GamersInfo.net has the
latest chapter in the quite storied history of Horizons: Empire of Istaria,
offering an article-format Q&A with Rick Simmons of Virtrium, LLC, who have
purchased the MMORPG. The game, originally designed by David Allen before
costing him his job (
story) and developed by Artifact
Entertainment before bankrupting that developer (
story), was sold to
Tulga Games in early 2005 (
story). Tulga promised to expand the
game (
story) before proceeding to not do that or much of anything
else. It was just a few months later that the game, which would be called a
journeyman at this point were it an athlete, was purchased by EI Interactive
(
story), and like the prior sale, inspired promises that
improvements would be made going forward, but over the course of a year EI's two
major changes were the implementation of a new insecure billing method and the
closing of the game's test realm. Back to the current transaction, interestingly, this is the second sale of the
game that involved previous principals, as Tulga included both Chris Tulumello
and David Bowman of Artifact Entertainment and Virtrium's Rick Simmons (a name
you will recall from back in the old days of the first sentence from this story)
was previously with Tulga. As with each of the game's previous transitions,
improvements are promised this time around, but there are already tangible
results, including the return of the test server and the implementation of a new
billing method.
The
Unofficial
World of Warcraft Forums have word that background downloads have begun for
the upcoming version 2.2 patch for World of Warcraft (thanks
Ant). Word is:
"So, you might want to log on and off your WoW client to start the downloads.
Interesting that we are that much closer to voice chat ingame."
RenEvo now offers downloads of a beta
version of C&C Far Cry, a modification that uses the Far Cry engine to create a
real-time strategy game in the vein of the Command & Conquer series. They offers
some images from the beta, and the following description: "This pits each team
against each other, with the objective being to destroy each other's bases. The
beauty is that the team's respective bases are bound by typical C&C rules: blow
up the mining facility, and it won't be able to make money. Destroy its vehicle
factory, and it won't be able to produce vehicles. Do the same with base's
power."
It was eleven years ago that the original QuakeCon was underway. Eleven years?
Wowser!
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