Archived News:
A new Arcanum: Of Steamworks and
Magick Obscura developer's diary is online at PC.IGN this evening. This
first installment of the diary is by Troika's Chad Moore, and consists of an
entertaining description of his recent trip to Hollywood to "direct"
the voice-overs for the game.
Also on PC.IGN this evening is a
preview of Magic & Mayhem: Art of Magic, Charybdis' upcoming 3D follow-up
to Mythos Games' original Magic & Mayhem. The preview is based on the author's
experience with an early build of the game, and contains his impressions along
with 15 new screenshots.
Hot on the heels of yesterday's release of version 2.0 of the
Alliance CTF mod for Quake III Arena ( story) comes a version
2.1 patch. This update fixes a problem with the Wizard Eye that caused servers
to crash, and is a required upgrade for both clients and servers.
- Mafia
Another pair of Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven screenshots is online at PC.IGN.com, showing off new scenes from the third-person action game by Illusion Softworks that intends to make you an offer you can't refuse.
- Venom
This Venom gallery on Russian site GameOver.ru sports a bunch of new screenshots from the first-person shooter by GSC Game World (mixing in a few familiar ones for good measure).
- Etherlords
Also on GameOver.ru today is a pair of new Etherlords screenshots (the last two in the gallery), illustrating the role-playing strategy game by Nival.
The Oni demo that was released last month (for PC story and Mac story) contained a tutorial level as well as levels 1 and 4 from the full game. Recently Oni Central discovered that the cover demo on PC Gamer includes level 2 instead of 4, and this level has since been made available separately in this forum post (mirrored on FilePlanet). For the PC, the 17.8 MB file simply needs to be unzipped in your Oni demo folder, while OniRes offers a few tips for installing it on the Mac. The new level will become available once you complete the first level of the original demo. Thanks VoodooExtreme for the tip and Oni Central for all details.
A new
edition of GameSpot's Freedom Force Developer's Diary is online this evening.
This latest installment is by Irrational Games programmer Rowan Wyborn, and
deals with some of the technical aspects of the game, such as why they decided
to use the NetImmerse engine, and how their lighting and character animation
systems work. Also of note is the included screenshot, which is the first ever in-game one to be released.
eUniverse Live has posted the second
half of their audio interview with id Software's Marty Stratton (thanks Stomped). This half focuses on upcoming games, and Marty comments on Return to Castle Wolfenstein and dodges questions about their next project, a new Doom title.
It's a 26 minute interview, and like the first portion it's available in streaming
Windows Media Player ASF format as well as a downloadable MP3 file.
Simon Protheroe, the technical director on Project IGI at Eidos Interactive,
made a
post to ProjectIGI.com's forums with a status update on the upcoming patch
for the game, as well as the news that they are currently negotiating with Innerloop
to create a sequel. Regarding the patch, fans will be pleased to hear that it
will include the much-requested save game feature ( story), however
it will not include multiplayer. Here's his post in its entirety: First
thanks to all of you that bought our game Project IGI over the Christmas holidays,
The sales figures are positive. Now on to a sad point I have to make there will
be no multiplayer patch for P:IGI. The reasons are many but the main one is
that a budget was agreed with Innerloop to program P:IGI, They weren`t happy
about getting the game out for Christmas but they were held to that date by
contract. Innerloop has informed us that they can`t allocate more programming
time to the multiplayer aspect without extra funding from ourselves (EIDOS).
This is on our part totally unexceptable as we are now in contract talks with
Innerloop for Project IGI 2. There however will be a patch for P:IGI addressing
the save-game feature or lack of it, And other problems mainly concentrating
on graphics problems/enemy respawn options.
Mine and everybody else's thanks for buying the game from EIDOS. And look out
for Project IGI: 2 Winter 2001, which will have full multiplayer and bigger
maps, etc..
Thanks again for your time and continued support.
- Pool of Radiance
The official Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor site has been updated with a square nine new screenshots showing off more from this upcoming isometric RPG by Stormfront.
- TRIBES 2
There is a new screenshot of the week on the official TRIBES 2 site but, disturbingly, not on the other sites for Sierra Studios' upcoming games.
- Independence War 2
This Infogrames ftp directory has three new zip files each with seven new screenshots of Independence War 2: The Edge of Chaos, the space-combat sim sequel by Particle Systems (and there are also some new soundtracks, wallpapers, and screensavers).
- Age of Sail II
Russian site GamePort.ru has posted a new Age of Sail II gallery, featuring a bunch of new screenshots from this 3D naval RTS currently docking at Akella.
- IL-2 Sturmovik
Also on GamePort.ru today is a gallery of IL-2 Sturmovik screenshots, offering some two dozen aerial views into the WWII flight sim by 1C Maddox Games and Blue Byte.
- Warzone Online
PlanetXbox has posted another pair of new Warzone Online screenshots from the massively multiplayer strategy title by Paradox Entertainment.
The latest "article" over at Gamasutra
is actually a video in Real Media format (and as a result, a RealPlayer or compatible
is required to watch it). The video is just under an hour long, and is a recording
of a talk Legend Entertainment designer Bob Bates gave at last year's Game Developer's
Conference. Bob talks about the art of game design, using the games he's worked
on over the years as examples (prior founding Legend ten years ago, he worked
at Infocom) as well as other games with strong storytelling, such as Half-Life
and Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. Those looking for info on Unreal II will of course
be disappointed, but it should be interesting for would-be game designers or fans looking for some insight into the game development process.
Both AVault and GameSpot have posted a pair of new Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven screenshots, all illustrating the upcoming third-person action game by Illusion Softworks that is now scheduled for a late April release. Also, Gone Gold reports that a playable demo for the game is expected towards the end of this month.
MacNN has received an update
on the status of the Mac OS version of Escape from Monkey Island that's
currently in development at Aspyr Media. According to Aspyr programmer Jesse
Spears, the port has reached alpha status, and he provides a list of what's
left to be done before the game is finished, and says that there isn't any firm
release date yet beyond "sometime this year."
AVault has conducted a
brief Q&A with Rob Fung, the producer of SWAT 3: Elite Edition at Sierra
Studios. The questions all deal with the contents of the next SWAT 3: Elite
Edition patch, and Rob says this next update will add 10 player multiplayer
support, the ability for dead players to talk to each other and some interface
tweaks.
There is a new pair of RUNE maps available for download from the official RUNE site. Created by Human Head level designer Mick "VerMoorD" Beard, the two deathmatch maps are called DM-Sanctum and DM-Rotarena.
Developer iROCK has posted two new screenshots and a pair of concept drawings of Ozzy's Black Skies, the now-official name of the 3D action/adventure formerly known as Savage Skies that is being designed in cooperation with rock singer Ozzy Osbourne. Additionally, the technology page also features a pair of new screenshots.
Gone Gold reports that the US edition of Sudden Strike has gone gold and is expected in stores around the end of this month. Sudden Strike is an isometric RTS set in WWII created by German companies Fireglow and CDV that is already out in that country, and it's published in North America by Strategy First.
id Software's Paul Jaquays updated
his .plan today with a clarification for those wondering how the recently
updated GTKRadiant ( story) relates to Q3Radiant (and QERadiant
before it) as well as some words of appreciation for those that contributed
to its development. Here's what he has to say: I’ve seen this on
some news pages, but it deserves more than just a mention in passing. Earlier
this year, id passed on the maintenance and continuance of the map-making tools
for Quake III Arena to a group of dedicated and involved community programmers.
Like Robert Duffy before them, who turned id’s Quake 2 editing tool into
what became QeRadiant, this group of hobbyists improved on id’s Quake III
Arena editing tool, Q3Radiant, worked with mod and plug-in authors to improve
its usefulness and versatility and eventually, in conjunction with Lokigames,
transformed Q3Radiant into GTKRadiant, a cross-OS tool that would work on WinX
and Linux systems.
The package released yesterday, as a public beta test, includes a version of
GTKRadiant for WinX systems that will support both Q3A and Quake III: Team Arena
... including the new map area sizes and terrain functions. It also includes
a number of support textures, models, manuals, and plug-ins provided by id and
a number of 3D game making hobbyists. All in all, it may be one of the best
3D game making tool packages you’ll find anywhere, for any game, for any
price. And thanks to the enthusiasm and generosity of the folks involved, that
price is only the cost of a download.
GameSpot UK has posted a
new preview of Three Kingdoms: Fate Of The Dragon, the upcoming RTS title
from Chinese developer Overmax Studios that lets you relive a turbulent time
in the history of China. The preview contains a brief look at the gameplay along
with 15 new screenshots.
A new preview
of Operation Flashpoint, the tactical shooter from Bohemia Interactive is
up at Computer Games Online this morning. The preview is very brief and contains
no new screenshots, but it does have some new quotes from John Foster, the PR
manager at Codemasters, the publisher of the game in North America.
Stomped has conducted an
interview with Matt Norton, the lead designer on Tex Atomic's Big Bot Battles
at Monolith. You may recall that TABB is a LithTech engine title being developed
for Internet distribution via Real Networks, and Matt talks about this and
also comments on how the project came about, the (minor) changes to the LithTech
engine they made and other TABB related topics.
Electronic Arts has released a small patch for American McGee's Alice for download from this ftp directory, addressing a slowdown problem on Matrox video cards. As described in the accompanying readme.txt, you simply need to copy the pak6_update011.pk3 file into your "\American McGee's Alice\Base\" folder to install it.
The (noisy) Kquery website has a
new beta version 2.22 of KQuery, "the luvable, huggable #alternate# game
server browser" for download. The new release adds IRC command line
support, support for HTML server lists, greatly improved performance, some bug
fixes, and more.
GLSetup Home Page has a new public beta version
1.0.0.118 of the GLSetup utility, which will detect your system's video device
and automatically install the latest appropriate OpenGL drivers for you. The read
me contains important information to check out before using this latest
beta.
There's a new version 1.32a of DemoShow Creator for
Quake III Arena on 3DCenter. If you don't speak German, it may be tough to
make out what this program does from the website, it is basically a utility to
ease the process of recording and playing back demos in Quake III Arena. Among
its other features, which include drag-and-drop support, is the ability to play
demos recorded with earlier version of Q3A on a new version 1.27g installation.
There's a new utility called Gary Lopez's Half-Life Frontend
on the Forge for download. True to its name, the Frontend serves as a front-end
for Half-Life, allowing you to select a mod to launch along with the game.
Daily Radars'
Deus Ex Multiplayer Experience offers some tips and strategies for success
in the multiplayer version of Deus Ex. Also, 3D
Spotlight's RUNE tweak guide is online offering tips on how to get better
performance in Human Heads' Viking action game. Finally, a new FAQ has been added
to GameFAQs Quake III Arena
FAQ/Walkthroughs while another couple of them have been updated, though the
only alteration to the Magus FAQ is the change of an email address.
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago ( story) the Microsoft Usability Gamer Enrollment Form
offers Seattle residents the chance to be Xbox beta testers, we repeat this news
to stave off continued email on the subject resulting from a Slashdot
article posted yesterday. Also, GameCube Controller Touch the Future
is an IGN article where they intrepidly build their own GameCube controller to
provide hands-on impressions. Moving right along, there's a SoF PS2 Update
on FGN gives the latest info on efforts to port Raven's shooter to the PS2.
Finally, Gamers.com interviews
Hironobu Sakaguchi and Jun Aida, the director and producer (respectively) of
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the upcoming Final Fantasy movie.
A new version 1.1-TA-beta of GtkRadiant is now available on QERadiant.com
for both Windows and Linux. As the new version name implies, this release adds
Quake III: Team Arena support to this program that offers "vanilla"
Quake III Arena editing. In a timely related note, the latest Rust Community Profile
talks with GtkRadiant author Timothee Besset.
I got to work on a couple of articles yesterday, the on-topic one is not quite
done, but I have completed the off-topic one, which is my chili recipe, due to
popular demand (actually only a few folks requested this, but that's popular
enough for my ego). So without further ado, adieu, or Mountain Dew, here is my
nigh-famous chili recipe. I will not be held responsible for any harm that
befalls anyone attempting to prepare or eat the six alarm version.
In some sad news, Ray Walston Dead at 86
and Jose Greco dies at 82
are a pair of celebrity passings passed along by theAntiELVIS. Also, a couple of
birthdays of a late, lamented figures pass today, as Chris
Morris points out today would have been Sergio Leone's 70th birthday, and on
this date in 1892 J.R.R. Tolkien was born.
Link of the Day: After considerable begging (by his Lo'ness, not by
JeffK), JEFF K's INTARVIEW OF LEVALELORD
is finally online (immature language warning).
Story of the Day: Mysterious Monolith Appears in Seattle Park
(Fox). Thanks theAntiELVIS. And the Levelord
says we were "way off on that prediction." Ha! C'mon everyone,
let's all hum "Also sprach Zarathustra" together.
Bonus Story: Company in Ukraine offers 'Fat in Chocolate'
(CNN). Thanks Jay Nelson. In case my chili seems too healthy.
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