Archived News:
As Steel Soldiers grows ever closer to completion, more and more previews are
popping online, and tonight a
new one can be found over at UK gaming magazine PC Zone. While the preview
doesn't contain any new screenshots, it is laden with quotes from members of
the development team at The Bitmap Brothers.
A pair of previews of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars are up for
your reading enjoyment tonight. Both IGN
and Gamers.com have
written previews of this 3D strategy game from Gizmo Games and Simon & Schuster
Interactive, and while neither contains any new screenshots, they are both based
on hands-on demonstrations of the latest build of the game.
Although it's a little too thin to call a preview (even they don't call it
that) IGN has posted some new screenshots
and information from Legends of Might & Magic, a LithTech engine powered
game from 3DO. While the game was originally supposed to be a first person RPG,
it has since changed into more of an Unreal Tournament style action game, complete
with teamplay tactics and skills that are rewarded based on your success in
batle.
The second
half of Daily Radar's interview with Steve Escalante and Brandon Gillam
of Maximum Charisma is online this evening, continuing their chat about Fighting
Legends, the upcoming online strategy game of cartoon violence. In this portion
of the interview, the duo explain how they will separate themselves from other
massively multiplayer titles like EverQuest and Ultima Online (as well as off-line
titles like Warcraft III) and they also provide some background information
about the world the game takes place in.
GameSpot has posted a
new preview of The Settlers IV, based on their experience with a beta copy
of the game. The preview is quite detailed, and has all sorts of info including
details on the plotline, the redesigned interface, the different playable civilizations
and more, complete with plenty of screenshots.
Also new on GameSpot this evening, is a
full guide to American McGee's Alice. Like all of their game guides, it
has a full walkthrough, as well as general strategies and special hints for
the boss battles. It's available online in HTML format, or as a downloadable
PDF file ( Adobe Acrobat required).
RPGDot has conducted an interview on Wizardry 8, the upcoming first-person role-playing game by Sirtech Canada. Charles Miles, self-proclaimed "item and monster wrangler," is at hand to talk about his work on the game, the characters from previous games you will be able to import in this new installment, the magic and combat systems, and similar topics. Additionally, there are five new screenshots of the game.
Red Storm has released international version 2.52 patches for Urban Operations, the expansion pack for their tactical shooter Rogue Spear. The patches bring the UK, French and German editions in sync with the previously released US patch ( story), offering the same collection of gameplay, multiplayer, mod, and other fixes.
GameSpyDaily has conducted a quick Q&A on Echelon, quizzing Bethesda's Todd Vaughn about the development status of the futuristic combat flyer by Russian developers Madia and Buka. Todd says the game is "reaching the home stretch" and remains on target for a March release. Additionally, the first five screenshots in the Echelon gallery at the official site offer some new aerial scenes.
- Aquarius
GA-Strategy has posted a dozen new Aquarius screenshots, illustrating the 3D action/strategy game under construction at developers Jack in the Box.
- TABBB
There are five new screenshots of Tex Atomic's Big Bot Battles on VoodooExtreme, showing off the robotic multiplayer action game by Monolith and Real.com.
- Oni
Gamer's Pulse has captured a some 20 new Oni screenshots from their gold master copy of Bungie's imminent third-person action game.
GameSpy.com's series of interviews with industry art directors continues this
morning, with a
chat with Joby Otero of Shiny. Like all the interviews in this series, the
questions talk in general terms, and Joby describes the art style in Sacrifice,
how he broke into the industry and also comments on what influences him artistically.
Levelord updated
his .plan today assuring people that his update yesterday regarding the
separation of Mumbo Jumbo from Ritual ( story) was a joke, and
that they are not selling furniture and that Ritual is not in any danger of
shutting down. The good news is that he also suggests that Sin II might be made
after all, and it might be made soon to boot (so stop asking for it). Here's
an excerpt on that subject: One last thing, Sin II. We have nothing but
absolute desire to make Sin II. No one wants this more than we do! My guess
is that it will happen, perhaps even this year. We are starting a very cool
game right now, so it's hard to say. Sin is a Ritual property and unless someone
wants to pay A LOT of money, it will always be a Ritual property ;) PLEASE STOP
ASKING ME ABOUT Sin II for at least a little while!
After several rounds of beta testing, the official Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord site now offers the new version 1.1 patch for download, bringing TCP/IP multiplayer to the 3D turn-based wargame by Big Time Software. The patch will update all previous versions of the game, and besides the addition of multiplayer also sports a large number of improvements and bug fixes, all listed in detail in the included README file.
Ultima Online fans will want to get out their chat hats and attend the UO2 Vault's
Ultima World Online: Origin Chat this evening at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. The
topic will simply be general UWO: Origin talk, and several members of the
development team are expected to be in attendance. The chat can be reached via
the link above, or by using an IRC client, and joining the channel #origin on
the server host17.webmaster.com.
The Jailbreak for Unreal Tournament page
has a new version 102 of their mod, hot on the heels of the version 101 released
last night. The update is available as a full installer or as a very small
patch for those who have already installed version 101, and fixes the "server
travel bug" that impacted online games, as well as "all relevant
issues, so the next release won't be around for a while" (though more new
maps are promised "soon").
The No Escape Official Site
has a new patch 2 for No Escape, their multiplayer third-person action game of 'tiny
planets and big guns,' as Frans put it. The update addresses several problems,
including a sound crash from "bad" drivers, memory leaks, mouse
issues, and various other problems, while also adding some networking
improvements. The new version can also now notify you if a newer No Escape patch
is available.
A post called Update on characters and the Jan 8th rollback
on the Battle.Net forums offers details on the results of the restoration of
Diablo II characters lost in the recent "mass murder" cracking
incident ( story). Included in the post is info on rolled back
characters, problems (and the workaround) for restoring characters that are also
impacted by the change in the number of characters permitted in each realm
( story), and info on the fate of characters that are still unavailable due to being
"mistakenly orphaned."
The Quake3Arena Coliseum2 page
has a new version 2.1 of the Coliseum 2 mod for Quake III Arena, which looks to
continue the style of gameplay introduced to Quake and Quake II by its
predecessors, the Lithium mods. The new release fixes a CD-Key check 1.27g
conversion bug and a g_maxHealth 1.27g conversion bug, and adds two features, server-side configurable air-acceleration for the grappling hook, and an
experimental server-side variable to disable jumppads.
3D Spotlight's No One Lives Forever Tweak guide
is now online. Also, Freelancer's
Fallout Tactics-Brotherhood of Steel walkthrough is underway, with guides to
missions one and two. Moving right along, Irrational Games'
System Shock 2 FAQ is a newly-posted guide that includes general, technical
and gameplay information (the gameplay section includes spoilers). Finally,
enough changes have been made to the official Neverwinter Nights
FAQ that it has been upped from version 2.0 to version 3.0.
Microsoft Xbox
Unclothed on Sharky Games is written by some dude named loonyboi (for some
reason that strikes a familiar chord). Also, an update to Chris
Stockman's .plan gives his opinion on why the GameCube has the potential to
be the next "console leader." A post on MSXbox
points out that LucasArts has announced
they are looking for Xbox lead programmers on their careers page. Meanwhile, a
post on Gamers.com indicates
Tyrannosaurus Tex, an ambitious shooter planned for the GameBoy Color, may be in
jeopardy. Finally, DailyRadar.com
previews Oni and there's an Oni preview on
PS2.IGN.Com each looking ahead at the PlayStation 2 version of Bungie's
combat game.
- A report on Gone Gold
has word that America, a post American Civil War RTS game by German
developer Data Becker is gold, and
is expected to be available on the 15th...
- Sunstorm Interactive,
developer of High Impact Paintball and some Duke3D add-ons, announces Police Tactical Training,
a first-person Hogan's Alley type game...
I almost popped this one into a "weird science" link below, but every
time I read through this article called Book proposal adds to IT mystery
on MSNBC sent along by Brian 'Squirrel' Eiserloh it screams out for further
attention. Check this out: "Harvard Business School Press executive editor
Hollis Heimbouch has just paid $250,000 for a book about IT but neither the
editor nor the agent, Dan Kois of The Sagalyn Literary Agency, knows what IT is."
But a further description of the impact of this mystery invention is summed up
in the blurb that says: "Invention said to be bigger than PCs and the
Internet." Reading between the lines suggests that this might be a form of
transportation, but that's just speculation, since there are so few concrete
details, but every step of the way the article is unwavering in its opinion that
this development will literally change the world.
Happy Birthday Pat Benatar, who turns 48 (thanks Chris
Morris). This one makes me feel about as old as any of these.
Link of the Day: Xbox
Design Machine. Thanks Ant.
Flash required.
Story of the Day: Mad Monkeys Run Amok in Indian Capital
(ABC). Thanks Toast. Possible solutions include construction of a monkey park,
monkey contraception, or perhaps political appointments.
Weird Science: Turkish Children Arrested in Internet Cafes.
Thanks Brett. Protecting kids from the big three negative influences found in
such spots: cigarette smoke, pornography, and backgammon (really).
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