Linux multiplayer gaming

The past year or so must have been the longest I have gone without gaming (simple flash or card games once in a while don’t count). I’m into both first-person shooter and strategy games, but it has been a while now. I hardly ever use my desktop PC which has a pretty decent graphics card (even by today’s standards) and enough power to run the games without issues and although the laptop is better powered in other areas, there was this apprehension that it won’t be suitable for gaming.

I resubscribed to Transgaming recently and got the latest version of Cedega which allows you to run Windows games under Linux through a sort of emulation. I also made sure they didn’t double charge me like last time, but when it came to trying out some of the latest games, I couldn’t find any decent ones.

Counter Strike is a pretty old game now, but it’s still loads of fun and one of the few games that will run on everyone’s laptop, including the lowly Pentium IIIs. We have even setup teams for it within the office and it is running very well on my laptop (Pentium M 1600MHz, 512MB RAM). By this time, there may even be a Linux client for it, but I haven’t seen any so Cedega it is.

At first I tried playing using the laptop’s pointing device, but that was quite unbearable (though Riz seems to be quite effective with it). Then I tried my Logitech trackball which is excellent where accuracy is required (sniping for example), but not very good for assault. Now I’ve dug up an optical Logitech mouse that I had at home which is working out nicely.

My other favorite, Warcraft III, is supposed to work very well since it is well-tested and fully supported by Transgaming, but for some odd reason, it is too slow to be playable. I’ll have to try harder to solve this issue. Other games on my “toplay” list include Half Life 2, Oblivion and some car or bike racing game. And multiplayer gaming can’t be complete without Quake III.