Archived News:
If the earlier deluge of Operation Flashpoint screenshots wasn't enough for you ( story), there's a brief preview on Fragland.net that contains a general overview of Bohemia's upcoming 3D tactical action game, as well as a Q&A with an unnamed developer who talks about the inspirations for and challenges in creating the game, and discusses some of its features. And then there is also a massive Operation Flashpoint screenshots gallery on Belgian site SpelletjesGarnaal (thanks SpecForce), who appear to have collected a lot of previously released images but also sprinkled a number of new ones throughout.
Microsoft has released a new multiplayer map for MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, their stomping 3D action/sim that was released last Fall (thanks GameSpyDaily, who have a FilePlanet mirror here). The map, entitled Scrub, comes as a 1.3 MB download and is described as "Designed specifically for large-scale battles involving eight or more players, this map consists of a desert environment with wide open spaces and high plateaus."
Also on FilePlanet, but so far relatively unnoticed, is a new movie trailer of Tropico, showing off the isometric management strategy game under construction at PopTop Software. The trailer runs for a bit over a minute, offering an introduction to the game's premise where you play a Caribbean dictator in control of your own tropical island, as well as a few gameplay sequences.
Blue Byte has released new patches for Battle Isle: the Andosia War, updating the 3D turn-based strategy game by Cauldron to build 206. As usual, there are English and German patches to update the previous build 166 and the original game, and the list of changes includes AI improvements, multiplayer changes and improvements, the option to extend the single-player turn time to 30 minutes, and more.
The latest pair of movie clips from Clive Barker's Undying have appeared this evening on GameSpot (in one resolution) and FilePlanet in the usual high res and low res QuickTime formats (the accompanying GameSpyDaily story also mentions two other clips that have already appeared elsewhere before), all showing brief action sequences from the first-person horror shooter in the works at DreamWorks and Electronic Arts.
A new preview of Independence
War 2: The Edge of Chaos is up at Gamecenter this evening. The preview contains
10 new screenshots, as well as a look at the game's engine and gameplay, complete
with some quotes from the developers.
GameSpot Previews Summoner is a new look ahead to the 3D role-playing game by Volition that is already out for PS2 but will be released on the PC this Spring. Because of this development history, there isn't a lot about the game that isn't known yet, but nonetheless the article presents an overview of the storyline, underlined with quotes from writer Jason Scott, as well as the combat system, some of the levels, and the multiplayer features (which are unique to the PC version). A dozen new screenshots are sprinkled along the way.
Epic's Unreal Technology site has been updated by Daniel Vogel (formerly with Loki but now at Epic) with the release of new beta Direct3D and OpenGL renderers for Unreal Tournament. The tiny 70 KB zip-file contains the two .DLLs that need to be placed in your UT System folder, and word is "The new D3D renderer uses DirectX8 which should result in improved performance due to improved texture management. It also now supports the DXT1 compressed textures from the 2nd UT CD. The OpenGL renderer is now up- to date with the D3D renderer and needs some settings added to the OpenGLDrv setting of your UnrealTournament.ini file." The settings are listed in detail on the UT site.
Russian Gaming World has conducted an
interview with Linda Currie, project leader at Sir-tech software on Wizardry
8. The interview (which is in English) covers a wide range of topics, from the
history of the series to the fighting system in Wizardry 8. In other news, an
update at the game's official site refutes reports that the game will be
published in March by Interplay. The update says "we are not yet in a position
to announce the publisher or street date of the product."
Operation Flashpoint is all the rage today, as there are 17 new, high-res screenshots on Games Domain, eight low-res shots on GameSpot UK, and a dozen medium-res screenshots on Computer and Video Games (but some of those are familar). Update: even Daily Radar UK has their own gallery of 15 screenshots (again some new, some familiar).
Newly opened fan page Liquified.org has conducted an
interview with Ed Del Castillo, the president and cofounder of Liquid Entertainment.
The questions deal with Ed's recently bestowed "game god" status (according
to PC Gamer, that is), how the story unfolds in their upcoming RTS Battle Realms
and more.
Every day from now until the game's release (on the 29th) Gathering of Developers
will be posting a gameplay movie from Oni. The movies are very small and show off individual fighting moves, and the second movie is up today as is the first one
that was released yesterday (which slipped through the cracks).
Although its official release isn't until this evening, version 2.0 of Q3
Gridiron, a "football with rocket launchers" mod for Quake III
Arena is now available. It's available as either a manual-install ZIP or as
an automated install file.
Version 0.91 of the Heavy Delta
mod for Quake III Arena has been released. This new version is available
as an update for current users as well as a full download and fixes a slew of
bugs that were in the previous release.
Voodoo Extreme has conducted a
Q&A with Joby Otero, the lead artist at Shiny on Sacrifice. Now that
Sacrifice has been out on store shelves for some time, the five questions all
look back on the game's development, and Joby says what he would have liked
to see in the game had they more time.
Build 390 of the Unreal Fortress mod
for Unreal Tournament has been released. This new version adds two new maps,
a new weapon, new awards and lots more. Also available is the first third party
map pack, featuring community-created levels for the mod.
Twelve
hundred tons of hell at your fingertips on Computer Games Online offers one
of CGO's great (if confusing) headlines for their look ahead at MechCommander 2, the
upcoming sequel to the strategy game based on the mech-filled BattleTech
universe. Included are 16 new screenshots along with a pretty complete description
of what to expect from MC2.
GameSpy.com's preview of The Settlers IV is online, offering their first
look at Settlers IV, Blue Byte's upcoming installment in their economic strategy
sim series. The article, which also features several new screenshots, offers a
rundown on the story, gameplay, campaigns, races, and more, more, more.
There's a short Hostile Waters:
Antaeus Rising Preview on Gamers.com based on a visit from Interplay to show
off the upcoming follow-up to Hostile Waters. The preview gives an overview of
the strategy elements that have been added for the sequel, which will allow you to
design the vehicles you will use to do combat in the game. In addition to the
look ahead at the game, which is to be followed by a more detailed preview, the article also
offers five new screenshots.
A new version of the Kquery
server browser utility is now available. The new release features re-worked Quake
II query code and support for passworded Half-Life servers among other changes
and tweaks. The update is available as a patch, or can by applied using the
program's auto-update feature. Thanks Frightener.
There's a new version of FragAndFlagArena
on Pharfruminsain updating this front-end that eases the process of
launching a Quake III Arena server by adding an interface that allows you to
configure your server using buttons and check-boxes. The program supports a
boatload of modifications, in addition to vanilla Q3A.
A new version 1.1 of the Quake
III Logfile Analyzer is now available. The program takes the server log from a Quake III Arena match
and extract meaningful information, including player ratings; player
comparisons; info on frags, deaths, and suicides per hour; and more.
GameSpy.com Interviews
Ben Hermans talking with Hyperion Entertainment's
Ben Hermans about "the labors of porting games to the (Linux) platform,"
talking about the ins-and-outs of the process, including comparisons to Windows
and Mac development.
Online Game Reviews Action Half- Life
interview is up, talking with Dwayne "oddjob" Douglass, the
director and lead modeler for Action Half-Life. In a sort-of related note, TeleFragged's
Action UT Interview is online, talking with RaVeN and rogue, who are the
audio director and art director on the Action UT team. Finally, in a more grim
note, a post called R.I.P. - Battle of the Sexes
on the BotS forums (thanks Alex) announces that the forums will be going
away, and hint that the Q2 and Q3A mod it relates to may be shutting down soon,
as well.
Gamers.com's interview with the
Final Fantasy X Development Team is online, offering scads of new FFX info.
More on console cheating (mentioned in this space yesterday), an article called online
cheating on gameshark.com discusses the issues involved in them revealing
cheat codes for online games, asking for guidance on whether or not they should
do this. Finally, there's more
on the Daily Radar on their Nintendo lawsuit situation (also mentioned
yesterday), which includes a report on all the news stories they are not
reporting on, as they stick to their guns like greased fish.
Jeff Magill sends along a tidbit to feed into the wayback machine and get some
of us old codgers feeling nostalgic (if not just older). Yesterday was the 27th
anniversary of the debut of the Six Million Dollar Man! This anniversary just
inspired me to take a brief slow motion jog around my office while, of course,
supplying my own sound effects
(dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut-dut!).
Link of the Day: Idleworm's
footage of Dean Kamen's new invention. IT in action. Thanks Languid_Heap.
Story of the Day: Man convicted of indecent exposure for nude gardening
(Fox). Thanks Ahk-Ma and theAntiELVIS. The man is ordered to wear no less than a
thong when doing his gardening in (get this) Pleasant Gap, PA.
Bonus Story: Porn Shop Owner Fined For Selling Soft Core Films
(The Guardian Observer). Thanks Andrew Smith. Seems the movies, promised to be
hard-core, "were not blue enough."
Weird Science: Australian Inventor Creates Virtual Reality Sex Doll
(Fox). Thanks theAntiELVIS. Well of course he did... if there was a way for this invention
to pre-date computers, it would have (like they would ever use the holodeck on
Star Trek for anything else).
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