Do you love the puzzle and Linux/Unix-like system? Command line? Try ncurses based Tetris clone which is harder than every other Tetris out there. From the project home page:

Have you ever thought Tetris(R) was evil because it wouldn’t send you that straight “I” brick you needed in order to clear four rows at the same time? Well Tetris(R) probably isn’t evil, but Bastet certainly is. >:-) Bastet stands for “bastard tetris”, and is a simple ncurses-based Tetris(R) clone for Linux. Unlike normal Tetris(R), however, Bastet does not choose your next brick at random. Instead, Bastet uses a special algorithm designed to choose the worst brick possible. As you can imagine, playing Bastet can be a very frustrating experience!

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The year of Linux on the desktop or living room is here. Today Valve software announced SteamOS, a free Linux-based gaming operating system designed for the TV, DIY enthusiast and the living room. From the announcement page:

As we’ve been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the conclusion that the environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself. SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen. It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines.

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The first-person shooter Half-Life 2 released for Steam on Linux. I truly enjoyed Counter Strike, and I am going to install Half-Life 2 this weekend. From the release note:

Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Half-Life 2: LostCoast are now available as a Beta. This beta adds Linux support and converts the game to the new Steam Content delivery system.

Linux users can simply install the games access the beta. For Windows and OS X users right click the game in your Library, choose properties and then go to the Beta tab. Select the SteamPipe beta to start testing. Under Windows and OS X to opt out of testing simply deselect the beta option on this same page.

I think Valve has done a good job, and I’m hoping more game developers will release popular games on Linux.