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Archived News:
EA sends word that SimCity 4 has gone gold. Here's the entirety of the brief
announcement: Play God, Play Mayor, and Play with Your Sims in the
highly anticipated SimCity 4!
SimCity 4 for the PC has gone gold!!! The game is scheduled for release on
January 14, 2003.
In SimCity 4, you don't just build your city, you breathe life into it. With
god-like powers, sculpt mountains, gouge riverbeds and seed forests to lay the
groundwork for your creation. Then, as Mayor, construct the most realistic city
you can imagine. Your city comes alive with the hustle and bustle of
construction crews, the snarl of traffic and the activity of your Sims. Move
your personalized Sims into your city and watch as they go about their daily
lives. Build mansions on mountainsides, cross canyons with bridges, raise
skyscrapers downtown and compete for resources with neighboring SimCities. With
every decision you make, your city and your Sims will respond for better or
worse. In SimCity 4, your city pulses with the life you give it.
SimCity 4 for the PC is rated "E" for everyone and has an MSRP of
$49.95.
This Iron Storm
FAQ now offers the North American version of the new version 1.03 patch for
Iron Storm, 4X Studios' alternate history World War I shooter. The file has been
mirrored by 3D Gamers.
This DirectX 9.0 End-User Runtime
Page now offers downloads of version DirectX 9.0 (thanks Toten Maske and Neowin.net).
Here's a bit: "DirectX 9.0 includes security and performance updates, along
with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by
applications using the DirectX 9.0 APIs." For the wary, here's a warning:
"The DirectX 9.0 runtime cannot be uninstalled. We recommend Windows
Millennium and XP users create a 'System Restore' point before installing."
A new version 2166 patch Unreal
Tournament 2003 is now available, adding the much ballyhooed demo
recording/playback capabilities, as well as other changes, fixes, and tweaks.
The file can be downloaded from 3D
Gamers, FilePlanet
(registration required), FileShack
(registration required), GamePlex,
Gamer's
Hell, and Tiscali
Games.
The Warcraft III Bonus Maps
Page is now offering the three bonus multiplayer maps for Warcraft III that
were previously only available via a limited distribution demo CD. The maps,
"Man's Garden," "Roundabout," and "Enakro's Way"
are all medium-sized maps, each requiring a small download.
A demo of the upcoming PC version of BloodRayne is now available, offering the
chance to check out Terminal Reality's third-person action game featuring the
exploits of a half-vampire super-agent, and her battle against
"proto-Nazis." The 168 MB demo is available from 3D Gamers,
FilePlanet
(registration required), FileShack (registration required), Gamer's
Hell, and Worthplaying.
Entering
Enemy Territory on Computer and Video Games is a preview of Return to Castle
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, the upcoming sequel to the Quake III-engine World
War II shooter. Based on a demonstration of the game by publisher Activision,
the preview offers a description of the story and first-hand impressions of
this joint project of Mad Doc Software and Splash Damage, discussing the new
multiplayer action from the perspective of someone who isn't a big fan of the
multiplayer in the original game, a bit on the solo campaigns, new game types,
the type of combat Enemy Territory tends to inspire, character classes, skill
and ability advancement, side-specific weapons, and more.
- Second Encounter Beta
The Seriously
Downloads Page now offers a beta version of the upcoming version 1.50
patch for Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, adding full hardware 3D sound
(with EAX) support, optimized (5-20% faster) rendering, occlusion culling,
skeletal animation improvements, hardware vertex & pixel shaders support,
and more.
- European Iron Storm
Though not yet available on the
European IronStorm Downloads Page there's a new patch for the European
version of IronStorm on this French Wanadoo Support
Page, and mirrored on Worthplaying.
The 6 MB patch updates the Euro edition of the game to version 1.03 and
addresses a CTD issue with certain unspecified video cards.
- Aces High
HighTech
Creations has released a new version 1.11.2 patch for Aces High, fixing
an account creation error in version 1.11.1, a bug fix release itself. The
update is also available on 3D Gamers.
- Prelude to Darkness
A new patch for Prelude to Darkness is
now available. updating Zero Sum Software's RPG to version 1.35. The patch,
which addresses some bugs, is available from the Prelude to Darkness
Website, and mirrored on 3D Gamers.
- Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2
There are new Simon The Sorcerer Patches
on Gamer's Hell updating Headfirst Productions' Simon The Sorcerer and
Simon The Sorcerer 2 to run under Windows ME, 2000 and XP.
After prematurely announcing this yesterday, CDV has now actually released the
English playable demo of Grom, Rebelmind's third-person World War II RPG. The
204 MB demo is available from Gamesweb
and 3D Gamers, with a
translation of the German text on Gamesweb seeming to indicate the content in
this is the same as in the German version of the demo ( story).
"Sierra Releases Empire Earth Update - 2.0" is a post on the Vivendi Universal Games Forums
with word on the availability of a new version 2.0 of this epic RTS game. The
patch "features significant new multiplayer functionality and new options
to increase or decrease the difficulty level in the epic single-player
campaigns." The various language versions of the update can be found on
Sierra's FTP directory, and are mirrored on 3D Gamers.
There's an Ultima Online: Age of Shadows
Preview on PC.IGN.Com with a look at the upcoming add-on for Origin/EA's
MMORPG. Based on having the expansion demonstrated for them by producer Anthony
Castoro. They discuss the ample quantity of additional content being created for
the add-on, the new continent, housing, PvP options, new character
information provided to the player, new classes, other new features, and more.
- Digital Extremes
CanadianGamer.ca's
Digital Extremes Interview is their third (and final) audio interview
conducted with the Digital Extremes cofounder during Fragapalooza. The 9 MB
.mp3 file can be streamed or downloaded.
- Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
HomeLan Fed's Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Q&A talks with Valve's Erik Johnson about the upcoming
Counter-Strike single-player game. Topics include the project's storied
history, to what level Ritual is starting from scratch in picking up the
project from Gearbox, number of planned levels, the game's current
development status, a bit on Day of Defeat, and more.
- Project Entropia
Project
Entropia Q&A on Gameguru Mania talks with Frank Campbell of MindArk
about their MMORPG. Topics include the idea and story behinds the game,
weapons, customization, the game's unusual economic element, and more.
- Realm Wars
There's a
Realm Wars Q&A on the Junkyard talking about Garage Games'
Torque-engine community project with James Margaris. Topics include the
current status of the Mac build, working with the Torque engine, weapons,
magic, game types, community influence, and more.
There's a Master of Orion III Preview
on GameSpot offering hands-on impressions of Quicksilver's upcoming 4X space
strategy sequel. They discuss this history of this seminal series, the ambitious
scope of the follow-up, the interface, exploring the huge game universe,
building, aliens, espionage, research, where development on the project
currently stands, and more. Accompanying the article are a mere 179 screenshots.
Thanks bitmeister Mike Martinez for most of these:
Raven's Kenn Hoekstra updated
his .plan with word that they are seeking a console tech programmer, a character
and combat programmer, and a "game programmer," to work on a
"triple-A console title currently in development..."
There's a
The Specialists Q&A on 3dzone-bg talking with the team behind this
deathmatch modification for Half-Life.
- TNN Game for Video Kudos
(thanks Chris Morris) has word on plans for a video game awards show...
- This The Neocron Website
has links to the Christmas Issue of Neocronicle, the official publication of
Neocron...
- Rick
Johnson's .plan has word that the Raven programmer is gearing up to
re-port Black Crypt back to the PC platform...
- John Romero's ROME.RO now
offers some DOOM-related background materials and downloads. Thanks Ant
and Doomworld...
After living together for eight-some years, last night MrsBlue and I broke an
annual tradition of talking about getting a Christmas Tree and decorating it, by
actually getting a tree and decorating it (we're pretty non-denominational
around here, but religion aside, we're both into the festive side of this). We
could have gotten one cheaper by waiting until after the holidays, but waiting
until a week before Christmas, we still managed to get a bargain on a tree, and
so with A Charlie Brown Christmas appropriately playing in the background
we had our little soiree.
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