Archived News:
Computer Gaming
Review has posted an interview with Harvey Smith, lead level designer on
ION Storm's upcoming first person RPG, Deus Ex. The interview covers his background
in the industry (there's that daily theme again), and even a good bunch of questions
related to the game itself.
The Mechwarior 3 version 1.1 patch is now available over at the
official Mechwarrior page, complete with a slew of mirror sites (thanks
Jeff McClain). According to the Mechwarrior
3 forums, this 2.6 MB patch addresses multiplayer problems, "legging",
weapon balance issues, and more.
SpecForce.net has posted two new screenshots
from Zombie's upcoming SpecOps 2 (thanks Billy " extra
special" Wilson). It's worth pointing out that one shows off the new
footprints in the snow, while the other shows off bullet holes in vehicles
as well as the new night vision view mode.
Captured.com has posted
an interview with Epic Games' Cliff Beszinski, talking about the version of
CTF that will be prominently featured in Unreal Tournament.
Andrea from Matrox sends along a patch to fix Aliens versus Predator 1.03 on Matrox G400 series cards.
To work, the 1.03 patch must first be installed ( local copy). Here's the poop:
Attached is a new g400 patch for the Fox Interactive Game Alien Versus Predator.
To use this patch, you must download the Game Patch 1 that has been released by Fox
Interactive (http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/patch_demos/patches.htm). The
attached file (g400_avp_fix.zip) is a Millennium G400 Series game patch.
The install process for these two files is as follows:
These two screenshots have been added to
the Q3Test Status Update2 @
Shugashack.com posted earlier showing off Disruptor's one-on-one map.
3DActionPlanet
has posted an interview with BioWare's Greg Zeschuk, talking about his background
in the industry (what is this, a daily theme?), as well as his current project,
MDK 2. MDK, as everyone knows, stands for Men Don't Knit.
UGN3D has posted
an interview with Monolith's Jason Hall, talking about his history, the industry
in general, and a whole bunch of other topics.
Hal9000 ("daisy, daisy, give me your answer do") sends word that
the official Descent 3 level editor has been released, and is available for
download over at Outrage's site.
This version is beta 0.9, and there's a disclaimer that says that, "additional
features and bugs fixes will be implemented with future releases."
John Romero's going to be doing a deathmatch of a different kind this Friday: He's participating in an Age of Empires II battle against AoE creator Bruce Shelley and fellow former id Software employee Sandy Petersen on Microsoft's Gaming Zone. A chat with Shelley will precede the event, and digital photographs and screenshots will be available on The Zone during the match. No word as to whether or not the loser will have to consume months-old milk, but I wouldn't rule it out.
3D-Unlimited has
posted an interview with Rogue Entertainment's Robert Selitto, talking about
his background in the industry, level design, and dodging questions about their
current project (with the required "it’s a Rogue product so you know
it’s going to be awesome" quote being all he can say).
According to AVault,
Mortyr is set to go gold within the "next several days" and that a
demo will be released around the same time. As for a publisher, they are reporting
that "Ubi Soft completed all the paper shuffling with Interactive Magic
in early July," and that everything will be settled by the end of the month.
The 4D Rulers Gore Page has news of a
playable demo of Gore that they plan on releasing this summer to show off gameplay from
their upcoming 3D gory shooter. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
An update to Core Engineer
Greg Stelmack's developer diary on the Rogue Spear site gives a big old update on the
new weapons that will be available in Rogue Spear and their characteristics, offering
statistics and descriptions that should help decide what loadout to take on your missions.
Thanks again Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
Another developer update is a Drakan Development
Update & Shot on Voodoo Extreme giving progress on Surreal Studios' upcoming
third-person dragon riding game from Surreal's Stuart Denman including a screenshot
showing off how you select your player's (and dragon's) skins in deathmatch.
There's a Q3Test Status Update2 @
Shugashack giving some of sCary's hands-on impressions of the next version of the
Q3ATest, which he points out is planned for release sometime this week. There is a
description of the new one-on-one map, and also a mention of plans by ATI to announce a
new Rage 128 Pro during QuakeCon.
MGON Interviews Gabe Newell
talking to the Valve Software Managing Director catching up on the latest doings over at
Valve, discussing the influences behind Half-Life.
The Adrenaline Vault Downloads has an English-language version of the new "Shamazaar" Outcast demo that was recently released as a German version ( story, and follow-up). Thanks Omnigon. Now English-speaking gamers can play this demo level from Appeal & Infogrames' action game that puts you in the role of Cutter Slade, US Navy SEAL Commander, without using a phrasebook.
I.Am-KingPin has posted a new Kingpin deathmatch
guide (or in there parlance of the game, a gang-bang guide) giving hints on how to come
out on top in a gang-bang (I'm just going to leave that be). Also for your banging
pleasure, they've posted a new DM map for Kingpin, called Sick City by Cole Porter (and
you thought he only composed musicals).
- AMD
Posts Big Loss, President Resigns gives word of the announcement of some earning
losses reported by AMD, which was expected, along with the surprise announcement that
company President S. Atiq Raza is resigning. Thanks Whoopass and Tahldain.
- Speaking of AMD, Raven's Kenn Hoekstra's .plan has word that they've received an AMD Athlon
system, and that SoF and Voyager will be optimized for the K7.
- Sharky Extreme
examines the NVIDIA TNT-TNT2 in Depth "provides an architectural overview of
NVIDIA's TNT/TNT2 graphics processors, followed by a performance evaluation of TNT.
Lastly, some shortcomings of TNT are addressed."
- 3Dimensional
128's 3D Sound Primer gives an introduction to 3D sound terminology and technology.
- While discussing sound, Wired News reports SDMI
Spec Restricts CD Copying describes the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), a new
standard that aims to wipe out digital music piracy, saying it "amounts to a list of
choke holds that electronics manufacturers must build into portable stereo systems."
Thanks Grifter1.
The Wheel of Time has posted their formerly
weekly update (referred to now as "a randomly timed, out-of-the-blue update,"
but I won't bust out my team of trademark lawyers). Thanks Infiniti. The post gives a
status report on the game (as well as Glenn's impending marriage--congrats!!) and posts a
whole bunch of new screenshots.
Sharky Extreme
has posted their pair of Slave Zero Shots from this week. There are a million (okay,
23) new high resolution screenshots from Submarine Titans up on Before It's Done. Also,
there are a bunch of new screenshots on gamers.de
(a German site) including 17 new screenshots of Septerra Core and nine new screenshots of
Odium, as well as three new screenshots of Submarine Titans.
The Xtreme Tribes page has a new player model for TRIBES they've concocted as a test of the TRIBES tools. Also, Planet Tribes has posted a Q&A with Optimizer of the Xtreme Tribes team discussing the reasons behind their split from Dynamix' TRIBES Extreme project.
This guide to Quake 3
Optimization offers tips on improving your ping and framerate in Q3ATest. The author
claims his ping went from 280 to 190 ms as a result of these tips. Also on tap are all
sorts of guides looking to provide tips for all manner of shooters, as Gamecenter's Ten Deathmatch
Commandments offer ten rules they feel everyone should follow, plus specific advice
for: Aliens vs. Predator, Descent 3, Half-Life, Quake II/Quake III, Sin, and Unreal. Quake 3 Source's Guide
offers tips specific to Q3ATest, and this Death Matching Strategy
guide is a general guide for all FPS game, though not terribly complete (or polished).
The QWare Software Homepage has a new beta 8 of QBind, an advanced binding/script/config editor (they describe their goals to be "the Visual Studio of Quake config editors") that supports all Quake versions known to man. The new release offers full drag 'n' drop support for bind creation, bug fixes and enhancements, and more.
The Rock, Paper, Scissors Homepage has
another one of those modifications for those who think they've heard it all: A Quake II
modification based on the classic children's boredom-invoking boredom preventer, Rock,
Scissors, Paper. Version 1.0 of the mod is now available, offering three teams
competition, with "cubes" that bring what's described as a "CTF flavor to
the game."
As noted in
Phoebus' plan, there is a new version 0.7 of GLHeretic up on Kokak's Heretic Page with the
latest release of Kokak's OpenGL port of the source code of Heretic.
Looks at stuff in production:
Looks at the stuff that is out already:
When the database conversion project took place here, one of the goals was to allow readers to customize their news preferences, though we've kept that part of the project on the back burner for the most part. I've been playing around with how that stuff works for
the past couple of days, and I'm shocked to see it really doesn't look like that feature is going to require much tweaking before it's ready to go live (Furn is the man), so don't
be surprised when we roll that out pretty soon (at least it seems imminent enough that I'm
finally willing to mention it). At this point the big hold-up is making sure the server
won't blow a tire when customizations cause CGI script usage to soar. More on this soon.
There comes a time when the baby birds must leave the nest, but in this case, rather
than being an analogy for human behavior, it means just what it says: yesterday morning
MrsBlue and I discovered that the fledgling Mourning Doves nesting outside our window that
I mentioned recently have flown the coop (so to speak). Still no Prozac, but I'm keeping
Dr. Melfi's number handy just in case. From my small newfound understanding of this
breed's behavior, the same couple may be back again raising another small brood this
summer.
Link of the Day: ChildCare Action Project Media
Analysis Report on Tarzan. Thanks Eric. They don't find it as evil as South Park, but
considering it's Disney...
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