Archived News:
GameCenter's Sneak Peek at Descent 3
is up, offering a look ahead at Outrage's upcoming installment in the series. Here's a bit
on how one advance in D3 should be a more distinctive feel to locations to break monotony
on level design:
Descent 3 will change all that. "Every level takes place in a certain
environment," explains Toschlog. "While we had names for the locations in
Descent and Descent II, they all kind of looked the same. This time they really don't. We
have a level that takes place on a spaceship; we have a level that takes place on a space
station; we have levels in research facilities or military facilities; we have a level
that takes place in a prison. And they all really look different." According to
Toschlog, each level will feature different textures, objects, robots, and even unique
characters and mission objectives.
GameSpot's
preview of Drakan is online, profiling Psygnosis' upcoming dragon-riding third-person
action/adventure. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.
Arcadia has posted a new screenshot from
Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament, available in two different sizes, for use as desktop
wallpaper.
3DGN's Trip to Ritual Entertainment
recounts their recent road tip to party with the tribe.
3DFiles.com's Requiem
Avenging Angel demo page has their download for the demo and a list of mirrors, and the demo is also available on 3D Action Gamers' Archive.
There's a Q&A with Robert
Duffy talking with the programmer of QERadiant (and variants), as well as the upcoming
Q3Radiant, posted on Rust,
the game editing and design site. It's a very short discussion, but editing types are
probably interested in even small tidbits on the improvements/enhancements expected in
future versions of QERadiant and Q3Radiant.
Dynamix' Scott Youngblood updated his .plan with a bit on the mission builder in the new patch:
Ok, there is a beta patch out that has the new mission editor in it. All of you
mission builders out there give it a good pounding and let us know if you find any
problems with it. If you do find a problem please send me mail asap and we will try to get
it addressed before we release the 1.4 version.
On the new Mission front: The original Broadside is BACK! The 1.3 version has been renamed
to BLASTSIDE (Thanks to everyone who submitted a name.)
A new version 0.94 of the Generations
Quake II mod that combines the characters, weapons, maps, and enemies from Quake II,
Quake, Doom, and Wolfenstein-3D will be released tonight at 11:00 PM EST. To celebrate the
release (which still so far entails only Quake and Quake II), the team is holding a small
release party. Connect to the IRC server at www.planetquake.com and join the room
#Generations "to talk with the team while you download."
Tweak3D has posted more tweaks for the Kingpin demo,
including tips on how to cut down on hard drive thrashing while playing.
As promised yesterday, the second playable demo of 3DO's upcoming heavenly (and hellish)
shooter, Requiem: Avenging Angel, is now available. Thanks KiRiON|FL|. Here is the demo download page, which
offers the demo as one big (approximately 32 MB) zip, or broken up into segments. Here's the
info that Phil Co passed along yesterday on what the demo includes:
4 "JAM's" (or sub-levels) that make up the one level
Setting in the Power Plant of New Damascus
Tons of soldiers, Demon Rats, Demon Dogs, and Flying Kynthra
Tons of Angelic Powers including Resurrect, Possess, To Salt, Bloodboil, and Warp Time
Mission Objectives:
Meet with Rebel Soldier, Elijah
Find Cathcart, a Power Plant Exec Sympathetic to the Rebellion
Blow up the Back Up Reactor to set up a diversion
The demo is playable on:
Minimum:
P166
32 Megs of RAM
Software
D3D
3DFX
Spin Pop Life: Gamers
offers profiles of the "Avatars of the New Millenium" with part one offering an
interview with ION's John Romero (and David Deinstbeir, Game Designer at Acclaim/Iguana)
answering the single question, "Which game really got you into videogames?"
Thanks Lestat.
Datumplane::Starsiege
interviews Dave Meddish from Dynamix about some of what will go into TRIBES 2, the
sequel to Starsiege TRIBES. Here's a bit:
Yoshi: Will the maps have more buildings like a city or something?
Dave: I don't know if we're going to have more "urban" maps. We toyed
around with it for TRIBES but were having poly count issues, which is why the city maps
didn't make the original cut.
Yoshi: Hardware only should help.
Dave: I would think so. We'll know more once we start really cranking out new
missions.
Some updated Q&As have been added to GameSpot UK's Black
And White interview collection, which is becoming a Library of congress-sized
repository of such interviews, now totaling well over a dozen. According to Nicola over at
GSUK, "In our second batch of interviews we discover Jean-Claude Cottier's 3D
landscapes, why Jamie Durrant likes Baldurs Gate, how Paul Nettleton got to know Peter,
and reveal the truth behind Mark Healey."
GA-Source has
posted eight Exclusive Slave Zero Screenshots showing off action from Accolade's
upcoming giant-sized third-person (or third-robot) action game.
An update to Kevin Bentley's Developer
Notes offers a discussion of mouse control issues, and centers around whether
Quake-style mouselook (with almost instant turning) will make it into the game, a
subject on which the Outrage programmer seeks feedback. The update also discusses the
existing Quake-style mouse control that's hacked into the version 1.1 Descent 3 patch, and
how to use it, which may be useful to experiment with for those interested in offering
feedback.
3DsoundSurge's Vortex 1
Technical Support FAQ and 3DsoundSurge's Vortex 2
Technical Support FAQ are both online offering unofficial resources to answer your
questions about both generations of soundcards based on A3D's designs.
Another free-PC
deal emerges is a ZDNN article an another free
machine to be had in exchange for your loyalty to DirectWeb's Internet service. Thanks
Steve Strickland.
GameCenter's Half-Life
MP3 Files offers all the music from Valve's much-lauded shooter for download in .mp3
format, including some tracks that can't be accessed as CD audio. The archive is 32 MB,
and will be available from Gamecenter only until tomorrow. Thanks Ant.
Mortyr.Net has posted a new set of Mortyr Screenshots, as well as their weapons pages which offer detailed
info (some of it previously unrevealed) about the armaments included in this upcoming back
to the future World War II shooter.
The screenshot happy gang at GameSpot UK have
posted a beefy new 30 image Descent 3
Screenshot Gallery.
PlanetUnreal has conducted an interview with
Wesley Davis of Project V1 that
they are going to split into a few parts and milk for a couple of days. The first part,
which is up now, talks a bit about the project, going into some detail about the drivable
vehicles (with mounted weapons) that will be included in this upcoming Unreal-engine game.
They have also posted a new screenshot showing off a small PT boat ( "The small
boat?! Fat Jack!!").
Unreal Mac version 2.2.0b2 is now available on the Westlake Interactive page.
Thanks Scandalon. The Mac version numbers have been changed to more closely reflect the PC
scheme, and this version is based on the PC version 220. Word is that work on Mac 223 is
starting soon, so the next Mac patch should be ready closer to the release of the next PC
patch.
MessiahPress has posted a short Q&A with
Shiny's Scott Herrington talking about what TeamEgo has been up to lately in developing
their upcoming third-person action game starring Bob the Cherub, Messiah. The update
offers some new character shots in addition to the new info. Here's a quote:
Tons more character animation is going into the game then we had originally
thought of. It just seems to keep piling up. This is the last time we make a
game so flexible! Every character has to work in just about every scene/environment
in the game - and that means a truckload of animation for each.
Most of the placeholder sfx are in the game, the full list has been turned over to Tommy
for the 'official' effects.
AGP code is being worked on so that we don't have to reduce textures at all. People
with AGP machines are going to have a truly stunning looking version of the game when the
code is complete.
With the recent news of Worldcraft Pro being cancelled, a concerned Andy Basler wrote
Valve's Harry Teasley asking what the future holds for the official Half-Life editor, and
here is Harry's response:
We're working all of our Worldcraft issues out right now. We'll have
something to say on the matter soon. Rest assured that we haven't abandoned Worldcraft,
and there will be updates.
The RIVA 3D TNT-2 Review has been
updated with more visual examples of the TNT2/Voodoo3 comparison, and similarly, Planet RIVA's 16-bit versus
32-bit color article has been updated with new info and comparison shots.
Get a load of this load of competitions and such. Get your scorecard ready:
- The second annual Quake Easter Egg Hunt
will take place this (Easter) Sunday, offering a teamplay Quake II egg hunt with $100 in
cash prizes.
- Rioport.com is giving away two Force
Feedback Kits, featuring Microsoft's Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel and a Sidewinder
Force Feedback Joystick along with two games with support for Force Feedback: Microsoft's
Motocross Madness and LucasArts' Rogue Squadron.
- This GA-Source Contest offers full iRiS
AntiVirus packages to 30 winners.
- The Mplayer Daikatana Deathmatch page
has info on Phillip 'R-Gauss' Marcus, winner of the first week's competition, the first of
four contestants who will journey to Dallas to battle in a final showdown.
- Thousands
die on screen - at PC party is a BBC article on what's described as the UK's biggest
ever LAN party this past weekend.
- It's never too early, so the World Deathmatch Tournament
homepage is already online. The WDT is a Quake III Arena tourney planned for the first
quarter of 2000 to be held in the Palexpo exhibition center in Geneva, Switzerland (which
can hold up to 1,500 contenders).
- Finally, here's the scoop on this weekend's festivities at The Bay Area Network Gaming Group:
The Bay Area Network Gaming Group is gearing up. only 6 days left 'til the Big
BANGG, a 200 person LAN Fiesta in San Jose, CA. Held at the Santa Clara Convention center
April 2-4th, it's gearing up to be one hell of a party! Nearly 150 sign-ups so far, and
over 200 expected!
Sponsors have lined up left and right, including 3dfx, nVidia, S3, AMD, Logitech, Mad
Catz, and more! There will be many great prizes to be given out, including coupons for a
free TNT2 when they come out retail! S3 will be demonstrating their Savage4 chipset with
Unreal Tournament and the Quake3 Demoloop. AMD will be sending a team with their K6-3
computers (equipped with Voodoo3s and TNT2s) to show off, and maybe give away! Logitech
will be premiering their Wingman Gamers' Mouse, and giving away 6 of their Wingman Formula
Force steering wheels in a Need for Speed III race-off! Sponsors are still lining up, even
in this, the week of the event!
Nothing like a middle of the night troubleshooting session to get the adrenaline flowing,
I rebooted after playing some TRIBES, and proceeded to repeatedly lock-up. A couple of
hours ago I pulled my soundcard, and my machine suddenly booted again, whee! Yesterday's
Pop Culture quote was from Steve Martin's The Jerk. Randalls offers a quote in
return that echoes a popular response: "These cans are defective - they're
springing leaks! Come over here and look at this!" I'll confess right now that today's quote (yes, there's already one up there somewhere) is paraphrased.
Link of the Day: Bunny survival Tests
(reminiscent of some classic peep experiments)... with Easter coming, science marches on.
Thanks Ultraboy.It really is me.
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