Archived News:
As promised, 4D Rulers has released a multiplayer test demo of Gore, their upcoming first-person shooter. The demo clocks in at a reasonable 42.4 MB download, and includes three levels, three playable characters, and a variety of weapons and items. In related news, both Tolstiy's Place and GameSpyDaily have interviews online with 4D Rulers' Joel Huenink about their game, the new demo, and their recently revamped website. Update: here is a local copy with mirrors of the demo.
The official Vavoom site now offers version 1.7 beta 2 for download of this DOS, Windows and Linux port of the public Doom, Heretic and Hexen source code. New in this release are 3D floors and the deep water effect, among other improvements and changes.
Stomped completes their two-part interview on Anachronox today with a chat with ION Storm's Don Martinez and Jake Hughes on their upcoming 3D role-playing game. The couple talk about the level design and the game's variety of fantasy and futuristic settings, the cinematics and visual style of the game, and a few other topics.
Wolfpack Studios has released a new pair of Shadowbane movie clips, showing off their upcoming fantasy MMORPG. The gameplay clips come in two QuickTime sizes and the first one shows 15 seconds of "Elven Party" footage while the second, "Elf in Town" movie is twice as long.
- Nocturne Engine
Israeli site Vgames has posted two new screenshots of the new Nocturne Engine technology by Terminal Reality that was unveiled in a movie trailer yesterday (story), and which is being deployed for an as yet unnamed game.
- TRIBES 2
With the NDA lifted, these are sure to come in even greater abundance than before, but if you're still longing for TRIBES 2 imagery, head over to XGR for more than thirty new screenshots.
- Serious Sam
Similarly, a day wouldn't be complete without some Seriousness somewhere, at least until next week's release of Croteam's fast-paced shooter, so a hands-on preview with new screenshots of Serious Sam can be found on Action Vault.
- Moon Project
Likewise to appear on store shelves any day now is The Moon Project, and Computer Games Online gives this 3D real-time strategy game by TopWare and GAME Studios one last look with some new screenshots.
- Bloodline
Two new Bloodline screenshots (and a familiar one) accompany a brief Q&A with Czech developers Zima Software about their upcoming survival horror adventure.
Czech gaming site BonusWeb has posted a movie of Hidden & Dangerous 2 that they filmed at a recent press event for this 3D tactical shooter by Illusion Softworks. The image quality suffers somewhat from being filmed off a computer screen and there is no sound, but the movie shows a montage of various (moving) cinematic and in-game fragments mixed with (static) screenshots, and runs for a bit over a minute in DivX AVI format.
There is a new preview of Real War on GameSpy.com, looking ahead to this realistic real-time strategy game under construction at Rival Interactive. The preview is based on seeing the game in action at a recent press event and offers some background on the game's history as a strategy simulation for the US military, as well as a fairly detailed overview of the game's features, but the accompanying screenshots have already appeared elsewhere.
Phantagram has released a new patch for Kingdom Under Fire, bringing the English edition of their isometric role-playing RTS to version 1.08a. This patch addresses a few instability issues, fixes the "spell mis-casting bug," and adds new sound effects.
RPG Vault has posted a Harbinger Development Report penned by Silverback lead programmer Andy Muir. He talks about the effects of reaching their latest internal milestone, as well as shopping their isometric action RPG to publishers and the unnatural sequence of coding various parts of the game resulting from that, and also introduces the development team.
Westwood producer Chris Longpre dropped by the IGN offices with a "surprisingly
complete build" of Emperor: Battle for Dune, and so PC.IGN has written
a new preview of the game
based on what they were shown. The preview is limited to what has been added
since their last look at the game, but there are quite a few new gameplay details
in here along with some screenshots (most of which look familiar).
Also new on PC.IGN this morning is a
new edition of their Arcanum: Behind the Scenes journal. This installment
focuses on the world editor that will be included with Arcanum: Of Steamworks
and Magick Obscura, and the journal explains what mod authors will be able to
do with it.
- Nexagon
GameSpot has posted no less than 22 new screenshots
of Nexagon: the Pit along with some brief impressions of this 3D tactical
action game by Strategy First.
- Anachronox
Four new screenshots
of Anachronox are online at GameSpyDaily, showing more scenes in the 3D
role-playing game nearing completion at ION Storm.
- Anarchy Online
PC.IGN.com has posted another three new Anarchy
Online screenshots captured from the ongoing beta test of Funcom's futuristic
MMORPG.
The second of TechTV's series of interviews with the developers at Epic Games
is online this morning, featuring an
interview with level designer Cliff Bleszinski. Like their first such interview
( story) it consists of a text based Q&A with extended video
clips also available in streaming media format.
Here's a trio of massively multiplayer updates for you...this week's Ultima
Worlds Online: Origin site update consists of an update to their FAQ, and
the Star Wars Galaxies
FAQ has been updated over on its official site. Lastly, the official PlanetSide
site has been updated with a
letter from community relations manager Danny "Blackbird" Han,
which talks about what fans can expect from future updates.
Another installment in their Battle Realms History series of articles is
online at Daily Radar this morning. Like all the previous editions it serves
to flesh out the backstory for the various characters in this upcoming RTS and
is illustrated with new concept artwork.
Who's the Winner version 2.0
pre-final is now available. WTW is a log file analyzer for Quake III Arena,
and this latest release adds support for more mods and the one-flag CTF gameplay
type from Quake III: Team Arena, plus "ultraeasy" installation in
Windows and more.
Wild Tangent has posted a preview
of Betty Bad on their site. Betty Bad is the first Wild Tangent title from
Paul Steed, and this interactive preview (which uses Wild Tangent's browser
plugin) is really just a plug for their booth at the Game Developer's Conference,
but it also offers a glimpse at this in-development third person action game.
PC.IGN has written a preview
of Majestic, the upcoming game from Anim-X and Electronic Arts that will
be played via phone, e-mail, fax and AOL instant messenger. As the public beta
hasn't actually started yet, this isn't hands on, but then considering how nutty
this whole game is it's doubtful that would have helped at all. The preview
does contain a detailed look at the oddball gameplay in Majestic, and there
are some "screenshots" as well, although because of the nature of
the game these are screen captures of streaming video, web browsers and the
general Majestic interface. A similar look at the game can
be found over at TechTV.
Version 1.0 of CSCop, a utility
for monitoring Counter-Strike servers has been released. CSCop is a utility
for those running servers with friendly fire enabled that allows them to automatically
kick team killers. There is also a note on the official CSCop site that they
are desperately in need of a new host.
For those looking to squeeze some extra frames per second, The Hardware Pub
has written a new guide
to improving your performance in Serious Sam. For those stuck in Clive Barker's
Undying, the
FAQ/walkthrough at GameFAQs has been updated, and a
full guide to the game can be found at the aptly named Undying Fan Page.
The Starship
Troopers and Starfleet
Command Volume II FAQs at GameFAQs have been updated as well.
Rated X: the Pre-GameStock Edition
on Xbox.IGN lists the games they expect to be shown at Microsoft's press event
on Tuesday. On a related note, Xbox:
The 7 Biggest Launch Hurdles at Daily Radar examines some of the things
Microsoft will have to overcome to make the Xbox a success at launch. In PS2
news, lots of shots and movies
from Quake III: Revolution, the Bullfrog-developed Playstation 2 port of
Quake III Arena are up at PS2.IGN, and Daily Radar has posted what they say
is The
Ultimate PS2 Setup Guide. Finally, Analysts
Utter "Delay" is the name of an update at Cube.IGN that throws some doubt
on the recent claims that Nintendo will launch their Gamecube system this summer
in Japan, while simultaneously supporting those same claims.
The newly launched eSports-america has conducted an
interview with Brian "Tapper" Davis, the president of the Online
Gaming League. Also, registration is now open for Fragapalooza
2001, which is billed as "Canada's largest gaming festival" and
will be taking place in July.
The Backburner has posted new screenshots from the Gangsta Wars and Judgement
mods for Half-Life on their news page.
In other Half-Life mod news, OzHalf-Life has conducted an
interview with Sven Viking, the creator of the Sven Co-op mod.
I'm always amazed at the lengths magazine companies will go to get you to renew
your subscriptions. I subscribe to quite a few magazines, so I'm constantly
hounded by telemarketers trying to get me to renew, and not a week goes by that
I don't get one or two nag letters in the mail. But this week I had the ultimate...I
recently bought a subscription to the sci-fi pulp Asimov's Science Fiction and
this week I received a letter telling me to be sure I renew my subscription
as soon as possible. Which would have been fine, except that I haven't received
my first issue yet. Incredible.
I'm heading off to Seattle late on Sunday to attend Microsoft's
GameStock 2001 event. Xbox games will certainly be the focus (including
the latest version of Halo) but there should be quite a few PC games on display
as well. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to checking everything out.
Link of the Day: Beat
Him to a Bloody Pulp (thanks indiv). Perfect for those of you that just
want to keep pummeling that darn monkey.
Weird Science: Mutant
bacteria next threat from Mir? (CNN). Thanks Jim Hendrickson.
Story of the Day: Man
calls lost mobile and dog's stomach rings (Ananova). Thanks BigDog.
Bonus Story: Police
Seize 95 Human Skulls (Reuters). Thanks Flashpoint.
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