Azimuth

Azimuth is a really nice looking metroidvania inspired by greats such as Super Metroid. Fly around freely with your ship exploring the insides of a huge planet while fighting enemies and uncovering the story. The game is at version 1.02 and looks really polished, complete with bosses and many other challenges. A genre I really can't get enough of, so this should be worth a try!

Open Fodder

Open Fodder is simply put an open source clone of the game Cannon Fodder. As with most similar remakes you will need the original data files to play, and because I don't have them I can't say how far the project has come. But it seems to be rather complete juding from the screenshots and available information, even having support for several different campaigns from various versions of the game, so fans of this classic ought to check it out.

Taisei Project

Taisei is a Free clone of the Tōhō series of games. It's a bullet hell shooter with some nice art and six levels. There's even some well-drawn artwork and cool 3D backgrounds. It is also pretty much completed at version 1.1. It looks cool and it's a genre I like, so it's cool to see a Free game like this. Well woth a look for fans of the genre! (Oh, and you might need a video to really appreciate how this plays.)

Taisei showing one of it's promised bullet hells.

C-Dogs SDL - 0.6.5

Frequent visitors know I like the game C-Dogs SDL. Besides being very fun, development is very quick with many new features to play around with in each release. This is of course also true with 0.6.5, which contains a new campaign, a new character editor as well as some additional weapons, using a new more advanced collision code. Look at the video below for a small example:

Example of the new hitscan weapons from C-Dogs SDL.

Xonotic - 0.8.2

The super-awesome FPS Xonotic have released version 0.8.2 after over a year of work. It's a big release, with loads of improvements to UI, in game menus, spectating and all those small details that makes this a fantastic e-sports game. There are also several new maps, even nicer weapon models, several improvements to vehicles, mini-games to play while waiting for the next match, new game modes, a new type a grenade that slows down time around opponents and of course many many code improvements and fixes. Get it while it's hot and enjoy it's amazingly tuned gameplay and fantastic sense of polish.

A short clip from Xonotic showing of the new HUD shake effect.

Tank Arena

Tank Arena is an arcade game from 1997 that just got it's source code released, qualifying it for a mention here. :) It's playable against another player on the same computer in either a deathmatch, race, capture the flag or co-op play. There also seems to be a bunch of single-player levels to tackle alone. You can drive tanks, chopper and planes and there are several different ones to use, as well as four different worlds, a complete map editor and joystick support!

A few screens from Tank Arena, showing classic pixel art and splitscreen play!

C-Dogs - 0.6.4

Ever-fun run-and-gunner C-Dogs just got it's new nice walking animations! There is also a new features that lets objects spawn items when destroyed, so now you can get healthpacks by destroying those crates!

Here's the new walking animation in action. Looks fancy!

Hurrican

I had no idea Hurrican was open source! This 2D action run-and-gun, inspired by the classic Turrican, not only has super smooth gameplay and jaw-dropping graphics, it's also complete and features nine worlds and two-player local co-op. Get those gamepads ready and go blast stuff!

I'm so impressed by how good the graphics in Hurrican looks. Super-polished and so very detailed!

zSILENCER

There's just so many Free games out there to find! A quick look around for something new to write about got me zSILENCER. It's a re-created Free version of a game called Silencer, where teams of agents utilize all sorts of technology in order to find and bring home top secret information before the other team. It's sort of like a game of capture the flag, set in a 2D cybercrime setting. The premise sounds both fun and unique, and several agencies with different specializations should give multiplayer-fans something to chew on. Game stats and a list of top agents can be found on the official page, which is fun for those who feel competitive.

The dark cyberpunk-ish graphics give zSILENCER a nice atmosphere.

Liero / OpenLieroX

Liero has a special place in my heart. Somehow we had found this game when I was in the early years of school and played it during breaks. While it can best be described as a realtime version of Worms, the chaos that ensued when we turned loading times on weapons to zero is what I associate with it today. :)

Digging tunnels, swinging around with ninja ropes and harnessing the power of all sorts of crazy weapons: simply put, Liero is great fun multiplayer with potential for both tactical matches and screen-filling mayhem. And if you feel the game could use even more options (like the ability to play as other characters than worms), OpenLieroX is an extra-everything version that should keep any multiplayer session going for a long long time. It even has online multiplayer, but personally I'd say this should be played should to shoulder. ;)

Lots of crazy going on in OpenLieroX.

C-Dogs 0.6.3

Classic run-and-gun game C-Dogs has a new release: 0.6.3. There are new character faces and colors together with a new level to play. Lined up for the next version is more character sprite improvements. According to the latest news, one thing being considered is nicer walk-animations. Overall, a lot of things is going on with this fun and rather crazy game that works well on gaming-nights. :)

Huge explosions in C-Dogs new map "Temple of Carnage".

GZDoom 2.2.0

GZDoom is a modern engine based on the source code from the classic Doom. It has support for many advanced 3D effects, enhancing the classic game with 3D floors, dynamic lights, skyboxes, true color textures, limited 3D model support and more. The latest version, 2.2.0, also adds bloom, lens distorsion, multisampling and other cool things to that list. There is even Stereo 3D VR support, so it's now possible to play the original Doom using a VR headset! :)

I found this awesome screen from a custom-built data-set on the GZDoom forum.

heXon

heXon is a very flashy twin-stick shooter with some interesting gameplay mechanics. The edge of each hexagon is connected with the one on the opposite side, which results in some rather tricky gameplay. Expect trippy glowing neon graphics and lots of blazing lasers. There is gamepad-support, something I really appreciate (PS3-gamepads have apparently been tested and works well), and the game has some suitably up-beat music to fit the action.

An impressive visual light-show in heXon.

ChaosEsque Anthology v.95

ChaosEsque Anthology is a crazy mix-up of all sorts of FPS-elements. There are an absurd amount of maps, weapons, vehicles, mutators and other things. Since I mentioned it last time a lot of content has been added. How about piloting a Fokker Eindecker III Monoplane or driving a A7V Sturmpanzerwagen WWI German Tank? There are also buildable Observation Towers, many new weapons - both realistic and futuristic, as well as lots of other assets and functions to play around with. This project certainly seems to have a bit of everything and I am sure some very interesting scenarios can be created with it.

Medieval weapons and scenarios are also a possibility in ChaosEsque Anthology.

Urban Terror 4.3.1

Somewhat realistic "hollywood tactical shooter" Urban Terror got a big update a few days ago: There is a new game type called "Gun Game", where each frag gives you a new weapon, and the first person to use a knife (the last weapon you receive after all others) to defeat another player wins the game. Quite a unique and intersting setup! There is also a new instagib (one hit, one kill) mode, lots of adjustments to weapons and hit zones, two new maps, improvements to old maps, improvements to HUD and user interface and many other tweaks and fixes. A huge update to this already highly polished game!

A collage of the new maps in Urban Terror.

Red Eclipse 1.5.6

Red Eclipse received a smaller update today, bringing it to 1.5.6. There are mainly bug fixes, but also improvements to menus and user interface as well as an advanced tab with extra settings for the controls menu. Happy fragging!

Red Eclipse is not only fun and fast-paced but also very nice and shiny graphics-wise.

The Pandoran War - 1.0

The Pandoran War has reached a major milestone: 1.0! That's right, the game is now feature-complete and contains 67 main missions spread out through a campaign, 8 training missions, 5 extra-missions and loads of challenges and throphies. There is certainly a lot of content here, and it's a highly polished and very fun game. Well worth a try!

Giant spaceships and lots of cannons and lasers in The Pandoran War.

C-Dogs SDL 0.6.2

C-Dogs SDL 0.6.2 was just released. There are some huge optimizations for graphics and original tile-sets and sprites have been restored together with new ones. There are also many improvements for level designers. A really fun game, especially with several players. Here is download and changelog!

Bullets everywhere in this arcade-ish run-and-gun game.