Archived News:
PlanetStarsiege has posted two
new pages from the ongoing TRIBES Extreme comic serial. They have five pages
altogether, and the next three will be posted on Thursday.
GameSpot has posted
an in-depth preview of Baldur's Gate II, which is based on a hands-on demonstration
of the game, and there's plenty of screenshots up as well.
NovaLogic has released another Delta Force 2 patch, available as a downloadable file (3.2 MB) or through the auto-update system. The version number is 1.02.25 but at this moment the changes are unknown, although that information will probably appear on this version history page soon.
The official Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force site has posted a developer profile of Chris Foster, introducing readers to Raven's lead level designer. Elsewhere, Star Trek: Creative has posted an interview with Kevin Schilder, Raven's audio manager who is also working on Elite Force.
As the Christmas season approaches, the number of new demos appears to go up. GA-Source as word of the Urban Chaos demo scheduled to appear on Gamecenter on Friday, clocking in at a reasonable 25 MB. There are some new screenshots on GA-Source as well. Meanwhile, Shiny announced in their developers forum (thanks VE) that their Messiah demo should appear on GameSpot, also on Friday, weighing in at a far more heavy 75 MB.
The official System Shock 2 FAQ has been updated with more troubleshooting tips for this popular action RPG, including new information on sound problems, controller trouble and gameplay issues.
Microsoft has released Internet Explorer version 5.01 on their Internet
Explorer downloads page. Expect it to appear shortly on Windows Update as
well. According to Richard Smith of Webdog this new version has the following changes: "the autocomplete is quicker, it ships with 56-bit encryption as standard (40bit before), FTP functionality is improved and there are other bug fixes as well."
GT Interactive has finally released their
official announcement regarding the completion of Unreal Tournament, and
while early reports claimed the game would be in stores on Friday, that doesn't
seem to be the case. Instead, GT is saying that the game will ship worldwide
on Monday, November 22nd. UT will have a suggested retail price of $54.95.
Planet RainbowSix has posted an
interview with Carl Schnurr, Red Storm's producer on Rogue Spear. Most of
the questions deal with looking back on the game after its release, but there's
also a question about the possibility of a dedicated server being released (which,
it looks like won't ever happen).
PlanetDaikatana has posted two
new in-game movies from the N64 port of Daikatana, which was recently pushed
back to early 2000 so they could include multiplayer.
IMG Magazine has
confirmed with developer Graphic Simulations that their Mac port of Descent
3 has gone gold, and pre-orders could be shipping as soon as Tuesday.
GA-Source has posted an interview with the people of SingleTrac, who are currently developing Rock, their upcoming first-person action hybrid. The article goes into detail about the game's storyline, features, gameplay, engine, and more. Here is a bit describing the game in a nutshell:
Rock is a squad-based action/strategy game that
emphasizes the whole theater of combat. Players play as
a squad leader and have to select and manage their
squad to accomplish mission objectives. Rock has
squad mates and unit types. The strategy components
come into play in how you match up the two and then
command them in the mission. Squad mates have
varying abilities and you need to use them in areas where
they are talented. It really matters how you organize and
outfit your squad.
GameSpot UK has posted 13
new screenshots from Half-Life: Opposing Force, showing off the introductory
sequence from the game. Opposing Force has gone gold and is due in stores on
Monday.
The Sightless Eye has posted an
interview with Blizzard's Bill Roper, talking to the designer about the
current status of Diablo II (which was recently pushed back to early 2000).
Here's an excerpt dealing with the current status of the game: The
Sightless Eye: I realize that this question has been asked before, but I
know that it hasn't been for awhile, so I'll ask again. Can you give us the
percentage of the game complete (approx.)?
Bill Roper: At this point we are content complete and are in the de-bugging,
polishing, balancing and incorporating Battle.net technology phase. I don't
think that I can really put an exact percentage to it, but we are very far along
with the game.
Voodoo Extreme has posted an
interview with Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski, talking about the recently
completed Unreal Tournament, the original Unreal, his role in the development
of Unreal 2 (he's the executive producer) and of course, there's some nonsensical
stuff thrown in as well.
Rayland Interactive has released an updated version of the demo for Big Bang, their 3D space shoot 'm up. There are no details on what is new in this version. Thanks DemoNews, who has posted a mirror here.
The second part of the Wheel of Time strategy guide is up on Legend level designer Matthias Worch's homepage. This part deals with the
business of hiding your seals effectively.
As the fifth and final episode of their series Games That Will Change Gaming, GameSpot has posted a preview of Good and Evil, a 3D RPG adventure that is being created by Ron Gilbert (of Monkey Island and Total Annihilation fame). Here is a bit more about the type of game Good and Evil is aiming for:
Largely inspired by Legend of Zelda, Gilbert is
designing a large, fully 3D world to be played
in a third-person perspective; it will be open
enough for gamers to explore on their own, in a
nonlinear fashion, while simultaneously
keeping things story based. Depending on the
choices you make, and on how much you
choose to explore, you will have different experiences while still
receiving the same major plot points.
GameGuides has released their Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear guide, providing you with all the advice you need to complete the tactical squad shooter, in either browsable or downloable format.
Epic's Steven Polge has posted a technical document on aspects of AI and Gameplay in Unreal Tournament that budding level designers should be aware of. Among the topics covered are the Navigation Network, Game Types, Level Info, and AI Difficulty Differences.
Daily Radar has posted an interview with LucasArts' production manager Wayne Cline, talking about their 3D action adventure which is now showing up in stores. Topics discussed are the game's setting and atmosphere, gameplay and combat, and more. Here is a bit about why Harrison Ford does not make an appearance in the game:
DR: How have you produced the game's sound effects? Did you use actors at all?
WC: We do use actors. Unfortunately Harrison Ford won't do computer games,
and he's very expensive as well! We're actually using Doug Lee for Indy, who
actually provided Indy's voice for Fate of Atlantis, so we do have some
consistency across our games at least.
All the other voices are from actors -- we go down to LA and record them in a studio, so it's fully voice acted.
Stomped's Q3A Character
Renderings page has been updated with still more of their exclusive renders
of the characters from id Software's upcoming Quake III Arena. Today's additions
are images of Angel, Mynx, and Biker.
id Software lead programmer John Carmack updated
his .plan with a clarification of how the flood protection works in the
Quake III Arena Demo Test for those who have been confusing some of the demo's
new behavior for bugginess. Here's the scoop, the full update also includes a
new worklog that mentions that high server idle cpu usage has been fixed
("it was spinning in place until maxfps was used!"): The demo
servers have general purpose flood-protection that has caused some confusion.
Clients are only allowed to make one command a second of any kind. This prevents
excessive flooding by chats, model / name changes, and any other command that
could possibly be exploited. The command streams are stalled, so it doesn't have
any effect on processing order or reliability.
This means that if you issue two commands immediately after one another, there
will be a one second stall before the second command and all movement clears.
You see this on the lagometer as yellow spiking up for a second, then dropping
away.
Hitting tab for the scoreboard sends a command, so you trigger the flood
protection if you bang tab a couple times. This has been fixed so that the
scoreboard will never send more than one update request every two seconds, but
you will need to watch out for it in the existing demo.
The defered model loading has also caused some confusion, but that is a feature,
not a bug. :-)
In previous tests, you hitched for a second or two whenever a client with a new
model or skin joined a game.
In the demo, when a client joins the game they will be given the model and skin
of someone else temporarily, so there is no hitch. The only time it will hitch
on entry is if it is a team game and there isn't anyone on the team they join. I
make sure the skin color is correct, even if the model isn't.
These "defered" clients will be loaded when you bring up the
scoreboard. You can do this directly by hitting tab, or you can have it happen
for you when you die.
The point is: you died BEFORE it hitched, not as a result of the hitch.
The scoreboard header is up, but it is still a bit easy to miss.
There are some new
SWAT 3 screenshots on Kickass Gaming Network offering a few more glimpses of
gameplay from Sierra's imminent tactical police shooter, which has gone gold,
and should be appearing on store shelves soon.
There are still more New Urban Chaos Screenshots
on GA-Source with nine more new looks at this upcoming 3D action
extravaganza from Mucky Foot.
There are some new Star Trek Armada
screenshots on GameSpot UK showing off more intergalactic gameplay from
Activision's upcoming title that looks to boldly go where no real-time strategy
game has gone before. Thanks Star Trek Creative.
Wolfen sends word that last-night's Conan O'Brien show featured an
appearance by David Bowie where the one-time thin white duke spoke about his
involvement in Eidos' Omikron: The Nomad Soul. Also, the current
Time Magazine lists John Carmack as #10 in their most important people shaping
technology today in their "Digital 50." Thanks Godfather.
Finally, Thresh is interviewed in the latest Newsweek in
an article called Making a Killing at Quake
talking about what turns out to be his
multimillion dollar website (that's okay, we like to consider Blue's News a
multi-hundred dollar website on a good day). Thanks Umo.
The Qizmo page has a new
version 2.9 of the Qizmo proxy for Quake & QuakeWorld. The new release
features improved compression and lossless demo compression. Thanks Killjoy's.
Also on the Qizmo page is
"Nailhack," described as a small patch to the qwsv executable that
allows Qizmo to compress nail data much better.
If the wages of Sin include lag or poor framerate in your case, then 3D
Spotlight's SiN tweak guide may be able to help out, offering tweaks to
improve performance on Ritual's shooter, now updated to be current through the
new Sin version 1.10.
Game, Set, Match! on
loonygames is a new article that examines the state of professional gaming,
including a report on what's up with the uncertain future of the PGL.
Tooling through the news archive I see that fairly current birthday wishes are due Ritual's Levelord (Monday) and 3D Realms' Whaleboy (yesterday), so many happy returns to each, as well as 3D Realms' Lee Jackson, who also gets our best wishes for the medical procedure mentioned in his .plan tomorrow, just in time for his birthday Friday. It's my birthday Sunday guys, if you come up to the big apple, the beers are on me (that's to the celebrants, not to everyone reading this... the beer budget is only so hefty here). My late start this morning is exacerbated by having to address another server glitch, we were serving up a blank page for a while this morning, but after a bit of scrambling, this has obviously been fixed. On that subject, surprisingly, I have a bit of a follow-up on yesterday's comments about when the wonky server be addressed even sooner than expected. The first estimate on when we will beef up our horsepower here is less than a month, but hopefully that's the outside time-frame, since I don't know if I have that much patience for this nonsense, and I doubt you do either. In any event, so far things are moving ahead as rapidly as can be expected, and I will continue to post updates on the status of this, because as I have said, .plan updates and the messageboards will likely be buggy until then.
Link of the Day: The dermatology in the cinema web site. That's right... zits of the stars! Thanks Tim Smith.
As promised earlier, the 10Six beta test
is now open to the public. Those wishing to join in on the fun will need to
become a registered HEAT.net user, and download both the HEAT.net software and
the 10Six software, totaling over 30 megs (not including the optional music
tracks). Update: several reports have come in that you cannot download the software from outside the United States and Canada, so apparently the beta test is currently restricted to that area.
A new version of the
Genesis3D engine has been released (thanks Voodoo Extreme). Genesis3D is a free, open source 3D
engine that boasts both Glide and Direct3D support. This new version supports
3D Studio Max R3 and adds enhanced MIP-Mapping in addition to other changes.
Blizzard has released this week's Diablo
II screenshot of the week (thanks Diablo
II.net). This week's shot shows the Barbarian inside a guild hall.
Another preview of Urban Chaos today, as Gamecenter examines Mucky Foot's 3D action adventure that is scheduled for release in December. Comparisons between this third-person title and the Tomb Raider series are not accurate, according to this quote:
From the outset, Urban Chaos may remind some of you of an urbanized Tomb Raider. For instance, D'arci's repertoire of gymnastic
moves closely mimics Lara's. She'll climb up fire escapes and waltz along window ledges with ease, not unlike the manner in which
Lara traipses along cliffs. However, concluding that Urban Chaos is just Tomb Raider set in a city would be a mistake, though,
because Urban Chaos represents a broadening of Eidos's take on the third-person action game.
There are a number of innovations that Urban Chaos brings to the table, the biggest of which is perhaps the free-form exploration of
Union City and its distinct neighborhoods, which are inhabited by innocents and criminals alike.
The German games site gXp has posted two new
screenshots from Bungie's third person title Halo. The quality of the shots
leaves a bit to be desired, although one shows off an alien ship and the other
the rocket launcher. Halo.Bungie.org is
reporting that a new Halo movie is available on a German gaming magazine, which
may in fact prove to be the origin of these screenshots.
As promised some time ago, there is now a full complement of international build 444 patches for Drakan: Order of the Flame available at the official download page. Next to the previously released English and German patches, there are French, Italian and Spanish versions, which contain all of the fixes from the build 442 patch plus improved server support.
Legend level designer Matthias Worch has posted the first part of his strategy
guide for Wheel of Time up on his homepage
(thanks to the Shugashack). The guide
is for the "Citadel" multiplayer game, although some of the tips apply
nicely to the single player and deathmatch modes as well.
SegaSoft has decided to make the beta test for their massively multiplayer
3D strategy/action title 10Six (don't you just love genre-bending?) open to
the general public. There's a notice up on their
website to check back later today for full details (thanks AVault).
GamesMania has posted a preview of Urban Chaos, looking at a beta build of Mucky Foot's upcoming 3D action/adventure. A gallery of screenshots is included, and here is a bit more about the game's structure:
Urban Chaos is structured around a mission scheme (30 in all, taking
place over a variety of different neighborhoods in the city). Each mission
has a specific objective. Sometimes it can be as simple as arresting a
mugger, or breaking up a street gang meeting. One mission we played
even required us to talk a jumper off a roof. However, these missions are
not linear, and have sidequests, as it were, and other developments. En
route to one crime, you might encounter another. Or, by talking to
somebody, you might learn about something else you can do. After
every mission, you're given a count of how many criminals were on the
level, so you can see if you missed anything, and perhaps try the
mission again.
SCi has released six new screenshots of Titanium Angels, their upcoming third-person action adventure, showing off heroine Carmen Blake and her spider-like assault vehicle Titan. Thanks GA-Source.
Federation HQ has posted another pair of movies of Star Trek: Klingon Academy, showing in-game combat footage of Interplay's upcoming Trekkie space sim.
IGNPC has posted an interview with the people behind Hitman: Codename 47, a third-person strategic stealth shooter in development by IO Interactive and Eidos. Here are some more details about the game's storyline:
IGNPC: Give an overview of the game's storyline. Will there be any twists at the end of the plot?
Flösser: Hitman has a classic linear story. You are introduced in a
flashback to the origin of the games central conflict, in the beginning of the
game. Our hero is a result of some dubious experiments, but he is not
aware of the fact. Advancing through the levels, will bring him closer to the
brain behind the plot, and it will became significantly more dangerous to
get there. Hitman's tasks bring him to five very different locations
throughout the world. These locations are built to be extremely realistic,
and basically, you will find similar references to these locations in real life
situations. Hitman has a main target in one and each on these locations,
and their henchman protects them all. He is hunting the bad guys.
Another day in GameSpot UK's Lara Week brings an interview with Core's Susie Hamilton giving an insight into developers Core Design. Also added to their Lara Week stuff is a new installment to the "Lara vs..." series of articles, as well as a photo gallery of Lara Croft model Lara Weller (first name coincidence? nah...).
Mortyr.net has posted a small patch for the Dutch and English versions of Mortyr, to solve a problem that occurs when the CD-ROM drive letter is above H. The patch is a small .DLL file that needs to be copied into the Data directory of Mortyr.
The German games site gXp has posted two more
screenshots from Bungie's third person squad combat game Halo (thanks satcyz).
One of the new shots contain what looks to be the first glimpse of the flamethrower
weapon in the game.
Ubisoft has released a version 1.2 patch for Shadow Company (863 KB), which fixes many of the control and mobility
problems encountered during the game, as well as problems with ATI 3D cards, cursors, and the control problem in Multiplayer mode. Thanks Patches Scrolls.
id Software's Graeme Devine updated his
.plan with a simple request for all of you out there playing the Quake III
Demo Test: We've got a debug server up on 192.246.40.115, if people could
connect to it and bash on it
that would be great.
Thresh's Firing
Squad has posted the first part of their Comdex writeup, which features
an interview with Scott Sellers of 3dfx, some new Quake III shots using T-Buffer technology, as
well as loads of info regarding the new Voodoo products. Perhaps the most eye
opening part of their writeup is word that the Voodoo 5 6000 will actually feature
an external AC adapter, and the 5000 and 5500 will need to be plugged into the
case's power supply (thanks to Michael Tan for noticing that).
Sgt. Hulka has posted 12 new screenshots from Battlezone II on
his site, showing off a number of different locations from this upcoming
sequel from Activision and Pandemic Studios.
id Software lead programmer John Carmack updated
his .plan with some techie talk about how vertex lighting works in the new
Q3A Demo Test. In addition to the techie stuff and his latest worklog, the
update also offers a "set of go-fast-and-look-ugly options" for those
looking to speed up their frame rate at the expense of eye-candy: r_mode
2
r_colorbits 16
r_texturemode GL_LINEAR_MIPMAP_NEAREST
r_vertexlighting 1
r_subdivisions 999
r_lodbias 2
cg_gibs 0
cg_draw3dicons 0
cg_brassTime 0
cg_marks 0
cg_shadows 0
cg_simpleitems 1
cg_drawAttacker 0
I.am.Quake3Arena has posted an all
new Console Guide for Q3Test providing assistance with things ranging from
simple key binding to creating complex scripts and custom commands. They've also
updated their complete categorized lists of ALL Q3Test console commands and
variables. The lists now include all of the commands and variables from version
1.08 of Q3Test.
The Stomped Quake 3 Arena Resource has
posted a simple solution to problems with mouse wheel doohickey support in the
new Quake III Arena Demo Test. After switching to the desktop and back to the
game again using <ALT><TAB>, problems using the mouse wheel will
clear up.
ClanLink's TeamFortress
Classic Guide is online, covering installation, playing tips, weapon damage
ratios, mission tactics, class breakdowns, and more, with map-by-map strategies
planned for the near future for the popular Half-Life add-on. Also, Monolithic
Illusions Homeworld strategy guide is online with tips for the multiplayer
portion of Sierra and Relic's strategic space sim.
Eager to support those who have "acquired" the Soldier of Fortune OEM
demo by whatever means, Raven's Rick Johnson updated
his .plan with some tech support tips, including how to fix some fog
rendering defects caused by the inclusion of a bad .cfg file.
CitizenKabuto.com has a brief status report on Giant: Citizen Kabuto that
gives the status of this upcoming third-person action game direct from Jim at
Planet Moon studios talking of the cool detail in the latest beta build. Thanks PlanetMoon Central.
The ballsy folks over at Birdman's Lair
have posted the necessary files to enable support for the venerable oddball
SpaceOrb controller. According to the page "It works much better than I was
expecting, even if 3 of the 5 axes used are on/off in nature instead of analog."
A new version 4.25 of Name Maker Studio
is now available, offering an updated version of this utility to create colored
and animated "fun" names for games that support them. The update adds
support for Unreal Tournament, ICQ, and StarCraft to the program's support for
Quake, QuakeWorld, Quake II, Hexen II, and Quake III Arena.
- This Interview
on SpookHouse catches up with Kyle Richards, the composer and sound
designer for Nocturne, as well as Mary Beth Brooks, the singer behind the
haunted song in the speakeasy scene in Nocturne's Chicago mission,
"Windy City Massacre"...
- The G-Sector page
has an updated version 1.1 alpha of G-Sector, the freeware third-person
hoverboard combat game...
- The ACT LABS GS Zone is
online with all the skinny on their new gun controller systems, including
how they can be used in real FPS titles, not just rail-shooters...
The cgi overloads caused by the heavy traffic with the release of the Q3A Demo
Test continued throughout the day yesterday causing errors in retrieving .plan
updates and using the messageboards. I mentioned yesterday I wasn't sure of the
ETA of addressing these issues, but today I learned I will probably be able to
have a meeting about this sometime this week, so I my hopes have been raised that we will
be able to address this more quickly than I was thinking when I made my comments
on this subject yesterday. I'll give a status report on this as soon as I have
more info to provide, because I'm concerned .plans and messages may be wonky
until this is addressed.
Link of the Day: The Batgirl Bat-Trap
Homepage. Thanks Scott "Cyclops" Summerton (hey, I get it!). This
one is kinda freaky. I always had the hots for batgirl in the old TV series, but
this page provokes the amazing recollection of exactly how much of her onscreen
time was spent in bondage.
Image of the Day: I
Can Still Bite You! Levelord loses his head.
|
Twitter 
