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Archived News:
This press release
follows up on indications that an Outrun sequel is in the works
( story) with a confirmation of the project, including news that a
PC edition is part of the roadmap. Word is that Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast will
come out for PC, PS2, and PSP in March 2006. Here's more: The enchanting
draw of the open road has never been so appealing with the choice of one of 12
fully licensed Ferrari models, including the all-new F430 and the dazzling
Superamerica. Gamers will feel the throaty whine and that distinctive Ferrari
exhaust tone as they power their way across 30 glorious stages from the best of
the OutRun2 original and the new OutRun2 SP arcade game. Race from coast to
glorious coast with a fresh new mission structure, a license mode and online
play with up to six players for a thrilling head-to-head journey.
More On The Wolfenstein
Film on Dark Horizons (thanks Tiscali Games) highlights comments from a recent
Todd Hollenshead Q&A
about the DOOM movie ( story) that show id has further cinematic
aspirations: "Our next order of business is to try to get Wolfenstein made into
a movie; I think it could make a very interesting film. The game design for
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is basically set up as a film script. Where we'd go
from a movie standpoint would be to incorporate a lot of the elements from
Return to Castle Wolfenstein along with what we're going to be doing in the next
Wolfenstein game that we announced a few weeks ago. It will probably have a
little more similarity in terms of the direction of the movie script to the
upcoming game." Also,
MTV Films Acquires Rights to Marc Ecko's Getting Up Contents Under Pressure
(thanks Frans) has news that MTV feels graffiti culture has the same potential
for movies as it does for games. Finally, the
Silent Hill Movie
Website is online (thanks Kennett).
A new Commandos: Strike Force
Website is online for the upcoming action installment in the Commandos
series. The site features a new streaming trailer showing off the World War II
shooter, and the clip is also available for download from the
Eidos
Interactive Website. Also, the
Rainbow Six: Lockdown PC
Website is now online (thanks Frans). Finally, a new
The Sims 2: Open for
Business Product Section is live (thanks Frans), offering some
new screenshots
from the upcoming people sim sequel expansion as well as a new
gameplay movie.
- Driver: Parallel Lines
The
Driver Parallel Lines question session on Gamesradar (thanks Mike Martinez)
}discusses the upcoming wheelman sequel with developer Reflections: "We
wanted something new and fresh. He's young and cocky. We also wanted to have
a bad guy as the main character. Whilst he's not truly evil or anything like
that, he is free from conscience and can do what he likes. He kind of falls
in with the wrong crowd."
- Weird Worlds
Weird
World’s Rich Carlson gives a tour of this fast-pace space vehicle on
GameZone is a Q&A with half of Digital Eel about Weird Worlds: Return to
Infinite Space: "At the beginning, the player chooses a ship type - military
frigate, pirate corvette or a science vessel. As you play, you move your
ship (eventually a flotilla of ships) from star to star while avoiding
nebulae, supernova shockwaves and black holes. At each star, you'll explore
a primary planet where an event of some kind will occur usually resulting in
the acquisition of interesting items and lifeforms, which are then
transferred to your cargo hold or installed on one of your ships."
- Music
RPG
Vault's Peter Jackson's King Kong Game Music Q&A talks with Chance
Thomas about his score for the game based on the monster movie remake:
"Peter Jackson was adamant that the game offer a unique experience of its
own, not merely a cut and paste retread of the film. Michel Ancel and
producer Xavier Poix decided that one way to do this was to have an
all-original music score for the game. This would give the game its own
voice and add to the immersion of the experience for the player. This turned
out to be a fortuitous decision since Howard Shore was released from the
film project in October. By that time, the entire game score had already
been completed."
Batten down the hatches... it sounds like we're in for a big one! Every time I
check the weather, a couple of inches of snow are added to the forecast. And
just two weeks until winter. Eeek!
Strategy First announces they've signed on with Valve's Steam network for
future game distribution: Strategy First Signs With Steam For Game
Distribution
Strategy First, the publisher of PC games such as Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns and
Galactic Civilization, has signed up with Valve to distribute future games on
the company's Steam digital distribution service. The deal will cover multiple
forthcoming PC games, including Strategy First's next title, naval combat title
S.C.S. - Dangerous Waters, due for release this month.
The move represents the first step Strategy First has taken to rebuild U.S.
distribution channels since its bankruptcy in 2004. Earlier in the year, the
developer, now owned by Silverstar Holdings, partnered with Lago srl for
European distribution, but had announced no plans for the American market until
now.
"Digital distribution is an exciting, effortless and dynamic delivery method to
bring Games and Gamers together in a real-time experience," said Strategy First
product manager Emanuel Wall. "We are excited to be working with Valve and the
opportunity to bring our top quality titles to their Steam delivery platform. We
believe Valve's delivery system is one of the best methods of connecting gamers
to top software titles as do millions of gamers worldwide. We believe our robust
portfolio of gaming titles coupled with Valve's recognized market acceptance are
a winning combination for both parties and gamers alike."
ATI Customer Care now offers downloads of new version 5.12 CATALYST
reference drivers for RADEON accelerators running under Windows XP. Several
game-related fixes and performance improvements are listed among the release
notes, and word is: "The Catalyst® 5.12 software suite introduces dual core
support for CPU bound cases. This feature provides improved graphics performance
for DX 9 supported graphics adapters installed in systems running the Windows XP
and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating systems." As
noted
here (thanks Ant), the Tray Tools edition of the drivers are no longer
available, and the CCC edition is now required.
Seriously! has posted the changelog for the upcoming version 2.066 patch for
Serious Sam 2. The list outlines a bunch of changes and fixes, including the
addition of dedicated server support. Word on this update is that it's coming
soon.
A post to the
RuneGame.com Forums called 'So, If We Did Do Rune 2...' (thanks
RuneGame and Frans) is written by
Tim Gerritsen, who offers a timeline history of Human Head Studios while
addressing the possibility of a sequel to RUNE, their third-person Unreal-engine
melee combat game. While he stresses that the possibilities for a RUNE 2 hinge
on the success of Prey, he does also hint that a little grassroots support is in
order, and towards that end, a
Create Rune 2
Petition is online. Here's a bit: At the moment we are really
concentrating on Prey. We are well aware that if we mess this one up, any hope
of a Rune 2 ever will be pretty much be a pipe dream. Therefore we're doing our
best to make sure we get it right. We have our fingers crossed that the playing
audience will find that our efforts were well worth it. So far so good. Hell, we
got to go through the hell of learning next generation content long before
anyone else had to, and that alone gives us a huge leg up.
If you really want a Rune 2, though, you need to tell it to the publishers. We
want a Rune 2 some day. We've always said that. It is the pubs you need to
convince. They see a game with a so so meta critic score and a devoted, but
smallish audience and sales that were good but not great. Of course you and we
know different. Rune was a major labor of love, and I believe firmly that anyone
who actually plays the game for more than an hour can see that (after the water
level and all those crabs in caves, of course...) ![=]](/miscimages/smiley4.gif)
Seriously, though. Make your voices known to the publishers. If we say, 'Rune
has a truly fantastic following, even now, five years on' they just look at us
like "Sure, five people, right?" If we show them forums, they just shrug. If
this wonderful group of hard core, dedicated fans were to all shout at the
publishers, however, that speaks volumens. If they know that people are stoked,
that Rune really was an overlooked gem, and, most importantly, wallets would
open at the sound of Rune II on a shelf, then they would listen.
- Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
The
Mathieu Girard Q&A on PlayDevil.com discusses the next installment in
the Ghost Recon series: "We chose the first person view because it is the
most consistent with the controls on PC. We still want to have the player
'feel' that he is Captain Mitchell; this is also why we have developed body
awareness. We will go more into that below. Our objective is basically to
provide the most realistic first person view possible. You will benefit from
a realistic freedom of movement, and your virtual body will react just as
real ones do."
- Valve
The
Valve Software Q&A on Computer Games sits down over a cappuccino with
Mike Dunkle, Valve Software's Director of Café Operations: "Well, we don’t
have yet any plans for next-gen titles. Regarding Steam on Xbox 360, it’s an
interesting idea, but right now Microsoft has the very robust Xbox Live and
all the new content that is to be distributed online has to go through Xbox
Live. So right now we can’t do anything about that, since Microsoft hasn’t
specified anything about letting 3rd party distribution systems run on Xbox
360. So it’s really up to Microsoft if Steam will ever be available on Xbox
360."
- Auto Assault
The
Roadhouse Happy Hour - "Detour" on Ten Ton Hammer recaps a recent phone
interview with the folks at Netdevil and NCsoft with a complete transcript
of the whole shebang.
- DropZone
Gamecloud's
DropZone Q&A talks with Clay Fowler of TBG Software about DropZone,
their upcoming tank combat game: "DropTeam is the game that we've always
wanted to play. We've been programming and playing games since the days of
VAX and Sinclair home computers, so we've watched the industry's steady
slide from innovative titles with interesting gameplay down the slippery
slope into slick, glitzy, graphically amazing, but brainless and unoriginal
titles. We've found ourselves playing games less over the past few years
because we're tired of playing the same first person shooter with a new
'hero' and some new bump-mapping effects, or the same RTS click-fest game
where somehow new military units 'pop out' of buildings and the player who
builds the most wins. We wanted something better."
- Games In 2005-2006
Gamecloud's
Games In 2005-2006 Q&A with Jeff Morris continues their forward-looking
year-in review series by talking with the Epic Games producer: "Probably the
industry’s transition into next gen console development. You’d be hard
pressed to find a year with more acquisitions, closures and start-ups that
2005, and I’d hazard many were fueled by the new platforms. There was so
much fast moving change this year, you head would spin trying to keep up
with who went where. Hopefully this industry wide reorg will allow game
makers to continue the strong stream of titles that 2005 was blessed with."
The Bonez Adventures Website
(thanks Frans) now offers downloads of an updated version 1.1 demo for Bonez
Adventures: Tomb of Fulaos, the RPG adventure game where you can raid a few lost
arks. Word is: "This version is MAJOR improvement. Better controls and
playability, new videos, fixed bugs."
- TOCA Race Driver 3 on
IGN.
Idle Thumbs' Minerva Q&A
talks with Adam Foster about the
Minerva modification for Half-Life 2: "It's my own little reaction to a
problem which currently seems endemic with a lot of free game modifications...
People think too big, and choose tasks even full-time game development studios
would struggle with."
Amid our holiday shopping yesterday I managed to find a present for myself, a
replacement for the space heater in my office. The one I had been using
was one of those quartz dealies that glows bright red and puts out enough heat
that the wood floor in front of the heater began to warp slightly. Besides not
wanting to further damage the floor (much less have it catch fire), the
intensity of the old heater was also too much for MrsBlue, as when she hangs out
up here with me her seat is closer to it than mine. The new heater has it all
over the old one... there's a thermostat to offer more fine tuning, an
oscillation feature to keep it from overheating the same spot, a pedestal to
further protect the floor, and a remote to adjust it from the comfort of my
chair. Naturally, the new heater was about half the cost of the old one...after
a rebate it was all of $40. It's certainly warming the cockles of my heart.
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