Archived News:
Dynamix has released Starsiege: TRIBES server version 1.4.4 ( here's a local copy). This server side
only patch has the following changes:
- Server security bug involving the server menu has been fixed (version 1.4.1)
Loading multiple players onto a single vehicle slot is no longer possible.
- Fixed a problem with inventory stations not clearing the active user.
- NT 4.0 DDHelp crash fixed.
- A timedemo function was added to playback a demo and calculate average
framerate.
- Fixed a problem with a containtment test which would allow players to jump
from vehicles into the solid region of an interior.
- Fixed a problem with gun retraction against vertical surfaces which would
allow players to shoot grenades and mortars through ceilings.
PC Gamer Online has posted a new
preview of Interstate '82, talking about Activision's upcoming auto-combat
sequel to Interstate '76. One of the areas discussed is the nature of the soundtrack,
which, in contrast to I'76's funky grooves, will be " a 'new wave' soundtrack,
similar in sound to bands like Gang of Four, Devo, and Duran Duran," going on to
quote Zack Norman saying: "We actually secured a couple early and unreleased DEVO
tracks from the period."
GA-Source's
Giants Screenshot and Q&A offers a short interview with Tim Williams of PlanetMoon
Studios about Giants, as well as a new screenshot. The topic at hand is the impact of
praise from E3 and an adult rating on this upcoming action game.
Version 0.60 of Bowzer, a server browser that
can help find multiplayer servers for Quake II and Q3ATest, is now available, adding a
bunch of new features such as an integrated IRC client, the ability to browse games on a
LAN, bug fixes, and more.
Yet another interview of note today, is GameSpot
UK's interview with Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford. The interview provides
some new information about their upcoming Half-Life add-on, Opposing Force.
Here's an interview
with Tim Sweeney talking to the programmer about Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament, as
well as Unreal and Tim's views on the industry in a translation of the original German interview
(which offers "nice pictures and a fancy layout").
Voodoo
Extreme has interviewed Brian "don't call me Grandmaster B" Hook,
talking to him about id, Verant Interactive, and the reaction to his announcement
(thanks Billy "Smitty" Wilson). Here's a snippet explaining his decision
to leave: id was a great experience for me, and I cannot emphasize that
enough. But at id I had a specific role to play, and that was as a supporting
programmer to John Carmack. There is nothing wrong with this, since that is
what I was hired to do, but at some point a programmer really lusts to be in
a position where they can exert more influence on the technical direction of
a company. In effect, I wanted more responsibility, and at id asking for that
kind of responsibility would have been like playing for the Chicago Bulls and
bitching at Michael Jordan to pass the ball more. John Carmack is, quite simply,
the most complete and competent game programmer of our generation. End of story.
There wasn't much room for me to grow comfortably in that environment. At Verant
I will be able to contribute immediately, and with a bigger impact than I ever
had at id.
A status report went up the other day on the Starsiege TRIBES Status
Update Page (thanks Billy "Ambien"
Wilson). Here's the scoop on the upcoming path(es), the 3DSMax files, and plans on
releasing the utility to convert buildings from Worldcraft into TRIBES:
First off, another patch. We have a fix for the "inventory station"
cheat (among others), and it's in QA now. We will likely release this as a beta patch for
server admins very soon (with a version somewhere around 1.4.4) and as a
"finalized" patch (1.5) in a few days.
Secondly, we're working on a release of the 3DSMax files for the player armor shapes. We
just need to get some last-minute issues in line -- this should be out soon as well.
Thirdly (tertiarily?), the planets are aligning for the release of something that was
hinted at earlier -- a utility that converts Worldcraft files into TRIBES-compatible ZED
shapes. This one is a little further in the future than the above two items; there are
still a few issues being worked out. If you have a rumor or topic you'd like to see
discussed here in a future update, e-mail me at skeet@dynamix.com
and I'll see what I can do. --Skeet
QERadiant.com interviews Paul Jaquays
capping off their flurry of opening-week interviews with a Q&A with the id Software
level designer about his work, and the QERadiant editor. Most of the questions receive
serious treatment, but here's one short exchange I really got a kick out of: Question:
"Where do you get your inspiration?" Answer: "Deadlines."
The far from daily Daily Dementia for
June 4, 1999 offers a "loud and soft" DD with Rob Huebner & Inger Shu of
Nihilistic Software, talking about their work on Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption,
plus more topics, in Part One of a two-part audio interview. As always, RealPlayer, or MakeBelievePlayer
required.
This morning's round-up of bits has the headline of the day from Sharky covering his
coverage of some hardware rumors: "Computex 99 Show Floor Report Episode 3: The
Phantom K7." And yes, sometimes I do balance out the Tech bits and the reviews by
slipping the occasional hardware review into the bits, hopefully this inconsistency isn't
actually causing anyone a real problem:
Tonight marks the monthly chat with the developers of Anachronox, accessible through the ION Storm website (click "live chat") or an IRC client (connect to www.ionstorm.com and enter #ion). The time of the chat is unspecified, but historically they kick off at 8:00 PM Central time. The time may have been overlooked as they worked up the list of the Top Fifteen Topics for the June AnachroChat:
15. Apes with Cigars: Understanding Fine Japanese Cinema
14. The Men Of Team Anachronox Calendar, 2000
13. Does Ralph Barlabagallillo Have Eyes?
12.Is It In Fact True that Seneca Menard Does All the Work There?
11. Lee Perry & Andrew Megowan: Skinhead Conspiracy?
10. Movies That Tom Hasn't Seen But Owns on Laserdisc
9. Movies That Ralph Hasn't Seen but Has an Opinion About
8. 110 reasons not to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
7. The Most Comfortable Couch In the Universe
6. Pooper... Bugaboo... What's Next?
5. Favorite Cheeses
4. Vote for Stinkiest Team Member
3. (.) and other Bagel ASCII Art
2. More RV Horror Stories
And the number one topic for the June AnachroChat:
1. Anachronox: The First All-Nude RPG
An update by Lead Designer Bob White to the ION
Storm Bulletin Board gives a progress report on Deus Ex, ION's upcoming Unreal-engine action/RPG (thanks Unreal Universe).
The brief blurb answers three questions about the game, including whether it will be out by Christmas, to which Bob replies: "We are shooting for Christmas, but some
situations may require us to push the date."
A couple
of sketches of Rune concept art are up on Gamers' Crypt to accompany their interview
from yesterday with Timothy Gerritsen of Human Head Studios yesterday ( story) about their upcoming Unreal-engine game.
The gang at RIVA 3D pass along word that the new
Unreal 225 server patch actually improves client performance, as well. Here's the skinny:
Guess what? Curiously, Epic did not speak to the fact that the Unreal 2.25 patch
improves D3D performance by an average of 20%. Not only that, but you have many more D3D
settings under advanced-rendering-D3D menu, including options for Triple buffering,
multitexturing, etc. I've posted a little blurb in the news, with fps improvements over
2.24 shown at 8x6 res, with a link to the patch.
A couple of sets of shots from a couple of action/RPG-type games in progress: there are Darkstone
Screenshots on PC Paradox showing off this third-person action/RPG title described as
"similar to Diablo," while there are some new
Septerra Core shots on Gamers' Crypt showing off this RPG in-progress from Monolith.
PlanetUnreal's Unrreal
Tournament Preview is up offering a write-up of their experiences visiting Epic's
offices just prior to E3 to check out the game.
Version 2.1 of King of the Server, offering
an update to this server-only Quake II mod that allows you to historically track your
progress against other players on the same server, tallying your kills, how many times
you're killed and giving you a score based on a few different factors, which includes how
much health you removed from a target to kill them.
An update to Uwe Girlich's Demo Specs page adds a bug-fix to The unofficial QWD
format description bringing it to version 1.0.5, and Uwe's also posted a new version 3.2.8 of The Little Movie Processing Centre, and of course, there's an accompanying update to The recording FAQ which brings it up to version 1.1.1.
Another programmer worklog to peruse, as Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart
updated his .plan with his worklog for the day, having fun with the whole deal,
capping the update with: this classic pair of items: "Discovered that the CD burner
wasn't working right because someone had placed a piece of balony in a caddy,"
followed by the inevitable: "Ate a piece of balony" (advanced problem-solving at
work).
A pair of Requiem reviews and a pair of AvP reviews among the festivities:
Including a couple of editorials for your Friday:
- Two Players on One PC? on PC.IGN.COM is a report of an upcoming innovation that can allow two players to play games on the same PC, with just the addition of a second keyboard, mouse, and pair of speakers. Thanks
Ozone...
- Hypercomplex has posted version 0.3
of Blitz GL, an OpenGL 3d engine in progress that offers state-of-the-art features like
curved surfaces and spherical volumetric fogging...
- Word from Ward Six is that a "beta demo" of their Dawn of Darkness Quake II mod appears on the
CD-ROM accompanying the July issue of PC Gamer UK, and will also appear in the
next issue of PC Accelerator...
- Xtreme Opinions:
Hype, or Hypocrisy is an opinion piece that takes a critical eye towards
advertising...
- Software Regulation is a guest
editorial on 3D Action Planet by the
occasionally controversial Andrew Smith offering his opinions on how to legally enforce
better software...
Whee! I was so excited at the first really heavy news day in a while (since E3 I guess) yesterday that I just kept plugging away until I passed out on my keyboard (made me forget all about feeling sick, how cool is that?). A couple of readers have written in to point out that the results of the second trivia contest never got posted in the flurry of activity that surrounded E3, but they have been tallied, and the results (as well as a new quiz) will go up next week (so sharpen those #2 pencils). And yes, small print fans, there will be some all new mumbo-jumbo to wrap your magnifying glass around.
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