Archived News:
Gamecenter has posted a new preview of Age of Sail II, looking ahead to the 3D naval RTS currently docking at Akella. The preview comes with plenty of gameplay details hightlighted by quotes from producer S. Craig Taylor Jr. as well as a handful of new screenshots captured from a beta build of the game.
Verant sends word that their official PlanetSide site has been revamped, and now offers five new screenshots taken from their massively multiplayer FPS, as well as an update to the FAQ (with a series of additions made today, notwithstanding the 12/22/00 date) and a short letter to the community.
id Software has released a document entitled Terrain Construction for Quake 3 Engine Games for download from their ftp server (69 KB). Written by designer Paul Jaquays, the document is to be used in conjunction with the Q3Radiant manual and offers a technical overview of the terrain style maps in the Q3A engine, complete with all the details you need to know to create them.
Stomped
has learned from Ripcord's vice-president John Peterson that the company
is looking for a new publisher, as they lost their publisher when Southpeak
Interactive closed its doors, and that they have moved all of their games to
the Xbox system. This applies to all three of Ripcord's current titles: the
LithTech engine title Shrapnel: Urban Warfare 2025 (from Zombie Studios), the
RPG Legend of the Blade Masters (from Ronin Entertainment) and the vehicular
combat game Gorkamorka (from Games Workshop). They are also reporting that it
is "unlikely" that they will release any titles for the Dreamcast
system, despite their initial plans to support the platform.
Volition producer James
Tsai is interviewed on GameOver this evening. James explains how he broke into the industry, and he also talks
about their upcoming FPS Red Faction, providing details on the game and its
internally developed Geo Mod engine.
A new edition
of their Anarchy Online journal is online over at AO Vault. This latest
installment is by producer and lead designer Tommy Strand, and he provides details
on their upcoming phase III beta test, which will have 5000 external testers
hammering away on their servers.
The newly unveiled GameSpyDaily has posted two
movies featuring footage from Clive Barker's Undying, as well as some photos
of Clive recording voice-over work for the game. The two movies are both in
QuickTime format, and are available in both high and low resolution versions.
Telefragged has conducted a
Q&A with Croteam artist Admir Elezovic, talking with him about their upcoming
Doom-style FPS Serious Sam. Admir explains how the game wound up with its title,
as well as what he thinks will make their game stand out, and he also talks briefly
about the SDK that will be released for would-be mod authors.
A demo version of GameBind Pro has been released, and is available for download
at its official
site. GameBind Pro is a utility for setting up configurations with most
Quake-engine titles, and the complete version is also available for download
(assuming you're willing to pay the $20 fee, of course).
Red Storm level designer John Sonedecker has converted the ever popular "Mint"
level from Rainbow Six to Rogue Spear, and you can download
the converted level care of Pie's Tactics.
- Mafia
Another pair of new Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven screenshots is online at newly opened GameSpyDaily, showing off more scenes from the third-person action game being developed at Illusion Softworks.
- Hired Team
German site Gildenweb.de has posted half a dozen new Hired Team: Trial Gold screenshots as well as the box cover of this first-person shooter by New Media Generation that has already been released in their native Russia.
- Sudden Strike
There are six new Sudden Strike screenshots on AVault, accompanying their story on how European imports of this isometric RTS are affecting its official North American release by publisher Strategy First.
- Battlecruiser Millenium
The last four screenshots in this Battlecruiser Millenium gallery at the official site show off an alien landscape in the space-combat sim by 3000 AD, while GA-Sim has posted a new gallery with a whopping 26 screenshots of their own.
- Wizardry 8
In an early update this afternoon, GameSpot has put half a dozen new Wizardry 8 screenshots on display, illustrating this 3D role-playing game that has reached its final beta stage at Sir-Tech.
Stomped got a hold of 4D Rulers' Joel Huenink and quizzes him about their upcoming first-person shooter, Gore. Joel explains why the promised demo has not yet been released, offers an update on recent development progress such as the addition of bullet holes in the character models when they are shot, and describes what will set Gore apart from other shooters.
Another beta release of Vavoom version 1.666 is now available at its official site. Vavoom is a port of the public Doom, Heretic and Hexen sources by Janis Legzdinsh, and this release brings OpenGL support, fixes the slowdown problem in the new rendering engine, and adds a lot of other fixes and improvements.
A new preview of Tropico is online at Games Domain, putting a pre-alpha build of PopTop's dictatorial strategy game through its Caribbean paces. The article features an overview of the game's premise, impressions of the gameplay, and over a dozen new screenshots to show what it looks like.
A new
preview of Empire Earth, the upcoming strategy game from Stainless Steel
Studios, is up at GameSpot UK. The preview is based on an "extensive"
demonstration of the game they were given recently, and while it doesn't contain
any new screenshots, it does have a description of what they were shown along
with a number of quotes from designer Rick Goodman.
Looks like our message board posters were correct, as it has turned out that
the Project IGI/Sequel news story we recently ran ( story) was
a hoax (thanks Kenneth "Scimitar" Duckett). Here's what Henning Rokling, the managing director at Innerloop sent
to Project IGI.com, in which he responds
to the
post to their forums that claimed to be from an Eidos employee: I
would first like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has purchased
Project IGI in the last couple of weeks. Everyone at our company are flattered
that so many of you have absorbed yourselves in this game, and of all the positive
feedback we have been receiving from you. The attention this game has received
has surprised everyone here at Innerloop, and we are thrilled about it all.
The feedback we have been getting has been very useful to us, and will be given
a lot of thought when we now will start to build our next products.
Like we all know, the internet can be a dangerous thing, as information and
rumours can fly about at lightning speed. Bits of information and misinformation
regarding the development of this game, as well as what we are going to do next,
has floated onto the internet. I write you now to rectify some of the damage
and speculations this can continue to cause if the record is not set straight.
The posting seemingly made by an Eidos-representative is indeed a hoax. We have
not made any decisions within our company as to what kind of product we will
go on to do. We have a long history with Eidos, and are continuing to discuss
further business with them as well as our other business partners. So far, this
has not included discussing a potential sequel to Project IGI.
I can assure you that the ideas we are bouncing around right now would excite
you all, and I hope you will continue to follow our company to see what we will
come up with next. At the same time I would like to thank everyone who is contributing
to the
unofficial fan-sites you are doing a tremendous job with the Project IGI
community of which we are very grateful.
Roger Godfrey, the producer of Independence War 2: The Edge of Chaos, is
interviewed on GameSpot UK this morning. Roger fields questions about Particle
Systems' internally-developed Flux engine, the game's training missions, how
their new "reputation" system works, and the various ships that are
available in addition to other topics.
Version 1.10 of the Classic CTF mod
for Quake III Arena has been released (thanks Richard Wang). This new version
isn't just compatible with Q3A 1.27g, it is said to incorporate all the new
features of id's latest release, and like the earlier versions of the mod, allows
you to switch between the CTF styles from classic Quake, Quake II and Quake
III Arena.
A new edition
of GameSpy.com's Asheron's Call diary is online this morning. This latest
installment is by Jesse Kurlancheek and Dave Namerow, the two people that played
the Asheron and Bael' Zharon characters throughout last year, and they talk
about this unique experience, including some rather funny quotes from messages
sent to those characters.
The RUNE Downloads page has
a new official map for download for Human Head's Viking action game.
DM-DeepUnder is the name of this map, created by Dave Halsted, which offers two
forms of play, one with traditional weapon spawns, and the other (intended)
method where you obtain bigger and better weapons by killing enemy
creatures. Meanwhile, a massive RUNE
update from Human Head's Tim Gerritsen addresses several issues, including
the amount of support they are providing, both currently and in the future,
discussing reasons why this may have unfolded more slowly than planned. The
update goes on to further discuss support issues, promises some "REALLY big
news for Rune that we hope to announce very soon," gives word on a
planned RUNE patch, and announces their intention to deliver a RUNE add-on:
To those fans who have remained patient, we thank you. In the next
month, we will be releasing a new patch (either 1.03 or 1.04 depending on
testing), as well as the aforementioned flat polygon mesh layouts so that people
can create their own skins and incorporate them into the game. The new bug fix
should address problems connecting between differing versions of the game on
multi-player servers, as well as other small problems reported on various
systems.
The really big news however, is that we have finally gotten approval from
Gathering of Developers on a Rune Add-On pack,. I can't release a lot of
details at the moment, but the Add-On pack will be multiplayer focused only, and
will include some new modes and maps for the Rune community that we have created
ourselves, as well as a couple of new multiplayer characters (including,
finally, a really good female character or two). The pack will be out in spring
of 2001,, and we hope to release details soon. It will be a commercial
add-on, but at a reasonable price available in all outlets.
This page on IanStorm
(not to be confused with ION Storm) has an edited log from last night's
AnachroChat with the team at work on Anachronox. Topics include possible
multiplayer play, and the strong possibility that if there's an Anachronox 2 it
will be developed for a console system like the PS2 or Xbox. As mentioned
yesterday, the
occasion has also prompted the update of the PlanetAnachronox
FAQ to version 1.0.
The Savage UK website has word of their
move to Netgames UK, their new provider, along with word on how they are
providing unmetered 0800 number support for UK players for a limited time.
Xbox.IGN.com's Spec Shift article
reports "Microsoft changes the specs on the Xbox, and IGN Xbox digs the
dirt with J. Allard on the details." Meanwhile, The Adrenaline Vault
reports that Xbox May Bring 5,000 Jobs to Hungary. Finally, another Evil Dead Hail to the King review on
Dreamcast.IGN.com says, "If you received this game for Christmas, we're
very, very sorry..."
The second part of GameSpy.com's
Giants Citizen Kabuto Quick Guide is online, offering tips and strategies
for playing the scantily clad, if not nude Delphis (Sea Reapers).
Version 1.1 of .pakMOVER
is now available, designed to allow map and model makers to easily move Quake
III Arena .pak files to the folder of their choosing. Also, Online Game Review's True Combat MOD
interview talks with the team behind this Q3A mod. Finally, the Unreal Technology
page has a list of a number of popular mods that are now officially supported by
NGStats, which are Assault
Bonus Pack, Boden's Toys, UT
Reporter, CSHP2,
UTCV, DE
Mutators, CCProtector,
and Spawn Protect. Results from
servers using these mods will still count towards NGStats rankings.
Tom
Kudirka's .plan has word that 2015 is currently accepting applications for a
Programmer, Level Designer, Artist (skinner), Animator, and Webmaster to work on
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for Electronic Arts. Interested parties should
check out their jobs page.
The DS9 The Fallen Support
page has a new manual describing how to make cut-scenes for level designers
who are looking to "create real-time camera direction and for script
programmers wishing to expand the features of the cut-scene camera system."
Also, the index on claudec's Lair of Q3A
as been updated, and now offers 229 editing tutorials, comprising 24 categories
and 35 sites. Meanwhile, RTD Quake 3's
Brothers Grimm interview talks with this pair of modelers. Finally, Skindom's
TRIBES 2 skinning preview looks at the art of adding your own art to the
upcoming sequel to Starsiege TRIBES.
- Ladies And Gentlemen, Linux 2.4
announces Slashdot, giving word of the latest offering from Linus and
friends. Thanks Brian "plucky" Ploeckelman and Jacek Fedoryñski...
- The team at work on One Must Fall Battlegrounds
sends word that their sequel to One Must Fall: 2097 will be published by the
end of this year...
- The year-end article on Desslock's RPG News
offers Desslock's reflections on the year that was, which covers much of the
gaming industry, rather than just RPGs...
- A deceptively (or not really, I guess) titled thread called It's
done started by George Broussard on The 3D Realms Web Forums announces
that his pizza is ready. Thanks KingWasrad. Hopefully he's not feeding any
to the folks working on DNF until it is done, as well...
I mentioned loony's work on the more caffeinated version of the site, and it has
now gone live, the reworked format now loads a bit more quickly than its
predecessor. We will continue to examine ways to speed the site's operation, but
hopefully you'll find the results of this round of tweaking noticeable to start
with.
As you may be aware, there's an ill wind blowing through the Internet gaming
community, as several gaming networks re-work their business models on the fly.
Some stories on the situation as it stands are: Stomped's
response to the CNET Gamecenter Alliance Breakup, one of the first
indications of what's been going down, while PCShooter.com
interviews CNET and Crossroads talking about the former's dissolution of the
Gamecenter Alliance, which had been host to the latter, among others. Meanwhile, as mentioned in this story,
CombatSim.Com has announced their attempts
to overcome a difficult business environment by going to a subscription model.
Finally, closer to home, UGO to
Trim Affiliate Payouts on Gamers.com reports a shakeup at the network that
runs ads on this very site. What does all this mean to us? I can't say for sure
at this point, but in the meantime I am certainly interested in observations
about this difficult situation.
Happy birthday Isaac! Today is Ted Lange's 54th birthday. Thanks Chris
Morris. Grab Senator Gopher and let's all meet for a drink on the Aloha deck.
Link of the Day: Eternal Reefs.
Thanks Rick Calero.
Story of the Day: Boy turned into a yam by witchdoctor
(Ananova). Thanks Chris Johnson.
SoD Follow-up: Mysterious
monolith reappears in middle of Green Lake. (5Kings). Thanks Likkit
Pocinwong and theAntiELVIS.
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