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Archived News:
Monte Cristo has opened its official Platoon: The 1st Airborne Cavalry Division in Vietnam site for business, showcasing this 3D action real-time strategy game under construction at Digital Reality. The site offers an introduction of the game's premise, some fictional journals by the game's lead character, an overview of the features, four new screenshots (and a familiar pair), and some concept art.
GameSpot's
Age of Mythology Odin Showcase continues their era-spanning preview of the
upcoming era-spanning RTS game in the works at Ensemble Studios. In this sixth
installment in their preview series they focus on the father of Thor and
hump-day, Odin, ruler of the Norse gods. They offer a description from designer
Greg Street of the origins of Odin's great powers, benefits bestowed upon
followers of Odin including resource influences and unit bonuses, Norse units,
Norse naval advantages, other residents of Asgard, and more. Included are 10 new screenshots and four new pieces of concept art.
- Condition Zero
Action Vault's
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Q&A talking with Randy Pitchford of Gearbox
Software about their upcoming single-player-oriented Counter-Strike game. Topics
include the basics about the game and its goals, gameplay locations,
weapons, enemies, missions, the game engine, and more.
- Lionheart
There's
a Lionheart
Q&A on Gamersclick with another conversation with Reflexive
Entertainment's Ion Hardie about this upcoming RPG. Topics include the
alternate history setting, the story, development challenges, the game
engine, their PvP-free multiplayer environment, and more.
- Priston Tale
There's a
Priston Tale Q&A on GameSpyDaily introducing us to this MMORPG in
the works at Triglow Pictures.
PlanetAvP's
Paul Pawlicki Q&A is online talking with Fox about the Aliens versus
Predator II: Primal Hunt expansion for AvP 2. Topics include changes the Primal
Hunt expansion will introduce to AvP gameplay, plans to introduce things like a
multiplayer Predator self-destruct feature and dual pistols, the continued lack
of outdoor levels, missions, returning characters, working with Monolith, plans
for AvP3, as well as some miscellaneous questions about the future of the AvP
franchise.
This thread in the TribalWar forums (of all places) offers a work-around for setting up a dedicated server for America's Army: Operations Recon, the just released first-person shooter by the U.S. Army. The details involve creating and editing a separate .ini file to run the server from, and further posts in the thread provide information for optionally listing the server with the GameSpy master server, setting the correct port, the maximum client rate, and other configuration options. Thanks Shacknews. Update: On this subject, HomeLan Fed
has posted an update saying that a "community server patch" for the
game is on the way, and may be available as early as Monday.
German site GIGA Games serves up nine new Unreal Tournament 2003 movies, showing the imminent multiplayer shooter by Digital Extremes in motion (thanks Voodoo Extreme). The movies require between 8.6 and 29.0 MB to download, and sport a grand total of around 25 minutes of gameplay footage in soundless DivX format from a variety of maps and game modes. Update: In related news, there's a brief but hands-on preview of Unreal Tournament 2003 on ActionTrip, offering impressions of some of the maps they tried, the bots that allow offline play, the weapons in the preview build, the graphics, sound effects and music, and more. Included are 11 new screenshots.
RPG Vault's Icewind Dale II Designer Diary #11
goes the third time is the charm, as it is no fewer than three times now that
they've presented what they claim to be the "final" journal entry
relating development of Black Isle Studio's imminent RPG sequel. Offering a
bizarre account of being nominated to pen this diary entry, designer Chris
Avellone proceeds in describing the overtime quality assurance is putting in
testing the game, goes on to offer a discussion of replayability (describing
some specific choices players can make that will change the way the game plays
out), and goes on to provide an item description, some play hints, and other
stuff.
- Lionheart
HomeLan Fed's Lionheart
Q&A chats with Ion Hardie, lead designer and co-producer on this
upcoming alternate-history RPG in the works at Reflexive Entertainment and
Black Isle Studios. Topics include the idea for the game, the collaboration
between the two developers, research, the story, and more.
- Deadly Dozen 2
HomeLan Fed's Deadly Dozen: Pacific Theater
Q&A discusses the World War II shooter follow-up with "Birns,
Zisk, And Vitiell" of nFusion Interactive. Topics include the original
game, goals for the sequel, new weapons, planned improvements, and more.
- Iritor Online
RPG Vault's Iritor Online Interview, Part 1
talks with Roman Kremlicka and Benjamin Prucha of Wootsoft about their upcoming
action-oriented MMORPG. Topics include goals for gameplay, locations, transportation,
the storyline, player characters, and more.
There's a
Turok Evolution Preview on Computer and Video Games offering "UK
exclusive information and shots" from the upcoming installment in
Turok's ongoing efforts to ensure the extinction of the dinosaurs. Also, there
is a The Thing
Preview on Gamersclick looking at Computer Artworks' upcoming game based on
the movie of the same name.
Console Reviews
- 128-Bit Color?
Radeon 10 000 (R300) to implement 128-bit colour
on the Inquirer is a semi-recent article predicting that ATI's next-gen
products will have 128-bit color (if you can trust a tabloid called the
"Inquirer" or an article that misspells Carmack's name two out of
the three times they use it). In the wrap-up they add: "This leads us
to the conclusion that Nvidia NV30 will also have support for 128-bit
floating point precision." Thanks snek_one.
The usual weekly update to the Star Wars Galaxies Official
FAQ adds questions and answers about the Bounty Hunter and Politician
professions.
Well we managed to survive the triple-digit heat yesterday, and did not manage
to notice a single car backfiring, much less any fireworks. I did however, lose
my mind and get caught up in a project that turned out a lot sweatier than I
imagined: I was changing a lock on the front door when I learned that one aspect
of locksmithing is to add what are called "tap screws" to the ends of
the screws that hold the whole deal together (presumably to make them less prone
to disassembly, a bad quality for a lock). The thing is that I could not figure
out or find anywhere exactly how one removes one of these taps screws. So I had
to escalate and bust out the sawz-all, which made extremely quick work of the
lock, as it would of any other material short of Captain America's shield. Now
if only I could figure out a way to make all the little projects around here
incorporate this wonder tool, I'd be a lot more willing to play handyman.
Unfortunately it looks like the holiday weekend is preventing our mail
hamster from its emergency feeding, so for the time being please continue to use
our bluesnews@abydos.com address to
contact us.
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