Archived News:
After a slight delay, a new Civilization III preview is now online at GameSpot, looking ahead to the turn-based strategy sequel under construction at Firaxis. While the accompanying screenshots have already appeared elsewhere before, the article itself offers a detailed overview of the game's premise and features, the improvements and changes being made over its predecessors, and more, all underlined with quotes galore from Firaxis president Jeff Briggs.
Italian site Nipogames has conducted a brief interview on Serious Sam, cornering Croteam designer Davor Tomicic to talk about their recently released fast 'n furious shooter. Davor assesses the game's value for its price in the US and in Europe (though without calculating the number of enemies per dime), talks about comparisons with other games and their inspirations for Serious Sam, and makes a case for arcade action games. The Q&A is available in English or the site's native Italian.
PlanetTribes has posted a brief Q&A on the just-announced Playstation 2 version of TRIBES ( story), seeking to clarify a few of the game's features. True to the game's name, an unnamed representative of Inevitable Entertainment explains in all-caps that the game is not a port of TRIBES 2 but a console version of the TRIBES universe, that there will be a new single-player campaign, and that multiplayer will be possible only between the consoles themselves.
GameSpot has posted a brief but hands-on preview of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, looking ahead to the World War II first-person shooter by 2015 and Electronic Arts. The preview describes the current state of the game, focussing in particular on the infamous Omaha Beach landing level, and comes with eight new screenshots. Also on offer is a pair of new movies. The first one sports a bit under three minutes of impressive in-game footage, including that Omaha Beach landing level, and comes as a 27 MB download in MPEG format or several streaming formats, while the second movie has producer Lincoln Hershberger talking about the game's goals, features, and technology, which is illustrated with much of the same in-game footage and takes around 33 MB to download.
MoreGaming has conducted a brief interview with Daryl Nichols, associate producer on TRIBES 2 at Dynamix. As the game is out for a bit now, Daryl looks back at its development, and talks about the community features, their continuous efforts to patch the game, and a few related topics.
Publisher Fishtank Interactive has released new media of the games they'll present at this week's E3 trade show, so you can inspect a Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth gallery on Fragland.net, illustrating Headfirst Productions' upcoming horror first-person action adventure, while Swiss site Gameplex shows off Massive Development's underwater action game AquaNox, Arkane Studios' first-person RPG Arx Fatalis, Nival's 3D turn-based strategy game Etherlords, and a newly announced flying car racing game called Beam Breakers by Similis. All galleries (except the last one, of course) contain the odd familiar screenshot among a number of new images.
- Myth III & DNF
The Gathering of Developers E3 site (Flash required) has been updated with a Myth III: the Wolf Age preview which actually contains three new concept images (among that many familiar ones) of the 3D RTS under construction at Mumbo Jumbo Games, as well as (a day early) their Duke Nukem Forever preview, but without any new imagery.
- 3rd World
eUniverseGames has posted half a dozen new 3rd World screenshots offering more galactic scenes in the massively multiplayer space hybrid by XYZ Team.
- Sudden Strike Add-on
There are ten new Sudden Strike Forever screenshots on EuroGamer, illustrating the cinematics and in-game action in this expansion pack to Fireglow and CDV's isometric RTS.
- Pantheon
The first life sign since last Summer, developers Frog City have updated their Pantheon site with eleven character images from their isometric RTS set in Greek mythology.
- Hitchhiker's Guide
GameSpot UK has posted seven new concept images of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, illustrating this third-person game by Pan Interactive based on the works of the late Douglas Adams.
- Battlecruiser
The official Battlecruiser Millenium site has been updated with six new screenshots of the space sim nearing completion at 3000 AD.
Although it's been long confirmed and there have even been screenshots available,
3DO has formally announced
today Heroes of Might and Magic IV, the latest installment in this venerable
strategy game series. The press release doesn't really say what's new in this
game beyond the engine, and the gameplay description sounds pretty much like
all the others in the series.
Sierra Studios has announced
their lineup for this year's E3 Expo, and while there aren't any major surprises,
there are new details on certain games.
Here's an excerpt from the
press release with descriptions of the (now confirmed) Playstation 2 port
of TRIBES 2 (which has no mention of online multiplayer), Aliens vs. Predator
2 and the Xbox title Fellowship of the Ring: ALIENS VS. PREDATOR 2: This is the PC
sequel to the most terrifying PC game of 1999. Based on the combination of the
most highly successful sci-fi franchises in movie history, AVP 2 takes players
to a world where species battle species in the ultimate game of survival. Aliens
vs. Predator 2 is being developed by Monolith Productions on the PC.
TRIBES PLAYSTATION 2: In development by Inevitable Entertainment, the highly
anticipated Tribes 2(tm) PC game, sequel to the 1999 Online Game of the Year,
is coming to the PlayStation 2. Unlike other shooters, Tribes for the PlayStation
2 brings true team multiplayer action to the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment
system for the first time, and delivers a 3D action experience that makes traditional
action gaming seem stale and flat. Gamers will indulge in some of the most exciting
gameplay available today, from firing up jetpacks to go vertical, engaging in
aerial combat, jetting over massive canyons and daunting mountain ranges to
deliver mayhem from above.
FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: In development by Seattle-based WXP, Inc., The Fellowship
of the Ring will be released in early 2002 for the Xbox video game system. The
Fellowship of the Ring is a third-person action/adventure game set in the world
of Middle-Earth. In the game, players take the persona of Frodo Baggins, an
unassuming hobbit who has been unwittingly thrust into a battle between good
and evil. J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have set the
standard for fantasy writers and creators of epic worlds. The novels are massive
best sellers, having sold close to 100 million copies worldwide and been translated
into 26 different languages.
Tonight at 7:00 EDT (4:00 PDT), GameSpy is holding a chat with members of the
Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns team at TimeGate Studios. To join in the fun, you'll
have to download GameSpy Arcade
and head over to the
Kohan lobby (that link will take you there if you have the software installed).
Details on Sony's planned online Playstation 2 network are starting to leak
out, and according to a
Wall Street Journal article (available at ZDNet), Sony will announce this
week that they are partnering with none other than America Online. According
to the article, AOL and Sony will create a network for the console in North
America, which will feature a browser based on AOL's Netscape technology, and contain AOL features like instant messaging, chat and e-mail. It
also says that, "it will incorporate AOL features into software
kits that developers use to create PlayStation 2 games" and that the PS2 will be online by the end of the year (and will likely allow gamers to use non-AOL ISPs). A formal announcement
(which should have more concrete details) will be made today or tomorrow.
The newly relocated John Callaham has posted a
preview of Operation Flashpoint at Voodoo Extreme. The preview is based
on his experience with a beta build of the game, and contains his impressions
along with six new screenshots.
A five question
Q&A with Chris Longpre, the producer of Emperor: Battle for Dune at
Westwood Studios is up at fan page Dune2k.com. Chris talks about how familiar
the development team is with the source material, the role infantry units play
in the game and why they decided to offer special units for those that pre-order
the game.
In an unexpected turn of events, Ubi
Soft has announced that they have decided not to publish Battle Isle: DarkSpace,
a planned space-sim set in the Battle Isle universe. The game hasn't been canceled,
but it will no longer be a Battle Isle game - developer Palestar intends to shop it around under a different name.
Eidos issued a bunch of new screenshots and other press materials for this
year's E3 under an embargo, which expires this morning, and while some of these
are for console games and/or projects that have been heard from quite a bit
already, a couple are more obscure, and presented for your approval: They've
issued the first
new Praetorians screenshots seen since March 2000 from this upcoming 3D
real-time strategy game by Pyro Studios, and a
big batch of Republic screenshots from Republic: The Revolution, Elixir
Studios' upcoming RTS game. The Republic shots look like the first showing off
gameplay (some of which seems rather criminal), as opposed to previous shots
which featured the engine and technology. They have also issued some new Republic artwork,
as well.
There's a
Half-Life: Blue Shift preview on PC Zone offering a brief, but hands-on,
look ahead at the upcoming Half-Life episode where you play a Barney (security
guard), currently under construction at Gearbox Software. Included in the short
article is a description of gameplay, an endorsement of Gearbox ("you know
it's not going to be a pile of cack"), and some screenshots.
A three-pack of opportunities to peek at a diary other than your sister's:
- MechCommander 2
The second
edition of GameSpy.com's MechCommander 2 Developer Diary is online,
offering a real-world example of what they are currently involved with as
development continues on the upcoming sequel to MechCommander, which brought
real-time tactical action to the heavy mech-heavy world of BattleTech. The
diary was to be penned by lead designer Mike Lee, but is once again written
by producer Mitch Gitelman, as Mike busies himself with the task of getting
ready to present the game at this year's E3, and consequently, is more about
the experience of attending the trade show from a developer's perspective.
Included are three new screenshots.
- TORN
Black Isle Studios' TORN Designer Diary, Chapter 3A
on RPG Vault makes up for previous accusations of garrulousness with a
224 word installment (counting the P.S.), a majority of which is simply a
definition of "garrulousness."
- Mimesis Online
The first installment of RPGDot's
Mimesis Online Developer's Diary is online, offering thoughts from Derek
Handley, a staff writer for Tannhauser Gate, the Polish developer at work on
this upcoming MMORPG.
GameSpyDaily.com's
Z: Steel Soldiers Q&A talks with Abby Hains of The Bitmap Brothers in a
short conversation about the upcoming sequel to Z that will add full 3D to the
game's action and strategy.
Action Vault's Action Developers At E3
talks with some of the folks at Epic, Legend, Strategy First, Nexon, and Raven
Software, describing their plans for E3.
The first
Thunderbirds screenshots have been posted as has the Thunderbirds
logo and tentative box art from the upcoming game based on the classic
Supermarionation series, that it turns out will only be a PS2 title ( story).
Sega Licenses Dreamcast
(Core Magazine) reveals that elements of the console system may be finding their
way onto PDAs and cell phones. In a semi-related note (sort of), an
article on FT.com (thanks Slashdot)
announces that Nokia will be using Linux, though word is "MediaTerminal
will compete against Microsoft's Xbox video game console and UltimateTV digital
TV recorder," so you probably won't have to use the grep command to access
your phone book just yet. Also, The
Xbox Evangelist (LA Times) takes a look at J Allard of the Xbox program
(thanks Elvis P.). Meanwhile, True Convergence PS2 and the Web
(Wired) takes a look at the Ergobrowser, the only-available-in-Japan web browser
for the PS2. Finally, Electronic
Arts Announces Ten Titles in Development for Xbox; EA to Showcase Four Xbox
Games at Electronic Entertainment Expo (thanks Mohss) is a Business Wire
article that announces that Pirates of Skull Cove is Xbox-bound (you may recall
that Westwood's console title was announced as a PS2-only project before last
year's E3, but was pulled at the last minute).
Strategic Command Planetary Gaming League
is underway, and is accepting sign-ups for their TRIBES 2 competition. Also, the Cyberathlete Professional League has
announced the cancellation of both their Counter-Strike tournament, planned for
this August, and October's planned Quake III Arena tournament. Word from the
league is that "With the exception of a yearly charity event, the CPL will
now only hold a minimum of two large-scale tournaments a year with cash purses
of at least $150,000 each." They have also issued word on the first of
these large-scale tourneys: The CPL World Championship Event will be held
on December 6 - December 9, 2001, offering a record-sized tournament cash purse
of $150,000 and will accommodate up to 2,100 people. 96 Counter-Strike teams
from around the globe will compete in Dallas, Texas to represent their country
and themselves in this nation-based competition. While medals will be awarded to
the top teams by country, the cash purse will be distributed according to a
team's true placement among peers, regardless of nationality. The registration
for the CPL World Championship Event will begin on Friday, June 1st, 2001 at
8:00 PM CST.
Aliens versus Predator Epicenter's
AvP2 FAQ has been updated, summarizing what's known about the upcoming Aliens
versus Predator sequel. Also, the official Shadowbane site features a new FAQ section on
the Party System in Wolfpack's MMORPG.
- The ClanShack has launched,
offering a clan registry with plans to add match information services in the
future...
- The Zootec Group Launches Zoogi
is a press release announcing Zoogi,
"a new betting tool for online gamers"...
- Atlas Games announces the pen
& paper RPG based on RUNE is now available...
- TrekToday is
reporting plans for a television series based on MechWarrior...
After writing a blurb for this space describing how none of us are attending E3
this year, I learn that a change in plans has loony actually planning on
attending (you'd think I'd know this stuff). Either way, as I originally pointed
out, Frans and I skipping the show is good news for readers, since not attending
will actually provide a better foothold for reporting on the show's events than
being there, as anyone who has had to wait an hour or more at the show to access
one of the press computers can verify.
Story of the Day: Man-monkey triggers panic in suburban New Delhi
(AFP). A fan of "Monkey versus Robot" perhaps? Thanks EvilToast.
Weird Science: Furbeowulf Cluster Computing
build your own supercomputer using Furbies. Thanks RVF400RR.
|
Twitter 
