QuakeCon2000 Contest - Falcon @ 5:27 am PST
August 28, 2000
News Release

Polycount has opened up public judging for the QuakeCon2000 Map Object Model Contest. For those that can't remember, The QuakeCon Model Contest began a month before QuakeCon, the models were sent to Rogue13 at Polycount to be put in a gallery for display, and they were to be voted on by the crowd in the BYOC area at QCon. However, things didn't work out as planned, so Polycount has exercised some coding skillz and put a public voting system in place. Check out the details of the contest and vote on the contest page and check out these cool categories for winners:

Sweetest Eye Candy - best effects, skin, in the showing
Most Awesomely Gothic - the best Gothic model
Industrial Magic - the best Base or Industrial style model The Real Thing - the best model or "realistic" level or mod Most Likely to be Mistaken for a Marital Aid - you probably can get this one
Most Versatile - goes with everything
Most Artistic - Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Picasso better make room for this
That's Really Weird - homage to the unusual Get out and vote!
Contest page:

Madden 2001 Review - Falcon @ 5:23 am PST
One of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of the year has finally shipped and SportPlanet is taking an in-depth look at it. Read the review of Madden 2001 from EA Sports.

Force Feedback Pro Giveaway - Falcon @ 5:20 am PST
What better to improve your game than a great joystick? To reward their loyal StarLancer Vault fans, we are giving away a shiny new SideWinder Force Feedback Pro joystick which includes a copy of MechWarrior 3.
To enter, simply visit StarLancer Vault's contest page and complete the form. Then keep your eyes on StarLancer Vault to see if you have won!

BigWorld Vault Launches - Falcon @ 5:17 am PST
Vault Network Discovers A Great BigWorld
BigWorld Vault To Cover Micro Forte’s Ambitious Online Title

The ironically named planet of Neo-Eden was originally a penal colony where criminals’ minds and personalities were erased so they could be re-integrated into society once they finished serving their sentences. Five decades ago, the inmates rioted, expelled the Guardians and took control. Now, with the former prison having become the center of a burgeoning community called DeMannon's Ladder, it is a world where the inhabitants are trying to build a new society. In addition, Neo-Eden is the setting for BigWorld: Citizen Zero, an ambitious and exciting online world project from Australian developer Micro Forte.

In order to offer fans of online gaming the best possible coverage of this intriguing title, the IGN Vault Network is pleased to announce the opening of our latest site, BigWorld Vault. Highlighting today’s launch is an extensive and very informative BigWorld: Citizen Zero Interview with Micro Forte Producer Steve Wang and other members of the team.

Gamers can also look forward to additional features, game information, news, concept art, screenshots et al. As with all dedicated Vault sites, BigWorld Vault will also focus on the player community, providing thorough community news coverage, message boards, reader participation features and much more. We invite all members of the community who are interested in the future of online gaming to stop in regularly to check out the coming excitement.

BigWorld Vault:

BigWorld: Citizen Zero Interview:

Gamespy Contract - Falcon @ 5:14 am PST
GameSpy Industries recently signed a 1-year contract with the female world no.1 Quake player, Kornelia Takacs... For the full scoop...

BG II Kits - Falcon @ 5:15 am PST
BG Chronicles goes onto describing the character class kits from Baldur's Gate II at Baldur's Gate Chronicles with a look at thieves, bards, druids and cleircs. The complete listing can be found at: http://www.bgchronicles.com/content/bg2/classes/kits.shtml

BG II Kits - Falcon @ 5:14 am PST
BG Chronicles goes onto describing the character class kits from Baldur's Gate II at Baldur's Gate Chronicles with a look at thieves, bards, druids and cleircs. The complete listing can be found at: http://www.bgchronicles.com/content/bg2/classes/kits.shtml

Are Sims Dying? - Falcon @ 5:14 am PST
- SimHQ.com Feature:
The opinion that sims are a dying breed seems to be expressed everywhere these days, so SIMHQ's Tom "Wklink" Cofield decided to do a little questioning of some people who've made and published the sims we've enjoyed in the past, as well as those working on current hits and upcoming titles. Tom asked them all the same five questions, and they're posting Questions One and Two today. What does the industry itself think about the future of sims? Read and find out. Participants in our first Roundtable Discussion are:

Alexander Delaney, eSim
Andy Hollis, Electronic Arts
Jay Littman, iEntertainment Network
Oleg Maddox, Maddox Games
Carl C. Norman, Mattel Interactive
Teut Weidemann, Wings Simulations
Steve Wickes, Empire Interactive

PlayStation Section Now Open. - shiva @ 4:10 am PST
GameSurge is pleased to announce that our latest game section, for the Sony PlayStation, is now open. The new section is just getting started, but we have finally managed to combine the GameSurge and the Ancient Nation material into one.

We are also still looking for help in running this section, as we have big plans for the future, but a lack of willing staff to help out has caused us to put some of these plans on hold for the time being. If you would like to be part of the game industry, with a eye towards a career in the game information sector, you can contact us with your application at our email address, webmaster@gamesurge.com.

NVidia sues 3dfx - shiva @ 3:36 am PST
In a surprise move, NVidia Corporation have announced that they have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against graphics card rival, 3dfx. The lawsuit, which involves five separate NVidia patents, seeks an injunction preventing 3dfx from manufacturing or selling graphics chip and card products from the Voodoo3, Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 and VSA-100 family of products. NVidia is also asking for monetary damages as well as the injunction.

"We have always been on the forefront of innovation in 3D graphics technology and visual computing," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of nVidia, in a quote to Daily Radar. "This innovation is achieved through the annual investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in research and development. We cannot allow the fruits of this investment to be misappropriated."

The patents named in the injunction are essentially I/O patents, relating to the efficiency of the interaction between the graphics processor and the core logic, memory, or CPU.

3dfx has decided not to comment on the lawsuit.

Intel recalls their new "Super Chip". - shiva @ 3:24 am PST
Intel, known for their dominance in the computer processor industry, continues to shoot themselves in the foot, this time with a recall on their brand new P-III 1.13 GHz chips. The chips, the latest in Intel's series designed to battle AMD for dominance in the processor industry, has been reported by several hardware sites to suffer from system errors when running certain programs and at a particular temperature.

Though there has been no actual complaints from customers, several computer manufactors have already stopped production of their computer lines using this chip, and Intel is quoted as saying they will work with these companies on either a replacement, or a refund for their customers.

This comes at a very bad time, as rival AMD released, on the same day, their new 1.1-GHz Athlon. And now, some industry experts are saying that Intel rushed the chip before it was actually ready, in a attempt to "leap frog" AMD in the latest round of the processor wars.

"It sounds like Intel may have pushed a little too hard," said chip analyst Peter Glaskowsky of MicroDesign Resources. "It shows the Pentium III is not really capable of reaching these levels... When you push the clock speed beyond what it was designed to do, you run into problems. They rushed to get the 1-GHz chip out, and they couldn't produce enough of them."

Intel hasn't announced the actual number of the chips they have produced at 1.13 GHz, but the numbers are believed to be small. The chips will be taken out of production, till they are fixed by redesigning the circuits in question. Intel is expecting the new redesigned chips to be back in stores within the next couple of months.
Source: Gamecenter

Miyamoto explains the Gamecube - shiva @ 3:01 am PST
In a article by Computer and Video Games they have a brief chat with Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of such games as Mario Bros. and the Zelda series, and Takashi Tezuka. Both gentleman talk about the new Nintendo super system, the Gamecube, at the Spaceworld expo presently being held in Toyko, Japan.

In the interview, they talk about some of the more interesting things about the Gamecube (also known as the Dolphin) and also about Animal’s Woods, a upcoming N64 communication game aimed at parents and children. The game itself is simular to the computer game smash hit, The Sim's, but could be considered more revolutionary in that different people can play different parts of the game, and they are all combined within the game.

As well, both gentlemen discuss the aspects of the Gamecube development, especially in relation to previous Nintendo systems, and also to the Sony PlayStation 2 system. Here is a small bit from their interview:

CVG: PlayStation 2 is expensive, it’s complicated to develop for and it’s very delicate to use. Would you say that Freedom is the key to Gamecube’s success – to want to do something, and for it to be easy and affordable?

MIYAMOTO-SAN: I think it is a big mission. Mr Yamauchi has repeatedly said that the TV Game industry with the current situation would be facing the crisis – it is already facing the crisis as a matter of fact. But he is not hoping that to be. Of course he would like to have the success of the TV Game industry as a whole. But what he is worrying about is with the current development environments fewer and fewer development companies can come up with better game software so that Mr Yamauchi specifically instructed me to make the presentation so that game creators are inspired and become willing to work on the new system and it’s not good if the hardware manufacturer is acting superior saying ‘we can make this, we can make that. You cannot make that’. You know, that kind of presentation he specifically didn’t want it. So I think that is the key point. So we share the opinion too that there are a number of unique people, and these unique people should be given the opportunity to work freely.

As a little aside, he didn't mention if that means the games for the new system will actually be cheaper though. The Gamecube is expected to be released in the United States sometime in October of next year.

Monday, August 28, 2000

GameBoy Color Upcoming games - HandOverFist @ 12:07 pm PST
Nintendo has put together a list of new games for the GameBoy Color. Keep in mind, though, that not all of these games will come out in North America. Click here to see the new games!

Nintendo 64 Upcoming Games - HandOverFist @ 11:59 am PST
Nintendo has put together a list of upcoming N64 games. The only thing is the only some are coming up here and others will stay in Japan. The list also has some cool screens and infomation on the game. Click here to see the list!

The Legend of Zelda: A Nut of Mysterious Tree/Chapter of Gaia - HandOverFist @ 11:59 am PST
Never lacking for ambition, Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto and his crackerjack development team have come up with yet another genre-bender in Mysterious Tree. The key item here is the Four Seasons Rod, which gives Link the power to change the terrain as well as the season. Such supernatural powers are a must if Link is to counteract a mysterious power that has scrambled the seasons, wreaking havoc across the land known as Hologram. Click here to get more infomation and screens!

Upcoming Games for GameBoy Advance - HandOverFist @ 11:55 am PST
Nintendo has put together a site showing all the GameBoy Advance Games that are coming soon. Some of the infomation has screens as well infomation. Click Here To Go!

The Feature of Nintendo... - HandOverFist @ 11:45 am PST
Are you wondering what new games Nintendo is coming up with? Do you want to see the game play, to see how the game works? Well, Nintendo has put up some movies that you can check out showing new games and all. Click here to check them out!

Game Cube Central - VulTure @ 8:59 am PST
The Radar has a LOT of info about the new Game Cube from Nintendo. They talk about the controllers, the games, the modem, the hardware specifications, and any other little details that you ever wanted to know about the new console.

Free Levels for Alien Vs. Predator Gold - VulTure @ 8:53 am PST
The Daily Radar has word of some free levels that you can get for Alien Vs. Predator Gold, if you own the game. "Several new levels will be added to the official fan site in the future. All extra levels are playable as deathmatch, skirmish and cooperative modes."

Dreamcast has been cut - VulTure @ 8:42 am PST
Ultimate GameZ Interactive has word of Dreamcast cuts already. Walmart has decided to lower the the price of the Dreamcast to get ready for the big fall push. There will also still be a $50.00 rebate that you will be able to get, that will bring the cost of the Dreamcast down to $100.00!

AMD ships 1.1 GHz 'Thunderbird' Athlon - VulTure @ 8:22 am PST
AMD has officially released their new Intel-killer! Check out the features!

The AMD Athlon is an Intel x86-compatible microprocessor that features a superpipelined microarchitecture optimized for blazingly fast speeds. New versions of the Athlon--which were developed under the codename "Thunderbird"--feature 256KB of on-board L2 cache and 128KB of on-board L1 cache, enhanced "3DNow!" integer-enhancing capabilities, and a 200 MHz system bus. The Thunderbird Athlons also feature a new Socket A design that replaces the old slot-based design from earlier chips. AMD says that these features enable it to best Intel's fastest Pentium III designs, which are nearing the end of their life cycle.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion - VulTure @ 8:06 am PST
The Daily Radar has put up a review of the expansion pack to Age of Empires II. They give it very high praise!

In the case of the just released Age of Conquerors, it's as if Michaelangelo came down, picked up an already beautiful painting and made it a masterpiece. Improvements have been made across the board; old units and civilizations are more balanced, the new single-player campaigns are vast improvements over the old campaigns, and the new civilizations are challenging and mesh perfectly with the old. If you were to buy just one RTS this summer, there is no better choice than this expansion.

Neil Manke Interview - VulTure @ 8:00 am PST
Neil Manke, map-making expert, sits down to talk to Half-Life.net. He is the man known for many maps including, USS Darkstar, They Hunger and They Hunger 2.

What feature do you wish you could've added to They Hunger that was impossible in the Half-Life engine?

I would have loved to have proper weather effects. The rain I used briefly during the They Hunger intro was just a bunch of sprites and not a proper weather effect suitable for large areas, not to mention every rain drop stream had to be done individually making it a very arduous process. And certainly some ground fog in the cemetery areas would have been very atmospheric ...things like that.

Baldur's Gate II Collector's Edition - VulTure @ 7:50 am PST
Interplay has decided to release a "collectors" edition of Baldur's Gate II, in addition to the standard release. Here is what you'll get if you buy this version...

1. Four Custom Collector's Edition Gold CD-ROMs featuring the complete Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn in a Collector's Edition Jewel Case
2. A Special Bonus Disc containing exclusive weapons and armor as well as tracks from the original game soundtrack
3. Cloth Map displaying in vivid color the Kingdom of Amn
4. A set of eight collectible Character Trading Cards (one of two sets randomly distributed, 16 trading cards in all)
5. Black Isle Studios writing tablet
6. Spiral Bound Manual
7. Hinged Book Style Serialized Box (without front flap)

Nintendo's new goods - VulTure @ 7:41 am PST
Gamefirst takes a quick peek at Nintendo's new cash-cows, the upcoming Game Cube, and the Game Boy Advance.

The Game Cube..."...the console formerly known as Dolphin opted to go with a 128 bit format instead of the 256 bit consoles that we’re going to see from Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo will be using a DVD-derivative format for its games, but it will be a smaller disc, holding about 1/5 the capacity of a regular DVD. The GameCube will not function as a DVD player; Nintendo has made it quite clear that they want this to be a dedicated gaming systems rather than the complete home entertainment system Sony is promising. Along those lines, the unit will not come with a modem installed, but a standard modem and broadband connector will be available."

The Game Boy Advance..."Using a 32 bit system with a larger and more detailed screen it promises to be a giant leap ahead of Game Boy Color and should ensure Nintendo’s dominance of the handheld market for some time."

There are also some screenshots up at the site for your viewing pleasure!

Baldurs's Gate II - VulTure @ 7:28 am PST
VoodooExtreme continues on with their ongoing journal of Baldur's Gate II. They are currently on a "...quest...to raise 20,000 gold pieces to buy an alliance with the guild of shadow thieves..." There are many screenshots up, for those of you that would like to see more.

Venom Interview - shiva @ 3:57 am PST
Venom is a game that's "a tactical 3D-action where a player controls a Special Forces squad of two soldiers." Lots of aliens, the world coming to a end type storyline highlight this special game based on new AI and animation technology. The game is expected to be finished in the fall of 2000.

For more on this game, you can read our interview with the lead programmer, Sergey Zabaryansky of The Nephilims.

Sunday, August 27, 2000

AoK: TC Designer Journal - Falcon @ 4:49 am PST
GA-Strategy has published its fourth and final Age of Kings: The Conquerors Designer Journal written by Designer Greg T. Street. This installment deals with Town Centers and Outposts and also includes some final
thoughts from Greg Street.

CS 7 Files - Falcon @ 4:46 am PST
Here:

Fileplanet Mirrors - Falcon @ 4:45 am PST
Delivering heart-racing rally action, Colin McRae Rally 2.0 has already been a massive hit on PlayStation since launch in June. It was the summer's hottest property and now Codemasters is extending the original design of Colin McRae Rally 2.0 to include network and online play for PC gamers. This exclusive 35.7MB .avi shows the great racing action in Colin McRae Rally 2.0.

Delta Force: Land Warrior Demo mirrored at FilePlanet

Dark Reign 2 v1.1 patch on FilePlanet

FilePlanet is mirroring the newly updated Sudden Strike demo. It is located at http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?file=49399.
Also gamers.de is hosting another mirror:

Legend of Mana Review - Falcon @ 3:54 am PST
Dale and Chi of GameCritics.com share their thoughts on the Squaresoft action RPG title, Legend of Mana. The two opinions go from bad to worse. Here's an excerpt from Dale's review:

"Such a system certainly sounds innovative and excitingly new, but in application it is not at all problem free. The game's major problem is most apparent before the game really starts. After sitting through a vague opening intro, I chose a generic character (male or female -- it doesn't matter), selected a weapon of choice and was then plopped down in the world of Mana with nary a clue as to what to do."

The Conquerors Review - Falcon @ 3:52 am PST
Exxtreme3D has just finished up its review on the expansion to Microsoft's Age of Empires I, entitled The Conquerors.

"The gameplay of The Conquerors is pretty much the same as the Age of Kings, just with some new changes. These changes vary from good to bad. Good changes would include the decrease in the price of outposts to 25 wood and 10 stone and the increase in the relic gold generation. They also gave each civilization a new unique technology. However, they raised the cost of the town centers to 275 wood and 100 stone. Not only is the cost more expensive, but it also builds slower. This is probably because players have been building town centers next to every resource, but I don’t really see a big problem in that. Well, at least now their damage and range can be upgraded through the blacksmith. You can read more about the tons of other changes on the manual when you buy this great expansion."

BG2 warrior kits - Falcon @ 3:48 am PST
You want your fighter to be a berserker or your paladin to be an undead slayer? To help you make these decisions, we offer you the descriptions of the warrior kits as they currently are in the press review copy. The other classes will follow shortly.

Falcon Northwest Interview - Falcon @ 3:46 am PST
For Stomped's final installment in its "PC Gaming Rigs" series of interviews, they chat with Kelt Reeves, founder and head of the pioneer in PC gaming computers, Falcon Northwest. Check out the exclusive interview at http://www.stomped.com/published/jcal967242507_1_1.html

GameVoice Out - Falcon @ 3:47 am PST
CALL THE SHOTS! SIDEWINDER GAME VOICE SPOTTED ON STORE SHELVES

Microsoft today announced that SideWinder Game Voice, its gaming device that brings a new sensory experience to PC gaming, has started to appear on store shelves. There have been several reports of its availability at locations throughout the United States and full domestic distribution is expected later this month. Game Voice is the first all-in-one voice solution for gamers, integrating software for contact management, voice chat, and speech recognition with an eight-button control pad for channel management and a high-quality, noise-reducing headset.

With online multiplayer games, effectively communicating with teammates or opponents has been difficult without a voice chat solution tailored to gaming. Game Voice is an easy way to talk strategy with teammates, and talk trash at opponents. Since Game Voice requires at least two players, a free limited-feature version of the software is available for download at http://www.gamevoice.com. Game Voice Share means gamers can always talk with teammates and opponents alike, regardless if they've purchased the full retail version. Game Voice Share is a limited version of Game Voice software, without the channels, voice commands or hardware found in the retail version.

Game Voice is a complete hardware and software solution that brings voice to games. Not only does Game Voice let players talk in the game, it also makes finding and connecting to their friends quick and easy. The device uses Microsoft Messenger Service technology to help gamers access "buddy lists" and chat session lists. Gamers can simply click on a name or a chat session to start talking. They can also issue voice commands within the game, like "build house" or "switch weapons." Game Voice comes with an eight-button control pad that lights up to show players who they're talking with, or to indicate if they're in voice command mode.

Game Voice is available for an estimated street price of US$49. For more information on Game Voice and to download Game Voice Share go to: http://www.gamevoice.com/

UT to Dreamcast - Falcon @ 3:42 am PST
Unreal Tournament, GameSpy.Com's Game of the Year for 1999, is coming to the Dreamcast. Epic Games and Infogrames showcase the types of gameplay available in the Dreamcast port of UT in this 17 MB .avi movie.

FAKK2 Demo Review - Falcon @ 3:40 am PST
Weighing in around 74 megabytes, the FAKK2 demo isn't very large. The magnificent artwork and level design alone is worth a look, and the gameplay is pretty engaging as well. If you have doubts about buying the full version of the game, check out 3DActionPlanet's demo review.

"Ritual made a wise design move when they automated some of Julie's movements, like grabbing onto a ledge when making a flying jump, or having
her automatically draw a bead on the nearest target when wielding her weapons. Of course, the demo allows you to customize your control scheme to pretty much whatever you like."

Most wanted games - Falcon @ 3:40 am PST
Actiontrip have written up their 5 most wanted games list, from Baldurs Gate 2 to Black and White. Read it here:

Creature Movie - Falcon @ 3:34 am PST
Question: What's large, has three heads, and looks like something out of your worst nightmares?

Answer: This week's creature animation!

This kicks off a new weekly creature animations on Atriarch Vault! Each week Serafina will send me a new animation of one of the creatures in Atriana which will in turn be posted for all to see.
You can find this week's creature animation here:

D2 Top ten - Falcon @ 3:31 am PST
In their never-ending goal at StrategyPlanet to prove that they are completely incapable of learning a lesson from past experience, "Gaming is Life" writer NikNak has taken the opportunity to write the Top Ten Reasons He Sucks at Diablo II.

"With the goal of casting a critical eye over my Diablo II habits, I objectively assessed my gaming and came up with ten major points where I seem to fail. Keep in mind that I tend to play Diablo II with an emphasis on the marketing description of the game. “It’s an action/roleplaying/STRATEGY hybrid.” "

David Grenewetzki (Sierra) I/view - Falcon @ 3:11 am PST
A PR from RPG Vault:
We confirmed recently that Sierra On-Line and The Saul Zaentz Company, which conducts business as Tolkien Enterprises, are involved in legal action over the license for the creation of computer games based on the literary works J.R.R. Tolkien. Sierra was gracious enough to allow us to interview its President, David Grenewetzki.

Dues Ex Player Models - Falcon @ 3:10 am PST
Peter Marquardt of Ionstorm Austin has sent PlanetUnreal the source files for J.C. Denton, a player model seen in Deus Ex. Denton is the main character in the Unreal-engine based Action/RPG game, and this release will allow players to use the model in UT, but also allow authors to create new skins for distribution. You can grab the files from their mirrors at FilePlanet.

Vampire Review - Falcon @ 3:06 am PST
Today's EuroGamer review takes a look at "Vampire : Redemption", the action role-playing game all about blood-sucking creatures of the night.

"The characters in the game are also superbly rendered, with fantastic, smooth models that really look like humans, albeit rather bulky ones. The weapons they use are fearsome-looking, and everything is bathed in pseudo-realism, right down to the way the weapons glint and shine as they are brandished openly in combat."

Saturday, August 26, 2000

Starcraft Map of the Week - Hobbes @ 3:36 pm PST
The newest Starcraft Map of the Week is called End of the Line. It is a 192x192 using the twilight tileset and is designed for two players (requires BROOD WAR to play!).

Blizzard also informed us of the following info:

End of the Line marks our 127th Map of the Week! Since the beginning of the Map of the Week program, we have hosted over 2 million downloads! We are glad that so many of you have enjoyed the the Map of the Week program and we also hope you'll enjoy our new Trigger Map of the Month program.

Beginning on September 29th, we will release a new Trigger based map on the last Friday of each month. These types of maps have been the most requested and best received maps with favorites like Bunker Command, Christmas Rush, Mercenaries, the Enslaver Series, and the 12 days of Christmas. Stop by our Map Archives for a complete listing of Starcraft Maps.

MOTW changes to TMOTM? This will be good for people like me who love UMS maps. Some say this is a sign of the slow death of Starcraft(?).

"A work is never completed except by some accident such as weariness, satisfaction, the need to deliver, or death: for, in relation to who or what is making it, it can only be one stage in a series of inner transformations."

-Paul Valéry, French poet

You can download the map here.

Friday, August 25, 2000

Tribes 2 Beta Sign-up - sim @ 7:49 pm PST
Sierra posted an announcement on the official Tribes 2 website that Dynamix is now accepting applications for the Tribes 2 beta test! Here's what else they have to say:

Input from a wide variety of expert and novice players is needed. The Tribes 2 beta test is open to applicants worldwide. Each participant will receive a pre-release version of the game to test. Each beta tester is expected to document bugs or inconsistencies as they occur, and to provide general feedback to the development team. All participants must sign a non-disclosure agreement.

To sign up, just fill out the application form, then hope and pray you get in.

2GHz Pentium 4 - Recoil @ 8:24 am PST
Read up on it at:
Tom's Hardware
MSNBC

Mouse that has Feelings - Recoil @ 8:22 am PST
At CNN this article talks about logitech's soon to release the IFeel Mouseman.

Voodoo5 5500 Dominates - VulTure @ 8:12 am PST
According to this press release from 3dfx, sales for the Voodoo5 5500 have topped the charts. The card has outsold the competition by more than a 2:1 margin, in the first month! The Voodoo3 sales have also been very strong, taking up 3 of the top 5 positions in sales volume!

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare - VulTure @ 8:02 am PST
The Daily Radar has put up a preview of the latest game in the Alone in the Dark Series. Apparently, the story continues from the original game, but some things are changing. The main character, has been made younger. "...every 40 years it is bestowed on a young orphan who is destined to live a life tiptoeing around creepy shacks with only a 9mm and an industrial-strength flashlight to protect him."

In this edition, you will be investigating the death of a friend and you will also be able to play as a second character!

CH Drivers - Falcon @ 8:00 am PST
Just posted at SimHQ.com:

We have recently received a report that suggests CH Products has shelved development of the USB combined drivers meant to support older games that may not offer native support for seperate control devices. However, we at SimHQ have been in direct contact with decison-makers at CH, whose exact response was, "There is no truth to the story at all."

In fact, in addition to Windows and MAC/OS support, they are working on Linux support as well, so it looks like everyone waiting for USB legacy support will be rewarded soon!

Unreal Tournament Problems - VulTure @ 7:54 am PST
Epic has updated their Unreal Tournament bug site, with some fixes for bugs that people have been experiencing. The one is particular is the game not being able to find the CD in certain drives, or the game hanging at the splash screen. There are also some issues that have been reported with the latest patch, version 428.

ST:DS9 The Fallen Interview - Falcon @ 7:53 am PST
Today on 3DActionPlanet: The guys from The Collective are busy trying to finish up UT-powered Deep Space Nine: The Fallen. But with the right amount of Mountain Dew, 3dAP bribed an interview out of them.

bleem! Interview - Falcon @ 7:51 am PST
PlanetPS2.com has conducted an interview with Sean Kauppinen of bleem! bleem! allows gamer's to play Playstation titles on a PC and has been a huge success. The company's upcoming product, bleemcast! allows gamer's to use their Dreamcast to play Playstation titles.

For more information on bleem! be sure to check out the interview on PlanetPS2.com

Q3A on PSX2 - Falcon @ 7:50 am PST
PlanetPS2.com was able to get into contact with Todd Hollenshead at id Software for additional details on the Playstation 2 port. For the details be sure to check out: www.planetps2.com

Neverwinter Nights Interview - Falcon @ 7:49 am PST
Neverwinter Nights is an ambitious modular single- and multiplayer title in development at BioWare, and the team has been working with the new 3rd Edition D&D rules for over a year. Now that the new rules have been released, NWVault had the opportunity to discuss them with Producer Trent Oster in a very informative Neverwinter Nights 3rd Edition Interview.

Team Factor Interview - Falcon @ 7:50 am PST
3dNews has just slapped up an interview with Marek Trefny of 7fx, a Czech developer working on a Multiplayer Team Combat game entitled Team Factor.

What engine are you using? Is it an in-house engine you created? What APIs will it support?

Yes, it's an in-house engine called LightForce. It will support Direct3D and OpenGL. At this time it's running on Windows and Linux. We are writing the code with the portability on our minds, so it'll be easily transferrable to other platforms including consoles.

Unreal Tournament on the Dreamcast? - VulTure @ 7:51 am PST
IGN Dreamcast has put up their first impressions of Unreal Tournament on the Dreamcast. Finally, one of the most played games on the Internet is being ported over. Of course, there will also be an on-line component to the game so that you can frag all of your friends.

"...Infogrames has commissioned several leading level designers in the Unreal community to put together the ultimate collection of Dreamcast-friendly arenas. Infogrames estimates that Dreamcast UT will offer somewhere between 30-50 maps all told, many of which will be better suited towards the lower player count found therein, as the DC version is currently shooting for a max headcount of 8 in most matches...Unreal Tournament...is sure to be one of the reasons to own a Dreamcast this holiday season."

AOE2: Conquerors on Shelves - Falcon @ 7:36 am PST
AGE OF EMPIRES II: THE CONQUERORS EXPANSION STORMS ONTO STORE SHELVES

Microsoft today announced that Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion, developed by Ensemble Studios, has started to appear on store shelves. There have been several reports of its availability at locations throughout the United States and full domestic distribution is expected by the end of this month. Additionally, Ensemble Studios continues "The Conquerors Designer Journal" series in September, with the addition of articles designed to help players expand their gameplay experience.

In September, Ensemble Studios will take a look at how gamers can customize random maps for play against computer or human opponents. The Random Map Scripting article, penned by lead designer Greg Street, will teach players how to define their land size, add terrain, such as lakes and forests, and add in objects such as buildings or additional villagers, to create their own customized battle ground. To support Random Map scripting, Ensemble will also offer a series of new, downloadable Random Maps for use with the Conquerors Expansion. Beginning with the first article on Random Map Scripting on September 1, the design articles will be available for download at: http://www.ageofkings.net/openjournal2/.

The Conquerors Expansion features five new civilizations: the Huns, Aztecs, Mayans, Koreans, and Spanish, along with four new historically based campaigns and over ten new units. Each civilization has unique attributes, buildings, and technologies, as well as unique combat units based on its historical counterpart. "Smart villagers," who go to work immediately and efficiently after constructing a drop-off building, and farm queues, which allow the gamer to automatically replant exhausted farms, add realism and ease-of-play to the gaming experience. Continuing to build on the Age of Empires franchise, the Conquerors Expansion showcases the expertise of Bruce Shelley, and offers the most feature-rich expansion pack created to date.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion has an estimated street price of US$29.95. For more information on the game, visit the official Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/games/conquerors/, or the Ensemble Studios Web site at http://www.ensemblestudios.com/.

Duke Nukem: Endangered Species - Falcon @ 7:30 am PST
The first Duke Nukem game for the PC in over four years is set to be released in December, but it's not Duke Nukem Forever. Stomped chats exclusively with 3D Realms President Scott Miller and members of the Action Forms development team about Duke Nukem: Endangered Species, the 3D hunting game with the "Duke" attitude. In addition to never-before-revealed details about the title, Stomped has posted the first publicly released screenshot from the game. Check out the exclusive interview and screenshot at http://www.stomped.com/published/jcal967147689_1_1.html

CheatingPlanet Opens - Falcon @ 7:28 am PST
If you're looking for hacks, trainers, or other programs to cheat in multiplayer games like Quake 3 or Diablo 2, look elsewhere. But if you want a great place to find all those built-in cheat codes, secrets, extra characters, and other goodies, then CheatingPlanet is the place for you.

CheatingPlanet launches with over 10,000 cheats codes for 15 different platforms, from the Dreamcast to the Saturn and the Amiga to the PC.

Readers can submit their own cheats in order to
earn "points" (if the code is verified) put towards contests, giveaways, and more.

Hostile Waters Interview - Falcon @ 7:26 am PST
The latest BarrysWorld feature article is now live. In it MikeyBear talks to Julian Widdows From Birmingham based software house Rage (www.rage.co.uk) about their forthcoming Carrier Command `em up, Hostile Waters.

How many separate user controllable vehicles does the game now include and how many different weapons are available to those vehicles?

There are ten vehicles, six weapons, eight add-ons, the carrier, the carrier guns, and a secret vehicle you get seven levels into the game. All of them (bar the secret vehicle) can be controlled and ordered, and they are steadily introduced to you as you progress through the game.

The interview also covers details on the physics engine used in the game and contains over 20 screenshots exclusive to BarrysWorld.

Check out the full interview at http://www.barrysworld.com/news/interviews/hostilewaters/and the screenshot gallery at http://www.barrysworld.com/news/screenshots/hostilewaters/

Nintendo 64 section is Now Open - shiva @ 2:11 am PST
After 3 months of putting it off, I finally got the Nintendo 64 section done, and it is now up, but....

Well, I will be honest. I was only just starting to build the console section when we merged, so there's only a little bit there. On top of it, the only reason it's up now is because if I don't do it now, it may not be up for another 3 months, so here it is.

BTW, Mr. Anal, after loading the entire thing in, noticed a couple of things, but since I'm tied up on other things at the moment, I will just leave it. A lot of pictures and stuff, but we haven't had the submissions to fill the rest of the sections yet. That will take a little time, so if you have a N64, and like to help out, you can contact us at webmaster@gamesurge.com. Be very glad to hear from you. Next stop, the PlayStation...

Thursday, August 24, 2000

Nintendo's Gamecube Screens - HandOverFist @ 12:34 pm PST
Nintendo has out done them selfs this time. These screens are really cool and so life like. These images are not meant to imply that any games starring these characters are planned for a future release in either Japan or the U.S. Click here to check out the Screens!

Game Boy Advance - HandOverFist @ 12:17 pm PST
Are you looking for more infomation on the new Game Boy Advance by Nintendo? Well Nintendo has put up a page that has all the infomation that you need to know. And man the new Game Boy Advance is going to be great Game Boy because of the power the little thing has! The looks that it has to adds the coolness to it all. Click Here for more infomation!
The look says it all!

New Nintendo Console - HandOverFist @ 12:06 pm PST
Thats right Nintendo has again released a new console. The new console is called Gamecube. Gamecube is powered by IBM Power PC "Gekko" and 0.18 microns NEC Embedded DRAM Process. Making this console to be one of the coolest because how small it is. Nintendo's Gamecube will compete with Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation 2. North America can expect to see Gamecube October 2001! Click here to check out more info!
Click here to see the cool picture

GBC: Perfect Dark - HandOverFist @ 10:53 am PST
The portable version of Perfect Dark takes place before Joanna's N64 adventure, during the final stages of her training at the Institute. Joanna tests herself in real combat for the first time in seven new missions designed exclusively for Game Boy Color. If the intensity level is anything like the N64 game, prepare for your Game Boy Color to be coated in sweat. In stores August 28, Perfect Dark is compatible only with Game Boy Color. Click here to find out more!

CS Rambot Interview - sim @ 9:32 am PST
Planet Counter-Strike has tossed up an interview with Paul George, creator of the Rambot Counter-Strike bot. Here's a quick tease:

PlanetCS: What do you plan in future Versions (AI, vehicles ...)?
Paul George: I will begin with the AI and the teamplay : it is the most important thing ! I will make them learn how to use grenades, how to rescue hostages, plant/defuse bomb... They will know how to use radio and they will understand them...

Read the rest of this bad boy here!

CS beta 7 FGD - sim @ 9:33 am PST
If you're planning on making any maps for Counter-Strike beta 7, be sure to pick up the beta 7 FGD that includes the func_vehicle and func_vehiclecontrols that are new to beta 7.

Alice Preview - sim @ 9:30 am PST
Gamer's Nexus has put together a preview of Alice (I think it may no longer be called "American McGee's Alice"). Here's a clip:

This demented and fouled Wonderland looks to be an engrossing and certainly invasive environment, with a choice of lighting effects and background textures that is at once both surreal and vaguely.. aggressive. The Quake III engine was chosen to bring McGee's vision to life and from the look of the screen shots published so far, it certainly seems to handle the task admirably. There is no doubt in my mind that when you boot ALICE up and turn down the lights - the game will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Even the still and lifeless screenshots I've seen so far are quite unsettling. I certainly can't imagine how erie the environments will feel when you're actually playing the game.

Read the rest here.

Gaming Survey is finished - VulTure @ 8:41 am PST
Ziff Davis has finished a survey of 2000 gamers, and the results are very interesting. Here are some of the facts that were found out...

- 22 percent plan to buy a next-generation console such as the Xbox, Dolphin or PlayStation 2

- PC gamers have a median age of 29, while console gamers have a median age of 17

- 88 percent of gamers are male, 77 percent are single

Battle.net Scams - VulTure @ 8:21 am PST
Have you played Diablo II on Battle.net recently? If so, check out this page. There are quite a few scams going on in the game that you may want to watch out for!

Star Trek: New Worlds Goes Gold!! - VulTure @ 8:15 am PST
The new Star Trek game has gone gold! Here is the press release...

14 Degree's East and Interplay is proud to announce that Star Trek: New Worlds has gone gold and is, even as you read this, now with the nice people at the duplication plants.

The New Worlds Team would like to thank all the loyal fans who have followed this project for the last couple of years, and hope that you can forgive us for being absent from these boards for the last couple of weeks. Having lived, breathed and dreamt New Worlds during this last final push, we had to forsake many things, answering board questions, the outside world, sleep...

So, all that is left to do now is sit back and wait feverishly for the 29th, when New Worlds will appear all shiny and new on store shelves near you!

Thank you,
Team New Worlds

Server Move - Falcon @ 8:15 am PST
You may have noticed the slowdown in Content updates lately, this was due to an internal server move, while we were sorting out technicalities within the site which occured in the transition process.
You may have also noticed the fact that we hadn't had news for 2 days. This was due problems with DNS switching and some CGI errors occuring with the move, they have all being resolved and we expect things to start going back to normal from now.

Quake 3 on Dreamcast - VulTure @ 8:08 am PST
Dreamcasters rejoice! Quake 3 is on the way! The game is set for launch in October, so start saving your pennies!

Longtime fans of Quake may be a bit skeptical about the Dreamcast version of Quake III Arena, but the game is already impressive in its unfinished state. If Sega can get the frame rate up and sneak in support for the LAN adaptor, the game will end up being a truly amazing first for the console industry.

Sega is also working on a patch, so that PC users can log into SegaNet, and play against Dreamcast users.

Tomb Raider: Chronicles - VulTure @ 7:54 am PST
Eidos has opened up a website for their upcoming game, Tomb Raider: Chronicles. There is not much up there right now, but they do have some screenshots that you can download.

Dragonriders Designer Diary - VulTure @ 7:54 am PST
Ubi Soft has purchased the rights to turn the Dragonriders of Pern series into a game. Well, that was three years ago, and now the game looks like it is in full development. The game used to have a look similiar to Diablo, but now, they have converted the engine into full 3D! For more info, check out the Dragonriders Designer Diary!

Heavy Metal - FAKK2 v1.02 - VulTure @ 7:42 am PST
Ritual has taken the FAKK2 patch out of beta and has made it official. Grab it now!

MechWarrior 4 Preview - VulTure @ 7:42 am PST
The Daily Radar has put up a preview of the next game in the Mechwarrior series. Here is a quick plot summary - "...the character is the last surviving member of his house, which was wiped out by a sneak attack from the bastards from House Steiner. Players must fight to regain the honor of their father's good name..." There are some great new screenshots up there also.

Game Cube is coming - VulTure @ 7:37 am PST
The new 128-bit console system from Nintendo has been christened, the Game Cube. They demonstrated the unit to an amazed audience in Japan, but, unfortunately, the United States will have to wait until October of next year before they can get their hands on one.

The future of first-person shooters - VulTure @ 7:26 am PST
In case you missed this one, you may want to go back and take a look. TechExtreme has put up an article/interview with some of the top designers in the industry to talk about the future of FPS games. The interviewees are Gabe Newell of Valve, John Romero of Ion Storm, Brian Raffel of Raven Software and Richard 'Levelord' Gray of Ritual. Here's a quick quote from John Romero...

I think the genre is doing quite well... we have multiple types of FPS titles now (Single-Player and Multiplayer-only), many differences in gameplay (slow movement speed vs fast DOOM-style speed)... in-engine cinematics and rendered cines... etc.

Arcade Strategy Section Expansion - shiva @ 5:52 am PST
Just trying out our new server, and I decided to start with the updates that I have prepared earlier. The first one is our Arcade Strategy Section, which has now been tripled in size. So, here's whats new:

Arcade Cheats
Of all the various arcade information out there, the toughest one to find are arcade cheats. It's very surprising, but there are very few cheats for arcade machines, and not a lot of them as well. We at GameSurge have collected one of the largest selections of arcade cheats you will find, and present them to you in our latest section.

Arcade Pinouts
Pinouts are the settings for soldiering the wires to the arcade board. Though most, if not all the cabinets are JAMMA based, you may still be required to reconnect some wires to the JAMMA harness, especially if you are using a different controller hookup. This section is valuable to all people with arcade machines, and contains over 300 pin-outs for the various arcade boards.

Arcade Switch Settings
Switch settings are the switch's that a operator can set for the individual arcade game. These can range anywhere from the book keeping functions, to setting the difficulty, to setting the amount of plays per coin, or even free play! This resource details all the adjustments you can make internally to your arcade game.

Arcade Walkthroughs
Need some help? The problem with arcade machines is they cost money for each game, and if you get stuck, it could drain your wallet fast. GameSurge has just the help you need in our new arcade walkthrough section. There's quite a few here, and it's growing.

There is more additions coming very shortly, including a new console section, so stay tuned...

Are we back yet? - shiva @ 4:38 am PST
Well, our DNS has repointed, and our host has changed servers, but alas, it is not for the better, as when they moved the site over to the new server, a few bits didn't make it. That also includes our CGI. If you see this, then it's fixed, if not, err... never mind then...

Tuesday, August 22, 2000

Myst III Update - the_culture @ 9:41 am PST
Myst3.com updated their page with several news items. First off they have an Inside Look at the technology behind Myst III: Exile. Second, they have an online survey for you fan to fill out. As a bonus, they will randomly draw entries to win shirts and mousepads. And third, they have a contest to win a Myst III: Exile denim T-shirt. All they ask in return is for you to fill out a form and explain in 100 words or less how Myst and/or Riven changed your life.

Starship Troopers Preview - VulTure @ 5:54 am PST
The 'Vault has put up a preview of Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy. This game is based on the movie AND the novel. The designers wanted to take the best of both to put into the game. This is going to be a real-time strategy game that will put you in a very wide variety of environments.

Voodoo Everywhere! - VulTure @ 5:49 am PST
3dfx Gamers has put up part II of their article, Voodoo Everywhere. This one talks about how the Voodoo chip is helping the government train it's troops!

Voodoo technology also plays a central role in generating high-end graphics and enabling broad-based deployment of visual simulation applications for land, sea, and air. Whether you're training a pilot of a jet, a captain of a ship or a driver of a tank, it is necessary to run him/her through extensive training. What better way to train a person than put him/her in a simulator?

Logitech releases a "feel" mouse - VulTure @ 5:43 am PST
Logitech has released a new mouse that let's you "feel" Windows! Here a bit from the press release...

"Logitech...has launched a new product category - optical wheel mice with the ability to 'feel' events within all Windows applications and on the Web. Now anyone who uses a mouse can experience tactile sensations via the mouse as the cursor travels over icons and menus, command bars, folders, tool bars, web buttons and hyperlinks. What's more, because the iFeel mice are optical, they offer a high degree of precision while requiring no cleaning."

FAKK2 Alpha Patch - VulTure @ 5:36 am PST
Ritual has released an alpha patch that will fix the crash on exit and crash on loading saved game bugs. You must have the previous patch installed first, and since this is an ALPHA patch, it is not supported.

Stupid Invaders - VulTure @ 5:33 am PST
Ubi-Soft is currently working on a new cartoon adventure game called Stupid Invaders. There isn't much info yet on the game, but there are some great screenshots for you to check out!

Baldur's Gate II Preview - VulTure @ 5:29 am PST
Baldur's Gate II...Need I say more? This is the role-playing game on everyone's mind, so why don't you go in for a peek...

"I’m going to assure you that Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn will be one of most important RPG’s ever released. It is a beautiful epic, bringing to the field a new level of polish, detail, and design. And, it’s going to change everything."

Dues Ex Review - Falcon @ 4:42 am PST
Actiontrip have reviewed the FPS shooter Dues Ex, giving it an overall 92%. Read the whole review here:

Blair Witch Demo - Falcon @ 2:46 am PST
Thanks to John Callaham at Stomped.com for this news tip:
. Unknown to almost everyone, a demo of the first game in Gathering of Developers's upcoming Blair Witch titles has been available for over a month at this link at File Planet.
The 67.1 meg demo is described in the .readme file as a "playable trailer", since it is supposed to show off only about 10 minutes of actual gameplay.
The demo is of the first game in the three game series, Rustin Parr, which is being developed by Terminal Reality.

SoF- Adult rating? - Falcon @ 2:44 am PST
This week's editorial on EuroGamer takes a look at the current situation of Raven's gory first person shooter "Soldier of Fortune" in British Columbia. After being classified as an adult movie last month, Activision have decided to contest the rating. Theytake a lok at why there's more to this than meets the eye...

Activision told us that "we are opposed to censorship, as we believe that every adult has the right to make their own decisions about the entertainment products they want for themselves and
their families".

I agree completely, but restricting the sale of Soldier of Fortune to adults is not censorship, it is simply ensuring that children are not able to buy a game which, by the developers' own admission, was not designed with children in mind. If anything it is putting the decision back into the hands of adults, which Activision claims to support.

DNF Preview - Falcon @ 2:41 am PST
Gamer's Nexus takes an in depth http://www.gamersnexus.com/previews/dnf/default.asp look at 3D Realm's latest addition to the ever popular Duke saga, Duke Nukem Forever. And they are happy to offer the first edition of their newest column, Tales from the Message Board. TFMB, is a satirical look at the Game Industry and some of the problems that creep up from time to time, formatted in the Message Board style that we all familiar with.

"A few recently released games boast playing in real world locations like New York City, well how about shooting up a Las Vegas casino or strip joint? Duke Nukem's always been about fun, and this installment looks like it'll surpass even the immensely popular Duke 3D. There's even rumor of a hot little blonde partner named "Bombshell". Duke, aliens, and a beautiful blonde sidekick? What more could you ask for in a game? Intense graphics? Got it. Fast, furious game play? It's in there. The latest technology with all the bells and whistles? You bet!"

Disciples II Interview - Falcon @ 2:38 am PST
Earlier this month, Strategy First revealed that the development period for its Disciples II: Dark Prophecy has been extended slightly so the game is now projected for release in the first quarter of next year. The additional time will allow for the implementation of more RPG elements, so RPGVault followed up with Producer Pro Sotos to learn more.

Alienware Interview - Falcon @ 2:33 am PST
Stomped begins its "PC Gaming Rigs" series of interviews with the head of Alienware, Nelson Gonzales. Check out the exclusive interview at http://www.stomped.com/published/jcal966916338_1_1.html

Neocron help - Falcon @ 2:32 am PST
neoTERM is one of the biggest Neocron fansites around and is currently looking for people to assist in the day to day running of the site. They have huge plans
for neoTERM and are looking for dedicated people to assist with them.

Applicants must have a mature head on their shoulders, knowledge of HTML, preferably experience running websites and of course an interest in Neocron. If you are interested then email them at vesto@rpgplanet.com".

Icewind Dale Review - Falcon @ 1:59 am PST
The latest http://www.eurogamer.net/content/r_icewindreview on EuroGamer takes a look at "Icewind Dale", the dungeon-fixated role-playing game from the nice folks at Black Isle Studios.

"While there are plenty of quests and tasks that drive the plot along and keep your party busy, most of the game is spent battling your way through dungeons and picking fights with the residents. These battles are fought in real time, but to be really successful you will need to make heavy use of the pause button. This gives you time to issue orders, select spells, or move a wounded character to safety, making skirmishes quite strategically involved."

Dues Ex2 Details - Falcon @ 1:57 am PST
GameSpy chats with Warren Spector and Harvey Smith about some details and about the team for the upcoming Deus Ex 2. Check out what they had to say at http://www.gamespy.com/news/august00/8-18-00-warrenspector_a.shtm

FPS Site opens - Falcon @ 1:56 am PST
A new fps site has opened there doors; Frag Energy.
Frag-Energy will mainly focus on Half-life and Quake 3.
To launch the site they will put up some great reviews and interviews.
- An interview with Gabe newell (valve's topman)
- An Interview with Gooseman (Half-life counter-strike MOD)

Allready two reviews are up:
- Target Quake (a Q3A MOD)
- Android beta 1 Counter-strike bots (a HL MOD)

Check out the site here:
www.frag-energy.com or
www.fragenergy.com

CS Gaming test - Falcon @ 1:54 am PST
According to GameSpy stats, more people play Counter-Strike (the immensely popular add-on to Half-Life) online than Quake 3 Arena, Unreal Tournament, and all other Half-Life games COMBINED! It's high time we had an Action Gaming Test for it.

Sample question:
12. When was the Escape gameplay mode introduced?

Beta 2
Beta 4
Beta 5
Beta 6

Monday, August 21, 2000

Halo on the PC? - VulTure @ 1:24 pm PST
Ever since Microsoft bought Bungie, the fate of Halo on the PC has been up in the air...From a story over at Telefragged, it doesn't sound good...

"Throughout Halo's design process, we've had to face tough choices about limiting the game's scope to accommodate lower-end PC systems. Now that we're making the game for the X-Box first and foremost, we haven't thrown away our old performance guidelines, but we certainly feel a lot more comfortable committing to high-poly models, more detailed textures, a litany of shader effects, inane physics - all the really sexy things that X-Box is capable of. Tackling a game as ambitious as Halo, it feels really good to have a clear hardware target. Even better, one that allows the whole team to create stuff that's a lot more complex than we originally planned."

It sounds like the PC version will be taking a back seat to the X-Box version...

Deus Ex Interview - VulTure @ 1:15 pm PST
Machinima.com talks to Harvey "Witchboy" Smith, the Lead Designer on Deus Ex. He talks all about the cut-scenes in the game and what they used to achieve the effects...

Machinima.com: Can you give a brief description of the tools used to create the cut-scenes?

Harvey: We used Unreal's scripting and camera stuff, but our programmers wrote some cool custom stuff to make camera movement easier. We used our actual game characters in our actual game maps for all this--less jarring that way, with more visual consistency.

Pentium IV - VulTure @ 1:10 pm PST
Sharky Extreme has posted an article on the upcoming Pentium IV CPU from Intel. If you want to be the first on your block to learn about that new high-end gaming rig that you will soon be building, be sure to check this out.

Blair Witch Update - VulTure @ 1:05 pm PST
I saw this over at Blue's, and thought ya should check it out...This is a quote from Gathering of Developers head honcho, Mike Wilson, in a recent .plan update...

Now that the Blair Witch 1 demo is up on the king of all shooter fan sites... I feel like I should let those know that are intent on downloading it... this is a very early build of what is very much an ADVENTURE game. Very little action at all in BW1. This first episode was done by the Nocturne team at Terminal Reality, and they really focused on the storytelling aspect of the Nocturne tech/world, combining the Nocturne/Spookhouse mtyhos with the Blair mtyhos. It's really cool, if you look at it from an adventure game perspective.

For those of you who get more into the action side of things, BW 2 and 3 will be progressively more action-oriented. This unprecedented experiment has become a very cool collaboration of the three independent studios, and we think gaming fans are going to be treated to a very cool series this fall, each bearing the distinct brand of its developer.

Blair Witch Project 1 Demo - the_culture @ 12:24 pm PST
Apparently, Gathering of Developers is proud to unveil a three-game series based on the mythology behind the film The Blair Witch Project. Terminal Reality has released their demo of Volume 1: Rustin Parr, a game that "combines traditional adventure elements with a healthy dose of heart-pounding action to create a frighteningly cerebral gaming experience." Grab the near 70meg demo @ 3DFiles.com. It's described as a 10 minute playable trailer.

ClassicGaming.com's Museum - HandOverFist @ 9:36 am PST
Ever wanted to know where the videogame industry came from? Well I found this really cool page that talks about all the Sytems ever made. Each system it talks about the up's and down's, how much units they sold, and how they died off. This site is a must see! Click Here to Check out ClassicGaming.com's Museum

N64: Disney's Donald Duck - HandOverFist @ 9:22 am PST
Keeping Donald content is about as easy as herding cats, but everyone's favorite fusspot really goes off the deep end when malodorous magician Merlock duck-naps Daisy. To add insult to injury, Donald's uppity cousin, Gladstone Gander, vows to rescue Daisy. Thus begins Donald's great race to reach Daisy first and foil Merlock's nefarious plans. Disney's Donald Duck is scheduled to be released this fall. Click here to find out more!

N64: Eternal Darkness - HandOverFist @ 9:19 am PST
"Creepy" doesn't even come close to describing Eternal Darkness, a centuries-spanning survival epic that has received a Mature rating. Controlling a character named Alexandra, players progress through an adventure organized as if it were a mammoth horror book. Based in Ontario, Canada, Silicon Knights is a game development company with a strong track record for creating titles that are graphically realistic and frequently downright eerie. The company is made up of highly experienced film industry and video game artists. Earlier this year, Silicon Knights joined an exclusive group of heavyweight developers like Rare Ltd., LeftField Productions, Retro Studios and Nintendo Software Technology when Nintendo of America took an equity stake in the emerging powerhouse. The deal makes Silicon Knights a long-term, exclusive Nintendo developer.

Check out some really cool screens: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

New Caeron 3000 Pic - the_culture @ 9:12 am PST
Caeron 3000's official site posted their lastest pic of the week, "a concept rendering of the Redhorne spaceport and surrounding area."

Tomb Raider Level Editor - the_culture @ 8:26 am PST
The Croft Times has news that Tomb Raider Chronicles will ship with a level editor, allowing players to create their own levels.

Incoming Forces Shots And Details - the_culture @ 8:16 am PST
GA-Strategy received four new shots and exclusive details pertaining to the engine being used for Incoming Forces, Rage Software's upcoming action strategy game.

New Giants Screenshots - the_culture @ 7:58 am PST
GA-Source posted 6 new hi-res shots of Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Moreover, they were snapped off using 4x FSAA on a Voodoo 5.

Saturday, August 19, 2000

N64: WCW Backstage Assault - HandOverFist @ 8:52 am PST
Wrestling games on the N64 are as popular as Crimson Tide bumper-stickers in Birmingham, and therein lies the problem: How to bring something new to the world of suplexing studs? The radical answer, from Electronic Arts: Do away with the ring. EA plans to have this one in time for the holidays. We'll be waiting in the back alley for it. Click to find out more!

N64: NFL Quarterback Club 2001 - HandOverFist @ 8:49 am PST
The fourth version of the venerable QBC franchise boasts terrific-looking graphics and plenty of options, but its challenging controls peg it as a Pak for pigskin purists. Make no mistake, though: this remains the most complex football game on the N64 platform. Football fanatics should give it serious consideration, but more casual fans will probably want to steer clear. Click here to find out more!

GameBoy Color: Warlocked Interview - HandOverFist @ 8:44 am PST
GameBoy.Com got a chance to interview Warlocked's Producer Dylan Beale from the makers of Warlocked. Warlocked is the very first real-time strategy game to come to Game Boy Color. GameBoy.Com gets every detail for the new game from Dylan Beale. Theres also screens and other cool things. Click here to check the interview.

Screens - Falcon @ 1:57 am PST
Stomped has posted three new screenshots from Croteam's upcoming first person shooter Serious Sam. Two show gameplay from the full version, while one shows off their 3D modeling tool. Check out the exclusive screenshots at http://www.stomped.com/published/jcal966475507_1_1.html

SF posted 33 new screens of the upcoming 1.30 version of Strike Force. Head over to the site and check them out, at http://www.planetunreal.com/strikeforce

StrategyPlanet has 11 new strange but beautiful screenshots from Shiny's Sacrifice. Check them out here:

GameSpy was at Electronic Arts today and got four new sets of screens:

10 from Alice:

10 from Red Alert 2:

10 from The Sims expansion Living Large:

7 from Black & White:

Storytelling Handbook P4 - Falcon @ 1:47 am PST
Vampire Vault has posted a new instalment of The Complete Storytelling Handbook, an ongoing series of articles aimed at the Vampire Storytelling and role-playing community. In Part 4 - Player Characters, Mr. Clark covers the topic of finding, organising, and maximizing the fun factor for players taking part in a Storyteller's chronicle.
An excerpt from the article:

If you are the greatest Storyteller in the world, you still cannot run a good chronicle without good Players. Imagine having painstakingly built every exacting detail of your story for maximum effect, only to have your players begin shooting all the NPC’s on the street the moment the game begins. Even great players will give you a run for your money. They will wander off track, and come up with a hundred different
situations that you never counted on. In this article I will give tips to both Storytellers and Players, helping them to work together for the enjoyment of all involved.

BG2 Chat - Falcon @ 1:45 am PST
Here is the release from RPGVault:
In our continuing efforts to keep our readers right up to date on our favorite games, we are very happy to announce that Black Isle Studios, BioWare Corp. and the IGN Vault Network will present a chat with members of the Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn team next Thursday evening. Here are the details:

WHO: You and members of the Baldur's Gate II team.

WHAT: Baldur's Gate II IRC Chat

WHERE: RPG Vault Chat http://rpgvault.ign.com/chat/ in channel #ignvault

WHEN: Thursday, August 24, 2000
6:00 pm Pacific Time

WHY: A million happy fans can't be wrong!

For more information on Baldur's Gate II, go to http://www.interplay.com/bgate2/

Crimson Skies Pre-Orders - Falcon @ 1:42 am PST
EXCLUSIVE CRIMSON SKIES PRE-ORDER PROGRAMS NOW UNDERWAY

Microsoft today announced exclusive pre-order programs with Electronics Boutique and Babbage's-Software, Etc. for its widely anticipated action/adventure game, Crimson Skies. Crimson Skies combines the heart-pumping action of air combat with the swashbuckling feel of an Errol Flynn adventure movie. The game hits retail shelves in late September.

By pre-ordering Crimson Skies at store locations, or online at EB World or Gamestop, gamers will receive either a mini-strategy guide (for pre-orders from Electronics Boutique) or the Crimson Skies "spicy air tales" novella, Pirates Gold (for pre-orders from Babbages's-Software, Etc.).

The mini-strategy guide, by Sybex, gives players all the ins-and-outs of the first five missions of the game. With the strategy guide, gamers will discover where to find cool Easter eggs for their personalized scrap book, how to tackle all the daredevil "danger flying" zones, and hints-and-tips on how to achieve all the varied mission objectives, from wing walking across a British Bomber to taking out a super-secret submersible aircraft carrier.

Pirates Gold tells the story of Nathan Zachary, the hero of Crimson Skies - a gentleman pirate, master thief and scourge of the skies. Before he led the notorious Fortune Hunters, he was a young fighter pilot in the Great War, and the novella focuses on these early years. His capture and imprisonment, stolen treasure, and a mysterious stranger make for page-turning excitement!

In Crimson Skies players fly fast and low in a game reminiscent of a classic Hollywood tale, where dastardly enemies menace, evil plots abound, and a bevy of femme fatales awaits. As the handsome and daring air pirate Nathan Zachary, players take to skies filled with treacherous privateers, tricked-out fighter planes and giant aircraft-carrier zeppelins. Amid an ever-changing political landscape, Zachary and his notorious band of air pirates, the Fortune Hunters, have become the free agents in a fight for control of the skies.

The game transports players to an alternate-reality 1937. The United States has been struck by the crushing blows of the Great Depression, the Great War and Prohibition, resulting in mounting isolationism. The once-budding road and railway system has been destroyed, leaving the skies as the only means of transport and commerce. Militias in the North, South, East and West have formed rival independent nations in a fight for air supremacy. It is an era where swing may be king but pilots rule, a world where the guns are bigger, the planes faster and the adventures more daring -- the world of Crimson Skies.

For more information on the game, go to the official Crimson Skies Web site at: http://www.microsoft.com/games/crimsonskies/

Vampire Review - Falcon @ 1:39 am PST
Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption is the first computer game based on White Wolf's complex world of intrigue, politics and conflict. It is a noteworthy offering, including a single player game and featuring a very ambitious multiplayer mode. In our extensive Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption Special Report, Nihilistic Project Leader and Designer Ray Gresko joins us for a thorough and very enlightening look. at this innovative game.

AO Dev Journal Updated - Falcon @ 1:38 am PST
The AO Vault's Developer Journal was updated today by Anarchy Online Producer Tommy Strand. This week he talks about the strong bonds of community that
online games foster.
You can find the new entry here:

Shogun Review - Falcon @ 1:36 am PST
Gamer's Nexus reviewer Anti-Terror takes a look at the real time strategy game based on the Japanese civil war period known as "Sengoku Jidai" that lasted nearly 200 years, Shogun: Total War.

Shogun: Total War -

"Shogun: Total War will immerse you in a world where you get to command armies of Samurai, send emissaries, ninjas, and even geishas to your rival warlords, in order to reach the ultimate goal of ruling over Japan.

I can easily say this is up with my favorites in the RTS genre. Homeworld stood out because of its ground breaking 3d aspect. The original C&C and Warcraft
because they really did start the pickup of the genre. Now Shogun: Total War is the first game where you can play these battles at the epic scale they were
meant for. "

"Experience" Engine - Falcon @ 1:34 am PST
It comes as no surprise that when a new engine is brought to life, skepticism emerges along with it. One such newborn is The "Experience" engine currently in the works by The Whole Experience Incorporated (WXP3D), which - amidst this very skepticism - promises to deliver quite an experience.

Sounds like competition for the engines that run today's most popular games.

Gridlock! Released - Falcon @ 1:30 am PST
OMG-Games releases freeware competitive logic game, Gridlock! version 1.0

Game: Gridlock! version 1.0 BETA
Release Date: August 16th, 2000
Developer: OMG-Games, LLC.

Hot off the presses and ready to download is our new, competitive logic-puzzle freeware game, Gridlock!

We originally designed the game to be a simple program for testing our upcoming 3D Action/Adventure/RPG title, Rites of Acerbus, hardware drivers for compatibility on various systems. The game was so addicting that we decided to expand on it and make it a full, freeware release. Also, compatibility reports received with this game will be applicable to Rites of Acerbus, which is scheduled for release sometime in Q2 of 2001.

Voodoo Extreme: "It is a fun quick diversion that can become a terribly addictive distraction."

Read Voodoo Extreme's exclusive review of Gridlock! here: http://www.voodooextreme.com/article.taf?articleID=64

Game Description:
Gridlock! is a competitive logic game, where the goal is to score higher than your opponent by connecting a minimum of 4 of your color pods in a row - horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Points are awarded for the total number of pods involved in each line's completion. When a line is completed, it disappears, and all the pods above drop down to fill in the empty cells of the grid. The round continues until one of the players exhausts all of their pods. There are 2 modes of play: Single Player Mode, where you play against a computer opponent, and Two Player Mode, where you play against a friend at home.

To download Gridlock!, go to http://www.omg-games.com/gridlock

For more information, visit http://www.omg-games.com.

Sacrifice Q+A - Falcon @ 1:28 am PST
Interplay sent GA-Strategy new details, penned by Lead animator Manjit Jhita, and four animation AVIs from Shiny's upcoming real-time strategy hybrid, Sacrifice. Read on http://www.ga-strategy.com/images/1/index110.shtml

KISS: Psycho Circus Review - Falcon @ 1:27 am PST
GA-Source has been updated with a review of Third Law's LithTech powered first-person shooter, KISS: Psycho Circus. Read it here:

Dues Ex2 Announced - Falcon @ 1:20 am PST
GameSpy has learned from Warren Spector that Ion Storm Austin will be tarting work on Deus Ex 2. Spector even was so kind as to name members of is project team. Check it out here:

Unreal Arena b0.4 - Falcon @ 1:19 am PST
The mean Arena released beta v0.4 of their UT to Q3 partial conversion being titled Unreal Arena. This is a public beta for testing a few of the maps and weapons. For more info, check out they UT to Q3 page. Just a quick note too, they are not converting the whole game. More here:

GamesXtreme D2 Almanac - Falcon @ 1:17 am PST
GamesXtreme has finally finished the long awaited second edition of its Diablo II Almanac.

This issue contains awesome tips / tricks as well as player guides!

Gamespy Arcade V1 B5 - Falcon @ 1:16 am PST
GameSpy Industries is proud to announce the release of GameSpy Arcade Version 1 Beta 5. Users may obtain this latest release from the GameSpy Arcade download page. Current Arcade users may automatically install the latest version simply by starting the Arcade software.

Why download Beta 5? It contains several new features, bug fixes and modifications to existing features that dramatically expand the software's functionality. These updates, in addition to the software's support of peer-to-peer games like Age of Empires and Icewind Dale, dedicated server games like Quake, Half-Life and Unreal Tournament, and PC versions of classic board games, makes for an online gaming experience that's unrivaled in features and, most importantly, fun.

Here's what you'll find in this latest release:

Major Bug Fixes

Fixed problem with "Games" group sometimes not being created.

Fixed occasional crash when refreshing serverlist with a server selected.

Fixed problems with disappearing game icons and/or game icons that show up in the wrong group.

Minor Bug Fixes

Default group order no longer gets occasionally randomized.

User-counts now available for all appropriate rooms.

Windows 95 users can now choose to proceed with launching "at their own risk". Win95 is still not officially supported.

Server count display now matches up after update is complete.

Many more minor fixes & tweaks!

Improvements

Ability to enter server passwords from Arcade & jump right in to passworded games.

Split left-side bar to make more room and collect the "core services" at the top.

Added skinnable "GameSpy Arcade" logo at top-left.

Some skins were modified to support split left-side bar and logo graphics.

The "Game News" page is now separate from the "Arcade Daily" page.

Arcade Daily and Game News pages have been totally reformatted.

"News" group is now called "Network"

Banner ad (visible to unregistered users) now hibernates when completely obscured.

What are you waiting for? Grab GameSpy Arcade Beta 5 now, and get in the game!

Arcatera Preview - Falcon @ 1:14 am PST
Arcatera, The Dark Brotherhood is an adventure game with RPG elements from German developer Westka Entertainment and publisher Ubi Soft. In addition to its non-linear architecture, Arcatera sports a sophisticated artificial intelligence system, numerous cutscenes and an involved dialogue system. Thanks to a playable build provided by Ubi Soft, RPGVault were able get an early look at the title in their Arcatera Preview.

MGS Screens + Char Studies - Falcon @ 1:12 am PST
MICROSOFT UNVEILS NEW METAL GEAR SOLID SCREEN SHOTS AND CHARACTER STUDIES

Microsoft today unveiled new screen shots and character studies for its upcoming Metal Gear Solid PC. Fans of Konami's number one selling console game will find all the intense action, cunning espionage and tactical stealth of the original, with exciting new features that improve the game play experience. Metal Gear Solid PC will be available at retail locations throughout North America in September. To view the new screen shots and learn more about the game, go to: http://www.mgspc.com/

In addition to the new visuals available on the site, Microsoft is featuring an interview with Peter Connelly, program manager for Metal Gear Solid PC. Peter discusses how the PC version of Metal Gear Solid builds upon the original console title with several new features, including high-resolution graphics, a first-person play mode, and the ability to save the game at any moment. All missions from the original Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid VR Missions are included for added game play depth. Showcasing stunning graphics, an immersive, cinematic experience, intriguing story line and revolutionary gameplay, Metal Gear Solid PC delivers all the thrills of a blockbuster spy movie.

In Metal Gear Solid PC, players assume the role of retired Special Forces veteran Solid Snake as they attempt to liberate a secret Alaskan weapons base from a band of ruthless terrorists. Armed with only a pair of binoculars and a bad attitude, gamers must rescue the hostages and save the world from nuclear destruction before time runs out. But danger lurks around every corner, with deadly AI enemies on the prowl. Encompassing a multitude of intense missions, Metal Gear Solid PC entwines fans in covert operations and thrilling action that guarantees a heart-pounding game play experience.

PC Hardware Contest - Falcon @ 1:11 am PST
From PC Hardware - The computer information centre

PC Hardware has a new contest for its readers, opening today 18 August. The prizes are:

1. Shuttle Spacewalker AV14
2. Abit Hot Rod 100 Pro
3. 2Cool PC (2 units)

The nice, never seen on the web part is that on 1 September USERS will be able to choose the winners. You are probably wondering how, but you will find out on 1 September. We do not say anything more now because any other words may affect the results. More info here:

Crime Cities Revealed - Falcon @ 1:08 am PST
Polish developer Techland is currently working on a futuristic action shooter/flight sim, and GA-Source has the first details and screenshots.

Infestation review - Falcon @ 1:07 am PST
Infestation is the latest game from Frontier Developments, the ritish developer headed by David Braben of Elite fame. Mixing ast-paced driving, alien blasting action, and resource collecting nd technology researching strategy elements, it's certainly an nteresting sounding concept.

But how does it stand up in practice? With Infestation due for elease in the UK tomorrow, EuroGamer has posted its review f the game - "http://www.eurogamer.net/content/r_infestation">http://www.eurogamer.net/content/r_infestation

Instation is an action game, with most of your time pent driving around and blowing stuff up, although the variety of ission objectives helps to make this less repetitive than it sounds. ou will find yourself racing against the clock as a volcanic planet
destabilises, busting POWs out of jail, and destroying force field enerators to access new parts of a world."

HL Chat - Falcon @ 1:04 am PST
Gamespy chats with scientist Walter Bennett about what he has been up to since he left the Black Mesa facility. Check out the Half-Life fun at http://www.gamespy.com/spotlights/walter_a.shtm

Dark Zion Development Halted - Falcon @ 1:03 am PST
A quick news flash. Wombat Games has announced that development of their massively multiplayer online game Dark Zion has been halted and the office closed. A bit more information is available in the news on RPGVault's main page.

Interview: ARX. - Falcon @ 1:02 am PST
GA_RPG have posted an interview with Lead Designer Raphael Colantonio over at Arkane Studios on their upcoming 1st person role-playing game ARX.

Game Voice Article - Falcon @ 1:01 am PST
Unheard of just a couple of years ago, online voice comms are now considered a near-requirement for multiplayer games. The latest entry into the field is Microsoft, which has put together a package called the Sidewinder Game Voice. Our own SIMHQ puts the Game Voice through its paces....is it worth the cost? What can it do for you? Check out Flex's take on things here:.

Interview: Katherine Anna Kang - Falcon @ 12:59 am PST
Stomped chats with Katherine Anna Kang as the former member of id Software (and now the wife of John Carmack) talks about forming her own company and creating a documentary about the gaming scene. Check out the exclusive interview at http://www.stomped.com/published/jcal966486074_1_1.html

Friday, August 18, 2000

Homeworld Screenshot Archive - Thundra @ 1:03 pm PST
It's a growing Homeworld screenshot resource that has also some maps and in my point of view has future. Medamanx is accepting all contributions, so if you have a great Homeworld shot you might want get in touch with him.
The site recently opened and it's located here.

Thanks Medamanx for the mail.

Updates from GA-RPG - Id @ 12:19 pm PST
Here's the story:

First up we have a first look article on Gas Powered Games upcoming role-playing strategy title Dungeon Siege: Find it here.

Next up we have a new column written by Dann "The Wraithlord" Weldon, our resident Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption guru. The column is entitled the, "VAMPIRE: TMR WEEKLY
CHRONICLE". Find that here.

Finally, our hosted site Sorcerer's Place has finished up their detailed walkthrough for Icewind Dale, filled to the brim with all the information you could ever want to get through Black Isle Studios latest dungeon crawl set in the Forgotten Realms Realm of Dungeons & Dragons. Lastly, find that here.

Best Regards,
Chris Johnson
www.ga-rpg.com
Editor-in-Chief

Interview: In Cold Blood - Id @ 12:14 pm PST
GA-Source goes one-on-one with Revolution Software Director Tony Warriner to find out more details about the upcoming action/adventure game, In Cold Blood - 8 new screenshots included. Find the whole thing here.

New Peacemakers Screenshots - Id @ 12:13 pm PST
GA-Strategy has been updated with four new screenshots from Mathematiques Appliquees' upcoming real-time strategy wargame, Peacemakers. Find the screens here.

LamerKatz "L4m3r Bot" updated - Id @ 12:09 pm PST
The story:

The LamerKatz "L4m3r Bot" has gotten a complete overhaul. If you aren't familiar with this Quake3 bot, basically it provides all the fun of an actual real-life Quake3 lamer, but now you don't even need to get online to experience it. This bot plays badly, it insults you, it makes dumb excuses, all identical to a real lamer.

This latest release incorporates in the official LamerKatz Quake3 model (with the flashy seizure-inducing skin and custom sounds), teamplay skins, and totally new teamplay chat file. For example, ask the bot to go get
the enemy flag and he'll either insult you or make some dumb remark how he's too busy. He's fun to play against, but he's even more fun to have on your team.

Check out the full story here.

Where the HELL is Werewolf: The Apocalypse? - Id @ 12:03 pm PST
While gamers sink their teeth in to Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption, another of White Wolf's role-playing adventures is lying wounded on some developer's hard drive. It seems Dreamforge Entertainment has not yet written Unreal-powered Werewolf off. Confused? Get the answers here.

4x4 Evolution Preview - Id @ 11:59 am PST
Find the preview here.

Halcyon Sun Revealed, First Screens/Movie - Id @ 11:55 am PST
Glass Ghost is currently developing an episodic space combat game and GA-Source has the first details, screenshots, and movie. Find the whole article here.

O3 Games Buys Starbreeze Studios - Id @ 11:53 am PST
GA-Source has learned that Swedish Developer O3 Games has acquired Starbreeze Studios, developers of the upcoming FPS Enclave, and will relocate the company to O3's headquarters in Uppsala, Sweden. Find the whole story here.

Gift preview - Id @ 11:51 am PST
Today EuroGamer has previewed Gift, a decidely odd looking 3D accelerated platform game from those French purveyors of the bizarre, Cryo Interactive. Check it out here.

Gamer's Nexus hits the ground running! - Id @ 11:49 am PST
Here's the story

"I'm happy to announce the long awaited launch of Gamer's Nexus. We will feature in depth game reviews and previews, candid interviews with some of the top game developers in the industry, and a compliment of humorous weekly articles for your viewing pleasure. Coming out of the box, we've got 2 generous offerings:

Diablo II Review: The Lord of Terror, Diablo, has returned and the fate of mankind is in your hands. What do you do? You prepare for battle and teach that fire-breathing abomination a lesson he won't soon forget, that's what. But the journey to find Diablo is not an easy one. Countless armies of demons and undead minions that are plaguing the land will stop at nothing to bring about your demise. Are you up to the challenge?

GrimmReaper's Fairy Tales: Our old buddy GrimmReaper dropped by to tell us a twisted little parable about one of life's lessons, although it's a rather strange parody of a fable fromthe days of yore.

Myst 3: Exile screenshots - Id @ 11:45 am PST
We were recently sent some nice screenshots and concept art for Myst 3: Exile, the 3rd in the popular adventure series being developed by Presto Studios. You can check out all the screens at Gamesxtreme.

Exxtreme3D Previews Crimson Skies - Id @ 11:40 am PST
Exxtreme3D has just posted up its cool little preview on Microsoft/Zipper Interactive's upcoming flight action/simulator game...Crimson Skies. So how's the game so far? Here's a little in-flight preview for you:

"This is no Flight Simulator; it s more of an action time game with great graphics and a great story line. You and your pirates attack blimps and other things to accomplish a goal, and that s pretty much all it is."

Want to check out the rest of the movie and get your in-flight meal? Then head over to the preview.

Baldur's Gate II Elements of the Week - Id @ 11:37 am PST
RPG Vault has recently posted it's Baldur's Gate II Elements of the Week feature. You can check it out here.

Nox Grand Champion to be crowned Today - Id @ 11:34 am PST
Competitors from across the globe will meet in Las Vegas on Friday, Aug. 18, to fight for the title of Nox(tm) Grand Champion. Nox is an action-RPG for the PC released this year by Westwood Studios,(tm) a wholly owned subsidiary Electronics Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS). Sponsored by Westwood Studios, with the support of EBWORLD.com and Prima Games, the tournament will pit eight contestants against each other in a series of head-to-head deathmatches. The Grand Champion will walk away with the coveted title, as well as thousands of dollars in prizes. Coverage of the tournament will appear at www.westwood.com.

Nox players 18 years of age or older in the selected countries were eligible to compete in an online qualifying round. The top qualifiers from each country -- Korea, Taiwan, Canada and the United States -- advanced to become finalists in the Nox Grand Championship. Each of the contestants will receive travel and hotel accommodations for two to Las Vegas. The grand prize is a computer system worth close to $2,500 and the official Nox World Cup trophy. The other seven finalists will receive a smaller version of the Nox World Cup trophy and assorted prizes.

Nox is set in a mystical land filled with discovery and deceit. Nox's lightning-fast action is fueled by a combat system that's easy to use yet gives players tremendous gameplay depth and infinite possibilities.
With more than 100 unique spells and weapons, players must use their wits to create devious combinations with tricky tactics.

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - HandOverFist @ 11:29 am PST
Are you wondering whats so great about Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask? Well the people at IGN64.COM has done a good job on telling you all you need to know of the next Zelda game! They have a long perview talking about all the features and cool stuff. And also they have tons of pictures as well as lots of quicktime movies for you enjoyment! Nintendo.com does not have this much infomation on there own game :)! Check out the perview here.

Nintendo 64 Game Endings - HandOverFist @ 11:10 am PST
Are you trying to beat a Nintendo 64 game and not getting anywhere with it? Are you tried of running around and not knowing where your going? Are sick of playing the game but wonder how it ends? Well I just found you a site that tells you how almost all the Nintendo 64 games end! Its worth a look! Check Site Here

Console Care: Game Boy Color - HandOverFist @ 10:57 am PST
Over at TendoBox.com they have an editorial on taking good care of your consoles. Its part of a whole series starting off with Game Boy Color. The editorial's has infomation on how to keep your games clean and the prices of carrying cases! Its worth a look to make sure your doing the right thing for your consoles! Read the Editorial Here

Auran Game Update - the_culture @ 9:00 am PST
Auran, developers of the upcoming RTE (Real Time Environment) game Harn: Bloodline, updated their music page with two 360 degree panoramic views of the studio. If you're curious about this interesting game, check out their screenshots and game pages.

Experience Preview - the_culture @ 8:20 am PST
To go along with the previous post, 3D Action Planet has a first look at the Experience engine that powers the two WXP demos: Experience and Isle of Morg.

Far Gate Press release - the_culture @ 8:06 am PST
Thrushwave, developers of the 3D real-time strategy space game formerly titled "The Rift," released a press release stating the game should be in stores by Christmas and will have a new title: Far Gate. Here's the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"FAR GATE" (FORMERLY "THE RIFT") TO BE PUBLISHED BY MICROIDS FOR CHRISTMAS

SEATTLE, WA, August 18, 2000 - Microids (http://www.microids.com), based
in Velizy, France, has signed on ThrushWave Technology
(http://www.thrushwave.com), to publish and distribute their upcoming 3D
real-time strategy space game, "Far Gate" (formerly known as "The Rift").
"Far Gate" puts the player in command of the Proximan Defense Corps, in an
epic story spanning the galaxy. "Far Gate" features state-of-the-art
visual effects, physics, and game mechanics, creating a unique, immersive
gaming experience.

James Thrush, producer for "Far Gate" at ThrushWave Technology, stated,
"We are very pleased to have Microids publishing Far Gate world-wide. Our
relationship has been very positive, and we're all very excited about the
potential of this game."

"Far Gate" is expected to be on shelves later this year, in several
countries and languages. Development is nearing completion and a free
demo will be available shortly before the game is released.

ThrushWave Technology is a small software development company founded in
1996 to create compelling 3D environments and games. More information on
ThrushWave Technology and screen shots of "Far Gate" can be found at
http://www.thrushwave.com.

Contact:
James Thrush
ThrushWave Technology
4519 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
(206) 675-1277
jthrush@thrushwave.com
http://www.thrushwave.com

Congratulations guys!

Counter-Strike Server - VulTure @ 7:20 am PST
If you are running a Counter-Strike server, go now and get the latest upgrade to boost you up to version 6.8. Beta 7 is in the works and is almost ready, but is about a week away. This version will fix a nasty bug that causes rounds to restart. This is a server-side fix ONLY!

Icewind Dale Guide - VulTure @ 7:16 am PST
IGNPC has put up a guide for Icewind Dale. If you are stuck anywhere in this game, get this guide. "...it offers you complete lists of the weapons, spells and items in the game. You'll also get a complete walkthrough for all seven of the game's remarkable chapters."

You will need to register to get it, but it's free.

Ultima X - VulTure @ 7:11 am PST
PetitionOnline has put up a petition to bring back Lord British. Since Lord British left Origin, they cancelled Ultima X. Now there is a move to bring him back. If you ever played any of the Ultima games, go and sign the petition now!

Unreal Tournament to Quake3!! - VulTure @ 7:07 am PST
PlanetQuake has word of a new beta for the Unreal Tournament To Quake III Arena Partial Conversion. The name of this mod is Unreal Arena and you can get the files here.

Deus Ex 2 - VulTure @ 7:04 am PST
Ion Storm has officially announced that they will be working on a sequel to Deus Ex! The game is still in a very early state, but you can get the whole scoop at GameSpy!

Seal of Nehahra released - Recoil @ 4:59 am PST
Well pull the old quake CD from out from out of all that junk, if you wanna play this game "Seal of Nehahra" episodes. which is suposedly highly anticipated by some quakers'a round.

you need to download 2 files.
[mainfile].47mb
and
[secondaryfile].400k
you need both of 'em to play it, plus quake.
(guess they forgot to put that file in, lazy)

Thursday, August 17, 2000

Caeron 3000 Chat Log - the_culture @ 2:50 pm PST
The official site of Caeron 3000 has their chat log posted for your reading pleasure. If you're not too familiar with this up-coming game, check out the game info and the game art sections.

Dark Zion Development Has Stopped - the_culture @ 9:43 am PST
Yes, Wombat Games has stopped development on their interesting MMORPG Dark Zion. Here's the official word from them:

Bad News

Due to lack of funding and publisher interest, we have stopped development of Dark Zion. The office has been closed and the employees are looking for jobs (see the team page if you are an interested employer).

We wanted to thank all of the fans and the Dark Zion Vault for their support. Thank you.

This really sucks.

Camelot Update - the_culture @ 9:13 am PST
I noticed over at Camelot Vault that Camelot Producer Matt Firor visited their discussion boards and made a few comments regarding some changes made to the character classes.

After thinking it over a bit more, we are going to make the following changes:
- Create a new Briton class, called "Paladin", which replaces the existing Knight (i.e. has a mix of fighting skills and clerical-type spells).

- Create a "Knights" guild that both Paladins and Armsmen can join. The primary purpose of the guild will be to teach combat styles and other arms-related skills. An Armsman who joins the Knights guild will thus be the mightiest fighter in Albion. A Paladin who joins will have to decide whether to keep his spell skills trained up, or to invest skill points in the new Knight combat styles. A wise Paladin will train in a mix of both.

Thanks a lot for your input on this issue. Obviously, you guys had a direct impact on this.

Anarchy Online Chat Sunday - the_culture @ 8:47 am PST
Anarchists unite! Stratics' Anarchy-Online House of Commons will host a chat with Tommy Strand on Sunday at 1pm CST. It will be on the Stratics IRC Network on the #aohoc channel.

Elements Of The Week - the_culture @ 8:28 am PST
RPGVault posted Week 1 of their new series "Elements of the Week," covering various aspects of Baldur's Gate II. They highlight one element in the following catagories: NPC of the Week, Monster of the Week, and Spell of the Week.

Daily Pork Roundup - VulTure @ 6:30 am PST
Now for something on the lighter side...

In one of the largest busts in the history of farm crimes, over 30 animals were arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill a farmer, possession of unregistered firearms, and conspiracy to distribute illegal manure over state lines.

The bust concludes a three month investigation that saw forces from the FBI, KGB, U.S. Customs, and the Better Business Bureau combine their efforts.

Changes in the Diablo II 1.03 patch - VulTure @ 6:09 am PST
If you used the Whirlwind and Corpse Explode skills in Diablo II and noticed that were a lot weaker when you installed the 1.03 patch, you are not alone. Blizzard put up a post explaining why they changed the skills...

"The primary reason for changing the Whirlwind and Corpse Explode skills was that they were simply broken in comparison to the other skills in the game. The huge imbalance these skills granted was only found after the game was widely released."

Check out the rest of the details here.

UT Strike Force screenshots - VulTure @ 5:59 am PST
In his set, we have 33 new screenshots from the upcoming Unreal Tournament total conversion, Strike Force. These shots are looking amazing, so be sure to check 'em out!

Serious Sam Screenshots - VulTure @ 5:55 am PST
There are some new screenshots of the upcoming game, Serious Sam, from Croteam. Two of the shots, here, and here, are in-game, and one of them shows the modeling tool that the designers use!

Katherine Anna Kang Interview - VulTure @ 5:51 am PST
Stomped has put up a brief chat that they have had with Katherine Anna Kang at QuakeCon. She is the former director of business affairs for id Software, and is now married to 'Da man himself, John Carmack. She briefly talks about her new company and what it's like to be away from id...

Stomped: How does it compare working for your own company with working at id?

Kang: It's very different because I am my own boss. It's nice to be able to make the decisions but it's also a huge risk because it's on your shoulders. You think you can do something and you give yourself the opportunity to go for it...

Ritual Entertainment Interview - VulTure @ 5:43 am PST
Hellchick, of GameSpy, stops in over at Ritual Entertainment to talk to the guys behind FAKK2, and give a behind the scenes look into their lives...

Ritual Entertainment's existence began about four years ago when level designer Tom Mustaine, programmer Mark Dochtermann, and artist Robert Atkins decided to make a go of a gaming company on their own. Their first project was something that would be of professional quality while still remaining small enough for a new team to handle on their own--a mission pack for the then-popular id Software title Quake. With close consultation from id itself, Ritual produced one of the most popular mission packs for any of the Quake games, Scourge of Armagon.

Thief III Update - VulTure @ 5:32 am PST
Thief-The Circle has word of the team lineup for the third game in the Thief series...

"...let me tell you a bit about what's going on here in Austin. In addition to keeping the wheels turning on upcoming Deus Ex stuff, we've been working on putting together a Thief III team. We're not done yet, but we've made some huge additions to the Austin team:

Randy Smith, from the original Thief, has signed on as Thief III project director and lead designer. Level designer for Thief Gold and Thief II, Emil Pagliarulo, will become senior designer...We're still talking with other members of the old LG crew and there may be other announcements soon...Thief III preproduction begins in September!"

Alice Screenshots - VulTure @ 5:23 am PST
Get 'em while their hot. GameSpot has put up six new shots of American McGee's Alice. There is also a new in-game movie up there.

Wednesday, August 16, 2000

New CS Screens - sim @ 1:12 pm PST
The official Counter-Strike website has been updated with two new screenshots from their latest beta 7 fragathon, showing the in-game vgui exploitation and the new knife. Word is beta 7 will be out "soon".

Dark Reign 2 Review - sim @ 1:07 pm PST
Today's EuroGamer review takes a "belated" look at Dark Reign 2, the stunning looking 3D real time strategy game from Activision and Pandemic Studios. Here's a quick sample:

The visuals are stunning, with the desolate run-down Earth looking very worn, with hi-tech buildings stretching out to form cities. The detail is high for a strategy game and while some of the units may seem quite simple in terms of their polygon count, this is more than made up for by the scenery. There is something quite breathtaking about guiding troops around a snow covered valley as a handful of JDA Enforcers descend from the top of a big hill, guns at the ready.

Read the rest by clicking right here.

Jan Paul van Waveren Interview - sim @ 1:04 pm PST
Stomped has snagged another interview with one of the Quake 3 geniuses. This time it's with Jan Paul "Mr. Elusive" van Waveren, who helped to create the bot AI code for Quake 3 Arena He speaks on the challenges of creating realistic enemies, working at id, and a tiny bit about his work on the new Doom game.

PlayStation 2's Power - HandOverFist @ 1:01 pm PST
If you read all that stuff on the PlayStation 2 and you don't understand what it all means and what the hype is all about. Here are some really cool pictures from Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2, that really show the power that the PlayStation 2 has. These images are so life like and they are not blockly like N64 games.

Screen Shots: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Red Faction Q&A - sim @ 1:00 pm PST
GA-Source has been updated with a Q&A with THQ International Senior PR Manager Asam Ahmad, in which they discuss the amibitous first-person shooter, Red Faction, in development by Volition. There's also some sweet new screenshots to boot!

KISS: Psycho Circus Review - sim @ 12:58 pm PST
Speedy 3D has just kicked up a review of KISS Psycho Circus: The NightMare Child. Here's a sample:

Someone tells you you're going to review a game based on ex-rock superstars KISS and some Circus gone out of control, the first thing that comes to mind is stinker. Seriously, have you ever seen a game based on a rock group actually do well? Or even be good? Have you heard of Ed Hunter, a game based around Iron Maiden? You get my drift. Until it's release I thought KISS: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child would be a game based on the KISS group members going about towns wrecking havoc (like they did with their guitars), turns out to be it's less KISS than KISS, in simple terms it's not about KISS but a comic book by Todd McFarlane based on the Rock superstars, confused?

If you're so inclined, you can read the rest here.

Afternoon Screenshots - sim @ 12:54 pm PST
Yep, I'm still hard at work posting all of the newsworthy items that gool ol' Falcon has sent me. Enough with the boring text though, here's your gateway to many shiny pictures:

• Star Trek: New Worlds: There are 40 new screenshots of this upcoming real-time strategy game over at GA-Strategy.
• Baldur's Gate II: You can check out twenty-two new screenshots at RPG Planet and nine new concept art sketches of monsters, items and locales up at Baldur's Gate Chronicles.
• Strike Force: Four new in game screens of maps from 1.30. (and the new M-16 skin) of this UT mod are up at the official website. You can look forward to the new player model skins soon.

See, I told you. *shiny*

Pokémon Puzzle League - HandOverFist @ 12:53 pm PST
The upcoming N64 title Pokémon Puzzle League is essentially Tetris Attack with more Pokémon than you can shake a stick at. There will be six modes: Main Stadium, in which you can go up against the computer or another player; Marathon Field, which features constant play; Time Zone, which has time-limited play; Puzzle University; Pokémon Spa, in which you challenge Team Rocket; and Mimic Mansion, in which you learn how to play the game by copying the computer. You will work to defeat all 16 trainers to become the Pokémon Puzzle Master. Prospective puzzle masters should be ready for the challenge this September.

Source: CNET Gamecenter.com

Mega Man 64 - HandOverFist @ 12:09 pm PST
Remember back in the olden days when Mega Man starred in 15 games for Nintendo systems. Each having a new advanture and all. Well Mega Man is back this time in the 3D world with new bad guys. One of the greatest aspects of the Mega Man series is the amazing enemy design. The hi-tech weaponry and extreme explosions which have always been a staple in Mega Man's repertoire, Mega Man 64 will also include a mix of role-playing elements as well. So all you hardcore Mega Man fans this would be an great game for youy guys and the Action players.

Check out some screen shots: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Paper Mario - HandOverFist @ 11:53 am PST
With the release of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the Super NES, many gamers experienced a true Role Playing Game for the first time. Super Mario RPG gave gamers a fresh look at Mario's universe and slowly became a genuine classic. Even though Paper Mario has a new title, it delivers the same turn-based battles and intricate puzzles found in the original Super Mario RPG. The real funny thing is that the game is only 320 megabits, while Donkey Kong 64 is 650 megabits. That does explain why the game is in 2D! Paper Mario is scheduled to be released on December 26.

To Check out some screen shots: Screen Shots I, Screen Shots II.

Doug Chiang Book Preview - the_culture @ 10:59 am PST
Star Wars Episode I & II concept artist and illustrator Doug Chiang has released video preview of his up-coming film book, Robota, which is extremely cool-looking. Also, for those of you who are interested in fantasy/sci-fi art, visit Doug Chiang's site.

Demolition DC Shots - the_culture @ 10:23 am PST
For those of you who were sad enough to purchase a DreamCast, LucasArts.com has released four new shots (albeit blurry) of their up-coming crash-racer, Demolition.

Good Morning! - the_culture @ 10:05 am PST
Here are some morning screenshots to gaze at while you're finishing off your third bowl of Cheerios:

BetaBites has 6 new shots of Southpeak Interactive's up-coming third person action game, Soldier.

GA-Strategy has 4 color stills of Mathematiques Appliquees' Peacemaker, an "ambitious real-time strategy game in which the goal is to cause political defeat of the enemy, and not simply destroy them."

VE posted 22 exclusive shots of BioWare's follow-up RPG, Baldur's Gate.

Danish site Gamesurf has 9 indoor/outdoor shots of Edios' stealth/FPS Project: IGN. On the same page, they also have a 7.3meg MPG of a tech demo. A very cool 54 seconds.

3DActionPlanet has 12 new shots of TRIBES 2.

The Insane Payne (Max Payne fansite) has a 43 second movie showing off the gritty action of Max Payne.

Warlords: Battlecry - VulTure @ 6:33 am PST
Ars Technica takes a look at Warlords: Battlecry. Is this game a real-time strategy game or is it a role playing game? Could this be the competition for the upcoming Warcraft 3? Read the review to find out!

"This game kicks ass and takes numbers. It has single handedly put the fun back into real-time strategy gaming for me and I can't recommend it enough. With all the bells an whistles that fans have been asking for included, the wonderful presentation and the slightest touch of humor, Warlords: Battlecry officially takes the slot for best RTS of the year so far..."

FAKK2 Review - VulTure @ 6:22 am PST
3dfx Gamers has decided to put in their vote for Heavy Metal: FAKK2. From the sounds of it, their vote is good....

The Verdict: Though somewhat flawed, the title's incredible graphics, excellent level design, and solid controls more than outweigh its lack of polish and multiplayer support. Step aside, Lara-there's a new, and prettier, girl in town.

AGN3D says goodbye! - VulTure @ 6:00 am PST
The folks at AGN have closed their doors. From the sounds of it, they were told by upper management to cease operations and to stop posting news. It's kind of strange to see all of these pages go, but good luck to everyone over there.

Quake3 on dual monitors? - VulTure @ 5:43 am PST
Multi-Head Gaming has put up an article on how to get your Windows 2000 or Linux system to run Quake3 and Unreal Tournament on multiple monitors. For UT, they have it running on FIVE monitors at once!

Quake III Fortress Q&A - VulTure @ 5:36 am PST
Hellchick, of Planetquake, had a chance to talk to the team behind the Quake3 mod, Quake3 Fortress.

HC: What would you say were one or two of the biggest challenges you faced in making Q3F?

RR2D02: Rewriting the entity system. Our entity system is scriptable; it allows for all game makers to use the entity system for objects without coding.

Locki: As an example of that, which is our favorite example of this, a map maker, not a coder, can create a map for Q3F, and using our entity system alone, he can create Jailbreak. We're quite proud of that.

To check out the mod, go to the Q3F website.

DarkSpace Preview - VulTure @ 5:25 am PST
If you are familiar with the Battle Isle universe, you'll be happy to read about DarkSpace. This preview takes a peek at this upcoming game from Blue Byte. The game will be on-line only, and will support up to 16 players on a LAN, but if you play on Blue Byte's servers at www.bluebyte.net, you'll be able to play against 200 other potential rivals!

Sanity Interview - VulTure @ 5:14 am PST
The Daily Radar has put up an interview with Sanity designers Kevin Lambert and Garrett Price. If you're not familiar with Sanity, here's part of the storyline..."Sanity takes place in a futuristic world where a mysterious artifact (of Aiken fame) has unlocked the mysteries of the mind, allowing certain individuals to cast spells, or 'Talents' as they're called in the game...An unfortunate side effect of using your powers is that they go to your head, literally, making you insane."

How about a quick quote from the designers?

DR: How did Sanity come about? The gameplay is pretty different from anything out there...

KL: We wanted to try to create a game that combined elements from our favorite action/adventure games as well as from popular collectible trading-card games. Hopefully Sanity's combination of genres and gameplay styles sets it apart from the other games that are currently available, although it will most likely be classified as an action/adventure game based on its single-player component. However, Sanity's Psionic Talent system promotes a very strategic style of gameplay as well.

Shrapnel shots - Recoil @ 4:51 am PST
Over a the vault they received six screenshots of the FPS game, Sharpnel, from Ripcord. The games uses the LithTech 3D engine to create realistic industrial and urban environments.
[screenshots]
more info on the game can be found here

Neocron Interview - sim @ 2:55 am PST
neoTERM (for all your Neocron needs) has uploaded a clean, spam free log of the Neocron Q&A chat that was held on IRC the other night. Here's a clip:

Paradox: Can you fill us in on the clan system you have planed for the game?
Schwiezer: I am sorry... the clan system and all its detail are a confidential subject.

Ha, could I have picked a crappier clip? Well at least you know that it only gets better from here! Go on, read the rest!

Paul Jaquays Interview - sim @ 2:47 am PST
Stomped has put up a good interview with Paul Jaquays that they managed to snag at this years QuakeCon. The id Software level designer talks about his goals in creating a level and a tiny bit about his work in the new Doom game.

Messiah Review - sim @ 2:43 am PST
PlayDevil.com finally got their act together and put out a Messiah review. But can you blame them for wanting to play a just little bit longer? Anyway, here's a clip:

Right off the bat, the game is exciting. After plunging to the earth, Bob starts off on his journey to save the world from Father Prime. In fact, Father Prime abducted Satan from Hell through a dimensional portal. As you progress through the game, you meet new character classes, not all hostile to you, but most of them don't understand you and your purpose here on earth.

Read the rest of this sucker right here.

3AM Screenshots - sim @ 2:37 am PST
Since Falcon is off doing some mysterious activity, he asked me to stop slacking off and actually post some news. So he sent me all of his stuff to post and here I am. Anyway, time for this morning's batch of screenshots:

• Throne of Darkness: Nine new screenshots up over at GA-RPG.
  
• Hitman: Codename 47: Another batch of nine new screenshots, this time over at GA-Source.
  
• SWAT 3: Elite Edition: A whole batch of new screenshots over at GA-Strategy as well as three on GameSpy.
  
• Devil Inside: Six brand spanking new screenshots are up at GameSpy

That's all for now. I should really get some sleep.

Tuesday, August 15, 2000

Rune Preview - sim @ 8:48 pm PST
PC.IGN has a good preview of Rune up. What is this Rune game you ask? Well think of the Unreal engine, then think of Vikings, then think of fun. Combine 'em all and you just might have Rune. Here's a clip from the preview:

The story goes a little like this; Ragnar, our hero, is having a problem. It seems that villages are being destroyed and his people are being killed. Being a young Viking warrior, Ragnar takes this rather personally and sets out on a quest to find why all of this is happening and to confront the evil behind it. Sounds like quite the task. Along the way he'll run into a large variety of nasty beasties and Dark Vikings and be forced to either cut or think his way through various confrontations.

Look for this bad boy sometime in October.

Tribes 2 Histeria - sim @ 8:42 pm PST
It's like a Tribes 2 hallapaloosa or something (please ignore that comment)! Here's what's new on the game-wire:

• Euro-TribesPlayers has put up a lengthy interview with Dave Georgeson of the, guess what? Yes, the Tribes 2 team. He talks about the new vehicles, gameplay improvements strategies, the new community support features, the upcoming beta test, and plenty more. Check it out!

• The ever-popular GameSpot has posted their own preview of Tribes 2. It contains the usual preview stuff. You know, tantalizing information, drool inducing tidbits, and of course loads of eye candy. You better put out a tarp or something.

• If you still crave that sweet, tender flaky crus--er, if you wanna see some more Tribes 2 screenshots then look no further than GameSpy's brand new gallery chock full of them. There are also two new screenies over at Tribes-Universe. Enjoy!

Mario Tennis 64 coming out soon! - HandOverFist @ 10:47 am PST
Just a reminder for all those people that are planning to buy Mario Tennis 64 that its coming out August 24! Like most of all the Nintendo games this is a remake of the older game. But of course Nintendo has put some cool features to the game play. The characters for Mario Tennis 64 are all the famous characters that you come to love from the old Super Mario Games! One cool features is that you can play up to 4 people. If you are a sports fan, this game is for you!

Check out some cool screen shots: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

To check out more infomation on Mario Tennis 64 vist: Mario Tennis 64 Offical Site

Canadians with all the money, eh! - HandOverFist @ 10:23 am PST
Nintendo owns an 86% share of the Canadian videogame market and leads in all the major sales categories, according to a recent report by ACNielsen's Canadian Video Game Market Tracker. Based on the game sales of 32 leading Canadian retailers, Nintendo led in both hardware and software market share. More than 1.7 million households in Canada are N64-equipped; 1.1 million own a Game Boy Color.

Nintendo 64 leads console hardware sales, as well, with 50% of the dollar market share. Sony's PlayStation accounts for 33% of the hardware share, with Sega owning only 17%. 19 of the top 20 selling games in June were Nintendo platform products, too, led of course by "Perfect Dark." Yet, the GBC is even more popular in Canada than the N64, with a 72% market share. Thus, not surprisingly, five Pokemon games were among the top ten.

CS Interview - sim @ 10:12 am PST
TF2 Source has snagged a good interview with Gooseman of the Counter-Strike mod. Here's a very interesting clip:

Q. Do you have an updated ETA on beta 7 from that interview you gave last week?
A. BETA 7 should be out this week... hopefully, barring any last minute bugs.

New CS Bot - sim @ 10:09 am PST
The only (I think) Counter-Strike bot, Android Bot, has been updated to Alpha version 2. Here's what's new:

bug fixed where bots would get a random amount of frags/deaths upon joining

bug fixed where bots would sit on their spawnpoints and do nothing if mp_roundtime was lower than 3

support for two new maps: de_cbble and de_aztec

dedicated server support through the commands sv_addbot and sv_removebot

addbot and removebot commands improved (you can specify a name for the bot now, remove bots from a specific team, and only the host of the game can issue these commands now)

bots get upset if you plant the bomb and no-one in their team can defuse it

bot skill levels tweaked

better wall evading code

bot aiming improved, the bots understand weapon-recoil now

primitive bot hearing implemented. bots react to sounds made by potentially visible enemies

jump waypoints implemented

new waypoint system implemented. waypoints are divided into zones.

numerous other small bug fixes

Morrowind Dev Diary - sim @ 9:58 am PST
Good old VoodooExtreme (News from the guys that tag-teamed your Granny) has a brand new in-house feature: the Morrowind developer diary. The first edition is written by Bethesda Softworks' GT Noonan. Here's a clip:

The burning topic: Morrowind, Morrowind, Morrowind! My role as Level Designer on Morrowind is sorta funny actually. Are there really levels in Morrowind? No, not really, they are actually just dungeons, caves, and blah blah blah. "Levels" is just a term for them. Battlespire had levels -- a series of linear maploads. Morrowind is NOT in any way, shape, or form close to that. Freeform roaming and adventuring through tons and tons of areas with different cultures and baddies, but no levels. So, my job is to make all of these places for you to roam and fight baddies so you can get experience, cheese, and just have a blast.

Read the rest here or learn more about Morrowind on the official website.

FAKK2 Patch Problems - VulTure @ 7:27 am PST
I saw this at the ShugaShack...

We released a patch for Heavy Metal FAKK 2 tonight and honestly thought we had fixed the vast majority of remaining issues with the product, apparently we were wrong. The truth is since we shipped the product 2 weeks ago we have been unable to reproduce the crash bug that everyone seems to experience. We have access to over 30 different machines (at the office and at home) running 98, 2k, and NT, running A3D, EAX and software and we have not gotten one machine to reliably crash time and again. Often when we did find a machine that did crash, we were able to cure it by upgrading to the latest sound or video driver or it miraculously cured itself after minimal cajoling. I am writing this, to ask if there is anyone in the DFW area that is experiencing this problem and would like to help us solve it, please contact me directly at markd@ritual.com. Ritual Entertainment is dedicated to shipping products that are bug free, and we thought Heavy Metal FAKK 2 was bug free. I ask that people have a bit more patience with us so that we can do the right thing by our customers. We shipped a product that had no known major issues at launch time (according to our testing), the fact that it has exhibited these problems in wide release is very distressing to me and the rest of the FAKK 2 team.

nVidia GeForce2 Ultra - VulTure @ 6:11 am PST
Tom's Hardware has word of the new nVidia GeForce2 Ultra card that is going to flatten all competition for miles around. Also being released are the new Detonator 3 unified drivers, which will provide a 50% performance boost on everything from the TNT to the GeForce2 cards. Here is a quick quote from the article...

"NVIDIA has managed it once more to leapfrog 3dfx. If you look at the results you will notice that GeForce 2 Ultra scores more than double the frame rates of a Voodoo5 5500 at high resolutions. Voodoo5 6000 will hardly score more than double of the 5500, due to its design. Therefore it is most likely that NVIDIA will actually keep the 3D performance crown even by the time that 3dfx finally releases the 6000. This is bad news for 3dfx, since their part will most likely be more expensive than the already luxury GeForce 2 Ultra as well."

Nintendo pushes back the Dolphin - VulTure @ 5:54 am PST
A snag has hit the release of this upcoming, new console system from Nintendo due to a shortage of components. The new release date is set for sometime in 2001.

Escape From Monkey Island Preview - VulTure @ 5:46 am PST
Computer Games Online has put up a preview of this upcoming game from Lucas Arts. The requirements are low for this game, as told by project leader, Mike Stemmle...

The system requirements are still unresolved, but they’re shooting for a 200Mhz Pentium with 32MB RAM and 3D accelerator, and are trying to target all of the 3D cards going back to the Voodoo 1. Said Stemmle, "As is usual with adventure games, we’re trying to keep down the requirements—we don’t want to exclude anyone from playing our perfectly wonderful game."

FAKK2 Patch - VulTure @ 5:36 am PST
If you are playing Heavy Metal: FAKK2, be sure to get patch 1.01. Here are the fixes in this patch...

Version 1.01 - Fixes

- Crash or BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) on Exit should now be fixed on various versions of Windows.
- Crashes on cinematics should be fixed
- Voodoo 2 support has been fixed
- The OPENGL driver can now be selected from the advanced menu
- The memory manager has been re-written to improve stability and eliminate some memory leaks.

Pool of Radiance Preview - VulTure @ 5:30 am PST
The Daily Radar has put up a preview of Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. There are some great new screenshots that have also just been released by Strategic Simulations, Inc.

BattleZone II DLL's - VulTure @ 5:24 am PST
Pandemic Studios has released the DLL sourcecode for Battlezone II. In this release are quite a few different items, including the mod files for creating single player mission DLLs, the documents for creating maps for Battlezone II, the Battlezone II Pack file tool, the Small Textures Pack File, and the sourcecode for creating multiplayer DLL's. Grab all of the goodies here!

Monday, August 14, 2000

The Sims Interview - sim @ 5:22 pm PST
Game Interviews managed to snag this interview Associate Producer Chris Baena over at Maxis. They discuss the new objects, careers, interactions, in-game
advertising, and more in The Sims (now gold) expansion, Livin' Large. Here's a clip:

Game-Interviews.com: Could you go over what Maxis has added to the world of The Sims for Livin' Large? Approximately, how many objects, career paths, building options, skins, etc. will be included?

Chris Baena: There are approximately 125 new objects, 5 new careers, a ton of new walls and floors, and over 40 user created skins. We will also be providing all content that has been released on www.thesims.com since The Sims was released in February.

Red Faction Screens - sim @ 3:17 pm PST
It looks like there are five new Red Faction screenshots up on the official website. Check them out if you are at all into first person shooters. Hell, check them out if you like looking at beautiful screenshots. Check them out because I said so!

Internal Doom Testing? - VulTure @ 6:18 am PST
Here's a little fun for a Monday morning...The ShugaShack has word of a Doom game running at id that looks like the upcoming game from them. Is it real, or is it a hoax? Judge for yourself...check out this screenshot!

Counter-Strike Maps - VulTure @ 6:02 am PST
PlanetHalfLife has word of an upcoming map entitled "Afghanistan" that is currently in the alpha stages. These screenshots have to be seen to be believed, so what are you waiting for?

A Day in the Life... - VulTure @ 5:56 am PST
Hellchick, of PlanetQuake, has gone behind the scenes at id Software to find out what makes them tick. If you've ever wanted to see what goes on behind their doors, go in now!

For those that are unfamiliar with them beyond knowing what games they've made, id Software is, like most developers, a small company of about fourteen people. The primary technology behind id's games is created by John Carmack, considered to be the finest programmer in his field. It's been Carmack's technology that has pushed 3D video gaming and related hardware into new and uncharted areas over the years, beginning with Wolfenstein 3D and continuing up through their next title, a recreation of the original DOOM using completely new 3D engine technology.

FAKK2 Demo - VulTure @ 5:50 am PST
If you missed it over the weekend, I'll put it back up again for ya...The demo for this highly anticipated game is available. Get it here, or here.

Red Alert 2 Preview - Recoil @ 5:49 am PST
over at the GameCenter they Previewed the soon to be released Command & Conquer : Red Alert 2

The sequel to Red Alert is all about raw carnage--weapons of mass destruction will litter every corner, and the battles promise to be intense, huge, and brutal beyond belief. This game might restore some of the luster to the Command & Conquer series.

for more info and the full preview info. [here]

Baldur's Gate 2 Preview - VulTure @ 5:42 am PST
The FiringSquad has put up a hands-on preview of the upcoming RPG from BioWare, Baldur's Gate 2. Here are some of the first impressions...

"From the moment you do the pre-game setup for BG2, you'll notice the biggest graphical improvement offered, namely, the 800x600 resolution. The difference is spectacular, far more so than we suspected possible. Not only does the game look better like this, but it feels smoother and is easier to play. The extra screen space (over 50% more) makes movement and combat much more fluid with far less clicking and scrolling."

Unreal Tournament 428 Patch - VulTure @ 5:36 am PST
The newest patch for Unreal Tournament has been released, so grab it now! Here are some of the problems that the patch addresses...

- fixed 425's D3D problems
- improved client prediction of other players on slopes
- fixed 'killall bot' working on servers even if not admin
- fixed Unrealed2 problems with DirectInput (by disabling DirectInput when using Unrealed2).
- fixed picked up weapons occasionally looping firing anim.
- fixed another case where server would keep sending data to client after disconnect.
- fixed Unrealed2 mesh viewer problem.
- fixed Owner being passed to new actor in Mutator.ReplaceWith().
- fixed creeping ping problem with Win2K.
- fix for occasional accidental port changes on servers using NGStats

Sunday, August 13, 2000

Site News - shiva @ 11:27 pm PST
Well, yesterday was a fun day, and thanks to all those people who wished me a happy birthday. It actually was one "for the ages" for me, in other words, it was a terrific B-day.

Just to let you know whats gonna happen in the next little while...

Our host is changing over to a new server, so we are waiting for the DNS to point. Since everything on this site was transfered over on Monday, the newest additions didn't make it over. So that means, I will have to reload them in again. Since it was a couple of the new strategy sections, I got to thinking. (I can hear the loud groan already)

I decided to redo the strategy section over.

Now before I get a mass of irate emails in my box, the reasoning behind it is simple. I looked at what I had, and decided I might as well update the section, and also add everything I want in there at once. After just looking at the Arcade section, I suddenly came to the conculsion that I am truly nuts, and there's no way to make it easier for people to find what they are looking for, without reorganizing the directories. For instance, the Arcade section alone is 938 files, in 72 directories. And it's one of the smaller ones at that.

Add to this the small fact I have found a lot of new codes, and tactics for all of the systems, (which still have to be added) and you are getting the idea that this is one huge mo-fo resource that is being built. To be honest, I wouldn't be all that surprised if this section tips over the scale at 200 Megs. It really is gonna be a size, but I'm very determined to make this the largest of it's kind on the web today.

As well, I'm working on a couple of things, and hopefully, they will be up shortly. When the DNS is ready, the first thing I will reload will be the new Arcade Strategy Section. The section now will have additions to the cheats, (about 130) the full list of Pinouts, and a new section on switch settings. Gonna be a sizable section, but it's ready to go.

New HW: Cataclysm shots. - Thundra @ 6:14 pm PST
The Barking Dog guys added some new Cataclysm pics in their last news update. Check the screens right here.

Also, we have a new pic at Homeworld Nation, featuring Pic of the Week. You might want to check it out as well. Beam me up.

interview with clan B!TCH - Recoil @ 3:55 pm PST
over at clanzone they scored an interview with B!TCH, on different issues regarding the CS scene. RAiN reports from here

Interview with CroTeam's lead 3D Modeller - Recoil @ 3:48 pm PST
over at in the trenches they have scored a interview with CroTeam's lead 3D Modeller Admir Elezovic

Saturday, August 12, 2000

Morrowmind Interview - the_culture @ 10:36 am PST
GA-RPG threw 16 questions at Project Leader Todd Howard of Bethesda Softworks, and got 16 answers in return. They include eight screenshots and one exclusive concept art piece. Here's a sip to wet your whistle:

What will character development be like in Morrowind? Are you using a level or skill based system for character advancement, and are you going to limit character development options by an initial selection of a class like other similar games?

“It’s similar to Daggerfall in that it uses a skill based system and the more you use the skills needed by your class, the faster your level will raise. The skill list has gone through some necessary changes to make each skill more important. Classes in the Elder Scrolls are less about what you can or can’t do, but more about what is important you. Every character can attempt to do the same thing, but one character will be successful because their skill is higher, while the other will not be. Limiting factors on characters is more a factor of race as opposed to class.”

Return To Castle Wolfenstein Interview - the_culture @ 9:57 am PST
PC.IGN conducted an interview with Gray Matter's creative director Drew Markham, chit-chating about their up-coming Nazi-frag, Return To Castle Wolfenstein. Here's a snip:

IGNPC: How interactive will the environment be this time around?

Drew Markham: As interactive as we can make it. We're putting in a ton of destructible items, and you can actually pick up chairs and smash enemies in the head with them. All of the fixed gun emplacements (including MG42's, 20mm cannons, etc.) can be operated and used to not only wipe out enemies on foot, but shoot down airplanes and blow apart bridges and walls.

New Obi-Wan Shots - the_culture @ 9:19 am PST
LucasArts.com has a few more screenshots showing off their up-coming Force-induced FPS Obi-Wan. This is one phenomenal looking game.

Q2dm1 now available in Q3a - Recoil @ 6:42 am PST
The classic Q2DM1 - The Edge from quake II has been remastered for quake 3, by a french clan X3. Word has it that all the old circle jumps and double jumps are still possible. See some shots here

D2 Wallapers - Falcon @ 6:18 am PST
2 exclusive Diablo2 wallpapers have been posted on Gamewallpapers.com, and can be viewed here

mindgrid:audio - Falcon @ 6:15 am PST
jerimiah sypult (aka mindgrid), a professional sound/music artist (author of Track 10 on the Quake 2 CD) has released mindgrid:audio on his webpage:

mindgrid:audio is a complete sound effect replacement for Quake 3 Arena, and has gotten rave reviews from the people who've tried it.]

The download weighs in at 20MB and is definitely worth the download.

Gamers Alliance Updates - Falcon @ 6:10 am PST
A great opportunity to own AIWars has come up! Get the full AIWars game for only $15 (US) including worldwide shipping! Nexus Information Systems is clearing out their old stock of version 1.02 cds to make place for a new duplication of version 1.05. This offer includes all the usual support and the ability to upgrade to the current version which is 1.05. Hurry because they only have a limited amount of stock left.
AIWars is a first-person sci-fi action hybrid.

GA-Source has been updated with the first details and screenshots for Russian game developer Nikita's upcoming action racer, Safari Biathlon.

GA-RPG has been updated with new screenshots from Heuristic Parks' upcoming role-playing game, Wizards & Warriors.

GA-Strategy has been updated with Part 2 (of 4) of their Age of Kings: The Conquerors Designer Journal written by Designer Greg T. Street. This issue details the unique siege weapons and their contribution to the upcoming expansion - new screenshots included.

GA-Source has been updated with another hands-on look at a complete build of Raven Software's upcoming Quake III powered shooter, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. View the whole preview here

New AvP levels screenshots - Falcon @ 6:05 am PST
AvPnews.com has four exclusive first look screenshots of the upcoming levels. Fox Interactive will be releasing 2 levels a month for the next few months. These levels will work exclusively with Aliens Versus Predator Gold Edition and will be absolutely free!
You will see a news post from the main site about the levels including the four shots and the post below it is about how to get AvP Gold Edition with 4 free posters for a limited time.

Demo Mirrors - Falcon @ 6:03 am PST
FilePlanet is mirroring the NASCAR Heat demo from Monster Games/Hasbro Interactive at http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?file=48531, and also Microsoft's Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion demo at http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?file=48523.

GenCon 2000 Coverage - Falcon @ 6:01 am PST
Continuing their coverage from GenCon 2000, our roving reporter and pen and paper wizard, Christina Haumersen, delivers us the skinny from GenCon floor. Highlighting the massive convention was yesterday’s official press conference announcing the new Third Edition D&D rules at which the famed Gary Gygax made an appearance. Filled with photos and other goodies, point your mouse here for a look:

KISS: Psycho Circus Review - Falcon @ 5:59 am PST
Stomped has posted its review of the full version of Third Law Interactive's first person shooter KISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child.

Boy, is this a hard review to actually write. KISS: Psycho Circus - The Nightmare Child was made deliberately as an "old school" first person shooter. No fancy scripted sequences; no advanced AI; no attempt to create a solid story. Basically, you move from point A to point B and shoot anything that gets in your way.

This is my kind of game, and I enjoyed playing it from start to finish but I can understand how some people could be disappointed with the gameplay. My advice to those people: get a life. This game wasn't designed to make you go "Wow" with its cool technology. It was designed to give the player a chance to have some fun.

A second review of the game can also be found at Actiontrip:. They found that it was fairly unoriginal, and buggy..

RPG Reviews - Falcon @ 5:57 am PST
GameCritics.com critically examines two new RPGs on store shelves, Time Stalkers and Legend of Dragoon. Both titles were considered fairly lackluster. Here's a sample from each one:
Legend of Dragoon

"When I first started playing The Legend Of Dragoon, I told myself, "OK, when I write up my review, I won't focus on its similarity to Final Fantasy VII (FF7) like everyone else has." Well, here I am writing my review, and all I can think about is its similarity to FF7, and how stale and unoriginal the whole experience is. This game is such a rip-off of Square's FF7 that I can't believe Sony hasn't been taken to court for copyright infringement."

Time Stalkers

"Whatever the case, it's clear Climax desperately wants to capitalize on the notoriety Landstalker brought them -- with or without the guys who were responsible for it. We can assume this because their only other notable game, the Saturn release of Dark Savior, failed to make any kind of impression on the gaming world. Though their new Dreamcast RPG, Time Stalkers, is a quasi spin-off of the popular Genesis game, I don't think nearly as many people will remember it as they did Landstalker (and that's an understatement, in case you couldn't tell)."

DVD Tweak Guide - Falcon @ 5:55 am PST
Speedy 3D have just whipped up a small DVD image quality tweak guide for the GeForce/GeForce2 cards. This little guide tells you how to tweak your video overlay options for better image quality. Here's a little taste:

In software DVD Decoding, the digital video is processed through a technology called Hardware Overlay. This hardware function on the GeForce (and other recent video cards) allows the DVD to be drawn on a new "layer" over the previous screen. In most software decoders, this is done through a DirectX function, DX Overlay. The new layer has its own set of onscreen settings, separate from your desktop. This means that all of your gamma, brightness, and contrast tweaking, will no longer apply to the DVD movie being played.

2Cool Cooling System - Falcon @ 5:52 am PST
PC Hardware has a review of 2 COOL PC cooling system. Although not spectacular, this device helps you drastically reduce the temperature inside the your case. Here is a quote:

"If you had ever opened a HP workstation or any professional computer you would have noticed the powerful air cooling system - heatsinks, large fans. There are fans even for RAM. Four years ago, when I had the chance to look in a Silicon Graphics workstation I was amazed of it's cooling system. There was a system which took the hot air from inside and redirected it to outside, a huge heatsink was installed on the MIPS CPU, almost any chip on the BETA video system had it's own active cooling. It was impressive, but I understood why they had to install all this stuff. When I touched a heatsink. It was so hot as lighting a cigarette on it's surface would have been a piece of cake."

SIMHQ Interview - Falcon @ 5:51 am PST
SimHQ.com Interview: SimHQ.com is pleased to announce that it will be sponsoring a car in the upcoming Thrustmaster LAN Speed Challenge Midwest Regional, held August 25th-27th in Indianapolis. Their own Vic "Clutch" DiCosola talks shop with the driver of #74, Charlie Mone, about the event, professional simulation racing, and much, much more.

Mean Arena Updates - Falcon @ 5:50 am PST
The mean arena have posted a few more images of their UT to Q3 partial conversion mod. They're releasing a beta next Friday August 18th for public testing, and including several of the maps Kiltron has reconstructed. Also they're also in need of another coder and modeller, so if anyone is interested, send the, an email and show us what you can do. Check out the site here

Vampire Add on - Falcon @ 5:47 am PST
Mr. Clark has completed work on another add-on for Activision's Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption:

"The MYTHIC 13 Add-On pack for Redemption adds a new SECRET SOCIETY called MYTHIC 13 for use in your Redemption games. The pack adds 10 new NPC's for use in your chronicles, plus includes a 3,600 word document which details the Background of this new Secret Society, as well as describes the NPC's, Goals, and organization of Mythic 13. The document also gives hints for getting your player characters and chronicle involved with the society. This pack is entirely compatible with both my NPC PACK and my STONE HILL CHRONICLE SETTING. Watch for the PHOENIX OF TWILIGHT add-on pack coming soon!"

The 15Kb .ZIP file has been added to Vampire Vault's Downloads page.

QuakeCon Report - Falcon @ 5:45 am PST
Johnathan "fatal1ty`" Wendel has written his first report for Stomped, as one of the best Quake 3 players in the world takes a look at last weekend's QuakeCon. Check out the article at http://www.stomped.com/published/malhavoc9659245741.html

Also from stomped is a chat with Raven Software programmer Jake Simpson during QuakeCon last weekend on working at Raven and his views on the future of gaming. Check out the exclusive interview at http://www.stomped.com/published/jcal9659449852.html

Dues Ex In depth - Falcon @ 5:44 am PST
Today's feature at RPG Vault is Part 1 of a huge, in-depth look at Deus Ex.

Deus Ex Special Report, Part 1
=======================

In ION Storm Austin's Deus Ex, you play an anti-terrorist agent who becomes entangled in a Gordian knot of conspiratorial schemes and events. In Part 1 of our comprehensive Deus Ex Special Report, Project Director Warren Spector and Lead Designer harvey "witchboy" smith join us for a detailed look at this complex, compelling title plus the background behind it, complete with photos of some of the team and their offices.

Official Golf 2001 Site - Falcon @ 5:42 am PST
FORE! OFFICIAL MICROSOFT GOLF 2001 WEB SITE LAUNCHES

Microsoft today announced the launch of the official Golf 2001 Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/games/golf2001/. Microsoft Golf 2001 is the easy way to enjoy a fun round of golf on the PC. Duffers are invited to visit the Golf 2001 site to learn about how the game is designed for the new PC golfer, combining easy-to-use features with picture-quality graphics.

The official Microsoft Golf 2001 Web site provides PC golfers with in-depth descriptions of the seven courses found in the game, which includes Mauna Kea, Bountiful Ridge and Sea Island to name a few. The site also offers an introduction to the game, detailed feature list, and scores of screen shots highlighting the life-like graphics in the game.

Microsoft Golf 2001's easy-to-use features get players into the game quickly. There are lessons to teach players how to aim, swing, putt, and more. The one-click Easy Swing interface makes it simple for beginners to hit that perfect shot every time. Golf 2001 also keeps the challenge fresh with a variety of game and course options. Seven unique courses allow players to experience different course layouts and terrain. With eight different golfer animations as well as ten different types of games, beginner PC golfers will find variety and challenge with every click of the mouse. Microsoft Golf 2001 is based on Links LS technology, the best-selling golf sim of all-time.

Microsoft offers golf gamers two compelling titles this year: Links 2001 and Microsoft Golf 2001. Designed for different segments of the golf market, the games complement each other by broadening the PC golf experience to include both the new and seasoned golfer. Microsoft Golf 2001 is designed with the new PC golfer in mind, with easy-to-use features and a one-click Easy Swing interface. Links 2001 is targeted at the serious PC golfer who wants an in-depth golf experience and appreciates a wide range of features, including the ability to expand his/her course library. With an all-new graphics engine and the addition of the Arnold Palmer Course Designer, Links 2001 features the most significant upgrade to the series in over a decade.

Links 2001 will be available at retail locations in November. For more information on the game, go to http://www.microsoft.com/games/links2001/.

Microsoft Golf 2001 will be available at retail locations throughout North America in late August for an anticipated street price of US$19.95. To learn more about the game, go to http://www.microsoft.com/games/golf2001/.

PC Monkey Launches - Falcon @ 5:40 am PST
After a month of being off the map, Overclocking Worldwide is back with a new name - PC Monkey. But they haven't just changed their name, take a look at all the new stuff they have going:

H20 Voodoo - Overclocking a Voodoo 3 with water cooling!

Abit KA7 Review - A look at a great Athlon offering.

Deep Space 9: The Fallen Demo Review - We look at this upcoming Star Trek title

Deus Ex Review - A review of Ion Storm's winning game.

Updated File Section - A huge list of tweaking and benchmarking programs.

Ultimate golf review - Falcon @ 5:36 am PST
Today's review on EuroGamer sees them heading out on to the green stuff for a round of golf, as they investigate the ambitiously titled "Ultimate Golf Simulation" from UbiSoft.
And the traditional freeze-dried quote -

"Unfortunately the game's other big feature, the first person view, is rather disappointing as well. It might well be an original idea, but to be honest I couldn't really see the point of using it in the end. If anything it only serves to confuse, especially when using Amateur or Ultimate modes of play, and I found the game is better played
in the traditional third person view."

AOE2 Expansion Trail Available - Falcon @ 5:33 am PST
NB: This PR is posted a day late, so the download is already available now.

Microsoft today announced that the trial version for Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion, the award-winning add-on to Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, will be available for download tomorrow at http://www.microsoft.com/games/conquerors/.

In the trial version gamers can play the first scenario of the Montezuma campaign, which is one of four new campaigns found in the full retail version. Two new units, the Jaguar Warrior and the Plumed Archer, and two new technologies, the Garland Wars and El Dorado, are also included in the trial version. Additionally, players can experience the Mayan and Aztec civilizations -- new civilizations only available in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion. The trial version also contains an all-new game type, King of the Hill.

The full retail version of the Conquerors Expansion features five new civilizations: the Huns, Aztecs, Mayans, Koreans, and Spanish, along with four new historically based campaigns and over ten new units. Each civilization has unique attributes, buildings, and technologies, as well as unique combat units based on its historical counterpart. "Smart villagers," who go to work immediately and efficiently after constructing a drop-off building, and farm queues, which allow the gamer to automatically replant exhausted farms, add realism and ease-of-play to the gaming experience. Continuing to build on the Age of Empires franchise, the Conquerors Expansion showcases the expertise of Bruce Shelley, and offers the most feature-rich expansion pack created to date.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion will be available at retail locations throughout North America in late August for an anticipated street price of US$29.95. More information is available at the game's official Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/games/conquerors/, or on the Ensemble Studios Web site at http://www.ensemblestudios.com/.

Dues Ex Review - Falcon @ 5:30 am PST
The latest review over on Games Xtreme is an in depth review of Deus Ex, the first person action RPG from Ion Storm and Warren Spector, which has only just been recently released in Europe.

"Set sometime in the future, you play the part of a global police organisation UNATCO agent named J.C. Denton. UNATCO is a key government agency in the forefront of defending the world against terrorists who operate openly, killing thousands and where drugs, disease and pollution kill even more innocents. A 'Grey Death' viral epidemic is sweeping the globe and Ambrosia, the only cure, is the hottest commodity around with the ability to shift the balance of power. As part of UNATCO you are whisked around the globe to locations like Statue of Liberty island and the urban sprawl of New York to the congested streets of Hong Kong, uncovering an epic conspiracy straight out of the X-Files."

NFSCars Launched - Falcon @ 5:29 am PST
GameSpy positions its spotlight on SportPlanet’s hosted site, Need for Speed Cars. If you’re a “Speed” freak, NFSCars is loaded with a mass of additional tracks and automobiles to modify any “Need for Speed” game. Park your browser here:

Return to Castle Wolfenstein Interview - Falcon @ 5:22 am PST
Stomped chats with Mike Denny of Gray Matter Studios about his company's upcoming game, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the upcoming sequel to the classic id Software first person shooter Wolfenstein 3D. Check out the exclusive interview at http://www.stomped.com/published/jcal9658530221.html

Underappreciated Classic: SiN - Falcon @ 5:16 am PST
Previewed by every major publication, hyped by every Quake-engine fan, SiN looked like a surefire hit. PC Accelerator, in their first issue, named SiN one of the top 5 "Quake II killers." But then it was released and...nothing. Why not?

"Sin had two major flaws. The first: it was buggier than the Mississippi River in the summertime. Sin shipped with so many showstopper bugs that it left many gamers wondering if Activision did any QA testing at all. There was a giant list of complaints, ranging from incompatibility with PCI-based Soundblaster cards, trouble saving player configs, horrendous load times (if one can call that a bug), and random level crashes, among others. Once word got out that Sin was totally bugged, many gamers stayed away. Of course, they had something else to preoccupy their time with."

Friday, August 11, 2000

Pentium 4 to hit 2GHz next year - VulTure @ 6:56 am PST
Intel has, apparently, stepped up their schedule on new processors. They are starting to feel the pressure from other chip makers, AMD and Via, and are starting to ramp up for it. They are also pushing forward with plans to implement a 200MHz frontside bus (FSB). Thanks to the Register for the scoop.

Quake III: Team Arena - VulTure @ 6:49 am PST
Here is a small bit of info about Quake III: Team Arena from a reader of PlanetQuake...

"I was wondering, will all the new features like powerups/weapons be available in DM? I doubt id will release DM maps that are compatible; however, if it's possible, will we end up seeing a surge of Team Arena DM maps from the community?"

Here is the response from Robert Duffy...

"All of the weapons and items in Team Arena are fully usable in all game types but the Team Arena maps have the class based powerup set for team play only. There is no reason why community mappers cannot produce maps where the class powerups work in Deathmatch. Balancing might be an issue but as long as care is taken it would work out fine.

The 8 team maps have been balanced for both team and deathmatch play and should work well for all game types, the tournament maps are obviously geared for tournament style deathmatch but again will work well with a small group of players in deathmatch."

VE's 3-D Action Forecast -- Part One - VulTure @ 6:40 am PST
VoodooExtreme has put up Part 1 of their action report of upcoming games. Today they look at Star Trek: Elite Force and No One Lives Forever.

Jake Simpson Interview - VulTure @ 6:07 am PST
Jake Simpson, programmer for Raven, talks to Stomped about the future of gaming, console development, and the frustrations of being a game programmer. Here's a little bit from Jake...

Stomped: Is it still fun, with all the frustrations, to be a game programmer?

Simpson: I wouldn't trade this job for anything. There are frustrations. There are driver issues to deal with. They are a source of constant headaches. There are, let's face it, a few egos out there. But it's the most fun thing imaginable. It's a lot of hard work, don't get me wrong. It's not all fun and games, but ultimately, the sense of satisfaction you get with a good game. . .

Let me tell you a story. One of the things that got me hooked on game development was one of the first games I worked on that was released in England, years and years ago. I was in a store, W.H. Smith, and I watched a kid pull down the game that I worked on and another game, and he looked at the two of them back and forth, back and forth, and then he put the other one back and bought the one that I worked on. That's was it. That's was the moment I though to myself, "I've got to do this."

Diablo II Tips! - VulTure @ 5:57 am PST
If you are still looking for bigger and better ways to get through Diablo II, check out Computer Games Online for some hints and tips on getting through this game. These tips are very general and should help every character.

Serious Sam Artwork - VulTure @ 5:54 am PST
Croteam has updated their little home on the web with some artwork from their upcoming game, Serious Sam. This is some great stuff, so be sure to check it out. After you go there, check out VoodooExtreme for a walkthrough of the test release.

Return To Castle Wolfenstein Interview - VulTure @ 5:46 am PST
If you heard or read anything about this year's Quakecon you would know that Return To Castle Wolfenstein was a huge hit at the show. Now, Stomped speaks with Mike Denny of Gray Matter about this upcoming sequel to Wolf3D.

Daikatana Map Pack - VulTure @ 5:41 am PST
You say you need something new to look at in Daikatana? Well, Ion Storm has released a new map pack that you may want to pick up. There are 11 new multiplayer maps in this pack including some old ones that you may remember...DM3: The Abandoned Base from Quake, and MAP 11, 'O' of Destruction, from Doom II!

Thursday, August 10, 2000

Counter-Strike Interview - sim @ 7:52 pm PST
Swissquake.ch has posted an interview with the one and only Gooseman from the Counter-Strike team. Here's a clip:

[SIN]speed85: 7. Is there another serious change in the New Beta 7 which you can say to us?

Gooseman: I guess the biggest change would be if you get hit with a high-powered weapon (e.g. rifle), you'll get knocked back in the direction of the bullet. Oh, and I also added VGUI buy menus and team selection menus, but they can be turned off if people prefer the classical method.

Read the rest of it here.

The Conquerors Demo - sim @ 2:19 pm PST
Microsoft has sent out an official press release announcing that their will be a playable demo of the The Conquerors, the official expansion pack for Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, tommorow. Here's the word:

Microsoft today announced that the trial version for Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion, the award-winning add-on to Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, will be available for download tomorrow at http://www.microsoft.com/games/conquerors/.

In the trial version gamers can play the first scenario of the Montezuma campaign, which is one of four new campaigns found in the full retail version. Two new units, the Jaguar Warrior and the Plumed Archer, and two new technologies, the Garland Wars and El Dorado, are also included in the trial version. Additionally, players can experience the Mayan and Aztec civilizations -- new civilizations only available in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion. The trial version also contains an all-new game type, King of the Hill.

Midtown Madness 2 Preview - sim @ 1:57 pm PST
Evil Avatar has a good look at Midtown Madness 2 in their preview of the game. Here's a clip:

Midtown Madness baby, yeah! Well if the image of Austin Powers driving a New Beetle through Hyde Park as pedestrians run for their lives didn’t just pop into your head, then you must be thinking of a different game. Midtown Madness 2 is the upcoming sequel to Microsoft’s popular racing game that debuted about a year ago to nearly universal praise. The sophomore jinx has struck more titles than I care to remember, and I had high hopes that Microsoft would be able to deliver in this sequel.

Nintendo reveals Dolphin - VulTure @ 6:18 am PST
On August 24th, Nintendo will reveal all of the details on its new gaming console, the Dolphin. They are also planning on unveiling a new 32-bit Gameboy.

"What is known about the Dolphin is that it's powered by a customised 0.18 micron PowerPC processor codenamed Gecko and supplied by IBM. Ancillary chips are being fabbed by NEC in a deal worth over $2.8 billion. Dolphin's graphics will use S3's S3TC texture compression technology, soon to be owned by Via, if the Taiwan's regulators let the deal happen.

Nintendo also confirmed today that Dolphin's launch has been put back to 2001, probably March/April..."

Serious Sam Interview - VulTure @ 6:08 am PST
Wireplay has conducted an interview with programmer Dean Sekulic of Croteam, where he talks about Serious Sam. This is the incredible new game that brings back the frantic gaming of old-style Doom. If you haven't downloaded the demo, do yourself a favor and get it NOW! Here he is talking about playing Doom all the way through with just a pistol...

"Well, I must admit - it's not exactly like that. I do enjoy playing Doom with just a pistol, but I can't do that all the way. Doom1 maybe, but not Doom2. But, nevertheless, I used to be very good in Doom deathmatch. And this was the last real, action deathmatch for me. Quake and Unreal looks like slow-motion compared to Doom DM! As for the rest of us here at Croteam, like I said before, we're not just game-developers, we're gamers too, which means that every guy here has at least one game at which he's very, very excellent!"

While I'm on the suject, I couldn't resist including a screenshot...

Tribes II Interview - VulTure @ 5:56 am PST
GA-Source scores an interview with Blake Hutchins, writer for Dynamix, in which he talks about their highly-anticipated game, Tribes 2. Here's Blake describing the game...

"Could you briefly describe Tribes 2 for our readers that might not be familiar with the title?

A first-person shooter with a ground-breaking emphasis on online teamplay, incredible outdoor landscapes, and innovative, fast-moving gameplay. It's a thinking player's game more than a pure twitch game."

American McGee's Alice - VulTure @ 5:52 am PST
Do you want another preview of American McGee's Alice? Well, CGO has decided to put one up for you. Here's part of the story line for you to chew on...

Our shriveled White Rabbit appears and pleads for Alice’s help back in Wonderland, which is going bad and coming apart at the seams. Something about an evil queen. He rips some sort of pulsing rabbit hole in the fabric of space. She follows him in and ends up meeting a gnome who pedals her around on an airship. She walks into a Victorian house where the angles are all tilted about ten degrees to the right. The building then splits into two halves that hang torn in some whirling ethereal plane. Alice has to leap from splintered plank to splintered plank to get to the door at the other side of the house.

Carmack talks about...everything... - VulTure @ 5:46 am PST
Gamecenter conducts a two-part interview with John Carmack on a couple of different issues, including "Quake III on the Dreamcast, the other next-generation consoles, the joys of coding, and more."

From 'Da man, on programming for the video-game consoles..."...to a degree, I miss console programming some because there are definitely different types of enjoyment you get out of the programming on things. On the PC it's like riding a constantly changing wave which you get to see lots of really interesting things--but it's so spread out and diverse. You never get that opportunity to really sit down and focus and say, 'This way is 21 cycles; this one is 18 cycles. Let's do this.' You just don't do that on the PC anymore, but on the console you still do and I miss that to a degree."

Carmack talks about Linux - VulTure @ 5:38 am PST
John Carmack, of id Software, posts a rather long comment on /. about the viability of Linux. It seems that Quake3 for Linux didn't sell too well, it is slower and other developers/publishers aren't as willing to publish for Linux. Get the whole scoop at Slashdot.

Wednesday, August 09, 2000

Thief 3 - sim @ 7:07 pm PST
GameSpot announced Thief 3 yesterday and now Warren Spector has a few words on it. In this quick interview Warren says that development hasn't started yet nor that an engine choice has been made already, but that they will very likely continue working upon the foundation set by the first two games in the series and tie up any loose ends left by them. Here's another clip:

GameSpot: Has development already started on the new game?

Warren Spector: Nope. Our first priority is to sign up some critical team members - the folks who will work together to flesh out the game design and storyline, and around whom we can build an entire team. It would be the height of arrogance, as well as fundamental foolishness, to try to foist off a finished game design on a team. You always want your team to participate in the creation of the design. That's especially true when a new group (albeit one built around folks already experienced with Thief) is charged with continuing someone else's work. Team first, design second, then development.

Platform 2000 Conference - VulTure @ 7:09 am PST
Tom's Hardware has put up an article on the Platform 2000 Conference that happened in San Jose. If you want to find out the latest on memory technologies, check it out. Here's a summary from Tom's..."At the Platform 2000 Conference in San Jose industry experts discussed the latest developments in the memory market. Semico Research presented their forecast for the coming years."

Details For the Tribes 2 Beta - VulTure @ 7:02 am PST
If you are planning on running a Tribes 2 server in the beta test, you better have a very hot machine. It must be a 600mhz cpu or greater, 256megs of RAM, it must be a dedicated machine (you can't play on it), and you have to have a broadband connection. Modems need not apply!

FAKK2 Review - VulTure @ 6:55 am PST
According to the Daily Radar, FAKK2 doesn't quite hit the mark. They seem to like the eye-candy, but the game was not long enough. Go and read the review from them and then voice your own opinion on the subject!

Netscape 6 Preview Release 2 - VulTure @ 6:48 am PST
For those of you out there using Netscape's browser, you'll be happy to know that AOL has released the second preview of version 6. Here are some of the new features..."a customizable user interface, multiple email accounts, new Sidebar functionality, and some interesting language features, such as an automatic way to perform language translation on Web pages."

For more more information on this new edition, go here.

Voodoo Everywhere! - VulTure @ 6:42 am PST
And you thought that 3dfx was only in your computer! Well, 3dfx Gamers, has an article that will show you the light. 3dfx technology is also in all of your favorite arcade games! Check this out...

"So what does this mean for you? Well, it means that when you're not at home glued to your 21" monitor, with your hands wrapped around a joystick, salivating over liquid smooth frame rates and ultra high-resolution gaming, you can be doing the same thing in public. Checking in at over 100 billion operations per second and delivering over 60 frames per second, arcade systems have reached new heights. Combining the world's fastest 2D with a dual 32-bit pipeline, arcade gamers are provided with a mind-altering gaming experience. With an unrivaled 7 million triangles a second, 3dfx's patented Single-Pass, Single Cycle Multi-Texturing provides breathtaking visual effects at resolutions as high as 2046x1536. Designed to enhance the latest generation of computer hardware, 3dfx's VSA-100 chip provides all the power, speed and performance gamers have come to expect."

Ritual Interview - VulTure @ 6:36 am PST
Rob Dimant, CEO of Ritual, gives a very good interview, in which he talks about, FAKK2, Microsoft, using the Quake3 engine, and dealing with Apple. Here is Rob talking about the Bungie buyout...

Speaking of Alex and the Bungie buyout/sellout, do you have any reactions to that?

I have nothing but the best things to say about Bungie. They are a model of a successful developer to me.

I’ve been a Bungie fan since Pathways… I know what you mean.

From the first trade shows, where I used to wonder, "Who the hell are those punks?" to being bought by Microsoft, they’ve done nothing but excel. I think that the acquisition of Bungie by Microsoft is-maybe some developers are jealous, I don’t know- but, to me, it just goes to show that they were a jewel.

3dfx Interview - VulTure @ 6:30 am PST
Bubba Wolford, Senior PR Specialist for 3dfx, gives it all up in an interview with Darth of Got Apex?. He talks about many things including, getting back on a 6-month product cycle, DirectX 8.0, the future of Glide, and their T-Buffer technology!

300AD: Derek Smart Interview - Falcon @ 5:42 am PST
Damage Gaming has posted an interview with 3000AD's Derek Smart, concerning his recent announcement that they have licensed CroTeam's Serious engine.

Screens - Falcon @ 5:41 am PST
For your viewing pleasure, the BG Chronicals have images and animated .gifs of red dragons from Baldur's Gate II. Long hoped for by fans, BioWare has finally admitted the presence of these fearsome foes.

At the same time from RPG Vault:
Ending a lot of speculation, Black Isle Studios and BioWare confirmed today that Baldur's Gate II will include Dragons. Five screenshots, a drawing and three character animations have been posted for your viewing pleasure.

GA-RPG has been updated with 12 new screenshots from Click Entertainment's upcoming action/RPG, Throne of Darkness.

Developer Radon Labs sent GA-Source four new screenshots from their upcoming action/strategy hybrid, Nomads.

SF have posted 4 screens of the shotgun which will appear in version 1.30 of Strike Force. Three renders are posted and the POTW (Picture of the week) shows an in game screen.
1.30 is undergoing final tweaking and will be released before the month is over.

Slated for release this fall, Wizards & Warriors is a huge, classic-style 3D RPG being crafted at Georgia-based Heuristic Park. Thanks to the developer and publisher Activision, RPGVault bring you a Wizards & Warriors Start-Up Gallery with 15 all-new screenshots from the starting town of Valeia and the early part of the game.

A never-before-seen desktop background of the highly anticipated game Hitman: Codename 47 coming straight from IO Interactive. The wallpaper features Mr 47 himself with a big-ass sniper rifle in his hands preparing for his next assassination.
The wallpaper is available in the following resolutions:

- 800x600
- 1024x768
- 1152x864
- 1280x1024

Microsoft`s Christmas Buildup - Falcon @ 5:36 am PST
BarrysWorld was recently invited to look at the games and peripherals upcoming between now and Christmas from the Microsoft stable. Take a look at what they found in their Microsoft build up to Christmas 2k preview:

"It`s clear from looking at the games and hardware on display, and also at the investments that MS is making in the game industry (Bungie, Battlecom etc), that a decision has been made at some very high level in MS that there`s "money in them there hills". The quality of the titles that are now coming from the MS stables are constantly on the up. A company that was once the subject of stifled sniggers and prejudiced opinions (this writer is guilty as charged) in the gaming arena has not only secured itself a substantial foothold, but better than that, a very highly regarded reputation for quality solid games and peripherals. "

Valkyrie's Latest Title - Falcon @ 5:34 am PST
Valkyrie, creators of Septerra Core, are currently making a new action-rpg for the PC. PlanetPS2 has learned that the title will also have a chance of making it to the PS2 and Xbox as well.

The game is 6 weeks into development and is still looking for a publisher. Read more at www.planetps2.com

AOE2 Expansion Gold! - Falcon @ 5:32 am PST
Microsoft today announced that Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion, the award-winning sequel to Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, has gone gold. This means that the product is complete and is expected to hit store shelves in the U.S. in late August. To celebrate the game's final code, Ensemble Studios, developers of the Age of Empires franchise, is showcasing "The Conquerors Designer Journal," a weekly diary focusing on this highly anticipated game.

The Conquerors Expansion features five new civilizations: the Huns, Aztecs, Mayans, Koreans, and Spanish, along with four new historically based campaigns and over ten new units. Each civilization has unique attributes, buildings, and technologies, as well as unique combat units based on its historical counterpart. "Smart villagers," who go to work immediately and efficiently after constructing a drop-off building, and farm queues, which allow the gamer to automatically replant exhausted farms, add realism and ease-of-play to the gaming experience. Continuing to build on the Age of Empires franchise, the Conquerors Expansion showcases the expertise of Bruce Shelley, and offers the most feature-rich expansion pack created to date.

"The Conquerors Designer Journal" gives gamers insight into new game types, instructions on customizing their own map scripts, and information on civilizations revitalized from the original Age of Empires II. The journal is available at: http://www.ensemblestudios.com/openjournal2/.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion will be available at retail locations throughout North America in late August for an anticipated street price of US$29.95. More information is available at the game's official Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/games/conquerors/, or on the Ensemble Studios Web site at http://www.ensemblestudios.com/.

MS FF Sidewinder Wheel Review - Falcon @ 5:31 am PST
Stomped reviews the Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel. Check it out at http://www.stomped.com/published/toe2toe9657455091.html

FAKK2 Interview - Falcon @ 5:29 am PST
FAKK˛Central got an interview with Beau Anderson, Heavy Metal FAKK˛'s lead artist.

Caeron 3000 Interview - Falcon @ 5:26 am PST
Caeron3000 (seer-on three thousand) is ambitious massively multiplayer project that will combine role-playing, action, adventure, strategy, and shooter elements with a setting in the distant Andromeda galaxy. As the game approaches alpha, RPGVault had the opportunity to find out about it from Magique President Thomas Scott in a lengthy Caeron3000 Interview.

John Carmack on Console vs PC - Falcon @ 5:23 am PST
This past weekend, id Software founder and lead coder John Carmack addressed a group of almost 1000 PC gamers at QuakeCon 2000. The subject of this year's talk? "PC vs. Console Gaming" and the new generation of Internet-ready consoles. Is the PC dead? PlanetQuake's Caryn "Hellchick" Law took notes throughout the hour-and-a-half long talk and came back with an extensive report of what he said. Along the way he touched on the X-Box, different operating systems, the PC mod-making community, console revenue models, and more. The full writeup is at: http://www.gamespy.com/articles/quakecon2000_jcarmack_a.shtm

Peacemakers First Look - Falcon @ 5:21 am PST
GA-Strategy has published a first look at Mathematiques Appliquees' Peacemakers, an ambitious real-time strategy game in which the goal is to cause political defeat of the enemy, and not simply destroy them - new screenshots included. Read more here:

FAKK2 Review - Falcon @ 5:08 am PST
Speedy 3D has just kicked up a review of Ritual's newest feminist-action-hero title, Heavy Metal: FAKK2. Powered by the Q3A engine this game has got some of the best visual's of any game on the market. Here's a

Created by Ritualistic, developers not unknown for their use of the female form and sexual innuendos (SiN), Fakk2 is a kind of Tomb Raider come Half Life clone. You play the role of a tall, big breasted, weapon packed, ultra feminist, bitch slapping and bug beating goddess [Ed – Hehe ultra feminist]. Packing everything from flaming swords to Uzi’s and explosives, she’s certainly not to be messed with.

American Magee Interview - Falcon @ 5:04 am PST
Stomped had a chance to sit down with American McGee Monday, as the former level designer for id Software is now working with Electronic Arts and Rogue Entertainment to complete the Quake 3 engine powered third person action game that takes a different spin on the tales of Lewis Carroll in American McGee's Alice. Check out the exclusive interview at http://www.stomped.com/published/jcal9657971591.html

Tuesday, August 08, 2000

Classic Games Week - VulTure @ 6:19 am PST
Did you ever wonder what happened to all of those games that you used to play when you were a kid. Well, The Daily Radar has put together a great story for ya!

"...Well, the truth is that your old games have been purchased by some guy for $10 at your parents' garage sale and are now sitting in a giant box with about 50 other obscure titles waiting to be traded. Think we're kidding? Well, then you just aren't hardcore enough to hang at the Classic Gaming Expo that graced Vegas with its presence July 29-30 at the downtown Plaza hotel."

Rocket Arena 3 Update - VulTure @ 6:08 am PST
If you are running a Rocket Arena 3 mod on your server, you may want to check this out. There is an update to the server files, that fixes a few problems and adds in some new features. There is no need to download this, if you are just running the client.

id Software hires new artist - VulTure @ 6:05 am PST
Seneca Menard, of Ion Storm, has left to join the id Software team. Redwood, of Stomped, asked Todd Hollenshead what Seneca would be doing and got this response... "He's basically an all-around artist who can also do level design. We're glad to have him as part of the team."

Stevie "Killcreek" Case Interview - VulTure @ 5:55 am PST
Get the inside scoop on this champion gamer turned level designer from GamersED. They talk to her about her history in gaming, her modeling career, and where she thinks this crazy world of gaming will be in five years. To read an older, but still relevant interview with her, in which she gives up the meaning of her name, check out this page.

Beta Test For Arcanum - VulTure @ 5:45 am PST
BluesNews is reporting the opening of the beta test program for Sierra's upcoming role-playing game, Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura. The beta test will begin in September and the game is set to be released in February of 2001. For more information and to sign up, go here.

Ask AE - Falcon @ 4:02 am PST
Ask AE is a weekly feature here on Horizons Vault where Artifact Entertainment, makers of Horizons, answers questions submitted by their fans. Catch this week's Ask AE at http://www.horizonsvault.com/features/askae/12.shtml:

BGII Producer leaves BioWare - Falcon @ 3:59 am PST
The BGChronicles have just learned that Ben Smedstad, the Producer of Baldur's Gate II, recently left BioWare. His departure is not expected to delay the game's release in September. For more info head over to their news page here:

Also on their site is an edited chat log for the just finished Baldur's Gate II chat at Voodoo Extreme, available from here:

Storytelling Handbook - Falcon @ 3:47 am PST
This week Vampire Vault has a new instalment of The Complete Storytelling Handbook, an ongoing series of articles aimed at the Vampire Storytelling and role-playing community. In Part 3 - Non-Player Characters, Mr. Clark discusses the creation of compelling fictional characters a Storyteller might include in their chronicle.

NPC stands for Non-Player Character, and is any character in a role-playing game that is not controlled by a player. In this article I'm going to show you how to make some truly memorable NPC's for your games. A great NPC is not simply tough or hard to kill. Anyone can plant five werewolves in front of the Player Characters and watch them get wasted. A great NPC has a personality, and comes off as a real Being when the players interact with them. Be they friends, foes, or the guy who sells hot dogs on the corner, all your NPC's should seem 'real'.

Direct3D article - Falcon @ 2:48 am PST
New today on EuroGamer is the final article in their series on DirectX 8, based on the WGDC 2000 conference which took place in London at the end of June. This time round we look at perhaps the most interesting part of DirectX - the graphics!

They take a look at everything from programmable pipelines to N-patches, and from volume textures to multi-sampling, including all the latest gadgets from 3dfx, ATI, NVIDIA and S3. There are also screenshots of some of the demonstrations from the conference, including the stunning N-Patch enhanced Quake shambler shown by ATI (thumbnail below).

Grand Prix 3 Review - Falcon @ 2:42 am PST
Gamers.de's simulations expert Robert "Smotschkov" Osten has spent days racing Grand Prix 3. He made a review and couldn't wait to get back playing. Read why here: (German reading ability recommended).

Where the hell is Oni? - Falcon @ 2:38 am PST
From the earliest videos and screenshots, it was clear Oni, being developed by Bungie, was a different creature from the games we have been playing. However, one question remains: where the hell is it? Read 3DActionPlanet's article here:

The Ultimate Game Console? - shiva @ 1:52 am PST
Playing arcade conversions on your T.V. through a home game system can be a hit or miss type of thing. On one hand, the translation may be quite good, but it always boils down to the fact that the various home console units were designed to play all types of games, and may not be suitable for a particlar game. A good case in point being Crazy Taxi for the Dreamcast. A great translation, but marred by the basic controller. And since the base controllers that come with the units are nowhere close to the actual arcade controllers in look or feel, the game always loses that "little something".

To add to that, sometimes, the game just isn't that good, or even worse, your favorite arcade game doesn't have a "home" version available. There was a solution, in M.A.M.E., a arcade emulator that supports over 2000 games, but it still suffers from that "little something".

There is now another solution. Great Western Trading have released for sale their H.G.A. system. H.G.A. (which stands for Home Game Arcade System) is a console unit that hooks up to your T.V. and plays the actual arcade games. You hook up a JAMMA arcade board to the unit, plug it in, and you are up and running. Depending on the configuration that you order, you can play a wide variety of arcade games, and you can swap the boards of different games quite easily.

Some of the features include:

Dual Video Output

Stereo Output

Uses all 4 jamma buttons without modification

Standard adapter for feature connector (buttons 4-6) can adapt to almost any 6 button configuration

easy access to adjustable power supply

internal cooling fan

You have to supply your own Arcade board, but the unit does come with "Street Fighter 2" style controllers. You can also get adapters to accept other JAMMA type games as well.

You can order the H.G.A. through their email or phone at (541)726-1813. If you would like to find out more information, you can also visit their website.

Monday, August 07, 2000

Nascar Review - shiva @ 1:07 pm PST
Pineo makes his debut with a review of Hasbro's Nascar. This next in the long line of the famous racing series looks to be just as good as the previous versions.

" Ok, you got me here. If F1 was on at the same time as Nascar, on a regular basis I would most likely watch the Formula one race. To tell you the truth, Nascar racing is boring, it's up there with watching pool and darts. Viewing fast cars racing around a circular track tires out the mind. However, Nascar heat is far from boring, we all agree that watching Nascar on television is wearisome, racing bumper to bumper on multiplay is convincing, almost exhilarating. Combined with the fast, furious racing and sharp 3D graphics, this game unquestionably will be a homicidal maniac."

You can find the Nascar review either in our Review Section, or right here.

New Interview - Dark Zion - shiva @ 12:26 pm PST
Dark Zion is one of those interesting games you have to have a look at when it gets released, and the_culture agrees, as he has done a interview for us. Here's a bit:

What do you think the MMORPG genre is lacking, and what will Dark Zion bring to fill that need?

The point of online entertainment is a sense of interaction with a game world and its inhabitants, and we believe that, with our current level of technology, this interaction can best be expressed when players themselves feel they have control over the game world. Elements like predetermined quests, static environments, and canned NPC dialogue are the antithesis of meaningful player interaction, so we choose to eliminate them. In their place, we hope to install the tools necessary for players to build a rich and varied experience of their own, through cooperation or conflict.

You can find the Dark Zion Interview in our Computer Interview Section.

John Carmack speech - VulTure @ 8:12 am PST
Well, I forgot to post this earlier, but if you would like to hear the whole John Carmack speech from QuakeCon, check it out here.

New Half-Life Coming - VulTure @ 8:00 am PST
The Adrenaline Vault has a report on a new version of Half-Life that is slated for later in 2000. This version will contain up-to-date versions of Half-Life, Opposing Force, Team Fortress Classic, Prima's Half-Life guide and a collection of the series' top user-created mods.

3000AD Licenses Serious Sam Engine - VulTure @ 7:46 am PST
3000AD has officially announced that they will be licensing the Serious Sam engine for their next game. Derek Smart, President of 3000AD, had this to say...

"After nearly a decade of developing the highly complex and niche Battlecruiser series, it seemed like the time to listen to some good advice and make a brand new start in a different direction. I had been looking around for quite sometime, for a cost effective and at the same time, advanced third-party engine, to replace the previous one used in the Battlecruiser Tactical Engagement project. The Serious Engine, developed by a team of highly skilled developers, proved to be just that. If you have played the recently released demo of their first game to use this engine, Serious Sam, then you already have an idea of what I'm talking about."

MGON hosting service - VulTure @ 7:25 am PST
UltimaHaven has now put up its MGON hosting service. If you are currently running a website devoted to Ultima or Origin Systems, apply at UltimaHaven, and get hosted there. Here are some of the benefits...an ultimahaven.com subdomain (yourname.ultimahaven.com), 1 POP3 Email account, CGI and PHP access, a free forum and virtually unlimited webspace!

Ultima Online 2 screenshots - VulTure @ 7:16 am PST
UltimaHaven has put up a new screenshot of this anticipated new game. This shot looks great and shows off a new monster in the game...they also have a whole gallery with past images!

Diablo II Patch - VulTure @ 6:58 am PST
Well, patch 1.03 is out for Diablo II, but it is not getting a very warm welcome! There seems to be quite a few fixes in this release as detailed here, but they have also lowered stats for the individual characters. For an in-depth analysis of this, go to DiabloII.net's guide.

The new Doom! - VulTure @ 6:51 am PST
PlanetQuake has put up an article with all kinds of little tidbits from a speech that John Carmack gave at QuakeCon2K. There is a lot of info on the new Doom game in there, so pop in and check it out. According to Carmack, they will be focusing on single player for the game...

"The next Doom gave will have multiplayer, but the focus is clearly going to be on the single player game, with multiplayer taking a back seat and not getting as much attention. When pressed on the subject of cooperative multiplayer modes, Carmack just said that it's great, but it won't be a focus either. It's all about the single player game.

With a single player focus, the Doom game obviously won't be the choice for competitive online gaming, a status Quake 3 Arena enjoys now. Carmack hinted that someone may continue to work with Quake 3 in such a way as to keep its popularity alive, but said that id wouldn't be involved. After the Quake 3 Team Arena expansion pack, they are concentrating solely on the new Doom game."

Quake Movie! - VulTure @ 6:42 am PST
You say you don't know what Quake: The Seal Of Nehahra is? Well, for fans of the original Quake, you'll remember all of the movies that were produced using the Quake engine. The Seal Of Nehahra is a new, original movie that is 3 hours long, so get some popcorn ready! Be careful, though, it's a 91mb download...so, make sure you have some bandwidth to spare!

Windows ME vs. Windows 98 - VulTure @ 6:23 am PST
If you still undecided about getting Windows ME, when it arrives, take a stroll on over to the Firing Squad. They have put up a lengthy article on the benefits and drawbacks of this operating system, versus Windows 98. There is also a small history on the Windows family.

FAKK2 Interview - VulTure @ 6:18 am PST
GameCyclus talks to Ritual programmer, Mark Dochtermann, about FAKK2. It's a quick Q&A session, and here's a quick quote...

BR: If you had a " god " mode, what would you do?
MarkD: Probably leave the planet and find someplace less corrupted by man...but before I left I would make sure everyone bought FAKK 2. :)

Warren Marshall Interview - Falcon @ 4:27 am PST
With the recent popularity of RA:UT, PlanetUnreal decided to send Warren Marshall, Level Designer and Programmer for Epic Games, a few questions related to it, UnrealEd 2.0, mods in general, and his acclimation to the Epic team. Here's a clip:

[PU]: What kind of reaction have you gotten to UnrealEd 2.0, now that it's been public for awhile and has been used by the community level designers?

WM: Overall, the reaction has been very good. I get some heated emails from people because I removed their favorite feature in the first release .. most of which have been replaced in the 425 patch. Although I still don't really understand the appeal of some of them ... like "Extrude to Point" in the 2D shaper. ;)
On the whole, people seem to like the new editor much better than the old one.

V5 5500 Review - Falcon @ 4:25 am PST
Just when you thought it was safe, Dan "CRASH" Crenshaw gets his hands on another new video card, this time a PCI version of the V5 5500 by 3dfx. Check out the results and comparisons. If you are in the market for a PCI based card or a second card, check this out right here:.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Falcon @ 4:23 am PST
3D ActionPlanet spends some quality time with Grey Matter Studios and learned quite a few things about the game that hadn't been released to the public. Read on to learn about several new maps and enemies that weren't showcased at the Electronics Entertainment Exposition (E3) last May.

"I also saw another weapon that I wasn't really supposed to see. The Activision rep here at Quakecon accidentally readied something that looked like a lightning gun of some kind --a rod with blue and white bolts writhing along its length. I only got to see it for a second, though, as the Activision guy quickly said "Ooops! You weren't supposed to see that!" and put it away."

Atriach Animation - Falcon @ 4:21 am PST
The fine folks at World Fusion were kind enough to send another exclusive animation this way! This time a Cavolon guide is featured walking and yes, even talking!
You can view the animation at: http://www.atvault.com/thegame/movies.

GTA Review - Falcon @ 4:20 am PST
EuroGamer delves through the bargain bins again today, with a review of classic crime 'em up "Grand Theft Auto", which is now available on the "Sold Out" title in the UK for the princely sum of Ł9.99.

If you haven't played this game yet, what are you wiating for?

RA2 Release date - Falcon @ 4:19 am PST
The guys at Actiontrip have received word from Westwood that they expect the game to go gold in mid September, putting the game on shelves in Mid October.

Sunday, August 06, 2000

The poll shuffle - shiva @ 5:32 pm PST
Most of you may have noticed our new poll down on the right nav. I asked Falcon to put this question up, so I know which section will need to be concentrated on once I finish the Strategy Section off with the old content.

This poll is actually for THE FUTURE, once everything is in. Just because I'm working on the strategy section at the moment, doesn't mean you shouldn't vote for it, as the section that "wins" will be the first section that will be updated.

Since I handle the design, content, and HTML coding, I need to know what the viewers here at GameSurge want to see, so I urge all of you to vote in our poll. At the moment, very few people have done so, so when Friday rolls around, we will go with the numbers that are up.

At the time of this post, the Previews Section is leading, followed by the Strategy Section and the Arcade Section. Some people may be surprised by the Arcade Section being number 2, but I'm not. Information on Arcades are very scarce to come by.

So help us be a better website, and let us help you in finding the information you want. Vote in our poll.

HW:N update - Thundra @ 4:46 pm PST
You must have noticed that we are looking for sites to host. Now can you imagine that even Homeworld has an internal discussion about who will talk to Falcon first... Well, it seems that battles were stopped to discuss this issue... You have to take a look at this.

Well, if you don't want that Homeworld ships have advantage over you, hurry up... they must be knocking at Falcon's mailbox about the hosting stuff... Why don't you do the same?

Rune Preview - sim @ 11:19 am PST
The Corporation has a good look at Rune, a third-person action game based on Norse Mythology and using the Unreal Tournament engine. Here's a clip from the preview:

Rune is a third-person action game based on Norse Mythology, featuring lovable Gods such as Odin and Ymir (I love those guys!) It's all about third person melee swordplay in Rune, and while the formula may be unfamiliar, it's shaping up to be one of the top action titles of 2000. The smooth gameplay and incredible detail of Rune's world look to certainly have what it takes to put a title over the top when it's released later this year.

Peter Molyneux Interview - sim @ 11:13 am PST
The megamonolith of gaming goodness, GameSpy, has tossed up an interview with Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios. They talk about an assortment of things, including his upcoming title: Black and White.

Ratpadz Review - Falcon @ 6:19 am PST
Well, your Mouse pad.. So what's it like using the Ratpadz? Like moving ice over your kitchen bench. Read our review (my first for months actually) right here.

Saturday, August 05, 2000

Hosted Sites - Falcon @ 4:06 pm PST
Just a note to let everyone know that we are once again actively looking for sites to host, for a listing of requirements and features, head over to our hosting page. Whether you have an existing site or have great plans for a new one, drop us a line with your ideas and we'll get back in touch with you.

Midtown Madness 2 Preview - sim @ 10:14 am PST
GameSpot (again) has a 2 page preview of Microsoft's upcoming sequel, Midtown Madness 2. Here's a clip:

Microsoft's original Midtown Madness took racers off the beaten track and onto the streets of Chicago. With a selection of vehicles ranging from the powerful Ford Mustang to the municipal behemoth of the city bus, players tore up the windy city to the sweet sounds of blaring horns, shouting citizens, and not-so-infrequent collisions. Its sequel Midtown Madness 2 delivers double the driving turf, subjecting two cities, San Francisco and London, to the thrashing of urban racing.

Top PC Games - sim @ 10:11 am PST
Due to popular demand, GameSpot has reintroduced the GameSpot Top PC Games page. It lists all the top-scoring games in each genre, as well as the highest-scoring games overall.

Goverment on Games - sim @ 10:08 am PST
GameSpot has a new Question of the Week: Is governmental regulation of the game industry necessary? In a recently released statement, four national health
organizations claimed that games can have a "significantly more severe" chance of adversely affecting children's behavior than can other types of media. This statement was released shortly after British Columbia decided to restrict the sale of Soldier of Fortune, and the city of Indianapolis adopted an ordinance to require that violent arcade games be displayed behind a curtain or other partition. This flood of news on the subject prompted this week's GameSpot Question of the Week. So get going and vote on it!

Friday, August 04, 2000

Call to Power 2 Preview - shiva @ 11:36 pm PST
Pineo, a new member here at GameSurge, has written his first preview, on Call To Power 2, a "Civilization" type game for the P.C. Here's a little bit:

"CTP2 also allows you to ignore zones of influence, your enemies may also ignore your borders depending on their personality. If you feel that your attack in ineffective or failing, you can turn to the diplomacy options, improved in CTP2. There's a new proposal interface that allows you to form compound proposals and counter offers."

You can find the preview right here and the complete list of all of our previews can be found in our Computer Games Preview Mainpage.

A little site update - shiva @ 11:28 pm PST
I suppose I should give everyone a update content wise here at GameSurge. There isn't any.
In case you missed the post I made, I have been layed up with a bad back, and have been told by my doctor, and threatened by my wife, to stay off of it. I have decided to share with you some advice, in case of the day you get to be my age, and wish to avoid having to sleep on the carpet because the bed is to soft:

IT IS possible to lock your back from the shoulder blades down.

And no, it isn't fun, especially when you are doing your exercises at home, and your 2 year old child decides to take a running jump, OFF THE COUCH, and land on your stomach.

Fortunately, there is a God, as he didn't land lower...

Never, EVER, have a job that requires you to lug around 350 pound arcade machines

There you go, some words of advice.

Oh, I guess you would want to know what's upcoming. Depending on whether the wife wakes up, and catches me on the computer or not, I will continue work on the strategy section. It's a little large, and I have to convert them all from text to HTML, and then link them, but hopefully, the next section will be up soon. Some time. Honest.

Starcraft Map of the Week - Hobbes @ 7:48 pm PST
The newest Starcraft Map of the Week is called Pridelands. It is a 96x96 using the jungle tileset and is designed for two players.

Welcome to The Amazing Bengalaas Exhibit!

Safariland is proud to present Bengalaas!, the most technologically advanced animal environment ever created. Our landscape architects and technical engineers have spent over a 3 years designing a habitat that faithfully mimics the actual conditions on Aiur, the homeworld of the Bengalaas. While we don't have any Protoss or Zerg roaming about our jungle, we were able to import several different plants native to Aiur to make these massive cats feel even more at home. Two visitor platforms, protected by specially designed moats, have been erected as close as possible to the cats for the best in viewing and holophotography. Exclusive merchandise is also available at the Bengalaas, Wow! gift shop for those who wish to take home the pride of the jungle.

You can download the map here.

Ultima Online 2 Preview - Raven @ 6:29 pm PST
Anyone who knows anything about Ultima Worlds Online: Origin (UO2), will know that this game is going to be the next big thing in online RPGs. Don't Believe me, well read this

"As you can see from the screen shots, the developers are really setting their stall out in terms of a technologically advanced 3D environment - one that in preview at least puts even the recently updated EverQuest in the shade. Their aim is to achieve the same visual impact that we expect from a single-player game, but in a practical way for the massively multiplayer scenario. Thus, if too many players or monsters groOFF THE COUCH, and land on your stomach.

Fortunately, there is a God, as he didn't land lower...

Never, EVER, have a job that requires you to lug around 350 pound arcade machines

There you go, some words of advice.

Oh, I guess you would want to know what's upcoming. Depending on whether the wife wakes up, and catches me on the computer or not, I will continue work on the strategy section. It's a little large, and I have to convert them all from text to HTML, and then link them, but hopefully, the next section will be up soon. Some time. Honest.

Starcraft Map of the Week - Hobbes @ 7:48 pm PST
The newest Starcraft Map of the Week is called Pridelands. It is a 96x96 using the jungle tileset and is designed for two players.

Welcome to The Amazing Bengalaas Exhibit!

Safariland is proud to present Bengalaas!, the most technologically advanced animal environment ever created. Our landscape architects and technical engineers have spent over a 3 years designing a habitat that faithfully mimics the actual conditions on Aiur, the homeworld of the Bengalaas. While we don't have any Protoss or Zerg roaming about our jungle, we were able to import several different plants native to Aiur to make these massive cats feel even more at home. Two visitor platforms, protected by specially designed moats, have been erected as close as possible to the cats for the best in viewing and holophotography. Exclusive merchandise is also available at the Bengalaas, Wow! gift shop for those who wish to take home the pride of the jungle.

You can download the map here.

Ultima Online 2 Preview - Raven @ 6:29 pm PST
Anyone who knows anything about Ultima Worlds Online: Origin (UO2), will know that this game is going to be the next big thing in online RPGs. Don't Believe me, well read this

"As you can see from the screen shots, the developers are really setting their stall out in terms of a technologically advanced 3D environment - one that in preview at least puts even the recently updated EverQuest in the shade. Their aim is to achieve the same visual impact that we expect from a single-player game, but in a practical way for the massively multiplayer scenario. Thus, if too many players or monsters group up in one area, their polygon counts will scale down to make sure that play still runs smoothly.

Player characters will also have a vast number of new moves. These will include countless fighting actions, from simple swipes to spinning strikes, and characters will get access to new movements based on the skills they managed to acquire. New players starting the game will only be able to train in broad skill types such as Combat or Magic (and so only have the ability to engage in the most basic of combat manoeuvres), while advanced players will eventually find teachers who can train them in more specific skills like Sword, Axe, or Martial Arts. As the player gains more skills, the opportunities for advancement - and so new moves including combinations - become further specialised."

Get the rest of the preview here.

Bioware Interview - Raven @ 6:18 pm PST
3d Action Planet, have a three page interview up covering a recent conversation they had with the Canadian Bioware. Bioware are responcible for bring us some of the best RPG games to date. The Interview is mostly centered on MDK and the upcoming MDK2. Nice read, you can get it here.

The Wizards of Sacrifice Screenshots - Raven @ 6:13 pm PST
PC.IGN have a nice little look at the next big game from Shiny Entertainment. This game looks AMAZING! The Wizards of Sacrifice is an Real Time Strategy game, with a beautiful 3d Twist. The screenshots look beautiful and you can view them here. Alternatively you can read a preview of The Wizards of Sacrifice here. This game is definately going on my Christmas list.

Diablo 2 V1.03 Patch - Raven @ 6:05 pm PST
Well Blizzard is at it again, they have just released V1.03 of Diablo II. The patch corrects a number of problems including:

- Fixed a rare bug that would mark a character as "Unable to join, Bad item." A typical cause of this bug was high lag conditions while two characters simultaneously attempted to use the same item lying on the ground - for example, a Necromancer casting Iron Golem on a sword while another tried to pick it up.

- Fixed a bug where Diablo II would crash when using 64MB video cards.

- Fixed a loophole that allowed either the Necromancer wearing the complete set of Infernal Tools or the Paladin with the Milabrega set to temporarily boost his skills to very high levels.

- Fixed a bug that caused Amazons wielding a javelin in the right side inventory box and a shield in the left to do no damage with javelin-throwing skills assigned to the right mouse button.

- Fixed a bug in Open games that dropped players with slower machines from the game when they talked to Act III NPCs.

- Fixed 3 rare lock-up bugs with Lord De Seis: 1) killing him as any character, 2) leaping away from him as a Barbarian, and 3) being killed by him while simultaneously drinking a potion.

- If a player tries to create a game when a Realm server is fully occupied, the player is prompted to join a game instead. It no longer reports "Server Down" in this case.

- The "Toggle Belt" hotkey is no longer active when the in-game chat overlay is displayed.

Get the Patch here.

Neil Manke Interview - Ninja @ 5:16 pm PST
Stomped has an interview of Neil Manke up as part of it's Half-Life Mod series.
Here's the interview with Neil.

If you didn't know, Mr. Manke has made the USS Darkstar and They Hunger mods for Half-Life. You can get the latest one he's made, They Hunger 2, on the newest PC Gamer disc. And probably from other places.

New Sudden Strike Screenshots - Ninja @ 5:11 pm PST
Eurogamer has given us a few lovely Hi-res screens of Sudden Strike, an upcoming WWII RTS.
Here's the link for the screens:
http://www.eurogamer.net/features.php3?name=ss_suddenstrike

Copy and paste people, I'm just a writer.

Among other things, the screens show a field of manshrooms growing among an exploding fuel storage tanks.

Strange new keys in D2 - Ninja @ 5:03 pm PST
Well news from PlanetDiablo on some strange keys in D2.
Apparently Gnorran found a key called the "Hellhole Key" in the Flayer Jungle of Act III playing on Hell difficulty.
Here's the pic:
http://www.planetdiablo.com/images/photo/index.asp?id=100169

And in related news, yet another strange key has been found.
D2 Network, www.d2network.de, a German Diablo II site has found another key named "The Code to the Black Tower". Here it is, http://www.d2network.de/schluessel.shtml

Now, after heated discussion it has been determined that this leads to someplace that may or may not be named: "The Black Tower"

New Poll - Falcon @ 4:23 pm PST
Whoops, forot to mention this when I changed it a couple of days ago but we have a new poll up, titled: What would you like to see more at Gamesurge?
We are always committed to providing information which you, the viewers want, and this is your way to help is achieve that.

Results of previous poll:
A godsend                    74    17.49 %

It's for the better           153   36.17 %

2 words: Old Netcode   56    13.24 %

Hate it hate it hate it!      88   20.80 %

Couldnt care less          52    12.29 %

TOTAL                       423  100.00 %

Looks that most people do agree it's for the better, whethery they may or may not like it as much personally.

Counter-Strike Galore - sim @ 11:33 am PST
Counter-Strike.net has been updated with a screenshot of the new and improved knife. You can expect this new model, a new grip, and some extra mobility to boot in beta 7.

Counter-Strike Art has been updated with a truckload (okay, maybe not that much) of news. It appears that week 11 has been posted with lots of pretty CS art and comments. There's also a tutorial for Levels Adjustment in Photoshop, which well help ya fix those poorly lit models if you're making some CS art. And finally, they've added a "fat section" that showcases all the crap that they get submitted. This stuff is bad.

Last thing on CS today: A Counter-Strike bot has been released, called Andriod Bot. The bot only works with the Dust map (a classic) and has a pretty pathetic roaming pattern which isn't exactly up to par, but the bot is still in the alpha stage, so there's plenty of room for improvement.

More Hardware Reviews - VulTure @ 10:28 am PST
Have you seen the NVIDIA GeForce2 MX? Well, this video card should kick some major butt! Wolvie3985 has a small page introducing the card and nV News has a more in-depth analysis of the card. Some new features on the card include Digital Vibrance and Twinview. Twinview is nVivida's version of Matrox's dual-head monitor support. Digital Vibrance is best explained in a picture...

Here's another one for ya...how would you like to add RAID capability to your system? Abit has your answer...Methinks me needs to get this new fangled technology!

Gimbo comes through again!

Some Friday Relief - VulTure @ 10:00 am PST
Chick's Hardware has put up a page that made me laugh when I saw it. The page is all about case modifications. There are some fun ones, like the dog, the cow, and the Ferrari.

Those are just the fun cases...We can't forget the Behemoth, built with TWO cases, and Project 1GHz, the overclocking of an Athlon 500 to 1GHz!

For more crazy cases, go to Chick's Hardware! Thanks to Gimbo for the fun links.

Microsoft is in trouble again! - VulTure @ 7:30 am PST
This time around, the European Union (EU) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft...

...the software giant is abusing its market position in desktop operating system in a bid to control the server market as well. The action comes after complaints from Sun Microsystems tipped off the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, that "Microsoft breached EU antitrust rules by engaging in discriminatory licensing and by refusing to supply essential information on its Windows operating system." A spokesperson for the EU says that Microsoft has been officially notified with a list of objections, and the company now has two months to reply. After that, the EU will decide whether to charge the company with antitrust violations and impose fines.

Windows ME on the cheap! - VulTure @ 7:10 am PST
Microsoft has decided to bring the price of Windows ME into the basement for Windows 98 users. This promotion only applies to the retail upgrade version, though. For more information on this, along with FAQ's and reviews of Millenium, visit, Wininfo.

Intel's 1.13Ghz chip is unstable - VulTure @ 6:40 am PST
Tom's Hardware has decided to take another look at the new processor from Intel. This time around, things do not look any better for Intel.

...each platform that I used crashed at several occasions with the new Intel processor. Often I was not even able to run Quake 3, or the system wouldn't even boot to the Windows desktop altogether. Raising the core voltage had the effect that the system wouldn't even reach POST. At the same time each system ran flawlessly with my Pentium III at 1 GHz...

For more on this, go to Tom's.

Analog modems to get faster - VulTure @ 6:25 am PST
If you are still running on those old, ancient, analog modems, (well, ok, so am I), there may be some minor relief in store. There is a new standard in the works, V.92, which will increase the upstream data speeds from 33.6 kbps to 48 kbps. 'V.92 will also bring call-waiting features to new modems so that users can take a short phone call without breaking the Net connection and a faster "handshake" time.'

For more details of this technology, go to FoxNews.

Wizards & Warriors Preview - VulTure @ 6:03 am PST
ZDNet has posted a preview of the upcoming role-playing game Wizards & Warriors. Here's a piece of the article...

Wizards & Warriors looks like a replica of an antique - it's a spitting image of classic first-person role-playing series such as Dungeon Master, Wizardry, and Might and Magic. But at the same time, Wizards & Warriors looks too good to be one of those games, even though its 3D graphics bear likeness to the game's spiritual predecessors. When Wizards & Warriors is released this fall, it will have to compete in a market that's already filled with several high-quality, top-selling role-playing games - but its unusual style may set it apart.

Thanks to VoodooExtreme for this one...

X-COM: Enforcer Details - VulTure @ 5:52 am PST
Some new details have been let out about the upcoming game X-COM: Enforcer. Here's a quick bite...

"The game is much more focused on pure action than previous X-COM titles - even Alliance, the squad-based first-person shooter also due out this fall. In Enforcer, the player will take the role of a battle-ready android built by a doctor previously employed by X-COM. The doctor took the android and went solo when X-COM threatened to cancel the project, but is now putting the robot into humanity's service to provide support where X-COM's forces are unavailable. The doctor will use captured alien teleportation technology to drop the player-android in various hot spots to combat the alien threat."

Tribes 2 Screens - VulTure @ 5:41 am PST
In this round of screenshots, GameSpot delivers Tribes2. These shots show off the new terrain system in the game.

Challenge.AU face lift - Recoil @ 5:39 am PST
over at the challenge network, challenge.au recently has had a nice face lift, which was needed quite a long time ago. so if your looking for some quaking news, stop over there for a while. also news is now being updated more recently with new interviews.

Neverwinter Nights Screens - VulTure @ 5:38 am PST
GameSpot has put up some new images from the upcoming BioWare game, Neverwinter Nights. "The new shots reveal some of the different types of areas in the game, and really show off the capabilities of its 3D rendering engine."

Rocket Arena UT - VulTure @ 5:34 am PST
The guys and gals over at PlanetUnreal have posted a fix for the Unreal Tournament mod, Rocket Arena. The patch brings the version up to 1.42 and fixes a major bug that causes the blue team to ALWAYS win! There is also a call for a new beta testing team. If you would like to help test this mod, go there now!

Thursday, August 03, 2000

New Interview - Penny Arcade - shiva @ 5:21 pm PST
A lot of people know the website Penny Arcade, and others may have seen their work in Computer Gaming World or the official playstation magazine. Sim sits down and has a chat with Gabe and Tycho, about games, and their future plans. You can view the interview right here.

Abit releases new board - VulTure @ 7:22 am PST
Abit has released a new motherboard...the BX-133 RAID 440BX. They continue to push the industry forward and this board is no exception. Here is the best part of this board...

"The BX-133 RAID is the first BX board on the market to be equipped with Highpoint's new HPT370 chipset, which supports ATA/100 disk transfer, along with RAID support. The RAID support includes RAID 0 (Striping), RAID 1 (Mirroring), and RAID 0+1. Of all three of these, RAID 0 will offer the most to gamers, since it involves two disks combined into one drive, which can effectively double your burst throughout and cut read/write times in half."

Check out a complete review at GamePC! Thanks to Gimbo for the tip!

Namco seeks a new Queen - VulTure @ 7:14 am PST
Namco has decided to drop their current Ridge Racer queen when they release the game to the arcades. If you think you have what it takes to be the queen, go to IGN's website and send in your info! The only conditions are: You must like racing videogames and be between the ages of 18 and 25.

Diablo II Direct 3D problems - VulTure @ 7:07 am PST
The Adrenaline Vault has put up an article concerning the Direct3D problems that users have been experiencing with Diablo II. They chat with senior producer Bill Roper and programmer Jason Regier.

GeForce Hack - VulTure @ 7:00 am PST
If you have a GeForce/GeForce2 card and would like to turn it into a Quadro professional graphics workstation card, check out this page. This article is slightly technical, but for the power hungry, it's right up your alley!

Sacrifice Preview - VulTure @ 6:50 am PST
Gamespot TV has put up a preview of the upcoming game from Shiny Entertainment, Sacifice. They talk to Joby Otero, Shiny's art director. There are also a slew of movies, so run over there now! Here is a quick quote from the article...

In Sacrifice, players control a wizard and battle up to 4 other wizards in various landscapes ruled by Five Gods. The wizards can cast spells to summon creatures to fight for them or simply opt to destroy their opponents and their creatures using attack magic.

It's even possible to cast spells that harness the elements to alter the landscape or the weather system, plunging your opponents into a newly created canyon, or blasting them with a bolt of highly charged lightning.

The only rule is that if your Altar (i.e. home base) is destroyed, then your game is over.

Valve Questions - VulTure @ 6:12 am PST
I saw this at Blue's and thought that I would remind all of our readers, that if you have a question for our upcoming interview with Valve Software, please send it in!

Half-Life Movie - VulTure @ 6:05 am PST
Saw this at Dark Horizons...It sounds like a major production studio is planning on doing a movie based on the game Half-Life. Here's the scoopage...

"I was at a convention for my job (retail sales) about a month or two ago, and I met a representative from Havas Interactive, the company that owns Sierra and Blizzard software companies. Unfortunately, I don't remember his name, but he did tell me that there are discussions between Sierra and a major production studio (Paramount or WB, I think) to do a movie based on the first-person 3D shooter Half-life. He also told me that the live-action version of the suit that Gordon Freeman wears in the game is being modeled after himself. The guy really looked like Gordon Freeman, right down to the goatee and glasses."

Q3Radiant 2.02 Released - VulTure @ 5:58 am PST
If you are a mapper, go and get your copy of one of the best game mapping programs out there...Q3Radiant. There are mainly speed improvements in this version, but the authors did mention a whole new version that they are currently working on.

Screenies - Falcon @ 2:35 am PST
GameSpy has just posted 21 new screen shots from Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2, from Ritual Entertainment. The game has gone gold and you can expect their review soon.

Gamers.de has some never seen before Screenshots of the strategy-game DIE VOELKER 2, sequel to the award-winning DIE VOELKER. Check 'em out. There are crowds of tiny little things crawling on your screen.

-SimHQ.com Preview: Our own Vic "CLUTCH" DiCosola has taken some exclusive NASCAR HEAT screenshots using a V5 5500 with the FSAA setting at X4. Check out the detail and see some of CLUTCH's famous driving prowess. ;-D

Camelot Vault has a new round of screenshots from Mythic Entertainment's Dark Age of Camelot. The new images from the most recent build of this massively multiplayer role-playing game can be found here.

German Gaming-Site "Gamers.de" has published two exclusive screenshots from Shiny Entertainment´s RTS-Game "Sacrifice"

The makers of Strike Force 1.3 updated their site today with 6 new screens featuring the grenade from the upcoming 1.30 release. Stop by and have a look!

Damage Gaming has received two screenshots from Sanity, thay have been posted:

D2 Almanac - Falcon @ 2:29 am PST
Games Xtreme has just posted a huge Diablo II Almanac. Though only the first of three installments, this one includes important set item guides, gem guides, and ingenious Diablo II tips. Visit it here:

Battle of Britain Interview - Falcon @ 2:27 am PST
SimHQ.com have taken reader-submitted questions and combined them with their own to create a great interview with the guys at Rowan about their upcoming flight sim Battle of Britain. Will their follow up to MiG Alley do this key WWII battle and "the few" justice? Sure sounds that way!
Check out the interview here:

Gamespy Arcade B1 V4 - Falcon @ 2:26 am PST
GameSpy Industries announces the release of Version 4 of GameSpy Arcade Beta 1.0. People running older versions of the Arcade software or people looking to download it for the first time will find this newest version here. Users can choose from either a Web-based or full installation of the program.

What's new to versions 4? Besides the same great features that are revolutionizing peer-to-peer and multiplayer gaming, this update fixes various problems with both the chat and the server lists. This makes for a smoother, more enjoyable Arcade experience all around. Grab it now, and get in the game!

Capcom to shift to Star Cube - Falcon @ 2:25 am PST
In preparation for the Nintendo Spaceworld 2000 expo in Japan later this month, GameSpy has learned that Capcom will shift production of Resident Evil Zero from the N64 platform to the new Star Cube console. Check it out here:

Threads of Fate Review - Falcon @ 2:21 am PST
Chi of GameCritics.com lets loose on Squaresoft's latest action-adventure game, Threads of Fate. Here's an excerpt from his review:

"Despite how great that may sound on paper, I’m sad to say that the final results are only a slightly better than mediocre. At its heart, Threads of Fate wants to achieve the kind of friendly and approachable, yet epic and majestic feel that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time so wonderfully conveyed. The problem is that Threads of Fate is overly wrought with age-old conventions in its joyless gameplay and their most-unique two-tiered feature is a wash."

Humour - Falcon @ 2:18 am PST
For a little break in your routine check out http://bbspot.com/index.html

Neocron Forums At neoTERM - Falcon @ 2:06 am PST
RPGVault have added a number of forums to neoTERM.
So far they have general, class and district forums available and more are planned in the next while.

Also, they have recently uploaded their Guide to Neocron which is in help file format. This guide contains all the Neocron information that they have on our site and will be expanded and refined as the development of the game progresses.

Arena.net Interview - Falcon @ 2:04 am PST
Arena.net announced their plans today to release their games over the internet and Stomped got its co-founder and former Blizzard vice-president Patrict Wyatt to talk briefly on their plans to revolutionize PC gaming.
Check out the interview here:

GameSpy also managed to get a hold of Patrick Wyatt about the new venture of the former TriForge team, Arena.net. The Triforge team formerly worked at Blizzard
and left during the development of Diablo 2. Check out the interview here:

EVE Interview - Falcon @ 2:03 am PST
Iceland tends to conjure up images of snow, glaciers and icebergs, not game development, so it was a surprise to learn about a very ambitious project there, a persistent massively multiplayer combination of space simulation, strategy and role-playing called EVE. Today on offer is a massive in-depth EVE Interview with Lead Designer Thorolfur Beck.

Sidewinder FF Pro Giveaway - Falcon @ 2:02 am PST
What better to improve your game than a great joystick? To reward their loyal fans, Allegiance Vault are giving away a shiny new SideWinder Force Feedback Pro joystick which includes a copy of MechWarrior 3. Head over here to enter.

Dues Ex Review - Falcon @ 2:00 am PST
With Deus Ex (finally!) due for release on Friday in the UK, EuroGamer has today reviewed the first person RPG / shooter from Warren Spector and the team at Ion Storm Austin.

"The twisting plot of Deus Ex reveals wheels within wheels in a global conspiracy of epic proportions, and although you can simply rush through the game if you like, the urge to explore all of the sub-plots and undertake as many hidden missions as possible will be rewarded with further information about your character and the organisations you work for."

Mech4 Preview Trailer - Falcon @ 1:56 am PST
"MechWarrior 4" will immerse players in the BattleTech Universe with an entirely new story of a clan's heroic struggle for freedom. Players are the last of their family line, fighting a desperate battle to avenge their father and retake their planet from those who seek to destroy it…Read Actiontrip's preview here:

Robin Walker Interview - Falcon @ 1:53 am PST
For Stomped's second installment in its week long look at Half-Life mods (Damn that sounds familiar), they chat with Valve Software's Robin Walker, who started as a mod maker himself, co-creating the original Team Fortress for Quake. He got the attention of Valve, who hired him and since then has helped to create Half-Life, its home-grown mod Team Fortress Classic, and the upcoming stand alone game Team Fortress 2. Check out the exclusive interview at http://www.stomped.com/interviews/valve1.html

And for those of you who missed their first installment with Counter-Strike co-creator "Gooseman" you can check it out at http://www.stomped.com/interviews/gooseman4.html

And for those of you who are a day ahead, in the third interview installment in their Half-Life mods series, we speak to Admin.mod's creator Alfred Reynolds, who also works as a programmer for the Firearms mod. Check out the exclusive interview at http://www.stomped.com/interviews/hladminmod.html

World Tours Golf - Falcon @ 1:46 am PST
MAUMEE, OHIO – July 24, 2000 -- Friendly Software, creator of some of the world’s most popular virtual golf games, has teed off a new genre of lifelike cybergolf with the AboutGolf.com World Tours.

Highlighted by free online prize events, precision graphics, and a realistic swing simulation engine, the new computer game brings signature holes from top-notch courses across the nation right to your desktop.
After downloading the game for free, the first course you will get on the World Tours is the Myrtle Beach Tour. This intriguing tour is a collection of golf holes from such popular Myrtle Beach area courses as Blackmoor, Wild Wing Plantation, Myrtlewood, and Tidewater. The download also provides support to obtain an updated list of new World Tours courses, including ones based on popular layouts in Florida and Michigan and others designed in-house at Friendly Software.

Golfers and gamers alike can use the AboutGolf.com World Tours to play offline like any high-end PC golf game, or play free online rounds with up to three other players who also have the software. Online golfers also have the option of competing for great golf prizes -- including golf vacation packages, equipment, and clothing -- with other desktop golfers around the world in long-drive challenges, hole-in-one contests, and 9 to 72-hole tournaments.

“The idea behind the World Tours is to provide a whole world of ongoing simulated competition that allows anyone with Internet access to compete as if they were a real Tour player,” said Bill Bales, Friendly Software president. “Golfers are looking for realistic online golf competition that tests their golfing skills, rather than their computer skills. And, of course, they want to have fun.”
The AboutGolf.com World Tours’ realistic golf experience stems from its proprietary simulation engine technology, an exceptional feature that duplicates the smooth mechanics of a human golf swing. The game has stimulating audio and visual elements to help establish the “you are there” experience of the feature courses. It’s also the only golf game that puts players one click away from nonstop (24/7) worldwide online competition at www.AboutGolf.com.
Other features of the AboutGolf.com World Tours include:

· Multi-player capability that allows golfing online with up to four friends on a local area network, or with new online acquaintances through an integrated player matchmaking service. The service allows gamers looking for a foursome to plug in their player profile and game preferences to be matched with other cybergolfers of similar talent.
· Four swing modes that combine with several user-configurable shot characteristics for a realistic, educational golf simulation.
· Continuous course add-ons, including flybys of the golf holes, audio instruction, and new player models to boost the entire gaming experience.

Friendly Software, a division of Contus Corporation of Maumee, Ohio, is the developer and producer of the 1998 and 1999 editions of Microsoft Golf, the Greg Norman Ultimate Challenge Golf, and the U.S.G.A. Interactive Rules of Golf. The 56 Mg download of the AboutGolf.com World Tours requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or greater and Direct X, which are available at Microsoft.com. The courses on this download provide support for medium-resolution graphics. High-resolution add-on files for each course are coming soon to www.AboutGolf.com.
To order the CD version of the game, visit www.AboutGolf.com or call 800-968-4654. Telephone lines are open 24 hours a day. For corporate information call 877-626-6887. For more information or to request a media CD of the game, contact Tony Bassett of Friendly Software at 419-868-6090, x 35, or email tony@friendlysoftware.com.

Wednesday, August 02, 2000

Newest Diablo II MP3 - Hobbes @ 4:51 pm PST
The newest MP3 of the week is entitled "Wilderness." It is now available for download.

You can visit Blizzard's MP3 collection here.

"Wilderness" for PC (7.33 MB).
"Wilderness" for Mac (7.33 MB).

Morrowind Interview - sim @ 12:14 pm PST
The mother of all things game, GameSpy, has posted a brand new interview with Todd Howard, project leader on Bethesda's latest single player rpg: Morrowind. It's pretty lengthy and there's even some bonus art by Gabe of Penny Arcade to get you in the mood.

Dungeon Keeper 3 is Killed - VulTure @ 6:53 am PST
Bullfrog has decided to put Dungeon Keeper 3 on hold in favor of other avenues. They have decided to pursue game development on the Playstation2, for the time-being.

New X-Com Game - VulTure @ 6:50 am PST
Microprose has apparently started to work on a new episode in the X-Com saga...

"The new game, tentatively titled X-com: Enforcer will be more of an action game than previous titles. Using a third-person perspective, players will take control of a secret alien killing android."

nVidia creates mystery chip for X-Box - VulTure @ 6:45 am PST
According to an article on Cnet, nVidia is creating a new mystery chip for the X-Box. Is it a new audio chip? That is what everyone is speculating, but I think we'll have to wait and see. They have already been selected to provide the graphics processor, and if they are providing the audio, it would be a whole new venture for the company.

Latest UT patch - VulTure @ 6:38 am PST
Epic has released a new patch for Unreal Tournament, and it looks like they fixed quite a few things. Go to the 'Shack for more details and the download.

Former NIN Drummer creating the music for Alice - VulTure @ 6:33 am PST
Chris Vrenna, former drummer of the band, Nine Inch Nails, will compose the music for American McGee's Alice, according to the Adrenaline Vault. They say that he would be the perfect complement to the 'morbid' adaptation of this fairy tale. There will also be a separate CD featuring the music.

FAKK2 Review - VulTure @ 6:28 am PST
Redwood, from Stomped, has put up one of the first reviews of the game, Heavy Metal - F.A.K.K.2. He gives it very high praise and a rating of 96%. This game is sure to top the charts.

Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force - VulTure @ 6:22 am PST
The upcoming Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force is a game based on the Quake 3 engine. Check out this interview on GamePulse with the Project Admin on the game to get some behind the scenes details. Need something to help you click that link? Here ya go...

GP: Let’s play hardball right off the top; Why the Quake 3 Engine?

KH: We looked at all of the options and Quake III was the best fit for us. The curves and shader technologies were ideal for recreating the Trek environments for the game. Our long and prosperous relationship with Id Software was also a big selling point for us.

GP: What is the best weapon in the game?

KH: I’m partial to the Photon Burst weapon. Talk about a weapon of mass destruction... Ouch.

Nox Quest! - VulTure @ 6:15 am PST
If you've been waiting for Nox Quest, wait no more!

Here's a teaser from GameCenter...

The Nox Quest expansion marks the first time that you'll be able to play a Nox game with your friends online, which will be possible via a LAN or Westwood Online, Westwood's free online game service. Nox Quest will allow up to six players to adventure together in a game that never ends.

In Nox Quest, the evil sorceress Hecubah has constructed Summoning Obelisks throughout the world. These obelisks spew forth an endless horde of monsters, and it'll be up to you and your group to destroy the obelisks and their evil hordes. You will explore newly designed levels, such as the Castle of Pain, the Dark Crypts, the Bandit's Forest, the Underworld, the Dismal Swamp, the Mana Mines, the Land of the Dead, and the Ancient Ruins.

Get it now!

Tuesday, August 01, 2000

Homeworld Multiplayer Strategy Guide - Thundra @ 3:19 pm PST
Here's the Ctrl+C of the post:

"Grand opening! The first new and and improved strategy page is online. To all you newbies and seminewbies out there, this is a must read. To all you veterans out there... read it.. it's writtten by someone who knows what he is doing."

.

Go here to take a peek at the Strats Guide.

Homeworld Nation Update - Thundra @ 3:08 pm PST
This week's pic is already up at Homeworld Nation. Check it out here.

If you want to submit your pictures, by all means, send it in, i will be glad to have it. To do so use thundra@gamesurge.com.

Note: please, when sending pictures, send them in a small size format as .jpg or similar. Thanks.

Get your 1.13Ghz PIII's - VulTure @ 6:26 am PST
IBM and Dell have announced that they will start building systems based on the 1.13Ghz PIII processor from Intel. Here are the specs from Dell...(very sweet)...

"Dell's new 1.13-GHz Dimension...will include the 1.13-GHz processor, a 45Gbyte hard drive, 128Mbytes of Direct RDRAM, a 164Mbyte Nvidia (stock: NVDA) GeForce 2 GTS card, a 2X DVD-ROM, and a CD-RW drive...The 1.13-GHz Dimension will cost $4,199 and take about 18 business days to build."

Julie Strain 20 Questions - VulTure @ 6:15 am PST
The mushroom has pulled in Julie Strain to talk about many things, including Heavy Metal 2000, Penthouse, and her career in movies. She also mentions Ritual's Levelord...

3. Is Richard "Levelord" really as much of a dirty old man that he appears to be?

He's very scary but in person he's a pussy cat--all bite. One spankin an I'd have him cryin!

Microsoft creates some controversy - VulTure @ 6:07 am PST
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5.5 has some people in an uproar.

According to this article on Altavista, IE5.5 is causing problems for third-party cookie makers.

"With Internet Explorer 5.5, Microsoft is testing a cookie management feature that blocks certain kinds of cookies -- data records created by a browser that preserve information about Web sessions."

Be sure to check out the article for more information.

Paul Jaquays Interview - VulTure @ 5:56 am PST
Newsflood corners Paul Jaquays, and gets him to open up...(just a little bit!)

Here's a quick quote from Paul...

newsflood: How does your work differ from the other mappers like Christian and Tim?

Jaquays: I'm more likely to build a map with passageways and architectural structures that don't meet at right angles. I tend to build structures that appear to have been built in stages (as many historical buildings are made), instead of all at once.

Composing for Games - VulTure @ 5:47 am PST
Did you ever want to write the music for a game? Maybe, you've recently heard a soundtrack that you thought that you could do bettter. Now's your chance. The Daily Radar recently talked to Attila Heger. He is a long-time videogame music composer with works ranging from the "Ecco the Dolphin series to Contra to various children's themes."

Here is some advice from Attila...

"It is very important to find the right balance between our taste of music, our style and the mood of the game, and, of course, the orders of the publishers. If your colleagues are whistling your tracks, they cannot be too bad -- calm down and smile. Everybody should listen to as much music as they can, in every kind of style. You can never know what kind of music will be asked from you tomorrow."

Max Payne Preview - VulTure @ 5:41 am PST
Check out this preview of Max Payne from the pages of PC Gamer.

"With our eyes glazed over and drool dribbling down our chins, we were introduced to the wonders of cinematic action sequences. At key moments within the game, these special sequences will kick in...We stepped out into the sunlight and wondered how we were ever going to enjoy Unreal Tournament as much as we used too...Mark my words Max Payne will be to the gaming world what The Matrix was to Hollywood."

This game is sounding very hot! Unfortunately, there is no release date yet for the game.