Archived News:
RPGDot has received word from German developer Piranha Bytes that they have started development of a sequel to Gothic, their third-person role-playing adventure that was released earlier this Spring. However, since it appeared only in their home country Germany, an online petition has been started to gauge interest in a release elsewhere, which would presumably also help a foreign release of the sequel, once completed. And rounding out this spate of Gothic news, an update on the official Gothic site gives word of the imminent release of a Software Development Kit for the game, naturally in the German language only.
- Wolfenstein
There is a new E3 preview of Return to Castle Wolfenstein on PC Zone UK, describing what they saw of Gray Matter's first-person shooter at the show. Also, Belgian site SpelletjesGarnaal offers up another ShakyCam video in streaming or downloadable Windows Media Player format, featuring some six minutes of gameplay demonstration (as well as heavy interlacing and even less focus than most ShakyCam videos).
- Dungeon Siege
A E3 2001 Dungeon Siege Preview appeared on Dungeon Siege Vault yesterday that includes impressions of Gas Powered Games' 3D role-playing game, a Q&A with lead designer Chris Taylor, and a 15 minute ShakyCam video of the game demonstration they saw (which only became available today, so we chose to not report on this prematurely yesterday).
- RPG Vault
Like clockwork, the main RPG Vault site has posted their E3 reports on Bethesda's Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Silverback's Harbinger.
- FuzzyCam
There is another photo collection from the show at GameCritics, highlighting the Convention Center, company booths, celebrities and characters, and, of course, booth babes.
A couple of updates on the official PlanetSide site bring two new screenshots for the massively multiplayer first-person shooter in the works at Verant, as well as a new Producer's Letter in which Steve "Moonshine" George talks about the game's reception at E3, expansion of the development team, and recent improvements to the game, including integration of the physics system into the engine, better character animation, and more.
The official Echelon site offers a patch for the futuristic combat flyer by Madia and Buka (thanks VoodooExtreme). The patch comes as a 1.0 MB download that "corrects an error in the Instant Action missions and also allows installation on Pentium 1 or K6 machines." Update: If you're having difficulty applying the patch despite the extensive readme.txt file that is included, then Echelon HQ has some installation tips.
The Valkyrie Studios News page points the way to newly opened Seraphim fansite Angelois, where two new interviews on the developer of this upcoming Unreal-engine powered angelic flying action game are posted. First up is a talk with CEO Cathy Court about the company, their previous game Septerra Core, the gaming industry, and more, while the second interview with lead designer Brian Babendererde covers his thoughts on the relation between developers and publishers, his work and the influences on Seraphim, the challenges for small developers, and a couple related topics.
GameSpot has posted another one of their E3 video interviews, this
time with Microsoft's Christopher Lye, who talks about Dungeon Siege. Like
all of their recent videos, it features him talking about and demonstrating
the game, and it features ShakyCam gameplay footage. It is currently only available
in streaming media format.
After earlier auto-updates ( story), Westwood has now also released downloadable version 1.006 patches for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 on their ftp server. The patches clock in at around 2.8 MB and are available in your choice of English (direct link), German, French, Korean and Chinese. Additionally, the promised Final Alert 2 editor is now available as a 3.3 MB download, and more information on it can be found here.
A new
edition of the Freedom Force diary at GameSpot is online this evening. This
latest installment is by lead designer Jonathan Chey, and he talks about "player
intent" and how it influenced the game's simple interface. There are also
some new screenshots up alongside the diary.
Gamasutra has posted one of their famed postmortems, this time scrutinizing No One Lives Forever, the acclaimed first-person shooter by Monolith. Written by the game's lead designer Craig Hubbard, the article describes how they started its development after finishing Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, what went right and wrong along the way, and how they're applying those lessons, summarizing in: "Historically, Monolith has always been brilliant at making mistakes. We've already done most of the boneheaded things that tend to sink development studios. Fortunately, we've also been exceedingly lucky when it comes to surviving these mistakes."
Funcom has updated their site
with the news that they have mailed out CD registration keys for all the
over 100,000 people that applied for the Anarchy Online beta. If you signed
up you can expect to receive one within 24 hours, and information and download
links are available
here.
New goodies from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind are
up at its official site this afternoon. Details on the Orc race have been
added to the playable races section, a new wallpaper image is available and
there is also a new diary entry from programmer Kerry Sergent, who talks about
creating the game's AI.
The official iROCK site has been updated with a
status report on their upcoming title Ozzy Ozborne's Black Skies. In addition
to the brief text about the latest Black Skies happenings, there are four new
screenshots and an excerpt from the game's title track in MP3 format. Four additional screenshots are available on the dedicated Black Skies page.
The Global Warfare page
has an updated Linux server for this just-released modification for Half-Life.
It seems there was a problem with the version posted earlier that supplied
players with the wrong weaponry, and even contained bugs from the promo version
of the mod. Word from the team is that downloading and installing the new
version "...will make your gaming experience one hundred times
better."
In an unprecedented move, Cornered Rat Software, Playnet and Strategy First
have
issued a press release announcing their plans to indefinitely extend the
clock on the 30 day free trial of the game while they work out their server
problems (thanks Torgen). Here's the anouncement: Montreal, Quebec. June
8th, 2001 – Playnet.com, Cornered Rat Software and Strategy First announced
today that they will be “stopping the clocks” on the free 30 day trial
period they are giving players that have purchased a retail copy of World War
II Online.
“We’re working to catch up with the overwhelming response to the game’s
release and having to scale our infrastructure to address it. Until we are able
solve some of these challenges we want people to be able to experience the game
without losing days from their free trial period, ”says Al Corey, Marketing
Manager for Playnet.com.
“Once players are inside the game, ”says Adam Phillips, Product Manager
for Strategy First, “they are loving it! We understand the frustration
many are feeling trying to access the game. We apologize and ask that they continue
to be patient until these issues can be dealt with. I think they’ll discover
it is well worth the wait.”
Yesterday, an announcement was made that Cornered Rat Software and Playnet.com
had determined that the problems players were facing trying to get into the
game were hardware related. This is still the case and team members are working
around the clock to ensure that these issues are addressed as efficiently as
possible.
Strategy First and Playnet.com will make an announcement to inform players of
when the 30 day trial period will commence again. Until that time, players will
not suffer any loss of “free online play.”
PC Zone has posted a
preview of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, the upcoming single player retail
Counter-Strike product from Valve. The preview contains a wealth of new information
about the game, and it says that there will be 16 levels for both the terrorist
and counter-terrorist teams (32 in all), and that the general gameplay will
be similar to that of the current version of CS. It also says that there will
be a multiplayer component, although it's unclear whether or not this will replace
or enhance the current Counter-Strike. There are also some new screenshots and
character renders, which represent the first real glimpse at the game in action.
A new preview
of Sovereign, the massively multiplayer RTS from EverQuest creators Verant
Interactive is up at Computer Games Online this morning. The preview is brief,
but it contains quotes from producer Clint Worley as well as new character renders
and screenshots.
There is a Real War demo on Tucows that seems to have gone largely unnoticed when it appeared online a month ago. A 94.3 MB download, this demo originated from a PC Gamer cover CD-ROM, and offers a training mission and two actual missions in the realistic isometric RTS under construction at Rival Interactive. Thanks Chohan for the tip.
3D Games Zone has posted a
Q&A with Ragnar Tornquist, game director at Funcom on their massively
multiplayer title Midgard which was announced at last month's E3 Expo. Ragnar
explains why they decided to base the game on Norse mythology, what will make
it different from the other massively multiplayer titles out there, and how
they are attempting to mix elements from RPGs and RTS games.
After a false start last week ( story), the official Global Warfare site now has a beta 1.0 release available for download. Global Warfare is a team-based multiplayer Half-Life mod with a variety of objectives and gameplay modes, and you can grab either the Windows client/server at 49.9 MB or the Linux server at 35.9 MB.
Multicast Spectator Tech for Half-Life
on GameSpy.Com is the promised third and final installment in their series
of articles based on stuff they learned during a recent visit to Valve Software.
This piece looks at the proprietary multicast spectator technology that will
allow spectators, make that scads of spectators to view online games
without impacting gameplay. How many to a scad? Well, they bandy about the term
millions in a way that would make Bill Gates feel at home. Like the voice
communication feature mentioned in yesterday's article ( story),
this is expected in the upcoming version 1.1.0.7 Half-Life patch, planned for
release "later this month."
Voodoo Extreme's
Aliens versus Predator interview talks with David Stalker, producer on Fox
and Monolith's upcoming shooter sequel, to pick his brains about the project.
Topics covered in the conversation include the game's storyline, special weapons
and abilities of each of the three classes, multiplayer play, and more. Included
are a couple of new screenshots and some higher-resolution versions of some
previously-published shots.
There's an
edited Neverwinter Nights Chat Log on RPG Vault and another on Neverwinter Vault
(I'm sure the duplication is nobody's vault) taken from last nights IRC shindig
with the folks at BioWare about Neverwinter Nights, discussing all sorts of
nuts-and-bolts aspects of gameplay in their upcoming RPG. Those logs are edited,
but are still in IRC format, while there's a
Neverwinter Nights Chat Log on Skullport from the same event, and apart from
the introductory portion, the log has been edited into an orderly Q&A
format.
An
article on PC Zone describes plans by Codemasters to roll out a new
anti-piracy measure called FADE for the release of Operation Flashpoint. The
report quotes Codemasters as saying: "Anyone attempting to play an illegal
copy of Operation Flashpoint will begin with a game that looks and plays just
like the real thing...However, over a period of time, the game gradually
self-modifies and degrades elements of play to a point where the game is no
longer playable."
A "final" version 2.0 of the 007 Quake2
modification is now available offering gameplay inspired by the Ian Fleming hero
for Quake II. Version 2.0 includes seven maps, deathmatch and CTF modes, six
preset weapon layouts, GL Fog, locational damage, and more.
GameSpot's
PS2 Drakan II Preview is online, looking ahead at the "true sequel to
the original Drakan (that) is absolutely, positively, not a port." Also, Galleon Stuns Onlookers
reports FGN, though it's screenshots of the upcoming Xbox title, rather than
phasers, that are the weapon here. Finally. The
Unreal Championship website has gone live.
GameSpot's Myst III Exile Game Guide
is online. This is actually two guides, one a text-only guide to solving puzzles
that offers minimal spoilers, and the other a complete walk-through with
details, screenshots, concession stands, the whole nine yards.
Sign-ups are now underway for Sav LAN 2,
a LAN event to be held in Coventry, UK on August 10-12 that will be host to the Savage European Quake 3 CTF Championship Finals.
The Valve Editing Resource Center
has preliminary information for those looking to create or edit levels for the
just released Deathmatch Classic for Half-Life, including game data files for
Worldcraft 2.x and 3.x and a custom CSG compile tool. Also, the Global Warfare
website has posted a Worldcraft .fgd file for those looking to create their
own maps for this Half-Life modification.
- The 3D Realms Site has a
mailing list you can sign up for and be informed when pre-orders are being
taken for Duke Nukem Forever and Max Payne...
- Word on Unreal Asia
is that Clive Barker's Undying has been pulled from local stores in
Singapore "following complaints that it contained graphic elements
which were objectionable to Muslims"...
When I ordered the Nematodes to address the grubs/Albert Hall situation in my
backyard, the woman I spoke with at the Gardening supply place sold me on some
other stuff she said I should use while waiting for the Nematodes. She explained
that this other product would arrive first anyway, and would offer better
overall results than the 'todes alone. I told her of my fears of using poisons
in the yard, and she assured me this was just a pure oil extract (making it
sound like it may also be good for cooking). Well, the stuff arrived yesterday,
and I don't think toxic waste drums carry the kind of dire warning labels that
this stuff does. Not only am I afraid to use it on my yard, I'm afraid to have
it in my house! In fact, I'm afraid to throw it away -- I think I have to call
the EPA or the hazardous materials unit or something... maybe Carl the
groundskeeper can help?
Link of the Day: I'm a Cow
(Rated NR-Mature SSC). Flash may yet save the universe. Thanks EvilToast.
Bonus Link: Electrotank
MiniGolf (Rated G). Thanks RVF400RR. More Flash genius.
Story of the Day: Danger! You are now at home!
(ITN). Thanks Ade.
Bonus Story: Duct
Tape Creates Sticky Fashion Situation (Fox). Thanks the AntiELVIS.
Weird Science: AuDSL.
Experiments with digital connectivity via the DSP in your sound card. Thanks Frostnick.
Wild Science: Sandia
Releases Software to Turn Desktops Into Supercomputers (Fox). Thanks
theAntiELVIS.
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