Archived News:
Microsoft has opened its official MechWarrior 4: Black Knight site for business, showcasing this upcoming expansion pack to the stomping Mech combat game that's in the works at Cyberlore. Along with an overview of the expansion's backstory and features, there is also a Flash-powered Mechbay and a new gallery with screenshots.
Eidos UK has released a new movie trailer of Commandos 2: Men of Courage, the imminent squad-based tactical combat game by Pyro Studios. The trailer requires a 40.3 MB download in self-running, high-res Bink format, and sports nearly a minute and a half of cinematic and in-game footage.
After a false start last week ( story), Microsoft has also relaunched their official Halo site, showing off Bungie's upcoming 3D action game. As before, it requires Flash and offers game info, new screenshots, a movie trailer and more, and still lists the game as an Xbox only title. Thanks halo.bungie.org.
- Aliens Vs. Predator 2
Like every Monday, AvPNews.com offers up five new screenshots of Aliens Vs. Predator 2, showing more from Monolith's three-class first-person shooter sequel.
- Sierra's Double Dose
Similiarly, Sierra Studios has released new screenshots of the week for their upcoming games Empire Earth and Throne of Darkness.
- Half-Life Spectator
There are four new screenshots of Half-Life Spectator on GameSpyDaily, showing off this eagerly-anticipated feature in the imminent patches.
- S.W.I.N.E.
A brief but hands-on preview of S.W.I.N.E. is online at Spanish site Blue Monday, looking ahead to this light-hearted 3D RTS by Channel 42 in words and new images.
More Fighting Legends news this evening, as PC.IGN has a new preview online based on checking out the current beta 3 of Maximum Charisma's MMORPS. The article details the clans and classes that make up the game's occupants, offers impressions of the interface and gameplay, and comes with 15 new screenshots.
There is an updated Check OFP utility on the official Operation Flashpoint site, allowing you to check your installation of Bohemia Interactive's tactical shooter. This updated version works with both the US and European versions 1.20 of the game.
The Maximum Charisma
Zone Website has word their servers are back online, after an update to the
beta server of Fighting Legends, their upcoming combat game. In the new version,
several bugs have been resolved with targeting, GUI and trade, there are GUI
enhancements, enhancements to the chat console, and more.
French developer Sismoplay has released a new character animation for DuelField, their upcoming turn-based strategy game. This 1.2 MB clip shows off a Nautylian guard in a mere eight seconds of MPEG footage.
Activision's Caryn Law sends along a Return to Castle Wolfenstein update that,
among other things, has word on what the Wolf team at Gray Matter Studios is
currently up to. Here's the latest:
This week, the team at Gray Matter Interactive tells us that they're
working on polishing and tightening up the story in Return to Castle
Wolfenstein. We snagged creative director Drew Markham and asked him if he could
tell us what's new. Here's what he had to say:
"We're currently in the midst of polishing the game. Cinematics
are going in, as well as a lot of new in-game conversations and dialogue that
tie the story together. It's exciting to see all of these different elements
come together so nicely as we hit the final stretch. Also, we're getting cool
new music cues every day from composer Bill Brown, and they are also taking
the game to a new level."
Keep an eye on castlewolfenstein.com
for more developments. Remember, the blitzkrieg begins this Christmas!
GameSpot Previews Kohan: Ahriman's Gift
with a look at the upcoming stand-alone prequel for Kohan: Immortal
Sovereigns, TimeGate Studios' fantasy RTS game. The article includes a look at
the three new campaigns and the "lots of other goodies" to be offered
in Ahriman's Gift, which include new units, new spells, new playable races,
improved AI, and more. Also on tap are some quotes from producer Adel Chaveleh,
the game's producer, and 10 new screenshots.
An update on the official Anarchy Online site brings a new downloadable client for the futuristic MMORPG by Funcom, allowing you to try out "the game for seven days, free of charge." The only and not insignificant charge is, of course, the mandatory 660 MB download.
If you're participating in the ongoing beta test of Empire Earth, you may be interested to know that a second patch is now available on the official site for this 3D real-time strategy game by Stainless Steel Studios. This 11.5 MB download brings the game to version 0.0.1.2. Thanks Hiro_Antagonist for the tip.
Valve Software sends along word that Half-Life version 1.1.0.8 and Counter-Strike version 1.0.0.3 are due for release this Wednesday at 2:00 PM EDT (11:00 AM PDT), containing of course the eagerly-anticipated spectator and voice-over-net features. Here is the announcement:
Half-Life 1108 Update Wednesday
The Half-Life 1108 update, which includes the new spectator and voice
technologies, will be released Wednesday, September 19, at 11 am PST.
Counter-Strike 1.3 will be released at the same time. Those interested in
mirroring the files should email mirrors@valvesoftware.com.
Update: As noted on the official site, version 1.3 of the Counter-Strike mod edition will be released on Wednesday as well.
There is a new movie trailer of Paradise Cracked on Swiss site Gameplex, illustrating the turn-based role-playing combat game by Russian developers MiST land. The trailer offers about a minute of cinematic but soundless footage showing off the futuristic setting of the game for the price of a 5.85 MB download in DivX AVI format.
XGR.COM Etherlords Interview
is not one of their usual audio dealies, but rather a text Q&A with Andrey
Emelyanenko, the project manager for Nival Interactive, sparing the cost of a
phone call to Russia. The conversation covers Andrey's background and many
aspects of the upcoming turn-based strategy/RPG, including the environments, the
character, the basis on collectible card games, spells, and more. In addition,
the article has a bunch of new screenshots.
Ubi Soft sends word that due to the recent acts of terrorism in the United
States, they are postponing the release of Black Thorn, their Rogue Spear
Expansion, until further notice. Here's the press release:
UBI SOFT POSTPONES RELEASE OF TOM CLANCY’S ROGUE SPEAR: BLACK THORN
SAN FRANCISCO, CA September 17, 2001 Ubi Soft Entertainment
announces plans to delay the release of Tom Clancy’s Rogue Spear: Black Thorn,
out of respect for the tragic events that took place on Tuesday, Sept. 11th.
While Tom Clancy’s Rogue Spear: Black Thorn features a very strong moral
component and realistic portrayal of the fight against terrorism, Ubi Soft has
decided to delay the release of the game and modify the content to avoid
stirring emotions unnecessarily and unwillingly offending the public.
As a result, the game’s release will be postponed from the originally
scheduled date of October 9th until further notice from the company.
Tom Clancy’s Rogue Spear: Black Thorn’s official web site will remain
online. People can go there to participate in forums, check out links to fan
sites and get the latest news and media about the game. http://www.redstorm.com/blackthorn
id Software's Graeme Devine updated his .plan with word that the Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer master server is going down for a short period, although a start time is not mentioned (and we may have picked up this update a bit late due to server issues). Also, the Mac OS X client and dedicated server are now expected to be released today. Here is the scoop:
Master stuff.
The wolf master is going down for some work, I expect a 30-60 minute downtime.
The OS X dedicated server and client //should// be done today, there was a bunch of changes to the
general codebase before the test went out, and it seemed wiser to allow that hubbub to settle down a
bit.
There is a new preview of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds on GameSpot UK, looking ahead to this isometric RTS by LucasArts that some have nicknamed Age of the Empires Strikes Back. The brief article offers an overview of the game's premise and some of its features, like the 2D graphics engine and the various races and units, along with ten new screenshots.
There's a
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: interview on TotalGames
(thanks Actionvault) talking with Rick
Giolito, executive producer on the upcoming follow-ups to the original PSone
Medal of Honor game (or Medal of Honour, as this UK site puts it). The Q&A
focuses on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the upcoming PC game, though some
attention is also paid to Medal Of Honor: Frontline, the upcoming PS2 installment
in the series. Topics include the ways the two upcoming games will differ, where
the PC franchise can head in the future now that it covers a good portion of
World War II, the games' influences, the possibility of a MoH movie, and more.
HomeLan's Multiplayer BattleTech 3025 Interview
chats with Dave Marsh, the senior producer on the upcoming massively multiplayer
installment in the BattleTech series. Topics include the somewhat complex
history of the game's development, its back-story, the types of Mech's
available, the number of simultaneous players the game will support (10,000),
and more.
I kind of missed the newsworthy portion of the Croteam's
Sunday Update yesterday (thanks xxzen), which comes after the sympathies the
beginning of the post offers after last week's tragic events. On a more complete
reading, however, it turns out that this week's entry by Admir Elezovic also
offers news that they now seem to be expecting to get the sequel to Serious Sam
on store shelves in time for a December release (as well as what's become the
usual small print news on the status of more Egyptian levels). Here's the
update: I have to begin again with, in behalf of whole Croteam, passing
along condolences to all people of United States regarding this horrible
terrorist attack. Our friends at Rockstar Games are situated just a few blocks
away from the twin towers. We got an email from their producer Dave Nottingham
that they are all fine, but they are still cut off and can't go to work.
I know all of you were expecting some exciting news and info about new SS game.
Sadly, due to this horrible tragedy, our NY based publisher was prevented to
come with press release regarding our next episode and its content. Hopefully
they'll be up and running next week, so more info will be available on our site
soon.
As you all know, we started work on the next episode shortly after Serious Sam:
The First Encounter hit the shelves. After months of hard work, the game is
nearly finished and we are entering alpha phase. We are all pleased with how
things are going and the way game plays and looks. Most of hard work is done.
It's just a matter of polishing and adding final touches to game's content.
With our timeline to have game ready for December release, it doesn't sound
impossible to have two games as best FPS of 2001 :)
Admir Elezovic
P.S. Since our Game designers haven't agreed on inclusion of
Egyptian levels in game, this matter has been moved to higher instance, meaning
Board of Directors will decide on their final status.
GamesReview
interviews Bioware about Neverwinter Nights in a roughly-translated
English-language version of their interview that's also available in
the site's native Italian. Included in the Q&A are questions directed at
co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk as well as Trent Oster, all discussing progress
on Neverwinter Nights, BioWare's upcoming 3rd edition D&D RPG.
GameSpy.com's Supreme Ruler 2010 Developer Diary I
is online, looking at this upcoming strategy game in the works at BattleGoat Studios
through the eyes of David Thompson, the game's lead designer. The diary goes
into the game's history, describing how BattleGoat lead programmer and
co-founder George Geczy originally designed and wrote Supreme Ruler as a
text-only economic and military simulation for the TRS-80 (a system familiar to
us old goats as well as the BattleGoats), and how the sale of their retail store
financed the independent development of the updated version. The article goes on
to show how the game's original concept is being mated with modern-day
technology like graphics and such (it was probably wise not to wait for the
market for text-only games to recover), which includes real world maps
created using satellite photos, going on to describe where the fun-factor is
found in an "economic and military strategy game that's economically
intensive," promising to show how they plan to avoid overwhelming casual
gamers in a future diary installment.
There's an
Anarchy Online Chat Log on AO Basher recapping last-night's chat with the
developers of this anarchistic MMORPG.
Sierra's Ross Perez sends word of some planned downtime for both Sierra.com and Flipside.com
that will impact in-game matchmaking for all of their games except Half-Life. Here's
the word: Scheduled Maintenance - Sierra.com and Flipside.com
On Wednesday, September 19, 2001 Sierra will be performing
some routine maintenance beginning at 12:01 a.m. PDT. The downtime will affect
the online gaming service built into all of Sierra's CD-ROM games, except for
the Half-Life franchise, that make use of the in-game matchmaking services.
We estimate the downtime to be twelve hours. It's important to note that
this maintenance DOES NOT AFFECT HALF-LIFE or its popular
modifications and expansions including Counter-Strike and Deathmatch Classic.
The #RTCW FAQ is online, offering some
connectivity tips among other things for the newly-released Return to Castle
Wolfenstein Multiplayer test.
The Killing Grounds' Preview of Uncrossable Parallels
offers a preview about this Half-Life modification based on hands-on play with
an alpha version, as well as an interview with TeleFragBa the leader of this mod
project.
I finally got to play a bit of the WolfMP test yesterday and enjoyed myself a
great deal. I was surprised at how respectable my 'net connection felt,
considering all the complaints I'd read about the netcode and the fact that the
Mr. Scott-style jury-rigging that got me and all the folks using my provider
back online is causing crazy packet-loss for me at the moment (to the tune of
close to 50%), so I'm assuming that rate change mentioned yesterday is a factor
for a lot of people having troubles. That packet-loss does cause one other
frustration, however, as many servers won't let me in, saying they are for
low-pings only, and normally I'm as unrepentant an LP a B as you'll find.
Speaking of that rate command, I was surprised to find how easily this was
changed through one of the menu options (not because it isn't a feature that's
now commonplace as a menu choice, but because so many folks seemed to be unaware
of it), which can be found under Options->System->Other. The only other
problem I encountered was the getting shot by teammates (seemed to be the same
guy on every server too, some dude named "player," so watch out for
him), though I even found amusement on one server where the operator was
countering this by keeping friendly fire turned off, which didn't stop one of my
German teammates from continuing to spray us with the flamethrower, leading to a
bunch of guys trying to defend the bunkers while trying to ignore the fact that
they were on fire.
P.S. Sorry about the late update, I hope to be back on a more normal schedule
tomorrow.
Link of the Day: Placesnamed.com.
Thanks agentJ64.
|
Twitter 
