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Archived News:
The F.E.A.R.
Blog on IGN has word from producer Tim Hall that F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point is gold, and TimeGate's
expansion to Monolith's shooter is due on shelves the 24th: Well F.E.A.R.
Extraction Point should be on store shelves on the 24th so run out and get
yourself a copy!
We’ve been working really hard since the last blog, which was a little out of
date, to get everything squared away and ready to go.
This gold process was relatively easy compared to other projects, I won’t
mention names but I’ve seen things – terrible terrible things - appearing as GM
builds, so this was a fairly stress free ending. I still always think that there
should be a parade or something at the end of a project. After everyone jumping
through hoops for a year to get a project done it would be nice to sit back and
see some pink poodles doing the same thing while eating cotton candy.
It’s been a great experience working with team F.E.A.R. here in the Sierra
office and with Timegate on this project. I’d like to sends thanks out to
everyone who has worked so hard for the past year and we really hope you’ll
enjoy Extraction Point as much as we do.
Close Combat to get new
lease on life on GameSpot reveals plans to update the second, third, and
fourth installments in Atomic Games' Close Combat series of turn-based strategy
games for a new upcoming release. The article features a Q&A with David Heath
from publisher Matrix Games and Shaun Wallace from developer CSO Simtek
discussing the remake, here's a bit: There are many reasons to revisit
the series now, which I will try to outline here. As a series, Close Combat will
be familiar to many older players, but to a large extent, many younger players
will be totally unaware of it as a game. This is a game that many publications
hold in high regard but many people currently playing PC games will be totally
unaware of. There is a large modding community out there which will give a
massive boost to the rerelease of the games. With more than 4,000 mods and maps
available from full-blown total game conversions to simple data or graphic mods,
the series can cover almost every major conflict in recent history.
Matrix Games announces
that Gary Grigsby’s World at War: A World Divided has shipped, and the World War
II strategy game update/sequel is now available. Word is: Matrix Games (www.matrixgames.com)
and 2by3 Games (www.2by3games.com) are
proud to announced the sequel to the acclaimed Gary Grisby’s World at War is now
available. As a special promotional offer, owners of the original Gary Grigsby’s
World At War can save 35% off the regular price. If you’re a previous owner go
to
http://www.matrixgames.com/discount/ggwaw-aworlddivided.asp to enable your
discount.
David Heath, CEO of Matrix Games said “2by3 Games represents the old school game
design and development and once more proves it here. The new features and
enhancements provides players with many new levels of game play and strategies.”
This new sequel, Gary Grigsby’s World At War: A World Divided, adds a host of
new features to grow the engine well beyond the original game in terms of grand
strategy. A World Divided includes spies, neutral country diplomacy, variable
political events, unit experience and scenarios that occur after the war as well
as starting earlier than the original.
Experience the
Thrill of the African Big Five in Activision Publishing's Cabela's African
Safari announces the availability of this big game hunting simulation for
PC, PS2, and PSP. There is also an Xbox 360 edition in the works, expected this
holiday season. Word is: MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gamers can
experience the greatest big game hunting in the world from the comfort and
safety of their homes in Cabela's® African Safari(TM), available now from
Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, Inc.
(Nasdaq:ATVI - News). Players will discover Africa's untamed wild as they hunt a
variety of African big game in pursuit of the ultimate hunting challenge - the
feared Big Five - leopards, lions, elephants, rhinos and Cape buffalo.
The Silent Hunter IV
Website offers a new diary movie from the upcoming World War II sequel of
submerged warfare (thanks Frans), accompanied by three new screenshots. Brace
yourself, as this is referred to as "the first of many" such clips.
- Lineage II
RPG
Vault's Lineage II: Oath of Blood Music Q&A talks with composer Inon Zur
about the soundtrack in the upcoming MMORPG sequel: "In 1997, I composed my
first score for a video game, Star Trek: Klingon Academy. Since then I have
composed the scores for close to 40 games, including Lineage II: Chronicle 5
- Oath of Blood, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Prince of Persia:
Warrior Within, SOCOM II, Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest,
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, Icewind Dale II and many more. I really
enjoy the creative freedom of scoring games. In them, the music is allowed
to breathe and develop much more than in linear forms of entertainment such
as film and television."
- Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising
The
Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising Q&A on Killer Betties talks with Perpetual
Entertainment's Stieg Hedlund about their MMORPG: "Rome, its culture,
military, technology and of course its myth, has continuously fascinated
people around the world, practically since it came into existence. We chose
it because of the ways it worked with the gameplay we wanted to create,
which it does a terrific job of complementing and deepening. As far as
story, and background, working with myth and history is tremendous—there’s
so much material, and it all has a sense of being grounded instead of forced
and artificial. People find familiarity in it and are drawn in and then we
start to introduce some of the stranger and less familiar elements that I
think people will find rather interesting."
- Civil War: A Nation Divided
The
Civil War: A Nation Divided Q&A on FiringSquad talks with Chris Owen of
Activision about the upcoming first-person shooter (reloader?) set in the
Civil War being made in conjunction with the History Channel: "The game
features 12 of the most famous and bloody battles in our Nation’s history
including Gettysburg, Bull Run and Antietam and famous locations within each
battle such as Little Round Top and Lookout Mountain. The game is divided
into two sections: the Northern and Southern campaigns. In the North, you
will progress through battles primarily won by the North: Fredericksburg,
Gettysburg, Chattanooga, and so on. In the Southern Campaign, the player
will experience the battles primarily won by the South: Bull Run, Antietam,
Shiloh, and a few more. The type of terrain encountered in each level varies
depending on the location of the battle. There are forts, enemy camps,
mills, train depots, trenches, towns, beaches, swamps, forests, and so on."
On this day in 1990 2 Live Crew was acquitted of obscenity charges in Fort
Lauderdale. Of course that was back when Jack Thompson thought it was rap music that was
destroying society, not video games. Time flies when you're tilting at
windmills.
The F.E.A.R. Website offers
new version 1.08 F.E.A.R. patches in various languages, updated dedicated
servers, and a corresponding new SDK, saying: "Sierra Entertainment today
released the new Update v1.08 for the acclaimed PC shooter F.E.A.R. This latest
update fixes several issues in both F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. Combat. Updated SDK
and dedicated server files have also been released to work with the new update."
Some or all of the downloads are mirrored on
3D Gamers,
FileFront, FileNuts,
and Worthplaying.
The first ParaWorld patch is now available, updating SEK's prehistoric RTS game
to version 1.01. A lengthy list of bug fixes, tweaks, and other improvements are
included in the patch, which can be found on
3D Downloads, 3D
Gamers,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and Worthplaying.
An English playable demo for ANNO 1701 is now available, offering the chance to
sample Related Designs Software's management/strategy sequel that's also known
as 1701 A.D. The demo offers a tutorial along with a single-player map and a
multiplayer map that allow games up to 90 minutes long. The demo co-premieres on
3D Gamers and
FilePlanet (registration required), and a mirror can be found on
Worthplaying.
Bionicleheroesdemo.com is the
dedicated home to the official PC demo for Bionicle Heroes, an updated sample of
Traveller's Tales' imminent action game based on the LEGO series (thanks Frans).
It's not clear how the content of the new demo differs from the first one
( story), but it does now incorporate a full installer.
As noted on the Synetic Website, an Alarm
für Cobra 11 - Nitro demo offers the chance to test-drive this upcoming German
racing game from Synetic that's set on the famed autobahn. The demo features a
pair of tracks, and includes English language support as well as German.
The download is available on
3D Downloads, 3D
Gamers,
FileFront, and
Worthplaying.
A new Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines patch is now available, bringing the
Source-engine action/RPG from defunct developer Troika Games to version 3.1. As
always, this is an unsupported third-party patch, continuing the unofficial
support for this game, which receives more such attention than many games with
viable development teams. The download is available on
3D Downloads, 3D
Gamers,
FileFront, and
Worthplaying.
The HCA: The
Ugly Prince Duckling Website is live as home to the upcoming game based on
the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. The Flash site includes info,
screenshots, and the E3 movie from the game.
A new movie from The Precursors is now available, showing off Deep Shadows'
upcoming FPS/space simulator/RPG. The clip offers a look at more than two
minutes of gameplay footage for a 103 MB download, which is available on the
Deep Shadows Website and
mirrored on
3D Downloads, 3D
Gamers,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and Worthplaying.
Also, another new Warhammer: Mark of Chaos movie is now available, continuing
the policy of only releasing clips from Black Hole Games' upcoming RTS game on
days with the word "day" in them. The trailer is available from
3D Downloads, 3D
Gamers,
FileFront, and
Worthplaying. Finally, a new Sid Meier's Railroads! movie offers a final
trailer from the newly released transportation sim, available on
3D Downloads, 3D
Gamers,
FileFront, and
Worthplaying.
- Shadowrun
IGN's
Shadowrun Q&A talks with John Howard, lead designer on the upcoming
cross-platform shooter: "The biggest one was Halo. I was the design lead on
Halo and there are some elements of that that lead into this. I mean Halo
was the first game to really, well it's the first shooter on a console to
hit a really broad audience, and the big thing that we carried over from
there was the control model. There's a lot I think that works really well
with the Halo control model that people maybe don't see and don't know
about. It's not trying to replicate what works on the mouse, but trying to
give you that same sense of fine control when you're targeting, and so that
was really one of the foundation elements."
- Championship Manager 07
Champ
Man Developer Opens up on IGN is a Q&A with David Rutter about
Championship Manager 07, the coming sports management sequel: "It's a more
balanced, polished experience, and given extended periods of play will
maintain its playability for many seasons. Previous CMs have often gotten a
bit 'weird' after a while. Pretty much every area of the game has been
revamped, polished or balanced, then we added the new stuff such as
conference North and South, team talks and player targeting, as well as the
mighty ProZone. All of these areas complement the philosophy of the studio -
which is to make the most convincing football management simulation there
is."
A new version 4.4 of Qtracker is now
available, offering an update to this server browsing utility. the new release
includes support for Battlefield 2142. In addition: "Over 400 regions have been
added with a world map and region pins to allow for easy server-side region
filtering of servers."
The U5:
Lazarus - Post Mortem Q&A on RPG Watch talks with the folks behind the
Ultima V: Lazarus modification for
Dungeon Siege.
The NetDevil Employment
Opportunities Page outlines several positions the developer is looking to
fill. Word is: "All positions share one common requirement: You must not have a
love for video games, you must have a need for video games."
It was a disappointing outcome to the Mets' exciting playoff series with the
Cards. I guess Yadier Molina is the new Mike Scioscia (the last banjo-hitting
catcher to ruin a playoff game for the Mets). I don't tend to be a sore loser,
and would normally just tip my hat to them and go on to root for the N.L. team
in the series, but the Cards' players choosing to celebrate by mocking the Mets'
fans' Jose (Reyes) cheer after the game has left a bit of a bad taste in my
mouth, so let's go Tigers.
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