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Wednesday, Oct 06, 1999

  

Daikatana Preview

PC.IGN has posted a decent sized writeup of Daikatana, which is based on the author's experience at the recent ION press reception. There's a rundown of each episode, a lot of details on the gameplay, and even some new screenshots for you to look at.

Sweeney on Windows 2000

Epic's Tim Sweeney made an update to the Unreal Technology Page, with some thoughts on the new Windows 2000 RC2 - and he likes it. According to Tim, the localization features of Windows 2000 will make international versions of Unreal easier to make, since it's all done using Unicode (which Unreal uses as well). Thanks to Frans for the tip.

Tomb Raider 4 Movies

Eidos' FTP Site has posted four movies from their upcoming game Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. The movies show off both the PC and Playstation versions of the game, and are available in both large and small versions. Thanks to Frans, who's mirrored the PC movies at 3DGamers.

Rune Interview

AGN3D has posted an interview with Timothy Gerritsen, Human Head's business director, talking about his background in the industry, and some questions about their Unreal 2 engine title of Viking glory, Rune (thanks Frans).

Septerra Core Gold

According to Gone Gold (who tends to know about these things, hence the name), Septerra Core, the console-style PC RPG that's being published by Monolith has gone gold. Expect it to arrive in stores soon.

Shadow Man Patch

AVault has posted a patch for Acclaim's third person action title Shadow Man, which fixes an annoying bug that would throw some users back to the desktop after launching the game.

Crusaders Preview

Frans sent this along yesterday, but somehow both myself and Blue managed to forget to post it...Gamecenter has posted a preview of Crusaders of Might and Magic, a new 3D action/RPG game set in the Might and Magic universe, complete with screenshots.

Team Fortress 2 Interview

3D Palette interviews Steve Theodore talking to the Valve Software modeler/animator about his work on their team-based first-person-shooter, Team Fortress 2.

Omikron Preview and Interview

GamePower's Omikron The Nomad Soul First Look is online with a preview of Quantic Dreams' upcoming third-person action game. Thanks Outcast Central. In addition to a rundown of the game, a pile of screenshots and a copy of the gameplay movie, the piece also offers conversation with Quantic Dreams founder John Cage about the game.

On No Mac SoF and ST:V

Raven's Rick Johnson updated his .plan with some pointed comments on why there will likely be no Mac ports of Raven's upcoming Quake II-engine Soldier of Fortune, or their Quake III-engine Star Trek: Voyager--Elite Force. Here's the deal:

Just had a management meeting, and the topic of Macs came up. We haven't had any support from Macintosh at all to do ports, haven't received any equipment, and they won't even do us the courtesy of returning emails. So this is starting to look like we just won't be doing any Macintosh ports, which includes our Quake3 engine game Star Trek: Elite Force. Macintosh has typically been one to ignore the gaming scene, and it appears that they still haven't changed.

Imperium Galactica II Trailer

Official Imperium Galactica II. Homepage has been updated with "the latest movie trailer" from this upcoming 3D RTS. The trailer seems to be presented in some sort of proprietary executable format. Thanks The Adrenaline Vault News.

Unrealty Demo Released

A demo version of Unrealty, the oddball real estate demonstration program that's based on the Unreal engine has been released, and is available for download. You'll need a retail Unreal CD to run it, but here's what's contained in the 12 meg download (which does in fact feature network support):

The demo features the full demonstration level of the headquarters of the Heartland Business Park, a real business park on Long Island, NY, including an interactive, talking tour guide who leads you on a seven point, repeating tour.

Delta Force 2 Preview

GameSpot UK has posted a preview of NovaLogic's Delta Force 2, offering a look at this voxel powered (and now somewhat 3D accelerated) tactical shooter.

Tomb Raider 4 Images

GameSpot UK has posted (cough) 105 new images from Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, including 7 new images from the CGI sequences in the game. The new images start on page 21 of their previous Tomb Raider gallery, so jump straight there to check them out.

Mac Unreal Status

The official Westlake Interactive site has been updated with a status on the Mac version of Unreal, including word that there will not be any further updates released in the forseeable future (thanks Tim Tibbetts of 3DFiles). Here's the whole thing:

Unreal 224b7 is the current version of Unreal Mac, and will be the last update for the foreseeable future.

It has been a very difficult decision, but after over a year of providing free updates to the Mac community in an attempt to keep the Mac version of Unreal up to par with the rapidly changing PC version, we have to move on. During the past year we worked on Unreal updates in the spare time between other projects, outside of our normal contracts, but this has become increasingly difficult. Because of changes on the PC side, we have almost completely re-written Unreal Mac several times since the 1.0 release, even though we were contractually obligated only to fix Mac specific bugs. We thought each update would be the last, and would finally allow the game to be played to its fullest. But every time the Mac version caught up, another patch was released for the PC. And with version 224, the Mac version is now up to the last public version of the PC that it is possible to update to. We are aware some third party maps only work with the 225 PC version, but unfortunately we never received the 225 PC code, and the original PC developer no longer has it (after releasing the PC 225, the code was modified to a 226 version that was never cleaned up enough to be released).

Unreal Mac is still supported (as it always was) by MacSoft, and they are the technical support provider for anyone who has questions or problems with the game. Any email about Unreal sent to Westlake email addresses will only receive an automated response with this message and the contact information for MacSoft technical support.

Work continues on Unreal Tournament Mac, which is still scheduled to be released within a month of the PC version. We are doing extensive testing of Unreal Tournament to provide the most stable and fun experience possible when it ships. And with the cooperation of Epic(the original PC developer), we hope that Unreal Tournament Mac will require few if any updates after it ships.

We hope our decision to suspend maintenance on Unreal Mac and concentrate on bringing great new games to the Mac will be understood by Mac gamers, and they will continue to enjoy Westlake products.

Soldier of Fortune Interview

RPOV has posted an interview with Raven Software's Kenn Hoekstra, talking primarily about his work on Soldier of Fortune, where he's Project Administrator, but also other subjects, such as his thoughts on hardware, and his transition from level designer to administrator.

Freespace 2 Interview

Stomped has posted an interview with Mike Kulas, Adam Pletcher, Jasen Whiteside, Dave Baranec and Jason Scott, the head group of designers on Volition's space sequel Freespace 2. The interview contains a number of questions about how the game turned out, as it was conducted after the game went gold.

iMac Got Game

IMG Magazine has posted their look at the new line of iMac computers from Apple, and have taken a look at how it will be able to handle games. The new iMac DV features a DVD-ROM in addition to the ATI Rage 128 card that's in all the new iMacs.

Soldier of Fortune Actors

Raven's official Soldier of Fortune site has been updated, and now contains a full list of the voiceover actors in the game. The cast includes alumni from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as the Terminator films, and Armageddon.

Loki Interview

GA Source has posted an interview with Scott Draeker, the president and founder of Loki Entertainment, the company behind the Linux ports of Railroad Tycoon 2, Civilization: Call to Power, and Myth 2: Soulblighter.

Nocturne Not Gold - Yet

FGN Online, who posted word that Nocturne had gone gold yesterday, has posted a follow-up from Terminal Reality's Jeff Smith, who says, "I work in house here so I can tell you for sure we have not gone gold." He does, however, insist that the game will go gold on its intended date of October 15th.

Halo Interview

There's a Nathan Bitner Interview on Halonews.com talking with the Producer and Creative Developer on Halo, Bungie Software's upcoming third-person single-player and multiplayer action game. Thanks opiate. Here is a bit that talks about the single-player portion of the game that addresses possible comparisons to TRIBES:

Creating a really finely tuned single-player game is more of a challenge than multiplayer, where you don't have to worry so much about AI, balancing difficulty with different player skill levels, relating a compelling story, etc. As popular as multiplayer is, there are still many more people who play single player, so in that respect, Halo is practically guaranteed a larger audience than competing titles.

I have to add that Halo is not just “Bungie’s answer to Tribes”, as many people have commented. Halo is going to bring aspects of both multiplayer and solo gaming to the table that no other game has ever seen before. It is fair to say that both the Sierra series and Halo are going to focus on teamplay when it comes to the multiplayer environment. However, just a few of the things that will distinguish the game (and, believe me, there are many others that I can’t yet talk about) are:...

John Carmack Q3A Worklog

An update to John Carmack's .plan offers the latest edition of the id Software lead programmer's worklog, detailing progress on Quake III Arena. Here goes:

* fixed steady snapshot test
* fixed incorrect 0 ping if past client messages
* fixed loser-disconnecting-at-tourney-intermission sorting problem
* general purpose flood protection, limiting all user commands to one a second by stalling the client, so the commands don't actually get dropped, but are delayed as needed
* replace headnode overflow with lastCluster
* fixed bad extrapolation on unpausing
* fixed player twitch on unpausing
* print client names on loading screen

BZ2 Shots & Contest

There are five new screenshots on BZ2.COM showing off action from Activision and Pandemic Studios' upcoming action/strategy hybrid sequel. Four of the shots are of land-borne combat, and the fifth shows off some scenery in outer-space (looking, as they describe it, "like something out of Homeworld"). Also, Pandemic Studios' Official Battlezone II Site has a new contest underway offering prizes for helping to pimp the game.

Vampire Preview

Computer Games Online previews Vampire: The Masquerade—Redemption looking ahead at Activision and Nihilistic's upcoming third-person game of blood-sucking fun. If you're confused about Vampire's pen-and-paper roots, reading the preview will either help or hurt, as they offer the following explanation:

Now, some "traditional" pen and paper role-players may immediately mention a company called White Wolf and its very popular Vampire: The Masquerade game system. Others, who tend more towards the collectable card market, will remember Jyhad, a Magic-like game based on White Wolf's vampiric socio-political structure. And some poor few will recall the wicked stepsister of this family, a thoroughly rancid Aaron Spelling TV show called Kindred. However loosely, these disparate properties all tie into a game universe called the World of Darkness, where vampires rub shoulders with faerie-folk, and werewolves become the ultimate eco-terrorists.

X Preview

The Adrenaline Vault previews X - Beyond the Frontier looking ahead at this upcoming space sim that's still on the way in the US, in spite of the impression it may be out already, since there's been a version out in Europe for a while now (not to mention that X benchmarking tech demo release oh-so-long ago). The preview describes an open-ended game that allows for differing styles of play:

For example, you know you have to make money -- so, you can become a legitimate businessperson, buying and selling goods from the many outposts and factories scattered throughout space and playing for profit within X's fully functional model of supply and demand. If you're so inclined, you can even purchase factories and refineries, hire ships to provide it with raw materials and haul goods, and become a corporate mogul. On the other hand, it's also possible to operate on the fringes of society, preying on above-board trade as a bloodthirsty pirate. Or, you can do something in between.

AM Tech Bits

Lee Perry Interview

Penny Arcade has posted an interview with Lee Perry with a fairly crazed conversation with the art director on Anachronox, ION Storm's upcoming Quake II-engine RPG. The Q&A talks a bit about the game, and offers a lot of all caps screaming, apparently as part of the interview's torture theme.

Revenant Chat Today

CaliGirl sends word of an online Revenant chat at 7:00 PM EDT (4:00 PM PDT) in the Eidos Chat Lobby on Mplayer.com. Game Designers and Producers from Eidos' RPG/Action game Revenant will be in attendance to answer questions and give away some prizes.

Dark Reign II Designer Diary

A new installment in GameSpot's Designer Diary for Dark Reign 2 is online, in which "Greg Borrud sizes up the competition and answers some commonly asked questions about Dark Reign 2." Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

UT ngWorldStats Bug

Craig from NetGamesUSA sends news of a bug in the ngWorldStats for Unreal Tournament rankings system he describes as "minor but important." Word is the bug will be fixed before the weekly stats are reset on Saturday, when they will also be revealing details behind how the ranking algorithm works and launching a forum to discuss such things. According to Craig: "We are very open to players thoughts on the subject and look forward to their feedback in order to make the system the best it can be when the retail version ships."

UT Tweak Guide

3D Spotlight's Unreal Tournament Tweak Guide is online, offering some thoughts on improving performance by cracking open that intimidating-looking advanced properties tab and tweaking away.

Reviews

Follow-up

There are some questions in this life that we never can answer properly. Fortunately, the chicken or the egg question about the Rainbow Six game and book that's gone around the block in this space a couple of times in the past couple of days is not one of them, as Red Strom Entertainment's Jeff "Mad Samoan" Wand, modeler/artist on Rogue Spear, sends along what's hopefully an authoritative explanation of which is the cart and which is the horse here:

The book was based on the game. The original concept for the game was conceived in a brainstorming session with Clancy. The original idea was that it be a 3D first person SWAT game, but Clancy threw in the idea of taking it on a grander scale and giving it an international antiterrorist angle. Some time later after the brainstorming session, he decided it was such a great idea that he'd make a book out of it, tie it in with the game, and maybe someday, a movie. Hopefully starring me.

etc.

  • Word from the folks behind Voodoo Review is that the upcoming Fall '99 issue (with Battlezone2 on the cover) of this 3dfx-centric gaming magazine will be its last. Dimension Publishing will be contacting subscribers about refunding the remainder of your subscription...
  • Captured.Com's Editorial To Grapple or Not To Grapple complains about the planned lack of grappling hook in Q3A CTF, with an editorial on the anti-hook side of the issue to follow. Imagine how heated opinions on this subject might be if Q3A CTF were actually available to see how this all worked?...
  • The Info_Design Files section has posted a utility called StripEmpty for Quake-engine game mod authors "to remove any key information that is empty." Word is this will solve "Entity text too long." error messages...
  • Computer Games Online has posted a short list of three cheat codes for Sinistar Unleashed, THQ's new arcade space shooter...
  • PlanetDeerHunter is underway. No, this is not a parody. The site refers to its own launch as "long anticipated," though no word as to by whom...

Out of the Blue

I'm working on day three of a backache, which is no fun... if it persists, look for me to rename my nick Igor or something similar. I braved the pain to play some UT today, and found that even a short period of inactivity really costs you in the ladders, as I played pretty well, but have fallen way down the list nonetheless. This is bad news for my cohort MrCoffee, who although due out of the hospital any day now, is still going to be offline as far as gaming goes for the foreseeable future, as it turns out one of the things he busted was his mouse hand (removing a lot of gaming from what could have been part of the bright side of being at home recuperating). Thanks to all who send along well wishes for him, and apologies for the shock to the couple of acquaintances of my busted-up buddy who learned of his accident reading about it here (I didn't even consider that).

Link of the Day: The Pump Room. Woah! Please make sure you aren't eating when you check out the gallery. And please don't try this at home (or anyplace else for that matter). Thanks ShanMonster.

Tuesday, Oct 05, 1999

Halo Update

Bungie's official Halo site has undergone a redesign, and now contains the MacWorld movie in three different quicktime formats, small, medium, and large (which are 5.6, 11.6, and 26.6 meg respectively). The movies are all in Quicktime 4 format, and are of a much higher quality than the 50 meg one that's been floating around.

Codename Eagle Demo

There's an Exclusive Codename Eagle Demo on GA-Source with a playable demo of Take 2 Interactive and Refraction Games' upcoming action/adventure game of sea, land, and air combat. The demo is about 31 MB and offers a single level with five weapons and a number of other usable items as well as drivable vehicles like a motorbike, an armored car, and an airplane.

Diablo II Shot

This week's Diablo II shot of the week has been posted by Blizzard, and this week's shot shows the Paladin duking it out with a camouflaged Razorback (thanks Diablo II.net).

PSX Quake II Ships

Activision has announced that the Playstation version of Quake II has shipped, and should be available in stores soon. The PSX port features 19 levels, dual shock and PSX mouse compatibility, as well as a new enemy.

On Unreal Tournament Runes

Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart updated his .plan again, with details on a "runes" style system he's working on for Unreal, as well as details on the new interface for Mutators. Here's an excerpt:

I'm working on a rune style system for UT. Instead of "runes" I'm calling them Relics. Anyone working on runes for UT will probably want to hold up and wait until the Relic system is ready. It'll allow mod authors to quickly make new types of Relics that server admins can download and add to their games. I'll have a set of guidelines for writing new Relics. The Relics may not ship with UT since they'll need a good bit of testing for balancing. Relics will be the "official" method of adding runes to maps and can be added to any gametype (DeathMatch, CTF, etc).

Driver Patch

GT Interactive has released a patch for their literally just-released action racing game Driver that fixes all kinds of bugs that managed to make their naughty way into the shipping product. Thanks to AVault for the tip, and they've got a local copy of the file up if you need an alternate download site.

New iMacs Announced

Apple has announced their new lineup of iMac computers, which now sport faster processors (350 or 400 MHz G3s) as well as a new beefier sound system from Harman/Kardon, ATI RAGE 128 video cards (with AGP 2x), an optional DVD-ROM, and even compatibility with their AirPort wireless networking system. Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski for the tip.

On Bots and UT Stats

Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart updated his .plan with a quote from NetGames USA's Craig Sparks regarding the way bots are handled in their ngWorldStats tracking system. Here's the scoop:

There has been some concern over stat padding using bots in ngWorldStats. Bot activity in ngWorldStats is ignored for the accumulation of individual player stats. Here is the word from Craig Sparks (President of NetGames, USA):

"A individual games "ngStats" will show the bot kills and match up tables, etc. But that player's ngWorldStats totals and stats only take into account human vs. human interaction. All bot information is ignored for those totals. The ELO rating system (which will be documented in the coming days) only takes into account wins/losses/frags/etc. against human players."

Daikatana Shots

AVault has posted two new shots from Daikatana (taken at this weekend's ION Storm press reception). One shows off the game's final, "Alcatraz" episode, while the other shows off one of Romero's favorite enemies.

Werewolf Screenshot

Unreal Universe has posted a new screenshot from ASC Games upcoming Unreal-engine lupine action game, Werewolf: The Apocalypse--Heart of Gaia--Scourge of Darkness--Legacy of the Night--Terror... oh yeah where was I? The shot is one of three they've gotten their claws on, and they plan on posting the other two over the next couple of days.

Omikron Demo News

Olivier Demangel, project manager on Omikron: The Nomad Soul passing along word that they've just completed work on a playable demo for this upcoming third-person action game. As for when it would be made available, Oliver says, "I think it will be available at the end of October."

New OpenGL Doom Legacy

The OpenGL DooM Legacy page has a new beta 9 of version 1.2 of OpenGL Doom Legacy, the OpenGL port of Doom Legacy, the updated version of Doom, id Software's classic shooter. The new release fixes some bugs, adds a game launcher, and improved Glide support. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

FreeSpace 2 Patch

There's a new patch for the just-released FreeSpace2 that fixes a problem on Win95a/OSR2 systems that causes the game to repeatedly ask for CD #2 on installation. Parallax Online has instructions how to get the new version 1.01 through the FreeSpace2 auto-updater, where it has been available for a couple of days (even if the install didn't work properly because of the problem the new version addresses), and now Freespace2.com and The Adrenaline Vault Downloads have the patch as a separate download. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

KISS Interview

There's a KISS Psycho Circus Interview on CheckOut Games offering a Q&A with some members of Third Law Interactive, including Mark Morgan (artist), David Namaksy (level designer) and Mike Maynard (programmer) about progress on their upcoming LithTech-engine first-person shooter based on Todd McFarlane's comic based on the (hopefully) made up exploits of the world's most made up rock band. Here's a quote from Artist Mark Morgan on KISS' level of involvement with the project:

KISS has given us liberty to direct Psycho Circus as we see fit. Gene has himself seen the game and was pleased with what we had done at that point in time. Obviously, with any license, there are certain guidelines that must be followed, but so far, nothing we've designed steps outside those boundaries. I assume it's safe to say that KISS will let us work freely unless we step on someone's toes, which we have no intention of doing.

Mac Gaming Interview

IMG Magazine has posted an interview with Kathy Tafel, a member of Apple's developer relations group, talking about the Macintosh as a gaming platform, as well as her background in the industry.

Navy SEALs Returns

According to Well-Rounded News, publisher Codemasters has purchased the rights to two titles originally owned by Sierra: Navy SEALs, an Unreal engine tactical shooter, and Yosemite Entertainment's massively multiplayer RPG, The Realm. Navy SEALs is based on the novels of Richard Marcinko, a former SEAL officer, and has been delayed from its original ship date of mid-2000, to an as of yet unannounced time (thanks Chris Morris).

On Voyager, Q3A Models

The Q2PMP has posted a message from Raven's Brian Shubat regarding the interchangability of Quake III: Arena and Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force player models in deathmatch (originally posted to Raven's Forums). Here's what he had to say:

We are going to attempt that Q3A and Star Trek models be interchangeable and compatible between each program. That is to say when it comes to multiplayer deathmatch there shouldn't be a problem. Single player is a different matter altogether and Voyager will require many additional animations from Q3A models.

Experience Interview

Billy "experienced" Wilson has posted an interview with Patrick Moynihan on Voodoo Extreme, talking to The Whole Experience's designer about their hardware-intense FPS Experience. The interview features questions from Epic Games' Tim Sweeney, as well as a collection of previously released images at the bottom.

Nocturne Gold

According to FGNOnline, the Terminal Reality developed and GOD published title Nocturne (a creepy adventure game) has gone gold, and will be released to retailers this Halloween (just a few scant weeks away).

Daikatana Update

AVault's David Laprad was one of the members of the press that attended last weekend's press reception at ION Storm, and he's posted a big update on all things Daikatana. It's quite detailed, and contains descriptions of the sidekicks (who can be controlled via a voice menu that sounds similar to TRIBES or Unreal Tournament), as well as the character statistics system, and word that, "the core content is complete, with only testing and bug fixes remaining." There's also three new shots for your viewing enjoyment.

Halo Movie

The Halo movie that was originally shown at the NYC MacWorld expo is included on the latest edition of Computer Gaming World, and has been uploaded to Bungie.org, as well as 3DGamers Archives. The Movie is big, but very high quality, and if you've never seen the game moving, you should definitely check it out. And for the record, the movie is 100% in-game.

Newell & Sweeney Interview

GameSpy.com's The Future of Action Gaming offers opinions from both Valve's Gabe Newell and Epic's Tim Sweeney on the subject of where the genre is heading, along with one of the most horrifying accompanying graphics since the animated John Carmack moving mouth image some time back. The article is the second in a three part series, the first focused on The Future of Strategy with a planned third installment to look at RPGs. Here's a bit that quotes both Gabe and Tim on the impact of technology:

Finally, Sweeney feels that "Networking, RPC, security, and synchronization tech will improve and make huge distributed games more possible" and that "Eventually things will go to multi-server, seamless huge environments (at least in games where that is desirable.)"

Gabe Newell felt that the single most important issue facing game companies today, and the one that developers will have to solve before pushing the technology much farther, is the issue of scalability: making games that will work across multiple platforms from the past to the future.

Firing Squad on the Q3A Bus

There's a report on Thresh's FiringSquad giving their impressions of the Quake III Arena Bus Tour after it recently passed by their offices. The article offers conversation with id Software, a complete rundown on the new levels, and a whole load of photos.

LithTech Update

Monolith's Mike Dussault updated his .plan with a bit on the latest cool effect the programmers at Monolith have added to the LithTech engine (along with a comment on how the programmers at LithTech Licensee Third Law Interactive are adding coolness of their own). The subject at hand is "lightmap animations," which sound pretty damn cool, if not downright meniscus:

The coolest thing that got in lately is lightmap animations. Basically, we can now get shadowed effects for a bunch of things in the environment:

- When doors open, light floods out.
- Flickering lights in the environment cast shadows.
- Keyframed objects and lights cast shadows on things.
- As the sun rotates over the world, the shadows on everything move.

I'll be working on Certain Cool Enhancements to this next week!

UT Sniper Mutator

There's a new sniper mutator on Unreality that adds rules applicable to sniper-only combat in addition to the removal of the other weapons, including "enhancements" as rewards for kills (represented by "cheesy icons") and on-screen messages detailing what kind of shot you just made (head, torso...).

AM Tech Bits

New Jumbot

Rich's Project Warehouse has version 0.85 of The Jumbot for Half-Life. The new release of this AI opponent doesn't offer any new features, but is a bug fix addressing two problems that could cause version 0.8 to crash.

New Quake II RPS

There's a new version of Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) for Quake II on the Axis Productions website. In addition to some bug fixes, the new release of this server-side modification adds a capturelimit, an id command, autotext, and a rock, paper, scissors game-within-a-game.

Name Maker Studio

A new version 3.60 of Name Maker Studio is now available, offering an updated non-beta release of this program that offers colored and fun name support in games that support extended ASCII characters. Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski (speaking of extended ASCII characters).

Competition

Microsoft sends word of a MechWarrior 3 Meltdown Tournament to be held on the MSN Gaming Zone offering over $100,000 in prizes(!) including four brand new Harley Davidson Fatboy motorcycles. Vroom!

Contest

Kickass Gaming Network Contests is giving away of a copy of Microsoft's Close Combat Trilogy in conjunction with their review of this wargame series.

Reviews

Follow-ups

In the fine Brazilian tradition of complications having complications, a couple of follow-ups on follow-ups: I briefly posted a follow-up yesterday about the Doom GPL release (story) theorizing that the original story was inaccurate in saying that it would now be possible to sell games based on the Doom source under the GNU General Public License, but it turns out this is indeed the case, so the correction was incorrect. Tim Aidley pointed this out so quickly I just yoiked the follow-up, but I wanted to note it here in case you saw it in the brief time it was up. Also, A whole load of Tom Clancy fans wrote in saying they do not believe the Rainbow Six novel was based on the game, but no one seems to have concrete proof, so lets just say tie goes to the runner or something. The important thing is to keep the darn terrorists from winning (to complete this bizarro follow up with another Brazil reference, it can be pointed out that terrorism is due to "bad sportsmanship").

etc.

Out of the Blue

Another follow-up I should have mentioned yesterday is that I replaced Sunday's Link of the Day when I was reminded that it was posted previously by loony. I actually cooked up a simple LoD archive listing a while back, and have somehow lost the HTML (doh!), which could be helpful in detecting these dupes before they happen, but I should just run those bad-boys through the "Search!" box to double-check, since it can locate URLs just as easily as text (a little Blammo tip of the day for you). Anyway, sorry about the dupe. A full compliment, complete with a bonus, to help make up for it today:

Link of the Day: Return to the Planet of the Quakes a PlanetQuake/Planet of the Apes comic strip. What I'm supposed to have to do with the PlanetYada dealie is a mystery to me, but I guess it's artistic license.
Story of the Day: Robber Uses Clear Plastic Bag As Mask. Thanks DarkStar17 and Robert Kee.
Bonus Story: UT Players Cleared Of Fraud Charges. Nope, if it was really Unreal Tourney, it would be posted somewhere in the news above. Thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance.



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