Latest Articles (Page 3632)

Growing up playing on my older cousin's NES was how I began my gaming life. The Sega MegaDrive was my first machine and I racked up an unhealthy tally of hours/days/months on it, becoming a hardcore 'Sega Gamer' during the SNES v MegaDrive "which is better?" arguments (so what if the SNES was better Sega had more games). As I grew older my parents bought me a Pentium 100MHz PC, and as far as gaming was concerned I never looked at a console again, even when many of my friends were playing 'Daytona' and the like on their Sega Saturns. It made no difference to me, as I was enthralled with my first game, 'Screamer'. It was a brilliant racer yet only cost me £20. Why would I want to pay double the price for console games, which I felt, weren't quite as good? What really gave the kick in the teeth to my console gaming days were the FPS (First Person Shooter) games. No console at the time could dream of competing with them. It didn't take long for my hardcore console only friends to 'move on' and get themselves PCs. It was as if they were maturing as gamers. Even though they had to get used to installing the games and having all the buggy problems that we're used to with PCs, they endured them because the quality was better. Upon the release of Quake, every gamer without a PC was laughed at with pity, well I laughed at them anyway. Now up until this point in time consoles always had an edge on the PC when it came to multiplayer. Get your mates to bring their kit and joypads round and away you go. So easy, so simple, fun yet limited (usually only two player), just like everything else with consoles. The PC gave pretty dire performance in these modes. Sure you could network, but that was limited to a privileged few. No doubt, consoles had the upper hand but all that was soon shattered… As the months past, the PCs got better and better until suddenly 300MHz was upon us. Consoles were a forgotten pleasant dream. An upgrade later and the Quake2 logo graced my holy monitor. I remember going through its option menu and finding a Multiplayer section. Off course it didn't work first time (like a lot of things dotted around PC history!) so I rushed out and got myself a 56k modem. To this day I still remember the first time I ever joined a server, the first time an opponent actually chased me (as I lagged) around the map no matter how much I ran away. This was amazing! No more dodgy AI opposition! It was such a wonderful experience, one that no console has really managed to provide so far. The PC had gained the massive advantage of the (increasingly accessible) Internet, providing limitless possibilities in gameplay, across an increasing selection of genres of game so that gamers of all tastes would enjoy it. The powers that be would not allow the console to die. The finances involved in the companies who own them had too much at stake. Sega, Sony and Nintendo started to recognise the advantages of the PC and put their best efforts into making their next generation of products able to compete with the PC. How have they tried to do this so far? To put it simply, they're turning their machines into…*begin drum role*…PCs! Makes sense, "If you can't beat them, join them." As the PC has always advanced at breakneck pace, consoles are having to radically evolve to close the gap. The main step involved in achieving this is to get the consoles online. Done. The abilities of the new consoles and those due to be released in the near future are astounding, rivalling the current high performance PC's. Sounds good doesn't it? But as we all know that every few months, Intel and AMD bring out all new, more powerful Processors to the market (Damn right, says Mug, looking at his PIII-800E -Ed). Already they're at the landmark GHz, which even Microsoft's X-Box, (which is not due for release for quite some time) will not match. Don't bother even saying "not many gamers can afford a GHz processor", because I'm willing to bet that once the X-Box is finally out, Intel and AMD would have slashed 60% off their original release price of the 1GHz as we'll probably have +1.5Ghz by then. Seeing as new consoles are only released every other year or so, they're doomed to be lagging behind indefinitely. Just as Microsoft was the catalyst involved in making the PC so accessible to everyone, they intend to do the same for the console. Their announced entrance into the ultra competitive console market has caused a few waves already. I would not be surprised if future generations of MS console had almost identical windows versions as its PC counterpart. Would it inherit the same abilities as a PC? Could we upgrade our consoles one day? And if so, would or even could it still be termed a console? As far as I'm concerned, a console is a games only system. When the Playstation and Saturn were able to play audio CD's it was thought to be an advancement, a cool feature. Now though we're able to get keyboards and handle our emails with them. See where this is going? There is another side to this possibility. What if all the PC-like consoles of the future out sell the traditional PCs in the games market. Although I just cant imagine company offices LANing their Playstation 7's together to network the printer. The PC as a games machine could become obsolete. Sometime in the future, and at the rate technology is improving, it's definitely going to be far sooner than anyone thinks, one of these devices will die out as a games machine. Once the console gains all the traits of a PC, the two will be forced into direct competition with each other. Who knows what will happen. If one day a future console is able to give fluid 100fps in Quake 9 without any crashes or driver problems, I'll start calling myself a hardcore console gamer once more. Until then, I'll happily sit myself on the fence.

Read the rest of this article

Today, Gamespy have an interesting look into the murky world of software piracy. Software piracy has since the dawn of the PC been a problem for software publishers and developers. "Conservative estimates by the BSA/SIIA (Business Software Association/Software & Industry Information Association) put a worldwide revenue loss in the $12.2 billion range worldwide (for business applications only) during the year 1999"

Read the rest of this article

has an interview with one of Quake 3 Arena's best map-designers, Paul Jaquays. Paul talks about the art of map making and his latest project the Q3 mod Team Arena.

Read the rest of this article

have an interesting chat with Kevin Cloud of ID software. He talks about how he came upon ID software, and life as an artist working on some of the best games of all time.

Read the rest of this article

The day we all thought would never come has finally arrived. Yes, John Romero's long overdue first person shooter, Daikatana, has appeared in stores in the UK today. Thanks to Nemesis for confirming this portent of the impending apocalypse. We would, of course, recommend that you wait for our full review of the game before buying it though!

Read the rest of this article

British company Altitude have launched their web-based space trading game, Diaspora. The game has been in open beta for several months now, and over 8000 players have taken part in the game during that time, including me. Even back in December the game was highly addictive, and since then a number of new features have been added including improved support for player guilds and 600 missions to carry out when you get bored of blowing up pirates and shuffling cargo backwards and forwards.

Read the rest of this article

Registration has now opened for the first two Red Storm Rising events, in Philadelphia PA (July 14-16th) and Orlando FL (August 4-6th). Organised by the Clan World Network, these large LAN parties will focus on Red Storm's special forces games, Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear, and cost $45 for a weekend of low ping action. Check the Red Storm Rising website for more details...

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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."

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

The folks over at Checkout have an interview with Daikatana's John Romero. In the interview Romero tackles a few burning subjects.

Read the rest of this article

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".

Read the rest of this article

- EA Sports

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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".

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

GameSurge continue their Half-Life mod week feature with an interview with Dustbunnie, talking about the Contract Killers mod

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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?

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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."

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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.

Read the rest of this article

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

Read the rest of this article