Supertuxkart
Version: 1.0 Web: https://supertuxkart.net
Supertuxkart 1.0 is here, and that’s why we’re busy choosing our favourite open source mascots and customising karts in order to see who’s the best. This famed open-source racing game has greatly improved since we last saw it in LXF232. The biggest addition is the new LAN and online multiplayer functionality; this latest release finally lets you compete with other people.
In our humble opinion, the current LAN- and Wanenabled game and the previous local-only version are like night and day. The online play feature in Supertuxkart 1.0 works just as you would expect: you need to select an existing server (or bring up your own) and wait for fellow racers to join in. Each server limits the maximum number of players, so you need to find one that isn’t full, but which still has somebody other than you online. After that you may need to wait for the current game to end before you can participate in the next one, and then vote for the track of your choice. The actual track is selected based on the collective decision, which is nice and fair.
Real players are generally more skillful than STK’S bots on easy and normal difficulty levels. Struggling to outstrip an experienced player is hard, but in return it gives you much more of a thrill. As ever, STK has a generous selection of tracks, though some of them become accessible only if you complete others. The famous Ravenbridge Mansion, which was previously granted to STK donators only, is now available to everyone. Plus, there is the built-in add-on manager with a long list of community-contributed tracks and arenas.
There’s a definite increase in STK’S online mode activity these days, so take care of your ping when joining an online team. Figures around 100ms are fine, whereas pings of ~300ms will cause higher latencies and things like sudden kart stuttering. To avoid that, try to choose players near you.