Archived News:
Quakeidge has posted an
interview with id Software's Robert Duffy, talking to him about his past,
present, and future work with QERadiant, as well as his views on other games.
Gamecenter has posted an interview on Dreamland, talking to Mythos Games' Julian Gollop about their recently emerged tactical and strategic combat game. The interview reveals several new bits of information, such as the use of the NetImmerse 3D engine (known from Prince of Persia 3D and Spellbinder, among others) for the tactical side of things, and includes several new screenshots and concept renders, along with some previously posted images.
Also online at Gamecenter is a new preview of Submarine Titans, a 3D real-time strategy game in development by Ellipse Studios, which unlike the current wave of space-based RTS games has the novelty that it takes place, as the name implies, under water.
Back on schedule, a new update to the American McGee's Alice site reveals the third area of the Mushroom Forest, called Centipede Lair, with a description that hints at a new enemy character.
AVault has posted some
details and screenshots from Martian Gothic: Unification, a new third person
adventure game from Take Two Interactive. The game features a freaky sci-fi
plot, and requires you to manage three characters at once: if one dies, everyone
dies.
Epic's Unreal Tournament bugs
page has been updated with this brief bit of advice for Diamond Viper II
users: *New-and-improved Savage2000 / Viper II Metal .dlls which are fully
compatible with UT 405b (install the UT 405b patch first) are now available
from Diamond's ftp site here.
ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com/pub/display/viper/viper_II/viperII_metal_2003.exe
GameSpot has posted an in-depth preview of Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption, Nihilistic's blood-sucking action RPG. The article kicks off with Bram Stoker's novel and White Wolf's tabletop role-playing game, and ends seven pages later with an assessment of the game's particular characteristics, making stops at the Redemption universe, the Nod engine, Vampire clans and powers, the monsters, and the multiplayer features along the way. A boatload of new screenshots round things out.
Raven's Rick Johnson updated his
.plan with some details on the upcoming patch for the Soldier of Fortune
demo, as well as word that a "non-violent" version of the demo is
currently in QA testing. Here's the scoop: At some point in the near future, I'll be releasing
a patch for the SoF demo to address some of the issues that have come. A few
of the more popular items / fixes that will be include in the patch are:
* Raised player height
* g_movescale cvar to scale the multiplayer move speed
* A3D sound updated to 3.0, fixed some crash issues / speed
* Fix for Default Sound / A3D crash in certain multiplayer circumstances
* Fix for invisible players in DM
* Better spectator movement
* and a bunch of other things
The demo code is still very separate from the main product now, so that we are
only bringing over select changes. No ETA on when I'll release this demo patch
(a 'non-violent' demo is being QA'd with these changes, so I'll see if anything
further comes back), but I will be updating the Raven servers later this evening.
A few more logs from developer's IRC chats have been posted (thanks NRGaming):
PlanetAnachronox has posted the
log from ION Storm's Anachronox chat, and ACVault has posted the
log from this month's Asheron's Call chat.
InciteGames has posted a
new gameplay movie from Soldier of Fortune, featuring quite a bit of violence
from the game (so much they've got a disclaimer). The movie is available as
either a small (3 MB) or large (9 MB) MPEG movie.
Also new on Incite this afternoon are some
new screenshots from Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, featuring more violence,
albeit of a slightly less graphic nature.
New screenshots
from Soldier of Fortune are up on GameSurge, which come directly from Raven,
and show off environments not featured in the demo version of the game.
The Omega Project has posted the
chat log from yesterday's IRC event with members of Raven's Star Trek: Voyager
- Elite Force team (thanks to The Shugashack).
Members of the team are highlighted in red, making it fairly easy to separate
the interesting stuff from the usual IRC chaos.
A new version (1.99e, although it's being called "2.0 beta") of Kali,
the IRC client/server browser has been released and is available for download
on their FTP site. This new
version adds support for a whopping 17 new games, including Dungeon Keeper II,
SpecOps 2, Freespace 2, and Soldier of Fortune, as well as improving support
for many existing games such as Wheel of Time and Quake III Arena. Here's a
direct link to the full download (2.9 MB) and one
for the upgrade from 1.99d (350k).
Well
Rounded Entertainment has posted word that during a conference call yesterday
with investors, Activision announced preliminary details about a new Star Trek
massively multiplayer online RPG that they're developing with Verant Interactive
(the makers of EverQuest). It won't go live for another two years, but they're
claiming that once it does, they'll have between 400,000 and 500,000 users paying
$9.95 a month to play the game (do the math).
Electric Playground has posted a
new preview of Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Planet Moon's oddball 3D action/strategy
title (thanks Planet Moon Central).
The preview features a 16 MB MPEG movie with footage from their TV show, which
is also available in streaming Windows
Media format for broadband users.
Warren
Spector Tells All on GameSpot UK is a fairly beefy Q&A with the ION
Storm designer about Deus Ex, ION's upcoming science fiction action/RPG. The
discussion covers the game's inspiration, storyline, adapting the Unreal engine,
and more. Here's a quote that discusses the game's role-playing aspects, whether
you decide to use your brains, your brawn, or your own combination of the two:
With Deus Ex I wanted to create a game which encouraged you to develop
your character in unique ways in a world that is rich enough for you to express
those differences. But we don't force you into a particular form, we don't say
"You're the computer hacker so you can't fire a pistol." All the
systems are designed to differentiate character and experience and to my mind
that's a definition for roleplaying. It's a case of "Who am I and how do I
interact with the world?" I don't think people will be able to avoid
thinking of this in some sense as a roleplaying game: the role they choose to
play may be like a Quake player, but it's still a role and that's a choice that
we're giving them.
Quantic Dreams, developers of Omikron: the Nomad Soul, have opened a page for their new 3D action/adventure, Quark, showing off the first concept sketches and screenshots of this decidedly quirky looking title that "takes place in two parallel universes, a medieval world full of wonder and fantasy and a realistic contemporary world."
Some
impressive screenshots from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars,
a new combat strategy game from Simon & Schuster are up on AVault, as are
some new
shots from TalonSoft's 3D RTS Dogs of War. Lastly, GamersCentral has posted
a
whole bunch of new shots from Gunship 3, the latest combat sim from Microprose/Hasbro.
Take 2 Games has released a version 1.03 patch for Grand Theft Auto 2, which "will get the game running smoother and cleaner than ever before. Fully optimised and raring to go."
Interplay steps up activity at their official MDK2 site by kicking off an intro comic and an Enemy of the Week feature, as well as posting more PC and Dreamcast screenshots. An MDK2 Dreamcast demo is already available on the Official Dreamcast Magazine. MDK, as is common knowledge, stands for Mutual Denial Knock-down.
Linux
Picking up its Game is the name of a new article on ZDNet, which looks at
the different efforts to bring hardware-accelerated 3D gaming to the Linux platform.
There are several solutions being shown at the LinuxWorld expo, from the venerable
Mesa 3D to a full OpenGL driver from NVIDIA and new drivers from ATI. The article
also features quotes from Loki Software's Scott Draeker, who says that, "Windows
is actually declining as a gaming platform...It's losing ground to console games.
People want to be able to put in a disk and play the game. That can't be done
on Windows."
According to a
story on AVault, DirectX 8 will be incorporating Battlefield Communicator's
real-time voice technology. Microsoft bought ShadowFactor
(the company that owns the product) last year, and plans to make the current
version available as a free download on February 18th.
A new Summoner Designer Diary is online at PC.IGN.com, and in this installment lead designer Sandeep Shekar talks about creating a bestiary for Volition's upcoming 3D role-playing game, to fill their "unique fantasy world without many of the cliche locales, characters, and monsters."
The dawning of the metal age, Part 1 is the first installment of Computer Games Online's preview of Thief II: the Metal Age, looking at the history of the Thief series and summarizing the story of its sequel. The screenshots look familiar though.
Kokak has released the source of his GLHeretic port version 1.0, so anyone interested in how this OpenGL port of Raven's classic fantasy shooter was programmed can now have a look under the hood.
An update
to Tim Willits' .plan gives word that id Software is looking to hire a level
designer: Level Design Position Available
Id Software is searching for a talented, experienced, and team driven individual
to help us create some of
the best selling games in the industry. We are looking for a team player to add
to our design department.
Requirements:
1. Experience working with a 3D engine such as Quake, Unreal, Lith-Tech, etc.
2. Ability to maintain an organized schedule within a creative environment.
3. Ability to set goals and compete them in a timely manner.
4. A driven, self-starter who enjoys the commitment and rewards of creating some
of the best levels in the industry.
5. Avid game player with an open mind and understanding of games and gamers in
general
6. Willing to play on team id during Capture the Flag games.
If you are interested please send email to twillits@idsoftware.com.
All inquires will be strictly confidential.
Raven's John
Scott updated his .plan with word that he's updated the Soldier
of Fortune Demo dedicated.cfg, a request for continued
feedback, as well as a reminder that the
SoF messageboards and FAQ are a great resource for help with the demo if
you're looking for some, as the board is monitored by Raven's Kenn Hoekstra.
Another new version of Servarena
is now available, bringing this Quake III Arena dedicated server launcher up to
version 2.04. As you might imagine from the rapid consecutive releases, this is
another fix for a few more bugs that have popped up.
A new version 1.41 of the Weapon Mod for Quake III Arena is now available on the
Weapon Mod page. Weapon Mod
allows you to adjust many different aspects of gameplay, allowing for easily
customized servers.
A report on CNET Singapore Gamecenter
announces that the reported ban on Half-Life in Singapore ( story)
has been lifted by the Film Appeal Committee there. Thanks Demosthenes.
There's a new version 0.2b of the
Half-Life Control Panel on GracelessLand
fixing some bugs. AnitELVIS describes this as "the versatile, powerful, and
just plain keen development IDE for Half-Life and Quake 3 Arena. It makes
managing large mapping/mod projects a breeze-majhor." The newly
opened PREditor Website (Flash required)
is dedicated to an upcoming level editor for Aliens versus Predator.
I figured out what happened to my email yesterday, when Norton Antivirus quarantined
the infected file, it moved a vast chunk of the affected mailbox as well
(ouch!), so my baby/bathwater analogy was pretty accurate. I managed to find a
less psychotic way of dealing with it when the same script apparently showed up in another couple emails (hence the late start this morning), so hopefully in the future the fine folks at Symantec can do the same (then they can address the way their programs, like so many
others, start displaying "99% complete" about halfway though their operation)--the
inability to isolate an affected email is a severe step backward in
functionality. The killer to all this? As far as I can tell, these were all
actually false alarms. Blech (though better safe than sorry, I suppose). In a really odd note, it is exactly two years to the day
from the only incident where an infected file was posted for download here (the Eraser Bot debacle), which, ironically, led to my adoption of Norton
Antivirus.
Happy Year of the Dragon (eve) to you all. BTW, I don't know about where you are, but around here, Groundhog Day was so
sunny the little rat probably could see his shadow without leaving his hole, and
as if to confirm his "six-more-weeks-of-winter" findings it snowed
yesterday. I celebrated by again buying out the local longjohn-atorium of its
entire supply of thermal undies in the hard-to-find scrawny webmaster size (not
to be confused with the hard-to-find giant webmaster size). Brrr.
Next year we celebrate Groundhog day eve with Groundhog steaks. Also, some of
you are a bit older than you look, as I got a bunch of email yesterday from
Tenpole Tudor fans... Including word from several that Eddie Tenpole is
apparently some manner of UK TV personality on a show called Crystal Maze (descriptions
of the show almost inevitably seem to include some form of the word
"cheesy"), and The Tenpole Tudor Home Page
(thanks Pace and Antony) is actually alive and kicking with audio samples and the latest on the band,
which seems to have re-formed (though the current tour seems to have ended).
Still, it sounds like its time for a bit of the old massive
multiplayer action.... "Too rah ooh rah ohh rah ay! Over the hills with the
swords of a thousand men!"
Link of the Day: Yahoo! Full
Coverage: Chinese New Year.
Bonus Link: Lavarand "...harnessing
the power of Lava Lite® lamps to generate
truly random numbers since 1996." Home of Random
haiku's generated by random numbers powered by Lava Lites®
, and Corporate speak memos generated by random numbers powered by Lava Lites®.
Thanks Mister Johnson.
Story of the Day: Gil
Kane Dies, for those like the loonster and myself who are big fans of comic book
history.
Bonus Story: Man
makes tie tack for vasectomy patients. Thanks Elrond H.
A day earlier than previously announced, Daily Radar has posted They Hunger, a new level set for Half-Life by Neil Manke (author of USS Darkstar), along with some raving comments. Said to be only the first episode of They Hunger, it's yours for the price of a 16 MB download, but it has also been available for some time already on the cover CD-ROM of the February issue of PC Gamer.
In a bizarre bit of news (spotted on AVault),
the LithTech 2 engine title No One Lives Forever has been renamed...No One Lives
Forever. Until now that was simply a working title, but Fox Interactive, the
game's new publisher, apparently likes the name enough to keep it.
According to Gone Gold (by way of the
game's publisher, Interplay, so it has been confirmed) Messiah has been pushed
back to mid March from its mid February release date.
Raven's Eric Biessman has kicked off a second Soldier of Fortune designer diary, this time on GameSpot. This first installment discusses the choice for, and adaptation of, the Quake II engine to the needs of their mercenary shooter.
GameSpot has posted a
new, hands-on preview of Allegiance, Microsoft's massively multiplayer space
sim. In addition to the usual text and screenshots, the preview features quotes
from Joel Dehlin, the game's producer.
Three new programming tutorials
have been posted at Tectonic: one explaining how bits and "# commands"
work, one on creating a basic mod, and one that teaches you how to make your
own Rail Arena-style mod.
GameProWorld has posted some twenty new screenshots of Star Trek: Klingon Academy, Interplay's space-combat sim that pits the Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Tholian, Gorn, and Sha'kurian races against eachother.
The Soldier of Fortune Center has posted
a movie (available in your choice of Real Video or AVI format) showing the ACT
Labs Gun System in action with Soldier of Fortune.
The ICQ downloads page has posted
ICQ v.3.19 Build #2569 (Revision A). There's absolutely no details on what's
new in this version besides the words, "bug fix" but at least it's
a small download (thanks Ant for
the tip). Also of note is a new version
of mIRC which features over 130 changes since the last release (thanks to
everyone that sent this in).
Hunter, a new mod for Unreal Tournament has been released, and is available
for download at Eavy's
UT Mods page. The mod originally started as an extra game type from the
UT version of Rocket Arena currently in development, but the author decided
to spin it off into its own mod.
Monolith has announced that the latest licensee of their LithTech engine is none
other than 3DO and their subsidiary New World Computing, who will be using the
engine to make "multiple titles" in the Might and Magic series of
games. Here's the announcement: (Kirkland, WA, February 3 2000 ) LithTech
Inc. today announced the licensing of the powerful LithTech 3D Game Operating
System to New World Computing, a division of The 3DO Company (Nasdaq: THDO).
LithTech will be used to power multiple titles in the critically acclaimed Might
and Magic game brand.
"We are thrilled that 3DO and New World Computing have chosen the LithTech
3D Game OS for use in the highly acclaimed Might and Magic brand," comments
Jason Hall, CEO for LithTech Inc. "LithTech's ability to handle huge outdoor
environments combined with state-of-the-art special effects will insure the
talented Might and Magic teams can build the most beautiful worlds yet seen
in the fantasy genre."
LithTech is a licensable technology for multiple platforms that functions as
a complete 3D Game Operating System which allows developers to easily design,
develop and focus on content without reinventing new technology for each project.
The development environment includes all world and model building tools, newly
designed rendering capability and complete source code necessary to bring a
game team's concepts and production schedule to completion quickly.
"The flexibility of this engine lets us do what we do best, which is creating
vast, entertaining gaming worlds," says Jon Van Caneghem, president of
New World Computing. "The LithTech technology allows us to concentrate
on the immersive game play and in-depth storytelling that the Might and Magic
brand is known for."
GameSpy.com has posted a
Q&A with Monolith's Jason Hall, asking him a few questions about the
recently formed LithTech company, and the future of the engine.
The newly opened MonolithNews.com
has posted four
new screenshots from Monolith's LithTech 2 engine. These aren't from any
game in development, but rather come from various different technology demos.
GameSpot UK has posted an
interview with BioWare's Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, talking about their
almost complete title MDK 2. The interview deals with the Dreamcast version
of the game, but both the console and PC versions are being made simultaneously, so it's still of interest if you can't stand console titles.
And if you want to skip the interview altogether, they've got some
new screenshots from the PC version up as well. MDK, as everyone knows,
stands for Mamoun's Downtown Knishes.
Also on GameSpot UK is a
brief preview of the full version of Messiah, featuring a bunch of new screenshots
from Shiny's third person action game of diaper-clad glory.
Publisher Cryo Interactive has recently opened their official Devil Inside site, sporting information and five new screenshots for this 3D action adventure that is being developed by GameSquad.
RPOV has posted an article
on the world of game engines, featuring quotes from game several developers. Some
of the quotes are from older interviews, but there are some great quotes, including
3D Realms' Scott Miller on the Prey engine and former id employee Brian Hook
on the advantages of licensing an engine.
Meccaworld has posted a
hands-on preview of Westwood Studios' Nox, their soon-to-be-released isometric
action game, featuring a good description of the gameplay and a few images.
Also, PCFan has posted a
brief interview with Westwood's PR man Aaron Cohen, who further describes
the gameplay, including a summary of the plot.
Dark Horse Interactive's official
Hellboy site has been updated with no less than ten
new screenshots. Hellboy is being developed by Cryo Interactive, and is
based on the comic books of the same name by Mike Mignola (which are published
by Dark Horse Comics).
Daily Radar has posted a hands-on preview of Evolva, examining the organic-looking action/strategy game by Computer Artworks that puts you in control of a team of "genohunters" battling for survival, Starship Troopers-style.
The official Messiah site has been updated with a new screenshot on its frontpage, showing off a little action from Shiny's presumably imminent possess-em-up.
Dopplegangers has conducted an interview with Tim Gift, Dynamix' lead programmer on TRIBES 2, discussing the scripting language employed in the game (thanks Voodoo Extreme). Most of the article is rather technical in nature, and it includes a pair of example code excerpts.
The Ranger Gone Bad 3 preview has been released, and is available for download
on Stomped and
Machinima.com.
The 7.7 MB download requires Quake 1, and is not the same as the version that
was shown at QuakeCon '97, but rather a more polished version.
Computer Games Online's
Building a starship, Part 2 offers more of their Q&A with Raven's Brian
Pelletier on Starship design in their upcoming Quake III-engine game, Star Trek:
Voyager-Elite Force. If this is only wets your appetite for skinny on this
space first-person shooter, you're in luck, as today continues the ongoing daily
chat session marathon at The Omega Project
where they are holding a chat for Elite Force on IRC Server omegaproject.net in
the channel #lobby. The festivities kick off at 7:00 PM EST, which is 4:00 PST,
or 00:00 GMT (sorry, no Star Date translations off the top of my head).
The latest informing being done by the ION
Storm Daily Informant is that tonight is that time of the month for the
Anachronox crew, when they whip out the chatting sticks to do battle in the
monthly AnachroChat, to discuss
progress on this Quake II-engine RPG. The live chat session will take place on
the IRC server www.ionstorm.com, in the channel #ion at 9:00 PM EST (8:00 PM
Central), or you can also join in simply by hitting the Online button on their
website.
Westlake Interactive has released the Mac version 405B patch for Unreal Tournament, bringing the game in line with the PC version. The patch is available from several download mirrors, and includes the following Mac specific fixes:
- Fixed a bug that caused custom skins & maps to not auto-download when joining a server.
- Added an option to disable command key shortcuts (like Cmd-Q)
- Added some extra code to the RAVE driver to boost performance on newer AGP Rage 128 cards.
- Added an option for dedicated servers that will detect if the server has stopped accepting connections (which can happen after 2 to 10 hours of running). If the server sees this has happened, it will relauch itself with all settings entact.
- Fixed remote web administration code, you can now change settings, kick/ban players, and even type directly into the server console of a Mac server all from a standard web
browser.
There are eight new Earth 2150 screenshots
on PC.IGN.Com, showing off action from TopWare's European 3D RTS, soon to
appear in North America.
The Shogun Total War Interview, pt. 1
on PC.IGN.Com looks at Shogun: Total War, an upcoming real-time/turn-based
strategy game from Creative Assembly. Rather than being based on all three million
pages of the James Clavell novel (Infocom already did that one), the game is
"Based on the Sengoku Jidai (that's Age of the Country at War to you)
period of Japanese history, Shogun: Total War follows feudal warlords battling
it out for supremacy."
The Servarena page has a new
version 2.01 of this Quake III Arena dedicated server launcher, a quick bug fix,
hot on the heels of the release of version 2.0. The new version is available as
both a full installer as well as a patch for the previous version.
The Australian Rudimentary Skinning Enclave
(ARSE) is a Quick Guide to skinning in Quake III Arena by Snafu, author of a
pair of Q3A skin packs featuring characters from Marvel comics ( marvelskinpak.zip
and marvelskinpak2.zip).
Also, loonygames presents Painting on Polygons - 2D Art and videogames
answers reader-submitted questions on the tools best suited to working in the
industry as a 2D artist, from Vicarious Visions' artist Rick
"Flatness" Grossenbacher. One of the answers also offers advice to
those interested in getting into the industry.
Microsoft's
Windows 2000 Readiness Analyzer attempts to gauge your system's
Win2K-worthiness, though they point out "Microsoft did not focus on testing
games or entertainment software." Also, So you're thinking about upgrading to Windows 2000
is written by a computer technician who has spent the last five months playing
with the new MS OS, currently due February 17.
- Unreality's interview with Vito
Miliano talks with this member of the Unrealty project, which looks to
provide virtual tours of buildings and other architectural structures using
the power of the Unreal engine...
- A couple of updates to the Prospect Vector
website reveal that the future of the Tread level editor has been up in
the air, though the latest update indicates that every effort is being made
to prevent the project from just dying. Thanks Nathan...
- PS2 Final Fantasy Movie
Mayhem on Daily Radar offers some "bootleg" movies of Final
Fantasy IX, X, and XI(!), none of which apparently is actually ever destined
to be ported to the PC. Thanks Bre@k...
Woops, I lost a bunch of email sent to the news@bluesnews.com
when Norton Antivirus ate a good chunk of a mailbox. If you sent along something
to news yesterday that was overlooked this morning, please feel free to send it along again,
in case it was lost (this should not really be too big a problem since Frans and
loony both should have these mails as well). This is the first time NAV has
thrown the baby out with the bathwater on me like this (although it is a new
version)... I just ran live update, and there's an addition since yesterday
offering an "update to email scanning," though no mention of a fix for
the "mail being eaten problem."
Hmmm... throwing the baby out with the bathwater, in addition to being a cliché,
was a song title... I wonder if there are any other old Tenpole Tudor fans out
there? I just inspired myself and found one of their CDs on Amazon along with a
Doug and the Slugs reissue (oh joy!) I had all but given up on long ago. Anyone
familiar with either of these terribly quirky bands (whose heydays were back in
the last days of vinyl LPs) now probably has extra insight into what an
especially odd duck I am (as if that bizarre segue from email to obscure bands
doesn't serve that same purpose just as well).
Link of the Day: Demotivate.com.
For those days you're just feeling too good about everything. Thanks Neil.
Story of the Day: New research explains why the tipsy topple.
Thanks Mike Martinez. Kind of seems to go with the recent one about how incompetents
are too incompetent to realize it.
Image of the Day: A Lunar Eclipse in Three Exposures,
an Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Thanks brother 19.
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