Archived News:
There's news in the
Star Wars Galaxies Forums (thanks Jody and Star Wars Galaxies)
from LucasArts producer Haden Blackman that beta three of the upcoming Star Wars
MMORPG has been pushed back, and that the release of the game will no longer be
on April 15. Here's the portion of the update described as the "'official'
message:" "Star Wars Galaxies is now entering the final phase
of development, and everyone at LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment is
pleased with the game's progress since the beta test program was initiated.
We've received a good deal of constructive feedback and many positive
suggestions that, if executed, will genuinely enhance gameplay for the hundreds
of thousands of players who comprise the community.
To deliver the best possible massively multiplayer experience and ensure
stability and breadth of content, LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment will
delay the game's April 15 launch. This will enable us to invest more time into
the beta program, and to solicit additional feedback from the tremendous fan
base Star Wars Galaxies has already developed.
"In addition, we will not open phase three of the beta program until we
feel the game is ready for a wider audience, which we anticipate will be within
the next few weeks. A new release date for Star Wars Galaxies will be announced
shortly after the beginning of beta three.
"We are sincerely grateful to the Star Wars Galaxies community for their
tremendous support. We respectfully ask for their continued understanding and
patience during these final few months leading up to the launch of what we
believe will be one of the best MMOs to date."
An Urban Dominion Beta Application
is now online for those interesting in testing the upcoming Quake II-engine MMOG
(thanks HomeLan Fed).
Their news page says the beta test release date is scheduled for next month,
though the sign-up page points out this will depend upon when alpha testing is
successfully completed.
The Indiana Jones and The Emperor's Tomb
Website has news that the PC version of The Emperor's Tomb has gone gold,
and the latest adventure of the famed fictional archeologist should be showing
up in stores on March 26. Word on the Playstation2 version is that it's
"coming soon."
Action Vault's X² - The Threat Beta Report #1
is a narrative from playing with the beta version of the upcoming X sequel,
actually written by Egosoft's Darren Astles, who describes the process of getting
started playing the game. Also, the latest
Dragon Empires Diary offers a breathtaking introduction to "The amazing
world of operations!" in Codemasters' upcoming MMORPG.
- Lionheart
The RPG Vault Lionheart Q&A #7
asks the folks from Black Isle Studios and Reflexive the following group
question: "Among the non-enemy NPCs - including both those that can
join your party and those that can't - what are a couple that you find
especially interesting, and why?"
- Ground Control II
There's a
Ground Control II Q&A on Computer and Video Games chatting with an
unnamed person or persons at Massive Development about plans for their
upcoming RTS sequel.
- Shanghai Dragon
Action Vault's
Shanghai Dragon Q&A talks with Tony Wang of E-Pie Entertainment
about their upcoming shooter set in historical China.
- Gaming U.
School is always in at GameSpy.com's
Gaming U. as Volume VII of their endless
series features Epic's Cliff Bleszinski answering questions about the game
business.
There's an Ask The Dev Team
thread on the Tribes3.org forums providing answers to community-submitted
questions about plans for an upcoming continuation of the TRIBES series. Among
the early discussions is word they are still planning an open beta of the game,
though a lot of questions inspire 'no comment'-style answers.
The Project Magma Website now offers
a new version 1.3.2 patch for Myth II as their first update to Bungie's strategy
game, adding carbonization to allowing Myth II to run natively under OS X and a
fix for the flashing cursor bug that appears for users of Direct 3D under
Windows 2000/XP. "Other improvements include improved keyboard and mouse
responsiveness and reduced chat lag. Myth II v1.3.2 is entirely backwards
compatible with Myth II v1.3." All this paves the way for their planned
release of version 1.4, which will offer significant changes and improvements to
the game.
The Neocron Homepage
has a pseudo .plan update outlining plans for the launch of the 10-day free
trial version of their science fiction MMORPG, how the trial will operate,
reasons behind some of the ways they have decided to conduct this.
Today is the launch of the Xbox Live service in Europe, Boomtown
has an article on the festivities.
Clan World Tournament's weekend
competitions include a BF1942 tourney tonight, and America's Army and Quake III
CTF contests tomorrow, all the tourneys are team-based, and prizes will be
awarded to the winners in each.
DataFuse.net's Counter-Strike
Guide is online, offering some tricks of the trade in mastering the tactics
and strategies in the Half-Life mod/game.
Like a lot of people, I was disgruntled when that rat groundhog predicted
another six weeks of winter on Groundhog Day, as this has been one miserably
cold and snowy season. This dissatisfaction has been justified by the accuracy
of the little rodent's prognostication, as the winter has dragged on
relentlessly since, but a check of the calendar and the forecast show that his
efforts are proving downright uncanny... we had a winter storm warning yesterday
followed by a dusting of snow, today is clear, but once again quite cold.
Tomorrow, however, they predict highs in the 50s (F), which will continue on all
week. Tomorrow, of course is six weeks to the day from Groundhog Day. Spoooky.
|
Twitter 
