Archived News:
German developers TriNodE Entertainment have released a playable demo of RIM - Battle Planets, available for download from PC Games. RIM is a 3D real-time strategy game that should arrive in stores in their home country shortly, and the whopping 139.7 MB demo includes three missions from the full game. Update: a US-based mirror is online at 3D Gamers.
- Sierra's Triple Dose
Like most Mondays, today brings new screenshots of the week for Sierra Studios' upcoming games Arcanum, Empire Earth, and Throne of Darkness.
- Titanium Angels
There is a new pair of Titanium Angels screenshots on fansite Titanium Technology, illustrating the upcoming third-person action adventure under construction at Mobius and SCi.
- Necrocide
Like other sites recently, Adrenaline Vault has posted a new Necrocide: The Dead Must Die screenshot (the rightmost one), showing off the upcoming first-person horror shooter by NovaLogic.
- Black Skies
As promised, five new screenshots of Ozzy's Black Skies, the rock-infused 3D action game by iROCK, are now online at XGR.
- Nexagon
We forgot to mention it at the time, but XGR also had four new Nexagon: the Pit screenshots to go with last Friday's interview on Strategy First's 3D tactical action game.
- Hidden & Dangerous 2
Ten new Hidden & Dangerous 2 screenshots are online at the Unofficial Hidden & Dangerous 2 Site, depicting new areas in the squad-based 3D action game in the works at Illusion Softworks.
- Steel Soldiers
GameSpot has posted a new batch of Steel Soldiers screenshots along with some brief impressions from a playable build of the 3D RTS nearing completion at UK developers Bitmap Brothers.
- Lord of Destruction
Come rain, come shine, come Blizzard, come a new pair of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction screenshots on the official site for this isometric RPG expansion (thanks PlanetDiablo).
- HoMM 4
Freelancer has added two new Heroes of Might and Magic 4 screenshots and a new pair of concept images to their initial gallery for this turn-based strategy game coming from 3DO.
- Parsec
The official Parsec site has been updated at their usual leisurely pace with new screenshot of the month for this upcoming space combat game.
- Gorasul
RPGDot has added another three new Gorusal: Lost Souls screenshots to their expanding gallery for the isometric RPG being crafted at German developers Silver Style.
PC.IGN has posted a new preview
of Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix. The preview is brief, but it contains
some quotes from Raven's Kenn Hoekstra as well as some new screenshots and some
other images that have been previously available elsewhere.
Terra Arcanum sends word that the promised Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura demo ( story) has been posted for download at French gaming site Clubic. This massive 252.6 MB demo for Troika's isometric RPG is in English, but the ftp server is already extremely slow, so you may as well want to wait for the new issue of Computer Gaming World which will offer it on a cover disk. Update: the demo has now been removed from their ftp server at the request of publisher Sierra as it was not intended for online distributution. Update on Tuesday: Sierra has clarified to us that there are no objections to online distribution anymore, so you can try your luck at the Terra Arcanum demo mirrors list, and more US mirrors are expected tomorrow.
The official Shadowbane site sports another round of updates on this 3D MMORPG under construction at Wolfpack Studios. This evening there are a few new entries in their Bestiary, a new chapter in the game's backstory, and a new section on Character Development in the official FAQ.
It's been hinted at in interviews in the past, but there hasn't been a definite
confirmation that an add-on for TRIBES 2 is currently in production. Until now,
that is, as Sierra's TRIBES 2 newsletter contains a FAQ that confirms that Dynamix
is already working on it. Here are the details, copied from Tribal War, who
have posted the Q&A on
their news page: Q: Are you guys working on an Expansion Pack for
Tribes 2 or starting Tribes 3?
A: We have already begun design work on an expansion pack for T2. Exactly what
will be in the expansion pack is still in flux but we'll certainly include a
new vehicle, new maps and missions, and basically broaden the depth of T2.
Sinister Games revamped their web site today, and as part of it they have
updated their
official Soldier page. Soldier is Sinister's third person action game based
on the movie of the same name, and their update reiterates that the game is
complete, but as they have yet to sign a publisher, it has not been released.
Still, the fact that they still have a product page for it means they are continuing
to shop it around to possible publishers, and that it will (probably) see the
light of day.
A comprehensive
report of last week's FanStock is up at MrFixitOnline this evening (thanks
Stomped). The article contains individual
looks at each of the games they were able to check out, including lots of details
on Dungeon Siege, Mech Commander 2 and Sigma among others.
Bethesda Softworks sends word that the official Elder Scrolls: Morrowind site ( Flash required) has been relaunched with a new design and plenty of content, including new screenshots, concept art and wallpapers, more game information on Morrowind and a history of the previous Elder Scrolls games, details on the Elder Scrolls Construction Set, and more.
There is a quick Q&A on Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal at GameBanshee, quizzing BioWare's James Ohlen about their upcoming isometric RPG expansion. The five questions and corresponding answers deal with the Druid character, summoning creatures, high level class abilities, and a few other details.
GameSpot has a
new interview with Thomas Pluharik of Illusion Softworks online, talking
with him about their upcoming title Hidden & Dangerous 2. Thomas explains
what they have learned from player reactions to the original Hidden & Dangerous,
and he also provides info on the new weapons and AI in the game among other
things.
Tonight at 9:00 EDT, XGR.com will be airing an interview with Rick Raymer,
a game designer at iROCK Interactive on Ozzy's Black Skies. More info
can be found at XGR,
where they also say they will be posting new screenshots from the game during
the broadcast.
Although it's not actually listed on
its official site yet, version 0.20 of glDuke, an OpenGL accelerated client
for Duke Nukem 3D is
now available for download. While this version has been completely rewritten
and is said to be much more stable, however it doesn't let you interact with
monsters and has no game world gravity or console. Also available for download
is the
xBUILD SDK, which contains the source code for the glDuke renderer.
GameSpy Daily is
reporting that Imagine Media is shutting down their online sites Daily
Radar and the Computing Network. We can confirm this news as well, and we
have been told that some of the DR staff has been relocated within the company,
but many will be laid off as a casualty of Imagine's restructuring. As Daily
Radar is one of the major sites we link to on a daily basis, we are naturally
saddened by this news and wish their staff the best of luck in their future
endeavors. Update: Daily Radar has been updated with a farewell notice from the editors.
Games Domain has posted a
preview of Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura. The preview is based
on their impressions of a beta copy of the game, and contains a thorough (if
brief) look at the gameplay along with some new screenshots.
A patch to upgrade Unreal
Fortress to Beta 1 build 600 has been released. Although it's a relatively
minor numerical increase, the patch fixes over 100 bugs and adds four new weapons,
nine updated maps and an entirely new gameplay mode.
Only nine months after the full game was released, a playable demo for Beach Head 2000 is now available from the online store of developers Digital Fusion. The 16.9 MB demo allows you to play one level in their first-person arcade shooter, and apparently includes the other 59 levels to be unlocked when you purchase the game. Thanks PC Zone UK, who have a mirror here.
A Q&A
with Antal Ruttmayer of Philos Laboratories is up at eUniverseGames, talking
with the lead designer about their upcoming title Escape from Alcatraz. Antal
talks about Escape's overall premise, the different weapons and gadgets that
are available, and the internally developed 3D engine that powers the game.
Stomped has conducted an
interview with Raven's Kenn Hoekstra, talking with him about their upcoming
Quake III Arena engine title Soldier of Fortune 2. Kenn says that they are attempting
to make SoF2 more realistic than its predecessor, with special attention being
paid to enemy AI. He also provides some preliminary info on their random scenario
generator, which will allow players to create new missions on the fly based
on certain defined criteria.
The third,
and final part of the Fanstock coverage at The Siege Works is online this
morning, featuring a recap of their trip to Gas Powered Games. They were able
to talk to the various members of the Dungeon Siege team at the studio, and
their report contains some tidbits about what each person was working on when
they visited, as well as some other tidbits, such as the news that the Siege
editor will be packaged up for release online during the period after the game
goes gold and the time it hits store shelves.
A report on EuroGamer
has news that Art of Magic, the upcoming RTS/RPG hybrid installment in the Magic
& Mayhem series, has been delayed until September from its planned release
this summer due to the demise of Charybdis, the UK-based developer who had been
creating the game for Virgin Interactive. Word from Virgin is that they are
still planning to find a replacement development team to complete the game, for
which they own the rights. In related news, the article also reveals that about
twenty of the Charybdis staff have picked up jobs at Climax, who are busy with
development of Warhammer Online, another upcoming 3D strategy game.
Computer Games Online
previews Ace of Angels offers a look ahead at an upcoming massively
multiplayer game from Rock Island enterprises where you can pilot a space
fighter, describing it as a place "where Wing Commander veterans may find a
new online home." The article describes the current round of beta testing
as well as the planned next round, which will add the layer of gameplay that
allows the formation of squadrons, along with a description of some aspects of
dogfighting, and what will be done to fight lag, which is, of course, the most
terrifying enemy of all when it comes to Internet-based action games.
GameSpy.com interviews Chris Taylor of Gas
Powered Games talking more about Dungeon Siege, their upcoming RPG. Topics
include the inevitability of comparisons to Diablo, plans for E3, getting ahead
of ourselves ("Why do you think the Dungeon Siege game engine is
already popular with the 'mod' community?"), character classes,
and more. Illustrating the Q&A are several Dungeon Siege screenshots.
Computer Games Online
interviews Dave Perry taking to the top dog at Shiny Entertainment. The
conversation touches on the Matrix game project that Shiny is currently working
on, but keeps pretty mum about it, as Dave says they will "keep damn quiet
from now on until we can demonstrate our game," in response to a question
about what he's learned from the early coverage devoted to Messiah. One aspect
of the game he is willing to discuss is working with the Wachowski brothers, who
are described as "extremely involved" in the design of the game based
on their smash hit movie.
The Adrenaline Vault Previews Project Eden
with a look ahead at this action game in the works at Core Design that's
described as "sort of a combination of Half-Life and Hired Guns." The preview features screenshots and quotes from Gavin
Rummery, lead programmer on the project who offers thoughts on how gameplay will
be handled. The preview also covers what sort of weapons you will encounter, the
integration of puzzles into gameplay, multiplayer play (which will include co-op
in addition to deathmatch), and more.
There's a
Commandos 2 preview on nipogames.com which is written in English after this
Italian site had the opportunity to check out Pyro Studios and Eidos
Interactive's upcoming sequel to their game of squad-based tactics. The preview,
illustrated by several screenshots, goes into detail about new characters and
other changes to be included in the follow-up, and offers a brief Q&A with
Nick Robinson, the production manager on the game.
A new version 4.2.5 of Q3ASC,
or, the Quake III Arena Server Configurator, is now available. The latest
version of this Windows Q3A server front-end adds Quake III: Team Arena support along
with other tweaks and improvements. Because the installer program still may not
work reliably on all machines, this software is still considered to be in the
"alpha" stage.
Word from the organizers of the Multi-Mayhem LAN Party
is that their next event is planned for May 19, 2001 from 8:00 AM-11:00 PM, at
the Minnesota State Fair Grounds. Over 250 gamers are expected to attend. Also, EuroGamer's
CPL Holland UK Qualifier Coverage is online with a full recap of the event. There's also a recap of Italian LAN Party 2001,
which is where Commandos 2 was shown off resulting in the preview posted above.
So I tool over to The Internet Movie Database
to make sure I spelled the name of the Wachowski brothers correctly for a The
Matrix game story in this morning's news, and learned that in addition to The
Matrix movie, there was a completely unrelated TV show from the early 90's
that almost shared the name, titled simply Matrix. The weird thing? One of
the TV show's co-stars was Carrie-Anne Moss, who, of course, was also in the
movie. Kind of a neat coincidence...certainly nothing along the lines of that
Kennedy/Lincoln stuff, but hey, it's Monday.
Link of the Day: Piper's Pricision
(sic) Products,
home of the Vulcan Cannon BB gun. Thanks AndyS. Now don't go shooting Godzilla's
eye out.
Weird Science: With Derring-Do, Airplane Glue
(Washingtonpost.com). Thanks Scott "Sticks" Seaton.
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