September 2004
| Thursday, September 30, 2004 |
Bloodrayne 2 Has Gone Gold
 Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:27 PM |
Category: Action |
IGN reports that Bloodrayne II has gone Gold and is set to ship October 12 on PS2, Xbox, and PC. Also note that the movie version of BloodRayne is being filmed with Kristanna Loken of Terminator 3 fame, who will be playing the title role. View that Bloodrayne II article and also check out two new trailers.
| Wednesday, September 29, 2004 |
New Preview Article On The Bard's Tale
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:55 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
Gamespot has an informative preview posted for The Bard's Tale. Time for a quote from the article:While the bard has a simple selection of weapon attacks you can perform by hammering on the attack button, you can also use bows to fire on enemies from a distance, or hang back and let your song-summoned henchmen do the dirty work (henchmen have separate health meters that appear on the left side of the screen). Check out that preview for The Bard's Tale which is slated to be released Novemeber 2nd, 2004.
| Tuesday, September 28, 2004 |
Latest Thief III Review
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:28 PM |
Category: Stealth |
Thief III: Deadly Shadows got itself reviewed again and this time it's on Ferrago. Graphically T:DS is quite the eye-pleaser. Considering it is using the ageing Unreal engine the rendering of Garret's world is impressive. Obviously the lighting is the most important factor and generally speaking it is very good. So check out that Thief III: Deadly Shadows review.
| Monday, September 27, 2004 |
Duke Nukem Forever's New Physics Engine
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:53 PM |
Category: First Person |
I spotted on Shack News that 3DRealms have gone ahead and purchased a physics engine from Meqon Game Dynamics. The character module features improved performance and many new features to easily integrate character with or without animation into games. Characters can be completely animated and still interact realistically with its surroundings. Moreover, any number of bones can be used to set up the physical description of the characters and any number of these bones can be simulated. This purchase is for Duke Nukem Forever and you can read the article and then wait for more DNF news, whenever that may....
| Sunday, September 26, 2004 |
Mindless Newsbits
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 12:45 AM |
Category: General |
Already I have the second coming of Mindless Newsbits! Some UK Intern students at IBM have developed a tool that may banish broken links forever!. Meanwhile Spiderman 2 is the finest Marvel adaptation ever committed to celluloid. Speaking of film, the first three seasons of Seinfeld will be coming along on DVD which will be available in two volumes or as a deluxe holiday Gift Set. Also note that the original Star Wars trilogy is now on DVD and that has caused some fanboy angst due to certain scene manipulations. Next I found anouther article featuring Sinead 'Kick Your Ass Like Bono' O'Connor but really she just wants to be a little old lady now. The band Greenday was in Toronto (take off you hoser!) Canada and got themselves reviewed. I noticed Quakeworld is saying stay tuned... sooooo how long has that been like that? Next some cop pooch digs up $160,000 in cash. Lastly some guy in a wheelchair robbed a bank.
PoP: Warrior Within Screenies
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 12:33 AM |
Category: Action |
PC Pointer has a set of Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within screenshots posted up and they do look really cool. You can also visit the Official Site to gain more info on this action adventure title from Ubisoft.
| Saturday, September 25, 2004 |
Half-Life 2 Hostage Of Court Battle?
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 11:21 AM |
Category: First Person |
Gamespot posted the news info that business partners Valve Inc. and Vivendi Universal Games are duking it out in a court battle that has been raging for 2 years now and Vivendi Universal Games has the right to sit on finished Half-Life 2 code for up to six months. So we could be having a long wait before Half-Life 2 actually hits the shelves. Here is the linkage to the full article.
| Friday, September 24, 2004 |
Mindless Newsbits
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 11:58 PM |
Category: General |
Here is the first appearance of Mindless Newsbits! You might find just about anything in here. How often these Newsbit postings appear depends on myself and the temperture coefficient of the Mindless server. Will the Govern-ator be back for Terminator 4? The SMART-1 probe jobby is taking the slowest trip to the moon ever with one year down and four months to go. A few days olde but I see that those crazy Women Gamers making small inroads (not to be confused with the Crazy Men Gamers). If you're into beer maybe you'll want to build your own Kegerator! Not to be confused with Govern-ator. Good lord, now your jpg's ain't safe from viruses. Now Good olde Google conformed to Censor stuff for Chinese Googalators. Last but absolutely not least, Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of the The Ramones dies at 55... rest in peace.
Sinead Would Kick Ass Like Bono
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 11:55 AM |
Category: Entertainment |
Sinead O'Connor took out a full-page ad pleading for people to stop making fun of her. "If ye all think I am such a crazy person why do ye use me to sell your papers?" she wrote, adding, "Please, I just want to be a little old lady now, and not be all controversial and not be bashed and called crazy and laughed at when I open my mouth to sing or speak." Go read the full story on Yahoo! News.
Fable Is A Big Success For Xbox
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 12:08 AM |
Category: Xbox |
GameDaily Biz has an article covering the success of Fable.Essentially, to be successful, Fable had to meet near impossible fan expectations, overcome being an unknown brand, and reach the mainstream gamer in a genre that rarely does it. For more info on this RPG for the Xbox, check out the official site. Note that the site is a slow loading Flash jobby.... least for me it was.
Mars Rovers Get Extended Mission
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 12:06 AM |
Category: Science |
I noticed while poking around the CNN site that Nasa has extended the Mars Rovers' mission giving them an additional six months.The latest funding came as NASA regained reliable contact with the rovers Spirit and Opportunity after a 12-day period in which Mars passed nearly behind the sun, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said. Here is the small article on the subject.
| Thursday, September 23, 2004 |
UT 2004 Editor's Choice Bonus Pack
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:09 PM |
Category: First Person |
Epic Games has released a new bonus pack (Editor's Choice Edition) for Unreal Tournament 2004. The bonus pack adds six new characters, three new vehicles (Paladin, Cicada, and SPMA), and four new Onslaught maps to UT2004. Note that your game must be patched to 3323. Check out some new screenshots on Shacknews. Get the download for this new UT 2004 bonus pack on Fileshack (registration required), 3D Gamers, Filefront or downgrab it off of Gamespot Dlx (registration required).
| Wednesday, September 22, 2004 |
Kohan II: Kings Of War Ships To Stores
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 5:31 PM |
Category: Strategy |
Got the info off of Shack News that the RTS game Kohan II: Kings Of War shipped out to the stores in North America today so expect to see it appear on the shelves soon. The game features a new engine, 25 single player missions and six playable races. Also check out four new screenshots and the gamespy preview of the game.
| Tuesday, September 21, 2004 |
Tribes Vengeance Goes Gold!
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:45 PM |
Category: First Person |
Just spotted on Shack News that Tribes Vengeance has gone Gold! The game will ship to stores on October 5th and expect to see a multiplayer demo to be released before then. Check out the article as theres a couple of screenshots and also note that there is already a Single Player Demo if you want to check that out (free registration required for download).
| Monday, September 20, 2004 |
Scrapland Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 8:57 PM |
Category: Action |
GameZone has a preview online for American McGee's Scrapland. One character model in particular (the banker) has very unfriendly looking claws and a demeanor of a wounded badger. What would a banker need such sharp claws for? Why do they have an almost easily identifiable "evil" look to them? Certainly questions that will be answered as the game continues. Along with said preview is a bunch of screenshots. Also have a visit on the official site for more info on this game.
| Sunday, September 19, 2004 |
Kohan II: Kings Of War Review
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:45 PM |
Category: Strategy |
gamespy.com did up a review for Kohan II: Kings of War, a Real Time Strategy game developed by TimeGate. Here is a snapshot from the three page review:The game forces you to think about positioning and developing a plan of attack. Using swordsman to attack a position with support from archers with cavalry attacking on the flanks or using scout cavalry to draw enemy troops into a fight -- combat tactics like these are the guts of the game and a huge reason that it's so compelling. In this regard, it's a lot like the Total War series, only here you have wizards instead of Vikings. Have a gander at that review and also check out the screenshots.
| Saturday, September 18, 2004 |
Brief Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within Interview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:15 PM |
Category: Action |
PC Gameworld has a new Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within Interview where they speak briefly with producer Bertrand Helias.So in PoPWW, these gameplay elements are not built in sequences, but really tied together: you will have to navigate WHILE fighting, chase enemies on beams structure, trigger a mechanism to kill enemies etc ... Check out that Interview.
| Friday, September 17, 2004 |
Half-Life II Gets Close To Going Golden
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:39 PM |
Category: First Person |
In a newsletter it was reported that Half-Life II II is close to going Gold. Gabe Newell has announced that a release candidate has been sent out for approval by Vivendi Universal Games:Naturally, today's news means that Half-Life 2 will be going gold fairly soon, assuming VU Games signs off on the release candidate. Officially, VU Games has not announced any release date for the game, but considering today's announcement and the possibility of the game going gold within the next few weeks or earlier, the November release date that online retailers have indicated seems quite plausible. For the full deal head on over to Game Daily and read that article.
| Thursday, September 16, 2004 |
Mortyr 2 Demo
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:56 PM |
Category: First Person |
worthplaying.com has a demo for Motyr 2, the WW2 based FPS by Mirage Interactive. The 111 megabyte demo features an intro and one mission in Poland where you commence your mission from behind enemy lines. So grab that Mortyr 2 Demo if you like and if you need more info including screenshots then check out the Official Site.
| Wednesday, September 15, 2004 |
Dungeon Siege II Story Details Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 11:02 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
1UP.com has a sparkling new preview up for Dungeon Siege II that covers official story details and two exclusive images of Zaramoth. Hit this page right here to check out that Dungeon Siege II stuff.
| Tuesday, September 14, 2004 |
Kult: Heretic Kingdoms Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:55 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
Kult: Heretic Kingdoms was previewed on worthplaying.com and the game is an RPG that was slated for a 2002 release and is finally close to being completed. Here is a preview sample.The first thing we noticed about Kult: Heretic Kingdoms is that the entire game can be easily controlled with only the mouse. You can move around by using the on-screen arrow to point the heroine in the direction you want her to go and clicking the left mouse button to make her move. Attacking is performed simply by holding the right mouse button. Talking to NPCs is merely a matter of clicking on them and then clicking on the various questions and retorts that are often displayed during dialogue segments. But what is most surprising is the fact that even though everything can be comfortably manipulated with the mouse, Kult features the robustness and intuition of many complex and engaging RPGs like Baldur’s Gate and the sort. Well that certainly sounds different. Check out the Kult: Heretic Kingdoms preview.
| Monday, September 13, 2004 |
American McGee's Scrapland
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:03 PM |
Category: Action |
I was on Blues News and noticed a demo was announced and then it got pulled. This demo was for American McGee's Scrapland. Since I never heard of this game before I decided to look for the official site to learn what it's about. Turns out that Scrapland is a sci-fi, third person, action adventure game that include humor, immersive storyline and complete freedom of movement within the game world. The game is set on a tiny asteroid called Scrapl that is surrounded by a huge debris field. For more info including screenshots go ahead and visit Scrapland
| Sunday, September 12, 2004 |
Astronomers Photograph Extrasolar Planet
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:06 PM |
Category: Science |
CNN reported that a group of European-led astronomers figure that they've made a photo of a planet orbiting another star. If this is in fact true, then it would be the very first photograph of a world beyond our solar system.The new picture shows a dim, red point of light that Dumas and his colleagues think is a young, giant planet similar to Jupiter. It orbits a failed star known as a brown dwarf, a very dim type of star -- its core does not support nuclear fusion -- that astronomers have for years hoped would make for good planet hunting. The brown dwarf, catalogued as 2M1207, is 42 times less massive than the sun, or some 25 times heftier than Jupiter. Well thats all kinda interesting and here is the link to the article.
| Saturday, September 11, 2004 |
The Bard's Tale Dev Diary Vol 9
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 11:04 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
I just spotted on gamespy.com that they posted up The Bard's Tale - Developer Diary Vol 9 for the PC. They chat with environmental artist Erik Jakobsen, who discusses the construction of the game's environments. So go read that Bard's Tale article.
| Friday, September 10, 2004 |
Bethesda Announces The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 1:12 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
Bethesda officially announced the next Elder Scrolls game in the popular RPG series. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been in production since 2002. The October issue of Game Informer magazine has the exclusive on the new game and that will be on newsstands on September 23rd.We are pleased to announce that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is currently in development for PC and future generation consoles. In development since 2002, Oblivion is another leap forward in role-playing with its combination of freeform gameplay and cutting-edge graphics. Hit The Elder Scrolls site if you want to check out the available covershot, which shows an armored rider on a horse... which is in-game art. Sweet!
| Thursday, September 9, 2004 |
The Unseelie Screenies
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:46 PM |
Category: First Person |
The dudes at worthplaying.com posted up some new screenshots for The Unseelie and here is one of them quote jobbys:Trapped in a world between the living and the dead, the player battles "The Unseelie", a race of unholy creatures of ancient Celtic myth to piece together the mystery of a missing 17th century Irish village, which has been overwhelmed by an ancient, dark forest. The player must travel throughout the sinister realm of "Tir-Na-Brach-Marbh" (Land of the Eternal Death) and collect the seven elements of Celtic folklore to open a portal and escape the clutches of Finvarra, King of the Dead, and return to the real world. Hit this page for those screenies. That first screenie where the player is looking through a tunnel of branches looks creepy.... I bet theres spiders in there.
| Wednesday, September 8, 2004 |
Warrior Within Gets Previewed
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:15 PM |
Category: Action |
gamespy.com has a preview posted up for the latest Prince Of Persia game that recently got the Title of Warrior Within. Here is a quote from the three page article:What's more, Warrior Within will actually offer a lot more freedom of movement within (and around) its castle. You'll be able to revisit previously explored areas to uncover missed secrets, or to use newly acquired powers to reach areas that were inaccessible before. From the sounds of it, the Prince will have fairly free run of the castle, and for a good portion of the game. The 3rd person, action-adventure game is slated as being release material on November 16, 2004. Oops, nearly forgot the linkage.
| Tuesday, September 7, 2004 |
Half-Life 2 In November!?
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:24 PM |
Category: First Person |
Just spotted on Blues News that Valve's Doug Lombardi was quoted as saying they expect to be sending a Half-Life 2 release candidate to Vivendi on September 15th. Now with all the jive they have to go through, we can most likely expect to see Half-Life 2 hit store shelves in November. The full article is on gamesindustry.biz.
| Monday, September 6, 2004 |
Tribes: Vengeance SP Campaign Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:14 PM |
Category: First Person |
I was just wandering around the internet, stopped on gamespy.com and noticed that they had a preview article posted up that talks about the Single Player Campaign in the upcoming Tribes: Vengeance game. Its time for a quote:Old weapons return, but with slick new animations. The chaingun, for example, lets you spray hot lead at your enemies, the mortar lobs massive explosives into their laps, and the Spinfusor (the trademark Tribes weapon) launches glowing, explosive discs. Neat new gear makes an appearance in Tribes: Vengeance, too. Among others, you'll get to wield a powered buckler that can act as a shield or the equivalent of an electrified, razor-sharp Frisbee when thrown. Then there's the "Burner," which launches a ball of plasma that slowly burns in an area, igniting any poor sap who stumbles into it. We had a lot of fun barbecuing bad guys with the Burner, though we found that slightly misplaced shots could easily hit nearby walls and torch us just as easily. They should put a warning label on that thing. Hit this page for the rest of the two page preview. Tribes: Vengeance is slated to be released on October 12, 2004.
| Sunday, September 5, 2004 |
Painkiller: Battle Out Of Hell Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:40 PM |
Category: First Person |
Just noticed that IGN has a hands-on account for the Painkiller expansion pack, that will include 10 large SP levels. It is mentioned in the article that the expansion pack should be released before the end of the year. Meanwhile have a look at the Battle Out Of Hell preview.
| Saturday, September 4, 2004 |
The Death Of Dragon Empires
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 2:52 PM |
Category: Developer |
Codemasters announced the unfortunate cancellation of its MMORPG for the PC, Dragon Empires.Citing "technical issues," Codemasters stated that further development on the title has ceased. The company did make clear, however, that this announcement "does not impact on Codemasters’ long-term ambitions in the massively multiplayer online gaming market and the company remains very active in evaluating future opportunities." In fact, many of the people who had been working on Dragon Empires are already being transferred to other internal teams to aid the development of current and future projects. Well that certainly sucks for anybody who was anticipating the release of the game. Here is the Press Release if you want to read more on the subject.
| Friday, September 3, 2004 |
Shade: Wrath of Angels Preview
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:20 PM |
Category: Action |
Gamespot has a preview uploaded for Shade: Wrath of Angels. Here is a peek at the article:The gameplay in Shade is similar to that found in Tomb Raider; you'll explore levels and battle whatever foes get in your way. Your main weapon is a magical sword that glows, but you'll also be able to a pistol and a crossbow, which are useful for pushing enemies back. But your most powerful weapon will be the ability to transform into a fearsome demon for short periods of time. They also say that development of the game wrapped up and it's due to ship next month.
| Thursday, September 2, 2004 |
Bethesda Gets Cryptic
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 10:00 PM |
Category: Role Playing |
Bethesda is up to something it seems. Log onto The Elder Scrolls site and you'll notice a new splash screen with a crypyic symbol and some text that says, When The Dragon Dies. The Empire Dies and below it says Eight. Fans of the Elder Scrolls are saying the next game will be called Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion which is all speculation and guess-work at this point. Meanwhile we all wait for Bethesda to make an official announcement. Thanks to Blues News for the info. Also they opened up new forums with a section called: The Next Elder Scrolls Discussion.....
| Wednesday, September 1, 2004 |
The Unseelie Announced!
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 9:30 PM |
Category: First Person |
worthplaying.com reported that a FPS game with adventure and horror elements called The Unseelie (pronounced "Un SHEE Lee") has been anounced and is expected to go Gold for the PC in late 2005. The game will be horror based with demonic enemies and Celtic influences with a game engine that delivers realtime lighting. It certainly sounds cool. Check it out!
Acclaim Closes Doors After 17 Years
Posted
by
Darren 'Doom Dude' Finch
at 12:04 AM |
Category: Developer |
Phoebus pointed out a newsletter that reported that Acclaim Entertaiment has sadly closed its doors after 17 years in the video games industry.Although no filing for bankruptcy has appeared yet, various sources have indicated that Acclaim has shut its offices in Glen Cove, NY (corporate headquarters), Austin, TX, and Manchester, England. Employees were told to clean out their work stations and leave right away. As of March 31, 2004, Acclaim had 585 employees worldwide. Now the majority of those people will have to find new jobs.
The status of upcoming games such as The Red Star, 100 Bullets, and Juiced is not clear at the moment; however, the code for these games is reportedly complete and there's a good chance that another publisher will pick one or all of them up. Meanwhile Acclaim Entertaiment has of yet to make an official announcement.
|
