Linux Games: Heavy Gear II Review

[ Thanks to Matt
Matthews for this link. ]

“In the world of Windows gaming, a vast portion of the 3D titles
released use Microsoft’s Direct3D API. Only a handful of games,
mostly games based on the Quake engines, use OpenGL as their
primary renderer. Thus, it is no surprise that the leading games
using OpenGL were the first 3D games to make their way onto the
Linux platform. Unfortunately, to move past those limits into the
world of 3D games that are not first person shooters something will
have to change. One option is that Windows game programmers start
coding with OpenGL in mind either by using it as an alternative
renderer or at least by separating their engine enough from the
renderer to allow the easy porting to the OpenGL API. Another
option is to give Linux programmers, like the ones at Loki
Software, experience porting Direct3D games that may not have had
OpenGL in mind when originally created. “

“Heavy Gear II is a first step towards this latter solution.
Originally coded with Direct3D, it is the first conversion of such
a title to OpenGL under Linux. (Note that other conversions on
other platforms have achieved the same goal. A prime example is the
Tomb Raider series ported to MacOS by Aspyr Media.) While not
completely a step away from the first person shooter, HG2 at least
widens the range of titles available for Linux gamers and hopefully
demonstrates more the viability of Linux as a gaming
platform.”

“In this regard, Heavy Gear II is a success: it recreates under
Linux the original experience that Windows gamers. From a technical
standpoint then, Loki has won that battle. At the end of the day,
however, people still ask: “What’s the game like? How does the game
play? Is it worth my hard earned cash?”

Complete
Story