Archived News:
There's a
Close Combat: First To Fight Diary Vol. #1 on GameSpy where Destineer's
Peter Tamte "discusses how his team has worked closely with the US Marines to
craft an authentic first-person shooter designed to save lives." Also, there's a
new Warhammer 40,000:
Dawn of War Faction Feature on IGN with several of the developers on Relic's
upcoming Warhammer game describing the role of Space Marines in the scheme of
things.
A new version 1.8 of the BF Interstate 1982
modification for Battlefield 1942 is now available (thanks Ant). This update
offers many changes and additions, including new maps, a new building system,
new car physics, new vehicles, and a new Save the Prisoner game type.
New NVIDIA ForceWare
Release 60 Graphics Driver Now Available announces the release of a new
NVIDIA ForceWare driver (thanks Aaron). Word is: "This new driver release includes many new
features, performance enhancements and support for the Company’s new GeForce 6
series graphics GPUs. The Microsoft WHQL-certified NVIDIA ForceWare Release 60
driver is available for immediate download at
www.nvidia.com/drivers."
Official Armadillo Q&A thread on the X-Prize Forums (thanks Redwood)
features the id Software lead programmer outlining the status of his team of
hobbyist rocketeers. Along the way he describes the balance of how he can divide
his time between spaceflight and game design by admitting he's already working
on some new tech for their next game: Id vs Armadillo:
I am working on the rendering technology for the next game right now, so it
looks like the balance will stay about the same for a while at least.
This
press release announces that Colin McRae Rally 2005, the next installment in
the rally racing series, will be making its way onto the PC in addition to its
previously announced console versions, saying each edition of the game should be
available around the same time this September.
The first screenshots of the PC version are also now online (thanks Frans).
Here's a bit: Colin McRae Rally 2005 accelerates the series to a blinding
speed that captures the sheer adrenaline of edge-of-control rallying and lets
you take the stages at speeds a third faster than before. You won't be spinning
off unnecessarily either: the stages have been designed to let you use that
speed as you hurtle through the detailed international environments. However,
crash out and you'll see the individual damage models for each car in action –
right down to scraping the paintwork!
Delivering more cars, more stages, and new challenges, the adrenaline-pumping
heart of Colin McRae Rally 2005 is the all-new multi-discipline Career
Challenge. Taking players through their very own, full professional rally
career, you'll be driving the most diverse selection of rally cars for different
manufacturers.
An incredible 23 individual rally events provide a personal challenge with real
progression and rewards through Challenges, Cups, SuperCups, Shields and
Championships as you earn the right to compete with the very best. You're not
limited to the car you select at the beginning: choose the cars you drive and
the event class as your international rallying prowess increases. Launch your
career as a privateer, choose from a selection of 2WD cars and compete in
lower-league events.
This Press Release announces a North American release date for Shade: Wrath
of Angels, Black Element Software's "3rd person perspective action, horror,
adventure game where intrigue grips the player as our hero begins to unravel the
mystery surrounding his brothers disappearance." Cenega Publishing and Tri
Synergy announce the game should be available on October 1, 2004.
The IL-2 Sturmovik Website now offers
downloads of a new version 2.04 patch for the Ace Expansion for the World War II
flight simulator (thanks Frans). The update lists several changes and fixes, and
warns: "The current version (2.04) is not compatible with the previous versions
of the game when playing via network. Both the server and client must have
appropriate versions of the game (2.04) in order to connect."
A new patch is now available for SpellForce, updating Phenomic's role-playing
strategy game to version 1.35. There is a patch to update the original
SpellForce: Order of the Dawn and a patch for the Breath of Winter expansion,
both available on 3D
Gamers and
Worthplaying.
Gamers,
check under hood because Doom 3 is coming on the Houston Chronicle discusses
system requirements for playing DOOM 3. In spite of Todd Hollenshead previously
deferring to the expertise of the programmers for hardware info
( story), these minimum requirements are apparently courtesy of
id's CEO: • A 1.5-gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 chip or AMD Athlon 1500.
• 384 megabytes of memory.
• Two gigabytes of hard drive space.
• An nVidia GeForce 3 graphics card or better; or an ATI Technologies 8500 or
better.
The Star Wars Galaxies
Website now heralds the opening of
sign-ups to beta test the
upcoming Jump to Lightspeed expansion for Star Wars Galaxies (thanks
GameGossip). Word
is: "Please note that you must have an active Star Wars Galaxies account to
register for the beta."
- ShellShock: Nam '67
There's
a ShellShock: Nam '67
Q&A on ToTheGame talks with an anonymous "game director" about
Guerrilla's upcoming Vietnam War shooter: "Since we focused on a specific
year we had to ensure that everything that existed in the game was available
or did actually take place during or prior to 1967. One of the spin off
benefits this has created is that the game has turned out to be very
authentic." Likewise,
Gaming
Horizon's Shellshock Nam 67' Q&A talks with Alastair Burns about the
game: "Because there is so much information
available on the Vietnam War and because we were really looking to capture a
moment in history (1967) we did not seek out individual veteran’s stories.
We concentrated much more on the events and cold facts and really built up
our ‘theatre of war’."
- BloodRayne
HomeLAN
Fed's BloodRayne Comic Book Q&A chats with Echo 3's Steven O'Connell
about plans to create a series of comic books based on the vampiric action
game franchise.
The official
Ultima
Online: Samurai Empire Website is now online, dedicated to the next
expansion for EA's MMORPG. Thanks Frans.
Matrix Games now offers a new
version 4.01 patch for Starshatter. Downloading the update for the space combat
game will require registering for their forums. Here's the deal: "The new
update, version 4.01, includes 25 fixes and enhancements, including a new
updated version of the built in Magic modeling software for mod-makers. Most
important of the fixes are a resolution of a CD-key issue on some machines in
the initial release and a fix for wingmen showing up as KIA on some campaign
missions. On the new features side, there is now wide screen (1280 x 800)
support and smooth scrolling side views in the cockpit camera mode."
The Cyberathlete
Professional League announces the purse distribution for the $1,000,000 CPL
World Tour. Also, there's an
EverLAN Summer
2004 recap on The Tech Report.
"Today, Digital Extremes revealed more details on the multiplayer features
planned for their new FPS, Pariah. Topping the list of features is the Pariah
MAP (Make and Play) Editor. Inspired by the editing tools provided in all the
Unreal Tournament PC games, the objective of the Pariah M.A.P. Editor is to
provide an extremely easy way for players to make their own unique multiplayer
maps and then share them with friends. Made popular by the PC 'mod' community
online, Digital Extremes designed a way for Xbox owners to share the experience
of creating and modifying multiplayer levels. Now with the Pariah MAP Editor,
Xbox players will have the opportunity to create their own levels and share
their maps through system link, memory cards or Xbox Live. PC players will get
the best of both worlds, the Pariah MAP Editor as well as the full suite of
Unreal Ed tools."
The Association of Swedish Game Developers
lists openings at several Swedish developers.
- Buka announces a deal with GMX to bring Fair Strike and Hellforces to
the U.K...
-
Game Companies Reissue Classics...
- Dungeons Deep on the Digital
Eel site offers a repository of "freeware fantasy dungeon game classics"...
- "NCsoft® Corporation (KSE: 036570.KS), the world’s leading developer and
publisher of online computer games, has announced plans to enter the
European market through the creation of NCsoft Europe. NCsoft is planning to
establish a wholly-owned subsidiary company called NCsoft Europe Ltd.
located in London, UK with an investment of £3,223,470 (GBP) (approximately
US$6 million or 70 billion Korean Won)."...
- A new version 1.1 patch for Pro Rugby Manager 2004 is now available on
Worthplaying...
Today is the 35th anniversary of the first man to walk on the moon!
Do Trade
Shows Benefit Gamers? on The Adrenaline Vault offers an interesting opinion
piece on the topic. I have disagreements with their ideas about the state of PC
gaming, but as for trade shows, I have to admit my first impression of my first
E3 was to wonder how much showing a game at the Expo ends up adding to its
eventual retail price. It's probably not as much as I imagine, but it's not
nothing either. Anyway, I think I agree that trade shows don't directly benefit
gamers at all. But after all, they are trade shows, and they probably do benefit
the trade...
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