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Archived News:
The World of Warcraft Community Site
has news that the open beta testing of World of Warcraft will end tomorrow
(thanks WorldofWar.net), in preparation
for the imminent retail launch of the MMORPG. Word is: "Please note that this
does not affect the ongoing European closed beta test. Further details regarding
our plans for the closed and final beta tests in Europe will be announced on the
European community sites next week."
- Scrapland
The
Scrapland Q&A on
Gaming Nexus talks with American McGee about Mercury Steam's robot
murder mystery game: "There’s a little something for everyone. Game play
ranges from traditional 3rd person action adventure story based mission
solving to ship building, piloting, racing, and combat. The ability of the
player to switch instantly between different character types means that
traditional story driven mission elements can now be solved in a multitude
of different ways."
- DICE
The
DICE Q&A on FZ.se
talks with Patrick Söderlund of Digital Illusions about EA's plan of buying
the developer: "It is however yet to be completeted [sic], the shareholders
will first have to accept the offer in order to complete the deal, but we do
count on that happening."
- City of Heroes
There's
a City of
Heroes Q&A on Coldfront's City of Heroes chatting with CuppaJo, CoH
Associate Community Coordinator: "I actually think it is harder for me to
read posts where the Devs are abused than to read posts where someone abuses
me. I know how hard they work to make CoH the best game it can be. They
don't 'have it out' for any archetype or player type. They just want
everyone to have fun. And to watch people roast them is hard."
- Asheron's Call
There's
a Q&A with the Asheron's Call Live Team on Warcry News Network: "I
enjoy watching people go through the content that we provide. We followed
several players over the course of the last year as they navigated through
the Falatacot Temples. I watched as a player screamed “BALL!” over and over
again in the first attempt to kill Gaerlan. I love making things that are
fun for people. When people have fun, I feel like I succeeded at my goals."
- Survivor
The
Survivor Q&A on HC.Gamer discusses the upcoming disaster game with Claus
Wohlgemuth of Replay Studios: "When we fleshed out the gameplay for Survivor
we have been inspired by the great amount of player freedom in titles such
as GTA III, though the basic gameplay idea in Survivor might be very
contrary. Games like Medal of Honor or Call of Duty have not really
recreated authentic, great, epic battles of the WW II in single missions,
but recreated movie images of it (Enemies at the gate, Soldier Ryan). This
is what I call the trap of the medial loop, that we want to avoid by extra
giving an important role to our fictional news station NCN (Non cencored
[sic] network) in Survivor."
- Kreed: Battle for Savitar
The
Kreed: Battle for Savitar Q&A on HC.Gamer asks Dmitry 'RCL' Rekman some
questions about Burut's upcoming first-person shooter expansion: "Basic set
of weapons remained the same as in Kreed (although their parameters and
sometimes effects were adjusted to match the new enemies), with a few
changes: we added shocker, which is a contact weapon replacing the knife
from Kreed, pistol (with semi-automatic mode) and assault laser rifle (my
favourite, but be careful not to hurt yourself when using this weapon)."
- X²: The Return
The
X²: The Return Q&A on Computer And Video Games (thanks Frans) talks with
Bernd Lehahn and Andy Walsh about Egosoft's space
combat sequel: "The biggest goal we ever had with X2 was to offer the player
total freedom in the universe. The keywords we used were 'trade, fight,
build, think'. These were our guiding principles as we were designing it,
but we wanted to ensure that the player could do these things in whatever
way they wanted. We think we did that very well, but there were aspects we
wanted to expand."
- Metalheart: Replicants Rampage
The
Metalheart: Replicants
Rampage Q&A on Gameguru Mania talks with Sergey Lakhtin of Akella about
NumLock Software's upcoming RPG: "Each character has a lot of elementary
functions which in external script of behaviour are weaved into a freakish
tree of individuality for everyone. The opponent hears, sees and is capable
to warn the friends. It is capable to use several kinds of the weapon, and
also to use tactical manoeuvres - lie down, be hidden behind obstacles, etc.
Also he can estimate situation - to get away in case of a critical state of
health."
- Officers
The
Officers Q&A on HC.Gamer chats with Game Factory Interactive's Nikolay
Demchenko about their upcoming WW2 RTS game: "We are offering a non-linear
storyline that develops with the World War II as a background. The story
itself is not that important. It's how you make it develop that matters.
What we do is provide the players with enhanced tactics, weather effects,
challenging AI, captivating gameplay and many more to make their gaming
experience fun."
A new version of HomeLAN Fed's In Game
Chat utility is now available, allowing for chat from within instant
messaging applications as well as from within games. The new version also
supports Half-Life 2.
The CarBall Website now
features a new version 2.2 of the CarBall modification for Unreal Tournament
2004. This release on the newly relocated website represents the first version
of this mod since the project changed hands. CarBall is a soccer/football type
game where players in cars try to knock the ball into the goal be driving into
it.
Pocket Plane Group now features a new Keto bard project for Baldur's Gate
II. Word is: "Keto, Athkatla's master of the panpipes, is finally here! Loaded
with personality and banter, Blue's vision at long last sees the light of day. A
bard comes to you with a bottle of wine, a gift for gab, a mysterious past, and
little else. Can Keto find meaning for herself as you answer the mysteries
surrounding your quest? Keto boasts thousands of lines of dialogue, nearly 100
banters, a unique bard quest and over 400 voiced lines from several performers."
The
World of Warcraft Community Website (thanks Ant) has news of a new patch for Blizzard's MMORPG. The update outlines the various changes and bug fixes in
the new version, including "an auto-unstuck feature."
The
Valve Editing Resource Collective has word that the full Half-Life 2 software development kit is to
be released "soon," though a specific date is not mentioned. Word is: "The
upcoming release will include Half-Life 2 mapping support and additional sample
maps, support for cubemaps, and the mod source code." Thanks
Shacknews.
RPG Vault's Action
Wrap Report offers a postmortem on Star Wars Battlefront, Pandemic's
multi-platform Star Wars shooter, courtesy of director Eric Giz Gewirtz. Also,
there's a new
Stolen Diary on Computer And Video Games with the first part of Blue52 sound designer Allan Murphy's journal on audio in Stolen, their upcoming stealth game, discussing
"Anya, AI, multiple formats and making museums explode." Meanwhile,
RPG Vault's
Mourning Peek #47 is online, as "Lead Designer Dan Antonescu tells us more
about character development and the areas of penalties and rewards" in
Mourning, Newrosoft and Quad Software's upcoming MMORPG. Finally, last week's
The Final Stretch
EverQuest II on GameSpy (thanks Frans) is a diary on the completion of
EverQuest II, accompanied by Q&As with associate art director
Daniel Lewis
and audio designer,
Heather Sowards.
Another patch for Arena Wars is now available, updating exDream's RTS game to
version 1.2.1. Word is: "This patch fixes only a couple of issues with v1.2 and
allows now serverbased replay watching." The patch can be found on the
Arena Wars
Community Site and their
demo page now
likewise carries updated versions of the demos. Thanks Frans.
Darkness Falls Upon
the City of Angels as Activision Unleashes Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
(thanks Frans) is the press release announcing the availability of Troika's
Source-engine RPG based on the Vampire: The Masquerade pen-and-paper
RPG: SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gamers should
arm themselves with wooden stakes and flamethrowers as Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq:
ATVI - News) unleashes the highly anticipated Vampire®: The Masquerade --
Bloodlines(TM) to retail outlets nationwide. Developed by Troika Games, the
famous pencil and paper role-playing game flourishes on the PC as gamers become
creatures of the night, wandering the dark and gritty vampire world of modern
day L.A. while a mysterious plot reveals itself. Vampire: The Masquerade --
Bloodlines is currently available for the PC at a suggested retail price of
$49.99 and has been rated "M" (Mature -- Blood and Gore, Intense Violence,
Sexual Themes, Strong Language) by the ESRB.
"Powered by Source(TM) -- Valve's next-generation engine technology, Vampire:
The Masquerade -- Bloodlines delivers the most authentic White Wolf World of
Darkness® experience yet," states Kathy Vrabeck, President, Activision
Publishing. "Bloodlines has everything fans expect from a true RPG -- deep
storyline, character development and interaction, exploration, multiple
solutions to quests -- combined with all the benefits of a next-gen first-person
action game, including beautiful graphics, fast-action and first-person
immersion."
Hope the cages are clean, as a playable Zoo Tycoon 2 demo is now available,
allowing the chance to build your fortune in the high-stakes zoo business. The
demo features a portion of the full game, including four species of animal. The
120 MB download is available on
Yahoo! Games
Domain and mirrored on
3D Gamers,
Boomtown (registration required),
FileFront, Gameguru Mania,
Gamer's Hell,
Loadedinc, and
Worthplaying.
Quality of Life Issues are
Holding Back the Game Industry (thanks
GameSpot)
is an open letter from the International Game Developers Association deploring
the "horrible working conditions" in the game development industry. Here's a
bit: Despite the continued success of the games industry, the immaturity
of current business and production practices is severely crippling the industry
. The recent frenzy of discussion over impassioned testimony about the horrible
working conditions within much of the industry attests to the reality of this
often unspoken disease.
As the professional association that unites the game development community and
serves as its voice, the International Game Developers Association is deeply
disturbed by this vicious cycle and is working to better the situation.
Improving the quality of life of game developers is an IGDA priority.
In tackling quality of life issues, it is important to realize that poor quality
of life is symptomatic of more fundamental challenges within the industry (e.g.,
consolidation, ever-evolving technology, one-sided contracting, lack of project
management expertise, no craft/job standards, etc), which in turn all need to be
addressed in order to truly improve our work/life balance.
What's more, game developers are sometimes just as much to blame for submitting
themselves to extreme working conditions, adopting a macho bravado in hopes of
“proving” themselves worthy for the industry. Our own attitudes towards
work/life balance and production practices need to change just as much as the
attitudes of the “suits.”
The Adellion Website has an update on
HonourBound's and Alchemic Dream's upcoming MMORPG, asking the musical question
"Where are we at?" as they take stock heading into the alpha testing stage of
development. Additionally, the
Adellion FAQ has undergone a complete overhaul. Thanks Frans.
A new version 2.3 of the DeathBall extreme
sports modification for Unreal Tournament 2004 is now available. Here is the
change list for the new release.
AirBuccaneers version 1.5
is now available, updating this airborne modification for Unreal Tournament
2004. Thanks
Slashdot and Mike Martinez.
The Human Head Studios Website
says they are still hunting for a level designer with familiarity with the DOOM
3 editor. Human Head is located in Madison, Wisconsin. Also, the
Bugbear Entertainment Website has
word that they "are looking from some really talented people to join our team to
work on PC, console and mobile projects." The want ads are in Finnish as fluency
in that language is required for these positions, as they are in Finland. Thanks
Frans.
Wow, I have to say, I am pretty damn blown away by how incredible Half-Life 2
is.... The only thing more impressive than turning out such an effort is doing
so after managing to do so much to raise expectations in advance. Just.... wow.
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