Sunday, August 22, 1999

Skout Demo/Not Demo -- 11:33 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I just saw on Blue's (where else?) that the Skout demo that I so unceremonially dumped on from great altitudes was in fact a leaked beta version. A real demo is supposed to be released this week. Hopefully it will be better (and in English, my German is way too shaky).

Shogo Bot Soon? -- 11:31 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Nova over on PlanetShogo reports that there will be a bot for Shogo finally! There should be an alpha release soon. Stay tuned!

loonyboi and the Q3A Bus -- 2:27 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The first installment of loonyboi's travels with id's Q3A bus was posted today. This should prove to be an interesting series. He promises screenshots of the new levels and new models in the in-bus-only version of Q3Test. For those of you who don't know, the bus is basically a LAN party on wheels, going throughout the U.S. southwest to promote id's upcoming Quake 3 Arena.

Saturday, August 21, 1999

Intel Roadmap -- 1:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I saw on Ars Technica that Intel plans to move the Celeron from the PII core to the PIII core in early 2000. That means that Celerons a) will remain a low-cost alternative, and b) will shrink to the 0.18 micron manufacturing process, get a 100 Mhz front-side bus, and get the PIII's SSE instructions. Now if someone can keep AMD from self-destructing, we'll be all set.

Shogo is dead?!? -- 11:08 am CST, Update by The Master

Holy Christmas! Just read this on the Blue's News messageboards. I can't believe someone from PlanetShogo would comment this way, but he's got a right to his opinion.

Monolith has done such an incredibly good job at killing Shogo that they should be applauded for stealing the money out of their own mouths. I've played a little Shogo since A.T. has been constantly goading me since it's release, and I'm impressed with the storyline. Single player is quite interesting. I personally don't like the MP much, but that's because the lack of color contrast on the MCAs versus the arenas you play in makes it very difficult for me to target the other players, NOT because the gameplay is bad.

A.T. replies: Well, as a person who downloaded the Shogo demo the moment it came out and bought the game shortly thereafter, it pains me to see so few servers when I know Shogo is a great multiplayer game. The lack of support from Monolith should have killed it, but there are enough talented people in the community to make up for what Lith hasn't done. I will say this: I will think long and hard before buying another game from them if this is going to be their level of "support".

NHL 2000 interviews -- 10:53 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

NHL-Online has posted a couple of interviews with the team working on EA's NHL 2000. There aren't many "hardball" questions, but it does give you a good idea of the changes made in the latest version. I'm keyed that they are working on getting rid of the "invincible goalie" AI (try scoring in NHL 99 on a slapshot or a breakaway, it's almost impossible). ESPN's Bill Clement will be providing color commentary. Another cool feature is that you can import a picture of your (or anyone else's) face and slap it on a player. Want to be the starting center for the Red Wings? You can!

NHL 96 is easily the most frustrating game I've ever played. It took me months to figure out how to win. Finally I did, and took my beloved Red Wings to the Stanley Cup (a year before they really made it). If NHL 2000 delivers on EA's promises, I'll be buying it. It is scheduled to be released in mid-September.

System requirements: P200 (P300 recommended), 32M RAM, 1M 2D card with DirectX 6.1 (Glide or D3D 3D card recommended), 70 MB disk space (200 recommended), 4x CD-ROM (16x recommended), DirectSound sound card (EAX supported--yeah baby!), and 33.6K modem for Internet play (56K recommended). What?!? You mean to tell me that I have a computer that can actually handle the latest EA NHL release? Will wonders never cease!

Shogo Swirl Coming Soon -- 10:06 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Despite the terrible signal-to-noise ratio on the PS forums, I did see that Rohan Night announced the upcoming release of a mod called Shogo Swirl on September 9 (9/9/99). It will have new textures, sounds, gibs, a new weapon, and the list goes on. I'll pass along more information as soon as I get it.

The Master comments: Ya know, it amazes me still how hard the fan community fights to keep Shogo alive, and yet Monolith does less than nothing to support them. I won't be surprised if they get little fan support for their new games. They've shown an amazing lack of willingness to support the fans they've worked so hard to win. No skin off my back, I'll keep playing Quake and liking id :-)

Graphics News -- 12:08 am CST, Update by The Master

Hercules, maker of the highest rated TNT cards on the market, has been rumored (with some "anonymous" supporting info) to have gone out of business. And I remember when I had to write Hercules support into my graphics apps because they had one of the top cards in the industry. How things change...

Other news: Intel is out of the graphics card business. I think this may be the only place where Intel has ever forfited a toehold into an industry. I'd have to research that one some more to prove it tho. Wow!!

Saw all this on Blues's News.

A.T. Updates: The Hercules rumor has been verified by a number of sources. A press release is expected on Monday. More unsubstantiated rumors state that the reason for the downfall was financial mismanagement, possibly even embezzelment. If you ordered one of their TNT2 Ultra cards, but your credit card was never charged, you will never get it.

As far as the Intel i7 series goes, good riddence to bad rubbish.

The Master retorts: Ya know, I don't think that's really fair to Intel. They are STILL going to design graphics processors for embedded CPUs and chipsets, which is really their killer market. I think Intel could make a real graphics processor. They're just 4 years behind the curve. And not willing to give up their huge profit margins...

Past Two Days' News

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