Archived News:
PC.IGN has posted a preview
of Multiplayer BattleTech: 3025, a title which Electronic Arts acquired
when it purchased Kesmai and will be part of EA's EA.com platinum service,
which also includes Majestic, a very different sort of online game. Regardless,
this preview features quotes from Jefferson Dong, EA's marketing manager on
the game, along with nine new screenshots.
Battle Realms: The Little Things
is an update at PC.IGN by Liquid Entertainment's Peter Bartholow that contains
information about their upcoming RTS. Peter explains how the game handles resource
management and unit construction (or lack thereof), how they are handling
unit upgrades, the strategic importance of terrain and more.
Finally, PC.IGN has also posted a
preview of Star Wars: Starfighter, LucasArts' upcoming space-combat game
that's being ported over from the Playstation 2. The preview confirms that the
game will be feature-exact with its console counterpart, and contains gameplay
details but no new screenshots.
- Black Thorn
Ubi Soft once again sends along a set of new high-res screenshots, this time depicting new scenes in Rogue Spear: Black Thorn, the standalone tactical shooter expansion in the works at Red Storm, and eight more images are online at GameSpot.
- Bridge Commander
The somewhat irregular screenshot of the week at the official Star Trek: Bridge Commander site has been updated again with a new view at Totally Games' upcoming space combat sim.
- Etherlords
As is their way, Freelancer has added four new entries to their Etherlords creature gallery, illustrating the 3D turn-based strategy game in development at Nival Interactive.
It slipped through the cracks earlier today, but German site Spieleflut.de sent word of their new Far West preview, looking ahead to this new title by likewise German developers Greenwood Entertainment and KRITZELKRATZ 3000 that was actually announced last April. Far West is a 3D real-time strategy game obviously set in the Wild West, and the official site has more information on the game, while the Spieleflut preview (which you may like to read via Babel Fish) offers the first seven screenshots and a handful of concept images.
There is a new Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix interview on In The Trenches, talking to Christopher Reed about this work on the Artificial Intelligence in Raven Software's mercenary shooter sequel. Christopher discusses the research they did into AI technology, the use of the Quake III engine, their new LICH AI system, and a variety of related topics. Thanks Action Vault for the tip.
A new preview
of Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II is up at GameSpot this evening. The preview
contains the same screenshots that appeared elsewhere this morning, but it also
has the author's enthusiastic impressions of a press demo, which contained three
levels (one of which was the one shown at E3 back in May).
As promised ( story), id Software's Robert Duffy updated his .plan to announce that the version 1.29h patch for Quake III Arena is now available, albeit only for Win32. The file is available from their ftp server (25.5 MB) and you should also be able to upgrade via the auto-updater. Here is a local copy with mirrors, and here are the details:
The 1.29h point release is up. You can auto-update to it from 1.29f or 1.29g or grab the whole
sha-bang from our ftp. The Linux version will be up asap. This is STILL a beta, we plan to go final
with it after QuakeCon.
Changes
- Fixed Server exploit
- Fixed Mouse wheel
- Fixed NT 4.0 Sound
- FPS Boost
- in_mouse set to -1 will provide 1.17ish sensitivity, in_mouse set to 1 will provide current sensitivity
id Software's Graeme Devine updated his .plan to explain why last week's Quake III Arena patch release didn't include any Mac versions ( story). Here's the deal:
1.29f Mac is 100% compatible with 1.29g, the fixes are almost all WIN32 related input/sound etc.
There are no networking changes, QVM or othersuch evil things we've done in the pass to force everyone to upgrade. There's a forthcoming build that addresses the 1.29g build and that will be made
available on all platforms, but meanwhile there will be nada zip zero no build of 1.29g for the Mac
because we've already moved on from 1.29g.
And besides, we're working on DOOM. :-)
The lucky folk at Gamesmania recently paid a visit to LucasArts, and they have
posted a write-up of the
games they saw there. This is actually part one of their write-up, and in
it they talk about Galactic Battlegrounds and Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II,
as well as the console titles Rogue Squadron II, Starfighter: Special Edition
and Obi-Wan. Each game has their impressions as well as some screenshots, although
most of them have been seen elsewhere already. Also, the same Galactic Battlegrounds
shots are
up at GameSpot, although they are in a higher resolution over there.
HomeLAN has conducted a
Q&A with Edouard Lussan and Roman Vincent, the lead designer and development
lead on the upcoming action game Iron Storm. The duo provide information on
the game's backstory (which takes place in a world where World War I is still
going on in 1963), as well as details on the Phoenix engine that powers the
game.
Electronic
Arts has issued a press release this afternoon formally announcing that
the full, subscription-based version of Majestic, as anyone that has completed
the game's free "pilot" episode can already tell you, is now live
and on-line. Those interested in continuing to play after the demo will have
to pay $9.99 per month for an EA.com platinum subscription.
Massive Multiplayer.org has conducted a
Q&A with Bob "gBob" Roland, the PR director at NetDevil. Bob
fields questions about their massively multiplayer space sim Jumpgate, and he
discusses how they have avoided the launch problems that have plagued massively
multiplayer titles with their European launch among other topics. Update: Prince Mystery pointed out this quote that's interesting enough to get posted here: gBob: Here's my exclusive promise for your site. If we screw up the world wide launch, I will shave my head bald, write "idiot boy" on my forehead, hold up a sign saying "Sorry we screwed up" and send it to your site.
In an unusual early morning update, PC.IGN.com has added five new screenshots of Star Wars Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II to their preview of last Friday ( story). The images offers some high-resolution scenes in the Quake III engine powered first-person shooter in the works at Raven Software.
StrategyPlanet has conducted a new Etherlords interview, talking to project manager Andrey Emelyanenko about the 3D turn-based strategy game under construction at Nival Interactive. Andrey discusses the differences to other turn-based strategy titles, the game's resources, spells and units, what you can expect in terms of campaigns and scenarios, and more.
In the wee hours last night, GameSpot posted a
behind the scenes video of Majestic, Electronic Arts' strange game of conspiracy
theories and phone calls at 3:00 in the morning. The video is in a variety of
streaming media formats, and contains an interview with co-creator Neil Young,
and also looks at the development of the game.
An update to the official World War II Online
website has some of the aftermath of the version 120 update released last
week ( story). The story describes what has been changed and
fixed, going on to describe other issues that remain, leaving the possibility
open that an interim version 121 will be made available before the version 130
patch that's planned as the next major update. More information on the 121 patch
may be released by this weekend, and would be based on whether or not they can
address high-priority issues like "CTD problems using Shift-Escape, 'blue
sky', and army base capture side switch" and medium priority items like:
"bad vehicle lists, Russian flags and non-capturable facilities, hanging at
spawn screen, and 'purple sky' problems."
This TalonSoft
patches page has downloads of "Green Island" a new stand-alone
scenario for Tropico that adds a new challenge to this tropical island dictator
simulation from PopTop Software. They have actually posted a pair of scenarios
for download, but the Mt. Sucio addition is actually already included in version
1.03 (both of the scenarios require the version 1.03 Tropico patch
( story) be installed), so in reality you just need to install the
Green Island scenario and the 1.03 patch (both on that
same page) to get both additional scenarios.
The RUNE Website
has a pair of new RUNE maps from Human Head Studios for download, one authored
by Dave Halsted and the other by Mike Flynn. Both maps are for multiplayer play,
with one of them specifically designed for slow-motion combat.
Following up on the recent announcement that Green Berets had gone gold ( story),
a
Press Release on the TalonSoft website has word from Take-Two Interactive
that this Myth II-engine tactical combat game set in Southeast Asia "(d)eveloped
by acclaimed experts in the Myth community" should be in stores soon.
Shrapnel Games has released a
version 3.1 patch for Air Command, their air traffic controller simulation.
Also, the eSim Games
Downloads page has a version 1.17 upgrade for Steel Beasts, their tank
simulation.
Xbox Steps Closer to Completion
(FGN) describes completion of work on the Xbox controller. Activision
Inks NUON Game Deal on The Adrenaline Vault has word on the big A's plans
for this interactive DVD platform. Nintendo to ship 1.1 million GameCube units at launch
on GameSpot is the report that on the upcoming Nintendo tsunami. Likewise, CoreMagazine.com's
PlayStation 2 Shipment Figures has the tally of how many PSones and PS2s
have shipped. Computer and Video Games' Agent Under Fire screenshots
offer more looks ahead at the upcoming James Bond game. Finally, Capcom Plans Modem Bundle
on Core Magazine (there's a
photo here) describes a modem that will come with a bundled version of
Capcom Vs. SNK 2, and how this will allow PS2 owners to connect via modem with
Dreamcast users.
An open beta of the UnrealGod
modification is now available, offering Unreal Tournament gameplay with a twist:
the presence of a player in the role of "god," much the way
pen-an-paper RPGs have a dungeon master.
The Military Forces website has
the debut release of this modification for Quake III Arena. This is described as
an "early alpha release," of a mod that will allow you to fly planes
and helicopters, drive tanks and other military-type stuff.
S.A.S.'s Guide to
TRIBES 2 is now online, including tips on set-up, playing, teamwork, and
more. This is featured on the re-launched BarrysWorld Guides
page.
Ritual artist Brian Jones updated
his .plan with word that he is conducting a two-part workshop at QuakeCon
2001 focused around head replacement models for Team Arena. Three
Steps to Building a Space Sector on the Earth and Beyond website (thanks Earth N Beyond)
offers a guide to doing so for this still-unreleased game.
There's a
Super Heroes 3 interview on Q3 Center discussing progress on the upcoming
Quake III Arena version of this mod that has also had versions for Quake II and
Quake. The plan is to release the debut version of the mod at this year's
QuakeCon (there are also some new
SH3 screenshots on their website).
It was one year ago today that Ritual announced that Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2 was
gold. An announcement on The Digital
Bits has word that the Sopranos second season DVD is in the works. Whee! Did
I mention a DVD? Well, speaking of which, we've
been satirized in comic form!
Speaking of anniversaries, Happy 40th, computer games
on BBC news (thanks EvilToast and WarPig[doh]) has word that computer gaming
actually turns 40 this summer, as is was in 1961 that "a band of pioneering
computer enthusiasts created Spacewar!, in which players battled to save the
Universe."
Link of the Day: The Jean-Paul Sartre Cookbook.
Thanks Zdim. Transcendence of the Ego crepes, anyone?
Bonus Link: Bernie for Mayor
(thanks brother19). Wow.
Story of the Day: French
Ravers Take Over Paris Psychiatric Hospital (Fox). Thanks theAntiELVIS. Attended by over 350 kids, but the hospital's assistant director keeps it in perspective: "He praised hospital security
officers for closing the gates before more people arrived." Now there's security!
Weird Science: Anti-People
Group Pushes for Man's Extinction (Fox). Thanks again theAntiELVIS.
Wild Science: Airport check-ins based on your iris
(MSNBC). Thanks Zdim.
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