Archived News:
PC.IGN.com previews Freedom Force looking ahead to the 3D superhero RPG being crafted at Irrational Australia. While it's illustrated with familiar screenshots, the article covers the game at length with a write-up of the storyline, the characters, the gameplay which involves role-playing and tactical combat elements, the visual style, and multiplayer, while various details are hightlighted by quotes from Irrational's Ken Levine.
Also on PC.IGN.com this evening is a new preview of Rogue Wars, a futuristic 3D action/strategy game in the works at ReAllis. The preview describes the game's premise, which mixes a turn-based strategy mode with FPS action, and details those gameplay modes and features like the resources, weapons, multiplayer and more. Over a dozen new screenshots show what the game looks like, as well.
- Sierra's Quadruple Dose
Not a Monday goes by without some new screenshots of the week for Sierra Studios' upcoming games: TRIBES 2, Arcanum, Empire Earth, and Throne of Darkness.
- Hostile Waters
The official Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising site now offers ten new screenshots of the 3D action/strategy game by Rage for visual inspection.
- Dragonriders
Now here's a title we haven't seen anything from in a while: GameSpot has posted two dozen new screenshots of Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern, captured from a press build of the third-person action/adventure nearing completion at Ubi Studios UK.
- Away Team
Also on GameSpot this evening is a new Star Trek: Away Team gallery, illustrating the isometric squad-based tactical combat game by Reflexive in a whopping three dozen new screenshots.
- Art of Magic
Gamecenter is the latest site to post a handful of Magic and Mayhem: the Art of Magic screenshots along with their brief impressions from the press demo that is making the rounds.
- The Mongol Invasion
It's a Monday, so a new unit, the Korean Spearmen, for the upcoming Mongol Invasion expansion pack is introduced on the Shogun: Total War Community site.
- Dark Age of Camelot
The flood of beta screenshots from Dark Age of Camelot continues with the latest pair on Camelot Vault, while Games Domain has posted an illustrated early walkthrough of the beta, all showing off Mythic's medieval MMORPG.
Ripcord has released a playable demo of GorkaMorka, the odd-ball combat racing game with RPG elements by Real Sports set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe by Games Workshop. The demo clocks in at 68.4 MB and offers quick-race and single-player modes, but no multiplayer. Ripcord informed us that this demo doesn't represent the current state of the game, but instead is the version they showed at last year's E3 show. Whether this demo release implies that the game will as yet be released on the PC is currently unknown (this story reported that all of Ripcord's games in development were being targeted for Xbox), but we hope to be able to clear that up soon.
Impressions Games has released a patch for Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile, updating the expansion pack for their management strategy game Pharaoh to version 2.1. The patch comes in six different editions (weighing in at a light 320 KB to 1.16 MB depending on your choice) and addresses, coincidentally, six gameplay issues that are listed in more detail in the included README. In case the download is a bit slow, the US patch can also be obtained from Sierra's ftp server.
RPG
Vault interviews Ken Levine, the co-founder of Irrational Games, talking
to him about Freedom Force, their upcoming action/adventure game of superheroic
mayhem. Ken explains why they chose to make Freedom Force (and The Lost for
the Playstation 2) instead of System Shock 3, as well as how FF differs from
System Shock 2.
A new
edition of GameSpot's Battle Realms diary is online this evening. This installment
is by Liquid Entertainment's Ed Del Castillo, who explains why they decided
to use a traditional camera instead of a free-roaming one and the philosophy
they brought to the game's interface design.
Another day, another short movie clip on the official Oni site to introduce combat moves in Bungie's third-person anime inspired action game. Today's clip shows a simple disarm move, useful to relieve your opponents from a weapon (which you can then use against them).
Haden Blackman, the content supervisor on the upcoming massively multiplayer
title Star Wars Galaxies made an
update to the game's official site today. The update contains an explanation
for why he's so excited to be working on the game, including this description
of a recent gameplay demo: The demo was beautiful, but one thing really
stood out: as Andy wandered a stretch of Tatooine desert, an AT-AT appeared
on the horizon. The AT-AT lumbered toward Andy's character and as it approached,
I saw that it had been built to scale - it was massive. The AT-AT came to a
stop directly over Andy, whose character looked up to see the underside of the
mammoth vehicle, then looked at the AT-AT's huge feet. At that moment, I felt
like I was truly exploring the Star Wars universe, face-to-foot with one of
the Empire's most dangerous weapons. And then, a few seconds later, the AT-AT
asked Andy's character "What's up?" and I was told that the vehicle
was being controlled by another team member located elsewhere in the building.
Iceland-based developers CCP send word that their official EVE site has been updated with several new additions, including a "paper on jump technology," a pair of new MP3 sound tracks, an updated FAQ, and more. EVE is a massively multiplayer space combat game with RPG and strategy elements.
Russian site Daily Telefrag reports that Iron Strategy has gone gold (stick a Babel Fish in your ear if Cyrillic is not your thing) and should arrive in stores in that country before February 1, although there is no word whether a publisher outside Russia for this 3D real-time strategy game by Nikita has been signed yet. To celebrate, their Iron Strategy gallery has been expanded with 16 new screenshots.
- Operation Flashpoint
Following on last week's Operation Flashpoint screenshots extravaganza (story and story), there's another quick gallery mixing new and familiar screenshots at GameSpot UK.
- Aquarius
Half a dozen new Aquarius screenshots are up at GA-Strategy, offering more scenes from the 3D action/strategy game by developers Jack in the Box.
- AvP Gold Levels
AvPNews has posted three new screenshots of the next Aliens Versus Predator Gold Edition map pak that they will release on Wednesday, along with details on the three (rather than the usual two) levels that it will contain.
- TABBB
Another set of five screenshots of Tex Atomic's Big Bot Battles, the third-person multiplayer action game by Monolith and Real.com, is up at VoodooExtreme.
- Battlecruiser Millenium
Adrenaline Vault has posted a square nine new screenshots of Battlecruiser Millenium, illustrating more areas in the new terrain engine for 3000 AD's space combat sim.
- Dark Age of Camelot
As is their way, German site Gildenweb has posted yet more Dark Age of Camelot screenshots, showing off Mythic's medieval MMORPG that currently is undergoing beta testing, and Camelot HQ has updated its gallery as well.
The Wargamer has written a
preview of Europa Universalis, the upcoming strategy game from Paradox Entertainment
and Strategy First. The preview is based on their limited build of the game,
and contains a very in-depth look at the overall gameplay complete with a number
of new screenshots.
SimHQ.com recently visited Blue Byte Software, and they have posted a
preview of IL-2 Sturmovik based on what they saw there. The preview has
their hands-on impressions, and they also have conducted an
interview with Thomas Hertzler, the CEO of Blue Byte, who answers questions
about the game and why they are just now breaking into the flight-sim market.
This press release on BarrysWorld announces the closing of the UK based gaming service that provides servers for clans and leagues throughout Europe, a dial-up gaming ISP, hosting for gaming sites, and other gaming news and content. Founded in 1998 as a game server run by volunteers, and despite initial funding last April, the service has been unable to raise additional funds to continue operations, and decided to voluntarily liquidate the company by February 5, with services to cease around January 31. Additional background information is available in this personal statement by content director Ben Lawton, who also makes a call for last minute rescue offers.
A playable demo from
The Typing of the Dead, Sega's oddball spin-off of the House of the Dead
series is up at 3D Gamers this morning. The game is virtually identical to House
of the Dead 2, however instead of using a gun to shoot the zombies and various
other creatures that pop up, you type the words that appear in front of them (take that Mavis Beacon).
PC Gamer UK received a
schedule update from Infogrames, and there were some interesting additions
to the list: Outcast 2 and Civilization III (which they acquired from Hasbro
Interactive) and even Unreal Warfare. While Epic refused to comment on this
the last time the name was uncovered ( story), it would appear
that UW is indeed the next game from the studio. Also of note is Unreal II, which
is listed as a Q1 2002 release. Thanks Stomped
for the tip.
French gaming site GameKult.com has conducted an
interview with Tim Cain, a designer at Troika on their upcoming RPG Arcanum:
Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura (thanks RPG
Vault). The interview is in English (although a version in the site's native French is also available), and covers a number of topics, including
their multiplayer modes, why players should replay the game four times to get
the full experience and more.
Hypothermia
interviews Michael Evans talking with the project lead on Oni, Bungie's
imminent game of personal combat. The conversation discusses the game, what
genres it does or doesn't represent, offers tips on getting into the game
business, as well as some questions about less-topical stuff like drinks and
girls and cars.
As promised when part one was posted yesterday ( story), part
two of the PlanetFortress chat log with Yahn Bernier is online, talking with
the Valve Software programmer about coding, Half-Life. TF2, and more. In addition
to part two of the edited log, they have also posted the un-edited log
for the full experience, while there's also a Yahn Bernier Chat Log
on Half-Life.Net recapping the whole shebang.
GameSpy.com's Icewind Dale Heart of Winter
Developer Diary #5 is the fifth installment in Black Isle's J.E. Sawyer's
series commemorating the development of Heart of Winter, the upcoming expansion
pack for Icewind Dale. The diary offers thoughts, both serious and humorous, on
the finishing stages of the project, as J.E. declares them to be at the point
where they are polishing the game. And in related news, a brief Heart of Winter preview on Reviewboard Magazine offers five more screenshots and a "home-made trailer" in Windows Media Player format.
There are three new Strike Force maps for download on Strike Force Center
to hold eager fans of this tactical Unreal Tournament modification over until
the release of the upcoming version 1.60.
A new No One Lives Forever Tweak Guide by 3DRage
is online with tweaking and troubleshooting tips for Monolith's first-person
shooter. Gunman
Central's Weapon Guide for the Gunman Chronicles is online, with word
on the weapons in the game, info on which is the business end of each, and more.
A post on Cached
has the results of their Q3 Plaything tournament, the third Cached tourney won
by Zero4, who earned a PlayStation 2. Also, Registrations for Canberra's Nerdfest
end this week. Meanwhile, The UK Jailbreak Community
is accepting sign-ups for their Quake II and Quake III JailBreak leagues, the Q2
tourney to begin next month and the Q3A version planned for April. Finally, a new Savage UK
Red Alert 2 Ladder is underway. Also, after a successful round of testing,
the Savage UK
Age of Kings Ladder is underway, as well.
A new Holy Wars for Half-Life
website is online, dedicated to the upcoming Half-Life version of the saint
or sinner modification.
A post yesterday about a story on The Register
( story) said the site did not rectify an inaccuracy in a story
about a George Broussard quote, which turns out to be inaccurate in itself.
Andrew Smith points out the story was corrected shortly after it was posted,
though this was not really noted on their main page.
- Old Man
Murray's 2000 Year End Edge Awards are online, offering edgy accolades in
the typically cynical style of the old fellow, honoring such achievements as
Best TRIBES 2 screenshot, Best use of Norse Mythology, Reviewer's Tilt, and
Edgiest Game of the Year...
- There's a System Shock 3 Petition
online, collecting signatures to try to inspire a System Shock sequel...
Okay, as of last night/this morning working on a dial-up connection went from
frustrating to practically intolerable, as I have experienced approximately 50
disconnects creating this update. If you have small children or farm animals
(which are usually prudent to hide from webmasters anyway), I'd keep them hidden
away today, as I plan on making a sacrifice to the DSL gods to try to help my
process along.
Today is the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, one of the more
controversial Supreme Court decisions in U.S. history.
Link of the Day: The Finger Gallery.
Thanks will de.
Story of the Day: 12-pound
turkey drops from sky into pickup truck (1010 WINS News Radio). Thanks eastcreek motv
Weird Science: Anybody Home at
Whitehouse.gov? (Wired). "While the new president's speedily organized
inaugural celebration concluded without incident in a chill rain, the launch of
the Bush administration's Web presence
was not as successful." Thanks Ant.
Image of the Day: Gunsnroses.com. Any
theories? Thanks fakri, who was indeed looking for info on the band.
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