Archived News:
Coinciding with the release of the Win32 client patch ( story), Loki Games has released an update for the dedicated Linux server for download from their ftp server. The 4.7 MB download brings the base server release ( story) to the same version 22002, and the full list is changes is available here. Thanks Tribes Center, who have posted a brief update from Dynamix' Dave Georgeson on the framerate improvement in today's client patch.
Daily Radar has posted a new preview of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, the upcoming isometric RPG expansion being crafted at BioWare. The preview is based on a demonstration by joint-CEO Ray Muzyka and has a description of the game's premise and features, as well as five new screenshots.
Sierra Studios has announced a PC version of Half-Life: Blue Shift, the single-player episode in the Half-Life series originally developed for the Dreamcast console by Gearbox Software. The game is scheduled for a release in June this year, will also include a High-Definition Pack for all previous games, and the official site is online sporting the first screenshots and a movie trailer. Here is an excerpt from the full press release:
Blue Shift is an all-new single player episode surrounding the Black Mesa security guard introduced in Valve's classic action thriller, Half-Life. In development by Gearbox Software, creators of the critically acclaimed Half-Life(r): Opposing Force(tm), Blueshift also contains the Half-Life HD Pack, which automatically upgrades the weapons and characters of all the games in the Half-Life saga with new high definition content.
"Blue Shift was created for Half-Life fans everywhere and we're very pleased to be able to bring it to the PC," said Randy Pitchford, Director of Gearbox Software. "In addition to the entirely new Blue Shift episode, the package also includes support for online play and the Half-Life HD Pack, which brings all Half-Life games to the next generation of graphics technology."
There is a new in-depth interview on Black Isle Studios: TORN at RPG Vault, talking to lead designer Dave Maldonado and senior producer Ken Rosman about this recently announced 3D role-playing game. This second interview covers more game-specific topics, including backstory and gameworld, the weapon and magic systems, character development, and the proverbial more.
GameSpot has posted a Baldur's Gate II Postgame Wrap-Up (similar to the Gamasutra Postmortems), in which the BioWare doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk look back at the development of their isometric role-playing game, and the lessons they learned from it in short and long versions.
GameSpot has posted a video interview on Arcanum, talking to Troika Games' Leonard Boyarsky about their upcoming isometric RPG at the Game Developer Conference. Today's video is part one of the interview and offers more than nine minutes of footage with Leonard demonstrating the game and explaining features like the character creation system and the game interface, and it comes as an 85 MB download or a variety of streaming formats.
Global Operations Interview on GameSpyDaily corners Mike Arkin and Jeff Barnhart of Crave Entertainment who, together with Barking Dog, are working on the team-based multiplayer shooter. They talk about the inevitable comparisons to Counter-Strike, their use of the LithTech engine, the kind of scenarios and weapons they are creating, the use of vehicles, and lots more. Update: there are also eight new screenshots and character models.
Maximum Charisma Studios send word that sign-ups for the beta test of Fighting Legends have now opened at their site. The beta test is scheduled to commence in June 2001 and up to 25,000 players are selected from those who apply for testing this massively multiplayer role-playing strategy title.
Interplay has opened their official Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal site for business, showcasing the upcoming expansion pack to BioWare's acclaimed isometric RPG (thanks GameSpyDaily). The site offers an overview of the game's premise and features, a collection of previously available screenshots, and FAQ with more game information.
Version 1.0 of PocketHexen,
which like the recently released PocketQuake brings the game to Microsoft's
Windows CE/Pocket PC platform has been released and is available for download
at its official site. It's available for three different pocket processors,
and also available is a utility to compress levels and a compressed version
of the shareware Hexen WAD file.
The second
installment of the Throne of Darkness developer diary at fan page Throne
of Darkness Haven is online this afternoon. In this edition Click Entertainment's
D. Isaac Gartner talks about the current status of the game and what it was
like to demonstrate it at the Game Developer's Conference.
Russian gaming site GamePort.ru has conducted a
Q&A with Paul Kilburn, the producer of Worms World Party at Team 17
Software. Paul talks about how this game improves on its predecessors and he
also says they have "several Worms based titles in development." The
Q&A is available in English
or the site's native Russian.
GameSpot
UK's Fate of the Dragon Interview talks with Mike Souto, the producer of
this recently released strategy game. Mike explains how the game differs from
Koei's venerable Romance of the Three Kingdoms series (which takes place during
the same period in China) as well as how they use resource management and how
historically accurate their units are.
The Linux server of the Firearms mod
for Half-Life is now available (thanks GameSpyDaily).
This brings the Linux version up to RC 2.5, and is available as a 40 MB upgrade
for version 2.4 users and as a 72 MB download for new users.
TRIBES 2 is arriving in stores today, and the first time you start up the game,
you will have to update both the game itself and the Sierra update system. For
those that want to get a jump on things, you can grab
the update patch from Sierra's site, and we've posted a
local copy of the first game patch, complete with a list of mirrors. Fortunately
the patches are very small, as you cannot play TRIBES 2 online until you have
installed both of them (either manually or through the auto-update system).
Voodoo
Extreme interviews Jim Malmros of Termite Games, talking with him about
their upcoming first person title New World Order (thanks Stomped).
Jim provides some details about their internally developed engine, and he also
comments on NVIDIA's GeForce 3 and what their planned system requirements will
be.
German fan page Commandos-2.net has conducted an
interview with Stephan Mathé of Eidos Interactive, talking with him
about (what else?) Commandos 2. The interview is available in both English
and German,
and deals with mostly gameplay issues, although there are some additional questions
that cover more general topics, including whether or not the German edition
will contain any blood.
Cinemaware has released the first set of Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown screenshots, revealing their upcoming 3D action/strategy reworking of the popular medieval legend. The seven images include jousting and siege scenes, as well as a map of the area in which the game takes place.
The latest Wizardry
8 Design Log at RPG Vault consists of a Q&A with James Ferris, the lead
artist at SirTech. Most of the questions deal with his background in the industry
and other non-Wizardry topics, although there are also a couple about his work
on the game.
Although the game was initially announced way back in September of 1999 ( story),
Pan Interactive has been remarkably silent about their upcoming third person
game based on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Although nothing appears
to have changed, they've just re-announced the game, and EuroGamer has posted
the first batch of concept
art that has been released.
GameSpot UK's Keeping It Unreal
is a look ahead at Unreal II, the upcoming Unreal sequel in the works at Legend
Entertainment. The preview offers a load of Unreal II details, and is
accompanied by a
gallery of Unreal II wallpapers. Meanwhile, 3DActionPlanet's
Unreal II first look is also online, with their own preview of the upcoming
follow-up.
Following the preview they posted yesterday ( story), there is a
new batch of Operation Flashpoint screenshots on The Adrenaline Vault with
nine more views from Op Flashpoint, the upcoming first- and third-person
action/strategy game from Codemasters.
Declaring "Let there be cooperation," Computer Games Online
previews A Tale in the Desert with a look ahead at this upcoming MMORPG that
features no combat, or, as they put it, "Don't shoot anything except,
perhaps, the breeze." According to the preview, this will work "by
replacing combat-oriented character advancement with activity- and task-based
development" (which sounds a lot like my experience trying Ultima Online
when it first came out, but that's a different story).
4D Rulers' Gore page has
info on a pair of test servers called 4DRULERS SERVER 1 and 4DRULERS SERVER 2
that are currently running some new code to test a fix for a bug "where the
loading screen comes up but nothing seems to happen" during online games.
Following a brief period when they were inexplicably not hosted by GameSpy
industries, the newly-relocated Seriously Warped Deathmatch
page has downloads of their Seriously Warped Deathmatch modification for
Serious Sam, one of the first mods for the Croteam's new shooter. The mod offers
three forms of gameplay, Control Zone, that rewards remaining in the vicinity of
a flag, Objective Thief, that rewards capturing an objective and returning it to
a scoring zone, and Rugby, which rewards you for maintaining possession of the
objective. There are more details on the mod on the GodGames
website.
RTD Quake 3 now
offers an updated version of the 1.17 to 1.27g Point Release Converter that
offers one-click switching between the older and newer versions of Quake III
Arena for mods that require one or the other.
The big news on the console front is that Microsoft
will be broadcasting Bill Gates' keynote speech at the Tokyo Game Show tonight
at 11:00 PM EST. In a related note, PS2.IGN.com's Pre-TGS 2001
coverage (called "The Calm Before The Storm") is underway, while
in another smooth segue, Do You Want To Phone Bill Gates?
is one of the stranger promotions you'll see, as they say dollar Bill's phone
number is going to be revealed at some point during the T.G.S. (perhaps during
that aforementioned keynote). Speaking of the keynote, Pre-TGS Bloomberg Breaks Keynote Details
on Xbox.IGN.Com reports that "According to documents received by
Bloomberg News, Microsoft's Japanese strategy will include an initial focus on
the core gamer, ages 18-30 and will forego any attempts at developing an Online
audience until its second year of sale." While the press release that
followed less than 24 hours after that report called Microsoft, NTT Comms to Link Xbox Into Internet
fills in some details. Meanwhile, Xbox marks his spot
on CNET.com interviews Microsoft's Seamus Blackley about the Xbox, Seamus
freely admitting he considered MS the "evil empire" before joining.
Finally, in a story unrelated to the Xbox whatsoever, there are new Dreamcast
Soldier of Fortune previews on DailyRadar
and Dreamcast.IGN.com,
each offering up some new screenshots.
GameFAQs Serious Sam
FAQ/Walkthrough has been updated, and there's a Serious Sam Tweak Guide
on My Tech Valley. Also, a new question and answer #23 have been added to
the Quake III: Team Arena FAQ,
covering what to do if you are a SoundBlaster owner experiencing cracking sounds
from the Q3A add-on.
Stomped's Day
of Defeat interview chats up the team behind the Day of Defeat
mod for Half-Life in a short conversation about their mod and plans for the
future.
There is a
new Deus Ex forum on Gamedesign.net to foster discussions and help answer
any of your questions about Deus Ex, ION Storm's Unreal-engine action/RPG. Also,
related to the Seriously
Warped Deathmatch release mentioned above, the SWD
team interviews Croteam, talking about Serious Sam in general, but primarily
focusing on making mods for the game. Also, there's an actual news story on GRACELESSLAND,
where theAntiELVIS has dug up info from GarageGames on Worldcraft support in the
V12 (TRIBES 2) engine, while Tim
Gift's .plan has more V12 details, and a mention of (eeek) DirectX 9.
Ritual's Levelord updated
his .plan with an urgent request for level designers. American citizens who
are not convicted mass murderers are preferred, but they sound desperate, so
foreigners and those with favorable letters from their parole boards may be able
to get consideration. Also, Ensemble Studios
is advertising openings for a Quality Assurance tester and for a Content
Designer.
- This Dark Age of Camelot Beta Journal
on Camelot Vault offers the fourth installment in this series recapping
their experiences playing in the second phase of beta testing in Dark Age of
Camelot, the upcoming MMORPG...
- Speaking of RPG betas, a
page called Diablo II Expansion Beta Central on PlanetDiablo has been
launched as a central information source, now that plans for the official
closed beta test have been announced (story)...
- Microsoft warns of hijacked certificates
on CNET describes the circumstances you shouldn't trust those VeriSign
certificates (though some may never trust them after reading this story).
Thanks LatestUpdates,
who point out that "If you had previously selected to "Always
trust Microsoft" when prompted for a Microsoft certificate, you can
restore the prompt by deleting 'Microsoft' under Tools>Internet
Options>Content>Publishers."...
- An update
to Jake Hughes' .plan teases the upcoming availability of an Anachronox
"Battle Teaser" video that he's just putting the finishing touches
on, saying it should be available sometime this week...
Reports of the scarcity of Serious Sam don't seem to be exaggerated, I have searched
high and low to no avail (I guess that just leaves the in-between areas to
search), and around here at least, it's a serious Serious Sam shortage. At least the game name sounds like a person, which makes it more fun--I'm enjoying going up to store employees and asking if they know where Serious
Sam is... I keep waiting for one of them to tell me he's out sick, or something.
Happy birthday to 41-33-37, as in Marina "Counselor Troi" Sirtis
(41), Lucy "Xena" Lawless (33), and Elle "Elle" MacPherson
(37). Thanks Chris Morris.
Makes you believe in horoscopes, or something.
Story of the Day: Dirty dozen Hopoate out for 12
(smh.com.au). Thanks Brendan Reville, who adds, "makes me proud to be Australian,
I think :)"
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