Archived News:
id software lead programmer John Carmack updated
his .plan with another edition of his Quake III Arena worklog updating us on
his progress on the game.
Like the relentless hordes of attackers in a Diablo dungeon, the Diablo II Screenshot of the Week
just keeps on coming. According to speculation from The Labyrinth,
who sent this news along, the shot seems to show off the barbarian's stun
attack. They have also posted a local copy of a new
Cinematic Shot of the Week noticed by Diabloii.com
(though the shot of the week part is apparently stretched to the limit by the four
month gap since the last CSotW).
There are 15 new Indiana
Jones & The Infernal Machine screenshots on GameFan showing gameplay
from a gold master of this imminent third-person adventure/puzzle game from
LucasArts based on the venerable Indy franchise.
Gone Gold, an authority on this sort of information, is reporting that Interstate '82 has gone gold and should be in stores soon.
Interstate '82 is Activision's game of fast, armed cars and a Devo soundtrack.
Well, there's been a DoomGL, and Heretic and Hexen have gotten the 3D treatment,
so it only makes sense that someone would go back and create an OpenGL port
of the Wolfenstein 3D source code. Sure enough, someone did, and it
has been released (thanks [MKG] Supergrass). The port is available for both
Windows and Linux, requires Wolf 3D version 1.4 and a 3D card, and it doesn't
play music...but as novelties go, this can't be beat.
Stomped has posted a confirmation they
received from id Software's John Carmack regarding the lack of skeletal animation
in Quake III: Arena that was hinted at earlier ( story). According to John, the game already runs with 64 megs of RAM without the skeletal system,
so they have scrapped any plans to add it in (which they were going to do in order to keep the RAM requirement low).
GameProWorld has posted some preliminary information on Rogue Spear: Urban Operations, an add-on pack for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear slated for release in the first half of 2000. A couple of the design sketches are included.
Kingpin Crime Inc has posted a brief Q&A with Ryan Feltrin, grilling the Xatrix programmer about the aftermath of Kingpin's release.
GameSpot UK has posted a brief preview of Ground Control, an upcoming 3D action/strategy game by Massive Entertainment. The article is accompanied by an equally short screenshots gallery. Here is a bit more about the game's multiplayer setup:
You've probably heard all this stuff before
about other games. But here's what you
haven't heard, and this is what promises to
break Ground Control out of the real-time
strategy pack you'll be able to join
multiplayer games in progress. Yep, just like
your favourite online shooter, you'll be able to
locate a server and jump right into the action.
The game will assess the current multiplay
situation and supply you with forces on par
with the combatants already slugging it out.
After several patch releases through the game's built-in update feature, NovaLogic has released a downloadable Delta Force 2 patch (3.2 MB). The version number or the changes aren't known at this time, but if the auto-update mechanism didn't work for you, you may want to give this patch a try.
Epic's Steve Polge updated the Unreal
Technology Page with a new server patch for the Unreal Tournament demo.
Here's a bit on what the patch does from the included readme file: This
file significantly improves Server CPU utilization for version 348 of the demo.
It will not work with any other version. There will be additional improvements
in the full version of UT, but those could not be included without breaking
network compatibility.
There's a
demo of Phoenix on The Adrenaline Vault giving a playable version of Phoenix, Hasbro
Interactive's upcoming game of space exploration and combat. The blurb that
accompanies the approximately 45 MB download describes a familiar twist that
puts you in the role of reluctant hero: "Set in the middle of
the new millennium you take the role of Beck a police officer, who through an
apparently tragic quirk of fate finds himself thrust reluctantly into the role
of hero. Challenged by a wide variety of different missions, the route you take
through the game will vary depending on your skill."
Origin has confirmed that their eagerly anticipated Ultima
IX: Ascension has gone gold. The game is on its way off to production, and
will be shipping on November 23rd, just in time for Thanksgiving.
sCary's Shugashack
has undergone the herculean task of posting an edited log from last night's
loonygames IRC launch party, which featured
everyone from John Romero, Zoid and Paul Steed, to Cliff Bleszinski and Jake
Simpson (and loads more). There's a bunch of different topics covered, but this
one area stands out in particular, since I'm not sure it's been formally announced
yet: <EASE_one> STEED: someone earlier asked- "will the new
animation system be in the q3a demo?"
<Steed> there will be no new animation system in q3a
<Steed> skeletal animation has been dropped
Creative Synergies: The Development of Omikron is an interview with Eidos senior designer Philip Campbell on the development process of Quantic Dreams' action/adventure game. Here is a bit about the plans for a sequel:
Let's discuss what's next. Quantic has been quoted as saying that the world of Omikron 2 is already being laid out. What can you tell us about that project?
All I can say at the moment is that the devious mind of David Cage is thick with cunning ideas and gaming revolutions. Don’t forget, Omikron
is a parallel universe; it doesn’t just go away when the player is done! There are already a number of people anxious for a return to Omikron,
so keep an eye on those computer screens!
PsychoNews has posted its third and final screenshot of the Evolution of the Arachniclown, one of the enemies in KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child.
Games Domain has posted a preview of Republic: The Revolution, the impressive looking 3D strategy game by Elixir Studios. The article shows some of the first screenshots I've seen of this title. Here is a bit more on the game's ambitious specifications:
Elixir is able to model the city in which Republic is set in as much detail as they choose. In development for 11
months so far, the engine has no upper limit to the polygon count of shapes - allowing characters, buildings and other models to be built
with as many polygons as is needed to look the part. Demis was dropping extraordinary figures into the conversation like he was talking
about the price of used cars. Five to twenty million for an ordinary building, modeled down to the screws on the handset of the payphone
outside the doorway. Half a million for a chair (count 'em). Even the bricks are meshes, not just images mapped onto the walls. The
image below on the right contains about a billion polygons.
The gallery section of the official Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine site has been updated with two additional pages of screenshots from Lucasarts' upcoming 3D action/adventure.
Novalogic has updated its Delta Force 2 Developers' Notes with a couple of items regarding Voice-Over-Net hotkeys, high resolution support and NovaWorld games.
Also on Games Domain is a preview of Battlezone II: Combat Commander, the upcoming 3D action/strategy game by Pandemic Studios. The article looks at the improvements this sequel makes to the original Battlezone, and is illustrated with a set of new screenshots.
Voodoo Extreme has posted 3D screenshot of Messiah, allowing you to rotate around a scene from Shiny's upcoming third-person shooter.
Wewp! Entertainment has posted another screenshot of Loose Cannon, showing a downtown area in Digital Anvil's upcoming action game.
There's an exclusive Klesk
screenshot on loonygames showing off the Klesk trotting along in jaunty
Klesk fashion wielding a RailGun. In addition to the player model, the shot
shows a small, albeit not terribly revealing, glimpse of a previously unseen
level from id's upcoming Quake III Arena.
All Games Network's Combat
Reporter Live talks with Carl Schnurr from Redstorm
Entertainment about Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear. The audio Q&A, in RealPlayer
format, discusses the present and future of this tactical shooter franchise,
including the possibility of a mission pack. Thanks Suppressive
Fire.
John Carmack updated
his .plan with a new edition of his worklog offering details on the latest
fixes and changes he's implemented in Quake III Arena.
Computer Games Online
previews Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force looking at the Quake III-engine Trek
shooter in the works at Raven Software. Also, Computer Games Online's
Star Trek Armada preview looks at Activision's upcoming RTS offering that
also inhabits the familiar Star Trek universe.
Tweak3D.net's Kingpin
Autoexec Creator is now online, offering a Kingpin version of their
web-based online utility to create a custom configuration file for Xatrix'
Kingpin: Life of Crime. Like their similar autoexec creators for Sin, Quake II,
and Half-Life, uses JavaScript to work its magic.
I got a scolding yesterday from a reader who pointed out that contrary to
my suggestion that "shift-clicking links on most browsers opens the link in
a new window," Netscape treats such behavior as a "save this
link." As a long-time Netscape defender please trust me that I'm
not trying to throw dirt on the grave of the seminal browser any faster than
they're pulling it atop themselves already. My comment simply reflects how both
Opera and MSIE behave in such a manner, making two out of the three most
commonly used browsers. I guess I'll just wait for comments from users of other
browsers that I've just insulted now or something... this is the Internet
equivalent of discussing religion (hopefully our Lynx support will save us from the wrath of Lynx users). On this subject, I'm hopeful that the problem for Netscape users will be fixed today, though I'm pretty sure that the problem goes away after clearing one's cache (if only there were a way to let everyone with this problem know that).
Link of the Day: The
flash version of the Turkish stud's page. We were going to be flooded with
mail on this one until we posted it. Welcome to my home page ! Kiss you
has been updated with the saga of his fame since his homepage became a
sensation. I see that he was even featured in Salon Technology.
Could all this be a result of our Link
of the Day, or was this link also featured elsewhere?
Stomped has posted a trailer of Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption, the upcoming 3D role-playing game by Nihilistic. The trailer mixes in-game footage with scenes from Nihilistic's offices, where Rob Huebner and others explain the design and development process of the game. The movie runs for nearly three minutes, and focuses in particular on character animation.
ION Storm's Harvey "Witchboy" Smith has written another interesting
article for Gamasutra, this time titled, " Player
Character Concepts." It's pretty heady stuff, but very interesting,
as it deals with abstract concepts in game design dealing with characters. If
you're the sort that's into this sort of thing (and naturally I am) then check
it out.
GameProWorld
has posted a new preview of Monolith's LithTech Engine title Sanity. The preview
doesn't have anything particularly new in the content itself, but there are
a bunch of new screenshots from this isometric perspective action title.
As the third entry in their series of Games That Will Change Gaming, GameSpot has posted a preview of Black & White, the upcoming strategy/god game by Lionhead Studios. Here is a clip about the game's multiplayer ambitions:
You will have the chance to share your experiences in some of the
most original online play devised. Budding deities can compete in
a more traditional strategy game, pitting their spell sets and
creatures against each other. What is interesting here is that the
creature you use online is the creature from your saved
single-player game; anything that happens to it online will be
carried back to your ongoing solo campaign.
Even more remarkable is Molyneux's plan for
Black & White's online community, where you
will be able to take your creatures online to
interact with each other in a primarily
noncombative setting. The creatures will learn
from each other - they could pick up bad
habits, or they might learn a new, special
attack. Again, this new knowledge will be carried back to the
single-player game, where you'll have to deal with your creature's
slightly altered personality.
More Urban Chaos news as well, for there are five new screenshots up on the official Urban Chaos screenshots page.
Stomped has posted the first two Quake III Arena character sketches of a series of 29 that they will be doling out over the coming weeks. The first ones up are Sarge and Slash, and the sketches show the characters front, side and back, as well as including some stats and a profile.
In a day of space sim news, Federation HQ has posted two short movies of Star Trek: Klingon Academy, Interplay's upcoming space combat title. The movies run for 18 and 7 seconds respectively, and show in-game combat scenes.
GA-Source interviews John Dennis, designer on Team 17's space combat/adventure game Phoenix. The game is set around a character called Beck, and the interview goes into the features, missions and alien races being designed into the game, and more. There is a bunch of new screenshots too. Here's a bit more on the type of game Phoenix aims to be:
What do you think sets Phoenix apart from other arcade space shooters?
The player fights as part of a squad, first in the police
and then in the military. At the start of the game,
the player has a very low ranking, meaning only a small
choice of vessels and payload. As the game progresses
though, and the player gains rank, he may select a wider
range of vessels and weapons and fulfil different roles
within the squad.
The squad has a balance of different roles, from general
purpose fighters, to turret killers, heavy weapons ships,
and shield killers. It is up to the player to perform his role
effectively within the context of the squad. This feature,
in combination with the branching mission structure
(mentioned in answer to question one) means that not
only is the player playing a mission that is suited to his
skill level, but he is also playing it in a role that he
prefers; whether going in on the big ships, protecting his
own carrier or going toe to toe with the enemy fighters.
Also on the space sim front(ier) comes EuroGamer's article "The Final Frontier", looking at space sims that go beyond linear plot-lines and making a hyperjump from Elite to Starlancer and Freelancer.
Wewp! Entertainment has posted their third screenshot of Loose Cannon, Digital Anvil's game of car combat and on-foot action.
AVault
has posted three new screenshots from Mucky Foot's Urban Chaos, as well as word
that a demo version of this third person action title will be available later
this month. There's also an AVI posted, but it's the same as a previously released
one.
Computer
Games Online has posted their writeup from the Nocturne launch party in
New Orleans that Blue and I attended recently. There were several games on display,
and all of them have fairly detailed mentions, but most notable is this quote
which sums up the event nicely: If there could be one phrase I'd use to
describe my reaction to G.O.D.'s upcoming titles, it would be "I need another
Heineken."
A new patch for Delta Force 2 (version 1.02.16) is now available via their
in-game updater (thanks Paul Currie).
A list of changes is up on the Delta-Force2.com version history page.
Voodoo Extreme
has posted two new screenshots from Raven's Quake II engine title, Soldier of
Fortune. The shots are from the full game, not the OEM version.
After a Summer (and part of Fall) hiatus, loonygames, the Blue's News publication that modestly
touts itself as "the best damn gaming magazine online," is back, sporting a
spiffy new redesign, along with the usual blend of eclectic content. Volume II Issue
I features an American "Tokay" McGee
interview, and the announcement offers more "pluses"
than third grade arithmetic: Lock your doors, hide your
daughters...loonygames is back, and we're especially insane this time around!
We've got a new design, new content, new staff, and heck, just a lot of new
stuff. Can you afford to miss this? I don't think so. Today on loonygames:
- Through the Looking
Glass: Russell "RadPipe" Lauzon talks to American McGee,
former id level designer, and currently the insane man behind American
McGee's Alice!
- From the Mouth of
Madness: Jason "loonyboi" Bergman fills you in on all the new
stuff, including who did what, and hints at things to come!
- Under Cover: Find
out how this week's loonygames cover illustration got Christopher
"Derelict" Greenhaw hired by Rogue Entertainment! By Rowan
"Sumaleth" Crawford.
PLUS:
Don't miss out on our gala IRC party! We'll have plenty of crap to give away,
and we've got a list of VIPs that will make your head spin. Here's just some of
the folk dropping by tonight at 10:00 PM EST: Paul Steed (id Software) John
Romero (ION Storm) Brandon Reinhart (Epic) Jake Simpson (Raven) Kenn Hoekstra
(Raven) Rob Selitto (Rogue) Chris Greenhaw (Rogue) Bobby Pavlock (Rogue) Mike
Werckle (Human Head) Chris Cummings (ION Storm)
Plus all kinds of nutcases from the loonygames staff! The fun starts at 10:00
EST, irc.yossman.net, channel #loonygames.We'll see you there!
And tomorrow on loonygames:
- Pixel Obscura: Josh Vasquez looks at Sonic Adventure
PLUS: an exclusive new screenshot from Quake III: Arena!
The Kraze! Bot page has
what's described as an interim release of the Kraze! bot for Kingpin. This
version addresses a bunch of bugs, but still does not allow the bots to play
bagman (the page says "so don’t try it :)." The update says that
work will continue on bagman support, but also gives the impression
that it's not certain this will ultimately work out.
A new version 0.92 of the Future
Technologies mod for Quake II is now available on their redesigned homepage
(which confusingly sports a new logo that says Future Teqnologis and a title bar
that says Future Technologis). In addition to some bug fixes, the new release
offers a new weapon and two new maps, and a future Future Tech (Teq?) is
promised with even more new maps.
- There's an updated
Flux screensaver on DemoNews.com, an OpenGL bit of eye-candy that gets
the DemoNews seal of approval...
- The WWII Online website is now
online, "the temporary home of Cornered Rat Software Studios' upcoming
massively multiplayer, online simulation, World War II Online." Thanks TacticalPlanet...
- QuakeClan.Net offers free
clan page hosting, currently apparently host to like a million pages, or
something (actually 1,500, but that's still impressive)...
Yay, the loonygames volume II launch has finally arrived, easing the second most
common cause for complaint mail around here, as we get lots of letters on an
ongoing basis asking when this would occur. Now if we could only address the
number one cause for complaint letters, which come from folks downwind of the
Blue Tower on the days preceding laundry day. In addition to requests to stop
airing our dirty laundry in public come loads of other requests and suggestions,
one of which that rolls in quite often is why don't we make external links open
in a new window. Unfortunately this is one of those things that causes enough
problems for readers with low memory machines that it seems best to avoid on
balance (btw, shift-clicking links on most browsers opens the link in a new
window). There seems to be a problem for some Netscape users with the new ad
code atop this page, I'm going to look into killing whatever that bug may be
today (though if it's affecting you, you probably aren't reading this).
Link of the Day: Lightning On Demand Homepage,
which includes other links useful for the mad scientist who has everything, such
as the Tesla Coil Mailing List Page. Thanks
Nana.
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