Archived News:
Interplay has released a teaser trailer for Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of
Steel, that features a mixture of gameplay footage, clips from the pre-rendered
cut-scenes and 50's style propaganda images. It's available
for download over at Daily Radar, where you can also see some new screenshots
from the soon-to-be-released multiplayer demo.
It was only a matter of time, I suppose...the people that brought you Super
Configurable Team Arena have unveiled their latest project: Super
Configurable Quake III Arena. SCQ3A uses the same codebase as SCTA, so now
vanilla Q3A server operators can easily tweak their settings just like their
Team Arena brethren.
Daily
Radar's World War II Online interview talks with Mark Pribe of Cornered
Rat software about their upcoming massively multiplayer tactical action game.
Mark says they're still on track for a mid-2001 release, and he also explains
how they are working to keep gameplay balanced, as well as how accessible it
will be to those unacquainted with massively multiplayer gaming.
Also new on Daily Radar this evening, is their promised hands-on
preview of Star Trek: Away Team. The preview contains their impressions
of the game, as well as new screenshots.
GameSpot has posted a
new preview of Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising, Rage's upcoming 3D strategy
game. Like most of the other recent previews of the game, it is based on their
experiences with a beta build, and contains their impressions along with some
new screenshots.
GameSpot TV has conducted an
interview with Tom Hall. The interview is available in streaming video format
(although there are some text-only highlights for the bandwidth impaired) and
covers a wide range of topics, including how he broke into the industry, the
evolution of the first person shooter and his work on Anachronox, and there
are also two additional streams with new gameplay footage.
After a long period of silence, Sid
Meier's Dino Diary at Firaxis' site has been updated. The diary has been
chronicling the pre-production of the game known as Sid Meier's Dinosaurs, and
in this edition Sid says that most of his time has been devoted lately to working
on Civilization III, but also a new, unannounced game that he has decided to
focus on for the near future. He also says that it took "many years and
several different approaches" before he was satisfied with the concept
that became Gettysburg! so just because work on the dinosaur game is on hold,
doesn't mean it's canceled.
GameSpy Arcade is conducting a
chat session with Warren Spector and his Thief 3 team from ION Storm Austin
this evening (although they'll most likely be talking in general terms, since
the game is still in pre-production). To join in the fun, download GameSpy Arcade
and join their 3D Action Planet lobby at 7:00 PM EST.
As promised, the sixth set of levels for Aliens Versus Predator Gold Edition has been released for download at AvPNews.com. Unlike previous packs, this one includes three new levels, entitled Jungle, NeonMachine, and StorageXL (which is a larger version of the original release).
Blizzard sends word of a new movie trailer for Warcraft III showing off their upcoming 3D role-playing RTS. Unlike previous trailers that contained pre-rendered cutscenes, this 14.2 MB movie is the first to offer gameplay footage, running for over two and a half minutes in the self-executing Bink format.
GameSpot has posted the first details and (dark) screenshots of Nefandus: The Wrath of Angels, a 3D action-adventure by Czech developers Black Element Software. The game is likened to the Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil series of horror adventures, and there is also a new movie trailer that shows off the game's character, environments, and camera system in nearly four minutes of footage.
Tolstiy's Place has conducted an
interview with Magnus Jansén, an audio designer at Termite Games.
Magnus talks about his work on their upcoming title New World Order as well
as the art of sound design, and there are four new screenshots from the game
up as well.
Microids has released a UK patch and a French patch for Times of Conflict, a 3D real-time strategy game that has rarely been in the news but that was apparently released in Europe last November. There is no information on what changes the patches apply, so if you happen to have the game, apply at your own risk. Thanks Patches Scrolls for the tip.
There is a brief Sovereign interview on GameSpyDaily, quizzing Verant's Clint Worley about their upcoming massively multiplayer RTS. Clint talks about recent engine changes, their work on gameplay balancing, and a few other topics.
Valkyrie Studios has released a new movie trailer of Seraphim, their upcoming 3D game of angelic combat that is being prototyped on the Unreal engine. The new trailer is available in two QuickTime sizes running a little over two minutes, and shows off "intense dogfights, explosive effects and our latest environments" as well as some of the new Unreal technology features like skeletal animation and enhanced terrain that they are incorporating.
After a teaser page that had been around since last year's E3, Electronic Arts has now opened the official Clive Barker's Undying site for business, showcasing the upcoming first-person horror shooter by DreamWorks Interactive. The site offers details on the game's characters, the environments you'll play in, the enemies you'll meet there, and the weapons and spells at your disposal to greet them with, as well as new and familiar screenshots and movie clips. And if you're dying (sorry) for even more Undying, there's an Italian preview on Nextgame.it (stick a Babel Fish in your ear) that includes over a hundred screenshots (thanks VoodooExtreme for that link).
Entropia HQ interviews Patric Sundstrom talking with the MindArk marketing manager about their upcoming massively multiplayer online RPG, Project Entropia. Patric introduces company and game, discusses their free subscription model, explains how they plan to support the game after its release, and covers some of its gameplay features.
A fresh Oni featured move is up at the official site this morning, as can be expected every day until the release of Bungie's third-person action game on January 29. Today's clip shows of a running punch (no, not rum-punch) move called 'Lariat'.
Arx Development Report #2 on RPG Vault is a brief update on the development status of this first-person RPG being crafted at Arkane Studios. Lead designer Raphael Colantonio is at hand to describe improvements to the dialog manager and facial animations, the physics and 3D audio engines, their scripting language, and more.
Playable builds of Star Trek: Away Team have been sent out, so here come the
previews: PC.IGN's preview
has their impressions along with some new screenshots, while Daily Radar has
posted four
MPEG movies with gameplay footage and nine more screenshots. Daily Radar's full hands-on preview is
promised for tomorrow.
A new preview of Fallout Tactics:
Brotherhood of Steel is up at PC.IGN this morning. The preview has loads
of gameplay details, along with quotes from game designer Chris Taylor and some
new screenshots.
RPG Vault
interviews Ken Levine and Jon Chey of Irrational Games, talking with them
about their upcoming super-powered RPG Freedom Force. The dynamic duo (sorry,
couldn't resist) discuss about how the game will blend strategy and adventure
elements, as well as other topics and they also confirm that the game will ship
with the level editor they're using.
As noted in this story at PC.IGN,
Star Wars: Battle for Naboo, Factor 5's space combat game for the Nintendo 64
is headed to the PC by way of LucasArts. Factor 5 is helping on the port, and
it's expected as soon as March.
Electronic Arts has
announced that they are going to be publishing Battlefield 1942, the upcoming
World War II sim from Digital Illusions (thanks LeoN). The press release also
says the game will be published for both PC and Xbox, although no specific date
is given for either version.
Red Storm's Dave Weinstein sends along this
open letter to the Windows multiplayer community with the sad news that
networking guru Bob Quinn was in a serious accident and a fund has started up
to help pay for his substantial medical costs. Full details can be found in
his letter, including where to mail checks and information for those that
want to get in touch with the organizers.
Following up on yesterday's news about Sega dropping the Dreamcast ( story),
Daily Radar has some
information that seems to suggest that Sega will be stopping production on
the Dreamcast console, but the technology will remain in the form of set-top boxes,
Dreamcast-enabled DVD players and the PC add-on card that has already been mentioned.
However this story at Gamers.com
has quotes from various Japanese news outlets that are reporting on Sega's Playstation
2 plans, even going so far as to say that their PS2 contract "is not a long
one" and that they will move on to the Xbox and Gamecube shortly afterwards.
But contradicting all of those is this
story at IGN, where Charles Bellfield, VP of communications at Sega of America
says this news 100% false, and started because of a translation error. On a completely
different note, MSXbox has conducted an
interview with Ed Scio of Brat Designs, talking with him about their upcoming
PC and Xbox game Breed as well as the Mercury engine that powers it. Update:
Famitsu Online has posted a
statement from Sega, in which a representative lays out in very clear terms
that they are restructuring their hardware production, but not dropping the Dreamcast
(although it's a little vague here), persuing promoting the Dreamcast technology
in non-console hardware, and that they are in fact negotiating with Sony and Nintendo
to bring games to the Playstation 2 and GameBoy Advance (thanks FGN Online for the tip).
TeamWarfare is a new site that offers
a ladder system for Starsiege: TRIBES. They plan to expand in the near future
to support Mechwarrior 4, Counter-Strike, Quake III Arena (Teamplay), Unreal
Tournament and once it is released, TRIBES 2. In contest news, LittleWhiteDog.com
is giving away a 30GB IBM
75GXP hard drive, I am not a geek is giving
away a Maxtor 81.9GB ATA-100 HD and you can win a trip to the Hannibal movie
premiere over at Microsoft's
Gaming Zone.
The official Desert Crisis
site has been updated with new screenshots, weapon model renders and sound
effects from this upcoming Half-Life mod. In other Half-Life mod news, The
Forge will be posting new shots from the Holy Wars mod throughout the week,
while Total-Reload will be
posting AVI movies from the Gangsta Wars mod all week long.
- Electronic Arts' Majestic
teaser page now sports a countdown to 12:15 CST on January 29th. The reason?
Your guess is as good as ours, if not slightly better (thanks Mike Schwab)...
- A brief update on the status of the Mac OS port of Escape From Monkey Island
is up at MacNN...
Blue is out of town on business, hence the lack of Out of the Blue. Things
should return to normal tomorrow, so there's no need to panic. Just go about
your daily business, and enjoy this earlier-than-normal update. Update: the original link of the day link has been pulled, as a number of our readers
found it offensive. I apologize to those that found it to be in poor taste.
Link of the Day: Endor
Holocaust (thanks Chris). Still more proof that I must be the only person
alive that genuinely thinks Return of the Jedi is the best in the series.
Image of the Day: This
Reuters photo (thanks Joe Siegler). Not for the squeamish.
Story of the Day: Letter
'W' missing from White House keyboards (CNN.com). Thanks Jay.
Bonus Story: USDA
OKs smaller cheese holes (Fox News). Thanks theAntiELVIS.
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