Latest Articles (Page 3594)
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To tie in with the new Half Life patch the lads doing Counter Strike have released a new version of their massive mod for Half Life. Counter Strike seems to be taking over the world with a huge number of players playing every night. This new version aims to build on that.
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The long awaited Half-Life v1.1 patch is now available. Included in the patch is Team Fortress 1.5, an update for Team Fortress Classic. This release includes a number of technological and game play enhancements, including the networking code for Valve Software's upcoming Team Fortress 2. Another cool new feature is a much needed new in-game interface.
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The folks at GameLive have launched a new version of their massively multiplayer web-based strategy game Hexadome, which is now available for public beta testing. Hexadome is due to launch officially in July, but if you want to have a sneak peek before then and join the hundreds of players already taking part in the game, head over to the Hexadome website.
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For those of you looking for something a little out of the ordinary, Barrysworld have announced that they will be hosting a league for the bizarre Quake 2 mod, "Capture The Chicken". As the title suggests, this mod consists of grabbing a chicken and then running for your life, trying to hold on to the bird for as long as possible to rack up your points. Should be .. interesting.
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Blizzard Entertainment have announced that Diablo II has gone gold. Diablo II, is a highly anticipated real-time action role-playing game. It is of course the sequel to the very successful Diablo, a game which sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Blizzard Entertainment say, "The game, which has initial orders in excess of 1.5 million copies worldwide, will start shipping to retailers worldwide as early as the end of June."
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What people have been saying would happen for a couple of years, the unbelievable, has finally happened. The United States Department of Justice has called for the breakup of Microsoft into two separate companies: an applications company which will manage software like Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, let alone the games that Microsoft produce, and an operating systems company that will manage products such as Windows NT and Windows 2000.
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The folks over at Checkout have an interview with Daikatana's John Romero. In the interview Romero tackles a few burning subjects.
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With what is arguably this year's biggest football tournament about to kick off here in Europe, today's EuroGamer review takes a closer look at EA Sports' latest soccer game, "Euro 2000".
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Review | Euro 2000
Soccer game reviewed
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Regular readers will have been following the saga of Looking Glass Studios and their unfortunate demise. Well there were a few LGS titles very near completion, one being Jane's Attack Squadron. As we reported some days back a large number of gamers have been trying to get it finished by another developer, as it had looked to be a very good title indeed. Now Jeff Brown, Senior Director of Corporate Communications, has sent CombatSim an official press release on the matter.
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have posted an interesting article about why Doom 3 is possibly the worst idea in the history of gaming. They go through all the possible reasons why they think id Software are mad to even consider it. They say, quite rightly, that "at the moment the announcement occurred, thousands of fans worldwide promptly began setting their expectations too high".
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Ty, the makers of "beanie baby" plush toys, were apparently not impressed when they discovered the existence of Clan Beanie Babies, a Quake team which named its members after their range of toys! You can find the letter they received from Ty's lawyers on their old website.
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GameSurge continue their Half-Life mod week feature with an interview with Dustbunnie, talking about the Contract Killers mod
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The folks at Southpeak Interactive dropped us a line with some information about the range of weapons that will be available in the "shoot out" mode of their racing game for the PC, "Breakneck". Your arsenal will range from the usual machineguns, mine-layers and heat-seeking missiles to bizarre weapons like the "bungee reverse", which drags your target back towards you to help you overtake them.
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Following the announcement yesterday of the new Kyro 3D graphics card from ST Microelectronics, based on the third generation of Imagination Technology's "PowerVR" architecture, today we have a preview of the card for you.
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Preview | Kyro 3D graphics card
New 3D graphics chip previewed
Think of 3D graphics chips, and those most likely to spring into your head are things like the GeForce and Voodoo. These are some of the real heavy-weights in the performance arena. There's one name though that usually gets forgotten about by most though - PowerVR. And there's a reason for that... The PowerVR technology has not been too impressive in its previous outings, and the question was, could PowerVR ever be quick enough to rival the big boys?
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have an interesting article for the more serious and business minded among us, about Internet Business Models and the new options for game developers. With some games developers making millions and others loosing money hand over fist it is a subject that should be at the front of everyone in the games industry's minds.
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The roller coaster that is ID software took another loop the loop today with the news from the ID boss Todd Hollenshead that ID has formally announced DOOM III and locked down the company to journalists. No one from ID shall be allowed say a word to anyone from the press in typical ID style.
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Den Johnson of Terminal Reality has some good news about the Gathering Of Developers' new games based on the Blair Witch Project movie and using the graphics engine from last year's Nocturne. "You WON'T be playing a character in first person mode running through the woods screaming, "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" Even though our game is based on the Blair Witch movie, it WILL NOT be like the movie."
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have announced that they will be running a closed multiplayer beta test of their new LithTech-powered game Sanity, and are inviting gamers to sign-up to take part in the test.
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HiTech Creations sent word that a new version of their massively multiplayer World War Two flight combat sim will soon be available, adding new lighting effects, customisable squadron logos for your aircraft, a mission planner, integrated Roger Wilco support for voice communications, a whole slew of new vehicles, and improved debris and smoke effects.
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The gaming community was shocked recently when Looking Glass Studios was forced to close down because of financial problems. Looking Glass had been one of the most innovative developers in the gaming industry, producing a string of classic titles such as System Shock, Thief, Ultima Underworld and Terra Nova.
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Feature | Through The Looking Glass Into The Real World
An obituary for Looking Glass Studios
And, though the shadow of a sigh May tremble through the story For 'happy summer days' gone by, And vanish'd summer glory - It shall not touch, with breath of bale, The pleasance of our fairy-tale. - Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Looking Glass
After nearly a decade of creating revolutionary and classic games, Looking Glass Studios recently fell on some very hard times. And even though they recently released three critically acclaimed titles, the company died as instantly as if struck by lightning.
I think that is what is still so hard to grasp - the quickness and sudden finality of it. This wasn't supposed to happen to a company that treated its employees like family, a company that actually cared about each individual.
I had a brief encounter with Looking Glass Studios last year, working on the Thief 2 level design team along with Mike Chrzanowski, Mike Ryan, Randy Smith, Sara Verrilli, Rob Caminos, Terri Brosius, Emil Pagliarulo, Iikka Keränen and Rafael Brown. The level design team was like a buzzing beehive of activity, and the buzzing never stopped until the game was gold. It was a remarkable experience that I will never forget.
Tim, Randy and Sara handled most of the technical and design issues. Tim had been a tester on Ultima Underworld, while Sara did design work on Terra Nova, and all of them were veterans of "Thief : The Dark Project" - I was in amazing company.
Steve Pearsall, project leader, handled the scheduling and press, made really tough decisions, and generally beefed up morale if things got tedious or low-spirited, which was actually rare. Oh yes, he supplied us all with plenty of rubber insects too.
Underworld
I will never forget talking to Paul Neurath for the first time at a company meeting. I was, as usual, gushing about Ultima Underworld, which is still my favorite computer game of all time.
Paul humbly noted that he had designed the first two levels of Underworld. I was flabbergasted. It was about then that it penetrated my thick skull that not only was Paul our boss, he was one of the first 'architects of 3D gaming', as we know it today.
Many of the same people who created revolutionary titles like the Ultima Underworlds, the original System Shock, the Flight Unlimited series, and the vastly underrated Terra Nova, still worked there, carefully tending that legacy of quality and fun like grand high viziers working their magic from nine to five every day. I kid you not, that is what it was like.
Cranking
There was a term at Looking Glass for when a team was really cooking and in their stride, I think it came from Con and the Flight Combat area. "Psyched and cranking!" was what you said if anyone ever asked you how you were doing. And you had better mean it!
For a Quake-fried ex-Texas mappie to encounter this level of enthusiasm and intensity was a mind blower, and believe me, I barely kept up with what was one of the fastest, tightest teams that ever finished a game on time.
I had always wondered if the legacy of Looking Glass' early games was still alive. I soon understood, after working for only a couple of weeks with the Thief 2 team, the answer to that question...
The Looking Glass Way
There were three things that struck me as singularly unique about Looking Glass.
As a company, it was humble, polite, cautious, ethical; it seemed never to hype its products or its employees. It wasn't really about the individual at Looking Glass, but the team, and the strategy of letting product quality speak for itself was one that Looking Glass stuck to, for better or for worse.
Looking Glass was made up of artists and intellectuals making action adventure games for people who like to think. Who would have thought that they would snare half of the first person shooter players in their attempts too.
Lastly, Looking Glass was a family, a tribe.
When you add it all up, you get a combination which is very rare and special. This combination, dubbed 'the Looking Glass way', will be remembered by all who encountered it first hand, and by everyone who still enjoys their incredible games.
"Oh, I've had such a curious dream!" said Alice. And she told her sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange Adventures of hers that you have just been reading about; and, when she had finished, her sister kissed her, and said, "It was a curious dream, dear, certainly; but now run in to your tea: it's getting late." So Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well as she might, what a wonderful dream it had been. - Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
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sent word that the demo for their new Formula One motor racing game, "F1 World Grand Prix", is now available. The demo (which weighs in at 66Mb) features the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, all 22 cars and drivers, and multiplayer support.
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have unveiled the KYRO 3D graphics card, which is based on their new PowerVR Series3 graphics chip.
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Preview | Tenchu II: Birth of the Assassins
Silent-em-up previewed
The game will feature several modes of play. The confirmed ones thus far include a multi-level training mode, a storyline mode and a mission editor to allow you to create your own levels. Quite how big these levels will actually be in electronic terms is uncertain, but I assume the whole point will be the ability to transfer them between the Playstations of yourself and your friends, so with that in mind, the way in which they are programmed will presumably not be all too complex. Rikimaru and Ayame, the two ninjas mentioned in the plot, are both available for you to control. As is to be expected, both ninjas exhibit their own inherent strengths and weaknesses. Both storylines are interwoven with one another, but each mission will be playable from a totally different perspective. The 20 missions present in Tenchu II consist of 12 taking place in the night, dusk and day, and a two-level training mode. I know that doesn't add up, but I'm only following a press release here. Assuming Activision aren't innumerate, there's bound to be sense in that statement - try and find some.
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A new beta version of Quake 3 Fortress is now available, adding new features and commands, fixing some bugs, and including a re-make of the classic Team Fortress map "Well6"
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Dave Halsted, one of the mappers at Human Head Studios who is working on their third person Viking action game, "Rune", at the moment, took time out from his polygon pushing to describe the use of scripting in the game's maps.
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If you've been wondering when we might finally see "Team Fortress 2", the follow-up to the popular prehistoric QuakeWorld mod that your grandparents used to play when you were just knee-high to a grasshopper, Gabe Newell of Valve Software has some bad news for you. "We have a lot of work to do".
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New today on EuroGamer is a big hands-on preview of "Homeworld : Cataclysm", the forthcoming sequel to one of last year's best strategy games. The original Homeworld featured some of the most gorgeous graphics we've ever seen, as well as solid gameplay, a great story, and superb multiplayer. Can Cataclysm live up to the Homeworld name? Read our preview to find out!
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