Archived News:
Atari Reports Fiscal 2005
First Quarter Results (thanks Frans) is the press release with the
publisher's financials, which are lower than the same period last year, but
still solidly profitable. Amid all the economics is the revelation of a
previously unannounced PC version of Forgotten Realms: Demonstone, the upcoming
D&D RPG. Even now the game's website
only carries Xbox and PS2 logos.
Ubisoft optimistic on full year despite slow first quarter (thanks Mike
Martinez) reports some financials, and looks at the glass as half-full, while in
brighter bizz buzz, THQ
Announces Fiscal 2005 First Quarter Results reports a profitable quarter for
THQ, where they suffered net losses during the same period last year (thanks
Frans). They also report a shift for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: "The company announced that
the new original PC title S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is now scheduled
to ship in the fiscal fourth quarter in order to maximize its sales potential."
EA sends word that the Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault demo that has already
suffered one delay ( story) but was supposed to be imminent
( story), has suffered another setback: It is with regret
that I must announce that the MOHPA SP Demo release is postponed and is planned
for release in a couple weeks. Unfortunately, I can't go into more details than
this at this time. I apologize for the start & stop as I was really looking
forward to releasing the demo, but can say with confidence that I know you'll be
impressed when you get a chance to play it for yourselves.
Acclaim
Entertainment, Inc. Receives Notification From Nasdaq (thanks Frans) is the press release
announcing that New York-based developer Acclaim Entertainment has received a
letter of warning from The NASDAQ Stock Market
that the company is in danger of having its stock delisted from their exchange
unless its value increases between now and August 18. Specifically: "If, at any
time prior to August 18, 2004, the market value of Company's listed securities
is $35,000,000 or more for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days, then the
Nasdaq staff will determine if the Company complies with the rule. Based upon
the current number of shares outstanding, the Company's common stock will need
to close at or above $0.28 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive business
days prior to August 18, 2004. The letter also states that if compliance cannot
be demonstrated with the rule by August 18, 2004, then the Company's securities
would be subject to delisting. At that time, the Company may appeal such
determination, but there can be no assurance that such an appeal would be
successful."
The Microsoft
DirectX Homepage heralds the official release of the end-user runtime
distribution of DirectX 9.0c. Word is: "DirectX 9.0c improves the graphics,
security, and performance of your operating system. Download and install this
update for your Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, or
Windows XP-based system." Thanks Skip McIlvaine.
The Official DOOM 3
[H]ardware Guide on [H]ardOCP is online, just in time for my own speculation
on the topic. Here is a bit from the intro that lays out the goals of this
project: id Software and HardOCP have teamed up to help answer your
hardware questions. We're publishing this guide before DOOM 3 goes for sale, so
you will know beforehand what to expect in terms of gameplay immersion by your
current hardware. We also want to help maximize the overall DOOM 3 experience
for those of you that have been waiting for the opportunuity to upgrade.
This guide is not an attempt to crown a king in the realm of hardware, and no
direct comparisons are going to be drawn on any of our graphs. Our goal here is
to help you understand where your system is positioned in terms of playing DOOM
3 and to help you choose an upgrade that will make a real difference and offer
you the greatest improvement in gameplay for the money spent.
Creative gives background to
Doom III shadow story on the Inquirer follows-up on the story about id's new
agreement with Creative ( story) offering a response to criticisms
that Creative had blackmailed id Software in this deal. The article quotes
Franco De Bonis, audio sales marketing manager at Creative Labs Ireland, so it
may not be and "official" statement from the sound card giant. Here's a bit:
"You only have to think about this for a nanosecond to realise that Creative was
in no position to blackmail anyone. Yes, we had to take a stance to protect our
patent, but had we resolutely demanded what most companies in this situation
would have, what do you think would have happened? It's very simple, id would
have been forced to either pay a huge amount of cash or develop a less optimized
method for shadowing that would have impacted performance and this may have
caused the game to be delayed. On all counts Creative would have been publically
vilified in the press. So blackmail, when id customers are our customers too?? I
don't think so."
Warthog announces development of
Fallen Kingdoms,
an action/role-playing game in the works for the PC and Xbox. The site has a
gameplay movie, but its moving pretty slowly, so there's a mirror on
3D Gamers. Here's a bit from
the announcement of the game, which currently carries a
November 2006 release date: LONDON, UK (2004) Warthog, the leading
international games developer would like to announce to the gaming public that
they are working on a RPG based in a world of unspeakable Evil…
FALLEN KINGDOMS sets you on a journey across the dark and dangerous ruins of
Aegion to seek out ancient mysteries. But, the forces of Undrath, the undead
await you. If they cannot turn you towards their dark lord's purpose, they will
kill you outright.
For centuries, peace reigned in Aegion. But ancient prophecies foretold the
failing of the king and the rise of Undrath, the Wraith Lord. Undrath gathered
to him an army of unspeakable evil and, without a single king to unite them, the
Kingdoms fell.
But there is unrest among the survivors of the war. Former rogues, powerful
wizards, even simple citizens have formed a loosely organized underground.
They are bound together in a common cause...
THE FALLEN KINGDOM
MUST BE RESTORED!
• Stunning 3D World - 3rd-person with rotating camera, parallax bump mapping and self-shadowing create hyper-realistic environments.
• Advanced Visual Effects - Particles, animation, sound, and lighting interact easily with a node-based editor and playback system.
• Reactive Combat Choreography - Characters dodge, jump, and parry in synchrony with attackers. Chairs get thrown, higher ground provides advantage.
• Systemic Environmental Reaction - Fire ignites and spreads, objects serve as weapons or shelter, magic alters the landscape.
• Branching Quest System - multiple quests and subquests are available at one time.
• Morality System - Your actions alter the outcome of the story as well as affect character interactions throughout the game..
• Threaded Loading - No load between maps.
Computer And Video Games has a report up from Activision's Activate event
that includes information on plans for a demo version of Rome: Total War, the
upcoming real-time strategy game sequel. Here's the deal: "During an intriguing
presentation, Creative Assembly's Michael de Plater confirmed that a Rome: Total
War demo is now 'just weeks away' and proceeded to show us a huge portion of the
demo's total gameplay goodness. The Rome demo will place you in charge of
Carthaginian general Hannibal's army who famously crossed the Alps hoping to
outflank the Roman forces."
Apparently carving out a new niche to go along with those "game of the year"
editions, Atari and Epic
Games Announce Unreal Tournament 2004 - Editor's Choice Edition to Be Available
This Fall is the press release announcing plans for a new package to extend
the shelf life of Unreal Tournament 2004 (thanks Frans). Here's the
deal: LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 29, 2004-- Atari and Epic Games
have announced Unreal® Tournament 2004 - Editor's Choice Edition, an expanded
version of the smash hit and critically regarded third installment in the
mega-selling Unreal Tournament franchise, Unreal Tournament 2004, for Fall 2004.
Unreal Tournament 2004, which released in March for the PC, has received a
mountain of Editor's Choice Awards from video game magazines and Web sites and
is the highest-rated PC game of the year, according to GameRankings.com.
Unreal Tournament 2004 - Editor's Choice Edition will add new maps for the
groundbreaking Onslaught mode, new vehicles, new characters and a wide selection
of the best user-made game modifications (mods) hand-selected by the designers
at Epic Games. Unreal Tournament 2004 - Editor's Choice Edition will also
include all of the content from Unreal Tournament 2004.
Update:
HomeLAN Fed has
received assurances from Epic's Mark Rein that all the additional content
mentioned in this story will be made freely available online for owners of the
original Unreal Tournament 2004.
- Epic/Midway
HomeLAN
Fed's Epic/Midway Q&A talks with Epic's Mark Rein about their new
publishing deal: "Midway is hungry to get into the PC business in a big way
and signing up to publish future Unreal Tournament titles demonstrates that.
They've already got a very talented marketing organization so we're
confident they can perform as well as any other publisher on the PC side. In
addition Steve Allison, their Chief Marketing Officer, played a very key
role in the success of Unreal Tournament in the past and I think he'll play
an even bigger role in the success of Unreal Tournament in the future. But
this isn't only about PC. We're definitely also going to draw on their
strength and expertise where consoles are concerned. "
- EQ2
The
EverQuest II Q&A Part Four on Computer And Video Games concludes this
protracted conversation about the upcoming MMORPG sequel with SOE's Andy
Sites: "You can take a ten-person team, throw in a million or two million
dollars and in theory end up with a really good looking FPS. Our development
team on the other hand is 96 people strong, we licensed a professional
composer to write the soundtracks, we have all the voice actors. The amount
of money required to go into something like this is really frightening for
most publishers. By the time we launch we'll already be into $20 million. "
- Massive Assault Network
The
Massive Assault Network Q&A on Computer Games Online talks with Aliaksei
Nareika about Massive Assault and the Massive Assault Network: "M.A.N. is
for those of players who love to think and it’s really addictive. Moreover,
pleasing 3D environment will keep you immersed into the action all the time
you play the game. Due to it’s turn-based nature, you can invest as little
as 10 minutes per day and still have a great gaming experience."
- Conflict Vietnam
HomeLAN
Fed's Conflict Vietnam Q&A talks with Lee Singleton about the upcoming
continuation of Pivotal's Conflict series in Southeast Asia.
- Dark and Light
The
Dark
and Light Q&A on GameRifts talks with Stephane Quilichini about NP
Cube's upcoming MMORPG: "DnL wants to be more than a MMORPG, it is well and
truly a virtual world in which gamers can progress on many axes. The will to
have one and only server for all our gamers explains our choice to have this
unique world of Ganareth alive. The mythology in DnL is of medieval
fantastic type with some originalities like delta plane self controlled
flight or balloon (transportation)."
- The Roots
The
Roots
Q&A on Experience Gaming talks with Piotr Krzywonosiuk about The Roots,
the upcoming RPG from Tannhauser Gate: "The Roots is a role-playing game
focused on story telling and impressive battles. The combat is turn based
however it smuggles several tactical elements, and also gives players
unusually high control over their characters. I think I’ll have a chance to
speak more about the combat later so let me tell you a few words about the
non-combat part of the gameplay, which basically can be divided into two
main modes."
The TRIBES Vengeance
Designer Diary on IGN is online, as "Michael Johnston talks about the
delicate balance of walking the tightrope to Gold." Also, a new
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault Diary is another entry from Ed Moore,
multiplayer design lead, who offers the fourth part of his Origins of a
Multiplayer Lead Designer series on: "Interface Design 101." There's also
another new
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault Diary has lead character artist Peter Choe
discussing the character art in the game. Finally, the
Need for Speed: Underground 2 inside track #2 is penned by associate
producer Justin Wiebe, discussing online play in the upcoming racing sequel.
Thanks Frans.
The LucasArts
Website now offers a new gameplay movie from Star Wars: Republic Commando
showing off the "Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk." Also,
The Xpand Rally Website
now offers a new cars movie from the upcoming rally racing game and another
couple of international movies (Poland and Finland) on
this page, which are
mirrored
on this
page. Thanks Frans.
'Manhunt' computer game is blamed for brutal killing (thanks TotalVideoGames) reports on a killing that some are trying to connect with Manhunt, the violent PS2 game: "His killer, Warren LeBlanc, 17, pleaded guilty to murder and was remanded in custody, pending reports. After the hearing, Stefan's father, Patrick, said the boys used to play 'Manhunt', a game on PlayStation 2, in which players earned points for killing people." Meanwhile, Retailer Pulls Video Game After Teen Murder has some follow-up: "Britain's biggest electronics chain, Dixons, pulled the graphically violent video game 'Manhunt' from its shops on Thursday after parents of a teenage murder victim blamed the game for the killing of their son." Meanwhile, ELSPA (The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) has issued a press release with a statement on all this: We sympathise enormously with the family and parents of Stefan Pakeerah.
However, we reject any suggestion or association between the tragic events in the Midlands and the sale of the video game Manhunt.
The game in question is classified 18 by the British Board of Film Classification and therefore should not be in the possession of a juvenile. We would also add that simply being in someone’s possession does not and should not lead to the conclusion that a game is responsible for these tragic events.
The D-Day
Website offers a patch for the demo version of D-Day, as well as a patch for
the German version of the game, each edition of Digital Reality's RTS game being
updated to version 2.14. One or both of these files can also be found on
3D Gamers and
Worthplaying.
The Arena Wars
Community Site (thanks Frans) now offers another new Arena Wars patch,
updating the real-time strategy game to version 1.04. The accompanying update
offers details on the update, as well as previously unavailable details on the
prior version 1.03 patch.
The Tram Design Website
now offers the release of beta 411 of the DeGeneration modification for Return
to Castle Wolfenstein. Thanks modDB.com.
The Unreal
Tournament Website announces a schedule change for the Make something Unreal
contest (thanks Frans): "In order to allow the dedicated individuals of the
Unreal Tournament 2004 mod community extra time to polish their work, the cutoff
dates for the Phase 4, Educational and Grand Finals categories have been moved
back! Phase 4 and Educational category cut offs have been moved to September
10th. Additionally, the cutoff for the Grand Finals is now November 15th." Also,
U.S. Soldiers Share Their
`Stories From The Front' in KumaWar Online Contest (thanks Frans) announces:
"Kuma is accepting submissions from military personnel and their families who
have stories to share from recent action. The promotion is open to legal
residents of the United States who are active duty or retired United States
military personnel and their immediate families. The winner will also get a
high-end video camera to help gather background video for the game, and a free
online game subscription to Kuma\War."
With DOOM 3 just
around the corner, my concerns grow that my rig will not be up to the task of
adequately running the game. As much as I hate to be a cliché, I'm guessing I'll
end up falling into the category of people who will have to upgrade for the
game, though I think I will see how things work on my current machine before
making any decisons in this regard, but I'm thinking I'm gonna be in the sub 25
FPS range.
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