Ok, hardly related to this page but absolutely worth mentioning to you guys, it looks as though 2 sequels to The Matrix are going to be filmed now. Here is the bit sent along by Ant: via DarkHorizons. Also here is a link to the original story.

"The Matrix 2 & 3: The Sunday Telegraph reports that two more "The Matrix" films are set to be filmed in Sydney, Australia over the next few years. They source a 'prominent insider' who says "the multi-million dollar deal has been under negotiations for months but was finalised on Friday". Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow will jointly produce the two films planned to be shot back-to-back, and possibly released within months of each other. Once again 'Fox Studios Australia' and Sydney's central business district will serve as the backdrop for action in the film, and an estimated $100 million will be pumped into the local economy. Its been long known that "The Matrix" has always been conceived as a trilogy, and its believed the directing duo of the Wachowski brothers get a cut of the gross box-office takings of any sequels made. Keanu Reeves is expected to return for both films. Thanks to 'Matt'."

Well, now that I'm back home here in Texas it's about time the Suckage was updated don't you say? Well always in the mood to bitch and whine that I am, check out the latest list of stuff that sucks.

The new IOTD today is the answer to an age old question. Personally I knew the answer all along, but possibly this could enlighten a few of the younger readers. Think you're captain funny guy and got a caption? Enter the caption contest and win a big wet one from Marcus! Oh yeah and I still havent got any more work on the IOTD index done yet... That list down there is annoyingly long though now days yes? I'll axe it this week, promise. :)

The winner for the IOTD contest for the last contest goes to Rudy for : "Say you're Jewish again boy, I dare ya you little punk!"  Here is a list of all the entries.

Previous IOTD's:  pork.jpg (captions)  arkansas.jpg (captions) starwar.gif (captions) doggie.jpg (captions) gates.jpg (captions) parade.jpg (captions) hotcurry.jpg (captions) msteam.jpg & realmsteam.jpg (captions)  unfunf.jpg (captions) cat.jpg (captions) paint.jpg (captions) nuts.jpg keyboard.jpg theguys.jpg tattoo2.jpg aussie.jpg spears.jpg ms.jpg clint2.jpg drunke3.jpg q2chick.jpg fruit1 fruit2 fruit3 fruit4 and fruit5

Yup, you know what that means... I'm updating naked! (go ahead, you know you want to picture it) Bah, pervert.

At any rate, Changes abound this week, and maybe.. if we're lucky... the .plan tracker *cough* will finally go up too. Also looking at adding an Unreal section to my files section so cleverly named Fileshack.com this week thanks to the GameKey guys.Oh yeah and make sure and check out all the new comment system features on Shack Sander put together this weekend.

You trekkies and trekkers out there might want to check out this new feature on the upcoming wave of Star Trek games currently in development. Here's a clip on the Quake3 engine based Voyager:

Once you hear the words "Quake III", the first thought that comes to mind (besides mindless slaughter) would have to be eyecandy. But Voyager: Elite Force isn't being made to shine endless lensflares at you. Instead, the technology is being used to create an exact replica of the USS Voyager, both inside and out. Every deck, every room, is created down to perfect detail using Paramount's stage sets. When you get to see Voyager's bridge in Elite Force, you will simply be in awe. It looks exactly like it does in the series, and the ability to walk around the entire ship, enter engineering, visit the mess hall, is astounding. And this is all thanks to the Q3 engine, who's advanced lighting effects and curved surfaces allow the ship to be modeled to perfection. And then of course there are the character models, and I'm sure Raven won't have any trouble getting the front ends of those female models curvier than ever.

From VE and UU: a post on GT's Wheel of Time messageboard that discusses how true Legend's Unreal engine powered game, Wheel of Time, will be to the Wheel of Time book series ... you can check out the entire thread right here.

We cannot possibly include everything RJ has detailed in his many thousands of pages of his books. There just is a limit to what we have the time and ability to do. More importantly is the issue of what will be fun. We could probably make a game where everything included is 100% loyal to everything in the books. However, the fun of the -game- would suffer.

We're not making a computer adaptation of a book. We're making a computer -game- based on books. And one requisite of being a game is that fun is involved. Like I have said before, there are deviations from the books, but every deviation has a lot of thought and discussion behind it. We all have read the books and are fans of them ourselves. We refer to books often when making everything for the game, so we're well aware of any and every deviation from the fiction that we make, and we don't do so lightly.

3DG.N is doing their thing again, so check out their recent load -- Force Commander, Homeworld, Final Fantasy VIII (w00), Anachronox (Steve's also got a quick one on 'nox too),  Dark Reign 2, and finally a Sinistar demo review.

While I think that Mechwarrior 3 and Heavy Gear 2 are different enough from each other that they don't hit head on, GU makes them do exactly that an compares both of them.

The snow in the early missions of Heavy Gear 2 is quite impressive, as are the rocket trails and smoke from anything destroyed.  Bumpy terrain, with lots of small rises and dips, is handled quite easily in the Dark Side engine.  Something Mechwarrior 3 doesn't have, space combat at zero gravity, is also handled well, though it tends to get very taxing on the graphical side.

Unfortunately for Heavy Gear 2 fans, the price paid for this visual impressiveness is too high.  Mechwarrior 3 accomplishes rainfall, smoke from destruction, rocket flight, and even steam when the lasers hit water, for the small price of a 2 MB video card.   Further, while I was stuck in 640x480 resolution in Heavy Gear 2, my 8MB Riva 128ZX video card (yes, I know it's old) was able to render every bit of rain, fog, smoke, and miscellaneous effects like sparks in Mechwarrior 3 at 1024x768 resolution without complaint

Boring slow weekend, it is, yes... Go outside or something. Screw the monitor tan that you've been working on for so long and see the real thing (the sun). Don't worry, anything mega-important will be posted here ASAP, you won't miss a thing.

If you dig the new comment system, you don't want to miss this post which explains how to do bold, italics, underlines and even colors (among other changes/additions).

Oh and btw, a HUGE thanks to everyone who helped me fix the Lilo problem :-)

Those whacky Unreal guys had a IRC bash, and Epic's Tim Sweeney was present to informally answer some questions. Here's the edited version of the log, and here's the unedited. Here are his thoughts on some of the recent online games (like UO):

[Tim> Definitely, we'd never want to be huge and monolithic like Origin, with a hundred people in cubicles maintaining the world. So if we did a persistent game, it would be open and community driven.

ZDTV puts their spotlight on what they call "multiplayer mayhem" coming in both forms as text and real video. Nothing exclusive but a good summary of Quake 3, Team Fortress 2 and Unreal Tournament. The 4 and a half minute real video shows various clips, as well as a quick shot of id CEO, Todd Hollenshead.

There's a new version of the game server browser QTracker (2.3 beta 8). This new release adds South Park, Kingpin, and a finalized Turok2 support in addition to other enhancements.

Updated 11/07

I updated the news commenting system a bit. Some things you'll like, some not. Here goes:

• Made the hostname/IP show up when you post anonymous.
• Made an option to create new accounts, so you dont have to expose your hostname.
• Double posting has been made more impossible then it was before.
• You can add bold, undeline, italic, strikethrough, red, green and blue text now. (For the codes, look at the bottom of the reply page.)

About those accounts, if you had an old messageboard account, it will work on the news commenting system. (Accounts will be merged later on)

And oh, if you create an account - dont bother filling in a fake email address. If it aint an existing email address, you're not getting an account. We needed to include that to make it easier to kick people from the boards.

Comments, suggestions, etc... reply or mail.

Nothing much going on lately, maybe except the the recent AMD onslaught of info/interviews and other press stuff. Oh, I decided it was time to check out the recent Linux versions for myself (due to the recent "retail" explosion) as I haven't even touched it for a few of years. On Hoonis' recommendation, I installed Linux Mandrake and impressed, I was. WindowMaker = very cool.

The only problem I am having is that Lilo isn't loading up correctly...on boot-up, it just displays the "LI" part and hangs. Booting from a floppy disk allows smooth sailing but it's a pain in the ass. Any ideas?

FGN posts part 2 of their SoF preview. If you're on a SoF frenzy, check out our hands-on Shack preview too.

Next-Gen reviews Kingpin, stating that "Kingpin is a good time" (huh?) and the bottom line is that "It's an acceptable shooter with a few technical flaws that has some very clever additions"

I'm generally not a RTS freak, but seeing Homeworld in action (E3) was pretty cool. UGN3D did up a little preview with screenshots for you to look at. My only concern is the seemingly complex interface.

The new IOTD is up and its a winner. I plan on showing this picture to my kids whenever they start believing in that whole Santa thing. Think you're captain funny guy and got a caption? Enter the caption contest and win a big wet one from Huntsman! Oh yeah and I didnt get any more work on the IOTD index done yet...

The winner for the IOTD contest for the last contest goes to KrayZie for : "I can't wait for desert."  Here is a list of all the entries.

Previous IOTD's:  arkansas.jpg (captions) starwar.gif (captions) doggie.jpg (captions) gates.jpg (captions) parade.jpg (captions) hotcurry.jpg (captions) msteam.jpg & realmsteam.jpg (captions)  unfunf.jpg (captions) cat.jpg (captions) paint.jpg (captions) nuts.jpg keyboard.jpg theguys.jpg tattoo2.jpg aussie.jpg spears.jpg ms.jpg clint2.jpg drunke3.jpg q2chick.jpg fruit1 fruit2 fruit3 fruit4 and fruit5

Well since everying got all confused with me arriving back home in the middle of the week, I figured we'll just go ahead and update the wack-ass links right? I've gotten quite a few good new ones in recently which just make me giggle with glee. Make sure your parents arent in the room when you read this stuff though.

So do these new colors make you puke or what? It's not done but if I saw my page in those previous colors for one more day I was gonna puke myself. Ya know?