Archived News:
The MadMinute Games Website has
news that Civil War Bull Run, their strategy game set during the American Civil
War, is now gold. The update offers thanks to the artists and testers that made
the completion of the game possible, but does not provide any estimated street
date for the game.
A playable demo for Will of Steel is now available providing a one-level sample
of Gameyus Interactive's forthcoming real-time strategy game featuring a
near-future military conflict. The 182 MB download is available on
3D Gamers,
FileFront,
Filerush (torrent), Gameguru
Mania, Gamer's Hell,
and Worthplaying.
The
Steam Users Forums (thanks Half-Life
Fallout and
Voodoo
Extreme) has news that another 30,000
Steam accounts have been banned for attempting to gain illegal access to games that they had
not purchased. Word from Valve's Erik Johnson is: Valve takes such
activities seriously and reserves the right to disable Steam accounts engaging
in piracy, cheating, illegal activities, or any other activity in violation of
the Steam Subscriber Agreement. The accounts that are disabled today will not be
reactivated.
The Brothers In Arms
Movies Section on the newly opened website for Gearbox Software's upcoming
World War II first-person shooter offers a new "Authenticity Video" that
features over three minutes of discussion of the authenticity in Brothers in
Arms from Gearbox' Randy Pitchford and their military adviser Colonel John
Antal (Ret.). The clip is mirrored on
3D Gamers and
Worthplaying.
Also, the GTR Website
now offers downloads of a new Promo Video #3 from GTR, the realism oriented racing
simulator (thanks Frans). Contrary to the accompanying description, the clip
actually runs a bit over four minutes.
- The Matrix Online
The second part of
Three Days
of The Matrix Online on IGN offers a Q&A with designer Toby Ragaini
about Monolith's upcoming MMORPG, focusing on PvP combat: "There are two
mechanics for PvP in The Matrix Online. The first is dueling. To duel, you
must challenge another player and they must accept your challenge. The other
PvP mechanic is Org vs. Org. Members of each Organization (Zion, Machines,
Merovingian) can travel to specific parts of the world and engage opposing
Org members in combat."
- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Q&A on FileFront talks with Gavin Carter of
Bethesda Softworks about the upcoming RPG sequel: "We toss around ideas for
online play every once in a while, but multiplayer of any kind wasn’t ever
seriously on the table for Oblivion. The Elder Scrolls games have always
been about the single-player experience of exploring another epic world. Not
to say that I don’t enjoy MMOs - I am a complete and total World of Warcraft
addict at the moment (as are a number of guys on our team) - but that’s a
completely different kind of game to create than what we do. We’re very
cognizant about the things we do really well, and we like to stick with
them. Single-player RPG’s are something we do really well, as we’ve proved
time and again, and as we’ll prove beyond any shadow of a doubt with
Oblivion."
- Close Combat: First To Fight
The
Close Combat: First To Fight Q&A on FileFront learns more about the
upcoming military shooter by chatting with Destineer Studios' Peter Tamte:
"First to Fight offers what the Marines feel is the underlying element of
all war -- the human will. The actions of every friendly and enemy character
in First to Fight are actually based on a psychology model. This means both
that the enemies respond psychologically to your actions, as do your
Marines. You can cause enemies to flee through an effective flanking
maneuver, cause confusion, cause surrender, and all sorts of other actions.
As the Marines have told us, no military game can really call itself
authentic unless it considers the effects of the human will on combat."
- The Battle of Bull Run
The
Civil War: The Battle of Bull Run Q&A on The Wargamer (thanks Frans)
talks with Norb Timpko of MadMinute Games about their recently re-titled
Civil War game: "Our plans were to always sell the game ourselves or sign on
with an internet publisher. We never even hoped to hope that we might be on
store shelves someday. It is still hard to believe. We are nobody, no one
worked on this game as a full time job, it was completely done in off hours.
I don’t even think about it. I guess that I won’t really believe it until I
walk into a store and see it there. There is no better feeling (besides the
obligatory family events) than working your butt off for something and it
actually happening. When we were at the GDC, they said that something like
99% of independent games go unfinished for whatever reason. We vowed right
then and there not to be one of the 99%."
- Hearts of Iron 2
Readying
for War on gameindustry.com (thanks Frans) is a Q&A on Hearts of Iron 2,
getting some thoughts from Paradox' Fredrik Lindgren about their WW2
strategy sequel: "Hearts of Iron is a completely different game than its
predecessor. Most of the basic elements have been changed to make the game
smoother and give the player a better gaming experience. Our goal for Hearts
of Iron 2 has been to make it easier to learn but harder to master than
Hearts of Iron."
- Zoo Tycoon 2
The
Zoo Tycoon 2 Q&A on FileFront talks with Adam Levesque, lead designer on
Zoo Tycoon 2, about their animal husbandry sim: "I also didn’t like the
rigid 'recipe' nature of creating exhibits in Zoo 1. We really wanted to
change that in Zoo Tycoon 2. The idea was to make it easy to create an
exhibit which the animal thought was 'okay' and harder to create one they
really 'liked'. Because of this I think there is a lot more 'creative
freedom' in building the exhibits. What we really tried to do was change the
system so you spent your time creating fun, interesting exhibits instead of
trying to find which objects on the 'buy' panel were good for certain
animals. I think it’s more fun to be creating as opposed to hunting through
the UI looking for the 'gameplay'."
- Year in Review
Salon.com
has a year in gaming article quoting a bunch of insights from various
prominent industry pundits, though how I fooled them into quoting me among
the luminaries will remain a mystery. Meanwhile, HomeLAN Fed's
year-end series continues by posing questions about the year in gaming of
Ken Levine of
irrational Games,
Mark Long and
John Williamson of Zombie,
Take-Two May Take Sega on thestreet.com (thanks Mike Martinez) reports that Take-Two
is still considering an option to acquire Visual Concepts
and its subsidiary Kush Games from Sega. Visual concepts is the developer of
ESPN NFL 2K5, to the fact that these talks are going forward seems significant
in light of EA's recently signed exclusive deal with the NFL
( story). Word from the Take-Two annual report is: "We are
continuing to evaluate potential opportunities in the market for sports titles."
Matrix Games now offers online purchase of The Last Days, the second of
their two add-ons for IL-2 Sturmovik, the World War II combat flight simulator.
True to its name, the add-on is set in the closing days of World War II, and
word is: "Experience over thirty dynamic campaigns. If Case Blue wasn’t large
enough for you, how about over 1,600 new single player and multiplayer
missions! The Last Days includes over 450 new historical aircraft skins that
will make any military enthusiast drool with delight."
The Splinter Cell
Website has word on plans for limited edition versions of Splinter Cell:
Chaos Theory, the upcoming continuation of the stealthy action series. There
will be special versions of the game "produced in very limited quantities" for
all platforms, which will sport a metal box and a disk of additional content.
The announcement also has word on a bonus for PC owners: Packaged in a
unique metallic embossed collector’s box, the two-DVD set will contain the
full-version of the game on Disc One plus the making of Splinter Cell: Chaos
Theory and Development Diaries on the A.I., level design, animation, graphic
technology and more on Disc Two. It will also feature an art gallery, the Penny
Arcade spy training manual, video features and trailers. PC owners will get a
special treat as the PC version will exclusively feature three playable levels
from the original Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Kola Cell, Vselka and Vselka
Infiltration.
A manual edition of the new World of Warcraft update is now available for those
unwilling or unable to have the MMORPG automatically update itself. The version
1.2.1 patch is a 56 MB download, available on
3D Gamers,
FilePlanet
(registration required), and Gameguru Mania.
Version 1.0 of the ARGG
modification for Half-Life 2 is now available. The mod allows objects held by
the gravity gun to be rotated, permitting easier manipulation of the environment
and removing the headaches of trying to fit large objects through doorways. The
project's name is short for "Adnan's Rotational Gravity Gun" rather than the
frustrated sound of a HL2 player trying to stack the same pile of boxes for the
fifth time.
CSPORTS.net's CPL Rankings
have been updated after the recent Extreme Winter Championship event. Also,
ClanBase announces a merger with
the Global Gaming League.
- Dark Horizons
(thanks Ant) has interesting speculation about why hot games like Halo and
Grand Theft Auto are not the subject of film adaptations...
Happy Festivus!
It's going to be quite a wacky Festivus here at the BlueTower too... It turns
out that Hudson the wonder dog's limp was the result of a hairline fracture in
one of her toes. She is now sporting a snazzy toes-to-elbow splint, in
fashionable hot pink, since girls like to look pretty (and for what it's
costing, it may as well be designer clothing). The vet is optimistic she'll be
100% again in a few weeks, and she is far more grateful to have her discomfort
eased than she is put out by having to drag a club paw everywhere. This is on
top of MrsBlue's being sick, as her URI (Upper Respiratory Infection, to clarify
the TLA someone questioned from yesterday) is no better (those pesky bugs are no
doubt holding out until they are sure I've been brought down by this as well).
Trouble is, today is the day we are supposed to pick up our new puppy, so I may
need to makeshift a plan if MrsBlue is not up to the ride to pick him up... we
shall see.
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