Archived News:
PC.IGN has posted six new screenshots
from Gearbox Software's Half-Life: Opposing Force, an official add-on for last
year's uber-hit from Valve.
Also up on PC.IGN tonight,
is a new preview of SquareSoft's PC port of Final Fantasy VIII, which is actually
the first hands-on preview I've seen. The big news in the preview is that the
CGI movies in the PC version, unlike the port of Final Fantasy VII are high-resolution,
instead of blurry, pixelated movies.
The FragFacility has
posted a brief Q&A with Epic's Tim Sweeney, talking to him about the
next Unreal (1) patch, changes to the hud since the UT demo (there won't be
any), and the possibility of a help file with the editor (no such luck).
Blizzard has released a version 1.07
patch for their real time strategy game Starcraft. The patch will auto-download
if you connect to Battle.net within the game, or you can download it directly from Blizzard's
site. Thanks to TC over at Meccaworld for the tip.
The ever-astute Redwood sends word that
he's confirmed with 3DRealms' George Broussard, that Duke Nukem Forever will,
in fact, be integrating Epic's Unreal Tournament code base. This is the first
confirmation of this, as they had earlier stated that they had stopped integrating
new code from Epic. Stomped also posted
this quote, regarding the full status of the game: Once we move the code
to Unreal tournament's code base (November/early Dec), we'll be ready to rock
and finish the game up.
Gamecenter
has posted their report from The Frag 3, the LAN party that myself and Blue
attended this past weekend. The piece is written by Bill "crash" McClendon,
so it's full of oddball details, and there's a whole bunch of images as well,
for those of you who weren't able to attend.
Raven's Rick Johnson made another
.plan update with a clarification on his earlier announcement that there
will be both a Linux client and server developed for Soldier of Fortune. Here's
what he had to say: Little clarification, is that I guess the Linux version
will be a separate retail product.
Interest in the newly released Duke Nukem Forever screenshots appears to be as overwhelming as expected, so the individual images have been mirrored on DukeWorld, while the zip archive with all 10 images is also available on 3D Action Gamers and Stomped FTP (thanks Redwood).
Eidos has released a version 1.1 of the Tomb Raider: the Last Revelation demo (direct link, 13 MB). The included readme.txt doesn't describe the changes, but they likely include minor bug fixes, and the demo comes with an installer this time.
Raven's Rick Johnson updated his
.plan with word that there will in fact be a Linux port of both the Soldier
of Fortune client and server, as well as a quick note about, "a major AVI"
they just finished up. It's a small update, so here it is in its entirety: **
Big SoF News **
There is going to be a Linux port of both the client and server. Unfortunately,
because of the lateness of this decision, it will not be ready by the time the
game ships, but will be available to download as soon as it is available (hopefully
within a month of release).
We have completed a major AVI and will be releasing it very soon.
3D Realms has posted the first official screenshots of Duke Nukem Forever since the switch to the Unreal engine. These will also appear in the December issue of PC Gamer as announced earlier, but as scans of another preview popped up around the 'net, 3D Realms decided to release the real shots now. They are also available as one zip archive.
The following notice has been posted to the
official GLSetup homepage, explaining why users are getting errors when
running the web version of GLSetup: Build 107 has expired!
Unfortunately, the current build has expired and will pop up a dialog box to
that effect when you run GLSetup. We're working on a new build with updated
drivers and bug fixes and will have it ready in the very near future, but we
didn't get it done and tested in time to avoid the expiration, so please continue
to use Build 107 and "Continuing" through the expiration boxes.
id Software's John Carmack updated his
.plan with the latest installment of his work log. There's nothing too earth
shatteringly significant in here, so I won't paste it here, but he does mention
that the lightning gun damage has been dropped to 160 points per second amongst
other changes.
There is a new beta 12 release of OpenGL DooM Legacy, fixing a number of problems with this 3D-accelerated DOOM port. The update also includes a list of bugs still to be squashed.
The Whole Experience has released a 60 second trailer for their Dagoth Moor
Zoological Gardens demo. DMZG is a hardware demo for NVIDIA's GeForce 256 chipset,
and will be bundled with Creative Labs' 3D Annihiliator Pro card when it's released
this fall. The trailer is over at 3DFiles,
and is available for download in a 6 or 16MB ZIP file.
NVIDIA creates discontinuity in workstation market with new Graphics Processing Unit
is the press release announcing a new workstation accelerator GPU (Graphics
Processing Unit, a lá the GeForce256) called the Quadro. This card is not targeted
at gamers, though, the Quadro GPU will be offered in the new GLoria II
professional graphics accelerator board from Elsa, which they say "...will
allow engineers, animators and other creative professionals to achieve higher
levels of real-time interactivity and image quality, thereby reducing overall
design time and costs." Thanks 3DGPU.com, where they also have posted a Q&A with NVIDIA's Derek Perez about the new GPU.
ZDNet has posted an article titled Can
Fantasy Games Make Real Money? which analyzes the success of Ultima Online
and EverQuest, on the eve of the launch of Microsoft's Asheron's Call and Sega's
10Six (which goes into beta this week). The article is definitely interesting,
and worth a read if you're one of those completely addicted to these games.
The Spookhouse's dark
mistress Kazi Wren sends along this post to their forums by Terminal Reality's
Mark Randel, with more details (or lack thereof) on their upcoming title that's
based on the Blair Witch Project: In order to be fair to the print media,
we can't just give out all the information on what is going to be done with
the Blair Witch license on the Internet right now.
What I can tell you is that TRI will NEVER ever do something that is stupid.
Nobody in their right mind would make a game about college students running
around in a forest from a witch. While it made for a great movie, it would make
a boring game.
Nocturne, the game, is about the Stranger.
Imagine a stand alone mission that sends the Stranger up east to investigate
some sort of supernatural occurence.
You could call this stand alone mission: a stand alone game, an addon pack,
a sequel, a mission pack, or whatever you want. It, however, is not Nocturne
2.
The point is that we would never do anything to compromise the Nocturne universe.
Please thank your unappreciated Mistress of the Dark, Kazi Wren for keeping
you up to date with all the information as soon as she gets it. And for correcting
any misinformation as soon as it surfaces.
- Mark
Terminal Reality Inc.
TacticalPlanet
has posted a Q&A with Tom Hays, audio engineer on NovaLogic's Delta Force
2. Tom talks about his methods for sound creation, EAX (which they don't currently
support, but are looking into), and their Dolby Pro Logic positional audio system.
This New Times Los Angeles Online
article (I believe this is a free newspaper published by the same folks
as the Dallas Observer) that focuses heavily on violence in gaming, quoting
Xatrix' Drew Markham heavily about the subject as it relates to Kingpin: Life of
Crime. One of the noteworthy portions of the article (pointed out by sCary)
is this bit, that seems to confirm the rumor that Xatrix is working on a
Wolfenstein-3D follow-up called Castle Wolfenstein 2000: Markham is currently
overseeing his employees as they work constructing three-dimensional Nazi
soldiers and prisoner-of-war camps on their computer monitors. His company, the
West L.A.-based Xatrix Entertainment, is already well into the creation of its
newest game, a reformulation of a popular World War II POW fantasy that has
enjoyed two previous incarnations by other companies. Markham and his handful of
computer artists and programmers hope to have their Castle Wolfenstein 2000
in stores by Christmas next year.
There's a Scott Rudi Interview
on PlanetStarsiege talking about progress on TRIBES Extreme, and helping
clarify the differences between TRIBES Ex and the original TRIBES, as well as
the even further down the road TRIBES 2, calling TRIBES Extreme "somewhere between and
add on pack and an upgrade," comparing it to another project he worked on
updating Red Baron II to Red Baron 3D.
We almost failed to note that a new Unreal
Tournament Level of the Week has been posted, highlighting a map from
Epic's upcoming shooter. The new map is a CTF map called "The Lava Giant,"
which is a lava world where "combatants are issued special gravbelts for
each match so they may remain grounded on the last bit of terra firma."
An Interview with Bill Roper
on RPGamer talks with Blizzard's senior director about progress on Diablo
II, caching up with how some features that have been discussed in previous
interviews and previews have been implemented in the upcoming RPG follow-up.
Thanks SailorScout.
There's another new
screenshot from Anachronox on AnachronoxNews.com showing off a female
character running through an outdoor setting with some GeForce demo-style trees
in the background showing off the tweaked Quake II graphics in this upcoming RPG
from ION Storm.
There's a new beta 5 of MonkeySPI Quadmonkey,
offering an update to this Quake III server browser. The new release features
working sorting and adds some new graphical widgets, including a new add a
server interface.
The Gunslinger Quake 2 page
has a new version 1.2 for Gunslinger Quake 2, the wild west Quake II mod. The
update addresses the problem that caused jerky movement when encumbered, and a
couple of other bugs. Gunslinger Quake 2 replaces the standard Quake II weapons
with classic old west shootin' irons. Each weapon has two firing modes, and most
of them require frequent reloading.
Version 2.3 of the TF II X-Project is now available, offering an updated version
of this Quake II mod that is inspired by the class-based teamplay of
TeamFortress Quake, though they stress that the TF in their title does not necessarily
stand for TeamFortress. The new version adds an off-hand grappling hook and a
chase cam mode as well as a bunch of bug fixes.
The ngTCS FRAG 3 Tournament
page and the NetGames USA
FRAG 3 Tournament Scoreboard are up with results from the FRAG3 compiled by
the crack compilers at NetGames USA.
Back in lovely NYC after a kooky four day/seven city (if you count stopovers) tour of the
USA.
The FRAG3 was a terrific event, definitely continuing the trend of the CPL events getting
smoother and more seamless every time out. This event featured one of the best layouts I
can recall (though there never seem to be enough spectator seats for the big matches),
food and drink sales available right in the middle of the gaming area (anyone who has ever
attended a LAN party large or small knows what a great thing this is), and the usual mix
of happy, friendly folks all focused on a quest for sleep-deprived LAN fun.
There were some great
matches (with the aforementioned final match that featured a kill to tie the match with
five seconds remaining on the timelimit!), though there was also at least one match that
degenerated into a shameful 0-0 that ran more than five minutes into overtime because
neither player seemed interested in leaving his camping spot--the type of play that does
not help gaming as a spectator sport. Props to the hard-working CPL staff and volunteers
on the success of the event. Some MAD PROPS are surely in order for Frans as well, for keeping things
running so smoothly here in his debut trial-by-fire weekend.
Link of the Day: Cliff, what is this look?
GT Forum. Thanks devilbunny.
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