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    Archive for January, 2000

    Monday, January 31, 2000
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    Team Fortress 2 Shots - Raven @ 11:14 pm PST
    Some new pictures of the soon to be released half life mod TF2 have just popped up. 3d Shack have a total of 8 all new screenshots for the game. TF2 is expected to be a hit and from these screen shots and other information about the game you'd have to agree that TF2 will be a great TITLE!

    New SC 1.08 Bnet patch - Raven @ 11:10 pm PST
    Blizzard have just confirmed that they plan to release a version 1.08 patch for Starcraft/Brood Wars within the next few months. Not many details yet, but we do know this patch is designed to give Terran a boost on battle.net play.

    Read the message confirming the patch here.

    Armies of Armageddon goes Gold - Raven @ 11:07 pm PST
    Armies of Armageddon: WDK 2K, a game created by Boku Strategy Games and Shrapnel Games, has just gone gold and will soon be ready for production and distrubution. WDK 2K is the 3rd game created between Boku Strategy Games and Shrapnel Games and also the second title in the WDK series.

    If you dont know anything about the game this quote sums in up nicely

    "Armies of Armageddon: WDK 2K takes place far in the future on a depleted and depressed Earth where game players must battle their way through 30 scenarios to complete the campaign game. The storyline is rich and beta testers have reported bonding with their in-game soldiers. With an awesome array of weapons and vehicles at their command, players have the variety they crave from today's strategy offerings."

    You can find out more information on the official website here. (Unfortunately the website is temporarily down)

    New Final Fantasy Demo's - Raven @ 10:51 pm PST
    With the recent release of FF8 for PC Squaresoft has come up with 2 demos for the game. For more detail on the demo's -one of which is only 35mbs!- head over to PC Gameworld here.

    Age of Wonders Review - Raven @ 10:48 pm PST
    AoW is a new turn based strategy game that despite afew blemeshes (such as the AI) has so far passed most of the critics criteria for a good game. WomanGamers.com have recently conducted a review of this title. Quite unlike most of the other hit games around, it should be a breathe of fresh air for most gamers.

    Diablo2 Preview and Interview - Raven @ 10:40 pm PST
    Diablo2 the highly anticipated RPG title from Blizzard has been delayed more times one could believe imaginable. Despite this bad face of Blizzard management curiousity and information about Diablo2 is at an all time high.

    This week Gamelinks has come up with a detailed preview on Diablo2. The preview doesn't show anything new but is a good summary for all of the newbies to the Diablo2 community. Read it here.

    Also Bill Roper has been involved in a Korean interview by Games Chosun. A word for word english translation for the interview has been posted at GameStrats.

    Nox Preview - Raven @ 10:31 pm PST
    Another amazingly hot title about to hit store selves in Westwood Studio's RPG game NoX. PC.IGN give their own opinion on the game in a preview here. PC.IGN have nothing but praise for highly anticipated title in this article. A good read whether your considering to buy the game or just curious.

    Theif 2 Preview - Raven @ 10:27 pm PST
    Continuing all of the massive hype about Thief 2: The Metal Age, Gamespot has come up with an in-depth preview on the game. From what I can see there are afew new screen shots and information about Thief 2 in the article but nothing massively new. If you'r still curious about this radical new First Person Shooter definately read the article.

    Read the article

    Sunday, January 30, 2000
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    Ultima9 Patch - Raven @ 11:18 pm PST
    Well this is the third patch released in under 3 weeks so the people over at Origin systems are definately moving to get all the bugs out of Ultima9. To download the 3rd Ultima patch head over to Origin.

    FF IX, X, XI Previews - Raven @ 11:14 pm PST
    Well GIA have been busy thats for sure. The team over there have just come up with previews of 3 new additions to the Final Fantasy universe. FF9, FF10, FF11 will all be RPG genre games similar to the others in the series. The games however will all feature unique differences and touch on different elements. Theres also some information about FF The Movie on GIA, however theres nothing new there and the summary isn't as good as the Final Fantasy movie article on this page.

    To go see the three Final Fantasy previews click here.

    Porsche Unleashed Shots - Raven @ 11:01 pm PST
    Gamespot also has some new pics from the latest game in the Need For Speed series, "Porsche Unleashed". 5 shots in total take a glance here if you like.

    More Thief2 Shots - Raven @ 10:56 pm PST
    Gamespot has up some new and unseen screen shots of Theif 2. Looks good, view the 9 screens here.

    NoX Release Date - Raven @ 10:53 pm PST
    The new and anticipated Role Playing Game, Nox -from Westwood Studio's- is set to crash into a store near you on Febuary 16. Nearly here, better start saving up.

    Nox Preview - Surebrec @ 7:59 pm PST
    I noticed over at AGN3D that Gamepen has posted a preview of Westwood Studios' action/RPG title, Nox, which should be on shelves early next month (it just went gold). Here's the snippet:

    Let’s get this out of the way first: Nox may look like any number of the isometric RPGs that have appeared over the past couple of years, but it is, at its roots, an action game. Everything runs in real time, and a decent portion of gameplay consists of running around the various maps battling enemies with clicks of the mouse. The interface Westwood has created for all of this appears simple at first – run with the right mouse button, attack with the left mouse button – but becomes more complex as the player accrues spells or items. Luckily, there are also a series of hotkeys to make things easier.

    Thief 2 Shots - Surebrec @ 7:50 pm PST
    I noticed over at VE that GameArena.net has kicked up 4 new juicy new screens from Looking Glass Studios' upcoming stealthy action/adventure game, Thief 2: The Metal Age.

    SWAT 3 Review - Surebrec @ 7:41 pm PST
    The boys over at Firing Squad has slapped up a review of SWAT 3, Sierra's recently released tactical shooter. Here's the juicy little snip:

    SWAT 3 is a realistic style first person shooter, but this isn't just Rainbow Six with badges here. Unlike Rogue Spear, you do not have carte blanche to go around blasting everyone willy nilly. You are a police officer, and your first priority is to arrest and subdue the suspects in the game. From a more practical standpoint, you'll usually be on missions where there are innocent civilians or hostages present, so the less bullets you have to spray around, the better. Fortunately for us trigger happy Quake-types, there are times when you have no choice but to fire on the perpetrators. If you're good (or just feeling generous), you can choose to knock down criminals without killing them by double tapping them in the knees, or some other non vital area. In a lot of cases, it can be more effective to spray low anyway, because many of the enemies in SWAT 3 are decked out in body armor. But in general, you will get a better score if you can use tactics to get terrorists/bank robbers/kidnappers to surrender without having to shoot them. And yes, you perverts, this means that you get to play with handcuffs!

    TF2 Shots - Surebrec @ 7:34 pm PST
    While in my search for news on this slow news day (I wonder why...), I noticed over at The Dawg Pound that FragPipe.com has posted 9 brand spankin new screenshots from Valve's Team Fortress 2.

    CS News - Surebrec @ 7:23 pm PST
    The Counter-strike webpage has been updated with info on the gameplay types from the next beta version, beta6. The new gameplay types include Assassination and Escape. Assassination is kinda like Hunted in TFC where the CT's escort someone to a point while the T's try to kill him by sniping. In Escape, the T's must escape from a fortified building, while the CT's try to exterminate them. Because of these new gameplay types, they need some mappers. The Assassination mapping page can be found here, and the Escape mapping page can be found here. This is a very good chance for mappers everywhere to get publicly noticed for your work!

    Gamesurge Week In Review - backup @ 7:22 pm PST
    We've whipped up our Week in review for your reading pleasure! Head on over here to check it out!

    War3 Info - Surebrec @ 3:42 pm PST
    Warcraft3.net has sent word that they have 2 great pieces of info on War3 for us today.

    The first is a large article, found here on what info is revealed from the gameplay videos released a few days ago.

    The second piece of content are a few pieces of concept art that have never before been seen. The concept art also reveals a new unit, which looks like a huge orc beast. The concept art can be found over here.

    Ultima IX: Ascension Strategy Index - backup @ 11:47 am PST
    We've slapped another Strategy Index, this time covering Ultima IX: Ascension. Head here to view it.

    Saturday, January 29, 2000
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    Gearhead Garage Impression - backup @ 8:46 pm PST
    I've posted my Impression for Gearhead Garage. You can check it out by heading here. Gearhead Garage puts you in the role of an auto mechanic trying to make money to buy cars by repairing them. It's really fun. Make sure you check it out!

    Final Fantasy Review - backup @ 6:44 pm PST
    Saw over at IGN PC that they have posted their review of Final Fantasy 8. I have the Playstation version, and I really wished the PC version was a lot better, anyhow here is a snippet.

        "It's a sad day when you can honestly say "the PlayStation version looks and plays better."

    Gearbox Garage Demo - backup @ 6:33 pm PST
    While searching along in Gamespy's FilePlanet, I noticed a new demo called Gearbox Garage. You basically get jobs from people on the street, fix their car up, and get paid. You then can buy cars, etc. It's actually very fun and I recommend it for everyone who likes a change in gaming every so often. You can grab it right here. The file is 11 Megs and should take an hour to download for modem users.

    KA-52 Team Alligator Demo - backup @ 6:32 pm PST
    I noticed over at Blue's News, that GT Interactive has released a playable demo of KA-52 Team Alligator, a Russian Helicopter simulation game. The file weighs in at a hefty 87 Megs, so I recommend downloading it overnight for all you modem users out there.

    SoF Demo Review - Surebrec @ 3:22 pm PST
    Sniper's Alley has posted their review of the Soldier of Fortune demo, which features some screenshots from it. Here's the juicy clip you all know and love:

    As for the weapons :-) we have ‘Pig Sticker’ Combat Knife, 9mm Black Panther, .44 Silver Talon Semi-automatic, B-42 (Berserker) 12-gauge shotgun, Raptor Submachine gun, Eagle Eye Sniper Rifle and M202A2 Rocket Launcher. The ‘Pig Sticker’ Combat Knife is the ultimate stealth weapon able to slice your enemies and a good aiming player can throw them. The 9mm Black Panther is compact but packs a nasty punch, especially to the head :-). The .44 Silver Talon Semi-automatic is basically a magnum and is very powerful. B-42 (Berserker) 12-gauge shotguns are devastating at close range but at a distance it will just piss them off :-). The Raptor Submachine gun is a nice fast firing gun good at taking people out fast. Eagle Eye Sniper Rifles are great for taking those long distance headshots. The M202A2 Rocket Launcher is very powerful but also make sure you are not standing behind it when fired due to the back blast.

    SoF FAQ - Surebrec @ 3:16 pm PST
    I noticed over at Blues News that the Soldier of Fortune FAQ has been updated with a new structure and some tips and tricks for the demo, as well as general info on this sweet game.

    Rift Screenshots - Surebrec @ 3:14 pm PST
    GA-Strategy has recently kicked up 3 new screenshots from ThrushWave's upcoming real-time space strategy game, Rift. What will make Rift stand out from the RTS crowd? James Thrush, Development Lead of The Rift, has commented on that:

    The Rift stands out with its radical new unit designs, including two alien races like nothing ever seen in a 3D RTS, including an space-born race with organic, undulating motion; smooth Newtonian physics based motion, including intertia and angular momentum; and dynamic, 3D playfields across the galaxy that provide a new twist on gameplay: the solar systems are always in motion, so the battlefield is always changing.

    Q3 Arena Weapons Guide @ GS - Surebrec @ 2:59 pm PST
    Well, we have just posted the Quake3 Arena Weapons Guide, which, of course, covers all the weapons in Q3A. You know what to do! Go read it!

    Q3A on Dreamcast - Surebrec @ 2:04 pm PST
    Speaking of IGN, dc.ign.com has posted some info on Quake 3 Arena being ported over to the Dreamcast. According to the article, there is currently no information on who is developing the game. I just can't imagine playing a game like Quake3 on the Dreamcast. I don't think it will do very well since you need to react fast and the DC's controller might not accomplish that very well.

    Codename Eagle Preview - Surebrec @ 2:00 pm PST
    The boys over at PC IGN have kicked up a preview of Refraction Games' upcoming FPS/action game, Codename Eagle. Here's a rather interesting snippet from the preview:

    Of course we all know that alternate timelines exist. Even academic types know it -- they just call them "counterfactual histories" to throw us off. The last such split between timelines occurred back in 1900. For a while, no one noticed the difference. The Boer War ended as normal, the teddy bear was introduced and Walt Disney was born. Seems normal enough, right? But things began to take a strange turn just before the Russian Revolution. Tsar Alexander murdered his aging father and took over control of the Russian Empire. The Revolution was averted and the Tsar got the drop on Hitler for the title of World's Most Evil Lunatic. He mobilized his country to invade all of Europe. The nations of Europe allied against him and World War II took a very different turn. Why hasn't Harry Turtledove picked up on this one?

    The game based on this actual fictional history is Codename Eagle. At first glance it seems as if Codename Eagle is a simple first-person shooter with a WWII context. But this game is a lot more. Apart from the normal FPS action that you might normally expect, Codename Eagle also offers the chance to jump into the driver's seat of several vehicles including motorcycles, tanks and biplanes. You play as the special agent known only as "Red." Along with a lady named Goggles and a guy named Mortar, you will be sent deep behind enemy lines to sabotage the Russian war effort.

    Battlezone II Review - Surebrec @ 1:56 pm PST
    I noticed over at 24HG (aka Tex's pimp shack) that NuclearWinter Gaming Network has slapped up a review of Pandemic Studios' recently released action title, Battlezone II. Here's the clip of their final thoughts:

    Battlezone 2 is a fun game that will keep you occupied, but is plagued with some fatal flaws in the AI as well as some simply boring missions. If you liked Battlezone I would definitely buy this sequel. If you never played the original you should consider picking up a copy, assuming you are a fan of other action/strategy games. While fun, it is nothing innovative, in fact the game may feel like a dumbed down version of the original to many veteran players. The game is fun, but is simply not groundbreaking.

    C&C Firestorm Preview - Surebrec @ 1:40 pm PST
    I just received word from Dawg from Dawg Pound that they have just slapped up a preview of Westwood Studios' upcoming C&C title, C&C: Firestorm. Here's a snip from the preview:

    In October 1999, C&C2: Tiberian Sun came along and stormed the charts. Yet it also divided the Westwood and Command & Conquer faithful into 2 opposing groups of thought. One thinks simply and straight that TS is the best ever, hands down. The extreme other yet thinks that Westwood is launching a freefall down to the depths of murky gaming, with worse and worse titles like Lands of Lore 3 and comical Red Alert expansion packs preceding TS. It's Firestorm's duty to unite these two... perfectly.

    Final Fantasy News - Gibb @ 12:10 pm PST
    Here's some Final Fantasy News hot off the press over at SqaureGamer.

    The first details from the Square Millennium conference in Yokohama Japan have just come in. Square has officially announced not just one Final Fantasy game but three. The focus of the show was the online capability of the PlayStation 2 and the future of the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy IX was officially announced for the PSX and Final Fantasy X and XI for the PS2.

    Yes, you read it right, FF10 and 11 have officialy been announced! Get the whole scoop over here

    Source: VE

    Starcraft Map of the Week - Gibb @ 11:58 am PST
    The map of the week is Execution. It is a 192x192 map, and requires Brood War to play. To check it out, head on over here, or to directly download it take a gander over here.

    A 20 gigahertz processor??? - Gibb @ 11:53 am PST
    I noticed on Gamecenter an article stating that a 20 gigahertz processer may be available in the next 8 years, if some certain techinical issues can be overcome. Very cool. Check the article out here.

    Forum - Dan @ 11:22 am PST
    I've installed the new forum. Check it out and be sure to register and post some messages. Start using it and others will follow then you're questions can be answered very quickly! The forum is on the left side marked "Forum" click it. Register a new name and remember or write down your password. You may then start posting. Heres the address in case you want it. Be sure to bookmark it http://www.gamesurge.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro

    New affiliate - backup @ 8:47 am PST
    Please welcome our newest affiliate, The Dawg Pound. If you want gaming news, this is your place! So, what are you waiting for, check it out already!

    Friday, January 28, 2000
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    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    BG2 Designer Diary Update - Surebrec @ 10:30 pm PST
    Speaking of PC IGN, they have updated the Baldur's Gate 2 Designer's Diary with Part 5 of the whole shindig with a few new screenshots. Be sure to check it out!

    FFVIII PC Review - Surebrec @ 10:28 pm PST
    The boys over at PC.IGN have slapped up their review of Final Fantasy VIII (for the PC). They gave the game a 7.4, mainly because the PSX version was better.

    LithTech2 Shots - Surebrec @ 10:24 pm PST
    Also at VE are 2 new LithTech 2 screens, coming soon from Monolith.

    New Nox Video - Surebrec @ 10:22 pm PST
    I noticed over at Voodoo Extreme that Westwood Studios has released a new Nox movie, in AVI format. The video features gameplay footage and weighs in at about 4.5 MB.

    Daikatana Screensaver - Surebrec @ 10:06 pm PST
    Speaking of AVault, they also have word of a Daikatana screensaver, which contains several character renders from John Romero's upcoming 3D game.

    The Future of DM is here! - Surebrec @ 10:02 pm PST
    Well, almost. According to The Adrenaline Vault, a new device is being developed which will simulate the sense of moving while playing deathmatch games. Tiny currents are sent through electrodes which are behind the ear and stimulated the balance nerve. You will have the sensation of going forward, backpedaling, and even going left or right. It is not available yet, but will be released at around $100 and will only take up 40KB of HD space and can be integrated into any game's source code. Read the full article here.

    Planescape Patch - Surebrec @ 9:55 pm PST
    The latest Planescape Torment patch has been released, which will upgrade it to version 1.1. Download it from over here. Here's the (long) list of changes:

    - A number of changes have been made in order
    to fix the slowdown problems that have been
    occurring. A broken resource servicing loop has
    been fixed. An optimization has been made to
    rectangle calculations for floater messages to
    avoid doing it more often than necessary.
    Finally, the capturing and releasing of resource
    shares in the AI thread have been optimized.

    - The disc swapping bug between CD2 and CD3
    (and potentially others as well) has been fixed.
    You should not be asked to provide more than
    one CD during area transitions.

    - After level 20, fighter's Attacks Per Round will
    no longer drop to 1.

    - The bug where a blank dialog box would pop
    up when trying to advance levels has been fixed.

    - A cutscene firing problem when first entering
    the Dead Nations has been fixed.

    - Numerous items that were improperly being sold
    for 1cp have had their prices modified.

    - Numerous infinite experience and/or copper
    bugs were fixed.

    - Numerous spells have been fixed in their
    interactions with cutscenes as well as player
    death and resurrection.

    - A number of stats rolling over to 0 have been
    fixed.

    - Lockup when leaving Ravel's Maze through
    portal should be fixed.

    - Interactions between and number of spells and
    the Autopause function have been fixed.

    - Dakkon is no longer able to equip any weapons
    except for his Karach Blade.

    - Many spell tweaks have been made.

    - Numerous bugs concerning Lothar have been
    fixed. He should no longer kill the player
    inexplicably nor disappear.

    - A problem with equipping a faction-specific
    weapon while in multiple factions has been fixed.

    - A fix has been applied for the problem of AI
    turning off after application of the patch.

    - A problem with swapping portraits causing loss
    of tooltips has been fixed.

    - The problem with mulitple stat bonuses not being
    applied that was introduced in the beta patch has
    been fixed (the Charisma bug).

    *Possible Spoiler
    - You should be able to Raise Dead with the
    Divine Censer now.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - A problem with firing off the Fhjull betrayal
    cutscene has been fixed.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - Bringing Morte to the Fortress after keeping
    him out of your party for most of the game
    should now allow the endgame movie to play
    properly.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - Adahn's Dagger is no longer as fragile as it
    was.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - Mebbeth can now cast Remove Curse on
    the player.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - Training in axes with Marquez will no longer
    allow you to get past 5 in proficiency.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - Nordom's infinite dialog loop when helping
    Mourns-for-Trees is fixed.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - A number of problems with Morte's kidnapping
    cutscene have been fixed.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - It is now possible to get fake letters for Juliette
    even if the Print Shop is closed to you.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - Lenny can no longer repeatedly train you as a
    thief.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - The Transcendent One should no longer target
    your dead companions.

    *Possible Spoiler
    - Annah's infinite dialog loop when talking to the
    dead has been fixed.

    Thief 2 Screens - Surebrec @ 9:49 pm PST
    Gamespot has recently slapped up 10 brand spankin new screens from Eidos' upcoming title, Thief 2: The Metal Age.

    Allegiance Preview - Surebrec @ 9:44 pm PST
    Gamecenter has recently posted a preview of Microsoft's upcoming space shooter, Allegiance (which IMHO will kick major @$$) which should be out by Spring 2000. I think I'm gonna go drool over the screenshots.

    To help attract both casual and hard-core gamers, Microsoft will offer gamers both a free server and premium server. In addition, with 3 unique civilizations, 18 types of fighter craft, 20 types of weapons, and huge space stations, Allegiance looks to offer the gut-wrenching fighting that action players crave, as well as deep and involved strategy that will allow for massive, fully orchestrated battles.

    MDK2 Preview - Surebrec @ 9:41 pm PST
    Blues News has news (well whadda ya know! News on Blues news!) that Gamefan has slapped up a preview of BioWare's MDK2, which should be out by Spring 2000. The preview also sports 4 nice new screenshots. You know the routine; the clip:

    The game’s split into three sections; each section sports a different playable hero (Kurt, Max and Doc). The three character’s abilities are radically different, resulting in three totally different gameplay experiences; Kurt dons his super-suit, allowing him to glide and enter super-sniper mode. Stealth is the key to his survival, and long-distance battles are won with the ultra-powerful sniper scope. Max, on the other hand, can take the most hits; frontal assaults and overwhelming firepower are his tools of the trade (and when you’re running around, wielding four gatling guns, few monsters will block your way for long).

    Deus Ex Chat Log - Surebrec @ 9:33 pm PST
    I noticed over at Planet Unreal that Stormtroopers has posted an unedited chat log from last night's IRC chat. Deus Ex is planning to be released at the end of March.

    Theif2 Gameplay Movie - Raven @ 9:21 pm PST
    Incite Games have found themselves a 35mg gameplay movie for Theif2. The movie is in mpeg format and can be downloaded here. If you don't know Theif2 is a First Person Shooter with some very high expectations. Go get the gameplay movie and be prepared to be impressed

    Two funny websites - Raven @ 8:38 pm PST
    These two websites were ICQ'ed to me.

    The first website is Gamefoolz. Gamefoolz is a new webpage with some rather cute and funny articles. Presently they have an article up BattleNet adds, Starcraft+Crack and Diablo Spotlight. You can visit Gamefoolz at http://gamefoolz.virtualave.net/. A good site I think I'll add them to my board list.

    Secondly we have StickDeath. StickDeath.com has alot of scarey and funny content. The site title actually sums up the site fairly well.

    Dark Reign 2- Preview - Raven @ 8:27 pm PST
    Gamespot have done up a designers diary on Dark Reign2. This diary gives the status of everything presently happening in DR2. Its your classical Gamespot diary well written and interested. Gamespot DR2 Diary.

    Three Great Previews - Raven @ 8:14 pm PST
    The first preview is a preview of Republic: The Revolution over at The Adrenaline Vault. Republic: The Revolution is a real time strategy that is set to "overthrow more than a few notions about the technical limits of the PC and its creative boundaries." Looks VERY good, a great read you can check it out here.

    Secondly we have a preview of Theif2 over at Daily Radar. Yesterday I mentioned a Theif2 preview at pc.ign, this preview however covers different information and give some new detail. Read the preview.

    Finally here is a preview of Deep Space Nine: The Fallen. The Fallen is an action FPS sci-fi game that should definately be looked out for. If you want to read the preview head here.


    Opposing Force Strategy Index - backup @ 6:43 pm PST
    The Opposing Force Strategy Index has been posted. With many guides to choose from, this is your definate source for Opposing Force Walkthroughs! Head here for the full strategy index!

    Opposing Force Strategy Index - backup @ 3:52 pm PST
    I am going to upload a strategy index for Opposing Force, well as soon as the FTP gets fixed, I am having problems with it, so stay tuned. It will probably be up sometime tonight, along with a Quake 3 Weapons guide! Neato, huh :)

    Thursday, January 27, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Kali available to Korea - Surebrec @ 4:59 pm PST
    This may not be news to most people, but if you have Kali, it most certainly is. According to this article, Kali is now available to Korea. If you're an SC player on Kali, looks like Kali in US is going down, unless they create a seperate Korean server for SC and stuff.

    Allegiance Open Beta - Raven @ 3:52 pm PST
    Just to make sure everyone is aware OPEN BETA=FREE! So to put two and two together Allegiance a great new microsoft flight-sim is presently undergoing a beta period where anyone can download the game and play ONLINE! Heres a quote

    "Here is the latest online only game from Microsoft and it's really neat. Join a space combat force as a fighter, bomber, or even the commander. Work with other players to organize your forces and destroy the enemy. This open beta is a chance to play the game for free while bug-checking it for Microsoft. It's a great game and a new twist to the online only genre. Have fun!"

    For a list of download mirrors to download the game go to GameRevolution here.


    Massive Thief2 Preview - Raven @ 3:42 pm PST
    This is for all of the original Thief fans who have been after a decent preview for Thief2 for a long time! Thief2 is the sequal to Thief: The Dark Project
    and will be very similar to the original. For those of you who don't know the original Thief game was a unique First Person Shooter (fps) which forced players to use stealth and not go into dirrect combat. The game had a very original storylines and great graphics.

    PC.IGN have a detailed preview of the up and comming Thief2 with screenshots aswell as older information on the game for people who dont know anything about it. Theif2 looks like it will be an AMAZING game so I recommend all of the FPS fans check out the preivew. PC.IGN preview.

    Winback Review - backup @ 3:23 pm PST
    My review of Winback (N64) has been posted, which you can check out by heading here. For more reviews, try heading on over to the reviews page :)

    Aliens vs Pred expansion - Raven @ 3:22 pm PST
    Thats right theres a new title coming out in the Aliens vs Preditor universe. Check the quote:

    "Fox Interactive, entertainment industry leader and developer of computer and video game software, announced today that it will launch 'Aliens vs. Predator Gold Edition' this Spring for the PC. AVP Gold features an enhanced version of the original game, Aliens versus Predator, plus new game engine enhancements, the Millennium Add-on Pack and the Official Strategy Guide from Prima Publishing"

    For full details on the new devolopment view the press release.

    Hardware Section - backup @ 3:22 pm PST
    The hardware section has been posted, so start sending your questions and head on over to it! You can head on over to hardware by clicking here or by selecting Hardware from the Features menu.

    Also, in the next few days we will be bringing you a screenshots section here at GS, so stay tuned!

    Q3 Arena Map - backup @ 3:20 pm PST
    I found a really good Quake 3 Arena map over at Ingenuity. You can grab it here, and check out the screenshot below.

    Excellent!

    Ultima9 Patch (FINALLY) - Raven @ 3:11 pm PST
    For anyone who owns Ultima9 this patch is a must download for you. The people over at Origin have finally got off there corperate backsides and come up with a patch to fix alot of the problems associated with the bug infested Ultima9.

    The patch can be downloaded here. If people were considering to by Ultima9 (like me) now might be a good time to look into it.

    X'Ds~Grrr Interview - Gibb @ 1:20 pm PST
    The Nuclear Winter Gaming Network has posted an interview with renowned SC/BW player X'Ds~Grrr. Here's an extra-crispy little tidbit.
    NWGN: Now for the question that is on everyone's mind, how much money have you made from all the various tournaments you have won, and if you were to go full-time professional gamer, how much do you estimate you could make?

    X'Ds~Grrrr: During the last 6 months I earned almost $35k US$, but I guess that if I go to Korea my chances to get more is good. However, the standard of play has increased so much

    Check the whole interview out here.

    Source: SC.org

    New Jumbot Version Released - Gibb @ 1:14 pm PST
    A new version of the Jumbot, a popular bot program for Half-Life, has been released. This is version 1.1. For some reason, TheFatal (the maker of the Jumbot) seems bit perturbed :) Get the whole scoop here

    Wednesday, January 26, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    MDK2 Screens - Surebrec @ 8:06 pm PST
    I noticed over at VE that Gamefan has thrown up a whole bunch of new MDK2 screens which are all taken from the cut-scenes. *Drool*

    Descent 3 Mercenary Review - Surebrec @ 8:02 pm PST
    The peeps over at AVault have posted their review of Descent 3: Mercenary. Since this is just generally a bad day for games, they gave this thing a 3/5.

    Have you ever heard the phrase, "Same Kool-Aid, different color?" If not, you can extrapolate its meaning and apply it here. There is very little about this expansion that can be deemed original or innovative. If Outrage had simply added more of the same great gameplay, I would have given Descent 3: Mercenary a better score. As it is, a truly fabulous game model has been reduced to mere mediocrity. There are a number of really cool features in this add-on, yet sadly, none of them live up to the high standards upon which the series is now judged.

    Mortyr Review - Surebrec @ 7:58 pm PST
    Speaking of Gamespot, they have also kicked up a review on Mortyr. But it didn't fair too well with Gamespot, receiving a bottom-of-the-barrel score of 3.0:

    It's boring, it's unoriginal, and it doesn't even live up to the eight-year-old game it's attempting to copy.

    They're referring to Wolfenstein. Sad :(.

    Vampire Interview - Surebrec @ 7:53 pm PST
    Chris Hewish of Activision has recently been interviewed by Gamespot on their upcoming gothic RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption. Here's a sweet little snippet on.. a sequel:

    GSN: Now the game is starting to wrap up... any plans for the future? We know that Activision has the rights to Vampire: The Dark Ages and Kindred of the East from White Wolf.... Any plans on pulling a sequel from one of these licenses?

    CH: Somewhere deep in the secret laboratory that is Nihilistic Software there are the seeds of a sequel to V:TM-Redemption. As of now, nothing is set in stone, but the Vampire universe is a rich and tempting treasure trove of material. Also, just to clarify: This current game is set in both the Dark Ages and the Modern Nights, with half the game occurring in each, chronologically.

    New Gore Shot - Surebrec @ 7:41 pm PST
    GA-Source has released a brand spankin' new screenshot from 4D Rulers Software's upcoming first-person shooter, Gore. Check out the shot here.

    Thief 2 Preview - Surebrec @ 7:39 pm PST
    The boys over at PC.IGN have slapped up a preview of Theif 2: The Metal Age which should be out in the first quarter or 2000. And to top it all off, they've added 40 succulent screenshots.

    Gamers Playground Web Cast - DysoN @ 4:41 pm PST
    Gaming News Network, better known as GNN, have a web cast of Gamers Playground. Generally, Gamers Playground broadcasts news on PC games, consoles, you name it. It seems that they are up-to-date on what's going on.

    Nox Preview - backup @ 11:33 am PST
    The Adrenaline Vault has posted a hands-on preview of Nox, the game by Westwood Studios which just went gold yesterday. You can check it out here.

    Ground Control Movie - backup @ 11:32 am PST
    GameSpot UK has posted a movie of Ground Control, an upcoming 3d Real Time Strategy game by Massive. The movie features over a minute of in-game footage. You can check it out by heading here.

    Quake III Arena Wireframe Files - backup @ 11:29 am PST
    Rorshach has released the wireframe files for Quake III Arena, which can be found at his site. The files will let skinners test their skins easier, and the files are under 1.5 MB.

    The World is Not Enough Game - backup @ 11:26 am PST
    Electronic Arts finally announced that The World is Not Enough, a game based on the latest James Bond movie released in November, is in development using the Quake III Arena engine. There was a press release issued today that they had licensed the engine for a games entitled American McGee's Alice, TWINE, and other games that would be named later. For more information, check out the full press release, or head on over to the official James Bond website at http://www.jamesbond.com.

    Tuesday, January 25, 2000
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    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    3dGameGear officially opens - DysoN @ 6:12 pm PST
    3dgamegear has officially opened. They have plenty of PC game reviews, previews, to name a few. They even offer a free e-mail account.

    [9]eVERLAST Interviewed at SC.org - Gibb @ 5:56 pm PST
    [9]eVERLAST, the professional Korean SC/BW player, was interviewed by Mutant of Starcraft.org. He talks about Korea and how he got there, being a "pioneer" professional gaming, and some other yummy stuff. It's a very well done interview, and worth a read. Check it out at here
    Source: SC.org

    Nox Gone Gold! - Gibb @ 5:46 pm PST
    Nox has gone gold. It should be in stores (in North America) around February 15, and around the world February 18.

    Thanks Blues News

    Signing out - Falcon @ 2:43 pm PST
    Just a quick note that i'll be away from today till next Thursday week.

    Overclock a Geforce - Falcon @ 2:43 am PST
    Today at G3D (Gaming In 3d) is their latest article about how to overclock your brand-new Geforce!! Along with the article, they've also posted up a bunch of pics of the card for your pleasure. You can read the full article here

    War3 Preview - Falcon @ 2:36 am PST
    The Dawg Pound has written up a preview of War3, here's a snippet:
    "September 5, 1999, Blizzard shocked the world by announcing Warcraft III on their website, blizzard.com. It appears as though they are taking a bit of a turn from the traditional RTS game. They are calling Warcraft III the first Role-Playing Strategy game, aka RPS. Blizzard thought that Starcraft signified the climax of the RTS genre and decided it was time to move on."

    Monday, January 24, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Soldier of Fortune Demo Mirror Sites - winterfresh @ 5:38 pm PST
    Try these mirror sites if you are having trouble downloading the Soldier of Fortune Demo:

    GameSpot
    Stomped
    3d Gamers
    3d Downloads

    Urban Ops Interview - Surebrec @ 4:03 pm PST
    I noticed over at Voodoo Extreme that Rogue Spear Retreat has slapped up an interview with Producer Steven Cotton on Red Storm's recently announced Urban Operations, an add-on for Rainbow 6. Here's a tasty little clip on the new gameplay type:

    I was excited to learn about a new gameplay type I have mentioned in the forums before called 'defend'. Tell us a little about this new gameplay option. Will we be able to play this in multiplayer?

    Defend is really a single player game type. What we’ve done is given the player a starting location (a base, if you will), and you have to kill all the terrorists before they overrun your base. In some cases, the actual things you are defending can vary (a denonation button, a hostage, etc) but the gameplay is the same – keep the terrorists from reaching their objective! They will throw grenades at you, come in swarms or alternate attacking areas. Eventually, you’ll have to secure the area once you’ve fended off their initial attack, and that’s when they’ll ambush you!

    Deus Ex Shots - Surebrec @ 3:59 pm PST
    Speaking of AVault, they have also slapped up 2 new shots from Warren Spector's Deus Ex. Along with the shots is info that Deus Ex is very close to being released since the game is now playable from beginning to end with the exception of a few minor details.

    Urban Operations Screens - Surebrec @ 3:54 pm PST
    The boys over at AVault have posted 2 new screenshots from Red Storm's upcoming and just announced add-on to Rainbow 6, Urban Operations.

    Infiltration UT Mod - Surebrec @ 3:46 pm PST
    I noticed over at Blues News that the latest version of the Infiltration Mod for UT has been released, which is version 2.1. However, there is a warning that there are a few leftover bugs. The Infiltration Mod adds realistic weapons to UT.

    SoF 3dfx problems - Surebrec @ 3:44 pm PST
    Raven Software's Rick Johnson updated his .plan file with some info on problems with 3dfx video cards:

    Quick Note about Drivers:
    If you play SoF on 3dfx hardware, you may experience a few driver bugs. On the DX7 Beta drivers, when the screen flashes to indicate you are hit, you may get random colors. Other cards / drivers may experience complete texturing problems (though SoF should disable those features in Gl which cause these problems). NOTE that these bugs are within the 3dfx GL drivers themselves, and are NOT SoF bugs! 3dfx is aware of these bugs, but I'm not sure when they will be able to address them.

    SoF Demo! - Surebrec @ 3:41 pm PST
    It's finally here (even though my comp won't runit)! The Soldier of Fortune demo was just recently released from Raven Software and can be downloaded over here (95.1 MB). Here's the description of it:

    GameSpot and Activision present the demo premiere of Soldier of Fortune. Take the role of a military mercenary and hit the road. You'll have to use your reflexes and your wits to negotiate tense hostage situations or take down terrorist encampments in any number of international locales; from the dark subways of New York City to the roof of a speeding train in Russia.

    Raven Software has enlisted the help of real-life ex-Spec Op John Mullins to assist in Soldier of Fortune's development. Soldier of Fortune also uses Raven's new GHOUL rendering system, which adds a complex collision detection system to the game.

    ARC Open Beta at WON.net - MajinVegeta @ 2:28 pm PST
    This news might be kind of old to some people, but WON has released a open BETA version of ARC. ARC is a game, where you go around, tryin to kill your opponets, and capture the flag. Weapons are, Rockets maxium of 3, Grenade maxium of 2, and Bouncy Lasers maxium of 3. Your main weapon is your regular laser gun. If you wanna get to the fraggin, click here. Have fun!

    WoT Patch - Surebrec @ 11:23 am PST
    Blues News has news that the latest Wheel of Time patch has been released, upgrading it to version 333 and is about 1.5 MB. Here are the changes:

    There are several new features in Version 333:

    -Player ID (point your cursor at a player and see their name). It works with Disguise, too--moving your cursor over someone who is disguised will show the correct disguised name. You can turn this option off from the "Controls" menu.

    -A voting system. Players can now vote to restart the server, kick an abusive player, ban an abusive player, and change a map in progress. In order for this to work, use the following syntax from the console:
    vote restartserver
    vote kick (example: vote kick TheAmazingFoodMan)
    vote kickban (example: vote kickban Badaxe)
    vote open (example: vote open arena_02)
    In order for the vote to succeed, all players voting in the affirmative must type the same command. If you wish to vote no, simply do not enter any command. A majority is required before the command is executed. Only players who have installed this patch will be able to use the voting system.

    -New log statements for players joining a team, leaving a team, and restarting the game, in order to better present the information to server administrators.

    -A "Net Speed" menu option in the "Player Config" section of the "Multiplayer" menu. There are three settings: "Internet" (for 28.8 to 56K modem users), "Fast Internet" (for ISDN and cable modem users), and "LAN" (for DSL or faster connections)

    UT Tweak Guide - Surebrec @ 11:18 am PST
    So how many of these have you seen this week? Anyways, I noticed over at Planet Unreal that 3D Spotlight has posted a tweak guide for UT. The guide includes help on general stuff, visuals, and misc stuff.

    Sea Dogs Details and Screens - Surebrec @ 11:06 am PST
    Speaking of GA-Source, they also sent word they have posted 9 new screenshots and details for Akella's upcoming naval combat strategy game, Sea Dogs, which can be found here.

    WoT Arena Map Screens - Surebrec @ 11:05 am PST
    John from GA-Source sends word that they have posted 3 new screenshots from Legend Entertainment's upcoming Arena map for WoT, entitled Inquisition. The screenshots can be found over here.

    Sunday, January 23, 2000
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    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    UT Tech Page Updated - Surebrec @ 10:10 pm PST
    Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart has updated the UT Tech Page with the following on mods:

    The UT mod scene is starting to warm up with some kick ass projects!

    First, a bit of self pimpage. I'm working with CRT on putting together Rocket Arena for UT. C0mpile from Unloaded is developing a Voting system for the mod that mod authors will be able to use themselves and I've recently added Eavy to the programming team. Check out our site.

    Speaking of Eavy, he's been working on a bunch of kick ass gametypes. Eavy's UT mods. Check out his recently released Eavy Darkmatch II.

    The heavier mods are coming down the pipeline too. The Quake Jailbreak team is starting Jailbreak for UT! Anarchy is organizing the team. Email him if you can contribute your elite mapping or art skillz.

    Remember, if you have a cool mod or project, don't just sit on it. Talk to people about it and take some initiative. The most successful projects come from the mod authors with the most drive. The mod scene is a microcosm of the gaming industry with a very large number of mod authors making it into real jobs (especially map designers).

    Epic largely consists of people drawn from the community. The Unreal engine has a large number of licensing companies that are always interested in skilled developers (regardless of whether they are saying it out loud or not). If you are talented and aggressive in marketing your talents, you will get noticed. Producing a successful mod indicates that you already have a familiarity with the engine technology.

    Establish yourself as a center of gaming knowledge. Answer questions, help newbies, run a site on your favorite game's mod technology. Remember Zarniwoop from the Unreal Oddities page? He works for Legend. Scott Dalton from the Quake Zoerestorer mod is Lead Level Designer at Legend. I spell Zoeresertor a different way each time!

    Steve Polge, our AI and gameplay programmer (and a hell of a lot more), wrote the Reaper bot. (We can ignore the fact that he's had a real career at IBM before Epic). James Green, our new animator, came from the community. Steve Garofalo, one of our new artists, got his job from doing all sorts of skins, textures, and art and making sure people saw it.

    There are a lot of opportunities out there, you just have to drive yourself. If you've done a Quake or Unreal mod, definitely consider Unreal Tournament. Everybody at Epic is very open with answering questions. We won't fix your code, tweak your level, or polish your art, but we can point you towards resources and we can give you the tools to educate yourself.

    The days of garage game developers are not over. In fact, its a hidden renaissance. You don't see entire game companies popping out of nowhere, but you do see a large number of very dedicated people getting into the industry. So you've always dreamed of making a cool mod? Go for it. (And hey, do it for Unreal Tournament. You never know where it will take you.)

    SoF Designer Diary - Surebrec @ 10:03 pm PST
    The Oxygen Tank has news that SoFCenter has posted their first edition of the SoF Designer's Diary, which is a weekly column by Eric Biessman of Raven Software. Here's a clip from the first edition:

    Once the demo hits code release we will begin the final stage of the production schedule; balance and play testing. It is in this stage that we make sure that the game's difficulty settings are fully tweaked and that the game is a well-rounded, exciting, burst of action. It is also in this stage that we find and crush any stray level problems, code problems, sound problems, and art fixes. In short, we finish the game. There's still a lot to be done but we can finally see the finish line!

    Deus Ex Interview - Surebrec @ 9:54 pm PST
    I noticed over at Blues News that La Source.net has posted an interview with Bob White, lead designer of Deus Ex, ION Storm's upcoming action/RPG game. The Q&A discusses stuff mainly on Deus Ex as well as some stuff on the Unreal engine. And along with that theres 4 new screenshots of Deus Ex.

    Gamesurge Week in Review! - backup @ 6:11 pm PST
    Missed something this week at Gamesurge? No problem! We just finished our Week in Review! Head on over and check out!

    Quake 3 Arena Strategy Index - backup @ 5:39 pm PST
    About time I posted the Quake 3 Strategy Index. If you need help in Quake 3 with Rocket Jumps, or can't beat that certain Tier, head here, quick!

    Demo Updates - backup @ 5:36 pm PST
    Uwe Girlich's Demo Specs page has put up new version 3.30 of its Little Movie Processing Centre. The site has also updated both the unnoficial DM2 specs v1.0.4 and the Recording Faq v1.1.3. Here is a little bit of info on how these updates relate to the Quake II Relay project and how they could affect the handling of demo recording in Quake 3.

    These 3 updates are strongly correlated and show my support for the Quake II Relay project (http://www.planetquake.com/relay). This Quake II server modification introduces an extension to the well known DM2 file format and it was my duty to describe it and support it in LMPC.

    This project may show a new direction for the Machinima community. The modified server stores a recording during the game play in a file (similar to server recordings). This file can be edited (with LMPC and a text editor) and reloaded into the server. Now it can be replayed by any client, who connects into this server. If we can recreate a similar modification for Qake III Arena, we don't need any reverse engineering of the DM3 demo format or the network protocol at all.

    Excellent :)

    Home Networking and 3Com Palm IIIE article - Falcon @ 4:11 pm PST
    Digital Clips' very own Horace 'Warpdude' Ko has fired off his latest Home Networks 101 article, in which he investigates the various technologies behind home networking, from null modems to USB networks to wireless LANs and everything in betweens, examining each types' pros and cons. This article can be reached here

    Also, we recently launched an article on 3Com's Palm IIIE PDA, based around its successful Palm III series but clad in an iMac-wannabe translucent shell. Earl 'Murray69' Deng takes the PDA apart (literally) and takes a look at 3Com's sexy new offering, as well as a humorous look at the life of a PDA-armed technoweenie (based on personal experience). His article can be reaced here

    Saturday, January 22, 2000
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    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    SOF Demo News - Falcon @ 10:50 pm PST
    Raven's Rick Johnson updated his .plan with a status report on the Soldier of Fortune demo, which he now says to expect Monday:

    SoF Demo News

    The Demo will be officially released Monday. It got delayed until then mainly because QA found another crash bug Thursday (in the same function, ironically, but different area). Friday, I decided I wanted to try and address a 3dfx driver related bug. On certain drivers (kinda a mix of processor and OS), texturing would completely screw up. I changed the code so that on 3dfx, the game would not enable a specific rendering feature. This took a bit to QA today (to track down a related problem that got by me). I just got done talking to Mike Denny, who is in charge of QA for SoF. We have their blessing to release the demo (finally)... But because of "outside influences" it was decided to hold up until Monday.

    Just to give you a brief rundown of the Demo features:
    4 single player maps (a tutorial level, 2 full playable levels, plus a cinematic level)
    2 deathmatch maps
    12 different deathmatch models / skins representing 3 teams
    In game server browsing
    and a ton of custom options (including custom game settings (such as disabling spawning))

    The demo will weigh in at a hefty 95 megs, but should fit on zip disk.


    Source: Dawg Pound

    Swamp Buggy Interview - Falcon @ 10:22 pm PST
    SimXtreme has news regarding an interview with Brian Ewoldt, executive producer on WizardWorks new racer, Swamp Buggy Racing.
    The sport of Swamp Buggy Racing has been around as long as NASCAR, but it really is sport of Florida. That is where you will find the two tracks, one in Naples and the other in Fellsmere. It started out as a sport among friends racing their hunting trucks in the swamp. I have seen several Swamp Buggy Racing events on ESPN and TNN. Last year I made the trip down to Fellsmere to see first hand. It is a fun different motor sport.

    NFS: Motor City Official Site - Falcon @ 10:15 pm PST
    Electronic Arts has unveiled the official website for their upcoming racer, Need for Speed: Motor City.
    If you've drank deeply from the well of expensive, high-end exotics but still come up thirsty with a raw Need For Speed, you've come to the right place. Hot rodders heaven. Motor City. The place where it all began but never ends.

    - SimXtreme.com

    Summoner Preview - Falcon @ 10:11 pm PST
    Gameheadlines.com has news that 3DGN has posted a Summoner preview including screenshots.
    A big thing I got in trouble for as child was complaining about having to stop watching a TV show called something like, "Why Didn't I Think of That?" to go help my parents stack wood. I wouldn't have been quite so perturbed, but Popeye had just made a guest appearance and coming up was an 8 year old's burrito holder invention… and it made me upset that I was unable to finish the show. I got in a lot of trouble for complaining about that, but let's pretend you live in a mystical world and go by the name of Joseph. Imagine now that you summon a demon to aid your fellow villagers in defeating enemy attackers only for the demon to turn around and slaughter your loved ones.

    And I thought getting in trouble for complaining was bad.


    Allegiance Preview - Surebrec @ 9:57 pm PST
    I noticed over at VE that New Reality Gaming has posted a preview of Allegiance, Microsoft's upcoming sweet space shooter, Allegiance. But how about the gameplay:

    Allegiance is about teamplay, its as simple as that. Every aspect of the game is geared towards cooperating with team members, and believe me, there is tons of aspects to this game. A good place to start is the scout role. This is the default ship in the conquest game, and one that is crucial to a successful mission. Scouts are meant to be skirmishers as well as the eyes of the entire team, at least until better sighted ships are invested. There are variables that each ship has, sight range, agility, speed, amt. of afterburners, armaments, shield and armor, and the list goes on. Each different ship is equiped with a combination of guns, energy weapons, and missiles.

    DE Interview - Surebrec @ 9:54 pm PST
    I noticed that the peeps over at UU have posted a sweet-ass interview with lead level designer Juan "Pancho" Eekels of Digital Extremes, the people who co-developed UT and Unreal. The interview includes some of his thoughts on the future of online gaming, what inspired him to make some of his maps, and more. Here's a nice little snippet of where he got the idea of CTF-HallofGiants:

    You made some pretty amazing capture the flag levels for Unreal Tournament, what inspired them?

    Thank you, I'm glad people like em. Each map had sort of its own way of being created. LavaGiant for example used to be a canyon type map, but I never liked it. Then I took that .dxf brush and turned it inside out. This created this big rock you could walk upon. Then I thought about the environment and turned it into a vast lava sea with that one rock sticking out from it. CTF-HallOfGiants spawned from listening to the Riven soundtrack and it was supposed to be a hall from a lost civilization that the Liandri miners stumbled upon deep down the earth. I had this picture in my mind; the miners breaking through the wall at the bottom of the Hall and realizing what they stumbled upon with some dramatic music and camera angles etc. So, basically, I never know where it will come from next.

    Call of the Cthulu Interview - Surebrec @ 9:39 pm PST
    Speaking of AVault, they have slapped up an interview with Designer Andrew Brazier on Headfirst Productions' upcoming game, Call of the Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth which will be available Q3 of 2001. The interview also sports a few sweet screens of the game for the cherry on top. Here's a little snippet on the settings:

    Q: The screenshots show very dismal, gothic settings, which are very appropriate in relation to the Cthulhu Mythos. What were some of your visual inspirations that led to this particular style?

    Researching how the environments should appear has been quite a challenge, especially as a lot of Lovecraft's stories were based in New England, and we all live in the original England! We have been scouring the web and libraries for a number of months in order to find source pictures, and we have a load of the Chaosium RPG publications that have been a big help. I have also been in contact with a number of Lovecraft fans via the Cthulhu newsgroup, and some of them have been able to provide me with photos they snapped while on pilgrimages to "Lovecraft Country," which have also helped out a great deal. It is clear from reading Lovecraft's writings that the visual representation of the world is very important.

    SoF Demo on Monday - Surebrec @ 9:35 pm PST
    I noticed over at AVault that the Soldier of Fortune Demo will be out on Monday, according to a .plan update from Raven Software. The features of the demo include four single-player maps, including a tutorial level, two standard levels, plus a cinematic level, two deathmatch maps, a dozen different deathmatch models and texture sets representing three teams, and more.

    Now if only I could get a better computer than my K6 233 to run this bad boy on. I feel so left out. Nothing runs on my machine. Or should I say piece of crap.

    Planescape: Torment Guide - Surebrec @ 9:24 pm PST
    I'm sorry if this is old news, but Gamespot can't seem to date their stuff :(. They have recently (?) posted a guide to the recently released RPG Planescape: Torment. This bad boy includes character creation, combat, even an in-depth walkthru, and more.

    CS version 5.2 - Surebrec @ 9:18 pm PST
    This may be a bit late, but better late than never. If you have been living under a rock for the past week or so, this is for you. The latest version of Counterstrike has been released, which is now up to beta 5.2. You can download this bugger over at the downloads page and view the changes below:

    BETA 5.2 changes :
    - modified chasecam (to reduce lag)
    mp_chasecam 0 : ghostmode only
    mp_chasecam 1 : chasecam only
    mp_chasecam 2 : both modes
    - fixed crashing bugs
    - updated de_train.bsp, fixed crash bug
    - fixed scoreboard bugs (20 players not showing up)

    UT ngStats Patch - Surebrec @ 9:16 pm PST
    I noticed over at Blues News that the NetGames USA ngStats for UT Patches and Updates page has been updated with the newest patch for ngStats, bringing it up to version 1.2. Fixes include many things, including disconnection issues and some bugs not counting frags in CTF. A complete list of changes can be found here.

    Steal Whisper Revealed - Surebrec @ 9:13 pm PST
    I recently received word from the da man himself John from GA-Source that they have released info on Lost Boys Games' upcoming 3D action adventure RPG game, entitled Steal Whisper. Also released in the article is the very first screenshot from the game.

    UT Map Pack - Surebrec @ 9:10 pm PST
    I noticed over at 24HG that Planet Unreal has recently released the brand spankin' newUnreal Envisioned ][ Map Pack, which includes some great maps redone for UT. Included in the map pack are:

    DM-Aggressive-Tendencies][- by Chris "Plutonic" Blundell
    DM-Brutality][- by Rich "Akuma" Eastwood
    DM-Meldrak][- by Sidney "Clawfist" Rauchberger
    DM-Moribund][- by Rich "Akuma" Eastwood
    DM-Observatory][- by Mark "Oz" Austin
    DM-Urban Arena][- by Rich "Akuma" Eastwood
    DM-Siberia][- by Eric "Ebolt" Boltjes

    UT Guide - Surebrec @ 9:05 pm PST
    PC.IGN keeps comin' with the good stuff! This time around they posted a guide to one of the best FPS games ever seen, Unreal Tournament. The guide contains all sorts of info including maps, mutators, and weapons. It can be accessed in .PDF format or thru your browser.

    Nox Preview - Surebrec @ 9:00 pm PST
    The boys over at PC.IGN have kicked up a preview of Westwood Studios' upcoming RPG/action title, Nox. Here's a small (or rather large) snippet from the preview:

    I know that I'm going to get a ton of letters from Diablo addicts, but I have to say, straight out, that Nox's single player and multiplayer games are both worlds beyond what I've seen before. As we stated in our earlier previews (just scroll down to see what we've already written about this title), you are given three character class choices that will not only determine the abilities of your character, but also the entire storyline of the game. If you start as a Warrior character, for example, your journey will begin in the fortress city of Dun Mir. Here you must find a way to become part of the Warrior Lord Horrendous' elite band of Fire Knights before you move on to the land of Ix to try and find a solution to the problems that have been plaguing that realm. Conjurors begin in Ix, and have to face an invasion of Ogres before they're able to start feeling out other dangers in the realm. Finally, Wizards will start deep in the Southern Realms where they must try and rescue a powerful mage's apprentice from a cave filled with vicious critters. No matter where the players start, they will eventually began to see a pattern behind the horrors that face the land.

    Unreal Tournament Strategy Index - backup @ 7:12 pm PST
    We have posted our complete resource to all the strategies you will ever need for Unreal Tournament. Check out The Big List, also known as the Unreal Tournament Strategy Index.

    If you don't know what a Strategy Index is, then let me explain. We search the web for strategies that fall under a certain game. We then compile a big list of links to those strategies, and upload the list. Instead of you wasting time searching the web, we waste our time for you!

    Some Dolphin Concept Art - backup @ 5:47 pm PST
    Here is some Dolphin Concept Artwork, along with some Gameboy Advanced concept stuff that my friend sent on over to my mailbox.

  • Dolphin Screenshot 1

  • Dolphin Screenshot 2

  • Gameboy Advanced Screenshot 1

  • Gameboy Advanced Screenshot 2
  • I also heard that Dolphin may ship with Cordless controllers and possibly a modem around ISDN or Cable Modem speed. Besides, by then High Bandwidth should be common knowing how Nintendo delays products.

    Cyborg 2000 Joystick Review - Falcon @ 5:22 pm PST
    The Saitek Cyborg 2000 Joystick has been reviewed over at at Canadian Gaming Server. Heres s snippet:
    "The first time that you see the Saitek CYBORG stick 2000, it will instantly remind you of the movie Terminator II and it's dark glance into the future. This 23.5cm tall, 4-button flight-styled joystick immediately ignites the imagination, sending you that much closer to the ultimate simulation of your favourite game."
    Read the rest here (Flash player required)

    Starcraft Map Of The Week - MajinVegeta @ 5:05 pm PST
    The new starcraft map of the week is up. Well, it was up yesterday but no one posted on it so I will =]
    Click here to goto the map of the week webpage.

    O.R.B Interview - Falcon @ 4:38 pm PST
    New today on PCGamers.net is an interview with Strategy First's Christina Ginger (Public Relations), Jamie McNeely (Executive Producer of O.R.B), and Phil O'Connor (Producer of O.R.B.), about... O.R.B :)

    Their Interviewer talked about quite a few things with them, from what O.R.B stands for, to the system requirement, APIs used, story line, plus a little bit about the sequel to Disciples : The Scared Lands, even the weather of Quebec... A releasing scheduled of O.R.B. is also available. Read it all here

    Nintendo Gameboy Advanced - backup @ 11:16 am PST
    I heard rumours that Nintendo's latest Gameboy project, Gameboy Advanced, will include a digital camera on it. That sounds extremely expensive, but by the time it is released, I am sure it will be possible.

    UT Guide back online! - backup @ 11:05 am PST
    The Unreal Tournament guide has been put back up, due to some technical details that will not be revealed at this time.

    Make sure you check out the guide, it's been modified a bit, but excellent, so what are you waiting for! Check the guide out already!

    Forum - backup @ 9:50 am PST
    The forums are up and I recommend you all start posting! It's the ubb demo up, were looking into purchasing the full version soon, but this is fine for now :)

    Head on over to the forums!

    Donkey Kong 64 Strategy Index - backup @ 8:42 am PST
    I have put together another strategy index, this time of Donkey Kong 64. You will find all you need to surpass the game, so head here!

    Add comments

    Source: Gamesurge

    Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Index - backup @ 7:57 am PST
    I have posted another addon to the Strategy Index in Gamesurge, this time it's a giant listing of all the walkthrough's you could possibly find on Resident Evil 3. Enjoy!

    Oh bye the way, our comment system now works too. Feel free to head on over to the Forums and post a message! Make sure you register on it first thouigh!

    Add comments

    Source: Gamesurge

    Friday, January 21, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Tomb Raider 4 Reviewed - Toxin @ 11:09 pm PST
    My Review of Tomb Raider 4: The Lost Revelation is up at GA-Source! Everyone go read it :)

    Unreal Tournament Tweak Guide - backup @ 8:18 pm PST
    The Unreal Tournament Tweak Guide has been posted. It's pretty large, weighing in at a hefty 56k (large for documents). You can check it out by heading here.

    Also, I've put some updates to the Quake 3 Arena tweak Guide, which you can check by heading here.

    Pokemon Gold Impression - backup @ 8:06 pm PST
    The Pokemon Gold Impression by Tipher has been uploaded. You can check it out by heading here. Note that we used an emulated version since it was the only one we could find with converted japenise text to english.

    Pokemon Gold will be coming out early fall this year for Nintendo's Game Boy Color. It wasn't as bad as you think! Check out the impression by heading here.

    Now Hiring - Toxin @ 1:58 pm PST
    Just informing everyone that we are hiring.
    The two jobs that need filling the most are:
    1) News Poster
    2) Reviewer

    If you wish to become a news poster, then you have to post at least 2-3 news posts a day, (the more the better) be consistent, and have good English and grammar skills. Having worked on any previous websites is a plus, but not needed. Benefits include being known around the gaming community and others.

    If you wish to be a reviewer, you must be able to write nicely written thorough reviews, have good English and grammar skills, and be consistent. Having worked on any previous websites is a plus, but not needed. Benefits include getting games, and making a name for you.

    If you wish to join please mail me. Thanks!

    Diablo II Release Pushed Back... - winterfresh @ 1:27 pm PST
    According to www.ebworld.com Diablo II, the Sequel to Blizzard's Hit Diablo game is delayed again. Unofficially of course, the games new release date is June 16, 2000. Stay tuned for more information.

    Sony answers GT2 Questions (PSX) - backup @ 11:50 am PST
    When Gran Turismo 2 made it's way to stores, racing enthusiasts made a point of grabbing it. Unfortunately, the farthest you could get was 98.2% into the game, along with graphical errors, and other illogical bugs.

    Sony has acknowledged the bugs and plans on replacing the disc's that users bought. Here is what Sony had to say about it in their letter to IGNPSX.

    "Sony Computer Entertainment America has been informed that a few consumers have experienced some technical gameplay problems with Gran Turismo 2. We would like to take some time to address this with you and your audience. As you know Gran Turismo 2 is one of the PlayStation's most highly anticipated titles. In an attempt to meet and satisfy the extremely high consumer demand, Gran Turismo 2 shipped with a few software bugs that, unfortunately, were not caught during our extensive product evaluation process.

    We have made every attempt to rectify this situation by re-mastering the product and are confident that all discs in production are free of these technical problems. We understand that our loyal consumers have come to associate the PlayStation brand with quality entertainment and it is important to us to ensure each consumer is satisfied with their gaming experience.

    Because of this, our Consumer Services Department (CSD) is currently handling all inquires about this issue by providing an immediate solution. Consumers who have questions relating to this matter can call (800) 345-7669 (SONY). A consumer service representative will be able to help them identify if they have purchased a disc with software glitches and a replacement disc will be sent within three to five working days.

    We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. From our product lines to our customer service, we are committed to ensuring our consumers experience only the best from PlayStation."

    Nightmare Creatures 2 - backup @ 11:45 am PST
    IGN Dreamcast has a preview up of Nightmare Creatures 2, the sequal to the award-winning game Nightmare Creatures released for the Playstation, PC, and N64. They have some excellent screenies, and 3 movies! Check out the preview by heading here.

    Screenshots:

  • Screenshot #1

  • Screenshot #2

  • Screenshot #3

  • Screenshot #4

  • Screenshot #5
  • Movies

  • Movie #1

  • Movie #2

  • Movie #3
  • All of the movies require the quicktime plugin or windows media player, so head here to get Quicktime, or here for Windows Media Player.

    N64 News - backup @ 11:35 am PST
    IGN64 has put up a preview of Acclaim's latest addition to the All star baseball series developed by High Voltate. The screenies are great, and they have 2 movies to show you, so head on over!

  • All Star Baseball 2001 Preview

  • Movie #1 (6900k)

  • Movie #2 (6700k)
  • The movies require quicktime, you can get quicktime by heading here.

    More Deus Ex - backup @ 8:14 am PST
    Unreal Universe has posted a Deus Ex update, where Bob White from ION Storm gives the latest development notes on their upcoming Sci-Fi RPG. There are suggestions made that work is nearly finished, so check it out!

    O.R.B Preview at IGN - backup @ 8:12 am PST
    IGN's PC Site has put up a preview of O.R.B taking a look at the early stages of Strategy First's space based RTS called Off-world Resource Base. Check out the preview here.
    Source: PC IGN

    Preview of Star Trek Armada - backup @ 8:09 am PST
    Daily Radar has put up a preview of Star Trek: Armada. The Preview features 8 screenshots and takes a look into the upcoming real-time strategy game. Check it out by heading here.
    Source: Blues News

    Starcraft Role Playing? - Gibb @ 4:30 am PST
    I saw on SC.org this thing. Apparently Blizzard has helped them make a roleplaying version of Starcraft. Hmm... think of it... a pithy little 'ling forced to penetrate through the defenesesd of a highly guarded military installation or while being followed by a mysterious race called the Protoss...Well see for yourself.

    AoW Patch Released - Gibb @ 4:20 am PST
    I saw over at Blues News that a patch for the demo and full game (v1.13) has been released, and it weighs it at about 4.9 megs. Here's the changes
    BUG FIXES:

    AI:

    - Parties sometimes attacked cities they could not hope to defeat
    - When an ally attacked a location an instant before the AI tried to attack
    the same location, sometimes the AI would attack his ally

    Fast Combat:

    - Heroes sometimes had negative Channeling Points after casting spells.

    Get the demo and all that good stuff right over here.

    6 Months Old - Falcon @ 3:06 am PST
    I was just checking through some records, and I just realised we passed 6 months 2 days ago... come a long way since our debut...

    Interview: Knights - Falcon @ 2:56 am PST
    Knights is a refreshing mix of 3D shoot 'em up, beat 'em up and platform action that is best describe as a as Zelda meets Quake meets SimCity meets Mario 64 - while incorporating one of the first of a new generation of engines that are genre independent.

    To find out more about this "genre blurring" title, check out their interview with the Martin de Ronde, Producer for Digital Infinity - includes four new screenshots.

    Insane Gamers Reviews - Falcon @ 2:40 am PST
    Looks like a lot of sites have been busy these few days with reviews, iG have a couple of their own: Civilization - Call to Power from Activision:
    "Money, Power, and Prestige is that not what we all want. Well most of will never achieve it in the real world so why not go nuts in a virtual one. You can be a ravenous totalitarian or be a peaceful humanitarian in the world that is created by civilization. Civilization is a game that dates back to the late 80's. It's combination of great gameplay and originality that spawned a decade of wanna be's and it has a very unique ability to draw the audience in. Although it lacks a real story line it uses the parts of the best story every, the one of man."
    And secondly, Alpha1HO HeatSink and Fan Combo:
    "Efficiently cooling your processor is very important in today's world of super fast computing. Pentium two processors have been known to run hot enough to burn human flesh, that is with a heatsink and fan on. Proper cooling is not just important for stability but how hot or cool your processors runs can dramatically effect overall system speed."

    VGZN Reviews - Falcon @ 2:03 am PST
    Video Gamez Network have a few reviews up;
    The first is a few days old, but still a good read. Read the AOK Review here
    I am not going to compare AOK to other similar games, because it has its own unique feel. For newbies to the real-time strategy (RTS), AOK provides a learning campaign where you control the Celts with legendary William Wallace as you fend off the English.
    . On top of that, they have a NBA review for Dreamcast, which can be found here, as well as a Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX review (Gameboy Color).

    Thursday, January 20, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Q3 vs Karnov - Underwear Ninja @ 10:37 pm PST
    Probably the best comparison I've seen yet. Read it here.

    Diablo2 monsters - Raven @ 5:24 pm PST
    Diablo2 Darkness are a d2 dedicated site hosted over at Diabloii.net. The site has recently updated there D2 monsters feature with ALOT of new information. The new information has pictures of monster attacks, stats, special abilities and lots of images of known D2 badies. Great read and has soem very interesting pictures. Definately a MUST VIEW site for all the diablo2 fans out there,

    View their monster section here

    Diablo II Beta Details - Falcon @ 4:56 pm PST
    For anyone who happened to miss this news bit, heres the details again from The AVault/


    It is not often that a game can stir up the excitement surrounding Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo II, the sequel to the action-RPG that started it all. The questions of the moment, however, center on the beta release: When will it be held? Who can participate? When will it be finished so the game can be released? Blizzard's Bill Roper addressed questions about the upcoming Diablo II Battle.net beta in a Blizzard Q&A released Tuesday.

    First came confirmation that Blizzard will hold a Battle.net beta for Diablo II, with Roper indicating that betas are useful tools for game balancing, gathering direct input from core users, and compatibility testing. Regarding who can participate, Blizzard will be holding open sign-ups for the beta through their website in Quarter 1 2000. From these entrants, Blizzard will select 1,000 testers at random from the U.S. and Canada for the first phase of the beta program. Around seven days after the sign-ups, Blizzard will announce who the beta testers are and send out an e-mail with instructions that explain the beta and bug-reporting processes.

    For those who are not included in the initial 1000 fortuitous testers, Roper said Blizzard will be doing something new with Diablo II--having a second phase beta program. This will be an open beta where people can go to Blizzard's website, download a specific build and jump onto Battle.net to help them stress test their new servers. As Blizzard gets closer to this date, they will announce more details on the second phase beta program.

    The first phase will just consist of testers from the U.S. and Canada, but the open beta will be available to all people from around the world. There is no set amount of time for the beta testing to last, Roper said, as the team cannot predict the issues that will arise.

    So what are the reasons people should sign up for the beta test if the final version is just a little longer of a wait? For starters, the fame of being one of the first people to engage Diablo II should be reward enough. Add to that the right to brag to all your friends that you are an official beta tester, plus getting your name in the game's credits, and even El Diablo himself could not hold us down.

    Earth: 2150 movie - DysoN @ 1:29 pm PST
    IGN PC has posted a .avi movie courtesy of Mattel Interactive, about the latest RTS game from TopWare, Earth: 2150.

    Wednesday, January 19, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Silver Review - Falcon @ 8:17 pm PST
    Our latest review here at Gamesurge is a review of Infrogames RPG title, Silver. You can check it out here

    New Poll Question - Falcon @ 8:11 pm PST
    I realise this one is slightly overdue, but our next question leads on from the last question: Whats your favourite game to play online? (Kuedos to Guenon for this idea)

    Results of previous poll:
    Battle.net                   213     30.65 %

    Won.net                    52       7.48 %

    Heat.net                    27       3.88 %

    Kali.net                     66       9.50 %

    Pogo.com                 5         0.72 %

    Mplayer.com            24       3.45 %

    Westwood Chat         6       0.86 %

    MSN Gaming Zone   68      9.78 %

    Another                    30        4.32 %

    I don't use any          204     29.35 %

    TOTAL                   695       100.00 %

    Digital Clips Palm IIIe Special EditionReview - Falcon @ 7:13 pm PST
    Earl from Digital Clips has just completed a review of 3Ccom's latest Palm IIIe Special Edition review. Looks like it really lacks in expandibility and worse, its crippled by the lack of Flash Rom updates. Here's a blurb:
    "Nowadays, the latest model Nokia’s, Motorola’s, and Ericsson phones bring you WAP internet and features only seen in PDA’s before. Living in Hong Kong, with the need for Chinese language based handheld systems, the competition is brutal and ugly. 3Com’s attempt to penetrate into the Hong Kong market has been slow and tedious. Only as recent as October, did I manage to find the Palm in Mong Kok Computer Centre. So, what is the reason behind the recent “Palm craze”? Having viewed PDA’s in contempt ever since our school banned public displays of affection and after I reverted to bachelorhood, I was pleasantly surprised when I was given the Palm IIIE Special Edition for Christmas."

    GamesXtreme Reviews - Falcon @ 7:04 pm PST
    Games XTREME have posted a few reviews, 2 for the PC and one Console one.

    First is an Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings:
    The games Tutorial puts you, playing as the Scottish, up against the English, in a series of carefully constructed missions you are shown how to move, attack, build and basically everything you need to know to get out there and take another load of nations on, head to head! These missions are recommended to anyone who has not played the first, as each one focuses primarily on one certain part of the whole game to help you understand what’s what!
    Some nations you pick are well adapted to fighting, others are adapted to defensive measures and all this shows in the way your meant to play the game and the range of units you get to play with. Some nations will get archers and bowmen, some will have siege machines and some will be adept at building strong walls and towers.
    Next is a Freespace 2 Review
    The Size of the Ships also comes into play, they are quite literally Massive, no, bigger. The biggest so far as far as I know. These games just keep pumping out massive capitol ships for you to combat, its feels like a never-ending nightmare in which you need to destroy a massive ship with your limited firepower. But no matter how big they are, they still die is a spectacular style showing off the lovely explosions to their fullest.
    Thirdly is a review of David O'Leary's Total Soccer 2000 on the Gameboy Colour, which can be found here:
    Competition mode is the final style of game you can play. This mode has quite a few different options on the different types of competition you can play. You can either play one of the pre-set competitions, which consists of playing in various of the top leagues, or in the European Cup. Or you can make you own cup/league up, where you can choose what other teams you want to play against. In a league you can compete against between 3 and 19 teams (you being the 4th/20th), and you can play either once or twice, with the winner getting either two or three points, depending on how you decide to set up the league.

    GamesXtreme Competition - Falcon @ 6:59 pm PST
    GamesXtreme have a new competition running where you can win 3 Copies of Age of Wonders, released over here tomorrow.

    Ultima IX guide - DysoN @ 8:49 am PST
    Hopelessly stuck? Fret not. GameProWorld has released Origin's Tomb-Raider style game, Ultima IX: Ascension game guide.

    Unreal Tournament Expansion - Raven @ 3:27 am PST
    Whilst called a "Bonus Pack" and not an expansion, EpicGames has planned to release a free downloadable set of additional toys for Unreal Tournament. Epic says:

    "We'll soon be releasing an "bonus pack" for Unreal Tournament. Some of the fan sites have mentioned it and maybe posted a few screenshots, but nobody has really had many details. The pack is a freely downloadable set of additional toys for UT. Its not a patch and its not a required download, but will have some cool stuff. New models, new maps, and our runes system. Some of the runes are classics, some are new."

    Some of the Runes included in the UT "Bonus Pack" are,

    • Relic of Defense, cuts in half the damage taken.
    • Strength: Doubles your damage.
    • Relic of Regeneration: Regain 10 health every 2 seconds.
    • Relic of Vengeance: If you die while holding this relic, a skull floats above your body for a brief period of time. About 1.5 seconds later, the skull explodes killing with the force of a Redeemer blast.
    • Relic of Speed: Increased movement rate by 30%, also improves air control.
    • Relic of Redemption: If you die while holding this relic, you are teleported away from battle with your weapons intact and health restored.

    Sounds good so far so check back here because more information will be posted up as we get it in.

    Top Selling PC Games 1999 - Falcon @ 1:15 am PST
    Computer Games Online posted a "PC Data Top Selling PC Games of 1999." PC Data released their top selling game list for 1999, based on the number of units sold in North America. Read more here
    -GameHeadlines.com

    NBA BBall 2k Review - Falcon @ 12:51 am PST
    Games XTREME have posted its latest review of FOX Sports - NBA Basketball 2000.
    One thing I really didn't like about the game was that in the 4th quarter with about 1 minute left every time you get the ball the players on the other team will foul you, this really destroys the fluent game play. It means that you get loads of free throws, which may be good if you are behind in points but thought it was a bad idea. You can get round this though by turning off fouls completely.

    David Msika: Messiah Interview - Falcon @ 12:49 am PST
    Damage Gaming interviews David Msika, talking with the lead level scripter over at Shiny about his work on Messiah, Shiny's upcoming third-person game of possession. Level scripter is not a common job description, which is because of the unusual way events are handled in Messiah. Here's David's description:
    Scripting is the link between the programmer's code, the artist's work and the game, which pretty much gives full control on the outcome of Messiah. The scripting language has been developed, and improved constantly, by Messiah's programming team (Michael 'Saxs' Persson, Torgeir Hagland, and Tony Bennet). Every little aspect of the game design has to go through scripting in order to make it into the game. Using C++ functions and visual art (textures and geometry) I can set up special sequences, script complex situations including a lot of character interaction, add impressive visual effects, and design cut scenes between the levels of the game. There are three people on the scripting team; Andrew DeLap, Joe Virskus, and myself. Scripting is specific to each project, but the logic remains the same.

    3dFX With Baldurs Gate2? - Falcon @ 12:46 am PST
    BioWare's official Baldur's Gate II forum was updated by one of the guys over at BioWare with news on how BG2 runs with 3dfx cards. Here's some of the dirt from there:
    Although we are not supporting Glide at this point, the game does run with the 3dFX line of cards. We are using an early version of their OpenGL that has all the instructions that we need. We are in contact with 3dFX and will make sure that when you open up that BG2 box that you can play it in 3d with whatever card you wish.

    Quake III Arena mod - Falcon @ 12:45 am PST
    The [NME] Homepage has a new quickie Quake III Arena mod that adds an encumbrance system to the game, where carrying a BFG causes you to move at 80% of standard speed, scaling all the way up to the gauntlet which makes you "a veritable human torpedo" moving at 130% of normal speed. The mod is described as a quick hack, but may be the basis for a future class-based system.
    Note, the next few news posts coming up cortesy of Dawg @ Dawg Pound

    D2 SSOTW - Falcon @ 12:36 am PST
    Firstly, my apologies for the lack of news these 2 days, the news script wasnt posting and it wasnt fixed till earlier today.
    Well, back to the news, the forty sixth Diablo II screenshot of the week has now been made available for viewing. This time around it features the Barbarian in the newly discovered Act III spider jungle. A very nice shot to look at, however, the Barbarian is once again caught in a sticky situation. Be sure to click the link below for the full caption and of course the image. You can view the Pic and Diablo.net's description here

    Final Fantasy Movie -Sequence - Raven @ 12:16 am PST
    If you read the hot topics article before, you'll notice that the actual test sequence for the movie wasn't listed as a link, and you couldn't download it. I apologize for that but we had some problems uploading it. You can get the FF Movie test sequence here. The file is 10megs unzipped and runs for about a minute.

    Also I'll fix up the missing link later tonight.

    Tuesday, January 18, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Nocturne matters - DysoN @ 3:48 pm PST
    This isn't really much of a news post or anything (sadly it isn't) of that matter. I'm looking for someone who can send me large resolution screenshots, or in-game screenshots of the big game hit entitled Nocturne -- you will be given credit and the fact that it will be greatly appreciated (I'm currently working on a review of the game).

    Monday, January 17, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Gamesurge week in review! - backup @ 5:53 pm PST
    The Gamesurge Week in review has been posted. For the latest from Gamesurge, check out the review by heading here.

    InstaGib Q3A - Surebrec @ 2:17 pm PST
    Carnagenet has recently released InstaGib for Q3A, which is a mod also used in UT. If you don't know what InstaGib is, let me share it with you. All items are removed from the arena, each player is given a Rail Gun (in UT you get an Enhanced Shock Rifle), and each shot is lethal. And along with that, InstaGib is compatible with all Q3A game types.

    Hmm, let's go see what else I can gank from VE's page.. err did I say that aloud?

    Daikatana Shots - Surebrec @ 2:12 pm PST
    I noticed over at VE that GameFan has posted 2 brand-spankin new shots from John Romero's upcoming 3D shooter, Daikatana. And according to GF, it will be out sometime next month. Let's cross out fingers and pray to God that they don't delay it for the billionth time, or delay it another 6 months :(.

    UT D3D Patch - Surebrec @ 1:56 pm PST
    I noticed over at PU that the Unreal Tech Page has been updated with a little post that Epic is working on some D3D drivers that will be more stable with the GeForce cards:

    We are testing a new beta of UT's DirectX7 D3D rendering interface DLL. People experiencing problems in D3D mode may want to help test it, keep in mind this is an unsupported, largely untested beta. In particular, this should allow you to run UT on certain combinations of GeForce-based cards and drivers for which the original DLL crashes shortly after 'precaching'. To install, backup the d3ddrv.dll that's in your UT system folder and replace it with this file. Feedback welcome at utbugs405@epicgames.com.

    Dues Ex Interview - Surebrec @ 1:51 pm PST
    Looks like an interview with Dues Ex designer Bob White was posted in the UU forum. Here's a little snippet to get you interested:

    Hinny:How many missions will there be?

    White:There are around 20 missions, but we use that term loosely. Quite a few of them are not cut and dried chapters with briefings and debriefings. Sort of in the vein of a Pink Floyd CD. Yes there are separate music cuts but they flow together almost seamlessly. Each mission comprises multiple maps were up around the 70 range in maps.

    Hinny:What types of missions will there be?

    White:Everything from drug busts to enemy infiltrations and plain old "flat foot" investigations.

    Hinny:What kinds equipment will there be?

    White:There are different categories of equipment. Weapons, Ammo and support items Support items can be anything from keys, to soy food packets to binoculars.

    Metal Fatigue Preview - Surebrec @ 1:29 pm PST
    GA-Source has recently slapped up a preview of Metal Fatigue. Included in the preview is info on gameplay, artificial intelligence, the engine, individual Combot units, and more. The preview also sports 20 screenshots with descriptions.

    Have you ever watched a cool mecha anime flick, and thought to yourself, "that would make a cool videogame!" Well that game is finally here, and it comes in the form of Zono Inc.'s real-time strategy, Metal Fatigue.

    Unreal Gold? - Surebrec @ 12:05 pm PST
    According to AVault, Unreal Gold will be coming out next month.

    One of the best parts about having a successful product is the re-bundling a company can do after the title has been out for an extended period of time. Eidos Interactive has done it with their games, creating a "Gold" series to give both newcomers and their original customers a less expensive and enhanced product. Now GT Interactive is borrowing a page from Eidos for their Unreal franchise and preparing to release Unreal Gold, which Epic has told us will contain the original Unreal, the add-on developed at Legend Entertainment called Return to Na Pali, and the official strategy guide. Epic was unable to comment on what version Unreal Gold will be since it is “very much a future product.” The current release date from Babbage's & Software, Etc. is Feb. 15, 2000.

    Planescape Torment Interview - Surebrec @ 12:03 pm PST
    I noticed over at GA-RPG that GameVortex has posted an interview Planescape: Torment Lead Designer, Chris Avellone. Check out the interview over here. Here's a small snippet from the interview:

    GV: Planescape is officially dead in the eyes of TSR (erm, Wizards of the Coast, erm, Hasbro). It looks like Torment's going to be madly popular, though. Do you think that Torment's almost assured success may prompt a resurgence of the campaign setting? And if not, would you be willing to fill out the copious worlds of the Planescape setting even more with other games or expansions?

    CA: Torment's success may spur a re-surgence in the setting, but only Wizards of the Coast would really know for sure. I know that they have resurrected some game worlds in the past and made them better than before. As for future expansions and games, I don't think Interplay would mind doing more, but I don't know for certain.

    Q3A CTF Guide - Surebrec @ 11:53 am PST
    Dawg from The Dawg Pound sends word that Q3 Center has posted a Q3A CTF Guide, which covers (and more to come) CTF Guide, Weapons And You, Rules and Regulations, Advanced Techniques, and Quake 3 Arena: The Basics

    Blitz: Disc Arena Interview - Surebrec @ 11:50 am PST
    My good friends over at 24HG have recently posted an interview with the folks of SouthEnd Interactive on Blitz: Disc Arena, their upcoming futuristic combat arena sports game. Here's a small clip from the interview:

    24HG: What kind of system are you making Blitz for? Which will it support: OpenGL, D3D , etc? What kinds of effects will it have?

    SouthEnd: The game is currently written for DirectX 7 and there are no plans for making an OpenGL version.

    You like? - backup @ 5:22 am PST
    As you can see on the main page, there is a dhtml drop down menu's with the content. You then switch pages and it's not there. It's only on the main page because we cannot place it correctly inside of the SSI without messing it up.

    Anyhow, make sure you click strategies, then choose Action, RPG, or Strategy because we have over 60 games covered because of the Strategy Index. Thanks to falcon for getting things all fixed up because I wouldn't have been able to do it when I was sick.

    Hot Topics - Falcon @ 1:37 am PST
    All over the net there are interesting topics that the Gaming Community deserves to know about. These topics can involve anything, from game specific information, to real life issues to applications and even movies. These topics in general are topics which haven't received much press, and topics which people mostly know little if anything about. Here at Gamesurge we call these topics HOT TOPICS.

    Hot topics are a new project at Gamesurge. This project is designed to uncover information about topics which people want to know about. Presently Gamesurge is looking for suggestions for hot topics and any input is welcome. You suggest the topic we'll research it for you and post it up, sound like fun? Well give a suggestion.

    If you have a topic people should know about it, then send in an email to this adress with your suggestion. If your suggestion is chosen then you will be given full credit for it. Hot Topics are centred on specific information and in each case over 20 websites primary and secondary have been visited.

    The first topic we have here at GameSurge is on the Final Fanstasy movie. WE all know about the FF Game series, the latest release of FF8 on the PSX and the upcoming release for PC, but who here knows about the movie? Probably not many, so the following article is provided for all those of you that dont, or are interested in learning more: Final Fantasy: The Movie

    Nox Movie - Surebrec @ 12:31 am PST
    Westwood Studios just recently released a gameplay movie from their upcoming action/RPG title, Nox. The movie is around 90 seconds and weighs in at around 25 megs. Download it from FilePlanet.

    Rocket Arena UT Update - Surebrec @ 12:25 am PST
    It's been awhile 'eh? Well I've been quite busy. Anyways, I'll stop myself before I go into my dull life.

    I noticed over at Thresh's Firing Squad that the Rocket Arena UT page has been updated with some stuff on the gameplay of the mod:

    Rocket Arena

    The game you are all familiar with. One on One or Two on Two in a series of tight deathmatch arenas. Everybody starts with full ammo, full weapons, and full armor. The focus in on gameplay through raw skill, not item manipulation. c0mp1le is working on a voting system to allow players the ability to kick out llamas, switch the default weapon loadout, or switch the map and gametype.

    Clan Arena

    Rocket Arena 2's pickup games given a new focus. Pickup games won't happen during Rocket Arena games in RA:UT. Instead, players will be able to vote on starting a clan arena (pickup) match. Alternatively, server operators can set up Clan Arena servers for team play. Clan Arena matches can take place on any regular deathmatch map.

    Practice Arena

    This is alot like the Practice Mode in Soul Caliber. You can't get hurt (except by lava, or traps) and you've got an infinite loadout of ammo. As you shoot other players, you get combo and damage tracking. The idea is a place where you can cool off for a bit and try new things. Scoring is based on the ratio of damage given versus damage taken.

    Red Rover

    A new gametype that is a lot of fun. Two teams fight in a deathmatch map. The setup is like clan arena (full weapons, armor, ammo). When you kill someone on the enemy team, they respawn on your team. You win when everybody in the match is on your team!

    Damn I can't wait for that mod.

    Sunday, January 16, 2000
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    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Dual Strike Competition - Falcon @ 11:45 pm PST
    EuroGamer has word that they're giving away a pair of Microsoft Sidewinder Dual Strike gamepads! Specifically designed for use with first person shooters and action-adventure games, the pads feature a whole slew of programmable buttons, triggers, and a funky twistable right hand pod for your circle strafing pleasure. For full details on how to win one, check this page
    - Gameheadlines.com

    Opposing Force game guide - Raven @ 8:06 pm PST
    GamespotUk have got up a GameGuide of Half Life:Opposing Force. Very details and great for people who are havign abit of trouble with a game, if you have the game then you'll want to read this. Check it out here.

    Baldurs Gate Journal pt4 - Raven @ 7:55 pm PST
    The 4th part of the Baldurs Gate Development Journal is up over at PC.IGN. The Journals shows the progress of BG2 and also has some interesting information about the original Baldurs Gate. In this addition to the journal
    "Art Director Marcia Tofer gives us some background on what it's was like creating and entire fantasy world from the bottom up. In this week's article, you'll learn about the graphical side of Baldur's Gate, and hear how the colossal city of Baldur's Gate was built, and how the majestic city of Athkatla from the upcoming sequel Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn is coming along."

    Good read make sure you check it out here.

    FF8 goes Gold - Raven @ 7:47 pm PST
    That says it all, the PC version of FF8 has now gone gold and is ready for release. If you didn't know when a title goes Gold, it means that all changed to the source code are completed and the game is ready for production. Expect to see ff8 in your local store Jan27.

    Myst Online (next EQ??) - Raven @ 7:43 pm PST
    PC.IGN have a little preview of Myst Online. Both the original Myst and Riven was best selling games that dominated the rpg/problem solving world. Myst Online is a multiplayer, first-person game that is apparently very different from the others in the Myst series. The article doesnt have much info about the title but it does give afew hints and bits about what to expect in the game. Pretty good read,

    view it here

    Diablo2 Dairy and SS - Raven @ 7:01 pm PST
    Also over at Gamespot they have updated their page with information for the highly anticipated Role Playing Game Diablo2. Gamespot has 5 new screenshots aswell as a new addition to the Diablo2 Dairy. THe new dairy entry covers current devolopments and quality assurance.
    View the dairy here
    View the ScreenShots here

    Imperium Galactica 2 - Raven @ 6:52 pm PST
    Firstly for those of you who havent heard IG2 is said to the be the hotest space conquest day released to date. The game which is set to smash records set by Homeworld has received a blitz of coverage on the internet.

    Pc Gameworld has snagged an exclusive demo of the game which you can download Here. The demo contains 3 different senarios, aswell as multiplayer support for up to 8 players. Its is a whopping 132mgs but for those of with ISDN or better its definately a worthwhile download. All reports about the game are very positive so if u can go DOWNLOAD IT.

    Also theres a good review for the game over at FederationHQ. Check out the review here

    Duke Nuke History - Raven @ 6:40 pm PST
    Gamespot.com have got an interesting article up looking at the history of "The Duke". The article covers the games Duke has featured in, quotes and also some interesting trivia about the most interesting FPS character ever. Check it here.

    Blizzardcentral Network Alpha page updates - Falcon @ 5:39 pm PST
    The Blizzard Central Network has updated their Starcraft Alpha page, and now habe the two alpha music samples that were released some time ago, that you may or may not have heard before. It's a mix with Warcraft 2 and current-day Starcraft music. The sample can be downloaded in both Zip\Wav or MP3 format.
    They have also finished their Beta Coverage section with new photos.

    Q3A files - Falcon @ 5:37 am PST
    I've added the latest UT Patch, as well as the latest Q3A Files (Point release, Source code, Editor) to the page as an alternative mirror to download them from. (Stomped was still full yesterday...)
    You can download them here

    Saturday, January 15, 2000
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    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Porsch2k Preview - Falcon @ 5:16 pm PST
    Snipers Alley has posted a preview of the latest addition to the Need for Speed series, Need for Speed: Porsche 2000 (Porsche Unlimited in the US).

    The latest entry in the award-winning Need For Speed series will allow you to thoroughly experience the thrill and depth of driving the most storied and technologically advanced sports cars in the world from Porsche’s extensive 50 year history. Staying true to Porsche’s philosophy of building performance cars that could be raced competitively as well as put through their paces on city streets, players will be able to drive Porsche’s historic and future line-up of models starting with the 1948 356 Roadster to the newest 2000 996 Porsche Turbo along with famous race cars from over the years. Need for Speed: Porsche 2000 also boasts two new modes that will enable players to drive and race the Porsche’s of their dreams either in exciting racing situations to progress through a career or in open road situations that rewards them for pushing the cars to their limits.
    - Simxtreme.com

    Flanker 2 Review - Falcon @ 5:14 pm PST
    Serious Gamers has posted a review of Flanker 2.0. Heres a bit:
    Pilot one of the worlds most advanced fighter aircraft. Flanker 2.0 from Strategic Simulations Inc., puts you in the cockpit of the Russian built SU-27 or SU-33 combat aircraft. The SU-33 being a carrier based variant of the SU-27. This is an outstanding simulation in almost every way. The graphics are beautiful, the sound ear pleasing, the game play exciting, the learning curve and game complexity very high.

    AOK Review - Falcon @ 5:08 pm PST
    The Dawg Pound has written a review of AOK. You can read it here. Heres a bit:
    One thing that is a slight hindrance comes from the fact that the individuals you command aren't exactly the brightest people in the world. When walking in large groups, they will occasionally start walking right when told to go left, up when told to go down, etc... They also have some problems with trees and bridges. Don't be surprised if it takes a while for your army to make it though a heavily wooded area. They are also a bit of a burden to command; especially the peasants. If you assign them to work on a farm, you will have to check every two minutes to make sure that the farm's supply hasn't been depleted. If it has run dry, you will have to rebuild the farm. This becomes a major problem with you have ten farms in use and have to abandon your command on the line of battle to make sure there is some corn growing. You will also want to double check that your idle army units are set to guard the territory. If they are set to attack everything that moves, you will more than likely find several of your men half ways across the map because they were chasing a single scout.

    sick - backup @ 4:17 pm PST
    I know I promised all those game reviews for you, but I am really sick right now (damn flu), and I may only have like 1 or 2 for you this weekend. They will come later tommorow if at all. I won't be on ICQ til later so don't try to contact me.

    Friday, January 14, 2000
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    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    ELSA ERAZOR X Review at 3DHardware - Falcon @ 6:11 pm PST
    3D Hardware has smacked up a review of the ELSA ERAZOR X. Here's a blurb:

    "There’s no doubt about it. This card and it’s variants are fast, the fastest cards on the market for right now and at least the next three months. With a theoretic fill rate of 480 Mtexels/s (which it will get close to in 16 bit), the GeForce offers about a 40% improvement over the TNT2 Ultra in fill rate. But fill rate is not the only thing it offers. What the card is really pushing is polygons, and lots of them. Does it deliver? It depends if the game or application supports T&L. As of now, there aren’t many games that support it. In fact, I don’t think there is a full Direct 3D game released now that supports T&L. This is a strike against the card. Unfortunately, we probably won’t see a wide array of T&L games until the next T&L card. Early adopters will still derive great pleasure out of the ERAZOR X or any GeForce, especially if upgrading from an older generation of cards."

    Digital Clips News - Falcon @ 6:04 pm PST
    Digital Clips has just published the 6th edition of its inhouse pricewatch editorial, PriceClips. We've taken it back to the drawing board and completely revamped Price Clips, making it more user friendly and increasing our coverage to hard drives and motherboards, thus bringing all the critical computer components into our guide. The article can be reached here

    Also, we recently launched an article on setting up a simple home network to share ADSL connections. The article includes step by step instructions on setting up both the network and connection, as well as discussing the technologies behind ADSL, homenetworking and the like, making it a great read for novice and veteran users. This guide can be reached at http://209.201.3.185/html/reviewdisp.cfm?ArtID=34&PageNo=1

    Kenn Hoekstra Interview - Falcon @ 1:58 am PST
    3DNews.net has posted an interview with Raven Software meat popsicle, Kenn Hoekstra. Heres a bit:
    How much strategy is involved in playing SoF? Is the game closer to a Half-Life/Quake or a Rainbow Six/Rogue Spear?

    The weapons and enemies in Soldier of Fortune are deadly, so it takes a good bit of strategy and caution just to stay alive. If there is a happy medium between Quake and Rainbow Six, I think Soldier of Fortune has it. There's more strategy involved than in a basic killfest like Quake, but it's not a major brain drain like Rainbow Six. Action is the bottom line and we don't want the strategic elements to get in the way of the action or the fun. Soldier of Fortune is all about maintaining that delicate balance...

    NOX chat log - Falcon @ 1:52 am PST
    GA-RPG has released the NOX chat log of the chat which was held last night with John Hight from Westwood Studios. Here's a clip:

    GA-RPG: What is the current status of the game build wise? Also, are you expected to ship NOX before March?

    JohnHight: Well, build wise I have been playing the final build version for us all week, and having a good time whipping the Q/A guys’ butts. They have been trying to repay me by finding some vicious showstopper bugs, but as of yet have been unable to. I feel very confident GA-RPG that you’ll be able to play NOX in March and suffer my wrath on Westwood Online.


    Source: Cali-Girl.net

    Imperium Galactica II Screens - Falcon @ 1:48 am PST
    PC Gameworld has some new screenshots of Imperium Galactica II. Imperium Galactica II - Alliances, is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Imperium Galactica. There's lots of information mentioned concerning the upcoming game.
    -Draken.net

    The Dawg Pound Update - Falcon @ 1:21 am PST
    I'm too lazy to edit this, so here we go :)
    Hey webmasters. Good ol' Dawg from The Dawg Pound here. In case you don't know, the URL is http://www.dapound.com and we just opened up. Not only are we bringing you the latest news, but we have some articles coming up in the future that will be kick ass. For our opening, I've decided to go with a article I wrote entitled, "Strategy or Tactics?". Here's a little chunk of meat for ya:


    "Now, when you quiz all these gamers, you will probably find they use some lingo that most strategy gamers are aware of. Things like TBS, RTT, RTS, etc. This is where the huge presence of Strategy, gets down, and gets personal. Or, rather, divided. The first obvious division is Real-Time vs. Turn-Based. While most would say, 'Real-Time is more realistic', we come to our senses and realize that it doesn't take 1min 15 seconds to build a tank. Generally speaking, Turn-Based are suited for more genbuine strategists, involve more strategy, complex maneuvers, etc. Built for the more patient individual, they can be great fun - and some of the best games ever heralded have been Turn based. Civilization, Panzer General, etc. Heck, even Chess is a turn-based strategy game. however, chess also brings about another, finer division - Tactical and Strategy. Chess, which may seem to be strategic, is purely tactical; a small battle within your control. Strategy, despite popular belief, involves much larger grander affairs, uilt on the tactical, such as civilization. It requires expansion, cities, politics, and budget (no, not just sucking up Tiberium with your friendly neighbohood harvester). When you fight a battle between two armies at some-odd planet, you have just tactisized, and are using TBT - Turn Based Tactical. when you finish this battle, and revert back to the entire war, your empire, etc., you are strategizing, expanding, building, etc. this is called TBS - Turn-Based Strategy. Within the domain of turn based, strategy and tactical remain fruitfully very similar, and often can get confused. Just remember: Tactics for Battle, Strategy for War. "

    Article URL: http://www.dapound.com/11100.shtml
    Main Page: http://www.dapound.com

    On a side note they offer hosting for all sorts of clans and we have the ability to host domains (like GS btw). Some more cool stuff coming in the future at Da Pound, Keep visiting to see whats happening!

    Big Bang: Frederique Gaulbaire Interview - Falcon @ 1:07 am PST
    Games XTREME has posted an interview with Rayland Interactives' Frederique Gaulbaire about thier Upcoming Space Shooter, Big Bang. Heres a snippet:
    GX: Judging by the screenshots I have seen, it seems that Big Bang will be a huge game with lots on screen at once and Massive Spaceships, how have you managed to keep everything moving at a reasonable rate?

    FG: A dedicated 3D engine is always what maximises a game frame rate. Of course it would have been easier to adapt an older version but we would certainly be far under the current frame rate if we had done so. On the new GE256 video card we can play BigBang in a 1600X1200 resolution and it makes the game look even greater...


    They have also posted a new Weekly Column that lists the best UK CPU Prices, updated every week: http://gamesx.gamesurge.com/features/cpuprices/cpuprices.html

    Samsung developing all-in-one console? - Falcon @ 1:03 am PST
    The Ultimate PC Gamingzone some interesting news about Samsung developing a sixth gaming platform, named Extiva. This system will include a DVD-player, 3D game player and interactive functions. It's scheduled for release in the second half of this year. Inlcuded with the article is a screenshot for the machine, so go check it out from their page

    Wednesday, January 12, 2000
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    Direct X 7a - Underwear Ninja @ 8:48 pm PST
    Direct X 7a is out. Get it here.

    Tuesday, January 11, 2000
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    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Team Fortress 2 will change Multiplayer gaming - Raven @ 9:16 pm PST
    For all of the Team Fortress fans out there, there is an interesting article posting up over at Gamewire.org. Gamewire in an editorial talks about-The not even released yet- TF2 and goes on to list a mountain of reasons why this game will blow away all other multiplayer games. Some pretty abid claims, some of which are even backed up. Its also got a good summary of all the new features in TF2. Check it out here.

    New Diablo2 SS - Raven @ 9:02 pm PST
    The Diablo2 ScreenShot of the Week has been updated with a kewl picture of the Scorceress dishing out some punishment to the Paladin. Looks good check out the full sized picture below
    D2SSW
    Diablo 2 Screen Shot

    Die Hard Trilogy 2 - Raven @ 8:58 pm PST
    I didn't actually know they were making a sequal to DHT but the people over at n-Space have been working on this second First Person Shooter in Die Hard universe for a while now. GA Source have a quick talk with Erick Dyke and Larry Pacey employees of n-Space. The interview covers gameplay modes, weapons and storyline and even includes afew screen shots DHT2. If you liked the first game you'll definately want to read this.

    Go read it

    UT weapons guide - Raven @ 8:47 pm PST
    Hellhound have come up with their own weapons guide for Unreal Tournament. The guide lists all the weapons and their abilities and also lists playing tips with all the weapons. Probably a good real for newbies to UT the older players might not get much use out of it.

    Weapons Guide

    Everquest expansion SS - Raven @ 8:41 pm PST
    ScreenShots.net have managed to score 20 new and unseen SS of the Everquest expansion:Ruins of Kunark. The screenshots look pretty good and you can check them out here

    Quake3 Skins - Raven @ 8:14 am PST
    UMUSTDIE has updated their site with an additional 35 new Q3A skins. The site is a little annoying and the webmasters still need to learn to use flash in moderation but the skins are worth vising the site for.

    Go to UMUSTDIE to download skins

    Septerra Core Review - Raven @ 8:07 am PST
    Septerra Core is a game I've been interested in for a while now. A friend originally told me about the game when he said it was "Americas attempt to create a Final Fantasy game". Basically Septerra Core is a RPG anime game that is actually more heavyhitting then the quote up top make it out to be.Game Revolution have recently reviewed this title and overall they were very impressed with the game, from the little that I've seen of this game it looks very good and somthing I have every intention to buy.

    Overall the game scored A- which is as high as they scored Unreal Tournament.

    Scope the review here

    BG 2 Devolopment Diary - Raven @ 7:46 am PST
    PC.IGN, have for the last few months been examing Baldurs Gate 2: Shadows of Amn in there BG2 Devolopment Diary. The 3rd and latest addition to this dairy is writen by BioWare's James Ohlen, Director of Writing and Design. This edition covers character originals and explains how BioWare came up with characters for BG1 and BG2. Although this article doesn't have much info about Baldurs Gate:2 is does have some unique Trivia about both the original and the sequal.

    Read it here

    New UT Patch - Raven @ 7:35 am PST
    The new Unreal Tournament version4.05 patch has been released. This patch fixes and add an apsolute boat load of stuff! The patch is 4.4megs and is a must download for all UT players.
    Some of the bug this patch fixes include
    • destroy the "winch", not the "wench" in AS-rook description :)
    • fixed problem with landing bob damping on slow systems with high time dilations
    • fixed problem where client health gets set to zero (health was still correct on the server)
    • fixed spectators drowning in water outside of galleon
    • fixed problem with one of the 402 server optimizations causing pickups to be shown when they should be hidden if high packet loss
    • fixed fog rendering in software
    • fixed assertion line 714 network crash on slow connections
    • fixed bad poly on Ripper weapon model
    • fixed flag not dropped if killed by team cannon in CTF games
    • fixed gold players showing up in CTF
    • added BossSkins.int
    • fixed clients hearing ambient sound on dropped weapons in some cases
    • fixed teamtriggers
    • fixed demo playback crash

    Some of the new features added include

    • much louder warhead explosion
    • don't allow Turbo mode with assault
    • bigger blood cloud when gibbed
    • Menu and text formatting changes to support Japanese text
    • Added "AddIni" command for umods to add lines to ini files
    • Changed occurances of class'DeathMatchMessage' to DMMessageClass. Allows mod authors to use their own DMMessageClass in all situations.
    • Made ngWorldSecret a private variable. So you can't read it from GetPropertyText anymore.
    • Added CRT's query packet send improvements.

    You can either download it from the official UT site, or I recommend downloading it from 3D Files (lots more download mirrors)

    3dFiles list of UT patch sites
    Official site

    Monday, January 10, 2000
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    Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear review - Raven @ 9:26 pm PST
    Cnet has now got up a review for the new Rainbow Six title Rogue Spear. Overall Cnet was very impressed by the new game and if you're a fan of the series tben you'll definately want to check it out.

    Cnet Rogue Spear review

    Interview with Shiva from AN - Raven @ 9:13 pm PST
    Shiva the webmaster over at AN -Our Affiliate- has just been interviewed by the people at Gamegurus. The interview covers alot of things, from specific things such as the AN website to general things about the gaming community. Its fairly interesting and a good read if you have the time. (But come on if you didnt have the time why would be viewing a webpage like this)

    Check the interview here

    War3 gameplay movie - Raven @ 8:38 pm PST
    Micheal is a very lucky person indeed, he recently got the oppertunity to witness Blizzard's latest project Warcraft3. He has hand held camera recorder afew minutes worth of footage of the game -from the PC Gamers W3 movie- and its now put up for public download at WarIII.net. The movie is in mpg format and is nearly 27 megs. I havent downloaded it myself, but the screenshots look pretty good so I'd be very confident that the movie will be worth downloading. Unfortunately the resolution is low and the compression factor is high so detail isnt that good, despite this though its still a good oppertunity to see the game in action.

    If you like before you download the movie you can view some Screenshots from the movie

    Or you can just go straight in and download the 26.7 meg mpg here

    Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed - Raven @ 8:27 pm PST
    The staff over at Gamespot have just updated their news page with a look at the latest edition to the Need for Speed series. The article contains four screeenshots and lists some interesting information about the new game heres a clip.

    "As you can probably tell from its name, Porsche Unleashed's lineup of cars is composed entirely of Porsches. In fact, every Porsche from the 1948 356 roadster to the monstrous 2000 996 Turbo are available for players to drive. Even the devilishly fast 959, banned from sale in the US, is included.

    And a new career mode, called Porsche Evolution, lets players track the history of Porsches across four eras. You'll be able to buy, upgrade, repair, race and, maintain as many as 80 different Porsches in this mode, which you can then turn around and sell as a collector's item during a later era. The value of that car will depend on its rarity, the mileage you put on it, and the shape it's in."


    Check the full article here

    GamesXtreme Competetion - Falcon @ 5:33 pm PST
    GamesXTREME is running its Latest Competition to win one of 5 copies of Sierra Latest Strategy Game, Pharaoh. For details head over there

    Cheat cheat cheat - Falcon @ 5:32 pm PST
    New on PCGamers.net today, cheat cheat cheat!!!

    Time to get rid of the level-stucking nightmare. They've made a big update on their cheat section, all the latest games, uploaded cheats include:

    Age of Wonder
    Cabela's Big Game Hunter 3
    Railroad Tycoon 2 : The Second Century
    Toy Story 2
    Nerf Arena Blast
    Rally Championship 2000
    Test Drive 6
    South Park : Chef's Luv Shack
    Unban Chaos
    Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
    Pharoah
    Asheron's Call
    Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
    Lego Racers
    Unreal Tourney
    Q3Arena
    Wheel of Time... etc etc.

    They can all be found at http://www.pcgamers.net/cheats/

    Week in Review - backup @ 3:39 pm PST
    The latest Gamesurge Week in Review has been posted. Check it out by heading here.

    Sunday, January 09, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Unreal Tourney Review - Falcon @ 10:24 pm PST
    Masamune Online has posted a review of Unreal Tourney, check the news at their site.

    Violence Poll on Vote.com - Gibb @ 6:51 pm PST
    Rich Johnson of Raven has updated his .plan file, making this brief message
    For all of those who are interested in the whole Violence and Video Games issue, please particpate in
    this Vote!.
    Go and vote!


    Source: Blues News

    Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire - Falcon @ 5:17 pm PST
    This game is relatively old, but Digital Clips has slapped up a review of the game, which can be found here. Heres a clip:
    "I remember Alpha Centauri being enough of a headache as it already was with its mind boggling array of options from micro to macro management of your faction, careful consideration of diplomacy and “foreign” policy, and even weapons and units customisations. Too much! But when is enough, ever enough, if ever, there is enough? From civilization, to this, Sid Meier truly is a guru. But the question here today is simpler. Is Alien Crossfire a worthy extension to the original?"

    Blizzard Realm Reopening - Falcon @ 1:55 pm PST
    Our affiliate, BlizzardRealm has been through almost 2 weeks of downtime due to server changes. They have reopened and are up and running.

    Saturday, January 08, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Silent Hill Review (PSX) - backup @ 5:05 pm PST
    The Silent Hill Review (PSX) has been posted. You can check it out by heading here.

    Misson: Impossible for PC Cancelled - Gibb @ 2:51 pm PST
    I saw on VE that Infogames has cancelled the PC port of N64's Mission: Impossible saying that it really would be an impossible mission. Check out the GA Source story here.

    Donkey Kong 64 Review - backup @ 1:37 pm PST
    The Donkey Kong 64 Review has been posted. You can check out the review by heading here.

    Friday, January 07, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    MDK2 Preview - Surebrec @ 9:20 pm PST
    PC.IGN has recently posted a preview of MDK2, coming soon from BioWare. The preview also sports a few screens.

    Diplomacy review - Falcon @ 6:33 pm PST
    Ok rather than having 3 people post about the same thing here it is... The diplomacy review was uploaded without being edited and the quality was below standard. Toxin is editing the diplomacy review right now.

    The Future of Quake - backup @ 4:19 pm PST
    The Future of Quake editorial has been uploaded and can be viewed here. Make sure you check it out!

    Editorial & Reviews - backup @ 4:10 pm PST
    The Donkey Kong 64 (N64) Review & Resident Evil 2 (N64) Reviews have been finished, along with an editorial concerning the future of quake. These will be posted shortly.

    Gamespy troubles - backup @ 4:08 pm PST
    As we all know the id software region of the country heh, including where Gamespy is, is experiencing technical difficulties and all of their websites seem to not function properly.

    If you head on over to Gamespy.com you'll get this message most likely.

    Hi! This is web3

    ID Software Taken Down - SPaZ @ 11:49 am PST
    Christian "Disruptor" Antkow updated his .plan with the following....

    "To be blunt, we are currently the target of a major denial of service attack
    which was started at 3pm CST this afternoon.

    The perpetrators of this denial of service are saturating two full DS3's coming
    into Dallas, and are affecting all Savvis, UUNet, and Sprint connections locally.

    To combat this attack, Savvis, UUNet, and Sprint have implemented access filters
    blocking certain traffic to our entire class C, and are blocking our DNS server
    entirely.

    Savvis will be monitoring the situation throughout the evening, and I'm expecting
    a wakeup call at 8am from the morning tech crew at Savvis for an update. I will be
    calling the FBI in the morning to proceed legally on this attack.

    I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this is causing you. Believe me,
    we are as frustrated as you are."

    **UT vs Q3A, and A PERSONAL CHALLENGE - Raven @ 7:13 am PST
    Well UnderWear Ninja, you're entitled to your bloated up opinion I guess. In the same sense that Bill Clinton is entitles to his opinion on fidelity. Firstly for those of you who haven't guessed I'm an UT fan, and I am going to take up Ninja's challenge by offering a counter rant about UT and Q3A and by proving why UT is better.

    However before we look at why UT is so good, I'll take you over Ninja's rant and show you what's so wrong about it. To start, Ninja right UT does have a better single player game, but that's to be expected because in Q3A single PLAYER GAME IS ALMOST NON EXISTANT. All Q3A has is going against different bots that use different weapons and strategies. One of the best things about UT is that single player introduces all of the game aspects and modes so it's a great way to build yourself up for online warfare in all circumstances. That's something Q3A can't compete with.

    Next up I'm a little curious about this:
    But Q3 was coded with the future in mind. It was setup thinking of the 1ghz machine. Quake3 will still look good and feel good when UT is sitting on the shelf

    Don't get me wrong I love cryptic messages with little to no point as much as the next person, but saying that Q3A was coded for the future and isn't designed for the present, isn't that a flaw point for Q3A. Ninja if your the type of person whose willing to wait for MPP (Massive Parallel Processing) to hit stores so you can "truly appreciate" Q3A that's find by me. However I know that right now UT runs brilliantly on my home computer and doesn't need to look to the future like Q3A does, as you put it.

    I will concede that the skins for Q3A are better then in UT and in some cases Q3A does look better then in UT however that's only on occasions, but having a nice look and being pretty doesn't make up for the fact that something is lacking gameplay wise. If you're like me, then you've played both Quake and Quake2 previously, and if you're like me you'll also after something new in Quake world. Sure fraggin' is always fun, but why frag with a boring old game with boring old weapons and very little new gameplay, when you can play a game WITH EXCITING AND UNIQUE weapons, Diabolically good maps and loads of new and exciting modes of gameplay.

    If you want to get into coding and get technical we can do that, one of the best things about UT is that EPIC have reworking the network code. What this means is that only key information is transferred in packets, and long string of information are cut down to shorter strings, think of it like "abbreviating" words in a sentence. The long and the short of it is that UT multi-player can run fine on 33.6 connection, again another thing Q3A can't compare two.

    Don't get me wrong I used to be a big Quake fan and I was very good at playing both Quake and Quake2 however I needed something new in the Quake world of fragging and Quake3 didn't offer it. UT on the other hand has brand new and exciting modes of play; great weapons all of which are useful; good maps that are all different and require different strategies to do well in, and more importantly a game fell that is completely unique. The end matter is that whilst Q3A is a great game by itself its doesn't have anything to match the new gameplay additions in UT. Quake3A is good UT is simply better.



    Ok now after the rant lets make some things real clear. Firstly I own and have played both Q3A and UT, so I do have a fairly good idea what I'm talking about. Secondly what is listed up there is purely my opinion and I'm quite sure lots of people will disagree with me. So moving on I issue this challenge to all the web readers out there, if you completely disagree, or you agree with what I've said in post send me in an e-mail arguing your side of the topic. Your e-mail will put up on the Gamesurge page and I promise that all of the rants that are of a decent standard will be posted up, NO MATTER what side of the topic you argue, and your more then welcome to take personal shots at either myself or at Ninja. If you think Ninja was completely off the beat with his summary of UT and Q3A then tear him apart and tell us why. Or if you think I was spinning something brown out from behind email me and say why.

    So TO ALL THE READERS, heres a nice little challenge respond to what Ninja and I have said, tear us apart and argue for your favourite FPS. I can bet all of the Gamesurge staff will become involved in this so why don’t you? Get your rant put on Gamesurge and take up my challenge, if not you can always walk away and turn your back on a the game you so dearly love, I have no problem with that.

    Send your rant to Raven@gamesurge.com and help defend your game.

    Cavedog Refocusing - Falcon @ 6:13 am PST
    The Avault there's news that Cavedog Entertainment on Thursday announced the decision to refocus internal product development. As part of the restructuring, the company plans to cease development of the first-person action game, Amen, which has fallen behind schedule. Cavedog's direction includes a greater focus on core products in the award-winning Total Annihilation franchise of real-time strategy titles as well as the Boneyards online gaming community.

    The change in development direction will allow Cavedog to grow its better-established brands and provide an opportunity to create anticipated products, such as Total Annihilation 2, the third title in the Total Annihilation franchise.

    The company is putting the finishing touches on The Iron Plague, the official expansion to Total Annihilation: Kingdoms. Scheduled for a March release in more than 45 countries, The Iron Plague introduces a fifth civilization that will battle for control of the mythical land of Darien. In 2000 and beyond, Cavedog plans to continue to explore the Total Annihilation universe with new concepts and projects. Read our August 1998 preview of Amen here.

    Battlezone II Review - Falcon @ 5:31 am PST
    PCGamers.net has a review up for Pandemic Studios' Battlezone II: Combat Commander.

    Score was 92 out of 100, which made their all time Top-5 list @ http://www.pcgamers.net/#alltimetop5heres a clip:
    We welcome Battlezone II: Combat Commander to our all-time top fivelist. Great graphics and sound effect, convincing vehicle controls, plus loads of fun on both the action and the strategy part of the game. I highly recommend it to all my fellow gamers.

    12 Breakneck Screens - Falcon @ 5:29 am PST
    BreakNeck promises to be the ultimate PC arcade racing game, combining the speed of a racing simulation with the explosive use of customizable firepower. Check out these 12 new "impressive" screenshots at GA-Sports.

    Opposing Force Review - Falcon @ 5:24 am PST
    Games XTREME have posted a review of Half-Life: Opposing Force which you can check out at here. Heres a clip:
    The weapon placement in the game is bloody good, many a time I have just run out of ammo and turned a corner to find exactly what I need, although
    sometimes the overuse of your guns can leave you in the shit every now and again. I did get to one place with only 1 point of health and a few grenades, just to find an alien was round the corner the other side of a broken bridge, now I ask you, why me?

    Thursday, January 06, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    **Q3A vs UT - Underwear Ninja @ 9:14 pm PST
    First off, we need a Rant's page : ) 2ndly, my rebuttal will have to wait. I've actually got to work for once. Stay tuned.
    **Update

    I'll say that UT runs smoother at the same respective detail level and resolution compared to Q3. I'll say the single player missions are better. But Q3 was coded with the future in mind. It was setup thinking of the 1ghz machine. Quake3 will still look good and feel good when UT is sitting on the shelf. AND Q3 was designed to get people online and playing multiplayer. Now this is getting too long, maybe I'll make an editorial out of it. Basically it's all about preference, if you like the slower but smoother gameplay, then go UT. If you like fast paced action, go Q3.

    Now in my opinion, this comic is for everyone.

    Reviews - backup @ 5:01 pm PST
    There are a mass amount of reviws being worked on so we should have a bunch of them for you either tommorow or the next day. Stay tuned!

    DE Page updated, again - Toxin @ 3:36 pm PST
    Got this e-mail from DE:


    We updated our website about a quick fix about the TeamBeacon and Volatile ammo mutators not showing when running from dedicated machines..

    Well head over there and get the fix :)

    Wednesday, January 05, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    New Tribes 2 Shots - SPaZ @ 11:24 pm PST
    gamecenter.com has posted some sweet shots from the upcoming Tribes 2 along with a mini preview stating that it is slated to be released this year.
    Source: T2 Shots

    Q3A Review - Surebrec @ 4:25 pm PST
    Lee from Sniper's Alley sends word that they have posted their review on Q3:A, recently released from id Software (I hope you knew that). Anyways, since Q3:A wasn't as good as UT, they gave it a 7/10, not even coming close to UT. And no, I'm not gonna give up plugging UT :). So here's a clip from the review:

    Well before I start I have to admit that I normally love quake. My favourite game of all time has got to be Quake. Due to how easy it was to make mods for it and change all sorts of aspects about the game. But when I got Quake III I have to admit that I was disappointed in it. It just does not have the same feel that the past quake games have. It is just another
    multiplayer game; the single player is just multiplayer with bots. Don’t get me wrong I like that sort of game but I just don’t think that this game is
    up to the standard of the likes of Unreal Tournament.

    Diplomacy Review - backup @ 2:14 pm PST
    You can check out the Diplomacy review, which has been posted, right here!

    Tuesday, January 04, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    UT Stat Status - SPaZ @ 11:57 pm PST
    NGWorld Stats had a problem and got it cleared up rather quickly. The server was down for approximately 1.5 hours. All is well now so let the fragging recommence.

    Quake3 Strat Guide - Raven @ 7:57 pm PST
    Cnet- Singapore Gaming have now compleded a strategy guide for Quake3 Arena. This guide is alot better then most of the other rubbishy ones out there and any Q3 player should get some use from it no matter what your skill level is.

    Cnets Q3A guide

    RPG reflection for 99 - Raven @ 7:50 pm PST
    RPG gamers are a top site focusing on information concerning the Role Playing Game genre. In a new article on there page, they reflect back on the year 1999 and mentioned some of the big events to the RPG world. Squaresoft products dominate the feature, but they also mention Pokemon, Legacy of Kain and other gaming hits over the course of the year. The article is a good read if you have the time.

    LookBack 99

    Omikron - Raven @ 7:42 pm PST
    I thought I'd give this piece of news a seperate post. Anyway EP Gamers have also reviewed Omikron. If you notice on our page near the bottom left we have Omikron listed as a Top File. Therefore its about time we found somthing reviewing our file. The review mentioned good and bad points about the game, and if you have a decent connection it might convince you to download the file :P. Well theres optemism for you. Speaking of optemism maybe its about time to update the Top Files... back on track though

    Omikron Review

    Digital Extremes Page Updated - Toxin @ 7:32 pm PST
    The Digital Extremes page has been updated with new goodies, such as new mutators for UT.

    Ultima IX: Ascension review - Raven @ 7:29 pm PST
    For those of you who know anything about the Ultima series, you'll know that Ultima IX is the last game that will ever be released in the U series. You'd also probabaly know that the U series has taken the world by storm and some of the Ultima games have been nothing short of amazing -such as Ultima Online. EP has recently reviewed U9, and if anyone is considering buying the game I'd recommend you read the review first. *lets just say its not pretty, but it is deserved*

    Ultima 9 review

    Q3A vs UT - Raven @ 7:20 pm PST
    Since UT and Q3A are both multiplayer First Person Shooters (FPS) and since they were both released at the same time, it was obvious that competition between the two games would be fierce. Yet another comparision of the two games has been compiled, this time by IGN. I've stated since the beginning that UNREAL Tournament OWNS QUAKE 3 Arena, and these guys agree. *yes UnderwearNinja UT better then Q3A!*

    Now that ive gotten that out of my system, the comparision features good points and bad points for both games and is worth a read even if your a Q3A fan.

    Check it out here

    Gamespot Blizzard interview - Raven @ 7:09 pm PST
    In other Battle.Net news, Gamespot has conducted an interview with Michael Morhaime President and Co-Founder of Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard are the creaters of Diablo/Warcraft and Starcraft. Not a bad interview and worth checking out if your curious about Blizzard.

    Source:SC.org

    B.net Seasons Champs - Raven @ 7:00 pm PST
    With the start of a brand new ladder season on bnet, its about time Blizzard told us the winners of last years season. The number 1's are listed below, if you would like to see the top ten for each game take the links.

    Final Fantasy PC release - Raven @ 6:41 pm PST
    FF8 PC release date has been updated over at www.Squaresoft.com. Originally it was believe that FF8 for PC would be released late December 1999, however Squaresoft now says it plans to release the PC version of FF8 on 1/29/99. So the long wait is nearly up. Just hold out afew more weeks.

    New D2 SSOTW - Raven @ 6:22 pm PST
    Well, its seems Blizzard survived Y2K, and have treated us to a new Diablo2 Screen Shot. This screen shot features the Paladin, and in it has the Paladin using both a "Skill" and a "Spell". Go cheak it out at the Diablo2 Official webpage.

    SSOTW

    New Version of Q3Build - Gibb @ 2:40 pm PST
    I saw on Voodoo Extreme that a new version of Q3Build, the popular map compiler, has been released. Check it out here.

    Monday, January 03, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    Gobs of Reviews - backup @ 6:49 pm PST
    Gamesurge will be featuring reviews this week of Medal of Honor (PSX), Driver (PC), Diplomacy (PC), Resident Evil 2 (N64), Winback (N64), Pharaoh (PC), Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer (Game boy Color), Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (PC), Jet Force Gemini (N64), Unreal Tournament (PC), Silent Hill (PSX), Metal Gear Solid (PSX), Shadow Man (Dreamcast), Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver (PSX), NFL Blitz 2000 (N64).

    The list will be changing as the days come, I have some new reviewers on the staff that will be helping out. Some games will be posted later than others, all the way through the week. Again, the list can change. Have a good week!

    WOT Easter Egg? - Falcon @ 5:38 pm PST
    Apparently there is a secret room in WoT, so if you'd like to see what an American president, 4 rats and a beaver do an a room, then click here

    Sabaneta 2050 Preview - Falcon @ 5:31 pm PST
    Mod Alliance has previewed the upcoming Half-Life mod, Sabaneta 2050. Read it here.

    Rogue Spear Tournament - Falcon @ 5:20 pm PST
    Mplayer.com today at 4:00 PM PST (7PM EDT). Here are the details:

    Game: Rogue Spear
    When: This is a five week King of the Hill Tourney. The first four weeks will consist of open play, with the finals taking place on the fifth week.
    Where: Special King of the Hill Tourney Rooms in the Rogue Spear lobby
    What's at Stake?: A cool mplayer.com mousepad goes to the top four winners and a retail game CD, a special icon, and tons of bragging rights goes to the top Week 5 winner.

    The Future Of Gaming - Falcon @ 5:18 pm PST
    EuroGamer has word regarding their millennial coverage which comes to an end tonight with an article, "The Future Of Gaming", (including screenshots) taking a look at what the future may have in store for gamers.

    Digital Extremes Interview - Surebrec @ 4:52 pm PST
    I noticed over at Blues News that Gamefan has posted yet another interview with someone from Digital Extremes (the people who helped make Unreal). This time, it's Everton Richards, who is a modeler and concept artist for DE. In the interview, they talk about how he got started, what he did in UT, and a bit about their next project.

    Big things in the 21st century article - Surebrec @ 4:47 pm PST
    24HG sends word that they have posted an article entitled "Big Things in the 21st Century", which outlines some of the big things they expect to make it in the new century/millennium. Here's a clip from it:

    8) Free Somethings
    Free Internet, Free PC's, the something-for-nothing revolution will come in to its own in the next year. As the Free ISP's mature and work out how to make sustainable profits, you'll see two groups of Internet Access. Narrow, free traditional dialup access and the range of mid to high cost...

    Maximum Games opened! - Surebrec @ 4:45 pm PST
    A new site, called Maximum Games, has just opened! But what do they feature? Well, they are basically a search engine of gaming websites. So if you're looking for a certain website on a certain game, just search for it and you'll probably find it.

    Thandor Screens - Surebrec @ 4:42 pm PST
    Speaking of GA-Source, they send word that GA-Strategy has posted 6 new screens from Planet 4's upcoming 3D real-time strategy game, Thandor.

    Die Hard Trilogy 2 Screens - Surebrec @ 4:40 pm PST
    The boys from Ga-Source send word that they have posted some exclusive screens from Die Hard Trilogy 2.

    Staff - backup @ 3:34 pm PST
    I am really stressing our news updaters that we currently have start making posts regularly. I also want if at all possible for you to try as hard as you can to create content. Were growing, and we want devoted staff members. To all you who are doing a lot, thanks.

    Sunday, January 02, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    SC Alpha/Beta page - Falcon @ 6:06 pm PST
    The Blizzard Central Network has opened a brand new Starcraft Alpha\Beta Page. This was done to honor Starcraft and whats it has been through since the beggining. Starcraft has been out for about a year now and continues to be one of the most played online game.
    This page combines all the screenshots since the E3 announcement to the 1997 preview. With over 100 compiled images, this is one of the biggest alpha\beta page you will discover on the internet. Yet to come will be mroe screenshots of the beta, and the first music of SC.
    You can visit the page here

    WGL Season 2 sign ups - Falcon @ 6:01 pm PST
    The World Gamers League is pleased to announce that sign-ups for its Season Two Brood War League begins Sunday, January 2nd and will last for exactly one week. Games for Season 2 will begin January 31st and will be played every week on Sundays at 4 and 6 EST and the season will be 18 games. If you're interested visit the website at http://wgl.gamegurus.net/ to read up on all the important information

    Gamesurge Week in Review - backup @ 3:29 pm PST
    The Gamesurge Week in Review has been posted. In case you missed some of the happenings here at Gamesurge, you can get to see what you missed by heading here.

    Top Ten Strategy Games - Falcon @ 1:05 am PST
    Yes, the "top ten *game genre here* games of the *year/century/millennium*" have been made at more sites than you could poke a stick at, and heres another for your reading pleasure. RTS Nation, along with over 50 fans has finished a list of the "Top 10 Strategy Games of The 20th Century".

    Saturday, January 01, 2000
    Got News? Comments? Send it in! Help/Info/Contacts | Forum
    Can't find what you're looking for? Send a request!

    I'm Baak - Toxin @ 9:15 pm PST
    I got back from vacation today! Well anyway, look for me actually writting stuff in the near future ;) Oh, and great job to all of the guys here who finally got off their lazy asses and made themselves useful! :)

    Thief II : The Metal Age Demo - CrAzY-K @ 7:46 pm PST

    You can now download the thief II demo
    but you need to have one of these video
    Cards in order to run it since it is still
    in the earler stages of production, it is an early alpha Version.
    --------------
    3Dfx Voodoo, Voodoo Rush, Voodoo2, Voodoo3, Banshee
    nVidia RIVA 128, RIVA ZX, RIVA TNT, TNT 2
    Matrox G200, G400
    Intel/Real 3D i740
    S3 Savage 3D, Savage 4
    ATI Rage Pro, Rage 128
    --------------

    estimated download time: 14.4Kbps= 25hrs 28.8Kbps=13 hrs 56Kbps=6 hrs

    Click
    Here to download Thief II: The Metal Age

    Keep your bookmarks online - Falcon @ 5:27 pm PST
    Have You Ever?...

    Tried to remember a URL you bookmarked on a different computer?

    Scribbled down a URL at a cybercafe and then lost the paper?

    Do you want to make your links public and share them with others?

    Suffered from a disk failure or hard disk crash and lost all your bookmarks?

    LynxSafe features a searchable database of links for Gamers built by Gamers!
    Any game links - Game Cheats, Reviews, Walkthroughs, Previews, News Sites, Editing Sites, Game Companies, Development, art, music, you name it!

    Staff... - Falcon @ 5:08 pm PST
    Game Strategy Source needs more staff to write walkthrus strats, etc. If you're interested e-mail Dragonwings here

    Also if youre interested in a position at Gamesurge as a news poster or reviewer, feel free to drop me a line here
    Benefits include a Gamesurge email address of your choice, pop or forwarding, as well as a place in the online gamign community.

    Starcraft Campaign Released - Falcon @ 5:00 pm PST
    Campaignz has released a new SC campaign titled Fury of the Dominion III. Fore more info on it head over to the page here

    Vampire Screens - Surebrec @ 2:56 pm PST
    GA-RPG sends word that they have posted 4 new screens from Nihilistic's upcoming action/RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade.

    Everglide Mousing Surfaces Review - Surebrec @ 2:55 pm PST
    The girlies over at 24HG have slapped up a review of an Everglide Mouse Pad. Yes, a mouse pad. Here's a little snippet from the reivew:

    After Microsoft released mice that utilized optical tracking or 'ball less' technology, a black version of the pad was released, because the sensors on the mice didn't seem to like the original white material. Reacting quickly, Everglide made new versions of all their pads available in black, which is compatible with the new mice. Q3, Y2K, Falcon Northwest and Alienware logos can be added to pads at no additional cost.

    Demo-Files open! - Surebrec @ 2:53 pm PST
    I've recently been notified that a new site, Demo-Files, has just opened. Now, if you don't know what this site is about by just looking at the title, there must be something wrong with you. They give you all the demos that have been recently released or released earlier for PC, Mac, and Linux. 'Nuff said.

    Warlords Battlecry First Look - Surebrec @ 2:51 pm PST
    Well, I see nothing blew up at midnight. Oh BTW, something did happen. My cat caught on fire at midnight. Guess it wasn't Y2K compliant :).

    Anyways, GA-Source has posted a first look of Warlords Battlecry, which is a hero based real-time strategy game. Here's a little more about the game:

    Warlords Battlecry is a real-time strategy that allows players to create a hero in one of nine races and then take him and his armies through campaigns, quests and multiplayer games. Drawing from the rich fantasy environment of the Warlords Universe, Warlords Battlecry delivers a unique blend of RPG and real-time strategy that can best be described as hero-based gameplay.

    More stuff coming - backup @ 1:21 pm PST
    I have a review of Wingback coming soon [N64], and a few more reviews from a few playstation games along with a PC one sometime today.

    More on UT Open Source - backup @ 1:20 pm PST
    Greenmarine updated his .plan file with some info on the upcoming release of OpenSource items for Unreal Tournament. Here is a snippet:
    Well, I was hoping for a nuclear blast or something. Boooring.

    I've released the open source archive at the sourceforge page. You can get there from openut.sourceforge.net.

    The file is available in tar/gz and zip formats. The archive includes stuff for win32 and Linux. All of the public engine headers are included, so you can start working on extended mods and stuff.

    Feel free to participate in the message boards and bug tracking system on the Source Forge page.

    The next task is to get CVS up and running, but I'll probably put that off to the side for a few days and do some work on my other projects.

    I've got a huge list of crap to do for the next UT patch.

    Final Fantasy 8 Review - backup @ 12:17 am PST

    The Final Fantasy VIII Review has been posted for PSX. You can check it out right here.


    " "



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