Archived News:
This Page on the WarCraft III Website
(thanks WarCraftIII.Net) now offers
word of a new patch updating Blizzard's RTS game to version 1.05. The game will
auto-update when you connect to Battle.Net, and they promise downloads of a
stand-alone patch soon.
The American Conquest Website now
offers downloads of a pair of new version 1.46 patches for American Conquest.
There is a smaller version of the patch that includes improvements in enemy AI
and cures some server problems, and a larger version which also improved single-player
maps "with a lot of new stuff." Thanks Gamer's
Hell, where they are providing mirrors of each patch.
Destineer Acquires Infogrames' MacSoft Business Unit
is the press release announcing that the Mac publishing arm of Infogrames has
been sold. Here's a bit: "Under the terms of the deal, Destineer has
acquired from Infogrames all rights to the MacSoft brand and all MacSoft-branded
existing products and products under development, as well as first rights to
publish Macintosh versions of future Infogrames' products. The majority of
Infogrames' MacSoft employees will join Destineer immediately. Terms of the
transaction were not disclosed." According to the release, "Destineer
plans to publish at least 10 major Macintosh games under its MacSoft label
during 2003, including Master of Orion® III, Neverwinter Nights(TM), Dungeon
Siege(TM), Halo(TM), and at least six other games that have not yet been
announced publicly."
Digital Extremes sends word to expect their Bonus Pack for Unreal Tournament
2003 tomorrow at 2:00 PM EST. Accompanying the announcement are two
new screenshots, and here is how they describe the contents: Sizing in
at around 195 Megs, the DE Bonus Pack includes 6 all new maps - 3 deathmatch, 2
CTF and 1 Bombing Run. Here's a couple of screens to whet your appetite
until tomorrow.
The Bonus Pack will be available in two forms - umod form and a zip file that
extracts the map/textures/static meshs to the correct spots for people who don't
have the latest patch (v. 2166) or who are running dedicated servers only.
(umods sadly don't work without the latest patch or with server only versions.)
Delta Force:
Black Hawk Down Official Single /Multiplayer Demo announced is the press
release with details on the planned release of a new demo to offer a sampling of
both the solo and the multiplayer play in Black Hawk Down, the upcoming Delta
Force game based on the conflict in Somalia. The demo will debut exclusively on www.nvidia.com
on February 4, with mirror sites to become available beginning February 7.
Here's a bit on what this will include: The demo will feature one single
player mission entitled "Diplomatic Immunity." The objective of the
mission is to recapture a UN building being held by Habr Gadir militia. Delta
Teams 2 and 5 insert by helicopter and must locate and secure hostages before
escorting them to a waiting convoy for extraction.
A new multiplayer map, playable over the NovaWorld Games Network and via LAN,
will also be included featuring the Team Capture the Flag game type. Entitled
"Bridge over the Jubba River," the level is an open terrain map that
has several bridges across the river and green rolling hills. To reach the
enemy's flags, players will need to cross the river by either securing one of
the bridges or swimming across the water.
A demo version of Homeplanet is now available, offering the opportunity to check
out 3Map Games' upcoming space flight sim. The demo offers the chance to check
out a couple of missions from the game, and while the audio is in Russian, there
is English text. The 168 MB file can be found on FilePlanet
(registration required) and is mirrored on 3D Gamers,
Computer Games Online,
and Gamer's Hell.
- Al Capone
HomeLan Fed's Al Capone
Q&A talks with Spellbound designer Martin Kuppe about their upcoming
tactical strategy game set in the gangster heyday of the 1930s. Topics
include historical research, the story, playable characters, locations,
gameplay, weapons, UGEs, the graphics engine, the lack of multiplayer
support, and more.
- March!
Action Vault's
March! Offworld Recon Q&A #2 asks the development team the following
two questions: "What are a couple of graphic elements in March that you
consider to be especially cool?" And: "Which enemy in March is
your favorite, and also, which is one you really love to kill?"
- Dominus Online
RPG Vault's
Dominus Online Q&A Part 2 concludes their conversation with Pat
Shearon and Aaron Ghadiyali about Regulator Studios' online world,
discussing combat, PvP, griefers, dying, quests, grouping, and more.
There's a Praetorians Preview
on Gamers Depot with a look at Pyro Studios' upcoming RTS game, describing
the three races between the player can choose, how line of sight works, terrain,
multiplayer support, system requirements, and more.
EA Brings the #1 PC Game, The Sims, to the Xbox and Nintendo GameCube
is the press release announcing that EA's game of getting a virtual life is
coming to another two platforms, which is explained, for those of us who cannot
grasp the beauty of this: "Bringing The Sims to the Xbox and Nintendo
GameCube gives players the opportunity to play The Sims on a variety of console
platforms." Also, Pitfall
Harry to Return is the press release confirming the return of the swinging
archeologist.
We received a pleasant surprise yesterday, as the mailman delivered a thank
you gift that was sent to us in gratitude for our recent Schnauzer-sitting
stint. The Schnauzer's people went to Florida, and appropriate to the occasion,
the gift was a couple of dozen oranges. These are of a variety I had never
heard of before called HoneyBells (which are actually tangelos) that are
apparently only available during a short period each January. Now I'm not the
biggest citrus fruit fan, but these things are startlingly good. I doubt you can
find many fruits sweeter, and to be any juicier, they'd have to be packaged in
jars. I'm guessing these are not easy to come across, but if you do see some,
you owe it to yourself to try them.
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