Archived News:
An extensive update on the official World War II Online site brings reflections by game manager Mike Weber, producer Chirs Sherland and executive producer Mark Pribe on the completion of the beta test of Cornered Rat's massively multiplayer war simulation, as well as a look forward to the game's release on June 6. Additionally, a pre-release FAQ offers more factual information on what is about to happen, including a reset of their game world (not the real world, fortunately) that "will mark the first cycle of the Blitzkrieg theater."
As noted on both the official site and Silicon Ice Development, the new beta 2 of Urban Terror is now available for download from multiple mirrors. Urban Terror is a Quake III Arena mod "based on action and realism" and the new release is available in a straightforward ZIP file or as Windows and Mac installers, all clocking in around 68 MB.
- Startopia
Eidos Interactive sent along a new set of high-res Startopia screenshots illustrating the amusing 3D space station management game nearing completion at Mucky Foot.
- AquaNox
An update on the official AquaNox site brings four new screenshots of Massive Development's underwater action game starting with this one, as well as a few changes to the FAQ among other bits and pieces.
- Pool of Radiance
Russian site GamePort has posted four new Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor screenshots illustrating the isometric role-playing game being crafted at Stormfront Studios.
- Heart of Winter Add-on
As noted on the official Icewind Dale site, the name Trials of the Luremaster has now been coined for the Heart of Winter Dungeon Set that will be released later this month as a free download, and there are four new screenshots to show what it looks like.
- Bridge Commander
There is a new screenshot of the week on the official Star Trek: Bridge Commander site that depicts an in-engine cutscene in the Totally Games' space sim.
- 3rd World
Fansite 3rd World Central has received a new pair of 3rd World screenshots showing off the massively multiplayer space RPG by developers XYZ Team.
- Poseidon
Impressions Games has released another half dozen Zeus: Poseidon screenshots of the upcoming expansion in their ancient city building strategy game series.
- Stung!
Adrenaline Vault has posted the first three screenshots of Stung!, a third-person action game by Prey Digital Studios where you play an insect in the basement of a long-abandoned research center.
- IL-2 Sturmovik
Back on GamePort, they also have another IL-2 Sturmovik gallery online with eight more aerial scenes in the WWII flight sim by 1C Maddox Games.
AvPNews has posted a new Aliens Vs. Predator 2 movie trailer, offering a variety of in-game footage from Monolith's upcoming first-person shooter sequel. The movie weighs in at 33.9 MB in AVI format but the download seems rather slow already, so you can keep yourself entertained with the JavaScript Predator target laser while you wait for it to complete. Update: The movie download is no longer available due to server overload and no other mirrors are currently known.
GameSpot has posted Behind
Closed Doors at Click Entertainment, a streaming media feature that sheds
some light on the developer of Throne of Darkness. The feature contains a tour
of the Click offices, a video preview of Throne of Darkness and an interview
with Ben Haas and Isaac Gartner, where the two co-founders talk about how the
company was started. If you don't meet the beefy requirements of the main Behind
Closed Doors page, the individual pieces are available in smaller chunks on
GameSpot's
Throne of Darkness media page.
The latest and last (for the time being) Red Faction Friday at the official site brings the usual trio of media items for Volition's first-person shooter of destructable enemies and environments. There is a new screenshot of the PS2 version (which was recently released), the Control Baton weapon is introduced, and a soundtrack MP3 called Tensionitis is also available for download.
Two dozen installments, and E3 is still coming back to haunt you. ![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif)
- Ghost Recon
Gamesmania's latest E3 preview recalls their impressions of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, the outdoors-oriented squad-based tactical shooter for PC and Xbox that was officially announced at the show by Red Storm and Ubi Soft.
- Vault Network
Action Vault has their AquaNox E3 Report online covering the submersed 3D action game by Massive Development, while a double bill sees RPG Vault reporting back on Troika's Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura and Turbine's Asheron's Call Sequel.
- Warcraft III
Blizzard's 3D roleplaying RTS Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is the subject of E3 investigations by GamesFirst and Neoseeker, the latter being the more comprehensive one.
- Recaps
Neoseeker has also posted their E3 2001 Report Day 2 sharing their experiences in the Kentia Hall among other sections of the L.A. Convention Center, while it took nearly two weeks of disabled forums to insure that Azraelot's E3 2001 Diary appeared on Stratos Group (but we can't reopen them just yet now that it's done). Finally, E3 2001: The RPGs on GameBanshee is a comprehensive report on all the role-playing games they saw, with a few strategy-oriented titles thrown in for good measure.
- ShakyCam
Another day, another E3 video on Czech gaming site BonusWeb, today offering ShakyCam footage of Age of Mythology in which Ensemble's 3D RTS is demonstrated for about six minutes.
Tempest Tek has conducted a
Q&A with Dave Baranec, a programmer at Volition on the PC version of
Red Faction. Dave talks about the differences between the PC and PS2 versions
of the game (the latter of which has already been released) and the complications
involved in designing a game with their GeoMod engine, which allows for players
to deform the environment at will. Thanks Voodoo Extreme for the tip.
Computer and Video Games has posted more details on Maelstrom, the space combat and first-person shooter title in the works at Virgin Interactive. According to their report, Epic Games is "heavily involved" with the project, which uses the Unreal engine, as they are "working hard on the game's code" while Virgin's development team handles the graphics, level design and gameplay. The story also reiterates that the game is to appear first on the Playstation 2 later this year, but PC and Xbox versions are scheduled for 2002. Update: This story on VoodooExtreme refutes the report, quoting Epic's Mark Rein that they "don't code other people's games."
A Startopia Is Born on EuroGamer is an article-style interview with Gary Carr, lead designer at Mucky Foot, about their upcoming 3D management strategy game. Gary explains their influences, the diversity of the alien races occupying the game's space station, the multiplayer side, and how close they are to finishing the game, along with the proverbial more.
BarrysWorld has conducted an interview on Steel Soldiers (or Z: Steel Soldiers, as it's called in Europe), talking to The Bitmap Brothers lead designer Jamie Barber about their 3D action RTS that is due in stores later this month. Jamie talks about how the game follows up on the original Z, features like the territory system and the use of line-of-sight (rather than fog-of-war), the multiplayer options, and a few other topics.
Also on BarrysWorld today is a new TRIBES 2 interview, quizzing Dynamix assistant producer Daryl Nichols on the occasion of a recent LAN party in London. Daryll comments on the game's reception since its release in March, mod development, the challenge of combatting cheaters, and more, and also shares his views on the game industry in general.
The official Parsec site offers a new work in progress update on this space combat project that, once completed, aims to deliver a commercial quality game for the price of a free download. The update gives word that a new release is being prepared that will include new spacecraft and weapons as well as other features and bug fixes, and their object conversion tool will be released at the same time. Accompanying the update is a new screenshot of the month, and early last month they also made the slides of a presentation on "Parsec: Linux and Cross-Platform Game Development" available for download.
Voodoo Extreme has conducted a
Q&A with Andrew Brazier of Headfirst Productions, talking with him about
their upcoming first person freakfest Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.
Andrew talks about how the game balances action and RPG aspects, their unique
approach (or lack thereof) to the game's HUD, their plans for multiplayer and
more.
Phantagram has released a map pack for Kingdom Under Fire, their isometric role-playing RTS that was released early this year. The pack takes only 1.3 MB to download but offers a whopping 10 official maps and 17 custom maps, all listed in more detail on the page (although the three ranking maps also mentioned are not included in the pack).
A log from yesterday's IRC chat with members of the MechCommander 2 development
team is
up at fan page MekTek. There is a lot of info in here about the game, dealing
with everything from the various Mech skills that are available to their localization
plans for the game.
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Then you can check a new AquaNox interview at Austrian site Player.at, otherwise you'll have to console yourself with a rough translation via Babel Fish. One or more unnamed developers at German company Massive Development answer questions about their underwater action game, including its backstory, their Krass engine and its support for the GeForce3, the development progress that should lead to a release in September, and more.
Part two of the NWN Adventure Creation Guide
on GameSpy.Com, actually gets underway with an account of the creation
process on BioWare's upcoming RPG following up on their
NWN Adventure Creation Guide Part 1 that acted as a table-setter. The
process under discussion is not the nuts-and-bolts of creating gameplay, but
rather the art of filling in the details of the storyline that is so essential
in RPGs. Meanwhile, also on the subject of Neverwinter Nights, the RPG Vault Chat page is where to
go next Thursday (June 7) if you are interested in attending a chat session with BioWare
to discuss progress on the game. The session, which can also be
attended using traditional IRC software by joining the channel #ignvault on the
server host17.webmaster.com, will begin at 9:00 PM Eastern Time, and
members of the NWN team will be on hand to answer your questions.
An article on Inside
Mac Games quotes GarageGames president Jeff Tunnell saying that they already
have a version of V12 (the upcoming distribution version of the TRIBES 2 engine)
running on the Macintosh platform, which may be off to duplication as early as
next week. The article also quotes the associate working on the Mac code who
describes the current state of the port, and goes on to speculate what would
need to happen to create a Mac version of TRIBES 2 (for which no announcement
has ever been made).
There are some
PS2 No One Lives Forever screenshots on PS2Faction (thanks Shacknews).
Also, Yuji Naka on Gamecube on
Cube.IGN.com (Snowball registration required). Meanwhile, IGN Xbox Interviews WXP's Patrick Moyniham.
A report on Core Magazine
announces plans for a new version of the PS2 that will go on sale in Japan
offering a bundle of Gran Turismo 3 A-SPEC, and the thrills of red packaging(!).
Finally, Online tournament announced for UT Dreamcast
on Gamespot has details on the upcoming Grandmasters: Unreal Tournament
event.
Registration for the CPL World Championship Event
will begin this evening at 9:00 PM Eastern time. The event is scheduled for
December 6-9, 2001 in the Hyatt Regency Dallas Hotel in Dallas, TX, and will
feature a Counter-Strike tournament with a $150,000 prize package. In a
semi-related note, there is an article about the upcoming CPL 4th anniversary
event on the
GodGames website that mentions the fact that it will be dedicated to the
late Doug "Fresh" Myres.
The Planet Duke Duke Nukem
Forever FAQ has been revised as it now features information from the former
Official DNF FAQ (this list of frequently asked questions about 3D Realms'
upcoming shooter now has the "official" designation).
Relic Entertainment's Mod Information Survey
is looking for mod authors to answer some questions that will help them offer
better support when they launch their upcoming Relic Developer Network.
The Enemy Spawner Tutorial
on Serious Editing is their latest guide to creating your own levels for
Croteam's Serious Sam, demonstrating, as the title suggests, how to create those
enemy spawners that are used so extensively in the game.
This
page on Gamasutra (login required) offers details on a pay-per-model
position open at Shiny Entertainment to create weapons models for their upcoming
game based on the next Matrix film. Likewise, the Planeshift
team is looking for additions to their upcoming free MMORPG that will use the
Crystal Space engine.
Thanks to MrBrewer and subsequently regis, who both sent along word of a
no-poison solution to the grub situation I've been going on about that has
turned my backyard into the skunk version of McDonalds, which I'll pass along in
case it helps anyone else so afflicted. The trick is the use of some stuff
galled Grub
Guard which contains "beneficial nematodes," which are
"naturally-occurring microorganisms that live in the soil, feeding on
Japanese beetle grubs." From what I've been able to read, this is an
environmentally-friendly solution to the problem, and apparently the nematodes,
which are not considered harmful anyway, will die off in the winter frost,
halting any thoughts that this will become a lyric in "There was an old
lady who swallowed a fly" (though the idea of a science fiction movie plot
launching in my own yard is sort of appealing as well).
Happy Birthday to Alanis Morissette (thanks Chris
Morris), who turns 27 today. And to think yesterday she was 26... isn't that
ironic?
Link of the Day: Underground
(Flash or Shockwave, or something required). Thanks EvilToast. "Break
dancing superstars in the subway!"
Bonus Link: Skunks As Pets. I
can supply you with all the grubs to feed them you could want. Thanks Pr0ducer.
Story of the Day: Nutria: The
Other Red Meat (Fox). Thanks theAntiiELVIS. More varmints.
Weird Science: Conference
Boosts the Latest in Fashionable Headgear — a Computer (Fox). Thanks again
theAntiiELVIS.
Media of the Day: The
Goo Gripper (AP Photo). Thanks Joe Siegler.
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