 
Thursday, July 6, 2000
DX Tweak Guides
posted on Thursday, July 6, 2000 @ 7:57:49 est by RzETwo useful Deus Ex Tweak guides have been slapped up. The first is over at 3DS. It's the more in-depth/in the know guide.. Check it out here. The other tweak guide is over at Tweak3d.. This one will help you configure your audio a little better. All DX owners should give these a glance, espically if you own an nVidia card.
AvP Level Editor beta5 Out
posted on Thursday, July 6, 2000 @ 6:16:29 est by cliffeLeadworks have released the beta5 of their AvP map editor. Here are the changes on this release: Fixed the 'Replace Texture' command
Fixed creation and saving of Spawnpoints
Fixed creation and saving of sounds
Fixed Toolbar, buttons are now working
Fixed and improved the 3DS Import/Export filter
Improved the speed and quality of the Raytracer
Improved the 'Visual Modules' detection
Improved the Fullscreen Preview
Added Scene Browser that lists the items of a Level by Category and with selected dependencies
Added Scanner to detect overlapping Modules
Added Scanner to find untextured Polygons
Added 'Ambient Light Only' method to the Raytracer
Added 'Particle Generators'
Added 'Strategies' for Placed Objects (Platform Lift, Fan, Track, Simple Object)
Added Module Flag MODULE_FLAG_DRAW_SKY
Added Dynamic Lights to Modules
Added new Texturing Operations
Added 'Object cloning' Note that you need to have the last release intalled for this to work.
Another Deus Ex Review
posted on Thursday, July 6, 2000 @ 6:14:29 est by cliffeGamespy has posted up another review of Deus Ex. I won't give away the score, instead here's a snip: Since Deus Ex is a stat-based RPG, you'll have the chance to upgrade your weapons with modifications you pick up along the way. However, while the information given to you with each modification tells you what it does to the weapon you choose to upgrade, there doesn't seem to be any noticeable difference to the weapons apart from an extra ammo capacity. See their review right over here.
Deus Ex Review
posted on Thursday, July 6, 2000 @ 6:11:53 est by cliffeGame Rankings has posted their ranking of Deus Ex, which is Little Rizzuh's favorite game at the moment. They like the game quite a bit (as well they should) and give it a 92 score. Here's a snip: Unfortunately, everything is not perfect. The AI could use some help. The enemy is just plain stupid. When there are guards patrolling areas, I've run up to them and stabbed them in the head before they could sound an alarm. Other AI guards will come along and just walk right past the body. Other parts are inconsistent too, such as when the enemy is able to detect you or not. At times you can stand nearly right in front of them and they won't notice you, and at other times they'll start shooting at you from a distance, and you won't know what you did to give yourself away. This is a slight letdown, as I remember fondly the tough enemy AI in Half Life, who seemed like living, breathing soldiers.
Even with these flaws, though, Deus Ex has enough going for it to make it one of the best games this year. It's long, involving, and has enough conspiracies and plot twists to make you dizzy. While I can't say it's better than Half Life, it's really, really, close. If you haven't picked this one up yet, you should.
Steve Sinclair Interview
posted on Thursday, July 6, 2000 @ 6:10:17 est by cliffeDark Sector Week continues over at Stomped.com. Today they have up an interview with Steve Sinclair, who is a programmer for Digital Extremes: Stomped: What sort of improvements and features is Digital Extremes itself putting into the Unreal engine?
Sinclair: There is a ton of code dedicated toward making the engine data-driven. The game is now intimately linked with our gameworld database, and this allows us to do alot of great things (like make a persistent world). Initially, this was one of our greatest 'unknown' factors, but its coming together like a dream now! As far as eye-candy goes, a fancy new particle system, per-texel rendering effects, T&L, shadows, and a bunch more. That's pretty much the 'me-too' list of graphics these days, the really new stuff we'll be showing soon*. Are you excited yet?
Tribes2 Interview
posted on Thursday, July 6, 2000 @ 6:08:14 est by cliffeActionTrip.com has popped up an interview with Dave Georgeson of Daynamix about Tribes2. Have a clip on me: Action Trip: Short overview of some of the new features in Tribes 2?
Dave Georgeson: We've added ground vehicles to the game. Scouts, Assault Tanks, and Mobile Point Bases are all facets designed to give the armored suits that we all know and love new strategic points to rally around, as well as quick ways to transport across a battlefield. Also, we're focusing on creating a web community that lets players easily find and create Tribes, as well as facilitating communication with one another, in-game and out-of-game.
Shane Caudle Interview
posted on Thursday, July 6, 2000 @ 6:06:50 est by cliffeMachinima.com has posted up an interview with Shane Caudle from Epic. They talk about UT among other things: What would you say are your major influences? What were the big influences on the UT intro sequence, in particular?
Actually the intro sequence was inspired by a city I designed for my comic book Eye of the Storm. It was a dark futuristic city similar to the city I envisioned for UT.
The cool thing is that a city that looked basically the same took 3 days to render one image on my 486 back then can now be rendered in real time using the Unreal Engine. Check it out over here.
New HL Server Out
posted on Thursday, July 6, 2000 @ 5:09:46 est by cliffeTFTribune has posted up a new beta version of the HL server which has the following fixes: Fixes:
- Fixed spy burrowing into the ground.
- Fixed svc_bad connection problem.
- Fixed spy disguise as team 3/4 on two team maps.
- Fixed spy disguise crash.
Win32 Server Files Changed:
\sw.dll
\sierra.inf
\readme.txt
\tfc\dlls\tfc.dll
Linux Server Files Changed:
\hlds_run <-- This file didn't change, but I wanted to make sure that people got the correct version from 3.1.0.1.
\hlds_run.dat
\engine_i386.so
\linuxreadme.txt
\sierra.inf
\tfc\dlls\tfc_i386.so
MD5 Sum for Linux Upgrade File:
47cdf5ee680859f2f98ae4466f3715fc You can go grab it at their site if you're a server admin.
Wednesday, July 5, 2000
SOF Dreamcast Shots
posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2000 @ 5:46:30 est by cliffeJust as Half-Life is going to the Dreamcast, so is Raven's Soldier of Fortune. Gamespot has posted up a bunch of pics of just that. Here's their blurb: Hot foot from Crave Entertainment, we've just got our hands on the first shots from the Dreamcast version of this mercenary shooter.
Just as the PC version, the Dreamcast game features 26 levels. The plot sees you on the tail of four stolen nukes, and takes you into locations as hazardous as Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Uganda. Everything is designed to be as realistic as possible. Instead of railguns and BFGs, you get to use real weapons such as a .45 semi-automatic pistol, assault shotgun, sniper rifle and heavy machine gun. All weapons have a dual fire mode too, so you can choose to go for accuracy or, if you prefer, spray your enemies with a shower of bullets. In the case of the pistol you even have the option of giving them a pistol whipping rather than pulling the trigger at all. Check out the pics right over here at Gamespot.
Strike Force Patch
posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2000 @ 5:44:56 est by cliffeWord on the UT Strike Force mod site is that they've released a patch. "This patch fixes a number of issues reported and also includes some new inventory features so that everyone can get equipment before the round starts," they say on the site. There's also a fix for the server crashing bug. The patch weighs in at a 7.5megs, and of course you can grab it at their site.
Avault Daikatana Review
posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2000 @ 5:42:42 est by cliffeThe time has come for Avault to toss up a review of Daikatana. In the end it gets a 2 out of 5 stars. Here's the conclusion for those with little to no patience: Daikatana was touched at the hand of countless designers during its protracted development, but it is impossible to separate the final outcome from its lead architect, John Romero. His blueprint included a strong plot as well as awesome new sights, monsters and weapons around each turn and bend. This is not a one-note game, but a content-rich product that manages to transform its core elements four times without losing focus. The plot also has considerable impact, incorporating an unexpected twist at the end as well as a final "shot" that has genuine emotional pull. In these areas, Romero succeeded. He also wanted to soup up the standard 3D shooter model with computer-controlled companions--no longer a radical idea since the emergence of the squad-based tactical action genre--and while there are some definite rough edges, the two supporting actors manage to spice up the proceedings when functioning. In addition, Romero set out to firebrand the release with the heedless abandon of a classic first-person romp, and there are moments when the action has the sheer ultra-intensity of his games at id. Chalk up yet another...
Official NOLF FAQ
posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2000 @ 5:40:56 est by cliffeBlue's is reporting that Monolith has posted an official FAQ section to the No One Lives Forever site. Here's the story from the game: Players assume the role of Agent Cate Archer, a beautiful but deadly operative working for UNITY-a super secret international organization dedicated to protecting humanity from megalomaniacs bent upon world domination. As matters of such delicacy aren't the sort of thing UNITY usually entrusts to a woman, Archer has thus far been relegated to menial busywork out of harm's way.
Ironically, Archer's lucky break comes as a devastating blow to UNITY, when an assassin identified as the notorious Dmitrij Volkov liquidates over half of UNITY's active undercover operatives around the globe in the space of a week. Volkov, it seems, has ties to a little known organization calling itself H.A.R.M. How H.A.R.M. obtained such intimate knowledge of UNITY's clandestine affairs remains a troubling enigma.
When Archer and her mentor, Bruno Lawrie, depart for Morocco to protect a vacationing American ambassador who has been marked for death, little do they know that they are stumbling into a deadly trap that will set an intricate, insidious plot into motion. Can Archer thwart this plot before it's too late? Is there a traitor in UNITY's ranks? And what exactly does "H.A.R.M." stand for, anyway?
It is up to Agent Archer to unravel these mysteries and thwart a conspiracy that threatens the entire free world.
Juan Pancho Eekels Interview
posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2000 @ 5:39:36 est by cliffeStomped has popped up an interview with Juan Pancho Eekels, lead level designer for Digital Extremes. Here's a snip form the chat: Stomped: How do you compare creating levels for Dark Sector over level creation for a traditional first person action game like Unreal Tournament?
Eekels: The levels for Dark Sector have many different areas to them. Like 'Hunting Grounds' for the bounty hunters or 'Safe Zones' where the players can do their shopping and just hang out. So that means that the flow of the maps change throughout the levels. Plus the flow of the levels is way different since we are not placing weapons and ammo all over the place for the players to pick up. The people need to run the world themselves. That said, there will also be the arena type games that gamers can play within the world of Dark Sector. These maps will be similar to those found in traditional first person action games like Unreal: Tournament.
New Milkshape 3d Out
posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2000 @ 4:02:37 est by cliffePlanet Half-Life is reporting that version 1.4.0 of Milkshape 3d is now out. Here's what's new in this release: - Fixed: Wavefront OBJ export had .3ds extension
- Fixed: no more 100% CPU usage, only in play mode
- Fixed: bug in new material
- Fixed: small bug in remove triangle, which sometimes accidently remove the first triangle of a group
- Added: goto prev/next keyframe for a selected joint
- Improved material rendering
- Improved flat shading
- Quake1 MDL export
- Quake1 MDL: added skip command, which skips the current frame
- Quake2 MD2: fixed texture coordinate bug in export
- Quake2 MD2: improved frame exporting
- Quake III Arena: extended the $frames command
- Quake III Arena: fixed MD3 import
- MS3D: save total frames
- included RenderMan RIB exporter
- update SDK (file format spec) to 1.2
- uploaded Mesa 3.1 (OpenGL) drivers For those of you who don't have 3dmax, this is the one to grab.
Counter-Strike Cheating Article
posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2000 @ 4:02:18 est by cliffeThe boys from Pan Asian Gaming Network let me know about their new article posted called "Cheating in Counter-Strike." Here's a clip from the article which takes a look at the issue of cheating: Looking back at all the Beta's a year ago, we all regarded a lot of stuff as cheating. For example, the predominant "cheat" in Beta 3 were the "peddlars" as many Singaporeans know. What are peddlars? Well, they are the people who constantly press the drop key while on top of weapons and "move" the weapons all the way back to their base, thus depriving the opposing team of the weapons. (Weapons remained after each round during beta 3, weapons started to disappear after each round during and after Beta 4). So the poor lads in the losing team who painstakingly save up for an AwP and got killed in the process will obviously lose the AwP to the "peddaling" team. Another point to mention was the ridiculous amount of time this activity wasted. The last member of the losing team usually hides. In the process of finding the last member, the "peddaling" team simply removes all the weapons in the opposing team's base and brings them to their own base. People who just entered the server and joins the peddaling team obviously gets to rack up frags and newbies get to top the server after a while with a Carbine they got the moment they spawned. It seriously confused the real pros and fake pros (and in fact, twisted the meaning of the word, pro, in Counter-Strike) Click.
New Science & Industry Out
posted on Wednesday, July 5, 2000 @ 3:51:34 est by cliffeBeta 0.96 of the Science and Industry mod is now out! This version is compatible with Half Life 1.1.0.1, and contains all new maps and features. Here's what's new: -Manufacturing Process - replaces killed scientists quicker and cheaper
-Production Speed - weapons and ammo respawns quicker
-Cloning Method - reduces the player respawning delay time
-Health/Armour Charger - chargers work much faster
-Coffee Strength - your scientists work harder, and when an enemy drops a captured scientist, it will return to your labs faster
-Scientist Healing - pressing the Use key on your scientists will make them heal you; this upgrade makes them heal you more, and more often.
-Regenerative Biotechnology - players will regenerate health
-Cybernetic Leg Implants - increased player move speed
-New weapon - briefcase. Used as a melee weapon and to steal scientists. C4 briefcase bomb is a researchable upgrade option to this; pressing secondary fire arms and disarms the suicide bomb, primary fire detonates it when armed.
-Added new maps: si_metropolis, si_alley, si_colony, si_military, si_moon, si_mill
-Updated maps si_tundra, si_laser, si_hirise
-Added new secondary objective in some maps. si_tundra and si_mill contain Computer Labs, which have valuable research equipment. Destroying the computers in the enemy's Computer Lab will cost the enemy money to replace and will be detrimental to their research.
-Added new technology salvaging feature. On picking up an enemy weapon which your team has not researched, you have the option to return to the Administrator in Human Resources with it. Walk through the Gman with the stolen weapon selected and your team will receive a research bonus. Go grab it over at the Science and Industry site.
Tuesday, July 4, 2000
Rocket Arena UT Interview
posted on Tuesday, July 4, 2000 @ 3:10:38 est by cliffeStomped.com has posted an interview with Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart about the Rocket Arena UT mod. Here's a clip: Stomped: How did you feel when the decision was made to pull the first release of Rocket Arena UT? Did you get a lot of backlash from the UT community?
Reinhart: I felt pretty bad. I didn't realize that there were so many significant issues left to be fixed. I didn't get a lot of backlash, in fact, everyone was very understanding. The problem was entirely one of not enough beta testing.
tomped: What is your opinion on the current state of mods in UT at the moment? What are some of your favorites?
Reinhart: I love Infiltration, but at this point I'm very burnt out on UT. I've been playing UT for about two years now, so I'm somewhat ahead of everyone else in exposure :) I think that the UT mod community is active, but could be more active. There are a lot of good mod authors out there writing stuff up for their own enjoyment and then never releasing anything. I suppose I'm just as guilty of that as anyone else. Rest is over here.
Q3Fortress Interview
posted on Tuesday, July 4, 2000 @ 3:07:40 est by cliffeSaw on VE that MadOnion.com has posted an interview with HendriX about the Team Assault and Q3F merger. Here's a snip: OuTkAsT-1: How long has this been in negotiations? And when did you finally say "yes"?
HendriX: It was negotiated over two days, but delayed for about 3 weeks due to several reasons. I finally said yes when I got approached by a Q3F team member that cared about the community as much as I do and we talked about it and I and my team agreed on it.
Tribes2 Interview
posted on Tuesday, July 4, 2000 @ 3:05:16 est by cliffeTribes 2 Players has thrown up a new interview with Mark Frohnmayer, Lead Programmer on the TRIBES 2. He talks about all the new features of networking code of the upcoming game. As such: T2P: The TRIBES 2 network code has been rewritten from the ground up. Can you give a basic overview of the improvements?
Mark Frohnmayer: Most of the improvements deal with server-side performance issues - threw in some lookup tables here, a hash there, and maybe a linked list or two for good measure ;) I also cleaned it up and made it significantly easier to debug. Bandwidth-wise, probably the biggest change is the cut in client to server bandwidth. TRIBES 1 performed well in most cases, but could get into a nasty condition where (with high packet loss) the client could start to flood the connection, causing the game to become pretty unplayable. TRIBES 2's performance should be much better in those circumstances. We've also worked on our prediction code quite a bit to make sure that some of the more obvious errors in TRIBES 1 were corrected (i.e. mid-air discs that exploded on the client but missed on the server.) Check out the full interview over here.
Scandinavian Open Tourney Demos
posted on Tuesday, July 4, 2000 @ 3:01:32 est by cliffeJohn from Eurogamer sent in this report on the Scandinavian Open Tourney: With the official UK qualifier for CPL-Europe's "Scandinavian
Open" tournament now over, EuroGamer is beginning to wrap up
its massive exclusive live coverage of the event.
We now have those all-important demos online for all of the final
and grand final matches, as well as for all of the semi-final matches
which we covered. You can find the demos linked at the end of the
appropriate match reports. Check our coverage index page for a
full list of our weekend's work -
http://www.eurogamer.net/features.php3?name=cple1_uk Note that this is the only place to get (working) demos from the qualifier event at present, so if you want to see some of the UK's finest Quakers in action at yesterday's event, head over to EuroGamer.
Monster Madness Mutator Review
posted on Tuesday, July 4, 2000 @ 2:58:11 est by cliffeUnrealCenter has pumped out a review of Melt Down's Monster Madness Mutator V201. Here's a clip from their review: Have you ever played a deathmatch against someone who is much better than you? You know that feeling you get when your opponent has 20 frags to your one and you've only played 5 minutes? Well it's time to get that feeling again! Thanks to Corey James and Monster Madness.
Have you ever played a deathmatch against someone who is much better than you? You know that feeling you get when your opponent has 20 frags to your one and you've only played 5 minutes? Well it's time to get that feeling again! Thanks to Corey James and Monster Madness.
HL Sven Co-Op Linux Out
posted on Tuesday, July 4, 2000 @ 0:07:56 est by cliffeNews from Half-Life Sven-Co op mod is that they've finally released their linux port. Here's the word from their site: Note: you only need this if you intend to run a SvenCo-op server under Linux. SvenCo-op v1.3 must be installed before installing this update. It was made by Alfred, creator of the Half-Life Admin Mod (many thanks!). There is one catch, though...
Because the HL Linux server software doesn't include some necessary files (such as monster models, etc.), you'll need a copy of the pak0.pak file from a full installation of the Windows version of Half-Life (sorry, no legal way to avoid this :/. Hope you have a HL CD around).
After installing SvenCo-op v1.3 and the Linux server update, copy the pak0.pak file from the (Windows) Half-Life\Valve\ directory to the SvenCoop\ directory inside the Linux HL directory. Everything should work after that. If you have any problems, tell me. Check them out over here.
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