World Of Goo

Image via Wikipedia

Not a very enticing name for a game dont you think? Anyway, World of Goo is a physics based puzzle / construction game. The millions of Goo Balls who live in the beautiful World of Goo don't know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious.

Although the game can get extremely challenging at times, its surprisingly fresh both in terms of graphics and gameplay. It has a Windows, Mac as well as a Linux (yeah!) version. Mind you though, this is a closed-source game (albeit it uses many open source elements). Also, its not a free game, the full version of the game costs $20. However there's a demo version available on their website which is completely free to download. Hence, you could give it a try before you decide to buy.

Official Site of World of Goo : www.worldofgoo.com
Download links : www.worldofgoo.com/dl2.php?lk=demo

Wine Application Database

I'm not sure how many of you know of this, but WINE (the Windows emulator for Linux) has an application database which lists how each and every software will work on it. It has Platinum, Gold and Silver categories which is representative of the functionality/responsiveness of the program. So before you buy a Windows game or a software, you might want to check out if the game/software is included in the list.

Link : Wine Application Database

Cartman's Authoritah

Thats Cartman from South Park in case you havent guessed it already. Cartman's Authoritah is a really cool, light weight game which in my opinion every South Park fan should have a go at (and yes, it includes the choicest of Cartman quotes). By the way, its a Windows game. Worry not though, because it works perfectly (yes, absolutely perfectly) under WINE. (If you havent installed WINE yet, you should check out this link here: How To Install WINE)

The screenshot of the game is given below (Cartman and Kenny):



I dont usually recommend using Windows games on Ubuntu simply because they can sometime be very buggy, but I'll make an exception in this case though. The game is absolutely free and the best part is its only 1.43 MB!

So, you have absolutely no reason not to download it and give the game a try.

You can download the game from Download.CNET.com, the link is here: Cartman's Authoritah

Full Circle Magazine Podcast

The guys at Full Circle Magazine have started an Ubuntu podcast. At the moment its a fortnightly audio podcast with episode 1 already being released.

It has various sections about News, Tech stuff, Gaming and loads of quintessential British humour! :P

I gave it a listen and its hilariously awesome. Seriously!

You can download the podcast or listen to it live aka streaming. The runtime for the first episode is about 37 minutes.

This is the link to the page: Full Circle Podcast #1: Stop Wine-ing and Go Native!

djl Game Manager

I found this awesome piece of software yesterday. It basically is an installation wizard/manager for all popular Linux games, and has a great interface. It has single click installation and removal options, hence even a complete novice can use it with ease.



"Djl makes it possible (via a repository) to download, install and remove a reasonable number of games placed into a distrobution independent subdirectory (but without dealing with any dependencies). It can also execute .desktop shortcuts located in another directory (this way, it's possible to launch games which were installed before djl)." [Description given on their website]

To download this manager, visit this site: www.en.djl-linux.org and download it from the links given on that page.

Say goodbye to compiling and building games packages.

Plethora of Ubuntu games and softwares

If you're tired of the default Ubuntu packages/softwares/games etc. (well they're pretty extensive though, it should probably take you months to try out each and every software in the repos), here's a really cool way to install external apps without worring about tar.gz or extracting files etc.

For Ubuntu apps:

Its called GetDeb. It has loads of really good and useful softwares, and the best part is its just a one click install. But before you can download these, you need to install a small package (dont worry, it is small, just a few hundred KBs). The instructions for installation is here. The rest is self explanatory. Browse through the extensive list of softwares here and just click on 'Install' for the program you like. And bingo, it will be installed. No fuss, nothing.

For Ubuntu games:

The site is called PlayDeb, its a sister site of GetDeb but this one's dedicated to games. So before you start installing go through the installation instructions (basically install a package, this one's again in KBs) here. Then just browse through the huge list of games here and click on 'Install' for the game you like.

Enjoy!