Archived News:

Friday, Jan 31, 2003

UT2003 Patch

The Unreal Tournament 2003 Website now offers the release of the version 2186 patch for the retail version of UT2003. The list of changes provided by the 12.5 MB patch is unchanged from when it was released earlier (story), and mirrors can be found on AusGamers, FilePlanet (registration required), and FileShack (registration required).

Splinter Cell Date

Ubi Soft sends along a confirmed ship date for Splinter Cell, saying the PC version of this stealthy Tom Clancy game is heading into U.S. stores on February 18, 2003, and "will hit store shelves as soon as the trucks pull in."

WarCraft III Movie Trailer

Blizzard Entertainment's WarCraft III Movies Page now offers downloads of the WarCraft III trailer that was recently played in movie theaters to promote the latest installment in this RTS series by showing off a montage created from the game's cinematic sequences. The movie is a 3.8 MB download, and requires the DivX codec.

Stronghold Crusader Patch

A new patch for Stronghold Crusader is now available, updating FireFly's castle-building expansion to version 1.1. The new patch adds some features, and addresses some issues, including several AI problems. The patch can be found on Gamer's Hell and Worthplaying.

DE UT2003 Bonus Pack

A bit later than planned (story) the Unreal Tournament 2003 Bonus Pack from Digital Extremes is now available. As promised, the pack included six all-new maps, and is available as either a umod version for those who have already installed the 2166 patch (and are not running a dedicated server-only version) and a .zip file that should work under all circumstances. The umod version is available on BonusWeb, FileFront, FilePlanet (registration required), FileShack (registration required), and Worthplaying, and the .zip version is available on BonusWeb, FileFront, FilePlanet (registration required), FileShack (registration required), Tiscali Games, and Worthplaying.

UT2003 Patch Plans

A post to the Infogrames Forums by producer Kyle Peschel offers the Patch Fix List for the upcoming version 2186 patch for Unreal Tournament 2003, saying they "are hoping" it will be out in less than a week. The post offers a lengthy list of changes and additions ranging from support for left-handed weapons through bug fixes for memory leaks and problems that can occasionally cause crashes.

Unreal II Q&A

HomeLan Fed's Unreal II Q&A chats with Legend Entertainment's Robert Wisnewski, Glen Dahlgren, Mark Poesch, and Craig Lafferty about Unreal II: The Awakening, their now-gold Unreal sequel. Topics include their feelings upon the completion of the project, what they would do differently given the opportunity, the influence of the feedback they collected during development, favorite aspects of the finished game, modification support, the possibilities of a demo or bonus pack releases, chances of console ports or a multiplayer expansion, and more.

UO: Age of Shadows Gold

Ultima Online: Age of Shadows Goes Gold on GameSpyDaily is a Q&A with artist Anthony Castoro and "Brom" about the upcoming Age of Shadows expansion for Ultima Online. They discuss how the project has turned out, each of their contributions to the project, and how it is still on track for its planned February in-store date, revealing that the expansion "silently" went gold at some point last week.

Warren Spector Q&A

GameSpy.com's Gaming University Q&A chats with ION Storm designer Warren Spector kicking off a weekly series that will focus on breaking into the gaming business. The three questions cover opportunities to break into the industry, whether one's personal life need suffer when one adopts a game development career, and a question about audio answered by a few of Warren's cohorts.

Morning Previews

Dear Diaries

Editor and Graphics and Gameplay are the two new installments that comprise part two of the developer diary on the Vietcong website (thanks GameZone) that covers progress on the upcoming Vietnam War shooter. Also, there's a Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter Developer Diary #2 on PS2.IGN.Com featuring producer Paul Chapman who outlines some of the missions in the upcoming cross-platform shooter.

Morning Q&As

  • UT2003 Bonus Pack
    UT2003 Bonus Pack Q&A on Unrealism talking with Epic's Steve Polge about their upcoming free UT2003 add-on. They discuss new maps, other new features, new game types, new weapons, and more.
  • Lionheart
    RPG Vault Lionheart Q&A #4 asks some of the folks at Black Isle and Reflexive the following question about their upcoming RPG: "What are a couple of locations in Lionheart that you find particularly memorable, intriguing or otherwise noteworthy?"
  • Alpha Black Zero
    Action Vault's Alpha Black Zero: Intrepid Protocol Q&A chats with Khaeon's Yesse America about their upcoming action game. Topics include the concept, reasons for choosing the third-person perspective, the story, locations, combat, and more.
  • Restricted Area
    The Restricted Area Q&A on RPGDot talking with Jan Beuck from Master Creating, discussing the background behind Restricted Area, the game's the skill system, classes, linearity, atmosphere, modification support, and more.
  • Uplink
    The Uplink Q&A on Gamer's Hell talks with Thomas Arundel of Introversion Software about Uplink, their computer hacking simulation.
  • Golden Land
    There's a Golden Land Q&A on RPG Codex talking with several of the folks at work on this upcoming RPG. They discuss the team's background, the game's setting, freedom of movement, interactivity, the character system, the turn-based combat, and much more.
  • Dr. Henry Jenkins
    Dr. Henry Jenkins Interview Pt. 2 Gamers With Jobs concludes their conversation with the head of MIT's graduate program in Comparative Media Studies who is a noted gaming advocate.
  • Music
    There's a Billy Martin Q&A on BoltGames.net talking about his career creating music for video games.

Chat-O-Rama

Neverwinter Vault's NWN chat log is online, recapping a session with the NWN live team talking about the game, the Shadows of Undrentide expansion, and more. Also, there is a Sims Online Stratics House of Commons Chat Log discussing the MMO Sims game. Finally, there is an IRC dev chat with PlanetSide producer Dave Georgeson this evening at 8:30 PM EST in the IRC channel #planetside on irc.gamesnet.net. Thanks CrazyMike.

Morning Screenshots

Project Nomads Patch

A new patch 2 for Project Nomads is now available, updating Radon Labs' flying combat game. The patch "optimizes multiplayer performance on LAN and Internet, and fixes some balancing problems (positioning of items, weapons...)" as well as adding GameSpy multiplayer support. The patch can be downloaded from The Project Nomads website, 3D Gamers, and Worthplaying.

Game Guidance

There's a Purge Online Guide on Worthplaying with a guide to playing as the android class in FreeForm Interactive's upcoming RPG/FPS.

Game Development & Mods

This Ultima Online: Age of Shadows page now offers downloads of a demo version of the custom house design tool that's featured in the upcoming Age of Shadows expansion for Ultima Online, showing off how it can be used to create houses, fortresses, and taverns in the game. Also, UnrealWiki celebrates its anniversary, as they have been documenting the Unreal engine and publishing tutorials on its modification for a year now.

Game Reviews

Hardware Reviews

etc.

  • The University of Michigan MMRPG study is getting underway, and will give away 400 copies of Asheron's Call 2 to qualifying participants...
  • A final post and goodbye from Richard Harvey (thanks Inside Mac Games) is a heart-breaking forum post from the Fly! producer/programmer describing the advanced state of the terminal cancer to which he is succumbing...
  • The final release of ClanTools is available on VWare, where they explain why this will be the last version...
  • Canadian-based publisher DreamCatcher Interactive has announced the opening of a European branch in Paris...
  • Seriously! offers downloads of an M.C. Escher house of stairs map for Serious Sam, trying to create a physical representation of one of his optical illusions...

Out of the Blue

Tap tap... is this thing on? My ISP was doing scheduled maintenance overnight, which, in spite of the forewarning, ends up keeping you offline just as badly as the unscheduled kind, though it can be a trifle less infuriating. Still, when my connection was scheduled to come back I started working the reload button as furiously as a child in the back seat on a long trip... 'are we there yet?' 'are we there yet?' 'are we there yet?' 'are we there yet?' ... Hey, look at that... we're there!

Links of the Day: Spamradio. Thanks Devster.
Bad Things that can happen to you. Thanks yonderboy|OSLT.
Stories of the Day: You've Got Mail, Homer! Thanks Scott Eide.
Searchin' for the Surfer's Saint. Thanks David Webber.
Intuit scrambles to ease TurboTax woes
. Thanks Mike Martinez.
Wild Science: Drinking and driving for science's sake. Thanks Mike Martinez.
Scientists uncover how brain perceives color. Thanks Mike Martinez.
Weird Science: 80,000 large-screen, analog TVs recalled. Thanks Mike Martinez. Woops!
Auction of the Day: A last-ditch bid for jobs - on eBay. Thanks Joel Durham Jr.
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