Archived News:
GamePen reports that 3DO has released a free trial client of Jumpgate, available for download from Gigex. Jumpgate is the massively multiplayer space combat game by Netdevil, and to participate in the ongoing North American stress test ( story) you'll need to sign up for the Jumpgate Universe. There are no details on the trial client other than that it requires a 84.2 MB download.
While the succinct headline provided an early and inadvertent teaser of the news (see below), GameSpot has now posted its report on the delay of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Word is that the game is officially postponed until February 2002, and they have included five new screenshots as a form of consolation. Here is a bit more on Electronic Arts' motivation for the game's delay:
While the extra wait might seem disheartening, fans of the series should take comfort in the fact that the decision to extend Allied Assault's development time by an extra four months was ultimately made for the benefit of the game itself. "Originally, we had planned to ship in November [2001]," explains Electronic Arts' Steve Groll. "But the extra time will allow us to exceed the incredible standard that was set by the Medal of Honor Allied Assault presentation at E3."
A headline on the GameSpot PC News page states that Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the first-person shooter being developed at 2015, has been delayed. The actual news story seems to be missing in action, but its synopsis reads: "Electronic Arts announces a four month delay on its World War II-based shooter."
New World Order Interview with Termite Games on Ferrago.co.uk is a lengthy conversation on this first-person shooter in the works at the Swedish developers. An unnamed representative is at hand to discuss their history (as they previously worked on Decay under the name Insomnia Software), the single-player side of the game (which was originally announced as a multiplayer-only title), their in-house graphics engine, the game's realistic environments, and lots more. Ten new, low-res screenshots are also available for visual inspection. Here is a bit more on the single-player side:
From what I can extract from the information available on the game to date, it would appear that New World Order focuses on a multiplayer-style of gameplay; however singleplayer ‘missions’ are also mentioned. Please explain the nature of gameplay you are aspiring to, and how the single and multiplayer parts of the game differ.
NWO feature both strong single and multiplayer gameplay. The multiplayer game was focused on first, to make sure that everything worked fine and that the game was really fun and intense to play. The multiplayer gaming-style is a natural foundation for great single-player gameplay. The single-player game is played differently though; it's much more tactical in its style and the player get to experience the story of the conflict between The Global Assault team and The Syndicate. We have some very strong elements in the single-player game, but I can't talk about them just yet. We're creating gameplay that is more intense, more emotional than what you've seen so far; putting the player in situations that can actually invoke fear or even panic. We want to take it to the next level!
- Project Nomads
CDV has released a dozen new Project Nomads screenshots, offering new scenes in this high-flying 3D action role-playing hybrid in the works at Radon Labs.
- Commandos 2
There are five new Commandos 2: Men of Courage screenshots on GameSpot, showing off the squad-based tactical combat game nearing completion at Pyro Studios.
- Galactic Battlegrounds
The official Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds site has been updated with a single new screenshot of the isometric RTS under construction at LucasArts using the Age of Empires engine by Ensemble Studios.
There is an update on the official World War II Online site that has some details on the forthcoming version 1.2.5 patch for Cornered Rat's massively multiplayer air, ground and sea combat game. Most of the changes pertain to gameplay enhancements, including a new tracer technique, gun sight improvements, anti-aircraft AI, possibly a new scenario server, and more.
Hot on the heels of the initial patch ( story), Troika Games has released another Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura patch to address a small mishap. This brings their isometric RPG to version 1.0.7.0 and you can get a patch to update the original v1.0.6.4 or the previous v1.0.6.9 from FilePlanet (registration required). Update: Both files are also available at Terra Arcanum.
Action Vault has conducted a new interview on Aliens Vs. Predator 2, the three-class first-person shooter sequel being hatched at Monolith. Lead designer William Westwater is cross-examined about the game's setting in the two popular sci-fi franchises, the particular attributes of the three species, the single-player missions and multi-player game modes, what makes the game stand out from other first-person shooters, and more. Here is an excerpt:
Action Vault: Which aspects of development would you consider the most challenging up to this point?
William Westwater: The whole project has been extremely challenging. The Aliens can walk on the walls. We have three species to balance, and each has at least two vision modes - the Predator has four. Because we're using lightmaps instead of Gouraud shading, like the original game, implementing these vision modes required a lot of experimentation. On top of all this, we've included over two dozen weapons. From an engineering standpoint, we had to code three games and squeeze them into one box. From a level design standpoint, we had to design three styles of play, three sets of AI, three intertwined stories, three interfaces … you get the idea.
Action Vault: What's the current status of the project, and what remains to be done?
William Westwater: We're optimizing and polishing the game. The last couple of months are always the most crucial to a project like this. It's usually when a game goes from good to great.
The first Multiplayer BattleTech: 3025 Developer Diary is online at MechWarrior Center this morning, discussing progress on the massively multiplayer mech action/strategy game currently in closed beta testing at EA.com. Senior producers Dave Marsh and Tony Van discuss the game's history (its development was started at Kesmai), the ongoing beta test, the gameplay balancing they're performing as a result of that, enhancements of the user interface, and the proverbial more.
It seems Blizzard Entertainment had a glitch where a miss-timed version of their
Blizzard Insider newsletter went live for a bit last night, and has apparently
spilled the beans about Blizzard's next game, which looks like it is indeed
World of Warcraft ( story), spoiling their plan to unveil their
surprise tomorrow at ECTS ( story). Here's a link to a copy
someone saved of the Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Insider (thanks Tim Hoffman) that says: During a press
conference today at the European Computer Trade Show, Blizzard Entertainment
unveiled World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer, online role-playing game
set in the rich fiction of Blizzard's Warcraft universe. Featuring bold 3D
graphics and deep, immersive gameplay, World of Warcraft will allow thousands of
players to adventure together in this epic setting and will provide them with a
new, in-depth perspective on familiar lands, former battlefields, and heroes
from the legendary universe. In addition, World of Warcraft will introduce new,
uncharted territories and foes never before seen by followers of the series.
Also,
steadfastly continuing to tease, the Blizzard
Entertainment website has been updated with a third teaser image saying:
"Ancient worlds and timeless dangers are rediscovered..." (thanks
Russell Bailey).
(This story was originally posted earlier this morning, but was moved here after the next update so it no longer sat below Out of the Blue).
There's an
edited chat log on Neocron Online with a recap of the sessions last
night/this morning's chat session with the game's developers. Included with the log
"are 10 new screenshots from the Neocron Beta. The shots are from a
previous build with a different HUD... Included in the shots are the buildings
of 3 of the 14 factions vying for power in the game-world."
There's a Half-Life 1.1.0.8 Test Drive
on PC.IGN.Com saying "The upcoming update adds two cool new features
for even more multiplayer goodness," offering another set of impressions of
the new features in the upcoming Half-Life and Counter-Strike patches.
The ECTS coverage on
Eurogamer is already underway, describing the reduced scale of the show in
spite of it being much spiffier at its new location, and offering detailed
impressions of what they've seen so far, including thoughts about the European GDC that is preceding the show. Also, the GameSpot at ECTS
page has a couple of scant updates, basically the Ubi Soft line-up on the PC
side, with some console game previews, as well.
This post on PlanetAvP
features downloads of a new utility called The AvP II Cheat Enabler
that will open access in the Aliens versus Predator 2 Demo to "the entire
Colonial Marine weapons and equipment arsenal... including the Flamethrower and
the Railgun sniper rifle." They do point out that some of these are
unfinished, since they were not intended for use, but all are functional. Also,
a story from yesterday called Playing
the Alien in the AvP II Demo on PlanetAvP says that someone has managed to
hack a way to play as the alien as well as the marine in the demo, but offers no
way to do so yourself.
In addition to the new patch (mentioned above) the Terra Arcanum
Downloads page also has a save game editor for all you cheating types, that
will allow you "to mess with your character's stats, skills, etc. It also
allows you to edit a number of followers."
There's an Unreal
Championship Trailer on FilePlanet with a 9.8 MB movie with 40 seconds of
gameplay and a
bunch of UC screenshots on Voodoo Extreme showing off the upcoming Xbox
Unreal game. There are some new screenshots and other updates on the New Legends for the Microsoft XBOX
website (thanks GameSpot). Also,
there's some new media
on the Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance website. There's a Soul Reaver 2 preview on ps2.ign.com
with "Tons of new media" for Soul Reaver 2, which includes 25 new
screens and "one incredible movie," a QuickTime version of a Gigex
movie that's been released for which we can't seem to locate an uncorrupted
version. Finally, Sierra to Publish New SWAT Games Using Argonaut's Action Shooter Title, Kleaners,
saying Sierra has "announced an agreement with UK-based Argonaut Software
Ltd. to develop upcoming console games for Sierra. This relationship will allow
Sierra to publish entirely new products based on their award-winning SWAT(tm)
series, using Argonaut's action shooter game, internally known as Kleaners."
CPL Berlin 2001's
Live Video Feed is online. "The stream is planned to continue
throughout the weekend or until completely overloaded."
The Library on Terra Arcanum
has all manner of info and tips for Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura,
neatly separated into spoiler and non-spoiler sections. Also, the Dark Age of Camelot
FAQ on the newly-redesigned Dark Age of Camelot
website has been updated with system specifications and more pre-order
links. Finally, a small update to the
Star Wars Galaxies FAQ has news on an apprentice system.
Prefab Central has relaunched
with "a collection of prefabs (prebuilt level parts) that will work in any
Unreal engine game from Deus Ex to RUNE. Also, Dr. Emmett Brown rejoice, as lesson
four of the NeverWinter Haven
Neverwinter Nights Modeling Course is online for this upcoming game (to use
this now you'll have to buy this
item from eBay-thanks RC).
Jolt.co.uk's
Reaction Quake 3 interview talks with the Reaction Quake 3
team, currently toiling away on a Quake III Arena mod in the vein of the
very-popular Action Quake 2 and Action Half-Life.
I had a wacky very late night last night helping migrate data from an old hard
disk to a new one for a friend's new PC. It actually went quite smoothly, but
these things always take longer than expected, and this case was no
exception.
I want to thank Matthew Greenhalgh, who inspired himself to spend a recent
lunch hour creating an updated version of the tiny IE favorites icon for the
site (that shows up on favorites lists and next to the URL in Explorer). Of
course these images seem to be the most persistently cached items you can find
on any website, so it may be weeks before it shows up for any of us, but I feel
better knowing it's up there... thanks again Mathew.
Link of the Day: TechnoSphere 4.01.
Thanks Zdim. A"3D model world inhabited by artificial lifeforms created by
WWW users."
Bonus Link: Violence Proven As #1 Cause of Video Games.
Thanks Chris Johnson.
Story of the Day: Fuel station 'may turn to topless tank fillers'.
Thanks Frottage. "Just top me off please."
Bonus Story: Man receives polka punishment.
Thanks Ant. Hangin's to good for 'em!
Auction of the Day: Gearworks 50lb Butter PDA Sculpture
(eBay). Thanks etumor.
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