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Archived News:
There's a
Resident Evil 4 PC Listing on Play.com (UK) that would seem to indicate a PC
edition of the upcoming horror sequel is in the works. The retailer listings can
be unreliable, a follow-up by Andy from
YiYas with Capcom Germany got an unofficial confirmation that this release
is indeed planned. The release date listed is 31/3/2006.
Declaring "The furious battle of Pearl Harbor became the first in the sequence
of glory sea combats" (it probably sounds better in Russian), Buka Entertainment
sends along an estimated release date for Pacific Storm, saying Lesta's World
War II RTS/action game hybrid is expected in May 2006. Word is that developer
Lesta Studios is in the final stages of multiplayer and game balance tweaking.
A new Faces of War
Product Section is online, home to the upcoming World War II RTS game. The
site offers game info, but nothing new. Also, a
new Rugby 06 Website is the new
Flash homepage for the rugged sporting simulation. Thanks Frans.
- SiN Episodes
The
SiN Episodes Blogs Page now offers a new update from Ritual lead
designer Shawn Ketcherside encouragingly titled "We're getting close." He
discusses what they are up to, including dropping in the music tracks and
working on little things that "bubble up" as they work on finishing up their
upcoming shooter sequel. They also offer a sample of one of those music
tracks in their
downloads section.
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
A new
Diary on
The Elder Scrolls Website by Bethesda Softworks programmer Brendan
Anthony discusses the "magical goodness" to be found in The Elder Scrolls
IV: Oblivion, the upcoming RPG sequel. Thanks Frans.
MMORPG.COM's Tasos Flambouras Q&A talks about Aventurine's upcoming
PvP-oriented MMORPG: "A team of artists using high powered graphics workstations
could craft an amazing visual presentation, creating environments, using high
polygon models, posing them, cranking up graphics settings to unplayable levels,
carefully placing lights, worrying about texture, angle, color, composition etc.
When that’s done, then the post production process begins. In the end what you
get is a flawless visual that you’ll never be able to see in-game, and action
that you’ll never be able to duplicate. Its purpose is to hype a game rather
than show what it’s really like."
- Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach on
IGN.
- Tortuga: Two Treasures on
GameSpy.
As announced
here an updated version of the Three Musketeers demo is now available,
offering the same content as the previous sample of the platform/action game,
with no details offered on what's different from last time. The demo can be
found on this
downloads page, and mirrored on
3D Gamers
and Worthplaying.
Homespun Magixx
has paper models to print and build (thanks Doug and
Boing
Boing). I'm making
a
Hudson the wonder dog! :)
A Save Heroes of Might and Magic V Campaign
is underway, a community effort to delay the release of the game. Here's
word: Worldwide, Jan. 26, 2006. A group of Heroes of Might and Magic
community Websites today launched a collaborative effort to persuade Ubisoft
executives to delay the launch of their highly anticipated title Heroes of Might
and Magic 5. SaveHeroes.Org is a concerted community effort to further that
cause.
This effort, and the reasons behind it, started largely because of the open beta
test, which started on GameSpy on Monday, January 23rd. With Heroes of Might and
Magic 4 having received poor sales in comparison to its predecessor, Heroes 5 is
seen by most as a make or break game. If it fails, so will the entire Might and
Magic franchise. If it succeeds, then the product line would gain the support it
needs for a long term at Ubisoft.
With these facts in mind, community websites, including Celestial Heavens, The
Oracle League, Age of Heroes, Heroes Community, The Genies Lamp, Guardians
Grove, and many others started posting petitions and banners to "Save Heroes 5".
Not long after, these same leaders gathered to try and organize a collaborative
effort to attempt to show Ubisoft that releasing an unfinished game would not go
over well at all.
After the rough start and continued issues of the Open Beta, and some
investigation, these leaders realized that there was little time to act.
Ubisoft's fiscal year ends on March 31, coinciding with the release date.
Ubisoft was also the target of a takeover bid in December of 2004, something
they are not likely to forget easily. Wanting to hit or exceed their yearly
targets could be a reason for the March 31 release date.
However, such short-term plans are exactly what doomed Heroes 4, New World
Computing and The 3DO Company. SaveHeroes.Org is now open to try and prevent
such a thing from happening.
Ubisoft
Entertainment reports third quarter revenue and updates 2005-2006 fiscal year
outlook has the company's latest financials, revealing along the way that
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent will be delayed until September 2006
after being planned for a spring release: In addition, the rescheduling
to September 2006 of the launch of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent™ is
meant to release the title on all platforms simultaneously, including the
Microsoft Xbox® 360 that should have a much larger installed base by that time.
This will also enable to maintain the highest quality for which Tom Clancy’s
Splinter Cell® is recognized. This rescheduling will ensure the best return from
the coming release as well as from future sequels of this brand over
time.
A new Crashday demo is now available, offering the chance to test drive Moon
Byte Studios' upcoming stunt/racing game. The demo provides a sample of the
game's stunt and demo derby modes as well as multiplayer support. Proving that
quitters never prosper, the demo can only be launched 50 times.
The 309 MB download (direct link) is available on
Atari Deutschland
(registration required), and mirrored on
3D
Downloads, 3D Gamers,
Boomtown (registration required),
Computer Games,
eXtreme-Players.de,
Filecloud,
FileFront, Gameguru Mania,
Gamer's Hell,
VGPro, and
Worthplaying.
Though the
Eidos Interactive Website lists Spring 2006 (three times) as the release
date for Commandos: Strike Force,
Commandos
Strike Force European release date set for March 17th is the press release
specifying the European release date for the upcoming action installment in the
World War II combat series will still technically make for a winter release.
Winter was the release window specified when the game was delayed last summer
( story). Thanks Frans.
This press
release announces Iron Warriors, which is the European name for the armored
combat game known as T-72: Balkans on Fire. Black Bean announces plans to bring
the game to the U.K. and Europe in March 2006.
- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
"making of" trailer mentioned in conjunction with yesterday's newsletter
release is now more widely available.
The Elder
Scrolls Website lists mirrors of high- and low-resolution editions of
the clip.
- Battle for Middle-earth II
A Battle for Middle-earth II
create-a-hero movie is now available in conjunction with yesterday's Q&A on
this aspect of the upcoming RTS sequel. The movie includes around five
minutes of gameplay and interview footage. One or more of three different
editions of the clip can be found on
3D Gamers,
The
EA Website,
FileFront,
GameSpot, and
Worthplaying.
- Lineage II
Gamecloud's
Lineage II Update Q&A talks with NCSoft's Adam Davidson about the MMORPG
sequel: "Part of what we do to strive to keep Lineage II unique is that the
Chronicles are free major content updates. We do not charge our players for
additional content, so there are no plans to release a commercial expansion.
Any new content down the road will come to our players the same way it has
in the past, at no additional charge."
- Vanguard
The
Vanguard Q&A on Vanguard at Ten Ton Hammer profiles Sigil artist Den
Beauvais.
- E3
Do
E3 Booth Models Really Matter? on Gamecloud talks with several industry
luminaries about recent announcements that the booth models at E3 will be
more restrained than in the past, offering some samples of their model
photos from past shows.
- Music
The
Jason
Heyes Q&A on working-title talks with the lead composer of the
soundtrack for World of Warcraft.
The Rainbow Six
Website (thanks Frans) outlines the modification support that will be
included in the PC edition of Rainbow Six: Lockdown when the next installment in
the tactical shooter series is released.
I've been sharing one of MrsBlue's Christmas gifts lately, as she got this neat
collection of scented liquid soaps. Two of them are right up my alley, one is
chocolate scented, and the other egg nog. Now these are two wonderful flavors,
but there is something truly odd about slathering oneself in either... the
chocolate in particular makes it hard to feel clean, as it smells like you are
bathing in Hershey's syrup.
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