Archived News:
Dynamix' Tim Gift updated his .plan
with an update on the status of the Starsiege: TRIBES 1.7 patch, which he says is off to QA for testing. Here's the scoop: Put a few fixes into
the current patch (should end up version 1.7); the elevator bugs (displacing
deployables through floors, and player warping). No more flying through ceilings
with vehicles, a few other misc. things. JohnA fixed a number of bug's in the scripts, and the palette problem
should addressed (DaveM). The release notes will have the full list.
We'll hand
a version to QA this afternoon so they can start testing. I hope this wraps
up my TRIBES 1 work for a while. With the vacation, catching up on all the emails
and the patch fixes, I haven't been doing much on TRIBES 2 work for over a month.
James Monroe, lead programmer for Raven's Quake III: Arena engine title Star
Trek: Voyager - Elite Force updated his
.plan with some Q3Test benchmarks he's taken using a pre-release AMD K7
running at 600 mhz: I am testing it out on a wonderful new K7-600 AMD
was kind enough to send us. Man this thing rocks! I'll get some meaningful timings
if anyone cares. But i assure you it flies!
q3test 1.07, on the k7-600, voodoo3 3K agp
graphics mode normal: (640 x 480)
q3testdemo1
1653 frames, 33.5 seconds: 49.3 fps
q3testdemo2
1528 frames, 23.9 seconds: 63.9 fps
graphics mode fast:
q3testdemo1
1653 frames, 26.8 seconds: 61.8 fps
q3testdemo2
1528 frames, 21.0 seconds: 72.7 fps
PlanetStarsiege has posted the
second part of their two-part interview with Mark Frohnmayer. This part focuses
almost entirely on TRIBES 2, with a slew of questions about the upcoming sequel's
new features. I found this quote to be especially interesting, given that Starsiege:
TRIBES already handles 32 player servers with remarkable grace: PlanetStarsiege:
Scott Youngblood said the Dev Team was shooting for more players per server,
how do you think you can accomplish that?
Mark Frohnmayer: I've optimized the network code in several ways to get rid
of unnecessary searches. I've also designed out a new object collision database
with Tim and Dave that should speed up the server considerably. Also, it's possible
that we could see some serious speedup on multiprocessor machines.
As promised earlier ( story),
ASC Games has updated their official Werewolf:
The Apocalypse - The Heart of Gaia site with this month's slew of content.
In addition to all the stuff mentioned earlier, there's five new screenshots
from the game as well for your viewing enjoyment.
This week's edition of the Mail
Bag is a suck fest, with topics such as sucking in Vampire: The Masquerade,
Romero's Suck-ful battle against Chris Taylor, and of course, why we suck. There's
some other stuff in here, but let's face it, it doesn't get more entertaining
than that. Swing
over and check it out.
An updated version 0.7 of Mortyr.Net's Mortyr
FAQ is online with more new info added about the demo. Also, there is a brand new N64 Quake II FAQ on GameFAQs,
with the initial version number 0.25. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
Though not noted on the Kali Homepage, there is a new
version 1.99a, described as a version 2.0 beta of the Kali server browser. You can get a full version here (direct link -
2721471 bytes), or a patch for
1.99 to 1.99a here (direct link - 532795 bytes). The new version adds new layout
options, a stand-alone Game Lobby window, and more.
Though they didn't plan anything special for today's partial lunar eclipse, the
lupine-loving folks over at ASC Games are having
another Werewolf The
Apocalypse - Heart of Gaia extravaganza tonight as they do on each full moon. What
this means is tonight they will post Part nine of their ten-part Prequel Series, their 9th
installment of "Rants"where guest ranter Rich Rosado rants about
"GIFTS," which is how they handle magic in the Werewolf universe. Finally, they
give word of a chat with the developers of this RPG next week:
Next Wednesday, August 4th, from 8-9 PM EST we'll be hosting a chat in the ASC
Games Chat Room. Guests will include members of the Dreamforge development team and
our very own Travis Williams!
The Railgun Project (a MacQuake site) has the release of a new beta 1.01b1 of the Eraser bot for Quake II, adjusted to work properly under the Mac port of Quake II. The new version fixes various file i/o
problems so that even Mac-only files should work now, along with a few other adjustments.
The next step in this project will be to port the source of the Eraser version 1.1.0 to the Mac.
Sharky Extreme's First
Glimpse at Halo is a hands-off look at Bungie's upcoming action title, along with some
video capture screenshots.
GASource
has posted an interview with Paul Whipp, producer on Virgin Interactive's Evolva.
The game is being developed by UK based Computer Artworks, and is an oddball
3D shooter of sorts, with a plot that centers around the after effects of the
Human Genome Project's completion.
Quirky though it may be, they've posted some new screenshots so you can see
what we have to look forward to (hey, at least it's not a resonance cascade,
right?).
The Ministry of Development
(clever name, guys) has posted an interview with Gearbox software's Landon Montgomery,
talking about their upcoming Half-Life add-on pack Opposing Force. OpFor, you
may recall, is the official add-on pack that puts you back in the Black Mesa
facility, only this time as a soldier.
There's a new Spec Ops II screenshot on
Before It's Done showing off a soldier from Zombie's upcoming sequel to their game of
realistic tactical combat.
Soldier-of-Fortune.com has been updated
with a few questions gleaned from the SoF forums and corresponding answers supplied by
Raven's Rick Johnson and Keith Fuller in an attempt to satisfy some common sources of
curiosity about their upcoming Quake II-engine game.
John Carmack Talks Q3A Dreamcast on
SegaNet has some excerpts from a recent Gamer's Republic interview with John Carmack
where the id programmer discusses the Sega Dreamcast. Thanks Matthew Rorie. Among other
things, the Q&A discusses the odd history of plans for a Q3A port for the Dreamcast,
which is not on the boards, in spite of Carmack's enthusiasm:
So then more months pass and then they're all hot again to get Q3A as a modem
pack-in on the DC, which I would love to do. A console game with a fixed function network
interface moving Q3A with really good modem level networking and everything would be
great. You'd get better performance modem-wise on the DC, mainly because you wouldn't have
a bunch of other operating systems fighting for space and interfering with the network
capabilities of the system. I still think it's a good idea, and they basically had a deal
on the table which we were ready to sign and they mysteriously pulled out at the last
minute, perhaps because they lost a quarter of a billion dollars last quarter and they
just didn't have any money. I don't really know.
ActionXtreme.com's
Harvey Smith Interview talks turkey with the man from ION Storm more commonly known as
Witchboy about his work on ION's upcoming Unreal-engine role-playing game, Deus Ex. The
interview is a nice in-depth conversation, refreshingly presented in a single sitting.
The
Adrenaline Vault's Thief 2 Developer Interview is up talking about Thief 2: The Metal
Age, the upcoming sequel to Thief: The Dark Project, talking with one-time AVault Editor-in-Chief
Emil Pagliarulo now that he's crossed to the developer's side of the fence.
Saw on VE that GamesMania's
Quick Q&A With Matt Candler talks with the former Associate Producer of Mechwarrior
Mercenaries, who is currently manager for many different Activision games, including Dark
Reign II and Vampire: The Masquerade, though the Q&A mainly discusses
Battlezone II, the upcoming action.RTS sequel.
UGN3D interviews Raven's Brian Pelletier about their upcoming Star Trek Voyager
game. Also, Raven's Jeremy Statz updated his
.plan talking about progress on the curved surfaces in Star Trek Voyager (which uses
that oh-so-curvy Quake III engine):
Work continues on Voyager... we're trying to see how far we can push the curves
at this point, and it's resulting in some really unique architecture. The fact that
they're scalable is a nice bonus for these levels, too.
Now that SoF has deathmatch going, I'll have to actually finish those levels I started.
heh
You have become better at Updating! (23)
SystemLogic's Age Of
Empires 2 Screenshots show off the sequel to MS' RTS. Also, Act One - No. 125 - Large
is the new Diablo II screenshot of the week, regular as clockwork. Also, word is Blizzard
has released the official
gameplay AVI of the Barbarian in action (direct link -- about 25 MB).
The 4th Dimension Interactive page
has version 1.1i of the Crush Depth mod for Quake II, putting you behind the scope of your
own submarine. If you are installing the update over a previous version of C.D., you
should delete the old files first.
Datumplane::Starsiege's one-on-one
Starsiege ladder is underway looking for the top gun in Dynamix' giant robot game (I
thought this was a one-on-one TRIBES ladder at first, which got me to scratching my head
in puzzlement).
The Gameart competitions winners have been
posted. Congrats to winner Rowan "Sumaleth"Crawford. also, this week's Blue's News
game knowledge quiz is up and running, so fire up that brain and head on over.
A couple of glitches to keep tabs on this morning: The index1.html that carries the headlines
seems to have been nuked recently, probably in aftermath of the full drive incident, so if
you are a headline user, you should be back in business now... sorry about that (thanks
ImageOmega for the heads-up). Also, the BlueTracker is still messed up, it seems to be
detecting updates, but the tracker is perpetually one update behind. I may need a bigger
monkey wrench.
Link of the Day: Japan in
lather over human washing machine reports CNN Thanks devilbunny.
Image of the Day: Jack-
by dhabih eng. Not really gaming-related, but damn cool.
eBay Sale of the Day: Young Man's
Virginity, minimum bid is $10,000,000 (I'm assuming he'll pay you in
installments--wait--you mean he thinks he's collecting the 10 mil??). Thanks file_id.diz.
PlanetStarsiege has posted part
one of their two part, "mondo interview" with Mark Frohnmayer, code
monkey behind Starsiege: TRIBES, and currently TRIBES 2. In this part of the interview, Mark talks about TRIBES' beginnings, game ratings, and that warm, fuzzy feeling he gets deep down inside (hey, I just report this stuff, don't look at me).
The Symbiosys Software has the release of
Absolute Terror Test Release 1, described as a new 3D accelerated shoot-em-up title. The
test release is so they can tweak the game engine and gameplay before releasing the
finished game, and to test compatibility on different systems. While meant to be fun to
play, this is a test and not a feature complete demo, which they say will be released
"in due course." Absolute Terror uses a proprietary OpenGL engine, and has been
in development for 18 months. Symbiosys' next product, a LithTech-engine military-themed
team-play action game, is already in the planning and initial coding stages.
Raven's John Scott updated his
.plan with some common questions and answers about Soldier of Fortune development:
The IRC chat the other night was a lot of fun, thanks for so many people turning
up! There were a few common questions that I'll give the official line here - please bear
in mind that this is the official line and not necessarily my opinion.
1. Will there be a Linux port ?
There are no plans at the moment, however, we realise that this will increase the number
of servers out there and will be a big support for the Win32 users. It all really
depends on how many units are sold, we are not in the fortunate
position of being able to support an OS because it would be cool to do so.
2. Will the tools be on the CD?
No. They will be available for download soon after we go gold. It is just one thing we
don't need to deal with during the stress of getting a game finished. There isn't enough
space on the CD either :) This also gives us chance to write help files and make
demo maps and sample models.
3. Will it be as violent as people say it is ?
Yes. There will be a strong parental lock option, however, so there is an option to turn
off the gore and sanitise the violence. We have made the game for adults and there will be
a warning on the box.
The Q3TStats Home has
beta 2 of version 1.0 of Q3TStats, a program to output stat from a Q3Test server. The new
release offers various fixes in stat parsing, adds frags per hour, and adds the ability to
limit player list size. The website has sample output so you can see what the program
does.
Glen Dhalgren has updated the
official Wheel of Time site with this week's development update. In this
installment are a couple of new screenshots (thumbnails only, I'm afraid), the
revelation that they're, "really focusing on getting this bad boy done"
and a whole slew of other stuff.
Well, it's a day late, but here's the
answers to last week's Test Your Game Knowledge Contest. Swing by and see
how you did. And once you're through with that, we've got a
whole new contest to keep you up at night. Evil, aren't we?
Ritual's Robert Atkins updated his .plan with word that they're looking to
hire two new artists to work on their Quake III: Arena engine title Heavy Metal:
FAKK2. Interested? Here are the details: We are looking for a "professional'
2d artist with game development experience to work on Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2.
If you want to work with some of the coolest and most talented guys in the industry
on one of the wildest games ever, then get over to http://www.ritual.com/inside_ritual/help_wanted_2d_artist.html
for the details.
It would be ideal to get someone here no later than the first of September.
So, if you are in a contract or obligation that you are unwilling to break free
of, I understand, we can't wait.
With the changes of sounding like a real dick - if you are straight out of school
and without professional game development experience, chances are you are not
going to have the skills we are looking for, so please don't send me your work
unless you meet the criteria.
Thanks for understanding.
A new beta patch for Kingpin (version 1.14)
has been released in both Win32 and Linux flavors (thanks Billy " b*** a***"
Wilson). Like always, download at your own risk. Most people are advised to
wait for the next official patch release. This version has the following changes:
- + (server) unlimited ammo in single player (DF_INFINITE_AMMO)
- + (server) last player killed when reaching fraglimit gets overflowed (made
scoreboard message unreliable)
- ? LINUX: crashes during fighting with sewer guy with guns
- + skin: "male thug/sku sup sup" causes Sewer skin in teamplay
- + Player ID always RED
- + old chat style option
- + (server) shotgun doesn't always change when out of ammo
- + (server) real-mode option in start server menu
BeGamer has posted
an interview with Andrew Kimpton, the engineer at Be responsible for the BeOS
port of Quake II, talking about gaming on the OS, as well as the revelation
that he (like American McGee) suffers from Quake-induced nausea.
GameSpot UK
has posted a preview of Tachyon, NovaLogic's space shooter, complete with 11
images (some of which are concept art, others actual screenshots).
GA-Source
has posted three new screenshots from Massive Development's upcoming aquatic
adventure, appropriately titled Aqua. Where's Kevin Costner when you need him?
- Part two of Extreme
Hardware's Voodoo 2 experiment is up, showing the results of getting mismatched
V2 cards to work in SLI with a variety of different drivers.
- Matrox has opened up their online store
to European users, now allowing them to purchase other products including
the Marvel G200-TV, Millennium G200, Rainbow Runner-G series, and others,
in addition to those already available.
- Joystick maker Thrustmaster has been sold to Guillemot, makers of the popular
Xentor line of video cards for a whopping 15 million dollars, as detailed
in this press release.
In addition, Thrustmaster will no longer be manufacturing joysticks at all,
as they plan to focus on "the significant opportunities in Internet community
and communications." Thanks Well-Rounded
Games for the tip.
- AGN
Hardware is reporting that IBM has announced a new high-volume storage
system code-named "Shark" which can hold from 420 gigabytes of data,
all the way up to 11 terabytes. Yowza.
3drage.com has posted a spiffy-looking screenshot
and a piece of concept art from Titanium Angels, a 3D action/adventure where you play
Carmen Blake, "a tough futuristic bounty hunter"
Voodoo Extreme's
interview with Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British) is the first VE interview I can
ever recall not to mention a chimp or Vaseline. The tasty, saucy, spicy Q&A does
discuss gaming though, obviously focusing on the present and future of the Ultima series.
The Game Name Builder Official
Homepage has the first release of this program that can add fun names (names using
colored, and/or special characters) to Quake & QuakeWorld, Q3Test, and "other
games that support namefun," which got me curious enough to check to see what other
games that could be, but the remaining choice in the program turns out to be support for
"generic games."
Thresh's FiringSquad's Q3Test 1.07
Overview offers Thresh's observations about what has changed between the Q3Test
version 1.05 and 1.07 releases, as well as some analysis of the brand-new one-on-one
tourney map. The piece discusses footstep sounds, strafe-jump protection, and
other gameplay factors.
The bleem! site has a new version 1.4 of the bleem! PC
PlayStation emulator. The new release offers significant Direct3D speed optimizations,
significant Direct3D texture improvements, improved Direct3D support for background
graphics, improved Direct3D clipping, and more. Thanks Wario64.
Ritual's Mark "Markgyver" Dochtermann updated his .plan with word that he's fixed the invisibility bug in
Sin, which will lead to a version 1.06 soon. Here's the poop:
I fixed the invisibility bug (I think) in Sin. The new version is running at
sinctf and debugctf. If anyone can still cheat, please let me know directly.
Version 1.06 should be ready to roll, as long as this bug has been squashed.
MDK2, Gothic, Blade, SoF, Vampire, and Star Trek: Armada on tap this morning:
Games on Line's Il
ritorno del Messiah gives a look ahead at Shiny's upcoming third-person
(third-cherub?) action title en Italiano with a conversation with Shiny's Scott
Herrington. There is also an English version of the
Messiah Interview to help out if your Italian is rusty. The piece includes 33
screenshots (the first 10 are brand-new exclusives), and discusses plans to include nude
codes, in case you want to see the little cherub with his diadie off.
GA-RPG's Shadows of Reality Interview
talks with Steve Adkins and David Gallay, Lead Programmer/Producer and Lead Designer
respectively for Nevolution, talking about their upcoming Unreal-engine cyberpunk RPG, Shadows
of Reality.
A new version 2.5a of the PingTool
server-browser is now available, fixing a big bug that slipped through in the just
released version 2.5 that locked up the installer, as well as a pair of other bugs. Thanks
Umberto. Details can be found in the new release notes.
Here's news on a mod developers' chat slated for tomorrow that's open to the general
public, focusing mainly on Half-Life mods, though some Q2 mods will be represented:
The Mod Developers chat is here!
It will take place on Wednesday, July 28th. At 9:00 PM Eastern Time on 3dnet.
[telefragged.3dnet.net port 6667]
in rooms #mod-bash and #mod-questions
Many mod development groups will be there, but the chat will rotate focusing on different
mods every half-hour. Many mods will be represented including, Opera, Squadron: Ghost,
Swarm, Aftershock, and more!
The mod is not solely focused on these four mods, and all mod developers are encouraged to
attend, and will get a chance to answer any questions about their respective mods.
The aftermath of the full disk here has left BlueTracker completely on the fritz, I'll get out a monkey wrench later and bang on it and see if that helps (sorry). Yesterday was the first anniversary of Sinday, Bloody Sinday, the debut of the Sin demo, which coincided
with last year's QuakeCon, so this is the anniversary of that too. Today also marks the third
consecutive business day that loony has been assured his ISDN will be turned on, which I
believe officially marks the half-way point in what for me was an over three month
process. Poor loony actually believed 'em the first couple of times, but the phone company
can pound cynicism into the most wide-eyed optimist.
Link of the Day: Starcraft
Online Lessons With Kain-The-Feared (yup, another eBay
item). These are at US $78.00 at the moment, but apparently got as high as $350!
Thanks John.
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