Larian Studios is releasing few details on the world or story behind Divinity, partly because it is still in development, and partly to maintain some sense of mystery. Divinity takes place in a world where the long-standing peace between elves, dwarves, and men is decaying in the face of mounting racial prejudices. You are a lowly apprentice of the mage Zandalor, sent off to find an old friend of his at castle Stormfist. Discovering that the Duke has been murdered, the player, as the apprentice, will finds himself obligated to investigate.

It is Vicarious Visions goal, however, to keep Terminus fun and accessible to all, so they have designed the game to be remarkably scalable. Flight dynamics and difficulty can be lowered to allow new pilots to jump right in. Terminus will also include a training academy mode that will guide you through the basics of space flight and combat as well as a whopping 200-page manual. Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions, informed me that the manual has been designed not to overwhelm. Divided into three sections--beginner, intermediate and advanced--players won't need the manual to jump into the game. It will however, allow players serious about taking full advantage of what the flight model offers to progress at their own rate through the three sections, learning as they play. Vicarious Visions interesting approach toward Terminus' learning curve is refreshing and offers a truly remarkable experience. When I first started playing, I was cannon fodder, waiting to be picked off by the enemy AI. The more I played, however, I began to feel a real sense of achievement, learning new flight maneuvers and pulling off tricks and stunts that made me sit back and say, "Wow, I didn't know I could do that."

Not a next generation chip but more of chip that has undergone a face lift, belly tuck and had a few bionic implants. The G450 is a refinement of the current Matrox G400 chip seeing a reduction of the die size from 0.25 to 0.18 micron which should see faster core speeds, but as ever Matrox won't talk speeds. Other noteable improvements are the integrated Digital Flat Panel transmitter, a switch to DDR memory, and a boost to the secondary RAMDAC allowing much higher resolutions on the secondary display than the current 1280x1024 limit of the current G400s.

Voodoo 5 5500 - General Features

128-bit 2D/3D/Video accelerator

T-Buffer technology (FSAA, depth of field, motion blur)

2-way SLI design

667 Megapixel fill-rate

64MB graphics memory

350Mhz RAMDAC

4x AGP support

32-bit rendering

2048x2048 maximum texture size

FXT1 and DXTC texture compression support

Dual pixel pipeline – 2 pixels/clock or 2 textures/clock (for each VSA-100 chip)

Full scene hardware anti-aliasing (both 2 and 4 sample)

Dynamic environment mapping

Single-cycle bump mapping

A week ago I was in Dallas, covering the Razer-CPL Quake 3 tournament. With $100,000 in cash prizes up for grabs this was the largest event of its kind ever held, and tournament winner Johnathan "Fatality" Wendel walked away with $40,000 - more than many people his age earn in a year!

Tim Cain: There will always be space for 2D. I don't view 3D as something that will supplant 2D. It's just another tool in my toolchest, something I use to make games. Look at this year's best RPG, Planescape. It is 2D. The year before we had Baldur's Gate, also 2D. And the year before that, Fallout, also 2D. This year we have Arcanum, Icewind Dale, and Baldur's Gate II. All are 2D.

Are you looking for something different in a real-time strategy game? Do you enjoy the thrill of commanding your troops in battle, but hate having to deal with the seemingly clerical duties of assigning build and production queues? If you've answered yes to either of these, Ground Control, from Sierra Studios and Massive Entertainment, delivers exactly what you're looking for.

Anyway a viewer sent me this link and ask that I post it up. http://www.e-dition.net/win2001.html has a humorous article up, giving us an inside peak into the fictional Windows 2001. Some of it is funny, some of it is a little sad, however the scarey bit is that if Microsoft added in afew of these features they might actually make Windows2001 a better OS. Atleast they would make it a funnier OS.

I'd just like to pass along that the sell dates that BestBuy has in their computers for the Voodoo 5 5500 is May 26, and since we do have a preorder going, I would assume this is a true date since we do have it in the newspaper ad for the 28th going for $299.

Our computer also reports that the Creative GeForce 256 GTS will be instore on May 12th, with it being in the 14th ad at a price of $349.99. This is tagged as a speculative date.

UC: When can we expect to see the Inoxx Map Pack released?

When it's done.

(Edit: The standard Epic answer - Oh well, we had to ask).

UC: I also have a few questions about Rocket Arena, which you've also been involved in. Even though the beta was only out for a limited amount of time it gained a huge amount of positive response from the community - It has also been a success for the Quake series. Do you think that "Rocket Arena" will show up as a game type in future FPS games?

It's hard to tell. It's possible that future multiplayer-only games will include a gamestyle similar to this, but that won't prevent the MOD authors to do their own version with all the settings and refinements they want.

UC: What were your thoughts when GreenMarine suspended UT:RA?

Yeah, I agreed. I always thought the User Interface was not good enough to be released like that. On the other side, Brandon got a lot of work to do at Epic so I can understand why he wanted to rush it a bit. But it was good to get some feedback and large scale testing. Just imagine that the version 1.00 was in fact .95beta. I'm sure the upcoming builds will fix all the problems quickly.

6 New Divinity: The Sword of Lies shots on Infolder

9 New Soldier shots on GA-Source

3 New Titanium Angels Shots on Titanium Technology

1) The Sims / EA $37
2) Who Wants To Be A Millionaire / Disney $18
3) Lego Island / Mattel $46
4) MP Roller Coaster Tycoon / Hasbro $30
5) Star Trek: Armada / Activision $43
6) Rainbow Six: Urban Operations / Red Storm $20
7) Soldier of Fortune / Activision $47
8) Star Wars: Force Commander / Eidos $46
9) Age of Empires II: Age Of Kings / Microsoft $45
10) Grand Slam Bridge III / EA $17

There have been a few technical issues with the demo that you can fix or workaround with the following information:

(Q1) Multiplayer is laggy or extremely choppy.

(A1) The server should have its CONNECT RATE turned up to T1/LAN (in the Multiplayer Menu). Make sure your client connect rate is turned up as well.

(Q2) Daikatana doesn't work with a Voodoo2.

(A2) There are two fixes for this: (1) edit your config file (in the DATA subdirectory) and change "opengl32" to "3dfxgl" or "3dfxvgl", (2) download and install the miniGL driver from http://www.3dfxgamers.com/view.asp?PAGE=V2drivers

(Q3) Running the DKDEMO.EXE on Windows 2000 gives you an error (Insert Disk 1)

(A3) Use WINZIP to extract the DKDEMO.EXE file, then run the SETUP.EXE program to install the demo

(Q4) The game pauses for a long time when you're playing multiplayer (seems like a lockup)

(A4) This is a bug in the demo only that occurs when you are attempting to connect to the Catacomb level (Greek time period). Just wait 20 seconds and you'll connect.

So far, these cover 99% of the problems that people are having. I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has been emailing me their raves and congrats -- thanks a lot, you guys make it all worth it.

Gamespy: As one of the founders of the real-time strategy genre, where do you see the future of the genre heading?

Ed Del Castillo: Uh, wow! Thanks for the amazing compliment! Where is RTS going.... aside from the standard "better textures, more polys, blah, blah, blah" I think the real innovations for RTSs will come in "Depth" and "Naturalness." Depth to me means increasing the player's involvement with the game world. Most RTSs have two problems; first, they tend to be "flat." You can gauge how flat an RTS is by how quickly you move past the "world" experience and start treating the game like a machine. (ie. how quickly you go from saying "I'm gonna berserk my 2 headed giants and stomp on your puny elves!" to saying (in your head) "select, , , , , , drag, click on target).

Second, they aren't real-time strategies at all... they're actually closer to real-time economies. In 90% of the RTS's I've played, the game was a production game. You pumped out units as fast as you could and threw them at the opponent. Watch a good player play any of the "build base/build units" games and you will notice that they spend most of their time in the base. In these games economy is everything because it's where the depth is... they've forgotten to make combat equally interesting and important.

Now on to "Naturalness." This is a little more vague of a notion. Naturalness is about everything feeling right; about things working the way they're "supposed to." How units fight, how units die, how they respond to changes on the battlefield, how the world feels, how the environment deals with battle, and finally and most importantly, how all of this communicates to the player. Real-time strategies were created to bring the romance of the battlefield to those interested in such things, but doing that in a believable, realistic, and easy to understand/manipulate way will be the true progress made in RTSs in the future.

GS: How did you get the idea to re-create a computer game for the CAVE?

PR: The first thing that I thought when I saw the CAVE was, this is the ultimate gaming platform! I knew somebody had to do it, so why not me? Really, there are several reasons why I decided to do it. Today's games have very rich environments. We CAVE developers don't have the resources or the time to develop the same level of artwork for our CAVE applications. I knew that if I took one of the rich worlds from a game, it would really show off the potential of the CAVE. Also, I knew that if I re-created a PC game, then it would be a familiar environment. People who would come to visit would see something that they have seen before, but from a brand-new perspective. It would show them the potential of VR.

GS: Why choose Quake II?

PR: The first CAVE program that I made was actually CAVE Doom. I wrote it as a grad student. It was a semester project for a VR class. In the end, the user could walk though the Doom levels from the first episode. I did add monsters and a rocket launcher. However, since these objects were actually sprites in the real game, I had to make my own 3D models for them. As you can imagine, they looked really cheesy. Hey, I'm a programmer, not a modeler!

After the CAVE DOOM project, I worked as a research assistant. Then I graduated and became a full-time staffer at NCSA. The CAVE Doom demo was popular, and I showed it to a lot of people. Then my younger brother Luke came to visit. His reaction was, "This is cool! But Quake would be better!" I agreed.

1.) TF and TFC maps have always followed the standard .BSP file format. If the format stays the same, will map-builders be able to use programs like Worldcraft to make their own maps and campaigns in TF2, or is Valve looking to change this?

We use an ever-improving version Worldcraft to build our levels. When the time comes, we'll be releasing the proper version so that users can build their own TF2 levels just like they can with TFC.

2.) In some TF and TFC maps, such as Hunted, players can only choose certain classes (ie. Snipers and soldiers only, etc.). Will there be any maps or campaigns in TF2 that will pursue this samecharacteristic?

One of our general philosphies is that maps have greater longevity when the full range of choices are left open to players. So, most of our maps don't restrict classes in any way, but we are still working with a few Hunted type maps that do have restrictions.

3.) TFC originally came with 5 or 6 maps, and later many more were available for download. Will there be enough maps to satisfy the hunger of the players?

I think there will be. Beyond what we're releasing, I'd be very surprised if a whole slew of user-made maps didn't appear for TF2 just as they have for TFC. We know how important it is to have users expanding on existing content. We'll be doing our best to make sure people have the tools and other resources they need to make quality TF2 levels.

Details about unannounced games dribble out of the most improbable places these days. Even online retailer Amazon can now claim a scoop. Published reports on Tiberian Sun fan sites indicate Amazon has started pre-selling a strategy guide to a game the developer, Westwood Studios, has not announced: Command & Conquer Red Alert 2: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, a hint manual weighing in at 240 pages.

According to Amazon's description, Red Alert 2 features all the action of the original plus new missions, terrain, units and buildings. Inside the strategy guide, people will find intelligence maps for every mission, tactics for Internet and solo gaming, and details on troops, weaponry and more. Amazon has the guide coming out this October, so chances are the game will be available in that timeframe as well. Read the Amazon sales blurb here.

In order to accommodate the wide array of gaming styles, the levels and missions in Deus Ex can be completed in a multitude of ways (in a sense similar to Tenchu for the PSX). While you can certainly wander around looking for the "blue key" to open the "blue door," you also can talk to passers-by to discover a secret password, or climb in through a window, or hack the security system, or just try to break the stupid door down. You'll find that your character is better suited for certain styles, but there is no right or wrong way to solve a dilemma. The amount of freedom here is almost frightening.

First off, those of you hoping for a Jar Jar platformer seem to be out of luck; GameFan's confirmed that Lucas Learning (the educational arm of LucasArts) is developing the game, so count on some form of education value force-d into the title. What else do we know? Well, it's being planned for multiple consoles and the PC, and will be targeted for children--hence the Gungan nature of the title. (You can hear Jar Jar refer to "bombad" in the film, provided you don't fast-forward through his parts.)

After discovering that Lucas Learning was behind Bombad, further rumors have surfaced... According to a source at Lucas Learning, Bombad is really a kiddie-style kart racer. Will Lucas go ahead and possibly dilute the brand further by releasing a go-go racer with Darth Maul and everybody's un-favorite Gungan? Guess we'll find out at E3!

O.K., we know the coding of the game's in good hands; now you’re probably asking yourself, how the heck does vehicular combat fit into the "Star Wars" universe? Well, according to LucasArts' press release, Star Wars Demolition is set in between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi," and dares players to compete in a series of brutal vehicular destruction contests organized by crime boss Jabba the Hutt. O.K., so LucasArts may have taken the cheap route and gone for the ever-popular post-"Empire" time frame--but come on, how cool will it be to fight in "Star Wars"-based land fighters?

Hail To The King will be an Alone In The Dark-style game and features a mixture of puzzle-solving and combat, not to mention a good helping of scary moments. As well as the familiar creatures from the movies, you'll run into some frightening new monsters including the horrific Deadites. Fortunately, Ash has been armed with a number of useful weapons, including his trusty chainsaw, not to mention Campbell's dulcet tones.

In addition to the variety of details on the city streets, there are a variety of ways that any given scenario can be won. The lone assassin can simply case out the joint, striking whenever he sees the opportunity. While the more resourceful type can enlist the help of NPCs or set complicated traps. IO Interactive has been adamant that they want players to try the missions again and again with different strategies.

GameSpot

Gameaholic

3DFiles

FilePlant

MeccaWorld

To run a dedicated Daikatana demo server and have it show up in the in-game browser (Powered by GameSpy!) you need to run with "-dedicated" and "+set public 1"

For example, use the following command line to start a 16 player server on e3dm2:

daikatana.exe -dedicated +set public 1 +set hostname "www.planetdaikatana.com!" +set maxclients 16 +map e3dm2

7. Will Deus Ex's relevant weaponry support realistic ballistics and projectile flight trajectory? Could this be a factor determined by the implementation of certain character augmentations?

>> WARREN SPECTOR: I think I'm going to turn this one over to lead programmer, Chris Norden...<<

>> CHRIS NORDEN: Our ballistics code is pretty realistic, but in some areas we've traded realism for added fun. Bullets as well as "slow" projectiles will have their trajectory degraded by gravity if you try to exceed the maximum accurate range for that weapon, but we've extended the "realistic" range on some weapons more than others. Augmentations won't affect the physical characteristics of the different weapons, but you can collect weapon mods and modify your weapons to suit your tastes. Your weapon skills will also come into play when using certain type of weapons, allowing you to steady your aim faster, reload faster, and do more damage with certain weapons.<<

The SoF V1.04 BETA patch will be out shortly. Unfortunately, there was a last minute problem patching
the main PAK file, so I had to remove those changes as well as the EAX changes (which required new data).
RTPatch seems to crash on Win98 machines when I included that PAK file - I have to wait until Monday to
get technical support from the people who make RTPatch.

Remember that this version is a beta patch. It mainly addresses DM server crashes. We haven't done that
much testing on this yet.

It's been four years since John Romero's last design effort, Quake, hit store shelves. In that time, he has been hard at work on one of the most controversial games in the industry's history. Romero, of course, is one of the original founders of id Software and co-creator of some of the most successful and instantly recognizable games to date, including the venerable Doom series. His current work-in-progress, Daikatana, has been steeped in controversy and delays for nearly four years.

Daikatana, however, is no longer a work-in-progress. Eidos, the game's publisher, informed GameSpot today that the game has officially gone gold and will be on store shelves all over the world during the second week of May. Eidos is expected to make an official statement later today.

Here it is, at last. The Official Daikatana Demo. It's taken us many years and a lot of hard work to put this game together and I believe that this demo we've got here is an excellent representation of what you can expect from the full version of the game. In this demo we've included three maps, each from the first three time periods of Daikatana. The fourth time period is not represented in this demo because, well, I would rather have you play the full version to see it.

Each of the three maps can be played in Single-Player, Deathmatch and Cooperative mode. There are two extra Deathmatch maps, one is a new and improved version of the Gibbler on the Roof map from last year's MPlayer Deathmatch Demo. The other map is a Dark Ages castle/arena (it does NOT have the Nharre's Nightmare weapon on the map if you go looking for it).

So, grab the demo. I really believe you're going to have a great time with it. It's a fast action FPS at its core, but with a whole lot more going on. And, finally, I want to give a big "Thanks, you guys rock!" to my development team here at Ion Storm -- thanks for sticking with me, guys. It was a long, tough road, but I believe we made some magic up here in the clouds.

It's truly a phenomenal phenomenon (look at my efficient word usage!). 3D Realms, which has made one of the most popular games ever, and is now developing the most anticipated game ever, is at the same time the most beloved and hated game company ever. Well, I exaggerate; but if you've been surfing the web lately, you'll probably get the same feeling.

The reasons people love 3D Realms is clear: 3D Realms makes great games. Really great games. And it is now making a game that many anticipate to be the greatest game ever made, surpassing even Half-Life and others. Then why all the hostilities? Why does the gaming community hold this unsuppressible rage toward 3D Realms?

Because it dares to be different. Because it defies traditions. Because it ignores rules that the gaming community has long come to hold as sacred. And, more than anything, it refuses to pamper the gamers.

I see you're looking at me, confused (or, I hope you're just confused, because I don't swing that way!). But worry not, I'll put things in perspective soon enough. It all started with a delightfully eccentric, and, at the time, somewhat witty phrase that was first uttered as half a joke, and is now taken seriously to the extreme. The phrase: "When it's done".

OW: What mood wil Dark Sector's music convey?

SP: Well, dark mostly... the game takes place in a very grim future, and the music will reflect what a nasty place it is (will be)... actually, i'm doing some pretty experimental work right now, i mean who really knows what music will be like in the distant future? all i can really tell you is that it is going to be very different!

OW: Are there any artists that inspire your music?

SP: How long do we have? I guess if i had to name a few, i would say spookey ruben, nin, klaatu, boards of canada, pink floyd, brian eno, olivia tremor control, legendary pink dots, skinny puppy, ween, king crimson, aphex twin, and john carpenter... (i know there's probably a few in there you don't know, but they're all cool!!!)

SoF for Linux will be the full version. There is a parental lockout feature for those who wish to play the less violent version.

As for Germany, there are several levels of prohibition. I would anticipate SoF to go beyond being indexed and be banned. Anyone selling the product there would be subject to criminal sanctions.

Version 2.3 is now done and released, 2.3 now has a whole new workspace type, similar to VC++, in which every file has to be added to the workspace and the program generates compile command based on the files, the installation procedure is also different so be sure to read tutorial I which is now updated to reflect the changes. The old workspaces won't work with the new version, but don't worry, your work won't be lost, just create a new workspace with the the game, cgame, and ui files and your ready to go, the new version also has a improved UI, and other little enhancements, and the new features are for all users, so grab a copy in the files section now!

However, while it has made many friends, Napster has also made many enemies. Major universities have quickly found their networks bogged down by Napster users trading files (reaching up to 33% of server usage at times). Over 50 universities have banned Napster from their networks, and more are following each month. Entertainment officials are fuming over the copyright infringement that Napster drags along with it. With so many people downloading MP3s, bands are quickly being robbed of millions of dollars, money that they (technically) rightfully earned. Even some supporters of MP3s, including me, dislike Napster. Many have found that if your tastes are not completely mainstream, that is, if you don't like Britney Spears or Backstreet Boys or Metallica, you will never find the music you are looking for. In addition, Napster lends itself to singles; those who look for full albums are much better advised to turn elsewhere.

OW: Are there any artists that inspire your music?

SP: How long do we have? I guess if i had to name a few, i would say spookey ruben, nin, klaatu, boards of canada, pink floyd, brian eno, olivia tremor control, legendary pink dots, skinny puppy, ween, king crimson, aphex twin, and john carpenter... (i know there's probably a few in there you don't know, but they're all cool!!!)

Max Payne has been in a media blackout for a long time now, and we feel it's time to release some information on the game. The E3 demo will show the latest progress of the game, as well as where we're heading with it. We don't want to spoil anything though, so the demo will be just a small peek to the actual gameplay & content.

Genetically modified creatures taking bestial form, the BioDerms were once artificially grown slaves and soldiers who served the Empire. Eventually, they revolted against their owners and seized key Imperial military assets. By the time the Empire recovered and rebuilt its forces from human recruits, the BioDerms had conquered over a hundred worlds. The war quickly ground to a bloody stalemate. Now the Hordes seek to break the deadlock and turn their attention to the wilderzone and the wealth of the tribal worlds.

Ancient Nation is pleased to announce several new and exciting features recently added to the AN site. We are still continuing to rebuild the site after our new design was put in place, but some of the older content has been placed back up, and new sections have been added to expand the site.

On Thursday, a new Top Story will be added. The Top Story is a special report feature on just one particular aspect of games or gaming news. The latest
Top Story is a special preview of the E3 expo, to be held in May in Las Vegas.
Although it is only open to the industry, the expo showcases the new games and products to be released in North America for the coming year. Ancient Nation has put together a partial list of the games expected to be shown, and we have included some of the rumors of E3 as well. You can view a preview of the article at http://ancient.gameznet.com/files/features/top_story/04192000.shtml

The Dreamcast Technical pages, our resource center for Dreamcast game development, has received a huge new update. The latest additions include manuals of the various hardware components of the Dreamcast, Windows CE programing information, a new section for VMU game development and more files and articles. You can find the Dreamcast Technical pages here

Homeworld Nation, our very popular site devoted to the Relic RTS game, has reopened with new downloads and user created maps, the first of many new strategies, and a expanded editorial section. The main page for Homeworld Nation is http://ancient.gameznet.com/Homeworld/main.shtml, and the Homeworld news page is http://ancient.gameznet.com/computer_news.shtml

At Ancient Nation, we believe in content more than flash, and we have started the process of rebuilding our games sections, with the first home console section being worked on being for the Nintendo 64 game system. http://ancient.gameznet.com/files/home_console/n64_index.shtml

"There are a lot of people out there with dreams of hitting it big in the gaming industry. Longbow Digital Arts is one of those companies, but they stand out from the crowd. The company is family owned and operated, which is something you don't see in everyday companies. Based out of Providence Bay, Ontario Longbow has been around for quite a while."

I wanted to take a moment to state publicly that if any of you caught the Daily Radar interview between me and John Coghlan, I found it to be horribly unprofessional. Mr Coghlan asked me questions via the phone, and didn't bother to spell check, fact check, or get back to me to clarify statements. Furthermore, he paraphrases statements I made and reprints them as direct quotes. It is full of spelling errors, factual errors and incomplete sentences.

I want to clarify that there are several statements he prints as direct quotes that are totally incorrect. First off, let me state to Epic that of course I am absolutely aware that not only are their enemies ai based, but they have one of the best shooter ai's in the industry. What I actually told Mr. Coghlan was that our game is melee based, meaning that we have lots of melee, or man-to-man weapons. Because of this, we had to alter the UT ai as it is 'obviously not melee based.' There's a big difference between that and what Mr. Coghlan paraphrased as, "we've added our own AI enhancements since the enemies are all computer AI based and obviously UT wasn't."

In addition, there are just places where he changed what I said to make him seem like a hip, savvy interviewer and ended up misrepresenting critical details of our game. I've written Daily Radar and asked them to do an edit pass on the story and fix the most glaring errors. Hopefully they will do so.

X-COM Alliance promises to feature similar gameplay found in games like Swat3 and Half-Life, while keeping the distinct X-COM flavor. "We’re keeping a lot of the same gameplay elements, staying true to the brand and its themes to keep it wholly X-COM," stresses DeRiso. "I think FPS fans have us on their radar, and though we’re making more of a “thinking man’s game” than a “mindless shooter”, we hope to attract fans of all genres."

Evolva is a tactical shoot-em-up for the PC which immerses the player in a visually stunning 3D world offering a rich gameplaying experience. Driven by Computer Artworks' A-Life technology, this world and its alien inhabitants form a challenging and actually living environment. This updated demo has about 90 megs of movies included.

But at its core, Deus Ex is an action game - specifically, a first-person sneaker similar to Thief but set in the near future. And like other such action games, your character is given an arsenal of modern-day weapons and items with which to dispatch his enemies. Deus Ex's arsenal includes handguns, shotguns, rifles, and machine guns, as well as lighter melee weapons and heavier assault guns. Since J.C. starts out the game green, he'll have some difficulty handling any new weapon that comes into his possession. This is where some of Deus Ex's role-playing elements come into play. As in many RPGs, you'll be awarded experience points, called skill points in Deus Ex, every time you accomplish a goal. You can assign these points to a number of skills, including one of five weapon-handling skills, which will improve J.C.'s effectiveness with the game's arsenal. As J.C. progresses through the game, he'll become more proficient with the use of weaponry and be able to dispatch his enemies with ease.

But you know, that's really not the issue for me. I don't think most people play through a single-player game more than once. I mean the hardcore gamers do, but not the majority. I think the coolest thing for me would be if I overheard a conversation or got online and saw people saying, "Wasn't it cool when you kill the guy that's guarding the door and saved Ford Schick?" And another guy says, "You killed that guy? I just went and talked to this other guy and got the key for the room and waited for the guard to walk away." I want people to describe the game and deal with the same problem in different ways. I'm getting chills just thinking about it. I want people to describe their experience differently, and if replayability comes as a side benefit of that, then I'm all over it. But it's the play it through one time and have a unique experience that I'm going for.

The feel of the game takes a while to get used to, the main problem being the camera, which is very movable but its fixed axis means it can take a while to get used to moving it about. But it won’t be long before you will be flying across the map in full control looking exactly at what you wanted.

"That's right folks, Creative's online shop's Hong Kong page has gone completely bezerk - GeForce DDRs are selling for HK$496 - that's less than US$64!! YES!! OFF THE OFFICIAL CREATIVE PAGE.

Slowly arising from your perch your ears catch a glimpse of what appears to be several guards heading across the roofs strait for you. Guessing they have seen your shiny armour glint from the reflection of a streetlight, you swiftly take action. There's not enough time to run and taking on so many guards at once is suicide, yet you have to act and you have to do so quickly. As they near you draw your bow and aim a water arrow directly at the fiery light illuminating the roof where you stand. Moments later the fire is extinguished and a Vail of darkness casts itself upon you.

I got emails from developers, publishers, web site guys and of course,fans. And the following message sums up the general feeling I saw in most people.

"I have been reading the recent activity on the Voodoo Extreme Comment Boards. I just want you to know that there are hardcore gamers such as myself who support your decision to keep a lid on DNF 110%. Honestly, I hope I don't see *anything* on Duke until it comes out. It goes back to what you've been saying for a while: the surprise factor. The game will be much cooler if gamers don't know every weapon, item, locale, and monster. Please keep it this way as long as possible.

I don't think I've been surprised by a game since the original DOOM. Back then, none of us knew anything about it, we just fired up the game and the experience was heavily peppered with exclamations of "Cool!" and "Whoa!" The first time we got the chainsaw, the first time we saw the CyberDemon, etc. I sincerely hope DNF can bring back this "virgin" experience that the internet and print gaming media have taken away."

I think we can all recall the old Doom days, or Duke 3D, where a game came virtually out of nowhere and blew you away. You didn't have a list of all the locations, items, weapons and monsters. You just loaded it and went "Wow". We are returning to those days long past.

"it's not us, it's "the man.""

and

"We didn't want to close any doors. We are more upset about this than you."

"I come in, sit down, check e-mail, check industry news, do whatever work I've got to do (like skin a model, rip a model, tile, etc.), eat lunch, do more work, kick DeWitt's ass in UT, go home," he said, with more than a hint of enjoyment.

"Lies! All of it!" rebutted DeWitt.

Whatever the truth, the two friends have found something to temporarily escape crunch mode. Depending on who you ask, crunch mode is almost universally considered a period of hell for game developers.

To ensure the realism, the guys at Interloop (who are based in Norway) flew to Finland to test-fire some hardcore weapons. The goal was to accurately capture the essence of each gun by realistically modeling its sound, feel, and damage potential in the game. Wensley says of the experience, "We fired everything from .22 handguns to .45 'Dirty Harry' Magnums, Uzi 9mm's, AK47s, M16 assault rifles, Berretas, and a Sterling, a British silenced sub machine gun — that was scary."

The Messiah developers claimed that they had quite an incredible graphics engine on their hands and they weren't lying or exaggerating. I'm glad to say Messiah definitely matured under all those years of development. It didn't turn skunky like beer, but rather it aged like a nice hunk of Gouda.

Do you ever get the feeling you are being watched?

Haha. You read enough conspiracy stuff and it starts to bother you. Driving down the highways in Texas, there are these big billboards that someone has paid for. They say: "COULD THE UN BE PLANNING TO INVADE TEXAS? CALL 1800XXXXXXX TO FIND OUT." Creepy. One day, while Warren and I were sitting in his office hashing out some design issue, he stopped talking, looked at me, then focused on something on his desk. I looked at what had caught his attention--it was a small red light. His microphone--just the standard part of some Windows PC setups--was on. It was plugged in. It was not recording (we think), but the point is, we've been sitting in that office discussing fairly intense design and business issues for more than 2 years, and we never noticed that the microphone was plugged in and switched on. Creepy.

Everquest Interview over on GameSpot UK

Anarchy Online Interview over on GameLinks

Raven Interview over on 3DActionPlanet

Pool of Radiance Interview over on GameSpot UK

Short Aureal Q&A over on PCGN

Diablo 2 Interview over on DiabloII.net

Epic Interview over on PlaetUnreal

Ritual Interview over on HeavyMetalFAKK2.org

Experience the drama, the glory and the fun of baseball in Triple Play 2001. Featuring today's power hitters and the legends of the past. The all-new fielding view, enhanced player models and signature styles, all add up to deeper gameplay realism. Play the demo and prove that you can handle the heat - it's the AL vs NL All-Stars at Turner Field. Play Ball and Go Yard!
The Triple Play 2001 demo consists only of:

Single Game Mode

Turner Field only

All-Star Rosters only

3 Innings only

No commentary

I figured we would get straight to the heart of the matter and simply post the Quake 3 Arena benchmarks that you probably want.

I am going to start with what I consider the most important of the benchmarks as how the hardware community will see them. If you purchase this card for the features it has, most importantly FSAA (full screen anti aliasing), it seems you will be most likely to use it in 2X FSAA mode.

These benchmarks are taken using No FSAA, 2 Sample FSAA (2X FSAA), and 4 Sample FSAA (4X FSAA) running a PIII Coppermine 650, 128 megs of SDRam, on an ABIT BF6. We decided to use a "middle of the road" CPU to see what the Voodoo 5 might bring to many systems out there. Quake 3 Demo001 was run several times and the best score was used.

• X'Ds~Grrr... has been interviewed by his clanmate, X'Ds~FirE. They talk about well, a whole lot of things. Go check it out for yourself.
  
• A new possible bug has been uncovered by IN-Python, and he has written a nice report about it here
  
• Blizzard Fan has posted another editorial, this one covering manners in Starcraft and gaming in general. Check it out here.

Ken: Finishing Voyager - Elite Force is our number one priority. Three of our guys are out at the PlayStation II developer's conference right now laying the groundwork for our PSXII game. Beyond that, we have a number of options and offers on the table right now. It's just a question of "What do we want to do now?" Nothing is official at this time...

The expected complement of new weapons and new vehicles will also be included. The weapons have not been finalized yet, but the new vehicles include ground complements to the air vehicles. There is a single-driver scout ground vehicle, as well as others that include turret gunner placements. Also new to Tribes 2 is an entire new race called the BioDerm Horde. Not much is known about this new race as of this writing.

As excited as we were about the game before, our trip out to ION Storm Austin just made us more anxious to see the final product. Thankfully it looks like they keep progressing at a good clip every time we see the game. The thing that interests us most about Deus Ex is it's a game you can totally make your own. You can take the patient route and play it in a similar fashion to Thief, or you can go in with guns blazin'. It's totally up to you how the game plays.

BALDUR’S GATE II IRC CHAT THIS TUESDAY

Black Isle Studios, BioWare Corp. and the Vault Network are proud to present an IRC chat for Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn, the eagerly-awaited sequel to 1998’s million-selling RPG of the Year. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn is a mythic saga continuing the much-loved Baldur’s Gate storyline. The Forgotten Realms adventure ensues along the southern portion of the Sword Coast in the merchant kingdom known as Amn.

WHO: You and members of the Baldur’s Gate II team.
WHAT: Baldur’s Gate II IRC Chat
WHERE: The chat will take place on IRC.
SERVER: irc.vaultnetwork.com
PORT: 6667
CHANNEL: #vault
WHEN: Tuesday, March 18, 2000 6:00pm Pacific Time
WHY: A million happy fans can’t be wrong!

You can be a sneaky hacker (some of the Deus Ex developers worked on Thief, remember) and play the game slinking around corners and avoiding having to kill anyone, or you can invest your points in your rifle skills — among others — and hone your sharpshooting skills to the point where you can pleasantly kill everyone in the game (it's based on the Unreal engine after all). We hear there's one tester who believes the only skills necessary to the game are swimming and environmental training. We're not sure how that works, but whatever floats your boat, man.

Before rumors start, we want to clarify our E3 plans. We will not be showing Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) at E3, not as a video, nor in back room
demos.

This is the same policy we had last year. We do not believe including DNF in the E3 dog and pony show will benefit our goal with the game, which quite simply is to surprise the player with unexpected content and gameplay. E3 can be a great spoiler of game content and we believe this to be the case for DNF if we show it there.

Pro's of doing an E3 video:

* Mainly an ego boost for the team. You get to show off. But this showing off is best saved for the game's release.

* Fans see what you are up to and much press and buzz can be generated.

Con's of doing an E3 video:

* You can greatly spoil the game for fans. We do not want to show you specific details of the game because we'd rather you experience them when you play for the first time.

* You tip off competitors months before your game ships and devalue your hard work which can easily be replicated once seen.

* You depreciate your game content. Once it is seen, it becomes "expected and known" and people naturally want more upon release.

* You have to show too much. We don't want to show everything and spoil the game and we certainly don't want to waste time doing some "teaser" video.

SIN:THE MOVIE at E3!

If you are lucky enough to attend this awesome show, come by booth #2674 in the West Hall.

ADV will be showing off our new booth and showing some trailers for SIN: The Movie. We will be giving away t-shirts, posters and other goodies.

To top it off, we will be holding a cool deathmatch for all you "sinners" to show off your stuff. Prizes are TBA and it will only be for one day, so come by the booth to sign up.

Special thanks to the guys at Ritual for their technical support and the folks over at AMD for supplying the computers.

In a move that could literally shake Epic's ivory tower to its foundation, infamous hacker Jeff K is suing Epic Games on the grounds of "Eipic studios FAGOTS haev decideded too use my liekness (my pictare) on theyre stupid Ricket Areana mod for Unreally Stupid Tournamint!!"

The best advice for getting a job in the industry, regardless of what you do, is to just start doing the work. If you're a game designer, start making maps. If you're an artist, make models or skins. The same goes for programmers; they should start writing mods and tools for existing games.

Interviews:

Tribes 2 Interview over on Tribes2Players.com

Outcast 2 Interview over on Outcast Central

F.A.K.K. 2 Interview on The Mushroom

Messiah Q&A over on GA-Source

Dungeon Siege Interview over on DungeonSiege.org

Screen Shots

Ground Control Shots on GA-Strategy, and even more on Voodoo Extreme.

Sacrifice Shots on IGN PC

Rollcage Shots over on GA-Sports

We intend to release our model development tools with the game just as we are releasing the level editor. In terms of skeletal data, all our skeletons and animations are currently built from text files exported by Bones Pro within 3DS Max. That's not to say we may not eventually have home grown facilities to do skeletal modification (just as we do for model texture skinning, which is done using an inhouse tool that will ship with the game), but merely that we don't at this point. Overall, adding new models to the game should be a relatively painless process assuming you have some source of data, whether it be from our tools or other ones from the outside. For humanoid skeletal models you also get the added benefit of being able to use all our animation data as long as the model skeleton's bone names and hierarchy conform to ours.

Regardless of the tools we provide with the game, the model file format is fully documented and will be released with the tools. That way no matter what we manage to provide, someone on the outside could make additional model editing tools if they had the capability and interest.

UT 413 for Linux is available. Go to http://unreal.epicgames.com for a list of download mirrors as well as information on the patch.

Personally, I’m undecided about this game. It’s quite a good game, but because it’s ECW and not WWF, I don’t like it as much. In no way does that affect the game at all. Because the game it self, is still extremely good! This game is worth the buy if wrestling games are your thing. I don’t really know whether this game, personally would be on my list of games to buy. I like a lot of aspects about it but there’s a few, which quite frankly, get on my nerves!

"The very idea of riding motorcycles around a track again and again and again didn't exactly grab my attention. In general, racing games don't give me that adrenaline rush and excitement like first-person shooters. However, being the unbiased reviewer that I am, I reluctantly cleared my head of any negative feelings toward the games. Surprisingly, I actually found this game not to be as boring as I thought (and at some points, even funny)."

"This is a graphic example of how our skills work," Warren explains. "At the moment I'm completely unskilled with the rifle. I'm not touching the keyboard or the mouse, but look how it shakes. What do you think the odds are of hitting that guy?" Warren asks us. We tell him that practice makes perfect.

Some cool features include:
Contests! - Win a free CD every month
Lowdown - Drug and alcohol information
Radio show - Coming this week
And SOOOO much more!

JS: We've tried to keep a lot of the same in terms of the atmosphere. A lot of the scary experiences that you got from Blair Witch were through hearing things, and we have a background sound engine in there to reproduce that. We've got digital surround sound, and emulation so you can track about a moving object. So, you know with the creepy camera angles, and the environment created by the sound, you're going to get that bit more spine tingling. But you will definitely come in face-to-face contact with some horrors, but I would venture to say, most of what you might be researching will always kind of be alluded to by the camera's eye. There's going to be some stuff that I'm sure you will see in your face because, you just kind of have to after a while. After an hour and a half of traipsing around you just need something to jump out at you, something you can let a bit of steam off at, something you can just basically shoot.

"There was one instance where the character was on the roof with a sniper rifle," he said. "And he had a silencer, so there was no way the guys on the ground should be able to hear him." But a few seconds after he began firing, one of the guys on the ground looked up and began firing at him. Only later did we realize that the NPCs on the ground reacted to the sound of shell casings hitting the ground."

IGNPC: What new tricks do you think you'll provide that other games like Rogue Spear and Delta Force 2 don't offer?

RW: We're not really aiming to be like either of those games. Our focus is primarily on allowing a lot of different people to play a game that allows each of them to play their own way, and to have a lot of fun interacting with each other in interesting situations, whether it's talking to them, attacking them, healing them, aiding them, or being aided by them.

Homeworld: Cataclysm, the next episode in the Homeworld universe, promises to improve upon the Homeworld interface, and add features such as waypoints and sensor screen attack commands. The developer Barking Dog Studios promises that these enhancements will add a new dimension to the ground-breaking combat and gameplay pioneered in Homeworld.

They also take a look at the Greek hero game Invictus. Was it a Herculean effort or something Aphrodite would love? Check out the review here

But wait, there's more:

What do you consider the major features of the game engine, and why?

I suppose I have to quote the old favourite; "The sheer number of transformed, dynamically lit and lightmapped triangles that we render per frame". We're also quite proud of our dynamic level of detail; it saved the artists' months of work in that they didn't have to build, say, six versions of every object, and because we morph the detail levels from one to the other there is no visible "popping" artifacts as the detail levels switch...

"The "fun factor" is what personally makes or breaks the game for me. Basically, if I don't keep playing it after a week that game will go down in my books as a waste of time and money. No worries here: Thief II boasts over 60 hours of gameplay according to the box, and plenty more if you plan on playing the Hard or Expert difficulty levels. These settings provide a sense of true re-playability by changing dramatically changing the dynamics of the game. The harder the difficulty, the more foes you deal with, the more loot you have to grab, the more tasks you have to complete, and the more restrictions there are on who you can kill. On some missions, you can’t even blackjack, much less kill, anyone."

Rocket Arena for Unreal Tournament has been released at my Rocket Arena site: http://www.planetunreal.com/arena/

So go get it! There is information about the mod on the site, so I won't repeat it here. I've had fun working on the mod, but now I've got to turn back onto Epic stuff. Mike 'Mongo' Lambert is going to take over the project (he's kick ass.)

I've got the Linux patch put together and need to release that tonight too, but I'll go get some food first. Dan Vogel has integrated all the OpenUT stuff so I'll talk about that later.

In one word, describe your experience working at Blizzard?

Inspirational! We were inspired to be working on great games with some exceptionally talented people, and we are inspired to take games and Internet gaming to new heights with Triforge.

What would motivate three highly successful men with great jobs to take on all the risks involved with a starting a new gaming company?

We believe that truly innovative games come from small, focused companies. We are building Triforge around this belief so that we can take Internet gaming in bold new directions.

What are you working on right now?

Other than the time spent in interviews and resume combing, the lion's share of our time is spent developing our business plan, refining our game design, and prototyping the technologies that we will need to get our first big game out the door.

"Movie Title: Quake
Behind the Scenes: Surprisingly enough, there doesn't seem to be any trace of a Quake movie on the horizon. Much like its counterpart Doom, the violent game became a scapegoat after the Columbine shootings, held up as the example of all that was evil in the computer game world.
Expectations: Expect protests from gun control advocates if this picture ever gets moving.
Phrase Most Likely Heard Exiting Theater: 'I want a rocket launcher so f*cking bad.'"

Benjamin Boerner: "Did you ever want to throw your computer out of the window because of problems you had building a level?" ;o)
MRJ: "Well, my windows don't open (at least I have some) so that would not work too well. I have broken a keyboard or two in the past though..."

Don't worry, the interview can also be read in German.

"This time around, he again finds himself embroiled in the byzantine politics of the City. There's a new Sheriff in town and his policies are cutting into Garrett's profits, in addition to pettier concerns like repressing the rights of the citizens, but that's not important."

"SimCity 3000 Unlimited is not an expansion pack for the original SimCity 3000, but rather a complete stand-alone game that features new additions requested by vocal SimCity fans."

Taking the latest version of Bioware’s Infinity Engine and making good use of it Interplay have once again pulled out all the stops, this RPG oozes gameplay from the word go. As usual the myriad of enemies you come across usually means that your running in the opposite direction looking for weaker opponents to pick on until you can face the never ending onslaught your put through until your such a kick ass fighter and the group your with don’t start running away when they see a skeleton charging towards them with a toothpick!

Anyway, George Broussard made a post over on the DNF Web Foums concerning a question about Duke Nukem Forever and UnrealEd2. Dig it:

>>I was wondering if DNF will be able to work with Epic's up comeing UnrealEd2 which works with Unreal,UT, & Wheel of Time and is more effective than the current UnrealEd. Will you be able to use UnrealEd2 to make DNF levels or can you make a level in UnrealEd2 and import it to DukeEd?

No. We're not delaying this game 1 more day, by patching or swicthing to any new code. Not 1 line We're finally over the UT patch hump and making rapid progress again.

We've simply added too much to the editor for it to be a trivial patch. It would cost some programmer at least a month and we're not doing that again.

George Broussard, 3D Realms

You realize there is enough ammo left in your sniper for two shots, without a second thought you pull its weight against your shoulder and take aim. Waiting for a few moments until the guards are facing opposite directions, then a sudden thud followed quickly by another and the guard towers are no more. You quickly switch to your silenced machine gun and dash down the hill before diving deeply into the snow at the bottom, there's only moments left before the guard tower bodies are discovered, you have to act!

The 911 GT2 was a no-compromise racer with a level of trim to suit. External changes include large replaceable wheel arch flares , revised and more aggressively styled front and rear valences sculpted to match the flares, and an enormous biplane rear spoiler.

"Max Payne is taking a long time for the same reason that Half-Life was delayed a year: It takes a long time to do a groundbreaking game right, especially if you're also creating significant new engine technology,"

ThrushWave sent GA-Strategy 4 new screenshots from their upcoming real-time space strategy, The Rift.

GA-Source recently spoke to Hellboy's Executive Producer to learn more about this action/adventure title based on Mike Mignolia's comic series of the same name. Screnshots Included, read more here.

The HUD system is among the best I have ever seen in any Space Flight Simulation. You can choose between missile types with ease. Also, it keeps you in check on how many rounds of ammunition you have remaining. The radar the game provides is a little different from the radar you would see in FreeSpace. It is 3 dimensional and shows exactly where the enemies are, but it takes a little getting used to. At first, I had no idea how to use it, and I would point the way I would in any other Space Simulation and expect the ship to be there, so I was a little skeptical at first.

A select group of gamers will win exclusive sneak preview copies for this highly anticipated sequel. Would-be racers will want to check the site frequently, as the form will be posted at an unspecified time. The official Motocross Madness 2 site will also list all of the participating sites hosting the sign-up form. Ten lucky winners will be chosen from each participating site, along with 50 winners randomly selected from all entries.

Sneak preview winners will be able to experience wicked new freestyle tricks, amazing Enduro terrain, and heated racing action well before the game hits store shelves. Motocross Madness sneak preview winners will receive:

* Motocross Madness 2 sneak preview CD and manual
* Access to the Motocross Madness 2 MSN Gaming Zone sneak preview lobby for multiplayer gaming
* Exclusive private chat with members of the development team to discuss gameplay tips and tricks

Motocross Madness 2 puts racers' skills to the test, racing to win and competing like the pros. Along with all new event modes like Enduro, the game features Pro-Circuit, an entirely new mode of gameplay that starts players out as rookies competing against a field of tough AI competitors. Competing for prize money and sponsorship dollars, gamers have the ultimate goal of winning the professional Supercross circuit.

Motocross Madness 2 represents the ultimate experience in racing and competitive realism, utilizing cutting-edge graphics and a state-of-the-art physics engine. And, continuing the tradition started with the first Motocross Madness, Motocross Madness 2 has all the multiplayer mayhem that gamers have come to rely on. Motocross Madness 2 will feature a ranking system called the Internet Top 100. Gamers will be able to race online at the MSN Gaming Zone and have the points from their career wins tracked in real time. Players who earn enough points will then have their in-game number plates automatically updated with their current ranking in the top 100. Motocross Madness 2 will also allow gamers to design their own racing tracks with a free, downloadable 3D track editor that will be made available at the game's launch.

Motocross Madness 2 will be available domestically in May 2000. For more information on the game, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/games/motocross2/

What's new, you ask?

- An interview with Ritual Entertainment's Rob Atkins, with lots of information on F.A.K.K.2 and the upcoming Blair Witch Episode 3 game. The interview also includes a couple of exclusive screenshots and some photos that are rather...candid.

- In the site's tradition of "First Look" developer previews, there's a sneak peek at "Call of Cthulhu", a spooky first-person action game being developed by Head First, aiming to emulate the same vibe as Nocturne and Alone in the Dark.

- The Thief 2 Underground, a new 3DAP hosted site, opens today. Dedicated to all things Thief 2, the site contans everything you could want to know about Looking Glass' just-released "first-person sneaker".

Vinny: One thing caught my eye...no levels. Would you care to elaborate on that?

Swen Vincke: Few people ask us about that, but it’s really something very important. The only other psuedo-isometric rpg I played that did this was UltimaVII, and I always thought that in that game I got the most immersion. There’s really something very annoying about loading level messages when you are trying to identify yourself with a character. Which is why from the beginning of development we made very sure that players would not be confronted with things like that, and logically, that means you are running around in one big world, where everything is connected to each other. It really adds.

Is there such a thing as life after nuclear war? There is for the developers at Troika Games. After developing 1997's RPG of the Year, Fallout, and starting initial design work on Fallout 2, Troika co-founders Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson formed their own company to undertake a new project. Just don't expect another vision of a post-apocalyptic future. This time, they're bringing in the elves and dwarves.

In StarLancer, countries from around the world, including the United States, Russia, and Great Britain, have formed strategic alliances and now battle for control of Earth, Venus and other planets across the solar system. As part of a newly-formed, ragtag aviation unit called the 45th Volunteers Squadron, players must prove themselves in this struggle for freedom of the solar system.

StarLancer delivers a level of graphic details and special effects not currently found in space combat games. More than 80 types of spacecraft are rendered in extraordinary 3-D detail adding to the complexity of the dynamic mission structure. Players fly in over 25 gripping missions that range from escorting marine boarding ships to free POWs to leading an assault on space stations built right into an asteroid field. StarLancer will also include some exciting multiplayer features. Players can work together cooperatively throughout the entire story, with up to four players. Gamers can also dogfight in six different deathmatch modes with up to eight players via LAN or the MSN Gaming Zone (http://www.zone.com).

StarLancer was developed by Digital Anvil and Warthog as the prequel to FreeLancer, the winner of the 1999 E3 Best of Show. StarLancer has an estimated street price of US$49.95.

For more information on StarLancer, head over here

Looking for the latest on the next NFS game? Well then you might want to check out a preview of NFS: Motor City. You can check out that preview right here.

• G3D has reviewed the Arctic Circle Cooler


• Alcovetech has written up an editorial on the recent Aureal happenings


• 3D Alpha has posted a review of the Soundman X2 speaker system from Logitech


• GamePC has reviewed the ABIT KA7 motherboard and the ASUS K7V in a comparison way. Both of these boards are KX133 Athlon motherboards

There are a few new screenshots at PC.IGN.COM of Digital Anvil's upcoming game, Starlancer. You can check those screenshots out right here.

ProxyTool.exe added to the Network Play System\Utility directory.

Enables you to set your proxy IP and Port if your ISP so requires.

Hacking cars is harder to do now, so there should be less cheating and crashing.

-71 connection error remedied.

Bug fixes to car restriction

Improved AI

Patching now works if you've got an HTTP proxy server.

Games run with 8 players now give full point rewards.

Persona point cloning removed.

Buddy info overlay now updates every minute.

Completion ratios no longer go above 100% (will repair itself on the users first completed race in build 4.42)

General fault recovery code improvements dealing with scoring.

Have you ever been driving down the street and see a car with a license plate that reads "I'm too cool" but it reads like this: "IMTOOCL"? And you think to yourself, "What a lame-ass" because he wasn't the first one to think of that and get it on a plate. That's what I think of when I see Exxtreme3D. Looks like they wanted Extreme with one X but were late. Right.... Anyway, they have an interview with Swen Vincke of Larian Studios about their upcoming RPG Divinity: The Sword of Lies.

Games Domain interviewed the Microsoft dev team regarding their recent release, Allegiance.

Gamespot chatted with producer/designer Clint "Don't say Eastwood" Worley about Verant's "persistent online RTS in development" Sovereign.

Bad Karma has two interviews for the price of one. They posted part 3 and part 4 of their interview with the development team working on MechWarrior 4.

Mark Allender, lead programmer on Summoner, was grilled by IMG Magazine.

Spank! (gaming magazine) interviewed Peter Molyneux about his Mike Tyson/Robert Downey Jr. love story upcoming god-game, Black & White.

3D Action Planet interviews Robert Atkins, art manager on F.A.K.K. 2, about the game, lusting after Julie Strain, and a few other boring things.

Urban Operations takes one of the best action games of all time and makes it immeasurably better. There are not one, but two new minicampaigns, one new play mode, four new weapons and a total of 18 new maps. This pack does more than just breathe new life into the game; it kicks it up a dozen notches and ensures that you'll be playing for a very, very long time to come. No Rogue Spear owner should be without this excellent mission pack.

MindRover is a 3D strategy/programming game. This is a brand new genre that encompasses the depth of play found in strategy games with a new concept in player control. You get to program the intelligence of robotic vehicles.
You are a researcher on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. In your free time you re-program the rovers to race around the hallways, battle it out with mini lasers and rocket launchers, and navigate through mazes.

Once you have chosen a challenge, equip your vehicle (hovercraft, wheeled or treaded) with various sensors, movement components, and weapons. Then program the behavior of your vehicle in a graphical interface where you wire the components together and set their properties. Then let it go in the arena and watch how it does!

You don't control them while they are in competition - but you can stop the competition and tweak your vehicle until you do like its behavior.

"While we were impressed with the stuff on the outside, it was the stuff inside that really wetted our appetites. The board itself is larger than most 440BX boards around, around an inch wider than the Gigabyte GA7IX that we reviewed late last fall. The PCB design is extremely clean and uncluttered, yet leaving few bits of real estate to waste. Our sample board came with built-in support for AC97 sound output, but other versions come with an Aureal Vortex 2 sound controller chip, along with support for digital SPDIF input (the connectors are there along with silkscreened label tags). Even without the aid of an dedicated controller, the board will easily suffice everyday tasks, packing CD audio, video, modem and auxiliary sound input connectors above the PCI slots while keeping them out of any peripheral cards’ way."

Targeted towards the hard-core gamer, these two new mice (1000/2000 versions) promise to offer much greater precision and control than even the mighty MS: Intellimouse explorer. With a resolution of 2000dpi this mouse currently blows all the competition out of the water, in terms of sensitivity that is. Also, don't forget that this mouse also operates at a whopping 6MIPS (Millions of instructions per second), compared to the traditional 1.5MIPS of a standard ball mouse.

Upon viewing my first digital television broadcast, my jaw dropped. The image was of DVD quality! The picture was crystal clear and MUCH sharper and detailed than any standard TV signal. I can't say enough about how impressive the picture quality was when output to a standard TV through the card's S-Video out jack. When a movie came on that took advantage of the full capacity of Dolby Digital Audio, I was in shock at how amazing it sounded. Being accustomed to listening to Dolby Pro Logic over broadcast TV, I was in sheer heaven comparing how much more real the experience was.

>>I posted a thread on this awhile ago, but i am still wondering, what do u guys think of having a sniper rifle in DNF? What do u guys think? Or what about a Flame Thrower?

We think we have a way to pull off a flamethrower well for a change. If we can do it, we may put one in the game. It all depends on 1) framerate and 2) visuals.

A sniper rifle of some sort is pretty much a given. At least some sort of zooming/sniping weapon, maybe Duke-ized a little bit. It's just too fun to leave out.

George Broussard, 3D Realms

Team Evolve Interview on Quakehelp.com, regarding their Painkeep mod.

Robb Rinard interview on GameGirlz regarding MotoCross Madness 2

Eric Biessman Interview on AGN3D, regarding SoF

James Jones interview on RPG Vault, regarding Horizons.

What engine will this game be using? Any special or unique characteristic you care to comment on?

The game uses proprietary engine and tool set developed by the team. We combine the visuals and detail of the best First Person Shooters with the number of units you would normally associate with RTS games. All animations and motion capture are seamless, giving the game world a cinematic feel. The game mixes huge beautiful landscapes with sprawling dense cities and industrial areas. No other RTS engine allows you to storm down city streets with a hundred marines following you, engaging in their own firefights with the enemy and you being at the heart of the action.

With all this attention being paid to the engine, what can you tell us about the A.I.?

The engine is incredibly flexible and powerful. New units with completely new capabilities can be added after release. The great thing is that these units can be mixed freely with the original units. Imagine combining a fantasy upgrade with the current units: Dragon air support anyone?

2) What, in your opinion, are the coolest new features of the Quake 3 Engine, and what are the most difficult features to grasp?
Curves, of course are alot of fun. There's so many things you can do with them. Sometimes I find myself just playing with all the different curves and curve functions, seeing what kinda cool, new things I can come up with. Another thing I am really enjoying is being able to cram more detail into an area. I am able to design areas in Alice using the Q3 engine that would NEVER fly in Q2 r_speeds.

I haven't completely grasped the full functionality of shaders yet. But I'm trying to learn what I can slowly but surely. Our scripting engine for Alice is another thing I haven't really delved into a whole lot as of yet, but in time I plan to learn that inside and out as well.

Gamespy: About Echelon/Storm and Project Overdrive, when are those two titles being released? Do you plan to have working demos released to the press and public soon?

Kenneth Morton: "Echelon - August 2000, Project Overdrive - Autumn 2000. The public demo-version of Echelon will be ready in May-June'2000. We have not yet announced it for Project Overdrive, but there will be one."

Gamespy: The graphics engine for Echelon has been developed in-house from scratch. Does it mean you plan to license it to third parties and/or adapt it to forthcoming projects?

Kenneth Morton: "We will certainly be using it in future projects. We have already had requests to license it from several parties, but we will not be considering this until the game has been released."

Work has begun on the Mac 413 patch for Unreal Tournament, now that we have worked out all the details with MacSoft. The patch will include all of the fixes from the PC version as well as a few Mac specfic optimizations and fixes. In particular we've sped up load times (about 20%) and fixed some sound echo problems.

We are beginning testing on 413 later this week (sorry, we don't need extra testers yet, please don't email!), and if all goes well we should be able to release the Mac update in a couple weeks.

Just a reminder- since Epic has kept the networking code compatible between versions, UT Mac 400 or 405b will still play fine on all the Internet servers out there, no matter what version of UT they are running. So keep playing and have fun!

>>1.) Will it have a layout similar to UnrealED?
Yes.

>>2.) Can you make the layout similar to 3D Studio MAX?

No.

>>3.) Is there any way to implement NURBS at this time in the engine?

No.

>>4.) Can you bundle the editor and a MANUAL with the game? I would like q3radiant except for that fact that i have to open word to learn about the editor :-P

The game tools and any documentation we can write will all be on the shipping CD.

Force Commander foregoes the usual resource gathering and unit construction of traditional RTS games for a command point system, which is probably a good idea, especially given the game’s Star Wars premise. We simply didn’t see any harvesters in the movies. Like all the other game elements however, this principally good idea is put to bad use. Command points are hard to earn, and while this is supposed to make you take better care of your units, it fails because you are doomed to loose units against the computer’s rushes. So it still boils down to the eternal question who can churn out more units faster.

Complete Diablo Monster, Weapon and Item lists.
Complete Diablo 2 Monster list and FAQ.
Complete Warcraft 3 Unit section and concept art.
Full unit list for Starcraft, strategies, FAQ's and more.

Well, as one V.P. from another publisher said in an email, after getting a very small preview of the game: “Duke is awesome! Not only is the game going to totally reset everyone's expectation of what a great game is, it will send every developer back to the drawing board.”

I personally believe that after this game comes out, it will take at least three years for it to be topped, unless we can release Duke 5 sooner than that.

Unrealty's down to 7 (count them, seven) minor issues. We're cleaning up a few poorly lip-synched parts in our tutorial, we've got to make sure our EULAs were okayed by the brass on Friday (it's a weekend, so we won't know until tomorrow), I want to add message boards to the website, and I need to set up our Master Server.

That's it, kiddies. Then she's out the door, spit-shined, polished, and ready for the world. I'm thinking Tuesday.

3. Telefragged: Is it easier to realize your team's vision in UT or Q3A is what I guess I'm driving at? Because some, like Q3F, seem more satisfied with Q3A, but the Action team and crt seem to enjoy UT...

Anarchy: Quite frankly, sitting my fat ass down and learning their OO implementation, syntax, and then on top of that, how they did the game was a pain in the ass, id rather do it in C quake 2/quake3 all the way.

Binary Cowboy: I prefer Quake3 simply because I believe Java was made by the devil and UT's Unreal Script bears a striking resemblance to Java.

Anarchy: I like UT gameplay, but I mean, right now on Q3A Gloom, I can start designing a class system right away while for UT, I have no clue how I would approach that, they have some messed up shit. Especially with what data gets sent to the server and what doesn't I mean, I'm sure its nice and organized, and well designed when you learn it but I don't have 3 years to devote to that.

4. Telefragged: Do you think its more familiarity with how Carmack and co. set things up for mod developers or just UT has it ass-backwards with Sweeney's dedication to OOP?

Anarchy: both, Sweeney took it too far; it's a game, not a spreadsheet. I don't need to be able to 'easily port it' to my 10ghz computer in 20 years, Carmack is a programming God. I've been working with Carmack code since Quakec, I'm real used to the entity/field/struct setup. It feels natural, and it works. Almost everything, level entities, effects entities, weapons, rotational brushes, is just an extension, the wonders of dialup.

(Mouse) With the limits on the HL engine (maps) do you think you will make a second mod but make it off of the TF2 engine?
(~A.u.s.t.i.n.) Once I finish with HLM I will surly be working on a second mod. It will certainly be the newest and best engine suited with the mod I decide to make, nothing is decided yet.

(Mouse) What do you think of the recent game Solider of Fortune? Do you think it will be able to go up against Team Fortress 2?
(~A.u.s.t.i.n.) I haven't played the full version of SOF yet, but from what I've seen and read and if TF2 hold up to be what it appears, I don't think SoF will be much competition.

GuarddoG: Do you've got anything to say too all the mods makers out there?
Gooseman: Keep up the awesome work. Without mod makers we'd all
be pretty bored of playing the same thing over and over again. It's a lot of work doing something we enjoy doing while at the same time putting up with a lot of criticism from people who don't know what goes into making a mod.

GuarddoG: What's the biggest problem with CS you've faced in recent years?
Gooseman: It's only been out for a year.. almost.
I suppose the biggest problems were the numerous cheats that people were using. I hate cheaters.

This tutorial is intended to help you create a class based mod in which players can choose from a variety of classes, each with its own unique abilities/attributes. When this tutorial is completed you should be able to choose your class (by selecting a model) and recieve different weapons and attributes based on the class you chose.

There are only 4 simple steps to this tutorial, so let's get started.

The story has the main character swearing bloody vengeance on a gang of punks who murdered his family three years earlier. Payne is now a special agent with the DEA, but things aren't much simpler. His boss and friend was recently murdered, and Max was framed for the job. Worse, the mafia family he infiltrated as a double agent wants him smeared all over the wall of an alley. Somehow, the player has to figure out how to survive in a hellish New York.

Just in case you missed these other demos, I've placed some links of some of the more recent ones for you to try: