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Archived News:
The Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings
Preview on PC.IGN.Com has been unlocked, offering their impressions of the
upcoming MMORPG sequel based on a demonstration by Turbine's Jeff Anderson. They
describe the game's setting in relation to the original, races and classes, the
no-NPC design, locations, the economy, skills, combat, enemies, mapping,
housing, vault-hopping, and more. Ten new screenshots are included.
GameSpot's Lionheart Designer Diary #1
is online, penned by Reflexive Entertainment's Ion Hardie, offering the debut
installment in a new series dedicated to Lionheart, "an off-beat
role-playing game that will combine real-time combat, traditional high fantasy,
and an alternate version of European history." He introduces himself and
his role as co-producer and lead designer of the game, background on their
company, the team at work on this project (which includes some help from Black
Isle Studios), how they decided to create a game using Fallout's SPECIAL system,
where development currently stands, and more. Included are four new screenshots. In a related note, RPGDot's
SPECIAL System, Installment 2 is online, offering a rundown on the skills in
the updated version of the SPECIAL character development system, following up on
Installment
1, which covered races and attributes.
The Earth & Beyond
Preview on Games Domain offers impressions of Westwood's upcoming MMORPG
based on playing with the latest beta version. They describe the setting of the
"EverQuest in space" gameplay, the factions that can be joined,
customization of characters, professions, skills, experience, combat,
exploration, trading, the interface, music, and more. Eight new screenshots are included.
- id Software
The
Wizardry of Id on IEEE Spectrum Online (thanks HomeLan Fed)
offers quotes from John Carmack and John Romero discussing id Software's
history and the evolution of the engine that powers their games.
- Inquisition
There's an Inquisition
Q&A on GameSpyDaily talking with Wanadoo's Jérôme
Cuckier about their upcoming stealth game set in 14th century Paris.
They introduce the game's premise, the hero, the role of the Knights
Templar, locales, the interface, the game engine, and more.
- Midway: Naval Battles
There's a Midway:
Naval Battles Q&A on Loadedinc.com talking with Zsolt Nyulaszi, lead
designer on Mithis' upcoming naval combat game. Topics include background on
the development team, research, the game's timeline, resource management,
RPG elements, airborne units, the engine, multiplayer support, and more.
This post on the Knights of the Old Republic
Forums has word that the release of BioWare's Star Wars RPG has been pushed
back to spring 2003 for the Xbox and summer 2003 for the PC. Thanks HomeLan Fed,
where they also point out that EBGames has changed its listed release date for Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
for the PC to January 2003 and their listed release date for Star Wars Galaxies
to February 2003, though they have been told by LucasArts that the dates listed
on the LucasArts web site are official
(Indy in Fall 2002 and Galaxies in Winter 2002/post-holiday). Finally, a story
on Computer and Video Games
citing the "latest Infogrames release schedule"
reports that the release date for Unreal II has been pushed back to March 2003.
A subsequent report on HomeLan Fed
offers a quote from Epic's Mark Rein saying "This is the first I have heard
of it," and a response from Infogrames calling the report a rumor, and that
they would not comment on it as such.
Funcom Introduces
"Booster Packs" To PC Market is the press release revealing Funcom's
plan to sell "booster packs" for Anarchy Online, offering features in
the works for their Shadowlands expansion pack, since it turns out this will not
be on shelves for the "holiday buying season." That holiday buying
season is, however, when the first of these packs is planned to be available,
offering new land control features "along with additional graphic updates
and new sounds." The release offers this on what these booster packs
represent, as described by game director Gaute Godager: "These cool
features were still too large in megabytes to offer as a regular content patch,
but not large enough in content to call an expansion pack. We needed something
in-between. We hated the idea of holding stuff back from our players until
everything for Shadowlands was done. So, we came up with the idea of booster
packs." This news will be the subject of an UnknownPlayer.com
chat session at 5:00 PM EDT today via their Java
chat client or with an IRC program by joining the server Irc.Sorcery.Net and
the channel #up.com.
A Dune
Generations forum post from F. Manisse (thanks GameSpy
Daily) is the translation of a French post that confirms recent reports that
Cryo Interactive was closing its doors ( story). The post, by
Frederic Manisse who had been lead designer of Dune Generations, confirms that
this also means that their project is dead, saying that with the company
liquidated and the employees all having been released, the project is history.
He also shares his opinion that the game's delays were not the cause of the
company's demise.
- DOOM III
There's a brief DOOM
III preview on Khabal Gaming out of the Activate Asia '02 soiree,
featuring a quick Q&A with id Software's Todd Hollenshead and Tim
Willits talking about the story and atmosphere.
- Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights Stratics' Jay Watamaniuk
Q&A (thanks Neverwinter Vault)
talks with the community manager on BioWare's RPG. They discuss the beta
testing, the possibilities of an expansion, the pace of combat, response to
the game, what they think off the user-created modules they've been seeing,
and more.
- Horizons
There's a Horizons
Q&A on GameSpy.com chatting with Chris
Luckenbach, assistant art director on Artifact Entertainment's upcoming
MMORPG. Topics include his role in production, his influences, his favorite
thing about the game, and more.
- Praetorians
The Praetorians
Q&A on Doupe.cz talks with Javier Arévalo, project leader on Pyro
Studios' upcoming strategy game set in the heyday of the Roman Empire. They
discuss the game's setting, story, use of actual historical events, units,
the combat system, other civilizations, research, and more.
- Gothic II
Gamersclick's
Gothic II Q&A talks with someone named Development Team from the
development team of the upcoming RPG sequel. The conversation covers the
idea behind the game, the influence of community suggestions, specific
improvements over Gothic they are striving for, how far along they are in
development, AI, and more.
- Project Nomads
The Project
Nomads Q&A on EuroGamer talks with Friis Tappert, CDV's producer on
Radon Labs' upcoming action/RTS game. Topics in the article-format Q&A
include the design's recent shift towards a greater emphasis on action,
character types, some basics of gameplay, maps, modification support, and
more.
There's a G.I.
Combat Preview on Gamers Pulse with a look at Freedom Games' upcoming World
War II combat game. Starting off with complaints about the minimal documentation
accompanying their preview build, they go on to offer impressions of movement,
enemy AI, graphics, and more. Accompanying the article is a gallery with four new screenshots.
HomeLan Fed's Enigma Rising Tide Developer's Journal - Part 6
is again written by Tesseraction Games' Blake Hutchins. Today's installment
discusses the research that is being used as the foundation for the
alternate-history timeline they are creating for their naval combat MMORPG, as
well as the ways crunch time can be eased, or at least made survivable.
HomeLan Fed's Tribes Aerial Assault Preview
is a hands-on look at the upcoming PS2 TRIBES game. There's
a Jedi Knight II:
Jedi Outcast preview on GameSpy.com with a look at the upcoming Xbox and
GameCube ports of the Star Wars shooter. There's a
Summoner 2 preview on GameSpy.com with a look at Volition's upcoming PS2 RPG
sequel. ToTheGame has posted some new Sum of All Fears screenshots showing off the
game on both the GameCube
and the PS2.
Console Reviews
The chUmbaLum sOft Website
now offers a new version 1.6.3 of the MilkShape 3D modeling utility. The new
version adds several features, several fixes, and a replaces the problematic
Ghoul2 model importer with a completely new version.
A follow-up on something I recently rambled about, hopefully in passing enough
that this won't require a Hudson-Hater link... That barking that all the local
dogs (including Hudson) were doing on the recent passing of another of the local
dogs has subsided, so it's pretty well certain that their barking was somehow
spurred by his disappearance (though I guess that wasn't very much in doubt).
Anyway, I imagine the neighbors are as relieved as we are... Airedales are LOUD!
We're semi-short-handed this morning, as Frans' cable connection has gone
down. As my nana, Nana Rosannadanna used to say...
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