Archived News:
LucasArts has revealed plans to revive a seminal game franchise with the
announcement of Secret
Weapons Over Normandy, planned for the PC, PS2, and Xbox. The site includes
the first screenshots, and word is: "The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of
Secret Weapons Over Normandy offer single and multiplayer
cooperative modes. The PC version includes a mission builder that will allow
players to create their own World War II experience." Here's a bit more
from the press
release announcing the game: Inspired by its celebrated Secret
Weapons™ series of classic World
War II flight combat games, LucasArts announces Secret Weapons Over
Normandy, which brings the historic air battles of that era to
PlayStation® 2, the Xbox™
video game system from Microsoft, and PC this fall. Secret Weapons Over
Normandy presents a dynamic, deeply engaging story-driven flight action
experience that puts players in control of authentic World War II aircraft and
challenges them to undertake the war's most dangerous missions.
Secret Weapons Over Normandy features gameplay accessible to
all audiences. Through more than 30 exhilarating air-to-air and air-to-ground
World War II missions, players engage in dogfights over the turbulent skies of
15 unique combat theaters including Europe, the Eastern Front, North Africa,
China-Burma-India, and the Pacific. As a member of a secret squadron of elite
pilots, players can take to the skies in more than 20 realistically modeled
fighters and bombers as they progress through the course of the game.
- Ryzom Testing
The
European Ryzom website (thanks Worthplaying)
is now accepting registration from those interested in beta testing the
upcoming MMORPG in the works at Nevrax.
- Dransik Update
The Dransik
Website now offers downloads of new version 1.02 client for this
MMORPG, along with info on ordering a CD if the download is too
inconvenient. Thanks Frans.
- Outsourced Ships
"Flying Lab Software, maker of the
award-winning Rails Across America™, and Akella Corporation, developer of
the acclaimed Sea Dogs™ and Age of Sail™ series, are proud to announce
that Akella will create original 3-D models of vintage sailing ships
for Flying Lab’s upcoming historical MMORPG Pirates of the Burning Sea™."
- Asheron's Call
The MicrosoftGamesInsider
has a teaser for the content update planned for May in Turbine's MMORPG.
Thanks Warcry's
Crossroads of Dereth.
- Urban Dominion Delay
The Urban
Dominion Website (thanks HomeLan
Fed) has word that the beta testing of this upcoming MMORPG is being
delayed, because "After a prolonged test in the secure transactions
between the DLL that controls the API of the PDMS and the game Urban
Dominion a security hole has been found."
The
Battlefield 1942 Website has details on what's to be included in the
upcoming version 1.4 patch for DICE's World War II shooter. The update includes
word that client-side mods are to be disabled in the future as part of their
effort at eradicating cheating and exploits: A note on cheating and
exploits -- we've all seen how cheating can destroy the gameplay experience for
everyone. EA and DICE take cheating seriously and we are taking an aggressive
stance in preventing exploits which allow people to cheat. The biggest source of
all BF cheats and exploits are client-side modifications. With the release of
patch 1.4, we are disabling all client-side mods. Unfortunately, this means that
the client side mods that aren't used for cheating will also be affected. DICE
and EA have spent the past few months trying to engineer a solution which allows
client-side mods to work while stopping the cheats. Ultimately it proved
impossible to do so in such a way that prevented future client side mods from
opening up new methods of cheating and exploitation. However, this doesn't mean
that all mods are unusable. By making the mods into full server-side mods
(Desert Combat for example), everyone can experience the cool factor that these
mods offer.
PC and console teaser sites for Call of
Duty is now online (thanks Shacknews)
are now online, offering screenshots from the upcoming World War II action game
from newly formed developer Infinity Ward. Also, a new NITRO
Family Website (thanks HomeLan
Fed & GameSpyDaily) is
online, dedicated to this upcoming Serious-engine game.
The Knights of the Old
Republic Developer Diary #3 on PC.IGN.Com is another developer diary by
James Ohlen, lead designer on the upcoming Xbox/PC Star Wars RPG. Also, RPG
Vault's Lethal Dreams Development Report #11 is online, in which "Boolat
Company's Olga Saulenko continues her commentaries by providing a look at the
diplomacy system."
A new version 1.15 of the Xtreme Arena
modification for Quake III Arena is now available. "Some of the stand out features include
complete lag compensation, spawn protection, weapon disabling, alternate fire
modes, and the ability for server admins to rotate maps in tourney mode. For a
full list of XA features, go to our ' About
XA' page."
There's a Strike
Force Q&A on Gamer's Hell talking briefly with some unnamed members of
the development team for this counter-terrorism modification
for Unreal Tournament about progress on the Unreal Tournament 2003 version of
their mod. Also, HomeLan
Fed's The Opera Q&A talks about plans to change engines for this action
movie mod from Half-Life to UT2003. Finally, there's a Wasted
Q&A on Gamer's Hell talking with Dmitri "Solid Snake" Jarandin
of GAMEDALE Entertainment about WASTED,
their freeware first-person shooter.
Back online again after some connection problems here, which are an extremely
rare occurrence... just keeping in line with technical glitches with the server
and two different machines here during a period that MrsBlue pointed out was
bound to be chaotic for such things because "Mercury is in
retrograde." Of course I laughed this off, and continue to do so during the
half-dozen or so episodes that followed her spooky prediction.
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