June 2004
Dungeon Lords Screenshots
 Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:27 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
worthplaying.com has some new screenshots for Dungeon Lords. Combining the depth of an epic Fantasy RPG with FPS-style controls, Dungeon Lords brings the Action RPG to a whole new level. This 3D game offers a deep storyline shrouded in mystery and betrayal and features many playable races with myriad character classes. Now this sounds and looks like my kinda fantasy based game. It's slated to be released this fall so keep your eyebones peeled. Check out the official site for more info and screenies, etc....
Chenming 602A ATX Case Review
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:31 PM |
Category: Hardware |
I've recently been looking at a lot of computer cases in a search for a new case for my next comp. Anyhow, theres a review of Chenming's 602A ATX Case on PimpRig and I must say I really like the design of this case. Here is a shot from the review:The 602 is available in either steel or aluminum flavor, the "A" behind the model number merely denotes that this case is aluminum. The 602A I received arrived sans power supply and front 80mm fans. There wasn't much that was included with it, a bag o' screws and a single page of picture instructions. A nice touch was that inside the larger bag of screws, there were sorted individual bags that were labeled as to what they contain. Of course, you also receive the keys to open the front panel and side door locks. I think that's one really nice lookin case and would look great on my desk. Go ahead and have a have a look at it and have a read...
Worthplaying Has The Bard's Tale Screenshots
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:34 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
worthplaying.com has some screenshots for The Bard's Tale posted up. Look unto this particular page for the screenshots for this RPG that is a third-person, action-RPG game that is said to feature wicked humor and clever personality.
Daniel Talks Dungeon Siege II Combat Powers
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:24 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
On the Dungeon Siege II site they updated thier Dev Diaries. This time Designer Daniel Achterman talks about combat and the use of powers...In game designer terms, Powers provide an additional layer of combat gameplay choices, rewarding strategy, timing, and tactical skill. In gamer terms, they let you blow stuff up real good! Go right here to read the rest of what Daniel Achterman has to say. As a matter of fact I just started to play Legends Of Aranna again today (didn't finish it before) and all this talk about Dungeon Siege II sure sounds good to me.
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM HDD
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:17 PM |
Category: Hardware |
I found this hardware review after being on Shack News and thought it was pretty interesting... probably because of a recent purchase of a 120 gig Western Digital drive. Anyhow on System Cooling.com they reviewed the Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM HDD Here is a small quote jobby. So having this chance to review this HDD I wanted to take as much time as possible to see how well this second generation Raptor would stand up to higher then average workloads. I bombarded it with formats, defrags, file movements and a host of other HDD intensive applications almost daily during the three months. It's very interesting stuff indeed but at this point I don't think I need such a device so I'll stick with the olde 7200 RPM model. ;)
Painkiller Expansion Pack Announced
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:48 PM |
Category: First Person |
Dreamcatcher announced that they plan on creating an expansion to Painkiller titled Battle out of Hell.
Picking up right where the game’s story left off, Battle out of Hell includes an additional single-player chapter with 10 levels, as well as new multiplayer modes, maps and models. It will also offer an amplified arsenal of un-deadly weapons, bigger and badder bosses and the map editor Software Development Kit.
A shooter in its purest form, Painkiller boasts truly stunning graphics and some of the most intimidating level bosses ever seen. The game utilizes the impressive Havok 2.0 physics engine, achieving new heights of physics-based gameplay, while the proprietary 3D "PAIN engine” is capable of pumping an unbelievably high polygon count while adding increased texture quality and the latest lighting and shadowing techniques. Check out the official site for further details on the Painkiller game.
Short Dungeon Siege II Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:17 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
computerandvideogames.com has a short preview posted up for Dungeon Siege II. Here is a copy of part of that preview:Thankfully, Kevin Lambert, lead designer on Dungeon Siege II, assures us that the sequel is set to offer something a bit more substantial. "We already had a beautiful engine in place so we could really focus on the content this time and listen to what the fans really wanted," explains Kevin. "Everyone said that they wanted to see more of a story and better characterisation, so that's what we've given them." Well it'll be interesting to see how much Dungeon Siege II is better than the original once it ships. Check out that preview.
Starship Troopers Interview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 8:32 PM |
Category: First Person |
Ugo.com posted up an interview with Simon Prytherch, Senior Executive Producer with Empire Interactive and they talk briefly about the upcoming Starship Troopers. Here is a clip from the interview:UGO: It's strictly a first-person shooter? You don't control your teammates?
Empire: You don't control them, but you do lead by example. Players play the game with a headset on and information is given through it... information you'll need to survive. For example, a dropship will give you information that bugs are three miles away but approaching. So have a gander at that interview and theres also a few screenies to check out as well.
Kreed Demo Released
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 8:09 PM |
Category: First Person |
worthplaying.com has the demo of Kreed ready for download. The file is 202 mb and contains an introduction cutscene, two single-player missions titled Arc of Secret Light and Skirmish in Holy City, and a pair of deathmatch maps called Dungeon and Aspero. Get the Kreed Demo and check out the Official Site for more info on this Sci-Fi FPS game. By the way Kreed is scheduled for release on July 2nd for the PC.
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident Screenshots
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:58 PM |
Category: Strategy |
Noticed on Blues News that theres a bunch of cool screenshots revealed for Nexus: The Jupiter Incident on the official site. The game is a real-time mission based tactical space game that boasts over 30 missions that take place in 6 episodes. For a space game it's looking pretty spiffy.... check er out.
Spellforce Expansion Pack Trailer
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:03 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
worthplaying.com has a 37.61 MB trailer for Spellforce: Breath Of Winter, the upcoming Spellforce expansion pack. So go grab that trailer while waiting for the add-on pack to be released.
Kreed Screenshots
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:02 PM |
Category: First Person |
Adrenaline Vault put up the news that Acclaim has released new screenshots of Kreed. The game will be publishled in the UK on July 2. When and if the game ships to North America is still up in the air. Makes me wonder what happened to that Conan: The Dark Axe game for us North America gamers. :( Anyhow check out those screenshots and look for the little "next image" jobby on the bottom right to get the next shot. I almost missed it so...
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:Shadow of Chernobyl Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:59 PM |
Category: First Person |
VIA Gamers has a cool preview for the upcoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl game that is being made for the PC. Here is a small clip from the preview article:The storyline that backdrops the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R is grim. History always repeats itself, which is unfortunate for the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant, suffering a second explosion in the year 2006, twenty years on from the initial disaster. Things quickly go from bad to worse and in an effort to contain the threat an exclusion zone of a 30KM radius is created and remains for at least another six years. Eventually Stalkers are called upon, mercenaries for hire charged with the task of sneaking in and exploring the exclusion zone, seeking out artifacts and anomalous zones. By earning money Stalkers are able to purchase new weapons and equipment along the way to enable them to engage more challenging and rewarding objectives. I'm really looking forward to this game and hopefully it'll be as cool as it looks from the screenshots and as good as the preview says.
Thief: Deadly Shadows Patch v1.1
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:22 PM |
Category: Stealth |
worthplaying.com reports that the much needed patch for Thief: Deadly Shadows has been released.The Thief: Deadly Shadows Patch that addresses the level difficulty reset issue is now available for download. This patch will correct the issue where a game saved on a more difficult setting will revert back to the default difficulty upon reloading. Read the rest of the report including what is fixed and also get the download upon this page. By the way this patches the game to version 1.1 and is a 0.5mb download..
Cassini Spacecraft Visits Saturn
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 7:37 PM |
Category: Science |
CNN.com posted up an article about the Cassini spacecraft flying by Saturn's largest moon Phoebe. The spacecraft took some shots of the 137 mile across, crater spotted satellite as it prepared to enter a four year orbit to study the ringed planet. You can read the full story right here. Thanks to Looney2ner for spotting the interesting article.
Bethesda Seeks New Team Members
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:08 PM |
Category: Developer |
Bethesda Softworks is now seeking some new talent to join thier team as the just updated thier Jobs section of thier Bethsoft site. The positions up for grabs are Game Programmer and World Artist. I wonder if they'll do anouther RPG anytime soon.... perhaps The Elder Scrolls 4? That would be sweet.
Breath Of Winter Gone Gold
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 11:12 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
Blues News announced that the Spellforce: Order Of The Dawn addon went Gold. This first expansion pack which is called: Spellforce Breath of Winter boasts an extensive 40h single player campaign. I don't know when us North American's will see the game hit the shelves but the U.K. gamers will see it in stores on June 25. Oh well, I'm just downloaing the demo for the game tonight so I'm in no hurry. Oh yeah, here is the blurb on the official site.
More Silent Hunter III Screenshots
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:48 PM |
Category: Simulation |
worthplaying.com has some cool looking Silent Hunter III screenshots posted up. The game is scheduled to launch on the PC late 2004. I'm not much of a Sim playing guy but those screenshots sure look cool.
Half-Life 2 Code Theives Arrested
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:58 PM |
Category: Developer |
I saw this news item yesterday but didn't get a chance to post it and then forgot until now. Anyhow it's been announced on various gaming sites, including the Adrenaline Vault that arrests have been made in the Half-Life 2 source code theft. You can get the full information on this page and hopefully they really did catch the creeps involved..
Knights of the Old Republic 2 Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:14 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
ActionTrip posted up a preview of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: Sith Lords. I decided to take a quote from the preview and here it is:The gameplay runs the same as it did in the original game. Real-time combat may be paused at any time to distribute a variety of orders to characters. It's a flawless combat system, so why change it? (Hands down to the creative team at Bioware for that one.). For the time being, no interface changes were shown, but we hope there will be alterations to the one we saw in the original. The workbench, for one, received a cool new feature which allows you to take certain items apart and utilize their parts for creating more powerful weapons. Also, additional slots were added for upgrading and customizing your lightsaber. For the rest of the preview go check out the preview!
New Psychotoxic Screenshots
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:55 PM |
Category: First Person |
Gamer's Hell posted up some new screenshots for Psychotoxic which is an upcoming FPS that is scheduled to be released on the 20th of August. Also you can visit the official site for more info.
Pandora Tomorrow Review
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:42 PM |
Category: Stealth |
Action Vault has a review posted up for Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. Here is a snip from the review:Enemy AI remains one of the series' strong points, particularly as concerns detection of the player; foes can discern intrusions by audio and visual cues, and if alerted by a suspicious occurrence, they will proceed to the vicinity of the disturbance and search it in a methodical manner. This, however, can be used to the player's advantage, as it's possible to create a distraction that will allow you to slip by un-noticed, by tossing a well aimed object such as a bottle for a guard to investigate. In addition, since Fisher now possesses the ability to whistle, an ostensibly innocuous trill can be used in tandem with carefully placed wall mines to lure enemies to their doom. Ok go sneak over and read that review.
Thief III Patch Coming Soon
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:20 PM |
Category: Stealth |
Adrenaline Vault announced that Eidos plans on releasing a patch for Thief: Deadly Shadows soon due to an AI bug.The purported defect forces users to play on the game's "Normal" difficulty setting. The bug apparently resets the artificial intelligence routines of the enemy characters whenever the player loads a saved game or enters a new area. This means easier and harder versions of the game are unplayable unless the user completes the campaign without stopping or backtracking. Read the full story on Adrenaline Vault.
New Dungeon Siege II Movie
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:07 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
I spyed upon Shack News that Gas Powered Games has released a new Dungeon Siege 2 movie, showing nine minutes of footage from the game along with narration by Chris Taylor. You can get the movie off of thier downloads section or get it off Shack's download jobby.
Hellforces Interview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:12 PM |
Category: First Person |
On the GenGamers site they posted up an interview with lead programmer Nikolay Khudentsov and game designer Ilya Ysaykin about the Hellforces FPS they're developing. You can also check out the Official Site for more info.
Digging Up POP2 Information
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:04 PM |
Category: Action |
I was thinking about some of the recent games I've played and ended up thinking about Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time and how fun the fights and stuff were in that game. Not only that but it's one of a few that I played all the way through and actually finished without boredom setting in. That's when I decided to look around for some info about the next installment of the POP series, which I've seen only a tiny bit of info about. So I decided to dig some stuff up and do some reading and figured some of you guys might be interested too. First up the game is being developed for the PS2, XBox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and PC. Heres is an article on 1up where Ubisoft Announces Prince Of Persia 2. Here are the key features for POP2 as gained from this Ubisoft page:
- The Game of the Year Returns: Prince of Persia 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to the universally acclaimed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the undisputed Console Game of the Year for 2003.
- A Warrior Reborn: The Prince has matured immeasurably since his courageous fight in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. He returns here with deadlier skills, a darker heart and a craving for battle.
- Free-Form Fighting System: An intricate new combat system lets you wage battles with no boundaries. Manipulate the environment and the enemies themselves to develop your own unique fighting style. Plus, an all-new projectile attack system allows for a variety of ranged combat tactics.
- A Violent Underworld Revealed: Explore and conquer a cursed island underworld, breeding ground for the most brutal, unrelenting monsters to torment mankind.
- Control the Ravages of Time: Ravage enemies with the devastating new combative powers of the Sands of Time, opening up astounding variations in fighting gameplay.
- Fight Harder, Play Longer: Hours upon hours of action await in your fight for survival, including various bonus incentives for those who finish the game.
Ok now we head on over to ign's E3 Hands On coverage and some POP2 Screenshots on shacknews and the Prince of Persia 2 E3 2004 Trailer on gamershell. That's all for now... Ok so I lied. Grab this POP2 Wallpaper it's cool and I'm using it now or get one of these Sands Of Time Wallpapers for your desktop. ;)
Thief: Deadly Shadows Review
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:02 PM |
Category: Stealth |
I was lurking around Gamers Hell when I noticed they posted up a review of Thief: Deadly Shadows. Now for a quote from the review:Thief 3 uses the Deus Ex 2 engine, and it shares a bit of the same feel. In my opinion Thief 3 looks far better, and for some reason it also performs a lot better. But make no mistake; this game does require a fast PC. You may be able to play it on a low resolution with a slightly old video card, but if you want to crank up the resolution and detail then you better have the proper hardware. Ok sneak on over and read that review for Thief: Deadly Shadows.
New Half-Life II Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:45 PM |
Category: First Person |
VIA Gamers has a cool preview for the upcoming Half-Life II. Here is a small clipping from the article:The Source engine is also capable of rendering an extra ordinarily high level of detail in both game world geometry and object and character model meshes. Employing the use of pixel shaders 1.1, 1.4 or 2.0 (depending on the hardware you are running), the Source engines pulls off some very high detailed texture effects using normal maps. This is much the same kind of trickery being used by id Software within the Doom III engine as well as Epic Game’s Unreal 3 engine. Essentially it allows for textures that interact with nearby light sources and appear to be 3D in shape, even though they are in fact flat surfaces containing very few polygons. Not only does this technique make textures look much more realistic its also a very efficient method of achieving such high detail. Now go forth and read the full preview. After reading that I want Half-Life II even more so than I did before.
Stalker Preview On Worthplaying
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:40 PM |
Category: First Person |
worthplaying.com posted up a preview for Stalker:S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl brings to life the actual Chernobyl terrain in the year 2012 - six years after a mysterious second explosion rocks the landscape. As a "stalker" exploring the vast "Exclusion Zone" to procure artifacts for the black market, players must survive mutant creatures, dangerous anomalous areas, competing "stalkers" and a military charged with quarantining the 30 square kilometer area. Here is the rest of the preview. I dunno about you guys & gals but I'm interested in checking this one out when it ships in September. You can also check out the official site for more info.
Boomtown's Visit To Runestone
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:22 PM |
Category: Developer |
Anouther trip to Boomtown.net revealed an article concerning a visit to Runestone which happens to be a new Danish game studio. The article starts out by introducing the Runestone team and goes on to talk about thier first game, Seed: The Human Condition. Go ahead and check out that article.
Silent Hunter III Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:03 PM |
Category: Simulation |
I haven't played a submarine game since I had my Commodore 64 but I won't be rambling on about all that. Lets get to the point of this news postage. When I was looking around for news I happened to see that Boomtown.net has a preview of Silent Hunter III, which from the screenshots looks like it has some promise. Anyway get your periscope up and check out that preview that just surfaced.
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