Arx Fatalis Open Sourced!

Good news everyone! Arx Fatalis, an awesome first-person RPG from 2003's source code was recently released under the GPL.Their dev team, Arkane, was acquired (thanks Sindwiller) by Zenimax last year which is interesting because id, the legends whose open source patronage we have to thank for almost all of our FPSes, where also aquired by Zenimax in 2009; I can only hope it becomes tradition for the rest of Zenimax's subsidiaries

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Arx wasn't your run-of-the-mill generic fantasy RPG either: it has a rather unique setting (a frozen, lifeless planet where everything living has retreated to underground tunnels) and a bunch of interesting game mechanics (gesture/rune based magic casting, multiple factions to interact with, and a bunch of other interesting tidbits). It was a bit overlooked due to the Elderscrolls 3: Morrowind having been released the previous year, but this underdog is still definitely worth a play (the game is still available on Steam and Good Old Games)

So, the code needs quite a bit of cleaning up before we see it running on Linux or anything the like, but it would really be a nice inclusion to one of the slightly less-represented genres in foss gaming, so get coding! 

Stunt Rally 1.0 plus Pioneer and LambdaRogue

I thought I'd come out of the desert back to this oasis of fun for the evening. Some emails to the freegamerblog gmail account (yes - I check it, sporadically) prompted this post. I do try to respond to everybody, even if sometimes I leave it a few weeks *cough* or months *cough* between logging in to the account.

Stunt Rally

Stunt Rally is a modification of VDrift which takes the VDrift physics engine and adapts it to the Ogre3D graphics engine. Add in a few really nifty Ogre3D-based components (terrain etc) and you have a very cool FOSS rally game! Since it was originally mentioned on the blog a few months ago, progress has continued unabated and the game has improved a lot.

In fact, the 10th public version - Stunt Rally 1.0 - just got released! 35 tracks to drive on, in 6 sceneries, and 7 cars to choose from. There is also a fully functional Track Editor to create your own tracks or modify the existing ones.

Above is a gameplay video of Stunt Rally. There's also a track editing tutorial (part 1, part 2) and more videos on the authors YouTube page.

Rigs of Rods

Another cool driving/flying/anything game is Rigs of Rods and development activity continues with the project more than ever since it became open source. Here is the 2010 RoR tech demo video:

Another cool, if less exciting Rigs of Rods video is this showcase for a hill climbing map. It does include some dodgy physics and trees, but the damage to the overturning cars is impressive and some of the views are spectacular.

I do wonder, so very publicly, if RoR suffers from being a bit too flexible. I mean, I don't see much 'game' in there. Lots of simulation, but the idea of loading crates or driving articulated lorries over hilly terrain... it just doesn't appeal to me. Racing on Stunt Rally does. Perhaps that's a challenge for the RoR team in 2011 - to present a more fun side to the game in addition to the simulating nature of it. Then again, simulating is fun for some.

...this post is turning out a bit longer than I planned. Let's be a little less ponderous.

LambdaRogue

LambdaRogue 1.6 just came out. This graphical rogue like looks fun. If you like RPGs but can't get into the ASCII nature of most rogue-likes (i.e. like me) then this is worth a download. It comes with both hi-res and lo-res tilesets.

LambdaRogue

Pioneer Space Sim

Pioneer. This is wicked. Dynamic planets. Check out these gorgeous screenshots (lifted from this thread). 'Nuff said.

Pioneer Space Sim

I'm off before I start to write an essay on the latest Free Software games...

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Alright time for a review of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for the Nintendo DS. Down below is the review broken  down into section like the previous reviews. It will be separated into "Gameplay", "Graphics", and "Audio". Enjoy!


Gameplay:
So it's been quite a while for this game to come out. The first 2 golden suns were originally on the GBA. Several years later the long waited third one comes out for the DS. I am glad it did. Now this game take place 30 years after the golden sun event in the second game. Before I go on, no you cannot transfer your saved games from the first or second golden sun. Anyway you play as the "Warriors of Vales" children. Along the way you will run into many familiar faces from the previous games. The game is about 25 hours long in gameplay if you take your time and do not rush through it like a maniac. There are alot more Djinni in this one than the previous games. There are about 70 Djinni's in Dark Dawn. There are new summons as well, and many summoning tablets to be found. Now the game is very simple. A lot of people were complaining about how easy this game was to the previous games. Yes it is very easy, but very enjoyable. The story makes up for the difficulty. What I like about this game is if you have not played the previous golden suns and are completely lost, you are able to buy sun sagas from item artifact vendors. When you use these items it tells you the story of what happened in the previous two games. There are alot of psynergy abilities to use, you get all new characters, many new puzzles, lots of dungeons, and lots of variety. You are even able to make your own weapons when you see the old lady in Champa.

Overall: 9/10

Graphics:
The graphics in Dark Dawn got a huge revamp as well from the previous two. Well king of obvious when Dark Dawn is released 7 years after The Lost Age and put onto the DS. The art and animations of the summonings are very impressive and very detailed. The weapons are also very cool looking when you discover the power houses. Character detail is very impressive, and as well as the environment.

Overall: 9.5/10

Audio:
Lets start with the soundtrack. The music in this game is very catchy and is very pleasant to listen to while you are playing. There are a lot of familiar soundtracks in Dark Dawn that were in the previous games, including the intro when you first boot up the game. Even the sounds of the psynergy, and attacks were really detailed and have great quality. Overall very impressive and very nice to listen to.

Overall: 10/10

Overall Rating: 9.5/10