Archived News:
Half-Life 2
held hostage on GameSpot has more information from the ongoing legal battle
between Valve and Sierra/Vivendi, indicating that it's possible that the release
of Half-Life 2 could potentially be delayed by as much as six months as a result
of the spat. The following was entered into the court records by VU Games'
deputy general counsel Eric Roeder: "Valve has announced that it will
deliver a release candidate version of Half-Life 2 (HL2) (a game required under
the 2001 SPA) to Sierra/VUG within the next few weeks. If Valve delivers a
release candidate version that complies with the contract and is a Final
Milestone, then VUG will have six months to release the product under the 2001
SPA. Valve is pressing VUG to release the product early within that six month
window, and its representatives have made a number of public statements without
our consent or concurrence that the product will be published and released to
the general public in September of this year."
Beta to
be turned off soon on the TribalWar Forums (thanks Frans) has word that the
release of the upcoming TRIBES: Vengeance demo will mark the end of the game's
beta testing: I think we're going to send an email out to everyone about
this, but we are going to be turning off the multiplayer beta when the
multiplayer demo is released. We really want people to convert their servers as
quickly as possible and don't want the community to be split.
The demo will not be held exclusively anywhere and we'll be giving it to as many
mirrors as possible as soon as possible. In fact, our web team has been
experimenting with BitTorrent stuff so we'll likely host a seed for it at launch
as well (we did that with the SP demo).
Everyone will need to download the demo - it's roughly the same size as the beta
was.
- Menzo -
- Tribes PR Guy -
The VoidWar Downloads Page
now offers a playable demo for VoidWar, the space combat game from indie
developer Rampant Games. The demo is just a 10.5 MB download. Thanks
A Talent for War.
Eidos sends word that the retail boxed edition of Singles: Flirt Up Your Life is gold, and will be available
in North America on October 5: Let the talk turn into play! Singles:
Flirt Up Your Life for PC is coming to stores! Yes, Singles has gone gold! You
have been waiting for this hard copy a long time and Eidos is ready to give it
you! Apply your natural Don Juan skills and help two roommates "discover" each
other, because when two people move into one place..."things" will happen! Are
they going to get along? Are they going to get it on? It's all up to you. As
they begin to warm up to one another, you can use their combined talents to
build an amazingly pimped-out apartment that may also serve as a hot, love nest!
The Singles: Flirt Up Your Life retail version includes the ability to customize
your character from hair color to skin type! Plus, there are even more
decorative items and home furnishings options than before to get that pad
looking and feeling like the oasis it should be! Singles: Flirt Up Your Life for
PC is shipping to retail stores near you on October 5, 2004 in North
America.
The
Ground Control II News Page (thanks Frans) has word on plans for a patch for
the strategy game sequel. They offer a partial list of fixes for the patch,
accompanied by the following note: "We are currently working on a patch to
address some minor bugs and balance issues that have come up since the game's
launch. The patch will be made available sometime in the coming weeks."
A new Linux edition of the
Unreal Tournament 2004 version 3334 demo is now available. This brings the Linux
version of the demo up to date with the recent Win32 demo release
( story), offering additional maps and game types over the prior
demo. The download is available on
3D Gamers and
Gameguru Mania.
More penguin-power, as a new version 1.41d of the Call of Duty: United Offensive
Linux dedicated server is now available, the update requires the CoD version
1.40 Linux server. The small download is available on
3D Gamers.
The German
JoWooD Productions Website has news (in German) that Silent Storm: Sentinels
is shipping. Apparently the Deutsch edition of Nival Interactive's World War II
strategy expansion is now available. Thanks Frans.
A Nexus: The Jupiter Incident demo is now available, offering the chance to play
a mission that's not included in the upcoming full version of the space combat
game formerly known as Imperium Galactica III. The 115 MB demo can be found on
3D Gamers,
FileFront, Gameguru Mania,
Gamer's Hell, and
Worthplaying.
A demo for the German edition of Psychotoxic: Gateway to Hell is now available,
allowing the chance to sample a couple of levels from NuClear Vision's
post-apocalyptic first-person shooter. The 188 MB demo is available on
4Players.de and mirrored on
3D Gamers,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and Worthplaying.
Steam News
has news of another update to the beta version of Counter-Strike: Source.
Included in the update is a dramatic improvement in DirectX 7 performance for
those looking to play the game on a Voodoo 3. Thanks Frans.
A new Pacific Fighters
Website is online as a base camp for this upcoming aerial combat game (this
is also the new destination of
www.il2sturmovik.com). The site includes
an update
on a new multiplayer option in the game touting 128-player support and
downloads
of a new gameplay trailer. Also, the official
Dungeons & Dragons Online Homepage is now online, dedicated to Turbine's
upcoming D&D MMO. Word is: "The Dungeons & Dragons Online web site includes
background on the highly anticipated game, insight into the exciting dark and
dangerous continent of Xen’drik and developer reports that reveal the
behind-the-scenes action in Dungeons & Dragons Online." Finally, there's a new
Flash-y
Jump to Lightspeed section on the Star Wars Galaxies Website for the
upcoming MMORPG expansion.
A new Prince of Persia trailer is now available, here's word from Ubisoft: "The
latest trailer from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within showcases the open-ended
Free-Form Fighting System. Watch as the Prince wages battles with a tenacity and
flair that can only be called 'deadly artistry' at its best." The clip can be
found on 3D Gamers,
ActionTrip and
Worthplaying. Also, there are some
BloodRayne
2 Movies on GameSpy including a couple of casting call videos for E3 vamps.
- Lord British
Richard
Garriott discusses the nuances of creating games on GameZone talks with
Lord British about his work in an article-format Q&A: "Because I try to deal
with philosophical questions and social issues in the game, I’ve given a lot
a thought to what does it mean, in a broad sense, and what is my personal
philosophy. If you are going to put something into a game, you want to make
sure that first of all people like it, that is clearly important, but you
also want to make sure you put something in that serves the right purpose –
that motivates people to both participate and to feel like they got
something out of it."
- Elite IV
Elite
IV: David Braben Speaks on Computer and Video Games communicates with
the co-creator of the seminal space game Elite, and its upcoming follow-up: "There
are certain things a game needs for it to be absolutely leading edge, and
one of the key things in Elite IV is to be able to include people. But doing
people properly is very, very difficult. No-one's done it properly or even
approached it. And I don't just mean GTA people, where you club them and
nick their car. I mean people you can interact with."
- Sentinel: Descendants in Time
The
Sentinel:
Descendants in Time Q&A on GamersInfo.net chats with Maciej Miasik of
Detalion about their upcoming adventure game: "The adventures are still
being developed, they sell quite well, and they have their own audience,
quite different from those targeted by hardcore gaming magazines. They
simply don't get the same kind and level of publicity the latest shooters
have, well maybe with the exception of Myst series. This may suggest that
nobody is interested in adventures any longer, but not everything you read
in the press is actually true."
- The Future
What
will the video games of 2025 be like on CNN Money talks further with
several distinguished game developers about what they imagine games of the
future will be like.
Betatest for Dragonshard coming soon on Atari's Betatests.net (thanks Frans)
reveals that sign-ups for beta testing of the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons RTS game
are slated to begin in a little over a month.
Another new Arena Wars patch is now available, bumping exDream's RTS game to
version 1.09 (thanks Frans). Word is: "Yeah, I know, this is really crazy, 2
patches at one single day. Well, v1.0.9 does not really change much in the game,
it only fixes the Serial problem in the USA." More details are in
the release notes.
Update: The
Arena Wars Community Site also now features an updated version 1.0.9 demo
for the game.
Knights of Honor Demo is now available (thanks Frans) offering those who
speak German (or who are willing to experiment) the chance to sample Black Sea
Studios' now-gold empire conquering simulation. The demo is a 297 MB download.
Word from SUNFLOWERS is: "English and French-speaking fans will have to wait a
little bit longer for the finalization of the localized version."
The Forgotten Hope
Homepage now features the full release of the new version 0.65 of this
Battlefield 1942 modification (thanks Ant) along with the password to unlock
the pre-release torrent version of the mod ("-=@visit-www.fhmod.org@=-").
The Movies Logo
Competition will reward three winners, with their entries to be included in
Lionhead's upcoming cinema simulator. Also,
the City of Heroes Film
Contest Winners have been posted.
Electronic Arts looks for Ottawa talent to get into the gaming game (thanks
Mike Martinez). Also, Obsidian
Entertainment (thanks Frans) has word of an opening for a game engine
programmer on the Neverwinter Nights 2 team.
We're having the adventures of Hudson the three-legged wonder dog, as our plucky
pup managed to give herself a nasty slice on the pad of one of her rear paws.
She's starting to get frustrated at the lack of activity as she gamely hops
around on three legs hoping to inspire a run on the trail, or at least a walk...
err. hop. I wish I could explain the problem to her, but she'd just think I was
making a big deal out of nothing anyway.
I've seen a couple of comments on the return of the tickle ad... apparently I
was misinformed when I was told that they were banished from the island
completely, it seems they were just given a brief time-out. In any event, I am
assured the campaign should be work-safe at this point.
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