Archived News:
EuroGamer's
Operation Flashpoint Preview is online, or rather a follow-up preview, based
on newer code, that among other things, includes some aspects of the multiplayer
play in Operation Flashpoint, Codemasters' upcoming shooter that allows you
relive the cold war via land, sea, and air. In addition to impressions of
multiplayer play, the preview also takes a look at the bundled level editor,
offering up an editor screenshot as well as a couple of shots of gameplay.
3D Games Zone's
Star Trek: Voyager-Elite Force Screenshots page has been updated with a
batch of eight new screenshots showing off multiplayer play from the upcoming
Elite Force add-on. The eight new shots, taken from beta build of the expansion,
show off a variety of effects, and weapons, as well as a few different
multiplayer maps.
RPGDot's Dark Age of Camelot Interview
is online, chatting with Mark Jacobs, president of Mythic Entertainment, about
Dark Age of Camelot, Mythic's upcoming MMORPG set in the days of yore (or are
they mine?). The conversation presupposes some familiarity with the game, as it
delves into detail about how conflicts will be handled, and gets to the
nitty-gritty level about several other aspects of gameplay.
There's a new TORN Designer
Diary on RPG Vault, penned by Dave Maldonado, lead designer at Black Isle
Studios. Chapter one of the diary introduces us the "why" of TORN,
Black Isle's upcoming all-caps "high-fantasy, 3D, multiplayer-capable and
real-time...CRPG, emphasis on the RP," which should give a sense for the
diary's rambling nature (and for me to say that, well...). In further TORN news,
the Black Isle Studios TORN page
has word that they've posted a new Library
section that features four new Magic stories, organized, no doubt, by the
Dewey Decimal System. They also have posted the
official TORN FAQ with answers to all your TORN queries.
The Action Vault's
DroneZ Interview talks with Giovanni Caturano about DroneZ, their upcoming
game "about the hackers' battles in cyberspace," that the article's
introduction says "exhibits heavy influences from the classic Discs of
Tron." The conversation with the "development leader" at Zetha
gameZ discusses the team's background, what the game is about, the capabilities
that make the game a showpiece for GeForce 3 accelerators, and much more DroneZ
detailZ. In addition to all the chit-chat, there are four new DroneZ screenshotZ
for your viewing pleasure.
Following up on their unit of the week, some bonus materials have popped up on
the Emperor: Battle for Dune
website, where they have posted another pair of screenshots of Ordos action
following the 3D screenshot from yesterday ( story), and to stir your blood to battle,
they have also posted an Ordos music clip in that nifty .mp3 format all the kids
are talking about.
The Vavoom source port
page has the fifth beta of Vavoom, described as "hopefully (the) last
beta," of this port of the Doom source code. Vavoom adds all sorts of
updated features to the classic shooter, and offers support for DOS, Windows and
Linux.
Stomped's
Hidden & Dangerous 2 Interview talks with Tomas Pluharik, lead designer
on Hidden & Dangerous 2, Illusion Softworks' upcoming sequel to their
tactical shooter game. The conversation, which also offers some responses from
managing director Petr Vochozka, covers a wide range of topics in a short space,
and is accompanied by a batch of three screenshots.
There is a batch of new Jumpgate screenshots on NetDevil's
Jumpgate website showing off gameplay from the current round of beta testing
on this upcoming space-flight combat game. Among the half-dozen shots, which are
said to be 100% unaltered, are the first views of the "massive cosmic
storms that rage across the galaxy, wreaking havoc on trade lanes and
commerce," as well as "an up-close encounter shot of one of the
elusive Conflux."
Although it doesn't contain any new screenshots or concept artwork, a
new preview of Unreal II is up at PC.IGN. Shots or no shots, the preview
is relatively comprehensive, as it collects all the known information about
the game and even has a bit of an Unreal primer for the uninitiated.
New screenshots from a pair of upcoming BioWare RPGs can be found a PC.IGN
today. There are four new screenshots
from Throne of Bhaal, the upcoming add-on for Baldur's Gate II, as well
as four screenshots from Neverwinter
Nights, although only two of those appear to be new.
Daily Radar has conducted an
interview with Roy Eltham and Lawrence Poe, Verant's lead programmer and
associate game designer on Shadows of Luclin, the upcoming add-on for EverQuest.
The duo talk about what's new in this expansion, and they also dodge a question
regarding the inevitable EverQuest 2. There are also some screenshots here,
although only one of them is actually new.
Also online at Daily Radar today is a
preview of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars. The preview is reprinted
from PC Gamer magazine, and it contains a brief look at the overall gameplay.
The screenshots here have been previously available elsewhere, but fortunately
four new shots
from the game are up at The Unofficial Dominion Wars site which should help
those going through screenshot withdrawal.
Version 2.4c of the server query/log analysis program QStat
has been released. This version fixes all the bugs from the 2.4b release, including
problems with its TRIBES 2 support.
Gone Gold is reporting
that Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura has been delayed from May until
September. They have confirmed this with Sierra Studios, who says that this
delay was done in order to get a simultaneous worldwide release ready. On a
slightly happier note, an
update at the official Arcanum site has the news that the new issue of Computer
Gaming World that hits the stands next month will contain a playable demo of
the game.
Raven's Jake Simpson updated
his .plan with a clarification on something he said in yesterday's Soldier
of Fortune 2 interview at Voodoo Extreme ( story) regarding the
specific Quake III Arena codebase they're using for the game. Here's what he
has to say: A couple of things. In the VE interview I stated that SOF2
was based off the 1.17 build of Quake III. Of course I was completely wrong.
It's based off the first release of Team Arena. I'm just a dummy getting confused
between Elite Force Multiplayer, which was 1.17, and the SOF2 start up times.
Oh well. What's an interview without something wrong on it?
According to a news story
at Eurogamer, Cryo Interactive, the developers of The Devil Inside among
other titles, will be closing their UK office. They still have an enormous list
of games in the works (including 12 new PC titles, one of which is the upcoming
action/adventure Dune game) and the news item says that they are close to signing
a deal with a major publisher to make sure their games are released outside
of their native France.
The Xtreme Gaming TRIBES 2 Map Pack has been released, and is available
for download at Strike Force Center. The pack contains four new maps which
can be used in capture the flag as well as the hunters, rabbit and deathmatch
mission types.
Games Domain has posted a
preview of Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos. The preview is brief, but
it contains some general gameplay information and five screenshots, which are
all fairly low-resolution.
The
official Star Wars Galaxies FAQ has been updated again, featuring questions
about the chat system, how much freedom LucasArts has given them to create new
creatures and more.
PS2 Faction has conducted an
interview with Chris Avellone of Snowblind Studios, talking with him about
their upcoming title Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. GameSpot
is reporting that the first Bleemcast release will be coming out on May
1st, and will allow Dreamcast owners to play Gran Turismo 2 in high-res with
extra graphical enhancements. For those looking forward to Obi-Wan now that
it's a console only title, PS2.IGN
is reporting that you'll have to get an Xbox if you want to play it.
The CPL has announced that they have pushed
back their planned 4-Year Anniversary event to the weekend of June 28th, as
the previous week is when schools in Canada have their final examinations. They
have also announced that the main tournament will be a one-on-one QuakeWorld
tourney, and that the entry fee has been reduced to $20.
Four new shots from the single-player Rising Phoenix mod for Half-Life are
up at The Backburner today. Also, the
official Cthulhu Q3 site has been updated with two new shots from this upcoming
Quake III Arena mod.
- As Bungie's Matt Soell is out of town, this week's Halo update (which can
be found over at Halo.Bungie.org)
is by Marty O'Donnell, whose update is a little sillier than usual....
- Grow
Up is an article at Slate that asks the question, "why are video
games for adults so juvenile?" (thanks Michael Pollard)...
- The Online
Game Commands Database has been updated, and it now contains almost 10,000
commands for 14 different games...
- Another week, another
edition of Askin' Haskins over at GodGames.com...
Boy has it been slow around here. With E3 only a few weeks away, things have
slowed to a crawl. Of course, the week of E3 you can expect boatloads of news,
including lots of new game announcements from high-profile developers. Personally
I can't wait for the day before E3, as that's when Nintendo, Sony and
Microsoft are all going to show what they've got lined up for this fall. We'll
see actual GameCube games, Xbox launch titles, and yes, apparently Sony's going
to be announcing their final network plans. And that's just the stuff we know
about! Major companies have been really, really quiet lately, so I'm looking
forward to some huge surprises at the show. It'll be a truckload of fun.
Story of the Day: No
More Exploding Cows in the Alps (Reuters).
Weird Science: Down
to Earth views of the home world (CNN.com).
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