Archived News:
Halo.bungie.org has cornered Bungie's Matt Soell for a quick interview to address various issues raised after this week's GameStock presentation of the Xbox version of Halo. Matt comments on how that version represented the current game in development, the multiplayer aspects that are still up in the air, and on various features depicted in the screenshots and movie trailers that were released.
- Dominion Wars
Italian site Nipogames has posted nearly 20 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars screenshots, offering mostly new galactic scenes in the space strategy title by Gizmo Games.
- Battle Realms
There are three new Battle Realms screenshots on GameSpot and PC.IGN.com each, showing more areas from the 3D real-time strategy game by Liquid Entertainment.
- Throne of Bhaal
Russian site GameOver Online offers nine new screenshots of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (along with seven that already appeared elsewhere), showing off the isometric RPG expansion pack being crafted at BioWare.
- TRIBES 2
Just to keep up the posting rate of TRIBES 2 imagery, PC.IGN.com has, indeed, posted 16 new screenshots from Dynamix' imminent team-based shooter.
- Fighting Legends
Three new Fighting Legends screenshots are up at GA-Source, depicting more scenes from the massively multiplayer strategy game in development at Maximum Charisma.
- Diablo II Expansion
Another new Diablo II: Lord of Destruction screenshot trickles out of the Blizzard headquarters, sporting a new scene in their upcoming isometric RPG expansion.
- WW2 Online
GameSpyDaily has posted seven new World War II Online screenshots, showing off the massively multiplayer war action/sim by Cornered Rat.
- Skittles
There are four new Skittles: Darkened Sky screenshots on GameSpot and six on PC.IGN.com, together introducing this third-person action RPG by Simon & Schuster based on the Mars-produced candy, surely on par in weirdness with ChexQuest, the Doom-engine cereal game. ![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif)
PC.IGN's Black & White week rolls on with a
Q&A with designer Peter Molyneux. As this their "good" week,
the questions all deal with how one goes about being a good god in the game,
with info on how this affects the creatures, environments and populace. Also,
GameSpot UK's seemingly endless Black & White special continues today with
a
look at the PSOne version of the game and new
wallpaper images.
Also new on PC.IGN tonight is a
preview of Sigma: The Adventures of Rex Chance, the oddball strategy game
from Homeworld creators Relic Entertainment. The preview is based on what they
saw at Microsoft's GameStock, and has details on the limited build they were
able to test drive.
As promised some time ago, Monolith has released the final demo of No One Lives Forever, dubbed the Mega Mix Demo version 1.002. This demo includes 4 singleplayer levels plus 2 multiplayer maps (that weren't in the technology demo released last Summer) as well as the current single- and multi-player code, and weighs in at a hefty 128.8 MB. The NOLF Team has updated their .plan on the occasion with an overview of the new levels and other changes. Here is our local copy with mirrors (but be warned that most servers listed are already very busy).
German fan page The Diablo II Network has an
interview with Blizzard's Bill Roper online, talking with him about Lord
of Destruction, the upcoming expansion for Diablo II. The questions deal with
what the expansion will mean for characters, particularly those already at very
high levels, and Bill also provides some general info about the new chracter
classes.
An interview
with Legend Entertainment's Mike Verdu is up at Daily Radar this evening,
talking about Unreal II. Most, if not all of the information here has been printed
elsewhere, but nonetheless Mike answers questions about the game's spiffy new
technology and how it connects to the original Unreal.
Daily Radar has posted a
look at all of the units from House Atreides in Westwood's upcoming Emperor:
Battle for Dune. While some of these have been featured on the game's official
site, many of them have not, and for each there is a small image and a brief
description of its function.
Also on Daily Radar tonight is a
preview of Nexagon: The Pit, Strategy First's genre-bending tactical action
game. The preview itself is pretty slim, but it does contain some new screenshots.
GameSpot has conducted an interview on Harbinger, talking to Silverback art director Steve Macomber about their upcoming isometric action RPG. Steve introduces company and game, discusses the storyline and playable characters, and touches upon an assortment of other topics.
GameSpyDaily,
Liquified.org and XGR.com
have all posted a brief update on Battle Realms from Ed Del Castillo of Liquid
Entertainment, who tells them that "all the fundamentals are in" and
that work is progressing on the title. In addition to the update, each of the
sites also have their own set of three new screenshots.
The newly opened fan page Crossroads
of the Fallen Age has posted the first two parts of their interview with
Daniel "Savant" Manachi, the producer at Netamin on their upcoming massively
multiplayer title Fallen Age. Both the first
and second
parts of the interview deal largely with gameplay issues, and a third portion
is promised for tomorrow.
Another Black & White bonus creature has surfaced at the EBWorld website, and this time the Leopard creature is available for download. As with the previous creatures, running the file will add it to the game (once that is released) but it may take a bit of looking around to actually find it. Thanks LionGames for the tip.
Strange as it may sound, a story titled TV's
Plan to Catch You in Its Web on Wired News reports that Cartoon Network
and PBS are both working on online worlds to support their television properties.
Cartoon Network in particular is working on an enhanced television system that
sounds like it will resemble EverQuest more than WebTV. How or when any of this
will be implemented is still up in the air, but nonetheless, it certainly sounds
interesting enough. Here's an excerpt: The Cartoon Network has decided
to create full-immersion worlds that work in conjunction with video games, in
hopes of developing a core audience of users who would spend much of their time
online.
"The harsh reality is that the networks and their Web divisions don't see
each other as friends, because in reality they are competitors," said Sam
Register, creative director of Cartoon Networks Online. "We are looking
at developing and building a persistent gaming world."
Register said his network's online operations have been forced to immediately
operate in the black, causing them to develop a revenue stream before unveiling
new content. Currently, they are also developing an enhanced television channel
that will broadcast Japanimation movies that allow users to interact with the
world created by the filmmaker.
Following last night's release of the Half-Life: Opposing Force version 1.1.0.6
patches ( story) comes today's release of the Opposing Force Linux
server. This is the full standalone Linux server, and here's
our local copy with our usual list of mirrors.
Version 1.41 of the Freeze Tag
mod for Quake III Arena has been released (thanks garg0yle). This new version
contains some general fixes and tweaks along with a new "instafreeze"
gameplay mode, score sounds and more.
Legend has unveiled the "sneak preview" version of their
official Unreal II site. The site has all of the images that have been released
from the game thus far, along with a FAQ, some general info about the game and
the usual batch of links to fan sites and forums.
The first
portion of an article at Stomped by Valve Software's Robin Walker is online
this afternoon. In the article, Robin (who was one of the creators of the original
Team Fortress mod for Quake) provides some advice for mod authors, and while
he talks specifically about Half-Life mod development, his tips should benefit
mod teams for any engine.
Ian Lane Davis, the CEO and founder of Mad Doc Software has been posting to
the official Star Trek: Armada forums about their just-announced sequel to the
game ( story) and summaries
of all the new info can be found at AVault and GA-Source, where they
have reprinted his actual post. There's lots of new information about the
game here, including more details about the diverse group of developers at Mad
Doc, info about their level design, the differences between the various races
and more.
Unreal II Explosion is the name of an
update at FGN Online that contains a remarkable amount of new information
about this upcoming game from Legend Entertainment (thanks Shacknews).
There's new information about the plot and characters, as well as the arsenal
of weapons that will be available. Also, two new screenshots are up in
Games Domain's preview of the game, which are actually the last two from
the original print article to make their way online.
Brat Designs sends word of a new movie trailer of Breed, their in-development 3D space- and surface-based action title. The trailer takes 25.6 MB to download and offers more than four minutes of impressive in-game footage in DivX AVI format, including a descent from orbit, first-person sniping, driving a buggy, and more.
If you thought all this talk about Halo being played in a first person perspective
is a little different from what we've been previously reporting, you're absolutely
right. We contacted a Microsoft PR representative for the official word on this,
and we have been told that Halo is now a full-fledged first person shooter,
and not the third person game it was originally unveiled as. Believe it or not,
this actually due to the Xbox controller (see below for more on this), as the
Halo team felt playing in a first person perspective was easier on the console.
The game will still switch to a third person perspective when controlling vehicles.
GameSpot UK's
Exclusive Interview with Jason Jones catches up with the Bungie Studios lead
designer and co-founder at GameStock 2001. The conversation goes into pretty
extensive detail about what to expect from the game, and covers some
previously untouched upon subjects, such as the Q&A that follows describing
the work they are putting into working with the Xbox controllers, since console controllers are not considered ideal for shooter games: GSUK:
The control system was obviously a concern, an FPS which uses a gamepad could
seem totally alien to hardcore FPS PC fans?
JJ: You know, we really thought that was going to suck. Of all the
reasons people gave in the beginning apart from Microsoft being the evil empire,
etc., that was the number two reason, you know? "We're never going to be
able to make it work, the controller will kill everything." I think we've
gone a long way towards making it something that can really happen. We've got a
bunch more user testing to go through and it was interesting to watch people
play today. But I think we've already got a system that is totally functional
for people that are pretty good at FPS and we just need to go all the way down
to the total beginners. Personally I love the controller, I think it's great, it
fits in my hand great, I love those two triggers, they feel so good, I really
like it.
As promised when they posted their GameStock
overview ( story), GameSpy.com
previews Dungeon Siege, the first of their more in-depth looks at the games
on display at Microsoft's soiree. According to their impressions, the upcoming
RPG from Gas Powered Games has it all over Diablo, calling it "the next
level of action roleplaying," and saying it "simply stole the show."
There's a Dark Age of
Camelot preview on Camelot HQ that offers an account of an actual adventure
played during beta testing of this upcoming Arthurian MMORPG. The article
includes a description of their quest, along with a large batch of screenshots to
give a feel for gameplay. Likewise, part one of Camelot Vault's
Dark Age of Camelot Beta Journal is up, offering a different set of
impressions from playing the same beta.
Gibme.com's
Stifeshadow interview talks with Joseph Poppa about progress on
Strifeshadow, the upcoming RTS game from Ethermoon software. The following
question and answer provides what he feels is the good news and the bad news
about not being a "publishing power": Gibme: As a small
team with no experience in game development, do you think you will be able to
compete with the big well-established companies?
YRM: Honestly? In some ways, we can't, like publishing power,
marketing, and overall budget. BUT, we are absolutely in touch with the on-line
RTS gamers (because we are and we talk to them daily at our forums). I think the
advantage Ethermoon and Strifeshadow has is that we've been dedicated since the
start towards making the tactical combat focus of Strifeshadow absolutely
superb. Gamers looking for a balanced game with good pacing for addictive and
competitive on-line combat should be very pleased with Strifeshadow.
I'm sure you've purchased a real-time-strategy game and tried it out on-line,
only to find out that the games last over an hour, the races are imbalanced,
it's way too easy to rush, one unit dominates the game, or the 3D graphics don't
look nearly so good zoomed out to the maximum view that you need to play well.
I can assure you that Ethermoon is absolutely driven to make sure Strifeshadow
is 100% FUN to play, and I've had a great time playing it even during alpha
testing. Replay value is so important in giving people their money's worth in a
game.
Whew... long answer, I guess you can tell I feel pretty strongly about what we
have to offer!=)
Action Vault's Shattered Galaxy Interview
talks with Kevin Saunders, lead game designer on Shattered Galaxy, the massively
multiplayer RTS game (or as they describe it, a Massive Online War) from Nexon
that's currently undergoing open beta testing. The conversation goes into some
detail about the game's plotline, the role of heroes in the game, descriptions
of units and combat, and more.
A new version 3.01 of the QRec utility is now available on Bowlay.com,
the site formerly known as Oster's Site. QRec is a freeware program described as
"the ultimate demo recorder for Kingpin, Quake 2, and Quake 3," with a
feature list that "allows you to record unlimited demos, perform unlimited
condumps, and take unlimited screenshots (Q3 only) with single binds and never
having to specify a filename!" The new version even adds a convenient slash
before your typing when you lower the console (like in Quake II), preventing you
from "speaking" to other players when you meant to type a command.
Sony Buys Emulation Technology
(PS2.IGN.Com) reports that Sony has settled their case against the folks making
emulation software by buying them. Thanks PSXEmu.
Also, Sega announces Phantasy Star Online Version 2
reports the GIA with word on the sequel to PSO. Meanwhile, Software giant to zero in on PS2, new Game Boy
is a CNET story that says Konami is skeptical about developing for the Xbox,
saying "Devoting resources to game development for the new console is 'risky,
as the company has not shown us a clear business strategy.'" Also, MSXbox's
hands-on Xbox impressions from GameStock are up. A pair of Dreamcast UT
reviews are now online, both favorable, one on GameSpot
and the other on Daily
Radar. Finally, There's a
Quake III Revolution preview on Gameloft.co.uk with hands-on impressions of
the upcoming PS2 Q3A game.
Fallen Age HQ is running
a contest to award 10 guaranteed spots as a beta testers for Fallen Age. Also, the
Italian LAN Party 2001 is now accepting
sign-ups for their event, which is scheduled for April 27-29 in Florence, Italy.
There's a
Dave J interview on ten four talking with the author of the Dust maps for
Counter-Strike as well as the ETC single-player episode for Half-Life, the
conversation covers general stuff, as well as plans for the upcoming sequel to
ETC. Also, the Navy Seals Covert Operations
website (it's SEALs, dammit!) has posted 30 new screenshots from the
upcoming version of this Q3A mod (thanks Stomped).
Finally, the World of
PadMan has downloads of PadMan's latest Q3A map, which is on the
cover-mounted CD with the April issue of PC Gamer.
For a while before it was corrected, yesterday's story about the CPL Unreal
Tournament event ( story) incorrectly listed yesterday afternoon as the beginning
of sign-ups for the shindig, when they actually are next Wednesday at 4:00 PM
EST. Our apologies for any confusion this caused.
- The Luna Home Page has a new patch
for beta 1.2 of Luna that updates the version of this game that's currently
undergoing open testing to, well, a patched version 1.2...
- The Counter Strike Radio page
has a new GameSpy tab for version 1.1 of Counter-Strike...
- The troops over at Planet Soldier of Fortune
are planning an online SoF party today at 7:00 PM EST called "a chat
and frag." In attendance will be John Mullins and some of the Ravensoft
team (GameSpy Arcade
required)...
- As they had been hinting prior to the move, word on Operation Sports
is that this site devoted to sports gaming is shutting down...
Beware the Ides of March! There, I've used up a good chunk of the Shakespeare
I've memorized... actually more appropriate in the U.S. is beware the Ides of
April, as that is tax day, but I'm guessing most folks are trying to put that
date out of their minds at the moment, so I won't belabor the point.
One more slice of the Lost in Translation
page, as a reader sent along another fine example of its genius by using the
following start phrase: "Ay caramba! My ornamental gate has been defaced by
a gang of trilby-wearing monkeys," which comes out as the delightful:
"Caramba d ' Ay! My door of decorativo desfigurada with trilby trilby trilby of Truppetrilby that load the rammer to eximir the fall" (and remember, that's supposed to be English!). Thanks Slumbering Seal (which
translates to Common De Slumbering).
Link of the Day: CrapServe,
a parody of Freeserve. Thanks T.W.
Story of the Day: Go
Figure: Eminem a 'Model' Citizen (NY Post). Thanks 501.
Bonus Story: Action Alert - Contact Makers of Rubber Dead Plucked Chicken.
Thanks Zamnight.
Weird Science: Biosurveillance Used At Bush Inauguration
(Defense-Aerospace.com). Thanks RiCe.
Image of the Day: All
your Calvin are belongs to us? Thanks marleyboy.
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