Archived News:
As promised earlier ( story), this WON.net FTP
directory has the debut of Action Half-Life, the Half-Life version of Action Quake2. Here is the
link to the file (direct link -- ~24.5 MB), but there are no mirrors to list, as WON
has a 24 hour exclusive. Word on the
Won site is that it "includes all the fixes needed to get the bots working and
adds .zip file format for the Mod browser."
The fine folks over at AGN 3D have posted a
three second AVI showing off Raven's Soldier of Fortune. This movie's definitely
violent, as it shows a man getting an arm and a leg blown off, so viewer discretion
is advised. If that's not enough for you, they've also posted three
new screenshots (the rest on that page are old) showing off some more from
the game.
We've gotten a couple of requests asking about the strange guy who's been responding
to tech support e-mails to id Software, so I went out of my way to figure out
who the heck this guy is. His name's Eric Webb, and he's the latest guy to work
insane hours over at id. Here's the short, but sweet story of his rise to fame:
I was originally contracted by Brian [Hook] to help out with some benchmarking
and, by the luck of the gods, Graeme [Devine] decided to keep me on for a while
to help out with tech support. I have tech support experience, but this is my
first gig in the game industry.
So there you have it folks...so don't
be too surprised if he answers your tech support mail.
Word from the winners at WON is that tonight will be the highly-anticipated debut release of Action Half-Life,
the Half-Life version of the famed Action Quake2 mod.
Word from Duane at WON is that the files wile be available on the WON.net
site beginning at about 5:30 PM Pacific Time (8:30 PM EDT).
NovaLogic's official
Delta Force 2 site has undergone a major overhaul, complete with a bunch
of new screenshots from this voxel powered tactical game (thanks SpecForce.net).
Mortyr.net is reporting that an improved version of the Mortyr engine will
be used to make a new FPS based on the Warhammer
40,000 universe (thanks Frans). Their
source appears to be this
interview on DamageGaming with Mirage's Andrzej Wilewski, where he (almost
accidentally) confirms the rumors about this game's development.
GASource
has posted eight new Venom screenshots they received from GSC Game World, as
well as the news that the demo will be released this week.
This evening at 6:00 EDT, GameTime (one
of those shows over at AGN) will be featuring a live interview with Rick Johnson,
programmer on Raven's violent Quake II engine game Soldier of Fortune. As they're
apt to do with this sort of thing, questions can be submitted live via their
IRC channel, so start thinking up insults to throw their way.
AVault
has posted a 70 MB demo of Acclaim's "most certainly not for kids"
(quote mine) third person action title Shadow Man. The game features some pretty
far out concepts, including my personal favorite, a teddy bear that doubles
as a dimensional portal (I can't make this stuff up, folks).
An Omikron
Development Update on GA-Source gives a blurb about Quantic Dream's upcoming 3D action title,
Omikron courtesy of Tom Marx, the games producer. The update makes the game's development
sound like it's nearing the home-stretch, talking of the InstallShield installer and the
efforts of the beta testers.
The AQ2SEaL page has a new
version of the Action Quake2 Server Launcher, the purpose of which should be fairly
self-explanatory. The new release sports a self-described "Spiffy new user
interface," adds support for new features in AQ2 server v1.5.2, and offers other
minor bug fixes and enhancements.
Over on that Shack of his, sCary has posted
eight new screenshots from
Legend's Wheel of Time. While these shots are said to have been given out for
use in UK magazines, they are not scans of printed material, but rather the
original image files.
The "Official Prerelease" version 0.14r000 of the Crystal Space free 3D engine is now available.
Thanks Beta Bites. From the website: "Crystal
Space is a free (LGPL) and portable 3D engine written in C++. It supports true 6DOF,
colored lights, mipmapping, portals, mirrors, alpha transparency, reflecting surfaces, 3D
sprites, scripting, 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit display support, Direct3D hardware
acceleration on Windows, Glide and OpenGL hardware acceleration on Windows, Linux, OS/2,
Macintosh, BeOS, ... See the extensive list of features for more
details."
Logical Progression Software has posted
version 1.02 of their Quake2
Web Viewer and also version 1.02 of their Half-Life Web Viewer, each
allowing you to view models from their respective supported games using a web interface
and OpenGL. Thanks GameDev.net. Word is that
they're hard at work on a similar program for Quake III Arena.
Meant to mention this earlier, Private Wars News
has posted a new movie showing off a "real-time day/night effect" (saw that on Voodoo Extreme). The AVI-format movie, as you can imagine from the name, shows a change from night to daylight and back again on some terrain. There's no
gameplay, but it does have that cool sped-up camera effect used in some commercials and
music videos.
Raven's Rick Johnson updated his .plan last
night with word that Raven plans on showing off Soldier of Fortune at both GenCon and
QuakeCon:
SoF will be showing at both QuakeCon and GenCon (which are about 2 weeks ago).
Jake Simpson and John Tam will be showing SoF down at QuakeCon, while myself, Kenn
Hoekstra, and several other Ravenites will be showing it at GenCon. So, here's a trivia
question for ya: In QuakeCon, the "Quake" refers to, ummm, Quake! In GenCon, the
"Gen" refers to ??? I'll post an answer in tomorrow's .plan file.
Word on Voodoo Extreme is that they will be
the exclusive hosts of the playable demo of Humansoft's SEED, to be released sometime
tomorrow. Word is it will be less than a 20 MB download. On the subject of demo plans, PC.IGN.com is reporting they will post a
playable demo of Jane's Fleet Command sometime tomorrow.
There's an update from PlanetMoon's Tim Williams on Kabuto.net talking about multiplayer play in
P.M.'s upcoming action title, as well as a new model. Thanks AGN3D. Here's the poop:
Hi, Tim Williams here (Creative Director on Giants). While C.S. is away I
thought I'd write in every now and again to let you know how some of the things in Giants
are coming along.
Well, where to start? Lately we've been really concentrating on the multiplayer game
because there are certain essential bits in multiplayer which will transfer back nicely
into what we already have for single player. Right now our present multiplayer game is a
testing ground for balancing issues. This can range from types of spells and guns, to the
punching power of Kabuto. Basically, we find out what works best, then take these elements
and slot them into the already growing single player game. So far we're just at the point
of getting the Meccaryn base properly up and running. This means actually having the
Smarties doing things like building for you, tiring themselves out, getting depressed,
giving out presents, and heading off to the pub! When you play the base-building
multiplayer game your team will be in a mad dash to build a base, then upgrade it, and all
the while trying to keep it well defended. As your base gets better (upgraded), the
Smarties get happier, and their presents get more powerful! If you're out in the field
with some major fire power it'll probably mean your Smarties are drinking cocktails,
swimming in their newly created pool, and enjoying life!
On top of this, Bob has just finished a new model: Kabuto's Offspring! This fearsome
creature is presently being animated by Shawn, who just finished animating a scene where
the Meccs first meet Borjoyzee.
Next time I'll tell you about Kabuto's Offspring, the bizarre way it's created, and
exactly what it does.
PS If you want, write to the messageboard
about your favorite features in multiplayer games: particular games, teamplay, spells,
weapons, etc., or even what you'd like to see in multiplayer Giants? As you know with us,
we always love hearing suggestions from the players out there.
Hot on the heels of yesterday's release ( story), as promised, The
Railgun Project has posted a new version 1.1.01b of the Macintosh port of the Eraser bot, bringing the Mac version of this Quake
II AI opponent up to date with the most recent release of the PC version.
The news on GameStar Online gives word (in German) about a recent
showing of the Q3A bots in Edinburgh Scotland. Here is a translation sent along by Fabian
Huester that he made with the help of BabelFish
(AltaVista Translations), that's been tweaked a bit for better English:
During a presentation in Edinburg id
software, for the first time, presented the bots against which you fight in the solo
mode. There are to be approximately 20 different computer fighters in the finished game,
among them a futuristic inline skater that hops over other players. When desired,
beginners are guided by a tutor and make a sightseeing tour of the arena: Where are the
best weapons, how do you come to the Quad Damage, where are secrets hidden?
GameSpot's Ten Questions
with Warren Spector talks with ION Storm's lead game designer on Deus Ex, ION's
upcoming action/RPG about his history in the industry, and what's up with Deus ex
development (ten questions...ten pages). Thanks Omnigon.
We followed the first couple of Kingpin beta releases here, but a huge red banner has
since been added to the page with a request from Ridah not to, so if you want to stay
current with the doings over there between official releases, feel free, but the updates
will no longer be posted here. Here is what Ridah's note says:
"Please do not link, mirror or post new release announcements for the files
on this page.
Updates are likely to occur on a regular (daily) basis, announcing new releases will no
doubt prove to be overkill.
Thank you for your co-operation."
Put away your bullet, Barney, just a solitary bit this morning: News.com
reports Key testing results for AMD's Athlon due soon announcing that the AMD NDAs
expire on August 9. Thanks AMD Zone where they point
out that their ability to report that tidbit seems to indicate News.com didn't sign one of
those NDAs.
Planet Daikatana
interviews Noel Stephens, talking with the man called "Shadow" about his
return to ION Storm as their "AI Ninja."
The bleem! website has a new version 1.4 demo of the
Bleem (bleem!) PlayStation emulator for the PC. Said to be based off the brand new 1.4
(full) release, "this new demo is full of speed/compatibility upgrades." Related
laugh of the day is in the link of the day.
The Specular
Layer's in DroneZ on GA-Source "to better illustrate the Specular Layer effects
in this upcoming Tron-inspired shooter." There are some TNT2 Need for Speed shots and Voodoo3 NFS shots on Computer Technology News comparing the game on the two
cards. There are some Star Wars Quake 2
Total Conversion Screenshots on RIVA 3D showing off progress on Star Wars Quake.
id's John Carmack updated his .plan with a Quake III Arena worklog, detailing some
changes to joystick support, as well as mention of really fixing the timescale cheat:
* log all client transitions, item pickups, and kills
* changed joystick axis to act just like arrow keys so they can be bound in the controls menu for strafing. Yes, this does remove slow walking from joystick movement, but it makes everything a lot cleaner.
* fix up PantherXL trackball support
* removed bad clear command from dedicated console clear button
* tournement queuing of spectators to enter the game
* track wins and losses as long as you stay on a tourney server
* spectators are now in fly mode instead of noclip, and use teleporters
* pass serverTime instead of msec for command timing, prevents timescale cheating
* track dual eventParms on player state
* draw crosshair and name in spectator mode
* fixed rcon
* r_colorMipLevels texture visualization tool
* don't allow weapon select and cycle when in follow mode
* archive cl_yawspeed and cl_pitchspeed
* don't draw place line on scoreboard when spectating
* fixed console chatting during intermission
* better recursive error handling
* fixed curve surface flags (no impact when landing on a curve bug)
3drage.com previews Vampire - The
Masquerade: Redemption giving a good overview of what to expect from Nihilistic's
upcoming RPG based on the White Wolf Publishing pen-and-paper game of the same name
(which, according to the preview, is the second most popular to Dungeon and Dragons).
RiP II Quake2 patch Homepage has a new version
3.4 of this popular Quake II class-based teamplay modification. the new release adds a new
Ghost class, adds some tweaks and bug-fixes, and adds Quake II 3.20 spectator support.
There's also a brand-new RIP
II MessageBoard to discuss such matters if you're feeling communicative.
The Invite Yourself Capture Ring gets underway at 9:00
PM PST tonight, where players will be randomly placed in teams to kick off the first
action in this Quake (1) CTF tourney at about 10:00 PM PST. This quote sums up the deal:
"This is a for fun tourny while we all await the official q3ctf mod. No clan
attitudes, no bitching about pings, and since Q1ctf servers are scarce, everyone will have
to deal with cruddy pings. Again - stressing fun."
All of the proper incantations recited and virgins sacrificed, loony's ISDN is in (and
there was much rejoicing). I'm a bit off schedule this morning because I was MovieBlue
last night, with my cinematic pal MrCoffee scoring tix for a premiere of Mystery
Men (if you were wondering, MrsBlue rally doesn't like to go to the movies). I liked
it, Coffee loved it, so one thumb up, and one thumb half-way up (hmmm, that sounds wrong).
When I got home the lure of deathmatch was too much for me, and I finally got to check out
the Q3Tourney map (which I totally dig) until I wore myself out.
The advertising on this page is handled through outside folks, and I almost never find
the need or occasion to directly comment on the ads here, but a thread in the new MailBag comments
on the scratch-n-win ads that seem to be appearing in the middle of the page almost every
time. While they are creative and amusing, I'm concerned they are causing what seem to be
the inevitable problems that arise when you start messing around with Java, so if they are
messing you up, please drop a line to let me know and we may have to put the kibosh on the
little buggers. That having been said, if you don't have these problems, and are a fellow
scratching addict, you'll want to check out the image of the day:
Image of the Day: The Blue's News Quake III Arena scratch
off game. Thanks Jeff!
Link of the Day: Sony to unveil
"bleem! emulator" emulator. Thanks Ant
(and loony). You can't make this stuff up.
eBay Sale of the Day: TYRRELL'S
ANTICEPTIC INHALENT--QUAKE MEDICINE. Thanks Yoda.
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.
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