Ritual has released a non-alpha version of the 1.02 patch for their 3rd person action/adventure game FAKK2. You can get it from the update page.

Ritual has released a 1.02 Alpha patch for their 3rd person action/adventure game FAKK2. It's a 1.4mb download, and will hopefully fix the crash on exit and crash on loading saved games error.

Ritual lead FAKK2 animator Darrin Hart has been interviewed on In the Trenches, talking about how he got started in modelling (computer models that is), where he worked before, his programs of choice and any special tools he uses, as well as giving tips on making a good model.

German site Krawall has an interview with Ritual programmer Mark Dochtermann talking about the just released Heavy Metal FAKK2. The questions were sent before the game was done, so there isn't anything in there about the problems but still nice to find out some info about the game if you haven't played it yet.

FAKKYou has a list of cheat codes for Ritual's FAKK2. They also have a list of enemies/weapons/items you can spawn.

If you're stuck in FAKK2, FAKK2Central has a complete walkthrough for Ritual's 3rd person action/adventure game.

Another developer profile is up at Gamespy, this time looking at the people at Ritual Entertainment who recently finished Heavy Metal FAKK2. HellChick looks at how Ritual started, and also meets some of the people there such as Levelord.

As reflected in some of the comments last night, the recently released 1.01 patch for FAKK2 hasn't resolved problems for anyone. Since Ritual is having problems recreating these problems on their own machines, Ritual programmer Mark Dochtermann sent along the following

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

Ritual programmer Mark Dochtermann just sent the 1.01 patch for their 3rd person game Heavy Metal FAKK2 this way, which hopefully fixes the hardware and/or crashing problems some people have. It's a mere 3mb, get it here. As for fixes

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

Ritual programmer Mark Dochtermann updated his .plan file with info on the FAKK2 patch that should be coming out soon now that the demo has been released

I have gotten some email from people wondering where the patch is now that the demo has been released. I want to make sure that all our customers out there don't feel neglected. We decided to release the demo first before the patch so we could make sure we had worked out all the issues on launch. The demo contains the most recent code and serves as the test platform for next weeks patch.

While on the subject of patches and 3rd person games, Bioware has released patches for MDK2. There's one for the retail, demo and the OEM version. These fix a WinME starting but, improve OpenGL performance and have some other misc fixes.

Gigex (85kb download, it's the Gigex download frontend) has the 75mb demo of Ritual's latest game Heavy Metal FAKK2 (thanks to bass2496 for finding the file). According to a .plan update by Ritual programmer Mark Dochtermann it contains the following

4 different levels
3 different Julie Skins
8 different weapons
5 different monsters

If Gigex is slow for you maybe the Shack server has a better speed for you. There are also mirrors on 3D Downloads and 3D Gamers.

Ritual programmer Mark Dochtermann updated his .plan saying the Voodoo (2) problem in FAKK2 has been found and will be addressed in the upcoming patch. There is a temporary solution you can use.

The Corporation has an interview with Ritual CEO Ron Dimant, asking him about the work on FAKK2, and also the porting of the Ritual games.

Ritual programmer Mark Dochtermann updated his .plan file, saying a patch to fix the hardware crash/lock bugs in FAKK2 will be out this weekend. If you're in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and are experiencing problems, email markd@ritual.com so that they can be sure they fix everything.

The guys at FAKK2Central sat down for an interview with Ritual's Beau Anderson, who is artist over there. They talk about the game (FAKK2) getting finished, the Julie model, possibility of a multiplayer addon and more.

Ritual programmer Mark Dochtermann has been interviewed on Gamecyclus.de, talking about the just released FAKK2 and also a bit about himself.

Voodoo Extreme has an interview with Ritual artist Robert Atkins, asking him all kinds of questions related to FAKK2

Massasi.net has started a walkthrough for the newly released action/adventure game FAKK2. The walkthrough is up to the shield generator level.

Generally dont link reviews here, but I think after SIN most people find it hard to believe that Ritual can turn out a game that isnt filled with bugs etc. Check out the Gamecenter review , Stomped review, and GameSpy review. (I'm told the GameSpy guy ran through the game in god mode though, notch another one up for those guys)

August 4th: I just moved this story up to today since several more emails came in today from around the US. FAKK2  should be available in most major cities by now.

A few reports have begun to trickle in of FAKK2 showing up on shelves around the nation. Since we're rat bastards over here and got a hold of a couple of copies of the game already Maarten and I took a bunch of screenshots from the full version of the game. You can check out the shots here. Keep in mind they are shots from all over so they will contain a few 'spoilers' going as far as the end of the game. If that doesnt bother you though have a look.

You can also have a look at the articles / first impressions of the game at Stomped as well as GameSpot