Archived News:
Daily
Radar has announced that they will be releasing an exclusive new Deus Ex
demo tomorrow evening. If that alone wasn't enough to get you excited, the filesize
clocks in at all of 32 megs, which is remarkably smaller than the 140 MB demo
already available.
GameSpot has posted a
new preview of Freedom: First Resistance, the upcoming third person adventure
title from Red Storm. The preview is pretty comprehensive, with lots of details
regarding the plot and gameplay, and it also points out that while it
takes place in the same universe as Anne McCaffrey's Freedom trilogy, the events
in the game actually occur after the original novels. Also included are eleven
new screenshots, that show off a number of different characters and locations.
New on Daily Radar this evening are 15
new screenshots from Echelon, the upcoming sci-fi flight sim from Russian
developer Buka Entertainment and publisher Bethesda Softworks. The shots were
taken from their early build of the full game, and feature some of the game's
striking environments.
Westwood's Nox site has been updated with a new FAQ for Nox Quest, the multiplayer enhancement that will be offered as a free release for owners of this isometric action RPG. The questions and their corresponding answers go into fair detail about various gameplay features you can expect.
While we've actually already posted about a interview on the game ( story)
Irrational Games and publisher Crave Entertainment have
just formally announced Freedom Force, a superhero-themed tactical RPG.
While the press release is mostly hyperbole, it does contain a fairly extensive
description of the game, which will be powered by the NetImmerse engine: Freedom
Force sweeps players into a fully immersive 3-D RPG set in uber-detailed 1960s
New York City, replete with Central Park, subways, the Statue of Liberty and
more. PC gamers can assume the powers and personalities of over 20 wildly diverse
alter egos from a squad of the world's most powerful superheroes. Would-be avengers
will have a chance to recruit, train and outfit an evolving superhero team of
four and then send them out to do battle with the world's nastiest super villains.
As well as thundering, knock-down-drag-out fights that feature blasting over
billboards, hurling city buses, demolishing whole city blocks and any major
tourist attractions that get in the player's way, a fully featured RPG skill
system rewards strategic superheroes by allowing players to juggle stats, pump
up powers, recruit new heroes and develop existing heroes based on experience
accumulated in tactical missions.
Are they strong? Listen bub, what's a superhero without superhuman powers? Although
characters have powers which can evolve and be honed during the game, all of
the heroes and villains that populate Freedom Force boast features such as claws,
wings or more complex attributes like rubber bodies which allow the player to
bounce instead of splatter when they fall or get hurtled off buildings.
There are also disadvantageous attributes such as a tendency to go berserk and
lose control in combat. Characters exhibit incredible variety in their powers
ranging from straightforward combat powers like energy projection to more off-the-wall
powers like the ability to stop time or tunnel through ground. For example,
the game features an incredibly agile hero, The Ant, who can climb walls and
burrow short distances and a hero named Manbot who's an intensely potent entity
"trapped" inside a suit of powered armor.
MacCentral Online has posted a new preview of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 - the Fallen, the third-person shooter by The Collective that is making the rounds lately (thanks Stomped). The game is slated for simultaneous release on PC and Mac, so the preview examines a recent PC build, offers quotes from producer Ken Gordon, and features a handful of new screenshots.
Dynamix' Rick Overman made an
update to his .plan with word that he is leaving the company to join GarageGames,
a new startup devoted to publishing games via the Internet. Joining him in this
new venture are Jeff Tunnell and Tim Gift, both former Dynamix employees themselves,
along with another developer whose name will "be revealed after he finishes
the amazing sequel to an award-winning online game." Here's an excerpt
from the press release on GarageGames'
page, that provides some insight into what we can expect from the company: "GarageGames.com
is being built by professional gamemakers who are not only committed to publishing
truly original and exciting product - we're willing to give people the state-of-the-art
tools to do it ," said Jeff Tunnell, founder and chief creative officer
of GarageGames. "Our mission is to provide independent developers with
tools, education, distribution, financial incentives - whatever they need -
to make great games."
Why an "indie" label for games?
"Even though it's a $7 billion market and bigger than movies, gaming is
the only entertainment medium without a viable, separate distribution channel
to showcase new, experimental - and potentially revolutionary - titles and talent,"
said Jeff Tunnel. "GarageGames.com gives any and every gamemaker the opportunity
to publish their game, find their audience - and maybe make their fortune."
Blizzard has unveiled their massive
guide to Diablo II. The guide is available for free at Battle.net, and covers
every conceivable aspect of the game, from the various skills, items and monsters,
to guides to each specific quest (thanks DiabloII.net).
The first public beta of the Q3Terminator
mod for Quake III Arena has been released. The mod requires no new maps,
and adds "Terminator vision" as well as a handheld scanner weapon,
and the download is barely larger than a single megabyte.
Interview with Jamie McNeely of Strategy First on Strategy Gaming Online talks to the producer of this upcoming space-based RTS, who wards off the inevitable comparison to Homeworld, as well as adressing the game's features, including the flight model, tech trees and resources, and multiplayer and customization.
A Q&A
with Terminal Reality's Drew Hayworth is up at CheckOut.com, talking to
him about the Nocturne engine that powers the three Blair Witch games (in addition
to the original Nocturne game, of course). Drew gives some general information
about the Blair Witch games and how they connect, as well as commenting on the
engine itself, including this part that corrects a common misconception that
the "sets" in Nocturne were all pre-rendered: Many people assumed
that, since the cameras in Nocturne were static, the very-high resolution sets
were no more than 2D renders. This isn't true. All the geometry was imported
into Nocturne and is there in every shot. That's the only way that lights and
shadows can be dynamic and that characters can move anywhere while displaying
perfect collision detection.
To test the claim, try this: there's a little-known feature in Nocturne (because
it was added so late in development) called Nightvision. When Nightvision is
activated, the player can move Stranger through dark environments in first-person
mode. The view is intentionally "static-y" (how good could Nightvision
be when developed in the pre-video early '30s?), but you can easily detect the
tons of polygons present in each set.
An interview with Arkane Studios'
Raphael Colantonio and Cyril Meynier is up at RPG Dot this afternoon, talking
about their first-person RPG Arx. The interview originally appeared on French
gaming site Jeuxmag.com, and as a result
some of the questions suffer from translation issues, however the answers were
originally in English, and deal with Arx' original engine, the THEO tool they
licensed from Gamesquad, and more.
While only a select few can use it, Blue Byte has released a
new patch for the closed beta of their 3D strategy game Battle Isle. For
those not lucky enough to participate in the beta test, six
new pre-rendered images showing off some of the game's various units have
been posted on their web site.
Hardware site Got Apex? has conducted a
brief Q&A with ASUS' Raymond Chen, talking to him about their controversial
see-through technology that may or may not appear in a future driver release
(see story and story). Here's an excerpt that
explains where they currently stand on the issue: In light of the concerns,
we are planning to only offer Extra Light in our upcoming driver release. We
are planning to open up a discussion forum to hear from the gaming community
in regards to the other technologies - Transparent View and Wireframe View.
Based on the feedback received from this forum, ASUS will make its final decision.
Version 3.2.1 of the Mesa 3D graphics
library has been released (thanks Linux
Games). Mesa is an open source, OpenGL-esque, cross-platform library that
is used by a number of games, and this latest release fixes a number of bugs,
including one 3dfx-specific issue.
Another one of The Darker Sector's Q&A sessions with the Digital Extremes'
staff is online, this time talking
with programmer Chris Egerter. Chris says that he is currently studying the
Playstation 2 platform "for future game ports" and also that he is
the lead developer on an additional, unannounced project. Digital Extremes previously
worked on the original Unreal and Unreal Tournament, and are currently working
on Dark Sector, a massively multiplayer deathmatch game that uses the Unreal
engine.
Four new screenshots (and five previously available ones)
from Delta Force: Land Warrior, the upcoming third installment in NovaLogic's
Delta Force series, are up at BarrysWorld. This is the first game in the series
that will utilize a polygon-based engine, as opposed to the previous games that
relied exclusively on voxels.
ActionTrip has posted a
new preview of Divinity: The Sword of Lies, an upcoming RPG from Belgian
developers Larian Studios. The preview features quotes from Swen Vincke, the
game's lead programmer, along with some new screenshots.
There is a brief preview of Soldier on WomenGamers, looking ahead to the third-person shooter by Sinister Games based on the Kurt Russell action flick. Along with a write-up of the game's features, seven new screenshots are featured.
Blizzard has made a
post to their Battle.net forums containing a Q&A of sorts, dealing with
the current status of the Diablo II realm servers, as well as the reasons behind
their recent wave of multiplayer difficulties (thanks AVault).
Here's an excerpt that explains how come these problems weren't addressed before
the game shipped: Q: With 2 million orders for Diablo II, were there additional
steps you could have taken to prepare for the massive influx of players on Battle.net?
A: Launching the game, we were aware that retailers had initial orders of 2
million copies, which is why we not only internally
tested the game over Battle.net but we also had two external beta tests. The
game has in fact sold faster at retail than we
expected -- more than half of the original 2 million copies at retail have already
been purchased by consumers. To date, this volume of sales is unprecedented
in our industry. The issues that we are currently addressing with Battle.net
are ones that could
not be simulated in a beta test of 100,000 people. It took a much larger influx
of players to trigger the issues that we are
addressing now.
French gaming site Joystick has conducted an
interview with Quinn Duffy, lead designer at Relic on their upcoming strategy
game Sigma. The text interview is in French (although a translation is available
via Babel Fish) but
an audio version in English is available in RealPlayer format.
There are five new, high-res screenshots of O.R.B. on O.R.B. Headquarters, showing off new galactic scenes from the space-based real-time strategy game under construction at Strategy First.
ProjectIGI.com sent word of an update to the official site for the 3D thinker shooter by Innerloop, where the UK section now features more on the game in a very Flash-y format. There is a detailed storyline area, some screenshots (mostly familiar), 3D renders of the weapons in the game, and more.
Stomped has conducted an
interview with Kevin Stephens, the lead engineer at Monolith on their upcoming
FPS game No One Lives Forever. Kevin answers questions about the game's technology,
and even has AI programmer Brian Long step in for an answer regarding specifics
on the enemy AI.
After yesterday's confirmation that Halo would be appearing on the Mac ( story), it
was sort of assumed that a PC version would be made as well, but it wasn't until
today that it was confirmed. Microsoft's Ed Fries has confirmed a PC version,
saying that the game will be appearing on "all platforms" (somehow
I doubt that...don't expect a Linux, Amiga, or Playstation 2 port). Thanks FoX,
who spotted
this on AVault.
Microsoft producer Danan
Davis is interviewed on GameSpy.com this morning, talking about Conquest:
Frontier Wars, the upcoming strategy game from Digital Anvil. Danan talks about
the decision to switch from full 3D gameplay to a more retro 2D view, along
with details on the game's various races, multiplayer modes, and more.
Take 2 has released a new patch for the 3D horror adventure Martian Gothic, available for download at ActionTrip along with the list of changes. The patch also enables a few cheat codes as listed on ActionTrip's news page.
Mac games publisher MacSoft
has announced that they will be porting Nihilistic's Vampire: The Masquerade
- Redemption to the Mac OS. No further details are available, such as who will
be undertaking the porting process, or when it will be available. Thanks David
Lynch ( "Goddamn, these people are confusing.").
As a follow-up to the story yesterday about the announcement of plans for
drivers from ASUS that would allow gamers to cheat ( story), RIVA 3D
contacted the folks at ASUS to ask them about their reaction to the outraged
reaction to this announcement. Here is what they posted as the "gist"
of what ASUS expressed: 1. The Transparency Drivers are a feature that
ASUS has been exploring.
2. ASUS does not intend these drivers to enable cheating in games, but to take
advantage of new technology and show the capabilities of the technology.
3. If the drivers are released (and that's not a definite thing yet), ASUS may
pursue working with developers to ensure that this feature is detectable so that
online tournaments, etc., are not affected in any way.
4. ASUS listens to the feedback, and takes your feelings seriously when
considering features for their products. After all, they ARE in the business to
succeed... ;)
Meanwhile, what seems to be a more recent update on RIVA Station,
gives news that this driver seems to have been recalled, according to further
word they've received from ASUS Taiwan: Asus has decided to call back this
driver.
However, since the See-Through utility can let end user to learn some idea of
how 3D work. Engineer team also spent many effort on that, so we will release a
Try-version with limited usage to promote this technology and let user to decide
how it will be.
Continuing the recent trend/flood, there are yet another pair of new TRIBES 2
screenshots on Planet Starsiege
showing off still more of the upcoming Starsiege TRIBES sequel, again taken from
a Hunter match played on a recent build, which has now been declared
"alpha."
There's a short Giants Citizen Kabuto
development update describing the process of adding voice talents to the
game. Thanks PlanetMoon Central.
Meanwhile, Jon's rant on
the Sacrifice site is a fairly froth-free (another new tongue twister) rant
from Jon Gwyn, 3D artist at Shiny, telling "the REAL tale of who REALLY made
sacrifice."
Tech Extreme's Anachronox Development Team
Interview is online, recapping a recent Q&A they subjected themselves to
with the folks at ION Storm currently at work on Anachronox, ION's upcoming 3D
RPG. The participants include Tom Hall, Andrew Thomas, Richard Gaubert and
several programmers (apparently grateful enough at being let out of the
programming cave that naming them individually is unnecessary), and the
questions and answers cover many aspects of what to expect from the game when
it's released.
Gamers Central
interviews Dan Vavra of Illusion Softworks, talking about his work as a
designer on Mafia, their upcoming crime-tainted action game where if crime doesn't pay,
you'd better dig up the strategy guide. The Q&A goes into detail about
gameplay, talking about the "great care" going into the driving and
car chase sequences that make up about "a good half of the game,"
discussing the change in heart about offering the ability to enter every single
building in the game, and more.
Interplay's Baldur's Gate II page
has the announcement of a chat session with Black Isle Studios, currently
toiling away on this sequel to the AD&D RPG. The chat will take place in the
RPG Vault Chat in channel #ignvault
this evening (July 20) at 9:00 PM EDT (6:00 PM PDT).
Word from crt is that ("[barring] any major issues") Rocket Arena
for Quake III Arena will come out of beta and be released this Sunday night
after over eight months of production, involving 20 team members and more than
150 beta testers. The release will be offered in conjunction with one of those
chaotic online chat parties, to be held at about 9:00 PM EDT (6:00 PM PDT/01:00
GMT) in a special chat area available only to users of GameSpy
Arcade (details on the special plug-in required for this are on the RA
site). The planned release "includes 8 Multi-Arena maps with 32 arenas to
play in, 4 different game types, and a 14 track soundtrack by a number of
notable artists including DJ Pill, Sonic Mayhem, and Silent Warrior." Word
is the 50 or 60 MB RA3 release will be available for both Win32 and Linux, and
the full soundtrack will be available as a separate 60 or 70mb download (which
they say is "highly recommended").
An article called Now, e-mail is even more dangerous
(thanks Shugashack)
outlines an Outlook security problem even more frightening than the
one outlined yesterday ( story) that left machines vulnerable
after simply reading or previewing an exploitative email, without opening any
attachments. This other exploit, described in the MSNBC
article (obviously, MSNBC has business ties to Microsoft), is even more
ominous in that it can leave a system vulnerable just from receiving a properly
malformed email, without having even read or previewed it. Fortunately, a
solution to the problem can be found in Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS00-043)Frequently Asked Questions.
There are some new
Tactical Operations screenshots on Unrealism showing off more gameplay from
this UT mod formerly known as UT SWAT.
The Playing Fields
has posted a recap of the first ever "UK Lady gamers' night," held
last Thursday for a worthy cause, as the event, sponsored by Guillemot
and WON.net, was in aid of Breast Cancer
Campaign.
- There's a "clanwars" Perl script on the French Frag Factory
(but it is in English) that can allow clans the easy semi-automated
reporting of results of their battles with other clans, which can easily be
turned into web pages by the script which accepts web-based input...
- There's an Exclusive Neverwinter Nights Desktop Image
on Daily Radar...
- Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo II
site has a new Diablo II .mp3 of the week for download...
- Krawall
interviews Ben Yoris of Hyperion Entertainment, talking about their
ongoing Amiga support...
- IGN FilmForce has
posted a clip showing a bit under a minute of the computer generated
animation featured in the upcoming Final Fantasy motion picture, which will
offer the voice talents of such BlueTower favorites as Steve Buscemi, Donald
Sutherland, and James Woods...
The blurb at the end of this TV Guide Online
News page describes the chance to become "made," and be part
of The Sopranos, as "The show will hold an open casting call for
Italian-looking men and women over the age of 16 this Saturday in New Jersey."
Thanks (fugetaboutit) jwsimms. Also, word from a few Brits corrects my moment of
song yesterday, pointing out that Channel 4 is not actually part of the BBC, but
that's not going to quell my joy in the sound of music ("BBC once, BBC
twice!...").
Link of the Day: The Egely
Wheel. Thanks Ian.
Story of the Day: Carnivorous Robot Is Born.
And remember, Soylent Green is people! Thanks Bob James.
Bonus Story: Girl, 16, Glues Boyfriend's Penis to His Body.
Thanks theAntiELVIS. As tAE points out, "More proof that girls mature
faster than boys."
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