Archived News:
GameSpy.com interviews Josh Resnick
talking with the president of Pandemic Studios about the upcoming action/RTS
sequel, BattleZone II, Dark Reign II, and more. Here's a Q&A talking about the possibilities of
further follow-ups to their upcoming crop of sequels: GameSpy - Are
you looking to continue on with the Battlezone and Dark Reign universe?
Resnick - A lot depends and what we are discussing right now to
continue the universes and take them to new levels. It's a matter of what we
decide and that's really hard to tell right now as we are focusing on finishing
Battlezone II and Dark Reign II. After those two titles are complete we will be
able to sit down as a team and discuss all the different ideas we have been
thinking about.
The folks at Rho-Bot News send
word of the recent release of Rho-Bot version 1.0, the final version of this AI
modification for Half-Life. According to the update on the site, "Rho-Bot
boasts such features as experiential learning, human mimicry, fuzzy-logic
tactics, and runs fast even on older machines."
In a bit of a fromage alert, Raven's Rick Johnson updated
his .plan with word that those SoF "Previews with hands on copy"
are not quite that: Just a note, that all of those "Previews with
hands on copy" are using the Razer OEM version, which is about 3 months
old. No one outside of Raven has seen the full version yet... and especially
with all of the changes we've been making.
A new version 0.5 of Quake
III Arena Total Control is now available, offering an update to what they
call "the ultimate Q3 tool." Q3ATC contains a funname editor, a key
binder, and a config editor. Thanks Kristopher Allen Kitts.
Another new version of the Quake IRC Reporter (QIR) is now available on Seti's
Development Pages. The new release brings the program up to version 0.4 and
adds QuakeWorld and Quake II support to this program that can report a Quake III Arena server's
status into an IRC channel.
The front page of the Developer's Corner
has new art from Sacrifice, currently in development at Shiny in what they
call a "hush-hush" environment. The art is character art of the early
placeholder models from the game, and is one of two such pieces they've received,
the second is to be posted tomorrow.
A new version of Game Explorer, a
server browsing program, is now available. The new release adds support for
Unreal Tournament servers, and fixes some compatibility problems with the retail
release of Quake III Arena, including server ping times, support for id's
master, colored name support, and better serverinfo handling for rules.
VE Chat Session with Raven Software
is an IRC session with Raven Software's Dan Kramer, Jake Simpson, John Scott,
and Mike Schulenberg discussing progress on both Soldier of Fortune, and Star
Trek Voyager: Elite Force. The chat is at 9:00 PM EST tomorrow night (Dec. 20).
The chat will take place in this
chat area, which will open up tomorrow at 7:00 PM EST so you can register to
participate in the session. There are also instructions on
this page on how to join via a normal IRC client.
I.Am.Half-Life's Half-Life FAQ has
been updated with about a dozen new frequently asked questions about Half-Life.
The new questions (and their corresponding answers--anything else would be
cruel) mainly concern video modes and various troubleshooting tips.
Age of Wonders News has word
of a new version 1.2 patch for the full US version of Age of Wonders. This
second patch/upgrade fixes some glitches, enhances multi-player stability and
speed, and adds features like extra AI levels and a hex grid option. A
full list of fixes and enhancements in the 5 MB patch can be found
here.
3D-Unlimited's
Soldier of Fortune Preview is a hands-on preview of Raven Software's
upcoming Quake II-engine mercenary game based on playing a preliminary build.
GameSpy.com
announces GameSpy and Mplayer Announce Partnership, as they join forces with
one of the services they have always criticized, saying "MPlayer has teamed
up with GameSpy to provide GameSpy-powered server browsing to the MPlayer
service. The new partnership helps broaden GameSpy's reach and MPlayer's
services."
Brazil bans 6 video games, links one with shooting
reports "Brazil's Justice Ministry has banned six computer games it
considers violent, including one that it said could have motivated a medical
student to go on a deadly shooting rampage in a movie theater last month. A
ministry spokeswoman said Friday police were ordered to withdraw all the copies
of games Doom, Mortal Kombat, Requiem, Blood, Postal and Duke Nukem from the
stores. Vendors who disobey will be fined 20,000 reais ($11,000) per day. The
ministry also said in its regulation it would rule on the fate of other 'violent'
games in 120 days." Thanks Jacek Fedoryński and Slashdot.
Rorshachs Journal has a
re-uploaded version of his Quake III Arena skin collection. He's made an update
about what was wrong with the original version so others will not repeat his
error. Synchroplay, noted for their
copious TRIBES skin packs, has gotten into the UT groove, posting their first
Unreal Tournament skin pack for download, which offers a paltry three skins, but
given their history, there will be more on the way soon. As if to prove their
point, there are also 15 new Kingpin skins and 15 new TRIBES skins, bringing
their total number of TRIBES skins to one hundred billion. They have also posted
a full tutorial on TRIBES armor, vehicle and weapon skinning. ALPHAwolfs Den
has She'k, his first Quake III Arena model for download, which looks quite cool,
and shots of his next one, a slick Judge Dredd dealie. Finally, Trans Am's Pitstop
has a new 15 skin pak file for Q3A (as well as an oil change for your Firebird).
The Absolute Terror Page
has a load of new stuff about Absolute Terror, an upcoming space action/strategy
title from Irish Developer Symbiosys Software. The update includes a first-look
at the game's "anime-styled character artwork" and word they are
aiming for an early January release. Initial distribution of the game will be made via the Internet,
which they point out will save on "overheads such as shipping or retailer
shelf space."
Version 1.1 of Quake3 Player Log, or
Qplog3, is now available. Qplog3 is a PERL script that parses Quake III Arena
log files and generates player statistics in HTML format. The program works in
the background, and can even upload player data to a remote web server.
WONnet's Drive It Home Sweepstakes
offers an '82 Corvette, and other merchandise related to Interstate '82 (but no
Devo records). Gameaholic dot Com's Holiday Giveaway
is giving away copies of Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena: Elite Edition. 3D-Unlimited's
Holiday Contest offers one signed, and four unsigned copies of Soldier of
Fortune (upon release), three copies of Quake III Arena, five Copies of Unreal
Tournament and Slave Zero, 12 Copies of Tread Marks (upon release), two copies
of Age of Empires 2, Flight Simulator 2000, Links LS 2000, three 3dfx Voodoo 3
cards, and even more, if you can stand it.
Quake III League Sign-Up
page is up, with very few details. Though the site is CTF-oriented "the
league will not be limited to CTF," and clan registrations are being
accepted along with individuals. Mail questions to leaguemaster@quakeiiictf.com.
- Yesterday's user-made pack broke Vexar's user limit for the month, you can
find his three map pack here
and here. Today's bandwidth stretching
exercise is the Spank
Pak for Q3A (direct link) "with some suave new digits, the old Q2 3
Fingers crosshair, and a small mod to make the q3dm1 tongue move like in the
ads."...
- XSReality's
Mouse warfare is a mouse roundup by FRAG3 champion Hakeem...
- It wasn't clear yesterday in the post about their two new TeamFortress2
screenshots (story), but they were part of a whole new
TF2 section on PlanetFortress with loads of info about what's planned...
- OZUT is a new Australian site devoted to
Unreal Tournament meant as a focal point for local clans to meet and call
each other names and stuff...
- Alt.Games.Quake.x Home Page is online.
I guess if websites can have newsgroups, the reverse is fair...
- AOK Heaven
interviews Sandy Petersen talking with the ex-id Software designer about
his work on Age of Empires II: Age of Kings...
Looks like my big tease on Friday for Mahir, the Turkish stud's appearance on
The Daily Show, DNapalm wrote back saying that it will apparently be
tomorrow. Beyond that, several folks wrote in to point out that Mahir has
been appearing lately on the Late Show with David Letterman (MrsBlue just
mentioned catching his last appearance), so obviously I'm way behind on his
growing TV stardom.
Link of the Day: It's all about Time
looks to go about "Reforming Daylight Saving Time." Thanks Monkey
Brains. Sorry about the dupe LoD that appeared here originally.
Story of the Day: Racing
team to be sponsored by Viagra. Thanks Flesh. I guess this will help fight
the impression that driving a fast car is a substitute for...you know.
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