#2: Open Arena

Behold, the Quake 3 engine. Blocky breasts and all.

Open Arena is another shooter utilizing the Quake 3 engine, just like Tremulous and a whole bunch of other Open Source games. Open Arena is an attempt to recreate Quake 3 and it actually does a very good job of it. Everything from the menus to the loading screens, right into the feel of gameplay is captured very well. In fact, anyone that has played Quake 3 will be able to jump straight into a game of Open Arena and feel very comfortable with the way things are handled and set up.

The weapons aren’t far off either, and range from the gauntlet to the ever-powerful BFG 10K. Your typical game modes are also all present, consisting of Free For All, Team Death Match, Capture The Flag, and Tournament.

If you choose to give Open Arena a go, you shouldn’t have any problems finding a game online. There are always servers available and you should be able to find one close to you with a suitable ping without problems. Or if you’re feeling like going against some bots, you’ll have that option as well (since v0.6.0). And while we are talking about bots - they still have their wits about them when it comes to taunting the player.

The graphics in the game are as expected from a game running on the Q3 engine. The models of some of the weapons could use a bit of work, though the character models — and there are some rather weird ones, just take a look at the killer Geishas below — are nothing to complain about considering the age of the engine.

The latest available version is 0.7.0, with installers available for all Windows, Linux, and Mac users. So everyone should be covered. Overall, Open Arena is a nice diversion to carry around on your laptop.