Archived News:
Eurogamer
has word from Pete Hines of Bethesda Softworks, who says a demo for Fallout 3 is
not in the cards: When you build it as one thing, there's no way to
portion off a section and have it stand on its own without putting the whole
game in the demo, which we're just not going to do. And it doesn't really
capture the fun of a game like an Elder Scrolls or a Fallout, where you can go
where you want and do what you want. So no demo, sorry.
Gamasutra
reports that Realtime Worlds has bought back the distribution rights to their
upcoming MMORPG APB (All Points Bulletin) from Korean publisher Webzen
(thanks Mike Martinez). They quote Realtime Worlds founder David Jones ( Grand Theft
Auto, The Monkees) on the significance of this: "Owning the distribution
rights to APB marks a major milestone in Realtime Worlds’ evolution into a
premier online entertainment company. By controlling the rights to APB we can
ensure that gamers around the globe experience the revolutionary gameplay we
envisioned when we first began creating the property. We are excited about the
prospect of having direct, personal relationships with our players, which is a
dream come true for many development studios."
Your recommended daily allowance of iron can be found in today's Iron Man
trailer, continuing the flood of flicks from the upcoming movie tie-in. This
"the suit" trailer offers thoughts on the in-game and in-movie depictions of
Tony Stark's armor from the developers, director Jon Favreau, and Stan "The Man"
Lee himself. The clip can be found on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
An unofficial patch for UFO: Afterlight is now available, offering a fan-created
update to bring ALTAR's science-fiction strategy sequel to version 1.6. The
update addresses some bugs, and also does away with the game's copy-protection
scheme. The download is available on the
UFO Afterlight Website
and on the 1C
Publishing Website, where there are further details on all this. The
download is mirrored on
FileFront and Gamer's
Hell.
Demos for the Linux and Mac editions of Penumbra: Overture and
Penumbra: Black Plague are now available, offering the chance to check out
the first-two installments in this horror series whether your PC is
penguin-powered or just likes to think different. The Linux Penumbra: Overture
demo is on AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell. The Linux Penumbra: Black Plague demo is on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell. The Mac Penumbra: Overture demo is on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell. The Mac Penumbra: Black Plague demo is on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
The Diablo 3
Website clarifies a few things their recently unveiled countdown
( story) is not going to concern (thanks
GameBanshee), saying they are not counting down to a Diablo 3 announcement
or even a Diablo novel-related announcement.
- Fallout 3
The
Fallout 3
Preview on Strategy Informer is dominated by a Q&A with Bethesda
Softworks' Pete Hines, who goes into detail about plans for Fallout 3,
the upcoming continuation of the post-apocalyptic RPG series.
- Company of Heroes
The
Damian Pannell Q&A on
gamedev.sessions.edu
chats with this Relic artist about his work on the vehicles in Company of
Heroes and the Opposing Fronts expansion for the World War II RTS
game.
- THEY
The
THEY Q&A on Gameplay Monthly is a publisher-distributed interview with
the developers of THEY, the upcoming "mystery first-person shooter."
IGN (thanks Mike Martinez and
Joystiq) has a follow-up on indications that a Spore creature editor
will be made available ( story) in advance of the release of the
evolutionary simulation in September ( story). Word from Maxis'
Patrick Buechner is the Spore creature editor is a retail product, but there
will also be a free trial version, both expected for release in June. The free
trial will be released online and in the SimCity box ( story),
offering about one quarter of the options of the full version, and creations
made with either version of the tool will be usable in the full game. There is
no indication of pricing on the retail editor, but the report does narrow
Spore's release date to September 5 in Europe and September 7 in North America.
A new S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky trailer shows off DirectX 10 graphics
from the upcoming first-person shooter prequel from GSC Game World. The movie
looks at the game's soft water, volumetric fire, dynamic volumeteric smoke,
dynamic wet surfaces, rainmap shadow maps, water splashes, and water streaming
down surfaces (not to mention more shadows than you can shake a Chernobyl at).
The 36 MB clip is located on
ComputerGames.ro,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
Slitherine Strategies announces
the release of a playable demo for Commander: Europe at War, offering a
sample of the turn-based strategy game, updated with the same features as the
recent version 1.06 patch for the full game ( story). Coinciding
with the demo release, they are kicking off a two-week sale where the game can
be purchased online for 33% off. The download is mirrored on
Gamer's Helll and
Strategy Informer.
The X-Plane Website is hosting a
demo for version 9.00 of this flight simulator (thanks Gamer's Hell). The demo features
limited scenery and will only operate with a joystick for 10 minutes. The demo
is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Accompanying the demo release is a new
version 2.02 patch for version 9.00 (so clearly they are operating under their
own version of the word version).
APOC's Patch State of the Union Address ... on the C&C3 Support Forums
(thanks Ant and
C&C DEN) has an update from the Command & Conquer 3 community manager on
patch plans for Command & Conquer 3 and its expansion, stepping into a
hornet's nest of opinions about balance between casual and hardcore players. He
apologizes for communications lapses on the topic and for how Kane's Wrath
shipped with bugs already fixed in Tiberium Wars. Here's a
chunk: Right now, we are getting the wheels spinning on a patch for Kane's
Wrath, and the primary focus is on fixing these desyncs and some of the critical
exploitative bugs causing imbalances. With regards to my comments about "70% of
players caring more about single player and skirmish" and that we generally
focus our efforts on patching multiplayer...I certainly did not mean to infer we
don't care about SP or the AI. Yes, both have their faults and we absolutely do
care and if there is something critical or emergency like that we deem is of
that level, we'll look in to fixing it. Right now, the above issues noted take
precedence, and please do note that these changes will also impact SP and our AI
as they are currently tied together. So you may find some of your grievances
fixed when that happens.
As for Tiberium Wars, I would like to apologize about my blog posting a while
back where I mentioned proposed balance changes for 1.10. Unfortunately,
finishing Kane's Wrath became the priority and getting the immediete critical
fixes for Kane's Wrath is the 1st priority before we look back to Tiberium Wars.
We are absolutely not done patching Tiberium Wars and never wanted to infer
anything of the sort. We don't have a legion of people who can patch either game
at will, but we are doing our best with our current resources and projects at
hand. We are working to build solutions for the near future that will allow us
to have greater resources to patch and so forth., But with Tiberium Wars having
been patched 9 times and Kane's Wrath not receiving 1 yet, the priority has to
be obvious.
That said, TW is not the forgotten child or the melted vanilla ice cream. We've
come a long way in improving our support for our games and we're not about to
try and take steps back, that would certainly be borderline crazy.
So what's this all mean...
It means, we're on the case and we'll try and get this to you as quickly as
possible. We cannot hotfix the current KW issues, they are larger than that
unfortunately. I am fighting for you guys daily I want you to know. Please do
not take any of my previous comments about SP or AI as anything with little
care, and please understand we're absolutely dedicated to supporting our titles
and will try and quell these issues in our best means possible.
The Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures website announces the system
specifications for Funcom's upcoming MMORPG (thanks Gamer's Hell), suggesting a barbaric
system will not be necessary to be a barbarian: Minimum configuration
(1024x768, detail reduced)
• OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz or equivalent
• RAM: 1GB Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better
• Video memory: 128MB
• DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
• HARD DRIVE SPACE: 30GB
Recommended configuration (Up to 1280X960, most features on)
• OS: Windows XP SP 2 or Windows Vista
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or equivalent
• RAM: 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or equivalent
• Video memory: 512MB
• DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
• HARD DRIVE SPACE: 30GB
Online Gaming;
• Broadband connection required.
- Codemasters Turning Point: Fall Of Liberty on
BIOS.
- Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on
Games32.
- The Stella multi-platform
Atari 2600 VCS emulator is now up to version 2.5.1. Thanks Ant…
I think the email wackiness I mentioned from over the weekend has abated. Of
course it's possible that people are getting weird bounce messages and are unable
to tell me due to weird bounce messages, but I'm pretty sure this isn't the
case.
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