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Archived News:
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).
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
There's a Purge
Online Guide on Worthplaying with a guide to playing as the android class in
FreeForm Interactive's upcoming RPG/FPS.
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.
- 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...
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!
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