Archived News:
PC.IGN has conducted an interview
with Martin Amor, the lead programmer on Anarchy Online. Martin talks about
the current beta test, and he also comments on how close the game has come to
the team's original vision, how helpful the community has been in its development
and more.
GameSpy Daily has conducted an
interview with Greg Uhler, the producer at Presto Studios on Myst III: Exile.
Greg talks about how the adventure game genre has changed since the early days
of Myst and Presto's own Journeyman Project and the challenges involved in creating
a new Myst game.
Tonight at 9:00 PM EDT XGR.com will be broadcasting their
interview with Mike Dizkitt, one of the lead programmers on Startopia, the
strategy game from Mucky Foot that recently went gold. To tune in, make sure
you have a SHOUTcast capable audio player and head
over to XGR.
There is a new Disciples II: Dark Prophecy diary on GameSpot this evening, and in this seventh installment Strategy First artist Alexandre Rodrigue talks about work on the battle backgrounds and other artwork in this turn-based strategy game. Specific challenges include the isometric maps and lighting as well as the texture work, and there are four new screenshots to show some results.
GameSpot continues to post their series of E3 video interviews with
tonight's
Mafia: City of Lost Heaven movie. Like all the previous ones it's available
in a number of streaming and downloadable formats, and it features Illusion
Softworks CEO Petr Vochozka demonstrating the game.
- Renegade
Westwood has added eight new Command & Conquer: Renegade screenshots (followed by seven familiar ones) atop the official gallery for their upcoming first- and third-person action game.
- Zero-G Marines
There is a new pair of Zero-G Marines screenshots (along with a few familiar ones) on XGR, showing off the space-based first-person shooter in development at Strategy First.
- Sea Dogs 2
The first three screenshots in the official Sea Dogs 2 gallery offer new scenes in the sea-faring 3D role-playing sequel by Akella.
- DarkSpace
Several updates over the past few days to the official DarkSpace gallery bring a total of 15 new screenshots of the multiplayer space combat sim currently docking at Palestar.
- MechCommander 2
GameVisions has posted a brief but hands-on MechCommander 2 preview based on the increasingly ubiquitous beta of Microsoft's 3D RTS, including two dozen new screenshots along the way.
- StarTopia
Similarly, an even shorter preview of StarTopia on BarrysWorld includes only three new screenshots of the imminent 3D management strategy game by Mucky Foot.
- Anarchy Online
With Anarchy Online inching ever closer to release at the end of this month, more screenshots of the ongoing beta test have surfaced at RPG Vault, MMO@Gameznet, and AO Forge.
Hothouse Creations has released a playable demo of Gangsters 2: Vendetta, available for download at FilePlanet (if you're willing to register and deal with their new download system, that is). The demo weighs in at a massive 152.6 MB, and Eidos Interactive announced today that the full game is now shipping to retail stores. Update: A mirror is now available at GameSpot.
Turbo B1, billed as "the
final official release" of this Half-Life mod, is now available. This version
contains dramatically tweaked gameplay, a new headlight, a new map and more.
It's available for download, along with the source code at Randomnine Labs.
After we received word of this
news story at Eurogamer that reports that French publisher Microids is now
listed as the current publisher of Warrior Kings, the upcoming RTS from developer
Black Cactus, we contacted Sierra which was originally slated to publish the
game. Here's the statement we were given from the European division of Vivendi
Universal, the parent company of Sierra (note that Eurogamer is reporting that
the game will ship in November, despite suggestions to the contrary here): Vivendi-Universal
Interactive Publishing International has decided to cease financing and publishing
the game Warrior Kings(c) from Black Cactus. This decision has been taken due
to new development dates, which would suggest that the title will not fit into
the current 2001 release schedule and strategy for Vivendi-Universal Publishing.
Korean company Jamie Systems Development has released a new demo of Axis, their robotic multiplayer first-person shooter. The demo includes two new maps entitled Starfield and Asgard that weren't in the previous demo ( story), and it comes in 24.9 MB (with music) and 17.2 MB (without) flavors.
Gamesmania
interviews Todd Howard, talking with the Project Leader at Bethesda Softworks
about their upcoming RPG The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Todd talks about
how the game fits into The Elder Scrolls universe, and he also discusses the
differences between the Xbox and PC versions of the game and the features of
the Morrowind Construction Set that will be shipping with the game.
Swiss gaming site Gameplex has conducted a
Q&A with Antal Ruttmayer of Philos Laboratories, talking with him about
their upcoming title Escape from Alcatraz. The questions deal with the game's
overall concept, how linear the gameplay is, how players will interact with
NPCs and more. The Q&A is available in both English
and German and features four new screenshots.
Computer Games Online has posted a
preview of PlanetSide, the upcoming massively multiplayer FPS from EverQuest
developers Verant Interactive. The preview features quotes from designer Kevin
McCann, as well as six new screenshots.
DreamWorks and Electronic Arts have released a patch for Clive Barker's Undying, available for download from EA's ftp server (3.7 MB). The accompanying Readme.txt offers detailed installation instructions, and tersely describes this version 1.0 patch as addressing "known texture-related issues within the game."
A new preview
of Praetorians, the upcoming strategy game from Pyro Studios and Eidos Interactive
is up at PCZone this morning. The screenshots here are all old, but the preview
does contain new quotes from project leader Javier Arevalo, who talks about
what separates Praetorians from the other RTS games out there.
GameSpy.com Previews Emperor Battle for Dune
and Gamespot
Australia Previews Emperor Battle for Dune after rushing to Vegas to get
some hands-on time with the now-gold Dune strategy game before it ships to
stores. The following introductory sentence from fearless Fargo's preview sums
up what you are getting here: "GameSpy doesn't review games until we've
played the whole way through them, so take this preview for what it is: some
first impressions of the game, hands on, after playing it for three or four
furious hours in both multiplayer and singleplayer mode."
The show was in March, but there's a new GDC
impressions article on GameSlice written by Wagner James Au, pointing out
that "at an initial press briefing, the GDC spokeswoman begged reporters
not to put a 'game industry suffering after the NASDAQ downturn' spin
on their coverage." Of course, the article goes on to discuss the somber
nature of the show in light of the economic downturn the industry has taken,
along with extensive, detailed impressions of several of the show's
presentations.
There's an Interview with Bill Brown
on the Muse's Muse (thanks Stomped)
discussing his successful career making music for the soundtracks of both games
(Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear, Undying) and movies ( Any Given Sunday, Trapped,
Finding Forrester) about Ghost Recon, his current project, and the industry
in general. Also, there's an interview
with Inon Zur on RPGDot talking with one of the composers of the music for
Throne of Bhaal, the imminent expansion pack for Baldur's Gate II in the first
part of a pair of Q&As that will continue with a Howard Drossin interview
later today. Finally, on the subject of music, there's another
Paradise Cracked tune on FREELANCER with the latest slice of the soundtrack
from the upcoming action/RPG from MiST land and Buka Entertainment in .mp3
format.
- New NVIDIA Chip
NVidia Rolls Dice on New Chip
on Wired looks at the nForce chipset. Thanks WarPig[doh], while there is
another nForce
Preview on PlanetHardware.
- Dual AMD CPUs
There's a look at AMD's new dual CPU chipset
on SimHQ.com,
AMDZone, Amdmb.com,
and CPUReview.
- New CPUCooL
A new version of the CPUCooL
utility is now available. Thanks File Flash.
- DVD+RW
According to The Adrenaline Vault
"AOpen has announced a new DVD+RW product that writes CD-R and RW media
as well as 4.7 GB DVD+RW media," though the announcement doesn't seem
online anywhere, and there is no info on the product yet on Aopen's
Optical Device page.
- Stereo Support
The
Unofficial NVIDIA stereoscopic driver support page is online.
- Carmack on PPC Performance
A post to the Articles x86 vs PPC Linux benchmarks
thread on Slashdot by John Carmack (thanks Jacek Fedoryñski) offers the
id lead programmer's assessment of his PPC versus X86 benchmarks, saying
"I'll be right there trumpeting it when I get a Mac that runs my tests
faster than any x86 hardware, but it hasn't happened yet. This is about
measurements, not tribal identity, but some people always wind up being
deeply offended by it..."
Sega and Sony to Link Game Consoles Via Internet
(thanks devilbunny). Also, Sony Cuts U.K. PS2 Price
(FGN) and the PS2 price in
Japan (Core), as well. NGC Spec Change
(FGN) reports that "ATI has changed some of the latest specs of Gamecube's
core components." Meanwhile, id Software and Activision Save the Cosmos With the Release Of Commander
Keen for Nintendo's Game Boy Color is the GBC Keen release PR. Also, Voodoo Extreme
interviews Digital Extremes talking about progress on the upcoming version
of Unreal for the Xbox. There's also a Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
GBA preview on Pocket.IGN.com. Sun
Brews a Hot Cup of Java for PS2 on Gamers.com describes plans to bring the
joy of Java (crash boom!) to consoles. Also, Teamxbox.com
interviews Julio Torres talking with the Obi Wan assistant producer (thanks GameSpyDaily).
Finally, State of the Xbox vol. 4
on xbox.com talks about the Xbox dashboard (and no, there was no green pill
in The Matrix).
GameFAQs'
Summoner Walkthrough is now complete, covering the PC version of this RPG.
Also, the FragZone's TRIBES 2 Pilot's
Guide has been updated (including a load of new tactics), and is now up to
version 2.0. Also, a
new FAQ section has been added to Shadowbane.Com.
Finally, The Gamers Press'
Kohan- Immortal Sovereigns for Bad-Asses Who Only Play at the Hard Level guide
is online.
I had a network cable fail on me while I was in the middle of using my computer
yesterday, but it still worked when plugged into another machine, which, as you
can imagine, added some wasted time to troubleshooting the problem. Very weird,
but just another
episode for the computer X-Files I guess.
So hey, how about those Blue's News t-shirts, eh? Thanks to loony, Steve at
tha Shack, and the GameSkins folks for helping get this together. Look for
values of the rare first run of Blue's News t-shirts from "The Fray"
to shoot up in value any minute now.
Link of the Day: Hobbit Name Generator.
Thanks Biggles and Ant, who is Lardo
Maggot (I'm Mungo Chubb of Deephollow, myself).
Story of the Day: Last Adams book planned
(BBC News). Thanks Slashdot.
Bonus Story: The Reviewer Who Wasn’t There
(MSNBC). "The Manning fabrication broke even Hollywood’s lax rules. But
the real scandal is what’s considered acceptable."
Media of the Day: A Steve Purcell Samples
page on the At-Large Features Syndicate site offers a sample Sam & Max
comic, apparently as a test for print syndication.
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