November 28, 2008 -- Earlier this year we shared that Valve's Source Engine is coming to Linux after receiving some information that pointed in this direction. In addition, a year ago Valve Software was publicly looking for a senior software engineer to port Windows-based games to Linux platform. There have long been rumors and hopes among Linux users that Steam games would become natively available for Linux, but we have additional confirmation that Valve Software has ported their Steam game client to Linux. In Valve's most recent title, Left 4 Dead, there are shared Linux libraries shipping alongside this Windows game client.

October 18, 2008 -- While not commonly mentioned at Phoronix, Alien Arena is an open-source sci-fi first-person shooter that has been around since 2004 and uses the CRX engine, which is a derivative of the Id's GPL source-code. Version 7.20 of Alien Arena 2008 was released this week and a few features had caught our attention. In addition to a number of game-play improvements, Alien Arena has received a number of improvements to its graphics renderer with GLSL program management, parallax mapping, new lighting, new shaders, and other work.

October 17, 2008 -- A week ago we shared that Linux Game Publishing, the company that has ported games to Linux such as Cold War and X2: The Threat, was bringing Jets 'n' Guns to Linux. Just a week later this 2D side-scrolling arcade game is now being distributed to LGP's closed testing community. We have our hands on the first beta of Jets 'n' Guns for Linux and in this article are a few screenshots.

September 15, 2008 -- For several months the Blender and Crystal Space projects have been working together to develop an open-source game they hope will be of a professional quality and deliver an industry standard 3D gaming experience. This game, now called Yo Frankie, was supposed to be released at the end of August, but that deadline wasn't met. However, released now is the first technology demo for the Blender Game Engine. This tech demo is playable and includes a small level from Yo Frankie, but to be released soon will be a more game-oriented demo that includes additional characteristics and game-play options.

June 23, 2008 -- For seven years Linux Game Publishing has been selling their Linux-ported games with no form of copy protection on their CD/DVDs, but beginning with their forthcoming port of Sacred: Gold that will be changed. Linux Game Publishing has developed their own Internet-based game copy protection system for Linux, and in this article we have more details on this scheme as well as their motives behind this work.

June 22, 2008 -- In addition to game updates for Savage 2 and Sauerbraten last week, also released was the first beta of Sacred: Gold for Linux. However, unlike the other games, Sacred: Gold is limited to the beta testers within Linux Game Publishing's closed program. Though as we are part of this testing team, we have screenshots and more details on this game being ported to Linux.

June 21, 2008 -- Formerly known as Cube, Sauerbraten is an open-source first person shooter game built upon the Cube engine that has been entertaining gamers for years. Sauerbraten has come along way when it comes to advanced rendering features, maps / game-play modes, and other features, with a sign of these improvements being the Sauerbraten 2008-06-17 CTF Edition release. As implied by its name, this most recent release of Sauerbraten introduces a capture the flag game-mode. In addition to the CTF gaming support, there are many other improvements and new features, with this being the first update since the end of 2007.

June 02, 2008 -- Back in February we shared that Cedega 6.1 was soon to be in beta and yesterday it finally arrived. The first beta release of Transgaming's Cedega 7.1 (codenamed "Tovik") is now available. Cedega 6.1 ships with support for Shader Model 3.0, new game capabilities, stability improvements, performance enhancements, and more.

May 07, 2008 -- There have been rumors since last year that Valve may be serious about porting Source games to Linux after Valve Software began seeking a senior software engineer with the responsibility of porting Windows-based games to the Linux platform. Valve Software has yet to officially announce Linux clients for any of its software, but at Phoronix we have received information confirming that Valve is indeed porting its very popular Source engine to the Linux platform.

March 25, 2008 -- In addition to CodeWeavers announcing the availability of their new CrossOver Games product to play popular Windows games on Linux, S2 Games has today announced the availability of the Linux client for its "Savage 2: A Tortured Soul" game. Savage 2 is a fantasy-themed game that is a combination of a first person shooter, real-time strategy, and action role-playing game. This is the sequel to "Savage: The Battle For Newerth", which was also ported to Linux some years ago.