If you're actually trying to play Daikatana, but it's too hard for you, there's a walkthrough for Episode 1 on Daikatana Headquartes.

Well Rounded Entertainment has word that everyone's favorite FPS Daikatana will be shown at E3 for the fourth year in a row, because Eidos will not be able to get the game on store shelves before the event. The Romero will be there to promote the game.

Something Awful's Lowtax has posted his Daikatana review, and like a lot of things on SA, it's pretty hilarious. One of the things he thinks ION was doing while they were supposed to be working: "Read / posted on Shugashack forums (ROMERO: "FIRST POST, BITCHES!!!")". Heh.

For those of you guys who were gone over the holidays and didnt happen to notice the pigs flying, big news. Daikatana has GONE GOLD! There is a playable demo to boot! Of course you've got your fair share of guys who will bash the game no matter how good it is, but I picked through most of the comments to get a pretty good reflection of what the readers around here think. Here is the list of reviews in no particular order as provided by you guys, the readers.

Hi-C , dshowcase , neoprene , Moebius , Skid , Anon@255.1 , Anon@mediaone.net , swedishchef , Mory , Anon@ispchannel.com , industro , Quake3Ænima , d3tached , FreshView , Postal , Bagpuss , Anon@bigsky.net , Flagg.ef , theantispammer , Thresher , cwlc98

As for my impressions, I still havent played more than 4-5 minutes of it. Been busy benchmarking cards and getting ready to take off for WinHEC. After you download the demo you probably want to check out this post and this post for a few tips.

The Romero updated his .plan with some trouble shooting for the Daikatana demo. Here's the whole deal since his HTML .plan screws up our tracker

My god, it's finally finished. And I thought working on a game for 1.5 years was long....wow. I wish everyone would take a nice, objective look at the game and not base their criticisms on hype, but on play value and what we've worked to achieve: a really fun single-player experience. We did not develop Daikatana to take on Quake 3 or UT, but we put multiplayer in the game because I really like my single-player games multiplayerable. Is that a new word? :)

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

(Q1) Multiplayer is laggy or extremely choppy.

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

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

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

(Q3) Running the DKDEMO.EXE on Windows 2000 gives you an error (Insert Disk 1)
(A3) Use WINZIP to extract the DKDEMO.EXE file, then run the SETUP.EXE program to install the demo

(Q4) The game pauses for a long time when you're playing multiplayer (seems like a lockup)
(A4) This is a bug in the demo only that occurs when you are attempting to connect to the Catacomb level (Greek time period). Just wait 20 seconds and you'll connect.

(Q5) The game is too dark
(A5) Check out the README.TXT file, it has some useful tips.

Steve over at Hypothermia has his own Daikatana demo review and oh boy does he trash it :) He mainly looked at design (texture, map) work since he does that as a hobby.

Since everyone is playing around with the Daikatana demo today figure I'd pass along a couple of tips for you guys from the PlanetDaikatana folks. Here's how you get to the console, and some co-op help:

Run the DK demo with "+set console 1" to get access to the console. For coop add "+set coop 1" to the dedicated server command line. [snip]
Example dedicated server command line:
daikatana.exe -dedicated +set public 1 +set hostname "my cool server" +set maxclients 16 +map e3dm2

Also, for Win2K users make sure and just open the .exe with Winzip instead of executing the file. Or just rename it to a .ZIP extension and double click it.

A quick note to Voodoo2 owners trying to run the Daikatana demo, make sure you have the latest MiniGL driver downloaded (as noted by KillCreek), the demo uses OpenGL. Also, here's another tip.

Baked not fried! I got an email earlier today from Gussboy with a quote from John Romero stating that Daikatana has indeed finally gone gold. Being the skeptic about this situation I contacted a few places and it is indeed true. DAIKATANA HAS GONE GOLD. (VE also got confirmation) On top of that, word from GameSpot has a playable demo with single player and DM maps . Here is a recap covering all the levels in the game:

Episode1: [screenshots] [shot2] [shot3] [shot4] [shot5] [shot6] [shot7] [shot8]
Episode2: [screenshots] [shot2] [shot3] [shot4] [shot5] [shot6] [shot7] [shot8]
Episode3: [screenshots] [shot2] [shot3] [shot4] [shot5] [shot6] [shot7] [shot8]
Episode4: [screenshots] [shot2] [shot3] [shot4] [shot5] [shot6] [shot7] [shot8]

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

If you've played the demo, please tell us how it is in the comments. Also, to run a dedicated server try using the -dedicated +set public 1 command line, then try a map like e3dm2. Thanks Planetdaikatana. Here are some mirrors you can download the files from: (Thanks Blues)

GameSpot , 3D Action Gamers , Gameaholic , 3DFiles , BFG10k , ZD Net , Eidos Interactive , MeccaWorld

Update: We added a daikatana messageboard.

The Washington Post (thanks s e n n) is the latest to take a look at the development of ION Storm's game which has been delayed a few times *cough*. In the article Playing the Waiting Game with Daikatana writer Rob Pegoraro covers the history of the game's development, and also offers quotes from Joel Mathis of GoneGold, Ted Beak of Daikatana Nation and also Eidos. Here's what Eidos had to say

Neither Ion Storm nor Eidos--both having weathered a storm of scathing commentary--is talking to the press anymore about this game. "There just doesn't seem to be any upside in doing previews right now," an Eidos spokesman said in declining to comment. "We've been ambushed right and left, so Eidos wants the game to speak for itself."

Been much to long since we've heard about this game (I believe it was this morning :P). Gwog from over at Planet Daikatana let us know about a Daikatana update on Gone Gold. Well guess what, it still ain't done (the shock!).

Right now they're going over the game, fixing little things here and there and basically polishing the game. The US version is not gold, contrary to some reports, but close to it. They are sticking to the plan of getting all localized versions done and having an almost simultaneous release. And when would that be? They hope to have it out just before E3 (May 11-13th)

Something tells me if they still aren't done, need to get all localized versions done for a simultaneous release, I don't see it appearing before E3. But hey, we can hope! For what, I dunno.

Belgian site Spelletjesgarnaal (which means Gaming Shrimp) has a video of Daikatana, with the webmaster playing coop with a friend of his, showing that it works just fine. Thanks VE.

PlanetDaikatana has scored a couple of new screenshots from a level ION Storm's weasl, showing off a personal Daikatana level he's working on that won't ship with the game. Maybe like the strategy guide, we'll see this before the game is in stores? :) Here are a few of the earlier screenshots.

Guess what, its not done yet. Between episodes of pondering the origins of the universe I also wonder if Daikatana will be any good. Word from the few testers Ive known who have played the latest builds at Ion say that it actually is pretty good. The Nintendo64 version of Daikatana doesnt seem to be doing so well though. Recent reviews in Nintendo Power and this IGN page are well, bad. Stuff like this: "this is by far the most disappointing game I've ever reviewed." doesnt look great. Keep in mind that the N64 version of Daikatana is quite a bit different than the PC version. Just so many of you guys have been sending in these links that I figured I may as well post it.

Gone Gold posted some news about Daikatana and it's imminent golden state. They contacted Brian Kemp from PR about the release, here's what they got (Gone Gold writeup, not a quote from Brian)

The game itself is very close to completion. They have looked at a few candidates, but none have been approved so far. It seems a decision has been made however. Once the game does go gold, Eidos has decided to hold it and get all the localized versions gold before release. This way they will have a simultaneous World Wide release, or at least within days of each other.

Also, don't expect any further updates from programm Noel Stephens as he updated his .plan with the word that he can no longer post in his .plan file ;( doh. Thanks Bandit.

Another Daikatana update in programmer Noel Stephens's .plan update, although just a small one. He says the programmers are done with the code and unless something really horrible happens, it's all good to go.

Not likely, but damn, it would be a good one. BBC Business News is reporting (thanks nick) that Eidos warned for low sales, which made their stock plummet. It talks about the how and why, and then offers this quote:

But it now says the new platforms have reduced demand, and that it is therfore delaying the release of other titles until early 2001. These include Nomad Soul (Dreamcast), F1 World Grand Prix (PC), Tomb Raider (Game Boy Colour) and Daikatana (PC).

update Steve: The article is talking about fiscal 2001, which actually starts next month.

It looks like the rumors of Daikatana being done arent quite the case. Noel Stephens over at Ion Storm has a .plan update with word that they are in fact still fixing bugs. They are pretty severe corner cases though, but still fixing bugs = its not done.

The good news?  Well, those are the two bugs I have left to do.  I also know that Shawn has kicked through a good % of his bugs last night.  Anyway, I figured, for those of you waiting for Daikatana feverishly, I would let you  know the severity level of most of the bugs we are dealing with
<snip>
Back to the grind and I will be updating my .plan sometime tomorrow afternoon.... :)

The Daikatana website has been updated again with some Q&A with the director of audio on the game and even some MP3 sample action. Make sure and check out all those screenshots that were recently released too.

Could it be true? After all these years finally baked? AVault is reporting that ION Storm's Daikatana "is finished", citing unnamed sources closed to the project. So not quite gold, but pretty close. Eidos still has to approve the latest build before going gold. Word is Romero and a particular level designer are off to Hawaii for vacation so they must be pretty confident. The official Daikatana GONE GOLD announcement should be quite interesting. :) To celebrate the occasion:

#26 By: Zapp0
d00ds!!
i just saw a pig fly by my window, does that mean anything?