Archived News:
GameSpot caught up with lead designer Chris Taylor (the other one) to find out the latest about Gas Powered Games' 3D role-playing game Dungeon Siege. Chris talks about progress on the game's development, the influences of his earlier work on real-time strategy games, the seamless world they are creating, and several other topics, and four new screenshots illustrate the proceedings.
PC.IGN.com has posted four short movies of Diablo II Expansion: Lord of Destruction, the tentative title of the recently announced add-on to Blizzard's action RPG. The clips are in QuickTime format and were filmed from a monitor during ECTS, so there are some interlacing and shaky-camera effects. Elsewhere, there is a new preview on Daily Radar, offering an overview of the add-on's features as well as a whole bunch of screenshots and concept art (some familiar).
Daily Radar has posted a new preview of Anarchy Online, the futuristic MMORPG in development at Funcom. The article presents an overview of the game's premise and features, spiced up with quotes from producer and lead designer Tommy Strand, and comes with whole bunch of screenshots and a new movie trailer. The movie runs for 1:45 minutes and shows a lot of in-game footage, along with bits about the development of the game filmed in Funcom's offices.
New screenshots of Sacrifice are online at GA-Strategy and Gamer's Depot (although you may find the watermarks in the latter obtrusive). Also, PC.IGN.com has five new 3D screenshots ( QuickTime required) along with the same 2D shots as on GA-Strategy.
- MechWarrior 4
Four new screenshots of MechWarrior 4 are online at BadKarma (though the page may be difficult to view in some browsers), and another one is available at DropshipCommand.
- Warcraft III
GameSpot has posted four new screenshots of Warcraft III along with a couple of older ones from Blizzard's upcoming role-playing RTS.
- The Fallen
Five new screenshots of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen are up at PC.IGN.com, showing off the soon-to-be-released third-person Trekkie shooter by The Collective.
- Gunlok
A hands-on preview of Gunlok on GamesDomain sports three new screenshots of the top-down action RPG in development at Rebellion.
- Throne of Darkness
GameScreenshots has posted, what else, three new screenshots of Throne of Darkness, showing off the isometric action RPG by Click Entertainment.
- Horizons
There are four new screenshots of Horizons on the official site, illustrating the detail going into the forests in Artifact's upcoming MMORPG.
- Close Combat
PC.IGN.com has posted a new preview of Close Combat: Invasion Normandy, looking ahead to the latest installment in the top-down wargame series with over a dozen new screenshots.
- Summoner
The official Summoner site features a new screenshot of the week, showing the inventory screen in the PS2 version of Volition's 3D RPG.
Taldren has opened sign-ups for the open beta of Starfleet Command II: Empires At War, their upcoming space combat sim sequel (thanks Kostis Papadopoulos). To apply, you need to be over 18 and a US or Canadian citizen, and fill out the beta application form posted on their forum.
With all of us on the road last weekend and earlier this week, some stories fell through the cracks, so here is a round-up of stuff you may like to check out as yet:
- UT:GOTY Movie
Infogrames has released a two-minute movie trailer of Unreal Tournament: Game Of The Year, available on VoodooExtreme with a mirror on Stomped.
- Warcraft III
There is a new image gallery of Warcraft III on Gamecenter, offering five new screenshots and oodles of concept art from the role-playing RTS by Blizzard.
- Baldur's Gate II
New previews and screenshots of BioWare's RPG sequel Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn are up at GameSpy.com, HavenGames, GA-RPG, GameAddicts, and Sorcerer's Place.
- Echelon
Bethesda has posted three new screenshots of Echelon and the newly relocated A Talent For War tops that with 16 new shots of their own.
- Panzer General 3D
There is a hands-on preview of Panzer General 3D on Beta Bites, looking ahead to the 3D wargame that went gold last week.
- Anno 1503
As part of their ECTS coverage, GameSpot UK posted some new Anno 1503 screenshots from the city-building/strategy sequel by Sunflowers.
- Mission: Humanity
UK Gamer has some details and a bunch of new screenshots of Mission: Humanity, the isometric RTS by Polish developers Techland.
- Aliens & Amazons
Simon & Schuster has opened the Aliens & Amazons site complete with a demo for this new strategy/resource management game.
- 4x4 Evolution
A new hands-on preview of 4x4 Evolution is online at 3D Rage, examining a recent build of Terminal Reality's off-road racer.
- Combat Flight Sim 2
Gamecenter previews Combat Flight Simulator II looking ahead to the WW II flight sim with game info, screenshots, and quotes from program manager Tucker Hatfield.
- Typhoon
Another upcoming flight sim is Typhoon by Rage Software, and PC Arena has game details and a movie trailer, as well as new screenshots.
- Battlefield 1942
GA-Source has more information on Battlefield 1942, a 3D wargame by Codename Eagle developers Refraction and Digital Illusion, but no screenshots.
- MGS2 PS2 GSUK
Three acronyms meaning that more Metal Gear Solid 2 screenshots for Playstation 2 are online at GameSpot UK.
If the size of the original No One Lives Forever demo was prohibitive, Monolith has now released a new, smaller demo, available for download at Stomped, FilePlanet and 3D Downloads. This 45.7 MB file contains only the Morocco level from the full demo and no music.
GameSpot has conducted a video interview with Chris Taylor, grilling the Interplay lead designer about Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, his isometric turn-based strategy game. Chris talks about the general premise of the game, its features such as the new graphics engine and its array of weapons, how it fits into the storyline of the first two Fallout games (which were RPGs rather than strategy games), and more. The interview requires some serious bandwidth, clocking in around 60 MB, and runs for over seven minutes.
After an apparently successful beta test earlier this week ( story), the official version 1.4 of Vavoom is now available. Vavoom is a port of the public Doom, Heretic and Hexen source code, and this release adds in-game joining to the client/server architecture, as well as fixing several bugs.
Version 2.2 of the xenophobic Quake III Arena mod Invasion
has been released. This new version is said to be more "user friendly,"
and adds the ability for Alien Troopers to steal weapons off dead Marines in
addition to a host of other fixes and improvements.
Monolith's Dan Miller sends word that many sites (including this one) accidentally
posted an early build of the No One Lives Forever demo last week. The only site
we know of that had the correct version was Gigex,
and you can tell yours is the out of date version if it initially starts up in 960x720 resolution. We have updated our
local copy (you can still get it from Gigex here
for modem users, and here
for those with broadband) and here is a list of differences between that
accidental release and this newer version: Advantages the official has
over the earlier build:
1. Bug fixes
2. The training level had a total make-over between builds and is vastly improved
3. AI in the middle two levels has been improved.
4. The default display is 640X480X32 (instead of the odd 960X720).
5. The default game config is easier to pick up and run with.
6. Sticky areas have been cleaned up for the most part.
We have not done any performance testing to tell you the difference between
the two, we're still working on overall gamespeed and load times.
If you want to make sure you have the correct build, here is how: the first
room of the training mission will either have the armor and the ammo crate on
a table or in a glass case. If the armor and ammo are on a table, you have the
wrong build. If the armor and ammo are secure in a glass case, you have the
correct official tech demo.
As noted in this
article at USA Today, both Kmart and Wal-Mart have announced that they will
no longer be permitting sales of Mature rated games to children under 17 years
of age (thanks [KDS]Djembe). This will be instituted at Kmart via a bar-code
scanner which will prompt cashiers to ask for ID before allowing a minor to
purchase the game. While Wal-Mart hasn't given a specific date for when it will
go into effect, Kmart will be instituting this policy as of October 15th (so
if you're planning on buying any, now's the time).
Vicarious Visions has once again released new patches for Terminus, bringing their space combat sim up to version 1.8. As usual the patches are available for the Windows, Linux and Mac editions, and this release fixes some problems with game saves/loads and script issues, and adds several new console commands. There are also some additional notes about the save system and economy management.
GameSpot has written a
new in-depth preview of The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge, the upcoming
turn-based strategy game from Mythos Games, a developer founded by members of
the original X-COM design team. The game has a similar theme to the X-COM titles,
and the preview examines the new interface and engine, along with the combat
and resource management systems. There are a few new shots up as well.
There is new hands-on preview of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 on GameSpot UK, sharing their experiences with the upcoming RTS from a recent visit to Westwood's offices. The article goes into more detail about the interface, the various units that the Allies and Soviets have at their disposal, and other aspects of the gameplay.
The latest Crimson Skies Development Diary on GameSpy.com brings the news that the fantasy action flyer by Zipper and Microsoft is "nearly" gold, and has 3D artist David Kern discussing the challenges of creating the zeppelins in the game.
As promised, Creative Assembly and Electronic Arts have released the version 1.11 patch for Shogun: Total War, updating the 3D real-time strategy game that was released earlier this year. The 4.3 MB patch, which is for the English edition only, adds a number of multiplayer improvements and fixes several minor bugs and balancing issues, and a full run-down of the changes is available in the accompanying README file.
Stomped has a
new Q&A with Kevin Bruner, the lead programmer at LucasArts on Obi-Wan,
their upcoming follow-up to Jedi Knight. Kevin talks about their internally-developed
Tanis engine, including why they decided to create a new engine, its advantages
over their venerable RenderDroid engine (which powered Jedi Knight, Grim Fandango
and other games), as well as commenting on the AI and the sort of scripted sequences
fans can expect to see.
The first part of their three
day of Pool of Radiance feature is online at AVault this morning, looking
at the rebirth of the PoR series from Stormfront Studios and Mattel Interactive.
Today's installment features an interview with producer Jon Kromrey, talking
with him about the development team, how faithful it is to the original Dungeons
& Dragons experience, and their use of the D&D 3rd edition ruleset in
addition to other topics.
FGN Online has posted some
quotes from Ritual's Robert Atkins, commenting on the news that Capcom is
working on games based on Heavy Metal: FAKK2 (or at least, according to some
reports, including this
recent interview with Julie Strain). Robert says that while Capcom is working
with FAKK2 creators Kevin Eastman and Simon Bisley, the FAKK2 property is exclusively
Ritual's, and that they already have a story in mind and "will develop
it internally." Whether that's a definite confirmation of a sequel or not
is debatable, but he does say that, "We want to grow the property and Ritual
Entertainment will work on all future versions."
GA-Source has posted a new movie trailer of Venom, a first-person shooter by Russian developers GSC Game World. This is the trailer that was on display at ECTS, and it features nearly two minutes of mostly in-game footage in the self-running Bink format.
There's a new interview
on Hypothermia with Kevin Lambert talking about the latest developments at
Monolith Productions, including the recent release of the NOLF demo, and the imminent
release of Sanity: Aiken's Artifact. The interview also discusses life in the
game biz, including what it's like to work for King of teh Monstars, and a bit
of car talk.
An article called Deep
Space Nine: The Fallen Chat Tonight on The Adrenaline Vault announces a chat
this evening at 8:00 PM EDT on irc.avault.com
in the #chatroom channel to discuss progress on the upcoming Star Trek game. The
first portion of the session will be moderated.
Half-LifeExpress interviews Mouse
talking about the Starcraft TC for Half-Life, including word on how the new
flight-sim features in the Half-Life SDK will be utilized.
Chapter seven of the Vampire Vault's Complete Storytelling Handbook
is up with a look at creating a good Vampire Hunters chronicle, which "requires
more than that all the players make up human characters and equip them with
stakes."
XSReality.com's
BT London Challenge Pre-Event Coverage is online for this upcoming event at
the Millennium Dome in London this weekend, "where four gamers will be
decided who will get to represent the UK in a $300,000 prize money Quake3:Arena
event entitled the World Cyber Games Challenge which will be held in Korea in
early October." Also, you can't have an invitation-only league without
invitations, so the Quake Invitation
League has posted the invites for their fourth season.
Hey look at that, I'm back in the Blue Tower, safe and sound, none the worse for
my Mad Max-esque experience. Our drive back-and-forth across Route 66 certainly
qualified as such, including a couple of interesting gas situations for the
bike, which, with its relatively tiny gas tank, got dangerously thirsty on a
few occasions, leading to a couple of adventures. A great time was had by all,
and for those that requested photos, there actually are some of these to be
seen, as I catch up, I'll try to put some online. So, to summarize, you can get
your kicks on Route 66 and you can get loads of sun, too...you just can't always
get gas, even at the famed Baghdad Cafe, so bring a jerry can if you want a
home-cooked ostrich or buffalo burger, after all, how many mini-marts have those
near the microwave?
BTW, congrats are in order for ace proof-reader Wouter Teeninga, who is going
back to school to study Psychology at Leiden University.
Link of the Day: Martha Stewart Living
(scary makeup). Thanks ttol. Funny, I thought she was as scary as possible
before she went goth.
Story of the Day: Fans
get refunds after Def Leppard concert disappoints. Thanks Buclerpp. With a
precedent like this having been set, I can think of some bands that should be
hiding money in their Swiss bank accounts right away.
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