Archived News:
We already posted a list of reviews this morning, but since there isn't a lot going on
(cue cricket sound effect), it seems pointless saving these for tomorrow's morning update.
As usual, thanks to Frans at 3D Action Gamers
for a few of these:
Version 2.1 of TriCon tool to
remotely administer public Starsiege TRIBES servers. The new release is intended primarily
as a bug fix, but they also couldn't resist slipping in a few new features in. The new
release only requires the download of a new exe.
The intrepid souls at Ground FreeSpace dug up the
box art for Volition's upcoming FreeSpace 2, as well as the system requirements, which had
been posted on Interplay's website. I saw this on A Talent For War in a game of telephone where
they spotted it on Planet FreeSpace.
The requirements are fairly modest, basically asking for a Pentium II 200 MHz (?), 32MB RAM,
though a 3D accelerator is also going to be required.
ASUS Beta
Testing Enthusiast Graphics Card Driver page (huh?) has new version 2.09 beta 2 V3800
Display Drivers for Win9x. Thanks Billy at Voodoo
Extreme.
All of these were spotted on BetaNews:
Version 3.0 of Name Maker Studio a fun-name and
colored name creation tool, has been released. Thanks Jacek Fedoryński. NMS supports
Q3Test, QuakeWorld (and Mods), Quake II RivCTF, Quake II Viking, Hexen II (and Hexen II
Mods).
BZ2.COM has posted a small file for users of the
just-released BattleZone II Demo ( story) that fixes the stuttery movement you notice when your pilot runs
around on foot after exiting a tank. They've also posted an Easter egg guide for those who
don't consider that a spoiler.
News comes from Randy at I.Am-TFC that when the Half-Life 1.0.1.3 patch broke all
their old demos, "the world's fastest TFC flag-runners were pretty sad"
(apparently they all hang around in a cafe somewhere swapping speed run stories all day
over small cups of rich exotic coffee). This sadness, however, soon gave way to resolve to show the world
that even faster demos were possible. Now having accomplished their daunting task, the
site has posted no less than 28 new 1.0.1.3 demos of speed-runs, combat action, and
special techniques described as "great for learning from the experts, benchmarking,
or just watching for fun." Contented, the speed runners can go back to their coffee and war stories.
The Roll Your Own page has news
of a server at 134.164.68.30 running this interesting-sounding new Quake II mod first
announced yesterday ( story) that allows you to "roll your own" Quake II mod
through a checkbox interface. More details on the mod and the new server are up on the website.
As we reported earlier, Prince of Persia 3D isn't gold, and it turns out that neither is Veiled Threat. It was when I saw the report on Gone Gold that our report that Prince of Persia 3D was
gold was incorrect ( story) that I also saw the news about the RTT game, Veiled Threat going
gold ( story). Ironically, it turns out that this report was not
accurate either, as Geoff Howland from Lupine Game's the developer, passes along, though it turns
out another real-time tactical game is gold (at least that's the story at the moment ![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif) ): Apparently there was a
misunderstanding, as a different game went gold besides VT. We just finished a game called
Hatfields and McCoys, which is a smaller title in a sort of comedy-RTT-shooter genre which
was what we announced went gold, except that I didnt explicitly say the name since I
havent been able to talk about it until now.
Sorry about any problems here.
To finish this all off, I received the following
from Carson Utz, the designer on Prince of Persia 3D on the cause of his confusion on the
false gold (fool's gold?) report he sent along ( story): Regarding the relative goldness of POP3D--
I'm sorry about the inaccuracy there. I'd like to clarify that I was given permission by
our exec. producer to post that the game was gold. The first I've heard of it not being
gold is reading Blues News this morning. Anyway, I apologize, and would never have
knowingly sent you any news I didn't know to be 100% accurate.
Until then, I hope you enjoy the demo.
Hostile Waters;
Music from Gore on GA-Source is a that looks at (and listens to) the music from 4D
Ruler's upcoming first-person shooter, Gore, providing a track in mp3 format as a sample,
and some Q&A with Erik Lyden the freelance
composer who created the music for the game.
AlchemyZone
has reprinted an article on id Software originally published in EDGE
magazine complete with several Quake 3 screenshots (which look somewhat familiar,
although I believe most of them are new to the web). The article features comments
from id's fabulous receptionist and official team mother Miss Donna, as
well as the rest of the crew. Ordinarily we don't mention reprinted copyrighted
material, but it would appear that they've gotten permission to reprint the
story from the magazine's editor, and if it's cool with them, it's cool with us.
A new version of The Heretic Fortress,
a teamplay mod for Heretic II has been released, and is available for download
on its homepage (thanks Frans).
This version fixes several nasty bugs, and adds two new maps as well.
Quake
Cinema Make It Shake is a well-produced ZDTV feature on the wacky world of Quake
cinema touring through some of the Quake II films on The Planet Quake Cineplex, focusing on Father Frags Best, Quake 2 Late Nite,
and Eschaton-
Nightfall. Thanks Overman at Zarathustra
Studios. Unfortunately it overlooks the Quake movies, some of which are still probably
the all-time best. Three favorites I can recall to particularly single out being Blahbalicious, Scourge done Slick, and Operation Bayshield.
The Quake movies require the registered Quake, the Quake II movies require the registered
Quake II, Scourge done Slick requires both Quake and the Scourge of Armagon mission pack,
and while the ZDNet
article has a text portion, the full effect requires RealPlayer
or NotRealPlayer.
After working all that out, I require a nap .
A new version 2.1 of the NOP Java
stats tool is now available. NOP allows stats from a Q3Test server to be displayed on a
website practically in real-time. The new release clears up several bugs from the previous
version. Also now available is NOPTrans v1.0, a tool that transfers games.log files from
Q3Test servers to a master ranking server.
As promised, right on schedule, GameSpot's
Prince of Persia 3D Demo is now available for download. The file is available as a big
ole installer (described as for "corporate connections"), as well as one of
those resumable Gigex stub dealies, for modem users. Word is a DirectX-compatible 3D card
with 8MB RAM is required to play, as is QuickTime
4.0. This doesn't seem to be an exclusive, so here's a local copy of the
full installer (49.9 MB), along with the customary list of other mirrors.
Saw on Gone Gold a reference to the report here
recently that Prince of Persia 3D is gold ( story) is not accurate, pointing out that the game is not gold until
Mindscape says so, which is certainly the case. The gone gold folks tactfully refer to the
source of the inaccuracy generically, but it was from here that the report originated
(based on an email from Carson Utz, one of the game's designers). Sorry for causing any
confusion. Remember, by the way, that the Prince of Persia 3D demo on
GameSpot is due in less than a half-hour.
Gone Gold that Lupine's Veiled Threat has gone gold. This game is not a
true RTS, sounds more like real-time tactics (which appeals to me more), offering combat
without the resource management. Thanks SmokingMan. Also, MetalFatigue.net has posted some new screenshots
showing off gameplay from Metal Fatigue.
Diablo 2 Beta Test report
on the DiabloII.Net Network offers an account from
a PCXL contest-winner of a hands-on encounter with a recent beta build of Blizzard's
upcoming sequel to their smash-hit isometric-view action game.
Ingava's System Shock 2
Weapons Guide give a complete rundown on the armament in Looking Glass Studio's
newly-released sequel to the classic science fiction role-playing game. The 20 page guide
is described as "the most complete, comprehensive guide and commentary on all of the
weapons found in System Shock 2, covering all 14 weapons; the ammo, modifications and
firing modes.
Outrage's Jeff Slutter made a post to the
DBB saying "that he forgot to include a DMFC.lib in the new version of the SDK.
According to post, the D3SDK 1.0 is not compatible with MS Visual C++ 4.x and 5.x."
thanks The Descent Chronicles. Here's the deal
on how to get it working:
If you have 4.x or 5.x, the fix is simple. Bring up a dos prompt and change
directory into your d3-sdk's lib directory (where dmfc.lib is located). Then execute the
following: lib /DEF :Dmfc.def /NAME :Dmfc.dll /OUT :Dmfc.lib
After this executes, you'll have a new dmfc.lib that will work with your compiler. If it
can't find lib.exe for some reason, do a find in files for it, it's somewhere on your
harddrive (assuming you have your compiler installed correctly).
GT has updated their official Unreal
Tournament site with this week's UT level of the week. This week's level
is DOM Cinder, a domination map, and there's three new screenshots available
on the site showing it off.
NovaLogic has
announced that when Delta Force 2 and Armored Fist 3 (which both support
voice over net technology) ship, they will be bundled with a hands free microphone
from Labtec.
Volition's home page has been updated
with a new MP3 showing off the music from Freespace 2. Expect another one of
these every week until the game ships. Also posted are new desktop images from
Freespace 2, as well as Summoner, their 3D RPG in development (thanks Billy
" volatile" Wilson).
Kabuto.net has posted a poll featuring
a question from PlanetMoon, the developers of Giants: Citizen Kabuto. The question
deals with what kind of accent people think the Delphi character should speak
with. If you've got an opinion, jump over there and vote.
- A reminder: at 9:00 AM PDT this morning, GameSpot
will release the Prince of Persia 3D demo. Keep an eye out for it. Thanks Ant...
- Winamp 2.50c, an incremental update
to this popular MP3 program is out, and available for download...
- Thresh's FiringSquad
will be posting new screenshots every day from SquareSoft's Final Fantasy
VIII from now until the game's PlayStation release on September 2nd...
Well, I returned from Texas, and what do I find on my doorstep? None other
than Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. Now personally, I refused to believe
that this thing had gone gold until I had it in my hands, and jeez...I guess
it finally did. The game's okay...it's nothing revolutionary, and C&C fans
are probably going to be pleased with it. Personally, I think I'll stick to
StarCraft, or better yet, System Shock 2. :)
Link of the Day: (Update posted by Blue): Star Wars Episode 2: Food Court. Star
Wars meets Pulp Fiction (thanks MAVERICK). Full of foul language, copyright infringement,
and belly laughs. The first link of the day posted here has been removed as a poor
editorial decision. Apologies to any that though it was in bad taste, which would include
myself. We define bad taste very narrowly here (just check out the replacement link to
confirm that), but laughing at the serious misfortune of others does qualify.
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 ). 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?"
|
Twitter 
