Archived News:
Epic's Brandon Reinhart updated his
plan with word that the results from the planned Unreal Tournament showdown
between Epic Games and NetGames USA ( story)
are in...and it's a win for Epic with 71 frags to NetGames' 43. The full stats
are available on NetGames'
page, featuring a full rundown of the players.
Mike Wilson updated his
.plan with word that two games from the Gathering of Developers will go
gold this week, as well as some details on a side project he's working on. Here
are the details: 2 games going gold this week... FLY! and Darkstone.
Big week at the church.
We have a side project of the non-commercial, prototype variety that we need
to build a library of 3DStudio models for asap. Buildings mostly, but characters/vehicles/items
would also be quite welcome. I can't say too much about what we'd be using these
for just yet, but I can assure you that any models we use for the prototype
may become part of a major project than means money and credit for the modelers.
Please only send stuff you own the rights to.
Submit questions (not about what we're doing with these) and models to: info@godgames.com
Tom Hall has updated his Anachronox Diary over at Anachronox.com
(hit "Game Information" followed by "Design Diary" to read
it). Amongst the topics in this installment are how cool Lee Perry's particle
effects are ("coooooool" according to Hall), and word that some Anachronox
content was used in a local play titled "Shiner" about an executioner.
Yeah, you read that right... go over there
to understand it.
There's a new
SoF Screenshot on GA-Source with another look at Raven's upcoming Quake II-engine
game. The shot shows off a female raider, one of the enemy terrorists from the game.
GA-Source questions Jason Halls
Sanity, not that they're worried about him losing his marbles, but rather it's a
conversation about Sanity, Monolith's upcoming LithTech-powered RPG.
A post on Mortyr.Net indicates that in spite of
Mortyr's uncertain status regarding who will publish it, a playable demo of this
first-person World War II shooter "later this week." word is the demo will
contain a single level, and will be about a 20 MB download. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
Dynamix' Mitch Shaw updated his .plan with both an on topic, and an off-topic section 9conveniently
labeled). The on-topic part has a general update on the stat of TRIBES, TRIBES2, and
TRIBES Extreme, so I'll reproduce it here:
Everything seems to be going along pretty smoothly on the projects. Some
excellent new artwork has been incorporated into T2 lately, and TRIBES Extreme is shaping
up nicely as well. And the 1.6 patch should be relatively imminent, QA is (I believe)
finishing up their OpenGL testing on the latest candidate.
Good luck to TRIBES artist Weston Tracy, who has left for a job at, as Dave Letterman
would say, "another network".
Unreal Kingdom has posted a pair of new Unreal
tournament Screenshots courtesy of Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart showing off a
new "InstaGib DM" Mutator play mode, which he describes as being "about
having a good aiming hand and is very fast paced."
GameLinks.net
has posted a massive preview of Planet Moon's oddball (yet mighty cool) third
person title Giants: Citizen Kabuto. The piece is illustrated with an incredible
63 screenshots, and while i'm not entirely sure how many (if any) are new, it's
still a great way to get a glimpse of the game's striking visuals.
There are a pair of new Soldier of Fortune screenshots on Soldier-of-Fortune.com showing off gameplay from Raven's upcoming Quake II-engine game of mercenary action. Word on the page is to
expect a movie from the game in AVI format "coming soon."
TacticalPlanet has posted the last in their
recent string of new Spec Ops II shots in their "Target Acquired" box (not to be
confused with a pic of the day).
The Quake 3 Arena Skin Archive has posted a
reply they received from id Software's Kenn Scott, who, while temporarily declining an
interview offer, does provide an interesting tidbit about Q3A skin editing that I hadn't
seen mentioned before:
"...We have seperated alot of characters faces from the rest of the bitmap
to make it easier for folks to cut and paste their own faces on clan skins, etc. though
it'll still take a lot of art editting to fit. We've done it here a few times for fun (and
abuse), so it's not too difficult. :)"
A new version 1.3 beta 1 of the Bleem (or bleem!) PlayStation emulator for the PC is up on
the Bleem (or "bleem!") site. Thanks GameDev.net. Among the many changes from the last
beta, are "Significant Direct3D Speed Optimizations," and "Significant
Direct3D Texture Improvements." The beta version of bleem needs a CD Key to function,
just like the full version. Any original bleem CD Key will function with bleem FULL and
BETA releases.
Before It's Done
interviews Seumas McNally of Longbow
Digital Arts talking about LDA's upcoming Tank racing game, Tread Marks.
Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart updated his .plan with word that the gang at Epic is embarking on an
Unreal Tourney deathmatch today to help show off the info-packed coolness of NetGames USA's statistical analysis, which the game
will support out of the box. Details on the festivities are on ngWorldStats Epic Games vs. NetGames USA
page, where the aforementioned stats from the match will be on display. Word is the
action kicks off tonight at 9:00 PM CST (CDT, actually).
Gaming Entertainment
Monthly's Prince of Persia 3D Interview talks with Lead Designer Todd Kerpelman about
the upcoming 3D-enhanced third installment in the PoP series.
Sharky Extreme's
Sinistar Unleashed Preview looks at this up-to-date sequel to the arcade classic.
The Genesis3D page has the "Pre-Alpha
Preview" release of the Genesis 2.0 editor, GenEdit. Thanks Voodoo Extreme. This release is described as
"fully functional and totally kick ass!," but "not feature complete by any
means," so they are looking for a lot of feedback.
The Shotgun Quake 2 page has
a new version 2.0 release of this server-only Quake II modification that glorifies the
beloved boomstick above all others. The new release offers CTF and Linux support. Liquid,
who sent this along, is putting out a call for crack mentions on news pages, just to feel old school, but if he thinks there haven't been any such references lately, obviously, he's on crack. ![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif)
Version 7.0 of Super Capture the Flag (Sctf),
a variant on Zoid's Threewave Capture the Flag for Quake (1), is now available, offering a
min-boggling 26 weapons and 63 runes (each with two powers!).
The Quake Info Pool has a couple of updates: Some new bugs have been added to the bug list, they have a request up for feedback on the "shotgun shooting at multiple targets bug," and there is also a new version 1.4 of Gerard "Numb" Ryan's URQWP as well as word on a new server running the patch.
After a while without an entry in the pop culture game there were a pair of quotes
yesterday: The Lemon Twist was offered by Serge (Bronson Pinchot) in Beverly Hills Cop,
and we learned how to pronounce "Nu-cu-lar" from Homer Simpson. On the subject
of TV and Cinema, another long awaited DVD release rolled in yesterday, the Criterion
version of an all-time favorite, Terry Gilliam's Brazil, offering two versions of
the film and a ton of documentary material spanning three disks (wheee!). Interestingly,
the set's original Battle of Brazil documentary is credited to a Jack Mathews,
complete with the proper (one "t") spelling. Truly, morbid is a renaissance man.
Acclaim, one of the very few game developers here in the greater NY area, is showing
off some of their games today. If things go according to plan, both loony and I will spend
a couple of hours over there in the early afternoon, I still may stay behind out of guilt
about leaving the newsdesk unattended, but it's possible we'll both be away simultaneously
-- but if so, it will be for a fairly brief span.
Link of the Day: Jesse
Ventura To Swap Governor's Office For Ring. You've gotta love American politics.
Thanks Apache.
Bonus Link: Bangladesh
Cops Rescue Drug Monkeys. Another link from the actual news of the day. You can't make
this stuff up! Thanks Cannelbrae. BTW, it's cough syrup they were peddling, so these
aren't actual crack monkeys.
Now that Summoner has a publisher ( see story)
they've gone and redesigned their official
site, complete with a boatload of new visuals (including new images, concept
art, and more) and a message from Mike Kulas, the president of Volition.
Bungie.Net has a new version 1.3 patch for Myth II:
Soul Blighter. Thanks Felix. The File is also available on The
Adrenaline Vault Downloads and 3DFiles.Com.
The Worldcraft converter and Player Models for Starsiege: TRIBES that I posted
earlier ( story)
that were subsequently yoinked from TRIBESPlayers
have been placed back online again for download.
Oh joy! It's time for this week's edition of the Mail
Bag. In this week's jam-packed edition: Messiah, Kingpin's lousy ending,
id's health insurance policy, the status of the Watchmen movie, the death of
the Quake community, and naturally, a whole lot more. Hop
over there and read up.
According to Gamer's
Voice, Red Storm's 3D strategy game Force 21 has gone gold. Look for it
to hit store shelves soon.
The previously announced Worldcraft converter for Starsiege: TRIBES has been
released, and is available for download over at TRIBESPlayers.
Also of note are the Player Models, which allow mod makers to create their own
character models (and are likewise available for download). Update: it would appear that these have been yoinked from the site...we'll let you know when they reappear.
TRIBESPlayers
has posted some information about "Grievers", the evil characters
in Dynamix' upcoming semi-sequel Starsiege: TRIBES Extreme (thanks Datumplane::Starsiege).
Gamers Extreme has updated their Aliens
vs. Predator guide to include a full walkthrough for the Marine levels.
Which is great news if you've been too scared to keep playing through them (not
that I know anyone who is, or anything).
Jon Peters sends along this press release announcing TRIBESCon '99: TRIBEScon
'99 is here. Scheduled to take place in Seattle from August 14th - August 16th,
this event will hopefully bring together 250 people from the TRIBES community
for a weekend of fun and games. Tournaments and large quantities of gaming will
abound, and there should be some sightings of the dev team and some other really
great players and scripters.
Registration is limited so go sign up as quickly as possibly. The cost/person
for pre-registration is $21.50, and we are accepting registration by check(mail)
or credit card(internet). There will be a $35 cover charge for people just showing
up
at the door but dont wait till then or we may fill up. A $20 single day attendence
pass will also be availible but again this is based on availibility only.
The web page with all of the information is up and evolving, and we have also
set up a page for taking pre-registration. On top of this we have a messageboard
availible for people to ask questions and to help each other find rides. Its
a bring your own computer event and make sure to read over the entire TRIBEScon
site for more detailed information. Also be sure to keep checking back as we
get closer to the convention date as more info and news will be appearing as
it becomes availible to us.
The actual page for TRIBEScon '99 resides at: http://netheroes.com/tribescon99/
Pre-registration is being done at: http://www.teamfusion.org/tribescon.taf
The Ride/Question board is located at: http://www.gamers.com/messages/overview.asp?board_id=3493
THQ has announced that they have picked up the rights to Volition's 3D RPG
Summoner, as detailed in this
press release (thanks Scott Blinn). This puts an end to the speculation
as to the future of the title once and for all, I'd say.
3DUnlimited
has posted a Q&A session with Steve Hornback, talking about his work as
Senior Artist on Duke Nukem Forever, as well as his earlier projects (including
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Duke Nukem 2, and ROTT).
Here's this
week's screenshot from Slave Zero, Accolade's (see, I learn!) upcoming giant
robot action game for both the PC and Dreamcast (where it'll be one of the launch
titles, apparently):
HalfLife.Org interviews Randy Pitchford
in the final installment in their Shifting Through the Gears series (unless they add an
over-drive), which has been talking with various members of the team at Gearbox Software,
currently at work on the official Half-Life add-on Opposing Force.
Singularity
News has posted the first benchmarks (to the best of my knowledge, anyway)
from the retail version of the Canopus Spectra 5400 Premium Edition. The board
comes from Singapore, and it has already been reported that this will not be
available in the US. In other Canopus news, faz sent along this
correct URL for the new Pure3D2 drivers (apparently they're incorrect on
the downloads page link that we reported earlier). Here's the link for the
release notes as well.
Speedy 3D
interviews Mikael Lindgren of Nerve Lab Software
talking about Nerve Lab's upcoming first person action game, Reborn, with the final page of
the Q&A offering three new screenshots showing the game off. Here's one answer
that gives a bit on what the game is about:
Well, it's actually a mix of different game genres but with an emphasis on first
person action. The idea is really to liberate the player, giving the possibilities of
moving freely in the world of Reborn. So, apart from the traditional walking and running
in tunnels or whatever, you'll drive different vehicles, and even do some air combat.
You'll take the role as "Jason Black", a guy who's been in the
"cryofreezer" for quite some time. You'll get mission briefings throughout the
game by different informers and you'll need to solve them as good as you can. That means,
using your weapons and brains when needed.
The Sloshy Software page has a new version 2.41 patch for their QuickStart front-end for the Quake II Eraser bot. The new release adds a couple of tweaks, and fixes a single bug, which is
ironically with the program's new auto-update function, which can still be used to install the new version, you are just warned to complete the process once you start the auto-updater.
Here is a web-based Quake 3 Arena fun-name
maker that can make a wacky colored name to show others your 'leetness on Q3ATest
servers.
Billy has posted a pair of Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force shots on Voodoo Extreme showing off gameplay from Raven's
upcoming Quake III-engine game.
EvilAsh sends word that the new Outcast demo
released yesterday ( story), is not in English, but in fact, is in German, befitting its
origin point ( GamesMania Germany). Additionally,
he passes along word that the installation still does expect a DirectX folder under the
setup folder, so if you downloaded the 3D Gamers' version
with that stripped out, then make sure you have a game CD handy with a DirectX setup
folder to copy even if you have DirectX installed.
TacticalPlanet has posted their third exclusive screenshot
from Spec Ops II, Zombie's upcoming tactical shooter. Today's pic is better-lit than
the previous one, thanks to the muzzle-flash of the machine-gun being fired by the soldier
in the shot.
Unreal Kingdom has posted a couple of
exclusive screenshots showing off the new IRC chat client interface in Epic's
upcoming Unreal Tournament, part of the game's enhanced online capability.
There's a Rick Johnson Interview on 3D GameGeeks (or as they put it in their own touchingly simple way "Rick Johnson decided to give us at 3DGameGeek a little interview action here, which is great.").
The Q&A covers the Raven programmer's history in the business, and talks about progress on Soldier of Fortune, as well as stuff like violence in the media and his regrets about indulging in Daikatana bashing in the past (followed by a sidelong shot at the game).
Before It's Done
interviews Sky Kensok from WXP talking about their upcoming shooter, Experience. They
have also posted an exclusive music track from the game in .mp3 format. Also, while we're
at it, UGN3D previews
Experience.
I'll separate these out from the AM bits, since there are so many darned bits today:
The
Adrenaline Vault previews MDK2 looking ahead at BioWare's upcoming sequel to their
third-person action game. MDK of course stands for Mighty Ducks and something that starts
with a "K."
UGN3D's Force 21 Screenshots
show off action from Red Storm Entertainment's upcoming tank dealie. Also, the Submarine Titans website has added some
new shots to their screenshots
section showing off nuclear explosions ( "that's pronounced nu-cu-lar").
Thanks PC Paradox.
Thresh's
FiringSquad's TrickStyle Preview looks at this upcoming 3D hoverboard game, that is
worth a mention, just because they say the game was partially inspired by the Silver
Surfer.
Gamer's Voice has posted a
follow-up to the LucasArts departures story posted Sunday ( story) confirming that project leader Mark Haigh-Hutchinson has indeed
left LucasArts. A further follow-up also confirms that while Director of Development Steve
Dauterman is still with the company, he has, in fact, tendered his resignation, and will
also be departing.
The story about Scott Rice's departure yesterday, I had the proper headline, but in the
body of the article accidentally said the person departing was John Scott ( story). sorry about the error, though it turned out the Raven guys had
some fun kidding John about his "departure." Amusingly, the error also served as
fresh snowfall to show the footprints of a fellow webmaster making off with the story, as
he coincidentally committed the same error (tsk, tsk).
A new version 2.24 of the Winamp .mp3 player is up on the Winamp.com Home. Thanks Syco.
Winamp now consists of two different programs, Winamp Basic, which plays all
formats except WMA and ASFS, and Winamp Complete, which includes support for WMA
and ASFS.
- BeatDown XIX HUGE!!!
screams the titlebar of the sign-up sheet for a competition looking for the best top 10
list of why you deserve to go to BeatDown XIX (19 for those who don't speak Super-Bowl),
GameSpy industries next LAN party. One winner will get their choice of being flown out to
the extravaganza, or $300 cash (if the winner is outside the US, they just get the cash).
- The Panther XL website has a follow-up on that
joystick giveaway posted yesterday that says they "made the 100 [winners] in about 75
seconds!" Thanks Ryan. Here's the
list of winners, and they promise more giveaways in the future.
- Having finally knocked off the never-ending
previous contest, we can move on to the new test your knowledge
contest, again sure to tax even the most tax-exempt brain.
If a normal story on this page is coffee, then the reviews section is a double espresso.
Get ready to pound down some reviews. ( "Would you like a lemon twist?")
- The ARMAGEDDON page on the Xtreme Games LLC Web Site has word on ARMAGEDDON 1999,
a Mini Game Developer Conference (XGDC) to be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center
October 2nd and 3rd...
- Tweak3D has posted a photo of the Logitech Wingman Force Feedback
Mouse...
- The Mod Squad's Wacky
Sensibilities is an article in the LA Times about those nutty Quake mod authors, that
basically gives a plug to Mod Central,
and a link to the KROQ site that has a mod
"where players chase each other around a futuristic station and try to save
supermodel Tyra Banks." Thanks Kyle Graehl. Only in America, or only in L.A., for
that matter....
- This webpage offers basic tips on how
to get the best connection for either QuakeWorld, Quake II, or Q3ATest (not tweaking tips,
just simple, common sense stuff), offering examples of each, including some sample .cfg
files for Quake II...
A couple of weeks ago, we found what we believe is a Mourning Dove in a flower pot out on the fire-escape here at the Blue Tower, and after some time it became obvious that
it was nesting. While this may be pretty mundane for those of you who live in less urban
environments than we do, contact with any form of wild animal other than a squirrel, rat,
or pigeon (who I believe are actually some form of hard-boiled dove themselves), is quite unusual,
and has had me excited to a level of childish glee even beyond my norm, much to the
amusement of my friends and family. The two baby doves have been hatched for over a week
now, and today after momma dove had been away for an unusually long time, I found them out
of their makeshift nest for the first time ever. A little research reveals that Mourning
Doves are excessively common in the US, as is this form of nesting behavior (but it's just
as exciting to me nonetheless), and apparently the babies are no more than a week off from
leaving the nest for good.
The reason I share this story, is that my ongoing angst over the fledgling doves has caused about all those aware of it to kid me that I'm in the midst of
a Tony Soprano-type breakdown (when the ducks departed from his pool). Since I've spoken
in the past about the Sopranos here, and know there are even some of you watching the HBO
series as a result, I thought you might find amusement at my plight. Just don't be too
concerned about my potential breakdown, I think I'm really okay with it (on the other
hand, if I have a dream that one of the doves flies off with my privates in his pecker, it
might be Prozac time for the Bluester).
Link of the Day: The Call In Sick Home Page. Thanks
Bradley Ouimette. A day of deathmatch is just a faked phone call away
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