Linux and games

[themightymonkey]

So im sure someone has already written this but i could not find the thread in the time i have. Can games such as Battlefield 2 be played on Linux. I have heard of Wine and some program thats costs ccalled Cadea or something of that nature but i also heard they are full of bugs and games often crash while playing. Is there any alternative to just buying windows xp?
Thanks

[faulkner132]

There are ways you can play games in Linux, Wine and Cadera being the foremost, however if you want to game, you should use Windows. Home edition should work fine. This way you don't have to worry about DirectX and driver support.

[ChaosLord40k]

Native games that run on Linux without the need of a compatibility layer (Cedega, Wine, CrossOverOffice) have been made to run on Linux.

If you decide you want to run games on Linux, remember, nVidia is THEE BEST OPTION to get games to run beutifully; then the other GPU vendors (Intel most notebly, Matrox, 3DLabs, maybe a few others), even dead ones (3DFX cards still run good, better then ATI IMVHO (though, SLI for 3DFX was never implemented; who cares). ATI shouldn't even be your last choice. It will only leave a bad taste for Linux gaming in your mouth. If I had a choice between having the taste of a dead racoon (I never had one in my mouth) that I picked up out of a freeway and dipped in a septic tank, or have the taste of an ATI + Linux experience in my mouth... I would have to think about it. (because I kow ) The following is NOT an EXHAUSTIVE LIST of native games for Linux(neither are the compatibility layer section; I gave links to different databases showing the huge list of games, working ones as well as ones that don't; first the Native Games):

Epic:
Unreal 1
UT, 2k3, 2k4, and the upcomming 2k7 along with all the mods (if not most).

ID & Splash Damage:
All the dooms (1.x, 2.x, some of the bastard childs were not ported (like the N64 only Doom64), 3.x)
Wolfenstien 3D, Return to Castle Wolfenstien, Enemy-Territory
All the Quakes (1.x, 2.x, 3.x, 4.x)
Herectic (1 and 2)
Hexen (.... all of them)
etc.

Bioware:
Neverwinter Nights series (all of the first iteration of NWN)

Linux Game Publishing:
(Linux Game Publishing do ports, but also just publish already ported games)
Gorky 17 (sifi bio-monster survival-horror rpg mix... crazy game. I played it all the way through. Great)
Coldwar (A Splinter like game, except started before the first SC game... only played the demo)
X2: The Threat (I hate Space games)
Postal 2: Share the Pain (FPS, Grand Theft Auto without the stealing of the cars, but more death)
Majesty Gold (A RTS game, king sim, where you ONLY influence your kingdom to do your bidding. Love it.)
Software Tycoon
Hyperspace Delivery Boy
SoulRide (3D snowboarder game... think Tony Hawk except different rep and with snowboards)
Mind Rover (Older version done by Loki, listed somewhere below)
and a few others...

All of the LGP demos are found at there web page: http://demos.linuxgamepublishing.com/

(Linux Game Publishing owner Michael Simms announced he in negotiation of a AAA title and a AAAA title. Both is said to be one of the best in the last 5 years. No contract as been signed though, but he said he would get an answer at the end of the month that I wrote to him (which was about 2 weeks ago from this post)).

Loki games:
(Sadly, when Loki entered the Linux gaming market, was in 1998... you can imagine what they had to go through back then, and in early 2k2 they ceased operations, but not before porting hot titles back then. And still good now)
Civilization: Call to Power
Sid Miers Alpha Centauri and the expansion
Soldier of Fortune (bought it recently, rocks)
Rune and expansion Rune: Halls of Valhalla
Tribes 2
Postal Plus
Heavy Metal: F.A.A.K.2
Mind Rover (LGP picked this up, and offers an update for 3 dollars for the Loki version, but offers there own for full price as well... to clear confusion of price up)
Unreal Tournament (ported it)
Kohan Immortal Sovereigns (re-released by Transgaming with WineX lib... this was obviously before Cedega around 2k2)
Heavy Gear 2
Sim City 3000
Descent 3 (other descents ported too, but not by Loki... open source so it's always updated. More or less)
Erics Ultimate Software (bleh.... free ones are good, unless you would like to support Linux gaming, I would)
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (the other version work with Cedega, and possibly Wine/CXoffice)
Herectic 2 (porters)
Myth 2: Soulblighter
Quake 3 (ported, and maintained by ID, and also by icculus.org's version of Q3 under GPL)
Rail Road Tycoon 2

Loki's demo still work to an extent, but more information on some of the installers can be found if you(or anyone) ask me. I'll help. But here anyways: ftp://sunsite.dk/mirrors/lokigames/updates/

Garage Games:
Alot of games... but I can only think of Legends (free beta version of Tribes 2, since the dev's here used to develop Tribes 2), and Dark Horizons. (A mech assault clonse(?)).

Ryan Gordon, ring leader of icculus.org:
(Ryan gordon is known around the Mac and Linux gaming community (more so IMHO for Linux) as the Linux gaming market, and maybe the Mac too, but I don't think so... correct me someone)
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, & the expansions Breakthrough and Spearhead. (Last stable release is BETA 3 as the writing of this, but has been so since 2004. Playable though, sound is wonky, and the graphics are off here and there. It's a one man operation so don't pressure him. He is doing Mac and Linux folk a favor)
Icculus Quake 3 (It's actualy a collaboration of people working on it, but can be found at his site. Ported Q3 since it's GPL'ed day to cc Irix, PPC Linux, x86 Linux, x86_64 Linux, Alpha Linux, x86 FreeBSD, x86 NetBSD, Solaris x86, Solarix Sparq, Mac OS*, & Windows)
Porter of Postal 2 to Linux, and Mac.
Porter of several Epic games and game servers to x86 Linux (even x86_64 Linux!) and OSX.
Ported Second Life to Linux.
Ported Google Earth to Linux (It's a game to me )
Ported Serious Sam First Encounter to Linux
Ported Serious Sam Second Encounter to Linux
Ported Devastation to Linux
Was lead developer for Loki games to port several games to Linux
This along with a slew of other games he has ported.

Introversion:
Darwinia (Nice retro 3d RTS)
Defcon (not out yet)
Uplink

Illwinter Game Design
Domions 2 and 3 (not sure about 1)

Tribsoft
Jagged Alliance 2 (Fallout clone(?))

[ChaosLord40k]

And now for the Windows Compatibility Layers that run Windows ONLY titles to Linux:

NOTE: ATI for native games are bad enough, but it just an atrociousty for emulated games.(argueable that compatibility layers are emulators... I could care less) Really... they are.

Transgaming
Sell a fork of WINE with heavy DirectX implementation (Though, WINE is catching up steadily) to run DX heavy games. Before you invest in this, SEE IF YOUR GAME RUNS FIRST at the TG Games Database: HERE
The subscription costs 5 dollars a month, with a 15 dollar first time payment for 3 months. You get to vote one what you want TG to work on next. It uses a nice interface which (more or less) does all the configuring of all the text files to get your game to install and play seamlessly.

Some of the notable games that run (some with modifications that the GUI should handle):
Oblivion (with oldblivion, should change soon)
Steam with HL1 and 2 with the mods. Full MSHTML support, so you get the see what your clicking)
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield Vietname
Battlefield 2 (works like crap at the moment)
Everquest
Dark Age of Camleot (I used to play this, until I realized I was being milked too much by Mythic; runs but no nice ToA (or whatever the best exp is) graphics, so only older ones run)
WoW (runs fine, except with ATI; ATI is bad for most games on Linux)
Eve Online
Warcraft 3 and Exp (works like I am playing in Windows... if not exactly)
Diablo 2 and exp (same as Warcraft 3)
Starcraft (bad online menus(can still play online, just the menus), but overall plays fine)
Max Payne 1 and 2
And a HOST of other games worked. BUT NOT ALL!.

Again ATI works more HORRID with compatibility layers then the native games.
And AGAIN CHECK TO SEE IF THE GAME YOU WANT PLAYS NICE!

Codeweavers:
(Make a fork of WINE with ease of installation and running in mind. Costs money, but supports the WINE project)
Though, geared to run desktop and server apps (Photoshop, MS Office, etc), the recent version (6.0) has more support for games. Most noteably WoW and Half-Life 2. I can advocate that HL2 runs much smoother on Codeweavers then Cedega, but Cedega, even though seems more like hacks put together to get games to run, runs more games.

WoW
HL 1 and 2
Probably a small list of other games, but does seem to be more stable, so better gaming experience. And just a one time price (of like 39.95 dollars for standard and 69.95 for Pro, but could be worth it for you. Just try the 30 day demo).

WINE
(WINE stands for Wine is Not and Emulator... it's a recurssive acronym)

Cedega and Codeweavers are based on this Free Open Source project. Cedega stopped working with WINE because of licensing issues (and is hated by what seems like many, but the success stories may just not want to get into the cross fire), but Codeweavers actively works with the WINE project... even some (or most) of the employees came from the WINE project.

A lot of games work with WINE... though many MMO's don't(WoW does), it does run a host of older games that Cedega just can't. Here is a small list, but check out the database they have for more details: AppDB for games & Main AppDB page that shows the best supported apps.

I'm only going to name a few:

StarCraft
All the Half-Life iteration (1 & 2, with mods)
Steam (Duh )
WoW
Max Payne
Mohaa (because the Native is crap, but I only play the native MOHAA so I can support Ryans G.'s work)
And alot more... just check the database.

Theres a host more I know that, but I need to finish a couple things, so I'll be back to review what I wrote and add to it. (if need be)

I hope this really helps. Remember:

nVidia is the number 1 choice for Linux gaming,
then it's the other GPU vendors...
then ATI, actualy no... ATI shouldn't even be on this list. It's that bad, and I have exp. with ATI and Linux, but no proof.
So the `other' GPU vendors would be the last option. Hell I'd choose a Voodoo 3 over a 9800. (hmm... yea I would)