Archived News:
Heroes IV post-release Q&A on GameSpot is a quick chat with New World Computing's Jeff Blattner about their just-released turn-based strategy sequel, Heroes of Might and Magic IV. Topics include the initial response to the game, how they look back at it themselves, feedback from players, plans for the future, and more.
CS-Nation serves up a new movie of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero that was previously available on the cover disk of German magazine PC Games. The movie runs for more than five and a half minutes in MPEG format and offers an interview with Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford (dubbed in German as is their way), interlaced with plenty of gameplay footage.
Although not yet noted on the GameSpy 3D site itself, GameSpyDaily has details and downloads of a new version 2.57 of this server browser. It is available in shareware (for which a link isn't included, so here is the direct download link) and registered editions, and includes support for Command & Conquer Renegade, Global Operations, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Serious Sam: the Second Encounter, as well as SmartSpy filtering by country.
GameSpot's
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix Preview offers hands-on impressions of
Raven Software's upcoming first-person shooter that will once again put players
in the role of mercenary John Mullins. This updated preview focuses on their
first opportunity to check out SoF2 multiplayer, as they describe the contrast
between the emphasis on realism multiplayer play offers and the run-and-gun
style of the solo game, the five multiplayer modes, the opportunity to choose
from over 100 multiplayer models, the limitations on the number of weapons you
can carry at once, impressions of the output of the random map generator, and
more. Included are 31 new screenshots and a video preview that offers several minutes of gameplay footage.
The SWAT: Urban Justice Developer Diary #3
on Action Vault is titled "Weapons & Ballistics" in which
Sierra programmer Charles Cox describes the efforts they've put in towards Urban
Justice continuing the emphasis the SWAT series has always tried to place on
realistic weaponry and ballistic behavior. He describes their use of prepackaged
weapons configurations, the added ability to customize weapons down to the
level of components such as receiver, trigger group, stock, and foregrip; as
well as the accurate simulation of ballistics including behaviors like bullet
drop, windage, ricochets, and over-penetration.
There is a brief interview with Chris Taylor on EBgames.com, quizzing the Gas Powered Games founder and lead designer about their just-released 3D role-playing game Dungeon Siege. Chris summarizes the final years of the game's development in three sentences, talks about the scope of the continuous world and the number of quests and spells as well as the number of weapon and monster types in the game, and touches upon the Siege Editor and other mod tools, multiplayer modes, and more.
XGR's Brian Raffel Interview talks with one of the cofounders of Raven Software about their history and various projects, taking a particular focus on Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, their upcoming mercenary sequel. The audio interview gets underway at 9:30 PM EDT, and, as always, a SHOUTcast-compatible media player is required. Update: Four new SoF2 screenshots are now included.
The official Haegemonia: Legions of Iron site (which loads rather slowly) has been updated with ten new screenshots of this space strategy game under construction at Digital Reality. Also on offer are a few new 3D screenshots in that nifty QuickTime format, as well as three new soundtrack themes in MP3 format. The site also offers more information on the backstory and races, and a new FAQ is online as well. And elsewhere, French fansite Esprit Haegemonia has posted another seven new screenshots.
There's a XIII
Preview on Computer and Video Games with a look at this just-announced
first-person shooter based on a series of Belgian comic books. The article
discusses the game's murder-mystery plot based on the assassination of a fictional
US President, the distinctive visuals created by their use of cel-shading and
techniques like "onomatopoeic special effects," and some first hand
impressions of a demo of the cross-platform game running on the PC. Included are
some quotes from Ubi Soft's Julien Bares as well as four new screenshots.
There's a
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Q&A on Tiscali Games talking with Randy
Pitchford about Condition Zero, Gearbox Software's upcoming game that will add
single-player play to the Counter-Strike multiplayer experience. Topics include
the amount of solo gameplay being offered, the variety of tactics to be expected
from the bots, new features, interoperability with the original Counter-Strike,
the game's potential impact upon the community, HLTV support, hardware
requirements, and more. There's also a
Condition zero preview on Computer and Video Games offering hands-on
gameplay experience, accented by more quotes from Randy. Finally, on a related
note, there's a
Q&A with Landon Montgomery PC Game Central talking with the Gearbox
Software project director in a continuation of their "getting into the
biz" series.
A new version 4.01 of the QuakeIT
game launching utility is now available, offering improved performance on slower
machines, the addition of many new configuration files, and some bug fixes,
including fixes to the Internet bot database.
SourceForge's Crystal Space
Page now offers a new version 0.94r001 of this OpenSource cross-platform 3D
game engine that offers a large list of changes and improvements. Also, MapCentral
has posted a
Q&A with theNord of Mad Doc Software, discussing map-making for Star
Trek Armada II. Finally, HomeLan Fed's ARES Engine
Q&A talks with Michael Gyori, producer on Barking Dog's Global
Operations about their ARES engine, discussing the reasons they've branched out
into engine development, licensing plans, and more.
I'm part of a tag-team this morning, as MrsBlue is under the weather just enough
to need to skip work, but not quite enough to keep her from doing some remote
work from home, so she's sharing my office. Luckily Hudson the wonder dog is so
averse to working she only comes up here for brief visits, or the situation
might become a little to chaotic, but even then, it's already chaotic enough.
Weee!
Link of the Day: Underwater Hockey.
Thanks Zdim.
Story of the Day: Man
takes sledgehammer to faulty PC. Thanks jlf.
Photo of the Day: Two-Headed
Snake. Thanks EvilToast.
Wild Science: Professor's
time travel idea fires up the imagination. Thanks Shmellbee.
Auction of the Day: Back To The Future Delorean Flux Cap. Replica.
On a related note. Thanks kris hall.
|
Twitter 
