Archived News:
A new installment in PC.IGN's Allegiance
designer diary has been posted, with designer David Pugh talking about maintaining
balanced gameplay in this massively multiplayer title.
GameSpot has posted a
detailed preview of LucasArts' 3D real-time strategy game Force Commander,
featuring some new screenshots from the game, which they say will ship, "sometime
in the last week of March or the first week of April."
Starfleet Universe has posted version 1.03 patches for Star Trek: Starfleet Command, fixing a host of issues with Interplay's combat space-sim. US editions are available now, with the international versions expected later this week.
The surprise news at Microsoft's GameStock, according to this
story on Gamecenter, is that Relic Entertainment, well-known as the creators
of the space-themed RTS game Homeworld, will be partnering with Microsoft on
their next project. Apparently the game is unique, or at least enough so as
to scare Sierra away from it (they had right of first refusal on Relic's next
title). Nothing is known about the game beyond what little Relic CEO Alex Garden
was willing to say: that it's, "a game even more ambitious than Homeworld."
Raven's John Scott updated his .plan with the latest on their crunch-time activities on Soldier of Fortune, their presumably imminent mercenary first-person shooter. Here's the status, which includes a word on his own status as an alien working in the USA (not in the X-Files way, of course):
All is looking damn fine with SoF, we are just waiting for
the various QAs around the world to get back to us. The main
issues we have are with french and German words being much
longer than their English (or even American) counterparts.
We've been doing the very aptly named crunch time for the
last couple of months and the signs are starting to show.
You can only live so long on a diet based solely on nicotene,
caffiene and pizza :)
However, things are starting to wind down a little our end.
Hopefully, I can go home before 4am tonight!
The lawyers are handling my visa renewal at moment. All should
be fine, but it is still a very worrying time for me.
Interplay's official Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn site announces an IRC chat with members of the development team of this upcoming isometric RPG. The event will take place tomorrow, Thursday, March 2 at 9:00 PM EST (6:00 PM PST) on irc.vaultnetwork.com in channel #vault. Also, MDK2.com sent word of updated details for tonight's MDK2 chat ( story), which will now go down on irc.damaged.net in channel #ignchat at 9:00 PM EST tonight, as described on this page.
This massive Thief: the Dark Project Gold FAQ at GameFAQs has been updated with more details on Looking Glass first sneak-em-up action game, making it even more comprehensive than it already was.
More Dungeon Siege news today, as newly opened Dungeon Siege Vault has posted an interview with Chris Taylor on the 3D action RPG in development at his company Gas Powered Games. Here is how he describes the game himself:
Dungeon Siege is an Action Fantasy RPG game that pushes technical and gameplay boundaries to the next level. Just like with
Total Annihilation, we are breaking all kinds of rules in the genre. It is a great challenge to do a game like this in an established genre and show
that we can make huge changes while still building on all the core RPG experiences that people enjoy. A couple of examples of this includes the
elimination of loading screens by making one gigantic continuous world and the ability for the Player to have up to 10 characters in the party.
We also believe that our intense over-the-top battles will heighten the gameplay experience and have people playing on the edge of their seat.
Redstorm has opened its Rogue Spear: Urban Operations site with new screenshots, information and designer logs of their upcoming expansion pack to the tactical squad action game. Thanks Stomped.
incitegames has posted a new MPEG movie that features some in-game footage and excerpts from the
cut-scenes from Star Trek: Armada, the upcoming 3D RTS game that lets you battle
it out in the Star Trek universe.
- Gamers Central has posted a preview of Shadows of Reality that includes two new screenshots (the top pair in the sidebar) from Nevolution's upcoming 3D action RPG.
- PlanetVampire has a new high-res image of Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. In related news, the list of selected beta testers has been announced at Vampire.WON.net.
- There is a new Majesty screenshot on Majesty - Dragon, showing off the "highest hero level" in the beta of this isometric fantasy RPG.
- GamesMania has posted a brief sneak peek at Echolon, including a gallery of screenshots, some new and some familiar, of the futuristic action flightsim in development at Buka.
- New Wizards & Warriors Screenshots at Adrenaline Vault provides insight into what this first-person fantasy RPG will look like.
GA-Source has posted three
new screenshots from Serious Sam, an upcoming first person shooter from
Croation developer Croteam, as well as word that they plan to throw their hat
into the engine ring and license their engine to other developers.
Gas Powered Games' official Dungeon
Siege site has been updated, and now sports a spiffy new contents page,
and links to sections of Microsoft's
page for the game, which contains lots of gameplay details, a few screenshots,
and a FAQ about the game.
AVault has posted six
new shots from the just-announced MechWarrior 4 (see below). The shots are
high-resolution, and feature some of the new 'mechs and special effects that
have been added since the last MechWarrior game.
IMG Magazine has posted a
Q&A with Mary Bihr, LucasArts' VP of Marketing, talking about their recently released Mac port of Star Wars
Episode I Racer, as well as the company's future plans for the platform. While they may have other Mac titles in development, she was unable to confirm this or comment on unannounced games.
Microsoft's GameStock
2000 site is live, featuring game information and screenshots from all the
games being showcased at this press-only event going on for the next few days
(thanks mantis). Amongst the games showcased are the just-announced Mechwarrior
4 (see below), Dungeon Siege, Allegiance, Starlancer, and MechCommander 2.
Microsoft has announced
MechWarrior 4, the inevitable sequel to Mechwarrior 3, featuring 21 new
'Mechs, a new dynamic mission structure, more tactical options than the earlier
games, and more. Also announced today is MechCommander
2, a fully 3D sequel to the original MechCommander, which brought real-time strategy to the BattleTech
universe.
Twelve new
screenshots from Star Trek: Armada, an impressive-looking 3D strategy game
set in the Star Trek universe have been posted at Federation HQ. Word is that
the game allows you to play as the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, or
the Borg, so start polishing your rhetoric of choice now. If that's not enough for you, more screenshots can be found at GameSpot UK's preview of the game.
GA-Strategy has posted an
interview with Jamie McNeely and Phil O'Connor, the Executive Producer and
Producer at Strategy First on their upcoming space-themed strategy game, O.R.B..
There are six new screenshots from the game posted as well.
A new interview
with Shiny frontman David Perry is up at the German games site nonstuff.de
("Für alles was hart werden kann") talking to him about their still
relatively secret 3D strategy game Sacrifice. There are a few new images up
as well, although they look like they are photographs from an early demonstration
of the game, not recent in-game shots. The interview's in German, so be sure
to stick
a BabelFish in your ear if you need the English translation.
The newly opened DungeonSiege.org has posted nine
new images from Dungeon Siege, the upcoming action/adventure game from Gas
Powered Games (the company helmed by Total Annihilation creator Chris Taylor).
There are seven in-game shots, and two concept images, and all are very detailed.
Twelve
new screenshots from Devil Inside, showing off this spooky adventure game
from the creator of Alone in the Dark, have been posted at GameSpot UK.
Also new at GameSpot UK are fifteen
new screenshots from Starship Troopers, an upcoming strategy game based
on the movie of the same name (and presumably has as little to do with the book
as the film did). If you're a little confused, the third person action game
that was being made was canned, and replaced with this current project.
DailyRadar.com
previews Crimson Skies looking ahead at this action combat flyer (rather
than a flight simulation) from Microsoft they call "ultrastylish," in
piece illustrated by six new screenshots. Thresh's FiringSquad
previews Crimson Skies as well, calling it "World War II without the
War," referring to the alternate history it presents, which is set in 1937.
The AmsterDoom website has gone live,
and if you guessed from the name that this is a first-person shooter being
developed in Holland, you hit it right on the head. The page offers some
screenshots to show off what the project looks like, terribly useful if you have
problems understanding the text, which tends to run along the lines of: "In
dit nieuwe millenium is er eindelijk gebeurd waar mensen al decennia voor
vrezen.... Buitenaardse troepen zijn op Schiphol en de binnenstad van Amsterdam
geland." Our on-the-scenes reporter Frans, who of course, does grok that
kind of stuff, says the game uses the Genesis3D engine, and is set in Amsterdam,
featuring 15 new levels that offer recognizable real-world locations from the
Dutch capital. It's not clear if this game will be readily available
outside of the Netherlands.
The Armada Images page on the Star Trek Armada
site has been updated with a Star Trek Armada screenshot and a shot from a
magazine ad campaign (as well as the box art, which has been previously published)
from this upcoming trekkie RTS. The Force Commander
page has posted images of Characters, Units, Buildings, and Planets from
Force Commander in their Gallery,
humbly touting the "incredible 3D animations, character bios and unit
descriptions!" from this upcoming Star Wars RTS. It Came for Zog Movie, Character Animations
on GA-Source has six new character animations and a 4 MB teaser movie from
Pixeleer's upcoming 3D adventure game, It Came for Zog, that looks kind of like Grim Fandango.
Daily Radar
interviews Peter Moreland of Hothouse Creations about Gangsters II, leaving
no pun unturned as they speak with the "Capo tutti di Capo" about this
upcoming RTS that will offer a "Gangster's paradise" (this is stuff
after my own heart).
PC.IGN.Com's Sims Strategy Guide
is online if you need advice in how to get an artificial life. As with all the
IGN guides, free registration is required. Also, in a less current vein, there's a FreeSpace 2 Game Guide
on MakeItSimple offering 46 pages of mission-by-mission tips on winning
Volition's space combat game.
The Camelot Vault has been updated
with a new Dark Age of Camelot FAQ
answering questions about this upcoming online multiplayer RPG that places you
in the comfortable bosom of the medieval era where you will battle knights and
the plague as one of the Britons, the Celts, or the Norse. There is also now a
messageboard among the VN Boards
where you can discuss the game.
Version 1.0 of the LAN Party Sideshow
large LAN messaging system is now available. Described as a true portal for
large LAN Parties, the program offers an "alternative messaging system
allowing easy communication between participants, and from staff to participants"
that "emulates IRC and Gamespy." Sideshow is completely browser-based,
so clients don't even need to install anything.
After a couple of months of testing, version 0.49 of the Rambot for Quake II is
now available on Rambot's Pit, called an
interim release with another version already in the works. Described as much
better fighters due to improved strafing in combat, the new bots also offer
noded/nodeless roaming, strafing around obstacles, projectile avoidance, and
hearing. Thanks Clear Ether, The Mormon Berserker.
With the paint barely dry on the last release, the Licensed To Kill
page already has a new version 1.22 of the Licensed To Kill bot for Action Quake2.
The new version adds knife throwing and kicking to the bots non-Marquis of
Queensbury repertoire, increases sniper accuracy at lower skill levels, adds
corner collision detection and avoidance code, and more.
The Checkered Flag-Gold Cup Website
has a new version 1.2 of the Checkered Flag Goldcup for Quake. Like QuakeRally,
this mod adds the road to the game's rage, providing racing action. The new
version features improved physics, some new sounds, and "bigger, meaner
cars."
The debut release of glQuake for
LCC-Win32 is now available. This port of id Software's publicly available
Quake source code adds many of the features from various Quake projects as
optional variables that can be toggled on or off as well as various bug-fixes,
all while maintaining compatibility with the original GLQuake. Source code is
included.
There's a new version 0.3 of NetDoom,
a rapid update to this Doom deathmatch port on the heels of the release of
version 0.2 ( story).
The new release adds Boom support, better error handling, and more.
There was a story up for a while yesterday about a playable demo of Earth 2150
that was pulled to avoid confusion when the publisher had this release, which
turns out to have been unauthorized, pulled from where it was available, since
it was a demo that did not yet have all the kinks worked out.
There is no word on when the official demo will be released.
An update to Mark
Poesch's .plan gives the latest on progress on the U2Ed patch for Unreal
Tournament, saying they "should have the experimental U2Ed patch posted by
the end of the week." So
You Want to Make a Game on GameSpy.com's Mod Developer Week offers thoughts
on the subject from Jesse "Warren" Taylor, project lead on Infiltration
for UT.
The Fusion 2000 Gaming Competition
is sponsored by Creative Labs, scheduled for March 8-10 in the United Arab
Emirates. Games on the schedule include Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, and
Half-Life, and prizes up for grabs include a GeForce PRO, a Nomad, a DTT2550,
& more.
I thought it was about time I explained something that's only vaguely been
referred to here in the past, which is the reason you'll see "Out of the
Blue" down here, and one day a week "Fruit of the loon," but,
with one exception in an emergency, nothing down here by Frans. The reason for
this is by
Frans' choice, as his European hours aren't very compatible with the East Coast
day that we follow, making staying up until midnight here to wait for the next
day to begin not very practical. Further, his mind is probably a bit too orderly to
accomplish one of these rambles, which probably makes it all the more desirable
that he be the one to write them, but that's another story entirely. It's not
like he needs more to do, as occasionally work by one of the three of us will
appear in posts done by one of the others, and a lot of Frans' work, like our
legendary all-you-can-eat reviews bar, falls into this category. So there's that. Here's another
chapter in the time flying category: this is the one-year anniversary of Graeme
Devine joining id Software.
Link of the Day: Mechanized
Propulsion Systems. At work on real-life mechs. Thanks SailorScout.
Story of the Day: Mullet: A Do That Still Does
(Washington Post). Thanks Doug, who adds: "Why is it that now when I hear
about mullets, I think of Blue's News?"
Bonus Story: What Is Hip: Not GoHip.com
(Wired). A cautionary tale. Thanks Nick F.
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