Best free (and open-source) FPS games

Joe — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:35:14 +0000

Whilst first person shooters are mainly confined to the console, several good FPS games are available for PC. I’m nothing more than a casual gamer but I enjoy shooters and I was surprised by the sheer number available. I use a Mac, so this article will primarily focus on cross-platform shooters.

AssaultCube

AssaultCube is a quite simple 3D FPS available for Linux, OS X and Windows, which just reached version 1.0 about a week ago. The graphics are not very advanced, but a benefit of this is that it’s easier to run a server and that it can run on nearly any machine.

The best aspect of AssaultCube is the online play; there’s always a few busy servers available where one can play capture the flag, deathmatches or variations on those modes. AssaultCube is limited to seven weapons: sniper rifle, assault rifle, handgun, grenades, knives, shotgun and submachine guns.

Maps can be created for AssaultCube quite easily.

Sauerbraten

Sauerbraten is an FPS built on the same engine on which AssaultCube is built but has much more sophisticated graphics and is built in a fantasy world as opposed to a real one.

In Sauerbraten, weapons include crossbows, guns and rocketlaunchers. This is definitely a more interesting variety than AssaultCube! Once again, CTF and deathmatch are popular game modes.

The game notably lacks a crouch mechanism and struggles to run at higher resolutions on my MacBook Pro. However, it is an amazing open-source game with many fantastic maps.

Once again, Sauerbraten is orientated towards online pay but the CPU games are much better than AssaultCube’s.

Interestingly, the game can also be played as a 3rd person shooter!

Nexuiz

Nexuiz is an FPS with quite fictional weapons, like electricity guns etc. The game clearly belongs in the realms of fantasy, being set on a space station where one must shoot aliens.

I find the game difficult to play. Movement is far too fast compared to Cube engine games and it really does require quick reflexives.

The game isn’t smooth either. Before a game starts, there’s a text-only screen telling me what is loading etc. and the menu at the start looks terrible, especially at my screen resolution.

It’s still a fantastic game to play, however.

AssaultCube

Sauerbraten

Nexuiz

Needless to say there’s scores of other good games, these are just my favourite free (as in beer and freedom) shooters.

Tags: assaultcube, computer games, first person shooter, fps, free-games, freeware, Games, linux games, mac games, nexuiz, Open Source, sauerbraten, shooter, video-games, windows games

Sauerbraten Summer Edition

Martin — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:14:06 +0000

Sauerbraten Summer Edition is an ego shooter that was created with the Open Source engine Cube 2. The game features single- and multiplayer game modes and looks incredible if you consider that this is an Open Source project and not a commercial one. The single player part of the game reminds me a little bit of games like Serious Sam and the original Quake games.

You start in an area and have to reach the end of the level to win or proceed to the next level. Enemies are appearing with several abilities and it is your task to get rid of them as fast as possible. Several weapons make your life easier, expect the usual assortment of weapons like Rocket Launchers, Miniguns and Shotguns.

The multiplayer part contains all the popular game modes such as deathmatch, base capturing, instagib and several others.

Sauerbraten Summer Edition is a nice game that is uncomplicated to play. Definitely worth a download. A roleplaying game using the same engine is in the making as well.

homepage: sauerbraten

Tags: cube 2, deathmatch, ego shooter, multiplayer, Open Source, sauerbraten

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Best free (and open-source) FPS games

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