Archived News:
Bungie's official Halo site has undergone
a redesign, and now contains the MacWorld movie in three different quicktime
formats, small, medium, and large (which are 5.6, 11.6, and 26.6 meg respectively).
The movies are all in Quicktime 4 format, and are of a much higher quality than
the 50 meg one that's been floating around.
There's an Exclusive Codename Eagle Demo on GA-Source
with a playable demo of Take 2 Interactive
and Refraction Games' upcoming
action/adventure game of sea, land, and air combat. The demo is about 31 MB and
offers a single level with five weapons and a number of other usable items as
well as drivable vehicles like a motorbike, an armored car, and an airplane.
This week's Diablo II shot
of the week has been posted by Blizzard, and this week's shot shows the
Paladin duking it out with a camouflaged Razorback (thanks Diablo
II.net).
Activision has
announced that the Playstation version of Quake II has shipped, and should
be available in stores soon. The PSX port features 19 levels, dual shock and
PSX mouse compatibility, as well as a new enemy.
Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart updated his
.plan again, with details on a "runes" style system he's working
on for Unreal, as well as details on the new interface for Mutators. Here's
an excerpt: I'm working on a rune style system for UT. Instead of "runes"
I'm calling them Relics. Anyone working on runes for UT will probably want to
hold up and wait until the Relic system is ready. It'll allow mod authors to
quickly make new types of Relics that server admins can download and add to
their games. I'll have a set of guidelines for writing new Relics. The Relics
may not ship with UT since they'll need a good bit of testing for balancing.
Relics will be the "official" method of adding runes to maps and can
be added to any gametype (DeathMatch, CTF, etc).
GT Interactive has released a
patch for their literally just-released action racing game Driver that fixes
all kinds of bugs that managed to make their naughty way into the shipping product.
Thanks to AVault for the tip, and they've got a
local copy of the file up if you need an alternate download site.
Apple has announced their new lineup of
iMac computers, which now sport faster processors (350 or 400 MHz G3s) as
well as a new beefier sound system from Harman/Kardon, ATI RAGE 128 video cards
(with AGP 2x), an optional DVD-ROM, and even compatibility with their AirPort wireless networking
system. Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski
for the tip.
Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart updated his
.plan with a quote from NetGames USA's Craig Sparks regarding the way bots
are handled in their ngWorldStats tracking
system. Here's the scoop: There has been some concern over stat padding
using bots in ngWorldStats. Bot activity in ngWorldStats is ignored for the
accumulation of individual player stats. Here is the word from Craig Sparks
(President of NetGames, USA):
"A individual games "ngStats" will show the bot kills and match
up tables, etc. But that player's ngWorldStats totals and stats only take into
account human vs. human interaction. All bot information is ignored for those
totals. The ELO rating system (which will be documented in the coming days)
only takes into account wins/losses/frags/etc. against human players."
AVault
has posted two new shots from Daikatana (taken at this weekend's ION Storm press
reception). One shows off the game's final, "Alcatraz" episode, while
the other shows off one of Romero's favorite enemies.
Unreal Universe has posted a new
screenshot from ASC Games upcoming
Unreal-engine lupine action game, Werewolf: The Apocalypse--Heart of
Gaia--Scourge of Darkness--Legacy of the Night--Terror... oh yeah where was I?
The shot is one of three they've gotten their claws on, and they plan on posting
the other two over the next couple of days.
Olivier Demangel, project manager on Omikron: The Nomad Soul passing along word
that they've just completed work on a playable demo for this upcoming
third-person action game. As for when it would be made available, Oliver says,
"I think it will be available at the end of October."
The OpenGL DooM Legacy
page has a new beta 9 of version 1.2 of OpenGL Doom Legacy, the OpenGL port
of Doom Legacy, the updated version of Doom, id Software's classic shooter. The
new release fixes some bugs, adds a game launcher, and improved Glide support.
Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.
There's a new patch for the just-released FreeSpace2 that fixes a problem on
Win95a/OSR2 systems that causes the game to repeatedly ask for CD #2 on
installation. Parallax Online has
instructions how to get the new version 1.01 through the FreeSpace2
auto-updater, where it has been available for a couple of days (even if the
install didn't work properly because of the problem the new version addresses),
and now Freespace2.com and The Adrenaline Vault Downloads
have the patch as a separate download. Thanks Frans at 3D Action
Gamers.
There's a KISS Psycho Circus Interview
on CheckOut Games offering a Q&A with some members of Third Law Interactive,
including Mark Morgan (artist), David Namaksy (level designer) and Mike Maynard
(programmer) about progress on their upcoming LithTech-engine first-person
shooter based on Todd McFarlane's comic based on the (hopefully) made up
exploits of the world's most made up rock band. Here's a quote from Artist Mark
Morgan on KISS' level of involvement with the project: KISS has given us
liberty to direct Psycho Circus as we see fit. Gene has himself seen the
game and was pleased with what we had done at that point in time. Obviously,
with any license, there are certain guidelines that must be followed, but so
far, nothing we've designed steps outside those boundaries. I assume it's safe
to say that KISS will let us work freely unless we step on someone's toes, which
we have no intention of doing.
IMG Magazine
has posted an interview with Kathy Tafel, a member of Apple's developer relations
group, talking about the Macintosh as a gaming platform, as well as her background
in the industry.
According to Well-Rounded
News, publisher Codemasters has purchased the rights to two titles originally
owned by Sierra: Navy SEALs, an Unreal engine tactical shooter, and Yosemite
Entertainment's massively multiplayer RPG, The Realm. Navy SEALs is based on
the novels of Richard Marcinko, a former SEAL officer, and has been delayed
from its original ship date of mid-2000, to an as of yet unannounced time (thanks
Chris Morris).
The Q2PMP has posted a message
from Raven's Brian Shubat regarding the interchangability of Quake III: Arena
and Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force player models in deathmatch (originally
posted to Raven's
Forums). Here's what he had to say: We are going to attempt that
Q3A and Star Trek models be interchangeable and compatible between each program.
That is to say when it comes to multiplayer deathmatch there shouldn't be a
problem. Single player is a different matter altogether and Voyager will require
many additional animations from Q3A models.
Billy "experienced" Wilson has posted an interview with Patrick Moynihan
on Voodoo
Extreme, talking to The Whole Experience's designer about their hardware-intense
FPS Experience. The interview features questions from Epic Games' Tim Sweeney,
as well as a collection of previously released images at the bottom.
According to FGNOnline,
the Terminal Reality developed and GOD published title Nocturne (a creepy adventure
game) has gone gold, and will be released to retailers this Halloween (just
a few scant weeks away).
AVault's David Laprad was one of the members of the press that attended last
weekend's press reception at ION Storm, and he's posted a
big update on all things Daikatana. It's quite detailed, and contains descriptions
of the sidekicks (who can be controlled via a voice menu that sounds similar
to TRIBES or Unreal Tournament), as well as the character statistics system,
and word that, "the core content is complete, with only testing and bug
fixes remaining." There's also three new shots for your viewing enjoyment.
The Halo movie that was originally shown at the NYC MacWorld expo is included
on the latest edition of Computer Gaming World, and has been uploaded to Bungie.org,
as well as 3DGamers
Archives. The Movie is big, but very high quality, and if you've never seen
the game moving, you should definitely check it out. And for the record, the
movie is 100% in-game.
GameSpy.com's The
Future of Action Gaming offers opinions from both Valve's Gabe Newell and
Epic's Tim Sweeney on the subject of where the genre is heading, along with one
of the most horrifying accompanying graphics since the animated John Carmack
moving mouth image some time back. The article is the second in a three part
series, the first focused on The Future of
Strategy with a planned third installment to look at RPGs. Here's a bit that
quotes both Gabe and Tim on the impact of technology: Finally, Sweeney
feels that "Networking, RPC, security, and synchronization tech will
improve and make huge distributed games more possible" and that
"Eventually things will go to multi-server, seamless huge environments (at
least in games where that is desirable.)"
Gabe Newell felt that the single most important issue facing game companies
today, and the one that developers will have to solve before pushing the
technology much farther, is the issue of scalability: making games that will
work across multiple platforms from the past to the future.
There's a report on Thresh's FiringSquad
giving their impressions of the Quake III Arena Bus Tour after it recently passed
by their offices. The article offers conversation with id Software, a complete
rundown on the new levels, and a whole load of photos.
Monolith's Mike Dussault updated
his .plan with a bit on the latest cool effect the programmers at Monolith
have added to the LithTech engine (along with a comment on how the programmers
at LithTech Licensee Third Law Interactive are adding coolness of their own).
The subject at hand is "lightmap animations," which sound pretty damn
cool, if not downright meniscus: The coolest thing that got in lately is
lightmap animations. Basically, we can now get shadowed effects for a bunch of
things in the environment:
- When doors open, light floods out.
- Flickering lights in the environment cast shadows.
- Keyframed objects and lights cast shadows on things.
- As the sun rotates over the world, the shadows on everything move.
I'll be working on Certain Cool Enhancements to this next week!
There's a new sniper mutator on Unreality
that adds rules applicable to sniper-only combat in addition to the removal of
the other weapons, including "enhancements" as rewards for kills
(represented by "cheesy icons") and on-screen messages detailing what
kind of shot you just made (head, torso...).
Rich's Project Warehouse has
version 0.85 of The Jumbot
for Half-Life. The new release of this AI opponent doesn't offer any new
features, but is a bug fix addressing two problems that could cause version 0.8
to crash.
There's a new version of Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) for Quake II on the Axis Productions
website. In addition to some bug fixes, the new release of this server-side
modification adds a capturelimit, an id command, autotext, and a rock, paper,
scissors game-within-a-game.
A new version 3.60 of Name Maker Studio
is now available, offering an updated non-beta release of this program that
offers colored and fun name support in games that support extended ASCII
characters. Thanks Jacek Fedoryński (speaking of extended ASCII characters).
Microsoft sends word of a MechWarrior 3 Meltdown Tournament
to be held on the MSN Gaming Zone offering
over $100,000 in prizes(!) including four brand new Harley Davidson Fatboy
motorcycles. Vroom!
Kickass Gaming Network Contests
is giving away of a copy of Microsoft's Close Combat Trilogy in conjunction with
their review
of this wargame series.
Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers:
In the fine Brazilian tradition of complications having complications, a couple
of follow-ups on follow-ups: I briefly posted a follow-up yesterday about the Doom GPL release ( story)
theorizing that the original story was inaccurate in saying that it would now
be possible to sell games based on the Doom source
under the GNU General Public License,
but it turns out this is indeed the case, so the correction was incorrect. Tim Aidley pointed this out so quickly
I just yoiked the follow-up, but I wanted to note it here in case you saw it in
the brief time it was up. Also, A whole load of Tom Clancy fans wrote in saying
they do not believe the Rainbow Six novel was based on the game, but no one seems
to have concrete proof, so lets just say tie goes to the runner or something.
The important thing is to keep the darn terrorists from winning (to complete
this bizarro follow up with another Brazil reference, it can be pointed out that terrorism is
due to "bad sportsmanship").
Another follow-up I should have mentioned yesterday is that I
replaced Sunday's Link of the Day when I was reminded that it was posted
previously by loony. I actually cooked up a simple LoD archive listing a while back, and have somehow lost the HTML (doh!), which
could be helpful in detecting these dupes before they happen, but I
should just run those bad-boys through the "Search!" box to
double-check, since it can locate URLs just as easily as text (a little Blammo
tip of the day for you). Anyway, sorry about the dupe. A full compliment, complete with
a bonus, to help make up for it today: Link of the Day: Return to the
Planet of the Quakes a PlanetQuake/Planet of the Apes comic strip. What I'm
supposed to have to do with the PlanetYada dealie is a mystery to me, but I guess it's artistic
license.
Story of the Day: Robber Uses Clear Plastic Bag As Mask.
Thanks DarkStar17 and Robert Kee.
Bonus Story: UT
Players Cleared Of Fraud Charges. Nope, if it was really Unreal Tourney, it
would be posted somewhere in the news above. Thanks Lorien at Gamer's Alliance.
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