Archived News:
Ok, it's a heli-sim, but it's free :-) Though not yet listed on the official site, GT Interactive has released a playable demo of KA-52 Team Alligator for download (86.9 MB), a simulation of the Russian assault helicopter developed by Simis. The demo contains several combat missions from the full game, and requires DirectX 7.0.
Raven's official Soldier of Fortune support FAQ has been restructured into a new format to put related information snugly into chapters, and it has also been updated with more tips and tricks for the recently released demo, as well as some general info on the game.
Sega to Publish Quake 3 for Dreamcast
on dreamcast.ign.com is a report that quotes Sega PR as confirming plans to
do a port of Quake III Arena for the Dreamcast. Thanks Jeremy Morgan. Here's a
little of what's known and a bit of speculation from the report: Additionally,
we're told that you can count on Q3A to feature Online multi-player as
one of the Dreamcast Network's flagship gaming titles. No information was
available as to who will be developing the game, but rumor has it it will be
handled by id themselves.
The Tectonic page has a new version
0.7 of the TecArena front-end for Quake III Arena offering a
new map cycle feature, and "enable cheats" option, an "enable
bots" option, as well as smaller changes and bug-fixes. In addition to the
new TecArena, a new version 0.8 of the BotPlugin for TecArena is also now
available.
There are some new The Rift screenshots on Gamer's Alliance Strategy
showing off gameplay from ThrushWave's upcoming 3D space RTS, accompanied by a
development update giving a few details about progress on the game.
On the occasion of today's fourth birthday of Duke Nukem 3D ( story), newly opened PlanetDuke has posted an interview with George Broussard, top-Duke at 3D Realms. George recalls his memories of the shareware release and how things took off from there, and looks ahead at the fourth installment in the series, Duke Nukem Forever. Here is a quote on the latter topic:
There are a ton of folks that are worried that Duke won't be Duke because you went to an engine that had no embedded ability to play with stuff. Give us some hints about interactivity -- can we play games within games? Pick stuff up? Move stuff around??
We spent most of our early programming efforts modifying and extending Unreal so it can handle an interactive game like Duke Forever. I can say with relative certainty that Duke Forever will be the most interactive FPS to date. Bar none. If something exists in the world you will be able to do something with it in some way. The game will reward the player for using items and exploring. Without going into too much specific detail, let's just say that the stuff you mentioned above could be the tip of the iceberg.
There is a brief interview with Blizzard on Computer Games Online, talking to some of the people behind the Warcraft and Diablo series. Topics discussed are their design philosophy, technology versus gameplay, and similar general issues.
Gamers Central has posted a hands-on preview of The Rift, a space-combat RTS currently being scaffolded at ThrushWave Technology. In similar mold, but set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe, is Star Trek: Armada of which Gamecenter has posted a bunch of new screenshots and design sketches.
The official version of the Final Fantasy VIII demo has been released in the downloads section of the Final Fantasy VIII site ( Flash required). Thanks Shadowdane. The demo comes in two formats, a 27.5 MB standard version and a 68.6 MB full version with FMV sequences.
GameFan has posted a
new, hands-on preview of BioWare's MDK 2, which is based on a full build
of the game. Along with the preview are 27 new screenshots in case you need
some visual aids. MDK, as everyone knows, stands for Mysterious Dog Kidnappings.
GameSpot News has posted 9
new screenshots from Looking Glass Studios' upcoming game of sneaking, snooping
and skullduggery, Thief 2: The Metal Age.
PC.IGN has updated their Baldur's
Gate II Journal with part five of this ongoing look at the development of
the game. In this installment, Douglas Aver, the assistant producer explains
just what he does, including planning their QA phase, working on the buglist,
and all his other exciting duties. There's also some new screenshots if you
just want the visuals.
Also new at PC.IGN this morning is a
preview of Codename: Eagle, a new historical FPS title from Refraction Games
and TalonSoft, which aims to expand the genre by allowing you to commandeer
different vehicles, including tanks, motorcycles, and even biplanes.
The first beta release of Equilibrium,
a new point-based mod for Quake III Arena has been released, and is available
for download on
its official site, and features the first two gameplay modes, team deathmatch
and CTF, with two more to come in future releases.
Gamecenter has posted a
preview of Microsoft's massively multiplayer space opera Allegiance, which
is just chock full of new screenshots, as well as quotes from the game's developers.
Game-Interviews has posted an
interview with Jamie McNeely, the producer of O.R.B. at Strategy First,
featuring some new shots from the game as well. O.R.B. is an upcoming 3D real
time strategy game in the vein of Homeworld.
As reflected in Joe
Siegler's .plan update, today marks the fourth anniversary of the Duke
Nukem 3D shareware. Boy, is that strange to me. It feels like just yesterday
that my whole dorm floor went nuts over the game back in college. For the next few weeks you
could always hear "come get some" or any number of "Dukeisms"
coming out of somebody's room. Duke 3D was one of the last games of its type
that had a full shareware episode, and boy did we play the heck out of it. It
was a bit of a large download back then, but man did you get a lot from it.
It's a miracle I managed to graduate at all.
To celebrate Duke's anniversary, here are some Duke-related links of the day.
Enjoy!
Link of the Day: LameDuke.
A real piece of history here, the version of Duke that never was (originally
released on the first anniversary of the shareware release).
Bonus Link: The
Duke Nukem (PSX) Outtakes. A personal favorite from way back when.
Bonus Link 2: Duke
Nukem: Time to Grill. Hail to the chef, baby.
GameSpot has posted a new installment of their Dark Reign 2 diaries, with Pandemic's Greg Borrud discussing the progress in programming, art, and mission design, as they are heading into the final stretch of the development of their 3D RTS title. He also mentions some of the responses to his previous diary, and includes a few new screenshots to illustrate the final layout of the game's interface.
A new movie of the day is online on the official Nox site, showing off more gameplay from Westwood's soon-to-be-released isometric action-RPG. Past movies are now available on their movie archives page, not just in the originally released 320x240, but also in glorious 640x480 if you have a little more bandwidth to spare. And those curious about next week's movies can already have a sneak peek on their ftp server.
Alternating new characters and areas of Wonderland, the official American McGee's Alice site reveals a new section of the Mushroom Forest map, called Caterpillar Garden.
InciteGames has posted a
35 MB MPEG movie that features gameplay footage from Thief 2: The Metal
Age (taken from their alpha build of the game), as well as an interview with
Looking Glass director Steve Pearsall.
The newly launched Quakeidge.com has posted an
interview with id Software's CEO Todd Hollenshead. The interview covers
all kinds of subjects, from what it's like to work at id, to how he feels about
putting all that hard work into Quake III Arena only to be beaten at retail
by Regis Philbin.
Unreal Universe has posted an
interview with Jeff DeWitt, an animator on Rune, Human Head's Unreal engine
title of drunken viking glory. Jeff talks about animating, Chris Rhinehart's
sword collection (he should challenge Paul Steed to a door killing contest)
and even Frisbee golf, which I suppose, if you're drunk on grog all day long
(and I can only imagine they all must be over there) is no doubt lots of fun.
IMG Magazine has posted a
brief Q&A with Ken Gordon (scroll down their
news page to find it), the producer of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The
Fallen, an Unreal-engine, third person action game from Simon & Schuster
Interactive.. As the game was recently delayed, the Q&A focuses on that,
with Ken explaining why the game was pushed back from early spring until August.
Here's an excerpt: One of the biggest challenges we see ahead of us in
bringing the Fallen to market is the perception about Star Trek games that is
out there. Let's say that it is less than stellar. This is outrageous, too,
because the franchise, the world of Star Trek, is so wonderfully rich that to
put anything less than a great Star Trek game out is so wasteful it's sinful.
Simon & Schuster Interactive has published fantastic Star Trek Reference
titles, but the Fallen is our first title under our gaming license. We see a
gap in the marketplace -- the market needs a great Star Trek title and we will
not release the Fallen until it has met its potential and matches the franchise
with as rich a game. At this point, we are on track to release such a game with
the Fallen (and with Dominion Wars, too, I might add). It took us extra time
to get here, but let me tell you it will have been worth it. All great games
go through such birthing pains and this one is no different.
Eurogamer has posted an
article titled "Inside Insidia" which features conversations with
developers at Insidia, who are working on a first person adventure called Malleus.
There are also four screenshots posted to give you a first glimpse at the game.
Polycount has posted new
Character Studio BIP files from Paul Steed. These files allow owners of 3D Studio
Max' Character Studio to apply the animations he created for the various characters
in Quake III Arena to their own custom models. Swing
by Polycount to download them and get animating.
Stomped has posted a
Q&A with Monolith's Jason Hall, talking to him about their recent announcement
regarding their plans to start up a separate company to handle their LithTech
engine. Here's an excerpt where Jason explains the reasoning behind this decision: There
are many reasons for forming a subsidiary. Without giving a lecture on "Managing
and growing a successful business" I will just say that our reasons primarily
have to do with following a carefully planned business strategy, increasing
team focus, multi-platform and new technology projects, etc. The engine licensing
business to us is just that, a real business. In order to service our customers
in the best possible way it is important for us to be very organized and keep
everything as scaleable as possible.
The industry is maturing and the historically mixed message of "game company
selling an engine" also needed to be clarified. There are many advantages
to this type of approach. Most of these advantages will amount to strong support,
more rapid technological advancement, solid partnerships and extensive and comprehensive
tools. There are still many unannounced things with regard to LithTech Inc.,
but rest assured you will hear about them soon, and get even a better vision
of how exciting what we are doing is. LithTech is a strong technology with a
solid strategy and plan behind it. Our licensees (the vast majority of which
are unannounced) are going to benefit immensely from their decision to build
their game team's competency in the LithTech technology. Few things are worse
than paying for extremely expensive people to learn a system that is going nowhere.
That is just a ton of wasted money. With LithTech, not only can we show you
that the technology is growing and moving towards the future, we can prove it.
The Rogue Spear Retreat has posted the
latest in their series of "interactive interviews" where they
ask their readers to submit questions and which are answered by members of Red
Storm's Rogue Spear team. This latest edition focuses on the recently announced
add-on pack Urban Operations.
There's a Dave Perry interview
on ActionTrip talking with the top dog from Shiny Entertainment about what's
going on over there in finishing Messiah, their third-person action game where
you play Bob the chubby cherub, who accomplishes his cherubic goals by
possessing those around him, and Sacrifice, their upcoming RPG. Word is "Messiah
'should' ship in March," and more info on Sacrifice should be forthcoming
"in a big way before E3."
IMG interviews Westlake Interactive,
talking with the folks behind some of the highest profile recent and future
ports of PC games to the Macintosh platform (Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Total
Annihilation, The Tomb Raider trilogy, etc.). The Q&A discusses the state of
Mac gaming, and the payoff on their decision to view the genre as a niche worth
pursuing, rather than a dying market.
Ritual's Berenger "Zor" Fish updated his
.plan with word that the
official site for the Sin anime movie has gone live. The movie is scheduled
for a June release (direct to video) and the site features stills as well as
a downloadable trailer (in either AVI or real video format).
GameSpy.com has posted an
article by id Software's Graeme Devine, where he examines the state of persistant
world online gaming, looking at the pros and cons of games like Ultima Online,
Everquest, and Asheron's Call.
AGN3D has posted an
interview with Westwood Studios' Aaron Cohen, who talks about Nox, their
isometric action game. Like the previous interviews posted on the site, it's
transcribed from one of their shows, which features live video footage of the
game (and is linked from the text interview). Nox has gone gold, and should be shipping on February 15th.
A new service called Mod
on Demand has gone live. The service consists of a client side program that
downloads and installs mods, maps, skins and player models automatically, and
while it's currently only limited to Quake III Arena, support for other games
is planned as well.
StormTroopers has posted their
unedited chat log from last night's Deus Ex developer's chat. The log is
slightly chaotic, but there is some good info in here, including word that the
current target date for going gold is March 31st, which "we might actually
make" according to Harvey "Witchboy" Smith.
GASource has posted a
Q&A with Dave Taylor, who worked at id Software and founded Crack.com
before starting his current gig at Transmeta. Dave explains how he wound up
at the hardware company, what it's like to finally be able to talk about their
Crusoe technology, and and of course, what Linus Torvalds (the creator of Linux)
is really like.
You may not have heard of Doug Church, but you've played his games is an interview with the Looking Glass project leader and programmer of the two Ultima Underworld games and System Shock, and contributor to Thief: The Dark Project and Flight Unlimited. The interview talks about the fame and credit, or lack of it, for Looking Glass' innovation in 3D games, the advancement of technology versus game content, and more. Here is a quote on his design philosophy:
We’ve always striven for "immersion" in the gameplay, but as we’ve
grown (well, changed, at least) as designers, our sense of that has
changed. While the details of this attempt vary from game to game, the
core goal has been to provide a range of player capability in the world.
With this breadth of capability, the player hopefully feels more involved in
their decisions. An Underworld player can open a door with the key, by
picking the lock, by breaking it down or by casting a spell. If the player
can choose their own goals, and their own approaches to an obstacle,
then when they reach the goal it is far more satisfying. Flexible simulation
of game elements is a powerful way to enable the player to make their
own way in the world.
A fresh installment of the Summoner diaries is online at PC.IGN.com, and this time Volition's lead artist Adam Pletcher examines the creation of real-time 3D visual effects in their upcoming 3D role-playing game. A couple of screenshots and a brief movie illustrate his description of an effect that has "the Stone Golem come up from the ground and form out of molten rock that bubbles up from a crevice in the earth."
PC.IGN.com has updated their preview of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - the Fallen with an interview with executive producer Ken Gordon, as well as 40 new screenshots of this upcoming Unreal-engine powered action game. The article also updates an earlier report of a March release, saying they are now expecting to ship the game in August.
There is a new preview of Nox on GamesMania, looking at Westwood's isometric action RPG offering that recently went gold. The article runs over the gamut of game features, including the single-player campaign and its maps, the interface, and the multiplayer matches.
Garrett keeps stealing previews everywhere, as there is now a Thief II: The Metal Age preview on Daily Radar, offering the usual overview of the game's features, as well as a bunch of (mostly new) high-res screenshots.
Quake Lives,
"The QuakeWorld Revitalization Project," has new versions of their
front-end proxies for both QuakeWorld servers and clients that attempt to
restore fair play in the brave new world created by the release of the Quake
source code. Servers that are running the server front-end will not allow access
to clients that are not running the client front-end, which will allow for the
verification of the client's executable.
An update to Raven Sound and Music Designer Chia
Chin Lee's .plan details some of the speedbumps encountered on the road to
implementing both A3D and EAX positional audio in Soldier of Fortune. Saying
"I would love to talk to other developers to discuss your experience with
3D audio," the update points out that "The future of 3D audio is
promising, but like any technology in its infancy, it contains a few quirks.
Many of these problems are due to divergence of features and standards found in
different soundcards and drivers. This divergence can make the sound designer's
job difficult in achieving a good mix balance between all the soundcard
chipsets."
The first release of Battle Arena 3
for Quake III Arena is now available, unashamedly declaring itself "The Rocket Arena-like mod
for those who can't wait!" Word on the page is "Battle Arena was not
intended to compete against Rocket Arena or steal their ideas," but
"It was made mainly as a backup in case Rocket Arena 3 wasn't made (which
is what crt's post on the RA site sounded like), and to feed the craving for
Rocket Arena in Quake 3."
There are six Side-Scene
screenshots on TeleFragged showing off gameplay from this pre-WWII
action/horror RPG. There are six
new high resolution movies on Gamers Central showing off action from
MicroProse's upcoming helicopter combat game, and also on the chopper (not the
Pulp Fiction/Easy Rider variety) front, there are Ka-52
Team Alligator screenshots on Matrox G400 Enhanced Games page (thanks Killjoy)
showing off this helicopter sim from GT Interactive/Simis in its bump-mapped
glory, with an AVI gameplay movie there as well. Also, 3DGN's
Metal Fatigue preview offers new screenshots of this upcoming RTS.
Relic News
interviews Erin Olorenshaw Animator/Artist, and Cheerios eater from Relic
Entertainment who is currently "working on.. COUGH caogh KHAA! Heh hem... fur
ball." The Q&A talks about her work on Homeworld, Relic's galaxy-spanning strategy game.
Speaking of space, there's another A Talent for War
Multi Developer Chat scheduled for tomorrow, offering an opportunity to talk
online with representatives of the teams behind Deep Space 9, FreeSpace 2,
Klingon Academy, Parsec, Silent Space, Starlancer, Terminus, and UFS Vanguard.
The session starts at 1:00 PM EST (6:00 PM GMT) on the Gameslink
IRC Network ( a
server list can be found here) in the Channel #space-sim. The majority of
the chat will be moderated, but there will be an unmoderated portion as well.
Also on the space chat front, The Omega Project
sends word of no less than nine upcoming developer chats with folks involved in
the various upcoming Star Trek games. The first chat will focus on Star Trek:
Hidden Evil, and is scheduled for this Monday, January 31 at 7:00 PM EST (4:00pm
PST/00:00 GMT) on the IRC server omegaproject.net in the channel #lobby. Slated
to attend are Eric Dallaire, Laird Malamed, Mike Webster, and/or Jonathan
Knight, and plans are to give away a copy of Star Trek: Armada.
SpecForce has posted some news that Zombie
is working on a "major" patch to fix bugs in the current release of Spec Ops 2
for both D3D and Voodoo users. D3D users can expect fixes for the shadows,
flashlights, crosshairs in scopes, and more, and Voodoo users will be getting
higher screen res support. The patch is reportedly "several weeks away,"
currently expected in early March.
Monolith CEO Jason Hall made another update
to his .plan announcing Monolith is hiring: Last little tidbit -
We are hiring. Categories are: Engineers, Modelers, Texture Artists, Animators,
etc.
There are some big time exciting projects going on, and now would be the time to
get involved.
We will pay for relocation, competitive salaries, etc., if you kick ass in your
field.
e-mail me at Hall@lith.com
The CPL folks send word of a detail they failed to mention in their reminder
that registration for the Razer CPL Event
begins February 1: To register you will need a
valid credit card. Also, if you are planning to walk-on, they will not accept credit cards or checks
at the door.
- Kudos to Ensemble Studios, id Software, Gathering Of Developers, Gearbox
Software, Reel FX, Rogue Entertainment, Terminal Reality, US Web, and The
Levelord™ (as the Beaver), all mentioned in Gearbox' Randy
Pitchford's .plan as participants in the Dallas Toys For Tots
campaign...
- The Ravenhurst Mission Pack for Hexen II Portal of Praveus
Page has version 1.0 of RavenHurst: Resurgence of Evil, offering
"two maps, music from the original Hexen, and a whole lot of Hexen II
goodness"...
- Microsoft sends word that their RTS sequel Age of Empire II: Age of
Kings has now shipped over two million units, which is a considerable
milestone for game sales. While they were sending out press releases, they
also sent word that the Titans upset the Rams 17-12 in their NFL Fever 2000
simulation of the Super Bowl, highlights
are here...
- Though not yet available, the MotionWare Infopages
offer information about this upcoming motion simulation device they say
represents the future of virtual reality. It is expected to be available in
12-18 months at a retail price of less than $100. Thanks Capt_Beefheart...
- A new version 2.0 of the SETI@home
client software is now available. Thanks CiKoTiC...
Recent anniversaries: It's been a bit over three years since disruptor was
plucked from the community and hired to work at id Software (it surprised me it
was that long ago... a couple more years and we'll have to stop thinking of him
as the new guy). It also must be right around the 9th birthday for John Cash's
oldest son, noteworthy for being able to beat older players at the age of six (we don't
mention esses in connection with this anymore with hopes he will live it down).
He's probably now a contender for one of these upcoming $100,000
tournaments.
The double-click opt-out link I posted here yesterday was incorrect
for a while, it just lead to the static page claiming to confirm your action
(thanks Teq). If you are looking to protect yourself from the marketing
tracking thingie mentioned yesterday, this
is the correct link to opt out. Want an even wilder story from the world of computer
privacy and the Internet? Texas company accuses Yahoo of privacy violations
is a CNET story reporting: "Yahoo has been accused by closely held
Universal Image of violating Texas' anti-stalking law by allegedly tracking
computer users' every movement on the Internet without their consent."
Thanks Chris McCue. Stalking! If all this big brother stuff alarms you, Tony Fabris sends
word of Window Washer, a cookie
monster to eat all the cookies on your machine. It can also eliminate other insecure
bits from your system.
To finish the cookies discussion, here's a link to the Keebler
Homepage and another to the Nabisco
Homepage... I'm an Oreo man myself.
Link of the Day: The Punk Rock Dating Page!
Fun nicknames and photos here. Thanks Bill MacEachern.
Story of the Day: Oregon company makes top bid for Microsoft check.
Thanks Jeff Magill.
Bonus Story: Linus
Sucks At Quake; Geeks Horrified on Be Dope. Thanks Will Pesky.
Bonus Story II: Robbery suspect writes stick up note on personal check.
Thanks Grendel.
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