Articles in the archive contain broken links because
outdated files are removed.
Previous Week | News Archive | Current News | Next Week |
Friday, December 4, 1998 |
Deus
Ex Interview
[5:53 PM EST]
Deus
Ex Incarnate interviews Albert Yarusso, talking to the ION Storm programmer about
ION's upcoming Unreal-engine game, Deus Ex.
Shogo Editing Guides [5:53 PM EST]
There are two Shogo level
editing tutorials on PlanetShogo, one on
installing the LithTech tools, and the other on getting started building a simple Shogo
level.
Zoid
Update [5:53 PM
EST]
Zoid updated his
.plan with word on his Daily Dementia
appearances (story), his thoughts on Sin
and Half-Life, and a bit on the final Quake II release. Here's the Quake II part:
As John Cash mentioned in his plan, 3.20 is the final patch for Quake2. The 3.20 beta testing went very well so we have stamped it as official. We won't be doing another update on the Quake2 code base unless something major shows up (like a serious DoS attack or bug).
The Quake2 upgrade path has a bit bumpy (3.15's air control), but overall the path was to solve two essential needs (a) address bugs/security issues such as DoS (denial of service) attacks, and (b) provide new features.
I hope the mod makers out there are excited now that we've released the new updated game code--including the Xatrix and Rogue game code as well. It has been a long time coming, but we wanted to make sure that when we re-released it, it wasn't going to change again a couple weeks later. It's going to be good to see the new features added to all the existing mods out there such as IP banning, flood protection and spectating.
Heretic II Internet Play Tip [4:49 PM EST]
Raven's Marcus Whitlock's .plan file has a tip to help Internet play for
Heretic II:
Set (at the console) cl_frametime to 1. See what is printed - i.e. your framerate. If your framerate is really good - say 60fps, then try capping this: set cl_maxfps to say 30. How does that play? Better? Good - you can play around a bit more. raising cl_maxfps if you're really framerate conscious. No - still sucks? Ok you may need to experiment a little and reduce it further (if your ping is really lousy). Of course, the best thing is to go find a server (use gamespy that came with Heretic2) server that gives you a much better ping. One more thing - just because ping times are good - still doesn't mean your connection is wonderful - intermittent packet-loss (not lag) can strike at any time.
Explanation: Heretic2's client-side prediction (CP) (and of course, Quake2's CP - people have experienced the same problem with Quake2) can handle predicting a limited number of CLIENT frames ahead while your machine (the client) is waiting for the next update frame sent by the server. So if your ping is really sucky and your framerate is very high (say you've got a voodoo2). it is quite possible that prediction is EFFECTIVELY wanting to predict too many frames ahead and can't cope. Hence, reducing the maximum displayable framerate via cl_maxfps, reduces the number of frames it will try to predict and thus you won't bust the limit I just described. As some observant folks have pointed out - sometimes changing to software rendering makes the problem go away - because of course, software is probably slower than your super-charged, turbo-nutter-bastard TNT or Voodoo 2.
Tribes Chat Log [4:49 PM EST]
Datumplane::StarSiege has posted a log of last night's Meet
the Dev Team chat with GotMilk, as well as a Meet the Dev Team Synopsis.
CL
Voodoo2 Drivers
[4:49 PM EST]
The Creative
Labs Voodoo2 drivers page has new December 5 release candidate drivers for their 3D
Blaster Voodoo2 cards. Thanks Billy at Voodoo
Extreme. The new drivers include the latest DirectX 6 compatible 3Dfx reference
drivers, an integrated installation program, and their control panel with an overclocking
slider and other extra features.
Levelord
Interview [3:13
PM EST]
Pels Interactive has done
another of their neat finish the sentence interviews, this time giving the third degree to
Ritual's Levelord.
Anachrochat [3:13 PM EST]
This month's Anachrochat will take place this evening, with Tom Hall and
the Anachronox team answering questions about the game, as well as participating in some
general chat. The session starts at 8:00 PM CST, and you can join through the Java chat
client in the Online section of the ION Storm website,
or through IRC server "www.ionstorm.com" in the channel #ion.
AvP
Feature [2:58 PM
EST]
There's an Aliens Vs Predator
special on GameSpot UK that offers a game
intro called Loving The
Alien, part one of an interview with Jason
Kingsley, CEO and Creative Director of Rebellion, the UK-based developers of Aliens
versus Predator (part two is promised on Monday), and an Aliens Vs Predator Gallery
offering some new screenshots.
On
Sin Editing
[2:58 PM EST]
Ritual's Beau Anderson updated his
.plan with a couple of quick words for editing types about the just released full Sin
tools (story), including a brief example
of the usage of .def files for organizing model files for use in the game.
Descent
3 Chat Log [2:58
PM EST]
PlanetDescent has a chat log from last night's
IRC chat with the game's developers from Outrage, and a list of planned bug fixes for D3 version
1.1. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.
Italian
Master Server
[2:58 PM EST]
The GIB (Gamers Italian Board) is now
home to a master server for QuakeWorld and Quake II. You can get the new master server
list at satan.gib.it on the standard ports, and server admins in "south-middle"
Europe should add IP 194.20.232.121 to their server.
New
Half-Life Model
[11:29 AM EST]
Magic Coffee anyone? I AM
HALF-LIFE has word that Sierra/Valve has quietly released a Too Much Coffee Man player model, based on Adhesive
Comics' cigarette-puffing, caffeine-crazed comic book character. There's also a new
Half-Life DM map there called The Hill they say is running on the half-life.pcgamer.com HL
server. Here's a local copy of Too
Much Coffee Man (269 KB) and The Hill (660 KB), on GamesNET
FTP. Thanks Matthew Rorie.
More
Zoid Dementia
[8:58 AM EST]
Today's Daily Dementia offers
round two of TC's conversation with id Software's Zoid. Topics include Unreal, Unreal
Tournament, John Cash, Linux, Half-Life Server Port for Linux, and a new version of
GLQuake. RealPlayer, or equivalent, required.
Sin Editing Tools [8:58 AM EST]
The Node has posted the
full SinEd tool suite that will allow editing types to edit Sin maps and compile them for
the full version. The compiled 3DSmax and 3DSmax2 plug-ins are included this time to allow
modelers to export models and animations to Sin's .sbm and .sam formats, and skins to .tga
format. This release also includes a "beefed-up" readme file with detailed
instructions on how to install SinEd.
Unreal Tech Update [8:58 AM EST]
The Unreal Technology page has
an update from Epic's Tim Sweeney on the state of the upcoming version 220 release. It's
possible a pre-release version of the update will be released early, maybe as soon as this
weekend, for mod authors to allow them to port their mods to the new code. Thanks Billy at
Voodoo Extreme.
Blood2 Chat Log [8:58 AM EST]
A Blood 2 Chat Log
from last night's online chat with the gang from Monolith about their new release is up on
3DGN.
The Final Quake II [8:58 AM EST]
I don't think I noted where it was confirmed most recently, but as John
cash mentions in his
.plan (quoting Disruptor) "This is, for all intents and purposes, the last
official release of Quake II." John also apologizes for the delay in the "long
time coming" release of the source code for mod authors.
Bloodshot Interview [8:58 AM EST]
The
Adrenaline Vault interviews Bloodshot, the start-up company formed of 11 ex-ION Storm
employees, who've just announced their first project, based on Todd McFarlane's (or as
they put it, Todd Farlane) KISS Psycho Circus series (story). Thanks
Billy at Voodoo Extreme.
Navy
Seals Interview
[8:58 AM EST]
H.I.M.O.N. Interviews Jay
Lee, one of the developers of the upcoming Navy Seals Unreal-engine game.
ShogoTech [8:58 AM EST]
ShogoTech is a new
site devoted to editing and modifying Monolith's LithTech powered robo-game. The goal of
the site is to be the Shogo equivalent of The
Unreal Technology Page.
Blood2
Review [8:58 AM
EST]
The FiringSquad's
Blood2 review, giving Thresh and Kenn's tag-team views of the game. Here's a quote talking
about the game's control:
After playing the slow-down game with Quake II, Unreal, and Half Life, it was a big shock for me to be scoot around at a Doom pace, jump as high as Duke Nukem, and have almost the same in-air control (misleadingly labeled air acceleration) as ROTT
Half-Life Server Launcher [8:58 AM EST]
Version 0.5.3.1 beta of HALFSERV, a
Half-Life server launcher program, is now available. The proggie offers the ability to
toggle WON authentication, LAN game setup, and one-step setup of a quick Half-Life game.
The REAL Stat Machine [8:58 AM EST]
The first public release of The REAL
Stat Machine is now available, offering powerful statistical analysis of quake II
games. TRSM has only been fully tested on Loki's
Minions Capture the Flag.
On Pure3D II DirectX 6.0 Drivers [8:58 AM EST]
An update to the Pure3D
II Software Updates page explains the delays in the release of new drivers for
Canopus' Voodoo2 card, saying "Canopus has been working closely with 3Dfx to get
these drivers finished but for the last two months we have been waiting for 3Dfx to add
extensions to the OEM DLL specific to the Pure3D II to properly support Glide 3."
Thanks Purified3D.
etc. [8:58 AM EST]
Out of the Blue [8:58 AM EST]
If you are one of those who is accessing this site through one of the
hosed connections to its host, again my apologies for what can be terribly long delays in
loading the site (when it loads at all). There are some changes in the works that should
address this shortly, but in the meantime, I can only offer my sincere apologies, and
thanks for your patience. Again, most users are still experiencing very fast service, so
if this post makes no sense to you, you are probably one of them. Thanks for all the
feedback on the pimpage issue raised yesterday, I got 47 pieces of mail on the topic, many
of them pretty darned insightful (45-2 in favor of pimpage, but of course this isn't a
vote, so the two negative letters were of greatest interest).
Thursday, December 3, 1998 |
Multiplayer Reviews: Sin, Blood2 [2:32 PM EST]
FiringSquad
reviews Sin multiplayer with Thresh and Kenn's impressions after a SinFest. Also, LANparty.com reviews Blood 2 The Chosen,
similarly focusing on multiplayer play.
Aliens versus Predator Screenshots [2:00 PM EST]
There are new screenshots from Aliens versus Predator on Final Conflict. The seven shots, some showing off
in-game combat between aliens and marines, are scanned, though it isn't clear from what
magazine (presuming they are from a magazine). Thanks Gredd.
Quake III Arena FAQ [2:00 PM EST]
An updated version 0.21 of The
Unofficial Quake III Arena FAQ is now online for your viewing pleasure.
Creative Labs WinNT TNT Drivers [2:00 PM EST]
The
Creative Labs FTP site has new Windows NT drivers for their Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT.
Thanks Chris from BetaNews. According
to the site, this update improves the stability and performance of the drivers and solves
system lockup during startup on the retail version of Windows NT4.0. Before installing
these drivers, you must already have installed Windows NT4.0 Service Pack 3.
Hercules
TNT [2:00 PM
EST]
Sharky
Extreme reviews the Dynamite TNT, looking at Hercules' late entry into the RIVA TNT
sweepstakes, calling it "one of the best TNT-based video cards on the market."
Shooters [10:17 AM EST]
Tonight on Shooters
we will have a show we taped last week with Ritual's own Levelord, who was able to come up
to the famed Pseudo offices face-to-face: always one of our favorite shows to do. The show
was shot with one camera and no mikes (other than the camera mike) since the studio was
unavailable when we shot, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the quality turns out
okay (I haven't seen it yet myself). The show will go online at 7:00 PM Eastern time, RealPlayer, or reasonable facsimile thereof, required.
Half-Life Add-on Shots [10:17 AM EST]
Voodoo Extreme has posted
three screenshots from Half-Life
Level 5, an upcoming add-on from RadioActive Software (not sure if
this is meant as commercial, unless something has changed since the last quote I saw from
Valve about add-ons, there are none officially authorized yet). The shots show off a
holographic Barney in a new training level.
New
Delta Force Demo
[10:17 AM EST]
As mentioned in the story
about the DFDemo patch yesterday, an updated version of the entire Delta Force demo is up
on NovaLogic's site. Thanks Tim at 3DFiles.Com.
Harry Miller (KISS) Interview [10:17 AM EST]
AVault has posted an interview with Harry
Miller of Ritual/g.o.d. talking about the KISS game announced yesterday (story) g.o.d. will
distribute. Also, while I called the crew that is now Bloodshot Entertainment the ION
eight, based on the eight simultaneous resignations from ION Storm, an email from Will
Loconto points out the start-up actually has no less than 11 ex-ION Storm employees: For
the record: Programmers: Adam Hayek, Mike Maynard, and Jonathan Wright. Designers:
Matt Hooper, Sverre Kvernmo, David Namaksy, and Steve Rescoe. Artists:
Andy Chang, Ronn Harbin, and Mark Morgan. Audio: Will Loconto.
Drakan Interview [10:17 AM EST]
PC.IGN.COM interview
Alan Patmore talking to the lead designer for Surreal Software's Drakan: Order of the
Flame about their upcoming dragon-riding action/adventure game.
Third Person Quake II [10:17 AM EST]
Spine Design has posted
another Quake II mod in their quest to post a mod a day this week, offering Third Person Perspective Quake II,
with what they describe as a "realistic, non-buggy" third person view for Quake
II.
FireArms for Quake [10:17 AM EST]
The homepage for the FireArms
Quake II Modification has a Quake (1) version of their mod for download. Most of the
website is dead links, so there's nowhere to find a descriptions of this one (may have
something to do with guns, or something).
3D Card Round-ups [10:17 AM EST]
GameSpot's
PC Workshop 8 is titled 3D Graphics: Making the Right Choice, and 3D Video Card
Buyers Guide is part two of three in a similar guide on Ace's Hardware that goes into more techie
stuff. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.
Mac Texture Tool [10:17 AM EST]
The newly released Wadtool
offers Macintosh users a comprehensive tool for editing and managing textures for Quake
editing in a US$10.00 shareware program.
Competitions [10:17 AM EST]
A couple of chances to win gaming PC's from Falcon-Northwest: Those who
register to play multiplayer CyberStrike
2 online will be automatically entered in a drawing for a 400 MHz PC, and purchasers
of InterAct's GameShark for Win95/98 can also win
a Falcon PC.
etc. [10:17 AM EST]
There are some rumblings over at the venerable Matrox User's Resource Centre where it looks like
some die-hard Matrox supporters are quite unhappy with the recent announcement of further
delays in the OpenGL ICD for G200-based cards, as well as word that the next release of
the ICD will offer no performance improvement in games (story) ... Lockheed's Tombs has a new five map expansion
pack for Loki's Minions CTF for Quake II
... Similarly DyerMaker's Domain has a
new deathmatch level for Half-Life ...
Out of the Blue [10:17 AM EST]
I get mixed messages on my attempts to pimp for the Internet Websites Top 100. I got a bit
bummed over a letter complaining about my (what I felt was) good natured lobbying for
votes (I wish I could find it to repost here, it basically said look at all the visits and
stuff you get, it's not classy to pimp like that. It was well-stated, and hard to disagree
with in that light). So I'm contemplating this issue (and watching Blue's News drift down
the charts below sites getting fewer votes as the weighted averages they use take their
toll), and a week later (after failing to mention the charts), I receive the following:
"I would appreciate it if you would continue putting a link on your main page to vote for you in the top 100, so it's just one easy click to help you get to the top :-)"
--Matt Tirevold
So I'll continue to keep an eye on feedback about this burning issue if anyone provides it. In the meantime, consider this the pimpage for the week, and I will try and contemplate why I seem to make a point of mentioning this on mornings that I've gotten a late start (which would have to make a voter question the worthiness of the effort). Smart, eh?
Wednesday, December 2, 1998 |
Delta
Force Demo Patch
[10:23 PM EST]
The NovaLogic
demos page has got a patch to update the Delta Force demo if your current demo has
expired, and does not allow you to access single and multiplayer missions. Thanks Ben at 3DFiles. Word there is a new version of the entire demo
will be uploaded, but it's not there yet.
TombRaider III Patches [10:23 PM EST]
3DFiles has
posted a bunch of patches for different language versions of Tomb Raider III to fix
problems such as invisible doors on the second level, sound glitches on AWE 64 cards, a
save game problem and a few more cosmetic things.
Interstate '82 Preview [10:23 PM EST]
GameCenter's
Sneak Peek at Interstate '82 is online, offering a preview of this driving and
shooting sequel that's set in, as GameCenter puts it, "The Reagan Years." Thanks
CiDcO at StormTroopers.
New NIQ for Quake II [10:23 PM EST]
Version 1.94 of NIQ for Quake II
is available, offering the following changes to the grappling hook (tractor beam): It's
more responsive, the damage the hook does to enemies is now minimal, and it won't hook
onto the sky by default (server ops can enable this though).
New
Forsaken Levels
[7:44 PM EST]
The Gaming Krib has three new
levels posted for the registered Forsaken, as well as a new level installer cooked up by
RAY from Kali.
The Hidden Rogue Disruptor [7:44 PM EST]
Rogue programmer Patrick Magruder updated his .plan with word on a weapon they developed for their Quake II
mission pack, Ground Zero, that can be found in the source released today (story). Here's the lowdown on the
weapon, called the Disruptor, and how it can be accessed for those tinkering with the
source:
Well, now that the source has been released, I guess that answers the questions people had about when our source code would be released. How about now?
Some enterprising folks might try changing a #define (hint .. KILL_DISRUPTOR, line 38) in g_local.h from 1 to 0. Who knows what new weapons might end up back in the game. (hint .. disruptor). You might even find a few on our deathmatch maps (rdm4, rdm5, rdm6, rmd7, rdm8, rdm9, rdm13 .. and maybe more).
Yes, the weapon is called weapon_disintegrator, and the ammo is ammo_disruptor.
If interest warrants it, we'll try to arrange for a precompiled DLL on our website.
MX300
Ships [7:28 PM
EST]
According to a report on OGR,
Diamond Multimedia's Aureal Vortex 2-powered
Monster Sound MX300 sound cards "should be shipping to North American retail outlets
this week." Thanks Apache from Contaminated.net.
Quake III Arena Music Update [6:51 PM EST]
There's an update on Mindphaser's
FLA page on some impressions on some of the tracks Front Line Assembly has submitted
for Quake III Arena.
Heavy Gear II Delay [6:51 PM EST]
Word on Avault is that
Heavy Gear II is delayed until January 1999. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.
Heretic II Tips [6:51 PM EST]
Activision's
Heretic II Game Tips page is online, offering "Heretic II Gameplay Tips And
Tricks From The Source."
Descent 3 Demo FAQ [6:51 PM EST]
Outrage Entertainment has posted a
Descent 3 mini-FAQ to help out with questions based on the demo. Thanks Assasin.
New
Kali [6:51 PM
EST]
The Kali FTP server has version 1.59 of
Kali95. The new version of this server browser program adds support for a few new
programs, including Delta Force, Blood 2, and the Descent 3 Demo, though the page has the
following note to Descent 3 Demo players: "Descent 3 Demo was added to the TCP
Games list, but currently V1.0 of the Descent 3 Demo doesn't support the command line
we're using to connect to D3 games. When D3 Demo V1.1 is released this should work."
Deus Ex Interview [6:51 PM EST]
There's an interview
with Bob White from ION Storm on Voodoo Unlimited
Power talking about Deus Ex.
Quake
II 3.20 Released
[4:19 PM EST]
id Software's Christian "Disruptor" Antkow updated his .plan with news of the release of the final (non-beta) version of
Quake II 3.20. Here is a page
with local copies (various) on GamesNET FTP.
Here's the lowdown from his .plan:
Link Description Size
q2-3.20-x86.exe Quake II 3.20 Final. Win32 x86 Binaries 5,327,872 bytes q2-3.20-x86-full.exe Quake II 3.20 Final. Win32 x86 Binaries.
Deathmatch maps included13,842,432 bytes q2-3.20-x86-full-ctf.exe Quake II 3.20 Final. Win32 x86 Binaries.
Deathmatch maps and CTF included19,267,584 bytes q2src320.exe Quake II 3.20 Final gamex86.dll source code 455'680 bytes roguesrc320.exe Quake II 3.20 Final Rogue Mission Pack
gamex86.dll source code700,416 bytes xatrixsrc320.exe Quake II 3.20 Final Xatrix Mission Pack
gamex86.dll source code519,168 bytes
Quake II Voodoo3 Screenshot [4:19 PM EST]
Sharky got his hands on a
couple of screenshots from 3Dfx showing off Voodoo3 1600x1200 in action. He's posted a
shot of Unreal. Here's the Quake II shot (thanks Shark), a 5 MB bitmap in a 2 MB .zip:
Ex-ION Team Joins g.o.d. & the KISS Army [12:55 PM EST]
The Gathering of Developers (g.o.d.) has announced a game based on Todd
McFarlane's KISS
Psycho Circus Comic, based, of course, on Kenn Hoekstra's favorite 70's rock band. The
game is going to be the first project of the "ION eight," the team that recently
announced its departure from ION Storm, now known as Bloodshot Entertainment. Here's the
lowdown from the press release:
Dallas, TX, December 2, 1998 -- Put on your kabuki makeup, black leather and metallic studs, and stick out your tongue in your best Gene Simmons impression, KISS is going digital! Developer-driven computer and video game publisher Gathering of Developers today announced a publishing deal with new developer group, Bloodshot Entertainment, to create a game based on the best-selling KISS Pyscho Circus comics and action figures series by Todd McFarlane.
Bloodshot Entertainment, comprised of designers, artists and programmers formerly of ION Storm, is developing a 3D action game that integrates McFarlane's rendition of the KISS "universe" with the likeness of the legendary KISS members and their music. The game will be published in the U.S. by Gathering of Developers, and Take 2 Interactive will co-publish the title in Europe. The Gathering has secured the KISS Psycho Circus license for all game platforms.
"Our shows are a sensory ambush--filled with hard-core rock and roll, cutting-edge technology, and in-your-face action," proclaims Gene Simmons, KISS vocalist and bassist. "We are working with Bloodshot to convey that same raw electric excitement in this game." Simmons continued, "We aren't all gamers ourselves, but we got the word that The Gathering was the place to call if we wanted a guarantee of quality and artist recognition. Besides, it's good to have g.o.d. on our side for once!"
PowerVR Series 2 Announcement [12:55 PM EST]
PowerVR has posted
a press release announcing they have begun sampling PowerVR Series2 graphics
processors, and an "optimized version of the device will be released to manufacturing
this month, with volume availability planned for Q1 1999." Thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance.
High Visual Quality CFG for Half-Life [12:55 PM EST]
3 Fingers sends along
word that he's doing his thing over on his Tid-Bits page, offering an
autoexec.cfg to give the highest visual quality in hardware accelerated Half-Life,
discussing the performance trade-offs involved.
Heretic II Editing [12:55 PM EST]
Jeremy
Statz's .plan file has an update on single-player Heretic II map editing that includes
a downloadable example on how to use buoys in a map file.
PingTool
- Blood2 Support
[9:06 AM EST]
PingTool 2.4 beta 2 is now
available, adding Blood2 support and fixing a crashing problem when scanning Half-Life
servers with this server browser, which now sports a new cleaner design. Thanks Meanstryk.
On
Video Game Violence
[8:02 AM EST]
Violence
Invades Video Games is an ABC News article
describing an annual report card released yesterday by US Senators Joseph Lieberman
(D-Conn.) and Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), "assessing the video game industry and its impact
on children." Thanks Phil "Cain" Hall. Similarly, an article titled There's a
generation gap in video knowledge (Minneapolis
Star Tribune) quotes a report
by the Minneapolis-based "National Institute on Media and the Family," that
says "'Duke Nukem' is a video game in which the action character forces women to
disrobe, and then he kills them. Eight out of 10 American junior high school students
already know that, but only five in 100 parents do, according to a report on popular video
games released Tuesday in Washington, D.C." Thanks ·T· Diomedes and ElGringo.
Reading that quote, you'd think the report was saying that stuff about Duke, but it's the
80% figure that they're quoting, the description of the game is the Tribune's own.
Interestingly (for me as webmaster of a gaming site), one of the subjects discussed is
that most gaming websites carry no ratings based on the content. On this subject, ABCNEWS.com has a front-page poll up asking "Are
video games bad for children?" Thanks Mike Kinsman.
Titanic Quake II [8:02 AM EST]
Titanic Quake 2 offers
you the chance to explore the trendy sunken ocean liner (though no chance to gib that
annoying Leo, as far as I know). The setup requires altering a back-up of your Quake2.exe,
and doesn't support the Quake II 3.20 beta (it actually GPF'ed for me, but I didn't mess
with it much). Thanks Ant.
Tribes
Chat [8:02 AM
EST]
Mark "Got Milk?" Frohnmayer, lead programmer on Dynamix's
upcoming Starsiege Tribes, will participate in an online chat this evening as part of a
"Meet the Dev Team" series. The chat will start at 5:00 PM PST (8:00 PM EST), in
UnderNET IRC in channel #tribes. Thanks DatumplaneStarSiege
Sin
Entities [8:02
AM EST]
For editing types, The Node
has been updated with a complete list of entities from Sin, with 462 entries listed
(according to the site, almost double the 250 entities in Hexen II, the most previously
found in a Quake/Quake II-engine game).
Sin
1.01 CD [8:02 AM
EST]
I saw on Ritualistic that the Activision Sin site is offering a free
copy of the Sin 1.01 update and Paradox's eponymous deathmatch level on a CD. Here's the
poop:
Send an email to sinupdate@activision.com. Include only your name and mailing address. Activision will notify you when your email has been received, and again when your CD is mailed. US customers only.
Messiah
Shots [8:02 AM
EST]
Some new twisted individuals have been added to the gallery of characters
on Shiny's Messiah page. Thanks Voodoo Extreme. Also, The Messiah Universe has posted some
screenshots that they believe are new.
Septerra
Core [8:02 AM
EST]
Monolith Productions Septerra Core
page is up with info, screenshots, and character pics from this RPG they will be
publishing (announced in this press
release).
TeamFortress2 Interview [8:02 AM EST]
TF2.com has posted their interview with
Robin Walker of Valve/TeamFortress Software talking about TF2 based on questions submitted
by readers.
Vigilance, Sin, & Heretic II Reviews [8:02 AM EST]
GameSpot's
Vigilance Review gives PostLinear Entertainment's new shooter a 5.1. Also GameSpot's Heretic II Review
is up giving Raven's new third-person action title an 8.1, and Falcon Mach V Fan Page
reviews Heretic II as well, calling it a worthy sequel. Finally, in an odd matching
set, Thresh's FiringSquad reviews Sin
, focusing solely on single-player play, while Gamers Central
reviews Sin multiplayer. On that subject, Sin was awarded an Editor's Choice award
from PC Gamer in the January issue of their print edition.
Banshee Drivers [8:02 AM EST]
New Voodoo
Banshee reference drivers are available. Thanks Rambisboy.
USR Modem Ping Fix [8:02 AM EST]
Jeremy
Blackman's .plan gives a possible fix on the U.S. Robotics Upgrades page for
problems some are apparently having with soaring pings on some USR/3Com modems.
MailBag [8:02 AM EST]
Lurch... Mails in! Hey, it's time for this week's Mailbag we have a fellow "colorblind" gamer, O.J.
on Blood2 (huh?), more on Physics, some complaints about the WON part of Half-Life
multiplayer, a mention of (ack) Barney, more on the reflective thread and its retraction,
and a request for a review of Magic Coffee (in today's Out of the Blue).
Competitions - Daikatana w/Romero [8:02 AM EST]
Will you be ready to deathmatch John Romero? This is the question on EIDOS Interactive
Deathmatch challenge page that has sketchy details of what an opportunity to DM ION's
John Romero (called "the founder of deathmatch himself" on the page), in
Daikatana. Entries will be taken until February 12, 1999. Expect to hear more of this
between now and then. Thanks Unreal Kingdom.
Also, there's a Quake and Quake II tourney getting underway at o-w-n-e-d.com with both high and low ping divisions.
Finally, the next season of the Online Gaming League is
getting underway soon. A follow-up on yesterday's Aussie challenge report from Sasquatch: "Worth
noting is that to get to the final the GolSyds had to beat every other Australian Regional
team; the NZ'ers invitational (picked from up and down the country, with no real teamplay
experience with each other) team came to face just the GolSyds, but also beat every other
Regional team that they played. It wasn't such a dusting of the Kiwis as it appears. Thank
you for listening :-)". Finally, the organizers of Impulse '98 apologize for the
misunderstanding, but it turns out there will not be a demo of Duke Nukem forever at their
event, after all.
etc. [8:02 AM EST]
Version 0.98 of WinGlide (allows Voodoo cards to output in a Window) is up
on Chris' WinGlide
Page, the new release combining B2 WinGlide and Overlay WinGlide into one file. The
MMX gamma correction code in B2 WinGlide includes some minor optimizations and there are
some new advanced options ... An interview with Iikka Keranen
on 5 Years of Doom talks to the Anachronox
level designer about his Doom designing days ... MagixX
continues to keep the PainKeep (Quake 1 mod) fires burning, having posted the PainKeep
tournament pack ... GameStats
Interviews Sandy Petersen talking to the designer about his past at id and his present
at Ensemble Studios ... Zarathustra Studios has
their second tutorial posted dedicated to editing demos ... TheGUF's Old School Briefing Room offers
TeamFortress tips for the old school ...
Out of the Blue [8:02 AM EST]
As mentioned in the MailBag,
I set out to check out the magic of "Magic Coffee" as described in last week's MailBag,
a task I would not take on without my aide-de-camp MrCoffee, who edits the Mailbag,
LanParties and Classifieds here. With all the required ingredients (Dr Pepper, coffee, and
sugar) assembled in the BlueLab, we set out to our task. We brewed the coffee as directed,
using Dr Pepper instead of water (this can be done without ruining a coffee pot, BTW, just
use a Melita-type filter). Tasting the coffee at this point was interesting enough, it
wasn't really great or anything, but I could actually see someone drinking it in this
state, it was kind of like oddball sweetened coffee. Following the recipe literally,
however, was a frightening experience. MrCoffee was not surprised to see how much sugar
would actually dissolve into the already sugary brew, but I sure was. We were able to add
a half-cup of sugar to a half-cup of coffee before over-saturation. If that science class
I failed to skip during High School doesn't fail me, by over-saturating the solution, we
actually ended up with a trifle less sugar in the mix than we would have if we
had stopped a hair earlier, but that's a quibble for the chemists out there, this ended up
being one of the most undrinkably sweet concoctions I have ever tasted (gee, a half-cup of
sugar in a half-cup of soda, go figure). The consistency was about that of warmed syrup,
and it was about as sweet as that. We were able to drink about as much of this as you
would be able to drink of honey, and it was not long before our small sips put us each in
a bit of intestinal distress, and I truly believe drinking the cup, now nearly full from
all that sugar, would be a harmful experience. We are planning a small LAN party at the
end of the year, and may try experiments with "unsweetened" magic coffee, but as
for the literal recipe, I can't say I recommend it (though I'll let you know how the stuff
we brewed up last night tastes on pancakes). Oooo, Time's Person of the
Century Poll is up (thanks CAESAR). Anyone for Hank the Drun... aww nevermind =]
Tuesday, December 1, 1998 |
Trespasser
Patch [9:59 PM
EST]
The Trespasser team site
has the version 1.0 patch for Trespasser (thanks Trespasser
Central). Here's the lowdown on the patch, that comes in normal and giant versions:
Below are links for the Trespasser patch v1.0. The first is a new executable only, and contains code fixes and optimizations for jump consistency, object pickup, keypad interaction, interpenetration, aiming, box model interaction, etc.
The second (Trespasser Full) contains both the executable changes, as well as data fixes for almost every level. The data patch addresses floating objects, terrain texture resolution, new partitions, object disappearance, etc.
We attempted to fix and optimize everything we could. This patch will not double your performance... rather it addresses many of the small bugs and complaints we received. We felt we owed it to you, to do what we could.
The instructions are straight forward. Download the appropriate zip file and follow the instructions provided by the application.
John
Romero Q&A
[7:00 PM EST]
Romero
Weathers the Storm is a brief Q&A with ION's Chairman on GameSpot. This is how the chat is described by the ION Storm Daily Informant: "John
discusses his goals and challenges as a designer, his opinions of Sin and Half-Life, and
answers the obligatory questions about life at ION Storm."
Zoid
Gets Demented
[6:34 PM EST]
Saw on Sharky's
that Zoid is the guest on the Daily Dementia
talking about Quake III Arena, a new version of Quake II CTF on the way, QuakeWorld, and
stuff like that.
New Drivers: Monster 3D II & TNT [6:34 PM EST]
The Diamond
Multimedia Monster 3D II Drivers page has the new version 4.10.01.0205 of the drivers
for their Voodoo2-based card. Thanks Billy at Voodoo
Extreme. These drivers offer Glide version 2.54 and it now has 3DNow! and DirectX 6
support! Also, word from Planet RIVA is that new
NVIDIA reference drivers for the TNT are available. Here's the lowdown:
Also, users who run 3DStudio MAX 2.0 and higher will see significant changes in terms of look and performance.
Drivers are available below:
(0.9 MB) Build 0.48 for Win95/98 AGP
(0.9 MB) Build 0.48 for Win95/98 PCI
(0.5 MB) Build 0.48 for WinNT 4.0
Heretic II Map Editing Tip [6:34 PM EST]
Jon Zuk updated his
.plan with some tips on Heretic II map editing including examples on how to use his
program called qdata for converting .pcx's to .m8's.
Trespasser II AVI [6:34 PM EST]
PC Gamer
Online has a short movie from Trespasser II (already!) showing off some action from
DreamWorks' upcoming sequel. The clip is available in AVI and RealPlayer format (word on
VE is this is a gag, but I can't get through).
Thief
Ships [6:34 PM
EST]
Word over on Voodoo Extreme is
that Thief: The Dark Project has shipped to retailers, so this 3D action/adventure game
from Eidos & Looking Glass Technology should be on store shelves soon.
eyeSCREAM H3D Support [12:48 PM EST]
Hot on the heels of the previous story that speculates about future H3D
support from Metabyte, comes a scoop from Sharky Extreme about a press
release they say is due in a few hours about Metabyte's plan to market H3D drivers under
the name "EyeScream" and to continue to supply eyewear even after current
inventory runs out by using a small vendor to supply new glasses. The new product will
allow the use of H3D glasses with any Voodoo2 card, not just their Wicked3D. There are
more details on Sharky's, and
presumably, more to come when the release is issued. The story gives a price range of
$119-$129 for the EyeScream package, but no word yet on whether there will be driver
support for existing H3D owners.
On H3D [11:39 AM EST]
Classy Glasses has a message
on their webboard
titled My thoughts on H3D
posted by George Belle, formerly of H3D, giving his feelings on the company after its
recent chapter 11 filing. The story gives some of the details behind the decision to close
the company, and offers this on the future of the H3D stereo technology:
As H3D owners/users, where does it leave us? It's hard to say. IO Displays is still lisensed to manufacture the units, so more units CAN and WILL be made if Metabyte (or other companies) still wants them. This may not be of much use to those of us without Wicked3D cards (myself included), at least until Metabyte decides to release (or sell) their drivers.
Return of the Lightning Gun [11:39 AM EST]
Spine Design ("is
this a joke?") has posted a Quake II weapon mod on their Quake II Projects page that
replaces the BFG with the lightning gun from Quake. Word from the team is that they'll be
releasing another such mod every day all week.
Vigilance Review [11:39 AM EST]
Sharky
Extreme's Vigilance review is up offering a look at this first person shooter to see
how it stacks up against the stiff competition in the genre that currently exists.
Running a Half-Life Server [6:11 AM EST]
Running A Half-Life Server
is a new site on Contaminated.net with
instructions straight from Valve on how to configure and run a Half-Life server.
Half-Life Exec Creator [6:11 AM EST]
Tweak3D's
autoexec creator for Half-Life is up, offering a web-based config maker to help
improve performance and alter the appearance of Valve's shooter. The Sin and Quake II autoexec
creators have also been updated after the discovery of a few JavaScript errors.
Giants Interview, Screenshots [6:11 AM EST]
There's a Bob Stevenson Interview
on RIVA 3D talking with the Vice President and
Co-Art/design director at Planet Moon Studios
about their upcoming action/adventure. The piece also includes some new Giants
screenshots.
Descent
3 Chat [6:11 AM
EST]
There's a moderated chat planned with Outrage to talk about their upcoming
Descent 3. The session is scheduled for this Thursday at 6:00 PM Pacific time (9:00 PM
Eastern). The chat can be accessed on the web at The Annex Cafe Chat
(link seems wrong, or busted), or point your IRC client at chat.annex.com and join
#interplay.
William Haskins Interview Pt 2. [6:11 AM EST]
Part two of the Action Xtreme
Interview with William Haskins concludes their conversation with ION's web dude.
glDoom Interview [6:11 AM EST]
There's an interview with Bruce Lewis, the man behind the upcoming glDoom
on the newly opened Doom Source Port page.
Genesis3D = OpenSource? [6:11 AM EST]
There's a new Open source thread
on the Business
Forum on the Genesis 3D Engine that discusses
the possibility of making Genesis3D an OpenSource project.
Q-Racing Update [6:11 AM EST]
A new version 1.1 of Q-Racing
is out, offering improved handling, and some other changes to this Quake II racing mod.
Quake Random Map Generator [6:11 AM EST]
A beta of the Quake Random Map
Generator is now available, offering an on-the-fly map creation utility based on a
similar Doom project.
New Linux ServerConfigMOD [6:11 AM EST]
A new version 3.0 of the Linux port of ServerConfigMOD is now available.
Heretic II Review [6:11 AM EST]
There's a very positive Heretic
II Review on AGN3D.
Competitions [6:11 AM EST]
Monolith's Get
Gaming Contest offers the chance to win a copy of Shogo signed by the development team
at Monolith. Also, New South Wales "GolSyds" won the Village Quake Challenge 3-0 over the New Zealand
team. Word from Hoony is that Australia's Reload is a player to watch (he won several
exhibition matches along the way).
etc. [6:11 AM EST]
Tom's
Hardware Guide's Comdex report is online. Thanks taxi_driver ... A new development update on the Wheel of
Time page offers the latest on WoT development (basically the Varghina Incident demo has derailed them for a
while). Thanks oPerrin ...
Out of the Blue [6:11 AM EST]
Today is World AIDS
Day (thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance). A
follow-up on my comments about not having tweaked Half-Life multiplayer: My games on the
'net have been smooth since I did a few things: First, get a server browser that supports
Half-Life (if the built in browser is offering ping times from my desktop, I'll be damned,
because it seems to be showing the server's ping to WON), and turn off decal display and
loading (a tip originally sent by goldmund). To turn off the decals (which will also stop
bullet holes and blood spots from showing), add the following commands to your .cfg, or
type them at the console (you need to start Half-Life with the "-console" option
for that):
r_decals 0
cl_download_ingame 0
I also needed to up my rate (defaulted to 2500) to 10000 for my ISDN. Voila, much smoother. More Half-Life tips to come (the pertinent project to which I recently referred).
Monday, November 30, 1998 |
Gabe
Newell Interview
[8:21 PM EST]
Talking
With Half-Life's Creator is a GameCenter
interview with Valve's Gabe Newell talking about the game's success, patches, multiplayer,
and more. Thanks CiDcO at StormTroopers. Gabe
has this to say about the authentication system that has caused some problems:
"The authentication system we've put in place is a really important part of the health of the multiplayer community," he says. "There are a group of people who work to destroy games for other people and we want to keep them as far away from the community as possible. They try all sorts of nasty things to screw up servers and cheat. There are a bunch of things they did when Quake II came out that gave people an unfair advantage in multiplayer. We don't want them hurting other customers' experience because in the long run that's the thing we're really jealous of. Nobody should be [toying around] with the Half-Life community."
The article goes on to say:
That said, the patch removes authentication checks for LAN games. But even in Gamespy's upcoming support for Half-Life, games will still have to be validated on Sierra's servers. And as for allegations that a key generator is duplicating existing authentication codes and locking out legitimate customers, Newell says there have been only about a half dozen successful instances of faked multiplayer authentication codes.
Heretic II Server Setup [4:21 PM EST]
Activision's Steve Stringer sent along the following info on setting up a
Heretic II dedicated server that will allow it to be publicly seen by programs like
GameSpy:
If you want to have your server seen by GameSpy and other Master Server List-based utilities, you need to set a GameSpy port and make your game public. To do so, do the following:
The default port for a Heretic II server is 28910. You will want to set your GameSpy port to that number + 1 with the following command:
In your command line launch or config:
+set gamespyport 28911
Or in the server itself:
gamespyport 28911Next, set your public setting to 1.
In your command line launch or config:
+set public 1
Or in the server itself:
public 1Additionally, you can set up multiple servers on a single machine by changing the port number.
In your command line launch or config:
+set port 2x910
Or in the server itself:
gamespyport 2x911...where 'x' is an integer. For instance, you can have three servers, each on ports numbered 27910, 28910, 29910. Remember to set your GameSpy port numbers accordingly (e.g. 27911, 28911, 29911...)
Sin
Walkthroughs
[4:21 PM EST]
Ritualistic has got some walkthroughs posted
covering individual levels. They've currently got each level through the Construction Zone
covered, with the remainder to follow. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.
Monster
Fusion Drivers
[4:21 PM EST]
The Diamond Multimedia
Monster Fusion Drivers page has new version 4.10.01.0211 drivers for this Voodoo
Banshee based card. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.
Sin
Update [12:02 PM
EST]
Ritual programmer Mark Dochtermann updated his
.plan with a Sin report, including details on upcoming 3DNow! support, the new tools
release, the new source release, and the patch:
A few things
- 3DNOW - I worked very hard on getting 3DNOW support in for the 1.01 patch, unfortunately there were a lot of issues with their 3dfxgl driver (it didn't recognize my PURE3D). Right now I am in a holding pattern waiting on AMD to see what they do to improve their optimized drivers. Another issue that came up is that the 3DNOW optimization is basically targetted solely at VOODOO customers. Anybody out there own a K6 and not use a VOODOO based video card? It seemed to me like there would be quite a few people in this situation and I want to make sure the optimized 3DNOW driver is compatible with all the popular cards.
- Tools - I am getting the new tools ready for release. This time I will also include the MAX and MAX2 plugins (compiled) sorry about that, didn't realize I just sent out source. Incidentally, the MAXSDK comes on every MAX disk.
- Source - We are also putting together a release of the source code for the gaming dll, this will take a little longer because it will be our first release ( the tools as you know had already been released for the demo ).
- Patch - I hope everyone is Sinning out there ;). I apologize for the change in Save games, but since most of the level scripts had changed, the old save games were truly no longer compatible.
Matrox OpenGL ICD Slips Again [11:01 AM EST]
Matrox has announced another delay on their full OpenGL Installable Client
Driver, which would have had to have been released today to make their revised November
deadline. The ICD is now expected to be released on December 9. The second piece of
unfortunate news for owners of Matrox MGA-G200-based accelerators is that this will be a
pre-beta ICD for Win95/98 only (WinNT support is promised for first quarter 1999), and
will not improve performance over the D3D wrapper currently available for G200 cards.
Matrox will continue to work on the performance side, as this quote shows:
While the pre-beta ICD will not exceed the performance of the currently available Matrox Direct3D Wrapper, Matrox wanted to assure customers that, despite the unfortunate delays, we are aggressively working on the ICD development under Windows 95/98 and NT in order to deliver the maximum performance possible for MGA-G200 based graphics accelerators.
This pre-beta ICD released on December 9, 1998 will support a limited number of OpenGL games and applications including, Quake II and Half Life.
loonyness [5:47 AM EST]
This week on loonygames there's
all sorts of new stuff afoot, including the site's new affiliation with
Next-Generation Online (never fear, the site is still "a Blue's News
publication") that will offer loonygames headlines on Next-Gen and vice versa, a
redesign that makes navigating the site's weekly outpouring of content more manageable,
and, oh yeah... issue fifteen to boot. Here's the lowdown, in convenient loony format:
ION
Interview [5:47
AM EST]
Action Xtreme
interviews William Haskins, ION Storm web guru, on several topics including the recent
personnel shakeups at ION, with part two of the interview to be posted tomorrow.
Doom
Interviews [5:47
AM EST]
There's a Sverre
Kvernmo interview on 5 Years of Doom as
part of a series of interviews they are running with noteworthy names from the world of
Doom playing and level creation. There are already interviews posted talking with Joel Huenink, Mike Gummelt, T. Eliot (Myscha) Cannon,
and John Bye. The Sverre
interview is described as everything from his first days with Doom to his final days with
ION Storm.
FleetSpy
Debut [5:47 AM
EST]
The first live "broadcast" of a Quake II match using the
FleetSpy streaming demo viewer mentioned here recently (story) is slated for tonight.
Here's the deal, from the Loki's Minions Capture
the Flag page:
Do you remember the days when you had to download demos? Remember when you had to wait for them to be recorded before you saw them? Those days are over because Nachos have released Fleetspy v1.0b (500k zip) which makes demos viewable (even to 28.8 users) immediately without download! It means that an unlimited number of observers could start recording a match as it happens, with about a minute or so latency. The instructions are ridiculously easy.
The premiere Fleetcast will be on the Nachos server at 9pm EST on Monday the 30th where HD plays PTH. LMCTF 4.0 required to view the broadcast.
New
NIQ [5:47 AM
EST]
A new version 1.93 of NIQ for
Quake II is available, offering a single new feature, an off-hand tractor beam.
Descent 3 Demo on the TNT [5:47 AM EST]
If you've had trouble with the Descent 3 demo on a TNT accelerator, you
might want to try OpenGL mode, rather than D3D, as RIVA 3D points out (they've posted some
screenshots of the demo in OpenGL on a TNT). Similarly, if this helps anyone, I had all
sorts of mouse problems when I tried Half-Life in D3D mode on a TNT, but was fine in
OpenGL.
Shogo,
Blood2 Reviews
[5:47 AM EST]
Games Domain
Reviews Shogo Mobile Armor Division, and PlanetBlood
reviews their namesake game.
Half-Life Pricing Follow-up [5:47 AM EST]
Just for the record, crack attack, or not, I've revived follow-ups from
several readers who've had some forms of success with the Half-Life price matching scheme
discussed here recently (story),
including some with successes even when the price to match couldn't be verified. Your
mileage may vary.
Celeron Overclocking Guide [5:47 AM EST]
Sharky
Extreme's Celeron Overclocking Guide gives step-by-step instructions on tweaking the
celery out of your Celeron, Intel's low-end processors that go in like a lamb, but can be
boosted to come out like a lion (of course, all warnings about voiding your warranty with
Intel, burning down your house from the heat, and losing your girlfriend because you're at
your fast new computer too much still apply).
Competitions [5:47 AM EST]
The Impulse 98 Wireplay LAN
Championships will be this weekend, the follow-up to last year's quite successful
Australian LAN competition. Robin Walker from Valve Software will assist running the
TeamFortress competition, and GT Interactive will be demonstrating Duke Nukem Forever. The
website has an AVI-format trailer using Quake II footage created by Damian Scott, ex-TFS
employee (the man behind the Team Fortress movie demo).
etc. [5:47 AM EST]
This O.D.E.N. Quake II Survey is for
someone's communication thesis (you gotta love that) ... The action-lovers at Action Quake have announced they are
"semi-porting" their popular Quake II mod to Half-Life ...
Out of the Blue [5:47 AM EST]
If that dog wasn't enough, now Yellow 5 points out Blue's Barney Page devoted
to children's TV's other most mindless icon. Eeek. Yesterday's Quote was Talking
Heads, Once in a Lifetime. Riffing on that theme, this is from Viz (with
apologies to David Byrne):
And you may ask yourself... When is Quake 3 Arena coming out?
And you may tell yourself This is not my beautiful palletized 16-bit Voodoo 2!
And you may tell yourself My god! I'll need a new card!
Same as it ever was
Sunday, November 29, 1998 |
Varginha
Incident Demo
[4:19 PM EST]
A playable demo of The Varginha
Incident (too easy), a first-person shooter being developed by a Brazilian gaming
company is now available. The demo is a doom-like thing with an odd mlook (holding alt),
and it doesn't really live up to some of the cool shots on the site, which may be from
cut-scenes. The demo is a modest three-some-odd MB, so it's easy enough to check out
yourself, and here is the skinny on the game from their page:
An overwhelming military operation is in progress to cover up the landing of an alien spacecraft. Frustrating the military personnel involved, some aliens escape towards the city, where they are spotted by several eyewitnesses. You are one of those witnesses - the first who actually makes contact - and who is assigned a very special mission...
- Witness the capture of an alien spacecraft by special military forces
- Make contact with a survivor EBE
- Break up a violent security scheme and search a local hospital for other survivors
- Infiltrate a military school used as a field base during the operation
- Challenge the awesome special agents and rescue a deserter trooper in downtown Sao Paulo
- Find the secrets hidden among abandoned ships in Rio de Janeiro
- Survive, and face the terrible truth in Southern Brazil: strange alien beings working side by side with human secret forces at a huge underground base: Stonedrome!
Half-Life Patch is US Version [3:40 PM EST]
Valve's Gabe Newell sent along a P.S. about the new Half-Life patch (story) saying that it is for the U.S. version
of the game only:
Also, this is the US version of the update. You will get an error message if you try to apply it to the UK, French, German, ... versions. The update will be localized for each of the different language/country versions.
Messiah Music Interview, Shots [3:40 PM EST]
There's an interview with Jesper
Kyd, composer of the music in Messiah, Shiny's upcoming third-person game featuring
Bob the cherub, as well as some new Messiah character shots
on The Messiah Universe.
Black
Crypt [2:31 PM
EST]
Raven programmer Rick Johnson updated his .plan with word that he hopes to release a single level as a
compatibility test from Black Crypt, an older project of his that he's reviving. If the
test goes well, the full game will be released as donationware:
My current plan, barring any legal problems, is to put together a build that will contain just the first dungeon level (which is 2 player levels) and put that out sometime next weekend. I mainly want to do this to see if there are any current bugs or compatibility problems with the code. The game should run well on any Win95, Win98, and WinNT system (486 66mhz and above). If everything goes well, then I'll put out the full release shortly there after.
Remember that we are going to be putting this out as donationware. If you enjoy the full product, feel free to send us some money or anything worthwhile. :)
Quake
II Racing Mod
[2:21 PM EST]
Flitsoft development
has released a Quake II mod that puts you behind the wheel of a large automobile ("where does this highway go to?") in a
TC called Q-Racing. Actually it's a small automobile, as the theme seems to be based on
the concept of micro-machines: Toy sized cars driving in a full sized world.
Tectonic [2:21 PM EST]
A new version 2.1 of Tectonic, the
Multi-Mod Quake2 launcher, is now available. The update fixes some bugs, and adds a 'map
note' feature with HTML export, for maintainers of map review sites. New versions of
Sincest and Quake Launcher are promised soon with the map note feature as well.
Zoom [7:59 AM EST]
Off in the BlueJet for home. There was a problem with the first version of the
Half-Life patch I uploaded (sorry about that), but it should be okay now.
Half-Life
Patch [2:27 AM
EST]
Valve Software has released a version 1.0.0.6 patch for Half-Life. The
update can be installed automatically via the Sierra Utilities, and is also available as a
separate download, here's a
local copy of the update (768 KB) on GamesNET
FTP. Gabe says this patch will not harm your saved games, and that anyone having problems
with the patch should email him directly. I'm
also told the patch resolves the problem I posted a warning about yesterday (story), so uninstalling the Sierra Utilities
is no longer the dangerous proposition it had been (thanks Marc). Here's what's new in the
patch from Contaminated.Net:
Update 1.0.0.6 addresses:
1. Disabled the music track check in CD Authentication. One problem that some people faced was that they have CD-ROM drives that either can't play the music tracks or they have disabled CD audio on that device. We've disabled the portion of the CD authentication that checked for the music tracks since it was tripping up legitimate customers. Of course they still won't hear the music until they get their CD audio fixed, but they would have that with any game that uses CD music.
2. Adjusted the default configuration for multiplayer to be more appropriate for people with lower speed modems or with high ping/bad packet loss.
3. The default rate for LAN games is now set to 9999. Previously the LAN rate was being set to the be the same as the Internet rate.
4. Removed the WON authentication attempts for LAN games. LAN games are limited to a single Class B address range.
5. Fixed an uninstall issue that may affect custom locations.
6. Fixed an A3D underwater sound bug.
Revenge of Stroggos [2:27 AM EST]
A new game .dll for the Revenge
of Stroggos Quake II mod is now available. The update provides full compatibility with
Quake II version 3.19.
Descent 3 Demo Cheats [2:27 AM EST]
A few of the cheat codes from the Descent 3 demo have been discovered and
posted by Descentia.
BattleField Commander Interview [2:27 AM EST]
This interview with
ShadowFactor talks about their BattleField Communicator product, which allows
real-time voice communication in multiplayer games over the Internet.
Sin
Review [2:27 AM
EST]
The Sin Review on Computer Action Games at The Mining Co.
offers a look at the game, including commentary on gameplay after installing the patch.
Half-Life Price War Crack Attack? [2:27 AM EST]
I've gotten a few mails saying the post from yesterday on getting a bargain copy of Half-Life doesn't seem
to be correct based on the prices listed by both stores. I haven't gotten to check on
this, so if the story is in error, my apologies for getting anyone's hopes up.
Competitions [2:27 AM EST]
Riding the Rocket is
a site dedicated to weekly Quake II challenges including ongoing bot challenges.
etc. [2:27 AM EST]
Cinner Designs offers free
webpage design, and free clan skin/model design ... An update to the CTF Survival Guide adds strategy guides for
all the Capture! maps ... gfxspace.com is looking to fill the void left by
SlipGate Central's seemingly permanent temporary shutdown and become a search-engine
driven page of game site listings ...
Out of the Blue [2:27 AM EST]
Here's part two of yesterday's Half-Life/Shogo impressions, covering the
Shogo half of the equation. This is my single-player experience prior to installing the
point release, since multiplayer didn't really work on the pre-patched game (I'm eager to
check out deathmatch now that the patch is out: I haven't heard much about how well it
works over the 'net). I got to play a bit of Shogo before its release, and I knew how cool
much of it was, with some of the most over-the-top weapons effects and explosions I can
recall in any game. But I've also found it surprisingly engaging as I continue to play
through the game, and I'm impressed by the effort that went into the single player game. I
estimate I'm at about the half-way mark, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't caught up in
the goofy soap opera plot here, and so far I seem right on course to actually maintain
enthusiasm throughout. There are a couple of downsides: the graphics are generally great,
but some of them are not up to that same level (the hand on the weapon when you're on
foot, for instance is pretty awful), the enemy AI (prior to the patch, at least) is pretty
lackluster, and the slight "stiffness" of the mecha controls is a little
frustrating (but it is a giant robot, and damn nimble in that context). But the
upsides are many, including a plot, a sense of humor, good level design, a nifty engine
(that renders nice large outdoor areas well), and the above mentioned weapons and
explosions. Though I'm not finished with either game yet, both Shogo and Half-Life have
carried my interest with the single player play farther into the game than any of my
favorite shooters, including Doom and Quake. While I haven't really tweaked around
Half-Life for the 'net, or tried the patched Shogo for Internet play, I've deathmatched
both games on a LAN, and they're both quite fun (though quite different, Half-Life being a
bit skulkier, and Shogo being in-your-face action). As I said up top, these are first
impressions, but they have been formed after enough time with the games that I'm
comfortable that they're pretty solid based on what I've seen of the games. It doesn't
really seem right to do this without following up on it, so I'll post my final impressions
when I'm done with both games as well (I imagine I'll push this all onto another page by
then).
Saturday, November 28, 1998 |
Descent
3 FAQ, BB, Tips
[6:34 PM EST]
The Descent 3 Frequently
Asked Questions page has been updated to version 0.35, with information about the
newly released demo, as well as some conversation with some of the game's developers.
Also, here's a Descent Community Forum
for public exchanges about the demo, as well as the upcoming game. Finally, there are some
updated hints and tips on Descentia for
the demo, including dedicated server configs, a SpaceOrb config, bug info, and a
step-by-step procedure on how to run in the as-of-yet unsupported 800x600 mode.
Quake II Systray Utility [6:34 PM EST]
Version 2.0 of Quake 2
Peek is out, an improved version of this system tray utility that can notify you when
a game of Quake II is started on your LAN.
C.O.R.E. Quake II [6:34 PM EST]
Center Of
Radioactive Emissions, or C.O.R.E., is a new Quake II mod that offers an interesting
teamplay variant on a CTF-style game where scoring is centered around possession of a
radioactive core that is constantly draining the life of the player carrying it, as well
as other nearby players. The rules feature twists that include the ability to nuke a whole
room with the core, and the awarding of weapons to the player who scores.
Matrox
BIOS [6:34 PM
EST]
Matrox Graphics
BIOS page has a new version 3.45 of their unified BIOS setup file that updates all of
Matrox's cards. Thanks BetaNews.
New UK QW & Q2 Masters [10:51 AM EST]
The folks over at BarrysWorld
pass the news that the UK master servers for both QuakeWorld and Quake II will no longer
be operated by Minos UK, so BarrysWorld is stepping up to the plate. Here's the lowdown:
Servers Ops need to change the address their servers report to. ALL UK & European QW and Q2 servers should send heartbeats to 194.88.93.12 from now on (default ports)
European Gamers wishing to add the new Masters manually should add:
QW Add Master Server list Name: BarrysWorld UK Internet Address: qwmaster.barrysworld.com Port: 27000
Q2 Add Master Server list Name: BarrysWorld UK Internet Address: http://q2master.barrysworld.com:8080
Permedia2 Q2 Colored Lighting Fix [10:51 AM EST]
Billy at Voodoo Extreme sends
along a fix to enable colored lighting in Quake II ona Permedia2 acclerator that was
discovered by PGR. Here's are the commands to
add to your autoexec.cfg:
Place these commands in your autoexec.cfg:
gl_3dlabs_broken "0"
gl_dynamic "1"
gl_monolightmap "C"Make sure you have the latest 3Dlabs reference drivers and at least Quake 2 v3.17. Next switch to a desktop color depth of 32 bits and start up the game.
Thief
Demo [4:05 AM
EST]
A playable demo
of Thief The Dark Project is up on GameSpot.
Thanks Solomon Grundy.
Giants Interview, Shots [4:05 AM EST]
GameHut interviews
Tim Williams of PlanetMoon Studios about their upcoming action/adventure game, Giants,
offering four new screenshots of the game along the way.
Source of Power for Quake II [4:05 AM EST]
Spine Design has released
a new Quake II mod called Source of
Power that wires your weapons into your body so you are firing your life instead of
ammo. As the authors point out, pinpoint aim really helps in this one. Weapon balance is
considered, so the bigger the gun, the more life it drains.
Half-Life
Warning [4:05 AM
EST]
I've received a couple of warnings from readers who've had the unfortunate
experience of uninstalling Half-Life, or the Sierra utilities that install with Half-Life,
only to find the uninstall deleted the entire directory structure where they installed the
game. The results of such a deletion could range from the annoying (the uninstallation of
the Half-Life OEM or other Sierra games if you installed in the default directory), to the
really problematic (if you install games in a dedicated games directory) to the truly
catastrophic (if you install the game in your program files directory), so until this is
fixed (or it turns out these scary anecdotes are proven incorrect), I would suggest
exercising extreme caution when removing Half-Life.
Half-Life Scheme [4:05 AM EST]
Gregory Kwok sends along a scheme to get a good
bargain on Half-Life that's worthy of I Love Lucy:
I'm serious. Remember earlier this year when you could get Quake2 for $5 because of price-matching and rebates between EB and CompUSA? Well, here we go again--
CompUSA is advertising it for $29.99. Electronics Boutique is selling it for $39.99. Go to EB and get them to price-match CompUSA for you. The go to http://www.ebworld.com/ and find the $10 rebate.
On a similar front, Todd Hollenshead's .plan covers bargain pricing on some id products.
Competitions [4:05 AM EST]
Ravage.Net is now offering a
Half-Life one-on-one league, divided into high and low-ping divisions.
etc. [4:05 AM EST]
The PlanetFortress
TeamFortress History page has nothing in the way of history posted so far, but is
soliciting input into what they hope will become a comprehensive resource for tracing the
history of TeamFortress, focusing on clans in particular ... Neurogib is a serialized piece of Quake fiction
...
Out of the Blue [4:05 AM EST]
I am having a lovely time spending the weekend out of town visiting my
in-laws, but it's poor timing in one regard: in addition to my usual deathmatch jones, in
an unusual twist (for me) I'm also feeling pain because I'm in the depths of some
single-player addiction, with both my Half-Life and Shogo: Mobile Armor Division games
awaiting my return. I figured I'd try and get a little of that frustration out of my
system by sharing my first impressions of these games before they become golden oldies.
(For the record, I play on what is best described as a monster system.) I'm about half-way
through each game, and am still enthusiastic about both, which is saying a lot, because
while I love deathmatch, most first-person shooters are work to play single
player. Half-Life I expected to be great based on what I'd seen already, and so far it has
actually surpassed my expectations. The only downside I can see so far is there seems to a
bit of jitteriness in Internet games, but I can't even say that for sure because I haven't
experimented with it greatly, but I do believe there may be a problem there. In
single-player, the software is not bug-free, but is pretty damn close. The single player
play is the most immersive I've ever experienced in an FPS: The game finds a way of making
the shooter tradition of following a path beset with lifts and buttons seem interesting,
almost reveling in the task, rather than avoiding it (though there is the unavoidable
feeling at times that you are following the only possible path, though I won't complain: I
don't really think dead-ends and such would add to the game). There is enough realism to
be fun, while not getting too caught up in it (there are still the occasional pieces of
machinery or architecture that are clearly created for cool value over realism). The
graphics are stunning, as are the models and animations, the level design is tight, the AI
is the best I've ever seen, and the weapons are well done in look, feel, sound, special
effects, and are particularly well balanced. The sense that the game is a fulfillment of a
vision, and a well-realized one at that, strikes you on a constant basis. The reviews on
Half-Life are glowing, and so far it's near-impossible to find reason to argue. I jotted
down my Shogo impressions here too, but it got too darn long. I'll post this stuff on a
separate page when I get back, but for now, I'll just save Shogo for tomorrow's Out of the
Blue. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention the NPCs, with scientists and security guards
(Barneys) to assist you in your struggle. While these characters are annoyingly cloned
(there's one Barney face, and three or four different scientists, who all usually use the
same dialog), their impact in the game makes you think of them as more real than you'd
expect (also, Barney is a total badass). The best is when you get a couple of them
together and they start to talk. Here's my favorite exchange (paraphrased):
Scientist: Perhaps we ought to try and capture a specimen?
Barney: Nope.
And I bet Barney didn't even go to college...
Previous Week | News Archive | Current News | Next Week |
All
trademarks used are properties of their respective owners Copyright © 1998, Stephen Heaslip. All rights reserved. |