Archived News:
Human Head's Rowan Atalla is interviewed
on PC.IGN, talking about Blair Witch Volume 2: The Legend of Coffin Rock.
Rowan, the art director on the game, talks about their involvement with the
other Blair Witch teams, the upcoming Blair Witch Project 2 movie (which the
game is not related to), the changes they've made to the Nocturne engine, and
more.
Two new previews of American McGee's Alice are online this evening: Daily
Radar's preview contains five high-resolution screenshots, although all
but one appeared this morning in another preview (albeit in a significantly
lower resolution), and if you're looking for still more Alice, two
more new shots are up at GameSpot (along with the others that seem to be
making the rounds).
Excited with their shiny new build of Giants: Citizen Kabuto, PC.IGN has posted
a hands-on preview of the game,
complete with new screenshots and gameplay movies in MPEG format. Not to be
outdone, Daily Radar has also posted 12
new screenshots from their build, along with the same collection of MPEG
movies.
- SoF Gold
ShugaShack has posted a pair of high-res screenshots of Soldier of Fortune Gold, showing some new scenes from the hopefully imminent free expansion to Raven's mercenarcy shooter.
- Giants
There are four new screenshots of Giants: Citizen Kabuto on Interplay's official site, showing off yet more from Planet Moon's third-person action game.
- NOLF
GameSpot has posted a pair of new No One Lives Forever images, offering, just like this afternoon's pair, a motorcycle and a sniper screenshot.
- Echelon
Bethesda has released three new screenshots of Echelon, illustrating the futuristic combat flyer in development at Buka Entertainment.
- Legend of the BladeMasters
An even dozen new screenshots of Legend of the BladeMasters is also up at GameSpot, showing off more from the 3D action RPG by Ronin and Ripcord that is scheduled for a September release.
BWVault has learned by way of Electronic
Arts, that Peter Molyneux' upcoming "god game" Black & White has
been pushed back from its original release date of September 23rd to November
10th. The extra time is being used to extend the QA testing, as they would like
the game to be "perfect" upon its release.
It's a Tuesday, so Pandemic Studios has released a new multiplayer map for Dark Reign 2, and this week's offering is a four player map called '4bullseye', created by lead designer Christopher "Shaft" Lawrence.
The Counter-Strike Skins site
has posted server files for beta 6.7 of the wildly popular Counter-Strike mod
for Half-Life. According to their update, this new version fixes "the teleport
cheat" and beta 7 will be released "very soon" which will correct
other lingering exploits. Thanks Shugashack,
who point out that despite the fact that the files are hosted on Xoom, this
is, in fact, a legitimate release.
A new interview
with Gathering of Developers CEO Mike Wilson is up at Gamers Depot, talking
with him about the latest goings on at GOD, including the recently released
KISS: Psycho Circus, the response to their games at E3, the future of games,
and of course, lots more.
GameSpot has posted more
details on the Star Wars RPG that was announced this morning ( story).
According to their news update, BioWare will use a modified version of the Neverwinter
Nights engine to power the game, which will focus on, "the ancient struggles
between the Jedi and the evil Sith."
A new version 1.2 of Vavoom is available on the official site for this port of the venerable DOOM, Heretic and Hexen that runs on DOS, Windows and Linux. This release adds improved DeHackEd support and many internal code improvements, and as usual can be downloaded in binary or source code form.
Ritual's Levelord updated his
.plan with word that they are planning on finishing FAKK2 by this Friday,
and need some playtesters as soon as humanly possible to help squash remaining
bugs (although his language is, of course, slightly more colorful). Those interested
must live in the Dallas area, and should e-mail the 'lord at levelord@ritual.com.
Stomped has conducted a
brief Q&A with Robert Stevenson and Shawn Bryan from iROCK, talking
with them about their upcoming title Savage Skies, better known as the Ozzy
Osborne game discovered this morning ( story). As very little
information is available about the game at this time, the Q&A is a little
thin, but they discuss Mr. Osbourne's involvement with the game and the general
gameplay we can expect.
- NOLF
Adrenaline Vault kicks off a bunch of new imagery with a pair of No One Lives Forever screenshots, revealing more from Monolith's upcoming spying shooter.
- RUNE
Matching that opening bid, PlanetUnreal offers a pair of new RUNE screenshots to show off the third-person Viking slashfest by Human Head.
- Empire Earth
Back to AVault which raises the stakes to three new screenshots of Empire Earth, illustrating the era-spanning strategy game by Stainless Steel, for which GA-Strategy just falls short with their own two screenshots.
- Independence War II
Leveling out the bidding field though, there is an Independence War 2 screenshot on GA-Source, available in three resolutions as a Windows background.
- "Seraphim"
Then Valkyrie Studios cuts in, adding one new screenshot and six concept images to their Seraphim page, the codename for their upcoming high-flying action game.
- Startopia
But topping the lot, Adrenaline Vault offers seven new Startopia screenshots, showing off more from this oddball 3D strategy game by Mucky Foot (that originally went by the codename Space Station).
An update to the
official Max Payne website has word that those interested in listening to
the soundtrack for this upcoming freaky-realistic third person action game can
head over to MP3.com, where a
new streaming music station has been set up to play the soundtracks to the
E3 '99 and 2000 Max Payne trailers. The songs are also available for download
in MP3 format. Also, RPGDot has
released an MP3 containing "a medley of music" from Technomage:
Return of Eternity, an upcoming RPG from the happy people at Sunflowers.
Russian site Freelancer has conducted an (English) interview with Dave Ellis, grilling the former MicroProse designer about his work at that company, as well as his start-up, Vicious Cycle. Dave discusses the efforts that went into X-COM Genesis (until the title was cancelled by Hasbro) in detail, as well as talking about the technology demo they are creating at Vicious Cycle, which will power a new game aimed at next-generation consoles.
A new
preview of Heavy Metal: FAKK2, Ritual's third person Quake III Arena engine
title is up at 3D Action Planet. The preview is based on a recent trip to Ritual's
offices, and contains a look at the tools they will be releasing with the game
as well as obviously the game itself, complete with plenty of screenshots.
Today's releases of Team Fortress 1.5 and the Sanity demo ( story
and story respectively) signify the opening of Real.com's gaming
network, and in addition to
that announcement, RealNetworks has announced that they have
partnered with Pogo.com (which was once known as TEN) for a series of web-based
"family games", and
LithTech, Inc. to create "state-of-the-art 3D games designed for Electronic
Software Distribution". Their internally developed version of the LithTech
engine will integrate RealAudio and RealVideo technologies designed to reduce
download sizes, and the games will be sold over the web at Real.com.
While RealNetworks' partnership with LithTech, Inc. was announced last March
( story), no details on their plans for the engine had been revealed
until today.
Mac gaming site IMG
Magazine got in touch with Dave Georgeson to find out the possibility of
a TRIBES 2 Mac port now that programmer Rick Overman has left the team ( story)
as he had at one time commented that he was the lone Mac and Linux programmer
at Dynamix. According to Georgeson, the chances of a Mac version are the same
as before Rick left: "if we can get time to do it, we will do it. But we
have to get the game done first."
Well Rounded Entertainment went on a trip to Electronic Arts and came back with part one of a preview of American McGee's Alice based on what they saw from the 3D action adventure that is being co-developed with Rogue. They found out that while there will be no multiplayer side to the game (as announced during E3 - story), EA is looking at options to add multiplayer after its release. Along with more on the game's current features, there are also six new screenshots.
In a move which is sure to make Baldur's Gate fans cheer, LucasArts
and BioWare have announced that work has begun on a new Star Wars RPG. The
game will take place before the events depicted in Episode I, and no details
are really available beyond this initial announcement. Here's the majority of
the press release, for those itching for more information: SAN RAFAEL,
Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 25, 2000--LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
and BioWare Corp. today announced a partnership to create the first Star Wars®
role playing game (RPG) for PC and next generation video game systems. Expected
to release in 2002, the game will be set in a time period prior to the Star
Wars films.
The agreement combines Star Wars, the most successful film-based license in
interactive entertainment, with BioWare's considerable development expertise
in the role playing genre. BioWare created the critical and commercial hit RPG
Baldur's Gate(TM). The Star Wars role playing game will be developed by BioWare
and marketed and distributed by LucasArts.
For the game, LucasArts and BioWare are creating an entirely original storyline
set some four thousand years before Star Wars: Episode I. The ancient era is
dominated by an epic struggle between the Jedi and the evil Sith.
"This collaboration with BioWare further represents LucasArts' long-term
strategy to build relationships with the world's premier game developers,''
says Simon Jeffery, president of LucasArts. "BioWare has consistently delivered
compelling games with rich and deeply engaging stories. Together, we aim to
create a milestone role playing game set within a unique and largely unexplored
area of the Star Wars universe.''
" The opportunity to create a richly detailed new chapter in the Star Wars
universe is incredibly exciting for us,'' says Dr. Greg Zeschuk, joint CEO of
BioWare.
"We are honored to be working with the extremely talented folks at LucasArts,
developing a role playing game based upon one of the most high-profile licenses
in the world,'' added Dr. Ray Muzyka, joint CEO of BioWare.
The newly unveiled Real.com Games has released a
standalone version of Team Fortress 1.5 as either a free (but limited) download ( registration
required) or also as a full version for $30. This version of TF 1.5 does not require the
Half-Life CD (or Half-Life at all, for that matter), and is completely compatible
with existing TF servers and even user-made levels.
While rumors of its existance have been denied by Epic several times in the past, Dreamcast.IGN
has confirmed that developers Secret Level have recently begun work on a Dreamcast
port of Unreal Tournament. They have quotes from Epic's Mark Rein about the
port and describing its progress, and according to their
news post, the game could be released "as soon as this Christmas"
(although it seems unlikely) and that any hopes of cross platform multiplayer
have been scrapped as levels have required optimization in order to function
properly with the Dreamcast's 16 megs of memory.
Gearbox Software's Randy
Pitchford is interviewed on Daily Radar UK, talking with the game designer
(and one-time professional magician) about his work on the upcoming Dreamcast
port of Half-Life. Randy talks about working with the Dreamcast platform and
touches briefly on Guard Duty, the original Half-Life episode they are developing
for this version of the game.
AVault has uncovered details about two new games featuring oddball celebrities
that are in development: for those out there that have been sitting around waiting
for a game that would give you the ability to bite the heads off of bats, you'll
be pleased to hear that Virtus
Entertainment has begun work Savage Skies, a game collaboration with Ozzy
Osborne. The game will feature "an undisclosed next-generation graphics
engine" and original music composed by Osborne. In other, strangely related
news, AVault has also learned that a
game based on Legion, an upcoming film co-authored by Dolph Lundgren and
Damian Lee, is in development. No real details are available, aside from a summary
of the plot (which is also the story from the movie as well).
Adrenaline Vault has kicked up a Q&A with Yahn Bernier, talking to the senior engineer at Valve about their upcoming team-based action game Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood Of Arms. Yahn explains some of the development changes the game, which now looks to be scheduled for a Spring 2001 release, has gone through, and discusses a few of the new features, such as the in-game user interface VGUI and voice communication.
Though it hasn't been officially announced yet, this Sanity Aiken's Artifact
page has the debut release of the Sanity demo, a playable version of
Monolith's LithTech-engine strategy game. The demo offers two single-player and
two multiplayer levels, and we can expect more details when an announcement
comes down, but for now it can be downloaded for the price of a Real
registration (there is a seven day exclusive on the downloads).
The Quake Info Pool has an updated
version 1.05 of their "ultimate regular Quake patch" adding another
couple of fixes addressing matters noted on their bug list
to provide what they describe as "nearly bug-free gameplay without changing
the gameplay at all."
The debut release of UT Challenge is now
available, offering a voting mutator that allows players on an Unreal Tournament
server to vote for various gameplay changes without the intervention of a server
administrator. Thanks OzUnreal.
Teamplay.Net has kicked off their
latest UTR (Universal Team Rating) Ladder, this one dedicated to Rocket Arena 3.
Teams that participate can learn how they stack up against other ranked teams
based on factors like "record, strength of opponent, and margin of
victory." Similarly inspired by the new RA3 release, The Online Gaming League
has started no fewer than six RA3 ladders, offering one-on-one open, one-on-one
modem, two-on-two open, two-on-two modem, team open and team modem listings.
Finally, on the exact same subject, the Proving Grounds
has kicked off four Ra3 ladders of their own, covering teamplay, two-on-two, and
one-on-one open and modem competitions.
The Urban Terror website
now features three new screenshots form Urban terror, showing off the latest
version 6.6alpha version of this Quake III Arena mod. Also, the Navy
SEALs Covert Ops page has some new screenshots, including a look at their
"stainable" knives.
The Tutorial Index
on claudec's Lair of Q3A lists links to as many known tutorials as they can
locate on the subject of editing Quake III Arena maps, currently listing more
than 170 such links.
The West Nile Virus scare continues here in the New York City area, they
actually closed down Central Park last night to spray for mosquitoes. The first
thought that strikes me when contemplating this is that in the year 2000 this
seems like quite an out-of-time 18th century type of 'quinine and Malaria' sort
of situation, but I guess it can be viewed as part of the futuristic nature
strikes back theme again. Also, my first impression of the giant Daikatana
mosquitoes left them as one of my least favorite FPS opponent of all time, but I
guess in light of this news, they turn out to be pretty topical, as the old
marketing slogan would describe: "ripped right from the pages of today's
headlines."
Link of the Day: JAE
- The Java Arcade Emulator. Play classic arcade games on the web. Thanks Jim McQuillan.
Story of the Day: Watch a robot walk on two legs
(MSNBC). Thanks Bob James, who also was first to send in the recent Carnivorous Robot
SoD (story), which certainly is that much more ominous when you
combine it with this one.
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