Archived News:
S2 Games has updated the official Savage site ( Flash required) with a new look and new media for its upcoming multiplayer 3D action strategy game. The downloads section offers a pop-up viewer with 12 new gameplay screenshots and a handful of captures from the E3 movie trailer, which itself is now also available as a 20.4 MB download in high-res DivX format, sporting nearly two minutes of cinematic footage to introduce the game's setting and premise.
Less than a week after the main releases, Sierra Entertainment has released a patch for Half-Life: Initial Encounter for download from its ftp server, updating this retail edition that included the Half-Life: Day One OEM demo and a stand-alone version of Team Fortress Classic to version 5.1.6.0. This 52.0 MB patch updates TFC for multiplayer compatibility with all the other editions of the game.
The official Face of Mankind site recently went online to introduce this massively multiplayer online game by German company Duplex System and US-based Lyra Studios (thanks Veladon Fireheart). The game is set in the 24th century, is being built upon the LithTech Talon engine, and is projected for a 2004 release. The official site offers more information on the game's backstory, structure, ten playable factions, and more, along with the first eight, early screenshots.
There's a UFO:
Aftermath Preview on FREELANCER with this Russian gaming site taking a look at the X-COM style anti-alien strategy game in the works at Czech developer ALTAR Interactive. They offer a
rundown on the game's already-interesting history, a description of the story,
the setting, UFO hunting, the game's simultaneous turn-based strategy, a
description of some combat, the use of lines of sight as opposed to the fog of
war, random maps, the game engine, music and sound, controlling your squad,
weapons, and more. Included are some new screenshots.
The winners of the Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2002 have been announced, and not completely expectedly DOOM III takes home five awards, in the Best of Show, Best PC Game and Best Action Game categories, as well as the Special Commendations for Sound and Graphics. Other noteworthy results are Best Action/Adventure Game for Splinter Cell, Best Role Playing Game for Neverwinter Nights, Best Strategy Game for Command & Conquer: Generals, and Best Online Multiplayer for Star Wars Galaxies. Thanks Joel Bowler for the tip.
There's a Praetorians
Q&A on Gamers Hell talking with Javier Arevalo, project leader on Praetorians,
the upcoming real-time strategy game by Pyro Studios set in the heyday of the Roman
Empire. Topics include introductions to himself and the game, examples of some
missions, the role of the environment in combat, what will make the game
special, the graphics engine, multiplayer support, and more.
GameSpot PC Previews
O.R.B. with a look at Strategy First's upcoming space-based strategy game.
They offer some comparisons to Homeworld while describing the history of how
production on O.R.B. actually pre-dates the start of Homeworld development,
describe the two playable factions, the setting in a ruined asteroid belt,
resource management, technology research, combat, the interface, and more.
Included are 16 new screenshots.
- Vault Network
Coverage from the show continues on The Vault
Network where they preview Digital Anvil's Freelancer, Creative Assembly's
Medieval:
Total War, and Artifact Entertainment's Horizons.
- XGR
XGR has posted more wrap-ups,
more photos, and their
best-of-show awards.
- Miscellaneous
There's a preview of Westka Interactive's The
Y-Project on Frictionless Insight, IO Interactive's Hitman
2: Silent Assassin on Gamehelper.com, CCP's EVE: the Second Genesis on
Gamers Pulse, Digital Anvil's Freelancer
on The Stratos Group, and LucasArts' Indiana
Jones and the Emperor's Tomb on the Electric Playground.
- Round-ups
There's a
first-person shooter round-up on UGO, an online
games round-up on UGO, and impressions of WarCraft
III, WoW, NWN, C&C Generals, AoM, EVE, and more on Firing Squad.
Infogrames sends along news that Neverwinter Nights, BioWare's eagerly-anticipated
D&D RPG, has shipped to stores. Here's the word: "Infogrames, Inc. and
BioWare Corp., the creators of the four million selling Baldur's Gate series,
are pleased to announce that Neverwinter Nights(tm) shipped to retail
stores today under Infogrames' Atari label and will be available for personal
computer across North America this week. The highly anticipated Dungeons
& Dragons® computer game has been rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB
and has a suggested retail price of $59.99."
Multiplayer details confirmed for IGI 2: Covert
Strike is the press release with some details about multiplayer support in
IGI 2: Covert Strike, Innerloop's upcoming sequel to Project IGI, their stealthy first-person shooter. They've also released a
batch of new screenshots some of which show off multiplayer play. Here is a
bit from the release on what they are trying to do a bit differently when it
comes to multiplayer, which adheres to the old adage 'time is money:' Each
player will have access to a cash reserve. However, buying a new weapon from the
game’s arsenal of 30 realistic arms isn't the only way to spend the cash.
Players will also have to think about purchasing more specialist kit and paying
to re-enter the game if killed.
However, the cost to players to buy themselves back into the game decreases over
time to zero. This presents players with the tactical choice of spending all
their cash on a quick re-entry and buying little hardware, or waiting for the
time to expire and rejoining play tooled up – but that could be too late. Once
the cash has been paid, the location where a player opts to be respawned adds a
further tactical element.
HomeLan Fed's Return to Castle
Wolfenstein GotY Q&A talks with Nerve Software's Brandon James and
Splash Damage's Paul "Locki" Wedgewood about the Game of the Year
edition of Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Topics of the conversation with Paul
include the story of the formation of Splash Damage, how they got the job of
creating new Wolfenstein content, a bit on their work for both the GotY
edition and the upcoming Wolfenstein expansion, and more. The discussion with
Brandon covers the reception Wolfenstein has met with, a bit on the game's
multiplayer modes, the new GotY maps, and more.
There's a Medieval:
Total War Q&A on GameSpy.com discussing Creative Assembly's upcoming RTS
game that follows up on their Shogun: Total War. The detailed conversation with
Creative Assembly's Michael de Plater and Ian Roxburgh and Activision's Michael
J. Larson, discusses the increased scope of the game's battles, the individual
nature of the game's soldiers, sieges, morale, civilians, leadership styles,
climate, historical battles, campaigns, diplomacy, and more.
RPG Vault Black Moon Chronicles Developer Diary #15
is the latest installment in this long-running series describing the development
of Vircom's upcoming MMORPG. In this update lead scriptwriter Daniel Bisson
discusses how their special ability system applies to the classes in the game,
offering a specific outline for each character, accompanied by a handy image.
- Devastation Q&A
There's a Devastation
Q&A on Games Domain discussing the upcoming Unreal-engine team-oriented first-person
shooter in the works at Digitalo with Vic DeLeon, senior producer on the
project.
- Supreme Ruler
There's a new Supreme Ruler 2010
Q&A on Gamer's Hell that chats with David Thompson, lead designer at
BattleGoat Studios about their upcoming strategy game, learning about its
origins as well as the future of the project.
A new Ages of Athiria newsletter is now online at the official site for this massively multiplayer online world in the works at Elysian Productions. This edition offers some insight into the magic system, there's a soundtrack sample in MP3 format along with a new creature image, and Elysian's Matthew Koch is briefly interviewed about his work on the project, creating the game's backstory and content, influences from other MMO games, and more. If you missed the previous two installments (like we seem to have), you can find those here and here.
Final Fantasy XI beta for PC begins
on GameSpot has word on plans for Square to begin beta testing the PC
version of Final Fantasy XI in Japan sometime this week. The PS2 version of the
MMORPG FF game is already out in Japan, and the game is slated to be released in
North America sometime in 2003.
GameCube Modem Adapter in
August on XenGamers has word on plans for a GameCube modem release in Japan
this August (though Phantasy Star Online: Episode 1 & 2 is the only software
that will be able to use it) which does not alter plans for release of a
broadband adaptor further down the road (dates for release of either the modem
or the network adaptor in North America have not been announced). There's an AGB
Games Q&A on Mindless Games offering another conversation with
Matthew Hopwood, programmer on the game engine that looks to bring true 3D
gaming (Quake, for example) to the GBA platform. The debut Project Ego Developer Diary
on Xbox.IGN.Com is online, tastefully titled "Out of the Blue."
There are half-a-dozen Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance screenshots on Team Xbox.
Console Reviews
- Resident Evil (GameCube) on MGON
and ESCMag.
- Star Wars Jedi Starfighter (Xbox) on TVG.
The Orange Smoothie Productions
Website (thanks PlanetWolfenstein)
has a new version 1.22 of OSP Wolf, bringing this package of enhancements for
Return to Castle Wolfenstein in line with the latest version 1.33 of RtCW. A
full list of changes hasn't been posted yet, but there is a note that playing
back older demos will now result in "strange sound effects."
Version 1.00 of HLGuard
is now available, which is the first public non-beta release of this utility
that impedes cheating in Half-Life. Word is: "the team has been working to
provide improved wallhack blocking support for more MODs including TFC, FLF,
DMC, DoD, FA, AHL, HLDM, and VS."
A new version 1.1 patch for the Night's Edge Wet
Works futuristic team combat modification for Unreal Tournament is now
available. "This small patch fixes some problems with dedicated servers,
bots, and the in-game browser. It also includes a new Linux dedicated server
script."
Stratos Group's
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Guide is now online, focusing on "getting
the most out of your character: character development, general strategies,
battle tactics, and the like..." Also, there is a
Gothic Guide on Yiya.de offering tips on the game in the site's native
German.
Frans got struck by inspiration yesterday and managed to polish off updating
just about all the remaining pages on the site so that the logo is no longer
split in two. There is still a problem on a certain few pages that are now
spread significantly wider than they should be, but we're hoping we'll work the
next round of fixes in shorter order than this previous one. This does, of
course, kill my secret hope that we were going to start a neat new trend of
similar Picasso-inspired cubist websites, but what are you going to do?
Link of the Day: Dead Man's
Switch software. Thanks Snappy2Stroke.
Story of the Day: Mom rescues 'Ninjas' after scare shuts down I-75.
Thanks Dissension. Ninjas in a Ford Escort??
Story of the Day II: Ten
Cops Surround Girl with Toy Light Saber. Thanks Jamie Fullerton. Making the
cops busting the ninjas seem like Columbo.
|
Twitter 
