XONOTIC - GPLFPS of a Different sort

If you can see this, boils and gargolyes, you are wondering why I've secceeded into that OTHER next-gen GPLFPS. Simple. You're not gonna like the ending, though, Nexuiz veterans.

Let's start with the basics, will we?

Nexuiz was originally developed by Lee Vermeulen and Forest 'LordHavoc' Hale, who started Alientrap Software in the summer of 2002. The goal of the project was to create a high quality first person shooter that could be played freely across all platforms in one package: PC, Mac, and Linux. The engine that powered Nexuiz was Forest Hale's Darkplaces engine.

The first version of the game was released in 2005. Development continued with many online contributors over the years, with version 2.5 released in October of 2009. Since its release it has been downloaded over 5 million times, and is included with many Linux distributions.

In mid-2010, it was announced that a new XBLA, PSN, and Steam downloadable version of Nexuiz would be done from the ground up by IllFonic using Crytek's highly anticipated CryENGINE3 game engine.

That's where everything blew out of proportion... and out of the airlock, naturally, for Nexuiz players.

In short: everything was fun and games of death when Alientrap created this gem of a freeware FPS we called Nexuiz out of the modified Quake DP engine... until that team of showoffs named IllFonic showed up and announced the console version powered by CryENGINE3 like they own the game or sumfin'.

*PFFT* Least they were so kind to put the classic Nexuiz up for download.

While I appreciate the Victorian-style designs - after all, it's not "The Beauty of Brutality" for nothing - this did not bode well for we freeware gamers and Nexuiz players. It was an outrage - a bleedin', fraggin' OUTRAGE! So great was this outrage, we would make AT wish they NEVER did that!

So sad, and yet so true, that all this is happening live before all our faces.

That's where the fork comes into play.

That's where Xonotic comes in.

Some of us were smart enough to fork early in March 2010 and continued where Nexuiz left off. The classic deathmatch you knew and loved in DooM, Quake, Painkiller, Serious Sam and other classics with next-gen effects known in Halo, F.E.A.R., Crysis and so on... only this bird's focus is on the community - power to the people, you might dare say.

And what did I do? Easy.

A hijacked game with its absentee founder and the hijackers themselves has no future at all as it stands, so I promptly blew this old deathmatch joint for another.

Don't believe me? Take a stroll here and you'll see what I mean.

Of course, I had to pay respects to the original AT freeware FPS Nexuiz (by playing some deathmatch games, of course) before moving on to the future that is Xonotic, the community-powered Phoenix of GPLFPS. You too can be part of the team, but heads up - some of the community can be... crude and crass.

Hey, isn't democracy that way?

GuwangeDash - Annihilatin' Big in Japan

(Cripes. And just when I thought XenoFighters R is the only crossover shmup...)

GuwangeDash, AKA Guwange-Ruga-Daioujou-XII-Kizuna-Down (Ugh. Long title's gonna stick with me for a while...), is like one massive shoot 'em up party from the fine japanese folks from the GuwangeDash 2ch thread - and naturally, everybody's invited.

Let's do the math, will we, folks?

CAVE +

Treasure +

G.Rev +

every doggone STG developer left

=

the unholy japanese freeware fanfiction shmup mess that is GuwangeDash.

The situ in a nutshell: looks like the ultimate in military dictatorships, consisting of the worst of the worst of an already bad bunch in the world, have finally got our one and only Blue Planet in Sol that is Earth all under their control, all with the help of the most omnipotent gem large and in charge behind the scenes.

But just when you think all hope's gone with the wind... better think twice, 'cuz here comes the most lethal shmup All-Stars squadron, ranging from hi-tech fighter-bombers to assault helicopters, from oldie-goldie veteran spaceships to the bleeding edge in fresh military technology, all ready to make this alliance of evil shmup enemies and bosses equal to the ground.

There's one catch, alas: what of this Dream Team would you pick to go on a one-fighter starfleet rampage through a bullet curtain of death?

One thing's for certain, though, in this shmup war to end all else: if you're goin' out in a blaze of gory glory, the enemy would know they've been in the fight of their lives.

Only one way to find out: download this gem of destruction from our friends in the Land of the Rising Sun and let it rip.

BIG time.

Because the second I'm in one the fighters, trigger on finger, the enemy in front of me and the computer says "DESTROY"... everything's about to go south for the bad guys.  

WAY south.

Xeno Fighters - The Ultimate Tribute Shmup

To tell you the truth to begin with, femmes and mechs, I have quite an unhealthy addiction to sci-fi action games - especially FPS and shoot 'em up games. And this humongous tribute shmup over here, created by Team XF, ain't no different: Xeno Fighters in its current R edition. Glorious to think that it all began when Alluro got hooked on Raiden Fighters' manic gameplay and wide ship roster in '97. The rest, as they said it best, is history...

history in the form of the ultimate freeware indie RF-style tribute shoot 'em up to end all else.

Imagine yourself into a future where BRES, consisting of Keto lizardbreaths and human traitors, has declared an all-out, everything-goes war on human military history itself, and ATHENA's Anemoi squadron - the balanced Amada Vipros, the fast Phyxius, the damage-dealing Zaiva and the finesse Xelcor - is the one and only roadblock on the traitors' roadtrip to space/time domination. But with a wide array of guest fighters also making up ATHENA's fighter-bomber roster, spanning dimensions, human imagination and different video game eras, the BRES traitors will learn the real hard way the Anemoi ain't flyin' solo. That history's flying on their side.

Again, to tell you the truth, all you pilots out there, I used to play this shmup way back when I was a kid... 2003's EX version, if my memory's correct. Believe me, all of it was freakin' glorius just watchin' all those alien scumbags' sea-air-land-space military forces and their superweapons burst into flames from your starfighter's ragin' assault throughout military history, the future, space and beyond, right up to the final battle with the Xeno Mothership, all while heavy metal and techno music blare through your helmet's headphones.

Best part of it all: it's freeware.

'Twas a grade-A toughie, though. Only some real veteran starfighter pilots can survive an ordeal this extreme, and boy I'm glad I was one. But hey, with Xeno Fighters R's latest beta version, V0.10 out, I can report back to active fighter pilot duty any freakin' time I want. I can get my fighter-bomber of choice up in the air and, for example, lay waste to a wartorn city full of enemy tanks, big and small and really big, and turn an entire bomber squadron and its fighter and attack jet escort into airborne debris - especially if they are high above Hungary.

Oh yes. And make that giant leap into outer space and beyond - and right on top of BRES' space forces - for all mankind.

Guess what: that time's now. Why not you, too? If you feel up for some wanton shmup destruction, download the latest beta and blast away - or the 2003 EX version if you jones for a historical fixin'.

For all I care and love, I would love making those invadin' alien airheads attend their own funeral pyres time and again...

XP Freeware and Optimization Guides

Want your Windows XP as optimal as it can be? Eradicate malware from your PC and securing it tight? Unlock your XP system's potentional? And debunking all those fake-o myths about XP?

www.optimizeguides.com is your best bet, including the following freeware apps and games:


Sacrificing every single hundreds of credits for software you can download at home for free? Get real. Take advantage of the better freeware XP apps here. Expect no adware and spyware, demos and shareware here.


Dying to make a killing with one of the well-known games, but don't have to spend a dime for it? These better freeware XP Games will solve that problem easily. Like the freeware apps, no spyware, no adware, no shareware, no demos - only freeware.

Mozilla FireFox

"Faster, Safer, Smarter, Better". That sums up Mozilla's FireFox in a nutshell. A customizable, secure, feature-rich, and organic (open source community-powered) web browser, Firefox is so fast, so smart, so safe, so BETTER, SO FREE, it is no wonder at all why ol' Foxy's the browser of choice for all of free humanity on Earth. In fact, this little log of mine doesn't do justice here...

So it's high-time you left unstable IE sleeping in the mud and switch to FireFox right now - and you'll see what I mean.

SubSpace/Continuum - Massively Multiplayer Spaceships

Meet people from all over the world... then kill them.

That line pretty much sums the mission up for SUBSPACE, an old favourite of mine and widely considered to be an early entry into the massive multiplayer online (MMO) craze, thanks to its more unprecedented than usual player count... not to mention inspiration for SOE's Infantry and Cosmic Rift. And thanks to the free Continuum Client, doing that statement is free, your time, your Zone, your ship, your victim... your call.

Ever imagine what it'd be like to play Asteroids against your friends? Want to savor the satisfaction of blasting people out of space in some addictive side-scrolling 2D spaceship shooter action?

Slap on some snazzy graphics, guns, bombs & big explosions and the beautiful revelry of flying past your enemy's debris as they cuss at you, and you have Continuum, the longest running massively multiplayer spaceship shooter game running today.

Still not enough to get you into the mix? Then this Subspace intro by its original developer, Virgin Interactive Entertainment (VIE), will give you one devilishly awesome 3D spacefighting - and a good idea of how UGLY things can get in the Subspace universe, one in an eternal Deathmatch chaos with neither beginning nor end:

Once you had your healthy dose of space rage, then you know the drill: go to http://www.getcontinuum.com/, download the Client, create your Profile, pick your ship, a Zone... and get your outer space frag on, pilot. Space is an infinite place - and yet there's no place to hide, and when the time for Deathmatch comes, you will know what to do.

WARNING: Constant exposure to this dangerously addictive space shooter action MMO game can lead to severe, irrecoverable starship combat addiction most extreme!

UFO 2000 - X-COM Remake of the Real Deal

If you miss the good ol' days of the EXtraterrestial Combat Unit - X-COM, the days of man VS alien combat on a galactical scale, weapons from LASER to Plasma, and that scary atmosphere of war, then you know what that means. Me - I miss them too. So, without further ado, I present to you:

Lose not hope, X-Commies, for this open source remake of the real deal uses elements from the X-COM series you all knew and loved - but wait, there's more - such as Multiplayer Support, something that, even in our best dreams in '93, we cannot imagine pulling off. Plus, for everything old you have, you need to get something new for a change - take new weaponsets for instance. From UFO 2000 to Galactic, there will be more than enough Human and Alien firearms for your soldiers to get their hands on and start blastin' away. Trust me - X-COM, as you know it, has gone open source to all of us.

So what are you waitin' for? Throw those wannabe remakes into the Recycling Tanks with their fancy-schmancy new features and get this 2D-bound, yet infinitely adapting and addictive remake of X-COM: Enemy Unknown, constantly updating, right here at: http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/

WARNING: the multitude of customization of your soldiers and high number of strategies you can use in this addictive game can cause irrecoverable anti-alien warfare addiction!

End note: for all action junkies looking for an X-COM action remake, I recommend Soldat X-COM, courtesy of http://svgames.prv.pl/.

Alien Arena - Retro Sci-Fi FPS

Do you like fast paced deathmatch?

How about rich, colorful, arcadelike atmospheres?

How about...retro Sci Fi?

Then you know what that means, folks...

Creating the perfect marriage between Quake and Unreal Tournament, between retro sci-fi and futuristic tech, and between casual gamer and advanced expert, and wrapped up in a package with quality that could rival that of commercial games, Alien Arena will send you to arenas never before fought on, strange new weapons with unique features, and against opponents that are out of this world - literally speaking, of course. If you have imagined giving those Martians from Mars Attacks! their plasma-based just desserts or jumping into the eternal depths of space, guns blazin' in the battlefields of yesterday's Worlds of Tomorrow, then imagine no more. From DeathMatch to All Out Assault (DM with vehicles), Capture the Flag to Team Core Assault, no 2 battle's the same - and no 2 aliens will be spared from a few well-placed Rockets (heheheh...).

Being a fast, fun and free FPS for Windows, Mac and Linux, all you need to do is download the game, install wherever you like it, and get your frag on. Oh - and as for the game? Right here at http://icculus.org/alienarena/rpa/.

Overall, a highly recommended FPS game for all the Retro Sci-Fi - and hardcore FPS Action - fans out here.

TAGAP - The Apocalyptic Game About... PENGUINS?!

What do you get when you mix a penguin with cybernetics, bio-engineered drugs and arm it to the... err... beak with enough heavy weapons to turn an army of enemies into gibs? That's right - you get Pablo the Cyber-Penguin, the star in Jouni Lahtinen's
and his team Penguin DT's freeware Soldat-Turrican hybrid sci-fi/action game...

TAGAP - The Apocalyptic Game About Penguins

As far as Jouni and PDT's concerned, we adore penguins - but testing experimental military stimulants on animals like them is SICK enough stuff, and this game, boils and gargoyles, is a worst-case-scenario of pyrotechnical sorts.

[Pablo - one mean lil' penguin, armed to the beak]

Here's the rundown on this said scenario, accordin' to Recon:

A short time ago, a certain military supplier has succeeded in connecting a living brain into a computer. This was done with the aid of Dr. Glowenko's design-drug, TAGAP (Tissue-Augmenting, Green, Addictive Pill). Glowenko then, without warning, went insane and decided to get his death-grip on the world with an army of (guess what?) cybernetic PENGUINS!

One of the penguins, codenamed "Pablo", wasn't too happy about being used in the "mad scientist" act and revolted against Glowenko, who soon decided to put a TAGAP-price on Pablo's head and sent his penguin army – led by the fearsome "Pedro" – after him.

This is where YOU, as Pablo the Penguin, come into the world of TAGAP.

'Sides, if someone has the guts to actually try penguin world domination, we're all up for it. But wait, femmes and mechs, there's more:

TAGAP 2 - Meaner penguins, bigger guns and more pills!


According to sources, the story about this sequel takes place a couple of months after the events of TAGAP. It seems that Dr. Glowenko was actually hired by an international organization, Random Evil Pharmaceuticals (REP), to build the cyber-army. However, Dr. Glowenko soon went nuts with his cyber-penguins and cut his connections to his REP benefactors, leaving them with nothing but a step-by-step guide for creating killer penguins. When Pablo and Pedro track the supply-trail back to the remote warehouse, they stumble on an even bigger cyberzombie penguin army, leaded by general Primo, the latest and most advanced cyber-penguin ever. More advanced and better equipped, Primo and his troops are going to finish what Dr. Glowenko’s own private army once started:

To conquer the world!


Here is Surveiliance information about REP, straight from the blog:

Aptly named Random Evil Pharmaceuticals (or REP for short) is the fabric that ties everything in TAGAP 2 together. While concentrating mainly on drugs and health care products, being a massive multi-sector, multi-national enterprise, REP has subsidiaries all around the world. One of those happened to be Glowenko Industries, the REP CEO's own pet contracted to create an invincible army of killer cyborgs. Unknown to the CEO, Dr. Glowenko (being the nutcase he was) abandoned the proper research and went on for a "penguin apocalypse".

Their genius Dr. Glowenko going AWOL and solo, REP finds themselves left with perfected blueprints of a cyborg army... of penguins. Still eager to continue the project, but lacking a visionary leader able to adapt the technology for use with other species, REP restarts the project creating a new penguin army – and a new general, Primo.

And when Pablo and Primo stumble upon it all, the game is on.

And one more thing: this is why I LOVE indie, freeware games. I HIGHLY recommend TAGAP for all those freeware, sci-fi and action fans - includin' Soldat and Turrican ones... not ta mention the penguin-lubbers.

Trust me - you'll be addicted to those green bio-modifyin' pills in this indie fragfest. Just don't overdose, right? (One more note: judging by the names in the Office level, is Jouni a DooM addict, or is it just me?)