go to www.shugashack.com for up to date news.
| Saturday, April 17 |
Unreal Tournament [9:45 am]
Next-Generation has a nice look at Unreal Tournament
from Epic which was originally looking like it would hit before E3 but as announced
recently will be released after the big show.
On the technical side of things, Epic has certainly been busy. "The OpenGL code has been completely rewritten in-house by Tim Sweeney," Rein informed. "Level of detail for meshes will be included to allow the game to dynamically adjust the polygon counts to keep performance smooth even when there are lots of players on the screen at once. We've increased the resolution of player skins by four times, so expect some really phenomenal looking players when you get up close. We've also introduced level of detail support for textures which helps reduce the overburdening of 3D accelerator cards from a texture standpoint." Rein also added that Direct3D support is expected to get an overhaul before Unreal Tournament ships, and A3D 2.0, EAX 3.0, and stencil-buffered shadows support are also expected to make it into the retail version's box.
Quake3 Images [9:45 am]
RB-Anubis was kind enough to send me some much higher
quality images from the recent PCGUK Quake3 article on news stands now. Here are the links
to all the images: scan1
scan2 scan3 scan4 scan5 scan6 scan7 scan8
Deus Ex [9:45 am]
The Ion Storm
website has some updated information on the
progress of their Unreal engine based title being headed up by Warren Spector.
"Typically, it seems, you hit this point a month before Beta which is a month before ship which is just enough time to say, "We're hosed!" We're not in that situation at all. We pulled our Alpha together in plenty of time to identify the problems (about 40 pages of bugs and comments already), figure out how to fix them and then implement the desired fixes.And THAT is cool!
QuakeCon Registration? [9:45 am]
The registration for QuakeCon99 opened up yesterday (I forgot to mention it,
doh!) but guess what, it broke again. At least it was broken the last time I checked. I'd
recommend trying back through the day though.
Views [9:45 am]
Tech [9:45 am]
werd
Well, here you go have a look at the new shack design. Drop me or Clay some email on
what you think, plan to go live with it when I get home tonight or early morning tomorrow.
Stuff to be changed:
- Colors.. I'm not a big fan of that yellow stuff.
- That mouse image.. cant think of anything cool to put back there. Ideas? (No Quake3 or
Britney Spears image, sorry)
- QuakeFinger, yes it's busted.. that should be fixed today. Prolly strip off the dates.
- Right and left colum in general = looks kinda plain/ugly.
- 640x480 is a bit busted. Who uses that anymore anyways?
- Font sizes. Will be ditching the fixed width stuff so it scales better.
- Compatibility in general.
Note: none of the links work, this is just strictly the layout. Don't email me about broken links, it's a *non-functional* layout.
Also, Sander came up with a new layout for the messageboard in the same color scheme with a few more features you guys should get a kick out of.
| Friday, April 16 |
Unreal Tournament [12:50 pm]
Got word from the GT folks that Unrealtournament.net has been updated with some
new images of the UT pulse gun and flak cannon. They also include links to zip files for
those of you who just want the whole package. U-Games has some images as well.
btw, making the new shack design compatible with Netscape is proving to be much more of a pain in the ass than one would think. Huntsman has been busting out all the tricks though and well... I'm not gonna make a prediction on the page going live tonight or not..
Giants [12:50 pm]
Ga-Source has fired up a great interview with Tim Williams,
the creative director over at Planet Moon working on the Giants project. There are 4 new
screenshots of the game along with the article/interview.
Stuff [12:50 pm]
Alien vs Predator [11:30 am]
The official
website for the AvP game in cooperation with FOX has been opened up by the Stomped
folks. The premier of the page features an interview with the project manager on the AvP
game.
3dfx + STB = 3dfx [11:30 am]
The 3dfx merger with STB has been made official now. Check out the 3dfx website for the
details.
V3 vs. TNT2 [10:30 am] - Huntsman
A guy named Angelo has a rather intelligent look at the V3 vs.
TNT2, and a lot of info on how the V3 performs at different clock speeds. It is
several pages, so make sure you click on the little links so you can get all the love.
What's he got to say?
Do not base your judgement on a card when it is in its vaporware state. As you can see many websites will allow claims to be made in one article and then in another article there are results that disprove the claims. Why is this done? I am not sure but I believe it has to do with the way that some companies conduct business. As in asking for cards back when an interview gets a little to heated for them. I can think of some other reasons but I can not prove them so I will keep them to myself for now. I will say though, it may also have to do with such websites displaying a big Approved by XXXX Company on the front page of the site and then slamming the competition with more misleading facts. The logo has been taking down now since there was so much negative feedback, wonder why...
Slave Zero Preview [10:30 am] - Huntsman
CDMAG.com has preview
of Accolade's upcoming Big Freakin Mech™ game, Slave Zero. You run around in the 3rd
person and, guess what? Blow Stuff Up. Be careful though, you could go insane and start
killing people and then get Accolade sued :( This looks like it has some cool effects, so
check it out.
Kinda New Q3 Shots [10:30 am] - Huntsman
YETi over at the Alchemy Zone has some scans of the Quake3 shots in
this months PCGW in the UK. Admittedly, they are kind of
small, of poor quality and probably violating somebody's copywrite, but I don't care :)
BLEEM! [10:30 am] - Huntsman
The Bleem!
guys (who scored a victory over those Sony tyrants) have an updated Demo of thier
PlayStation emulator that lets you play your real PSX cd's on your
computer. Bleem is a cool word. What's it mean? BLEEM! BLEEM! Saw that on Blues.
Tweak that V3! [10:30 am] - Huntsman
What's the deal with this 22bit color mess? Dunno, I
don't have a V3, but the guys over Beyond3D
apparently do, and they know how to get
that 22bit dithering/filter working (it apparently doesn't work with the shipping
drivers and control panel).
Views [10:30 am] - Huntsman
Tech [10:30 am] - Huntsman
weird
[10:30 am] - Huntsman
Yes, stop crying, it's me again. sTeve's been real
busy doing uh... something. I think he's moving or something like that. Anyway, I got news
patrol again. I think all the shenangins with server switching are over (I hope) and all
mail is going through and both www.shugashack.com
and www.3dshack.com both have current news (that = a
good thing). On the topic of The Glorious Boobs (scroll down a bit) apparently Pamela
Lee/Anderson has had her augmentation de-augmented. But the question arises: who's going
to watch her TV show anymore?
| Thursday, April 15 |
StarSiege Demo [4:15 pm]
GameCenter has posted the demo for
Starsiege from Dynamix. The demo weighs in at about 52megs. Here's some description
action:
The demo features two single-player campaign missions along with four training missions to get you up to speed. It also features a mission recorder, full customization of the controls, and save-game options. Other features include native Glide compatibility, shell audio, and OpenGL compatibility for RIVA TNT cards.
Half-Life Expansion Pack [3:10 pm]
Sierra, along
with Valve Software and GearBox have announced
the official add-on mission pack in development for Half-Life entitled "Half-Life:
Opposing Force". Here is a bit of the press release:
BELLEVUE, WA (April 15, 1999) - Sierra Studios proudly announces that it will release an official game expansion for the highly celebrated 3D action thriller, Half-Life, this fall. Half-Life: Opposing Force (a.k.a. "Op For") is the official game expansion for Half-Life, the game named the 1998 "Game of the Year" by over 40 publications worldwide. Half-Life: Opposing Force is being developed by Gearbox Software for Sierra Studios.
In Half-Life: Opposing Force, players return to the Black Mesa Research Facility to engage in an entirely new episode of single player action and will be offered an enormous variety of new multiplayer content. Gamers play a soldier this time around, instead of Gordon Freeman. Having the option of playing on the opposing force, the player will experiment with a host of new military, experimental and alien weapons. Also a key feature will be to battle a fierce new alien race as well as interaction with more human characters. Finally, in addition to the extensive new single player experience, gamers will compete in new multiplayer maps designed by industry all-stars.
"Gearbox is extremely psyched to be working with the superior Half-Life game system and universe," said Randy Pitchford, lead designer of Half-Life: Opposing Force at Gearbox. "Our number one goal is to preserve the integrity of Half-Life and provide new experiences that expand upon the sensation of the original-we intend to make Half-Life fans very happy."
The Glorious Boobs [11:00 am]
I figured this was worth an update on it's own,
Britney Spears whom we are all waiting on, looks to have had some
artificial work done on her shining milkies. Also the wack links
archives linking is fixed. Oops, one too many zeros in there.
Also, on that lawsuit thing, Politicially Incorrect covered it a bit. Here's a link to the transcript. (Thanks to some putz)
Views [10:50 am]
Tech [10:50 am]
Descent 3 Preview [10:00 am] - Huntsman
Gamespot has a preview of the upcoming Descent 3
that is due out in May. What's this game all about? Fantastic visuals, internet
multiplayer with several types of games (ctf, deathmatch and more), lots of robots and
some really cool guns to destroy them with.
Video Card Clock Speed [10:00 am] - Huntsman
Skarky Extreme has an interview
Steve Mosher, the vice president of Graphics Business over at Creative Labs that helps
alleviate some of the confusion that has arisen behind the technical and business
practices of having the same chipset running under different clock speeds. This is a
follow up to the article
a couple days ago. Here's a clip:
"There is a distinction between the two. The Ultra is clocked faster than the regular TNT2. Is this important? We know that there is a strong community of end users who want no compromise performance and quality. They won't settle for 16-bit rendering or 16MB frame buffers. They want the fastest, best looking card. Period. So for them this importance is critical. In the end, the customer is always right. Having said that we also recognize that there are people who would rather spend less and get performance that is a close second place. This customer might be the guy who doesn't care about the difference between 110 FPS and 105 FPS, but who does care about spending an extra thirty or forty dollars. Choice is a wonderful thing."
Dreamcast Announced [10:00 am] - Huntsman
Saw over at Sharky's
that Sega's Dreamcast will be released in September with a $100 Million marketing campaign
to move the $199 consoles off the shelves.
Random Stuff[10:00 am] - Huntsman
DEFENDANTS
Acclaim Entertainment,
Inc. Activision, Inc.
Apogee Software, Ltd.
Atari Corporation
Capcom Entertainment, Inc.
Eidos Interactive
GT Interactive Software Corp
ID Software, Inc.
Interplay Productions, Inc.
Meow Media, Inc. DBA www.persiankitty.com
Midway Home Entertainment
New Line Cinema
Nintendo of America
Polygram Film Entertainment Distribution, Inc.
Sega of America, Inc.
Sony Computer Entertainment DBA Sony Interactive Studios America
Square Soft, Inc. DBA Square USA, Inc.
Time Warner, Inc.
Virgin Interactive Media
Get over it people.
werd
So, I was dead for a little while, but as a wise man
once said I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and was like "fuck that, too
far!" So I came back here instead. Actually back in real life I'm moving in to a new
house tomorrow with Jack Mathews and Scott Alden of Ritual. Clay did a bang-up job on
covering though I believe. I'll be trying to turn this new layout into some damn html
today, but most likely will end up begging Clay to do it. :)
| Wednesday, April 14 |
Quake3 Info [8:30 pm] - Huntsman
The new guy at id, Graeme Devine updated his .plan with
some info about the upcoming Q3 test. Here is the whole thing:
We're getting closer to releasing the test version of Quake 3 Arena. It's worth going over our expectations from the test vs. the world's expectations from the test. I appreciate all the voice mails, faxes, and emails with suggestions, death threats, and comments, and I do read each and every one of them. I try to respond to a lot of them, but obviously I can't respond to them all.
At this point, we still have no release date on the test. We're testing builds here and at Activision and continuing to go through cycles. As soon as feedback from both internal testing and our testers at Activision dies down, we'll be ready, but while this is providing heavy reports, as it still is today, we're still not ready to come out with the public test.
There will be two maps in the test; these maps will also be in the final product. The feedback we're looking for is specific to the technology in the test. We're pretty happy with the design, and feedback on things like weapon switch times, models, gibs, and so forth are not things we'll pay as much attention to as real issues with the technology. We're looking closely at modem, ISDN, and cable play to see how our new network code works, and how that works when a bunch of different connections are playing together on the same server. We're anxious to gauge server load and use with the maps we have to see how the server works under heavy use, and to make sure we've got a lot of the new client/server communication working reliably and securely.
That said, we do and will watch you play, read the message boards, and try to gauge feedback. But the main thing to remember is that this is a test technology build, not a demo, there will be a demo, we plan on a demo, but this is a test. A lot of you will want to wait on the demo rather than playing the test.
The test will be on all three platforms, Mac, Linux and Win32. We're still working on minimum and recommended specs. There are no bots in the test. We do plan on revving the test once it's out at regular intervals to get fixes out there.
There is no spoon.
Ok, translation: They are happy that we want Q3 so badly. Please hold off on the death threats. There is NO set release date. So, ignore the rumors. There will be 2 maps which will be in the final release. The design of the game is pretty much pat, so the point of the test will be to hammer out the technological issues. They want to make sure that the net code is stable, fast and secure. They ARE paying attention, so don't get in a hissy. Remember Q3Test is a tech test, not a demo, so some will want to skip it, waiting for the real demo (yeah right). There are NO bots. Mac, Win32 and Linux ports of the test will all be available. AND there will be no spoon. (By the way, "there is no spoon" is a reference from The Matrix)
Starsiege Demo [4:30 pm] - Huntsman
The guys over at Gamecenter have the
"exclusive" download of Dynamix' Starsiege. Don't let the little file fool you.
It's a active setup type deal that will hoist a 52MB chunk of demo onto your hard drive. Grab
it. It features lots of big mech's running around blowing each other out. Sounds like
fun, no?
Expendable Shot [4:30 pm] - Huntsman
Don't think the Matrox G400 isn't all that? Blue has
a screenshot of Rage's upcoming game, Expendable that will make you reconsider. That
"bump mapping" that the G400 boasts managed to create the most realistic water
yet seen in a game. Go
dig it!
Oh, and you wankers who are posting crap on the messageboards, I'm going to hunt down each and everyone of you. And make you play Barbie Fashion Designer. Over and over. And over. Of Deer Hunter. Whichever you like least.
Unreal Tech [10:00 am] - Huntsman
Looks like Tim Sweeney (Unreal guy) likes the Voodoo3
and reports that Unreal 224 (rumored to be code named "Daikatana") will be out
soon and will have serveral performance enhancements which he can't talk about right now.
Also, he reports that while 224 and the V3 rock together, the V3 won't even dance with the
220 release. So, hope they get it out the door fast. Here's a snip:
The performance and graphical quality of the Voodoo3 are simply amazing. Though we've had a board for over a month, beta drivers and pre-release board problems prevented us from realizing just how far ahead of the pack this hardware is.
Check out the Unreal Tech Page. And speaking of hardware...
Shackware! [10:00 am] - Huntsman
Yep, that burning sensation is the latest update to
the Shackware! What's new this week? Some blabber
about the upcoming Intel architectures, some software recommendations, and we managed to
get the Balls Out system to over $26,000! Just a random question, does anybody know of a
flat screen that is over 20" and supports 1600x1200 and higher?
Benchmarks? [10:00 am] - Huntsman
Winston Churchill once said "There are three
kinds of lies. Lies, damned lies, and statistics." Well the lovemasters over at Ars
Technica have put together what they call a "stunning article on
benchmarking". The benchmarks most gamers are concerned with are how many frames
per second a system can push out on the crusher Quake2 demo, but believe it or not there
are other benchmarks. Check out the article on all the benchmarking goodness.
What has the power to make or break a company or a career? What has the power to generate heated controversy, hard feelings, and bold accusations? A sex scandal? Litigation? Nope — try benchmarks.
Advocates for platforms (hardware + OS) like Wintel, Mac, IRIX, and Alpha (Linux and NT, especially), fight tooth and nail in newsgroups and on web pages, wielding benchmarks with religious zeal in a pitched battle over whose platform is superior.
V3 + P3 [10:00 am] - Huntsman
Quantum 3D has announced that it
will have several V3 product offerings including what looks to be a integrated V3 onto a
P3 motherboard, which should be a great low cost solution.
Deus Ex Music [10:00 am] - Huntsman
Even though I know next to nothing about it, I'm
looking forward to the upcoming Deus Ex. Ion Storm's Bob White made a post to the Ion Storm
Bulletin Board talking about the Deus Ex music, and how it would follow the mood. Say
if you pop down in Hong Kong, you are going to here some music with an oriental flavor, as
opposed to constant guitar thrashing.
Requiem Review [10:00 am] - Huntsman
A review for Requiem: Avenging Angel has popped up
over at Thresh's Firing Squad.
Basically the idea here is that you've got a halo, a couple wings, a rocket launcher, an
excused absence from heaven and some reason to kick butt. They give it a pretty good
review, calling it close to Doom in the sheer amount of fun it was. My current favorite
weapon name? The "Beelzebomb" Grenade Launcher. Here's a snip about what we
really care about:
Blood sprays spectacularly, chunks of flesh fly off, enemies reel with each impact and even get knocked to the floor, and limbs and heads are blown apart. Requiem also has some of the best gib effects I've seen since the original Quake. Add the angelic powers to the mix and you've got a virtual jamboree of destruction: you can burn them, electrocute them, blast them, boil them, sting them, and even turn them to salt. Heck, you can even turn them against each other. Now, if that's not good family entertainment, then I don't know what is.
Views [10:00 am] - Huntsman
Tech [10:00 am] - Huntsman
weird
[10:00 am] - Huntsman
Neener neener, I beat sTeve to the news this morning.
I usually don't participate in the Ion Storm slammings, but this was just too funny. Oh,
I have no idea where the new design is. Hello, world? Not sure if the name servers are
updated and going yet. Oh well. I'm here! I know that makes you guys happy (cough).
| Tuesday, April 13 |
Argh?
[4:15 pm]
The majority of complaints (including the screenshot
below not working) are coming from DNS servers not fully being updated to point to the new
server, along with some incredible amounts of confusion around here as well. (I'm not
getting any @shugashack.com email still)
Is this thing on? Bah.
Wheel of Time [8:10 am]
The weekly development update for the Wheel of Time page from Legend Entertainment has
been posted. This week talks about the 3 levels in particular they have been working away
on and also features this new screenshot I've included here.
|
Today we reviewed two of these maps: Scott's revised Saving the White Tower (part 1) and Warren's Portal Stone World. Both are in good shape. Despite James staying up through the weekend (and falling asleep occasionally at his computer), his Dungeons of the FoL wasn't quite ready for review. It wasn't for lack of effort; the level just requires more time to finish. I'm really looking forward to the end result, though. Based on the ambitious design, architecture, and current contents, it should turn out to be really cool. |
Wack!
[10:40 am]
After diligently searching the web, (Ok actually
people just email these to me.. same difference!) 5 new websites that I highly recommend
you guys check out have shown up. Here are the ass-wacky links of the
week.
3DRealms on E3 [8:15 am]
George Broussard sent out a couple of responses
about just why 3DRealms arent going to be showing
Duke4 or Prey at E3 this year. Here is a bit of what he sent to VoodooExtreme:
The bottom line is that we decided to stay and work, and not lose a man week going to E3, plus losing coding time the month or more before preparing an E3 demo. When you start asking questions in Jan/Feb like "what are we going to show at E3. What will wow the press?" and you start working towards that goal, that's fucked. And we're not doing that anymore. E3 is a lower priority than getting the game done.
More V3 vs TNT2 [8:10 am]
Your daily face-off of the 3dfx Voodoo3 against the
nVidia TNT2 chipset. This time the
guys at GamersDepot throw in their 2 cents on which one they feel is the best choice
for gamers. I'll let you in on a secret though. One is faster, the other one is prettier.
It's um.. really simple.
StarSiege Demo Soon [8:15 am]
It looks like the playable demo of StarSiege is
nearing completion. Check out this quote from the StarSiege players
page that Billy at VE was sent word on from Vapor:
The demo is finished and is almost ready for distribution. It should be released sometime this week. The Demo consists of the four training missions and the first two missions in the human campaign. It will be around 52 MB to download. There will be no multiplayer in this demo.
Regarding MDK2 Multiplayer [8:15 am]
BioWare
dropped a line to BluesNews stating that MDK2 does
not "lack multiplayer support" exactly. Well here you go have a look at what
David Chan had to say:
Just to let you know that "MDK2" does not lack multiplayer. Saying a game "lacks multiplayer" implies that a game isn't whole unless it supports it. MDK2 was never intended to be multiplayer and that stance has not changed from day one. The focus is to make a cool single player game.
Unreal 224 This Week [8:15 am]
Oh my goodness? It looks like Unreal v224 is
actually nearing release. Here is word from Mark Rein of Epic that Billy pointed the way to on
the Megaboard:
Chaostar--> Better D3D support won't be coming in time for 224 but it should be coming at some point after that.
As Gavin found out, if you're using TNT, make sure you get the MOST RECENT DETONATOR DRIVERS for the best possible performance. Gavin noticed this for the current version 220 D3D support but having the latest drivers will be even more important when 224 comes out later this week.
Views [8:10 am]
Tech [8:10 am]
werd
So, after all this time it looks like a new design
for my humble little shack has been decided upon. There are 4-5 more changes to the layout
to be made, but I expect to be able to have the new page live late tonight. Once that is
taken care of the oh so exciting job of converting all the older content over to the new
design takes place. Can you feel it?!?
Oh yeah, and email sent to me from about 7-8pm EST yesterday until this morning seems to have dissapeared in the land of DNS updates. Not sure if it will show up or not.
As for that whole parents of dead kids filing for legal action against game companies because the wacko that killed them liked Mortal Kombat and Quake, uh.. whatever? They've had cases like this a dozen times before, big woop.
Lastly, so I finally missed a Suck update.. been a few months.. argh. I guess I suck sometimes too. It just keeps it exciting around here though yes? Well the new wack links are online now and I'll ponder some stuff that sucks after lunch. Deal?
| Monday, April 12 |
MDK2 & Deathmatch [12:50 pm]
GA-Source sent this in: "I recently asked
President and Joint CEO of BioWare Corp., Greg Zeschuk, a couple of
questions about the lack of multi-player support for MDK2" No deathmatch? BAH
Daikatana [12:50 pm]
The folks at Daikatana HQ have just posted an interview they conducted with Justin Randall,
programmer on the Daikatana project. Justin talks about how he got hired at Ion Storm as
well as his reponsibilties on the Quake2 engine Ion title.
id CEO Interview [12:50 pm]
Check this out from Blue over at BluesNews. An interview at Pa-Hom.Com with Todd Hollenshead
(in English) talking to the id Software CEO in a Q&A which has also been translated into Spanish.
Msgboard Authentication System [12:50 pm]
The pieces are in place now for authenticated
users on the messageboard.
Sander busted some butt cuz he was "in a good mood" so some time late tonight
when all the DNS servers update the issues with people spoofing people should be pretty
well handled.
3DRealms & E3 [8:10 am]
Heard this one through the grapevine just the
other day and it looks to be true. 3DRealms will not
be showing Duke4Ever (based on Unreal technology) or the latest incarnation of Prey (based
on a new technology from Corrine Yu) at the E3 show next month in LA. Geoff over at GameSlice scored
the scoop with his gist list of the week.
With the sheer number of products being announced at the trade show, publishers and developers know they have to have something spectacular to catch the eyes of the press and buyers. However there is starting to be a backlash against the need for an "E3 demo" for well established game franchises. Take, for example, the fact that both Duke Nukem Forever and Prey from 3D Realms will be no where on the show floor. And they won't be in a back room or on videotape either.
Geoff also mentions Drakan which he and I both are eagerly anticipating. Here are a few new screenshots to boot.
TNT2Ultra vs Voodoo3 [8:10 am]
Jeremy over at AGN3D did up a great comparison of the
Voodoo3 and TNT2 head to head running on a p3-500. He's included benchmarks for the
two cards as well as some images so you can see just what that 22bit vs 32bit is all
about.
This was not meant to put down the TNT2 or the Vooodoo3, I am just getting tired of everyone writing off the Voodoo3. The TNT2 has some better features such as more RAM, higher texture size support, 32bit support, stencil buffer. The Voodoo3 on the other hand has raw speed, high resolution, Glide support and low price.
The game of choice is KingPin. I'm currently stockpiling 3D cards right now in preperation for Quake3, as I imagine the large majority of readers here (myself included) are fairly confident thats the game they will be spending the most time with this year. :)
Views [8:10 am]
Tech [8:10 am]
Gaming [8:10 am]
werd
Server is flaking out a bit, if any of you find
anything broken drop me a email and I'll respond with the "dude, thats a total
bummer" line. Hopefully it will be all smoove when the DNS's are finished updating
today.
I've been giving mouse acceleration a shot the past week. I've always been a no-accel kind of guy but the advantages to using acceleration are just too attractive for me not to attempt. It's a real slippery slope and I've said "fuck this" more than a couple of times but keep coming back. Considering we're all just sitting around with our thumbs up our butts waiting for Quake3 now seemed like the time to give it a go. Why am I telling you guys this? Um.. endless frustration? It's like I'll pull some amazing shots out of my ass but then 5 seconds later cant hit the most basic of shots. Argh.
Also been running in to quite a few veteran players who seem to be coming out of "retirement" a bit early in preperation for Quake3. I swear this is going to be some of the most intense competitive gaming ever. I'm much more interested in clan matches than 1on1, and really hope a team tournament goes down at QuakeCon this August.
| Sunday, April 11 |
GearBox Software [9:45 am]
With the demise of Rebel Boat Rocker, GA sent an email to
Randy Pitchford asking just what he and the rest of the former RBR employees are up
to. Here's part of his response:
Most of the RBR content team stayed together. We've re-organized and reincorporated as Gearbox Software.
PCGW & Quake3 [10:15 am]
Reaver over at FederationQ3 sent word on the latest
issue of PCGW from the UK has
quite a large feature on Quake3. Here's a bit of his summary on what is included.
PC gaming world has made a review of Q3, with the weapons and featues, THEY WON'T change, meaning that this is what you'll get with Q3. You can check there site, The review has the set weapons and feature, meaning that this is what you'll be getting. And some cool new shots, here are the features :
No single player linear missions , three classes ( light , medium , heavy ) advanced bot ai , new ranking ladder system , gameplay independent of bot skillz , 3d hardware accelerate only , 3d surround sound via aureal 3d api , audible damage on players , machine gun tracer effects , visable envirmental damage , improved weapon selection system , thre part models , non resaloution dependent HUD , many player models in full release ( around 10 ) , curved surfaces , . 24 bit textures , faster gameplay , ansi C programming ,ctf mods amoung others , balanced weapons , meele fighting implemented some how , new power ups but some not offical yet , improved network code
Ion & Eidos [10:15 am]
Surprisingly nobody spotted this yesterday,
wacky. Well not really sure how this will impact the development of Daikatana or the other
games going on at Ion Storm, but GameSpot has word that
Eidos is going to be buying up a 51% share of Ion (not for sure, it's still being
negotiated) and there are about 14 employees on the possible chopping block.
Mark Rein on Unreal Stuff [9:35 am]
Billy spotted a
couple of posts to
the Megaboard (Not to be confused with my Gigaboard) by Mark Rein of Epic talking about updates being made to the
Unreal code and the oft-rumored Unreal patch. Here is part1:
We'll be releasing the 224 update for Unreal sometime soon and it's got a lot of the same underlying code as the current build of Unreal Tournament, so it should serve as a pretty good test for shaking any engine-related bugs out of Unreal Tournament. We'll certainly be watching for bugs with much enthusiasm
As well as a follow up:
The point I was trying to make is that the underlying Unreal code, on which Unreal Tournament is based (you knew that, didn't you?) continues to get more and more stable with each update. So with each update of Unreal we shake some bugs out it and therefore we're ALSO shaking engine-related bugs out of Unreal Tournament.
That's all. It wasn't meant to say that all you guys were beta testers. The part about watching bugs with enthusiasm was really meant to say that like we did with 217 and 218 we're going to be waiting to pounce quickly on any bugs in 224 with a quick update. This is necessary because 224 has a LOT of new stuff in it not because of some Unreal Tournament related conspiracy. Unreal Tournament is still quite a while away from release (at least two months).
Daikatana Sidekicks [9:35 am]
The GA-Source guys got John Romero of
Ion Storm to respond to some rumors they were hearing about the companion characters
in Daikatana being an issue, check it:
The sidekicks are running around the maps, shotcycler-jumping (which most players can't even do), following you everywhere. They are not clipping through walls or anything like that either. When the game is released, you will see things.
Speaking of Daikatana, I saw on VE that PlayDevil have gotten a hold of a few new screenshots of the game from episode 3.
GT Distributing [9:35 am]
Looks like GT Interactive may be pulling out
the the USA game distributing market. This is a correction from
yesterday, I said publishing instead of distributing. GT is still publishing with several
games on the way, including Wheel of Time, Unreal Tournament, etc. etc. Probably most
famous for publishing Doom2, and Quake. (Quake Shareware was self-published by id) Check out the CTW page for more details.
Views [9:35 am]
Okay Jason, I think we've tolerated this enough now. This is a list of issues we have with your game.
* The net code is unstable. It plays well at times and falters with surprising regularity.
* The ADVERTISED limb loss is so rare that only about 2 people have ever seen it.
* The enemies Gib after about one shot, there is no sourced damage to their bodies. Not such a big deal, but it's stupid and unrealistic. <snip>
Tech [9:35 am]
werd
Mmmm.. relaxing weekends...
Played some more with the TNT2 I received yesterday and the benchmarks are surprisingly low. As in so low I imagine if I published them nVidia would throw a hissy fit at me. I will say for one thing though that the 32bit color is easy to spot, the only real time in Quake3 that it means much to me personally is volumetric fog and the banding. For the image quality buff though, I'd have to say no question the TNT2 wins. Note: I wont be posting the benchmarks as they are since they are useless and not indicative of actual TNT2 performance.
I've been putting some more thought into... hmmmm... I'm gonna think about it some more.
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