Archived News:
Mark Rein sent this e-mail to Unreality,
explaining the current status of the Unreal Tournament demo, as well as with
Epic in general (in light of the hurricane that's headed their way). Here's
what he had to say: Hurricane Floyd is expected to hit Raleigh pretty
strongly late this evening and throughout tomorrow. This might be my last email
for a while. We're expected to get at least 10 inches of rain and hurricane-force
winds. The eye of the hurricane is projected to pass one county over from us
(which is VERY close!) but hopefully it will be diminished as it travels over
land.
In anticipation of the first demo release tomorrow we've launched http://www.unrealtournament.com.
The UT web site isn't on a server located in Raleigh so it should stay up. I'll
try to update it with our progress if I can keep power. We've sent a build of
the demo/test off to 3DFX that could be released tomorrow in the event that
we're unable to keep power here tonight. We already experienced a 45 minute
power loss but power is back on right now. There are a few minor bugs fixes
that we're hoping to fix but if power doesn't stay on that won't happen and
the 321 build will get released. We've set up utbugs@epicgames.com
for people to report bugs and problems with the demo. We're all backed up and
I'll be taking a tape backup home in a waterproof container.
For those interested in tracking the hurricane you can visit http://www.ncstormtrack.com
- the internet is pretty clogged tonight with people up and down the east coast
hitting the weather and news sites for information about the storm.
There is a good possibility that we'll lose power for several days which could
cause the delay of the 2nd demo (all APIs). If that happens we apologize in
advance for any delays. A few days extra wait for a demo is nothing like the
disaster that is facing most North Carolina farmers who are expected to lose
their entire crops for the year due to this storm. Our hearts and concerns go
out them as well as those who will be displaced from their homes or worse.
Ok, scratch the above. The security guard for our building just came up and
asked us to leave the building. Apparently they're going to bolt the doors of
the building so we won't be able to return. Carolina Power & Light told
them the power is likely to go out at any time. They already have 15,000 customers
without power in the area. We don't know when we'll be able to get
back in, hopefully Friday after the storm has passed but we'll only be able
to get into the building if it has power. During Hurricane Fran much of Raleigh
was without power for an average of 3 days. The authorities say that this storm
will be pretty similar to Fran or maybe stronger.We hope 3DFX users enjoys the
demo and we'll do the best we can to ship the full demo (with support for all
APIs) as soon after Monday as possible given the events of the next day or two.
Wish us luck!
Mark Rein,
Epic Games Inc.
Hey! Dynamix sent along another one of those
TRIBES Extreme update dealies, this time giving a bunch of designer Scott
Rudi's background in games gone by and more (including the fact that his dad is
in fact ex major-league baseball player Joe Rudi!). Here's a quote: Scott looks forward to expanding the TRIBES Universe with TRIBES Extreme.
"We've had a lot of interest from the community in broadening the focus of
the game setting, maybe eventually creating new games in the Universe, new types
of gameplay. TRIBES Extreme is just the first step in that direction."
By new types of gameplay, Scott means cooperative campaigns. "We have
cooperative missions in TRIBES Extreme where a squad of players can go in and
play against the computer. Players can even link missions to form their own
cooperative campaigns. But what I'd really like to do is set up a cooperative
campaign with an epic plot, optimized for a group to play and experience the
story together." Such a goal poses a range of challenges, but Scott feels
sure the time is right.
"Cooperative games really are distinct from single-player games."
The balancing is different, he says, because you have multiple players
participating instead of one, so the mission design necessarily becomes far more
non-linear, more of an environment setup than a scripted plotline. "TRIBES
as it stands poses some additional design difficulties, though, because it
originated as a purely online game. We've had to construct a single-player
version without disturbing that multiplayer cornerstone."
GameSpot's Starsiege
TRIBES demo page is now up, giving the deal on the demo mentioned below.
Here's the poop: This demo contains three individual missions from the
game which can be played on the Dynamix demo servers. Dynamix has set up demo
servers that should have a higher proportion of new players, so you shouldn't
encounter too many hardcore TRIBES vets at first. If you practice and drill with
your teammates, there's no reason you shouldn't be ready to bloody some noses
when you get the full game and hit the hardcore servers.
Though it's not yet noted on the Starsiege TRIBES - Tribes Players
page , Frans points the way to a Starsiege: TRIBES demo that he's mirrored
on 3D Action Gamers' Archive.
There's no word on what's the deal with the demo yet, but it's a 20-something MB
download.
Word from Microsoft is that Ensemble Studios' Age of Empires II Age of Kings
has gone gold. Here's the poop on availability and other pimpage they sent
along: In anticipation of the long-awaited release, Microsoft has
partnered with two key retailers, Electronic's
Boutique and Babbages, to offer
consumers the chance to pre-order the game. For a limited time, Electronic's
Boutique is giving away a Limited Edition Player's Guide with every pre-order
and Babbages is offering a set of Limited Edition Collector's Cards that detail
each of the game's unique civilizations and offer game play hints and tips.
Gamers can also pre-order the game at Microsoft's
online store.
Red Storm's Rogue
Spear Support page has been updated with three new Q&As dealing with
technical issues associated with the Rogue Spear demo (and presumably the full
version as well). Rogue Spear has gone gold, and is expected in stores next
week. Thanks Frans at 3DGamers for the
tip.
Yesterday's Darkstone patch ( story)
has been recalled (thanks Squick). Apparently there were some giant, show stopping
bugs included by accident, and the patch cannot be uninstalled, so don't download
or run the patch if you've got it.
3DWars has posted an
interview with John Cook, lead programmer on Team Fortress 2 for Valve. The
brief interview deals with John's background, as well as some basic TF2 issues,
such as the changes they've made to the engine since Half-Life.
This week's Wheel of Time update has been posted to the
official site (thanks Infiniti). The update kicks off with, "we're
not far away from putting this bad boy on shelves (relatively, anyway)"
and proceeds to talk about a number of issues related to finishing up the game.
There's two new screenshots, as well as images of the swanky new WoT t-shirt
they've had made up.
Version 0.65 of the Jumbot
for Half-Life has been released, and is available for download (thanks Brian
Jackowski). This version is said to be, "the most stable and reliable"
release to date.
3dfxGamers has posted
five more movies from Unreal Tournament in MPEG format. These
should keep you occupied until they release the demo (hopefully later today).
Creative
Labs has posted version 1.20 beta of the unified drivers for their Graphics
Blaster TNT and 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Ultra video cards (thanks MyDrivers).
This version features chroma key fixes, as well as optimizations for several
games.
UK Gamer has
posted an interview with Bernd Lehahn, a designer on X: Beyond the Frontier.
The interview deals with the storytelling in the game, the buggy version released
in Germany, and even hints about EgoSoft's future projects.
GameSpot
UK has posted a preview of Legend's Unreal-engine strategy/RPG game Wheel
of Time (thanks Octane). While the preview
itself is fairly short, there's a number of impressive screenshots from the
game that appear to be new.
GASource
has posted an interview with Giovanni Caturano, lead development leader for
Zetha gameZ, whose first title, DroneZ is a surreal, sci-fi third person action
game (and judging by the title, may have been influenced by such notable "Z"
films as AntZ and eXistenZ). There are nine accompanying screenshots, three
of which are brand new.
sCary's Shack has posted a brief e-mail he
received from John Carmack, which confirms that the new skeletal animation system
that is being implemented into the Quake III: Arena engine will not in fact
be included in the next Q3Test release (1.09), as well as word that the next
version is still "a bit off". In other words, don't expect a release anytime soon.
The Playing Fields, the location
for the ECTS Unreal Tournament party, has posted four AVI movies from UT, showing
off the massive Redeemer weapon, the new Flak Cannon, plenty of DM mayhem, and
a whole lot more.
GameSpot
UK has posted a preview of Westwood Studios' top down RPG, Nox (although
they're quick to point out that, "that's like describing Tiberian Sun as
a top-down strategy game"). The preview is chock full of details, and illustrated
with plenty of screenshots.
Force One has posted an interview with
Jake Simpson, talking about the force feedback support that will be in Soldier
of Fortune, as well as word that the OEM version of SoF will be completed
next week. Here's an excerpt for you: Apart from the gratuitous thud
of your dead body hitting the ground, and the dull thump of bullets tearing
into your living flesh. (getting a little carried away there ;) ), we'd like
to try stuff like the train going over the rails in the train level, and stuff
like that. Right now though, its more important for us just to get support in
and stable. The immersion drivers for the Mouse for instance require a lot of
looking at, and we are working with them now to fix this.
One thing to be aware of is that there will NOT be support for FF in the OEM
deal that is coming down the pike in the next month or so. This is because we
are still elbow deep in developing the FF support, but the OEM version has to
be done next week. I'm sure you guys understand deadlines and all that :)
PlanetQuake
has posted an interview with Stevie "Killcreek" Case, talking to the
Daikatana level designer (and Playboy model) about female gaming, and her job
at ION Storm. The interview was conducted by Hellchick, a finalist at the Female
Frag Fest, where the interview took place.
While you're waiting for the demo to be released, Unrealism
has posted 15 impressive screenshots from Unreal Tournament, which were taken
at The Playing Fields' UT party at ECTS.
Beta 2.5 of Action Half-Life, the
popular mod for Half-Life that adds realistic deathmatching to the game has
been released, and is available for download. This version fixes the "say"
command that was broken in the last release, and adds a number of new features
as well. The Linux version isn't available as of yet, but should be released
tonight or early tomorrow, according to the web site.
The official Delta Force
2 page has been updated, and now features eight new screenshots (on the
screenshots page), as well as a DF2 FAQ (which mentions an October 21st release
date). Thanks to the always astute Frans
for the tip.
3dfx has launched 3dfxgamers.com, a
site for well, 3dfx games and stuff (here's the
press release with the announcement). They've kicked off the launch with
some exclusive Unreal Tournament screenshots, and word that they'll be posting
the exclusive UT demo soon (thanks Frans).
MacGamer's
Ledge has posted some coverage of the Quake III: Arena tour, following it
on the Bellevue and Tacoma stops (it would appear that they stalked the bus,
as they followed it on the highway!). There's a lot of pictures, including some
blurry ones of the new maps.
The humor site Penny Arcade has posted a fairly serious (and impressive) new screenshot from Dynamix' Starsiege: TRIBES 2, showing off some cool looking new buildings and environmental effects.
The Adrenaline Vault Previews Loose Cannon
looking ahead at this upcoming game of driving and shooting (as well as the
occasional getting out of the car and shooting) from Microsoft and Digital Anvil.
The preview gives a good feel for the game, and offers a
half-dozen spiffy screenshots. Here's some more on that getting out of the
car bit: Its chases involve not only cars but on foot pursuits as well.
Indeed, the mixture of racing and combat makes this title different from
anything else I have seen, creating gameplay more akin to a 3D action offering
than a racer. It is therefore probably no surprise that Tony Zurovec, producer
and director of the project, was director and lead designer of Crusader: No
Remorse, a highly successful action offering released back in 1996.
Jorg Neumann, lead lesigner of Loose Cannon, says he has been wanting to
create a game like this since he played Autoduel in 1985; however, he had
to wait until personal computers finally offered the necessary horsepower to
fulfill his vision. That said, the biggest change in the development process
came about when, very early in the production, the decision was made to limit
gameplay to outdoor environments due to the significant resource drain if indoor
settings were included.
Mod Central Unreal has
posted some info about the mutators (game types) to be included with the
imminent Unreal Tournament demo from Epic's Cliff Bleszinski, who points out
they will be discouraging (which I read as disallowing) user mods of the demo.
Word is the demo will offer Insta Gib, Low Gravity, Pulse Arena, Rocket Launcher
Arena, and Shock Arena mutators.
IPlayGames Kingpin Map Tutorial - Part 5
is on line covering clipping (a 15 yard penalty), giving a short rundown on
making "odd" shaped brushes.
- The RIVA TNT
FAQ now offers (legal) downloads of that tree demo dealie saying it will
answer the question: "Is my PC ready for the next generation
applications?" Thanks Blood.
- Thresh's FiringSquad's
Introduction to Linux is aimed at Windows users.
- Overclocking Guide by 3D Rage
is a guide to CPU overclocking discussing procedures and precautions,
cooling, L2 cache limitations, clock multipliers and bus speeds.
- SystemLogic
has posted a photo of the GeForce 256 powered Leadtek Winfast GeForce 256,
which, unsurprisingly, looks like a video card.
- Ars Technica's
SyGate 3.0 review and guide will help set up this proxy that allows you
to share an Internet connection between several machines on a LAN.
Wow was I feeling 100% again yesterday. In fact, my frisky fired-up self decided
to run into Manhattan in search of some parts to build that NT machine I've
been planning on building (I mentioned this a while back as my plan to cure the
low system resources in Win98 my use of Eudora, in particular seems to
provoke--more on this in a moment). Now, as loony noted here when he went on his
Slocket adapter hunt, New York City is not a hotbed of cutting-edge PC hardware,
but after considerable hunting, I managed to uncover the exact dual-CPU
motherboard I wanted, and then proceeded to search fruitlessly for a copy of NT
Workstation in the city's lone CompUSA, and a dozen stores surrounding it (who
all suggested going to CompUSA). Murphy's law had me come home with a lone CPU,
and Murphy's sister's law had it turn out to be defective of all things, so my
project is not really moving along towards the immediate gratification I
envisioned when bypassing the mail-order route for this. In a related soap
opera, turns out loony worked out the Eudora to Outlook conversion by exporting to Outlook
Express first. Now he says he can't figure out how to selectively download large
attachments. Like my nanna, nanna Rosanadana used to say.... if it's not one
thing, it's another.
Link of the Day: Proptronics, Inc..
Home of those cardboard home entertainment systems. There's got to be a fun use
for these things if they got into the right hands. Thanks Awea Kinkesch and
Shadowstar.
PC.IGN is reporting that Mortyr,
a game that's been finished for some time now (and released overseas) has finally
gotten an American publisher. It turns out that HD Interactive, who released
the game overseas will in fact be releasing the game here in the US. Look for
it to arrive sometime in October.
AVault's Ground Zero coverage has posted
an interview with none other than John Romero in MP3 format. The interview is
remarkably long for such a small file (13 minutes, 1.72 MB) and the page is
illustrated with plenty of pictures from the event.
Beta 3 of CounterStrike,
the popular anti-terrorist mod for Half-Life has been released, and is available
for download at its official site
(thanks FranX). This version has a ton of fixes, and adds a knife weapon, a
kevlar vest and helmet as well.
Creative Labs has posted new
beta drivers for their 3D Blaster TNT 2 Ultra card, which are based on NVIDIA's
2.08 reference drivers, albeit with some minor changes (such as improved TV
out). Thanks Mike Granito for the tip.
GameFan has posted
a hands-on preview of Eidos and Cinematix Studios' Revenant, with a detailed
look at this isometric game that described as a mix of "role playing, third
person action and 3-D fighting."
AVault
is reporting several things related to the Unreal Tournament demo this evening...first
off, the demo will be "released before Saturday" and will in fact
be for 3dfx cards only. "A few days later" Epic will release a demo
that supports both Direct3D and OpenGL. They're also reporting that contrary
to rumor, UT has not (yet) gone gold. Update: a member of the UT development team has informed us that, "the demo will most likely hit the net on Thursday with the full version following around Sunday or Monday (the full version being the one that supports Direct3D and OpenGL)."
This week's Diablo II
shot of the week has been released by Blizzard. According to Diablo
II.net, this shot shows the Necromancer casting the "Amplify Damage"
curse.
Acclaim has added new FAQs for two of their recently released games, Shadow
Man, and ReVolt.
Both of these deal with common errors people have been reporting, so if you've
had problems with either one, be sure to check 'em out (thanks Frans).
AVault
has posted the version 1.03 patch for Darkstone. This patch has a number of
fixes and improvements, including a new difficulty level (Hero), the ability
to call your second character using "D", and more.
Well, it took a little longer than originally planned, but I've posted the
answers to our last trivia contest. These questions were certainly difficult
(only two people managed to get them all) so run
on over and see what the right answers are, and look for a new contest later
this week.
Sharky Extreme's ECTS Report: Unreal Tournament At The Playing Fields gives a
from the trenches report from the Playing Fields in London where they had a
big ole Unreal Tourney tourney at ECTS. The article gives hands-on impressions
of the game itself and LAN netplay from the event.
3DGPU has posted
an interview with Richard Huddy of Developer Relations at NVIDIA. The interview
deals largely with the support gamers can expect from software developers for
those swanky new features in their GeForce 256 chips, and there's this interesting
list mentioned: The developers which are out in the open are (in alphabetical
order) Acclaim, Bungie, Computer Artworks, Gas Powered Games, id, Rage, Sierra
Studios, The Whole Experience. There are numerous others planning early DX7
T&L titles but until they make their own public statements it would be improper
for me to name names. But make no mistake, this is going to be a T&L Christmas!
Raven's Jake Simpson updated his
.plan with the latest on two projects currently in development over there,
Soldier of Fortune, and Star Trek: Voyager (as well as his thoughts on two recent demos). There's some good stuff in here, including word that SoF will be
supporting the force feedback mouse that's coming soon (I believe this is the
first time it's been mentioned). Here's what he had to say: ...SOF
is coming along great guns. I'm busy dealing with the sound system issues and
also trying to get Force Feedback working correctly. The microsoft Force Feedback
system is a tad easier to actually use, since all the effects are kept in ROM
on the joystick itself, its just a call, and wham, there it goes. The Logitech
system is a bit more complicated, since you have to create the effect yourself,
with attack/decay/sustain/release stuff like we used to have back on the old
C64.
Its more complicated yes, but its infinitely more flexible than the microsoft
stuff, since thats limited to whats in the ROM. If we do this right, and I'm
hoping we can, then we will actually have an editable file so you can create
your own feed back effects, assuming that you have a logitech joystick. Thats
the plan anyway, and its all subject to change of course. Oh, and we are doing
our best to support the Force Feed back Mouse too. The drivers right now are
a bit iffy, but we are working with Immersion, the guys responsible for these,
to get them right.
Star Trek is coming along well too. There is much discussion right now about
whether we use the new skeletal animation system that Carmack is developing,
and what this would do to our timelines if we did. While there is an argument
for using it, the amount of re-development time it would take us to rebuild
and animate our models is in question. The guys at Id can afford to do it easily
since they only have about 40-50 frames per guy to deal with. We start at 200
and go up from there. You can see the problem of balance. Its basically memory
vs re-development time. I'm just glad James Monroe makes that call. :)
GameSpot
UK's Star Trek Voyager Elite Force Preview is online offering an illustrated
(with screenshots) look ahead at Raven Software's upcoming Quake III engine
shooter set in the Star Trek universe. Here's a bit from the preview on what's
being done to the Quake III engine (being designed with the multiplayer-centric
upcoming Quake III Arena in mind) to accommodate the single-player game: Elite
Force's single-player aspect has forced the addition of improved non-player
character AI and the ability to save the game, and it also has a modified
special effects system to more accurately reflect the television series.
Despite this seemingly light conversion system, there is no question that Star
Trek Voyager: Elite Force is a simple first-person shooter. Half-Life has raised
the required standard, and new games ignore this at their peril. Sure enough,
Elite Force borrows some important factors from Half-Life. The most obvious of
these is the ability to interact with the other characters. Just as you
"used" Barneys in Half-Life to carry on a conversation or to help you
when necessary, this simple conversation system gets you through some of the set
pieces in Elite Force.
AVault
has posted eight new screenshots from Gearbox Software's upcoming official add-on
for Half-Life, Opposing Force, which show off an interesting sequence - here's
a description: As the player enters the room and heads for the apparent
exit, an explosion erupts at the far end. This sets in motion a series of sequential
triggers that collapses the room, piece by tiny piece, including rising slime,
swinging ladders and crumbling bridges. The levelheaded gamer will be able to
leap onto a falling bridge and escape the room at the last moment as the slime
rises to the top. In the words of lead design Randy Pitchford, it is an “epic”
sequence.
AVault
has posted nine new screenshots from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen,
a third person action game powered by the Unreal engine currently in development by The Collective.
PC.IGN has posted four new
screenshots from Thief Gold, the special edition of Thief: The Dark Project
that features four new missions in addition to the ones already in the game
(thanks VE).
Games
Domain has posted an interview with Pandemic Studios' Wil Stahl, talking
about their first person strategy/action title Battlezone II (thanks Frans).
Most of the questions deal with the technical features of the game, although
there are questions about the multiplayer options in the game, as well as Pandemic's
plans for the future.
SimHQ
has posted a preview of Rogue Spear's multiplayer, based on a LAN test of a
beta version of the game. Rogue Spear has gone gold and should be arriving in
stores any day now.
Adventure Gamer has posted an
interview with Ragnar Tørnquist, a producer, designer, and writer
on Funcom's "point and click" style adventure game. If you're not
familiar with the title, you should check out this
preview they ran recently, where the author gushes about how impressive
he thinks it is.
Xatrix' Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin updated
his .plan with a reassurance for those eager to dig into programming
their own modifications for Xatrix' Quake II-engine game, that the Kingpin Software Development
Kit is indeed on its way, although he points out: "There are several
processes that need to be undertaken before it can be released, most of which
are out of my direct control."
There are five new Revenant Screenshots on GA-Source
showing off action from this upcoming action/RPG from Eidos that looks like it has a Diablo feel.
There are some new BattleCruiser 3020 screenshots online, including new BC3020AD
Strike Pack shots, three
new shots of Cruisers, and, from the game's first person module, a shot of
the "When you absolutely have to kill every motha-f*cker in the room, the
kick-ass multi-mode
Ziegler Spec 10 combat assault gun" (!).
On an unrelated to gaming jaunt about Time Magazine, I spotted an article there on the
Female Frag Fest and gaming competitions called Queens of Quake
on TIME Digital that offers a look at the recent event, along with quotes
from some of the participants. Also, Support through massacre
is a Toronto Star article (thanks Marcy) that gives an even more detailed
rundown on the proceedings, and talks to the tourney's organizers (the Time
piece talks with CPL organizer Angel Munoz instead). Also talking with Angel is Quake Shakes Manhattan
a TechWeb article (thanks
Tom"Kreed" Nelson) with the requisite headline focusing more on the
Cyberathlete Professional League Ground ZERO event (which included the FFF).
ZDNN Intel cuts chip prices -- again
details further price cuts in Intel CPUs, including the first price cuts on
PIII-600 ($669 to $615), and a drop on the PIII-550 to $423 (in lots of 1000).
Thanks AMD Zone. Newer versions of the
PIII-600 & 550 that support the 133 MHz front-side bus are expected to be
announced in two weeks. The article also describes cuts in Celeron prices by
Intel, and goes on to recap last week's announced CPU price cuts by AMD.
The first round of articles on the newly-announced 3dfx FXT1 texture compression
can be found on Sharky Extreme,
EuroGamer News,
and Extreme Hardware (there are likely
to be more of these as the day goes on).
A thread titled Messiah level editor
on the Shiny Developer's Corner messageboard offers word from Shiny Producer
Stuart Roch on why there are currently no plans on releasing the Messiah level
editing tools with the game: Currently there are no plans to release our
level editing tools to the public. While it's always cool to release the tools
to the gaming community to let everyone have a try at creating the next greatest
level, the editing tools are VERY complicated. As crazy as it sounds, it takes
our experienced level artists/designers roughly 6-10 months to create an entire
level from scratch when you consider both the geometry and textures. Releasing
the tools also adds some overhead to the development of the project. Even if we
had no plans to support the tools with the end users, we still have to put
together some sort of support documents to get people started and make sure that
the tools have a reasonable level of user friendliness.
Stuart Roch, Producer
Shiny Entertainment
Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers:
The weather I was feeling under continued to hover about yesterday, but a bit of
laying low has me feeling much better (though my internal clock is now all
messed up). A suspicious reader named x-zone wrote in
to playfully suggest that this was a Final Fantasy VIII addiction rearing its
ugly head, but that's not the case, it's actually loonyboi who's the FFVIII freak (I
don't even own the game), and he proved his strength of will yesterday by
hanging in there with the news updates in my absence, in spite of the
call of the PSX.
Link of the Day: Assassin Presents Taco Bell Dog.
From the folks who created the Hamster Assassin (much better tech than punch
John Tesh). Feed him gorditas and tacos until the inevitable happens (how
come I think it would only take one in real life?). Thanks bonsai.
Image of the Day: Hurricane
Floyd. Speaking of under the weather... As Ryan, who sent this in, points out: "It's bigger than
Florida!"
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