|
|
 |
Archived News:
Lum the Mad has conducted an
interview with Gordon Wrinn, the assistant producer at Verant Interactive
on EverQuest and its soon to be released add-on Shadows of Luclin. The interview
is quite lengthy, and Gordon comments on a wide range of topics about the upcoming
add-on pack, from the system requirements to specific gameplay issues. Thanks
GameSpy Daily for the tip.
- Red Faction
A new Red Faction Tuesday on the official site of Volition's destroy everything shooter brings a new screenshot of the week as well as a new weapon, introducing the Submachine Gun.
- Bridge Commander
Likewise, the official Star Trek: Bridge Commander site offers their usual screenshot of the week from Totally Games' capitol ship space combat sim.
- Operation Flashpoint
Fansite OpFlash.com has posted another ten new Operation Flashpoint screenshots, and they threaten to squeeze more images out of their preview build of Bohemia's soldier sim most every evening.
Blizzard sends word that their official Warcraft III site has been revamped and in addition to a new look now offers five new screenshots, some new character animations, a new wallpaper, and the previously released cinematic trailer ( story) that is now available in wide-screen QuickTime format.
- Casters Realm
Apart from the PlanetSide interview (story), the E3 Reports from the Casters Realm Team also include interviews on Shattered Galaxies, EverQuest: Shadows of Luclin, Horizons, Jumpgate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars Galaxies, as well as looks at Asheron's Call 2, Shadowbane (once, twice) and, again, Star Wars Galaxies.
- Medal of Honor
Games Domain has posted their E3 preview of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault based on the demo they saw of 2015's upcoming WWII first-person shooter.
- Fragland
Fragland's Day 3 report is online, looking at Nintendo's, Sierra's, Ubi Soft's and Red Storm's games, amongst others, and they have also posted their Best of E3 list.
- XGR
XGR's E3 coverage offers brief impressions and the usual press kit provided screenshots of Activision's line-up, Fishtank's line-up, Sony Online's line-up, Electronic Arts' line-up, and more.
- Photos
Some annotated photos of the event are online at MacGamer, while plenty more photos are up at Gaming Orgy. Lastly, Mythic Entertainment didn't forget to photograph their booth before it was torn down at the end of the show.
- Miscellaneous
Game industry unaffected by unstable world on USATODAY.com is another "outside" look at the event, the state of the gaming industry, the console war, and more, as is Are PC games dead? on CNNfn.
GameSpot has posted a new Zero-G Marines preview looking ahead to the space-based first-person shooter under construction at Strategy First. The preview is based on a visit to their Montreal offices and describes the game's premise and features in some detail, offers impressions from the current build as well as quotes from producer Jamie McNeely and product manager Adam Phillips, and comes illustrated with 11 new screenshots.
GameSpot has posted their own report on Midgard, the new fantasy MMORPG that was unveiled by Funcom at E3 ( story). There are a few more details on the roles players can take up, the political and economic systems, and the use of an improved Anarchy Online engine, as well as one new concept image.
Blizzard has released the E3 teaser trailer of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction as a 30.5 MB download. The movie offers a round two minutes of cinematic footage from their upcoming isometric RPG expansion in appropriately wide-screen (640x292) QuickTime format.
- Neverwinter Nights
RPGDot has posted a Neverwinter Nights gallery featuring some 40 new spell screenshots of the 3D role-playing game being crafted at BioWare.
- Throne of Bhaal
Also on RPGDot is a massive Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal gallery, showing off BioWare's isometric RPG expansion in a whopping 72 new (and some familiar) screenshots.
- Etherlords
There are three new Etherlords screenshots on Freelancer, offering some new scenes in the 3D turn-based strategy game under construction at Nival Interactive.
- Sudden Strike Add-on
EuroGamer has posted another ten new screenshots of Sudden Strike Forever, the isometric RTS expansion pack by Fireglow Studios and CDV.
- TechnoMage
Russian site GamePort offers up a new TechnoMage: Return of Eternity gallery, sporting nearly 30 new screenshots of the top-down 3D action RPG by Sunflowers that is already available in Germany.
- Dark Ages
The first screenshots inside the walls of Camelot, the eponymous castle in Mythic's MMORPG Dark Ages of Camelot, are online at VoodooExtreme.
Developer Cornered Rat Software has updated
their news page with a press release announcing that their massively multiplayer
title World War II Online has gone gold (thanks kill-9). The press release doesn't
contain a specific release date, but instead says that the game will be released
some time in June.
A new preview
of Star Wars Galaxies is up at Well-Rounded Entertainment this evening,
based on what they saw at this year's E3 expo. The preview contains the same
screenshots that were released during the show, but it makes up for it by containing
a pretty in-depth look at the gameplay demonstration they were given.
GameSpot has posted the
Shadowbane trailer that was shown at E3. The movie is available in both
MPEG and Windows Media Player format, and contains a whopping nine minutes of gameplay
footage.
PopTop Software has released the playable demo of Tropico, previously available on magazine cover disks, for download at GameSpot. The demo weighs in at a massive 172.6 MB and allows you to become a dictator on a Caribbean island (only for the duration of the game, of course).
As promised, AvPNews has released the official (but unsupported) Aliens Versus Predator Gold tools and source for download as a 10.3 MB package, containing all the level editing tools, bonus tools, source code, documentation and more that aspiring modders should need to create new maps and modifications of the three-way first-person shooter by Rebellion and Fox Interactive.
A news update on the official Steel Soldiers site ( Flash-only) gives word that this 3D action RTS by UK developers The Bitmap Brothers has apparently been completed, and "is set
for global release on 8 June 2001." (A later announcement adjusts this to June 15 for the US release.) Similarly, a news update on the official Gangsters 2: Vendetta site ( Flash required) announces that the European edition(s) of the mobster management strategy game by Hothouse Creations is finished, and will be released on June 1. There is no date for the US release yet.
Changing Our Worlds: Cyan Interview, Part I on Adrenaline Vault is a talk with Rand Miller, CEO of Cyan Worlds, about their graphics-intensive games. The Q&A covers their efforts to tell stories through their games, their most recent release realMYST, and their next project MudPie, a massively multiplayer, real-time game. A new MudPie screenshot is also included.
The International House of Mojo has an
interview with LucasArts president Simon Jeffery up today. The interview
talks in general terms about LucasArts' current and upcoming projects, and Simon
says they do have a couple of Episode II games in development, but that they
won't be repeating the onslaught of titles like they did with Episode I. He
also says that most of their Star Wars games are being outsourced, and that
this allows them to devote their internal resources to original projects.
The Caster's
Realm interviews Trammel Isaac, talking with the art director at Verant
Interactive about their upcoming massively multiplayer FPS PlanetSide. Trammel
provides some details about their plans for the game, and he comments on the
massive size of the maps on every server, what they would do in the unlikely
event that one team manages to win the war against the other two, how the in-game
economy functions and more. Thanks gamenarc for the tip.
PlanetDeusEx has updated their news
page with a letter from Warren Spector, where the designer comments on the controversial
revelation that Thief 3 and Deus Ex 2 will appear first on Microsoft's Xbox
console ( story). Despite the many statements that have been made
to the contrary, Warren says the two games will not be appearing first
on consoles, and he reassures fans that ION Storm Austin is working hard to
please fans of both games. Here's what he has to say: It never ceases
to amaze me how quickly rumors spread in this business and how willing people
are to accept rumor as fact.
Right now, there are rumors circulating on the net that Deus Ex 2 and Thief
3 will ship on console first, with PC "ports" coming later. That is
simply not true. Let me assure you that we have no plans to release a console
version of DX2 or T3 before a PC version or to compromise one version to accomodate
the needs of any other version we might develop.
Both DX2 and T3 are a ways off -- making immersive simulations takes time! --
and official announcements regarding these projects will be made in the future.
Until then, let me just say that the members of the DX2 and T3 teams, many of
whom helped create the original Thief and Deus Ex, are determined to meet and
surpass your justifiably high expectations.
Everyone in this studio is as committed to making games like Underworld, System
Shock, Thief and Deus Ex as you are committed to playing them. The vehemence
with which you've expressed your concern is ample evidence that you love these
games as much as we do. All I ask is that you trust us now as you always have
in the past. You won't be disappointed...
GSC Gameworld, the developers of Cossacks: European Wars and the tactical shooter
Venom, have announced
American Conquest, a new real-time strategy game (thanks AVault).
The game covers the period of American expansion beginning with Columbus' arrival,
and features a 3D landscape (which runs in 1024x768), up to 16,000 units per
map, 12 different nations and lots more.
Linux Games has posted a
letter they received from Timothee Besset, the project lead on GtkRadiant
who is now in charge of maintaining the Linux version of Quake III Arena. According
to Timothee's letter the different versions of Q3A all share the same source
tree, and there will still be a Linux version of the upcoming Q3A and Team Arena
point release, which will follow shortly after the release of the Win32 version.
Russian gaming site Gameport.ru has conducted an
interview with Antal Ruttmayer, the lead designer at Philos Laboratories
on their upcoming title Escape from Alcatraz. Antal talks about his background
in the industry, why the game takes place in the near future, the various characters
in the game and more. Naturally, the interview is available in both English
and the site's native Russian.
- GameSpy
GameSpy.com's post-show coverage rolls on with looks at Dungeon Siege, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Earth and Beyond, Disciples II: Dark Prophecy, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Real War, Startopia, Shattered Galaxy, Motor City Online and Majestic, an interview with Nerve Software, and even more.
- Dark Age of Camelot
Camelot Vault offers up their complete Dark Age of Camelot E3 2001 Report describing what they saw of Mythic's medieval MMORPG at the show and interviewing the developers. Additionally, several movie trailers from the press kit are available.
- Shadowbane
Similarly, part one of Shadowbane Vault's developer interview is online, quizzing the folks at Wolfpack Studios about their own fantasy MMORPG, and there is also an E3 photo gallery.
- Fuzzy/ShakeyCam
A video of the World War II Online presentation is now up at World War II Onine HQ, and HomeLan Fed has expanded their photo gallery with More E3 Pictures.
- Miscellaneous
There are some general but RPG-oriented impressions on RPG Vault and some Motor City Online impressions at VoodooExtreme, while Boobs and rubes on Salon.com (thanks eL_Nacho) is a different take on the madness of the show, the portrayment of women, and how "This year's E3 was a snapshot of an industry stuck in the geek ghetto, with little hope of breaking out."
Fan page Neocron Central has a
Q&A with Jens "Nemesis" Bremmekamp of Reakktor Media online, talking
with him about their upcoming massively multiplayer title Neocron. Jens recently
jumped from fan to developer, and he talks about this transition, as well as
what will separate Neocron from other massively multiplayer games, his average
work day and more.
Notwithstanding the fact that its completion is in jeopardy due to the demise of Charybdis ( story), this Magic & Mayhem: Art Of Magic preview on PC Zone UK takes a new look at this fantasy 3D real-time strategy sequel. They take a beta build of the game for a spin and describe the 3D engine, the gameplay, the similarities and differences to the first game, and more. A handful of new screenshots are also on display.
Massive Entertainment has released a new map pack for Ground Control, once again expanding their 3D real-time strategy game that was released last year. This fifth pack offers three new multiplayer maps, entitled SO1_TheAtoll, ES3_NoneShallPass and SK3_HillOfDeath.
There's a new Europa
Universalis Patch on the Paradox Entertainment downloads page available for
several different localized versions of the game for the cost of a two or three MB
download (depending on the version). Thanks The Patches Scrolls.
There is now a Ground Control Dark
Conspiracy page on Sierra's online store. This is to ease the process of
ordering the expansion CD, but it is still free, and the offer of the add-on
(which was to expire last month) has now been extended indefinitely. In
addition, proof of purchase of Ground Control is no longer required to order the
CD.
If it wasn't obvious before E3, loonyboi is the real console expert here, and
with him at the show, consolation suffered. Meanwhile, E3 means that there has
been as much news in this area, as there ever will be, which makes this catch-up
time. Sorry about the overload/backlog, let's just see if we can organize this
in a somewhat manageable way:
- GameCube
Nintendo
GameCube Set At Mass Market Price of $199.95
(Business Wire-thanks Well Rounded Entertainment),
E3 Nintendo rules the show
is the opinion offered by MSNBC, and Matsushita to create hybrid GameCube
(CNET) discussing of the DVD version, saying "Our hybrid digital
audio-visual product will be superior to PlayStation 2."
- PS2
Konami's
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty page has the E3 2001 MGS2 video for
download in a couple of different sizes, while there's also a ShakyCam
version on GameSpot
in case you prefer earthquake-mode, while the Gaming Intelligence Agency
is reporting that the post-E3 MGS2 media blackout has begun. Meanwhile, Movies Added to Our Impressions of
TRIBES 2 on PS2.IGN.Com offers gameplay movies, as well as the frank
assessment that playing TRIBES 2 without a mouse and keyboard, well... it's
just not good, okay? It may not matter, as the GameSpot's
Hands-on PS2 TRIBES 2 points out that USB mouse and keyboard support are
probably forthcoming, and that the PS2 and PC versions will not be
interoperable online anyway. There's a Interview with Randy Pitchford
on PS2.IGN.Com discussing progress on PS2 Half-Life. There are PS2
Giants previews on PS2.IGN.Com
and GameSpot.
The Lost interview on
PS2.IGN.com has been found, there are a couple of minutes of Baldur's Gate- Dark Alliance
footage on GameSpot
as well as a
NOLF PS2 movie, a RUNE:
Viking Warlord movie, and First Impressions
of PS2 Deus Ex.
- Dreamcast
Dreamcast
Black And White No Longer To Be Published By SEGA reports
Dreamcast.IGN.Com, as the sun sinks slowly in the west for Sega's system,
which is seeming more abandoned all the time.
- Xbox
There are Halo
impressions on Core Magazine, featuring ShakyCam movies, while there are
new Halo gameplay movies on GameSpot,
while XBox.IGN.Com has a Halo preview,
a Fellowship of the Ring preview,
an Unreal Championship preview,
an Obi-Wan preview,
and a Project Ego preview,
while Project Ego is also previewed on MSXbox.
Finally, there are also New Legends First Impressions
on GameSpot.
The CPL Europe and Where
it’s Heading on Turtled.com discusses what went right and wrong at this
year's CPL Holland event, contemplating the future of such events in an article
that includes commentary from the two heads of the CPL Europe. Meanwhile, word
from The CPL is that Recon 2000
(June 29-July 2, Washington, D.C.) will be the first third party LAN event
recognized as a Qualifier Tournament for the upcoming CPL World Championship
Event planned for Dallas, TX, December 6-9, 2001.
XENTAX.COM has the release of a new beta
version 3.2b of the MultiEx commander utility. The new version 3.2 is basically
the same as the old version 3.2 released last week ( story), but
the installer program has been fixed to operate properly under Windows ME and
Windows 2000. Also, the Valve Editing Resource Center
(formerly the Half-Life ERC) has re-opened for all your editing needs, obviously
the focus is still Half-Life for the moment.
- There's an eRacer
demo on AVault offering single-player auto racing, or multiplayer play
over the Internet...
- This Shadowbane Press Release
announces plans for phase 2 of beta testing for this upcoming MMORPG, and
gives some details on what it will involve, though there doesn't seem to be
a hint of how to participate if you are interested...
- The Action Vault's
Danny Pelfrey Interview talking about the music he's composed for Star
Trek titles like Elite Force, Away Team, Armada, and upcoming games like
Bridge Commander and Borg Assimilator...
Do you ever have one of those occasions where you find yourself almost immediately
embroiled in a situation so related to something you just commented on, it really
makes you worry it's possible to "jinx" yourself? Yesterday not a
couple of hours after a conversation with a friend about what a great thing it
is to have road-side assistance, I actually managed to run out of gas (while my
car presumes a stupid American will be driving it and goes 90 miles after the
fuel gage reaches empty, I was in MrsBlue's car, which seems to presume a more
precise approach, and once the fuel gauge hits zero you can continue on as far as
you can roll with a dead engine). Anyway, I called roadside assistance (who will
remain nameless, because I don't want to embarrass VW of America), who told me
it would take an hour to get someone to me with a gas can (which they would try
to expedite because I wasn't stopped on a proper shoulder), only to call back
after an hour saying they couldn't find anyone in my area at all, and if I could
find help myself, I would be reimbursed. When I asked how I was supposed to do
this from the car (to me, this seemed to be their job), she offered to find me some
phone numbers to try. So I did what any right thinking person did and hung up on
her. I managed to get a local guy after another hour or so, and from now on I
know I'll have a slightly more cynical approach to the miracle of road-side
assistance... or at least that's all I'll have to say on the subject if asked...
it's not that I really believe in jinxes, but who needs to take that kind of
chance again?
Link of the Day: The stupid
sausage. Actually, this is the smartest sausage I've ever encountered.
Thanks Ligur.
Story of the Day: Couple stuck 'like Siamese twins' during sex
(Ananova). No word if neighborhood dogs tried to separate them by spraying them
with a garden hose. Thanks Hooligan.
Auction of the Day: Gwot Man Glasses.
That's right, don't forget your stuff at trade shows. Thanks Polycount.
Media of the Day: DemoMan
does the BeeGees (Flash required). Thanks Ant.
|
Twitter 
