Archived News:
Here's some Battlecruiser 3000 news
for you on this slow Friday evening...Release candidate 3 of BC3K version 2.08
has been released, and is available for download on the
official Battlecruiser site. Like previous versions, this requires other
patches to be installed first, so be sure to download the right file(s). In
other news, a test demo of the Battlecruiser 3020 Strike Pak has been released
over at GASource.
This first person module for BC3K is an unsupported test release - so don't
expect a full game demo.
Version 0.95 of Science & Industry,
a teamplay mod for Half-Life has been released and is available for download
on its official site. This version features a number of changes over its predecessor,
including new maps, and a fix for a particularly nasty bug that caused network
lag.
Diamond
Multimedia has posted new drivers for their Monster 3D II video cards, labeled
version 4.10.01.0207 (thanks 3DFiles).
PC Gamer Online has posted a preview
of Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption. The article features several new
screenshots, along with several quotes from Ray Gresko, president of Nihilistic Software,
currently developing this third-person action game, based on the pen-and-paper RPG.
ION Storm's Daily Informant
has posted a Q&A with Luke Whiteside, Daikatana's latest level designer,
talking about his initial impressions of the game.
PlanetRiva has posted two screenshots
from the upcoming 3D RPG Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. The shots come
by way of Activision, not Nihilistic (the game's developer) so I'm not entirely
sure if they're new or not. But hey, for what it's worth, they look new to me.
To celebrate the recent third "birthday" of TeamFortress Quake, the folks at Planetfortress put on their birthday suits and
sat down with Valve/Team Fortress Software's Robin Walker for a short
interview, discussing how TF began, looking at Team Fortress Quake. They have also
posted a History of
Team Fortress chronicling a timeline of the mod.
Obviously as puzzled as we were by the most recent update to the Wheel of Time page that mentioned they were up to
version 300 of the Unreal code, Apache at Unreal
Universe (thanks PlanetUnreal) shot
off an email to Epic's Tim Sweeney to find out what the story was on Unreal/UT version
numbering, since Unreal is currently at version 225, and they previously said they are
advancing the same code base for Unreal and Unreal Tournament. The answer, it turns out,
reveals that this is no longer the case:
That's the latest version of UT (actually we're up to 303 by now). We
separated the code a while back, and the versions are evolving separately:
Unreal: 225 (available), 226a (unreleased test version), 227 (next version coming up
soon).
UT: 230-303 and still counting.
-Tim
3DRealms' Joe Siegler updated his
.plan with word that the 3DRealms page
has posted an interview with Phil Gelber, producer at N-Space on Duke Nukem
- Time to Kill 2: Planet of the Babes (cool title) talking about this newly
announced (original) Playstation Duke Nukem title. They've also posted word that
the N64 duke title Zero Hour will be released on September 1st, and the Color
GameBoy title will be out on September 10th.
PC
Zone interviews Richard Garriott talking to the man also known as "Lord
British," about his life's work depriving people of food and sleep by creating
addictive fantasy role-playing games.
Frans points out that, as promised, the Descent
3 US Version 1.1 patch page now offers a six level pack of maps suitable for CTF play.
The page is being hit really hard right now, so if you can't get through, Frans has
mirrored them over here on
3DGamers.
The
Adrenaline Vault Downloads Patch has a new version 1.07 patch for Warzone 2100 that
offers "New weapons (Plasma cannon and EMP cannon), new cyborg reinforcements, new
maps (Beggar's Kanyon, Gridlock City)."
German developer Soft Enterprises has released the 26 meg Skout demo,
showing off their FPS that recently went gold ( story). This is the real demo, unlike the version that leaked a few
weeks back. Thanks Frans, who's posted a mirror over at 3DGamers.com, who points out
that the demo offers one single player level and one multi-player level, and is in German
(the English version is expected in a few weeks).
It's weeks later, and reports are still popping up...Ritualistic has posted
their pictures from the
event, showing a bunch of us goofy webmasters hanging out with the zany
folk from 3D Realms (thrill as we eat and drink ourselves into a stupor! Woo!).
If that's not too much excitement for you, we never mentioned the Cowboy
Carnage Radio wrapup, a report from the guys who threw a live SHOUTcast
stream from the show.
As promised last week, the Battlezone II demo has been released, and is available
for download exclusively at the
Intel Owner's Club (thanks DarkFriend). The 15 meg download is said to be
a "US demo only" so US residents download and go nuts.
Gone Gold has received an official press
release from Red Storm Entertainment that Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear has gone
gold, and will be in stores on September 22. Rogue Spear, you may recall, is
the sequel to the immensely popular Rainbow Six.
The first release of Roll Your
Own, a nutty mod for Quake II that lets you literally build your own mod
using a checkbox interface. The options allow you to make your own DM/CTF/HeadHunters
type game and compile it on the fly. Thanks Rorshach, whose eponymous Journal
has posted the entries from the community caricature competition. There's still
time to enter, as it doesn't close until tomorrow night, but you can view the
current entries on the site now, including caricatures of Paul Steed and John
Romero.
In the vein of the Unreal Technology
Page, Surreal Software, the makers of Drakan: Order of the Flame (and its
Riot engine) have launched the Surreal
Tech Page (which sounds like some kind of Dali simulator, doesn't it?).
Thanks VE, who have also posted a Drakan
Gold Wrap-up, with developer Stuart Denman talking about getting the game
out the door, as well as a full rundown of the features in the upcoming patch.
IMG Magazine, fresh
off their beta program for the Mac port of Rainbow Six, has partnered with developers
Graphic Simulations and are offering a drawing to beta test Descent 3. You've
only got until September 3rd, so head over there if you're interested.
Having returned home and shaken off his bus-burn, loony has typed up his (short) diary from his fourth and
final day with the bus tour describing the proceedings as the tour reached the UT at
Austin. Accompanying the piece are his Day Four Photos,
which, due to popular demand, contain some new photos showing off the maps exclusive to
the version of Q3Test being played on the bus for your drooling pleasure. Enjoy!
Computer
Games Online's Age of Empires II Photo Gallery offers a bunch of shots from the sequel
that highlights "The Age of Kings," and likewise, Multiplayer United previews AoE II
has more shots. Also, 10six
Screenshots on BetaBites showing off SegaSoft's upcoming massive online multiplayer
strategy game. Also, ThrushWave Technology has
posted the first promotional poster for its upcoming 3D real-time strategy space title,
"The Rift," featuring characters and races from the game. This is actually
turn-based, but that's close enough for rock-n-roll, XCommand has a hands on look at "Email
X-COM" (now if we could only get "Email Quake" going for those on
connections too slow to play in real time ![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif) ). Finally, here's a fix from the newsgroups
for a problem some may have with the brand-new Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun sent
along by Steve Dessent, hope it helps: I purchased C&C2 TS the day it came out
and had some problems. Whenever I tried to run it I got the following message: "game
has caused an invalid page fault in module <unknown> at 0000:5800190A" and the
game would not run. I found a workaround on the newsgroups. Before running the game
<ctrl> <alt> <del> to bring up task manager and do an end task on
AMON32. I also think that someone on the newsgroup said that they had to disable their
earthlink software and not the AMON32.
The Adrenaline
Vault News interviews Jason Leighton talking with the Accolade programmer about his
work on Slave Zero, the upcoming giant robot game, his work as a programmer on both Descent 2 and
Descent 3, the next-generation of graphics chipsets, and more.
The
Adrenaline Vault also previews Homeworld looking ahead at Relic Entertainment's upcoming
space epic with a detailed look at the story and gameplay, along with several new
screenshots.
As yesterday's beta release mentioned was possible ( story), the Demise
website has a new beta build 247 of Demise, the online RPG currently in free beta. The
new release is actually slightly different than the build 246 from yesterday, as it fixes
a sound glitch. Thanks RX News.
The Game Name Builder Official Homepage has
a new version 1.32 of the Game Name Builder, which can create colored names and
"fun-names" for many games that offer extended character support. The
new release fixes a bunch of bugs and adds a WYSIWYG enhanced builder, support for Quake
II mods which are "Fun Name Standard compliant" (such as Viking and rivCTF), and
more.
Tonight's Lilith & Eve show
will offer part two of their QuakeCon wrap-up, with footage of the Press Tournament,
interviews with people in the gaming community like Redwood and crash, and more. The show
begins at 7:00 PM EDT with IRC in chat.pseudo.com channel #allgames, and in streaming
video via G2 RealPlayer.
There's a live interview tonight discussing FreeSpace 2 with Volition's Nathan Camarillo.
Thanks The Descent Chronicles, where word of
this was posted earlier in the week (so I tucked it away for when it was timely). Here's
the update:
Combine WildWolf's rants with the SSC
Radio Show and that's what you get, the one-and-only Chat Rant. This Friday, at 7 PM
EST, Ground FreeSpace's Jennings will be doing a
live interview with Nathan Camarillo of Volition.
The biggest topics are SquadWars and, of course, FreeSpace 2. For those of you who can't
make it to the show, Jennings will record it in RA G2 format.
Optimizer's Kingpin Editing Guide is
online attempting to convey proper brush techniques and other considerations when using
QERadiant to build maps for Xatrix's Quake II-engine life of crime shooter. The tutorial
also shows new map designers how to reduce r_speeds for improved performance.
Version 3.6 of Ants Q2 is now available. This
is a class-based Quake II deathmatch mod that will work with any map, offering six classes, each with different armor,
health, weapons, and special abilities. the new release fixes
some bugs and adds a couple of sample config files for server operators. There is a server
running at 24.40.50.57, and server ops willing to run the mod are asked to mail manvak@yahoo.com.
It was recently announced that Bruce Campbell will be playing the voice of Jake Logan, the
hero in Tachyon: The Fringe, NovaLogic's upcoming space game that's expected this fall.
This seems noteworthy because Bruce is arguably the first-person shooter genre's favorite
actor, and I'd say certainly its most influential, as lines and other forms of homage to Army
of Darkness are sprinkled throughout the history of the FPS. These range from the
obvious (half of Duke Nukem's dialog) to the relentless (we haven't verified it through
the trivia computer, but it's possible that every shooter Monolith has made has an AoD
reference), to what qualifies around these parts as subtle (the Doom Marine doesn't
actually wear his chainsaw on his wrist). Anyway, congrats to NovaLogic and Tachyon on
their heroic choice of a hero. For the record, Bruce has won every single "who should
play the Doom Marine" poll ever conducted (over two million consecutive poll
victories!).
Link of the Day: Net Nerds
Need Medical Help Say Eu Shrinks*. Thanks furn.
* "what are you people... on dope?"
The Hive interviews
Ken Levine in a perfectly rational conversation with the head honcho at Irrational Games about their action/RPG hit,
System Shock 2.
Messages from both MacGamer's Ledge and Inside Mac Games clarify that the blurb posted
earlier indicating that the Mac version of Rainbow Six is now available ( story) was erroneous, and the Mac version is still in beta. Sorry for
the confusion, and thanks to both sites for their effort at keeping our facts straight.
There's a new LithTech 2 Engine Interview
on PC.IGN.COM talking with Monolith's Paul Butterfield
and Mike "Pass" Dussault about LithTech 2, and how it stacks up against the
Unreal and Quake family engines, also discussing "The Game Formerly Known as No One
Lives Forever," and even a bit on LithTech 3.
Newly launched in time for the wave of downloads following the recent Half-Life patch is HALFLIFEFILES.COM, the latest entry in the
popular gamenamefiles.com line.
Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin updated his .plan with word on the unofficial release of
the version 1.2 Linux Kingpin client, as well as more on the "bonus" bagman maps
in the 1.20 patch:
The linux Kingpin v1.20 port can be downloaded from the following location:
http://impact.frag.com/ridah/kptest/kingpin-1.20_glibc-i386-linux2.0.tar.gz
This is an unofficial full client build. I will be putting together a server only official
build soon, which will hopefully find it's way onto the official Kingpin page.
Why server only? Because the full client needs a lot more work before it could be
considered official. If there are any linux developement houses out there that would like
to continue the work, they can contact me and I'll put you in touch with the appropriate
Interplay representation.
Also worthy of note, is the v1.20 contains a bonus two maps made specifically for Bagman.
I know the Bagman fans have been wanting more maps, now they have them. You can thank
KungFu (Dave Ward) for his efforts putting together the new maps.
Thanks to Devistator for sending along an log of tonight's chat with Epic Games with just join and rename messages
removed (a slightly more complete log that arrived earlier than the log I posted
originally), hosted by The Adrenaline Vault
discussing progress on Unreal Tournament. The
Burpfish Network has also posted an unedited log, Unreality
sends word they've posted a selection of "the coolest questions" on their front
page, and Cached.Net had posted their favorite
moments as well. Finally, this UT
chat log tries to improve the process by properly connecting all the questions and the
answers, as does this
log on PlanetUnreal.
Interplay Productions sends along word they are looking for play testers for some upcoming
focus groups. Here's the deal:
Interplay is looking for more playtesters to participate in some upcoming focus
groups. Applicants must live in the LA/Orange County, CA area. If interested, please send
a message to betatest@interplay.com with the
words "focus group" as the message subject. Participants will receive a free
Interplay game of their choice.
GamePen previews
FreeSpace 2 looking ahead at Volition's upcoming space epic. Also, Billy at Voodoo Extreme sends word that Freespace2.com has a pair of new ships in the FreeSpace 2 Ship Gallery.
Our monthly friend, the Werewolf
The Apocalypse - Heart of Gaia page has again been updated on the occasion of the full
moon, having posted Part 10 of their
10-part Prequel Series, and all new Glossary section, and
an all new Gameplay
section, as well as a
log of last month's chat. Cheers again Voodoo
Extreme.
Gamecenter's Exclusive
Alice Information is short Q&A with Electronic Arts Game Designer American
"Tokay" McGee discussing the upcoming Quake III-engine wonderland extravaganza
Alice, about which very few details are available. Here's the answer to the question about
the storyline, incase you are intrigued by how the Alice thing might work:
You do play the role of Alice. Your ultimate goal is to destroy the Queen of
Hearts and return Wonderland to normal.
The list of client variable for Q3Test on The
Flagship Engineering Room has now been updated through the current version 1.08.
RainbowSix.Net has word that the Macintosh
version of Rainbow Six is now available, bringing RSE's Tom Clancy-inspired game of
tactical combat to the Mac. Update: This story seems to be erroneous: please see the follow-up.
Frans ( 3D Action Gamers) is on fire,
catching site of the version 1.2 patch for Kingpin on Interplay's site. Here's a local copy and some mirrors of
the 2.12 MB patch. Here's What's new:
Kingpin v1.2 Fixes/Changes:
---------------------------
+ New "g_mapcycle_file" variable, to set the cycle list to something other than
"maps.lst" or "teammaps.lst"
+ Added "kickban" command to server (works same as "kick <id>"
but also adds the ip to the filter list)
+ Download skins option in Player Setup menu
+ added "time" command to consol
+ fixed server exploit
+ alterations to voting system
+ client model server crash with dm_locational_damage enabled
+ Invisible player models for unknown female skins
+ Chasecam observer mode
+ New "Push Download" tech for faster file transfers
+ Make download system backwards compatible with old servers AND old clients
+ Server's send "deposited" to GameSpy via "deaths" field
+ Disable CD check when enabling CD music in options
+ Add debug info to "FS_Read: 0 bytes read" error
+ Fix scoreboard for realmode (show kills and net score)
+ In Gangbang teamplay, frags go to the wrong team
= Dead bodies of client's that haven't respawned yet block doorways
+ Skins not found, try and keep model, change skins back to 001 001 001 (since this is a
safe set for all models)
+ BAN voting system to boot trouble makers
+ Subtract a frag for dying in "real mode". Subtract 2 for suiciding.
+ Weapons reload after firing, if reload is pressed when clip is full
+ Fixed some crashes
+ Downloadable skins/models
+ misc tweaks
+ spectator mode exploit
+ Shooting Flamethrower, switch weapons, flame stays
+ LINUX: crashes during fighting with sewer guy with guns
+ unlimited ammo in single player (DF_INFINITE_AMMO)
+ last player killed when reaching fraglimit gets overflowed (made scoreboard message
unreliable)
+ skin: "male thug/sku sup sup" causes Sewer skin in teamplay
+ Player ID always RED
= old chat style option
+ shotgun doesn't always change when out of ammo
+ real-mode option in start server menu
The AMD Professional Gamers' League page has word that
due to the way the timing of game releases is working out, they're canceling thee Fall
Season to avoid forcing players to try and stay current on older games. Thanks
KRayZieDoGG.
Okay it's sports, but it's free. Frans at 3D
Action Gamers spotted a Madden NFL™ 2000 demo on EASPORTS.COM for your
football (the American kind) enjoyment.
GameSpot UK has posted three new
Slave Zero screenshots showing off action from this upcoming giant robot game. They
actually promise five shots, but #13, is the title screen (also in the demo), and #14 is
also the first shot from when they started their collection (maybe they can trade their
doubles with another site). Frans at 3D Action
Gamers for helping sort through all this properly.
I keep meaning to mention somewhere along the way here that the link to the violence
article that caused a stir yesterday ( story) no longer works, searching the site turns up no trace of it, and
no explanation for the disappearance of the article is evident. Thanks to the very many
who've mailed in about this.
ValveWorld has posted the second of their two
shots showing off another scene from Opposing Force, the add-on for Half-Life currently in the
works over at Gearbox Software.
David "crt" Wright, famed Rocket Arena programmer and Q3Test champion among the
"press" (I'm sure he pressed a shirt once), sends along word that he's started a
pair of mailing lists about Quake III coding, one moderated, and one that isn't, with the
thinking it's never too early to plan ahead. Here's the word:
Q3Coding is a moderated list for discussion of the actual code, including
"how to" questions, the client DLL, porting Quake 2 mods, bugs and fixes, etc.
This list probably won't get much traffic until the actual code is released, but you can
subscribe now on this
page.
A second unmoderated list has been set up for general Quake 3 Coding discussion (e.g. mod
ideas, compiling help, general C/coding questions) and can be joined through this page.
Myself along with some other Quake 2 mod authors will serve as moderators for the q3coding
list to help maintain focus and keep discussions on topic.
Anachronox.com has an updated version of Tom
"Cowboy" Hall's designer diary under "Game Information" ( Shockwave
required), giving the crezzy designer's latest ramblings about the progress on ION's Quake
II-engine RPG in authentic cowboy drawl (as near as I kin reckon).
ION Storm's Daily Informant has news of the
arrival of a Sheldon Pacotti, the new writer for Deus Ex. There is more on Sheldon's
background and his role with the team creating an action/RPG using the unreal engine on
the page.
Thresh's FiringSquad
interviews former Rebel Boat Rocker Landon Montgomery of Gearbox Software about Gearbox' first project,
Opposing Force, the official Half-Life add-on. The interview includes a bunch of
screenshots (and pages).
Stuart Denman from Surreal Software sent along a
follow-up to the beta-testing request posted earlier ( story), saying that because it turns out they will be providing updates
using "alternate methods," applicants are no longer required to be able to
receive large email attachments, so I amended the post to reflect this.
GameSpot's Final Hours of Tiberian
Sun has an account of crunch time on the RTS sequel has finally been released. WomenGamers' Shadow
Company Preview takes a look at this upcoming squad-based 3D real-time strategy game
after a recent foray to Sinister Games to check it out. The preview includes a load of
screenshots (thanks Novice). Finally, for the hardcore RTS fan, the German site GameGuides has posted some Exklusiv: Thandor - Die Invasion
Screenshots, which has some screenshots of this upcoming RTS, which of course work
with in any language, while the text can always be fed to BabelFish if you're curious.
Surreal Software's Stuart Denman sent along an e-mail
with word that they're accepting applications for beta testers on the first Drakan patch.
Here are the details: Surreal is now accepting applications for beta testers for
the Drakan Winsock Patch. The patch improves the multiplayer experience considerably by
replacing DirectPlay with Winsock and reworks the network code to improve bandwidth and
stability. The patch also allows the dedicated server to run under Windows NT.
You must have purchased a full retail CD of Drakan and previous beta-testing experience on
other games is a bonus. The beta testing period will last no more than 1 week starting on
Friday Aug 27. To apply, send the following information to beta@surreal.com:
* Full name
* Player Name (nick name) you will be using while beta-testing the patch
* E-mail address
* ICQ # (if available)
* Telephone number where you will be playing Drakan
* City, State, Country
* Machine specification, including CPU, memory, 3D video card,sound card
* Network connection (Modem speed or Cable/DSL/T1, etc.)
* Number of hours you are willing to spend per day testing.
* Previous games you have beta tested (or none)
* The last word on page 32 of the Drakan manual.
* Tell us about your previous experiences with Drakan multiplayer.
Applicants will be selected starting Saturday, Aug 28, so submissions must be received
before Monday Aug 30. You will only receive a reply if you have been accepted for the
beta.
GameFan interviews Vito
Miliano, the developer of one of the more unusual upcoming Unreal-engine products, a
3D virtual real-estate walkthrough called Unrealty that will enable architects to present
virtual renderings of physical structures using the Unreal engine.
Sorry... server's being wonky again today... we're beating it (as well as anyone who
wanders into range) with bats as we speak (one of the most advanced repair techniques of
our time).
The Lambda Arena page has a new version
1.09 beta of this deathmatch Half-Life modification that offers the last-man-standing
teamplay of Rocket Arena for both one-on-one, and team matches. The new release offers
heavily altered weapons ("more realistic...the 'beefed-up' stuff didn't really
work)," a "unique weapons system" (you now choose one weapon from each of
four categories--handguns, assault, experimental, explosive), along with fixes for what
are described as "huge" bugs.
Also new on the Half-Life DM mod scene, is version 2.5 of Deathmatch Plus for Half-Life is now
available that in addition to it's original (as the name suggests) enhanced DM, now offers
beta bot support.
Dynamix' Dave Meddish updated his cunning .plan with a bunch of stuff on TRIBES Extreme mission
types, and sticking his head on the chopping block as the new guru of knowledge on TRIBES
Mission Building
Don't worry, m'lord, I have a cunning plan...
Or something like that (can you tell PBS is showing old Blackadder episodes again? Can you
also tell I have nothing better to do on Friday nights? Oh, the pain, the shame...)
Where was I? Oh yeah, TRIBES Extreme. Everyone's favorite mission designer/builder has
been working hard on cranking out muy missions. We have a new category called
"Balanced Online." Meaning, you know those OGL games where you fight over which
side of Snowblind your team gets to play? No more. This particular class is perfectly
balanced in environmental and physical features. Both sides are dead even. So you can't
whine about losing to skiing heavies on Raindance anymore...
But, fear not, we'll still have plenty of the good old "unbalanced" mission type
for those who like'em.
Tinman has got me designing a mission or two for his addictively enjoyable
"Hunters" deathmatch variant. Those howls of anguish you hear through the
offices late at night are from those of us who got disked at the last second while
carrying about a gajillion flags. Hopefully have that done in the next few days. And while
I must say Tinman has done a very nice job converting existing missions to Hunters, his
naming conventions lack that certain je ne se quois, that special "smacks of
Meddish" sense of hyperbole. "TheOtherWhiteMeat"? Perhaps, under my
tutelage, we can help Tinman make that a little more catchy. It might be that Canadian
upbringing or something along those lines.
Speaking of naming conventions, we've been getting a nice steady flow of user-created
missions for the Extreme Open Call. By and large, good stuff. Picking winners isn't going
to be easy. Just remember, the deadline is rapidly approaching, so if you've been waiting
to send it in, 'twould be advised that you not wait much longer.
Being the Mission Building Guru of TRIBES (well, at least since Scott Youngblood left--his
office, curiously enough, has not yet been thoroughly looted of its treasures--it's like a
holy shrine or something), I would normally say that anyone who has any questions
regarding mission building can give me an e-holler at dave.meddish@dynamix.com, however, being as
we're approaching the crunch for TX, I can't promise anyone when I can get back to them.
But feel free to say hi anyway...it gets very lonely over in this part of the building :-(
We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast of "The Adventures of Analog
Kid and Ban-Me Boy," same Ban-Me time, same Ban-Me station... 6.24.99 Since everybody
else is going on vacation, I figgered I might as well take a few days off as well.
Celebrate my last pre-millenial birthday (31? How in the name of all that is holy can I be
31? Criminy, I'm gettin' old...check me into the home...). The days drag on but the years
fly by...
Spiffcat/Hexabolic/Whatever He's Calling Himself These Days and I will be pumping out tons
of new TRIBES material for all you would-be writers. Question: who out there would be
interested in seeing a TRIBES RPG made? Starsiege had Rebellion, maybe we can do a
roleplayer version of TRIBES. If enough people make noise, maybe we can make it happen.
Okay, that's the news, and I am outta here. See you on the flip side.
TigerInvestor interviews Greg
Ballard and Jim Hopkins talking with 3dfx' CEO and their senior vice president of
finance and strategic planning about the business side of their business.
id's Todd Hollenshead updated his
.plan with a link to this
Salon article that analyzes retired Army psychologist Dave Grossman's information that
caused all kinds of chaos in yesterday's Ottawa Sun article. Here's the scoop: In the aftermath of the Ottawa
Sun article, I was forwarded the link
below by Bernd Kreimeier:
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/05/06/game_violence/index.html
This is an excellent article that addresses how Grossman misrepresents the scientific
data. It's not a new article, but it's worth a read if the subject interests
you.
A blurb on Next-Generation
Online give what they call a "Good for Street Date" of November 17 for
Quantic Dreams' upcoming action/adventure "genre-buster," Omikron, confirming
that the game is on schedule to be available by then. According to the story, "the
recent shelving of the game's PlayStation version appears to have been a temporary measure
to ensure Eidos is able to release the PC outing at its full potential before the madness
of the holiday season."
GA-RPG interviews Jeff Connelly
talking with the co-owner of WXP, as well as the modeler and animator on WXP's upcoming
first-person shooter/RPG, Experience, which uses their own proprietary 3D engine.
AGN3D
interviews Barry Drew from Dynamix, who is the lead 3D artist on the TRIBES2 project,
asking about his role on the team, his history in the business, and more. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
Wewp! Entertainment has posted their remaining pair of
TRIBES Extreme screenshots showing off gameplay from Dynamix' upcoming
single-player-enhanced version of the multiplayer teamplay shooter Starsiege TRIBES.
TheMasquerade.org has posted an interview with Ray Gresko, tossing
reader-submitted questions at Nihilistic about Vampire The Masquerade - Redemption, their
upcoming third-person vampire RPG. They've also posted a pair of new Vampire screenshots
on their main page.
A reminder that the once-cancelled, and now rescheduled AVault Unreal Tournament Development Team Chat is
slated for this evening at 7:30 PM EDT. Users can connect via their new web-based
IRC interface, located at irc.avault.com
(Java-enabled browser required), and other users can use an IRC client to connect to
irc.avault.com, port: 6667, and join the channel #chatroom. The first portion of the chat
will be moderated.
id Software Lead Programmer John Carmack updated his .plan with word on .plans for another Q3Test
targeted for mid-September, and plenty more. The lengthy portion not quoted here discusses
confusing memory usage with network problems, a change in how .pk3 file management works,
as well as an updated worklog. Without further ado:
8/26/99
-------
The current plan is that we will have another test release around the middle of next
month. This version will be running game/cgame/ui with the virtual machine, and will
include single player play against bots. No new maps.
I will be releasing the source for all the VM modules with it, and setting the executable
up so that it will allow modified modules to be used.
The modified LCC and q3asm will be available both in source form and precompiled, so a
professional development environment will not be requried. Using MSDEV to debug binary
dll's does make exploration a lot easier than adding prints to interpreted code...
Some minor porting work on the tools will be necessary to do development under linux. The
effort would be greater for mac development, because the tools are inherently command line
based.
The map editor and tools will not be released until after the game hits store shelves. To
be completely clear: you are not legally licensed to create or use addon maps with the
test.
I am hoping that this public review will turn up bugs before we complete the game. 50k
lines of code is quite a bit to go over, but people familiar with previous games will have
a good head start in the game module.
The best possible situation would be if exploration of the code evolves into a tier
system, with either moderated or limited access lists that I can follow without being
swamped. I can't afford to be too involved in helping everyone figure out the basics. I
have plenty of confidence in the mod communities ability to work that out. :-)
The Crystal Space page has the official
release of version 0.14 of this free 3D engine, now out of beta. Here's the rundown on
C.S. from the page: "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. Crystal Space currently compiles and runs on Linux, general Unix, Windows,
Windows NT, OS/2, BeOS, NextStep, OpenStep, Rhapsody, DOS, Amiga, and Macintosh. It can
optionally use Direct3D (Windows), GGI (Linux), Allegro (DOS), X11 (Unix/Linux) and
SVGALIB (Linux). It can also optionally use assembler routines (GCC/DJGPP, Visual C++ and
Intel only currently) and MMX if the processor supports it." Whew! Thanks Buzzy.
The Action Half-Life site has a version 2.1
update that contains two new .dlls for Action Half-Life. In addition to the patch, they
have a tip for server operators having trouble getting teamplay to work ("You need to
run your server config file BEFORE the map loads"), as well as a request that players
stop using non-Action Half-Life player models when playing AH-L, since they do not have
the right animations, which causes 'funky' stuff like dead bodies that remain standing up.
The DEMISE page has a new version
of the full install of this online RPG, currently in public beta testing. This was literally just posted this minute, so mind the timestamp on this story and this request from the page: "PLEASE only download the test full install if you have a T1 speed or faster line since I need feedback within the next 12-18 hours." Never fear the rest of you, though: "If all goes well, this file will become 'public' tomorrow." Thanks dragor.
Computer
Games Online's Die Hard Trilogy 2 preview looks at this game, licensed, as you can
imagine from the three Bruce Willis as John McClane movies. According to the article,
" Die Hard Trilogy 2 represents a monumental leap of faith by providing a new
and original story… that is split into a third-person action/adventure, a
first-person rail shooter, and a driving game. All right, perhaps the game represents more
of a stumble of faith than a leap, but at least they are trying." Apparently the game
will support every form of digital and analog game controller, light gun, and steering
wheel made. Yipeekaya, motherf...
The grabby gamers over at Gamecenter have snagged
some Game Grabs of
Interstate '82 (also known as screenshots). The shots show off action from
Activision's formerly-funky game of driving and shooting.
While they were grabbing, GC also got a hold of some Game Grabs of Dark Reign 2,
the upcoming prequel to Activision's futuristic real-time strategy game. Also, Thresh's FiringSquad Weekly
Metal Fatigue Screenshots is underway with 17 shots to kick off this weekly deal (the
game better come out soon or this could be some flood).
NGNetwork interviews
Michael Raymond-Judy getting nostalgic with the Raven Software designer over the
Heretic and Hexen series, looking at what went into those games. Along the way, Michael
doesn't rule out the possibility of a Heretic III, or even a Hexen III.
A post on TacticalPlanet inspired by a
conversation with Red Storm Entertainment's Jeff "MadSamoan" Wand indicates that
RSE's Rogue Spear is probably within days of going gold, and it will not be long after
that that a demo will be available.
The Stratos Group's System Shock 2 guide
is online, now over 100 pages long. The guide contains character info, statistics,
skill/upgrade/psi power info, items, weapons, bestiary, a complete walkthrough, cheats,
easter eggs, hints, "and even a spiffy little comic." Available in a
printer-friendly PDF version and an online HTML version. Hey, did they say bestiality?
The GlobalSCAPE page has the
full version 3.0 release of CuteFTP, formerly my favorite FTP client (until they went with
those clunky banners...I know ironic for a webmaster to complain about them: now I use
LeapFTP from LeapWare, which is fast like a little
sports car). Also, AOL
sends a new message with AIM 3.0 announces the latest release of AOL's other
messaging program (besides ICQ). Thanks Eric Rose.
First: The server seemed to suddenly start generating a lot of SQL errors late yesterday,
I'm not sure what's up with that (being a monkey, and all), but am hopeful someone less
simian than me can shed some light on this later today. Sorry for problems this may be
causing in the meantime with messageboards, .plan files, etc. (I feel your pain, it makes
it hard to update the site as well, it took me well over an hour of trying on this first
update of the day today).
Second, as Charlie Wiederhold's .plan says: "I encourage and look forward to
articles that discuss the violence issue with solid information and a good understanding
of both sides of the issue. However..." So anyway, Book Reviews - On Killing, looks
at a previous work by Lt. Col. David Grossman (thanks GameTraveler), who was quoted in the
Ottawa Sun article yesterday (story). While Lt. Col. Grossman currently seems to be laying ground for
his upcoming book, Teaching Kids to Kill : A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and
Video Game Violence, this is not new territory for him. Here's an excerpt from the
review of On Killing: "Sure, soldiers are trained and ordered to shoot and
kill, but only on orders, and punishments for firing without orders are harsh and
immediate. Which brings us to Grossman's punch line: When kids play video games like Doom
or Mortal Kombat, they are learning the same hair-trigger behaviors and us/them attitudes
with none of the context of obedience to command and none of the special circumstances
that war creates." I think I'll have to side with the reviewer Caitlin Burke, who says in her conclusion:
"But while Grossman has made a fascinating contribution to military psychology and an
interesting suggestion about society in general, his comments about America's children are
not nearly as pointed or careful as his theses about soldiers..." But of course
that's just my (and her) opinion... I could be wrong.
Link of the Day: Crime Awareness Activist
Gets Mugged. Thanks DNapalm. It's okay, it's not like a man bit a dog, no one was
hurt...
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