Archived News:
Computer Artworks has released a playable demo of their tactical genohunting action game Evolva on the official German Evolva site ( Flash required). The demo, which is multi-lingual and not just in German, is available on the download page (no Flash) in two flavors: one 30.3 MB regular demo without cinematics ("allerdings wurde sämtliche Movies herausgenommen"), and another 120.9 MB version that includes various cinematics ("hier sind Movies integriert"). Thanks 3DFiles, who has a mirror here.
GA-RPG interviews Niklas Weidel
about Archaean, a "massively
multiplayer online RPG in progress that they refer to as a second generation MMORPG.
According to the article, Archaean aspires to add a TLA called MOW, which stands
for Massive Online World, and the Q&A looks to uncover what this all means.
The intriguingly-titled chUmbaLum sOft
page (pAgE?) has a new version 1.2.0 of the MilkShape3D modeling program.
The new release offers full Quake III Arena .md3 export, while support for
importing the .md3 format is still in the works.
The release of the first episode of the Dawn of Darkness
TC for Quake II is now available, a free public release that is a
continuation of a project that was originally intended for commercial release.
There's not much news with the release, but according to the
about page, DoD offers "Seven versatile new weapons, four powerups,
more than 12 all new enemies, and unrelenting combat that's in your face and
up-close!" Thanks Linny Amore.
A new version 1.2 of T.E.C. for Quake III Arena
is now available fixing some bugs, including the one that could cause all the
techs to spawn on the same spot, and adds a few new features like a new hook,
team colored grapple trail, and more (thanks The Oxygen Tank).
The new version also includes some changes intended to make gameplay smoother.
The page also has an update about a bug that effects running mods under Quake
III Arena: There is a bug with id's code that causes a double startup
when running mods. It not only affects T.E.C., but other mods as well. There is
a way to get around this annoyance by creating a shortcut (Windows only) to the
game which has fs_game already set to tec. This problem can be annoying but
isn't going to cause you any problems with playing the game. We'll release
something that you can use to launch T.E.C. with the next patch.
The first public release of the Loaded Q3A
mod is now available. Loaded offers a load of new features and over 115(!)
new configuration commands. All of the mods features can be individually toggled
on and off, among the options offered are an enhanced message of the day, an
advanced high scoring system, respawn protection, "absolute" item
banning and replacement, and more.
A post on DiabloII.Net has some
commentary on the RPG Gamer
Diablo II beta story mentioned earlier ( story)
saying that its reference to this being an open beta is incorrect, and they have
some doubts about some release date speculation they've seen, as well, saying:
"If you're puzzled, it is indeed the Closed Beta Test that is being
finalized, rather than the Open Beta Test that is mistakenly cited in the
article. And we must comment that rumours of a summer/early fall release date
are definitely not confirmed by Blizzard at this point." Some of this seems
to be semantics, since the earlier report refers to sign-ups for the open beta,
which on some level is contradictory. Thanks The Oxygen Tank.
Work on an official Quake III Arena mission pack from id Software is underway,
this having been revealed at the Game Developer's Conference. There are a
few shots in GameSpy.com's GDC Coverage
showing off models created by id's Paul Steed for the pack. The shots aren't
actual screenshots, but are photos of a monitor displaying the images, though
the quality is not bad.
The Mortyr Website
has posted some new images calling them "three fresh screenshots coming
from our latest project." There are no more details on what game the shots
are from, though it has previously been announced that the Mortyr engine will
power an upcoming first-person shooter titled Warhammer 40,000: Agents of Death
based on the Warhammer 40,000 franchise.
There are two new Soldier of Fortune screenshots on SOFNews.com,
saying "These things are like Chicklets(TM) you just can't have enough SoF
Screenshots." While I won't argue with the latter, I'm guessing it's
actually not that hard to have too many Chicklets.
A report called Diablo II Beta News
on RPG Gamer gives word of an announcement out of the Game Developer's
Conference that an open beta of Blizzard's highly-anticipated Diablo II is
nearing completion, and to watch their site
for information on how to sign up for the open beta, which should appear within
the next few days. Thanks GreasyPete.
Pandemic
Discusses Dark Reign 2: Part 1 on The Adrenaline Vault with a look ahead at
the sequel to Dark Reign, Pandemic's RTS offering. The article talks with Greg
Borrud, a director at Pandemic, about progress on the game, and offers up
several screenshots to show off the 3D effects of its new engine.
There's a Force
Commander Preview on Games Domain Review talking with Garry Gaber of
LucasArts about this Star Wars RTS that is due in stores March 20. The Q&A
gives a rundown on gameplay, and features some screenshots.
Hentai, who says "I coulda SWORN I'd stomped out all the bugs...," was
obviously mistaken, as he sends word of a new version 2.3.6 of the Viz mod for
Quake III Arena on the El Niño Quake Extensions
page, hot on the heels of version 2.3.5 ( story).
The new release fixes behavior of how your weapon appears from your point of
view.
Another rapid-fire new release comes from Alfred's Page
where there's a new version 0.67 of the Admin Mod for Half-Life, which comes
quite soon after the release of version 0.65 ( story).
The Admin Mod allows limited administrator access to selected players on a
server, without giving them access to that dangerous console. The new version
adds a new "admin_help" command, as well as a new WIN32 version.
Making Animation Child's Play
on Wired looks at the art of making motion pictures using game engines, also
known as Machinima by the strange folks
at Strange Company, who are a
primary focus of the article, dedicated as they are to making movies using
Unreal and Quake. Speaking of game movies, Unreal Movie Studio News
has a new version of Unreal Movie Studio that supports Wheel of Time for making
game movies, as well as Unreal and UT.
The Synergetics Entertainment website
has a new public beta 2 of the DarkEdit level editor for Quake I & II, Hexen
I & II, which also offers limited Half-Life support. DarkEdit is based on the
BSP level editor, developed by Yahn Bernier, who is now developing tools and such for
Valve Software. The new version offers improved reliability, improved
performance, and full support of the Genesis3D engine version 1.0 and 1.1.
Support for Heretic II, Sin, and other Quake-engine games is in the works. Also,
Cambone's Crypt has a new
alpha version 0.85 of the Unreal Script Editor that adds a few nuances, like
auto-indent and smart-tabbing, and fixes a few bugs. Finally, a new coding
tutorial on Quake3mods.net
shows how to add your own menu commands to the Q3A UI.
Playing games with ‘box specs’
on MSNBC points out that on occasion, what the box can tell you about a
game's minimum system requirements can be an outright lie, saying: "One of
the most agonizing torments in computer gaming is to tear the shrink wrap off
the title you’ve been drooling about for months, do the monster install and
find that the game runs like a slide show — or, worse yet, not at all."
Thanks Conan Ford and Hanson.
Well it was two down and one to go until yesterday, when Frans' cable modem went
belly up last night leaving all three of us off line from our digital connections. Whee!
Fortunately, even as I type these words, he's popped back online, which is good
news indeed, as this is certainly a misery that needs no company. Now loony and
I can look forward to the resumption of regular business hours tomorrow, when
the folks looking into the problems with both of our ISDN lines can resume
shrugging their shoulders and scratching their heads (among other body parts).
Link of the Day: Target1,
which allows you to play Quake III Arena using Flash, although you must follow
the strict newbie method of not moving. Thanks Ant
and Ryan Stotts.
Story of the Day: Iranians buy Soviet 'killer' dolphins
(London Times). Ripped right from the pages of Day of the Dolphin.
"Ma love pa!" Thanks Dr. Will Vuong and the Rogue Spear Retreat.
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