Archived News:
The second preview of Evolva today has been posted at Future Gamer, who take a brief hands-on look at Computer Artworks' action/strategy game in their typical Q&A format, along with a set of new screenshots.
A new postmortem article on Gamasutra examines Spec Ops: Rangers Lead the Way, Zombie's action game that more or less initiated the soldier-sim genre. In the article, which is a reprint of the June 1998 issue of Game Developer, lead programmer Wyeth Ridgway discusses in fair detail the features of the Viper engine created for Spec Ops, and takes a balance on what went right and wrong in the game's development.
InciteGames has posted a
brief preview of Digital Anvil's Starlancer, featuring a few new shots from
the game (although one of them appeared earlier today in another preview). Starlancer
is a space opera that's being called "a prequel" to Digital Anvil's
other title Freelancer, despite the fact that of the two, Starlancer will be
shipping first.
GamesMania has posted a brief preview of Rogue Spear: Urban Operations, the upcoming expansion pack to Red Storm's tactical squad action game. Although short, the article does feature five new screenshots from the various missions under construction.
German gaming site Gamesurf.De has received six new high-res screenshots of RUNE, revealing more scenes from Human Head's upcoming third-person Viking bash. A piece of concept art is included as well.
InciteGames has posted the
first handful of images from Terminal Reality's upcoming Nocturne engine
based Blair Witch Project game, as well as word that all three games (the other
two are being made by Human Head and Ritual Entertainment) will be using the
same engine. The images show some concept artwork of the various monsters we
can expect to see in the game, as well as the first in-game shot.
As reflected in Jason
Hall's .plan, Black Isle Studios (makers of the RPGs Baldur's Gate and Fallout
in addition to others) have licensed Monolith's LithTech Engine to make "the
next generation of role playing games." Here's the press release, with
all the vague details: (Kirkland, Wa February 1, 2000) LithTech Inc. today
announced they will license the powerful LithTech Engine to Black Isle Studios,
the role playing game (RPG) division of Interplay Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ:
IPLY). The LithTech Engine functions as a complete 3D game operating system
that allows game developers to quickly and easily design, develop and focus
on content without reinventing technology from scratch each time a new project
begins.
“The Black Isle name is synonymous with quality RPG games,” comments
Jason Hall, CEO of LithTech Inc. “The versatility of the LithTech Engine
will allow the team to create the most dynamic, graphically beautiful game possible.
We can’t wait to see the end results.”
The LithTech Engine, the technology behind Shogo: M.A.D. and upcoming Monolith
games Sanity and No One Lives Forever, allows for a full range of cutting edge
graphic effects, from spectacular lighting to highly detailed character models.
The engine also allows designers to create breath-taking outdoor areas from
magnificent mountain ranges to sprawling cities.
“In researching all the available 3D Engine technology out there, we were
very impressed with both the support and advanced feature set of the LithTech
engine. It is an engine that will definitely help Black Isle create the incredible
worlds we are known for,” said Feargus Urquhart, Division director for
Black Isle Studios.
The Mortyr Editing Site has posted a
skin editor for Mortyr, allowing you to make your own custom player skins
(thanks Morytr.net who also have the
file posted locally).
According to this
story on ZDNet, Microsoft's next consumer OS upgrade, formerly known as
Windows Millennium, has been renamed Windows Millennium Edition, or simply "Windows
Me." The upgrade is expected to go into its third beta phase within the
next few weeks, and is another incremental update to the Windows 98 codebase. This news comes after a confusing few weeks where Microsoft's
consumer OS plans have been continually changed, with the reworking of their
project formerly known as "Neptune" which is now called "Whistler"
and will be the first consumer OS based on the NT kernel.
A
new preview of Earth 2150 is up on GameSpot UK, featuring 33 new screenshots
from this 3D real time strategy game from TopWare/Mattel Interactive.
A new edition of the Soldier of Fortune designer diary is online at SoFCenter, with Raven's Eric Biessman looking back at the demo release and the responses it got, and commenting on a few issues they have addressed for the final release of the game. One such issue is the inclusion of several default configs, to cater for different player's tastes in their use of mouse and keyboard.
Unreal Center has posted an
interview with Human Head programmer Chris Rhinehart, talking to him about
Rune, their upcoming third person Unreal engine game of drunken pillaging. Chris
discusses some general info about the game, as well as how they're handling
the camera, and why they decided on making a third person title.
Despite the author's claim that the previous version would be the last one,
a new version of the
Jumbot for Half-Life has been released. This new version has some major
changes, including new area favoritism code, improved enemy hunting, and lots
more. Check it out at the
official Jumbot site.
Two new sites for upcoming 3D real-time strategy games have opened their doors for your perusal (thanks AVault). First up is the Star Wars: Force Commander preview site, offering preliminary information and a few screenshots of LucasArts and Ronin's new title. Also online is the Earth 2150 website, a full-featured affair showing off TopWare and Mattel's entry into the 3D RTS arena, including info and screenshots of the three races in the game, and a new movie trailer.
He Finds
Open Source Fair Game is the name of an article on Wired News that chronicles
the history of Loki Software, a company started by Scott Draeker that's responsible
for many of the recent commercial game releases on Linux. Amongst the games
Loki has published are Quake III Arena (via a unique arrangement with id), Heavy
Gear II, and Civilization: Call to Power. Loki is currently showcasing Heavy
Gear II as well as a new open source MPEG library with hardware acceleration
on ATI Rage 128 cards at the LinuxWorld Expo.
GA-RPG has posted a Q&A
with Trent Oster, the producer of BioWare's Neverwinter Nights. The questions
deal primarily with the game's multiplayer, with Trent explaining how the game
is different from other online RPGs (like EverQuest and Asheron's Call) and
explaining how it will work without an online service.
Gold Creek Technology has
announced Second Genesis, a new RPG based on the Unreal engine. One name
associated with the game should be familiar: Paul Schuytema is the chief creative
officer for the company (before his work with Gold Creek he was the lead designer
on Prey at 3D Realms). Here's a description of the game, which is set for release
in 2001: Second Genesis is a science-fiction adventure game that transports
players to alien worlds populated with many different races and cultures. Taking
on the role of a mercenary soldier, fighter, pimp, or even a good Samaritan,
players embark on quests while exploring environments and flying through space.
Gamers learn and execute a variety of martial art offensive and defensive techniques
in addition to traditional weapons use while controlling a dynamic inventory
and weapons system. As the player progresses through the single player game,
they will encounter several gladiator or arena matches for multiplayer action.
The demos from the XSReality Invitational Quake III Arena tournament have been
posted for download. Every
demo from the event is up, from the first round to the finals, and even the
Clan 9 vs. NPk match.
IGNPC has posted a lengthy interview with Scott Krager, producer of the first game based on the Evil Dead movies, entitled Evil Dead: Ashes 2 Ashes ( story). The talk covers the inception of the project, the involvement of Sam Raimi ("mainly from more of an approval standpoint") and Bruce Campbell ("end up being the most involved in the end"), the influences of horror movies on games, and the stage of the game's development, which takes place at Heavy Iron Studios and THQ. Here is how the discussion kicks off:
IGNPC: First of all can you summarize the plot of the game for us, as much as you can?
Scott Krager: The game takes place eight years after the events of the last
movie. Essentially, Ash goes back to the cabin in the woods, and again
encounters the evil left behind from the Necronomicon. From there he sort
of has a new adventure, where he basically has to save his girlfriend, and
that's about all we're kind of giving away at this point.
Also online at PC.IGN.com are half a dozen new screenshots of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - the Fallen, the third-person action game by The Collective and Simon & Schuster that was recently pushed back to an August release.
There is a modest gallery of new Starlancer screenshots up at GameSpot UK, the space-combat sim in development by Warthog and Digital Anvil, which they say should be ready for take-off in late April.
Third time's a charm, as PC.IGN.com has also updated their Evolva preview with new info on the upcoming 3D action/strategy title by Computer Artworks, based on their experiences with a recent beta. A bunch of new screenshots are included.
There are a few tutorials on making
Quake III Arena mods on quakeheads.com. Also, the first FvF
World Q3A Modeling Tutorial is online, showing how to make like Samuel Colt
and build your own weapon, albeit with 3D Studio Max instead of steel.
There are four new screenshots
from The rift on TeleFragged and ten
more on Gamers Central showing off more of this upcoming space RTS from ThrushWave Technology.
A preview demo of The Rift is expected on February 9.
Gameplay.com's Longbow Digital Arts... in the family
way is a profile of the folks behind Tread Marks.
The Q&A introduces us to the four members of the McNally family, a pair of
brothers along with their dad and mom(!), the team entirely responsible for this
just-released tank racing/combat game.
A new version of Reload Be Gone (RBG) for Quake III Arena is now available on Quakeheads.Com.
The mod alters the properties of some of the weapons (for instance, the machine
gun no longer has any "spread," and the gauntlet is much more
powerful), and to live up to its name, increases the rate of fire for every
weapon in the game (though the name does belie the fact that ammo is still
limited, hence a warning to be conservative with your fire).
Seems the UT Jailbreak release mentioned yesterday ( story)
was a work-in-progress version not really intended for widespread release. Dave
'anarchy' Dynerman sends word that the beta was designed so that mappers could
test their maps, and to get gameplay feedback from "the few JB nuts out
there" to help fix "several glaring errors that make the mod look very
unprofessional." Since our post resulted in quite a few downloads, they
want to make it clear that "although .5 may seem rough around the edges
right now, we can assure you it will be a product of the utmost professionalism
when completed. Please don't draw conclusions from this early beta!"
Star Trek Armada - The Chosen Ones
has the list announcing the beta testers for this upcoming Trekkie RTS. Thanks
Reverend Raven. Also, today is the Star Trek Armada chat in the ongoing Omega Project
chat marathon. The chat starts at 7:00 PM EST (4:00 PM PST/00:00 GMT) on the IRC
server omegaproject.net in the channel #lobby.
- polycount
has posted the "Miss Connecticut 2nd place in 'Lowpoly lovedoll
contest' plug-in Player model" for Quake III Arena, is the second place
finisher in the contest, converted as promised by Paul Steed to a Q3A model
for those wishing to play as a thong-clad, high-heeled "warrior"
...
- Here's a
new UT screensaver (direct link) by Avat@r.
Also, there's a new Q3A wallpaper on Q3a.de
with a neat version of the logo, as well as a new trailer in .mpg format of
an upcoming Q3A movie titled Pissedoff (like the wallpaper this
really doesn't have much more from the game than the logo)...
- ExciteAtHome Hopes Security Tool Calms Users-Cable service links up with McAfee.
Thanks Andrew Stern...
Tomorrow is Groundhog day (does that make this Groundhog eve?), when we
traditionally attempt to gauge how much winter remains based on whether a
groundhog sees his shadow. I will be personally running around Punxsutawney, PA
(apparently where the tradition began, evolving from a European tradition
involving hedgehogs) with a parasol and a pair of Ray-Bans for old Punxsutawney
Phil to try and make sure he's shielded for the sun, because this has turned
into one ugly winter in the northeast US, and I'm not willing to take any
chances if there's a hope it can prevent the season from stretching on six
more weeks.
Congrats to new dad Randy
Pitchford.
Link of the Day: Dynamic
Mona (click on "Click Me"). Thanks CausticPuppy. The warning from
the site reads: Caution!!! If you love art, and would be offended,
horrified or mortally wounded to see great masterpieces of the past terribly
mutilated, GO NO FURTHER!!!"
Story of the Day: Eighth graders use Super Glue, 'surgery' to save tarantula after brutal fall.
Thanks Garrett Galten, Maverick, and dr will.
Image of the Day: The
Quake Mobile, the new-and-improved model (its predecessor, reported here a
couple of years ago, was apparently stolen).
A new in-depth preview
of Thief 2: The Metal Age is up on GameSpot, featuring a handful of new
screenshots, and a detailed description of a 12 level alpha version of the game.
According to the preview, the title is "just a few weeks away from going
beta."
GameSpot has posted the Starfleet Command: Gorn Bonus Mission Pack, which adds a series of missions involving the Gorn into Interplay's space strategy game.
id Software's Robert Duffy updated his
.plan this evening with a brief status report on the new Quake III Arena point
release. Here's the scoop: The point release is still in progress. We are
addressing several things, among them auto downloading, mod support, cheating,
and a few other things. It is moving into testing now and should be done "soon".
One area that we are working hard to improve on is releasing things for all
three platforms at the same time. As we have still not released the final point
releases for the Macintosh or Linux based systems, the new point release will
be available in all three flavors at the same time.
Epic has added a Known Issues and Bugs page for the retail version (405b) of Unreal Tournament to the Unreal Technology site. It lists various problems with Direct3D, OpenGL, Networking, Audio, Linux Servers and more, and offers some tips to tweak your way around them, or confirms that they are being investigated.
Mike Wilson of Gathering of Developers sent along a new movie of RUNE, the upcoming third-person Viking combat adventure by Human Head. The movie runs for one minute at 640x480 resolution, and offers the first gameplay footage of the game. Here is our local copy of the movie which has been zipped to reduce the download size, along with a few mirrors, and this is the description provided by Mike Wilson:
This is an early pre-alpha look at the gameplay in Rune showing off some of
the creatures and characters from the game and some of the levels. All of
the footage is taken straight from the game with a player in single player
mode as well as some ai on ai combat. We're about 75% complete at this
point, so the final game will be much more polished than the footage seen
here. Some of the footage is slowed down a little to show off the animation
in super cool slow motion.
A new update to Sid
Meier's Dino Diaries has been posted, featuring the latest details on Sid
Meier's Dinosaur (working title) a new strategy game in development at Firaxis.
This update deals with the technology they're using in the game, with vague
hints being dropped as to what gamers can expect to see.
Summoner Homeland has posted an
interview with Volition programmer Dave Baranec, talking to him about his
work on their upcoming 3D RPG title Summoner. Dave comments specifically
on the challenge of simultaneously developing the game for the PC and Playstation
2 platforms, as well as some engine-specific issues.
Nevolution has opened their website, containing the first official information on their 3D cyberpunk RPG under construction, Shadows of Reality, as well as some new screenshots.
Unreal Universe has posted an interview with Ruben Cabrera, skin and texture artist at 3D Realms who is currently working on Duke Nukem Forever (thanks Stomped). Ruben talks about how he got into the game industry and landed a job at 3D Realms, and reveals a bit about his skinning and texturing work on their upcoming Unreal-engine powered title.
Speaking of site openings, Looking Glass has now opened its own official Thief II: the Metal Age site, featuring a host of info about their upcoming sneak-em-up, a slew of screenshots and wallpapers, a brief FAQ and more.
Raven's official Soldier of Fortune Support FAQ has been updated with more help for their recently released demo, particularly offering new tips for audio and video driver issues and multiplayer problems.
3dfxGamers has posted new
NT4 drivers for Voodoo 2 boards. These drivers fix a number of issues, including
some Quake III Arena specific problems, and will not work on boards with Banshee,
Rush, or Voodoo 1 chips.
French site Gamedata.com ( "le nouveau magazine online de jeux videos")
has posted a
preview of Deus Ex. The text is all in French ( stick
a BabelFish in your ear to translate), but there are some
new screenshots at the end of the preview, which of course, are universal.
Also, GameSpy.com has a
new preview of the game up as well, featuring some more screenshots.
Tribes2.dk has posted a
brief Q&A with Dynamix programmer Nels Bruckner, talking to him about
his work on TRIBES 2, including the current state of the game and its engine.
loonygames presents Game Networking 101,
a new article by Jake Simpson where the Raven programmer delves into some of the
mysteries of network gaming, attempting to solve some riddles like why your ping
is better in some games than others.
Just a quick reminder that later today there will be a live chat discussing Star
Trek: Hidden Evil, the Trekkie adventure game from Activision. The chat
starts at 7:00 PM EST (4:00 PM PST/00:00 GMT) on the IRC server omegaproject.net
in the channel #lobby. Tomorrow will be their Star Trek: Armada chat. Same bat
time, same bat channel as the Hidden Evil Chat. Finally, The Collective will be
guests of The Omega Project's chat
next Tuesday (February 8), and will address the just-announced delay to the
release of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine-The Fallen.
A new version 0.93 of the Q3Log log
parser for Quake III Arena is now available, addressing what's described as a
show-stopper bug from version 0.92 that popped up with large log files.
There's a new Quake III
Tournament Mode (1v1) Modem Guide on The Technocracy with strategies geared
specifically for the needs of high-ping modem players. Also, S.A.S's Guide to Quake3
has been updated, this too with tournament mode tips, as well as map reviews of
q3dm5, and q3dm15, and a new config creation utility.
Demiurge Studios Presents Headhunters for UT,
the Unreal Tournament version of the popular Quake mod where you collect heads
from victims after you frag them, and cash them in by sacrificing them at an
altar. Scoring increases as you sacrifice more heads in a group, but so does the
risk, since if you are fragged, someone can grab your whole head stash and go for their own altared state. The
current release is version 1.1, and there is a link to a dedicated server
running the mod.
Russian gaming site The Daily Telefrag has posted an interview on Hired Team, talking to Alexey Medvedev of New Media Generation about their upcoming first-person shooter. Included with the interview are four new screenshots, and a major part of the article discusses the various game features illustrated by them. For those mastering the Russian language beyond 'da' and 'njet', the interview is also available in the site's native tongue.
AVault has posted a
Q&A with Jason Manley of Black Isle Studios, talking to the artist about
his work on Icewind Dale, an upcoming RPG based on the Forgotten Realms universe.
There are four new screenshots up as well.
Activision has finally announced
Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the Quake III Arena engine sequel to id Software's
original Wolfenstein 3D (thanks KungFu).
The game is in development by Gray Matter Interactive Studios, "a newly
formed game developer founded by the top designers formerly from Xatrix Entertainment"
according to the press release, and along with the game's announcement Activision
has announced that they have acquired 40% of the new company. Here's a description
of the game, which should be familiar to fans of the original: Like the
original id game, players assume the role of William J. "B.J." Blazkowicz,
the Allies' bad boy of WWII espionage. The fate of the free world hangs in the
balance as B.J. battles against the sadistic machinations of a Nazi war machine
bent on world domination. This latest sequel will reflect the same over-the-top
comic book style of the original Wolfenstein 3D. However, by using the unparalleled
graphics technology of the QUAKE III Arena(TM) engine and a new scripting system,
Return to Castle Wolfenstein will pull the player further into a chilling storyline
filled with frightening tales of bio-engineering and the occult. Devotees of
multiplayer action will be able to jump online and frag-it-out within the unique
Wolfenstein world.
Obi-Wan Network has posted three new screenshots of Star Wars Episode 1: Obi-Wan, an upcoming first- and third-person action game based on the young Obi-Wan character from last year's Star Wars movie. Thanks hoplit.
The official Thief II: the Metal Age site has opened new sections for the storyline and features of the game, some downloadable wallpaper, and a designer diary consisting of a brief interview with the development team. Thanks GA-RPG. Elsewhere, GameArena.net has posted a couple of new high-res screenshots from the game.
Star Trek Armada Producer's Diary is CGO's first entry in a series of developer diaries in which Activision producer Marc Turndorf accounts their efforts, in cooperation with Paramount, to pour the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe into their upcoming 3D real-time strategy game.
There is a new preview of Imperium Galactica II: Alliances online at the Adrenaline Vault, putting a recent beta of the space based RTS by Digital Reality and GTI through its paces.
Terminal
Reality's Den Johnson Discusses (Sort Of) Nocturne 2 and Expansion Packs on
SpookHouse is a Q&A with Den Johnson of Terminal Reality. They attempt
to pry loose some details on upcoming follow-ups to Nocturne, and as the title
implies, they find Den pretty tight-lipped about the planned Blair Witch-based
Nocturne game and other future plans, although he's more forthcoming on subjects
like the influences behind the original Nocturne, and the reaction to its
release.
There's a new Black &
White movie on nonstuff, a German site. The movie was shot from a monitor
with a video camera at a bad angle, so quality is relatively poor. Here is Frans'
translation of the description from the site: "This is the second and, for
now, last Black & White movie. This time you can be live around to seeing a
creature (here a Tiger) changes from good to evil and from thin to fat, in all
possible combinations."
Not content with his
own Developers Week contribution ( story),
Looking Glass' Rich "Zdim" Carlson wrote an
interesting messageboard follow-up to Marc
Laidlaw's Developers Week article, mentioned yesterday ( story)
on characters in games. On a coincidentally semi-related note, the new GA-RPG-RPG Mythology with BioWare Corp.
offers a detailed look at the steps required to design settings for characters
in RPGs from BioWare's David Gaider.
UTJB v0.5 Public Beta Out
on the Team Reaction Forums announces a beta release of this Unreal
Tournament version of the popular Quake II teamplay mod that puts fragged
players in jail to either be freed by a heroic teammate, or executed when the
whole team is caught. Word with the post is the mod is "an auto-installer,
no brainer."
A new version 1.1b of the Challenge
mod for Quake III Arena is now available on their
newly-revamped website that makes it much less of a challenge to understand
the mod, as it now offers a complete description. Challenge offers various
gameplay options for Q3A matches, many of which can be decided by a group vote.
The new version features auto-selection of team captains "required to
finish the teamanegement," and some other tweaks and fixes.
The TeamWar website has the
debut release of their WarCTF mod for Quake III Arena, which they describe as
similar in function to the popular L-Fire
CTF for Quake II. The mod is server-side only, and adds several variables to
assist in running organized matches.
The El Niņo Quake Extensions page
has the debut release of the Viz mod for Quake III Arena, the first Q3A project
by Hentai, the author of VWep for Quake II. Viz is a highly configurable mod
that offers variations on gameplay ranging from minor visual differences in the
mod's minimal state, all the way through full-blown player classes based on the
player model selected.
The debut release of Advanced UI for Quake III Arena is now available on Spine Design Projects.
As the name implies, this is not a gameplay mod, but rather an enhanced user
interface (completely client-side) for Quake III Arena offering improved skin
and model management.
Cold Storage Online
has version 0.8 of K-stats, described as a pre-alpha "Gaming and Lan party
Tournament / League Organiser Thingy." The program creates a database of
gamers, allowing them to be assigned to different tournaments, keeping track of
wins, losses, and other statistics. The program is part of an ongoing school
project, so feedback is especially appreciated, and an unusually firm deadline
of March 31, 2000 for version 1.0 has been set.
The Quake3mods.Net Developer's FAQ
attempts to answer the most frequently asked questions about making your own
maps, skins, and modifications for Quake III Arena. There are now 20 Quake III
Arena programming tutorials on Quake Style.
Also, there is an AVI tutorial on making models with MilkShape 3D
on Darkstar.
Finally, the source code for the Q3A Rho-Bot
is now available.
NPD
Top 20 Best Selling Entertainment Software Titles (Units) January 16 -22, 2000
on GameDAILY are online (seems the "Last Week's Rank" column is
pretty out of whack, btw). Q3A is #5, UT is #8, and Half-Life is back in the Top
10 at #10. The corresponding
Mac listing is also online with UT claiming the #1 spot from Q3A, which
drops to #3. Till next week, this is Casey Kasem saying, keep your feet in the
stirrups, and your teeth in a glass.
Just a thought on the subject of those much-hyped Super Bowl advertisements
touched on yesterday. After watching the broadcast I'm left wondering who sold
all the advertisers of the world on the idea that products could be sold with
poorly-sung amateur renditions of old pop songs? I couldn't believe how many of
these high-budget ads featured just that (though the happy puppet pet thing
rules).
There's been something wonky lately with the LAN Party List
that made adding a new party problematic... furn whipped out his coding stick
and has beaten the problem into submission, and he promises the new-and-improved
listing (version 2.0), is faster, sexier, and most of all, actually works again,
so if you have an event to add, go nuts.
Link of the Day: How loony are you?
Self-explanatory. Thanks Fingas.
Story of the Day: Family under psychiatric watch after talking about leaving Earth.
And you thought your relatives were odd. Thanks Ron Johnson.
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