Penumbra Trilogy Now Available in Linux
One of the most common complaints I hear about Linux is that you can't play games. There are actually quite a few games that run natively in Linux, and many others that run well in Wine or Cedega. But once the Windows fanboys voice a complaint, I've never known one who would let facts get in the way.
Anyway, there is now another set of games available in Linux. I was reading
Blog of Helios this morning (a very good blog, by the way -- and he does some great advocacy work for Linux; check it out) and he
wrote that the Penumbra trilogy is now available in Linux.
The Penumbra trilogy are not your typical shoot'em up games, where you carry (sometimes literally) tons of ammunition along with 800 pounds of weaponry and blow apart hundreds of monsters -- and then you go to Level 2. Penumbra has a real-world physics engine that allows you to interact with the environment in a realistic fashion. If you see an object, you can use it. Pick it up, shove it, throw it -- whatever you think will help you at the moment. There's a full review of the games
here.
I haven't tried these yet, but I wanted to get the word out today because for this weekend only, you can get the trilogy for $5 USD. Just five dollars -- if you drop $5 on the floor, it's not even worth bending over to pick it up. But that will get you these three games that have just been released in Linux.
The Penumbra people took a leap of faith in porting these games to Linux. They deserve our support. And as software publishers see that Linux users are happy to pay for good, well-designed games -- they'll publish more games for Linux.
Don't wait -- the special $5 offer is for this weekend only. You can purchase the games
here.
And while you're at it, check out the
Blog of Helios. He works hard to get computers into the hands of disadvantaged children. And of course the only practical way to do that is with Linux -- otherwise you have to spend a lot of money on software licensing.
