Archived News:
GASource
has posted five new screenshots from Eidos and Quantic Dreams' third person
adventure title, Omikron, showing off a variety of different locales from the
game.
As part of their new technology, 3dfx has unveiled their
new FXT1 texture compression (thanks Dennis Smith). This is an open source
technology, meaning anyone can download the source code, and it works under
Glide, OpenGL, and Direct3D (meaning it's not limited to 3dfx cards). Here's
an excerpt from their developer's site
that explains it somewhat. FXT1 texture compression provides equal to
or better compression ratios than any available hardware compression scheme
and is supported on all future 3dfx products. With up to four compression schemes
used in the encoding of each texture, FXT1 provides the most accurate texture
compression available, providing little or no loss in image quality. Decoding
FXT1 textures can be done transparently in the 3D hardware at run-time, or decoded
in software and converted to another hardware-supported texture format.
A new version (2.08) of Battlecruiser 3000 AD has been released, and is available
for download on its
official site. This version has over 20 enhancements and fixes, including
more fully populated planets, new dogfighting AI, new personnel AI, and lots
more.
PC.IGN has posted a preview
of one of the strangest (and yet most entertaining) first person shooters to
come along in a long time, Nerf Arena Blast. The preview is based on the author's
trip to Hasbro, and is quite detailed (and illustrated with a whole boatload
of screenshots).
A new version (1.02) of the Skout
demo has been released, as has a
patch for the German retail version of the game. This patch is said to fix
errors with ATI Rage 128 cards, as well as CD music errors. Thanks Frans, who's
posted mirrors of both files at
3DGamers.
The official Tomb Raider site has posted five
new screenshots (well, kind of new - they look to be higher quality versions
of images that are in several magazines this month) from Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, and moved the older images to
a new location
(thanks Frans).
A new version 0.6 of The Jumbot
for Half-Life is now available. In the new version the bots can now use turrets
when available; bots have individual stats for accuracy, etc.; there's a new
random bot function; improved underwater waypoint navigation, and more.
Word from WONSwap high command is that
they've beefed up this service that allows easy uploading and downloading of
custom maps, skins, models, etc. so that it's now even faster and more reliable
to search. The service now boasts over 3,700 available files for Half-Life;
Starsiege TRIBES; Starsiege; and PGA Championship Golf 1999, and word is that
"several more hit titles will be supported in the next few weeks."
This page has
a patch to update Acclaim's new RC racing game Re-Volt. Thanks Frans at 3D Action
Gamers. Word is the patch will resolve problems with Gateway Computer system
and will fix the problem of returning to the desktop or system freezes after
running the Re-Volt executable.
There's now a Japanese version 1.1 patch for Descent 3, available on
this page. Thanks Frans at 3D Action
Gamers.
Looking Glass and Eidos have revealed
details regarding the new levels in the special edition of Thief: The Dark
Project that's set for release soon, titled Thief Gold. In addition to the twelve
missions already in Thief, this version adds three new ones, which are all described
in this press release.
Lionhead is sponsoring a contest over at Black
& White Wire, where the winner will actually have their face put on
a villager's model in the upcoming 3D title Black & White. All you have
to do is make an original Black & White related image and send it in - sounds easy enough, right?
For details, check out BW Wire.
Kabuto.net has posted the
first of three single panel comics drawn by Planet Moon's Shawn Nelson, and
dealing with their game of mass destruction, Giants: Citizen Kabuto (look for
another one tomorrow and the day after).
The Tread Marks downloads
page has posted an MP3 that samples the music from this 3D tank game, as
well as word that a new test demo should be released "any day now"
and will feature full Internet networking (thanks Frans).
Kokak's Heretic Page
has version 1.0 of his GLHeretic port available for download. This version adds
compatibility with Voodoo 2 mini-GL and Quake 3 drivers, a whole bunch of bug fixes,
a new Gargoyle MD2, and lots more (thanks Frans).
Virtual Games and Activision have
announced that they will be making a modified version of Battlezone II for
use on virtual reality platforms (thanks GAStrategy).
According to the
press release, Virtual Games will be making it compatible with their Dual
Pod Networked system, which allows for two people to play simultaneously (VR
deathmatch anyone?).
PCZone
UK has posted their preview of Command & Conquer: Renegade, based on
the demo they were given at ECTS. The shots shown in the preview aren't the
same ones that you've seen a million times already, but rather fairly low quality
images from a camera pointed at the monitor.
Unrealism has posted an e-mail they
received from Epic's Brandon Reinhart, confirming that although there will indeed
be a version of the Unreal Tournament demo released for Linux, it won't be released
simultaneously with the PC version (expected sometime this week).
It's a console...or is it? Sony has unveiled, at long last, their Playstation
2 (the name's official now). There are several announcements today, including
the release date
and initial details (March in Japan, Fall 2000 in the US, with an estimated price of $370), word
that the development kits are shipping (and are Linux based), and even their
network details, including the revelation that in 2001, Sony plans to add
an expansion module that will allow for distribution of movies over the Internet
to the uber-box. Business Wire has also posted the first images of the box, for those curious what the thing looks like.
Well Rounded Entertainment's
Rogue Spear Multiplayer Preview is now up, offering a look ahead at
multiplayer play in the full version of Red Storm Entertainment's upcoming
sequel to the seminal tactical shooter, Rainbow Six, based on the Tom Clancy
book of the same name. In addition to discussing the multiplayer aspects of the
game, the article boasts a whopping 35 new screenshots.
Developer's Corner sends word
they are now hosting a messageboard devoted to the doings of Shiny and TeamEgo
as they work on Messiah. The boards will be visited by the humble folks at Team
Ego to answer questions when applicable, so if you are anticipating this
upcoming third-person action title, or perhaps are just interested in
discussions of the cutting-edge 3D technology being used in the game, check them
out. In fact in passing through, I see that Shiny's Scott Herrington posted an
answer to a question about environmental bump-mapping, saying that though they
initially planned to support it out of the box on Messiah, it turns out this
will not be the case. Here's the deal: Messiah will not support
environmental bumpmapping. We did some tests, and while it looked promising, the
time to implement it in the game far outweighed the benefits. After all,
bumpmapping is usually used to 'fake' additional polygonal detail - and with the
characters in such high detail to begin with, we really didn't see a huge
benefit.
That said, it'll be a feature in the next project that Team Ego makes (which
will probably be one of 3 things: add-on pack, sequel, or entirely new game)
since more hardware will support it at that time.
The Assimilation home has
word of an IRC release shindig this evening to celebrate the release of version
3.0 of the Assimilation mod for Quake II. Though details on where to join the
chat haven't been posted yet (they're promised soon), word is that the festivities
will kick off around 6:00 PM PDT.
Turns out the telnet into your Dreamcast thing mentioned yesterday, turns out to
have been an error or a hoax, so you don't have to worry just yet about setting
up a console-based firewall.
I'm finding myself feeling a pit poorly (to use an old family phrase) this AM, I realized
it a little too late to get loonyboi to cover, hence the relatively late start today. In a
completely silly unfolding of events, I never did make it in to Manhattan check
out Ground ZERO (was it too close?). At least loony got to swing by a couple of times,
too bad part of the reason I never made it out was to cover news, since it turned out to be a
super-quiet weekend. I'm at least hoping to track down the webmasters who
haven't left yet sometime today for a brew or something if I'm feeling better. To follow-up briefly on the Umbilical Brothers
(mentioned here yesterday), Kyle Smith points out they made a recent Letterman
appearance, and Per Jacobsen sends word they have their
own website that even has a VIVO-format promo of their nuttiness. Finally,
Apaullo points out that today is one of those dates in fictional history we like
to note here: it was on September 13, 1999 that the moon was blasted from
Earth's orbit in Space 1999.
Link of the Day: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Home Page.
I think if I were a parent I'd be worried that this page didn't trigger my
cyber-sitter software. Thanks Chris Rhoton and his roommate Matt Sheffer.
Saw on Doomworld that a new version
0.2.2 of Hexen32, a Win32
Hexen source port, is now available on its newly-relocated homepage. In
semi-related Raven Windows port news, I also see on DW
that it's looking like the wHeretic
project may be at an end, though even if that is the case, another version of
the port will still be released.
A brand-new unofficial StarLancer FAQ
is now online, asking and answering all sorts of questions about Digital Anvil's
upcoming space opera. There is also an officially Unofficial FAQ
on Lanced.Net.
The Ęstats Page has been
updated with a new version 4.19 of the ĘStats log parser for 3D shooter games.
Among the changes in the new version is new Unreal v2.25f support and Hexen
II support.
The maXtron main site has the
debut release of Licensed To Kill for Action Quake2,
which adds an AI bot to this popular Quake II mod. The early version is based on
the ACEBot source code (and the name is indeed an homage to James Bond), and is
described as having a lot to learn, but apparently aim is not one of them (the
quote was "it shoots nice :)").
The ZDoom page has a new version 1.18a of
ZDoom, a freely distributed Win32 port of Doom. The new release is purely a
bug-fix for a couple of glitches with version 1.18, and offers no new features. Thanks Frans at 3D Action
Gamers.
Planet Half-Life has word of beta
version 3.0 of the Half-Life Game Launcher,
a front-end for Half-Life, Valve's "game of the year" shooter.
Well, the finals are over at Ground ZERO,
the CPL event that ran throughout the weekend, and stx-wombat has walked away
with the $10,000 purse (thanks Cache). The
full stats from the event are up at NetGames USA's Ground ZERO site, and they're
pretty interesting to look at - this was definitely a surprise filled tournament,
with Rix, DieharD and Sujoy all getting knocked out of the finals.
The Pulpit chats with Gary
Tarolli, talking with 3dfx' CTO about a variety of current events topics
related to 3dfx and 3D acceleration in general.
Saw on StormTroopers that Nintendojo's
N64 Daikatana preview was posted semi-recently with a look ahead at the Nintendo
64 version of ION Storm's upcoming era-spanning Quake II-engine shooter. Though,
as Planet Daikatana points out not
all the info in the piece is accurate (one reference is to a PSX port, which has
apparently never been mentioned elsewhere, so it's either inaccurate or a
scoop), the piece does offer a new screenshot.
Jeff from the AMD Zone sends along a few
tidbits related to AMD: AMD cuts chip prices
is a ZDNN article on price slashing, AMD's
guide to building a computer with the Athlon processor is online to help
with your homebrew needs, and the sometimes very accurate and sometimes less-so THE REGISTER
has word that AMD's K8 to be re-engineered K7,
speculating on the nature of AMD's yet-to-be-announced next processor.
Voodoo Extreme has posted three new
screenshots from Wheel of Time showing off Legend's upcoming Unreal-engine
action/adventure/strategy offering.
There's a new Starlancer
Pic of the Week feature over on GameRush.Com
that offers a new peak ahead at this upcoming space sim from Warthog,
and as the name suggests, it looks like they will be following this up with a
new shot on a weekly basis ( Source: email. Err, thanks AGN3D).
A half-dozen new questions have been added to the I.am-KingPin
Kingpin FAQ, fortunately along with the corresponding answers (I guess
technically a Frequently Asked Question really does just need the questions,
right?). The document attempt to be a comprehensive listing of what's what in
Xatrix' life of crime shooter. Thanks Frans at 3D Action
Gamers.
Also on the Kingpin front, IPlayGames Kingpin Map Tutorial - Part 4
is up, adding to their ever-blossoming Kingpin Mapping Guide.
The new chapter offers tips on how to make platforms using Kingpin Radiant (and presumably
other editors that support Kingpin entities), and "how to make use of the
surface and content properties of a brush to make your environment more
realistic." Previous chapters include tutorials on the basics, expanding
your map, and complex doors.
As promised, another new release of the SpoonBot
is now available after a quiet period in the development of this server-side mod
that adds improved AI opponents for Starsiege TRIBES. The new version 0.5d
offers more aggressive bots, optimized treefile
calculation (takes minutes instead of hours), a new demolition bot behavior, bug
fixes, and more. Thanks Bot Epidemic.
Sharky Extreme's
ECTS Report on MDK2 gives a look ahead at Bioware's upcoming sequel to
Shiny's quirky single player third (and first) person action title. The preview
is based on checking out the game at this year's ECTS, which just concluded in
London. MDK, of course, stands for Missing Dumb Komment.
There's a chat log
on A Talent for War with the outcome of last night's chat session with the
developers of a bunch of upcoming space sims, including Tachyon, Parsec,
and Jumpgate (apparently Starlancer, Starfleet Command, and Klingon Academy were
trapped in the neutral zone, unable to attend).
Well the cards involved aren't available yet, but that's not stopping Thresh's FiringSquad
from making a recommendation between the Savage2000 or the GeForce 256,
referring to their comparison, as a shootout between the
next-generation specs of both cards. Unfortunately, once again we are deprived
of benchmarks showing how the press releases for both products perform
head-to-head (since they are the only physical components of the new
accelerators currently available). The piece does include some Q&A with S3's
PR Manager Paul Crossley and 3D Architect Raja Koduri.
An article linked yesterday about an overclocked PIII-550 running at 668 MHz
originally called the CPU's original clockspeed as 350 MHz, which would have
been quite the newsworthy piece of overclocking. Thanks to the many that wrote
in with the correction on that, and our apologies for any confusion this caused.
- Word on the Assimilation
home is to expect a new version 3.0 of this Quake II mod next Monday, to
be distributed after an IRC soiree. A confirmation of the day should be out
soon...
- Seems the Dreamcast may turn out to be sophisticated enough to hack into.
This Slashdot
Article describes on intrepid geek's discovery that you can actually
telnet into a Dreamcast, though an applicable username and password have not
yet been doped out (perhaps the NSA knows it). Thanks James. Update: Seems this turns out to have been an error or a hoax...
- Quake Shakes Manhattan
is a TechWeb article on the festivities at Ground ZERO, currently taking
place. Thanks Bakkteria...
- ATFW's
ECTS '99 Cheesecake Awards...
MrsBlue reminded me we had tickets for a show last night. For whatever reason I
was not optimistic (I recall saying something about planning on napping), but I
had such a great time I want to make a recommendation in case you have a chance
to see the show or the performers in action. It was a comedy called Thwak (currently in Manhattan's small Minetta Lane Theater),
and the performers call themselves the Umbilical Brothers (not really related,
they are a pair of Aussies named David Collins and Shane Dundas), and it's
clever and inventive beyond description. I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot
more from these two, at least I certainly hope to.
Link of the Day: Punch John Tesh,
from the people who brought you punch Bill
Gates, Michael Jackson,
and Captain Kirk. Thanks
David LaPort. This is just a simulation, no actual photos of celebrities were
punched in the creation of the site.
Bonus Link: ThinkGeek Caffeine Scheduled Delivery.
Thanks David Hamilton. Cue Homer: Hmmm, a Bawls subscription...
|
Twitter 
