Archived News:
PC.IGN.com has posted a new preview of DroneZ, the peculiar-looking 3D action game by Italian company Zetha gameZ. The preview has an overview of the game's premise and features, which mix the classic Discs of Tron with first-person shooter and futuristic sports elements, as well as quotes by lead developer Giovanni Caturano, but the included screenshots and movie trailer already appeared on the official site last month ( story).
GameSpot has conducted a brief interview on Arcanity, a fantasy MMORPG under construction at Brick House Trading. Jason Jacobitz is at hand to introduce both company and game, discuss the features that should set the game apart from the many other MMORPGs in development, and describes their fantasy world, combat system and more.
Daily Radar has posted a new preview of Majestic, the intrusive Internet-based conspiracy game by Anim-X and EA.com. The article has their impressions from the latest press demo they attended, quotes by the developers, and a few new screenshots.
There is a brief Serious Sam interview on the main page of Australian site nG! Online, talking to lead programmer Alen Ladavec about Croteam's imminent first-person shooter (thanks Stomped). Alen talks about the effort that went into creating some of the game's hallmark features, co-operative multiplayer, their Serious Editor, and a few other topics.
There is a hands-on preview of Shattered Galaxy, the massively multiplayer RTS by Nexon, on GameZNet. The preview is based on the ongoing beta test and offers their impressions of the game's premise and features, as well as half a dozen new screenshots, and a separate gallery has those same images with three additional ones on display.
Day four of GameSpot's Black & White week rolls around, and this evening they take a look at three of the creatures around which gameplay in Lionhead's imminent god-playing game revolves. The article has impressions of the ape, cow and tiger as chosen by three GameSpot editors, and comes with 18 new screenshots. And across the pond, GameSpot UK has posted a new installment in their 12 days of Black & White focusing on the game's spells, and including 20 more screenshots as well.
Continuing the trend for today, Gone Gold is having a field day and reports that Star Trek: Away Team has gone into manufacturing as well, and should appear in stores around March 20. Away Team is the isometric tactical combat game developed by Reflexive and published by Activision.
Fansite XCommand has conducted an interview on X-COM: Enforcer (which they added to existing preview content on the same page), talking to MicroProse developers Martin DeRiso and Will Gee about their upcoming third-person action game. The pair discuss the game's backstory and main characters, the aliens and their abilities, multiplayer and a variety of other gameplay topics, and Will also offers a statement explaining why they developed an arcade-style shooter in the X-Com universe. Thanks Alliance X.
In a break with tradition, the AnachroChat for March is being held on the second Thursday of the month, which happens to be today. As usual though, it will kick off at 9:00 PM EST (8:00 PM CST) on IRC server "www.ionstorm.com" channel "#ion" (or via the Chat lobby on the ION Storm website) and designer Tom Hall and the rest of the Anachronox team will again be participating to chat about their hopefully imminent 3D role-playing game.
- H&D2
The Unofficial Hidden & Dangerous 2 Site has posted, what else?, a new pair of Hidden & Dangerous 2 screenshots, offering more scenes from the 3D tactical shooter in the works at Illusion Softworks.
- Anachronox
Adrenaline Vault serves up a bio of Grumpos Matavastros, introducing this character in ION Storm's 3D role-playing game Anachronox with a description and a new screenshot.
- Bridge Commander
The official Star Trek: Bridge Commander site offers up a new screenshot of the week of the capitol ship space sim currently docking at Totally Games.
- Divinity
Also on AVault today are two new Divine Divinity screenshots showing off the interface of the isometric RPG by Larian Studios that used to be known as Divinity: the Sword of Lies.
- Settlers IV
There is a hands-on preview of Settlers IV on IntelGamer with new screenshots of the management strategy game by Blue Byte that is already out in Europe.
While even die-hard fans are probably sick of the seemingly endless flood of
TRIBES 2 screenshots, an
update over at GameSpot caught our attention enough to warrant a separate
story (instead of simply adding it to our group screenshot post). GameSpot has
gotten their hands on the current beta of the game, and in addition to their
many, many new screenshots (three dozen in all) they have written
up a report on how this version differs from the last beta, complete with
details on how the bots function, the various gameplay tweaks and more.
The official Star Wars Galaxies site has been updated with another in their
continuing series of looks at the various character species in the game.
Today they're spotlighting the
Mon Calamari, and like all the others in this series there are a pair of
concept images along with a description of the species and how it fits into
the game.
A Q&A with Daniel Manachi
of Netamin is up at RPG Dot today, talking with the producer about their
upcoming multiplayer title Fallen Age. Fallen Age is a massively multiplayer
title that mixes RTS and RPG conventions, and Daniel talks about this balance
along with other gameplay issues, including how they are handling player vs.
player combat and how their nations system works. For more Fallen Age fun, head over to GA-Source, where they have posted two new screenshots from the game.
This is certainly turning out to be the day for gold masters, as Gone
Gold has posted a press release announcing that Fate of the Dragon is off
to manufacturing and will be in stores next week. Fate of the Dragon is the
strategy game from Overmax Studios and publisher Eidos Interactive that takes
place in 14th century China, well known as the era of the three kingdoms, which
has been immortalized in many, many strategy games over the years.
As hinted at earlier today ( story), the official Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel site has word that this squad-based tactical combat game by Micro Forte and Interplay has gone gold, and should arrive on store shelves in "a few more days." Thanks Freelancer for the tip.
The second
portion of GamesDomain's Steel Soldiers preview is online this afternoon.
This half contains quotes from Jamie Barber and Mike Montgomery from The Bitmap
Brothers along with a new 4.5 MB
movie featuring gameplay footage in AVI format.
Fan page PlanetSide Networks has conducted an
interview with Trammel Isaac of Verant Interactive, talking with him about
their upcoming massively multiplayer first person shooter PlanetSide. For a
one page interview there are a ton of questions here, and they deal with everything
from Trammel's background in the industry (he was the art director on Fallout
2) to specific gameplay issues, such as how they are handling vehicle damage
and other similar topics.
Word on the Westlake Interactive news page is that the single- and multiplayer patch for the English Mac edition of Deus Ex is now available for download at Apple. The 34.5 MB download brings the game in sync with the PC version and allows multiplayer matches between both platforms, as well as supporting the Gameranger online service.
Although it's been known about for some time, Eidos Interactive has
formally announced Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition, a new packaging of
Deus Ex that will be available in May. This new version of the game is virtually
identical to the original, but includes the multiplayer features that are available
in the latest patch, the SDK that allows for the creation of new missions and
a soundtrack CD.
Slovakian-based developer Cauldron send word that their preliminary Chaser site is now online offering new screenshots of their upcoming first-person shooter, as well as their in-house Cloak NT engine that powers it. Additionally, a new technology movie trailer is available for download in two sizes, showing off the detail and lighting effects that the engine can produce in a minute and a half of footage, and more information and three additional screenshots are available here.
NovaLogic has opened the official Necrocide: The Dead Must Die site for business, introducing their 3D action game that was announced at last year's ECTS show ( story). Necrocide casts you into the role of a female vampire determined to rid the world of the undead, and it is being created upon the Delta Force: Land Warrior engine. The site is still a bit bare offering little more than a short biography of the renowned fantasy artist known simply as Brom, as well as a pair of wallpapers, while this press release reaffirms their intention to release the game this Summer.
Westwood's official Earth and Beyond site has been updated with a
new designer diary by Janus Anderson, the lead designer on the game. This
diary serves mainly as an introduction, and Janus talks about his five year
history working on massively multiplayer games and how it has helped the development
of Earth and Beyond.
Gamerush.com has conducted a
brief interview with Marco Ahlgren of O3 Games, talking about Epsilon Conflict,
their in-development strategy game for which they have signed two Starcraft
world champions to work on. As production is only just starting on the game
he doesn't provide too much information, but he does give a glimpse into what
the scope of the project is and what they are aiming to produce.
There's a
One Night in Hell preview on Gamedata.com with the first look ahead at a
game apparently based on the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez movie known in
the US as From Dusk Till Dawn. The preview is in French, but neither the
Babel Fish
translation nor the accompanying screenshots make it clear how the game relates
to the movie. What the preview does say is that this action game from GameSquad (makers of Devil Inside) and Cryo Interactive
is due this September.
Word on the Westlake Interactive
website is that the Mac version of the Unreal Tournament Game of the Year
edition has gone gold, and should be shipping to stores within the next couple
of weeks. Meanwhile, a report on Gone Gold
says that Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel could be declared gold itself
any time now.
Speaking of gold games, there's a
preview of Ultima Online: Third Dawn on RPGPlanet with a look ahead at the
upcoming expansion for the UO series that was just declared gold itself ( story).
The article describes what's changed in the MMORPG to make it a new experience,
and is illustrated by a batch of screenshots. Meanwhile, Ultima
Online Stratics announces another UO
House of Commons chat scheduled for today at 8:00 PM EST. The conference
will occur in #uohoc,
and the topic will be the upcoming release of Third Dawn.
There's a new Atriarch
Developer Diary on PlanetGameSpy. The updated volume seven in the series
comes after a delay of 10 months, and attempts to fill us in on what has taken
place in development of this upcoming MMORPG in that span, and features a few
screenshots of models from the game.
The EAX Featured Columns page on
the Creative Labs site has a pair of new interviews discussing the use of
Creative EAX technology in games. The new features are an interview with Dave Georgeson
and an interview with Greg Stelmack
talking about TRIBES 2 and the Rainbow Six series respectively, which join other
interviews on the topic discussing the same subject with the folks behind
Counter-Strike, Diablo II, and more.
There is an
Xbox interview on Krawall talking with Boris Schneider-Johne about the Xbox
in both his and the site's native German, though as always, a rough English
translation can be provided by Babel Fish.
Also, Pocket.IGN.com has
posted some GameBoy Advance launch details, while in other launch news, GameCube will launch in September, says Nintendo
reports GameSpot, regarding the US release, while they say the European launch
will follow in Spring 2002. Meanwhile another report on GameSpot
confirms development of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for the Xbox as mentioned
in this story. Finally, Roswell DC and N64 Cancelled
reports Daily Radar, possibly related to the fact that the related animated
series will not be airing in the US this fall, though the PSOne and GameBoy
Color versions are still in the works.
The CPL Pacific site has
details on upcoming CPL qualifiers to be held in Australia, info on a new event
to be held at the Flemington Racecourse has been added.
The Galactic Command Online FAQ
on the BattleCruiser website has been updated with more info and details on the
upcoming massively multiplayer component of Battlecruiser Millennium.
Editing site The Wadfather proudly
sends news that they've posted a "slew" of new textures, and that the
number of public domain textures available on their site now exceeds a
staggering 10,000(!).
Towards the end of working on this update I got to catch a space shuttle launch
on the news. It's funny how these things have become routine again, but it still
gets my heart racing... like a lot of folks who were kids in the days of the
Apollo missions, I Dream of Jeannie, and Thunderbirds (are go!), I
used to dream of being an astronaut. Of course, this was before I realized that
the job involved loads of math and not a single laser gun, so now I just content
myself with watching The Right Stuff every time it comes on cable, but
the Shuttle launch is a good non-fiction scratch for that itch, too.
Link of the Day: Dunjon Of Düm.
Thanks Zdim.
Story of the Day: The gospel according to Luke (Skywalker)
(BBC). Thanks Ralph Sanders.
Follow-up: First Star Of The Internet Retires
(Fox), thanks theAntiELVIS. This turns out to be a follow-up, since I mentioned
the subject of this webcam last summer (story).
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