Archived News:
The official Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of Gaia site has been updated with a new full moon err... update, including a fresh developer rant by producer Travis Williams talking about the state of DreamForge's game of lupine action and thanking his team on the occasion of Thanksgiving (belatedly) and Christmas (just in time), as well as four new screenshots.
Federation HQ has posted a
Q&A with GT Interactive's Steve Sargent, talking to him about their
upcoming space sim/strategy game Imperium Galactica 2. The questions deal largely
with specific gameplay issues, including the length of the campaigns, the replay
value, etc.
The first DirectX version of the
Blitz engine has been released, and is available for download on its
official site. The engine's features are identical to that of the OpenGL
version's except that it does not use multitexturing or mip-mapping in this
version. The author is releasing this to get as much feedback as possible, so
be on the lookout for bugs.
Legend's Glen Dahlgren made a
post to the official Wheel of Time message boards, mentioning that there
aren't any plans for a retail add-on pack for Wheel of Time, but there are
plans for a "point release" that will amongst other things, include
deathmatch (arena) bots. Here's the scoop: There are no concrete plans
for an expansion yet, although we are working on the point release/expansion
to be distributed (for free) shortly into the new year. This should include
a few new maps and features, and arena bots!
Glitterstream has released GunFrenzy!
2, a follow up to their original Quake II modification that enables lightgun
support for ACT Labs' Gun System owners. This new version adds a two player
mode, as well as a single player John Woo style mode.
IMG Magazine has posted an
article about the future of the Mac as a gaming platform, featuring quotes
from various industry programmers. Amongst the developers quoted are id Software's
John Carmack, Epic's Tim Sweeney, and Westlake Interactive's Mark Adams.
PlanetHalfLife has posted their
complete walkthrough for Half-Life: Opposing Force, Gearbox Software's official add-on for Half-Life. There's some spoiler-free basic tips as well if you're just looking for some general help.
Eidos has opened their official site for Thief II: the Metal Age, the sneaky first-person action game in development by Looking Glass. Currently, there is not much there yet, but the screenshots section has four new images ( Flash required).
Daily Radar's holiday
present to the world today are three walkthroughs: one for Planescape:
Torment, Gabriel
Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, and Star
Trek: Hidden Evil. As usual, walkthroughs do detract from the full experience
of a game, but hey - if you're stuck, you're stuck.
PC.IGN has posted an interview
with John Hight, the executive producer at Westwood Studios on their isometric
RPG Nox. The interview focuses mainly on the multiplayer aspect of the game,
which they've repeatedly stated plays more like Quake than Diablo.
Also up at PC.IGN is an interview
with Slave Zero producer Matt Powers, talking about their recently completed
Slave Zero. Since the game has been finished for a short while now, the questions
take the form of a look back at the game, and there's even some general questions
about a possible sequel.
The newly-opened Soldier of Fortune
Western Canadian Headquarters is celebrating their grand opening with a pair
of new screenshots from the full version of Soldier of Fortune, their namesake
game, currently in production at Raven Software. The site also has a short
Q&A up with Raven's Kenn Hoekstra, talking about progress on the game.
The Quake Info Pool has posted the
first bug fix package for WinQuake/GLQuake (which they say can easily be adapted
to QuakeWorld), and they point out that the Quake Standards Group
also has some tutorials up on the subject of compiling the source.
Jackchaos.com
interviews Xavier Carrillo talking with the project manager at Rebel Act
Studios about progress on Blade, their upcoming fighting/RPG title. The Q&A
goes into extensive detail about the game's storyline, and includes the current
plans for releasing the game and the demo as this: "The game is finally in
its beta stage and a demo is expected to be released in January. The game will
be ready by the second quarter of 2000."
GameSpot News' First Look Earth 2150
offers a preview of this upcoming sci-fi 3D real-time strategy game, including
nine new screenshots showing off gameplay.
The debut release of the Unreal Tournament
Darkmatch Mod is now available offering a mutator to unlock UT's darkmatch
mode (rather than the usual .ini hacking). Making Darkmatch into a mutator
allows it to be played along with any other UT game type.
EcloSiS' Quake3 Paintball
Splatpak! is now available, promising paintball-style fun in a Quake III
Arena modification. Contrary to the instructions on the page, I believe in order
to play with an add-on pak file you must join a server that is not
running in pure mode (the page suggests seeking out pure mode servers).
The Mucky Foot Productions Ltd Home Page
has word on how you can get your name immortalized in Urban Chaos, their
action title, by getting high scores on the game's levels. Players names and
high scores will be then be added to the actual game in a future patch.
- The OpenGL DooM Legacy
page has the release of the OpenGL DooM Legacy render driver source code
under the terms of the GPL to enable you to make your own r_opengl.dll file,
based on glLegacy Beta 15...
- GameSpot
interviews Atriarch Designer talking with Serafina (single name, like
Levelord, or Cher), Atriarch's designer talking about this upcoming RPG, of
that oft-discussed "massively multiplayer" variety...
- Blizzard Entertainment has a
whole bunch of holiday cheer on their site in the form of holiday wallpapers
and stuff for download...
- Raven's Jeremy Stats mentions a Doom2 level he's just completed in
his .plan...
Hey look at that, it's Christmas Eve! Since the loony one does Saturday
morning's update, this is my big chance to wish everyone who celebrates a happy
holiday, with high hopes that Santa brings you everything you asked for. There
is still some sort of routing problem that's causing a lot of congestion when
accessing this site: We're looking into that, so hopefully it will be cleared up
soon. So depending where you are, Merry Christmas Eve, Happy Christmas Eve (the
UK version), and, of course, Merry/Happy Christmas to those on the other side of
the globe for whom Christmas day will break soon.
Link of the Day: How To Build A Corpse.
Build a life-size, realistic, decaying corpse in the privacy of your own home.
Thanks RoadKill FLAG!. "WARNING: Displaying a
corpse in public may break some County laws."
Story of the Day: Chilean children stone Santa Claus.
Thanks Cannelbrae.
VampireTales has posted three new
screenshots from Nihilistic's Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. The shots
feature a motley crew of vampires brandishing some serious weapons, and one
unfortunate victim.
Appeal has released a new patch for Outcast on the official site, but it is a bit buried in the Support section, so here is a direct link to the patches page. This new patch supersedes all previous patches, works for all languages of the game, and fixes several gameplay problems as well as joystick control. Somewhat inconveniently, it comes as 6 files of 2 MB each, but a zip-file with all parts has been mirrored to 3D Action Gamers for single download convenience.
Gamecenter has posted a
new preview of Soldier of Fortune, featuring 12 new screenshots from Raven's
upcoming Quake II engine game. Another
preview can be found at GameProWorld, although this one is based on the
OEM version of the game.
According to a
post to Pandemic Studios' message board, Battlezone II, their first person action/strategy title, has gone gold and
will be in stores as soon as next week (thanks PlanetBattlezone).
The first release of Q3Offline,
a "wizard" like program for configuring single player Quake III Arena
games, has been released and is available for download on its
official site. The program configures all the various bot options (including
which specific bots, their skill levels, etc.) and has the ability to randomize
any settings.
A new version of the EraserULTRA bot,
an enhanced version of the venerable Eraser Bot for Quake II. This new version
adds a grappling-hook like function, as well as weapon balancing for the mission
packs, and various bug fixes.
The official Outcast website
has posted the entire Outcast soundtrack in MP3 format (hit the "Audio"
button in the gallery).
The soundtrack is very, very good, and is performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra.
Digital Extremes has launched their
new website, and along with it they've posted two new Unreal Tournament
CTF maps, as well as a new model exporter for 3D Studio Max 3.0.
Origin has released a second patch for Ultima IX: Ascension on the
game's official site (thanks ActiveWindows).
This patch fixes a huge list of problems including more Direct3D improvements,
and a ton of specific gameplay issues (consult the
readme for the full list).
Spanish games site oneZone has posted four
new, high-quality screenshots from Shiny's Sacrifice, to replace the ones
they posted earlier in the week that were taken with a digital camera. The shots
are easily the most impressive released from the game to date, although admittedly
there haven't exactly been a deluge of them.
Michael Tsao sends word that he's posted a
tutorial for compiling the recently released Quake 1 source code, both with
and without MASM (which according to the readme is required for building the
assembly files).
AVault has posted some
new information about Dark Corners of the Earth, a new first person adventure
title set in HP Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu universe, complete with several full-size
screenshots (only one of them is new, but these are much larger than the ones
previously released).
There's an
interview with Todd Hollenshead on The Oxygen Tank talking with the id
Software CEO about what's going on in the id offices since the completion of
Quake III Arena, asking about the impending move away from the big black cube,
the banning of games in Brazil, and other pertinent topics.
EP Video Clips features Giants
talking with PlanetMoon Studios about their upcoming third person action game
that will give you the chance to play as any of three races. The show is listed
as "Season 3 - Episode 11, Part 1," and is in .asf format for streaming
viewing with the Windows Media Player. Thanks PlanetMoon Central.
After checking out the screenshots below, I did some hunting around and discovered
three
additional screenshots on Dark Horse Interactive's site, as well as a
full description of the game's plot on Hellboy.com (scroll down to "Hellboy
Interactive Game"). According to the
game's publisher, the game will be available "next year" for both
the Playstation and 3D accelerated PCs.
GASource has received two
screenshots from Hellboy, a just-discovered third person action game from
Cryo Interactive. The game is based on the comic series by Mike Mignola that's
published by Dark Horse Comics, although it could very well be based on the
movie adaptation which is also in development.
Daily Radar has posted a
hands-on preview of Blizzard's eagerly-anticipated title Diablo II, which
was written by the winner of their "Preview Diablo II Contest." The
end result is a detailed preview that's written by a fan, that covers both the
single and multiplayer aspects of the game.
PC.IGN has posted a preview
of The Real Neverending Story, an adventure game in development by Discreet
Monsters that's based on the novel by Michael Ende (not the movie). There are
a number of screenshots, showing off the diverse collection of characters in
the game, which range from a monstrous looking tree, to a hulking blue pig.
Also on PC.IGN is a preview
of Splinter, a new Descent-style first person shooter from Australian developer
Stromlo, that has you fighting against miniature ants with wings (whee!). In
addition to the regular handful of screenshots, the preview has quotes from
the game's developers, discussing the engine and the title's story, which is
actually pretty unique.
A day earlier than usual - they're probably wrapping up for the holidays - the official American McGee's Alice site has been updated with a new image of one of the enemies in the game, the Fish Footmen. Also, the second area called Mushroom Forest has been opened to show the Forest of Shrooms.
Two FAQ updates to help you along playing these first-person shooters: the Quake III Arena gameplay FAQ has been updated with tips and tactics on Q3DM7, as well as various other fixes, and the Alien vs. Predator guide has become even more comprehensive with the addition of a multiplayer section.
Going off into the holidays with a bang, ION Storm's Daily Informant has posted four new screenshots of Anachronox, Tom Hall's 3D role-playing game, with descriptions to match.
The Delta Force 2 patch-du-jour as arrived, for after briefly reverting the version 1.04.14 patch that was released earlier this week ( story), NovaLogic now offers version 1.04.19 (thanks DF-Base.de for the number) for download here and here (4.4 MB) as well as through the auto-update feature.
Accolade sends word of a patch for the registered version of Slave Zero, their
third-person game of giant robot combat. Here is a
local copy of the patch (702 KB), along with a list of mirrors. Be warned,
applying this patch will ruin any current saved games you have. Here's what's
new:
- LAN Multiplayer! Up to 4 players can play against each other via a TCP/IP
based LAN. There are 12 unique multiplayer maps. Players can play to a frag
limit or a time limit.
- Force Feedback Support! Provides additional force feedback functionality.
Computer and Video Games News
interviews Mark Rein and Todd Hollenshead of Epic Games and id Software,
respectively, talking about Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena, respectively.
Word on Linux Games, surprisingly
devoted to Linux games, is that Linux Quake III Arena shipped to retailers
yesterday, and may be appearing on store shelves (specifically Electronics
Boutique and Fry's Electronics), as soon as today.
Though we first reported that Barrett "Bear" Alexander had joined
Rogue Entertainment back during QuakeCon '99 ( story),
the press release announcing this just rolled in the door yesterday, so I figure
I'd pass along Bear's requisite quote upon the "official" announcement
that he's the CEO there: "Rogue
is a stellar group of people who have the drive and talent it takes to propel
their success...I am honored to be a part of this team, and I find it especially
exciting to be involved as Rogue is poised to elevate to the next level of game
development." Rogue's current project, of course, is American McGee's
Alice, which will use the Quake III engine to simulate the through the looking
glass world created by Lewis Carroll.
Voodoo Extreme
interviews Levelord, talking "dirty" with Ritual's own lo'ness,
famed for his artful design of those map thingies. The Q&A discusses lordly
pursuits, including progress on F.A.K.K.2, Ritual's upcoming Quake III engine
game. The Levelord also updated
his .plan with what is hopefully an unnecessary explanation that he was
kidding when impugning this site's accuracy.
A thread titled Will the demo be released before
x-mas on Raven's Support BBS gives the answer to that question about the
release of a Soldier of Fortune demo before the holidays as no, with Raven's
Rick Johnson saying that since "The holiday season disrupts the whole
development process too much (as well as QA won't be available)," the demo
would not be out before the end of the year, saying "Sorry, but we aren't
rushing this out."
Dynamix' Nels Buckner updated
his .plan with word that with an "esoteric" server crash bug as
well as a few small (and one not small) remaining cheats still in the game, there will be at least
one more patch for Starsiege TRIBES released. Look for that "early in the
new year."
GameSpot's Designer Diary for Dark Reign 2
is up (we think this one is even newer than the 12/16 date indicates), offering
an inside glimpse from Greg Borrud (though his byline is pretty hard to find in
the article as currently posted) at progress on the upcoming sequel to Dark
Reign. Actually perhaps it's better described as lack of progress on the game,
well not actually, but since this is the third project Greg has worked on that's
missed its deadline, the diary is on the subject of what causes so many games to
be late.
The Citadel
interviews Steve Jackson, the director of business affairs at Lionhead,
getting down in black and white some thoughts on Black & White, LH's
upcoming god game. Included in the Q&A is word that there is actually a book
to accompany the game already written, just looking for a publisher (which
likely won't happen until the game is out).
Exclusive Unreal Tournament Add-on
Shots on GameFan showing off a few shots of each of a pair of CTF levels
under construction at Digital Extremes for inclusion in an upcoming free UT level
pack (this is a different free map pack than
the one Epic is working on).
Stonedonkey.com (okay then)
has the debut release of a utility called Q3A Server Watcher, a
remote-administration utility for Quake III Arena server operators. The program
allows you to see who is logged into a Q3A server, including ping times, and
score, as well as map, frag limits and other game info, and also allows output
for live stats pages.
The Quake 3 Arena Resource has an update
from id Software contract programmer MrElusive talking about Q3A bots, mapping
and physics for level designers. Also, there is a Quake
III Arena Editing FAQ on Rust to help those looking to design their own
maps. Continuing in that helpful vein, they have posted a list of Quake
III Arena editing links.
The recent release of the source code to Quake ( story)
warrants a mention of the Quakesource mailing list, hosted by the Quake Info Pool,
which has actually been underway for nearly a year now. The list already has
"lots of coders already subscribed and is the place to coordinate the
modifications across people and teams."
The ICQ Alpha Site has build 3060 version 4.18 of ICQ 2000a that seems to
be o-tay to download for those willing to risk Alpha software. Thanks Chris
Hilbert ( Update: Shortly after this post, a note was added saying "Download
of ICQ 2000a Alpha version is currently restricted. Please try again at a later
time," so if it's gone when you check, perhaps it will come back again--of
course if you did get it, or manage to grab it from a mirror, remember it may have been
pulled for a good reason). Also on the off-topic software front, a new version 6.01 of Paint Shop
Pro is up on the Jasc Software page.
Thanks David Shaw.
The HEAT gaming network has announced an Unreal Tournament
tournament (from the department of redundancy department) with $25,000 in
prizes, including a $5,000 grand prize. Also, get out your electronic driver, as
Links LS 2000 Hole-in-One
Sweepstakes offers a trip for two to Hawaii for someone who nails a
hole-in-one of the trial version of this golf game.
A contest on ClanWorld is
offering a copy of Quake III Arena in one of the limited edition tin boxes for
the winner that sends in the best Q3A screenshot.
Something or other popped up yesterday that's been making the site very slow to
access for many users (including myself). A few have written in suggesting that
it is further problems with the new server, but that is not the case, we've
actually got the little monster screaming right along at a pretty healthy clip
right now, and most of the recent technical glitches we've had here are actually
(thankfully) behind us. Seems the problem is a network issue, with some
wire or another somewhere tied in a knot. We're aware of the problem, and we're
told it's being worked on. BTW, that Mahir interview on the Daily Show was so
funny it was almost painful. Merry Christmas, I kiss you...
Link of the Day: Yahoo!
Entertainment>...>InternetWebsite Parodies>Mahir. That's right,
Mahir has his own category on Yahoo! Thanks syndrome.
Story of the Day: What’s in a video game High art!
Thanks devilbunny.
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