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Archived News:
3D
Realms (thanks Frans) offers an update for customers who purchased Prey
through Triton, announcing 2K will be mailing a boxed copy of Human Head's
shooter to those who bought the game online through Triton, since such copies
are currently non-functional ( story). Here's word: As
those of you who purchased Prey through Triton are by now aware, the service is
no longer functioning. This is an unfortunate happening, but we do have some
good news for all of those who bought Prey through the Triton service.
2K has set up a replacement program for customers who purchased Prey via the
Triton download service. A new boxed copy of Prey will be shipped to each
customer who purchased the game via Triton, DiStream or
www.playtriton.com, as Triton is
undergoing a reorganization process and copies downloaded from the service may
not function properly. There is no action required on the part of the purchaser.
Boxed copies will be mailed automatically to the credit card address on file.
Thank you for your patience during this interim period; we look forward to
getting affected customers back up and playing Prey as soon as possible.
Fore! Tiger Woods
PGA TOUR 07 Hits Store Shelves Today announces the release of the latest
installment in the golf series named after the resurgent superstar duffer. The
game is available now for most systems, with the Xbox 360 edition to follow a
week from today: REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts
(NASDAQ:ERTS - News) announced today that the latest in the critically-acclaimed
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR franchise, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 07, has shipped in North
America for the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, PlayStation®2 computer
entertainment system, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system and PC and is now
available on store shelves. This will also be available for the Xbox 360(TM)
video game and entertainment system on October 17th.
Feel your adrenaline rise as you earn respect and climb the ranks with Team Play
in Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 07 for PlayStation 2 console, Xbox and PC. Compete
against 21 of the world’s top players, including Tiger Woods, John Daly, Vijay
Singh, and Annika Sorenstam. Dominate any of the 21 courses on Tiger Woods PGA
TOUR 07, such as the newly added Four Seasons Resort Aviara, The Ocean Course at
Kiawah Island, Riviera Country Club, The National, and The K Club. Use the all
new Team Tour mode to assemble a team, improve your status, establish rivalries
and drive for the coveted EA™ Cup as you hunt down Tiger. In the PSP, work on
your game through mid-week training and unique challenges, then take on the best
PGA TOUR® pros in tournaments in the chase for The FedExCup.
Steam
now offers Space Empires V preorders for those interested in the digitally
distributed edition of Malfador Machinations' space strategy sequel. Those who
order the game prior to its release on October 16, 2006 will receive a $5.00
discount.
Steam News
has word that RoboBlitz, Naked Sky Entertainment's upcoming Unreal Engine 3
game, will be available via the Steam platform in the coming weeks. Word is:
"RoboBlitz is a humorous, physics-driven action game full of inventive gizmos,
weapons, and environments. Players take on the role of Blitz, a multi-talented
robot who must activate an aging Space Cannon to save his world from a band of
maladjusted space pirates. Set in seven distinct environments, RoboBlitz
features 19 levels of puzzle-solving and high-intensity action."
A new Gothic 3 movie offers another high-resolution walkthrough of Piranha
Bytes' imminent RPG sequel. Word is the clip shows off "the best way to
inflicted pain and more pain, either by killing, using Magic or just putting the
boot in, the games producer Micheal Paeck explains the games fighting styles."
The download is available on
3D Downloads, 3D
Gamers,
Boomtown (registration required),
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and Worthplaying.
- Field Ops
Field
Ops Producer Tells All on IGN interrogates Majeri Mourad of Freeze
Interactive about their coming FPS/RTS hybrid: "We have worked with US
professional screenwriters to build a storyline that is very consistent and
compelling, a la 24. As for the pitch, the story starts in Cuba where the
Special Operations Group are engaging in combat with the Alerta, a
well-equipped, left-wing extremist army. Led by Comandante Ramiro Rodríguez,
one of Castro's former generals, Alerta has laid siege to the capital and
spread out throughout the eastern countryside, making Santiago de Cuba their
major stronghold. As well as demanding the end of Castro's reign, Alerta
also announced they possess ex-Soviet nuclear missiles that are capable of
reaching the southern United States. The missions take place in four
different countries. You start in Cuba and then travel to Ukraine,
Afghanistan and the USA. Each of the areas will have their own pertinent
graphics."
- Rise of the Witch-King
The
Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the
Witch-King Q&A on GameSpot discusses the upcoming RTS expansion with
producer Amir Rahimi: "The story behind the Witch-King's rise to power is
one of the most important and fascinating events that takes place in the
Lord of the Rings trilogy. After 1,000 years of peace, the Witch-King
commands the rise of evil in Middle-earth by gathering an enormous army and
waging a 500-year war against one of the greatest kingdoms of men. Three
thousand years after being defeated at the Battle of the Last Alliance, the
Witch-King destroys the great kingdom of Arnorand, clears the way for Sauron
to return, and begins his domination of Middle-earth. Given all of this, we
decided that telling the Witch-King's story would be the perfect opportunity
to bridge the 3,000-year gap in our game, between The Battle of the Last
Alliance and the beginning of the War of the Ring that existed in the
films."
- EVE Online
Stargamer.net's
EVE Online Q&A talks with CCP's Nathan Richardsson about their MMORPG:
"EVE is a free-form universe, where you decide your own destiny and where
your actions have an effect on yourself as well as others. We believe that
to fully experience the highs, one must experience the lows and both the
freedom to set your own goals and the possible setbacks on the way to that
goal is what makes EVE the experience that it is. We believe the freedom EVE
offers creates a greater challenge, one where your actions can make you a
hero or a villain and again, for there to be real heroes, there must be real
villains. That's why this it's allowed in EVE. Caveat emptor."
- Tim Shafer
Tim
Schafer psychs out digital distribution on GameSpot is a Q&A with the
Double Fine Productions designer about plans to re-release Psychonauts via
digital distribution: "It's a very exciting time for digital distribution.
People have talked about it for years, and I always thought, yeah, sure,
someday maybe that will happen. Now, all of a sudden, it's here! I mean, I'm
actually doing it as a player: I'm downloading tons of games from Xbox Live
Arcade, and soon I'll be doing the same on the Wii. Just the other day I
downloaded a test version of Psychonauts from Steam. And I was thinking,
holy crap, the future is here! Now where's my flying car?"
- Shiny
Life
After Atari - What's Next for Shiny on Gamasutra hears from Michael
Persson on what the acquisition by Foundation 9 of Shiny Entertainment: "For
now we're staying where we are. I think Jon has mentioned this but they want
to make a headquarters for Foundation 9, probably in Irvine, and we would
move there, and the collective would move there, so the corporate HQ, the
Collective HQ and the Shiny HQ would be in the same area. It just makes more
sense, as we can save more costs of running the studio, and it'll make it
easier for us to cooperate on technology and what have you."
- ESA
ESA
Pres Addresses E3, ESRB and Health of the Industry on GameDaily BIZ is a
Q&A with ESA prez Doug Lowenstein on the aforementioned topics: "Obviously
she introduced a bill that we were not supportive of. But at the same time
her bill was extremely complimentary of the ESRB rating system, and I think
the only area of disagreement we have with Senator Clinton is over whether
it's necessary for the federal government to try to regulate game sales to
minors. We've been having a healthy dialogue with her and I think she
actually has a pretty decent understanding about the game industry and she's
a huge friend of our industry when it comes to other issues like copyright
and intellectual property areas. So we continue to have a good open dialogue
with her on these issues, so I don't think she's somebody the industry
should have particular fear about."
- American McGee
Media
Consumption: American McGee on Gamasutra learns from the designer his
tastes in things like books, movies, and music.
Thanks for all the anniversary well wishing!
A new patch for Prey is now available, updating Human Head's first-person
shooter to version 1.2, offering the promised additional content. The
patch notes have details on the six new multiplayer characters, four new
multiplayer maps, and bug fixes included in the update. The patch can be found
on the Prey Downloads Page
where they also offer the Linux dedicated server (the Windows dedicated server
is included with the patch).
Aspyr Media releases a new single-player demo for ParaWorld, while also
announcing the official ParaWorld Ladder. The demo of SEK's
alternate-prehistoric RTS game is available from
3D Downloads, 3D
Gamers, eXp
Download,
FileFront,
FilePlanet (registration required), Gamer's
Hell,
VGPRO, and
Worthplaying. Here's word on the ladder: Aspyr Media is excited to
announce that North American gamers are eligible to compete in the official
ParaWorld Ladder. The ladder, sponsored by developer SEK and European publisher
Sunflowers, features a grand price of 60,000€ (or approximately $76,000). To
enter the competition, players need to pick up a retail copy of ParaWorld, go to
www.myskulls.com for rules and
registration, and start using their rampaging dinosaurs to destroy their
opponents.
The Pacific Fighters
Website offers word that 1C: Maddox Games is planning on taking to the skies
once more in IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946, a World War II aerial combat game that will
join the surprising number of alternate history games that speculate on how
World War II would have progressed had it continued past 1945. The game will include all previous IL2 content, and more, due next month. Here's
word: Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers,
announced that STURMOVIK™: 1946, take off in November 2006 for PCs in Europe and
Australia. STURMOVIK™: 1946 is the latest instalment in the acclaimed Il-2
Sturmovik™ brand from award-winning developer 1C: Maddox Games.
STURMOVIK™: 1946 offers new campaigns, missions and aircraft as well as many
exclusive features. Pilots can fly the skies and fight enemies over the Russian
front, German occupied Europe, the Far East and the Pacific. STURMOVIK™: 1946
also includes all of previous Il-2 series content, thus bringing the most
respected anthology flight simulator to an astonishing 229 flyable aircraft and
over 300 total aircraft.
Key Features: New Aircraft – 32 new flyable fighters and bombers, including the
long-awaited Il-10 Sturmovik, the Mig-9 Jet fighter or the Arado Ar-234 Blitz
bomber; plus four new AI aircraft.
•New Maps – Large new historical maps of the Kiev region, a Manchuria region
map focusing on the border between the USSR, China and Japanese-occupied Korea,
a large bonus Burma map and an online Khalkin Gol / Nomonhan map.
•New campaigns - With nearly 200 missions, unparalleled realism and attention
to detail, the nine new campaigns will thrust players into detailed fighter and
bomber pilots missions for the German, Soviet and Japanese air forces.
•Alternate history - Three of the nine campaigns are a departure into
alternate history, focusing on hypothetical battles between the Soviet Union and
Germany in the year 1946 where WWII still rages on. Both the VVS and Luftwaffe
now have access to advanced jet and rocket fighters.
•New features – In addition to such exotic aircrafts as Soviet mixed-power
fighters, 1946 also adds an incredible variety of new ground targets, including,
for the first time in the series, trenches and bunkers that give a whole new
dimension to the ground attack aspect of the simulator.
•Nearly 1,000 new Paint schemes – The new planes, as well as many existing
ones, come with a host of historical paint schemes, showing many of the
individual aircraft or squadrons that served in WWII.
•Exclusive bonus - Making of, interview videos and screenshots of the new
features, plus exclusive screenshots and never before seen videos taken from
upcoming Maddox game: Storm of War™: Battle of Britain. A Detailed Plane Guide,
totalling over 450 pages of information, gives the low-down on every single one
of your 229 flyable aircraft, and allows new players much easier access to the
incredible variety of aircraft in the simulator.
The Medieval II: Total War demo shows off Creative Assembly's upcoming RTS
sequel. The demo, which originated on a PC Gamer magazine cover disk, offers a
Battle of Hastings tutorial, and two scenarios: Battle of Pavia and Battle of
Agincourt. The download is available on
3D Downloads, 3D
Gamers,
ActionTrip,
Boomtown (registration required),
ComputerGames.ro,
FileFront,
Gamer's Hell,
PixelRage, and
Worthplaying.
Matrix Games offers a
new patch for War in the Pacific, updating the World War II action/strategy game
to version 1.802. Word is: "The version 1.802 update includes a host of minor
updates and improvements such as improving airgroup control as well as number of
improvements that increase turn processing efficiency. The play-by-email
synchronization bug has also been squashed in this update so now the focus can
be on squashing the opponent! These improvements round out the list of over 70
minor changes included in this patch."
Crash Dummy –
More fun less violence announces Lexicon Entertainment will publish Crash
Dummy Vs The Evil D- Troit for PC and PS2. On related note, their
Crash Dummy Product
Section is now live, with information and screenshots. Also, Lexicon's
Penumbra Overture
Product Section is live, dedicated to this upcoming cross-platform shooter (thanks Frans).
Finally, a new The Secrets of
Atlantis Website is live (thanks
Adventure Gamers).
The
Battlefield October 2006 Newsletter offers a portions of the Battlefield
2142 introduction, saying: "This is the exclusive first look at the Battlefield
2142 intro movie that will be included in the final game. This video was
produced at DICE and is yet another awesome Roland Smedberg production. The full
video will premier next week, but you get to see the first footage here!" Also,
the Splinter
Cell Website has a new video interview with actor Michael Ironside about his
recurring role as the voice of Sam Fisher.
- Sid Meier
Shacknews'
Sid Meier Q&A talks with the famed designer about being a famed
designer: "I don't agree with that sentiment. Gaming is constantly growing
and changing...we're a very young industry and just at the tip of the
iceberg in terms of what we can do with this medium. The next-gen hardware
that is arriving now will allow developers to deliver new experiences to
gamers that will push gaming to the next level. The emergence of Xbox Live
Arcade is one good example of gaming moving forward...developers can create
new games, on a shorter development cycle and deliver them inexpensively to
gamers. Right now most of the games appeal to more casual gamers, but as the
space evolves it will allow for more robust games that will appeal to
hardcore gamers."
- Warhammer: Mark of Chaos
The
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos Q&A on GamersInfo.net is an article-format
conversation with Chris Wren about the coming fantasy-themed RTS game.
Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of this site's move to its own domain.
Of course I meant to mention this yesterday, but the date has always stuck in my
head as 10/10, rather than the proper 10/9 (this isn't the first time I've done
this). Anyway, ten years is a long time, even for a (senile?) codger like me,
but it's an eternity on the internet, and I'm certainly proud to have survived,
much less what we've managed to accomplish along the way. I would love to thank
all the folks who have been so instrumental in the site's success over the years,
but the aforementioned senility is a severe impediment to covering so many bases
correctly, so maybe I'll start to undertake compiling a thank-you list as a
research project. In the meantime, a blanket heartfelt thanks to all of you who
have visited and contributed over the nearly 12 years since the site launched
and the ten years of being a "dot com."
R.I.P.: Noorda,
network computing pioneer, dies at 82.
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