Archived News:
Warning "Prepare yourself, the second coming approaches," the Deus Ex Invisible War
Preview on PC.IGN.Com offers a look at ION Storm's upcoming Deus Ex sequel
(expressing a similar puzzlement to our own over the game's official title). The
article is based on getting the game demonstrated for them by ION's Warren
Spector, and includes quotes from Spector and producer Bill Money along with
their first-hand impressions of what they saw. Something they make note of along
the way is how truly open-ended the gameplay will be: "The interesting
thing about getting a demo for Invisible War is that Ion Storm is never going to
be able to show a complete level. There are just too many ways to go about it
that all depend on how you've gone through the game, interacted with NPCs, and
built your character. It also all depends on your own creativity and style of
play. There's no right or wrong way to play Ion Storm's creation..."
- Kreed
Action Vault's
Kreed Q&A #11 asks the developers at Burut the following group
question about their upcoming shooter: "What are one or two things
related to the game engine, its technology or its features that you consider
especially remarkable, and why?" Included are three new screenshots.
- Bloodmoon
RPG Vault's The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon
Q&A chats with Bethesda Softworks' Ashley Cheng about Bloodmoon, the
upcoming Morrowind expansion. They discuss plans for the project, and he
provides some perspective their goals for the expansion: "For
Bloodmoon, we wanted to go back to the open-ended feel of Morrowind, where
you would just go if you wanted to see what was over the next hill, where
you didn't care what quests you had open, where all you wanted to do was
explore the world."
- DRANSIK
Stratics'
DRANSIK Q&A catches up with Denis Loubet, lead artist/animator on
DRANSIK, the upcoming MMOG in the works at Asylumsoft. They discuss his résumé,
including work on both the Ultima and the Wing Commander series, lots more
on his background, and some general questions about his work (not getting too
far into specifics about DRANSIK).
As noted on the official Unreal 2 message board
(thanks HomeLan Fed)
in a post by Legend's Craig Lafferty, a new patch is now available for Unreal II
via the in-game auto-updater, accessible by selecting "Check for
Updates" under the Unreal II folder in the Windows start menu. The thread
offers details on the numerous fixes, changes, and tweaks in the new version.
New Battlefield 1942 expansion coming
on GameSpot offers vague unofficial confirmation from some unnamed EA source
to "to early Web reports" (we're working on a generic unlinked title
for GameSpot's reports in return) of plans for a Secret Weapons add-on for
Battlefield 1942 ( story). No new information about this project
is included.
A new DirectX 9.0a End-User Runtime
is now available (thanks ActiveWin)
resolving a number of bugs including "an issue with DirectX 9.0 where some
multiplayer games or MSN Messenger may not work correctly."
An updated version 2.0.2 of the Enigma: Rising Tide demo is now available. Though this
newer version of the demo does not change any content, it does offer greater
stability than the previous demo. The file has been released through Fragland.net,
and the 109 MB download has been mirrored on 3D Gamers
and Worthplaying.
Also, an updated version 369 of the Devastation demo has been released. This
demo is the same as the original one ( story), with the framerate
patch ( story) already applied. The file is a 177 MB download,
available on 3D Gamers
and Gamer's
Hell.
When the Linux dedicated server for Operation Flashpoint Resistance was released
last week ( story) it was accompanied by what was described as a
corresponding version 1.91 Windows dedicated server program, that was simply the
previous version 1.90 all over again. It turns out there was an oversight in
updating the .zip file for this download, and the Operation Flashpoint Downloads
Page now does offer a new version 1.91 of the Resistance dedicated server, a
1.6 MB download, and a mirror can be found on 3D Gamers.
Though described as stand-alone, this server requires data from the game CD,
though it does not require the CD or a CD key to run.
Tri Synergy Brings Port Royale, an Empire-Building RTS to the PC
is the press release announcing that Tri Synergy will publish this RTS game set
during the age of exploration, and that the game is now slated to dock at retail
outlets sometime second quarter of this year.
Gamers Pulse's
PlanetSide Preview is the latest account of getting to play with the beta of
Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming MMOFPS. They offer thoughts on various
aspects of gameplay, including the difficulties this game will present for lone
cowboy-style players: "This drives home one of the themes of Planetside in
my mind. It generally is not solo-friendly. While you can play the game solo,
there's very little you can accomplish on your own. Any of the major bases
require fifteen minutes of defense after hacking to fully capture, and there is
no way any single player can defend a base for that long. While players don't
really have to join a squad or an outfit, they are going to need to work with
others to some capacity to achieve any sort of objective."
EA and SUNFLOWERS Ship 1503 A.D. - The New World
is the press release with word that the prequel to the city-building RTS
gameplay of 1602 A.D. has shipped to its namesake new world of North America
(the game is already available in Germany under its alternative title Anno
1503). Here's a bit from the announcement about the game: "Players will
establish and build colonies, watching them prosper as the need for trade and
diplomacy heightens. From the stone streets of Europe to the steppes of Asia and
the jungles of South America, players can explore the globe and trade with up to
nine different cultures, including Africans, Aztecs, Pacific Islanders, Moors,
Bedouins, Venetians, Mongolians, Native Americans and Pirates. These cultures
are controlled by the game's highly sophisticated AI, which keeps players alert
during encounters with potential allies looking to establish trade and
diplomatic ties or potential enemies simply out for blood."
It's nothing but consolation for PC Baldur's Gate fans, as Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance II Announced
is the press release with news that the next installment in Black Isle Studios'
D&D RPG series, like the first Dark Alliance, will be for consoles only, as
it's scheduled for release this holiday season for the Xbox and the PS2. Word is
the game "will feature more monsters, graphically stunning environments and
five new and unique customizable player characters to choose from, hidden areas
to explore, as well as a new item creation system that will allow players to
create their own ultimate magical artifacts." The announcement quotes Black
Isle president Feargus Urquhart sounding satisfied with this direction the
franchise has taken after kicking off for the PC: "The move to develop for
the console systems with Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance allowed the team to bring
new adventure and life into the series and enhance the franchise."
JoWooD Productions sends word they have launched the official AquaMark
Website dedicated to Massive Development's upcoming DirectX 9 3D benchmark
program. Word is the program will be released shortly, and in the meantime,
there is a trailer for download showing off a teaser of it in action. They
explain why benchmarks based on real game engines (like this one, which is based
on the Krass engine from AquaNox) are more important these days than ever:
"The run-time performance of modern PC games (in contrast to synthetic
benchmarks) does not rely as heavily on the skills of individual developers as
has previously been the case. This is due to an increasing number of games are
built on top of a standard middleware layer which encapsulates different engine
cores. Most games built on state-of-the-art engines share more common ground
with each other than they do with any synthetic benchmarks, which are often
exclusively based on dedicated codebases."
HomeLan Fed's Wish
Q&A chats with James C. Moffet, IV of Mutable Realms about Wish, their
recently announced upcoming MMORPG. He discusses the background of the project,
how gameplay will unfold, network infrastructure, and a bit on how they are
actually hoping to redefine the fledgling MMORPG genre: "We simply love
playing MMORPGs, and it was always our desire to develop our own game. But we
didn't want to write yet another 'me-too' product, so we decided to develop a
game in a new category that we call 'UMMORPG' (Ultra Massive Multiplayer Online
Role Playing Game)."
- UBO
Stratics Central's
Ultimate Baseball Online Q&A talks with Gabriel Law of Netamin about
their upcoming MMO baseball game, learning about his persona background, as
well as progress on the game.
- Whiptail
Homelan
Fed's Whiptail publishing Q&A talks with Fred "No
Relation" Heslop of Whiptail Publishing about their role as publisher
on Postal 2, Running With Scissors' upcoming Postal sequel. Here's the
roadmap for promoting Postal 2: "We have already begun a series of
print ads in the obvious magazines. As well we will be starting a heavy
internet based marketing campaign in late March. Just prior to launch we
will be releasing a public demo."
An update now available on the Sven Co-op
Website adds what they describe as improved support for cooperative play
through Half-Life's original single-player game, though this does not update the
version number past version 2.1. They do have plans to include aspects of this
patch in an upcoming version 2.5 update, and have details up about other updates
they plan on releasing over the immediate future.
Smart Tools Version 1.0 for Ghost
Recon has been released, a set of modding tools that ease the process of using
3D Studio MAX for creating modifications for the Tom Clancy game. Also, the Student
International Game Developers Association sends word of a lecture on Thursday
(March 27) at the University of Utah where ION Storm's Paul Tozour will discuss
game AI. The gathering is free, and will take place from 6:30-8:00 PM in the
Engineering/Mines Classroom Building (EMCB), Room 104.
That pop-up dealie from yesterday started going completely haywire, so I figured
out which ad code was provoking it and removed it until this can all be straightened
out.
In case the missing pop-up is of vital importance to you, I will spoil the
suspense. Yes, Susan is still a cutie, but no, she still won't go out with you
(sorry).
|
Twitter 
