Archived News:
Steam News
(thanks Frans) follows up on the story below this one announcing that Half-Life
2 authentication issues have been solved: We have resolved the issues that
caused some to experience delays with Half-Life 2 authentication earlier today.
We appreciate your patience and hope everyone enjoys the game.
Steam News
addresses reports of authentication issues for Half-Life 2. Here's what they
have to say at this point: We've received a number of reports from people
experiencing delays with Half-Life 2 authentication. We are investigating the
issue and will update everyone as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience
and hope to have everyone in the game very soon.
A new Universal Combat: Hostile Intent trailer is now available, showing
off the next installment in 3000AD's space combat series. The massive 217 MB
movie can be found on 3D
Gamers. Also, the Cenega
Publishing Website now sports a new Creature Conflict: The Clan Wars
movie (trailer 2 in the lower right corner). Meanwhile, a new "all is lost"
trailer for Prince of Persia: Warrior Within can be found on this
Prince of Persia Media
Page. Finally, a new trailer for The Dark Legions is now available on
3D Gamers along with
a shareware demo for this RTS game.
Bungie.net
now has a new version 1.06 hot-fix for the PC version of Halo (thanks Frans).
Word is: "The Halo for Windows v1.06 Hotfix addresses a rare crash bug that
could occur if a malicious individual (hacker) purposely imitates a game server
and sends invalid data to clients who try to browse the server list."
This Ubi.com Patches Page now
features an updated version 1.02 patch for Myst IV: Revelation. As noted in
yesterday's announcement ( story), the patch offers "improvements
in performance." The Mac patch remains at version 1.01. Thanks Frans.
The id SDK Website now offers a
second version of the Software Development Kit for DOOM 3. The new version
offers support for vehicles: "Be sure to read the readme.txt in the vehicles
folder." Thanks Frans.
THQ Acquires Blue Tongue
Entertainment (thanks Frans) announces that THQ has acquired Blue Tongue
Entertainment Limited. Word is: "The Australia-based studio recently developed
THQ's Polar Express for the PlayStation® 2 computer entertainment system, PC and
Nintendo Gamecube®, and is currently developing two cross-platform releases for
late 2005."
NCsoft announces that Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle is now running on their
test server, and that the MMORPG sequel is slated to go live on their production
servers on December 8. In celebration of the announcement, the
Lineage II: The
Chaotic Chronicle Website offers new details about the game.
A German demo for Kult: Heretic Kingdoms is now available, providing a
taste of Project Three Interactive's RPG. The 191 MB download is available on
the Project Three
Interactive Website. Also,
AOL.DE offers downloads of the German demo for Fire Captain/Fire
Department 2 (thanks DemoNews.de and
Frans) offering the chance to sample this fire-fighting strategy game. Finally,
a new The Fall: Last Days of Gaia German retail patch is now available,
updating the post-apocalyptic RPG to version 1.1. The patch can be found on
The German The Fall Page and mirrored
on 3D Gamers.
This Cenega
Publishing Webpage now offers new version 1.4 patches for the Spanish and
German language editions of the Xenophobic strategy game. Thanks Frans.
Atari and Firaxis announce the completion of Sid Meier's Pirates!, saying the
seafaring remake is due to make port in the U.S. on November 22: Atari
and Firaxis have announced that Sid Meier's Pirates! has gone gold and is on
target for a U.S. in-store date of November 22nd.
In Pirates! you take the leading role of a Pirate Captain in the 17th century
Caribbean trying to become the most revered and feared pirate in history -
exploring high seas and exotic ports, overtaking enemies in fierce naval
battles, engaging in duels and attempting to seize valuable booty. The new
Pirates! carries on with the great gameplay and design simplicity tradition of
the award-winning original while adding more challenging and exciting battle
options, and a deeper and more varied role-playing experience. In addition, an
entirely new game engine delivers updated gameplay, stunning new features,
spectacular 3D graphics and enhanced surround sound.
A pre-order program is currently under way allowing consumers that reserve a
copy of the game to receive a special Limited Edition for the same price. The
Limited Edition is packed with tons of bonus material including the original
Pirates! game, the full behind the scenes making-of video, developer diaries,
unique exclusive content and bonus material.
As noted on
Steam News Half-Life 2 is now officially available at retail stores
throughout North America. Though Valve's highly anticipated sequel has been
available early at some over-caffeinated stores ( story), the
online activation process is now underway, and copies of the game purchased at
stores or online via Steam can now be
unlocked by restarting Steam: Half-Life 2 is available now for purchase
and to play. Those who pre-purchased their copy via Steam may access the game by
restarting Steam, then double-clicking on the Half-Life 2 icon in their Steam
Games directory. To purchase your copy via Steam,
get Steam now.
We hope you enjoy it!
Valve's Erik Johnson made a post about a start-up bug on
Shacknews. Thanks Frans: For people that
are running into the bug on startup that looks like:
"Map Version is 0, expecting 19"
Try this to see if it works:
1. Go into your \Steam\SteamApps folder.
2. Rename the file called sourcemodels.gcf to something else.
3. Relaunch the game.
This is going to require a redownload of this file, but if you want to get
playing tonight it's probably the best path. There are a couple of people now
that were in this situation that were fixed this way.
As soon as we possible we'll release a fix for this that will not require this
workaround.
Please let me know if this does or does not fix this specific problem for you.
Just shoot me an e-mail at
erik@valvesoftware.com. If this does fix it, it would be useful to get
copies of a couple of the renamed (bad) cache files.
Slitherine announces plans for Legion II - Civilization & Empire, an upcoming
sequel to their Roman-themed strategy game: Legion II - Civilization &
Empire
Slitherine are pleased to announce Legion II, its new 4X strategy game (eXplore,
eXpand, eXploit & eXterminate). Initial design work on Legion II began early in
2004 and the game is slated for a late 2005 release. Legion II is set in the
ancient Mediterranean world and players can choose to take control of any of the
major civilizations at the time including the Romans, Carthaginians, Gauls and
many more. Players can choose to challenge scenarios with established
civilizations, or build their civilization up from nothing on a clean, randomly
generated map.
* Found new cities & improve existing ones with a choice of hundreds of
different buildings.
* Explore the vast campaign map, discover continents, meet new tribes and locate
rare resources.
* Use the random map generator for endless replay value.
* Research new technologies, build new structures and recruit new troops.
* Send diplomats to negotiate, spy, broker peace deals & provoke wars.
* Trade 9 different essential resources.
* Allocate workers & keep them happy to prevent riots and revolts.
* Withstand droughts, floods and religious unrest along with a wide range of
external influences.
* Win by total domination or by completing missions.
* Play as any side in any scenario.
* Recruit great leaders to command your troops.
* Build fortresses and besiege enemy strongholds.
* Undertake epic construction projects to impress your people and other
civilizations, which bestow great benefits.
* Historically accurate units, uniforms, cities, nations & leaders.
* Auto resolve battles or take control of your men directly (uses the Legion
Arena battle engine).
- Pariah
The
Pariah Q&A on FileFront talks with James Schmalz of Digital Extremes
about their upcoming first-person shooter: "We’re using a highly modified
version of the UT2003/UC engine. We’ve added a lot of enhancements including
Havok physics and post-effects goodies like blur, bloom and bump-mapping."
- Hearts of Iron 2
The
Hearts of Iron 2 Q&A on The Adrenaline Vault (thanks Frans) discusses
the upcoming World War II strategy sequel with producer Johan Andersson: "We
have focused a lot in making a detailed and thorough manual that should
answer almost every question about the game and teach you how to play it
quickly. There are six different tutorials that teach the basics of the game
for those who want to skip reading the manual. We have also spent time
making sure that every button and interface element has detailed tool-tips,
explaining what they are for, and what affects it."
- Telladar Chronicles: Decline
The
Telladar Chronicles: Decline Q&A on GamersInfo.net discusses the
upcoming strategy game with Sergey Snisarenko of developer MindLink Studios:
"In general, there are lot of various sources that affected the creation of
the game concept. (Lots of fiction, several recent screenings, both
table-top and computer games, etc.) But the greatest influence was rendered
with such belles-lettres books as "A Song of Ice and Fire," by G.Martin,
Vera Kamsha books (Russian fantasy author), Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of
Time" cycle, and a lot of other fiction - too numerous to be listed here.
There is an appreciable role contributed by various mythological collections
- in particular Scandinavian and Irish - and huge volume of historical
literature."
- Stronghold 2
HomeLAN
Fed's Stronghold 2 Q&A talks with Firefly's Simon Bradbury about their
RTS sequel: "Again, we want to push the envelope and be THE castle siege and
fighting game. Unlike most RTS games, Stronghold 2 is based around uneven
odds, 2-1, 3-1, 5-1 with the attacker having a large army and the defender
having a small army, but a castle to protect them. The fun of using all of
the great siege weaponry and castle defenses comes into play here. We can’t
speak about these yet, but there are lots of new units and ways to flatten,
slice and shatter those that would hurl themselves against your walls"
The Endless
Ages Kingdom Expansion Information Page has the release of this expansion
for Endless Ages, helping Avaria Corporation's MMORPG come closer to living up
to its name. The expansion adds a pair of new worlds, new quests, new
creatures, new weapons, and the inevitable more.
The Chaotic Dreams Website now
offers public release version 3.6 of the ChaosUT modification for Unreal
Tournament 2004. The update includes weapon tweaks, a new motor bike, a new game
type, new maps, and more.
A new version 3.1 of the Red
Orchestra modification for Unreal Tournament 2004 is now available. The
extensive
change list outlines all the changes in the latest version of this project,
which sets gameplay on the ferocious eastern front of World War II. The new
release requires UT2004 version 3339 be installed.
Demo 2 of Eden Eclipse is now
available, offering a further example of this modification for Unreal Tournament
2004. In addition to the new release,
The Eden Eclipse Q&A on Unreal 4 Players talks with the team behind the
project about what the future holds for them.
There's a
Guild Wars Guide on TenTonHammer.com with tips on playing the Warrior Class
in ArenaNet's upcoming MMORPG.
The
Splinter Cell News Page (thanks Frans) reveals that a map editor will be
released soon for the PC edition of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. The
editor will be based on the Unreal editor, and along with its release will be
the release of all the source maps from the game in editor format so they can be
adapted, and perhaps more importantly, analyzed for the techniques they reveal.
Also, Leakfree.org is dedicated
to map and mod creation for Valve's just-released Half-Life 2, as well as
other Source-engine games.
As of yesterday I still hadn't made up my mind how I was going to pick up
Half-Life 2. Then I stopped in at Mr. Badwrench, the semi-competent service
department at my local dealership to inquire about a tune-up and they fit me in
today, so my soon-to-be temporarily pedestrian self went home and signed on for the
Steam dealie. Through sheer force of will I am avoiding even checking out the
game that sits unlocked on my game machine at this point for fear of missing the
morning update due to some G-man conspiracy.
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