Archived News:
The first four screenshots from Command & Conquer: Renegade, the first
3D action title in the C&C universe, have been posted at GamesZone
News, a German games site. The text is all in German, of course, but you
can always stick a babel fish in your
ear if you need a translation. Thanks Ant by way of BattlegroundTS.
The final version of KeyGrip
2, the graphical Quake II demo editing program has been released. This version
adds support for non-GL video modes, the ability to change the block number
for a camera, and auto-splitting of multi-level demos among other things.
Sharky
Extreme has posted their comprehensive preview of Apple's recently announced
G4s. The preview features a rundown of the two different motherboards in the
new line, as well as the various processors (including a detailed explanation
of their unique features).
A new version of Æstats,
a log parser that outputs to HTML has been released and is available for download
on its homepage. This new version
features Action Quake II support and incident filtering, as well as enhancements
to games already supported.
I.AM/TFC has posted 70 new demos from
Team Fortress Classic, replacing the ones they had before the new patch (as
of 1.0.1.3 old demos no longer work). The new demos range from freaky fast speed
runs, to combat action to special techniques for each class.
U-Games' Incoming Forces Preview
is another preview from the U-Gamers running abut at ECTS in London offering a
few pages of their impressions of the game to go along with the 14 screenshots
they posted earlier ( story).
I.Am-TFC's Team Fortress
Classic Strategy page has been updated with new strategies for playing TFC.
According to Halflife.net, where I saw
this, "It seems a lot of them are related to sniping on certain levels, and
there's some new strategies for the HWGuy."
They may be running out of steam, but they aren't through yet, GameSpot UK - ECTS99 Messiah Screens
serves up no less than 27 new screenshots released at
ECTS from Shiny's upcoming Messiah.
The Entron Deathmatch and Single Player Gaming Resource
has the release of "the complete collection of Entron goodies," which
includes a deathmatch pak, single player maps, Topaz's scripting tools with full
source, a huge texture pak, and a sound pak. This is the Open Source release of
what was originally slated to be a commercial product called Entron: Freedom's
Edge. To celebrate the whole shebang, they are having an IRC shindig, even as I
write these words, so if you read this before about 8:00 PM EDT today, you can
still catch the festivities (details about where to join are on the
page).
Delta-Force2.Com has posted a whole
bunch of stuff from their ECTS experience, including a pair of new Delta Force 2
screenshots (here's one
and the other),
as well as "BoneHead's"
ECTS report, photos
from day one, and an update on DF2
release dates, including an updated German release date of November 1999
(the US date is October 1999, and the rest of Europe is scheduled for February
2000).
In addition to the shots of Ragnar,
the hero from Human Head's upcoming Rune we posted earlier (next story),
The Adrenaline Vault News has posted three shots of their own, one of which is different than one of ours
(I guess that means we each have an exclusive, whoop!).
HumanHead sent along three
new screenshots from Rune, their game of Viking glory, which was recently
revealed will be running on the Unreal 2 engine. These are the first screenshots
from the game that feature Ragnar, their main character. They're pretty cool
looking, and one character even looks like a Wumpus to me - check
'em out.
U-Games' Half-Life Opposing Force Preview
is up with their impressions upon checking out Gearbox Software's upcoming
Half-Life add-on at ECTS.
Here's two stories I forgot to post the other day (don't blame Blue - he assumed
they were already posted). AVault
has posted a patch for Interplay's Starfleet Command. This patch contains a
number of gameplay tweaks, so I'd recommend downloading it if you're planning
on playing the game. Westwood revealed the story behind their action RPG Nox
the other day, and Gamer's
Central posted the press release along with four screenshots (although only
two of them appear to be new).
Epic's Brandon "YelloMarine" Reinhart updated
his .plan with word on the festivities at London's The Playing Fields
gaming center (rather, centre), where they have been, and will continue to be,
playing Unreal Tournament with attendees of ECTS, including some described as
"hard core Quake and Quake2 players." Here's what's happening:
I'm updating from a machine here at the Playing Fields in London. This
place rocks. Its a pub/gaming pit with a bar and a bunch of old wine cellar
style booths around it. You can check out their website at
http://www.theplayingfields.co.uk/
Last night we set up a bunch of machines with UT to test everything out for
tonights party/tournament. It was a lot of fun. A bunch of people from Qamex are
situated around here and played with UT. They were quite pleased! I was sitting
back in the second cubby watching people play, at one point. There were people
just saying how amazing they thought UT was and they didn't even know who I was.
Its a hell of a lot of fun to watch people play your game and really get into
it.
http://www.qamex.com/
A bunch of the guys were hard core Quake and Quake2 players. They were skeptical
at first, but as soon as they had played some DM, CTF, and Assault they were converts. :)
Tonight is the big party and tournament. We are going to run 5 elimination
rounds followed by a series of finals matches. The winner gets a huge steel
trophy of the UT trophy symbol from the ads. Its sweet. I want one!
The machines here are Athlon 600s with dual Voodoo2s.
Matrox G400 3D Gaming Enhanced
"Game" of the week is Egerter Software's
PowerRender3, described as "a general purpose 3D API which supports all of
the features the Matrox G400 can deliver, including Environment Mapped Bump
Mapping, DualHead displays, stencil buffer shadows, multi-texturing, and 32-bit
color. The API comes with utilities for importing and editing materials, so
developers can create and display fully bump mapped objects with no programming
involved." Among the shots that show off the API's power, is one showing off
a level in Quake II using environmental bump-mapping. Word is Power Render 3 will
be available to developers for licensing in mid-September.
U-Games' Team Fortress 2 Preview
is online after some face time with Valve's upcoming multiplayer teamplay
shooter at ECTS. There are no new screenshots, but the believe they
are getting some to post soon. I originally called this a SoF preview, sorry
for the confusion (as luck would have it my system went haywire after making the
error, delaying its correction).
The relentless GSUK ECTS coverage continues, as ECTS99 Max Payne
Screenshots on GameSpot UK
with a half-dozen shots (that I believe are new) from Remedy and 3DRealms'
upcoming third-person game inspired by the John Woo school of action.
Well looks like ECTS is going to make this a busy day, whether the world has
changed, or not. GameSpot UK - ECTS99 Black and White Exclusive Screens
show off a rather mind-boggling 63 screenshots from Lionhead's upcoming 3D god
game. As sCary once pointed out, you get that many shots, you're tempted to
break out the old .gif animator and see if you can make a movie.
Exclusive Soul Reaver Screenshots
on GA-Source shows off a dozen new screenshots from the PC version of Eidos
Interactive's just-gold 3D vampire action-adventure, Legacy of Kain: Soul
Reaver.
Still raging with the machine, ECTS99
Hostile Waters Screens on GameSpot UK offers (brace yourself) 47 new images
from Rage's upcoming action title. They've also posted the 14
Incoming forces screenshots mentioned in the following story as posted on U-Games.
GameSpot UK ECTS99 coverage gives word on a new game announcement out of
ECTS from Rage, who have unveiled Incoming Forces, which, as the name suggests,
is a sequel to Incoming, set 20 years after the original. On that subject, there
are a bunch (14) of new Incoming Forces
Screenshots on U-Games showing off the first look at action from the action
game. Also raging about Rage's upcoming titles at the show is PC
Arena's Expendable Preview which has posted a 17 MB movie preview of Rage's
upcoming Expendable in QuickTime format, and their Hostile Waters
Preview offers a 16 MB QuickTime preview as well.
New V3800 beta drivers, a new PowerStrip, and more on DX7's release date in this
morning's bits:
- There are new version 2.25 beta 2 ASUS V3800 drivers for Win 9x and for
WinNT on their Beta Testing Enthusiast Graphics Card Driver
page (I love that title). Thanks Billy at Voodoo
Extreme.
- The PowerStrip site has a
new version 2.51.08 of PowerStrip, the shareware monitor/video card control utility
for Win 95/98/NT/2000. Thanks BetaNews.
- A follow up on the rumor reported yesterday that DX7 might be debuting
later this week comes in GameSpot UK's
ECTS99 coverage, which says "Microsoft sources promise that the
latest version of its popular application protocol (sic) interface (API) should be
ready by late September," but the main gist of the story is to point
out that the new version of the API was not being shown off (apparently as
expected) at this years ECTS trade show in London.
- Nintendo's Dolphin to Use Pioneering SRAM
is a NGO report saying "So-called
one-transistor SRAM technology will be used by Nintendo in its Dolphin game
console, due to debut in fall 2000."
U-Games' WarCraft 3 Preview
is up with a complete transcript of the announcement of WarCraft III by the
game's producer.
This press release has
the world changing announcement of the day, which gives all the details WarCraft
III, the sequel to the successful RTS' along with details on how
different from previous RTS' it is, hence the world changing part (convinced
yet?). If you aren't, Gamecenter's
WarCraft III The First Details tries to shed even more first light on the
situation. The part they're all excited about is the addition of role-playing
elements to the RTS genre, and they're calling gameplay in WCIII Role-Playing Strategy.
Computer Games Online
previews Interstate '82 describing the sequel to the funky driving game
Interstate '72 like this: "Mad Max meets Miami Vice to uncover a web of
conspiracy." I loved I '76, but even the words Miami Vice still make me
shudder... I guess we'll see. The preview is illustrated with several new
screenshots. There are also some Heavy
Metal F.A.K.K.2 screenshots there, but they're the same four that were
posted here last week.
Unreal Universe has posted three
more Wheel of Time screenshots showing off Legend's upcoming Unreal-engine
action/adventure based on the book series by Robert Jordan. UU is promising a
full preview of the game this week.
The ReDeMpTiOn Main Page
has a new version 1.16c of the ReDeMpTiOn bot for Sin. The new version uses new
route file format, so your old one will need to be discarded and re-started with
the new version. Thanks Redwood. Also word
there is that The Quake2 Crew Home Page
has posted a ReDeMpTiOn bot front-end program. Also, I see on the bot loving Bot Epidemic
that numb has
"re-released" version 1.2 of the Holywars + Frogbot for Quake with "new
stuff" here (I don't know why that's a "re-release" rather than a new
version). Finally, there's a new version 0.11 of the Jumbot Launcher
front-end for the Jumbot for Half-Life.
gBi0Tch's Home Page has a new version 0.08
of his log analyzer, which parses logs for Q3Test and Half-Life Counterstrike
servers. The new release adds Q3Test support, the preliminary "CLAN
MANAGER," and more new features, as well as some bug fixes.
nV News' Tweaking Quake 3 Test Graphics
offers a guide to mucking around with the graphics in Q3Test,
describing various settings, showing the impact of their use on your framerate with benchmarks,
and illustrating their impact on the game's appearance with screenshots.
In a previous update, RSE predicted a demo for their upcoming Rainbow Six: Rogue
Spear sometime before the full game's release on September 15 ( story).
Now, word on RainbowSix.Net has news
(via mplayer.com) that true to that
promise, the demo is expected this Tuesday: Forget the latest offerings
from the Backstreet Boys or Marilyn Manson, the mere mention of the Rogue Spear
demo is music to ears of every Rainbow Six fan out there. The full retail
version of Rogue Spear doesn't ship until later this month, but if all goes well
Mplayer.com will have the multiplayer demo available this Tuesday, September 7.
Spread the word--this is not to be missed!
Wolfs Unreal has posted a basic tutorial
on editing and getting started using UnrealED. Also, Wastelands,
"A Kingpin Mappers Resource," has opened for business, to start with
they've posted tutorials on skies, pawn-o-matics and lighting, with a promise of
guides to making cameras for cut scenes and safes for bagman to come. Saw both
of those on Rust, where they never
sleep, trying to bring you all the latest in game editing news.
Descent4.net's Texture contest
will include the best original submission of a 512x512 texture in the upcoming
Descent 4 (if this works out well enough, someone's going to make a whole game
that way). Don't forget, all three of you mailbombed loony into submission, so our
new trivia contest is up, as well.
The usual thanks to Frans at 3D Action Gamers:
- Proving that if you make a game, someone will modify it, 3D
Portal has word that the Lights Out website has posted Tonight Never Ends, a brand new TC for Shadow Warrior 17 months in
development. As the name suggests, there's some sort of James Bond twist...
- A pair of second reports from Asheron's Call beta testers: BetaBites'
Staff AC Beta Journal Part II is up, and the slightly less reverent Chet's Asheron's Call Beta Log,
the second journal on Old Man Murray Game Reviews.
Also, SystemLogic's
Asheron's Call Screenshots gives 10 looks at the beta of MS' massive
online RPG...
- Breaking their promise that the last version was the final one (that's
okay, we're in a forgiving mood), 3DFiles has posted a
newer version of their sound pack for Starsiege TRIBES that's a still big
9.6 MB, but still smaller than their 14.9 MB whopper, which is also still
available. Both pack include a tutorial on how to make your own TRIBES sound
pack...
Hey, yesterday was a pretty snappy news day, for a Saturday, especially on a
holiday weekend here in the US (Labor Day-I'm told it's also a holiday in Canada, thanks Creeker). Today might have some activity as
well, as Blizzard is threatening to change the world again today (I was so
excited at the prospect I briefly had the post up about it a second time today).
For those keeping score, this is the second time this week the world will have
been changed. In case this one turns out to be a dud, I will reveal I have plans
of my own. I won't be changing the world, but I do plan on changing my
toothbrush on Monday, or maybe it was my briefs.
Oh yeah, Pac-Man chomps its way toward 20
(thanks to all the many who sent that in), don't you think it's time he put on
some pants? BTW, congrats to skinner Rorshach, who just announced his
engagement.
Link of the Day: Money.com Wise Guy
on Microsoft vs. Spain. Thanks Belgarion.
Story of the Day: Melissa brings a blush to the cheeks of Lara Croft.
That's right... Lara's been mailing virii. Thanks TonyT.
Image of the Day: Planet RIVA
where their B.O.S.S. feature offers an artist's depiction of a mixed media
battle between Quake III Arena's Visor and the dreaded Predator.
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