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Archived News:
THQ Announces Fiscal 2005
Second Quarter Results (thanks Frans) offers some financials, as well as a
revised release date for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl: The company
said that it plans to release three new original titles in the fiscal 2006 first
quarter. Pandemic Studios' "Destroy All Humans!(TM)" and "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow
of Chernobyl" from GSC Game World are now scheduled to ship in April and May of
2005, respectively. In addition, the company plans to release "Juiced" in the
fiscal 2006 first quarter.
Prepare to be judged!
BAM! Entertainment, Inc. Announces North American Distribution Agreement for
Judge Dredd Dredd Vs. Death (thanks Frans) announces that Rebellion's
first-person shooter based on the 2000 A.D. comic book hero is headed to the
United States. Word is the PC, Xbox, PS2, and GameCube editions of the game will
appear stateside next month. Here's a bit on the game: The game takes
place in the futuristic 22nd century, where society is on the verge of anarchy
and only a select group of elite "judges" can keep Mega-City One under control.
Players take on the role of Judge Dredd, one of the city's top judges who vows
to clean up the streets by any means necessary. But when a break-out at the
city's penitentiary unleashes a group of evil judges onto the city streets,
Judge Dredd's plans for stability take a deadly turn.
Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death is a first-person shooter action game featuring a
huge arsenal of deadly weapons to help combat the city's scum throughout 11
chapters and more than two dozen levels of game play. Over 50 unique characters,
including zombies, crooks and demons, challenge Judge Dredd on his quest.
Multiplayer action allows up to 4 players to battle it out in split-screen
mode.
The Object Software
Website announces the launch of the
World of Qin 2 Website, offering
the first details and screenshots on World of Qin 2, an upcoming MMORPG Set in
Object's favorite setting of historical China. The story also highlights the
launch of the Fate of the Dragon
Online Website, dedicated to their upcoming "MMOSRPG" (MMORPG & RTS). The
existence of this project was previously tipped by the appearance of the
Chinese Edition of the Game's Website,
though that news was overlooked here at the time. Thanks Frans.
A new Ghost Recon 2 movie is now online, showing off the upcoming Tom
Clancy shooter sequel. The 32 MB download can be found on
3D Gamers,
FileFront, and
Worthplaying.
Also, a new Euro Rally Champion movie is now available, providing the
chance to see Brain in a Jar's upcoming rally racing game in action. The movie
offers 90 seconds of gameplay, along with frequent reappearances of the logo to
remind you of what you are watching. The 12 MB movie is available on
3D Gamers.
Also, a new RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 movie is now available, offering a
"making of" feature with in game footage accompanied by commentary from one of
the game's developers, as well as a real-life coaster designer. The 214 MB
download is available on
3D Gamers. Finally, new Universal Combat: Hold the Line and
Hostile Intent movies are now available, showing off gameplay from each of
3000 AD's upcoming projects. The 108 MB Hold the Line movie is available on
3D Gamers and
FileFront, and the
37 MB Hostile Intent movie is available on
3D Gamers,
FileFront, and
Worthplaying.
- Battlefield 2
The
October Battlefield Newsletter is online (thanks Frans and
Voodoo Extreme),
featuring a Battlefield 2 Q&A: "Battlefield 2 has both heat seeking missiles
and laser designation devices. The Special Forces kit gets the laser
designator in Battlefield 2, which allows this soldier to "paint" an enemy
target with a laser beam. Once this is done, a pilot can fire laser guided
missiles into the target. It's very much a teamwork activity. Many vehicles
in Battlefield 2 fire heat seeking missiles which are basically fire and
forget – they home in on a heat source. Pilots can defeat these missiles by
dropping flares, which create a heat signature that can spoof missiles into
missing... until they run out of flares. :) "
- Brothers in Arms
The
Brothers in Arms Q&A on Computer And Video Games
chats with Stephen Palmer of Gearbox as well as their military and
historical director Colonel John Antal, about the upcoming World War II
shooter: "Also, We don't have friendly fire. We decided that because if you
started shooting your squad then they'd have to start shooting you and we're
then in the situation where they'd have to arrest you and have you in the
stockade awaiting court martial. It wasn't good for gameplay."
- The Bard's Tale
The
Bard's Tale Q&A on GameSpot talks with Brian Fargo about the return of
the bard: "I could not be happier with the final product we created. I'm
probably more pleased with this game than any I have worked on in my career.
The game is incredibly rich with charm and personality. I don't think I
could have made this game 10 years ago, since I didn't have enough
real-world experience under my belt to draw upon."
- Lineage II
The
Lineage II Chronicle 2 Q&A on Boomtown is an in-house conversation
NCsoft conducted with producer Aaron Rigby about their upcoming MMORPG
sequel.
Computer And Video Games reports learning that preliminary development on
Brothers in Arms 2 is underway, well in advance of the release of the first BiA
World War II shooter (the non-announcement a stark contrast to the build-up to
revealing the original game). They quote Gearbox military adviser
Colonel John Antal as saying "We're working on the sequel," and they say that part of
the European tour to promote Brothers in Arms will provide research for the
follow-up. It's possible the second game would center around Operation Market
Garden, though the Battle of the Bulge was also mentioned as a future
battlefield as well, as Colonel Antal goes on to say: "We're going to
follow Sgt. Matt Baker through World War II, I think people are going to want to
hear his story."
This
Strategy First Product Page reveals plans to release Galactic Civilizations
Deluxe, a repackaged version of Stardock's science fiction turn-based strategy
game (thanks Frans). The new edition will incorporate both the original game and
the Altarian Prophecy expansion in one package, with a holiday-friendly release
date of November 16 of this year.
A post to the
CS-Nation comments (thanks
HomeLAN Fed and
HLFallout) by Valve's Erik Johnson
reveals plans to release more content for Counter-Strike Source before the end
of the year: We're working on porting some more of the classic maps right
now, currently de_prodigy is in the works. We'll be releasing this as quickly as
they are completed.
We're also working on one original map, which will begin internal playtesting
this week. This still means we have a fair amount of work to do on it.
We're also working on two updated player models.
Most of this is scheduled to be released in the December timeframe.
- Neverwinter Nights
HomeLAN
Fed's Neverwinter Nights Modules Q&A discusses the just-announced plan
to sell premium NWN content online: "We have a number of exciting things
planned for the BioWare store, both within the context of premium modules
for Neverwinter Nights and beyond. The long-awaited continuation of the
Witch’s Wake series is an obvious one and we’re just finalizing the details
of how to continue in the spirit of the original and use the series to
showcase some amazing upcoming content from the community. We have other
premium modules in development and planning, as well, both internally and
with some exceptionally talented members of the community. We’re exploring a
number of options for our future content, and in a way, the feedback we
receive from this first batch will help guide that content. We’ve got some
great new content coming down the pipe."
- D&D Online
There's
a Ken Troop Q&A on MMORPG.COM joins the party of Turbine lead designer
Ken Troop to discuss the upcoming D&D MMORPG: "We've known from day one that
we're not doing a straight conversion of the PnP rules, but our number one
goal is to capture, as you put it, the "soul" of PnP Dungeons & Dragons. In
a nutshell, we interpret this as getting together with a group of your
friends and sharing thrilling, memorable adventures. And we're still trying
to keep the rules as close to PnP as possible - we really want a player to
be able to take their in-game character's stats and bring it into a PnP game
with little or no adjustment."
- Star Sonata
Star
Sonata’s Adam Miller conducts a tour of the MMO space title on GameZone
is a Q&A with Adam Miller, lead programmer on
Star Sonata, the recently launched
2D outer space-based MMORPG: "We designed Star Sonata out of a nostalgic
childhood dream of space adventure. Pirates, explorers, merchants, bounty
hunters, monsters, mysteries from the black depths of space: they're all
part of the fabric. From this archetypal design, we laid solid foundations
for the kind of robust medium that would make us want to inhabit such a
world: a universe in which the player not simply exists as an observer, but
plays a direct role in the fabric of the online world."
Starfleetcommand3.net now offers downloads of the final version 2.0 of the
Generations at War modification for Starfleet Command 3. The mod adds various
spacecraft found through the litany of Trek TV shows, movies, and computer and
video games, as well as "over two hundred and forty significant improvements in
play, balance and detail and content."
The jobs page on the
Larian Studios Website (thanks Frans) now
lists a new opening for a programmer at this developer, whose offices are
located in Belgium.
This comes from Steven Polge of Epic Games: "Doug Perkowski of OC3 Entertainment
( www.oc3ent.com), the developers of the
Impersonator facial animation system for UT2004, has created a new tutorial and
example movie using the Impersonator tools and technology. The tutorial can be
downloaded from
http://unreal.epicgames.com/files/whosonfirst.ut4mod and the movie from
http://unreal.epicgames.com/files/whosonfirst.wmv.
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