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elcome to the tenth mega compilation of Linux games. The magic number! ... one more ... This time, I truly do not have any grand opening. The only thing I'd like to mention is that the games included in the Humble Indie Bundle, as mentioned in my Linux news article, will be reviewed separately, in the eleventh compilation.
Now, let us begin. In no particular order.

Caster

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Caster is a third-person action shooter game, where you play an elfish-like creature of the Caster race, fighting bug-like thingies called Flanx. In the game, your task is to collect energy balls while avoiding or kicking Flanx as you master progressively more complex and difficult episodes. Sounds simplistic? Far from it.

In addition to Flanx, You will encounter other strange, gooey creatures that might pop along. With twilight setting, soft yet pervasive electronic music, thunder and lightning illuminating the rain-drenched forest scene, Caster plays rather well. Toss in toxic clouds, mini earthquakes and surprise attacks, and you're in for an unexpected treat.
The game has a very surreal feel, which definitely adds to the atmosphere. It's evident in the little details, the sound of discharged weapons, the sound of your own feet running. The lighting is just right. It is tuned to make you feel slightly uncomfortable. Energy balls will home onto you like a magnet, adding to the crazy beat. The surreal dominates, infused with green and purple colors.

You also have a few special moves, like super-jump and super-fast dash, which you can use to dodge enemy attacks or clear obstacles. Then, there are also Matrix-like bullet-time transitions, which kick in when you gain new weapons. You have six weapons available, each with its unique powers. Use them wisely.


All in all, Caster is a very interesting game, taking a somewhat formulaic idea and turning it bright, vivid and original. The game costs USD5, but there's a free demo available. Definitely worth a try.

Danger from the Deep

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Danger from the Deep (DftD) is a very unique game; it's a German WWII submarine simulator. Your goal is to sink Allied merchant tonnage as much as you can while avoiding embarrassing death in deep seas. You play the game as a submarine crew, manning one of many stations, including periscope, the engine room, the torpedo room, Captain's room, and more. If my memory serves me well, there used to be a late-DOS era game of similar concept.

Danger from the Deep is not easy to master. All of the panels and buttons have German writing, in a wiry font that's hard to read. So you might need to guess some of the functions, although most are kind of intuitive. Then, what you need more than even rudimentary knowledge of German is patience. Submarine simulators are not designed to be plug-and-play games. You will spend quite a bit of time sailing about at comfortable speed. You will need time preparing for the attack, arming the torpedoes and watch them lumber toward merchant ships. If you're a Counterstrike kind of person, this is not for you. DftD is Das Boot, played on the computer screen.

The game menus are adorned with old-style sepia photos and accompanied by soft pre-WWII music played on scratched vinyl records. The atmosphere is right, kind of slow and oppressive, as it ought to be in small, smelly electric diesel submarines.


The graphics level is also quite good:


Danger from the Deep is still a very early release, alpha or maybe even pre-alpha, so it is not recommended for general populace. You may struggle with the installation and there could be bugs. That said, I managed to install the game fairly smoothly, although the installer asks for sudo. Furthermore, some libraries were missing, but after installing them from the repository, it worked just fine. There were no crashes or any problems.
I can't ask you to try it, due to its release state, but you may want to bookmark it and test once it's mature.
Danger from the Deep is a very decent game. Marked!

FreedroidRPG

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FreedroidRPG is a sci-fi isometric role playing game, originally based on Freedroid Classic. In the game, you play a robotic creature of the Linarian race, which happen to look just like Tux, the Linux mascot. After waking from a 70-year stasis sleep, you learn about a terrible war between humans and robots. Now, it's your duty to save the world by killing the rebel robots, which look like 1950s-era futuristic-envisioned trash dispensers.

You play the game Diablo-style, wandering about, collecting items, gaining experience points and strength, and killing and hacking enemy robots. In a way, Freedroid is a sci-fi mix, with story premise somewhat like I, Robot by Asimov, Diablo gameplay with just traces of UFO: Enemy Unknown, and modern elements of geekiness revolving around Linux and hacking.


FreedroidRPG has a very decent atmosphere, with quirky music to set the mood. It's not the most astonishing work of graphic art, but it's reasonable and compensates more than well with humor and solid gameplay. While the game may appear simplistic, it's quite elaborate. You get tons of weapons and tools you can use, plus there are elements of repair, damage and hacking. If you overheat, you will temporarily shutdown. Similarly, you can use all kinds of tactics to try to take over enemy operating systems. Very original and challenging. Even at the easy level, fighting enemy robots takes skill, patience and clever tactics.

To get started in the game, you should definitely complete the tutorial, aided by aptly named Tutorial Tom, a human scientist who will teach you about basic movement, item collection, close-range and long-range fighting, as well as taking over enemy robots.


FreedroidRPG is a very sweet game. The graphics style reminds me of Little Big Adventure, so it's a definite nostalgia bonus. The gameplay is rich and challenging. I'm not a big fan of role-playing games, but FreedroidRPG has something special about it. You should try it.

X-moto

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X-Moto is a simple, addictive, challenging 2D motocross platform game, with focus on fun and physics. Your motorbike will do anything you ask, clinging to surfaces like Spiderman, but you will have to be very quick with your fingers and make good use of obstacles, ramps and other objects to finish levels on time. The game introduces progressively more difficult episodes, which require some really clever acrobatics to complete.
A perfect innocent game when you're in a mood for some fast-paced arcade. X-moto has a staggering collection of colorful levels. Furthermore, you can download a level editor and create your own custom maps.

Simutrans

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Simutrans, as its name implies, is a transportation simulation game. The game is an open-source remake of the legendary Transport Tycoon Deluxe (TTD). Like OpenTTD, the game is a modern adaptation of the DOS-era game, with enhanced AI, much more sophisticated transport capabilities, new features, and more.

You may be put off by simple graphics - but you should not be. Simutrans is an extremely realistic and challenging game, with complex transport network system and strict rules, without which your business empire won't get far. In fact, I must admit I've only started exploring the game and I feel quite intimidated.
Learning the realistic basics of a proper transport infrastructure is not a simple deal. You will spend your first several hours floundering, wondering how to get going. Compared to OpenTTD, Simutrans is much harder and far less intuitive, although, if you're familiar with the former, you'll have some advantage.
For instance, I managed to build a two-stop bus line in Walden, without any major difficulties. But compare the available selection of tools, like many traffic signs that are unavailable in TTD games. You also have end and transit stops. Similarly, railway stations require entrances, signals and a whole lot more before even a first train will run. Intimidating, but a whole lot of fun.


You can compete against AI players, but there's no online multiplayer mode. You also have scenarios. The game offers an in-depth level of customization and settings, allowing you to adjust the game difficulty to your skill and fun levels.
I cannot claim mastership in the game, but Simutrans has bitten into my soul. I can feel it. I shall be talking about Simutrans in the future, I just know it.
P.S. You may also want to read my OpenTTD review (the first one; second coming too) and the super-important version 1.0 release milestone, which comes with completely free graphics and sounds, meaning you no longer have to have the original files to play the game.

Conclusion

There you go, five games in this collection, some shooting, some role-playing, simulation, and arcade. Eventually, I'm going to run out of new collections and start recycling titles, but that day has not come yet. Linux gaming is a bottomless well; it sure shows no sign of drying up. Tastes and mileage may vary, naturally, but I do feel most if not all of the games I've reviewed warrant more than just a fleeting glance.
I hope you liked it. As always, if you have games you'd like to see reviewed, whether you're a fan or a developer looking for some exposure and support for his/her project, feel free to drop me a line or three.
Cheers.
Team 3Yaar

Oh, we did talk about top payware games, but which ones are truly the best? If I had to narrow the list down to just five games, which ones would those be? And how do you decide? Well, the price is one thing. If you're willing to shell out a few drachma without hesitation, then it's the first good sign. There's the excitement, of course. Nostalgia factor plays a lesser part here, compared to free games, but it might just be the extra incentive you need.
While year 2010 is far from being over, this article lists my prime choices of payware games currently available for Linux. I believe they offer the best overall experience in terms of fun, completeness, detail, and depth. In other words, these games are a creation of well-crafted, well-executed professional work. Plus, most importantly, at the end of the day, you feel good about playing them. While they cannot compete with twenty years of ancient sainthood that OpenTTD or Scorched 3D have, they still are a very decent bunch.
So here we go. Please note that this article is a compilation of reviews already done. Most of the stuff below is taken from my other articles, so if you've read them, you'll see familiar bits and pieces. But it's definitely not a verbatim copy & paste, so don't begrudge me for recycling. In fact, I've thrown in a few surprises, so it pays off to read the whole thing. What more, if you want one article that sums it all nice and plain like, then you've come to the right article.

Prey

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Prey is a Doom-style, Doom-derived First Person Shooter focused on a disgruntled Cherokee named Tommy who just happens to be in the wrong place at wrong time. While defending the honor of his girlfriend Jen against drunken patrons in a bar, Tommy, his stereotypical grandpa and Jen are abducted by an organic alien ship. While conveyed through the ship's interior, Tommy somehow wriggles free and begins a journey of saving his love and grandpa from becoming bio-degradable ingredients of an extra-terrestrial lunch. Possibly the most bizarre love story, except Romeo and Juliet.

The game has stunning graphics and the same terrifying, nerve-wrecking elements like Doom 3, with the right play of lighting, squeaky noises in dark corners, lots of slime, and ugly-looking monsters. The atmosphere is just right and you experience genuine fear while playing. I know I have. In fact, the same genuine fear has kept me from completing the prequel-father game Doom 3. The dark setting, the creepy noises, it was just too much.


I've reviewed the game not that long ago and it's also listed in my top payware game collection, so if you're in a mood for a few more paragraphs and some extra screenshots, do head there.

ETQW

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ETQW is a class-based team-oriented First Person Shooter, with hybrid strategy elements very similar to that seen in Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory, which explains the commonality in the game title, as well as the execution of the game action. ETQW places emphasis on mission objectives and close cooperation with your buddies. You utilize the classes to achieve advantage on the field of battle. The asymmetric order of combat makes for a daring, unpredictable experience. Plus, there's a flake of nostalgia too. Fans of the ever-lasting, refusing-to-go-away Wolfenstein will surely like it.
There are five different units available, each with its unique abilities. You can fight either as a human (GDF) or an alien (Strogg).



Humans have the common troopers, who fights with a handful of rifles and grenades. Then, there's the engineer, who can do all kinds of engineering tricks, build defenses, place mines, and sabotage enemy vehicles. The Field Ops is very similar to Engineer, except that he touts heavy artillery. Medic has the role of helping and reviving stricken comrades. Covert Ops can snipe from afar, place surveillance cameras or disguise themselves as enemy units, infiltrating behind the enemy lines.
Strogg units include: The Aggressor, the equivalent to human soldier; The Technician, who can deploy temporary energy shield shelters and some heavy guns and call in air strikes. The Constructor is similar to GDF Engineer; one of the novel technologies he can use are gravity mines, species-oriented so that only humans can trigger them.  Oppressor is the Field Ops counterpart, carrying lots of heavy weaponry. Lastly, there's the Infiltrator, with a rather self-explanatory job description. Infiltrator can take the shape of enemy troops and teleport himself away from danger, but has less firepower and sabotage abilities than the human unit. As you can see, the Strogg favor offensive and force, hence no medic.

And so you rush into combat, surrounded with beautiful, stunning graphics, a handful of vehicles, including quads, jet packs, tanks, heavy engineering vehicles, and whatnot. There's artillery, air strikes, anything and everything that turns engagements into a swirling, breathtaking chaos. ETQW is plain simple great. It's tremendous fun, with all the legacy greatness of Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory, plus new graphics, extra detail and even smoother, more streamlined combat. Enough said.

ETQW can be found online priced quite cheaply, due to the fact it's been out for quite some time, so you can enjoy this excellent game at a bargain price. For instance, it sells for only USD7 on Amazon. Lastly, I've written a complete review, so feel free to read it.

Heroes of Newerth

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HoN is a cross-platform online multiplayer Real Time Strategy, based on Warcraft III. The game takes away the building and hoarding elements and focuses on the development of hero characters. Your goal is to defeat the enemy faction by destroying its spawn, which is achieved by destroying the enemy infrastructure of defense towers and barracks, fending off waves of enemy soldiers and, of course, battling your arch-rival hero with brute force and magic. You are supported in your holy mission by constantly respawning armies of bot units called creeps, which will blindly rush forward against the enemy, to kill or be killed, it matters not.

You can choose among three major categories of heroes, including strength, agility and intelligence, which defines your character growth. The defining quality of your hero determines the best way to engage the enemy, stay alive and progress in levels. And it's not all about fighting either. There's a lot to be done. Buy recipes and mix dangerous, lethal spells, hoard artefacts that enhance your fighting and survival capabilities, fight neutral creeps about the map to gain strength and experience, use creeps to set traps and lure danger away from you, cast powerful spells to cause mayhem and confusion on the enemy. It's a blast.

The game is very fun to play. It's well made, complete, has a good pace, lots of colorful elements, and turns a seemingly simplistic task of rushing forward and smiting your foes into a balanced strategic onset. Last but not the least, HoN is a smart and much needed addition to the Linux real time strategy scene.
It's important to note that HoN is designed by S2 games, the same company behind Savage 2, a hybrid First Person Shooter game, which has made its way into my reviews on a few occasions and into the top five freeware list, too. The familiar quality of execution and attention to detail is evident in both works.
Priced at USD30, it's a heavy weight in this bunch, but it's worth the investment. For a full review, hop hither.

Vendetta Online

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Unlike the other three games, Vendetta did not have an individual article on Dedoimedo, but it was reviewed at length in my sixth thread.
Vendetta is a space MMORPG. It's about piloting spaceships in a vast universe. You do this with hundreds and thousands of other people online, building your own career path as you choose. You can focus on fighting other people or being a peaceful trader - or both. You can ally with other players and form military and political factions. As you accomplish goals, you will earn money, allowing you to buy better ships, better weapons and more of the trading goods. This is done is a vast, complex Universe, which creates a sensation of a real world you can immerse yourself into and genuinely enjoy.

Each player can have up to six different characters, allowing him/her to enjoy different career paths. Furthermore, there are three playable nations to choose from, alongside a number of non-playable factions that spice up the story. In this regard, Vendetta Online is similar to other games, but it deviates from the rather standard, formulaic Dungeons & Dragons scenery and technology into a futuristic setup.
You start with some simple yet critical training that will help you familiarize with game concepts and maneuvering the spaceships in a zero-gravity environment. And yes, it's done with style, including off-bore shooting that you don't usually see in games. After that, you enter the endless, cruel world of economic struggle, political intrigue and conflict. The game is beautifully done and executed well. It feel real and it's quite addictive.

You can play the game for free for 8 hours, after which you will need to subscribe on a monthly basis.
Vendetta Online is in continuous development, with new features added all the time, the most recent of which being the ability for several players to serve as a crew aboard the same ship. Star Trek, anyone? It's a very decent game with an affordable price. In return, you get a unique experience unmatched by any other MMORPG.

World of Goo

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After playing all day long killing and mutilating people, World of Goo is an excellent respite from violence. It's an innocent yet challenging, all-family game of intellect, with a very surprising, addictive twist. Who would have thought that blobs of goo and some physics could be such a hit? Indeed, it's the simplicity of the game matched with a scientific twist that makes it so popular with just about anyone. Be they kids, adults, geeks, everyone can enjoy World of Goo. But what's it all about?

World of Goo is a beautiful, compelling puzzle game with a strong focus on physics. Using the word physics can frighten people, so you should know there are no nerdy equations waiting for you. The puzzles all focus on little blobs of goo, which you need to lead to an exit pipe by constructing structures like bridges and towers, fighting gravity and terrain. The physics is all about having fun in a world constrained by physical forces, just like our own. Solving the puzzles requires some ingenuity, as well as basic 3D spatial intuition. The puzzles become increasingly difficult as you progress through the game chapters, with the Z axis and vectors added.
The game is very simple in its premise, which is what makes it so great. You do not have to invest hours digesting the game interface or learning to rules. You start having fun instantly, and tons of fun at that. Add some light music and quirky cut scenes, and you're in for a big treat.

Truth to be told, I was skeptical about the game the first time I tried it. But after only a few moments, I was having tons of fun. It's weird, but it works. You get addicted. For a very strange reason, the World of Goo graphical settings creates a soft, pleasant backflashes that remind me of Leisure Suit Larry, sans the Woody Allen elements, and the original Worms, sans the bazooka moments. You know you're playing an entirely different genre, but you get a cozy feeling of long familiarity that should not have been there. It's a true testimony to game's success. USD20 and it's yours.

Conclusion

Time to end this article. The five games that will bleed your budget but IV-infuse you with joy and fun in return. My list of games worth every buck or any other world currency spent. Some may have a little steep tag, but it is balanced by the overall mix of pace, style, graphics, game story, and challenge.
All of these games are cross-platform, so you can enjoy them on other operating system as well. Theres' variety to be had, too. Single player, multiplayer, at home or online, role playing, classic strategy, puzzle solving. I have not intended to have balance in this list, but the games kind of naturally filled the right spots.
I recommend you start with demos and trials and see what gives. I believe you will have found a new collection of great items to play and explore. Along with the freeware collection, you have the rest of 2010 to get convinced in my choices. You won't be disappointed.
Cheers.

All right, I've bored you to death with two rather prosaic articles debating the Linux security model, in direct relation to Windows and associated claims of wondrous infections and lacks thereof. However, I have not shown you even a single program that you can use on your Linux machine to gauge your security; all of the solutions were conceptual, which makes them universal - a good thing.

Today, I will focus on specific vectors of security, within the world of reason and moderation that I've created and show you how you can bolster a healthy strategy with some tactical polish, namely software.

Do not expect wonders or detailed guides how to setup this or that NIDS. That's not the idea. The idea is to help you understand the core elements of security, focus on identifying your needs and leverage them with a flexible and transparent solution. The choice of software will reflect your needs.

Let us begin.

Linux security as a concept

Linux security revolves around minimizing exposure to malicious code by using digitally signed repositories, minimizing accidental or automated damage by using a non-root account, default file permissions, with diversity of software as a reserve.

Now, some of the suggested repertoire might need some small tweaking.

Keep the system up to date

This is a very simple, very important piece of the puzzle. Make sure the software repositories are configured and that you have an automated update mechanism in place. Having your system fully patched is always a good idea.

Firewall

Firewalls sound like an interesting concept. Basically, a firewall is a tool that controls the traffic flow in and out of your machine. Firewalls are configured to permit traffic you initiated and asked for and blocked traffic that was sent without invitation (unsolicited). This holds true for firewalls on all operating systems.

To work with one, you do need some basic understanding of networking. Luckily for you, most distributions ship with a firewall enabled, with default rules that permit a reasonable level of comfortable use, without any special changes required. In a few cases, you may need to create manual rules to allow additional functionality, like Samba sharing.

Some distributions ship with a graphical management console for the firewall, which simplifies the usage. Others stick to the command line, making them less suitable for new users.

Here are a few examples:

Firewall in Fedora 12:

Ubuntu, on the other hand, ships with the firewall disabled, because there are no network-aware services running, hence no need for a firewall. Hence, no management console for the firewall. However, you can very easily restore the missing bits with additional software like gufw:

openSUSE:

Scanning for malware

This is so 90s, when you think about it, still some people have this dire need for scanners. In that case, you may want to consider using either the rkhunter or chkrootkit scanners, both of which will probe your system for nefarious changes. Both are command-line only.

Using these scanners implies a deeper understanding of the Linux system. Then, there's the question of what to do if you encounter a problem. Can you really trust a subverted machine? How do you recover? You should definitely read my previous article for that.

Anti-virus (not needed, but read on)

You do not need one. Seriously. Honestly. It's not required. It's useless. In the worst case, if you can't let go of your Windows demons, go for a free solution, so you need not waste your money on something that is redundant by concept.

There's ClamAV (including Klam for KDE), as well as a number of commercial products that have started shipping solution for Linux. Then, most anti-virus rescue CDs are based on Linux. Clam-based versions can be found in the repositories.

As a security measure, anti-virus products are problematic, due to the signature-based nature, which is always competing against malware creators and always lagging behind. The only sensible reason to use anti-virus on Linux is to scan files that you receive from your friends running a flavor of Windows before forwarding them to other Windows users. That way, you may break the chain of accidental malware spreading. You may not notice or care, but your clueless friends could. The best solution is to have no friends, but most people fail at this.

On that note, please consider reading my whitelist vs. blacklisting article.

Still, you need not have a resident program running on the system. You can go for a web solution, like Jotti or VirusTotal, both of which use multiple scanners to detect malicious content. Upload a file and it will be diagnosed by a host of dedicated anti-malware software.

You can also consider using dedicated security distributions for offline, in-depth system scanning and analysis. A forensics distribution like BackTrack sound like a very good idea.

You may also sin the sin of using a Linux-friendly Windows-based preinstalled environment (PE) like BartPE or UBCD4WIN, which also come with scanner utilities for Linux, too.

Startup applications and services

If you're in the mood, go through the list of applications and services configured to run on your machine. You may discover undesired processes running, hogging resources and possibly exposing your machine to threats, as well as plain doing things that you do not want. While this can take the form of system optimization, it can also have security implications.

As an analogy to Windows, think of these as the msconfig and services.msc utilities.

System awareness

System awareness goes beyond malware. It's about controlling your system and knowing what's running when, where and why. There are tons of tools available, many already installed and waiting for you.

If you've read my Linux cool hacks, both parts one and two, you've learned about a few useful system tools that provide a better visibility of what's happening inside your system.

I'm going to mention a few, just briefly. Some of these will have their own dedicated article, with numerous examples and screenshots.

/var/log/messages

This is the system log. Almost everything goes in there. Reading the log will give you an indication of possible system issues, including software errors, as well as possible security-related items. You do need some knowledge to read the file properly.

/var/log/secure

You can configure your machine to log ssh and sudo attempts to a separate file, like /var/log/secure. Then, you can examine the log for any privilege escalation attempts or remote connection attempts.

Examine logged in users

There are many ways of doing this. The most accurate one is to parse the output of the ps command. But you can also use w and who and lastlog. Manually dumping utmp and wtmp can also work.

Processes accounting

If you use pacct, you can write a log entry for every command successfully completed on your machine. Then, you can dump the log and look for suspicious entries. Automating the mechanism can provide you with a useful early warning system.

lastcomm lets you print out information about previously executed command, sort of a head against the pacct log. Furthermore, you can enhance the power of process accounting by using sar.

Audit files

It is possible to audit core system files. This is what audit is for, a built-in Linux kernel auditing facility, which allows you to monitor changes to critical system files. I'm going to write a dedicated article soon. Stay tuned.

Other tools

You also have a range of other utilities available, like netstat or nmap, which can help you examine your machine network visibility

Geek stuff

There's geek stuff, of course. For example, you may want to use system hardening tools like AppArmor, by creating special, sandbox-style profiles for your applications, which are then restricted from doing harm to your system, should an unwanted privilege escalation occur, due to an error, a bug or a vulnerability.

There's also SELinux, available in most RedHat-based distributions, like Fedora.

Conclusion

I've written lots of stuff. So what do you take from this article? Well, firewall seems like the best single solution overall. It's useful and sometimes rather necessary. Anti-virus and malware scanners are definitely not needed. The rest is perks. Take it or leave it. You can run a comfortable desktop life in Linux without so much as lifting a finger, with most distributions configured properly, including firewall enabled and running and hardening profiles preconfigured for you.

You may want to invest time in learning how to use the logging tools and facilities, as they offer a wealth of useful information. Properly configured and used, they will replace the need for commercial tools that strive to do that for you.

Server security is a different matter altogether, but for home use, you're in a really good shape. Just make sure to keep the system patched, install software from official repositories and run a firewall. The rest is polish.

Windows users moving to Linux often suffer from a panic surge due to the sheer lack of security-related buzz, but it's really simple and quite boring. There's no need to go overboard. You can invest your brain cycles in having fun. That would be all.

Cheers.