Archived News:
A fairly busy day for Kingpin news has our third story this afternoon/evening related to
Xatrix' Quake II-engine life o' naughtiness game, as version 1.0 of the Kingpin
Competition on the Reactive Software
site. The mod adds the ability to elect server admins, set up and start
timed matches, and "on-the-fly" changes of teamplay modes between DM
and bagman. The mod also fixes a "bug" in bagman where money does
not disappear when a player suicides, eliminating what they call an increasingly
abused loophole in the game. This is a server-only mod, so clients need not
apply.
There are five new BattleZone II screenshots on PlanetBattlezone
showing off scenes from the upcoming first-person strategy sequel from Pandemic
Studios. The shots are hi-res 1024x768 jobbies, and they say there are more on
the way, so don't say you weren't warned.
An update to Poisonville's
Kingpin FAQ adds loads of information to this unofficial resource to help
answer questions about Kingpin: Life of Crime, Xatrix' criminal first-person
shooter. KungFu, the FAQ's maintainer, points out this is "as close as you
can get to an official FAQ," since he worked on Kingpin (who knew?).
The NOP website has a new and
improved version 3.2 of NOP, the statistics tool that supports Q3Test, the
Unreal Tournament Demo, and Half-Life. The new release adds support for Half-Life,
H-L CounterStrike, H-L TeamFortress Classic, and H-L Jailbreak. Also new is ASP
support to search player database and display player statistics, a bug-fix for
the problem that caused NOP to crash while parsing UTDemo logfiles, and more.
Richard Turnbull sends word that ACID REIGN,
the homepage of the Blitz Engine, has a new Blitz Engine SDK V0.02 Beta for
download. The new SDK offers "a few major bug fixes and many minor
improvements." In the new release, fogs curves correctly and standard
volumetric fog has been added, the dynamic lighting system has been fixed so
that curves light correctly, and smaller additions include inverse mouse
support, more console commands, and the ability to export levels at any point in
the program.
A new version 0.2 of RiEvEr's (or would that be RiEvEr'S?) Kraze! bot for Kingpin
is now available on The
Kraze! News. Thanks Poisonville.
This new versions adds the beginnings of teamplay support to this version of his
bot code for Xatrix' Kingpin: Life of Crime.
There's a Codemasters
interview on GA-Source with more on the future of the Navy SEALs
game that looks like it is going to be produced after all, following a period
when its future was in jeopardy due to the reorganizations at Sierra. The
Q&A talks with Tony Hernandez, the producer at Codemasters
on this first-person tactical simulation based on the exploits of ex-Navy SEAL
Richard Marcinko.
A new version 1.29 beta 9a of OpenGL DooM Legacy is available on the
newly-relocated OpenGL DooM Legacy Homepage.
Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
The new changes are minor: The archive now includes the proper doom3.wad for
those who had an out-of-date version, and the automap bug has been fixed. Any
other expected changes and fixes will wait for the next release.
There's a post on Descent3D with a
workaround to help those who may be having problems upgrading to the just
released full version of Descent 3 1.2 after previously applying the beta 1.2
patch. The fix involves mucking around in the registry, so caution is advised,
but if you can't get the patch working properly, desperate measures may be
called for.
3D Action Planet
previews Wheel Of Time with a hands-on look ahead at Legend Entertainment's upcoming
Unreal-engine game based on the best selling series of Wheel of Time books by
Robert Jordan. To accompany the preview they've snapped nine new screenshots.
GameSpy.com
interviews Gabe Newell talking with the Valve Software managing director
about how the impact of the user community on the success of present and future
games. The quote that begins the piece makes it clear that Gabe feels this is
going to be even more of a factor in the future: The user community is
going to be more and more important going forward. Companies that don't rethink
how they do business as a result of the opportunities represented by the
Internet will go away. When I worked on Windows, the user community was
incredibly far away. [Newell spent 13 years at Microsoft in the Systems,
Applications, and Advanced Technology divisions -ed.] We had no idea what
they thought, we had no way to talk to them, and we didn't have any way of
enlisting them in making Windows better. I'd say it wasn't until pretty late in
the 80's that even 1% of our consumer customers had email.
A new installment to Computer Games Online's
Ask A Developer has Cliff Bleszinski sharing some "(Un)real advice on
being a designer." answering the question "how hard is it to get into
the field of design?"
Happily Ever After Story Lines in the Action
Genre on GameSpy.com is an article featuring interviews Marc Laidlaw of
Valve Software, Niklas Pehrson of the Swedish developing team Refraction, and
Graeme Devine of id Software offering their opinions on the necessity of a
detailed storyline in action games.
This Half-Life Opposing Force Frequently Asked Questions
is a newly updated "semi-official" FAQ for Gearbox Software's upcoming
official add-on for Half-Life, where you play the role of one of the soldiers, heretofore
all believed to be among the bad-guys in the original Half-Life.
It's Gordon does Deutschland as the first beta of the War in Europe mod for
Half-Life is up on the Borderline
Studios Page, bringing World War II action to Valve's sci-fi shooter.
A new version of the Hexen32 Hexen Win32
source port is out, offering a first pass at Multi-Resolution support for a
maximum resolution of 1600x1200. Thanks Voodoo
Extreme.
This WONnet
Tournament in conjunction with Clan World Network
offers the chance to win an all expense paid trip to San Francisco to meet the
Valve Team, and become one of the first to play Half-Life Opposing Force. The
tournament will ultimately send the four best players to the event is in San
Francisco on November 10, to be broadcast live by Talkspot's
GameDive.
Thanks, as always, to Frans at 3D Action
Gamers for staying on top of the review scene:
- Webdog is now accepting new sites
again to be included in the sites tracked by this system tray website
tracking utility. The process is now an automated one...
- Interstate Mugshots is a site
devoted to displaying photos of Interstate '76 players (and in the future
I'82 players, as well). And not all of them look like Skeeter, either...
- There are six new screenshots on The Skynet Project
page for this upcoming Half-Life mod...
- Gamedesign.net Prefabs has
added about 50 new prefabs to their prefab database bringing our prefab
total to 609 useful mapping prefabs for level designers...
- The new RPG Mythology on GA-RPG
is by James Ohlen, Director of Writing and Design at BioWare describing the
stories considered for both Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter, but were
ultimately discarded...
- GA-RPG's World Fusion on
Atriarch Interview looks ahead at this "3D massively-multiplayer,
online, persistent role-playing & strategy game based on the alien and
organic world of Atriana."...
Well, this will be the third straight day with an update that references Blue's
Clues, a record that we can only hope isn't threatened anytime soon, but a flood
of readers wrote in to point out that Blue the dog from Blue's Clues is a she,
not a he. One can only hope that those writing in with this tidbit are parents,
because from what little I've seen, this is not one of those shows that makes
any attempt to appeal to a mind much beyond Tele-Tubbie age. Anyway, this is
great news, because the next time I get riled by confusion with Blue the dog, I
can get away with calling her a bitch. ![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif)
Link of the Day: The Sports
Illustrated for Kids Dancing Referee. You have to answer a football quiz to
get him to dance, but it's worth it for the trippy disco ref effect. Thanks Matt
Van Vleck.
Story of the Day: CNN - Police suspect killing was a Beanie Baby deal gone bad.
Thanks Matthew Rorie and Mike Martinez.
Bonus Link: The Hunger Site Home.
Thanks TERJE. Okay, so there's none of the usual LoD humor, irony, or attempts
at such, but how often can the LoDs that offer those save lives?
An update to EA's Alice Site adds a new
riddle, as well as the answer to the previous one in case your bat-computer
couldn't dope it out. The latest boggler continues the series of riddles to
promote American McGee’s Alice, the upcoming homage to Through the Looking
Glass that will use the Quake III engine. Thanks American McGees Alice Webring.
GA-Source Star Trek Deep Space
Nine interview talks with the folks from Collective Studios
about their upcoming Star Trek: Deep Space 9, a third-person action game based
on the Trek franchise of the same name.
NF proxy support site has an updated
version 0.48 of the Nitro 2 proxy is now available. This version offers support
for Quake, Quake II, Q3Test, and Half-Life, with support for QuakeWorld
planned for the upcoming version 0.50.
3D Rage has posted a
Q&A with Greg Zeschuk, the president of BioWare, talking about their upcoming
third person action title MDK2. MDK, as everyone knows, stands for My Daughter
Karen.
An Interstate
82 Development Update and Screenshots The Adrenaline Vault with no less
than 15 screenshots from the first 11 missions from a beta of Activision's
upcoming sequel to Interstate '76, which is powered by the
same 3D engine used in Heavy Gear 2. Look for them to post a full-blown preview
of the game based on this new build soon.
Vampire: The
Masquerade Design Log on the Vault Network offers a designer diary from
Nihilistic's Ray Gresko, giving the lowdown on progress on Nihilistic's upcoming
Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. Part one of his diary is titled "Origins
of the Masquerade," which goes into the background of the game and
Nihilistic. Saw that on PC.IGN.com
where they've posted a Vampire screenshot that looks familiar: I believe it was
previously published.
There's an Elite
Force Interview on 3D Nexus offing a conversation with Michael Gummelt,
programmer at Raven Software about his work on Raven's upcoming Star Trek
Voyager game, Elite Force, which uses the Quake III engine. The questions were
sent off to project leader Raven's Brian Pelletier but were apparently more
appropriate for Mike to answer.
There are new version 1.0b3
Beta 2 Voodoo3 Macintosh OS 8.x Beta Drivers on 3dfx Gamers. The new drivers
feature bug fixes to 2D acceleration code among other things. Word on the beta
drivers is "They are primarily intended for use by programmers wishing to
develop applications utilizing the Glide API on the Macintosh platform. 3dfx
will not offer end-user support nor warrant any hardware used in association
with these drivers." Thanks Colomb.
Pandemic's official Battlezone
II site has been updated with this week's screenshot of the week, as well
as two new units: the ISDF and Scion Turret. If that's not enough for you, PlanetBattlezone
has posted three new screenshots from this first person strategy game.
The newly redesigned 3D
Unlimited has posted five new screenshots from Monolith's LithTech 2 engine.
No specific game is named, although my guess is that they're from Monolith's
LT2 title No One Lives Forever (working title).
PC.IGN has posted a preview
of Volition's 3D role-playing game Summoner, the first RPG by the developers
of the Descent series. The preview is loaded to the hilt with screenshots, giving
a good look at the title.
3D Unlimited
has posted eight screenshots from The Collective's third person Unreal engine
game, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen. Some of them look familiar, but
either way they are impressive enough to warrant a look.
AliensvsPredator.com
will be conducting an interview with Fox Interactive's David Stalker, the producer
of Aliens vs. Predator, and they're soliciting questions from fans. If you're
interested in participating, swing over to their site and make your voice heard.
- Leadtek has announced that
their WinFast GeForce 256 card will be available in a separate version with
Double Data Rate RAM. This version will be priced $100 more than the standard
board (thanks Tweak3D).
- ChipTesters
has updated their weekly hardware price guide, which features a full list
of processors and their prices.
- 3D Unlimited
Reviews the Matrox G400 video card.
Thanks, as always, to Frans for most
of these.
After the Smurf-colored guy pointed out Next-Generation's typo in referring
to this here site as "Blue's Clues" yesterday, we received a deluge
of mail about the children's show of that name. We are all quite aware of Blue
the Dog and his wacky adventures...some even think they're modeled after our
own Blue (okay, so maybe those people are delusional...but around here, who
can tell the difference?). A
follow-up post at Next-Generation last night corrects the typo, which blames
the mistake on their just receiving Humongous Entertainment's newest Spy Fox
title, which of course, is called Blue's Clues. Worry not, those responsible
for the error have been sacked.
Link of the Day: Tom
Hall vs. The World. Yes, I know it's been a link of the day already...but
dear lord, he actually won (thanks Mike "D3" Lovell). I have
the sinking feeling that the end is nigh.
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