Thursday, November 30, 2000

Roberts Canned by M$? -- 10:35 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Daily Radar is reporting that Chris Roberts has been forced out of Digital Anvil by Microsoft. Great, just when a title like Freelancer catches your eye, it all falls apart. I guess that's what happens when you dance with the devil. Naturally, this is Daily Radar that is doing the reporting, a site that is not always known for accuracy. I'm sure we will be hearing from M$ and Digital Anvil one way or the other. Thanks Blue.

LucasArts Interview, Pt. III -- 10:10 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamecenter has posted the third part of their interview with Simon Jeffery, president of LucasArts. In this installment they talk about BioWare's forthcoming Star Wars RPG, PS2 titles, and the future of adventure gaming. Tomorrow, the fourth and final installment of the interview will be posted.

On a related note, the official Star Wars Galaxies site has gone live with preliminary information on Verant's massively multiplayer Star Wars game. The most interesting thing so far seems to be that they intend Star Wars Galaxies to be a series of games. Time will tell (wait until 2002).

Tonight's NFL Game -- 5:45 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I don't have the rest of my week #14 picks done yet, but for tonight I'm picking the Vikings. I hope I'm wrong.

The Master comments: Eeyore picks the Vikings as well. She's torn, but it's home field advantage.

A.T. Hun comments: Sadly, both Eeyore and I were correct. I'd just like to go on record that the Vikings == Satan. Thank you, and good-night.

The Master comments: No, I have to disagree. Dallas Cowboys == Satan. Vikings == Poor imitation of Satan.

Q3:TA Tweak Article Updated -- 12:41 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I made some updates to my article on tweaking the Quake III: Team Arena demo. Acting on a hunch, I switched back to the old, reliable NVIDIA 5.22 reference drivers. My hunch was proven correct when I found out that the 5.22s give at least a one frame-per-second increase over the 6.47s I used in the article originally. If you are using a TNT or TNT2, I'd advise that you stick with the 5.22s.

More P4 Issues -- 11:07 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

According to The Register, 3dfx is reporting that their AGP Voodoo3 and Voodoo5 products will not work with Pentium 4 motherboards. The Voodoo4 will work fine. The problem apparently lies with both 3dfx and Intel. Intel didn't include support for 3.3V signalling on the P4 motherboards--even though it is part of the AGP spec. 3dfx didn't include a universal AGP edge connector on the V3 and V5 (although, curiously, they did on the V4). So if Voodoo owners want to upgrade to a P4 at this point they cannot take their video card with them, even if it is 3dfx' latest and greatest.

ATi's Radeon and NVIDIA's GeForce reference boards include the universal connector and therefore will not be affected. Having said that, why someone would drop so much cash on P4 systems that are buggy right now anyway (even without this issue) and in many cases slower than the P3 is completely beyond me. Thanks Shugashack.

Baldur's Gate II Patch -- 9:45 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

BioWare posted a patch for Baldur's Gate II, their CRPG that is all the rage with the kids these days. The list of fixes is as long as my arm, so if you have BG2, this is a must-download. It can patch the game, regardless of whether you installed the beta patch or not.

I've been playing a bit of the BG2 demo (after spending far too much of my life downloading it). I've found it to be very entertaining, although I'm having a hard time without a manual. I'm debating if I want to get something like BG2, or just wait until their Star Wars RPG comes out and try that. Having said that, I'm wondering how they will add RPG elements to the Star Wars universe . . .

Hook on DX8 -- 9:40 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

VoodooExtreme checked in with Brian Hook (who all of the sudden has a considerable amount of time on his hands, since he recently quit working at Verant) about the advantages of DirectX 8, as opposed to earlier versions of DirectX or OpenGL. The key advantage that OpenGL still holds, as he points out, is portability.

The Real Deer Hunter -- 9:16 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I mentioned previously how deer hunting season is practically a state holiday in this neck of the woods. Well, this article shows how real men hunt deer. I saw this on Blue's.

Wednesday, November 29, 2000

Laser Arena Demo -- 3:33 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

FilePlanet got their hands on a demo for Laser Arena, the budget Q1-engine non-violent shooter from ValuSoft. The demo is a modest 6.2M. The required specs are modest too, requiring only a P166 and 16M RAM. I'm going to download it and check it out. Thanks Blue.

UPDATE! I just installed it and played the demo level. I'm sure your sstandard Q3A/UT hardcore folks won't care for it, but for what it is intended to be (a non-violent, affordable shooter) it does quite well. And boy, does it run faaaaast on my system.

LucasArts Interview, Pt. II -- 3:30 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamecenter has posted the second part of their interview with Simon Jeffery, the president of LucasArts. This part of the interview deals mainly with Star Wars Galaxies, their forthcoming MMORPG being developed by Verant. The third part of this interview will be posted tomorrow, which will discuss BioWare's Star Wars RPG.

Star Wars Galaxies -- 10:37 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

LucasArts has announced the official name of their massively multiplayer game being developed by Verant (makers of EverQuest). It will be Star Wars Galaxies. Tomorrow, the official Star Wars Galaxies website will go live with a FAQ and other game information. Don't start getting TOO excited yet, the game is still a long way off. It's not supposed to enter "the first round of testing" (beta? alpha?) until the end of 2001.

Personally, I'm more interested in the Star Wars RPG that BioWare (makers of Baldur's Gate) are making. I have this allergic reaction to paying monthly just for the privilege of playing a game I already purchased.

Past Two Days' News

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