10-31-2

As noted on the Command & Conquer Generals Official Beta Site, the acceptance letters have gone out to those who have been selected for the multiplayer beta test of Westwood's upcoming RTS sequel. There is no indication yet about when the testing will begin, except that testers will receive a notification "A few days before Operation: Multiplayer Test goes live."

10-30-2

Game Development à la Mod on Business 2.0 is on the topic of "Counter-Strike, The Accidental Blockbuster". The article describes the game's rags-to-riches story from humble beginnings as a Half-Life mod, its development on a sub-shoestring budget, offers quotes from Valve Software managing director Gabe Newell on what Counter-Strike has meant to the ongoing success of Half-Life, discusses other mod success stories, and caps off describing Counter-Strike's Minh Le as "working hard on a Counter-Strike sequel in the basement of his parents' home."

10-29-2

There's a Command & Conquer Generals preview on Computer and Video Games with a look at Westwood's upcoming C&C game based on a visit to L.A. to check it out at a press event. They describe the familiar three-way war theme this game resumes, the "simply stunning" graphics, enhancing the AI to prevent predictable scripted behavior, units, the game's namesake generals, the omission of the FMV cutscene convention, and more.

10-26-2

A new beta 2 of the Train Hunters Half-Life modification is now available as a patch for those with beta one installed, or a full version for new users. The new version offers a new crossbow model, several new maps, some new and improved weapons, a bunch of bug-fixes, and more.

10-23-2

The Star Wars Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast Website has news that the Xbox and GameCube versions of the Star Wars first-person shooter sequel are both now gold and winging their way to retail. Both versions are expected in stores by November 18, and in celebration, they have released a new trailer showing off the game on the consoles.

10-14-2

Unreality has a summary of a post to the Unreal Tournament 2003 forums (no longer viewable without registration) from DrSin describing the possibility the Epic will release a special version of UT2003 specially suited to the demands of competitive gameplay that locks down certain setting to create an even playing field for outfits like the CPL.

10-5-2

Tiscali Games has a list of mirrors for downloads of that Aussie version of the NFS: Hot Pursuit 2 Demo which features two cars not in the other version of the demo.

10-2-2

There's a Iron Storm Preview on The Wargamer with a look at 4X Studios' upcoming alternate-history WWI shooter. They describe the game's 50-year war storyline and go on to describe aspects of gameplay like the FPS controls and feel, the mix of older and newer weaponry, the underlying economic element, the theme of the missions, graphics, enemy AI, the crisp feel, the HUD and interface, multiplayer support, system requirements, and more.

Action Vault's No One Lives Forever 2 AI Q&A chats with Monolith's Craig Hubbard, Jeff Orkin, and John Mulkey about the artificial intelligence in their upcoming LithTech-engine spy shooter sequel. They discuss goals and challenges of implementing the game's AI, a bit more on the AI's goals, the AI's goals, and the AI's goals, as well as what limitations they ran into, realism versus fun, humorous bugs they encountered during development, and more.

The AquaNox 2: Revelation Website has the release of a new trailer from the upcoming sequel to Massive Development's underwater shooter. The DivX-format movie runs just under three minutes, and is available in three different resolutions with download sizes ranging from 10 to 57 MB.

A new version of [H]ardOCP's UT2003 Benchmark (direct FTP link) is now available.

10-1-2

A new version 1.02 of Tenebrae is now available, updating the modification of the publicly-available Quake source that adds stencil shadows and per pixel lights to Quake. The new version runs faster, adds Radeon support, reflections, glare, Md3 support, and more. There is an update to the new version since it was first released that uses the latest version of the code that adds Radeon support.

Americas Army: Operations sends word this project "is looking for full time, programmers with skills including programming animation, game logic, sound, physics, interfaces, and other systems who are talented, motivated and team oriented with a passion to build great games. The ideal candidate will show expertise or potential in C++ and Unreal Script or other programming tools. Experience with other software packages including level building or modeling packages is a plus. Send submissions in the form of resumes to Alex Mayberry. amayberry@mail.armygame.net."

9-30-2

A report on The Hollywood Reporter titled "Warners corners film rights to vid game 'Doom'" (thanks Hammer) has the latest on the ongoing efforts to make a movie based on DOOM, this time out the goal is a DOOM III tie-in. Here's the freely accessible portion of the article:

Warner Bros. Pictures is in final negotiations to pick up the feature film rights to id Software Inc.'s video game property "Doom" in a progress-to-production deal that will see the project go in front of the cameras in 15 months, or the rights revert back to the software company. Studio-based John Wells Prods. will produce "Doom" with recently departed worldwide production president-turned-producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Once the deal is firmly in place, a writer will be put on board to pen the screenplay. Although the video game was controversial because of its violence when it was originally released, the feature film version will aim for a PG-13 rating. "Doom," a first-person shooter, launched in 1993, and a third installment is scheduled for release next year. The feature film's story line will most resemble the third "Doom," which is set in the future at a paramilitary base on Mars, where a scientific experiment goes awry and accidentally opens a portal to hell. The vastly outnumbered hero fights off the forces of hell as they come from the portal onto the deserted base. This will be the basis for the feature version, without the constraints of the first-person shooter format.

NVIDIA Offer Industry's First and Only Full Family of AGP 8X GPU and Core Logic Solutions is a press release from NVIDIA announcing their support for the AGP 8X spec. Here's a tad: "Today's fast-paced 'fly-through' applications and games will see significant improvements in overall performance due to the doubled AGP 8X speed. By combining the performance and scalability of AGP8X GPU and a high performance 128MB DDR frame buffer; the GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP 8X GPU delivers more than two times the graphics performance of competitive products. Support for AGP 8X extends beyond the GeForce4 family of desktop GPUs and into all the motherboard designs based on NVIDIA's highly anticipated nForce2 core logic products. By featuring AGP 8X, NVIDIA's nForce2 platform processors help reduce system bottlenecks, allowing for increased system performance and stability."

9-29-2

NewDoom.com has a pair of DOOM-related Q&As, one talking with Jaakko 'skyJake' Keränen about the future of the Doomsday project, and the other chatting with Hurdler about the next version of DooM Legacy.

The Medal of Honor Allied Assault Spearhead Preview on PC.IGN.Com offers hands-on impressions of the upcoming MoH expansion in the works at Electronic Arts. They describe their abiding affection for the original MoH, the cinematic presentation, the tight (if linear) plot, the new role the player will assume, settings of the nine new levels, your squad-mates, new weapons, the addition of smoke grenades, multiplayer support, and more.

9-28-2

Civilization III: Play the World preview part two on UGO.com concludes their two part look at the upcoming Play the World add-on for Civ III, Firaxis' latest edition in the famed series of turn-based strategy games. This installment focuses on the expansion's namesake multiplayer support, describing how opponents are located, selecting multiplayer options, chat options, the "turnless" play mode that finds a middle ground between turn-based and real-time gameplay, and more.

9-27-2

A new version 1.2 for the Thievery modification for Unreal Tournament is now available. The patch to update this mod that brings some of the skulky gameplay of the Thief series to UT is 34 MB, and features "new maps, fixes, balances and tweaks aplenty to improve your Thievery experience."

9-26-2

There's a Soldier of Fortune II dedicated Linux server patch v1.02a for download on 3D Gamers. "This release fixes a PunkBuster related issue and comes as a new Linux binary to use with the full install of the v1.02 server."

9-25-2

Hitman 2 goes gold on GameSpot has word from Eidos that Hitman 2: Silent Assassin has gone gold, and IO Interactive's Codename 47 sequel for the PC will ship later this week along with the PS2 and Xbox versions.

The MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries Fan Fiction Contest is online in cooperation with several participating fan sites. "That winner will receive a free autographed copy of MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries and have their story posted on the official MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries website."

9-24-2

The Unreal Technology Website now offers a couple of updates about the editing and modification tools distributed with Unreal Tournament 2003.

9-23-2

The DooM Legacy Homepage now offers a new version 1.40 of DooM Legacy, a modified version of the publicly-available DOOM source code. The new version adds editing features, hardware-specific enhancements, new multiplayer options, and more. Also, Legacy now runs under FreeBSD, OS/2 and MacOS X in addition to previously supported platforms. Compiled binaries are available for GNU/Linux, Win32, and DOS.

There are new previews on both GameSpot and PC.IGN.Com looking at Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, NovaLogic's upcoming tactical shooter sequel. Each article describes the background of the story set in Mogadishu, Somalia, the game engine, the missions, the vehicles (which can be ridden in, but not driven by the player), weapons, squad AI, multiplayer support, and more. Each article includes new screenshots, and IGN's media page also offers some new gameplay movies.

A demo of World Wrestling Federation Raw is now available for download

9-22-2

The Art of War Page offers public beta 0.8 of Brainworks, a Quake III Arena modification that adds a little more "I" to the AI in the bots in Q3A. The new release addresses a couple of the most common requests they've received since the last release, as it improves the bots choice of weapon based on how successfully they are able to use them, and adds the ability to implement the smarter bots into other Q3A modifications.

The Firearms Half-Life website now offers a new version 2.65 of this Half-Life modification. Available as a full installer or as an update patch for both Linux and Windows, the new release offers numerous tweaks to the mod's maps, as well as enhanced iFeel effects for force feedback mice.

Beta 1.0 of the Digital Paintball modification for Half-Life is now available. There are notes accompanying the release for what to do if you got the earliest version of the archive they posted and are having trouble unzipping it, which parameter to change if you load the mod but can't find the maps, and word on what will be addressed in the soon-to-be-released beta 1.1 follow-up.

Sierra sends along the press release announcing that No One Lives forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way is gold.

9-21-2

Virtual Quake augments reality.

The Creative Labs Europe Q&A on Guru3D talks about their plans for the future.

Thermal Compounds: A Definitive Guide on Inside Project.

9-20-2

In anticipation of the upcoming release of Unreal Tournament 2003, the Unreal Developer's Page has been updated with "a significant amount of documentation" about modifying the game. "Along with the latest TerrainTutorial, level design documentation covering everything from the new static mesh primitives to modelling using the much-enhanced skeletal system has been made available. Plus, the public technical documentation includes basic skeletal animation documentation, and information on the new UnrealScriptDelegates language feature!" More of this stuff is promised "soon."

Scissors about Postal 2, their upcoming Unreal-engine Postal follow-up. They discuss the background of the development team, changes in the sequel from the original, the story, weapons, NPCs, violence in gaming, comparisons with GTA3, all interspersed with their trademark outrageousness.

9-19-2

There's a DOOM III Preview on Computer and Video Games reproducing a print article from a recent copy of PC Zone magazine. The article is based on a sojourn to Dublin to see the game in action, and offers some brief reactions to what they saw, along with some quotes from id Software's Tim Willits and Todd Hollenshead touching on things like realism, atmosphere and monster AI.

The promised Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo patch is now available via the demo's in-game auto-update function. The patch is also available as an approximately 3 MB download, a list of download locations can be found on the Unreal Tournament 2003 Website. Word on a Linux patch is that it is to follow soon, but it's possible it will only be released through the auto-updater. Here is the list of what this patch addresses.

- Fixed support for Voodoo3 / Matrox G400.
- Fixed initial framerate hitches in network play.
- Fixed the jittery screen updates in the server browser when sorting by ping.
- Fixed a possible DoS attack in the server code.
- Fixed a few other minor potential crashes.

The demo version of No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way has been released, premiering on FilePlanet (registration required). The demo is a 158 MB download, and according to plan, offers "four levels total from three of the game's 15 chapters. The locations will include Japan, Siberia and the never before seen, Underwater Base." Mirrors are now available from Gigex, FileShack (registration required), and 3D Gamers.

9-18-2

There's an Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo Tweak Guide on TechSpot and another on TweakTown offering tips on troubleshooting, basic graphics setup, audio settings, and more. Also, the A to Z of Oz UT terms on OzUnreal.com offers a glossary on frequently used game terms.

9-17-2

The Unreal Technology Website features an update from Epic's Tim Sweeney discussing some important issues regarding the just-released demo for Unreal Tournament 2003. Contained therein is the news that a small patch is expected today, which will provide the first real-world test of their in-game update feature while addressing a number of reported bugs. The post also describes how DirectX 8.1b is required for the demo, that the in-game server browser bug caused by the flood of users should be fixed now from the server side, tips for server admins running multiple servers on one machine, that the recent master server downtime was caused by its move to a faster machine, that the stats tracking system will come online today, an admission that joystick support still needs work, and more. Additionally, a couple of forum posts highlight other fixes in the works, this one by Mark Rein admits that they accidentally broke support for Voodoo-based accelerators and that today's patch will address this, and this post by CliffyB acknowledges the dislike many have expressed with the sports announcer voices, describing new options the game will offer to control announcements, while providing a workaround to disable the announcer in the demo for now.

The Qtracker Homepage now has a new version 3.35, updating this server browsing utility (that also offers a ton of other functions) to support the new Unreal Tournament 2003 demo. They have also produced an new accompanying UT2003 demo mapshot pack, and a complete list of changes in the new version can be found here.

Version 2.62 of GameSpy 3D is now available for registered users.

There's a CliffyB Q&A on NVIDIA's Unreal Tournament 2003 Page talking with the Epic designer about the new game engine in UT2003, some NVIDIA log-rolling, bots, game-types, weapons, new moves, and more.

9-16-2

The Conflict Desert Storm Demo on 3D Gamers is the premiere of the playable demo of Conflict: Desert Storm , Pivotal Games' upcoming squad-based combat game set in the Gulf War. The demo contains a video introduction and a full single-player mission, all of the cost of a 70 MB download.

There's a Delta Force: Black Hawk Down Preview on EuroGamer with a look at NovaLogic's upcoming DF game for which the demo is expected today. They discuss the setting in Somalia, the story that's divided into five episodes, the cinematic feel, the greater degree of action than previous Delta Force games, the game engine, AI, multiplayer support, and more.

HomeLan Fed's Exclusives No One Lives Forever 2 Preview is the latest look at the widely-distributed preview build of Monolith's upcoming spy shooter. They describe the Japanese setting of the included levels, the LithTech Jupiter engine, physics, puzzles, the groovy sixties style, weapons, cool touches and Easter eggs, and more.

Strategy First has released a minor version 1.0.6c patch for the North American version of Legion, which addresses a glitch detecting the game disk in secondary CD-Rom drives.

Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 has been released. Thanks Justin Rossetti. FYI, this seems to update Windows Media Player

9-13-2

After a protracted bit of pre-release teasing, the Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo is now available offering a sampling of what to expect from the upcoming multiplayer first-person shooter from Digital Extremes and Epic Games. The file clocks in at 97.7 MB, and features four maps (two deathmatch, one CTF, and one Bombing Run),  along with a single player model. It is available at many sites, all listed on the Unreal Tournament 2003 Downloads Page.

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