Archived News:
The official Counter-Strike site offers an unofficial Half-Life Dedicated Server version 1.1.0.8a for download in the usual Win32 and Linux incarnations. The small patches are server-side only and address a few Counter-Strike bugs (including a pair of exploits) as well as a dozen issues with the HLTV spectator feature. Thanks Onji for the tip.
There is a new Gothic preview on PC.IGN.com, going all giddy and "Hands-on, screens, movies, impressions, pig monsters, chicken monsters, and club goblins... Oh yeah" over the third-person action RPG by German developers Piranha Bytes. The article introduces the game's backstory and the player character, goes into more detail about the 3D graphics engine, the controls and more, and offers nearly 20 new screenshots as well as five short gameplay movies.
German site Gamigo.de has posted an Empire Earth Special, covering the imminent 3D real-time strategy game by Stainless Steel Studios. The text is available only in German, so stick that Babel Fish in your ear, and includes a hands-on preview ( Babel Fish) with plenty of new screenshots, as well as a video captured at Stainless Steel. This 29.5 MB download in DivX AVI format offers a four minute tour through their offices, showing the developers at work and including some in-game footage as well.
Several updates on the official DarkSpace site give word that the beta test of the MetaVerse in the massively multiplayer space sim by Palestar has now begun, and offer details on the three star systems included in the test as well as instructions on how to participate (on the condition that you're already a beta tester, of course). An official map of the entire MetaVerse is also presented to help avoid losing your way in space and beyond.
id Software has now also released the Linux version 1.30 patch for Quake III Arena and Team Arena, currently available only for download from their ftp server (26.4 MB), but we'll add a local copy with more mirrors shortly. Update: As promised, here is that local copy with some mirrors.
The Morrowind Developer Q&A #8
on RPGVault chats with Todd Howard, project leader on the upcoming RPG. This
interview looks at the technology in the game, focusing on the NetImmerse engine
and its capabilities, discussing why they chose to license it rather than build
their own, what changes they needed to make to make the engine suit their needs,
the character animation system, the weather system, lighting effects, texture
effects, and more.
As promised, id Software has now released the final version 1.30 patch for Quake III Arena and its Team Arena expansion, and naturally we have a local copy with mirrors of the 25.5 MB download online, but you can also use the auto-updater for a significantly smaller download. This version brings a handful of minor bug fixes and consolidates the changes introduced in the previous point releases.
- Star Wars Galaxies
The official Star Wars Galaxies site once more features a new 3D screenshot from Verant's upcoming MMORPG, this time showing off a Male Wookiee on Corellia in that roundabout QuickTime fashion.
- Evil Twin
PC Zone UK has posted a square nine new, high-res Evil Twin: Cyprien's Chronicles screenshots, depicting more scenes in the third-person platform action game nearing completion at French developers In Utero.
- Etherlords
Similarly, the official Etherlords site sports a square nine new screenshots of the 3D turn-based strategy game in the works at Nival Interactive.
- No Name War
Adrenaline Vault offers up four new No Name War screenshots along with a brief status update on this isometric role-playing RTS by AMC Creation that hadn't been heard of since last December.
- Earth 2150 Expansion
Gamer's Pulse has appended seven new Earth 2150: Lost Souls screenshots to their earlier Q&A on this 3D RTS expansion by Reality Pump and Zuxxez Entertainment.
The Quake III Arena auto-update servers have been offline for maintenance for a
few days now, but now word from id Software is that they should be back online
shortly, and when they are, they'll be set to dole out a new Quake III Arena/Team
Arena version 1.30 point release. If things go as planned, the update should be
released at 6:30 PM EDT tonight, and will be available as a downloadable patch
in addition to the auto- update. This applies to the Win32 release only, word on
the Linux version is that it will follow later tonight or perhaps tomorrow
morning. Here's a list of what's changed/fixed:
- Fixed sound bug (with Graeme hints) -- this crashed some mods
- Made sure Sys_Printf doesn't get into an endless loop if logfile is on
- Fixed qconsole.log issues, +set logfile 1 +set fs_debug 1 was crashing
(any OS)
- Fixed logfile 1 / ttycon 1 issue, didn't exit properly (same endless
looping) Also fixes an issue reported by q3f team
- Changed rcon commands from Com_DPrintf to Com_Printf so that they show up
in the console (with IP information)
- Fixed autodownload toggle in q3 ui
A new Anarchy Online
update is online, with word that due to problems that imbalanced the game
against the "mobs," they are implementing an "emergency
patch," not taking the same wait and see approach to fixing game balance
they did when last Friday's patch turned created an imbalance in the mobs'
favor. The update also has word that they have also removed Knight Armor,
Sentinel Armor and Divaad's Armor "because of the high stats and low
prerequisites they had, unbalancing the game. People who had already acquired
these items will lose them." This version 12.7 patch is available through the auto-updater or as a manual download.
The Battle
Realms Chat Special on GBASE is a summary of an online chat with Liquid
Entertainment's Ed Del Castillo where he answered questions about Battle Realms,
Liquid's upcoming Asian-themed RTS game. Topics include the game's inspirations,
the influence of the terrain on combat, comparisons to Warcraft III,
difficulties encountered during development, word they are about to sign a deal
for an expansion for the game called Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf as well
as the fact that they are in negotiations for the sequel, Battle Realms II. The
log caps off with this about the schedule for the game's release: We are
working to finish the game by no later than Oct. 31st.
Which would mean that you would see it in the middle of November. (simultanteous
world wide release in German, French, English, Italian, and Dutch.)
We are ahead of schedule right now, so you might see it sooner.
The demo will be built in November while the game is being shipped out.
Strategy First sends word that a playable demo of Patrician II is now available, clocking in at 39.6 MB (direct link removed). Patrician II is a trading sim strategy game by German developers Ascaron that is set in a late-medieval Europe, and the demo includes five tutorials and a single-player level. Update: Mirrors are available at BonusWeb and FilePlanet (registration required), GamePen, and GameSpot.
There's an
interview with Matt Burroughs on the Horizons MMORPG Network talking with
the new community manager at Artifact Entertainment, in another violation of
their self-imposed "quiet period." The interview discusses the reasons
for the not-so-blacked out blackout, progress on testing, and their plans to
reestablish more open lines of communication with the game community as the
release of HORIZONS nears. Thanks RPGVault.
CDV Software sends long another
one of their updates on Divine Divinity, Larian Studios' upcoming RPG. The
update, again penned by CDV's UK Marketing & PR contact Spencer Low, focuses
on skeletons, where Spencer throws us a bone about what to expect from these
undead creatures in the game. As usual, the update is accompanied by a
batch of screenshots that includes a piece of concept art.
There's some follow-up on PlanetFortress
to the news that PunkBuster
was dropping its efforts to combat cheating in Half-Life and Counter-Strike
based on lack of support from Valve Software ( story), where
they've posted a message sent to the Half-Life Dedicated Servers List by Valve's
Erik Johnson. Here's Erik's email: We're coming up on the third year of
Half-Life development, and it's been a pretty fun first three years. We don't
have any plans to stop supporting our existing customers, mod makers, or server
admins. It's pretty obvious that much of Half-Life's success is due to third
party development, and it's for that reason that we spend so much time
supporting them.
We think it's great the Punkbuster team has championed the effort to combat
cheating in Half-Life. Working together with the whole Half-Life community on
any kind of cheat prevention software just seems like time well spent. The more
people that take up the cause to combat cheating, and the more Valve can do to
support those people, the better off all of our customers and server admins are.
With that in mind, rest assured that we've talked to the Punkbuster team and
we're going to see if there is a way to move the Half-Life engine toward being
more friendly to these kinds of third party anti-cheat applications.
Erik
There's a
David Allen Interview on Markee Dragon's Ultima Online with the second
Q&A with the former CEO of Artifact Entertainment in as many days. Like the
previous one, this Q&A probes, with little success, for information about
Artifact and HORIZONS following David's departure, and then moves on to some
questions about his new company, Pharaoh Productions, which includes brief
mentions of UNIVERSE (their "flagship product"), PROJECT-X, and FADE,
and talk of plans to implement a messageboard system to support the new games.
The Q&A caps off with his feelings about what the gaming industry should be
doing in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11.
Akella has released a movie trailer of Sea Dogs II, available for download from Freelancer, showing off the upcoming 3D RPG-at-sea sequel. The trailer takes 24.6 MB to download in high-res DivX AVI format, and offers some two and half minutes of in-engine footage captured from both land and sea areas in the game.
More Ruins of Myth Drannor news, as Pool
of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor Debuts at Retail is a press release
announcing that the 3rd edition D&D-based RPG has shipped to retail, and
could be on US store shelves as soon as this weekend. The press release also has
word of a special limited-run collectors edition as well as a couple of
pre-order deals that there still may be time to get in on.
PlanetDungeonSiege
Interviews Jake McMahon, talking with the vice president of Gas Powered
Games discussing his work and a bit progress on Dungeon Siege, GPG's upcoming
RPG. In the what is promised to be "the first in a long line of interviews
with the GPG staff," Jake discusses his gaming history, his job at GPG, his
favorite aspects of Dungeon Siege, what sort of parties he's constructed to play
the game, and more.
There's a
Civilization III movie on Civilization III Fanatics' Center that's a DivX
AVI conversion of a movie offered as a bonus to those who pre-ordered the game
at Best Buy. In the video features Jeff Briggs, Mike Gibson, Soren Johnson, Nick
Rusko-Bergo, Mark Cromer, Jerome Atherholt, and Jacob Solomon of the Civ3 team
all discussing the game, as well as various aspects of its production. The movie
runs seven minutes and is a 35 MB download.
There's a Pool of
Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor Interview on MGON talking with Ubi Soft game
manager Chuck "Right Stuff" Yager about progress on the game. The Q&A touches upon the original "gold box" Pool of Radiance and the RPG genre in general before moving
on to the subject of Ruins of Myth Drannor, describing the basic plotline, the
contrast to Baldur's Gate, its use of 3rd edition D&D rules, specifics about
certain character classes, spell casting, the inclusion of dungeon master
elements, how multiplayer play will be handled, and much more. If you are
interested in Ruins of Myth Drannor, here's a reminder that there will be a chat
with some of the developers later today ( story).
Following on the earlier Win32 patches ( story), Loki Games has now released new Linux patches for TRIBES 2, likewise bringing Dynamix' multiplayer shooter to version 24834. You can either use their Update Tool or get the retail client patch (5.8 MB) and dedicated server patch (5.7 MB) directly. The massive list of changes is also available.
Ubi Soft has silently opened its own Battle Realms site for the upcoming 3D real-time strategy game under construction at Liquid Entertainment (thanks Liquefied.org via Voodoo Extreme). The site offers some terse game details, three new screenshots, and a previously released movie in several different sizes.
The Lost Paradise has the
first screenshots from Outcast II as well as the first publicly-revealed
information about the game. Here's a blurb: Outcast 2 : The Lost Paradise
is the sequel to the widely acclaimed action-adventure Outcast on PC. Targeted
to both players of the first episode and newcomers, O2 : The Lost Paradise is
initially being (developed) on Playstation2 and PC.
Set in the lush environment of the planet Adelpha, O2 : The Lost Paradise is a
survival adventure that settles a conflict between hi-tech invaders and
nature-based Talan civilization. You are Cutter Slade, thrust into the middle of
a large scale conspiracy against the planet of Adelpha. Cities are being
attacked and the Talan people are under attack. They sent a messenger to bring
you back to the planet and save them from their plight...
In a timely
related note, Outcastii.net
interviews Franck Sauer Yann Robert and Carlo Fabricatore discussing the
project, the Q&A accompanied by some more Outcast II screenshots.
SanQualis' CallSign Charlie
Q&A is an English interview on this French site discussing Call Sign
Charlie, an upcoming action game from Outsider Development set in the Vietnam
War. Subjects discussed include the choice of Vietnam as the setting, the
research involved, the game's environments, which will include jungles, urban
terrain and Vietcong tunnels, their switch from 2D to 3D during development, AI,
the PC games marketplace, and more.
There's an Anarchy
Online Interview on AO Basher talking with Funcom community manager Tor
“Rintrah” Andre about some of the anarchy resulting from the version 12.6
patch that's resulted in fewer players online. Topics covered include why Funcom
didn't revert to the previous version as soon as it was evident that there were
major problems with the patch, how the community team failed the community
in this instance, the lack of response to the "crisis" on the forums,
reasons the forums are now to be moderated, what they will try to do to prevent
all these problems in the future, lots of detail about specific gameplay
changes, and more.
There's a Star
Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Interview on Voodoo Extreme offering another
conversation with LEC's designer Garry Gaber about the upcoming Star Wars
RTS that will use the AoE2 engine. Topics include the game's background, team,
where in the Star Wars timeline the game will take place, races, factions,
units, plans for a demo, and more.
HomeLan Fed 's Project Eden Interview
talks with Mike Schmitt, the former Phillies third-baseman who is now a producer
at Core Design about Project Eden, their upcoming science fiction game. Topics
include how different PE will be from their trademark Tomb Raider titles, how
the game balances action and adventure, influences behind the story, AI,
weapons, enemies, multiplayer modes, and even a bit about Lara Croft's future.
GameSpy.com Previews Commandos 2: Men of Courage
with a look ahead at Pyro Studio's sequel to their isometric squad-based combat
game set in World War II. The preview begins with an introduction to the series,
and goes on to describe gameplay in the sequel, which includes the ability to
choose who will be part of each mission from a group of 10 commandos, a bit
about the distinct personalities of the individual soldiers, the graphics and
interface, and some hands-on impressions from gameplay which demonstrated to
them that putting aside the urge to be a cowboy and take a more tactical
approach is probably the best route to success in the game.
GameSpy.com's One Must Fall
Developer Diary Volume 5 takes the ever-looser definition of a developer
diary one step further by offering an update from Judy Elam, the business
manager at Diversions Extreme. The journal begins with a short history of the
series, beginning with One Must Fall: 2097 which includes the reasons that the
sequel has been in the works on some level or another for seven years now, and
goes on to give a rundown on where the project stands at this point.
Electronic Arts to offer 'Majestic' game on CD
(thanks ie Magazine) is a
Reuters press release that cites flagging interest in the game as the reason it
will now be made available in retail stores. According to the story, "the
number of active players for the game has stalled near 13,500, well below the
number that had registered before its much-publicized launch in August."
There's a Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor Chat scheduled for later today
in GameSpy Arcade. The chat
discussing this upcoming RPG sequel is at 7:00 PM EDT, and attendees from
Stormfront Studios will be Mark Buchignani, Sergio Lobato, Martin Servante, and
David Yee.
Vivendi Universal Publishing and Interplay Announce Exclusive North American Distribution Agreement
announces an "agreement which grants VU Publishing the exclusive rights to
distribute Interplay's PC and video game console products through 2003 with the
exception of Neverwinter Nights." The first titles that fall under this
agreement are PS2 titles Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Giants: Citizen Kabuto.
Sony Slashes PS2 Price Official
on FGN reports that the PS2 is shedding pounds like Jenny Craig, saying:
"This Friday will see a huge drop in the PS2 price as Sony Europe prepares
to launch a new £15 million marketing initiative." In a related note, Sony stands firm on U.S. PS2 price
on MSNBC (thanks GamePen) reports that
the PS2 may be shedding pounds, but not any dollars. Finally, The Pet Sounds of Grand Theft Auto III, Part 2
on PS2.IGN.Com has more of Rockstar Games living up to their name with more
tunes from their upcoming car-theft game, saying: "Come listen to a brand
new radio station wave file from hip hop's kickin' Game Radio."
2001 UTD Computer Game Conference
is slated for October 5-7, 2001 at the School of Arts and Humanities at the
University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). "The conference is part of a move to
establish a new program where game studies and game design will feature
prominently. The aim of the conference is to create a forum where game
developers and gaming scholars can come together to discuss current trends and
issues related to gaming." Speakers will include Tom Mustaine, Richard
"Levelord" Gray, Paul Jaquays, Paul Steed, and more. There will also
be a Quake III Arena tournament (sign-ups for this will be on site). The
conference is free, open to the public, and registration is not required to
attend any of the presentations.
The debut release of the FreakBall Arena
Quake III Arena modification is now available. This is described as a Quake
sport mod, where you score goals with a ball, while able to access such fair
play options as kicking, shooting, and outright killing your opponenents. There
are two game types, a standard game where you use weapons, and a second one only
allows the Ball-Launcher as a weapon.
Version 1.3 of CSCop for counter-Strike
is now available, updating this tool for monitoring Counter-Strike servers that
have friendly-fire on that automatically kick/bans team killers.
The official Etherlords
FAQ has been updated with a bunch of new Qs and As about the game. Likewise,
the
official Red Alert2 FAQ has been updated. Elsewhere, the official DarkSpace FAQ has new information on the MetaVerse server and the use of Jumpgates (thanks LoadedInc). Finally, Blizzard Entertainment's
WarCraft III FAQ has also been updated.
Survivor Gaming League,
based on some of that reality TV that's helping dent the world's couches is
currently gearing up for some test tournaments, their beta Counter-Strike
tourney offers a GeForce 3 card to the winner. Thanks Daniel Frye. Also, Urban
Terror World is a new Urban terror league just getting underway.
A new GtkRadiant version 1.1.1 Release Candidate is up at QERadiant.com
(thanks n8). The first release of Discreet's gmax
is now available, allowing "game players to create, customize, and exchange
their own game content online." There is also a professional version for
game designers. Also, lesson six in the Neverwinter Vault
Modeling Course is online, showing how to easily create terrain using
displacement maps.
A little history: It was five years ago yesterday that the first episode of The Adventures of Dank and
Scud: An On-Line Quake Comic was published. In poking around, I found
there's still an archive of these online (though I think I'm right about the
date of the debut, not the August release mentioned in the archive) the
archive can be accessed here, and these old issues have even been modernized
with Flash. Also, it was four years ago today that Zerstörer: Testament of the Destroyer,
the incredibly ambitious Quake modification was released. Sorry, I can't dig for
more recent history... our damn database archive is still broken.
Wild Science: Atom Experiment Brings Teleportation a Step Closer.
Thanks John Riordan.
Weird Science: Brain scans show that music soothes
(MSNBC). Reporting that "...researchers have found that melodies can
stimulate the same parts of the brain as food and sex." Thanks, John
Riordan.
Media of the Day: George Goble Extended
Homepage with an MPG movie of lighting a charcoal grill with liquid oxygen (don't
try this at home). Thanks EvilToast.
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