Archived News:
PlanetAvP offers the first installment of their AvP II: Primal Hunt Developer Diary, penned by Jonathan Wright of Third Law Interactive to provide some insight into the development of their upcoming tri-species FPS expansion. Topics include chronicling the storyline of the original game, developing the expansion's initial storyline, throwing it out again due to plotline problems, deriving several alternate scenarios, and choosing the final storyline that revolves around the Iron Bears.
- K-Hawk
JoWood has issued three new K-Hawk: Survival Instinct screenshots to the press, revealing more from this third-person action adventure in the works at Similis.
- Archangel
Also from JoWood come six new Archangel screenshots, offering new scenes in the third-person action RPG under construction at Metropolis Software.
- Arx
JoWood has also released another seven new Arx Fatalis screenshots to show more from the first-person RPG by Arkane Studios that's already out in Germany and due elsewhere in September.
- Breed
Brat Designs has added half a dozen new Breed screenshots atop their gallery for this hybrid 3D action game in development.
- Iron Storm
Three new Iron Storm screenshots are up at Voodoo Extreme, showing off the third- and first-person shooter being created at 4X Studio.
- Urban Justice
There is a new pair of SWAT: Urban Justice screenshots on SWAT:Urban Informer, displaying new scenes in the squad-based tactical shooter by Sierra Entertainment (thanks 10-David).
- Gothic II
ToTheGame has posted 16 new Gothic II screenshots, depicting new areas in the third-person adventure RPG sequel being crafted at Piranha Bytes.
- Age of Mythology
Returning to an old habit, Ensemble Studios has issued a new Age of Mythology screenshot of the week to illustrate their 3D real-time strategy game under construction.
- Rogue States
There are nine new Real War: Rogue States screenshots on HomeLan Fed, offering more scenes in Rival Interactive's upcoming isometric RTS sequel.
- Star Wars Galaxies
The official Star Wars Galaxies site serves up a batch of panoramic screenshots for the nine planets that so far constitute the universe in the sci-fi MMORPG by Sony Online (thanks Shacknews).
- Earth & Beyond
LoadedInc has captured another six new Earth & Beyond screenshots during their participation in the beta testing of Westwood Studios' upcoming futuristic MMORPG.
There's a new Time of Defiance Q&A on LoadedInc, quizzing creative director Ben Simpson about the massively multiplayer 3D strategy title under construction at Nicely Crafted Entertainment. Ben introduces company and game, comments on the game's pace, easing in new players and other gameplay topics, and talks about the ongoing beta test, their 3D engine, and more.
Simon & Schuster sends Blue's News and 3D Gamers the playable demo of Farscape the Game, offering you the opportunity to try out this imminent 3D top-down action game by Red Lemon Studios that's based on the popular sci-fi TV series. The demo clocks in at a modest 63.6 MB and contains an intro movie, a training level, and a part of the full game where you get to control team members John Crichton and Chianna.
- Inquisition
There's an Inquisition Preview
on ActionTrip with a look at Wanadoo's
upcoming third-person action adventure that puts players in the role of a
thief. They describe the obvious emphasis on stealth such a profession
requires, the 14th century setting, the designers emphasis on visual detail,
and more.
- KotOR
The Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Preview
on ActionTrip offers a look ahead at the Star Wars RPG currently under
construction at BioWare, featuring a bunch of quotes from producers Mike
Gallo and Casey Hudson about what to expect from gameplay.
There's a Shadowbane Preview
on GameSpot with a look at the upcoming MMORPG in the works at Wolfpack
Studios. They describe similarities and differences compared to games like
EverQuest, the game's emphasis on guilds, characteristics of the different
races, character development, the game's graphics, and more. Included are six new
screenshots.
- Black Moon Chronicles
RPG Vault's Black Moon Chronicles Q&A #15
chats with lead designer Francis Lahaie about progress on Vircom's upcoming
comic-inspired MMORPG. Today's installment focuses on specifics about the
weapons and items that will be available to players in the game.
- Battle Realms
XGR's
Peter Bartholow Interview is an audio conversation with Peter Bartholow
of Liquid Entertainment discussing
Battle Realms, their RTS game, covering the upcoming Battle Pack 3 and the
Winter of The Wolf expansion. The show starts at 9:30 PM EDT,
SHOUTcast-compatible media player required.
- HoveRace
There's a
HoveRace Q&A on MGON where their "victim" is Anton
Bolshakov of GSC Gameworld discussing their upcoming game where players will
race in hovercraft (whether full of eels, or otherwise). Topics include high
and low points of the game's development, how they ran out of time enough to
include multiplayer support upon release, the possibility of a release of
their track construction tools, NPC aggression, and more.
- Iritor Online
There's an
Iritor Online Q&A on Massivemultiplayer.org: "In which our hero
bothers Roman Kremlicka to such a degree, his questions are answered."
Topics of the conversation with the Wootsoft cofounder include their policy
about auctioning items from their upcoming MMORPG on eBay, how different
individual avatars will be from each other, whether development is
progressing on schedule, and more.
Camelot
Vault's Imperator Q&A talks with Mythic Entertainment CEO Mark Jacobs
about plans for Imperator, their upcoming futuristic MMORPG. They discuss his
main goal for the game's development, their stated intention of going
head-to-head with Star wars Galaxies, the role of fan feedback in their design
process, the alternate history backstory, whether there will be space combat,
their target audience, accommodating both solo and group adventuring, character
customization, and much more.
Robert Duffy, id Software programmer, updated
his .plan with word that a new Quake III Arena point release is in the
works: Just a quick note on future releases for Quake 3 Arena. We will be
releasing a new point release in the relatively near future which includes a
handful of fixes and updates and also includes full Punk Buster integration to
combat cheating. No firm date on when this will be out but it should not be too
far off.
There is a playable demo of Batman Vengeance on Games Domain, allowing you to try out the PC port of this comic-based third-person console action game by Ubi Soft. The demo requires a hefty 140.3 MB download (in part due the unnecessary inclusion of DirectX 8) but there is no information about its contents. Update: A more reasonable 112 MB download without DirectX is available at 3D Gamers, and the demo includes one training mission as well as three game missions.
Raven programmer (and fifth president of the United States) James Monroe updated
his .plan with word that GL extensions are no longer an outcast in Jedi
Outcast for owners of Matrox video cards: Attention JK2 players with a new
Matrox card, like the Parhelia.
If you are experiencing slow performance you may be able to bring the game back
up to speed by allowing GL extensions.
By default, extensions are disabled for Matrox cards because the drivers for
some older cards would crash otherwise.
Matrox informs me that the new Parhelia will work fine with extensions on. You
can enable them from the Video menu, or by typing at the console:
r_allowExtensions 1
vid_restart
enjoy,
New Hungarian developer Mithis Games sends along their announcement of Midway - Naval Battles, the working title of their sea-based 3D tactical/strategy game in development. The game is set in World War II and focuses on the changes in naval combat in that era by offering the player a variety of vessels and fleets to control throughout a campaign that allows him to rise to the rank of admiral. The press release has more details on the game's features and is accompanied by the first two screenshots. Mithis Games is composed of developers that used to work on Imperium Galactica III: Genesis while at Philos Entertainment, and the development status of that title is currently uncertain.
There's a
Face of Mankind Q&A on The GameWatchers Network talking with Marko
Dieckmann of German developer Duplex Systems about progress on Face of Mankind,
their upcoming futuristic MMORPG. Topics of the conversation include whether
players will have to belong to factions, NPC interaction, the lack of a skill
system, combat, non-combat action, locational damage, environments, dynamic
content, system requirements, and more.
HomeLan Fed's Revolution
Q&A talks with one or more of the developers at FUN Labs currently at
work on Revolution, which is a revelation in itself, as the game's unveiling
( story) did not include mention of the developer. The Q&A
discusses progress on this upcoming sci-fi action game, talking about the idea,
the story, levels, weapons, enemies, the engine, and more. Accompanying the
article are some new screenshots and concept art from the game.
- Splinter Cell
3DAvenue.com's Splinter Cell Preview
with a look at the upcoming installment in the ongoing series of Tom Clancy-inspired
games. The hands-off preview describes the use of the third-person
perspective, the anti-terrorism storyline, camera controls, the use of the
Unreal engine, and more.
- Icewind Dale II
There's an Icewind
Dale II Preview on Khabal Gaming with hands-on impressions of Black
Isle's upcoming RPG sequel. The thoughts offered are exceedingly brief,
saying the differences between the follow-up and the original "are too
numerous to be mentioned," probably partly due to the admission that
follows of having replayed this build 14 times prior to writing about it.
HomeLan Fed's Enigma Rising Tide Developer's Journal - Part 5
is online, again penned by Tesseraction Games' writer Blake Hutchins. This time
out Blake discusses the role of being a full time writer in games, the thick
skin this job requires, the goals of the story in their upcoming MMOG Enigma:
Rising Tide, how the story is presented, and more.
Irrational Games has released a patch for Freedom Force, taking this superheroic 3D tactical combat game to version 1.1. The patch requires a 6.4 MB download and adds a new single-player skirmish mode with three game types, along with numerous gameplay tweaks, bug fixes, scripting improvements and other changes as detailed in the included Readme page.
A new version 2.2.3 of the PrBoom
port of the DOOM source port is now available. The new release offers improved
mouse handling and shared texture palette support, along with a bunch of other
fixes and enhancements.
GameSpot's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Game Guide
is online with tips on Blizzard's latest RTS offering. There's also an Operation
Flashpoint: Resistance Walkthrough on Inside Operation Flashpoint (thanks ColdWar: Flashpoint)
with a guide to the first three missions in the newly-released OFP add-on.
Laid low yesterday and managed to catch three movies I hadn't seen before over
the course of the day through the magic of satellite (as I continue to fail to
get in to see Spider-Man before it leaves theaters), managing to enjoy every
one (I was probably just in a receptive mood). I saw Moulin Rouge, which I shouldn't be too surprised at enjoying
considering its Oscar nominations and all (but you can't always trust the
Academy); Fast and the Furious, the hip car movie that the folks behind Driven
and Gone in 60 Seconds both tried (but failed) to make; and Assassins,
a mid-90's release with a completely ridiculous plot based on one less realistic
concept after the other, but still remarkably stylish and cool... sound like the
Wachowski Brothers? Yup, and fun as usual.
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