Thursday, May 17, 2001

Threewave Map Pack #1 -- 9:40 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Threewave Compilation Pack #1 (22.6M) has been released! It contains eight Quake III Arena / Team Arena capture-the-flag maps from different designers all over the 'Net. What are you waiting for? Get downloading! Thanks Shacknews.

Wolfenstein Site Live -- 6:26 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Activision's official site for Return to Castle Wolfenstein has gone live. They give a bit of background on the game and a couple of new screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

Freelancer Trailer -- 6:24 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Microsoft has released a pretty sweet trailer for Freelancer (11.3M), the forthcoming space combat/trading game from M$ and Digital Anvil. Very slick stuff. I dread to think what the system requirements will be for this bad boy. Thanks Blue.

Jedi Outcast Impressions -- 6:06 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamespot posted their impressions of the Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II demo at E³. Methinks I'll have to upgrade my computer before next spring so I can run this bad-boy. I saw this link on several sites.

New NVIDIA Linux Drivers -- 3:57 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

NVIDIA has released new Linux XFree86 4.0.x drivers. These are version 1.0-1251. You can check out the README for the drivers as well. Thanks Linux Games. I'm going to give these bad-boys a whirl and see if they improve Shogo performance at all.

UPDATE! 9:00 P.M. Nope, didn't help. Oh well.

Jedi Knight II: Confirmed -- 11:34 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

LucasArts has confirmed the existence of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, the long-awaited sequel to the Jedi Knight/Dark Forces franchise. Here's a snip from the press release:

Players of Star Wars Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II will find an expanded and enhanced use of the Force, including Heal, Jump, Speed, Force Push, Lightning, and Jedi Mind Tricks. Depending on the situation, whether in combat or stealth, players also have a variety of weapons -- old and new -- at their disposal, including the lightsaber, Bryar blaster pistol, blaster rifle, stun baton, Wookiee bowcaster, thermal detonators.

Star Wars Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II features breathtaking locales, such as Cloud City, the Jedi Knight Academy on Yavin 4, Nar Shaddaa, the smugglers' moon, and many-never-before seen locations.

The game is being developed by Raven using the Quake III Arena engine. Here's another interesting bit from the features page:

Two multiplayer modes: Jedi training and team-based cooperative play

Too cool. Here's to hoping they develop a decent system for lightsaber control. The game is scheduled for a Spring 2002 release. Thanks Blue's News.

DNF Trailer (For Real) -- 10:17 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Blue got word that 3D Realms has released the official trailer for Duke Nukem Forever in much better formats than the shortened streaming version we saw yesterday. Here are the links: High Quality Bink (43.2M), Lower Quality Bink (15.6M), High Quality QuickTime (45.3M), and Lower Quality QuickTime (28.3M). Naturally, the mirrors seem to be getting beaten into oblivion right now.

Sharing a Brain Cell -- 8:52 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I couldn't help but notice as I glance at some of the E³ material how many sequels are in production: Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Soldier of Fortune 2, Jedi Knight 2 (aka Dark Forces 3), Duke Nukem Forever, Unreal II, Aliens vs. Predator 2, and I'm sure there's some I missed. Granted, some of these games (in particular Wolfenstein and JK2) are among those I am eagerly waiting for. However I think it is a bad sign when almost every game title ends in a number. Has the gaming industry really run out of ideas, or is game production costing so much money these days that the money men are too scared to try anything new?

The Master comments: Have to point out Doom 3 (or whatever they decide to call it) as well before I comment. My opinion on this is simple: it's "all about the Benjamins". No publisher is going to put up money for anything risky, especially now with the slowing economy. With games costing well into the millions to make nobody wants to stake their financial futures on a hunch.

Wednesday, May 16, 2001

Jedi Knight II Next Spring? -- 6:07 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

TheForce.net is reporting that LucasArts revealed that Jedi Knight II is in development:

BIG NEWS! LucasArts has announced "Star Wars, Jedi Outcast, Jedi Knight II". It's being developed with Raven Software on a modified Quake III engine. It's expected to be released next Spring.

Oh please, oh please, oh please let this be true! Thanks Blue.

UGO Goes for the Jugular -- 4:22 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Whelp it appears that UGO has sent email to its affiliates putting the stranglehold on them.

UGO handed out contracts last week saying we [UGO affiliates] must forfeit all our rights to previously owed money and rights to sue them to get those last 2 checks. Yes that's right, if we don't sign a paper saying we wont sue them they will withhold 2 months of payments they already owe and have available to them.

Ahh the screams of terror as the dot coms collapse. I must agree with this poster who had this to say about the whole fiasco:

The days of getting paid 6 figures a year (or even five) for cutting and pasting news, or using the words "pimpdaddy smackdown" on your website is way over. It's a wonder UGO lasted as long as they did. Those who are smart, like OMM, saw the writing on the wall and made contingency plans.

[snip]

Will Blue (or even the /. guys) continue to make a living this way? Probably not, he'll have to get a day job or start selling original content. But at least the sites will continue for those who want to run it as a hobby, and they wont have to worry about bandwidth costs.

To think that anyone could make a living, or even deserve to, simply posting links readers send in is a little ludicrous. And yeah I understand the irony that that is exactly how /. works.

This information and the subsequent post are both on Slashdot.

Just as an aside, I have to laugh about all these gaming sites pleading poverty, yet they still send a couple of people out to E3 so they can send in news slower than if they just had the companies send press CDs to them. Poverty indeed.

DNF Trailer -- 4:00 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

CNNfn (of all places) has a streaming version of the Duke Nukem Forever movie available for viewing. Choose Duke Nukem Forever from the drop down menu on the upper right part of that page. A non-streaming version is expected to be released tomorrow. Thanks Blue.

Win2K SP2 Released -- 3:57 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 has been released. All you Win2K folks, get downloading! Welcome to Hell, here's your accordion.

The Master comments: **fzzzshhhhissh** AAAAAaAaaaaaarrrrggghhhh...

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