Planetary Annihilation have now included the ability to build massive space drives on moons for you to send them off-orbit and smash into other heavenly bodies. They haven't stopped there either: they have also only just included their own version of a Minimap too, which is essentially the game running again in a small window on your screen, which uses up a lot of memory of course, but it does look crazy! This is easily the most intense real-time strategy you can find on Linux, taking inspiration from classics like Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander. If you are missing your fix of games like those or even Starcraft, we highly recommend checking this one out – just don't blame us if you get addicted. The game is still a little bit on the pricy side right now ($29) but they plan to drop the price once they hit the ‘stable' version. www.uberent.com/pa Starbound So, many, pixels! Starbound is sort of like Minecraft only in 2D and with far more to do. This game is an absolute gem, not only because one of the developers uses Linux, but because of just how fun it is. You can go from one planet that has big scary eyeballs for leaves, to a planet that has pools of lava everywhere and pirates chasing you (no really, that happened to me once). Nothing is more satisfying than taking down a massive UFO Boss that warps down little penguins (aww) with bazookas (eek!), though it does seem a little barbaric killing tiny pixellated penguins on a platform that has a penguin as its mascot! http://playstarbound.com The Swapper Only recently released in the latest Humble Indie Bundle 11, The Swapper promises a very atmospheric puzzleplatformer experience. When we read-up that everything in the game was made from real-life materials we didn't realise just how good that could actually look. From an escape-pod that looks like a can of beans, to freaky talking rocks that look like sponges, the visuals are completely original. The game has some very unique mechanics too: you gain a gun that creates clones of yourself, which you can swap control with to solve puzzles. http://store.steampowered.com/ app/231160 Mutant Gangland Micromanagement got you down? Need some flesh pounding against metal? Enter Mutant Gangland, a very simple-looking turn-based strategy game that pits Mutants against Robots in close-qaurters combat. The game includes a level editor for high replayability, and also throws in the source code for players to create mods with. The team have recently released the first alpha version and we will be surprised if this doesn't pick up some fans. http://mutantgangland.com Godot Game Engine Are you an aspiring game developer? Been looking to make a game, but you don't know where to begin? Godot has you covered! This commercial-grade game-creation kit has been open-sourced under the MIT licence to give other engines a run for their money. It has quite literally everything you need in one package to begin creating. www.godotengine.org/wp SimpleScreenRecorder My absolute favourite screen-recorder software, fully featured and extremely easy to use. I use this software myself to record games as I have found it to be the only software that can perfectly sync audio and video together. If you need more to go on, it's also opensource and free, so I want to see more of you showing us your best play-throughs on the Linux Voice forum!