Archived News:
There is an Unreal Interview on Multi Player Zone, quizzing Epic's Mark Rein and Infogrames' Matt Powers, Tim Hess and Richard Iggo about the popular first-person shooter series (thanks GameSpyDaily). Topics include the role of Infogrames in the franchise, developing single-player versus multi-player games, current and future plans for the series, working towards the release of Unreal Tournament 2003, use of the Karma physics system, supporting the game after release, and more.
Tonight XGR will be broadcasting an interview on Horizons: Empires of Istaria, interrogating Artifact Entertainment's David Bowman about their upcoming fantasy MMORPG. Topics include the game's various characters "including your ability to be a dragon," , the graphics engine and different environments, their goal of standing out in the MMO crowd, and more. As always, the fun kicks off at 9:30 PM EDT, SHOUTcast-compatible media player required.
A new version 1.51 of the Freeze Tag
Quake III Arena modification is now available, updating this teamplay mod
that allows you to turn your enemies into gib-cicles. In the new version the team
icon can't be seen through walls again, the time spent frozen and time-to-thaw
in Freeze CTF is lowered, you cannot steal thaws, bodies can now be walked over,
and more. The new version is but a 785 KB download.
Funcom sends word that they are making some staff cuts, somewhat paradoxically
giving the reason as the company's "continuing efforts to strengthen
its focus on Anarchy Online." Here's the deal: As part of Funcom's
continuing efforts to strengthen its focus on Anarchy Online, the company has
today made additional cut-backs in staff. Funcom employees will be affected in
all three offices however there will be no cuts in the product development for
Anarchy Online. All planned patches and game additions are still on schedule.
In addition to staff reduction, there will be reorganization efforts
specifically in the marketing and support departments to better focus on
customer needs.
"We are saddened to have to put additional employees on leave," Funcom
president Andre Backen said. "But we know that this focus will continue to
improve Anarchy Online as well as the communication we have with our
ever-growing player-base."
Most of the staff involved work from Funcom's office in Oslo, Norway. Under
Norwegian law, these employees will be put on "forced temporary leave"
and affected U.S. employees will be laid off. As you may recall, Funcom was
faced with a similar situation last December. Those who have already been
re-hired will not be affected today. Funcom again plans to re-hire staff members
as soon as additional business goals are reached.
As product development will not be affected, patches and new development for
Anarchy Online will continue as planned, including the expansion pack,
Shadowlands. Subscription numbers for Anarchy Online have been steadily climbing
since the first of the year and Funcom expects this positive trend to
continue.
In a semi-related note, there's a
story on UnknownPlayer.com with the unsubstantiated report that "Netamin
closed their US offices last Friday and laid off every employee." According
to the story, which we stress has not been confirmed elsewhere, there's a
possibility that the laid off staff will be rehired in a couple of weeks, but in
the meantime, they say this leaves the future of Ultimate Baseball Online, NetAdmin's planned baseball MMOG, in limbo.
HomeLan Fed's Galactic Civilizations
Q&A chats with Stardock's Brad Wardell, lead designer on this upcoming
remake of the original OS/2 game of the same name. Topics include their reasons
for revisiting this title, the hardest aspect of development, technologies and
professions, their reasons for foregoing a traditional single-player campaign,
the user-interface, the lack of multiplayer support, plans to add features after
the game's release, where development currently stands, and more.
There's an Imperium
Galactica III Q&A on Strategie Expert talking with someone or other at
CDV/Philos about their upcoming space strategy game sequel. The conversation
covers the game's story, this installment's added emphasis on action/roleplay,
engine improvements, innovations, a no-comment on multiplayer support, and more.
The Adrenaline Vault's
Battlefield 1942 Preview is online, offering impressions from playing the
beta preview build of Digital Illusions' upcoming World War II action game. They
offer some background on the project, describe the two maps in the beta version,
the three multiplayer modes, the role of "tickets" and "control
points," player classes, the emphasis on vehicles, and more. Included are
10 new screenshots.
Apolyton Civilization Site's Jeff
Briggs Q&A talks with this designer on Firaxis' Civilization III to
discuss the turn-based strategy sequel, as well as the upcoming Play the World
Civ III expansion. Topics include the reasons for leaving multiplayer support
for a separate release, the reasons for the removal of Fundamentalism, how well
Civ III sold, plans for future Civ III patches, and more.
A new version 2.1.58 of the Remote-X
Half-Life remote server administration client is now available. "This
version has a few bug fixes, as well as an updated 2D map system, new chat
config options that were requested and makes use of the Windows XP theme system
(for those of you running XP). This version is compatible with 2.1.57 servers."
A new beta version 4.2 of the zero[ping]mode
modification that offers enhanced client-side prediction for Quake III Arena to
provide a less laggy experience is now available. The new version addresses a whole bunch of
bugs, including the "dead with one rocket" bug.
Polycount has posted a recap
of what they learned about the future of modification for Unreal Tournament 2003
based on attending Epic Games' mod summit where details about tools and mod
support were revealed to them. They also have a link up to a
messageboard thread also discussing the festivities. Also, Dteam's
Game Concepts & Design Contest is now underway.
- AO Vault's ARK for a Day
offers "an inside look into Anarchy Online's in game Customer Support
department."...
- The TeamSpeak Website
is now accepting applications to beta test the new version 2.0 of the TeamSpeak
voice communication software...
Yesterday MrsBlue was feeling a little stifled while she was in my office (I was
in the middle of a vigorous couch-master workout at the time) and turned on the
gable fan in the one-time attic to try and supplement the cooling of the air
conditioner. I have been curious about how close we are to the limits of the
power up here since we first put in the air conditioner, and this was an answer:
we were close enough that turning on the gable fan tripped a circuit breaker.
This killed everything in the office except my work PC, which is hooked up to a
UPS, until the breaker was flipped back again. The weird thing was that even
with the gable fan off, the circuit breaker started tripping repeatedly after
that. MrsBlue kept apologizing for having busted something, and amid my
puzzlement I kept reassuring her that it wasn't her fault, and something
mysterious was going on. It took a while (I never said I wasn't slow), but I
finally figured it out: After getting the power going again, the UPS was in the
midst of recharging, which until it was finished, represented the added load
tripping the breaker.
Story of the Day: Pork-chops-for shoes stunt ends in court action.
Thanks Brendan Reville.
Story of the Day II: NPR But Wait! There's More!
offering details on a book that chronicles those classic
Popeil and Ronco commercials. Thanks Zdim.
Image of the Day: Happy Face Crater on Mars.
Thanks again Zdim.
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