Archived News:
PC.IGN has posted their
preview of ION Storm's upcoming Unreal-engine RPG Deus Ex. The preview is chock
full of info from the design team, including this bit, which is the first I've
heard of a possible multiplayer portion of the game: While the answer
to the multiplay question was "no way in hell" five months ago, the
team at ION has reevaluated the situation and it looks like Deus Ex will indeed
ship with a multiplayer component after all. "Even if all we can do is
deathmatch, then you bet your ass we're gonna do it," Warren brashly told
us. The team already has deathmatch up and running, and are considering even
more options. However, the main focus for Deus Ex is still on the single player
experience, so they've made no promises as of yet.
Smitty over at TRI sends along a
fix for Voodoo 2 & 3 users for the second Nocturne demo (53 KB). Here's
the poop on this from Nocturne Lead Programmer and Co-Designer Mark Randel: For
Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 users
Only to be used for Nocturne Demo #2
"DirectX is a very complicated API. Nocturne uses a blit function in the
DirectX API that 3Dfx does not implement yet in their D3D drivers. Other 3D
games do not use real-time shadows, and do not exercise some of the DirectX
functions that we use in Nocturne.
This TRIDX6.DLL contains code to emulate this blit function using the main CPU
instead of the Voodoo card. Because of this software emulation, Nocturne will
not run at an optimal frame rate, because normally Nocturne can do other work
(like cloth simulation) while the hardware takes care of this blit.
Please remember that Voodoo cards can only render in 16-bit mode. Nocturne is
optimized for 32-bit mode, so you'll have to decide whether you like 16-bit
hardware, or 32-bit software mode best.
Due to the software memory blit function, please only run 640x480x16bpp with
this video driver for the moment. Any other resolution will probably crash
immediately. Usage of this video driver is governed by the software license
agreement that you agreed to when installing the original product.
3Dfx is scheduled to release their next Voodoo3 update on October 15th. This
update contains the blit function that Nocturne uses, and Nocturne will run at
full speed with this new driver. When you download this driver, please delete
this TRIDX6.DLL and use the original one that we ship with the
game."
There's a Quick
Q&A With Mark Rein on GamesMania talking briefly with Epic's PR maven
about Unreal Tourney, and his thoughts on comparisons to the "other
guys." Thanks Voodoo Extreme.
It's another week, another shot as Act Two - No. 85
is the latest Diablo II screenshot of the week, showing off more gameplay from
the upcoming sequel to Blizzard's action/RPG.
An update to the official SWAT 3
FAQ adds a single answer to the question about the game's availability. To
spoil the suspense, here's the scoop: "SWAT 3 is scheduled for a November
1999 release in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. French,
German, Spanish, and Italian language versions will follow later this winter.
Please contact your local software retailer for availability." Thanks Frans
at 3D Action Gamers.
The Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace
game page has word of a new version 1.1 patch for this game that puts you in
the roles of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Queen Amidala and Captain Panaka.
Thanks The Adrenaline Vault.
3dfxGamers has posted
an interview with Matt Candler, the producer of Battlezone II, talking about
various gameplay issues with Activision and Pandemic Studios' first person strategy
game (thanks Vangie).
NGNetwork
has posted a two question Q&A with Epic's Tim Sweeney, talking about the
next Unreal (1) patch (which he says will be released once UT hits the shelves)
as well as this bit regarding mod compatibility between the demo and full versions
of Unreal Tournament: When the full Unreal Tournament ships, we expect
UT demo mods will need a small amount of upgrading and modification, rather
than having full binary compatibility. After UT ships and we start patching
UT, we expect few mods to break. The game, AI, and server framework is really
solid now. The kinds of things that are likely to break are mods that use the
C++ headers (rather than pure UnrealScript), and mods which tie into implementation
details that might change, like server browser minutiae.
The Australian games site Play
Now! has posted an interview with Raven Software's Kenn Hoekstra, talking
to the project administrator about his duties on Soldier of Fortune, the game's
realism, as well as a number of gameplay issues.
A patch has been released for the Half-Life mod War
in Europe. The patch updates the mod to version .51, and fixes a connection
bug, as well as a number of smaller bugs (thanks Rocketsauce[SBD]).
GameFan has
posted a new screenshot from Origin's 3D RPG, Ultima IX: Ascension. They promise
"as early as next week" full interviews with the development team,
as well as more screenshots.
Big news from Intel today: first off, they've finally announced
that the eagerly-awaited USB 2.0 will have a target speed of 480 Megabits per
second, as well as the rest of the final specs. According to the new
press release, the new speed will allow "consumers to back up a gigabyte
of data from their PC hard drive in less than a minute on USB 2.0 versus about
a half-hour on USB 1.1." In other Intel news, Forbes
is reporting that they've finally gotten around those nasty Rambus problems
that have been holding back their Camino 820 chipset (thanks Jacek
Fedoryñski).
It's a little late, but this week's Wheel of Time update has been posted at
the official site (thanks Unreal
Universe). The game is very close to completion, as reflected in the update...here's
an excerpt, which hints that there may be a reward for players who complete
the game: We're not gold, but we're damn close. The reason that I didn't
update when I returned from overseas is that we've all been working at least
16 hour days. Personally, I haven't had room to sleep, much less update the
page. If Sabrina hadn't fed my cat, I'd have a very upset pet on my hands.
The single player game rocks. All of the final levels are in place, filling
out the holes contained in the pre-alpha review sent out to all of the reviewers.
By 4:00pm today, most if not all of the A and B bugs (as well as many C bugs)
will have been exterminated.
During the last week, we've had a chance to do some informal focus testing.
We brought in new eyes--both fans of the books and not--and had them play through
the game. The response was universally positive. Both types of players appreciated
the story, one for its own sake, and the other for how well it fits into the
books. They also loved the graphics, the gameplay, the opponents, the puzzles,
and the artifacts. Weak points were identified, addressed, and should all be
fixed by now. In fact, thanks to Ryan and Mike, I've been working at tweaking
all of the artifact-users (or, in come cases, channelers). Combat with them
has never been more fun.
And for those who play through the whole thing, we may have a little surprise
for you. Let's just say we have a way of knowing if you finished the game.
As promised last week, GameSpot
UK has posted their hands-on preview of Legend's Unreal engine title Wheel
of Time. It's very in-depth, looking at both the single and multiplayer games,
and there's 14 new screenshots up in their WoT
gallery (thanks Frans).
Stomped has posted two new screenshots
from Daikatana: one shows Mikiko (the female sidekick) attacking skeleton monsters,
and the other shows off the weapon radius damage effect. Daikatana, ION Storm's
Quake II engine game, is close to completion, and is expected on store shelves
this holiday season (they mean it this time). In other ION related news, Voodoo Extreme has posted a new screenshot of the main character from Anachronox, who as Billy points out, looks remarkably like Kyle MacLachlan.
Tomorrow's edition of the
GameDive will feature a couple of Ritual killers, Level Designer Tom
"ParadoX" Mustaine and Lead Artist Robert Atkins, to talk about
progress on Ritual's upcoming Quake III-engine extravaganza, Heavy Metal:
F.A.K.K.2, based on the movie/comic book characters created by famed Ninja
Turtle creator Kevin Eastman. The chat will be live tomorrow at 10:00 PM
EDT (7:00 PM PDT), and RealPlayer, or
equivalent, is required.
The Strange Company site has a new
version 2.05 of the StangeUtil freeware utility for those who create
Quake-family mods to distribute sound for their work as mp3s within a .pak file,
reducing the size of the pre-installation sounds by up to 90%. The new release,
produced with the assistance of the Quake
done Quick team (for their upcoming "Rabbit Run"), fixes the
"40 ms delay" problem, adds a script file creator (to automate setup
of the installation process), and fixes several other bugs.
The Future Technologies site has a
new version 0.9 of the Future Technologies mod. The new release of this
deathmatch mod for Quake II adds new graphics, and improves the locational
damage added in the last release, and adds a new weapon (nailgun).
Freespace2.com has another new .mp3
with music from FreeSpace2 on their FreeSpace 2 downloads page
with more of the music from this now-available space sim from Volition. Thanks The Descent Chronicles.
Also on the space sim front, IPlayGames
(devoted to everything Interplay), has word of an upcoming chat with the
developers of another upcoming space sim, Klingon Academy, obviously enough, set
in the Star Trek universe (the game is a prequel to Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country, featuring Christopher Plummer and David Warner
reprising their roles from the movie). The chat will be held today at 8:00 PM
EDT (5:00 PM PDT) using any IRC client to connect to this server:
pc065.ed.bmc.org in the channel #starfleet.
Gathering of Developers' Mike "CatDaddy" Wilson updated
his .plan with his insistence that we all check out the just-released second
Nocturne Demo ( story)
along with more about the Voodoo3/Voodoo Banshee problems mentioned earlier ( story)
and word that a new-and-improved version of the demo is due soon. Here's the
deal: So, everyone MUST check out The Windy City Massacre demo of
Nocturne that is posted on Nocturne's official fansite, The Spookhouse.
http://www.3dactionplanet.com/spookhouse/ It's also on the Nov cd's for PC Gamer
and PCXL, if you want to save yourself the download time. This demo is much
better than the original Redeye, TX demo, IMO, and gives the player a real taste
of Nocturne's amazing technology, environments, and gameplay.
Having said that, you should also realize that this demo is a few months old,
due to those wonderful long lead times on magazine CD ROMs. Terminal Reality is
in the process of going gold with Nocturne this week, and after that, they'll be
updating the online demos with all the fixes and improvements that have made
their way into the actual game. Look for the new and improved versions late next
week.
BTW, for those reading the Voodoo-related posts, Nocturne runs just dandy in
software mode on a reasonably fast computer. 3DFX will hopefully release the new
drivers soon that will make all the Banshee and Voodoo 3 owners happy.
Again, this game is something truly original and well worth putting down Unreal
Tournament for a little while to get some unbelievable single-player goodness in
a dark room. (and i know you guys like to play with yourselves in a dark room as
much as i do).
GameSpot
has posted eight new screenshots from LucasArts' Indiana Jones and the Infernal
Machine, their third person adventure game starring everyone's favorite archeologist
(thanks Frans).
GameSpot
has posted their hands-off preview of Volition's Summoner, a RPG
from the creators of Freespace and Descent. There's nine images up, as well
as some brief details about the gameplay and storyline (thanks Frans).
A follow-up post on Spookhouse
adds a missing setup.dll file to the second Nocturne demo, which was posted
yesterday after its recent release on the cover CD with the November issue of PC
Gamer Magazine ( story).
The file has been added to the archive, and is also available as a separate
download for those who've already downloaded the whole 80 MB beast. Thanks J
Bozarth. Speaking of warnings that should be provided before the download, Ant
points out the second demo, like the one that preceded it, will not work on
Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo2 or Voodoo3 systems using the current drivers. Word is a future driver
release (expected soon), will fix the problem with Voodoo3 (and Voodoo
Banshee) cards (according to TRI, the problem is not actually in the game),
though there is no word yet on a fix for the Voodoo2 problem, which presumably
also affects Voodoo (1) Graphics cards.
Total
Video Games interviews Dave Perry talking to the happy shiny person from
Shiny Games in a Q&A that centers mostly on the console side of things.
Thanks skrewup. Included are tidbits like his take on the PlayStation 2 and
other systems, with no holds barred. For instance, Dave offers the following on
Sega's latest: "The Dreamcast is screwed. But I love it at the moment. :)"
The Adrenaline Vault
previews Asheron's Call with a look ahead at Turbine and Microsoft's
upcoming massive online multiplayer RPG. In addition to a rundown on gameplay
and all, the piece includes a Q&A with Turbine's Toby Raigani about the
game.
The Thunder site has version 0.5 of this
program that can created animated and colored player names for games that
support extended ASCII characters. The program currently offers support for
Quake, QuakeWorld, Q3Test, Hexen II, and H2World.
Clan BSP's RES
is a new single-player mission for Valve's Half-Life that has Gordon returning,
believe it or not, to another facility that's infiltrated by baddies brought
over by the resonance cascade dealie at the Black Mesa. The new mission is a 3
MB download.
GameSpot UK's Savage4 Mega
Giveaway is up. First prize is a "super-fast AMD K7 550Mhz PC" (no
word if there are actually super-slow versions to be had anywhere), and they are
also giving away some Creative Labs Savage4 graphics cards and copies of
Criterion Studios' TrickStyle.
After lazing around for 24 hours, Frans at 3D Action
Gamers is finally back on the job:
Today is the day that time forgot in the dusty Blue's
News archive, since the news entry for October 12, 1996, along with most of
the entry for the following day, were lost somewhere in the bit bucket back at
the time, to my knowledge, the only such glitch ever here that resulted in the
loss of news. I guess its time to give up hope that someone still has that page
stored in their cache?
Silent B0B broke is silence long enough to suggest a fourth day of follow-up
about Blue the Dog, to make sure that it was not confused with the Blue Dog,
the creation of Cajun artist George Rodrigue. Thanks B0B, you sadist.
Link of the Day: How
is Spam made? A question worthy of Cecil Adams. Thanks MInG.
Story of the Day: Woman To Build A UFO Watch Tower.
Thanks Ryan Russell. Of course it will be easier to see the UFOs from a full ten
feet closer. I mean, like...duh!
PC.IGN has posted some comments
by 3D Realms' George Broussard, which they spotted over at 3D
Realms' message board. There's two quotes where George directly addresses
the fan concerns about the game...here's one of them, which explains why the
game is taking so dang long: Today’s games are MUCH more complex.
In Duke 3D all the characters were sprites. Today they are polygonal models,
have to be skinned, and then animated or motion captured. A VERY long, tedious
and complex process. Also games today are "deeper" and require more
than key/door stuff. That means more time to develop. Note all the so-so fps
games that didn't sell well in the last 2 years and you will see that they were
simple compared to more complex efforts like Half-Life. A game like DNF is probably
5-10 times more complex that Duke 3D was.
The Refraction page has a
new version 1.2 patch for the Codename: Eagle Demo released last week ( story).
According to their page, "The patch provides Voodoo1/2/3 support (using
Glide), Load/Save function, an all new scoring system, as well as several in
game tweaks and fixes." Thanks to the tireless Frans at 3D Action
Gamers for that.
ION Storm’s official Deus Ex site has
some new character art and a new weapon from Warren Spector’s upcoming
Unreal-engine sci-fi action/RPG. "The character art depicts Anne Navarre,
an augmented anti-terrorist mercenary and former colonel in the Israeli military
who spent 6 years in the Massad. The newly added weapon is the Aerosol Pepper
Gun, which 'sprays a high-speed, rapidly-spreading stream of a powdery,
pepper-like substance' that disables enemies by blinding them."
The TrickStyle website has the playable
demo of the PC version of TrickStyle, Acclaim's arcadey hover board racing game.
The download is available as a smaller archive, which is a hair under 30 MB, and
a larger one, which is 52 MB. Word is "The bigger one has a sweet
non-interactive demo loop but they both have the same gorgeous, ass-kickin'
gameplay." Thanks The Adrenaline Vault.
A bunch of screenshot stories, beginning with this: A few days late, but not a
dollar short is the new StarLancer Weekly
Screenshot on GameRush showing off more gameplay from Starlancer, one of a
pair of upcoming games (Freelancer is the other) from Digital Anvil carrying on
the space simulator tradition from the Wing Commander/Privateer series'.
There are five new screenshots on Eidos Interactive's Omikron
page showing off more of the gameplay from Eidos and Quantic Dreams'
upcoming action game that will feature a character based on David
Bowie. Thanks Frans at 3D Action
Gamers.
The Tomb Raider The Last Revelation
site has five new screenshots showing off gameplay from the
provocatively-titled next installment in Eidos' third-person cover-girl
adventure game. Thanks again Frans at 3D Action
Gamers.
The Titanium Angels
site has posted a
bunch of new screenshots of this upcoming 3D strategy game. The shots are
also posted here
on GA-Source along with a little Q&A with the game's developers. Thanks
yet again Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
3DGaming.net's
Experience preview offers a look ahead at this upcoming first-person shooter
from WXP accompanied by three new
screenshots. Thanks, yup, you guessed it... Frans at 3D Action
Gamers.
This page on the Irrational Games Inc.
website has details on their job hunt, as the developer of System Shock 2 is
looking to add members to a team composed of Thief and System Shock 2 veterans.
They are looking for level designers, programmers, and a 3D artist. "All
applicants should be willing to work in a highly collaborative team environment
and be ready to relocate to the Cambridge, MA area."
The Æstats Page has a new
version 4.26 of this log parser for 3D shooters. The new version adds support
for Heretic II, Sin, Unreal Tournament (3.38 Update), and updated Hexen II
support to the wide range of programs already supported by Æstats, which
include Action Quake II, CounterStrike for Half-Life, Half-Life, Kingpin,
Lithium II for Quake II, Quake II, TeamFortress Quake, Rocket Arena II,
TeamFortress Classic, Q3Test 1.08 and more.
id's John Carmack updated his
.plan with the latest version of his work log on Quake III: Arena: *
handle window close events properly
* enable r_displayRefresh selection and feedback on mac
* avoid AGEN_IDENTITY when CGEN_DIFFUSE_LIGHTING
* colorized railgun muzzle flash, impact flash, and mark
* exactly synced animating textures with waveforms and collapsed all explosion
sequences into single shaders
* removed unneeded black pass on hell skies
* fixed grenades sticking to steep slopes
* scan for next highest fullscreen resolution when exact mode fails (fixes SGI
flat panel failing to init)
* all cgame cvars now have a cg_ prefix (crosshair, fov, etc)
* clear clientinfo before parsing configstring
* make all feedback voiceovers share the same channel
* fixed nodraw curves
* fixed obits from shooter entities
* fixed chat char issue
* separate gentity_t fields into sharedEntity_t
* reintegrated q_mathsys with q_math
* cg_forcemodel also forces player sounds
* unknown cmd commands don't chat
* fixed strip order on text quads
The Spookhouse has
posted the second Nocturne demo, the one that appears on this month's PC Gamer
CD. The demo, like its predecessor, is a big one (80+ MB) but it features a
completely new episode of the game (which is expected on store shelves Halloween
weekend).
3D Nexus
has posted an interview with Raven's Mike Gummelt, talking to the programmer
about his duties on Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force, their Quake III: Arena
engine title currently in development. Also of note is Play Now's Star Trek Smorgasbord, which features a look at ST:V.
The ever popular Slashdot.org is going
to be conducting an interview with none other than John Carmack, and they've
asked for reader-submitted questions. Questions should be posted in their discussion
group, one question per post. There's only room for 10 - 15 questions, so don't
be offended if yours isn't picked (thanks to everyone who sent this one in).
PlanetMoonCentral,
newly arisen from the ashes of Kabuto.net, has posted two new comics by Planet
Moon artist Shawn Nelson, offering a little Giants-related humor.
Derek Smart has posted 16 new shots from the Battlecruiser 3020 AD Strike Pak
(a first person add-on for the space sim) on
the official BC3K page.
We've just posted an
update on Terminal Reality's upcoming spooky 3D adventure game Nocturne.
The game is set to go gold, and this update (more are promised soon) features
a rundown of the technical aspects of the game's formidable engine. Hop
over and check it out.
There was an embargo on these until 9:00 AM, so there's just been an instant flood of GeForce 256 DDR reviews. Here are a bunch of them (and one standard review as well):
- GASouce
has posted a very good in-depth review of Guillemot's 3D Prophet, a 32 MB
(standard RAM) GeForce 256 card.
- 3DGPU has posted
a review of NVIDIA's GeForce 256 with DDR RAM reference board, complete with
screenshots and benchmarks.
- Thresh's
Firing Squad has posted their look at a DDR reference board, with their
usual level of detail and insane benchmarking.
- RIVA3D has also
posted their review of the DDR reference card, featuring screenshots from
some GeForce enhanced games.
PlanetBattlezone has the initial
release of a program called BZ Secure
that attempts to address what's referred to as rampant BattleZone hacking that
affects multiplayer play. Each player is required to run the program for it to
work.
Half-Life Express is
planning on hitting Valve's Erik Johnson with a bunch of questions about Valve's
upcoming shooter TeamFortress2, and are soliciting questions from readers. If
you've got a burning TF2 query that topical ointments can't relieve, fire it off
to them, and maybe they can get it answered.
Today is another one of those days as an NDA on GeForce 256 DDR reviews expires
this morning... just preparing you for the flood that will come shortly:
- There are a bunch of benchmarks on ShugaShack
on a PII-300, PIII-450, an Athlon 600 using a Voodoo3 3500, a Hercules
TNT2Ultra, an NVIDIA GeForce256 (SDRAM, 120/166mhz) at the following resolutions:
512x384, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1600x1200, and this ShugaShack
article by Jack "Morbid" Mathews talks about Quake III's use
of T&L.
- The AMD Athlon(TM) Technical Documentation
has been updated. Thanks AMD Zone.
- 'Errata' delay 500-MHz G4s
on MacWEEK reports "errata" that affect Motorola's new G4
processor when run at speeds of 500 MHz or higher. And according to
Motorola's own schedule, a fix isn't due until December. 500 MHz G4s are
scheduled to ship this month. Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski...
- Computer Games Online
previews the GeForce 256.
- Fast Graphics
reviews the Guillemot 3D Prophet GeForce 256-based accelerator.
- Speedy 3D
reviews the 3dfx Voodoo3 3500TV.
- Tweak3D reviews the
3dfx Voodoo3 3500TV.
- iXBT reviews the AMD Athlon 600.
- Glide
Underground reviews the Card Cooler.
Mod Central Mutators
is a listing of all the mutators available for the Unreal
Tournament Demo. Detailed info on each of these modifications to gameplay in the
demo include links to read mes, FAQs, etc. Saw that on PlanetUnreal.
There first release of the Armageddon Device for Quake II is available on The Roseville
website featuring eight new maps, new monsters, and new weapons. the plot
features a race against time to find the deactivation code for a power shield on
an asteroid heading for Earth. Where's Bruce Willis when you need him?
The Gunslinger Quake 2 page
has a new version 1.0 of this mod for Quake II that allows you to enjoy the
action of the American wild west without the necessity of a Will Smith
soundtrack (oh don't worry, I love that nutty French Prince, or whatever country
he's the prince of). The new release adds two new play modes, bullet holes, bot
detection, and much more.
And without any help from Frans this morning! It would probably be easier just
to point out the rare occasion when that happens:
- The PlanetQuake Mod Expo 99
is up celebrating PQ's Quake II mod lineup...
- There's an interview with Roberta Williams
on GamersDepot talking with the legendary adventure game producer about
what she's been up to since parting ways with Sierra...
- Sgt. Hulka's Bootcamp has a 3 MB
Unreal Tournament screensaver for download...
- The folks at Unreal Nation send
word that rumors of their demise are greatly exaggerated, as a couple of
sites have posted news that this old school Unreal site is going away. While
they are reorganizing over there, they are not shutting down at this time by
any stretch...
I knew that yesterday's date of October 10 rang a bell, but didn't make the
connection until Ant pointed out a
post on Doomworld recalling it as the
anniversary of the release of Doom II, marking no less than the game's fifth(!)
birthday. In celebration, if a you share your home, school, or workplace with a
Revenant, please take them to lunch today. Oh yeah, I'll point out I misspelled
Teletubby yesterday, it was Mynx that pointed out the gaffe, which she doesn't
need to be ashamed of, since I know she's a mom. Just didn't want to let a day
pass by with out a reference to toddler television. What will it be tomorrow?
Barney? Tickle me Elmo? Ack! Shoot me now!
Link of the Day: Arrak Anagrams.
This is a web-based version of those old desktop anagram generator. Blue's News
makes a lot of bad anagrams, including the dopey news blues, but also can
translate to "web lens us." Thanks MAVERICK.
Image of the Day: Quake3
bus only here for one day? Ha, we'll see about that! Thanks DarkNova.
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