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Archived News:
A new Joint Task Force movie shows off the AGEIA PhysX physics in Most Wanted
Entertainment's upcoming RTS game. The 43 second clip is available on
3D Downloads, 3D Gamers,
FileFront, Gameguru Mania, and Worthplaying.
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance
The
Marvel Ultimate Alliance Q&A on The Armchair Empire talks with Raven
about their upcoming superhero action/RPG: "In fact, the inventory system is
extremely different. It is streamlined so that there really isn’t any
inventory management. There is still equipment, but it’s much more rare and
powerful when you find it and trading it among heroes becomes more important
than stockpiling it. In addition to the equipment, we’ve added more
character costumes that gamers unlock through game play. Whereas in most
other games, the different costumes are purely cosmetic, in our game the
costumes come with extra bonuses and unique abilities so deciding the look
of your hero actually affects game play."
- Lord of the Rings Online
Computer
Games Online's Lord of the Rings Online Q&A Part 2 continues their
discussion of the MMORPG with executive producer Jeffrey Steefel: "We aren’t
discussing our expansion plans yet, but as we have always done with our
games, we have plans for regular updates throughout the lifetime of the
game. Moria is an obvious choice. The game will continue to take place
during the War of the Ring, which was obviously a monumental period in the
history of Middle-earth."
- Sword of the Stars
The
Sword of the Stars Q&A
on StrategyCore.co.uk is part three of a conversation from back at E3
2006 about the upcoming 4X strategy game: "A game could be configured to
take from 2 hours to 100 hours. The 3-D star map means that you have a lot
of control. We don't have small, medium or large settings. We have a slider
which varies the star map from 15 stars up to 360. For instance, you can set
up a death match with 5 stars each for three players. That will be over
pretty quick. Or you can set up it up so it'll take four hours before we
even meet each other. If you want dreadnought battles with the most advanced
technology, then you would need to set up a long game."
- A Vampyre Story
The
A
Vampyre Story Q&A on working-title talks with Bill Tiller of Autumn Moon
Entertainment about the upcoming adventure game that's back on track with a
new publisher: "The ironic thing about our story is that at first Mona hates
being a vampire and doesn’t want to have anything to do with it, but life
has come along and dropped all this in her lap, and now she has to deal with
it. We can al relate to that. There is a famous quote from the
eighteenth-century Scottish poet Robert Burns, “the best-laid plans of mice
and men often go awry.’ Doesn’t that happen to all of us at one time or
another? You think you’re going somewhere, you plan for it, you get your
heart set on it, and then BOOM! Life drops a bomb on your plans, and you end
up no where near where you thought you’d be. This is a story about not
giving up when that happens, about making the best of a bad situation, and
actually turning it to your advantage and persevering. I think that also
appeals to a lot of people and helps explain the popularity of the game,
even though it isn’t even out yet."
The late cartoonist B. Kliban once sagely advised "never eat anything bigger
than your head." I have followed this advice my whole life, but tonight was
tempted by a pre-made sandwich at the supermarket that is indeed close to the
size of my noggin, if not larger. Hopefully I'll be safe from any consequences
if I don't finish it in one sitting - it's hard to picture someone who could eat
such a thing as one meal -- perhaps Henry the Eighth.
R.I.P.:
Syd
Barrett, troubled talent of Pink Floyd, dead at 60 and
Commodores
musician dies aged 58.
Steam News
announces the availability of The Ship, a seafaring murder mystery built on the
Source engine: The Ship, a massively mysterious thriller (MMT) from
Outerlight Ltd, is available now via Steam, Valve's electronic distribution
platform. Set onboard a 1920's luxury liner, Mr X, the Ship's owner has
"invited" you to a mysterious multiplayer game of hunt and hunted, as players
must secretly track and extinguish specified passengers while avoiding similar
fate. The ship is available for just $19.95.
Click here for more details.
Sony Online
Entertainment Announces The Serpent's Spine Expansion for EverQuest, the
three-hundredth (give or take) add-on for the long-running MMORPG (thanks
Frans). The new expansion adds a new race and raises the maximum level to 75
("it goes to eleven"). Here's word: SAN DIEGO, July 11 /PRNewswire/ --
Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games
industry, today announced EverQuest® The Serpent's Spine(TM), a new expansion
for the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), EverQuest.
EverQuest The Serpent's Spine will only be available via digital download
beginning in September for the suggested price of U.S. $29.99.
"In an ongoing commitment to introducing new features into EverQuest, The
Serpent's Spine introduces the Drakkin, the first new player race since the
Frogloks were added to the game seven expansions ago," said Chris Sturr, Senior
Brand Manager, Sony Online Entertainment. "In addition to the new race, players
of all levels will benefit from this expansion, as we are including content for
levels 1 to 75."
A new update is now automatically available for World of Warcraft, bringing
Blizzard's MMORPG to version 1.11.2. The update addresses a few issues, and is
also available as a manual download for US, UK, French, and German users, one or
more of these manual patches can be found on
3D Downloads, 3D Gamers,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and Worthplaying.
Though the recent resurgence of stories surrounding a former Mithis Games
project centered on Battlestations: Midway ( story), HD Publishing
has released their own official statement about the status of Joint Task Force:
HD Publishing b.v. responds to suggestions of misconduct relating to
Joint Task Force.
HD Publishing b.v., the publisher of 'Joint Task Force', is aware of recent
press speculation relating to a number of games formerly being developed by
Mithis Entertainment of Hungary for a number of companies, including 'Joint Task
Force' for ourselves.
HD Publishing b.v. is not aware of any criminal or civil proceedings brought
against it in Hungary or anwhere else in relation to 'Joint Task Force'. HD
Publishing b.v. has not been contacted by any member of the Hungarian police
force and we know of nothing beyond what has been printed in the press over the
weekend.
Furthermore, during 2005 legal proceedings relating to 'Joint Task Force' were
initiated against MGE and Mithis in the English High Court. We believe that any
complaint that may have been made to the police by MGE and Mithis in relation to
'Joint Task Force' and the involvement of the media is simply a transparent
attempt to bypass the English court proceedings and an unreasonable attempt to
try to apply pressure.
In any event, HD Publishing b.v. categorically denies any suggestion that all or
the majority of any police complaint is directed at HD Publishing b.v., or
concerns 'Joint Task Force' alone. All of the reported complaints of MGE and
Mithis appear to be made indiscriminately against all publishers of games
formerly being developed by Mithis.
Take 2
Games announces the availability of Prey, Human Head's first-person shooter:
New York, NY - July 11, 2006 - 2K, a publishing label of Take-Two
Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), and 3D Realms today announced that
the first-person shooter Prey is now available in stores across North America
and will be available at stores in Europe on July 14. Developed by Human Head
Studios and created and produced by 3D Realms, Prey is available for Xbox 360™
video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC in both regular and
Limited Collector's editions.
A groundbreaking first-person shooter, Prey raises the bar and turns the genre
upside-down with awesome new gameplay features and next generation graphics.
Breaking the traditional first-person shooter format, Prey introduces innovative
gameplay elements including wall-walking, portals, spirit-walking and gravity
flipping, making it one of the most anticipated games of 2006. Players can
enhance the experience with multi-player options that include eight player
deathmatch that will have both hearts and trigger fingers racing.
Frans points out that
GameSpy's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Diary from yesterday includes the
revelation that Splash Damage's multiplayer shooter is delayed until next year:
It's also been a challenging year, as the team here has given
extraordinary effort towards completing the game this year. Unfortunately,
sometimes effort isn't all you need -- sometimes you just need more time. To
ensure the quality we want, we've decided to push the release out of 2006 to
allow for extended testing, feedback and game balancing.
Lighthouse Interactive announces a delay to the release of SunAge, saying
the RTS game is now due for release in February 2007. Word is: "Vertex 4 has
been hard at work developing this terrific title. The team is dedicated to
delivering the best gaming experience possible so we collectively made the
decision to add some additional development time, I think once gamers get their
hands on this title next February, they will agree that it was time well spent."
Matrix Games announces
the release of a new
patch for Gary
Grigsby’s World at War, updating the WW2 grand strategy game to version
1.202. Word is: "Three fixes are included in this update, resolving a possible
combat animations crash, a replay problem and an issue with strategic airdrops.
It is recommended that all players upgrade to v1.202. The v1.202 update is a
comprehensive update and will work on all previous versions of Gary Grigsby’s
World at War, whether US or International."
Petroglyph announces plans
for the upcoming version 1.05 patch for Star Wars: Empire at War. The
patch notes
outline the planned changes and fixes. Thanks Frans.
- Prey
Mind-bending
Audio in Prey on Sound Blaster Gaming talks with Prey audio lead Ed Lima
about the audio in Prey, Human Head's shooter that ships today, offering sound thinking and some hardware pimpage: "'Prey's' unique 360-degree settings and
visceral gunplay happen all around Tommy all the time. 3D audio is essential
to helping the player get his or her bearing in the crazy topsy-turvy world
of the Sphere. OpenAL goes a long way towards accomplishing this through its
tightly pinpointed 3D panning system. Sounds are much more clearly
pointsourced in OpenAL than in the game's default sound system. This
provides an additional benefit to multiPrey gamers, since they'll have a
better bead on where their enemies are."
- Throwback
Throwback
Entertainment Q&A on FiringSquad discusses the acquisition of some
Acclaim assets by this new company: "Yes it is true, we definitely wish to
release new games based on the properties acquired from Acclaim. Titles such
as Re-Volt, XGRA, and many others would be perfect matches for services like
Xbox Live Arcade, the Nintendo DS, and other potential platforms. As for
impending releases we are working towards partnering with development
studios now. Given the duration and complexity of the acquisition process,
nothing other than planning could begin until the deal was finalized and
announced."
- Mac Gaming
Aspyr
Gamerhood targets entire gaming experience on Macworld (thanks Ant) is
a conversation about Aspyr's just-announced digital marketplace for Mac
games (story).
- Anno 1701/1701 A.D. on
Games Radar.
- CivCity: Rome on
1Up.
- FlatOut 2 on
Games Radar.
- Hero Online on
1Up.
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 on
IGN. First
confirmation that another sequel is in the works.
We've had a few incidents lately with doggie owners stopping their dogs to
socialize and play in front of our house. I'm trying not to descend into a
passive aggressive mode here, but it's starting to piss me off how these folks
failing to appreciate that this is making our dogs go positively crazy. They
bark and throw themselves at the door and howl, and the provocateurs seem
oblivious that they are causing this. I don't feel that comfortable asking
people to move along from in front of our house, but it may come to that soon.
R.I.P.:
Actress and spokeswoman June Allyson dies. Ever heard of her? Depends.
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