Archived News:
This seems to have slipped through the cracks this morning but along with the European version 1.20 patch ( story), Bohemia Interactive has also released a third mission pack for Operation Flashpoint, further expanding all editions of their 3D military action game. This Mission Upgrade 3 contains three single-player maps titled Heli Train 2, HMMWV, and Chinook, and requires a mere 1.53 MB download. Thanks Coldwar: Flashpoint for the reminder.
PC.IGN.com has posted a new Age of Mythology movie, continuing the introduction of features in this 3D real-time strategy game in the works at Ensemble Studios. For the price of a 12.8 MB download you'll get over half a minute of footage with some 20 seconds of actual gameplay, showing off some of the mythological units in the game, complete with commentary from lead designer Bruce Shelley.
- Unreal II
The official Unreal II site offers three new wallpaper images and three more here in a variety of resolutions, illustrating the first-person shooter sequel by Legend Entertainment.
- Star Wars Galaxies
There is another new 3D screenshot of Star Wars Galaxies on the official site, featuring a Male Rodian character in Verant's MMORPG in that roundabout QuickTime fashion.
- Team Factor
Hot on the heels of this morning's shots (story), the official Team Factor site boosts another ten new screenshots from the multiplayer military shooter by Czech developers 7FX.
- Arx Fatalis
The latest Arx Fatalis Element of the Week on RPGDot examines the Magic Missile Spell in the first-person RPG by Arkane Studios, illustrated with half a dozen new screenshots.
- Dungeon Siege
There is a single new Dungeon Siege screenshot on Dungeon Siege Vault, showing a new scene in the 3D role-playing game being crafted at Gas Powered Games.
- Cossacks Expansion
The official Cossacks: the Art of War page has been updated with half a dozen new screenshots of the upcoming add-on to GSC Game World's isometric RTS.
- Valhalla Chronicles
GameSpot UK has posted six new screenshots of Valhalla Chronicles, the isometric strategic RPG in development at Paradox Entertainment.
- Etherlords
After a bit of a hiatus, the Etherlords Creature Feature is back on PC.IGN.com, in this third edition introducing another dozen creatures in Nival's 3D turn-based strategy game in words and images.
- HoMM4
There is a Heroes of Might and Magic IV character gallery on To The Game, illustrating the upcoming turn-based strategy game by New World Computing and 3DO.
- Asheron's Call Expansion
Also on PC.IGN is a look at Marea Lassel, an island in Turbine's MMORPG expansion Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty, that's illustrated with a pair of concept images.
- Fighting Legends
Massively Multiplayer.org offers up five new screenshots of Fighting Legends, showing off the newly opened beta phase 3 of Maximum Charisma's massively multiplayer RPS.
The official Medal of Honor: Allied Assault site kicks of a new series of four movie clips from the WWII first-person shooter by 2015. This time Mission 5 Level 1 is covered, and the first movie sports over a minute and a half of in-game footage, as usual in low-res and high-res QuickTime sizes which are actually only 2.3 and 11.3 MB, respectively. Further, the information section on the enemies in the game has also been updated.
The Entertainment Depot Previews Dark Age Of Camelot
based on the author's participation in the ongoing beta testing of this upcoming
medieval MMORPG. The preview discusses what may help set DAoC apart from the
healthy competition in this segment of the marketplace as its embrace of
player-versus-player combat, something many MMORPGs go out of their way to
discourage, and goes on to offer a fairly detailed account of what to expect
from gameplay, from getting started with a fledgling character through picking a
vocation, party dynamics, and questing. Also included are impressions of the
sounds and graphics, the latter of which are shown off in 14 new screenshots.
GameSpot's
Yuri's Revenge Updated Preview is now online offering yet another preview of
the upcoming expansion (Yuri has been getting an awful lot of revenge lately).
The updated preview, based on the same trip to Vegas as the recent flood of
previews, offers reflections on the addition of the Yuri faction, the 14 new
campaign missions, the 10 new co-op missions, changes to multiplayer play and
unit balance (including changes that theoretically hinder the early rush tactics
that can so dominate RTS games), and more, including a detailed look at new
units and their impact on gameplay. The preview also includes 16 new
screenshots.
Civilization III Fanatics' Center Interview with Jeff
Morris talks with the associate producer on Civilization III, the upcoming
installment in the classic turn-based strategy series. As they describe it, the
conversation covers "coastal bombardment, natural disasters, multiplayer,
Great Leaders, and many other areas of Civilization III."
The series of Morrowind Developer Q&As on RPG Vault rolls along with the seventh installment today, once again quizzing project leader Todd Howard about the 3D role-playing game being crafted at Bethesda Softworks. Topic in today's conversation is the game's combat system, and Todd talks about its various features, how it follows up on the previous Elder Scrolls games, how combat is controlled, the AI in the player's opponents, and more.
The Anarchy Online Community site has word of a small, new server-side patch for the futuristic MMORPG by Funcom that "will fix a bug that prevented agents from executing false profession nanos, a quite rare server crash, an exploit, and it will make pet commands work on charmed monsters." Also, the next patch is going up at their test server later today. Finally, there's word of an officially scheduled development chat to take place on Sunday September 16 at 3:00 PM EDT in the IRC channel of fansite AO Basher.
Games
Industry Responds to Terror Attacks on The Adrenaline Vault is an article
that outlines changes to one game based on sensitivity to the recent attacks of
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as another game that is not
going to change. They quote Simon & Schuster public relations agent Peter
Binazeski saying Tuesday’s events would not affect the development of Real
War, which features terrorist attacks on fictitious soil, and the game is still
on target for a September 27 release, with a new demo planned for release around
the time the game ships. Conversely, they got word from Fishtank Interactive
saying "the Beam Breakers team unanimously decided to remove all references
to the World Trade Center already used in the game. Our thoughts and sympathies
are with the yet unnumbered victims and their families." They go on to
report they have not gotten a response from Microsoft about the possibility of
making changes to Flight Simulator 2002, and word from Shrapnel Games
that 5% of all product sales from their website will go to the American Red Cross
Emergency Relief Fund through Oct. 10, 2001. Meanwhile word on www.world-war3.com
has word from JoWooD Productions that "Due to the recent tragedy in the
United States caused by a terrible act of violence," they have "decided
to shut down this homepage until further notice." Further word on that is
found on ie Magazine
where they say that JoWooD has postponed the release of World War III Black
Gold, "until further notice." The game was originally scheduled
for release on September 24. Further, they report the game's name has been
shortened to WW3 Black Gold.
There is a brief but hands-on preview of AquaNox on Games Domain, looking ahead to the underwater 3D action game in development at Massive Development. The article shares their impressions from a pre-release build of the game, as well as eleven new screenshots. Likewise, German site Spiele-City also offers up their AquaNox preview which you may like to digest via the translation services of Babel Fish, or you can view the 16 new screenshots.
The Outsider Development website
(thanks Sector) has the
announcement of an OpenGL first-person shooter called Call sign: Charlie set in
the Vietnam War that has apparently been in development since 1999, and due for
release second quarter 2003. Here's a bit: The game takes place during
the Vietnam War (1964 - 1975). It offers the player full control over a squad of
elite soldiers known as Green Berets - specially trained professionals involved
in numerous secret missions which took place mostly behind enemy lines. Player
can apply his strategic thinking and test his reactions in realistic combat in
life-imitating locations. Using a number of authentic weapons, vehicles and
aircrafts, mission goals can be accomplished in various ways. Possibility of
switching to arbitrary character from the squad whenever the player wants
increases the diversity of gaming experience.
GameSpot reports that the multiplayer test demo for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, originally due for tomorrow ( story), is now scheduled for release this Saturday (thanks HomeLan Fed). As a form of consolation for the one day delay, two new screenshots are included.
The third phase of the Fighting Legends beta test will commence tomorrow, and on the occasion Massive Multiplayer.org has cornered Maximum Charisma's Dale Lullo for a brief interview on this massively multiplayer RPS. Dale talks about the run-up to this milestone, how they're planning to support the increased number of beta testers, the new game features that will be introduced in this phase, and more.
Westwood
Visit Part 1 - The Trip on Red 2 World is the first portion of planned
two-part series recapping their visit to Las Vegas to check out Red Alert 2,
though this installment offers the potatoes part mostly discussing their trip,
while the meat portion, which will offer their impressions from getting to play
with the Red Alert 2 expansion pack, is due later. Meanwhile, not to leave you completely
hanging, there are some Yuri's Revenge gameplay impressions in GameSpot UK's Yuri's Revenge Allied Mission Report
where they take a review copy of the now-gold ( story) add-on for
a spin and offer impressions of some of the allied missions, following up on
yesterdays' preview ( story) where they offered some hands-on
impressions from playing the Soviet missions.
An update to the RPGVault's
Arcanum Mod messageboards by artist Michael McCarthy has word that a new
patch for Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is on the way. Michael says
the patch should be in Sierra's hands for testing by tomorrow, and will offer a
new WorldEd editor, among other things. The update also mentions that they will
be releasing a new manual when the patch is available.
There is an interview with James Tsai at German site Krawall, available in James' native English and the site's native German, talking to the Volition producer about their Mars-based first-person shooter. James discusses the challenges of creating their first FPS game, the differences between the earlier PS2 version and the imminent PC edition, the strengths and weaknesses of their Geo-Mod technology, and a few other topics.
A new HORIZONS
Development Update on the Artifact website penned by David V. Bowman, executive
VP of production, says they "continue to develop the functional specs based
on the conceptual work done previously," and that their "server
technology continues to progress at the predicted pace. The client technology is
now back on track." This may be the last update for a while, as the post
goes on to say that due to their focus on the development on the game, they
"are imposing a quiet period on ourselves regarding the release of
information..." This includes a shutdown of their messageboards, which they
say will re-open about one month prior to their planned beta test, which they
will conduct "with the cooperation of the community."
There is a new movie of Evil Twin: Cyprien's Chronicles on Belgian site SpelletjesGarnaal, offering one of their wacky video previews of this equally wacky 3D platform action game by French developers In Utero. The movie is available in streaming Windows Media Player format or as a 10.0 MB download, and offers some seven minutes of in-game footage, accompanied by their usual outrageous Flemish commentary.
De Spelletjesgarnaal's
Team Factor Interview is the English version of a Q&A that's also
available in a Nederlandse
versie talking about Team Factor, an upcoming multiplayer first-person
shooter, which, as the name implies, places an emphasis on teamplay. Topics in the
conversation include the role of ex-members of the military on the design team
as well as contributions by police and military advisers, the game's use of
bots, system requirements, weapon balance, the inclusion of RPG elements, the competitive
nature of the tactical gaming scene, and more. The article includes six new
screenshots, one of which is duplicated in the batch of six
new shots on the Team Factor website, which makes for a total of 11 new TF
screenshots between the two sites.
GameSpot Previews Magic & Mayhem: The Art of Magic
which is an update to their Art of Magic preview, based on their opportunity to
check out a "much more complete" beta version of the game. According
to their impressions, the game "is still a bit rough around the edges, but
it appears to be very solid in its current form, and it is clearly shaping up
into an impressive genre-bending title." The article attempts to convey
what gameplay consists of, offering comparisons to Evil Islands and Myth
II, as well as to Magic & Mayhem, pointing out that AoM's 3D facelift offers
better graphics, as well as improved gameplay, as it is easier to quickly scroll
around the map. They also discuss the spell system, saying the "effects are
the new engine's strongest point," and go a bit into multiplayer play.
Included with the preview are a dozen new screenshots.
If the Spanish demo proved too puzzling for you ( story), fear not as Czech site BonusWeb (to keep this truly international) has now posted an English demo of Runaway: A Road Adventure, the 3D point-n-click adventure by Spanish developer Pendulo Studios. There are no details on whether it contains the same part of the game, but it is significantly larger at a massive 188.5 MB and requires the accompanying TrueMotion codec for Windows Media Player to play the various scene movies. Update: This demo includes part of Chapter 2 from the full game, taking place in a museum, and its large size is due to the inclusion of large movies and in-game cutscenes.
GameSpot's
Battle Realms Designer Diary #10 is written by Ed Del Castillo, the
president of Liquid Entertainment, discussing progress on Liquid's upcoming
Asian-themed RTS game. The diary discusses how the team has "jelled" on this
project, the first they've worked on together, and predicts that they are on
track to be finished in time to beat their planned in-store date of Thanksgiving
(third week in November). Ed also discusses progress on squashing bugs, going so
far as to enumerate the 818 glitches they are chasing, breaking them down into
four categories ranging from show-stoppers to suggestions. The article also
includes five new screenshots.
Spider-Man Interview on HomeLan Fed is a brief conversation with Jason Maynard, lead programmer at LTI Gray Matter where this web-slinging third-person action adventure was ported to the PC. Jason talks about the popularity of super-hero games on the consoles, the game's backstory, the special abilities of Spider-Man and his adversaries, the challenges of porting the PSOne game, and the possibilities of more Spider-Man PC games.
GameSpy.com Previews Patrician II
with a look at the sequel to Patrician, a medieval trade game in the works at German developer Ascaron Software.
Patrician II will be released in North America, unlike its predecessor, which,
in spite of its focus on international trade, never made it to American shores.
Based on getting to experience a beta build of the game, the preview looks ahead
at gameplay that involves city building and seafaring commerce, and goes into
some detail on the types of challenges players will have to overcome to create
their own economic empire. Included in the article are seven new screenshots.
Diversions Entertainment has released a pair of new One Must Fall: Battlegrounds movies, showing off their upcoming 3D fighting game. There is a 3-player clip set in a power plant and a 4-player movie set in the desert, both offering half a minute of in-game footage in MPEG format.
The
CodeMasters Public Upgrades page has upgrade #2 for Operation Flashpoint,
their cold war shooter, bringing the European version of the game in line with
the North American release. The file is a 38.2 MB download, and includes the long
awaited dedicated server functionality as well as improved peripheral support.
In addition: "The Upgrade adds new multiplayer features, such as a mission
creation wizard with standard templates, three new multiplayer missions – one
team based and two co-operative – and three new vehicles: the AH64 helicopter,
the CH-47 Chinook US Transport Helicopter and a new off-road vehicle the M998
HMMWV." Mirrors are online at Bohemia Interactive Studio,
De Spelletjesgarnaal, and AusGamers.
Red Faction Day At
New Era on Khabal Gaming offers a report on their attendance at a press
gathering to check out Red Faction at the offices of New Era, the game's local
distributor in Singapore. They include a couple of quotes from the event, as
well as a ShakyCam presentation of the presentation of the game made by THQ.
Word from Eidos Interactive is that Trade Empires, their joy of commerce
simulator, should be appearing on store shelves today.
A new version 1.20 of the Journey's End demo
is now available ( Flash required), the 52.3 MB file "includes the first implementation of the
BrightNet massively multiplayer gaming system." Word is the version 1.20 patch
for the full game with the same BrightNet code will be released sometime today.
Journey's End is: "A 3d RPG with accelerated graphics, this action game
takes place in a realm of magic and fantasy, where a long-forgotten evil reaches
out one last time for eternal power. Use your reflexes, wits, and magical items
to follow the path of light, or that of darkness. Full version includes
multiplayer and the editing capability to create your own 3d RPG."
The Westlake Interactive
website announces that the Macintosh version of Age of Empires II: The Age
of Kings is now in the beta stage. Word is the game will be compatible with OS
8.6, Mac OS 9, and Mac OS X.
There's a Debug Day Extravaganza on Xbox.IGN.com
with loads of impressions and screenshots from getting their hands on a debug
version of the Xbox. Final Fantasy X set for January 2002
has the planned release date from the next installment in the series that would
be better called "Endless Fantasy," as there seems to be no finality
in sight. GameSpot's PlayStation2 Half-Life Q&A
talks with Randy Pitchford about the PS2 port, while the Half-Life preview on
PS2.IGN.com offers movies and impressions (infamous??). There's an Unreal Championship Interview
on ActionTrip discussing the Xbox Unreal game. There's a new Drakan II
movie on GameSpot showing off the latest trailer from the PS2 Drakan sequel.
There's new Grand Theft Auto 3
media on GameSpot with new screenshots of the PS2 GTA sequel. Resident Evil 1 to GameCube
on Cube.IGN.Com reports plans to bring the original RE to the GameCube. On a
related note, Resident Evil 4 Announcement Imminent?
on PS2.IGN.Com suggests the next installment in the series would be
announced last night, though there's no indication yet that this has actually
happened.
The Akron Gamers League has
announced that this weekend's event will be for charity, where: "All
proceeds and extra donations will be donated to the World Trade Center disaster
relief fund."
My DSL connection seems about back to normal today, for a while yesterday it was
choked off to an almost complete halt as my ISP moved other users whose
connections were apparently destroyed in the WTC attack onto whatever undamaged
pipe I was on. While I am not at all unhappy to be back on a digital connection
after reverting to a modem to be able to do anything, I am very surprised that
anyone was able to get this fixed so quickly under the circumstances, especially
since I was told it might take a week to fix.
In other aftermath-related notes, knowing he was in the city, a couple of
folks have asked me about the safety of JUDGECAL, and I have been in contact
with him since the attack, and he is okay. Also, thanks to the folks at WomenGamers.Com
who cooked up the Red Cross banner linked below, which seemed appropriate to
post under the circumstances.
Wild Science: Physicists Strive to Build a Black Hole.
NY Times free registration required. Thanks [MP] Wolverine [MP].
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