nexuiz: a quake-like open source game for Linux

by Joe Jr Yamut
Posted On May 24, 2007

this game, Nexuiz, adds to the handful of games i play on Linux. i just stumbled upon it by accident last night, after i also discovered yet another kewl game on Linux – Open Arena. Nexuiz is a fast paced, 3D, first-person shooter game like Quake. it has very good graphics and effects. you can play it over the Internet or on the local area network. game types like deathmatch, capture the flag and etc., are available. one can play it in single player mode against bots, as well. it runs natively on Linux. which means that you don’t have to have cedega or wine to be able to play Nexuiz.

i was struck by the graphics quality of Nexuiz. it is almost, if not the same, as Quake 3. i mean come on let’s face it, gaming on Linux is poor. so when i headed over to their official website and looked at a couple of screen shots, i just knew i had to download this game. and after experiencing this game, i wasn’t disappointed at all. perhaps the only great commercial game that i know of that runs natively on Linux is NeverWinter Nights. and it’s the only game that i really consider as a game on Linux. now i have another one! sure there is Scorched Earth 3D, which also runs natively on Linux and is pretty fun to play. but then it is like a kiddie arcade game. yes i can play Warcraft 3, Starcraft or Quake 3 on Linux but i have to run it through cedega. not that i complain.. . but we Linux-users need more games that are native to the system. not emulated. not through some application layer where Windows DLLs and all that garbage are interpreted for Linux.

maybe there are other great Linux games out there that i don’t know of yet. point me to one if you know of any. with Nexuiz, this gives me another reason why i don’t have to shift to Windows just to play a decent game. i had a great time playing it with my friends tonight.