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Archived News:
French developer 4X Studio has recently launched a website with product pages for Iron Storm and Stalingrad, its upcoming first-person shooters, and the latter offers a movie trailer to show the game in action. The 20.4 MB movie features no fewer than four and a half minutes of gameplay footage in QuickTime format, albeit at the expense of a sound-track and a lower than average image resolution. There are 15 new Iron Storm screenshots as well.
After an extensive beta testing period, Gas Powered Games has now released the official version 1.1 patch for Dungeon Siege, their 3D action role-playing game. The patch is available through the auto-updater or as manual 8.1 and 29.1 MB patches (depending on your previous version) from Microsoft's official site, and the aforementioned download page details the improvements, bug fixes and other changes in this release.
Hot on the heels of yesterday's German version ( story), the English rolling demo of American Conquest is available for download from Computer and Video Games. As before, the 49.3 MB download offers around four minutes of gameplay action, along with an overview of the features of this isometric RTS in the works at GSC Game World. The download server is very slow, but a US-based mirror is online at 3D Gamers.
GameSpot Unreal II updated impressions
are online, based on their chance to put on the ritz at the Ritz Carlton
recently to attend an Infogrames press soiree to see the upcoming shooter sequel
in action. They describe the overall story of the game, the setting of the
levels that they saw demonstrated, graphic effects, commanding soldiers, a new
enemy cyborg race, and more. Included are eight new screenshots and word that
the game is just a couple of weeks from the alpha stage.
- No Name War
Gamitopia's No Name War
Q&A talks with AMC Creation's Marcel Neamtu about their upcoming RTS
game that will also incorporate some RPG elements. They discuss the
breakdown of the single-player campaign, multiplayer support, AI, the game
engine, plans for testing, and more.
- Priest
There's a Priest
Q&A on massivemultiplayer.org where JC Entertainment's Jason Kim
plays the role of Jason Priestly to discuss Priest, their upcoming comic
book-inspired MMORPG set in the old west. They talk about the unusual
property on which this game is based, adapting it to an MMO game rather than
a straight RPG, progress since the game was announced, maintaining interest
in the game's horror elements, and more.
- Prince of Qin
RPG Vault's Prince of Qin Q&A #2
talks with Object Software designer Liu Yu Bin about how combat is handled
in their upcoming action/RPG. They discuss the high-level goals of combat,
features of their combat system, the number of characters players will
control, the role of weapons and armor, defending against magic, how death
is handled, and more.
- Project Nomads
A brief Project Nomads preview on Computer and Video Games looks ahead to this high-flying 3D action strategy game by Radon Labs. They introduce the game's setting and features, and offer a few quotes by producer Friis Tappert.
- Icewind Dale II
There's an
Icewind Dale II Preview on GameAxis offering impressions of the now-gold
RPG sequel. They describe the setting in relation to the original, the
familiar style of Infinity engine gameplay, spells, new races, new beasties,
new items, character creation, the amount of gameplay that will be offered,
and more.
- Hegemonia
GameGenie.com's Hegemonia
Preview looks at Digital Reality's upcoming outer space strategy game.
They describe the Mars versus Earth storyline, the way the solar system is
modeled, sound effects, graphics, gameplay, and more.
There's a World War II RTS
Preview on Il-2 Planes Database based on a chance to visit the Moscow
offices of 1C Maddox Games where the upcoming project with the quite
self-explanatory title was one of the games they got to check out. The article
recaps a demonstration of the game that included some armor action, describes
how the missions break down into sub-missions, crew management, taking command,
graphics and animation, and more. Included is a staggeringly large collection of
screenshots.
- id Software
The Robert
Duffy Q&A on Cached.net talks with the id Software programmer about
some of the details of how Even Balance's PunkBuster support will be
implemented in the next Q3A point release. They discuss a bit of how the
support will work, and why it is desirable to approach cheat-prevention in
this modular fashion.
- City of Heroes
The City of Heroes
Q&A on ActionTrip talks with Cryptic Studios' Rick Dakan about their
upcoming supheroic MMORPG. Topics include the story, character
customization, skill advancement, villain AI, handling player death, and
more.
- Earth & Beyond
There's a Claudia
Christian Q&A on GameSpyDaily talking with the former Babylon
5 co-star about her work on Earth & Beyond, Westwood's upcoming
MMORPG where she will play the voice of Lady Isabelle DeWinter. She
discusses what goes into voice work for computer games, other games she's
worked on, other current projects, and more.
- Star Peace
The Star
Peace Q&A on GameSpyDaily talks with Oceanus Software's Miguel
Cepero, Iroel Perez, and Marco Cultrera about Star Peace, their "online
persistent world strategy building game for the PC." They introduce the
game, discuss the location of their servers and response times to various
points around the world, details about gameplay, plans for a US release, and
more.
There's a
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Q&A on Computer and Video Games talking
with id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead and Activision producer Jonathan Moses
about Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. It turns out the decision
has been made to release Enemy Territory as a stand-alone game, something the
article deals with as common knowledge, though this is the first we can recall
of this revelation. They discuss the reasoning behind changing Enemy Territory
from an add-on, how it will not include the original RtCW, bot AI, the
squad-based single-player campaign, the storyline, modification support, their
price point, and more.
German site GIGA Games serves up a new movie trailer of XIII, showing the cel-shaded first-person shooter by Ubi Soft Montreal in motion. The movie requires a 9.8 MB download and sports half a minute of action-packed gameplay footage in AVI format.
BioWare Corp. to Develop Two New Original Games
is the press release with word on a pair of game projects in the works at the
Canadian developer. One is the Xbox title already mentioned this morning
( story), while the other is briefly mentioned in this release:
"The second game, a BioWare Corp. PC roleplaying property, is under
development but has not yet been presented to any publisher." In case the
significance of this was lost, the release later offers a quote from BioWare
co-CEO Dr. Greg Zeschuk highlighting its mysteriousness: "Our PC developers
are already hard at work on our other new 'secret' PC roleplaying game...Creating
our own universe is a great opportunity for us to deliver a game that is
uniquely BioWare, and we look forward to creating an immersive BioWare RPG
experience in the tradition of games like Baldur's Gate(TM) and Neverwinter
Nights(TM)."
Against Rome Announced on ToTheGame
has word of a new RTS game in the works at Independent Arts (creators of
WarCommander) set in Rome during the pre-Roman empire days. They offer the first
screenshots of the game, and a description of gameplay, which includes this bit:
"Players take control of one of these tribes, all of which were
characterized by a lack of cultural knowledge, but all the more lust for battle.
Wars against other tribes, plundering raids, pillages, and destruction were the
order of the day for these Barbarians, and thus serve as the setting for this
game."
There's a SWAT Urban Justice Preview
on HomeLan Fed offering the first-hand impressions they were able to form
during a visit to Sierra's offices to check out the latest installment in the
series of police games. They offer a quick tour of the genres explored by Urban
Justice's predecessors and how they are sticking with the tactical shooter
gameplay of SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle, the level of realism they are
striving for, the quick start features, characters, weapons, the near-futuristic
setting, and more.
Project 3 Interactive has released a new multiplayer beta of New World Order, bringing this team-based tactical shooter by Termite Games to version 2.0. This 118.1 MB download still features the "Sweden" map playable with up to 32 players on LAN and Internet, but it requires DirectPlay 8.2 beta, which you must download from Microsoft's BetaPlace (case-sensitive Beta ID: DXBeta, password: DirectX9) after completing their short "Game Enthusiast Survey."
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Oblivion Lost
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:
Oblivion Lost Q&A on Gameguru Mania features a conversation with GSC
Game World's Alexei Sytyanov discussing their upcoming sci-fi FPS. Topics
include an introduction to the game's story, the environments the game will
feature, the non-linear plot, important gameplay elements, weapons, the
engine, multiplayer support, and more.
- Neverwinter Nights
HomeLan Fed's
Neverwinter Nights
Q&A talks with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk the doctor duo that shares
the throne of CEO of BioWare Corp. about Neverwinter Nights, their
recently released D&D RPG. They discuss the reaction the game has met
with, their response to criticisms of multiplayer play, plans to refine the
Aurora toolset, patch plans, the licensing issues involved with selling
third-party NWN modules, and more.
- StarShift
There's a StarShift
Q&A on Loadedinc.com talking with Stéphane Vaillancourt project
director and lead programmer at Canadian developer CODECO about StarShift:
The Zaran Legacy, their upcoming online strategy game. Topics include the
story, how long development has been underway, the reasons for a turn-based
design, races, the interface, the length of games, and more.
- Eschaton Online
The Eschaton
Q&A on Khabal Gaming talks with Travis Cannell of Gnostic Labs about
their upcoming massively multiplayer space combat game. They discuss the
idea behind the game, the flexibility of the roles available to the player,
how players will impact the game universe, and more.
- Themis Group
The Daniel
"Savant" Manachi Q&A on Aikida talks with this long-time
member of the online gaming community about the Themis Group, which provides
a variety of assistance to companies creating or publishing online games.
There's an IGI2:
Covert Strike Progress Report on WORTHPLAYING with news from Codemasters
about plans to beta test the upcoming sequel to Project IGI, Innerloop's
stealthy thinker/shooter. The update describes what is still being working on,
saying they should be prepared to roll out phase 1 of their beta for a couple of
weeks before launching beta 2, which will include all of the testers they have
signed-up.
Two Towers Cancelled? on
PC.IGN.Com (thanks HomeLan Fed)
reports a rumor that the PC version of the game tie-in with the second Lord
of the Rings movie has been cancelled. According to the report, which says
that Electronic Arts could not be reached for comment on this, the PC version
(long rumored to be in the works at Ritual Entertainment) has been shelved because it
would not be completed for a timely release in conjunction with the movie. In
contrast, they offer the opinion that the console versions of The Two Towers
demonstrated at the recent CampEA editor's day "are coming together quite
nicely, and should be ready for release by the end of the year."
There's a new chat log
on the Unreal Tournament 2003 recapping a session attended by Infogrames'
(Atari's) Kyle "Pezman" Peschel and Richard "Headup" Iggo
and Epic's ever-chattier Mark Rein to discuss progress on the upcoming Unreal
Tournament sequel. They discuss differences between UT2003 and Unreal
Championship, port plans, OpenGL support, vehicles, tools, and more. There's
also a new UT2003
preview on GameSpy.com offering hands-on impressions of a preview build of
the game, accompanied by quotes from James Schmalz, Digital Extremes' creative
director on the project.
BioWare to Develop Xbox Game for Microsoft
announces that "Microsoft and BioWare Form New First-Party Publishing
Relationship." The release offers more sales figures than details about the
game, which is described as "a brand-new intellectual property owned by
BioWare."
There's a
new Splinter Cell Preview on Computer and Video Games with a look at the
upcoming Xbox port of the Tom Clancy game, along with a bunch of new screenshots
and concept art. There's a Conflict: Desert Storm
Preview on Gamers Europe with a look at Pivotal's upcoming GameCube game.
There's a
Red Faction 2 Preview on Computer and Video Games with hands-on impressions
of Volition's upcoming PS2 shooter sequel. Finally, a report on HomeLan Fed
has word from The Collective that the Buffy The Vampire Slayer game has gone
gold.
Console Reviews
There's a Runemaster Class Guide
on DAoC Spoilers offering tips on how to properly cultivate a Runemaster
character, which they call "the nuking class of the Midgard realm."
Valve Software sends word on plans for the next release of the popular Day of
Defeat mod for Half-Life: An update for Day of Defeat (DoD), the World War
II based Half-Life MOD, is set for release this Wednesday, August 7. This update
adds Valve's Anti-Cheating Technology to DoD, as well as various fixes and
tweaks. The Linux server files will be released Tuesday evening for download.
The DoD 3.1 client update will be available via traditional download as well as
through Steam. Those running the Steam beta will be updated automatically on
Wednesday morning. For more information on Steam, visit www.steampowered.com.
The MDS Exporter Project Website now
has the Official MDS Tool Pack from Gray Matter, updating the
previously-released MDS tools for Return to Castle Wolfenstein to include all
sorts of documentation on their proper use. The first in a planned series of SoF2 map editing tutorials
has been posted on Inside Soldier of Fortune.
The Structure Studios
Jobs Page has a listing for another new level design position they are
looking to fill with this company that creates 3D interactive renderings of
proposed architectural problems using the Unreal engine.
- Westlake Interactive
has news that Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast for the Macintosh has
hit the beta stage, including word that the Mac release will feature
higher-resolution version of the cut-scenes they were able to score from
LucasArts...
- A report on GameFaction
has word that Rage has plans to release Gun Metal, their Xbox giant robot
combat game, on the PC in "early 2003"...
- The latest Earth and Beyond Glimpse Inside
introduces the community team on this upcoming MMORPG, describing their role
in the way the game will play out, including the use of live in-game
"events"....
- Shrapnel Games announces that
Space HoRSE, their M.U.L.E. homage, is now shipping...
- There's an article in The Miami Herald
about BAWLS Guarana, the official soft drink of Blue's News, quoting
some Johnny-come-lately BAWLS fans like the CPL...
The MAME box
on AwareMag.com has got to be one of the coolest home techie projects I've
seen in some time. The heyday of video arcades was probably all of 10 years,
but for an old-timer of the proper vintage the tangible nostalgia this kind of
stuff brings on can be intoxicating (so be careful not to drive after reading
this article), and I found this beyond intriguing. I have often contemplated the
joys of picking up an old arcade machine from eBay or some such place, but long
ago decided the danger of ending up with a basement full of decrepit old boxes a
bit daunting. This, on the other hand, is the way to get them all together,
though obviously, some assembly is required. Other than that, the only thing
that stands in the way of the ultimate arcade machine (and MP3 jukebox) are
licensing issues.
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