Archived News:
A brief interview with Blizzard
producer Chris Millar is up at PC.IGN, talking about Warcraft III. The interview
retreads a lot of information that has been available for some time (such as
details on the engine, etc.) but Chris also talks about the new Undead race,
and there is an interesting bit on how the multiplayer will function. Here's an excerpt
from the discussion about the multiplayer mode (which sounds very different
from the previous Warcraft games): IGNPC: How will players join together
and begin a multiplay game online?
Chris Millar: This is a role-playing strategy title, so you can't just start
up the game and launch into battle right away -- multiple factors have
to be coped with. Gameplay challenges require decisions, for example you have
to decide first of all whether to save a town from attackers or not, and then
if you save it what should you do with it then? Also, to save the town you may
need resources or items that can only be accessed from a specific location or
third-party character.
A version 1.4 patch
has been released for the MacOS version of Descent 3 (thanks Descent
3D). The patch is pretty much the same as its windows counterpart, with
some Mac-specific changes and a warning regarding a lingering bug in resolutions
higher than 640x480 (that they are working with Apple to fix).
GameSpot has posted 25
new screenshots from I'm Going In, Innerloop's upcoming first person shooter
(that was formerly known as Project IGI). The shots feature everything from
the in-game cut scenes, to the map and sniper modes in addition to regular gameplay.
A new preview of Giants: Citizen
Kabuto is up at PC.IGN, based on the author's visit to Planet Moon's office.
The preview features a fairly in-depth description of the game's recently overhauled
graphics engine, as well as some details on the multiplayer mode.
Black & White fan page The Citadel
has posted another one of their MPEG movies from Peter Molyneux' E3 demo. This
one (which clocks in at just over 21 megs) features in-game footage of the game's
citadel, with a look at both the challenge room and the creature room. There
is also word on the site that they will release the audio portions as MP3 files
soon, so you can hear Peter talking about the game without downloading the massive
movies.
Daily Radar has posted 19
(yes, that's 19) MPEG movies, collectively featuring the entire 30
minute long E3 Neverwinter Nights demonstration. They've been kind enough to
provide detailed descriptions for each, along with mirror sites (as their server
will inevitably slow down considerably). Also, GameSpot has 19
new shots from the game (and no, we have no idea what's up with that number
tonight).
A new, hands-on preview
of Dark Reign 2 is up at Gamecenter. The author is participating in the
closed beta test of the game, and is quite enthusiastic about it. There are
a whole bunch of new shots, along with the author's impressions of the game's
engine, interface, and overall gameplay.
GoneGold, fortunately back on track after a slow period last week, reports that Soulbringer has gone gold and should be in stores in about two weeks. Soulbringer is a 3D role-playing game developed by Gremlin and published in the US by Interplay.
Raven's Eric
Biessman is interviewed on In the Trenches, talking about the world of level
design. Eric talks mostly about creating levels for Soldier of Fortune, although
he has worked on a wide variety of games with different settings, so much of
his advice easily applies to map authors regardless of their game or engine
of choice.
AVault has posted a
news story suggesting that Diablo II has gone gold. They credit unnamed
"online reports" and suggest that Blizzard is keeping their mouths
shut for the time being so they can prep international versions for a simultaneous
worldwide release.
Microsoft has recently opened its official MechWarrior 4: Vengeance site for business, featuring game information, overviews of the mechs, a whole bunch of new screenshots and more from their upcoming 3D game of metallic mayhem.
There are four new screenshots from Dogs of War on Adrenaline Vault, along with a brief update on the final development of this 3D action RTS by Silicon Dreams as they are wrapping up the game for its US release.
incite has posted a second Neverwinter Nights movie, this one not including the world builder as in yesterday's clip ( story), but footage of already built environments, with a voice-over explaining BioWare's design goals for their 3D role-playing game.
GA-Source has posted a summary of information released today by Mythic Entertainment about Independence Day Online, a first-person multiplayer space combat game based on the sci-fi movie of a few years ago. The online-only title will be running on the MothershipGames.com gaming service by publisher Centropolis, and the official ID4 Online page also has the first three screenshots of the game.
This month's issue of PC Gamer UK features a preview of Halo, Bungie's upcoming
third person squad-based action game, and features a line that reads, "Jason
[Jones, lead programmer on the game] believes that the balance is moving increasingly
towards the first person model." We attempted to follow-up on this with
Bungie's Doug Zartman, however he hadn't seen the article yet, and Jones is
out of town until next week. We'll be sure to find out more as soon as we can.
Thanks go out to Shugashack, by way
of Stomped, for the quote.
A post called New Legends Loses Publisher
on GA-Source has word that Infogrames has revealed they no longer intend on
being the publisher of New Legends, an upcoming action game from Infinite
Machine. Infogrames picked up the rights to publish the Unreal-engine game when they acquired a portion of GT Interactive last year, and besides word they won't be New Legends' publisher, they "don't have any more information to release at this time."
Five new screenshots from Neverwinter Nights are online at RPG Planet, sporting a look ahead to new areas from the 3D role-playing game under contruction at BioWare, that will be based on the third edition AD&D rules.
There are three new M.O.U.T. 2025 screenshots on GA-Source, along with some story details on Ripcord's tactical FPS and an overview of its features.
BioWare opened a pair of MDK2 support pages for their just-released third-person action game: the How-To's page presents a couple of tips to gameplay issues, while the Known Issues page runs down several problems and offers ways to bypass them.
GameSpy.com has posted a hands-on preview of Icewind Dale, covering the background, interface, monsters and more in the isometric RPG in development at Black Isle Studios.
Rogue War Details, New Screenshots on GA-Strategy offers some insights into this hybrid strategy/shooter title by way of quotes from Reallis president Alex Papasavas, illustrated by half a dozen of new screenshots.
A new installment of the ongoing Soldier of Fortune diary has programmer Keith Fuller rambling about a possible sequel. Confessing, "I've got to tell you up front that I don't actually know anything about SOF2. In fact, I can't even tell you with any degree of knowledge or certainty that it will ever exist," the update proceeds to discuss a few ideas for the sequel, should that ever be developed.
There is a Q&A with ION Storm's Harvey "Witchboy" Smith on VoodooExtreme, with the lead designer on Deus Ex talking about finishing up the game, some of the features that went into it, and a few assorted other topics.
GameSpot UK kicks off a week of Shogun: Total War coverage by posting a short gallery of screenshots from the turn-based strategy side of the game, as well as a brief diary giving a taste of the story behind the shots.
Hot on the heels of the first beta patch ( story), Pandemic has posted a new build 775 patch for the closed beta test of Dark Reign 2. The new beta test page also offers a lot more information on the test, as well as solutions to some common problems.
There is a new Summoner movie on Summoner.Org, as well as a trailer released earlier through Daily Radar ( story). The new movie (or Publisher Demo, as they call it) features over two minutes of in-game footage from Volition's upcoming 3D role-playing game along with a nice soundtrack, and comes in three download sizes. Update: Summoner producer Anoop Shekar sends word that the "new" movie is in actuality composed of early gameplay footage from November of 1998, which was sent out when Volition was seeking a publisher for the game.
Daily Radar's Star Trek Voyager-Elite Force Interview
talks with Brian Raffel at Raven Software about progress on Elite Force, their
upcoming Quake III-engine shooter set in the Star Trek Voyager universe, to, as
they cleverly put it "see if he knows his phasers from his photon
torpedoes."
There's a new X-COM Alliance Interview and Movie
on PC.IGN.Com talking with Lead Designer Chris Clark and other members of
the team at work on the upcoming Unreal-engine action-oriented installment in
the X-Com series of UFO defense games. In addition to the Q&A on the game,
which netted their "best action game" award from this year's E3, they
have also posted a movie of the game intro, which, like most media of this type, is going to be tough to pull
down through a modem, since it's all of 42 MB.
The Spookhouse has
posted some info from TRI's Den "of the Earth" Johnson with info on
plans for Rustin Parr, one of the upcoming games that will use the Nocturne
engine to recreate some of the spookiness of the Blair Witch Project, basically
going into "what to expect and what NOT to expect from our lil Blair
Witch Vol1 game."
There are three New Soldier Screenshots
on GameSpot showing off more gameplay from the upcoming third-person action
game from Southpeak Interactive where you are locked in combat with all manner
of cyborgs (of course Deathlok the Demolisher could eat these guys for lunch,
but I guess that'll have to be a different game).
Detailing the history of promises for a "final" patch for Unreal that
go back over one year (many coated with a grain of salt and not reported
here), the Final Unreal Patch Petition
takes matters into their own hands, looking to influence Epic into issuing the
long-promised update to the original Unreal. If this cause gets your drums
beating, head over and add your name.
Doom 3: Possibly The Greatest Idea Ever on Doomworld
offers a point-by-point rebuttal to the Doom
3: Possibly the worst idea in the history of gaming on GameSpy.com article
mentioned yesterday ( story), taking issue with its basic premise
(unless you suspect its basic premise was to inspire controversy and rebuttals).
The Daily TeleFrag
interviews Chris Taylor, though maybe not the one you are thinking of. This
CT is a senior game designer at Interplay, whose previous credits include
Stonekeep, Fallout 1, MAX2, Starfleet Command and more. The Q&A digs for
details on Fallout: Tactics, a new upcoming installment in the Fallout series,
which actually takes place in the time in between Fallout and Fallout 2.
The Orio Arena website
has a version 0.53 beta of the Orio Arena mod for Quake III Arena. This mod is
for one-on-one matches, seeking to eliminate the primary drawback of these type
of solo duels, which is that often a single good player beats up on the other
players who end up spending most of their game time as spectators while waiting
for their turn to collect a serving of woopass. In Orio arena, the way around
this is to offer multiple one-on-one matches all occurring simultaneously, using
a built-in ladder system.
GameHQ.de interviews Gooseman
talking about the popularity of the Counter-Strike mod for Half-Life in a
Q&A available in both English and German (as a bonus, the page has a nutty cursor dealie (java?) that had me hypnotized for several minutes).
While the summer solstice isn't until the 21st of this month, today nonetheless
marks the anniversary of "the longest day," June 6, 1944. This, of
course, was D-Day, marking the Allied invasion of Europe in World War II (or the
American invasion if you watched Saving Private Ryan, as noted in the Sky News
article mentioned yesterday in John
Scott's .plan).
With all the wild news that's been flying around this community the past
week, how'd you like to be Kenn
Hoekstra and return from vacation to find out about all of it? That's got to
be disorienting.
Link of the Day: the loonydance!
I keep meaning to mention this one, obviously a tribute to his birthday.
Image of the Day: This polycount
E3 picture. This shows loony's and my favorite logo placement from the past
couple of E3s, the Heat.Net urinal pads.
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