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Archived News:
TotalWar.com (thanks
Frans) has word on how eager beavers can get their copy of Rome: Total War -
Alexander a few days before the official release date for the RTS expansion:
The wait is almost over – we’re delighted to bring you confirmation that
Alexander, the latest expansion of Rome: Total War, will be released on Monday
June 19th. The pack will be available on this very site along with
www.sega.com, and
www.sega-europe.com
and is priced at just £8.50, €10.00 or $ 15.00.
Can’t wait that long? That’s no problem. We’re rewarding the loyal troops who
have registered with Total War.com with the opportunity to launch their
Alexander campaign on Friday 16th June.
Details of how to take up this offer will be revealed in the new edition of the
newsletter out later this week. If you’re already a registered user you can just
sit back and wait for this to land in your inbox. If however you’ve yet to show
your allegiance to the Total War cause, you’ll need to
sign up fast to
get the chance to get your hands on Alexander on Friday.
Steam News
outlines a new update for Half-Life 2 Deathmatch now automatically available via
Steam (thanks Frans). The update closes off some exploits, adds some new
commands, and players will now respawn with limited invulnerability to prevent
spawn camping.
The Witcher
Official Website now offers the final E3 trailer from CD
Projekt's upcoming action/RPG, showing off the game's technology. Thanks Frans.
A new Drakensang Website is
online, as a Flash home to Drakensang: The Dark Eye, the upcoming party-based
RPG from Radon Labs. Thanks Frans.
- Battlefield 2142
There's a new
Battlefield 2142 Q&A on Computer and Video Games discussing the coming
installment in DICE's shooter series with producer Marcus Nilsson: "We've
been thinking about this for years. For something like Battlefield, it's
easy for us to go into the future because for the first time ever, we make
things up and we can make things that fit perfectly into the world of
Battlefield. It's all about the toys and the equipment, the vehicles and how
you use them. And if you can start designing how they work, then you can
build upon them. We're now reaching a level where we make it more
interesting to play the game."
- D&D Online
MMORPG.COM's
Dungeons & Dragons Online Solo Content Q&A discusses the MMORPG's newly
launched solo content: "In our next update, we have focused on adding solo
mode to dungeons in the Harbor. Beyond the Harbor, players are a higher
level and can already solo some of the content or can return to the Harbor
and play through adventures on Normal as a solo player. We want the early
experience to be fun for the new player who hasn’t had the chance to meet
friends and join a guild yet. The solo option will allow players to learn
their chosen class, and become more comfortable with the unique combat
experience that DDO provides at their own pace."
"I'll have three fingers of Glenlivet, with a little bit of pepper... and some
cheese."
NVIDIA announces they have an updated version of the Tomb Raider: Legend Demo
on their nZone. The new demo features the same high resolution graphics from the
full version, which were not present in the original demo ( story)
of the latest Lara Croft game. The demo is on
nZone's Tomb
Raider Legend Page, where word is: "For the best visual experience, NVIDIA
recommends an NVIDIA GeForce 7800 or better graphics card. Please note that
users must have 84.43 or newer drivers, which they can get from nzone.com."
The English demo for Glory of the Roman Empire is now available, offering a
sample of Haemimont Games' upcoming management/strategy game. The demo includes
an early portion of the solo campaign along with tutorials. The download is
available on
3D Downloadss, 3D
Gamers,
Computer Games,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and Worthplaying
The
WoW Forums (thanks
Worthplaying)
offer a couple of responses from Blizzard to rumors that their future
development plans are focused solely on MMOGs ( story),
unequivocally denying that this is the case. Here is one of the posts from
Blizzard on the topic: Nothing in that rumor is true in regards to
Blizzard. If I had to guess, there was some confusion between what Vivendi has
planned for its its game division versus what Blizzard has planned. While
Blizzard is owned by Vivendi, their game division operates seperately from
Blizzard.
The Rush for Berlin
Website now offers a new patch for Rush for Berlin, updating Stormregion's
World War II RTS game to version 1.1 (thanks Frans). Word is: "The patch brings
more comfort in multiplayer and online part and also new features, e.g. units
will now display the effective range of their skills. Balancing and AI are
improved as well as a bug is fixed which caused multiple polygons to appear in
the game, thus slowing it down. This was particularly problematic in large
multiplayer games as it built up faster there."
Turbine
Launches New Solo-Mode For Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach announces
that the promised MM-free version of the MMORPG is now live, saying: "Turbine has introduced a series of solo–friendly enhancements and content
improvements as part of the new player experience in DDO. New players can now
experience over 20 dungeons throughout Stormreach™ harbor in a single-player
mode. This feature grows the overall scope and quality of the game by enabling
players to journey alone in epic adventure zones or dangerous dungeons. It also
is particularly useful to new players, allowing them to hone their skills and
better prepare for higher-level quests where they can join with fellow gamers to
achieve success. This mode will be in addition to three existing game play
options of “Normal,” “Hard” and “Elite.”"
An NFL Head Coach demo is now available, offering a chance to sample this
simulation of the stressful life of a pro football coach. Grab your whistle,
clipboard, and Tums and grab the download from
3D Gamers,
Gamer's Hell,
FileFront, and
Worthplaying.
Blizzards says EVERYTHING IS AN MMOG is
a blog entry reporting that VU Games (not Blizzard as the headline suggests)
told the attendees of a Wall Street presentation that all of Blizzard's games
are heading down the massively multiplayer road (thanks
Digg
and Ant). According the report, they express confidence they can develop MMOGs for $50 million in under three years, and they also are looking to market
"short session" MMOGs under the Sierra Online brand. Update:
Blizzard
has denied that this is true ( story).
JoWooD
Productions and RTL Productions and RTL Enterprises Agree on Cooperation
announces development of Alpine Ski Racing 2007, slated for release this fall:
JoWooD, listed at the Vienna Stock Exchange, announces the conclusion of a
joint agreement with RTL Enterprises. The two companies will co-operate in the
development, publishing and release of the game "Alpine Ski Racing 2007",
scheduled for launch in fall of this year,. The companies bring together two
already proven and successful brands, "Ski Racing" and "Ski Alpin,"
into one unique gaming experience.
Holger Strecker, Managing Director of RTL Enterprises comments; "Fans can look
forward to a top-title. The combination of the two companies’
know-how and their competence in winter-sports enables RTL and JoWooD to release
a highlight.
RTL’s promotion power as the market leader and the opportunities for
cross-promotions will furthermore set the course towards mass-marketability of "Alpine
Ski Racing 2007".
"This collaboration with RTL Enterprises, part of one of Europe's most
important Media enterprises, stands for a lot of potential for the future and
may be the beginning of a long lasting relationship between JoWooD and RTL
Enterprises," adds JoWooD CEO Albert Seidl. "This co-op enables us to
utilize on the experience and resources of both companies and the combination of
the two brands offers some new concept and gamedesign, leaving the players with
the best of both worlds and more."
"Alpine Ski Racing 2007" will hit stores in fall 2006.
- Joint Task Force
A new diary movie offers insights into the production of Most
Wanted Entertainment's RTS game through the use of interview and gameplay
footage. The clip is available on
3D Downloads,
3D
Gamers, Gamer's Hell,
and
GameSpot.
- Diver Deep Water Adventures
A new trailer showing off over
seventeen minutes(!) of gameplay from the upcoming submerged simulation is
now available on the
Diver3D
Files Page. Thanks Frans.
As noted here,
Meridian 4 Games
now offers a new patch for Daemonica, updating the game to version 1.1. Word is: "The patch updates version 1.0 of Daemonica by fixing a
few minor bugs and enhancing certain aspects of gameplay. It should only be
applied to the English version of the full game."
- Guild Wars Factions
The
Guild Wars Factions Q&A on The Adrenaline Vault talks with ArenaNet's
Jeff Strain about their MMORPG follow-up: "I think the second part of it was
that we really want to emphfisize [sic] that these campaigns, you know, we
don’t call them expansions because there really not, it’s a fully playable,
stand alone game. It has everything you would expect, it has all the
professions, it has a starting area for you to learn the game, a training
zone and it has its own full, complete quest that is completely independent
of the of the previous game. We really want people to see it as a new game
in the Guild Wars universe rather than an expansion. We where careful to
make sure that it would play that way."
- Star Trek Legacy
The
Star Trek Legacy Q&A on GameSpot talks with associate producer Gary
Conti about the upcoming Trekkie combat game: "Between missions you'll be
deciding on upgrading your hull strength, shields, sensors, engines, and
weapons. Each ship will have a starting stat in each of these areas, and a
maximum you can upgrade. For example, let us say you've purchased a
fresh-off-the-line Constitution-class heavy cruiser. You choose to upgrade
the weapons and shield systems. By upgrading the weapons, your phasers
increase in range, recharge faster, and do more damage. By upgrading your
shields, they can absorb more damage before dropping and will recharge
faster after battle. Also, you can purchase specific weapons upgrades and
install special weapons on your ships."
- Rome: Total War - Alexander
The
Rome: Total War - Alexander Q&A on FiringSquad talks with Creative
Assembly's Ian Roxburgh about their RTS expansion: "It was really a case of
an offer we couldn’t refuse. We simply couldn’t bring ourselves to move on
from the era without addressing Alexander and his campaign because the
events and battles lend themselves so perfectly to Total War. We also knew
it was a particular area that our fans wanted us to examine and it was an
area we had considered previously when we came to creating an expansion.
When we had the opportunity to create new content for Rome, we didn’t
hesitate before turning to Alexander for the subject matter."
- World Tour Golf
The
World
Tour Golf Q&A on Pro-G links up with David Wiltshire about their
upcoming golf simulation: "This is clearest in the way that you take your
shot in the game, the Pro Stroke system. You won't be choosing any of your
shots from a menu. Instead our control system provides a genuine evolution
of analogue control, offering each player the ability to shape and adapt a
shot in an infinite number of ways. Players will discover that they can play
each an every shot just how they want to - the game isn't going to force
them into a set selection."
The Nexuiz
Website now offers a new version 2.0 of this freeware shooter. Word is: "The
new version includes a 21 level single player campaign system, 5 new maps,
complete precompiled bump/offset/relief mapping, game and netplay optimization,
all new particle effects, new gamemodes and gameplay changes, content download,
and much more."
The East Coast Gaming Expo 2006 is
scheduled for August 26-27 2006 in Reading, Pennsylvania.
I tried to watch a World Cup game yesterday, catching the game between Brazil
and Croatia. 44 minutes of kicking the ball in the middle of the field, one
goal, and another 45 minutes of kicking the ball in the middle of the field. I
was definitely impressed by the abilities demonstrated by many of the players,
but I still have trouble figuring out how this is the world's most popular
sport.
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