Archived News:
There's some sad news to pass along today, as ''Hitch Hiker's Guide to Galaxy'' author Adams dies
is the report that British author Douglas Adams, famed for his The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, died suddenly yesterday at his
home in California of a heart attack at the age of 49. According to the report, Adams, who is
survived by a wife and daughter, "was working on a new novel and on an
online guide, h2g2, inspired by 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy,' at
the time of his death. Work is also under way to turn the story into a film."
It probably doesn't require an explanation for many why this prompts a news
story on a site related to games, there are few events I can recall, game-related or
otherwise, that have inspired as much email as this one in our inboxes, obviously a love of Mr. Adams' work is something many of us who have this hobby in common also share. "But
sir... I just heard on the sub-ether radio report. It said you were dead..."
"Yeah, that's right, I just haven't stopped moving yet."
The Giants interview revival continues, as PlanetMoon Central's
Shawn Nelson Q&A is online, certainly an appropriate victim, as they
point out he is one of the few folks at Planet Moon Studios who has managed to
avoid being cornered for an interview in the company's 3+ year history. In the
article the animator discusses his start in the biz, some detailed technical answers about making the animations for Giants, the challenges he overcame in the project, and more.
EuroGamer's Sudden Strike
Forever Preview is online, taking a look at the add-on for Sudden Strike
currently under construction at CDV. The hands-on preview is based on playing
with the pack, describing gameplay and showing it off with some screenshots.
They also describe what they feel is a problem with the game's balance, saying
the missions are "almost ludicrously difficult," and while they hold
out hope that this will be tweaked before the add-on reaches their (British)
shores, they express doubts, since Sudden Strike Forever is already available in
France and Germany.
An update on the official Emperor: Battle for Dune site continues their look at the sub-houses in the 3D real-time strategy game nearing completion at Westwood. Today's update covers the Guild and the Fremen, and consists of a new pair of screenshots, a pair of sound files, and a short story on an event in the game's universe.
The first brief installment of the Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates Diary is online at GameSpy.com this morning, in which Taldren lead designer Joshua Morris talks about getting their space strategy expansion pack ready for next week's E3 showing, as well as some of the new ships and weapons that are being created for it. Four new screenshots illustrate the proceedings.
RPG Vault has conducted a brief Horizons Partnership Interview following up on the announcement that Artifact's MMORPG will be published in Asia by NCSoft ( story). CEO David Allen is at hand to explain how the partnership came about and what NCSoft's involvement will mean in practice, while vaguely hinting at what's next on the horizon for them.
The lucky folk over at PC.IGN are participating in Blizzard's Diablo II: Lord
of Destruction beta test, and so it's no surprise that they have posted a
preview of it today. The preview contains their impressions of the expansion,
along with details on what it adds to the original game. Naturally there are
plenty of screenshots here showing off all the new stuff.
Also new on PC.IGN today is a
preview of Wizardry 8. Like the Lord of Destruction preview it's hands-on,
and contains a background on the series for those that missed the first seven
games (the last of which was released six years ago), a look at the plot line
and details on the spells and enemies you'll encounter. Also of note is the
news that those that still have their Wizardry 7 characters (considering how
much time has passed, there can't be too many of you out there) will be able
to import their party into the game.
This week's
Halo update has been posted over at Haloplayers.com. Like all these updates
(well, except for one) it's by Bungie's Matthew Soell, and this week's update
is particularly brief as the team is busy getting the game in shape for next
week's E3 expo. As it's pretty small, here's the bulk of it: - We got
the Marines, Warthogs and dropships to play nicely together this week. In particular,
the dropship no longer drops Warthogs on hapless marines.
- The AI is now aware of vehicles; that is to say, if you roll up in the Warthog
the Marines are smart enough to hop in.
- The Covenant Elite are significantly more bad-assed than they have been in
the past. You want to make sure you take them out quickly and completely. Wounding
them just pisses them off.
- We got a lot more sound in the game, including some context-sensitive music
and roughly 1400 separate dialog tags.
- You can hurt people by slamming vehicles into them. Now you no longer need
a friendly Marine manning the chain gun to make the Warthog a dangerous weapon.
- Rob beautified many things, and Shiek piled in a slew of new effects, including
a lovely plasma grenade effect.
- There was a LOT of multiplayer testing this week. And it was a LOT of fun.
The official PlanetSide site has been updated with a
new Producer's Letter from Kevin "Stryker" McCann of Verant Interactive.
Kevin talks about their plans for E3, and he says they will have "a strong
showing" of the game there, and that it will be fully playable for E3 attendees.
Thanks PlanetSide Networks
for the tip.
A new
preview of Motor City Online, the upcoming massively multiplayer racing
game from Electronic Arts is up at GameSpot today. The preview is brief, but
it contains a brief look at the game as well as a downloadable movie featuring
a minute of gameplay footage.
Well
Rounded Entertainment is reporting that Westwood's "mystery" PS2
title that will be shown at E3 is Pirates of Skull Cove, which was actually
announced before last year's show but pulled at the last minute. XboxAddict.com
has conducted an
interview with Lorne Lanning, who provides all sorts of information about
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, one of the few games confirmed for the Xbox launch.
GameSpot has posted some
new screenshots and a gameplay movie from Rune: Viking Warlord, the upcoming
Playstation 2 version of Human Head's Rune. Also on GameSpot is a
preview of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, the upcoming Baldur's Gate game
that's a Playstation 2 exclusive. A new
edition of the Giants: Citizen Kabuto diary at PS2.IGN is online today,
with producer Chris Pasetto providing an update on the Playstation 2 port of
the game. Finally, PS2.IGN has
confirmed that Konami will be showing Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
at E3, despite rumors about a press blackout on the game.
If you didn't check last night, registration for QuakeCon
2001 is now open. Also open is registration for the
$500 Quest Counter-Strike Tournament, which will be held the weekend of
June 2nd in O'Fallon, IL. In more immediate news, GameKult
will be posting live coverage from this weekend's CPL event in the Netherlands,
and AcidHardware
is holding a contest where you can win some hardware courtesy of Coolerguys.
The official site of the
Annihilation mod for Quake III Arena has been updated with a bunch of new
screenshots from the next version that should be released in the near future.
Also, the Half-Life Wrestling
site has posted a new shot of one of their maps, Games Fusion has conducted
an interview
with BlackPanther, the author of the Alpine mod for Half-Life, and Veteran
Gamers Network has posted an
interview with members of the Sabaneta 2050 Half-Life team.
The other night on The Daily Show there was a goofy segment that featured a
rabid Internet fanatic and showed shots from EverQuest and Unreal Tournament.
There was even a shot that featured Jon Stewart's head on top of a model from
the next-generation Unreal technology demo. For those that were wondering (as
this isn't the first time The Daily Show has mentioned online games), a friend
of mine who works at Comedy Central tells me that Jon Stewart really is a gamer,
and more specifically, he's a big fan of first person shooters (although what
name he plays under of course is unknown). I've also been told that he only
plays games on a Mac, which limits him to the Quake and Unreal games...so don't
expect to find him joining a Counter-Strike clan any time soon. Still, it's
always fun to hear about celebrities who play the same games as the rest of
us, as the anonymous nature of all this means you never know who you're fragging.
Story of the Day: Move
Over, Oprah: Tony Soprano Proves He Can Sell Books, Too (Inside.com).
Bonus Story: Birds
imitate mobile ringtones (Annova). Thanks Kevin L. Kitchens.
|
Twitter 
