Archived News:
3DFiles has posted a
new patch for the American version of Hidden & Dangerous. This patch
brings it up to version 1.1, and has a whole bunch of changes, including fixes
to the sniper mode, improved latency issues, and more.
Power Gamerz
has posted a Q&A with Unreal designer, Jazz Jackrabbit trainer, and guidance
counselor Cliff Bleszinski, talking about the future of 3D engines, upcoming
games, and of course, Britney Spears.
Arena Universe has posted
a Q&A session with everyone's favorite Quake III: Arena poster boy and 3D
modeller Paul Steed, talking about those things Paul loves to talk about: women,
making models, and women.
Dynamix' Tinman updated his
.plan with word that he's released his mod for Starsiege: TRIBES, called
Hunters. It's available for download now over at TRIBESPlayers.com,
and includes eight new maps to go along with it. Also released is Eric Lanz' new mod Rabbit, a server side only mod that's described as "a classic game of smear the guy with the red triangle on his head".
The Stratos Group has posted
a comprehensive guide to System Shock 2 (which is on store shelves now, according
to numerous reports we've received). The guide covers almost all of the weapons
(still a work in progress), all of the psi powers, and a whole lot more. It's
available in flat HTML format, or in Adobe Acrobat PDF format for offline reading.
SpecForce.net has posted two new screenshots
from Zombie's upcoming tactical shooter Spec Ops II: Green Berets.
3DRealms' George Broussard updated his
.plan this evening with word that they're looking to hire a new programmer
to work on Duke Nukem Forever (that's the game, not the length of time expected for the position). Here's just a teeny bit of this massive
.plan update: We're looking to add a 3rd programmer to the team to
help Chris and Nick with the workload. This will be a variety packed position,
and we'll discuss the exact tasks to be done during the interview. We'll be
updating the "Get Hired" section on our web site ASAP, but for now,
here are the relevant details, in order of preference.
MAJOR REQUIREMENTS (In order or preference)
* Professional experience with the Unreal engine preferred. If you are working
on an Unreal engine game now, contact us. I bet we can work something out. You'd
be surprised how flexible we are. Even if you're happy where you are you owe
it to yourself to consider the option. After all, what could look better on
your resume than Duke Nukem Forever, a sure blockbuster and easily
one of the most anticipated games in production.
* Professional experience on a major 3D engine, or having worked on an FPS game
before.
* User Community experience, working on killer moods for Unreal, Quake, Half-Life,or
other major games. The more popular the mod the better. If you're the new up
and comer, give us a shout.
Stomped's official Aliens
vs. Predator site has gone live, and features (in addition to one genuinely
stylin' interface) all kinds of information about the game, message boards,
and even a game server listing (although as of this writing there were none
listed). Thanks Redwood for the tip.
NGNetwork
has posted an interview with Raven's Kenn Hoekstra, talking about their Quake
II engine title Soldier of Fortune (which was demonstrated at last weekend's QuakeCon). Amongst the topics covered are GHOUL (SoF's
special modelling system), and the multiplayer options they're working on, including
the revelation that they're going to try to ship with Capture the Flag support.
The Unreal Technology Page has undergone
an update, by way of a True-Type
Font Importing Tutorial by Epic's Jack Porter (thanks PlanetUnreal). Apparently
Unreal mod makers can use any True Type font in their mods (although it should
be pointed out that many popular fonts are not public domain, and therfore cannot
be freely distributed). Here are the details: The TTF importer allows
you to convert a Windows true-type font of a particular size into an Unreal
font which you can then use to draw in-game text. The Unreal engine now has
support for rendering anti-aliased fonts, and the TTF importer allows you to
import the anti-aliasing from a Windows font.
Unreal has had the ability to import true-type fonts for use in-game since version
224, although there was a bug in the 224 font importer code which meant all
the fonts you imported ended up as MS Sans Serif. Be sure you're using Unreal
225f or later, or you may have problems.
With TRIBESCon only three days
away, Datumplane::Starsiege has posted
seventeen things those planning on attending should make sure they take care
of before showing up. Amongst them are such notables as "back up your registry"
and "bring headphones". The list is good for any LAN party,
so I recommend checking it out whether you're planning on attending TRIBESCon
or not.
Kingpin guide on Captured.com
that tries to teach you how to make crime pay when playing Xatrix' Quake II-engine game of
gangsta-living.
AGN's
QuakeCon '99 Coverage is up with AGN's Josh Krane's overview, heavily illustrated with
photos (including a shot of the winner (loony) and loser (Bobbi) of loony and his sister's
deathmatch. Also, QuakeCon
99 Tidbits on BetaBites giving Lockup's personal impressions of the event along with
several photographs. Also, The Flagship
Engineering Room's QuakeCon wrap-up is online as well, with their own recap of the
event scatted across the front page of their site. Finally, Team Abuse's QuakeCon impressions and photos are up as well.
Chess king Tom Hall has posted a new installment to his developer's diary over
at Anachronox.com (thanks, as usual,
to ION's Daily Informant). To
find it, hit "Game Information" followed by "Design Diary"
on the funky interface. This installment has Tom ranting about how cool the
interface, cinematics, music, and well, everything about Anachronox is.
Version Mk.Ia of Roger Wilco, the
real-time voice communication shareware program that works with Starsiege: TRIBES
and Quake amongst other games, has been released. This version has a slew of
fixes and enhancements - for specific features, check out the
official Roger Wilco site.
According to FGN Online, "a member
of the staff at Surreal Software" has confirmed that the level editor for
Drakan will be available for download soon after it hits store shelves. The
game has already gone gold, and should be popping up near you Real Soon Now.
The
Pulpit has posted an interview with Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin of Xatrix,
talking about the K7, various 3D chipsets and other hardware issues, and how
they relate to Kingpin (thanks Billy).
Following up on their Q3Test
2 strategy guide, Quake 3 Source
has posted their
guide to Q3Test 1, with a slew of strategies for the first map in Q3Test.
System Shock 2 has shipped to stores, as reflected in this
press release that EA has been sending out. Look for it on shelves near
you within the next couple of days.
Xatrix' Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin updated his
.plan with details on how the new download code that was implemented into
Kingpin works. Here's what he had to say: ...what I did was break the
file being sent, into "chunks" of 1024 bytes. This way the client
can keep a record of which "chunks" it has recieved, giving it the
ability to have multiple pending requests for data at once.Anyway, that's the
basic principle. Some obstacles here were finding the right balance between
sending too many requests, and not sending enough. This was handled by adjusting
the maximum number of pending requests with the current RATE setting, which
worked out pretty well, and didn't involve a lot of effort.
It was an interesting experiment, and one I'm happy to say was a reasonable
success. I still have one issue involving duplicate chunks being recieved, which
doesn't cause any harm other than wasting some bandwidth. I think it has to
do with requests timing
out on the client before the server has had a chance to send it. Nothing major,
but something I'll no doubt make sure gets cleared up before our next game ships.
:)
There are some new TRIBES Extreme
screenshots on the Tribes
Players site. Thanks Datumplane::Starsiege.
TRIBES Extreme is an upcoming version of Starsiege TRIBES that will offer enhanced
single-player capabilities.
Gamecenter's: QuakeCon 99
a Hit is a recounting by our old pal crash, now a high-falooting game journalist,
and all ![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif) . The story includes a detailed recounting of the event, and is illustrated with several
photos. Also, QuakeCity's QuakeCon 99
Coverage offers a discussion of
Curved Surfaces in Q3A based on the Workshop by Paul Jaquays.
Here's a reminder of the two chat sessions later today: Inside Mac Games Chat is planning a
live online chat session with Bungie's Brent Pease to talk about progress on Bungie's
upcoming third-person fighting game, Oni. The session is tonight at 10:00 PM Eastern (7:00
Pacific). To join visit the page
using a Java-capable browser. Also, with tomorrow the release date of the first-person
RPG sequel, System Shock 2, Irrational Games' Ken Levine is hosting a live chat at 9:00 PM
EDT on the IRC server polaris.starchat.net in #system`shock`2.
The King of the Server page has a new
version 3.0 of the King of the Server mod for Quake II. KOTS is the deathmatch mod that
saves your stats, inventory, ammo, armor, weapons, and health across games, maps, and
servers. The point-release is anticipation of their upcoming Armory dealie, which will let
you stock up on ammo, armor, weapons, heal yourself, and "buy" items from a
website to be used in your next KOTS game. Stay tuned for more on that (including its
debut) next week.
The CIDE page has a new version 1.4 of this
teamplay mod for Unreal. New to this release is the ability to pick up corpses and use
them as shields (woah!), a fire extinguisher, signal distortion device, grenades for the
Marine's rifle, binoculars, AntiTank Cannon, Arm Mounted Machine Gun, Dragon Deflector
Device and combination ammo boxes.
PlanetStarSiege has posted an uber-set of GameSpy tabs for Starsiege TRIBES that can now search
out no less than 23 mods and mission types.
Club-i - Half Life TFC Festival '99 has
word on a LAN Party across North America on August 21, 1999 that will accommodate 300
People in locations in five different cities.
I was tooling through the archives and found that a year ago marks the appearance of an
article called Return to Low Res
that offered the theory that games might start incorporating lower-resolution textures to
create a better overall effect. That article sparked no small debate at the time, and
thought it would be interesting for those interested in the discussion at the time to be
reminded of it, since the answer to which way this trend has gone since then is pretty
clear (perhaps due to the high-resolution textures). Also certainly worthy of note, it was
right around now in 1996 that a bunch of shakeups in the gaming industry occurred,
including the departure of several 3D Realms employees, and the storied parting of the
ways for The Romero and id Software that resulted in the formation of Ritual and ION Storm
(at the time Hipnotic and Dream Design). This ends the history lesson for the day.
Link of the Day: NASA -
Eclipse 99 for today's Total Solar Eclipse (just don't look directly at your monitor).
Thanks Ryan.
Datumplane::Starsiege has posted an email reply
from Dynamix' Tim Gift saying he's "sure" they would do a TRIBES2 Linux Client,.
Here's the encouraging news for Linux fans:
I'm not totally suprised that there are that many players interested in a linux
client, there has always been interest here in doing one :) Given the response though, I'm
sure we will do the port as soon as we get the chance.
Raven's Mike Gummelt updated his .plan with a bunch of stuff about what he's doing as far as
programming for Raven's upcoming Star Trek Game talking about some of the Raven created
stuff he's psyched about, as well as the improvements in the most recent builds of the
Quake III engine they've received from id Software..
The Burpfish Network sends word they've
posted another new screenshot from ION's upcoming Anachronox, on top of the bunch posted
earlier ( story).
Power Gamerz interviewz
Christian "Disruptor" Antkow talking to the id Software level designer
about Quake III Arena, gaming in general, and other assorted topics.
You guessed it, more screenshots, Unrealism has
posted five new screenshots of their own from Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament in a group
that seems to place emphasis on special effects.
And continuing the shot binge, Act Two - No. 77 - Large
is the new Diablo II screenshot of the week showing off the "Eye of Zeus."
Satan's Shogo Validation Page has posted
a new anti-cheat measure for Internet Shogo: Mobile Armor Division games that requires
both client and server to run a validate.rez file. Saw that on PlanetShogo.
This ASUS FTP directory has
new final version 2.08 drivers for their TNTX line: V3800 Display Driver for
Win9x (direct link) and V3800 Display Driver for
WinNT (direct link), as well as a new version 3.4 ASUS Live for V3800
(direct link) and version 2.02 of their V3800 Tweak Utility
(direct link) which you use to "Change Max. level of Engine Clock from 160MHz to
190MHz for Ultra Card"). More on what's new is on this index file. Thanks BetaNews.
There's a Tomb Raider 3 Patch on 3DFiles
to enable AMD 3DNow! support in Eidos' Tomb Raider III.
3D Realms' Joe Siegler updated his
.plan with word that they've released an MP3 file over on the
3D Realms page from the "Music to Score By" CD that's coming out
soon, which features a number of bands doing Duke Nukem-related music. The released
track is Megadeth's cover of the Duke Nukem theme song. Along similar lines,
Volition has posted the first of their weekly MP3 files over on Freespace2.com,
showing off the soundtrack to their space shooter.
Dynamix' Mitch Shaw has updated his
.plan with word that he's created a new mission type for Starsiege: TRIBES
that's currently in QA, and will be released soon. It's a large update, but
here's an excerpt that gives the general rules of the mod: Basic concept:
you "freeze" instead of dying. When your health hits zero (or basically
close enough to not matter), you get knocked into observer mode around your
(still standing) body. Frozen players have a blue armor skin and are stuck in
the "using PDA" pose. You randomly throw all the ammo you're carrying
and lose your pack when you get frozen. You remain frozen until one of two
things happen: your entire team gets frozen (bad) or one of your teammates hits
the enemy's switch (good).
If a whole team is frozen, they respawn and the other
team gets one point. If a teammate hits the switch, everyone on that team gets
unfrozen and the player who touched the switch gets 1 point for everyone who
was frozen. You get full ammo for every weapon you're holding when you get unfrozen,
and also receive a repair kit. You will take damage for leaving the mission
area, just like in Deathmatch. All the missions I've converted for Freeze play
were originally CTF maps, and the switches are exactly where the flags used
to be (exception: Desert of Frost, the new version of Desert of Death, has the
switches inside the pyramids but not inside the holes
in the floor.)
Is it just me, or is today "let's release some screenshots day" or
something? Go fig. Anyway, Anchronox.com
has posted seven new screenshots from Tom Hall's (who as everyone knows is like
a total chess god) Anachronox. Thanks to ION's
Daily Informant for the tipoff.
GameFan has
posted two new screenshots from Unreal Tournament, one of which shows off the
"Insta-Gib Mutator" one of the really funky new weapons, and the other
features the redesigned Flak Cannon.
Interplay sent along these
six new screenshots from their 3D RPG Invictus. The game is played from
an isometric perspective, and utilizes an engine that mixes voxels and polygons.
Interesting stuff, so check
it out.
German site MagixX ("ist entertainment
pur und taeglich frisch!") has posted what are to the best of my knowledge,
the first screenshots from Warhammer 40,000, the upcoming FPS game that runs
off the Mortyr 2 engine. If you want to read the accompanying text on the site,
try squishing a Babel Fish in your
ear (although the text on the images page is in fact in English).
- GameSpot
UK has posted some new screenshots from Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear (thanks
Billy).
- A handful of new shots from BattleCruiser 3020 AD have been posted at the
official site.
- VoodooExtreme has posted four new shots
from Nocturne.
Aftershock Productions has
posted version 9A of Classic CTF the first beta release of their Capture the Flag mod for
Half-Life, based as you would imagine, on Zoid's classic Threewave CTF for Quake. This
initial version is described as stable "with the exception of Roger Wilco
support," which hasn't been properly tested.
QuakeStarter's Official HomePage has a new
version 0.72b of this front-end for Quake, Quake II, and Q3Test. The new release adds a
password field to the deathmatch options; adds the gametype options for Q3Test; adds a
server MOTD option; improves Quake II Gladiator bot support; and fixes bugs in the SOCKS
options, dedicated server options, and MaxFPS option.
PC Gamer Online previews Tachyon: The
Fringe, an upcoming Space Simulation from NovaLogic they say is due sometime this
Fall. The piece offers screenshots, as well as some quotes from an interview with Mike
Maza, the producer of Tachyon.
The Adrenaline
Vault News has a post up with more info bout Irrational Games' upcoming (as in this
Thursday) RPG, System Shock 2. The post describes the "OSA" character, a
"secret ops military-based character focuses on infiltration, espionage and
intelligence."
NVIDIA and SGI Set Direction of
Strategic Alliance is a Business Wire report with more details about how the
SGI/NVIDIA strategic alliance will impact the manufacture of new graphics technology at
both companies. Here's an excerpt:
As a major initiative to bring a dramatic price/performance discontinuity to the
visualization market and accelerate product time-to-market, SGI will incorporate NVIDIA's
graphics technology into new desktop graphics systems. As part of the initiative, SGI will
transfer a world-class team of 3D graphics engineers to NVIDIA to work on its next
generation technology.
Speaking of SGI, SGI cutting up
to 1,500 jobs in reorganization is a CNET News.com
report of some job cuts there.
TRIBES Lead Designer Scott Youngblood updated his .plan with the news that he is departing
Dynamix for Electronic Arts. Here's the skinny:
This friday (the 13th) will be my last day as an employee of Dynamix. It
has been a GREAT 9 years here in Eugene and I will always look back on these years fondly.
The decision to leave was very difficult for me to make but I have an
opportunity in the bay area that I cannot pass up. I will be joining Electronic Arts
in their Online Games division as a lead designer on an upcoming multiplayer title.
Tribes 2 is progressing very nicely and it with great sadness that I will not be
able to help finish it. I still plan on being an active member in the Tribes
community (playing for Western Alliance)... see you online.
Scott
p.s. You CAN buy Mirror Pond Pale Ale in the bay area... woo woo!
CornBoy! is good people, in the caffeine-swilling Blue's News tradition, and we wish
him all the best.
Inside Mac Games Chat is planning
a live online chat session with Bungie's Brent Pease to talk about progress on Bungie's
upcoming third-person fighting game, Oni. The session is tomorrow night (August 11) at
10:00 PM Eastern (7:00 Pacific). To join the chat, all you need is to visit the page using a a Java-capable
browser. Also, a reminder that on tomorrow's eve of the release of System Shock 2, the
first-person RPG sequel, Irrational Games' Ken Levine, project leader on the game, is
hosting a live chat at 9:00 PM EDT on the IRC server polaris.starchat.net in #system`shock`2.
PlanetQuake
has posted an interview with Activision's John Tam that was conducted at last
weekend's massive QuakeCon event, talking about Raven's Soldier of Fortune.
Another one of those Kingpin beta patches (version 1.17c) has been released and is available
for download at the Kingpin beta
site (thanks Da' NoMaD). Here's a list of changes in this version:
- Improved new file transfer system (isn't hampered by lag, and pretty much
maxes out the given connection speed)
- Fixed "Illegible Server Message" after failing a download
- Fixed deposits field
The official Outcast site has
been updated, and now features new screenshots, MPEGs with goofy "out takes" from the game, and behind the scenes footage (thanks GASource).
sCary's Shugashack has posted
an interview with Diehard-r3v, the winner of last weekend's big ol' QuakeCon
Tournament, and who is being called by some the best one on one Q3 player around.
The Shugashack's QuakeCon 99 Picture Page
is up with some reminiscences from the event, and over 70 photos Huntsman took along the
way, all with captions.
Looks like the CPL is targeting New York City as the site for their next event, the Ground ZERO Website is up with a
cinematic teaser courtesy of Flash that promises more details "coming soon."
Fortunately, if you're burning with curiosity, I have a few details that aren't on the
website right now: The event will run from Thursday, September 9-Sunday, September 12,
1999, and here's a description from Angel at the CPL: "The four-day event will host
the finals for the Quake 2 Female Frag Fest, an official CPL Quake 3 tournament, a massive
LAN, exhibition booths for hardware and software companies, workshops and more."
defraGGed's Q3Test1 Overview
is a printable map of Q3Test1 offering a key to show the way to weapons, ammo, and armor.
One of the last, but assuredly not among the least of the reviews we've posted for the
Athlon along with some other reviews this AM:
Avault's Guide to Hidden & Dangerous
Exposed and Disarmed is up, offering what they say is the most comprehensive strategy
guide you'll ever find for Hidden & Dangerous, the "squad-based arcade-like
action title" from Illusion Softworks. They describe it as one of their most
ambitious undertakings ever, and the lengthy guide offers a Walkthru, reference sections
such as The SAS, The German Guard, and The Weapons of War, and
assorted other guides, like their Sniping
tutorial.
Saw on Voodoo Extreme that Gone Gold has word of the release of a 55 MB playable
demo of Abomination,
described as a "team based Strategic and Tactical Combat game."
On the heels of yesterday's release, comes a new version 1048.2 of the Q3Tweak Q3Test tweaking/optimization
utility. Thanks Jason Winter-Roach. The new release fixes a bug that sneaked past
pre-release testing, and takes the opportunity to add Savage4 support.
True old school gamer Avatar has posted his own write-up of John Carmack's talk
at QuakeCon, or as he put it, his "rehash of the things [he] can remember Carmack
talking about at his Qcon speech, with a little added interpretation on [Avatar's]
part." This write up also includes a couple of photos, and a summary of the Q&A
session.
John Carmack at QuakeCon on
3D Action Planet, is a write up about the talk the id lead programmer gave at
QuakeCon, written by Fargo and crt, and illustrated with photos. Here's the description:
Cool Things Carmack Talked About:
- What's under Quake 3's hood
- How it's different from Quake or Quake II
- The current state of 3D technology
- The future of 3D technology
- The Doom movie
- How broadband will affect action gaming
- 100+ player games
- The Sega Dreamcast and net games
Next-Generation Online's
Exclusive Halo Interview is a short Q&A based on a "marathon interview
session with with Nathan Bitner, Producer of Halo" (Marathon, get it?). Also, Next-Generation Online's
Halo Preview is another look ahead at Bungie's upcoming third-person multiplayer
action/strategy title, again, based on Bungie's recent tour to show off the game to some
online publications.
Version 0.23b of q3dmstats, the first
public release of this freeware Q3Test log parser, is now available. This program is
described as "pretty crude right now," but it has been released to get feedback
on its future direction. The page offers some sample output of what the program
does.
Drakan.Net has posted a pair of new forums, Drakan-
Troubleshooting and Drakan-
Clans, both fairly self-explanatory, if a trifle early, for this third-person action
title that's gold, but not yet in stores.
Ritual's Robert Atkins updated his .plan with more on Ritual's attempts to hire
a 2D artist to work on Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2, though the Adrian Carmack part may be a
tall order (Adrian, no relation to John, is one of id's co-owners, and 2D artist supreme).
Here's word on their job hunt, and related art test (unfortunately electronic, not
on a matchbook):
Heavy Metal 2d job update: We are currently *still* looking for a 2d artist the
likes of the pixel-master Adrian Carmack. =)
There have been a great number of talented artists who have sent art in response to the
first time that we posted this position. For the most part, we have been very impressed
with their work and have even done a bit of interviewing, but the one thing missing in
most portfolios is a health set of high quality game tiles and skins.
This is nothing new; game companies have this problem every time they try to find someone
to create tiles and skins.
In the past, the way we have handled this problem is by giving certain interested
candidates an "art-test." No reason to freak out, it's super simple! We give you
example tiles to look at for quality. Then your objective is to create your own tile set
to submit for review.
To be perfectly honest, I really never look forward to go through this process. However,
looking back, I should have prepared the "art-test" the first time I announced
the job opening. Every 2d artist ever hired at Ritual has completed the
"art-test" before we even looked at any of his or her other art.
If you have never created game tiles, this is the perfect exercise to see if you got what
it takes. Plus for those artist that are just coming out of school or those trying to make
a career changes, 'with no real tileskin experience', this the type of specific
"game" art samples that companies like Ritual are looking for. So, even if you
don't get hired at Ritual, after completing the test, you now have a great new portfolio
sample to submit the next time you apply at your favorite game company.
Go here http://www.ritual.com/files/arttest.zip
and download the zipped file, unzip it, read the doc and check out the art samples. Next,
get to creating a sample tile set that even mom would be proud of, then send it to roba@ritual.com.
After you take a look at the files and doc, and still have questions just mail. I get back
to you ASAP.
- Relic News' HomeWorld Contest
offers the chance to win either a copy of HW or one of two concept sketches, each item
having been autographed by the development team at Relic.
- There's a new Vortex of Sound contest
giving away "an Aureal Vortex2 SuperQuad Digital PCI sound card for the best 3D audio
on the PC, dual 3dfx Voodoo2 SLI accelerators for heart-thumping pixel-pumping graphics,
and plenty of Aureal goodies!"
Settling back into the groove here in the Blue tower... loonyboi got home safely today and
should be poking his beak into things tomorrow, after some well-deserved rest. A little of
the old pop culture yesterday, Christopher J. Meyer sends along a reply quote:
"I ain't through with you by a damn sight - I'm gonna get medieval on yo' ass."
Link(s) of the Day: The
Gimp's Box, Nocturnus'
Pulp Fiction Page, and the The
Ultimate Pulp Fiction Page in honor of today's pop culture game.
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