Archived News:
Word on Gone Gold, the authorative source for this type of news, is that Myth II: Green Berets has gone gold, and this squad-based tactical combat title by TalonSoft that employs the Myth II engine is expected on store shelves by the end of the month.
The official Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds site sports a new development diary on the isometric RTS being created by LucasArts and Ensemble Studios. Lead artist Chris Williams accounts for the game's development status, saying that they "brought the game to a very solid 'Alpha' state last week," and offering more details on progress in the art department. Five new screenshots are also available showing off some new areas in the game.
There is a brief interview on Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor at the official Wizards of the Coast site, cornering Stormfront Studios lead designer Mark Buchignani about their upcoming isometric RPG (thanks GameSpyDaily). Mark talks about his start in the games industry, the differences and similarities between Ruins of Myth Drannor and older RPGs, the 3rd edition D&D rules, some of the game's features, and more.
A couple of updates on the Anarchy Online community site bring more news on Funcom's recently launched futuristic MMORPG. There's an update on the account interface and the number of players that can be online in the game, word of a patching problem with a work-around, and a warning about a database problem that may have caused some characters to be time-warped.
There are three dark Freelancer screenshots on Voodoo Extreme, along with a very brief update on the development of the ambitious space combat game by Digital Anvil.
GameSpy.com paid a visit to the Mumbo Jumbo Games offices to check out progress on Myth III: the Wolf Age, and they came back with a report on their impressions. The report is loaded with quotes from various team members on how the project got started, some game details, development progress and more, and there's also word that a limited beta test and a demo are planned later this year. Naturally, a handful of photos accompany the proceedings.
PC.IGN has posted a new preview
of Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, the upcoming first person shooter that's loosely
based on the original Die Hard movie. The preview doesn't contain any new screenshots,
but it does feature quotes from the game's producer, along with the author's
impressions of a recent build of the game.
"The Majestic beta plays us, and we live to tell the tale," is the
tag line for PC.IGN's preview
of Majestic, the oddball game from Electronic Arts that is nearing its launch
date. The preview almost certainly contains plot spoilers, so if you're planning
on playing the game you might want to skip this preview altogether.
Also new at PC.IGN today is a
preview of Heroes of Might and Magic IV, the latest entry in this venerable
turn-based strategy series. The preview contains 13 new screenshots, as well as quotes from
the game's executive producer, and contains a good amount of information about
how this game differs from its predecessors.
This
associated press story reports that eight video game companies have asked
a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit being brought against them by relatives
of victims of the Columbine massacre. The companies are Acclaim, Activision,
Capcom, Eidos, Infogrames, Interplay, Nintendo and Sony, and they are making
their case on the grounds that games are protected as free speech under the
first amendment, and also that the lawsuit in question never actually names
any games specifically. Thanks CG Online
for the tip.
PlanetMoon Central has conducted a
Q&A with Aaron Loeb, the new producer at Planet Moon Studios, and the
one-time head of the now defunct Daily Radar. The questions all seek to introduce
Aaron to Planet Moon's fans, and so he talks about his background, what it is
he does at Planet Moon and he even manages to sneak a plug in for us while he's
at it.
HomeLAN is reporting
that Game2K1, the new gaming ISP that's powered by Valve Software and Cisco
Systems' PowerPlay ( story), has
officially launched. In a very strange coincidence since the founders of
Game2K1 came directly from there, yesterday also saw the official closing of
SegaNet, as noted in this
press release and follow-up
Q&A at GamePen. The ISP will be folded into Earthlink's dial-up service.
A new
Morrowind developer's diary is online over at Voodoo Extreme. This installment
is written by GT Noonan, the lead dungeon builder on the game, and he provides
a summary of his day at Bethesda Softworks.
The latest biweekly update is up at the
official Charr: The Grimm Fate website. This latest update contains new
artwork and text for the Troll race, a new description of the Church of the
Constant, and new art of the Grimm Carver character.
The official
AquaNox FAQ has been updated with several new questions and some changes
to old ones. And as usual, there's a new update to the
official Star Wars Galaxies FAQ this week.
Version 3.0c of the WCPUID CPU clockspeed utility
has been released (thanks FileFlash).
AthlonOC and HardwareOC
are throwing a joint contest
where you can win DDR RAM, an MSI motherboard and more. If you'd like another
chance to win stuff, OCAddiction.com
is giving away an AMD Thunderbird 1 GHz CPU. And finally, taking the cake for
the freakiest prize of the day is the Rune: Viking Warlord contest at the
official Rune site, where you can win "a real Viking battle axe."
Assuming you can lift it, of course.
The second portion
of MGON's Strike Force interview is online, talking with Matt Sobotka about
this mod for Unreal Tournament. If you're unable to get to the
official PainKeep Arena site, it's for a good reason: the derailed train
in Boston actually disrupted Team Evolve's Internet connection. They hope to
be back online shortly.
- It's always tough to hear, but another video game site is closing down...GamePower
has officially closed its doors, as noted in
this good-bye message...
- The fifth and final part of EarthNBeyond.com's
Earth and Beyond week (isn't every week E&B week there?) is online, with
two more Q&As...
- Steve Jackson Games sends word that they have released Frag,
their pen & paper deathmatch game...
Having played through Diablo II: The Lord of Destruction the previous week
(which I thoroughly enjoyed, by the way) this week I moved on to a game I had
been eagerly anticipating for a long time now: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -
Dominion Wars. It's become a cliché to talk about being disappointed
by a Star Trek game, but I really, really, really wanted to enjoy this one.
And while I did enjoy it for a while, it was just burdened with too many problems
for me to keep pushing through it. I may pick it up again eventually, but it
just became too frustrating to be enjoyable after a while. I still have some
credit at my local Software Etc. store from my last console game sell-back,
so I think I'm going to go hunting for a decent Star Trek game this weekend.
Voyager - Elite Force is undoubtedly the best one I've ever played, and is probably
the best made to date, but nonetheless I'm going to see what else I can dig
up. I've been told that Deep Space Nine - The Fallen is pretty good, and so
that's most likely the one I'll be getting, since I'm such a fan of the show,
but if anyone here has any other suggestions I'd love to hear them. Being a
hardcore gamer and a big time trekkie should in theory go together perfectly.
On a completely different note, the
contest to win my pile of junk has ended, or at least, technically it has.
I won't be making the drawing until early next week, so any entries made over
the weekend will be included. So consider this your last, last, last, last chance
to enter. The real fun comes next week when I actually mail out the prizes.
Yowza, that's gonna be a big trio of boxes.
Story of the Day: Two
computer viruses making rounds (CNN.com). Thanks Micah Leiff Nutt. Following
up on yesterday's Out of the Blue ( story).
Bonus Story: Wild
asses struggle for life in Iran (CNN.com). Thanks Tony Distler.
Image of the Day: This
Reuters photo of the falling cow from Thursday's
story of the day. Thanks Joe Siegler.
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