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Archived News:
Scrapland Ships to Retailers Nationwide is the press release announcing that
Scrapland is shipping to store in the U.S., debuting a new series of games from
Enlight branded as "American McGee Presents," (they similarly branded their
recent Joan of Arc game under a Wars and Warriors banner). Here's a bit on the
project, developed by Spanish studio Mercury Steam Entertainment: American
McGee Presents Scrapland features a spectacularly detailed world where players
can pursue an engrossing storyline or go off on adventures of their own. As the
robot D-Tritus, players must solve a series of murders by navigating the
dangerous robot-inhabited city of Chimera on the planet known as Scrapland.
D-Tritus can fight on the ground or he can transform into any of 15 character
types, each with their own unique abilities. He can also steal, build, customize
and fly a huge variety of ships and engage in explosive 3D combat against other
pilots. Multiplayer options include Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and the
ability to import ships from the single-player game.
Blizzard
Entertainment (thanks Tony) announces that World of Warcraft will be in
stores in North America, Australia, and New Zealand on November 23, and their
eagerly anticipated MMORPG "is planned for release in Korea, Europe, and other
countries throughout Asia shortly following." The release goes on to offer
quotes about the project, as well as details on a few different subscription
pricing plans. Here's a bit more: In World of Warcraft, players assume
the roles of legendary heroes and interact with thousands of other players
online as they explore and adventure across a vast world. Whether journeying
together or questing on their own, players will engage in heroic battles,
develop friendships, forge alliances, and compete with enemies for power and
glory. The game features customizable character classes with thousands of
weapons, spells, and abilities. With an innovative, easy-to-use interface, an
action-packed combat system, and thousands of quests that build an immersive
storyline, World of Warcraft offers a MMORPG that will appeal to both veteran
and casual players alike.
EA's Medal of Honor
Pacific Assault Director's Edition PC-DVD in Stores Today announces the
availability of the DVD edition of the World War II shooter sequel: The
PC-DVD Medal of Honor Pacific Assault Director's Edition contains the full game,
plus an arsenal of bonus content which will appeal to game fans and history
buffs alike. Most notable is the Interactive Timeline, a dynamic presentation of
the history of the Pacific Theater during WWII. With a click of the mouse,
knowledge-hungry players can track attack planes and ships, highlight them to
learn more about the type of vehicle and its crew or play audio clips such as
Roosevelt's "December 7th Day of Infamy" speech, as well as declarations of war
from both Japan and Britain. Every major battle included in the game is
highlighted, as is additional contextual information.
NCsoft announces the release of the City of Heroes Collectors DVD Edition, which
will include enhancements to their MMORPG, a limited edition figure "and other
exclusive collectibles." Word is that it should be available next week
throughout the United States and Canada.
The Star Wars Episode III - The Video
Game Website is online, dedicated to the game tie-in with the upcoming sixth
(or third, depending on your accounting method) Star Wars Film. Included are the
first five screenshots from the Collective's third-person action game, which is
slated for release on May 5, two weeks before the opening of the film (have
lines started forming for this one yet?). Thanks David.
A playable demo for The Incredibles is now online, offering the chance to
squeeze into some ill-fitting spandex and save the world, all in the vein of the
new animated movie of the same name. The 111 MB download is available on
4Players.de,
ActionTrip,
FileFront,
Filerush (torrent),
Gamer's Hell, and
Worthplaying.
Posts to
the Steam Users Forums by Valve's Doug Lombardi and Taylor Sherman (thanks
HomeLAN Fed and
HLFallout.net) address concerns about
reinstallation of copies of Half-Life 2 purchased online via Steam, describing
how it will be possible to back up your original installation files on CD or
DVD. In other Steam related news,
this post
(thanks Frans) describes another new update, among other things, adding "cheat
protection to flashlight option."
The Terrorist Takedown
Website (thanks Frans) has word that CITY Interactive's arcade-style
counter-terrorist game is gold, and should be appearing on store shelves in the
U.S. over the next couple of weeks: Steeped in today's headlines with
vivid 3D environments and powerful special effects, “Terrorist Takedown” is
nonstop military action. Take control of AH-64 and UH-1 helicopters, operate
High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs), and fire heavy machine
guns, rocket launchers, and more as you strike at known terrorists and their
sponsors. In 16 heart-pounding missions, you must defeat the terrorists and
protect our homeland.
This Codemasters Downloads Page now offers a new version 1.28 patch for Soldiers: Heroes of World War II, though registration is required to download from there. The 161 MB patch offers several multiplayer action, including five combat modes, 12 maps, and a server browser, as well as new units and other features. The download is mirrored on 3D Gamers, Boomtown (registration required), Gamer's Hell, and Worthplaying. Here's the deal on the update: In addition to the Deathmatch and King of the Hill combat modes, new team-based multiplayer modes include Assault, Battle Zones and Escort. In Assault, one team must hold an area, create sniping points, lay mines and other defensives while the opposing team infiltrates and eliminates the opposition. In Battle Zones, the team objective is to capture strategically placed flag zones to rack up points, which contribute to a final winning total. However, the zones can be retaken, so players must weigh the benefits of defending a few zones or trying to take them all over at once. Alternatively, players can try safeguarding a convoy of trucks in the Escort multiplayer mode. The defending team, armed with infantry and vehicles, must attempt to get its trucks from one side of the map to the other. However, the attacking team, which only has access to infantry units, is tasked with stopping the defenders using a host of sneaky ambush tactics, such as sniping placements, mine laying and setting up machine guns at choke points.
Eidos Interactive announces plans another installment (or instalment) in the
Hitman series of stealthy shooters set to appear on the PC, Xbox, and PS2 in
Spring 2005: EIDOS ANNOUNCES HITMAN: BLOOD MONEY
Spring 2005 release for the latest instalment in the multi-million selling
Hitman series
Eidos, one of the world's leading publishers and developers of entertainment
software, announces the return of the world's deadliest assassin in Hitman:
Blood MoneyTM. Developed by Io Interactive, Hitman Blood Money will be released
worldwide in spring 2005 on PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC.
When assassins from Agent 47's contract agency, The ICA, are systematically
eliminated in a series of hits, it seems a larger, more powerful agency has
entered the fray. For Agent 47 it's business as usual, until suddenly he loses
contact with The ICA. Sensing that he may be the next target, he travels to
America, where he prepares to make a killing.
Agent 47 is back and this time he's paid in cold, hard cash. How the money is
spent will affect his passage through the game and the weapons at his disposal,
resulting in a unique gameplay experience for each player. Powered by a new
version of Io's stunning Glacier engine, Hitman: Blood Money will deliver the
most brutal and realistic simulation of life as the world's deadliest assassin.
Mike McGarvey, ceo of Eidos says:
"The Hitman series is one of Eidos' biggest franchises and goes from strength to
strength with every new instalment. Io-Interactive is one of the world's most
accomplished developers, and yet again has raised the stakes in terms of
graphics and gameplay with Hitman: Blood Money."
Janos Flösser, managing director of Io-Interactive says:
"Considerable time and effort has been spent developing a new version of the
Glacier engine that enables us to implement many new and exciting features. The
quality of the graphics and A.I. surpasses even our own expectations and this
combined with a gripping narrative and the introduction of some really inventive
characters makes us confident that Blood Money will be the greatest Hitman title
to date."
Website: www.hitman.com
The LucasArts
Entertainment Company now offers downloads of new patches for Star Wars
Battlefront updating various language editions of Pandemic's shooter to version
1.1. The update increases stability between game sessions and map cycling among
other changes and fixes. There are English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish
versions of the patch. Thanks Frans.
- Evil Genius
The
Evil Genius Q&A on SoundBlaster.com hears from Elixir producer Peter
Gilbert about the audio in their bad guy game: "Our internal Audio team
headed by Richard Joseph, who has collaborated with James on many projects,
worked very hard to implement James's ideas and integrate them seamlessly
with the in-house audio system and sound effects. Richard also contributed
compositions and performances to Evil Genius and these appear at various
points throughout the game."
- Stubbs The Zombie
HomeLAN
Fed's Stubbs The Zombie Q&A talks with Alexander Seropian of Wideload
games about their just-announced game: "For us, part of the appeal was doing
something new with a somewhat moribund genre. Part of the reason zombies are
popular adversaries is that they're easy to do as long as you adhere to the
mythology: they're slow, they're dumb, they only attack by biting, etc. We
kept the basic idea of a brain-eating dead guy, but chose to not restrict
ourselves based on what other games had done. That made it a lot more
interesting."
- War Leaders: World War II
Chatting
About War Leaders: World War II on The Adrenaline Vault talks with
Alberto Dominguez of Enigma Software Productions about their upcoming WW2
strategy game: "Strategy fans may solve battles following a tactical
approach by taking control of strategic areas (bridges, hills, villages, and
so on), and learning how to properly use certain units against specific
enemies or situations. But, users may also have the chance to take a simpler
approach to the battle by moving the troops globally and let the AI behave
according to orders, and then sit back and enjoy the realistic
representation of the battle, controlling the camera from all possible
angles and zooms."
A new
SpellForce: Shadow of the Phoenix Website is online, dedicated to the
upcoming expansion for Phenomic's 3D RTS game. Included on the site is
a batch of new screenshots. Thanks Frans.
The Steam News Page
has word on a quick update to the broadband delivery service (thanks Tim) that
fixes a "failed to create directory" error. After updating, Steam must be
restarted to apply the change.
I made an HTML error last night that left this page in a messed up state for a
good deal of time. Trouble is, the error I triggered does not show up on MSIE,
but it does on Mozilla derivatives. Having your browser ignore errors on the
client end is a helpful thing, but it's not so good for a webmaster... looks
like I really am going to have to switch my primary browser to avoid this
problem in the future.
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