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Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is a hard-core, multiplayer, first-person shooter that will run natively on the Linux operating system. Built off a modified Doom III Engine, Quake Wars was released late 2007, and it is the favorite game of the LinuxHow2 crowd. In the following review, we will show some screenshots, share our thoughts, and give you a few tips on installing this game on your favorite Linux distro.
 5 ouf of 5 stars
What is it? Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is a first-person shooter, class-based game that's a sequel to the runaway hit Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Set in the same science fiction universe as the Quake II and Quake 4 games but with gameplay resembling the original Enemy Territory, Quake Wars is a huge, action-based experience. 
Who am I? In Quake Wars, there are two factions to choose from: the GDF (Global Defense Force, a.k.a. the humans) and the Strogg (a conquering alien race Hell bent on taking over the Earth, a.k.a. this writer's team of choice). For both sides, there are five available classes; these classes are similar between the two teams with some key differences; the classes of Global Defense Force consist of Soldier, Medic, Engineer, Field Ops, and Covert Ops, whille the Strogg classes are Aggressor, Technician, Constructor, Oppressor, and Infiltrator, respectively. 
Is it any good? The gameplay is, in short, amazing. Each mission consists of essentially a battle between the two forces, where one force is defending territory, while the other force is attempting to conquer or overtake that territory. For example, as the Strogg, you may find yourself helping to build a mining laser, which will essentially create a hole into the GDF's defensive territory, or as the Strogg you might be defending a portal, which leads back to your home planet (exactly the kind of portal those rotten GDF would like to get their greedy fingers on). The game gives you enough soldiers, artillery, vehicles, giant mechanized robots, automated weapons, carnage and explosions to make it hard to focus on your objectives, but that's half the fun, isn't it? 
Yeah, but how does it look? I cannot say enough about the visuals. The graphics are stunning. The game employs a new technology known as "MegaTexture" for rendering the individual images of the maps. It eliminates commonly found texture bugs and discrepencies found in previous games. Each megatexture is derived from a 32768×32768 pixels (1024 megapixels, or a gigapixel) image, which takes up around 3 gigabytes in its raw form (with 3 bytes per pixel, one byte for each color channel). This leaves you with battlefields that don't lose definition (fogging), as they reach the horizon. The pictures are crisp. You're left with enough eye candy to leave you with that sick, achy feeling all over, where you just cannot get enough. 
What about the Installation...?Don't be fooled by the box, this game isn't for Windows only. You don't have to run it with a Virtualization system or with wine. It will run perfectly off your native Linux distro. After you buy the copy of the game from your local store, shove it into your DVD player, then go to this link http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/linux/etqw/ and download the .run file for the full version of the client-side executable for the retail game (if you're feeling lucky, you can also install the server version and host the game yourself). After you download the .run file, execute it through a terminal (you may need to be root or use sudo to do this; also, if you're on a 64-bit platform, run the executable using the linux32 command). Make sure you have the latest and greatest 32-bit SDL libraries before installing; you may also need the 32-bit glib library if you're on a 64-bit system. The client program will ask you some standard questions, like where you want to install the game and stuff, and if you want to install Punk Buster (an application that helps prevent cheaters from wreaking havor on your gaming experience). After the game finishes installing, cd to the install directory (usually this is /usr/local/games/etqw). Once in there, run the etqw.x86 executable (if on 64-bit platforms, use the linux32 command), and you'll be on your way to Enemy Territory: Quake Wars heaven. Uh oh, the game don't work...derOk. Don't be alarmed. We may have a quick solution for you. If, when you try to run the game in a terminal, you see some resolution errors, try checking your xorg.conf file; you may have the wrong default depth for your monitor; if the default depth is 16, try changing it to 24 and restarting your X server (remember, a good practice is to always backup your xorg.conf file before making any adjustments). Ok, maybe the sound isn't working. This is a common problem. You'll know the sound isn't working, because there are lot of explosions and gun fire. Try running the following as root or with the sudo command: echo "etqw.x86 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss This fixes a glitch with the oss library and the game engine (though I've seen this problem more often with the original Enemy Territory than with the new Quake Wars). Also, there's been reported problems with 64-bit platforms and the 32-bit glib 2.7 library. This combination results in the game freezing. If you're running into this, either hope and pray they fix this bug soon, or try and downgrade to the glib 2.6 library. If you're still having problems, post a query on our forum. We at LinuxHow2 check it all the time, and we may be able to solve your issue.
Am I having fun yet?Don't be surprised if when you first play this game you wind up spending more time dead than alive. It's helpful to play the computer a few times before diving into the online experience; online players tend to be more ruthless and savage than your average PC these days. The vehicles can be particularly difficult to master; it's worth it though; there's no greater feeling than driving a mechanized warrior through an enemy's territory and blowing his tanks to smitherines. Whether you side with the GDF or the Strogg, you'll have plenty of fun defending your territory or conquering the enemy's; maybe it's the twisted, dark side of me but I think you'll get more pleasure out of spawning as a sick, devil-incarnate alien and blasting humans into small chunks and entrails. Maybe not. Whatever the case, I highly recommend finding a server with some Windows gamers on it and showing them what we Linux gamers are made of. Crush the human resistance...save the world. Only registered users can write comments.
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. Did you guys set it on low texture quality? I've played the game in other platforms, and I know it looks much better then this.
