| Saturday, January 9 |
More Decay [LATE]
As requested Insomnia has released this 640x480 screenshot. They also sent word to 3DPalette concerning the skeptics. I for one am not
sold. Something to look at though. Anyone remember Life Bane? If you are on a high speed
connect check out the 200k version of the shot.
Note this is just a blown up version of this shot
which you already saw.
Decay [1:15pm]
The boys at 3DPalette
pointed the way to this absolutely stunning work by Sweden based Insomnia Software. Here is a list of some of
the features which look awful similar to Quake3 specs. Ok, you're thinking yeah thats
great but have they actually done it yet? Well check out these
screenshots! They dont seem to have curved surfaces as fully implemented as id
Sofware, but the environment quality in general is astounding.
- Full 32bit rendering as default
- Efficient graphics/texture compression/decompression, without any quality loss
- Multiple graphics processing pipelines, distributable over dual processors
- Renders bezier patches, NURBS surfaces and polygons
- True bumpmapping technology, realtime calculated
- True realtime dynamic lighting, no lightmaps
Note: I can't confirm if these shots are legit. According to Huntsman the sshot with S-Mart looks like it uses 3dsmax anti aliasing/opacity mapping. I'll give the guys credit for making some pretty pictures at least. :)
Anachronox & Deus Ex [10:15am]
The latest issue of PC Games has a pair of features
on the Ion Storm projects Anachronox and Deus Ex.
The Daily Informant has posted images from both games, one a rendering of characters in
Anox, the other an actual in game screenshot. (The first one I've seen) of Deus Ex.
Anachronox uses the Q2 engine, and Deus Ex the Unreal technology. Here are the shots:
Q2 Movie [10:15am]
Check it out, your weekend Quake2 cinema:
"Father Frags Best," a Quake 2 movie feature, has been released from Zarathustra
Studios at http://www.planetquake.com/zs/
SIN Mission Pack [10:15am]
The boys at www.ritualistic.com
have word from the 2015 guys on the official name of their SIN mission pack (Wages of SIN)
as well as a pair of new screenshots for you to check out. Have a look at this shot
of the flamethrower
in action. Here are a few details of the pack:
17 single-player levels
10 DM levels (or so)
7 weapons (2 upgrades, and 5 original weapons)
It also has at least 10 new creatures, 2 new bosses, AI and engine improvements, and tons of new art as well
Blood2 Mission Pack [10:15am]
The AVault guys scored
the exclusive on the Blood2 mission pack being developed right now which will be
published by GT Interactive. Here's a quote that Blue mooched, and now I'm gonna mooch:
According to Lead Designer Jay "Shade" Wilson, there is no official title yet, though the story involves each of the four Chosen living out their worst nightmares. The level themes are more tongue-in-chops, with plenty of horror references and maps reminiscent of the original game. Some of the hellish locales are a sorority house, a haunted mansion and a western ghost town. We can almost hear Caleb intoning, "Hang 'em high!"
"In a lot of ways, we want the add-on to recall the feeling of Blood, as opposed to Blood 2," Shade enthused.
Views [10:15am]
Tech [10:15am]
werd
Saturday! I'm gonna uh, goof off or something. The hardware page will be updated sometime
today with more prices and a couple of changes by Huntsman. Sander is working on an
improved speed/interface for the msgboards, and I'm
pretty sure you guys will be damn happy with an article I'm hoping to have churned out
late next week.
I ever mention I'm quite possibly the worst StarCraft player ever? I've always been pretty good at RTS games, but damn do I just plain suck at SC. At least I admit it right? Here is our wacky image of the day. Thanks John!
| Friday, January 8 |
BloodShot & LithTech [3:55 pm]
Thanks to that Amer monkey over at SharkyExtreme for the word on the announcment that the
BloodShot Entertainment guys have chosen LithTech as their 3D technology. BloodShot is of
course the group of former Ion Storm employees who left the Daikatana project a little
while ago. Here is part of the .plan update from Jason Hall of
Monolith:
Ladies and gentlemen, Monolith is pleased to announce, that BLOODSHOT ENTERTAINMENT, the group formerly known as "the Daikatana Team" has chosen the LithTech 3D Engine to bring their game vision to the gaming community.
We are very excited about working with BloodShot, and you can bet your bippy that they are going to get Monolith's full support in every way possible.
Monolith is perpetually growing the LithTech Engine, and until BloodShot ships, they will have access to all our new additions (which there have been a bunch of - more on that soon!).
Paul Jaquays [1:45 pm]
Level architect Paul Jaquays over at id Software took
part in a little interview over at Maelstromnet.com
and also made
a .plan update about a number of things including Quake3 of course, here's a snip:
Last week, I was again reminded of why I got into making games in the first place. My son and three of his friends from school came in (at my invitation ... I knew the guys and was comfortable having them here in the office ... so don't ask ... OK?) and play-tested Q3A and N64 Q2. They gave us some good feed-back, helped us find a couple bugs in both games, and generally confirmed something that we pretty sure of already. Quake 3: Arena is fun ... and terribly addictive (like potato chips, you start eating them and before you know it the bag is empty and you wonder where they went.) And that brings me back to my point. I got into games because what I REALLY enjoy the most is making things that give others pleasure (whether it's D&D game adventure, fantasy paintings, or most recently, 3D FPS game levels). So while you may think I'm making all this cool stuff for you to have fun ... I'm really being selfish. Because, secretly, I'm doing this for me.
Time to make the levels! :-D
Paul J.
More Quake3 [11:15 am]
Well while we are on the Quake3 kick I got a bunch of
email asking for a few more screenshots of the Quake3 AVI that came out on Redwood's page yesterday. Also word from the guys at
Q3Arena.net is that the latest issue of Next-Gen Magazine on news stands features some
new screenshots as well. Here are a couple more shots just to get you guys off my back eh?
Download the stinking video
already!
Reasons To Live! [11:15 am]
No! Don't do it! Don't jump! Please for the love of
all that is right in this world dont end it! Maybe this list of reasons to live will help you make it
through the day?
Unreal Tournament Date [6:15 am]
Big shout out to the guys at PlanetUnreal for spotting this post by Mark Rein
giving the first indications to the target release date of Unreal Tournament. March!
Straight up head to head with Quake3!
We expect for UT to be on store shelves sometime in March. This time around we expect the Mac version will be available at pretty much the same time as the PC version. We're also hopeful to have a Linux version of the UT server code ready in time for retail release or very soon after.
Speaking of Unreal and Epic, you guys should check out the .plan update from Kenn Hoekstra:
Raven Software has negotiated a "trade" with Epic Megagames... In a "free agent" move similar to recent deals in the NFL, Raven Software offered Epic Megagames glory coders Nathan Albury, Steve Sengele, and Dan Kramer in exchange for the one and only Tim Sweeney...and they agreed!!! Because of the recently enforced "no do-over" clause, Tim will start work at Raven immediately on Soldier of Fortune and our unannounced third project...
Alan Willard of Epic Megagames was quoted as saying, "Tim's got a big smile on his face right now."
Rick Johnson was quoted as saying, "I'm totally against this move... I refuse to give up my office and move all of my stuff into Nathan's cubicle."
Financial terms were not disclosed... =)
I apologize to those of you who are humor impaired and dont get it.
SIN Mission Pack [6:15 am]
This just in from the guys at Ritualistic: "We got some hot-off-the-email
news up on Ritualistic (www.ritualistic.com)
about the Sin Mission pak by 2015. The new info includes the official name, level
info, weapon info, story line info, and when they expect to go gold"
New Quake2CTF [6:15 am]
Wanted to get this up for you guys early, here is the
word straight from Zoid's .plan
update. More stuffs in a bit. I'm workin on it ok!? Thanks Mike Dowell.
A new release of Quake2 CTF is now available. This and is an official
release of the previous 1.09 beta that was made available earlier and
also includes three new maps.
Quake2 CTF 1.50 is now available from ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/ (check other
major Quake news sites for mirrors later on in the evening):
Windows 95/NT Full Client Installer
Full Client ZIP manual install
Windows 95/NT 1.50 Upgrade Installer
Upgrade ZIP manual install
library for Linux Alpha
library for Linux i386 (glibc systems)
library for Linux i386 (libc5 systems)
library for Sun Sparc Solaris 2.5.1
Deus Ex [6:15 am]
The ION Storm guys have posted a little blurb on the
progress of Deus Ex their Unreal engine based game. Instead of checking out the page
myself though I just mooched this quote from Billy at VE!
"Currently finishing the final construction and geometry of the main New York section, including Battery Park, bars, hotels, warehouses and lots of hidden goodies. Working with Christian D. on the information to be delivered via conversations for the NY section. For the most part construction on this section is near complete, only optimizing the map and tweaking details remain on the building side. After optimizing I will be spending a while adding the play elements to the map (Objects, interactions, NPC's, events, etc.)
"Since Marsh is absent today I will pass on his situation. He recently finished up the construction of Belvedere Castle (NY, Central Park) and is now in the midst of building the White House."
Views [7:45am]
Tech [7:45am]
werd
So I'm outside checking the mail again, and amazingly
enough I see these same 3 girls I saw just a couple of days ago. Apparently I made an
impact on them since the 2 girls flicked me off. The 3rd however had this really puzzled
look on her face. I flicked them all off back. I think we connected, thats love baby.
Next time I might tell them I run a web page and dont even know HTML, rumor has it chicks are totally into that. I'm giving it a week before I score.
| Thursday, January 7 |
CPUs [10:15pm]
The BXBoards.com
guys have gotten a hold of one of the new Celeron400A CPUs and have posted a nice little article taking a look at it.
Too bad I cant get to the website right now though. :( Also saw on Blue's this link to a news.com article
confirming those WILD rumors that Intel would be calling their next CPU following the
Pentium2 a Pentium3 of all things.
The great and somewhat suprising news, is that that this full retail production CPU does not feature the much anticipated bus-locking - I guess Intel are saving up this particular late Christmas "present" for the Katmai ;)
As you would expect this CPU is locked solid at 6x - how does this affect motherboards that do not support a 6x multiplier? Well the good news is that like all locked CPU's the processor will default to its rated multiplier no matter what multiplier is selected. On the BH6 with which I ran the tests, I simply selected 233Mhz and the processor was detected correctly as a Celeron 400 MMX - I used the GY BIOS.
FAKK2 [2:15pm]
Gamers Alliance has scored 3 concept images from Ritual
Entertainment for their FAKK2 project based on the movie coming out 3rd quarter of
this year.
Quake3 Video & Shots [12:45pm]
Redwood is
the man of the hour having scored a high res AVI or MPEG video of that Quake3
footage so many of you checked out from the Mac presentation yesterday. Everyone say
thanks to James Black for scoring the video for him. Let me HIGHLY
recommend you check this video out. You will poop masonite. I took 6 screenshots for those
of you on a modem who dont Wanna download a 23meg AVI or 16meg MPEG. I'll index these into
the screenshots section this afternoon. If
Stomped is slow you can grab
the file from cdrom.com as well.
You'll notice the quaded player now has a glow that is easier to spot along with his cool electric effect. One of the complaints about the Quake2 quad effect which id has apparently listened to the players about. There was also a rotating mirror which could make for some really interesting gameplay. Hopefully they'll do something else with mirrors like perhaps a certain energy based weapon can bounce shots off mirrors etc. As anyone who read my old Half-Life preview knows, I'm pretty anal about the DM player models, and I'm just giddy that Q3 DM models look so good.
Q3A RealVideo [10:45am]
If you're too much of a wuss to download the 23meg AVI you can get
a RealVideo version of the footage at 3DN. I highly recommend
the AVI over this however, but what the hell.
56kbps (modem, single ISDN): [stream] [download ZIP] (530KB)
80kbps (dual ISDN, slow cable, slow xDSL): [stream] [download ZIP] (1.21MB)
150kbps (fast xDSL, medium cable, T1): [stream] [download ZIP] (2.24MB)
220kbps (ethernet, fast cable, T3): [stream] [download ZIP] (3.26MB)
Duke4Ever Add-ons [10:45am]
More Duke4 news, 3DRealms will not be doing an
expansion pack for DNF, however George Broussard states
they will be overlooking the creation of expansion packs from 3rd party developers. -Blues
None of this is set in stone yet, but here's the general thought. There will likley be several add on's for DNF. I doubt 3DR will be doing any directly because we want to immediately jump into a new game.
Q3Test & Retail Date? [7:45am]
A few of you guys emailed me confused about John
Carmack's comments conerning Quake3 being "released at the same time as the
test" meaning the retail release would be in March as well. It sounded like there was
no reason to call it a Q3Test if that was the case. I sent Mr. Carmack an email for
clarification:
Q: In your recent Mac speech you stated that Quake3 will be published on all platforms at the same time as the q3test release? Could you clarify this? I'm guessing what you meant was that the Q3test would be released on all platforms, but the full version of Quake3 would still be a couple of months after that. correct?
A: Yes, you are correct.
John Carmack
Q3 & Hardware [7:45am]
Brian Hook made a .plan
update yesterday evening discussing a bit lower end hardware and how it will hang with
running Quake3Arena:
I've had a chance recently to run Q3A on some hardware that hasn't been very well tested such as the NVidia Riva128(ZX) and Intel i740, and it's running quite well on a PII/300, even with a Debug build. We had to work around some issues with the Riva128 due to its lack of an alpha iterator (fog has to be done in two passes now), and there are visual glitches with it (cracks, dither artifacts, general graininess from the 16-bit textures), but it runs smoothly and looks reasonably good.
So lower end hardware (i.e. accelerators that can be had < $100 today) should run Q3A just fine. The driver situation in general still has us a little worried, but we're addressing that in various ways and hope to have a sound solution in time for launch.
Weekly Demos [7:55am]
Okee as promised I got a pair of new demos for you guys to check
out. DieharD-r3v this week making everyone look like a gimp.
Views [7:45am]
werd
Well you guys just went crazy for the hardware section that went up yesterday
huh? I organized it a bit more and have a couple of changes I would like made to it.
Remember the guy who did the section was mostly Huntsman, so dont bitch at me for the
hardware choices eh? :)
| Wednesday, January 6 |
Unreal Tournament Details [3:11 pm]
Billy over at VE came
across the specs for Unreal Tournament as revealed at GameSpot
UK. You can check out the main,
the Weaponry and The Deathmatch Spec Sheets
- Over 35 brand new Arenas
- Tons of new in-game graphics and textures
- Three all new weapons, complete with regular and alternate firing modes
- A brand new user interface which allows click and play internet competition
- Improved "Bot" artificial intelligence which allows for the most exciting deathmatch or team based games in a variety of exciting scenarios
- New Deathmatch features and 3 game type additions, including Capture the Flag, Assault, and Domination.
- A complete and enjoyable single player experience where you guide your team against opposing teams for the title of "Unreal Grand Master.
TNT Comparison [2:21 pm]
Huh? You mean you dont own a TNT card yet? Check out
what I lifted from Redwood when he wasnt looking!
: Tom's Hardware has posted a Riva TNT Card
Comparison, comparing every Riva TNT card except the Canopus Spectra 2500
(unfortunately).
Shack Hardware [12:19 pm] - Huntsman
Like, ok, you are sittin there jamming on that real
player watching some Q3A footage going "This daisy chained 286 system isn't going to
hold up much longer, but grandma gave me some crack money. What kind of system should I
get?". Or, I know some of you guys having fun sitting there saying "The Mafia
has been very good to me lately. I have 3 Mercedes, a nice mansion, 2 ferrari's and my own
brothel. But man, do I need a new computer."
Well do we have something for you.
After a long night of typing, we have got you guys a Weekly Hardware Section. Check it out.
There are 3 sections. For you rich gomers who have cash to blow and refuse to send me any,
the Ball's Out System, which
is pretty much insane hardware at insane prices for someone who is truly insane. For the
average joes out there, we have the Boxers and the Breifs
system. And, if you have an affinity for women's undergarments check out the panties system. Ok, some of you
are going to think our hardware choices suck and I've been smoking some mad drugs. Ladies
and gentlemen, I am the prime example of why you should stay away from crack. So, let it
out on the hardware message
board. Express yourself. The Hardware section will hopefully be updated on the
weekends barring hell and high water.
BTW, homeboy pole wants us to know that he using a "panties" system right now.
Thats it pole, fight for your right to wuss out :P
Q3A Movie [8:12am]
Gonna leave this one at the top of the news today for
those of you that didnt see the late evening post. What? You wanna see some footage of Q3A
in action from that Steve Jobs presentation? Look no further than this
little number over at ZDNet. Skip ahead to 1:19:00 for the Q3 footage. Make sure you
have a RealPlayer You can check out the little press release I dug up on
Yahoo btw. GrandMasterB today
also talks about that whole cross-platform thing that John Carmack mentions in the video.
Good news is the player model doesnt look like a gimp which was one of the big fears. In fact from what I could see the player looked pretty damn cool. Not like that squat midget Q2 dude. If someone manages to save out the portion of that video in high quality please lemme know.
Wack-Ass Linkage [9:12am]
I've actually gotten a flood of links recently,
People sure post some crazy stuff out there. Take a look at the latest set of wackass links.
Drakan Screenshots [8:12am]
Check it out, the Surreal
Software guys have released 3 more damn cool screenshots
of Drakan which I myself am dying to play. It looks to be the bizomb and I'm guessing this
chick could kick Lara Croft's ass that little hussie.
Also check out this nifty panoramic mountain screenshot that doesnt exactly thumbnail well.
TRIBES2 Suggestions? [8:12am]
Blatantly ripped from BluesNews:Datumplane::StarSiege reproduced a post from
Dynamix's Scott "CornBoy!" Youngblood to the Tribesplayers messageboard
soliciting suggestions for TRIBES2:
Basically it comes down to this... we made Tribes for you. If you are having technical difficulties with the game. Don't like how something works and have an idea for making it better or you have an idea for something new... send them to me. We're making our Tribes2 list of features as well as identifying things that we need to improve for Tribes. With the volume of messages on this board I tend to miss messages at time. All of your feedback is important to us. I can't promise that I'll be able to provide immediate help to your problem or that your feature idea will make the 'final cut' but I can promise you that I'll read your mail. I know that I'm probably going to get flooded with email... so if I don't respond to you personally please understand.
Blood3 Confirmed [8:12am]
I failed to mention this one yesterday, oops. There
is a short interview with Brian Goble of Monolith at PlanetBlood
which touches on the subject of a sequel to Blood2 which is based on the LithTech engine
There you have it. Blood3 confirmed, the mission pack much closer than I thought, and the multi-player patch due real soon. Rock, thanks Brian
Views [6:15am]
Tech [6:15am]
werd
So I'm at IHOP late tonight tryin to get a good look
at the waiter because Jack told me she had track marks on her arm from shooting up last
time we were there and it occured to me. I hate eggs. I had just ordered an omelette and I
fucking hate eggs and have always hated eggs. Chicken abortions actually
as I so affectionately call them. Nothing really exciting happened after that. Picked on
Pat a bit more about his wallet, the two of them made fun of how much sugar I like in my
ice tea, and Mike made a concious effort not to run over the balloon I blew up and stuck
under the tire. It was a free balloon, who am I to pass up free stuff?
Huntsman finished up a nifty little hardware section thing gonna be adding to the page today. I just gotta write up some copy for it now. I redid the screenshots section too, but man it's even worse than the original. This whole thing about HTML and how they expect you to just "know" it is bunk.
| Tuesday, January 5 |
Q3A Movie [9:12pm]
What? You wanna see some footage of Q3A in action
from that Steve Jobs presentation? Look no further than this
little number over at ZDNet. Skip ahead to 1:19:00 for the Q3 footage. Make sure you
have a RealPlayer
Q3 TEST INFORMATION [2:28pm] - Huntsman
Werdemup! Blue's
has some info on Q3 Test; that it will be released in March, and that it
will be released for Mac and PC simultaneously. Worried about having the hardware to run
it? We'll have something for you guys to dig on real soon.
Just a quick note to let you know (in case you didn't hear) that John Carmack was at Macworld in San Francisco and did the first public demo of Q3 Arena during Steve Jobs keynote. They were running it on the new G3 Macs with the ATI Rage 128 chipset that Carmack said was the best available so far. The demo was kind of short and simple but showed off some great mirrored and surfaces and curved objects. It still had the obvious "Quake" look to it but was pretty impressive. Quake 3 will run native on both pc and mac platforms, and qtest3 and the retail version will be available for both platforms simultaneously. The extra code for the MacOS takes only 15k. Carmack also said that anyone who licenses the Q3 engine will get the mac codebase at no additional charge. Jobs stated that it is Apple's goal to make the Mac G3 the best gaming platform in the world. With Carmack on board they may have a chance.
You can check out some screenshots of Q3 (Which I resized recently so modem users have a chence) in the screenshots section. I'll have the new layout done tonight or tomorrow there btw.
Alien vs. Predator [2:08pm] - Huntsman
I saw over at Redwood's
that the Marine version of the Alien vs. Predator demo has been released. He says that
when he played, he was scared. Cool. All I know is that I saw Alien when i was like 9, and
it gave me the heebee jeebees. Go grab it,
Red says it's a lot better than the Predator demo. By the way, HUGE thanks
to my boy Mike over at Footlocker. To the other sports stores in Charlotte, NC: I hope
your children have 3 arms and resemble cows.
Pat Hook Ditched His Velcro Wallet [10:25am]
My homecut Pat came home from vacation yesterday and
the first thing he did was proudly show me his brand new dead cow skin wallet. Pat has
chosen to live in the 90's (Just in the nick of time!) and I can only imagine he put away
his old velcro wallet in that same safe spot he keeps his Roos sneakers and Hypercolor
t-shirts. btw the weekly section is
updated.
Q3/UT/TF2 Debate [6:15am]
Can't seem to get enough of this little debate that
has come up recently eh? They are going all out on the Quake3 msgboard which of course is leaning towards Quake3 as the
favorite. (Hey, it's a Q3 msgboard, whadya expect?) gibbler posted my favorite new piece of the bunch which I'll snip up a
bit here:
Unreal Tournament:
This is one of the titles that a lot of people could care so little about, they would't download the warez. My feelings are it will be a stale sequel (Riven anyone?) that tries to leech off the success of its predecessor. Wait a sec, I am not done. <snip>
Team Fortress 2:
Although Team Fortress has a huge following of fans, it has well less than the amount of the number of copys of quake itself. Generally Team Fortress should have a fairly small (now take in consideration I am comparing this with other games, not modifications) following.
<snip>
Frankly, Team Fortress Software should feel lucky that they have a monopoly(yes I am smiling =]) on the Team Fortress market and that they are getting my money regardless just because I am a Team Fortress fan.
Quake 3 Arena:
<snip>
Most games do not make a sequel, and very few get to number 3. Since id software has learned from the experiences of 2 games of almost the exact proportions, they know what gamers like and dislike, and what generally makes a game like this one good. Quake 3 Arena will shed the faults of quake2 (movement speed, buggy as hell release, ect...), and the faults of quake.
<snip>
1999 Predictions [6:15am]
Although I havent been a big fan of GamesDomain who
were famous for having clewbie staff writers, Demandred pointed out
this article which I would like to call your attention to. Here's a snip:
Los Angeles County will be left a smoking crater this summer after John 'Bitch' Romero and Richard 'Levelord (TM)' Grey of SiN fame meet at the E3 convention. Romero, in town to promote the recently-finished first level of Daikatana, and Levelord (TM), touring to promote the self-published "Story That Is Our Levelord (TM)," unthinkingly shake hands, resulting in what physicists will later call the first 'ego-quake.' Stephen Hawking tries to break down the fundamental reasons behind the event in a September press conference, but breaks down after admitting that he was John Romero's bitch between 1993 and 1995. Everyone in the room spontaneously vomits
Wheel of Time Update [6:15am]
The Legend Entertainment guys are back online after
an office move and have news of development for their WoT project:
We've completed almost all of the creature assets, including in-game variant skins and cut scene specific models. Our animation house has been busy drawing their storyboards, and they've addressed fully half of the material to be animated. Very soon, we should see the first cut scene complete. Now that I've actually heard the lines coming back from Andy's processing, I can't wait to see it all together. We have really talented voice acting across the board, but especially for the player. The only role remaining is that of the narrator, and we should take care of that this week
Masquerade Update [6:15am]
Robby Huebner made a .plan
update talking about some of internal working of their Vampire: Masquerade project and
his choice of using Java code. Here are a pair of screenshots of the main character
and the engine
in action.
I've always been rather anti-Java, all the internet hype surrounding it was overwhelming. But after looking into it, it turned out to be a perfect scripting language for games.
Daikatana Update [6:15am]
Gamers Alliance has some positive news
for those of you waiting on Daikatana from Ion Storm. Talk of the completion of the switch
to the Quake2 engine (just now? what?!) and what they like to refer to as an
"expanded team" :)
Well good news, the word from Ion Storm team is that the shift to the Quake II engine is now complete and the team is now just polishing up the single player game and then heading full bore into the multiplayer game. Currently, the expanded design team is going through every level on a room by room basis, adding more unique and interesting features. According to John Romero, "The goal is to have something cool to do in every room
Tribes Msgboard [6:15am]
Working on a mod for Tribes and wanna discuss stuff? datumplane has the msgboard for you.
Views [6:15am]
Tech [6:15am]
werd
As traffic has increased on this page every month for
the past 6 months, so has the volume of email I'm getting. I don't mention this often but
I wanna say thanks to all the kind and encouraging words you guys send and I really do
appreciate feedback on stuff I post as well as those weekly columns.
| Monday, January 4 |
Yawn2
Got suckered into goofing off with a friend who hasnt
been around much. Now I'm writing mean emails out to people who owe me money so I can pay
rent. *cough* I'm about done though, sorry I lead you guys on like the little tease I am
earlier!
Unreal 221! Not! [1:19pm] - Huntsman
Oops, somebody needs to be shot (whoever sent me that
email). Just got some mail from Brandom Reinhart letting us know that the file is corrupt,
and you really don't want to download it. Hit the cancel button, this isn't what you want.
Heretic 2 Review [1:19pm] - Huntsman
I don't think nearly enough praise has been given to
this game. Here's a tidbit from the review over at GameLinks:
Excellent! Goodbye Lara! Don't bother with Tomb Raider 4. Raven has demonstrated mastery of the 3rd person perspective - even over my sleeper hit, hidden gem, Die by the Sword. This "point of view" is not only not a hindrance, it helps make the game more real and entertaining. Corvus can somersault and polevault circles around Lara, literally. Indeed, if I had a first person toggle key, it would have been rarely used.
Cheap Computer Parts [11:30am] - Huntsman
Ok, now there is no reason for you not to have a a
computer running at at least 300mhz. News.com has an article up
about Intel releasing 366 and 400mhz version of its celeron processors. Gotta love
capitalism. You know how much this kinda stuff cost 2 years ago? I remember putting down $900
for a brand spanking new Pentium II 266 a couple August's ago.
Now, go spend that christmas cash you were saving for when crack prices go down and get
yourself a computer to run Quake Arena. I got these prices off of Pricewatch:
Total: $514 (minus the hard drive). Throw in $50 for shipping and handling (and assuming you already have a sound card/modem/mouse/keyboard/monitor/cd-rom) and you got yourself a lean mean gaming machine for under $600. GO! Git! Now!
Tribes & Wingate [11:30am] - Huntsman
Stuck behind WinGate and can't get out to play some
Tribes? Get a T1 and a router. Or, check out this step-by-step guide to get it to
work. Thanks, tAng
Quake3, UT, TF2 [8:15am]
Strangely enough AVault had an article similar to the
one that showed up yesterday on infinite planes. This one tends to lean towards Unreal Tournament
over Quake3 and TF2
Some people will purchase all three titles, but me and my chronically retro-compatible Internet connection are most eagerly anticipating the Epic release. Although a wordsmith by trade, I have never been able to conjure an expression of my love for deathmatch. Marathon LAN parties were the essence of Saturdays and Sundays in college,
Btw, I had a chance to read through the article I headlined yesterday and I agree with the guys on the msgboard, the author has real problems in that article. I'll just quote sumd00d:
To call this person "sharp" is to imply he knows a few things about the games. But to say his logistics make him smart is a crime to journalists everywhere...
No Curves in UT [8:15am]
Billy over at VoodooExtreme
posted this little email response from Tim Sweeney concerning people wanting curves in Unreal Tournament and the possibility of them
making an appearance.
Is this set in stone? I'm not saying that it's a bummer that you're not going to implement curved surfaces, but this seems like it's the only thing missing from your very sweet engine.
>It's set in stone for Unreal Tournament.
Suckage [8:15am]
The weekly
suckage has been posted. If you dont read it then you suck. That one
was free!
Co-op Half-Life [4:15am]
What? It can be done? According to this Cooperative Half-Life
website over at the illustrious Geocities apparently so. Check out the page and dig on
the instructions. Gonna have to check this one out with some friend here.
There are a few nuances about coop play, due to the fact that Valve went bitch on us and didn't add the simple features for cooperative play.
You might spawn in outside the level when changing levels. Just go to the console and type noclip then maneuver back into the level.
While you are at it, check out the Half-life Walkthrough which has been updated over at CGO. Saw both these on Blues.
New Loonygames [4:15am]
The latest issue of loonygames has been posted. This weeks features
include:The Rise and Fall of the Hobbyist Game Programmer, Pad Happy, The Bargain Bin, and
Community Profile
Tech [6:15am]
werd
So I'm outside checking my mail (dont worry it was
night time, I didnt get any sun exposure) and this group of 3 good looking girls come
walking by me. I exchange a hello and a look with the first girl and I get a smile outa
her with some comment I make, then the next two girls behind her blow me off completely.
So I flick the other two girls off. Does that make me rude? I'm pretty sure the first girl
didnt see it.
I'm quite the story teller, wow.
| Sunday, January 3 |
Multiplayer Future? [6:15am]
A lengthy in depth article talking about
Quake3, TeamFortress2, and Unreal Tournament that is pretty highly recommended
reading. From what I read the guy is pretty sharp.
Quake 3: Arena is also taking a stab at class based internet play; however, theirs is much simpler: weight classes. There are three categories for these characters: light, medium, and heavy. Simply put, light weights will be able to run faster but can’t take much damage; heavy weights are just the opposite. Quake 3: Arena’s gameplay isn’t derived from these classes, though. Its gameplay is all about what is fun. That’s what it comes down to.
Quake3 & Portals [6:15am]
Embrionic Pete between posts to the Quake3 Msgboard about
this very subject, dropped Carmack a line asking just how integrated portal technology is
in Quake3. Here was John's response:
"Portals are not used to replace the vis, just for special effects -- mirrors, views floating in space, etc."
For those of you who are still confused thinking something along the lines of "Wow not full portals, Quake3 isnt as good as Prey!" you just go ahead and wait on Prey. The rest of us will have something to play in 1999 while you wait though.
Worst of 1998? [6:15am]
Well we've seen all those what was the best in 1998
articles, but now we gotta have a poll to see what you guys thought was the worst 3D
action, RPG, and piece of hardware for the year. Fill out the poll on the front page of www.3dnews.net
Resident Evil2 Demo [6:15am]
One of the hottest games on the PlayStation has made
its way to the PC. Check out the demo of RE2 which you can snag from 3DFiles.com
Tribes Joystick Patch [6:15am]
Saw this one on VE, the
Dynamix page has posted a
patch for those of you wishing to use a joystick with Starsiege Tribes.
Views [6:15am]
Tech [6:15am]
werd
Heehee, I goofed yesterday morning with the Reasons To Live file. I'm sorry
about that guys, must.. remember... to... doublecheck..
The heating in my place sucks. The doors on the bathroom and Mike's room are warped from the Heat, yet my hands are freezing here downstairs. BAH
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