Archived News:
EA Sports has
released a playable demo for NHL 2004, offering the chance to take to the
practice ice with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and the 2003 Stanley Cup champion New
Jersey Devils. The 75 MB demo can also be found on Computer
Games Online, Gamer's
Hell, and Worthplaying.
Savage: The Battle for
Newerth Ships is the press release announcing that S2's teamplay game that
combines the real-time strategy and first-person shooter genres has shipped to
stores. Here's the deal on the game: "Set in a unique fantasy world eons
from now, where Humans and Beasts violently battle for their very existence,
Savage transports PC gamers to the next level in multiplayer gaming. The result
of this meld is a truly unique experience that enables the player to opt for
either the fast-paced, run-and-gun action of a FPS (playing as a Warrior) or the
more cerebral and tactical planning of a RTS (playing as a Commander). Because
Savage offers fully developed aspects of each genre, players must work together
as a team in order to defeat their opposition."
After a couple of delays, the promised version 1.41 patch for Tom
Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 Raven Shield is now available. The update is
available on the game's
patches page, where they also detail the changes and fixes the patch offers,
including a fix for the memory leak, the immediate firing animation toggle,
translation fixes, the promised PunkBuster support, and more. Various
assortments of the different language patches and the updated dedicated servers
have been posted on 3D
Gamers, FileFront ( Full
patch and Upgrade),
FileRush
(Bit Torrent), GameCenter.cz,
Gamer's
Hell, GameSpot
(registration required), Games Fusion ( Full
patch and Upgrade),
Loadedinc (registration required), and Worthplaying.
The Spartan
Beta Test Sign-up Page is now online, offering the chance to apply to be one
of the testers on Slitherine Software's turn based strategy game "that
builds on the success of Legion & Chariots of War." Applications will
be closing September 26, and here's a bit more: "Please bear in mind that
beta testing is not all glamour! A lot of hard work goes into it, so be prepared
for this. Sometimes you'll be playing the same battle 20 times from a saved game
to try and repeat a crash you saw before, other times you'll be click every
button on the UI in various ways to try and break it or checking that keys on
the keyboard don't cause problems, especially in odd combinations, or reading
through many messages looking for spelling mistakes & text overruns."
Sony Online
Entertainment Launches EverQuest: Lost Dungeons of Norrath (thanks Frans)
has word that the Lost Dungeons of Norrath expansion for EverQuest is now
available. The MMOG add-on is available at retail stores, and can also be
purchased online and downloaded. Here's a portion of the release with some
quotes on gameplay: "With Lost Dungeons of Norrath, we're emphasizing
the classic 'dungeon crawl' game play element in the world of EverQuest,"
said Michael Lustenberger, director of product marketing, Sony Online
Entertainment. "This is our largest expansion to date, offering players a
new way to experience the world of Norrath with personal adventures, massive
dungeons and a unique reward system that's sure to please our most hard-core
fans."
Majesco's BloodRayne
Sinks Her Teeth into PC Gamers is the press release announcing the
blood-sucking action game that's already out for consoles is now available for
the PC as well. Here's a bit: "Set in the late 1930s, BloodRayne introduces
the sexy, huntress BloodRayne. An unholy union of human and vampire, BloodRayne
was raised and trained by a secret government agency to hunt down and eliminate
supernatural threats. Now she must take on an occult faction of Nazis to prevent
them from unleashing creatures of unfathomable terror in their quest for world
domination. BloodRayne's lethal repertoire includes inhuman strength,
spectacular leaping and acrobatic skills, aura vision, zoom vision and
slow-motion perception that enables her to weave in and out of the path of
bullets. She maintains her health by feeding off the blood of other creatures.
In addition, blade combat drives her into 'Blood Rage' where she achieves a new
set of unstoppable fighting combos and deadly attacks."
A story
on TotalVideoGames.com cites work on the Xbox version of Operation
Flashpoint as the reason that Operation Flashpoint 2 will be delayed. According
to the report the sequel to Bohemia Interactive Studios' cold war shooter is not
expected until 2005 "at the earliest."
The Athlon Optimized Programs Page
features downloads of DLLs said to improve the performance of Quake III Arena,
among other apps, on AMD hardware. They have posted new Athlon XP DLLs, saying:
"Note to people who think these DLLs are "unfair" in benchmarks.
This is horribly incorrect. Quake3 (even with an Athlon XP) forces AMD chips to
use 3DNow, not SSE. Little do people know the 3DNow! code is completely broken
in Quake3. It does not help at ALL. The Pentium 3 and 4 chips however are
both detected as "Pentium 3" chips, which automatically uses SSE which
DOES work in Quake3 and gives a significant FPS boost. These DLLs don't enable
SSE but do help with Athlons.. and if SSE was to ever be enabled in Quake3 for
Athlon processors they would blow Pentium 4 chips out of the water even more. In
the tests I ran a P4-2.53 @ 3.32GHz, 175/700fsb lost to a "stock"
Athlon XP 2700+(2166MHz, 166fsb) using these dlls..." Thanks rms.
New IL-2 Sturmovik the Forgotten Battles retail patches are now available,
updating the flight sim expansion to version 1.11. The update addresses a few
bugs, including the BF-109K-4 rudder glitch. All three versions of the update
can be found on the official site and
mirrors can be found on 3D
Gamers and FileFront ( 1.1b-1.11
and 1.1
to 1.11).
A small fix for the Win32 client for America's Army: Operations has been
released to address a few issues with Uncle Sam's shooter. The patch can be
found on 3D Gamers, AmericasArmyFiles.com,
FilePlanet
(registration required), and Worthplaying.
This Jarhead
Games News Announcement has word that: "After some last minute
balancing, bug fixing and polish, Western Outlaw is FINISHED!" Here's a bit
on the story of this western shooter from Jar Head Games, the team behind CTU:
Marine Sharpshooter and Navy SEALs: "You are the Stranger, a man hardened
by your years as a gunslinger. The only thing harder than you are the rocks you
sleep on at night. You have arrived in a troubled town looking for peace and
quiet, but you're not that lucky. Framed for a crime you didn't commit, you must
use your skills as a gunslinger to evade the law and fight to stay alive in a
corrupt western town where everyone wants you dead. Fight your way through ten
action packed levels."
Vivendi Universal Games sends word that Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds
has shipped for the Xbox, PS2, and GameCube. Word is: "Developed as a
‘lost episode’ from season five of the television show, Chaos
Bleeds centers around a dimensional bleed that has been enabled by
Pure Evil to consume humanity once and for all." Also, there are Counter-Strike
Xbox Impressions on GameSpot.
The SAS: Into the Lion's
Den Q&A on Jolt.co.uk talks with Mulder, project leader on the SAS: Into
the Lion's Den moification for Unreal Tournament 2003. They discuss the mod, the
segue from developing for the original Unreal, release plans, and more.
Well, I'm back at the BlueTower for a short stay, as after getting in late after my grandmother Mimi's funeral I'll be heading out at dawn to attend the burial
(I haven't heard why the two events were not on the same day, but it's fairly
unusual from my experience, so I assume there's probably a good reason for
this). Anyway, the services was simple but sincere, and I take some comfort in
my belief that it proceeded much the way she would have wanted it to.
I don't expect to get in as late today as I did last night, and any patience you
can muster for the delayed updates is sincerely appreciated.
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