Archived News:
As promised, the new multiplayer demo of Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel is now available for download at PC.IGN.com. The demo weighs in at a whopping 125.3 MB (also available in 14 slices) and includes the single-player levels and tutorial of the previous demo, as well as multiplayer Skirmish and Assault modes.
The official Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 site offers a new map pack for Westwood's real-time strategy game for download. This fourth pack contains once again three new multiplayer maps, entitled Brink of Disaster, Arena, and Shrapnel Mountain. Also, there's word of an upcoming chat on Wednesday, January 31.
To celebrate the game going gold yesterday ( story), TalonSoft has released a new movie trailer of Age of Sail II, the 3D sea-based RTS developed by Akella. The trailer sports nearly 40 seconds of gameplay and cut-scene footage in self-running Bink format, along with a surprisingly rocking sound track. And in related news, there are four new screenshots on GameSpyDaily.
The official Science & Industry site has a small server-side patch for this Half-Life mod, addressing the "general overflow and HEV charger overflow problems." Server admins are urged to install the patch which should improve performance for players noticably, and they have also posted a new progress page keeping track of the features and changes planned for the next full release.
Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne Q&A on GameSpot is a talk with Lennart Sans, project leader at Triumph Studios who are working on this just-announced turn-based strategy sequel. Lennart discusses the changes and improvements this game will offer over the original, such as the new races and skills, reveals the meaning of the game's subtitle, and covers several other topics. The first six screenshots and concept images of the game illustrate the proceedings.
Dynamix' Dave Georgeson made a post to a thread on TribalWar's forums, confirming that the next round of the TRIBES 2 beta test (which is being referred to as a "meta" test) will consist of very few outside testers. Dave explains that their decision to do this is because of the small number of active accounts on the last beta round, and he also says that they have not made their decisions yet as to who will be participating, but that they will be basing them on how active people were during the last test among other things.
GameSpot has posted the second of their monthly Battle Realms previews, profiling the clans in the 3D real-time strategy game under construction at Liquid Entertainment. Today's installment covers the Serpent Clan, complete with an overview of some of their structures and clan members (units), and plenty of new sceenshots and concept art.
Electronic Arts has announced Adventure Pinball: Forgotten Island, a 3D pinball
game by Digital Extremes (co-developers of Unreal Tournament and Unreal) that
is powered by the UT engine. You can read the official press release on this
oddball title over
at Stomped, who have the first two screenshots up as well.
GA-Sim has conducted a
ten question interview with an unnamed representative from Akella, talking
about Age of Sail II. This mystery guest explains how the game will set itself
apart from the other strategy games out there, as well as how it differs from
its predecessor and how it utilizes branching storylines among other topics.
Rebellion has released another new demo of Gunlok, their recently released squad-based action RPG. This expanded demo includes two additional levels compared to the previous one-level demo ( story), as well as the training section, and takes a hefty 89.1 MB to download. A US-based mirror is available at 3D Gamers.
- Undying
A brief preview of Clive Barker's Undying on Games Domain is illustrated with several new and a few familiar screenshots of the first-person horror shooter nearing completion at DreamWorks Interactive.
- Project Eden
Belgian site SpelletjesGarnaal has posted a sprawling Project Eden gallery sporting lots of concept art and editor screenshots of the squad-based action game by Core Design, which according to this story on FGN Online is slightly delayed until a May release.
- Summoner
Some brief impressions of Summoner on GameSpot are accompanied by nearly thirty new screenshots of Volition's 3D role-playing game, and Daily Radar UK has posted half a dozen as well..
- Fallout Tactics
Freelancer has posted three new screenshots of the multiplayer demo of Fallout Tactics, which is scheduled to be released on PC.IGN.com this evening.
- Paradise Cracked
Also on Freelancer today are three new screenshots of Paradise Cracked (the bottom row), illustrating the turn-based role-playing combat game by Russian developers MiST land.
- Gangsters 2
The official Gangsters 2 site has been updated again with five new screenshots, as well as four new wallpapers to redecorate your background in anticipation of living the criminal life as designed by Hothouse Creations.
Version 2.24 of GameSpy 3D is now available for both registered and shareware users. This new version adds support
for ten new games and demos, including Quake III: Team Arena, Half-Life: Counter-Strike,
No One Lives Forever and RUNE.
Sharky
Extreme's Arcanum interview talks with Leonard Boyarsky of Troika Games
about their upcoming RPG Arcanum: Of Magick and Steamworks Obscura. It's a decent
sized interview, and Leonard says the game has over 150 full quests, and that
Arcanum represents what a "D&D style world would evolve into if an
industrial revolution came along." Thanks RPG
Vault for the tip.
Electronic Arts sent along three new movies featuring gameplay footage from
Clive Barker's Undying. All three movies are in QuickTime format, and all
are fairly small downloads: the
first one clocks in at 1.56 MB, the
second at 2.10 MB and the
third movie is 2.58 MB.
GSC Game World has released a new gameplay movie of Venom, their upcoming futuristic first-person shooter, and we have a local copy of the 8.9 MB download. The trailer offers nearly two minutes of gameplay footage, and while the first few sequences are familiar to those who have played the demo, plenty of other areas are also explored, and it includes several new in-engine cutscenes as well. Thanks GA-Source for the heads-up.
Sim Extreme has conducted a
Q&A with Peter Porai-Koshits, a game designer on Echelon, the upcoming
space combat game from Buka Entertainment and Bethesda Softworks. The brief
Q&A is illustrated by four new screenshots from the game, and five more
shots can be found over
at German gaming site Krawall.
Although we uncovered this a little while back ( story), Gathering
of Developers has formally announced Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne
today. GameSpot's
news item on the announcement has some preliminary details on the game,
which will be developed by Triumph Studios with "development consultation"
by Railroad Tycoon II developers PopTop Software.
Stomped has conducted a quick Q&A with designer Sid Meier regarding his decision to cease development of the dinosaurs game Firaxis was working on ( story). He says that "for a couple of months now that we weren't finding that magic combination of ingredients that makes it really fun," and comments on how the planned acquisition of Hasbro by Infogrames affects the development of Civilization III.
A new edition
of the Anarchy Online Developer Journal at AO Vault is online. This installment
is by Funcom's motion capture director Tommy Strand, who gives a brief history
of motion capture, and explains how they are using it in Anarchy Online.
A new preview
of Clive Barker's Undying is up at GameSpot UK this morning. The preview
is based on their hands-on experience with a full build of the game, and contains
a brief look at the plot and gameplay as well as a gallery of new screenshots.
There's a RUNE chat log on
GameVisions with a transcript of a recent IRC session with the humans at
Human Head Studios, talking about RUNE, their third-person game of Viking
action. Subjects include progress on the RUNE patch, the team's favorite parts
of the game, the lack of co-op support, and more. Word from Chris Rhinehart is
that ETA on the patch is hopefully "within the next couple of weeks."
Meanwhile, in future chat developments, Duck and Cover
sends word of a planned chat session with Micro Forté and 14 Degrees East about
progress on Fallout Tactics. The session will be January 31 at 7:00 PM Eastern
Time (4:00 PM PST) in The
Tactical Planet room on Gamespy Arcade.
The Oni Special Moves
Feature continues to roll along on the way towards this Monday's scheduled
release of Oni, Bungie's third-person game of personal combat. Today's combat
maneuver shown off in movie format is the "Twister Kick," a
best-of-both-worlds move that serves as both a dodge and an attack.
The Emperor Battle for Dune News Archive
has a new unit for download. The Dune unit, not to be confused with Dweezil's
sister (someone needed to work that pun from a recent messageboard thread onto
the news page eventually), is one of the pieces of armament for use in the
upcoming Dune II follow-up, this week's unit is the Ordos "Kobra"
cannon, "named for its resemblance to the hooded serpent found on Earth
through the 23rd century."
Tonight on XGR are plans for a Ken Levine Audio Interview
talking with Ken Levine of Irrational Games
about progress on Freedom Force, Irrational's upcoming superhero RPG. The
interview will take place at 9:00 PM Eastern Time, and will be in streaming Windows Media Player
format. Also, the official site features a new Flash teaser.
The third
Morrowind Design Diary on Voodoo Extreme offers thoughts from Matthew
Carofano, the lead artist on Morrowind. The article discusses the art of adding
art to the upcoming RPG, and includes some renderings, sketches, and
screenshots, including a pair of exclusives.
Video games get improved rating from senators, family institute
reports CNN, saying Senator Joseph Lieberman was among those announcing that:
"The watchdog group credited the industry for adopting some of its
recommendations but criticized retailers for selling violent games to children."
Thanks Jaxx. Meanwhile, a post on Stomped
follows-up on reports that Soldier of Fortune would be treated and sold as adult
material in British Columbia ( story and story),
saying that this rating is under appeal, and that until this is resolved, the
game is now being sold openly.
Citing "credible sources," Xbox
to be Dreamcast Compatible declares a Gamers.com article. In contrast, this
GameSpot story says: "Microsoft denies rumors of a DC-chip for the Xbox,"
citing, and naming, a credible source of their own... Microsoft. Also, Seraphim on the Xbox, PS2?
asks GameSpot answering their own question with: "Valkyrie Studios plans to
develop its third-person action game, Seraphim, for the Sony PlayStation 2 and
the Microsoft Xbox." Finally, Gamers.com
has another report up contradicting official company statements, as they
declare: "Phantasy Star Online IS Compatible With the Broadband
Adapter."
Red Storm's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
website has the release of the editing plug-ins that can allow you to create
your own levels for Rogue Spear. The plug-ins, an unsupported release," are
available as a small (under 1 MB) individual download, or as a larger (~12 MB)
download that also includes a tutorial. Thanks Rogue Spear Retreat.
Also, There's a new love werks
tutorial on Polycount with a guide on creating and implementing head models
for Quake III: Team Arena.
- Word from Real Networks is that M.A.D.,
an upcoming RTS game from Small Rockets they will be distributing, is now
gold, while DemoNews
has posted a demo of the game for the price of a 10 MB download...
- A post on Bombs-Away.Net reveals
Hasbro's plans to release a patch for B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty Eighth
on February 1, with a second patch to follow. Thanks KingWasrad by way of Dogfighter...
- The Gamecenter Computer Game Awards for
2000 are now online...
- The JailBreak for UT site has a new
map pack for the Unreal Tournament version of the JailBreak mod...
- Though it will not impact development of future BattleTech games, the news
on FASA's Online Emporium is that
"After 20 happy-and difficult-years in business, FASA Corporation is
closing its doors." Thanks Anthony Pham...
Pinch me, I must be dreaming, not because my hometown team defied the odds in
earning a berth in this weekend's showcase for new commercials, but because I
received word from my potential DSL provider that I now have a date for the installation
of the phone company's line for the service. Not only do I have an appointment,
but it's less than a week away(!), so if you have noticed a thudding noise, it's
probably the sound of my jaw repeatedly hitting the floor. The difference this
time out is that I finally bit the bullet and inquired about the sDSL service
that I was able to get back in Brooklyn, rather than the cheaper aDSL.
Happy birthday to Bob Uecker (66). Thanks Chris
Morris. Hey, I must be in the front row!
Story of the Day: Man accidentally saws off hand, then shoots nails into head
(CNN). Thanks Chris Kraft, Buddy Lee, and dozens of others.
Bonus Story: Google Link Is Bush League
(Wired). Thanks 501 and others (this and
the story above were both submitted a startling number of times).
Bonus Story II: Skeleton of Man Found in Chimney
(AP). Thanks David Livingston.
Weird Science: DirecTV
zaps hackers (Slashdot
and SecurityFocus by way of The Register).
Thanks Bryan Yong and Andrew Smith.
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