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Archived News:
A Battle for Troy demo is now available, allowing the chance to check out Zono's
historically themed RTS game for an hour for free, after which time a CD key can
be purchased to unlock unlimited play. This trial/full version is a 113 MB download,
available on 3D Gamers,
FileFront, and
Worthplaying.
The 'Factions' area of 'The Game' section on the
Rome: Total War Website now features
11 new movies showing off the various factions in the upcoming strategy game.
The clips are mirrored on
3D Gamers,
Gamers Hell, and
Worthplaying.
Also, there's a new Conquest 2 trailer, showing off the just-announced space
strategy sequel. The movie can be downloaded from
3D Gamers and
Worthplaying.
The
Rome: Total War Designer Diary #4 on GameSpot features Creative Assembly
writer/designer Mike Brunton discussing the impact of the completely 3D
landscape upon gameplay. Also, the
Missing Since January Diaries 3 & 4 on Gamer's Hell offers a pair of brief
entries from an unnamed developer in Q&A format.
A new version 3.1.0 of the ET Pro Enemy
Territory competition mod is now available. The
change list outlines the
numerous additions and fixes included in the new version.
Robert Duffy, id Software programmer,
updated his .plan about DOOM 3 settings and how they will work, discussing
specifics about the "ultra" quality setting as well as differences in how
certain data are handled differently by ATI and NVIDIA hardware. He also
mentions that the game is capped at 60 FPS (except when running demos as a
benchmark), discusses the software used during development, as well as a bit on
a hard drive nightmare encountered along the way. Here's a bit: Image
fidelity is dependent on what quality level we load the textures at.
In Ultra quality, we load each texture; diffuse, specular, normal map at full
resolution with no compression. In a typical DOOM 3 level, this can hover around
a whopping 500MB of texture data. This will run on current hardware but
obviously we cannot fit 500MB of texture data onto a 256MB card and the amount
of texture data referenced in a give scene per frame ( 60 times a second ) can
easily be 50MB+. This can cause some choppiness as a lot of memory bandwidth is
being consumed. It does however look fantastic :-) and it is certainly playable
on high end systems but due to the hitching that can occur we chose to require a
512MB Video card before setting this automatically.
High quality uses compression ( DXT1,3,5 ) for specular and diffuse and no
compression for normal maps. This looks very very close to Ultra quality but the
compression does cause some loss. This is the quality that for instance the PC
Gamer review was played in.
Medium quality uses compression for specular, diffuse, and normal maps. This
still looks really really good but compressing the normal maps can produce a few
artifacts especially on hard angled or round edges. This level gets us
comfortably onto 128MB video cards.
Low quality does everything medium quality does but it also downsizes textures
over 512x512 and we downsize specular maps to 64x64 in this mode as well. This
fits us onto a 64MB video card.
Sony Online
Entertainment Ships EverQuest(R) Platinum to Retail Stores (thanks Frans) is
the press release announcing the availability of the latest package for the
long-running MMORPG: "SAN DIEGO, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Online
Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online
gaming, announced today that EverQuest®: Platinum, an affordable, all-inclusive
collection that offers the original game as well as the first seven expansion
packs, The Ruins of Kunark®, The Scars of Velious®, The Shadows of Luclin(TM),
The Planes of Power(TM), The Legacy of Ykesha(TM), Lost Dungeons of Norrath(TM),
and Gates of Discord(TM) will be available in stores tomorrow for the suggested
retail price of $29.99."
Though the game was unofficially unveiled a couple of months ago ( story),
Warthog brings in a new Threat… is the press release officially
announcing Conquest 2: The Vyrium Uprising, the sequel to the original Conquest:
Frontier Wars, the space strategy game from Fever Pitch Studios. The first
Conquest 2 screenshots are online, and can be found on
Gamers Pulse. Here's a bit on the plan, which does not yet include an
announced release date: Warthog would now like to rewind the clock and
show that their past is as strong as their future and are announcing that they
are working on a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Conquest: Conquest 2:
Frontier Wars and will be using the original team.
Conquest is a real-time strategy game set in the deep reaches of space. The
player commands a vast armada of ships, refineries, and research facilities to
become the dominant force in the universe.
Gameplay revolves around collecting resources, building a fleet, and expanding
to neighbouring star systems.
A New Threat
Conquest 2: The Vyrium Uprising From the creators of the returns to the Conquest
universe forty years after the Frontier War. It has been a time of peace between
Terrans and the energy-based Celareons and banishment to the edges of known
space for the insectoid Mantis.
But a new threat has erupted from within. A reptilian race known as the Vyrium
have emerged as an expanding power to be reckoned with. Ill content with any
form of control, they are now bent on galactic domination.
Aspyr sends word that the PC edition of Pitfall: The Lost Expedition is now in
beta testing: The PC version of Pitfall®: The Lost Expedition™ has hit
beta status and is expected to ship in early September. Deep inside the perilous
Peruvian Jungle, take on the role of the athletic and adventurous Pitfall Harry.
Crossing treacherous jungle terrain and dark areas filled with puzzles, tricks
and traps, you¹ll be swinging on vines, avoiding crocodiles and dodging rolling
logs as you unearth artifacts and use your cunning to defeat dangerous foes. The
game's preliminary system requirements are: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 800 MHz
Pentium III or better, 256MB RAM, 1.15 GB free disk space, ATI Radeon
7500/nVidia GeForce 2 or better, 32MB of VRAM, 8X CD-ROM, and DirectX 8.1 and
above.
It is available for preorder at
http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/pc/pitfallh, for $29.99.
NVIDIA GeForce 6800
Ultra and GeForce 6800 GT Chips Proclaimed Best for Doom 3 exploits the DOOM
3 benchmark dealie ( story) a bit further. Also,
Creative and id
Software Announce DOOM 3 Engine-EAX ADVANCED HD Collaboration (thanks Frans)
announces a deal between id and Creative that involves 3D sound as well
as Creative's patented shadowing technique, though it's not clear exactly what's
involved besides the two companies working together: MILPITAS, Calif.,
July 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF -
News), a worldwide leader in digital entertainment solutions for PC users, today
announced its agreement with id Software(TM) relating to Creative's patented
shadowing technique and id's cutting-edge 3D graphics DOOM 3 engine, allowing
Creative to develop EAX® ADVANCED HD(TM) 3D audio options for future licensees.
"The DOOM 3 engine ushers in a new rendering paradigm that allows id and our
licensees to bring cinema quality visuals to game players in real time," said
Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software. "We look forward to further enhancing
players' audio experience by working with Creative to leverage their EAX
ADVANCED HD audio technology in the DOOM 3 engine."
"Working together with id Software, an industry icon, provides Creative with an
exciting opportunity to enhance one of the hottest game engines around," said
Hock Leow, CTO of Creative Technology. "We look forward to the challenge of
implementing EAX ADVANCED HD Multi-Environment technology within the Doom 3
engine, and subsequently working with id to make these enhancements available to
their licensees. We are also pleased with the agreement relating to Creative's
patented shadowing technique and id's cutting-edge 3D graphics DOOM 3
engine."
Though neither project is officially announced,
a
German story on Yiya outlines the line-up of games to be shown at the
upcoming Games Convention in Leipzig that includes listings for an add-on for
X2-The Threat as well as a sequel to KnightShift.
- Pacific Assault
Pacific
Heights on Eurogamer.net is a Q&A with Matt Powers featuring three
questions and some lengthy answers to questions about the World War II game:
"Multiplayer is one of my primary focuses. When we started Pacific Assault I
saw it as one the areas that we could improve upon the most out of anything.
A lot of games, they do it as a single-player focused product, and
multiplayer kind of comes as an afterthought. It's still really good, but I
really wanted for Pacific Assault, the multiplayer as much of a focus as
possible as the single player game."
- Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
HomeLAN
Fed's Nexus: The Jupiter Incident Q&A talks with Andras Sindelyes of
Mithis about the upcoming space game formerly known as Beyond, Imperium
Galactica III, and Galaxy Andromeda before settling on its current name: "3
years ago we started to develop a 4X strategy game with some very
spectacular 3D spaceship fights. We left all strategy elements out like
building colonies or gathering resources. We concentrated on tactics, and
worked it out in very high detail. Anyway, we did not leave out the RPG
elements (crew level upgrades and resource points) that were planned from
the beginning."
- Anarchy Online
There's
an
Anarchy Online Q&A on Experience Gaming talking with Funcom about their
MMORPG: "Players can take sides and immerse theirselves [sic] into this
universe for months and years of fast, fun gameplay with other gamers from
around the globe. Anarchy Online is about dark versus light and greed versus
generosity, about man versus man, man versus nature and man versus
technology. To explain the story would take many months and novels, there
actually IS a novel that explains the background, so that is a very brief
explanation."
- Iron Lore
HomeLAN
Fed's Iron Lore Q&A talks with former Ensemble designer Brian Sullivan
about Iron Lore Entertainment , their newly announced publishing deal with
THQ, and plans for their upcoming action-RPG.
- Star Wolves
HomeLAN
Fed's Star Wolves Q&A is online, talking with Alexey Kozyrev of Xbow to
discuss Star Wolves, their upcoming space game: "Player acts as a leader of
mercenary squad and he directly participates in all key events which take
place in the world of Star Wolves. The Empire is in deep crisis which is the
result of opposition of economic and political authorities. There is more
and more work for mercenaries. Very often they are used as a tool to solve
problems of others."
The Arena Wars Website offers
downloads of a new version 1.03 patch for Arena Wars, saying the update can also
be obtained via the in-game update function. Thanks Frans.
A new version 1.2 of the
True Combat modification for Quake III Arena is now available (thanks
Ant). In addition to the new Q3A edition of the modification, there is
accompanying news of plans to create a new version of the mod called TC: Elite
for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, the freeware Quake-engine World War II
shooter. Similarly, the ETF website
announces plans for an Enemy Territory version of the Q3F modification.
The newly relocated Q2K4 Website
offers version 1.25 of this "yet another GLQuake-based engine." The update also
includes a note for ATI users experiencing problems, and word that development
of this project may be a bit slower going forward.
Method's Turf now offers downloads
of Kingpin: Final Crime, an unofficial "sequel" to the life of crime gameplay in
the original Kingpin. Naturally enough a copy of Kingpin is required to play
Final Crime.
Team
Sportscast Network covers CPL 2004 Summer Championship Event.
The redesigned
Halo
Mac Development Website is online, reworked to offer more of a community hub
on the topic.
- A post to the HL2 World
Forums offers some Half-Life 2 audio clips from the G-man in bit English
and Russian. Thanks David Webber...
I got the BlueTruck back from the shop... the new shocks have been installed,
but DrWrench discovered another issue
with the suspension, it seems that a connector on the rear sway bar had
disconnected, a further explanation for its rough ride lately. The thing here is
that this is the third noticeable issue of this sort that has gone undiagnosed
by the local dealer where they perform my scheduled maintenance. Prior to
missing the sway bar (which is hanging literally an inch from the shock they
discovered was leaking), they also failed to notice any brake wear through
several tire rotations and such until the brakes were irreparable and needed
replacing, and they also missed a broken hose through at least one oil change
that involved inspecting the hoses and belts. Strike three and they are out... I
guess I can only blame myself for this, though, as there are certainly enough
folks out there who will testify that the car dealer is probably not the place
to go for repairs and maintenance. I guess I now qualify as one of them. Yeesh.
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