Archived News:
Valve has released Counter-Strike version 1.6 via the new version
( story) of the Steam
content delivery system. Here's the deal: "In addition to the Steam Client
and Dedicated Server files released earlier this week, Valve today issued the CS
1.6 Steam Installer, which is also free of charge to existing Half-Life and
Counter-Strike players. Since the release of the full version of Steam, Valve's
broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content, over
200,000 new accounts have been created." The full 379 MB Steam install
along with the Counter-Strike/Half-Life update is mirrored on 3D
Gamers, Counter-Strike
1.6, FilePlanet
(registration required), Gamer's
Hell, Games
Fusion, The
Patches Scrolls, and Worthplaying.
An
update to the Battlefield 1942 Website (thanks Ant) covers a variety of
present and future topics related to the World War II FPS, including the current
availability of the Secret Weapons add-on, troubleshooting tips for virtual CD
drives or misprinted CD keys, pimpage for their server leasing program, the
promise of first crack at goodies like a new BF: Vietnam trailer and the next
official map release (The Philippines, due in "early October") for
those who sign up for their official newsletter, and, as excerpted here, the
status of a couple of the hottest issues in the community at the moment, the CD
swap issue, and the status of a modification SDK. Here's the deal: Mod
Development Toolkit
We're excited to announce the development of a new toolkit for the Battlefield
1942 mod community - a Mod Development Toolkit. We will be releasing an Open
Beta version of the MDT in the near future. Please watch this space for more
details.
CD-Swapping in 1.45
We are looking at a fix for this. The issue isn't just that the Battlefield
SafeDisk check has to work with Road to Rome and Secret Weapons, but we have to
ensure that it works with mods as well. This has required a lengthier
development time. However, we are dedicated to getting a fix in place ASAP.
Please stay tuned for updates.
- Ultima X
GameSpy.com's
Ultima X Q&A talks with Rick Hall and Jon Hanna about the upcoming
MMO installment in the Ultima series. The article is accompanied by a short
movie showing off gameplay from the game.
- Breakthrough
The Medal
of Honor Allied Assault Breakthrough Q&A on Computer and Video Games
(thanks Frans) talks with Edward Moore, lead designer on the now-gold
expansion for EA's WW2 shooter, starting at the very beginning ("First
off, what's the expansion going to be called").
- Chrome
Telefragged's
Chrome Q&A talks with Bartek Paul of Techland about Chrome, learning
details about plans for their upcoming first-person shooter.
- Core Combat
Planetside
Shuttle's Core Combat Q&A chats with Dallas Dickinson about the Core
Combat expansion for PlanetSide, SOE's MMOFPS.
- Mythica
GameZone's
Mythica Q&A talks with Matt Wilson, executive producer on
Microsoft's upcoming MMORPG, discussing the game's back story, nuts and
bolts of gameplay, innovation, beta plans, and more.
- Ryzom
The Ryzom
Dev Q&A #4 on World of Ryzom is the latest installment in this
series on the upcoming MMORPG, this time featuring brief answers from Sithic
Tran, the game's lead 3D artist.
- EQ: Lost Dungeons of Norrath
EverQuest
Vault's LDoN Mini Q&A #2 is their second (and apparently final)
Q&A about the Lost Dungeons of Norrath EQ expansion.
- DAoC
RPG
Vault's Dark Age of Camelot Trials of Atlantis Q&A puts Mythic's
Matt Firor on the rack to interrogate him about the upcoming MMORPG
expansion.
- Ground Control 2
There's a
Ground Control 2 Interview on Sanqualis with a dozen questions they had
answered for them during the game's showing at ECTS.
- Combat Mission Afrika Korps
The
Wargamer's Combat Mission Afrika Korps Q&A (thanks Frans) talks with
Martin van Balkom of Battlefront.com "to discuss their highly
anticipated capstone to the Combat Mission trilogy."
Ubi Soft sends word that PunkBuster anti-cheating support will be incorporated
in the Athena Sword expansion for Rainbow Six 3, soliciting information about
specific cheats that should be addressed, even before the add-on has hit shelves
(presumably referencing cheats in the original game). Here's what they have to
say: In an effort to combat cheating issues in multiplayer online play,
Ubisoft will be incorporating Punkbuster software into Rainbow Six 3: Athena
Sword.
Punkbuster is a client/server product that detects cheats/hacks on end-user
systems and reports their use to administrators and, potentially, takes action
against the violating player by kicking and/or banning them from the server.
The exact cheats that will be detected for Athena Sword have not been announced
for security purposes. However, Punkbuster for Athena Sword will have ongoing
support for quite some time as new versions that deal with new cheats and hacks
are released periodically.
Cheats can be submitted here:research@evenbalance.com.
For more information on Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword, visit: http://www.ubi.com
GameSpy's
Homeworld 2 Postmortem looks back on development of Relic's space-based RTS
sequel through the Irish eyes of Dan Irish, the producer on the project. Also, Gamasutra's
TRON 2.0 Postmortem ((registration required) - thanks Frans) offers thoughts from Monolith's
Frank Rooke on what went right and what went wrong in the development of their
first-person shooter that's a sequel to the cult-classic sci-fi movie (or as he
seems to prefer, "a spiritual sibling" of the film).
An update from a few weeks ago to the Small
Rockets General News Page has the quiet announcement that the U.S. version
of Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas has gone gold. EBGames is showing an October
release date. Thanks Frans.
The Star
Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy Designer Diary #3 on GameSpot is a tag team
effort in which designers Ford Dye and Chris Foster of Raven Software each offer
thoughts on the upcoming Force-powered shooter sequel, the pair of entries
covering level design and "Pacing, Powers, and Porting." Meanwhile,
the Civ 3
Conquests Designer Diary 1 on IGN is written by Michael Fetterman, associate
producer on the expansion, who "outlines the Sengoku campaign." Also,
the latest Dragon
Empires Diary offers thoughts from David Wells, the database programmer on
Codemasters' upcoming MMORPG. Finally, the
Restricted Area Developer Diary part 5 on RPGDot is the latest installment
in this series from master creating's Jan Beuck, translated from the original
German version.
Four
EA titles migrate online on GameSpot describes the online future of Lord of
the Rings: Return of the King, The Sims Bustin' Out, Need for Speed Underground,
and Medal of Honor Rising Sun."
The Vietcong
Czech Fansite (thanks Frans) now offers downloads of a beta level editor for
the creation of new maps for Illusion and Pterodon's Vietnam War first-person
shooter. They have also begun a
forum thread for discussion on this topic. Also, HomeLAN
Fed's GameSpace Q&A talks with Caligari Corporation president Roman
Ormandy to discuss their plans to market a commercial mod development system.
HomeLAN Fed's SecondWave
Q&A talks with Malc of the SecondWave
modification for Command & Conquer: Generals about plans for the mod
following the release of the Zero Hour expansion.
I see a day in the future when the "Star Wars kid" and the "RIAA
girl" will co-host a talk show... sort of a next generation Regis and Kathy
Lee/Kelly situation. Some call me a visionary, but most call me mad
(muahahahahhahahah!). Okay, maybe I just got too much sleep... that stuff can be
dangerous.
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