8-31-1

Game Menu Headquarters has a new version 1.13 of their Quake 3 Menu front-end for Quake III Arena. The new release adds a few new commands, and a new section with "OSP SPECIALS commands."

A new version of the Roger Wilco voice communication software is out, the first new version since the product was assimilated by GameSpy.

Gone Gold reports, as is their way, that Spider-Man has gone gold and is expected to arrive on store shelves around September 18.

8-30-1

The DooM Legacy Home Site offers a new version 1.32 beta 3 of this port of the public DOOM source code. This release includes a new "engine for Transform & Lighting," translucent 3D water and floors, improved Heretic support, an updated launcher, and other enhancements. The DOS and Win32 versions are available now, while the Linux, MacOS and OS/2 releases are expected soon.

There is a new Unreal II interview on Unreal Center, talking to Legend Entertainment's Mike Verdu and Mark Poesch about their upcoming first-person shooter sequel. The questions were compiled from fan submissions so the topics are all over the map, and include possible plans for voice-over-net support, support for custom models and skins, various engine features, multiplayer cheat prevention, the absence of vehicles, and more.

Take-Two talks Duke Nukem on GameSpot is a report on the upcoming console ports of Duke Nukem Forever, stating that "As expected, Duke Nukem Forever, the long-anticipated first-person shooter from 3D Realms, will not ship in Q4 of this year and is currently on a vague 2002 release schedule." There is no word on how, if at all, the PC version is affected, but word is the game will appear on the PlayStation 2, Xbox and, possibly, the GameCube. The story also describes the involvement of N-Space, and their upcoming PS2 game Duke Nukem: D-Day.

EverQuest Sees New Zone reports FGN Online, and they have five high-res screenshots to show what it looks like.

CPU-Z, a freeware CPU information utility is now available.

NT Compatible's Windows XP FAQ is now online.

The Internet Explorer Homepage has the new version 6.0 of Microsoft's web browser for download.

8-29-1

A playable demo for the Mac edition of American McGee's Alice is now available for download from MacGameFiles, offering Mac gamers a taste from this third-person action adventure based on the Lewis Carroll novels. The demo weighs in at 81.5 MB and requires MacOS 8.6 or later (including OSX).

MGON interviews American McGee talking with the game designer about a variety of topics, including his foray into the world of filmmaking (of which he says: "We'll all just have to wait and see with this one though, I’m not going to let the siren call of Hollywood distract me from what I know and love so well, video games."), his current professional goals, what he's learned from his stints at id Software and Electronic Arts, a bit about his new company, Carbon Entertainment, Carbon's relationship with Collision Entertainment, still more questions about film development, and the inevitable more.

An updated edition of the Windows 2000 Hints & Tips on Adria's Rojak Pot is now online.

8-28-1

Microsoft Delays Xbox Sale in Japan on Fox quotes the managing director of Microsoft's Japan unit saying "the decision to delay sales until Feb. 22 was to concentrate efforts in the United States first, where the machine is set to hit stores Nov. 8 at $299."

Intel Hits 2 Gigahertz Mark, New Chip Milestone is the announcement that covers today's announcement.

8-27-1

As promised, the entries in the QuakeCon 2001 modeling contest hare now available for download on Polycount, each model is featured in a screenshot to give a feel for what it's about.

A post on Stomped has a reply they received when asking id programmer Robert Duffy about the status of the non-beta version of the point release Quake III Arena patch that says the patch, which contains only "a couple of very small changes" from Q3A 1.29H, should "be in the near future," as it's currently being tested at Activision.

There's a ParticleFX Tutorial on the Max Payne site from the Max Payne development team describing the basics of ParticleFX, "a powerful particle effect editing tool that was used to create all the fire, smoke, explosions, muzzle flashes and snowstorms you saw in Max Payne," and offering a step-by-step tutorial on creating these effects.

TweakTown's Broadband Connection Tweaking Guide offers optimization tips for your cable or DSL connection.

8-26-1

A testimonial letter from John Romero on the website for a Pocket PC Game Programming book offers evidence that one of his next projects is planned as a PocketPC game.

An update to the Epic Games Unreal Engine news page has word that "Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) generated 3D versions of their sets using Unreal Tournament.

8-25-1

There is  a Quake 4 wallpaper on GameWallpapers.

A new version 0.4.0 of Ter's Powertools for Kyro2 is now available.

There are Max Payne Benchmarks on RIVA Station showing how a wide range of cards perform at various resolutions running the game.

8-24-1

Fanatic's Asylum has the first patch for the QDoom "Quake-style" Doom port. The patch addresses a problem that prevented .mp3 tracks from playing.

Savage News has posted a link where you can find an updated version of the Hercules 3D tweaker utility.

Today is the sixth anniversary of the release of Windows 95.

8-22-1

The Official Weapons Factory Arena Website has a new version 3.0b of the class-based Weapons Factory Arena mod for Quake III Arena.

Czech site BonusWeb has posted the first details (in English) and screenshots of Cult, an isometric fantasy RPG in development at Slovakian companies Blade Team and 3D People.

GameSpot's Max Payne Game Guide is now online, offering, as they describe it, "everything you need to survive the perils of the underworld and lead Max on his quest for revenge." Included is a rundown on the game's weapons, a listing of cheat codes and Easter eggs, walkthroughs for Parts 1, II, & III, and even a section on how to best spend your bullet time. As usual, the guide is also available in a downloadable Adobe Acrobat PDF file in addition to the HTML version.

The debut release of the MYRA modification for Quake III Arena.

The jDoom website has a new version 1.01a of the Doomsday engine.

Game Forces' Tweaking Game Performance v2.0 offers tips on how to squeeze better gaming performance out of your computer.

8-21-1

GameSpot has posted a preview of the new Doom game in development at id Software, which they cautiously refer to as "Doom III (tentative title)."

PC Zone UK has posted five new screenshots of Spider-Man, the third-person console action game being ported to the PC by LTI Gray Matter.

8-20-1

The present and the future is a post by id Software lead programmer John Carmack in this Slashdot thread on the subject of What is Happening with OpenGL?, discussing the relative merits of the 3D graphics APIs Direct3D and OpenGL.

Soldier of Fortune Platinum Edition has Gone Gold!

8-19-1

Version 1.26 of EDGE, the Enhanced DOOM Gaming Engine is now available.

The SysOpt.com Overclocking-Hardware Database is looking to keep a comprehensive listing of overclocking set-ups.

8-18-1

id Software's Paul Jaquays sends along news announcing the winners of the QuakeCon 2001 Map Object Model contest. He had hoped to get these out right after the show, but he was feeling a under the weather, hence the delay. While the winners are listed in the release, the winning objects are not yet ready for download, as Paul says "that will still take some time for me to process them in my spare time.".

GameSpot has posted a new video interview on Return to Castle Wolfenstein which they brought back from QuakeCon, showing off the upcoming WWII first-person shooter and talking to Gray Matter's Greg Goodrich. The video runs for more than three minutes as a downloadable MPEG of 39.7 MB or in the usual streaming choices, and shows plenty of new gameplay footage with Greg commenting on the action.

Hardware Extreme has the latest leaked NVIDIA Detonator drivers, which are version 8.05.

8-17-1

What We Know About DOOM on TheTripleHelix.com offers no new information, but attempts to corral all the facts related to id Software's upcoming project, including all whatever was learned at QuakeCon.

A newly-opened Black & White section on the Feral Games website has the official announcement of the project currently underway to bring Black & White, Lionhead's GOD game, to the Macintosh platform.

NVIDIA reports increased profit, stock split has the delightful news for NVIDIA shareholders. 

8-16-1

As usual, GameSpot didn't forget to pack their camera for QuakeCon, and so they have now posted a video interview with John Carmack, id Software's lead programmer. The conversation is available in four segments in several streaming formats, totaling nearly 24 minutes, and John talks about graphical effects, realism in games, the new Doom game and the features it will require in 3D accelerator cards, his current programming challenges, the future of computer graphics, and lots more.

There's an Unreal Championship preview on Xbox.IGN.com.

Max Payne is reviewed on Beta-World and GamePro.

AnandTech's NVIDIA's Detonator 4 Drivers preview offers a look ahead at these upcoming drivers they say will offer "free performance."

A new version of the CPUCooL utility is now available.

8-15-1

The debut release of Combat Quake III Arena, an offbeat project that offers tank combat from a top-down perspective.

GamesReview's Max Payne Interview chats with Remedy Entertainment about Max Payne, their third-person shooter that offers a combination of gritty realism and cinematic gadgetry with its Matrix-inspired "bullet time" effect.

LinuxPorts reports that Loki Software, the company that ported numerous games to Linux including Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, TRIBES 2, and Soldier of Fortune, has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. There is a scan of the bankruptcy filing and word is the company owes Activision and Prolix a significant sum.

8-14-1

Describing itself as "like football with rocket launchers", version 3.0 of the Q3 Gridiron modification for Quake III Arena is now available.

The Tritin Films website now offers the release of Quake: The Movie, after its debut this weekend for the attendees of QuakeCon 2001. The movie, which has been deemed complete after reaching 15 minutes in length, has been titled "Escape From The Bastille," and while it did not reach the scope they had planned, they decided if unchecked, the project could take another couple of years to complete, "but at the 15 minute mark, the film is glorious, understandable, and is a stand-alone for it's own story. We feel it will have the same impact as we had planned the original to have."

8-13-1

Version 2.0 of the Battle of the Sexes CTF mod for Quake III Arena has been released.

A trailer for the Playstation 2 port of Half-Life is up at 13th Street.

8-12-1

Dimension Films, Collision Entertainment and Abandon Entertainment Acquire Rights to the Ground-Breaking Video Game "Max Payne"

The official Tribes 2 Central Download Site offers another beta patch for download, bringing Dynamix' multiplayer shooter to version 24648.

8-11-1

The Quake The Movie website has word that Quake The Movie: Escape from the Bastille, will be premiering today at QuakeCon 2001.

Max Payne is reviewed on MGON and ActiveWindows.

'Payne' game screen-bound on the Hollywood Reporter.

A new version 2.0 of the Reference Game Launcher on The Guru of 3D updates this utility that allows owners of NVIDA video cards to easily switch between multiple sets of different detonator drivers.

8-10-1

GameSpy Daily reports that at id Software's press conference this afternoon at QuakeCon, they have announced two new projects. Quake 4, which is being developed by Raven Software, will utilize id's latest technology, and will feature "Matrix-style effects" and will bring the series back to the Strogg-universe featured in Quake II. Also announced was an untitled, completely new franchise in development at Nerve Software (who are also working on Return to Castle Wolfenstein's multiplayer), which is said to be "a multiplayer co-op title using id technology." Activision will be publishing the untitled project, Quake 4, and DOOM for the Game Boy Advance. A publisher (or title, for that matter) for the new DOOM title has not yet been announced. Another report is up at ShackES, which also describes the new DOOM footage shown during John Carmack's talk, saying that it looks to be, "very dark, slow, and storyline-oriented."

A new version 2.4d of the QStat game server status utility is now available.

Max Payne is reviewed on GameSpy.com and GameZone.

New Deus Ex PS2 screenshots on GameSpot so check them out.

8-9-1

GameSpot attended an Infogrames press event, and so they have posted their impressions of Unreal II, the first-person shooter sequel being developed at Legend Entertainment. The article describes both a gameplay video and a demonstration they saw, including the character models, weapons, and more. And earlier today, GameSpot UK posted their own very brief impressions of the game.

A Max Payne Multiplayer Petition is now online.

8-8-1

The Orange Smoothie Productions website now has version 0.99v2 of the OSP mod for Quake III Arena.

The Proball website has the first beta release of this Quake III Arena modification that combines the fresh air and sunshine of playing computer games with the cold-hearted, bloodthirsty violence of sports, as it pays homage to "soccer, rugby or Aussie Rules Football, depending on what part of the world you live in."

PC.IGN has posted an interview that talks with id Software's Todd Hollenshead and Robert Duffy, as well as Brandon James, a former id employee and current president of Nerve Software. The subject of the interview is the multiplayer component of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which as rumored, id has farmed out to Nerve to produce, to allow Gray Matter to focus exclusively on the game's single player mode. The multiplayer will contain an "Axis vs. Allies" class-based system, and it sounds like they have some interesting missions in mind.

Lionhead has released another free enhancement for Black & White, the Soccer Add-On (or European Football, if you like). This 1.15 MB download requires the version 1.10 patch and once installed, "you will be able to use eight scaffolds from your workshop to create a soccer pitch - this will then be build in the normal way. When the villagers in that town have no desires which need fulfilling (no flags showing at the storage pit) they will play soccer."

An NVmax 3.00.07 Beta Update is now available.

There's a Key lock switch case mod guide on OverclockersClub.

The Kyro II Overclocking Project on The Hardware Pub looks to succeed where others have failed at boosting KYRO II Performance.

8-7-1

Action Quake Developers Team website now offers the release of version 4.4a of Action Quake: ETE (Espionage Tournament Edition).

John Romero announced his departure from id five years ago today.

ShellShock's Crater now offers a new version 01.08.04.00 of the Q3Offline modification for Quake III Arena. The updated release of this Q3A front-end adds a new "advanced" tab that allows you to change any of the game's variables, not just the ones coded into Q3Offline. Q3Offline's Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force also extends to the new expansion pack, including the ability to select from the new game types.

Version 1.8 of the Art of War mod for Quake III Arena has been released.

The Quake 2 Masterpieces Pak is a file available over at QMass.net that contains "twelve of the most visually stunning Quake2 maps ever released".

Take Two has announced that Max Payne will be released for the Playstation 2 and Xbox this fall. The PS2 port has long been known, but this is the first time anyone has confirmed an Xbox version of the game.

The official Tribes 2 Central Download site offers a new beta patch for download, bringing Dynamix' multiplayer shooter to version 24551.

A new version 2.0 RC 6 of the RivaTuner GeForce & TNT Tweak utility is now available.

8-6-1

Second Developer For Wolfenstein? is a story on HomeLan Fed reporting that a preview of Return to Castle Wolfenstein in the September 2001 issue of Computer Gaming World reveals that Gray Matter is not developing a multiplayer mode for their upcoming first-person shooter, but that an as yet unsigned developer will take on this task. They contacted id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead about this who briefly commented that more information will be released at next week's QuakeCon.

Online Simming is the name of PC Gameplay's interview with Jeff Charvat, the series producer at Electronic Arts on The Sims Online, the upcoming online version of the ridiculously popular people sim. The interview has been posted to PC Gameplay's news page, but nonetheless it's fairly detailed, with Jeff explaining how the game functions, how people interact with each other and other gameplay issues.

There is a playable demo of From Dusk Till Dawn on French site Joystick, offering you a chance to try out this third-person action adventure by GameSquad. The demo weighs in at 68.0 MB.

8-5-1

As noted on the official Quake III Arena site, a new Linux version 1.29h beta patch is now available.

Max Payne is reviewed on PC Game Central, Tucows Games, Head 2 Head Gaming.

Payne Reactor has the release of the official Max Payne texture pack, either as one large 43 MB file, or broken up into 17 smaller archives (separated by theme) for easier downloading.

PC.IGN.com has posted a new Spider-Man preview, checking our this third-person action game by LTI Gray Matter by way of a recent press build. After an introduction to the game's origin on various console platforms and its premise, there are plenty of gameplay details as well as a handful of new screenshots. Additionally, five QuickTime movies are included totaling several minutes of gameplay footage.

8-4-1

As is their way, MAF-Soft Update Patches has a version of the Quake III Arena 1.29h patch that will only work on version 1.29g, as opposed to the "real" patch which can update any prior version (there are other interim patches there, as well). The result is a 712 KB patch, instead of a 26 MB one. Use of this these patches is at your own risk.

Following up on his earlier post, John Carmack made a second post to the thread on Slashdot regarding the future of graphics hardware. This post is much more centered on id's next round of technology, and he confirms that a GeForce 3 will run their new DOOM with all features on at around 30 FPS. Here's his post:

Obviously, any game done with the new Doom engine is going to run slower than a game done with Q3 technology. You can make some of it back up by going to the simpler lighting model and running at a lower resolution, but you just won't be able to hit 60+ fps on a GF2. The low end of our supported platforms will be a GF1 / 64 bit GF2Go / Radeon, and it is expected to chug a bit there, even with everything cut down.

There are several more Q3 engine games in the works that will continue to run great on existing systems, and Doom is still a long ways off in any case, so there will be a lot more upgrades and new systems. We are aiming to have a GF3 run Doom with all features enabled at 30 fps. We expect the high end cards at the time of release to run it at 60+ fps with improved quality. This is an intentionally lower average FPS for the hardware cross section than we targeted for Q3, but still higher than we targeted Q2 and earlier games (before hardware acceleration was prevalent).

In the GLQuake days, light maps were considered an extravagance ("Render the entire screen TWICE? Are you MAD?"), and some unfortunate hardware companies just thought increased performance meant higher resolutions and more triangles instead of more complex pixel operations. Five passes sounds like a lot right now, but it will be just as quaint as dual texturing in the near future. I am quite looking forward to 100+ operations per interaction in future work.

ProMode.Org has the release of a new version 99v of the Challenge Pro Mode Arena modification for Quake III Arena. The new version tweaks LG knockback and lateral self-knockback, said to enable "a more QDQ-ish style of rocket-running." Also included are "a bunch of other fixes and tweaks."

A story titled Max Payne Coming To The Silver Screen on GameSpot UK shows the value of following the old RTFM edict, as they pulled the following tidbit from the Max Payne documentation: "Don't worry, you'll be seeing more of Max in the future. Dimension Films and Collision Entertainment are teaming up to make a feature film based on Max Payne - and further adventures of this character are already in the works."

Hot on the heels of the debut public release, the Team Aerial Combat website has a new version 0.42 of the TAC 2 modification for TRIBES 2.

8-3-1

There's a Super Heroes 3 interview on Q3 Center discussing progress on the upcoming Quake III Arena version of this mod that has also had versions for Quake II and Quake. The plan is to release the debut version of the mod at this year's QuakeCon (there are also some new SH3 screenshots on their website).

The Military Forces website has the debut release of this modification for Quake III Arena. This is described as an "early alpha release," of a mod that will allow you to fly planes and helicopters, drive tanks and other military-type stuff.

GameSpot posted a behind the scenes video of Majestic, Electronic Arts' strange game of conspiracy theories and phone calls at 3:00 in the morning. The video is in a variety of streaming media formats, and contains an interview with co-creator Neil Young, and also looks at the development of the game.

8-2-1

A post to Promode.Org offers "Quick notes on 1.29g, and a very cool trick with demos" following-up on the recent release of the Quake III Arena version 1.29g patch. Since mouse sensitivity was changed in the new release (they cover the argument over whether this is now fixed or broken), they offer the key info that some unhappy folks seem to be missing in the documentation on how to revert your mouse's behavior back to the way it was under Q3A 1.17, 1.27h, and 1.29f by setting the "in_mouse" cvar to -1, while setting it back to 1 will use the newer (1.27g, 1.29g) mouse code. They also mention work on a " very cool trick with demos" that allows a client record a single demo in a one-on-one match that includes the point of view of each of the players.

A new version 1.2 of the ArenaScout IRC server browser for Quake III Arena is now available.

8-1-1

Looks like Collector's Doom and Quake III Gold Edition are in the works, beans spilled courtesy of EBgames.com.

Version 2.1 of utLobby, an Unreal Tournament server browser and monitoring tool has been released. utLobby sits in the user's system tray, and in addition to its standard suite of server monitoring functions, it can publish game information to a live web page and let players waiting to join the server chat with each other.

7-31-1

As promised, id Software's Robert Duffy updated his .plan to announce that the version 1.29h patch for Quake III Arena is now available, albeit only for Win32. The file is available from their ftp server (25.5 MB) and you should also be able to upgrade via the auto-updater.

HomeLan' PainKeep Arena Interview talks with the shy and retiring Robert "Sgt. Hulka" Waring about the PainKeep Arena modification for Quake III Arena.

R6Italia has posted some new screenshots from Ghost Recon, Red Storm Entertainment's upcoming installment in their series of tactical first-person shooters based on the works of Tom Clancy.

7-30-1

As promised, Dynamix has released a public beta demo of TRIBES 2 at the official Tribes 2 Central Download site, offering you a chance to try out their multiplayer shooter in case you haven't bought the full game yet. This demo weighs in at 78.4 MB, includes one CTF and one Hunters map, and is not supported by Sierra.

"Shrek" steals Microsoft show is a Reuters story at News.com that says this Xbox game of flatulence wowed a crowd of Wall Street analysts. In-game movies from Raven Blade, the canceled RPG from Retro Studios are available over at Cube.IGN.

7-29-1

Following up on their speculative Quake 4 story a couple of weeks ago, a new report on Computer and Video Games titled "Raven takes Quake 4 from Carmack" offers further fuel to this rumor, saying "several independent insiders, under conditions of strict anonymity, have now confirmed that the project is well down the line at Raven and will almost certainly be shown at QuakeCon." As pointed out in the article, "Activision is refusing to discuss the subject on or off the record." On an equally speculative note, Raven Flies Quake 4 Flag on FGN likewise cites "reliable sources," agreeing that Quake 4 (IV?) will be unveiled at QuakeCon, and adds an even more speculative release date as "late 2003." Rounding out the no comments on this, they point out that Raven likewise has not yet responded to their requests for a comment on these rumors.

As promised (and in fact earlier than originally announced), beta version 0.45 of the True Combat mod for Quake III Arena has been released. True Combat is "a superreal conversion" and this latest release adds "free climbing," a holstering system, a new light glare effect and lots more. It is available for Mac, Linux and Win32.

7-28-1

HomeLan's CyberExtruder Interview talks with Larry Gardner about CyberExtruder, who can create an image that will allow you to easily place your own face on a model for Unreal Tournament, Quake III Arena, and The Sims.

Remedy has updated their site with details on the Max Payne version 1.01 patch which they say is currently in testing and should be released later today. Here are the details:

We've finished a patch (download size: 6.2 MB) which is now in testing and will be hopefully released later today. Download information will be available here and at 3D Realms' homepage.

We're sorry for any problems caused for people who couldn't get the game to run, or it had stability problems. If there are still problems after this patch, we will do our best to get them fixed ASAP.

Max Payne Development Team.

The patch to version 1.01 addresses the following issues:

- Exit to desktop stability issues addressed:
The issues with the game crashing into Windows' desktop when loading a new map have been addressed.

- Game doesn't start with some CD-Rom drives:
A newer version of SafeDisc copy protection is used. If the game still doesn't start up, please contact support@talonsoft.com

Alex Rodberg, Sierra's TRIBES 2 brand manager made a post to the TribalWar forums with information on the next patch for TRIBES 2, as well as the status of the TRIBES 2 playable demo.

7-27-1

GamaSutra has conducted an interview with American McGee. The interview deals largely with American McGee's Alice, but he does comment on his upcoming projects, saying that he'll "probably end up directing some straight to video Hellraiser 34 movie or something like that" and that he is in talks to direct some music videos as well.

There's a Painting Your Case guide on ProCooling.

The debut release of Marathon Resurrection is now available, an Unreal Tournament modification that pays homage to Bungie's Marathon, the first real FPS for the Macintosh. This first public beta is multiplayer only, as whatever single player components it includes are not really playable at this point.

7-26-1

Version 1.0 of Race Quake is now available, offering Quake (1) speed-run competitions through DM3, the Abandoned Base. Offering a top 10 list of fastest times, this is described as "an ultimate test of rocket jumping, bunnyhopping, and knowledge of DM3."

You can now sign up to play the "pilot episode" of the oddball conspiracy game Majestic. The pilot is the free, first chapter of the game, and if you want to play the full version you'll have to sign up for EA's platinum service.

QUAKELORD'S QUAKE NEWS © Copyright 2005 MARK PASKO mail@quakelord.net  Dont forget to check out our forum .