Hardware News

Quake IV Review

October 31, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Keeping the weekend kickin', Voodoo Extreme has slapped up a review on Raven Software's recently released first person shooter, Quake IV. Here's a bit on the game's visuals:

I think it's safe to say that anyone who has played Doom III dug the graphics. The problem was that you couldn't see very much since it was a horror driven shooter that relied heavily on shadows and a flashlight. Quake IV is like Doom III with the lights on. Not only can you see more of the world, but that flashlight you had to switch hands to use was put on the barrel of the pistol and machine gun, making navigation much easier in dark areas. Performance is solid and the game looks great even on the mid level settings. Cranked up, it looks fantastic. Not the best visuals on the market, but certainly close to it. Moving on to the game itself...

City of Villains Interview

October 30, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpot has posted an interview with Cryptic Studios' Jack Emmert regarding their stand-alone City of Heroes expansion, City of Villains. Here's a bit on the gameplay balancing:

GS: We understand that City of Villains includes new character abilities and new character professions, and also, the new game is closely linked with the original game now that villains will be able to clash with heroes. So, how difficult was it to balance City of Villains, both on its own and with respect to the first game?
JE: The year-plus work on City of Heroes really expedited balance issues. We knew what power combinations worked and which didn't. We had a wealth of player experience to draw upon. To be honest, the player-versus-environment experience was easier to do than City of Heroes. But PvP is another matter. That'll be an ongoing issue. So far, things seem great.

WoW: The Burning Crusade Impressions

October 29, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

PC.IGN has thrown up some impressions on Blizzard Entertainment's just-announced World of Warcraft expansion pack, The Burning Crusade. Here's a snippet on the new Blood Elf race:

The Blood Elf starting zone, Sunstrider Isle, is placed to the northeast of the Plaguelands, in Quel'Thalas, within those two uppermost zones on the world map that don't yet have descriptors when you hover your mouse pointer over them. The zone also features some new creature types, such as a glowing, floating Mana Wyrm, and a ghostly elemental called an Arcane Wraith. Overall, I would describe this zone as an autumnal Darnassus, with deciduous tree leaves turning bright colors. And Blizzard applies its usual fantastical style to the region, with artful architectural exaggeration, multi-tiered towers, twisting fountains; I would argue that Sunrunner Isle has the most personality of any starting zone. The Blood Elves also get a pair of active racial traits, consisting of two spells. One is Mana Tap, an instant cast which pulls 50 mana from an enemy, if they have a mana pool, with a ten second cooldown. (Keep in mind that the stats might change -- this is just what I observed from this build). This can be stacked up to three times. The other is Arcane Torrent, which silences spellcasters within 8 yards for 2 seconds, and will convert 12-140 mana per stacked Mana Tap. Arcane Torrent is also instant cast but has a two minute cooldown. Like I said, these guys like their magic. All that lore isn't just there for show.

Break out the reading glasses for more impressions!

SWG: Trials of Obi-Wan Q&A

October 29, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

MMORPG.com has caught up with LucasArts' Julio Torres for a quick chat regarding their upcoming Star Wars Galaxies expansion, Trials of Obi-Wan. They cover everything from light sabers to the new planet (Mustafar). Here's a taste:

MMORPG.com: The August 19th, 2005 press release in which you announced Trials of Obi-Wan made mention of a lava-like light saber. Weve obviously seen red light sabers in the past so we are assuming that there is something more to this. Can you give us slightly more detail on this?
Julio Torres: This is one of our exciting new weapon loot items that players will be able to earn after finishing a series of high-level quests. However, how players acquire the item will remain a mystery until our players discover it for themselves.
This question actually brings to mind another new feature we have introduced with Trials of Obi-Wan. That feature being a cyclical loot and rewards system which allows players to earn different loot and rewards each time they complete a quest, even if they have completed the quest(s) already. We are confident this will bring great replay value to Galaxies as well as reward players with some great new items.

Call of Duty 2 Interview

October 29, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The GameZone has tossed up an interview with Eric Riley, the Producer behind Infinity Ward's recently released first person shooter, Call of Duty 2. Here's a bit on the role smoke plays in the game:

Q: The game is also making much more use of smoke to obscure movement. What made you decide to create this element, and how prolific will the smoke effects be during a battle? Will there be the chance that a player may shoot an allied soldier obscured by smoke (friendly fire, so to speak)?
Eric: The addition of portable concealment a.k.a. smoke grenades was another suggestion of our military advisors. Using smoke, to hide and obscure a location has been used by the military for hundreds of years. Now, with a new robust engine and graphic technology, we were able to create great volumetric smoke effects that are smooth and interactive with the game environment. The nature of war is chaotic and if a player doesnt pay attention to battle, they could end up shooting allied players. However, the squad mate and enemy AI is so advanced they are aware of the chaos that can occur when your vision is obscured.

WoW: The Burning Crusade Announced!

October 29, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Straight from this years BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment has announced the first expansion pack for their hit massively multiplayer online RPG, World of WarCraft. Entitled The Burning Crusade, this puppy will include new races, quests, lands and more! Here's a clipping from the press release:

NAHEIM, Calif. October 28, 2005 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for the upcoming expansion set to World of Warcraft®, its award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will take players to a new realm of adventure and intrigue as they continue to explore Azeroth and the regions beyond. New races to play, new lands to explore, and new levels of power for existing World of Warcraft characters all await players in The Burning Crusade.

Blizzard has also launched an official website for the expansion, where you can find a trailer, screenshots and other goodies. So check it out!

Serious Sam 2 Review

October 29, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Getting us ready for the weekend, Computer and Video Games.com have slapped up a brief review on The Croteam's action-packed first person shooter, Serious Sam 2. Here's a nugget:

Now don't get me wrong, it is fun in its own special way. As relentlessly action packed as the first two games, it's the kind of old-school blaster that throws wave after ever-larger wave of enemies at you from every direction (and gives you ever bigger weapons to kill them with), over the course of numerous wacky-looking levels. You can even play them through with some friends. Which is nice. And quite fun. In short bursts. However, the problem doesn't lie with the game's lunchtime blast fun factor, but with its utter lack of invention. Within an hour, you're not only starting to get bored of the blatantly made-for-console gameplay, but irritated by the countless shortfalls too...

Civilization IV Review

October 28, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Finishing off the night, GameSpot has slapped up their take on Firaxis Games' turn-based strategy title, Civilization IV. Here's a little something to nibble on:

Civ IV has also improved on the way diplomacy works. While you can still make nice with your neighbors (and you can even win the game with a diplomatic victory condition), you have more options than just trading goods, cities, technologies, and/or relations. You can attempt to influence your neighbors to make war or peace with other neighbors, and you can even fence everyone out of your backyard using the game's new "open borders" system. In previous games, neighboring nations could send their city-building settlers and their soldiers wandering across your nation, free to declare war on your vulnerable home cities and worker civilians unless you complained strenuously (which sometimes caused them to declare war anyway). In Civ IV, the new border system means that no units from any other country can enter yours unless you have agreed to open borders with that particular country...or unless you're at war with that particular country. This is a godsend for defensive players who prefer to hang back to develop an economic, scientific, or cultural infrastructure without fear of ambush. However, even this new addition is balanced, since keeping your borders locked up tightly and never coming to your neighbors' aid doesn't make many friends. Other nations actually remember your actions and are poorly disposed if you refuse them too many favors.

So how did the game score? You'll just have to read on to find out!

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Released

October 28, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The guys over at Valve Software have released the Lost Coast singleplayer level for their hit first person shooter, Half-Life 2. Showing off their new High-Dynamic Range lighting technology, you can grab this sucker by loading up Steam. So get to it!

Civilization IV MP Impressions

October 28, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Keeping the content flowing, GameSpy has fired-up some impressions on the multiplayer portion of Firaxis' strategy title, Civilization IV. Here's a clipping:

In multiplayer Civilization, you can set the turns to happen simultaneously (which is the best way to play), and you can include a turn timer. The game is smart enough to scale up the turn timer as empires get bigger. This system seemed to work great. You can also tell who's moved and who hasn't. Of the games I've played online, I've had games move really fast (people knew what they were doing and turns flipped quickly) and I've had games crawl along. This particular game was fairly slow in the early stages, because of the five players, only Delsyn and I were familiar with the game. As time goes on, I think players will be able to keep multiplayer games moving at a brisk pace.

Black & White 2 Interview

October 28, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Computer and Video Games.com has posted an interview wth Lionhead Studios' Ron Millar regarding the development of their recently released 'god game', Black & White 2. Here's a nugget:

Just how sophisticated is the creature this time around? What did you learn about the creature from the original game? Will he/she continue to grow throughout the series?
Ron Millar: This time the creature is far more advanced technically and graphically. The creature can now help you build your city and be loving and friendly or he can be the ultimate weapon of destruction and war. All his graphics morph to show his alignment, his size, weight, strength and more. He is again featured in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most intelligent being in a game. We learned a lot from the first game and now the creature has a thought bubble which lets you see what he is thinking and roles which you can assign him which helps a great deal with his playability. We are already looking into ways of improving him and he will grow as the next generation of technology allows us to push him further.

Futuremark® Unveils 3DMark®Mobile06

October 27, 2005 - Nicklas Renqvist

Futuremark® Unveils 3DMark®Mobile06

Creates Worldwide Standard of Measurement in
Handheld 3D Graphics Performance

Saratoga, California USA October 27, 2005  Futuremark® Corporation today announced 3DMarkMobile06, a demanding graphics performance benchmarking application for companies developing 3D mobile-device hardware. 3DMarkMobile06 is the only product designed specifically to benchmark next generation OpenGL ES 1.0 and 1.1 mobile hardware.
Futuremark, with over seven years experience developing 2D, 3D and system benchmarking applications, understands the need for unbiased performance measurement of mobile graphics hardware. With the release of 3DMarkMobile06, mobile hardware developers, manufacturers and reviewers will have the first benchmark intended to provide accurate, consistent performance measurements of embedded graphics solutions. Prior to the availability of a workload based benchmark the industry has had to rely on unsubstantiated marketing claims and highly theoretical performance specifications, rather than actual real-world performance results. Credible performance testing will enable handset manufacturers to select the best performing IP and design implementations for their upcoming 3D enabled mobile devices.
"3DMarkMobile06 features future workloads and game programming technologies that consumers will run in next-generation mobile 3D hardware," said Tero Sarkkinen, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Futuremark. "It is important for all companies in the value chain to evaluate how such hardware is able to support new content and services. High-detail game content, for example, generates workloads that make significant demands upon mobile 3D hardware. Companies that use our tools in their product development cycle will be able to deliver better performing hardware in the hands of the ultimate testers, the consumer."

Developers, For Now
The version launched today, 3DMarkMobile06 Developers' Edition, is designed for use on development 3D hardware. It assists product development, design evaluation, and mobile hardware media reviews of next-generation devices. In addition to extremely gruelling 3D game tests, the new benchmark provides an array of feature tests including: image quality; and pixel, vertex, post and CPU processing. With these tests, hardware and prototype device performance can be tested, evaluated and compared in a fair and consistent manner.
3DMarkMobile06 Developers' Edition contains minimal interface and can use a simple command-line interface or basic text configuration file to run each test individually or batched. The performance results are displayed in frames-, polygons- or texels-per-second.
With source-code licensing, technology developers can port the 3DMarkMobile06 to their platform. Futuremark published binaries allow developers to test hardware on common platforms. And, mobile hardware reviewers will be able to test next-generation products as those development boards and devices become available.

OpenGL ES, 3D for mobile hardware
Created by the Khronos Group and its consortium of industry members, OpenGL® ES API enables the authoring and playback of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. OpenGL ES is a royalty-free, cross-platform API for embedded 3D graphics hardware on handheld devices. Derived from subsets of desktop OpenGL, it provides a powerful and flexible low-level interface between software and graphics acceleration with profiles for floating-point and fixed-point systems. OpenGL ES 1.0 and 1.1 are for fixed function hardware, offering acceleration, image quality and high performance on handhelds. Futuremark, a contributing partner in the Khronos Group, has previously developed benchmarks targeted to measure the performance of devices with software implementation of OpenGL ES.
"Futuremark is providing great momentum for Khronos and OpenGL ES with their release of 3DMarkMobile06" said Neil Trevett, Khronos President and Chairman of the OpenGL ES Working Group. He added "This state-of-the-art benchmark raises the bar with high-detail game content workloads and delivers a variety of performance tests that are perfect for benchmarking next generation mobile 3D hardware. This will be a crucial tool to enable the industry deliver compelling 3D-enabled handhelds that are fast, powerful, efficient and built to handle the demands of next-generation OpenGL ES applications."
"Futuremark has been at the leading edge of graphics' benchmarking since 1998, and is looked upon as the primary qualifier for graphics performance on various platforms," said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of the Tiburon CA based market research firm Jon Peddie Research. "Futuremark is bringing this experience to the handheld platform and specifically to test the new processors that will accelerate OpenGL ES 1.0 and 1.1. 3DMarkMobile06 paves the ground for follow-up products from Futuremark targeting OpenGL ES 2.0. Ultimately, this will help the industry deliver 3D performance and shaders to the handheld market that will enable amazing life like applications, rivalling game consoles."

Futuremark industry partners comment on 3DMarkMobile06
Developed in cooperation with members of Futuremark's Handheld Benchmark Developer Program, 3DMarkMobile06 has garnered broad support from industry leaders. Handheld BDP members include ARM, ATI, Bitboys, DMP, Falanx, Imagination Technologies, Intel, Khronos Group, NVIDIA and Symbian.
"SPMark04 has become the de facto standard for measuring the performance of mobile 3D graphics processors and we use it regularly with our customers. We expect the new 3DMarkMobile06 to attain the same status and become the leading mobile graphics benchmark in 2006", said Petri Nordlund, CTO, Bitboys.
"Futuremark not only benefits our clients by providing credible performance numbers in real life applications, it also allows us to develop competitive graphics IP" said Tatsuo Yamamoto, President and CEO, DMP Inc. based in Tokyo Japan. He also added "We found 3DMarkMobile06 very useful in flushing out all performance and compatibility related issues in the early stages of development. We are very pleased to be part of Futuremark's licensing program."
David McBrien, VP Business Development, Imagination Technologies said "Advanced 3D graphics will rapidly become the norm for mobile handsets; our PowerVR technology alone is enabling over 18 devices, from Freescale, Intel, Philips, Renesas, Samsung , Sunplus and TI, with console-class mobile 3D performance. The key competencies for mobiles devices will be features, performance and power-efficiency. 3DMarkMobile will be a valuable measure of both features and overall system performance."
"3D graphics and multimedia content demand rapid advancements in mobile technology and as these devices evolve, so will the need for a performance measurement and rating system," said Glenn Schuster, director of partner programs for the mobile GPU business at NVIDIA. "Futuremark has been a leader in the field in 3D graphics benchmarking on various computing platforms for several years, and we look forward to having a comprehensive tool to help ensure a compelling and enjoyable experience is delivered to mobile consumers around the world."
"Increasingly, consumers are choosing phones with cool graphics. Symbian is working with the industry to enable mobile handset manufacturers to use the latest and greatest graphics acceleration technology." said Bill Pinnell, Product Manager Multimedia, Gaming and Graphics, Symbian. "Futuremark's 3DMarkMobile06 is the first standards based benchmark available that enables the whole industry to evaluate the performance of new hardware with the real-world content that will be appearing on phones"

Availability
3DMarkMobile06 Developers' Edition will be available in November, 2005 via source-code licensing to Futuremark's BDP members. Compiled versions will be available, on request, to media and others. Futuremark will offer binary versions of the benchmark for Windows (i386), Windows CE (ARM) and Symbian (ARM) platforms. The binaries will be built using the latest, publicly available SDKs for each platform. Consumer version of 3DMarkMobile06 will be launched separately when there are enough handsets with hardware accelerated 3D graphics available for consumers.

About Futuremark® Corporation
Futuremark® Corporation is the leading provider of performance analysis software and services for PCs and smartphones. Futuremark® is known around the world for its benchmark products, including the 3DMark® and PCMark® Series and SPMark (with more than 30 million copies distributed worldwide) and value-added services powered by a database of over 12 million real life benchmarking results. Futuremark® maintains offices in Saratoga, California and Helsinki, Finland. For more information, please visit http://www.futuremark.com.
© 2005 Futuremark® Corporation. 3DMark®, PCMark® and SPMark trademarks and logos, Futuremark® character names and distinctive likenesses, are the exclusive property of Futuremark Corporation. OpenGL® and the oval logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. in the Untied States and/or other countries worldwide. All other trademarks are property of their respective companies.

Futuremark Contact:
Futuremark Corporation
Phone: +1-408-517-0131
Mr. Tero Sarkkinen
Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Email: tero@futuremark.com

Agency Contact:
TechWire International
Phone: +1-831-429-6288
Leo Pot
Email: information@ezwire.com

pcm05 110 download lead3

October 27, 2005 - Nicklas Renqvist

3dmm06 lead1 announce

October 27, 2005 - Nicklas Renqvist

Call of Duty 2 Review

October 27, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Finally tonight, GameSpot has chimed in with their take on Infinity Ward's recently released first person shooter, Call of Duty 2. Here's a nugget on some of the surrounding action you will see along the way:

You won't be participating in these forays alone; far from it. In every setting you'll be surrounded by what seems like dozens of soldiers, both friends and foes, who move and act in a realistic fashion. Lots of your artificially intelligent mates will die by your side, along with the dozens of enemy soldiers you kill, but more will come in from the rear echelons to take their place. The designers often do a good job of reminding you that the war isn't just the infantry skirmish in which you're fighting. From time to time you'll see planes engaged in dogfights flying overhead, or when you complete an objective of capturing a German harbor, you'll call in a naval strike and see enemy merchant ships being sunk at the docks.

Gothic III Q&A

October 27, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

TotalVideoGames.com has shot-up an interview with a couple of the people behind Piranha Bytes' upcoming RPG, Gothic III. Topics range from the game's storyline to engine. Here's something to chew on:

What kind of technology focus does the team have and can you tell us a little about the games 3D engine and one feature they are proud of so far?
Gothic III: Click for screenshotsStefan: For Gothic 3 we are using a complete new game engine called Genome Engine. We will support all new graphic features but we are focusing NVIDIA graphic chips as they have a lot of opportunities for us. For the trees we will use speed tree. As you can see we are using the newest technique to create the most fascinating RPG world ever. Gothic is well known for the unique graphic setting (Gothic is not just the game title). So in the third part of the game we will have much more possibilities for the characters, animations and buildings. In Gothic 2 a character had around 1.200 polygons. In Gothic 3 a character has 12.000 polygons.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Preview

October 27, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The GamesRadar have slapped up a quick preview on Bethesda Softwork's much anticipated RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Here's a bit on The Dark Brotherhood guild:

The Dark Brotherhood, however, only offers invitations to those people who have killed an innocent; once you've committed such a murder, you'll be invited to a Brotherhood domicile, a place patrolled by undead guards and draped with paintings of the Nightmother, the matriarch who slays all of her children in the night.

I can't wait for this one. *drool*

Civilization IV Review

October 27, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The folks over at Yahoo!Games have fired-up their take on Firaxis Games' strategy title, Civilization IV. Walking away with a final score of 4 1/2 stars out of 5, this one sounds like a keeper! Anyways, here's a blurb:

Adding a couple of new dimensions to the management side of the game, your cities now periodically produce Great People. Half a unit and half a resource, they can be moved from city to city just like any other, but can be deployed in one of a number of ways to produce highly beneficial effects. They can discover new technologies, build special city improvements, join your population to provide ongoing benefits to production, culture, or research, or, in pairs, can be consumed to start a "Golden Age" of increased productivity.

Havok Interview

October 27, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameCloud has posted an interview with Havok's Jeff Yates regarding their game physics engine. Here's a snippet on the latest version of the software:

Gamecloud - The company recently released Havok Engine 3.0. What can you tell us about the features behind the new version and how it improves on the physics effects we have seen in games that have used the 2.0 version of the engine?
Jeff Yates - Our combined product Havok Complete 3.2 (actually launching this month) includes physics and character animation technology and tools. For us, the combined blending of physics and animation is a natural extension and helps make game characters far more believable. On the physics side of things, weve introduced Continuous Physics which is an innovation that provides solid simulation of fast moving, small objects in the game. When characters or objects get thrown at high-speeds against a wall, the last thing a gamer wants to see is an arm get stuck in the wall or an object pass completely through the level because the physics system could not detect it. With Continuous Physics, we can perform collisions tests continuously in 4 dimensions covering time and space. Without a system like this, game developers have to take a lot of short cuts and the game-play experience generally suffers.

Another Call of Duty 2 Review

October 26, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The Call of Duty 2 reviews continue to roll in, with PC.IGN throwing up their take on Infinity Ward's just-released first person shooter. Here's a bit on the different mission types:

You'll have plenty of other gauntlets to deal with, a gameplay loop that Infinity Ward has honed to a science -- almost to a fault, in fact. The tempo almost always leads up to "defend this location while waiting for reinforcements," complete with a timer that, while helpful, does reduce immersion, in my opinion. Then the cavalry comes in, the music swells emotionally, and someone says something dramatic. It's still an effective device, but it does get a little exhausting at times. The climactic mission of each campaign doesn't have the nearly cartoonish difficulty and scope of United Offensive, instead choosing to emphasize a lower-key but nevertheless crucial engagement, like Brothers in Arms did. You'll still go through some famous locations, like Stalingrad and the American landing at Normandy, but the bulk of your effort will be in securing key locations and gradually pushing back the German offensive. CoD still often meets and sometimes exceeds the grandeur of the original, but it does so typically by pitting you against an amazing number of enemies, rather than letting the historic scenery and cinematic music do a lot of the legwork.

Age of Empires III Review

October 26, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Moving right along, EuroGamer has tossed up a quick review on Ensemble Studios' strategy title, Age of Empires III. Here's a blurb on the combat:

Ripping into AoE3 for its lack of realism would be unfair (its not pitched as a historical recreation after all) but personally Id like to have seen a tad more engagement with the subject matter. As any Cossacks 2 player will tell you, combat during the Colonial era was all about formations, fear and flintlock reload times. Ensembles interpretation is all but identical to its interpretation of medieval warfare. Invariably scraps turn into chaotic scrums where the winner is the fellow with the biggest and buffest force, or the one that can replenish their side of the swarm most efficiently. Forget flanking, forget terrain, forget friendly fire, standard bearers and drummer boys. Its a similar story on water. The new navy units are gorgeous but the way they move, attack and take damage would baffle Nelson.

Click here for more!

Valve Software Q&A

October 26, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Thanks to EvilAvatar for this little bit-o-news. Mod HQ has slapped up an interview with Valve Software's Erik Johnson regarding everything from Steam to Half-Life 2. Here's some juice:

Q: The last Steam weekly news update stated once again that The Lost Coast will be released soon. Still, many would like to know more about the Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source content that was mentioned in the same announcement.
A: While we haven't done a significant release for Counter-Strike: Source in a little while, we've been continuously building content for it. There are two new maps on the horizon for Counter-Strike: Source, de_nuke, and cs_militia, which will bring the total number of maps we've released to 18. The team has also been busy working on getting the rest of the player models built, which we'll also be releasing soon. November should be a fun month for Counter-Strike: Source fans.
On the Day of Defeat: Source front, we have a few maps currently in development. There will be a mix of new maps and a Source adaptation of an original Day of Defeat map coming before the calendar year is over.

New NHL 06 Patch

October 26, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The folks over at EA Sports have released a new patch for their hit hockey sim, NHL 06. You can grab both the North American and European versions of the patch from the official website's downloads page. Anyways, here's the list of what's new:

1) Issue where after installing Patch #2, and having substituted a non-NHL team in Dynasty mode, the game is crashing when selecting to "Exit" at the end of a game.
* Also includes roster updates from Patch #1 and fixes from Patch #2.

Call of Duty 2 Review

October 26, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Getting things started, Yahoo!Games has fired-up a review on Infinity Ward's just-released World War II-based first person shooter, Call of Duty 2. Here's a nugget on the game's engine:

But throughout the gameyness and the sameness, Infinity Ward keeps thing lively with some seriously buff technology. United Offensive pushed the Quake 3 engine probably as far as it could be pushed, so Call of Duty 2 is built entirely from a new proprietary engine. It looks great and is obviously tailored to the game's needs. Namely, lots of erratic geometry, lots of superbly animated character models, and long drawing distances. This ain't no Quake 3 engine. Once again, the weapons are a perfect storm of audio, animation, and effects, lending Call of Duty 2 the heartiest sense of gunplay this side of F.E.A.R.

Black & White 2 Review

October 25, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Keeping the content rollin', Gamezilla.com has whipped up a short review on Lionhead Studios' recently released 'God Game', Black & White 2. Here's a nugget:

As I mentioned earlier, we're in full RTS territory now, as every god must care for his followers and build cities for them. Using the town square as your starting point, you can construct large and elaborate cities, complete with easily built roads that can be constructed in frankly one of the easiest building systems Ive ever used. All in all, this is a good thing. The game still suffers in gameplay because youve got to micromanage your population, telling people to go forth and do things one at a time, but at least your metropolis gets to be inhabited by a populous and intriguing people.

Hitman: Blood Money Impressions

October 25, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpot has thrown up some impressions on Io Interactive's upcoming action-stealth title, Hitman: Blood Money. Let's get right into the goodies, shall we? Snip:

Agent 47's repertoire of moves has certainly expanded in Blood Money, and Io has especially emphasized close-quarters combat. You'll get a number of new combat abilities when you're in melee range. As a result, you can head-butt or shove people when the situation is appropriate, and you can perform a disarm move to strip them of their weapons if they try to shoot you. You can even use an enemy as a human shield if you're feeling dastardly enough. The combat has also been tweaked to make things go a little more smoothly. For instance, you can now have a weapon equipped without blatantly waving it around; 47 will conceal a sidearm behind his back while keeping it at the ready, giving you more flexibility when planning an attack. You'll also be able to take out certain targets creatively, without raising alarms by rigging accidents. For example, Io mentioned that you could plant a bomb on a chandelier and then drop the entire thing on top of a character, making the death look more or less like a random mishap rather than a hired killing.

F.E.A.R. Review

October 25, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameCloud has slapped up their take on Monolith's recently released first person shooter, F.E.A.R.. With a final score of 87%, they really seemed to dig it! Anyways, here's some juice:

Gameplay wise, F.E.A.R. is a blast to play through in single player. One of the big reasons why is the enemy AI. Monolith has created what may be the best AI ever in a game (yes, even better than Half-Life 2). The cloned solders you have to face through most of the game move cautiously, try to outflank your position, and even back up and throw grenades to try to flush you out. Its perhaps the best AI ever made for a first person shooter.

RollerCoaster Tycoon: Wild! Review

October 25, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The peeps over at PC.IGN have fired-up a review on Frontier Developments' latest RollerCoaster Tycoon expansion, Wild!. Here's something to nibble on:

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Wild! includes enough to be satisfying on a superficial level though those looking for any real enclosure design aspects might be a bit disappointed. As far as I've been able to figure out, you can stick an animal in any environment with any amount of foliage and it won't matter much as long as the enclosure is big enough. Similarly, animals don't seem to care about terrain levels or if there's actually water in the enclosure. None of the hippos I put into my attractions ever actually went swimming anyway. Microsoft's Zoo Tycoon (which has sold a trillion zillion copies) isn't the best game in the world, but even it brings a higher level of simulation and management to the subject matter and includes specific needs for animals in certain climates (though a tad bit too specific I do admit), several different options for enclosure walls, and more. As it is, it's simply not a challenge in the slightest.

Quake 4 Review

October 24, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Another Quake 4 review has popped up over at GameSpy this evening, taking a look at Raven Software's recently released first person shooter. Here's a bit on the new Tourney Mode:

One nifty innovation is the new Tourney Mode, which gathers all the players on the server and creates an instant 1v1 tournament, complete with brackets and everything. Players are paired off in their own arenas, and all the first-round matches take place simultaneously. If you lose, you're free to scroll through all the other matches and watch the action; if you win, you keep playing until you reach the finals. (It'll be interesting to see if modders can build on this, allowing admins to manually seed players or support double-elimination tournaments.)

F.E.A.R. Review

October 23, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Giving us a little weekend reading material, Voodoo Extreme has thrown up some impressions on Monolith's recently released first person shooter, F.E.A.R.. Here's a bit on the game's sweet combat:

Combat really kicks ass, not only because of the Max Payne inspired slow-motion, the cool guns or the over the top particle effects, but because Monolith added melee combat. Interesting? Yes. Better than using guns? Not really. The weapons have a satisfying feel to them and body parts go a-flying when enough damage is delivered. The only weapon I truly didn't like was the sniper rifle, only because it was automatic fire and the scope was awfully primitive.

Quake IV Review

October 22, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Hitting us with some review lovin', Yahoo!Games has taken a look at Raven Software's recently released first person shooter, Quake IV. Here's a nugget on the game's visuals:

Quake IV also benefits from a color palette that strays beyond the shades of brown and gray featured in the early games. Like Doom 3, there's plenty of mighty fine texture work on display. Behind the scenes, the game makes the most of modern high-spec graphics hardware to give an impressive depth and presence to even the most mundane and ordinary of objects. While it's not as photorealistic as Half-Life 2, the world it creates is almost as convincing.

Read on!

Vampire: Bloodlines Unofficial Patch

October 22, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

An unofficial patch (v1.8) has been released for Troika Games' hit Action-RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Weighing in at 27megs, here's the list of what's new:

Continued adjusting locations names by changing bus and sewer maps.
Restored female Sabbat and put three into the first Hollowbrook map.
Corrected a wrong dialogue option for female Malkavians with Nadia.
Made cemetery quest easier and fixed Romero raising female firearms.
Removed unused subdirectories on two of the Kamikazi Zen computers.
Fixed several dialogue errors regarding Beckett, Flayton and Hatter.
Corrected dialogue getting cut of at Fu Labs for Nosferatu players.
Placed Pearl of Dubai and other cut items in pawnshop and elsewhere.
Added the missing Dodge II manual to second Giovanni Mansion level.
Created Justicar guards at Giovanni Mansion and fixed a synchro bug.
Put the unused male asian nurse model into the Santa Monica clinic.
Fixed Carson's appartment key not being removed when it's been used.
Corrected formatting of a few haven pc emails and the Sin Bin note.

Now remember, this is an unofficial patch. So use it at your own risk!

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Q&A

October 22, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Thanks to Blue's News for this tidbit! Elite Bastards.com has fired-off some questions at Bethesda Softworks' Gavin Carter regarding their upcoming RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Topics range from the game's engine to the combat system. Snip:

Elite Bastards: Can you give us an overview of the main features used by the games graphics engine (i.e. Shader Models, texture sizes, HDR etc)?
Gavin Carter: Oblivions renderer is a mix of the Gamebryo renderer with a healthy dose of our own internally developed technology. The engine fully supports shader models up to and including 3.0. We employ a full HDR lighting solution throughout the game. Textures utilize all the latest shader technology including normal maps, specular maps, and parallax maps. Were hammering away on our soft-shadow model. There shouldnt be any technological buzzword out there that current games are using that we dont have built into our renderer.

EQ II: Desert of Flames Review

October 22, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Moving right along, GameSpy has posted their take on Sony Online's EverQuest II expansion pack, Desert of Flames. Here's a blurb on the inclusion of PvP:

The Maj'Dul arena brings to EQII a feature that it's been glaringly missing since launch: PvP gameplay. And while it certainly doesn't make the game's inherent Qeynos-versus-Freeport conflict any more meaningful than it was before, it's a good start. You can choose to participate in arena matches in two ways: first, you can go in there as your own character, and duke it out with other players doing the same thing. The other method is through what are called "Arena Champions." Basically, they're monsters that you can take the form of before entering the arena, complete with their own abilities, and set levels of power. A handful of them are available for a low cost from a vendor right outside the arena, while rarer ones can be obtained as loot drops from monsters around the world, or as PvP-specific rewards for winning battles.

Civilization IV Review

October 22, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The folks over at PC.IGN have thrown together a review on Firaxis' Turn-Based Strategy title, Civilization IV. Here's a bit on the technology upgrades:

You gain access to new religions and new civics by researching the appropriate technology. Fans of the previous games will find that the technology tree is much more open-ended here. The 80 or so techs that you can research are still arrayed in a vast tree with certain key technologies opening up new research paths but, unlike the previous games, there are some soft pre-requisites here. Instead of getting all the techs that lead to a given advance, you can sometimes make do with just getting one of the technologies that leads to the advance you want. This new approach means that technology is much more fluid here.

Quake 4 Review

October 21, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Finally tonight, TeleFragged has whipped up a short review on Raven Software's first person shooter, Quake 4. Here's some juice on the boss fights:

Boss fights in Quake 4 are a mix of full-on shootouts and gimmick fights (where you've got to dodge the bosses' attacks and do something goofy to win instead of just shooting them in the face), and for the most part I'm quite impressed with how these went. And it's always a good move to have really fun boss fights, because more than anything, that's what players will remember about your game. Good work, Raven and id.

Click here for the goods!

The Movies Preview

October 21, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The folks over at GameHelper have tossed up a quick preview on Lionhead Studios' upcoming sim, The Movies. Here's a snippet on some of the post-production goodies:

Once your masterpiece is in the can you can rush it to post-production where you can edit to your hearts content, lay in subtitles, add voice-overs, soundtracks, splice-up your scenes and even add special FX. The tools available will vary depending upon where your studio is in the overall history timeline. When you start the game, in the 1920s, your editing toolset will be very limited as the complex and time-saving technical marvels we young whippersnappers take for granted today did not yet exist.

Rise of Legends Preview

October 21, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Keeping things rollin', PC.IGN has posted a preview on some of the units in Big Huge Games' upcoming strategy title, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends. Here's a chunk on the Vinci heroes:

The Vinci heroes are representative of the main axes of power within the Vinci city-states. On the one hand we have Giacomo, the acknowledged leader of science, invention, and forward-thinking among the Vinci. His designs, and those of his master The Great Inventor, have become standard issue in most Vinci armies. As a representative of Miana, he further represents progressive, enlightened leadership. On the other hand we have the Doge of Venucci, acknowledged mostly for his brazen militarism, his covert trade with powerful foreign factions, and his utter ruthlessness. It has been amply demonstrated that the lives of thousands mean nothing to the Doge, if by ending them he can obtain more power for himself. Finally, as the balance between the two, there is Lenora of the Pirata. While hardly espousing the noble visions of a Giacomo, she nevertheless shuns the outright greed of the Doge. In the guise of amoral mercenaries, she and her Pirata followers do hold to a certain code of honor, which includes a respect for the lives of the citizens of the Vinci.

F.E.A.R. Review

October 21, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Sticking with reviews, the ActionTrip has chimed in with their take on Monolith's hit first person shooter, F.E.A.R.. Here's a nugget on the game's storyline:

As far as the actual plot is concerned, the way it is conveyed and how it develops is pleasing to say the least, while the core subject may be a bit too cliché. Still, FEAR plays a lot like Valve's Half-Life series, in the sense that the players feel like active participants in the events rather than just passive observers of the developing narrative. Of course, one must not neglect the perfectly implemented horror elements. Monolith does not rely on cheap tricks and DOOM 3-style "horror" to scare the player. Rather, the horror elements rely heavily on the story, the "aftermath" factor of System Shock fame, as well as brilliantly directed horror miniatures, which can be as subtle or as gruesome as the situation requires. The horror theme is never overused, and is simply brilliantly paced, consequently leaving the intended impact on the player.

Age of Empires III Review

October 21, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Kicking things off, GameSpy has shot-up a review on Ensemble Studios' recently released Strategy title, Age of Empires III. Here's something to nibble on:

Age III pulls out all the stops to depict the sweeping majesty of the old west or the unspoiled beauty of the colonial-era Americas. One of the single-player campaign cutscenes, done in the game engine, pans across rolling hills of golden grass while huge herds of buffalo amble along like waves of water. Another level depicts a small Caribbean port picking up the pieces after a devastating hurricane, with citizens milling about amidst wrecked ships and broken docks. Yet another level has you picking your way through a dense swamp looking for the ruins of Spanish treasure ships half-buried in the mud and dripping with gold doubloons. You're never lacking for eye candy.

City of Villains Preview

October 20, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Finishing off the night, GameSpy has fired-up a preview on Cryptic Studios' upcoming City of Heroes stand-alone expansion, City of Villains. Here's a blurb on character creation:

The most interesting aspect of the costume creator, though, is how the development team used subtle design elements to make sure that costumes created for City of Villains felt appropriately "evil." Even those costume accessories ported over have been lengthened, made sharper and more angular. While a wide assortment of colors is available for a character, the colors are a bit different. They're more textured and tinged with grays, blacks, and yellows that ensure that even bright colors look more bilious than their clean, flat, City of Heroes counterparts, while dark colors feel greasier, dirtier, and more menacing.

Read on!

SiN: Episodes Preview

October 20, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Computer and Video Games.com have slapped up their take on Ritual Entertainment's upcoming first person shooter, SiN: Episodes. Here's a snippet on a neat little feature:

SiN Episodes are also geared towards something that was hinted at in Half-Life 2's promo videos (being similar to when Freeman knocks over a computer and is chided by Kleiner), but never really made it to the finished article. "One of the things we're showcasing in the first episode is a new system, Context Look, which enables non-player characters to respond to what the player is looking at," explains Hessel. "You might be looking for an item in a cluttered room and have no idea what it looks like. Your sidekick JC can guide you and react to what you're looking at, so he'll go, 'Nope, that's not it, that's just a toaster' or 'Blade, get on with the mission and quit staring at those posters'. Having the game react to what you're looking at is something that hasn't been done before and it's another layer that adds to the overall immersion."

SWG: Trials of Obi-Wan Preview

October 20, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

PC.IGN has tossed up some impressions on LucasArts' upcoming Star Wars Galaxies expansion, Trials of Obi-Wan, after getting some hands-on time with this bad boy. Here's a bit on the new planet and its visuals:

Those of you that saw Star Wars: Episode III will remember the climactic battle on planet Mustafar between Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker. This is the focus of the expansion. Not only is this planet steeped in Star Wars lore, but it also gives the team an excuse to add on some interesting new graphical tweaks (the game still looks quite good anyway) to show off the fiery nature of the planet.. Not only will players see their first windows in buildings (which have been dutifully reconstructed from the movie) that allow them to see down into other areas and watch other players battle, but heat shimmers and new lava flow behavior make the world come alive.

City of Villains Interview

October 20, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

MMORPG.com has sat down with Cryptic Studios' David "Zeb" Cook for a chat regarding their upcoming City of Heroes expansion (stand-alone), City of Villains. They cover the different archetypes, PvP and more! Here's some juice:

MMORPG.com: Could you tell us more about the different archetypes and the power-sets they can use? Also, are there new origins, if so, what?
David "Zeb" Cook: There are 5 new archetypes -- Brute, Stalker, Corrruptor, Dominator, and Mastermind. Most of these combine existing powersets with new powersets and all have an inherent power. Brutes have their damage go up the more they fight, masterminds improve the effectiveness of their minions when nearby, stalkers use stealth for devastating attacks, dominators can boost the power of their holds, and corruptors increase in damage the weaker their foes get. Of the power sets, many are reworked -- powers come available at different levels and with a few new powers thrown in (in this case we do rename the powerset so it won't be confusing). Mastermind is almost entirely new with various henchmen to summon and powersets to buff them with, but all of the archetypes have some differences.

Quake 4 Review

October 20, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpot has thrown together a quick review on Raven Software's first person shooter, Quake 4. Walking away with a final score of 8.0/10, this one might be worth a look. Anyways, here's a nugget on the game's singleplayer:

For the most part, Quake 4 is a standard, straightforward shooter in its single-player mode. While the minute-to-minute objectives might not be the most interesting thing in the world, the game's combat is generally pretty satisfying. It's almost as if Raven set out to prove that the Doom 3 engine could do more than just constantly try to surprise you, one enemy at a time. That's not to say that Quake 4's hallways are littered with angry enemies, but Quake 4 is definitely a much more hectic game than Doom 3 ever was. While you'll still deal with a lot of shadowy areas, this is less about making you jump out of your seat and more about running and gunning. When matched with the game's amazing graphical design, the single-player becomes an exciting thrill ride that, on the default difficulty setting, should take you somewhere around 10 to 15 hours to complete.

Gothic 3 Interview

October 19, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameCloud has caught up with Piranha Bytes's Stefan Berger for a quick Q&A regarding their upcoming RPG, Gothic 3. They look at the game's storyline, engine and more! Here's a taste:

Gamecloud - What locations and settings will we see in the third game?
Stefan Berger - Gothic 1 and 2 played only on the small island around the city Khorinis. In Gothic 3, you will play on the mainland. In the north of the mainland there are the icy mountains with lot of snow, in the middle of the mainland is the heart of the kingdom with green grassland and woods and in the south you will be able to find the dessert. In every setting you will find other characters. So in the dessert you will find slavedriver and in the North you will find mighty northland warriors. In Myrtana, the heart of the kingdom, you will be able to find orcs living together with the humans. As you can see there will be a lot of different settings and people in Gothic3.

F.E.A.R. Patch Released

October 19, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The guys over at Monolith have released a patch (v1.01) for their hit first person shooter, F.E.A.R.. Fixing various bugs, you can grab this 22mb bad boy from one of the following mirrors:

So get to it!

Age of Empires III Review

October 19, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The ActionTrip has slapped up some impressions on Ensemble Studios' recently released Strategy title, Age of Empires III. Here's a bit on the new Home City feature:

Tying in to this mission design is the rather heavy accent on experience points and the Home City feature. The Home City screen will be available in most of the missions during the single-player campaign. The way that this feature works is that naturally, every colonial power is receiving shipments from the motherland as they struggle to conquer the New World. The number of your experience points will decide which type of cards (upgrades) you'll be able to unlock for your tech tree. During the mission, you'll be able to summon shipments and reinforcements from the Home City, which if used wisely can be the difference between victory and defeat. Certain missions will have you relying solely on the Home City resources while others will take a more traditional approach of strictly farming for resources from the local landscape. Most of the missions will be a mix of the two.

Hellgate: London Preview

October 19, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Starting things off, GameSpy has thrown up a preview on Flagship Studios' upcoming first person RPG, Hellgate: London. Here's a snippet on the game's different weapons:

Roper cycled through a bunch of devastating weapons throughout his demo. Since Templars as a class can dual-wield any combination of melee weapons and firearms, there didn't seem to be any shortage of methods to cause havoc. Most impressive, perhaps, was a weapon called the Firebrand. Basically, it fired a cluster of guided missiles that basically annihilated everything in their path. They would seek out multiple targets when appropriate, often times simultaneously going after enemies crawling on the ground, as well as flying ones. The Arc Jumper was pretty neat as well; it popped off orbs of electrified plasma that bounced frantically from enemy-to-enemy, like an unstable molecule. The Firefly, meanwhile, whose name Roper mentioned is an overt reference to eponymous (but sadly short-lived) sci-fi TV series, was essentially a portable volcano. It spewed thick chunks of magma that, logically, burned things up real quick.

Rise of Legends Dev Diary

October 18, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpot has fired-up a developer diary regarding the gameplay balance in Big Huge Games' upcoming strategy title, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends. Here's a nugget:

Of course, the balance process is ongoing practically from the start of the project, but during the initial design phase there are so many new features going in and so many confounding factors that it's not productive to worry too much about nation balance or unit balance. One thing we always keep in mind is whether a given feature is "balanceable." That is, can it be adjusted up or down in strength when the time comes without fundamentally changing its nature? Most features have some "handles" that can be pulled--a duration that can be increased or decreased or a strength that can be raised or lowered. Occasionally there comes a feature where there is not enough subtlety to the gradations and there's just no way to balance, because at level two it's too weak and at level three it's too strong, and we don't have access to fractions. Those are features that either all nations/units have to share or that we don't dare put in the game.

Serious Sam 2 Review

October 18, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Also over at TeleFragged tonight is a review on the CroTeam's action-packed first person shooter, Serious Sam 2. Here's a blurb on the colorful visuals:

One thing I want to mention is that Serious Sam 2 stays bright and colorful throughout pretty much the whole game, and it's a real contrast to so many other shooters that have come out recently. Even though at a glance it looks almost like a kid's game, don't let it fool you, because this game is just as gory as any out there. Enemies spray blood as they die, and they even explode into accurately modelled pieces (that's right: the body parts are uniquely crafted for each enemy, and don't co

F.E.A.R. Review

October 18, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Moving right along, TeleFragged has thrown together a review on Monolith's first person shooter, F.E.A.R.. Here's a bit on the game's weapons and AI:

The weapons you'll have access to here are immensely powerful and extremely satisfying to fire, and if your aim's true, you can score a lot of one-hit kills even with the starting pistol. You'll need to be able to kill quickly, too, as your enemies use possibly some of the smartest AI ever seen in a shooter. These guys will flush you out with grenades if they have the numbers, get behind you, push from both sides, cover each other when one's taking fire, and just all-around make it harder for you to kill them by way of using brains rather than brawn. They can retreat when outgunned or camp behind a box waiting for you to poke your nose out, lean around corners to expose as little of themselves as possible, and communicate with eachother on your whereabouts.

Futuremark Interview

October 18, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The folks over at Beyond3D have thrown up an interview with our very own Nicklas Renqvist regarding 3DMark05, SPMark04 and more! Here's some lovin':

It has been a little over a year from the release of SPMark04 - Futuremark's first benchmarking tool for mobile phone & handheld solutions. How do you this year has gone for the product? Did it meet expectations of levels of interest? Has generated sufficient feedback from consumers to invest in developing a new version?
As with all new products, there is a learning curve. SPMark04 was our first mobile-phone benchmark, and we learned a lot from developing it. SPMark04s market penetration actually exceeded our expectations since benchmarking on mobile phones might sound a bit strange when you first hear about it. We are committed to continue to develop industry standard benchmarks for mobile devices as well as PCs, and we are soon going to announce something new. Keep your eyes open!

Click here for more!

New Serious Sam II Demo Released

October 18, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The CroTeam has released a new demo from their action-packed first person shooter, Serious Sam II. Weighing in at 370megs, this sucker includes a new level, 16 player co-op and more! Hit one of the following mirrors to start downloading:

The Movies Preview

October 17, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Keeping the rollin', the AVault has thrown up a short preview on Lionhead Studios' upcoming sim, The Movies. Here's something to chew on:

Since the game begins in 1920, the technology available is rather primitive. Movies are grainy and have lines, sets are very few and costumes are not very many. As time progresses, however, new technologies, buildings, special effects, costumes, props and sets begin to arrive. Various events happen that may spark interest in one genre over another for example. Awards ceremonies happen frequently and if the player happens to win any particular award, he gets the bonuses associated with it, for example the actors may not become addicted to alcohol for a year. That way they can drown their boredom in liquor without any negative effects.

Hellgate: London Interview

October 16, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameBanshee has sat down with Flaghip Studios' Max Schaefer for a quick Q&A regarding their upcoming first person RPG, Hellgate: London. Here's a bit on character creation:

GB: Tell us a bit about character creation in Hellgate: London and what steps a player will go through when initially customizing their character.
Max: The player really customizes their character throughout the game. While you pick your basic look at the beginning, the real cool stuff comes in what you find when you're out adventuring. These are the flashy things, like magic helms, crazy new weapons, and those things that really make you stand out as an individual. Anyone can make a brown-haired, dark-skinned Female Templar, but not everyone can have a "Legendary Obsidian Battle Helm". You have to earn that!

Read on!

F.E.A.R. Review

October 15, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The folks over at GameSpot have whipped up a review on Monolith's upcoming first person shooter, F.E.A.R.. Here's a snippet on the game's intense combat:

F.E.A.R. works because it elevates first-person shooter combat to cinematic levels. And while we've certainly seen games with movie-quality combat before, you've never seen anything quite like this. Playing F.E.A.R. is like battling through a John Woo movie like Face/Off, because when firefights happen in this game, they're downright glorious to behold. Bullets tear chunks out of concrete and wood; blinding clouds of dust and debris fill the air; bodies are torn apart or slump on the ground; and the deathly silence of the aftermath contrasts so sharply with the sheer chaos that erupted only moments before. Gunfights in F.E.A.R. just feel right.

Yummy!

Age of Empires III Review

October 15, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Also over at PC.IGN this evening is a review on Ensemble Studios' upcoming Strategy title, Age of Empires III. Here's a bit on the different missions you'll face along the way:

The range of missions is pretty broad. There are plenty of defense missions where you have to protect a given structure or a whole town from enemy assault. In other cases you'll have to destroy or capture key structures. Along the way there are plenty of other objectives: rescuing captured settlers, seizing trading posts, liberating Native American settlements and a whole host of other tasks. Better still, many missions combine a variety of these objectives at once. While most of the missions let you build a base and start collecting resources, there are some missions where you have to make do with a set number of troops.

Hellgate: London Preview

October 15, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

PC.IGN has thrown together a quick preview on Flagship Studios' upcoming first person RPG, Hellgate: London. Here's a nugget on the game's weapons:

Weapons are designed with a couple of ideas in mind. Firstly, they have to be able to be used by anybody with some level of success. That means either splash damage, homing capabilities, or a large cone of fire. Secondly, Flagship is putting a large importance on weapons working together in concert with other weapons for those that choose to wield two (like the grappling gun that can reel enemies in for slicing and dicing for melee players) or even in larger groups where some players specialize in support weapons while others attack. With the thousands of varieties of possible weapon combinations (especially with modifications), it's going to be a challenge to balance everything perfectly the first time through.

The Movies Interview

October 15, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Keeping with interviews, ShackNews has fired-off some questions at Lionhead Studios' Brynley Gibson regarding their upcoming sim, The Movies. Topics range from voiceovers to the star maker system. Snip:

Shack: You mentioned voiceover. Is that done in-game, or is it postproduction?
Brynley Gibson: Right. Well, it's inside the game, but it's a building you unlock to get the technology of postproduction. In there, you can edit the films, move things around, add your own sound effects or dub out sound effects already in there. You can use any of our music, we've got something like ninety pieces of music in there and all of them are originally composed for the game. We used the Prague Symphony Orchestra for the big movie orchestral pieces. The composer is great fun, he's an external composer called Daniel Pemberton, and he does a lot of TV music in the UK. He got to write different of movie music, throughout all the decades, going from plinky-plonky piano--he even owns this very old, I don't know, 1800s piano that he used.

Age of Empires III Q&A

October 15, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Starting things off, GameCloud has slapped up an interview with Ensemble Studios' Greg Street regarding their upcoming strategy title, Age of Empires III. Here's a bit on gameplay balancing:

Gamecloud - How hard is it to balance the various civilizations so that they are more or less equal in multiplayer games?
Greg Street - Hard. Maybe impossible. The whole team has worked like crazy to balance the game, and we have a lot of experience doing this sort of thing by now, but the design of AoE III makes it such a challenge.
For starters, the civilizations all have different economic systems and many different units. In Age of Kings, every civilization worked almost identically with just slight twists, like +10% wood gathering, or +20% stronger archers.
To make things even harder, we added this whole concept of a Home City, in which each civilization has access to different Shipments that they can send from Europe. We have to consider all the possible combinations of Shipments one player can send as well as the synergystic effects of different civs in team games. Its an immensely complicated and time-consuming process to play every possible permutation, but the process of playing and balancing makes the game better through each successive iteration.

Hellgate: London Impressions

October 14, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpot has posted some updated impressions on Flagship Studios' upcoming first person RPG, Hellgate: London. Here's a snippet on the templar skills:

In the meantime, you can choose from the game's many, many skills. The templar character will apparently have skills that focus on "auras," energy fields that radiate from his or her person that can either hinder nearby enemies or strengthen nearby foes. Even though the game will have many different skills, you'll be able to choose only a certain number of them by investing various skill points in each. With each skill point you invest, your skills will become more powerful. However, the game won't have any skills that get replaced over time, and therefore Flagship intends for all skills in the game to remain useful throughout the entire game...even the ones you get at the very beginning. And fortunately, you'll be able to adjust how many points you have invested in an individual skill anytime you wish.

New America's Army Released

October 14, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The U.S. Army has released a new update (v2.5) for their tactical first person shooter, America's Army. Included are two new missions, a tournament mode and more much! Hit one of the following mirrors to download either the full game or the patch:

City of Villains Interview

October 14, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

MMORPG.com has Cryptic Studios' David "Zeb" Cook in the hot seat, answering a handful of questions regarding their MMORPG City of Heroes and it's upcoming expansion, City of Villains. Here's a nugget on their PvP plans:

MMORPG.com: How do you propose to combat the problem of CoH having many more high level players than CoV in regards to PvP?
David "Zeb" Cook: Getting PvP where we want it to be is no small concern for us. We want to make sure it feels fun for all sides. We've taken what we've learned from building, playing and watching the Arenas and improved on it. The different PvP zones are set at different power levels, so players will be more or less equal. There are goals and objectives in the PvP zones that do and don't relate to PvP itself. And each zone has different gameplay so that players can engage in the kind of action they want.

Quake 4 Review

October 14, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

PC.IGN has fired-up one of the first reviews on Raven Software's soon-to-be-released first person shooter, Quake 4. Here's a bit on the game's storyline:

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The Quake 4 story picks up where Quake 2 left off, with the Space Marines fighting the Strogg, this time on the enemy's home planet, Stroggos. You'll take the role of Corporal Kane as the Marines attempt to basically annihilating their Borg-like nemesis. You'll crash land in the middle of trench warfare, and it's off to the races as one superior officer after another sends you off to retrieve people, destroy key locations, and infiltrate deep behind enemy lines. Sometimes you'll be accompanied by game-controlled team members -- typically a technical officer who can repair your armor, and/or a corpsman who can heal you up to full health.

So does the game live up to the hype? Read on to find out!

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Preview

October 14, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The peeps over at Evil Avatar have slapped up a preview on Bethesda Softworks' upcoming RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Here's something to nibble on:

Like previous Elder Scrolls titles, in Oblivion your character starts out in jail. You start by choosing your characters race, and then customize your characters appreance. Theres a ton of customization options here and virtually unlimited faces you can create with the tools given to you. In fact, all the faces in the game were created with this tool so no two NPCs look alike. After setting up your characters appearance the story starts. The Emperors sons have been killed, so the Emperor is being taken away to a safe place. Of course, the secret passage out for the Emperor is right through your jail sail. The Emperor (voice by Patrick Stewart) sees you and talks about how hes seen you his dreams and how great things will happen to you.

F.E.A.R. Interview

October 13, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The guys over at EuroGamer have posted an interview with Monolith's Craig Hubbard regarding their upcoming first person shooter, F.E.A.R.. They chat about the horror aspects of the game, level design and more. Here's a taste:

Eurogamer: To veer off on a bit of a tangent, now, let's talk multiplayer. When I saw this, I was really impressed with the way the slow motion had been applied. Now, I'm always a bit reluctant to do the old, "What kind of challenges did you face?" like, but I really know very little about net-code. I'm guessing it was hard to make that work, but what were the actual barriers that you had to scale?
Craig Hubbard: The challenge wasn't really on the engineering side, but on the design side. A lot of people were convinced it would suck to be thrust into slow-mo if you weren't in combat, so there was some opposition before it had even been prototyped. It definitely won't appeal to everyone, but enough of us enjoyed it to justify putting it in the game. As gratifying as it is to take out an AI enemy in slowmo, it's better when it's your friend.

Black & White 2 Review

October 13, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Another Black & White 2 review has popped up over at the ActionTrip tonight, taking a look at Lionhead Studios' Strategy/RPG. Here's a nugget on building your towns:

If you want to avoid the retardation that is combat, you can build cities. This is easy, because your villagers tell you exactly what to build next and the game has icons that tell you how to lay out your city so everyone is happiest. On top of that, there is no resource management in this game. Fields just need water to always grow food, mines just need miners to always get ore, and forests just need water to always have trees. Plus, even if your people aren't gathering wood, food, or ore, you can do it for them. You can also build their houses for them. Sometimes it is best to just tell all of your villagers to breed so that you can just do all of the resource gathering yourself.

Starship Troopers Preview

October 13, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Also over at GameSpot this evening is a preview on Strangelite's upcoming first person shooter, Starship Troopers. Here's a snippet on the weapons you'll get to play around with:

Your most basic weapon is your light machine gun, which doesn't do a lot of damage, but it's got the plus of never running out of ammunition. This gun will overheat if you hold down the fire button for too long, though. It can generally take care of the most basic warrior bugs. However, you're in trouble when you get to the more colorful bugs, because, like poisonous snakes, the brighter the bug, the more dangerous it is. To take care of those bugs, you can get the assault rifle, which eats up ammo but packs a heavier punch. You also have other weapons at your disposal, including shotguns, grenades, and more. You can also man weapon stations, such as an antiaircraft gun that's useful for taking down the hopper bugs, which are like giant flies. (It's also useful for mowing down tons of warriors on the ground).

Serious Sam II Review

October 13, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpot is the latest website to fire-up their take on the Croteam's recently released action-packed first person shooter, Serious Sam II. Here's some juice:

"Serious" Sam Stone, casually dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, has been summoned to rid the universe of Mental and his nefarious forces. To do this, he'll need to travel to different worlds to collect medallion pieces from their oppressors. And to do that, he'll need to run from point A to point B through nearly two-dozen levels, stopping frequently to gun down literally hundreds of foes. Along the way, you'll find a variety of big guns, grab lots of health, armor, and ammo power-ups, and probably discover some amusing secret areas. But mostly you'll just shoot and shoot and shoot as enemies pour in from all around you, attacking from the ground and from the sky, either hanging back and firing at you or rushing right toward you--sometimes using a combination of the two.

F.E.A.R. Review

October 13, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

PC.IGN has thrown together a quick review on Monolith's first person shooter, F.E.A.R.. With a final score of 9.2/10, this one looks like a keeper! Anyways, here's a bit on the gameplay:

And the gameplay isn't so bad either. As I noted in the impressions piece a couple days ago, the enemy's squad-based AI is pretty impressive. And they'll do a realistic amount of damage, so you'll want to make sure that your Reflex meter always has some juice in it. Like Bullet Time, Reflex puts you in Slo-Mo Mode, allowing you to move and shoot quickly for a limited amount of time, and it regenerates fairly quickly when not in use. If you poke around the nooks and crannies of each area, those hypodermic devices that permanently increase your pool of Reflex, and it will add up quite nicely, as will the permanent health boost hypos. Just be on the lookout for freakish ghost encounters. Not that there's anything I can really say that will prepare you for those jolts. Like I said before, watch those corners, because sometimes they're watching you.

F.E.A.R. Hands-On

October 12, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpot has thrown up some impressions on Monolith's upcoming first person shooter, F.E.A.R., after getting a chance to check this puppy out hands-on. Here's a nugget on the game's combat:

Combat in F.E.A.R. feels incredible, because it is incredible. Many things contribute to the sheer, over-the-top sense of mayhem in the game. The graphics engine looks amazing, and while you might argue that the environments aren't as complex as other games in terms of the number of polygons, F.E.A.R. certainly pushes the visuals in terms of particle effects. When you fire a gun, it looks and feels like you're firing an actual gun. Bullets tear out huge chunks of concrete walls, sending clouds of dust and debris in the air, or sparks fly when bullets ricochet off metal. The physics engine is fairly powerful, and you can use the environment to your advantage. For instance, if you see a fire extinguisher, shooting a few bullets into it might cause it to explode. Or, even better, shoot the valve off a gas pipe and let the resulting explosion wipe your enemies out for you.

New World of WarCraft Patch

October 12, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Blizzard Entertainment has released a new patch (v1.8) for their hit massively multiplayer online RPG, World of WarCraft. This sucker includes new druid talent trees, revamped Alterac Valley battlegrounds and much more! Click here for a list of what's new or just load up the game's auto-updater to start downloading!

The Movies Preview

October 12, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Moving right along, Yahoo! Video Games has slapped up a preview on Lionhead Studios' upcoming sim, The Movies. Here's a bit on managing your movie stars:

Over time ( The Movies spans a period of about one hundred years), stars will age and eventually retire. You can drop them into a cosmetic surgery building to forestall the effects of time with a nip/tuck, implants, or a bit of liposuction. But the bottom line is that even the best stars have a shelf life, so you'll want to get them working while you can.

Ah, true to life. lol :lol:

Dreadnought Interview

October 12, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameCloud has fired-up a quick interview with Torc Interactive's Dermot Gallagher regarding their Instinct Engine and recently released Dreadnought tech demo. Here's some juice:

Gamecloud - How did the idea for the Dreadnought tech demo come about?
Dermot Gallagher - The drive was all about highlighting the benefits of 64-bit. The two keys areas we identified were scale and performance. In the early stages it took a while to shake off the habits of developing for more restrictive platforms, and start utilizing the power and flexibility that was available. An early decision was taken to aim for a single level that really represented 3 or 4 levels of what gamers were typically used to for the style of game that Dreadnought represented. We also wanted huge amounts of interactive objects all over the level, with the majority of those objects being able to be damaged or destroyed. With this scale in mind (which turned into some 1.3GB of data in 64-bit Enhanced mode), we set about filling it with set-pieces that would benefit from the performance gains of 64-bit. Although a graphics intensive game, Dreadnought prepares an awful lot of that graphics data on the processor at run-time (lighting and shadowing info, animations and particle systems), with the likes of physics also executing there.

Serious Sam II Review

October 12, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

PC.IGN gets things started with a review on the CroTeam's action-packed first person shooter, Serious Sam II. Here's a bit on some of the interesting new weapons:

Sam's arsenal is quite a bit more inventive this time around but you'll still find yourself relying on old standbys like the double-barreled shotgun, the chaingun and the rocket gun. Between the three of them, you should have pretty much every situation covered. More specialized weapons certainly find application during the game -- the enemy-seeking parrot bomb is great for chasing down highly mobile enemies and the levels are often large enough to accommodate the sniper rifle, for instance -- but those situations are fairly rare. Your ammo supply might become a problem on the higher difficulty settings but there are so many pick-ups scattered throughout the game that you won't run out of ammunition even if you try to squander it.

3dmjotan

October 11, 2005 - Nicklas Renqvist

Futuremark® Announces Patch for PCMark®05

October 11, 2005 - Nicklas Renqvist

Futuremark® Announces Patch for PCMark®05

Application Based Benchmark Provides Comprehensive PC Performance Measurement; Patch Updates Features and Improves Stability

Saratoga, California USA October 11th, 2005  Futuremark® Corporation announced today the immediate availability of a software patch, build 1.1.0, to PCMark05, the latest version in the popular PCMark benchmark series. PCMark05 is a state-of-the-art benchmarking tool and has been widely adopted; over 1.5 million copies have been distributed since its launch in June 2005.
Available immediately, this free downloadable software patch updates features for Advanced and Professional version licensees and fixes reported and reproducible bugs while improving overall stability for all license versions - including the free evaluation package. Scores using the build 1.1.0 version of PCMark05 will not be comparable to previous version scores.
PCMark05 builds on Futuremarks strong benchmark development experience and provides a sophisticated tool for measuring PC performance for home usage. PCMark05 supports the complete benchmark cycle allowing you to benchmark your PC, view the resulting benchmark details, compare your results to those of others, and finally analyze how to improve your PC performance. It produces highly reliable and detailed benchmarking results with a simple, intuitive user interface. An integrated Online ResultBrowser allows instant results comparison against more than 12 million benchmark results in Futuremarks ever increasing performance database.
Technical Details associated with the PCMark05 Patch (Build 1.1.0):

HDD Test problems when /usepmtimer switch not present in boot.ini is fixed;
Issues on Transparent Windows test when other programs are run with "always on top" option has been fixed;
Visual settings for Windows is forced to "Adjusted for best appearance" (or "Let Windows choose... which is the default setting for Windows XP) for the Transparent Windows test;
A potential risk of distorting results with 3rd party overclocking software has been fixed;
Reproducibility related issues with memory tests on some platforms has been fixed;
Export to Excel component issues with large amounts of data fixed;
Performance issues on certain tests have been tweaked, results on some platforms may improve with this;
Problems with external USB/Firewire hard drives have been fixed;
Updated System Info component with support for the latest CPU and graphics hardware;
Fixed all reported & reproduced bugs;

Download
Futuremarks official mirrors carry both a 5.3MB patch download for current PCMark05 Free and Advanced Version users and a full 75MB download of the PCMark05 Build 1.1.0 for new users. A list of official mirrors can be found at http://www.futuremark.com/download/. Futuremark will also be notifying Advanced and Professional Version users by email detailing where to download the patch for their versions.

Pricing and Availability
PCMark05 is available in two versions: PCMark05 Advanced for private use and PCMark05 Professional for commercial and business use. The software is available from http://www.futuremark.com/products/pcmark05/ for $19.95 for private use and $199.95 for business use. A limited functionality version of PCMark05 is freely available at http://www.futuremark.com/download/ for evaluation purposes.

Note to Editors
For your free evaluation copy of PCMark05, please email mailto:marketing@futuremark.com?subject=PCMark05Eval and tell us the publication that you represent.

About Futuremark® Corporation
Futuremark® Corporation is the leading provider of performance analysis software and services for PCs and smartphones. Futuremark® is known around the world for its benchmark products, including the 3DMark® and PCMark® Series and SPMark (with more than 30 million copies distributed worldwide) and value-added services powered by a database of over 12 million real life benchmarking results. Futuremark® maintains offices in Saratoga, California and Helsinki, Finland. For more information, please visit http://www.futuremark.com.
© 2005 Futuremark® Corporation. 3DMark® , PCMark® and SPMark trademarks and logos, Futuremark® character names and distinctive likenesses, are the exclusive property of Futuremark Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective companies.

Futuremark Contact:
Futuremark Corporation
Phone: +1-408-517-0131
Mr. Tero Sarkkinen
Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Email: tero@futuremark.com

Agency Contact:
TechWire International
Phone: +1-831-429-6288
Leo Pot
Email: information@ezwire.com

PCM05 patch 110 lead3

October 11, 2005 - Nicklas Renqvist

PCM05 patch 110 lead1

October 11, 2005 - Nicklas Renqvist

Auto Assault Preview

October 11, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Finally tonight, the MMORPGDot has fired-up a short preview on NetDevil's upcoming massively multiplayer online title, Auto Assault. Here's a bit on upgrading your skills:

As you progress through the levels you get 2 points per level to spend on one of four attributes: Combat, Tech, Theory and Perception. You also get 1 point to spend on one of Faction and Class Skills. Each faction has a choice of four classes ranging from a blowing up person, building techie type, sneaky infiltrator and the so called "master-mind" class (yes, even YOU get a chance to play the role of the leading world power's prime minister!!). You also get to customize your avatar for those lazy city shopping spree sessions or when you're entertaining friends (or that special mutant lady) in your humble pad. I personally went for the angry marine look, complete with canon arm. The canon arm wasn't too useful an investment as it is merely a cosmetic prosthetic, which can create considerable embarrassment when attempting to open a wine bottle for that afore-mentioned mutant lady friend.

Serious Sam 2 Patch Released

October 11, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The CroTeam has released a patch (v2.064.00) for both the demo and retail versions of their action-packed first person shooter, Serious Sam 2. Fixing a bunch of bugs and making several tweaks, you can grab this sucker from one of the following mirrors:

Heroes of the Pacific Preview

October 11, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpy keeps the content rollin' with a preview on IR Gurus Interactive's upcoming Flight-Action title, Heroes of the Pacific. Here's something to nibble on:

For one thing, the battles in Heroes of the Pacific will be BIG. When you think of epic dogfights, you probably think of masses of planes clouding the skies. Heroes of the Pacific should offer that and then some. You get thrust into the maelstrom from the very first campaign mission, where you defend Pearl Harbor against the surprise Japanese onslaught. Everywhere you turn, the sky seems to swarm with enemy planes. Flak bursts bruise the sky, and explosions jar your plane. Pilots flutter down to earth with parachutes after their planes have been obliterated. Radio chatter and dramatic music add to the tension as you race to save hangars, fuel depots, and ships from destruction. Talk about a trial by fire.

F.E.A.R. Impressions

October 11, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

PC.IGN has slapped up some impressions on Monolith's upcoming first person shooter, F.E.A.R.. Here's a snippet on the game's animations:

This is where I mention the impressive animation. And I'm not just talking about the sometimes acrobatic deaths. Enemies will stagger when shot, limp when wounded in the leg, shoot with one hand when an arm is injured (with reduced accuracy, too), leap over guard rails, crawl under obstacles, jump through windows, climb ladders, and slam you with melee attacks if you get too close -- and it's all as smooth as butter. The heavily armored guys have the most eerily authentic walking animation I can remember, and there is another type of enemy who operates with a chillingly fluid grace.

Half-Life 2 Interview

October 11, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Computer and Video Games.com has sat down with Valve Software's Doug Lombardi and Marc Laidlaw for a quick chat regarding their hit first person shooter, Half-Life 2. It's basically a look back at the games development. Here's a nugget on the HL2 universe:

Laidlaw: It's a classic science-fiction technique to build your world with details, any one of which could be made into a story or a book in its own right. There's something skimpy and cheap about trying to extract full-scale entertainment from every single little detail, rather than just liberally scattering them about. Some writers will take one idea and spread it very, very thin; others will take that one and five others like it and stuff them ten to a page for hundreds of pages. Guess which kind I prefer? We're trying not to be stingy, but to strike sparks and suggest more stories than can possibly be told. In a game especially, some of our fans love looking for clues that help them piece together a sense of the world, others want to get on with the shooting. We try to satisfy both camps; perhaps this is impossible, but we do try.#{qe}

Serious Sam II Preview

October 10, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpy has kicked up a preview on the co-op portion of the CroTeam's upcoming Action-packed first person shooter, Serious Sam II. Here's something to chew on:

Getting a LAN co-op game going in Serious Sam II was a snap; in fact, the hardest part was getting the 4-CD install completed on all our test machines. There's an entire screen of settings available to customize a co-op game, from difficulty level to number of lives per player to the relative strength of the enemies as more players join the game. There's even an "infinite ammo" option, which, as we found out, arguably makes things too easy in co-op play, allowing us to rely on more powerful weapons like the rocket launcher or the Claudovic exploding parrot, which carries a bomb to the nearest enemy and does a heap of damage.

Black & White 2 Patch

October 9, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Lionhead Studios has released the first patch (v1.1) for their "God game", Black & White 2. Fixing a bunch of bugs and making some gameplay tweaks, you can grab this sucker right here. But be warned, save games are not compatible with this patch! :frown:

Black & White 2 Review

October 8, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Yahoo! Video Games is the latest website to fire-up a review on Lionhead Studios' recently released "God game", Black & White 2. Here's a bit on building your towns:

The White path to victory -- creating a town so impressive your enemy's villagers decide to switch sides -- is just as viable, thanks to a town management model that shows definite potential. When placing buildings you can clearly see the effects it'll have on surrounding structures. You'll quickly develop your own habits -- like placing housing in a circle surrounding a nursery, for maximum birth rate bonuses. It's all rather Sim City, and that's a good thing.

Click here for more!

SWG: Trials of Obi-Wan Q&A

October 8, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameCloud has LucasArts' Julio Torres in the hot seat this evening, answer questions regarding their upcoming Star Wars Galaxies expansion pack, Trials of Obi-Wan. They chat about everything from the new planet (Mustafar) to the development status. Here's a blurb:

Gamecloud - What can you tell us about the expansion's new planet?
Julio Torres - Mustafar is a dark, desolate, unforgiving landscape covered with scorching-hot lava inhabited by fierce creatures. However, it also serves home to many other entities, such as ancient (and often mysterious) Old Republic relics and locations. We designed this planet with our high-level players in mind, especially when it came to the loot and other rewards they can earn.
Additionally, Mustafar allowed us to add something never before seen in Galaxies damage from environmental elements, which in this case would be the lava that dominates the planets surface. Watch out! :)

BIA: Earned in Blood Review

October 8, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Moving right along, GameSpot has slapped up a quick review on Gearbox Software's World War II-based first person shooter, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood. Here's a snippet on the game's AI:

What's new about the enemy artificial intelligence in Earned in Blood is that it's more likely to retreat to another position if it spots you flanking, even if it's suppressed. Enemies in the previous game were more likely to sit tight. At the higher difficulty levels, the enemy may even act aggressively, moving to flank you and putting pressure on your squad. It also seems as though you have a smaller opportunity to kill off suppressed enemies that you attack from a flanking position in this game. The return fire you get comes faster and more accurately than before. This all makes Earned in Blood somewhat more difficult than the last game, but overall, veterans of Road to Hill 30 should find that this game is remarkably similar. Enemies behind cover are still not invincible to enemy fire. If you're a very careful shot with a rifle, it's possible to pick off enemy soldiers who are poking their heads up from behind cover. But in general, flanking maneuvers still work better when the situation allows for it.

City of Villains Preview

October 8, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Sticking with previews, ShackNews has taken a look at Cryptic Studios' upcoming City of Heroes stand-alone expansion, City of Villains. Here's a nugget on base creation:

The addition most appealing to me, however, is base creation. No self-respecting criminal syndicate would be caught dead without a formidable base of operations, so supergroups (aka guilds) will now be able to design and build bases accessible through portals in the main game world. This too will be something available to both heroic supergroups and villainous supergroups, though as the content itself is contained in City of Villains, heroes who want bases will have to pick up a copy of the game. A base can be created when a group has obtained enough Prestige points, which will be accrued simply by defeating enemies, completing quests, and doing all the normal things you do in the game. The points earned by every member of the group are added to that group's cumulative total. However, individuals gain a very small number of points for the most part, so Prestige is best acquired in a large group that is fairly active. Prestige works just like currency; larger bases with more impressive facilities and decorations cost more points than smaller, less lavish constructions.

I've always wanted my own evil lair. w00t!

Civilization IV Preview

October 8, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

PC.IGN has posted a preview on Firaxis' upcoming Turn-Based Strategy title, Civilization IV. Here's a bit on the changes they are making to the gameplay mechanics:

As a result, the game goes much more quickly this time around. I'm still getting up to speed on the whole game but I was able to get through a whole game in a handful of fairly casual play sessions. You can still get the epic feel of previous games but playing on larger maps with more enemies, but the standard seven-seat game shouldn't take more than 5-8 hours depending on how much you want to micromanage things. The accelerated pace of the game hasn't required a loss of detail. Getting through the core Civilization experience more quickly is more a matter of streamlining the interface.

City of Villains Impressions

October 7, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpot has posted some updated impressions on Cryptic Studios' upcoming City of Heroes stand-alone expansion, City of Villains. Here's a blurb on the spiffy character-creation:

We also had a chance to take an updated look at the character-creation menu, which has been expanded upon hugely since we last looked at the game. Players of the original City of Heroes found creating new characters to be a very engaging, even addictive, experience just because there were so many appearance options. From what we could tell, City of Villains should offer at least as much in terms of character customization, and although many appearance options (such as armored helmets, robes, and masks) will be carried over from the first game, the new game will also offer a wide array of properly sinister-looking options. As we've mentioned previously, you'll be able to customize your villain with barbed wire, chains, or skull-shaped shoulder pads, though the new appearance options, which will be available at launch, will include a wider array of full-body tattoos, new "monstrous" body parts, and even a full set of pirate-themed accoutrements (eye patches, hooks for hands, peg legs, and all).

Black & White 2 Review

October 7, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpy has slapped up their take on Lionhead Studios' recently released "God game", Black & White 2. So how does the game stack up against the original? Read on:

Welcome to the world of Black & White 2, where Molyneux and his Lionhead team seemed determined to not repeat the mistakes of the original game. In that, at least, they've certainly succeeded. In every measurable way, Black and White 2 is a superior product, revamping the original game's unfocussed gameplay mechanics into an enjoyable RTS/city-building hybrid. In the process, however, the game has lost a lot of its personality. Unlike the original, Black & White 2's numbers lie too close to the surface, reducing a god's rise to power to a checklist of tasks that must be completed to advance to the next level.

The Movies Goes Gold!

October 7, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Evil Avatar has word that Lionhead Studios' upcoming sim, The Movies, has gone gold and will be hitting stores on November 8th. Here's a nugget from the press release:

Its a wrap! Activision, Inc. announced today that The Movies has gone gold and will premiere at retail outlets nationwide on Tuesday, November 8. Created by renowned life simulation pioneer Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios, The Movies allows gamers to become Hollywood players by creating unique movies and releasing them from the studios they build, starring the actors they discover and develop.

Lets make a movie!

The Chronicles of Spellborn Q&A

October 7, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The RPGVault has sat down with composer Jesper Kyd for a quick Q&A regarding his work on Khaeon's upcoming massively multiplayer online RPG, The Chronicles of Spellborn. Here's a taste:

How are you going to approach the music, what will it convey to players of The Chronicles of Spellborn?
My approach to this score is to not make it sound like predictable fantasy music, but to write a more hybrid score, to complement the mystical world of Spellborn. Spellborn is unlike any other MMORPG I have seen or played, and it's my job to make sure that the score will convey this unique philosophy. Therefore, I am working on creating an unusual, epic and original sounding score.

Starship Troopers Preview

October 7, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

PC.IGN kicks things off with a preview on Strangelite's upcoming first person shooter, Starship Troopers. Here's a bit on the game's weapons:

Speaking of weapon types, your standard Marauder assault rifle has infinite ammo, but it will overheat if you lay down on the trigger for too long, and it's useless against armored targets. You'll also have the "Mark 2" version, which will penetrate the hard shells of elite bugs, and all weapons have a secondary fire -- typically a grenade launcher. The shotgun's alt fires several shells at once, a crowd-controlling choice that you'll find yourself making a lot of the time anyway. You can also lob some hefty grenades, although there is no melee attack available. The Marauder suit takes a page from Halo and features a rechargeable shield while also including increased movement speed. Armed and armored thusly, you don't have to be in a squad or fireteam to be effective against swarms of bugs.

Black & White 2 Review

October 6, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Keeping the reviews flowing in, GameSpot takes a look at Lionhead Studios' Strategy/RPG, Black & White 2. Walking away with a final score of 8.2/10, this one sounds pretty solid. Here's a taste:

As a god, you have a mutual relationship with your people. They worship you so that you can exist, and, in return, you provide for them and make sure that they flourish, which will increase your influence upon the world. That doesn't mean that you have to be a "nice" god, though, as the game takes its name from the fact that you can be a good and benevolent god, or an evil, bloodthirsty deity. For example, you require mana to fuel your godlike miracles, and this can be accumulated by getting your followers to worship you at an altar, or by picking up a random follower with your all-powerful hand and tossing him or her into the sacrificial fire. You can pick up and manipulate objects within your influence, and this also has a way of impressing the natives. If you need to construct a building quickly, you can tear out a tree and drop it onto the building's foundations. Or if you're a more patient god, simply pick up and drop a follower next to the thing you want done, and they'll get the hint.

Day of Defeat: Source Impressions

October 6, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The ActionTrip has posted some impressions on Valve Software's recently released first person shooter, Day of Defeat: Source. Who doesn't love some good weapon lovin'? Snip:

As I said before, the weapons are powerful; fantastically powerful. When you shoot someone with a rifle, they feel it. Of course, you feel it too. Each weapon has superbly powerful recoil. You wouldnt believe how inaccurate most weapons are when firing repeatedly. You have to put the machine gun in a mounted position if you want to hit even the broad side of a barn, so all the weapons are balanced. Of course, once you get that machine gun in a mounted position and youre capable of holding it, you will kill piles of people. And theres nothing quite like blowing someones brains all across the wall with a BAR either, so be sure to do that. Fire all the guns. This is a game that is best enjoyed with an open mind, not just because of the weapons, but also because of the levels and Im digressing. When playing this game, be prepared to die a lot. Everything is deadly, and that health bar becomes precious quickly and often.

Another Dungeon Siege II Review

October 6, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The ArmchairEmpire is the latest website to fire-up a review on Gas Powered Games' hit Action-RPG, Dungeon Siege II. Here's a nugget on the game's interface:

A lot of the design decisions around the interface and how the game is set up for the player are very good. This is in my opinion what makes the game somewhat worthwhile and entertaining. Each character is able to play in whatever class they use. This means that if you use melee attacks, you will gain experience in your melee skill. If you constantly use a bow, you will gain experience in your ranged attacks. There is quite a bit of character customization that you can perform apart from simply playing towards whatever class of character you wish to use. There are bonuses that you gain when you reach a given level. Regular leveling up of your stats like strength and intelligence is handled automatically by the game. Although I thought I would miss this aspect of character creation and management, I didn't find that I missed it when actually playing the game. There are also temporary spells that you can cast by reciting chants at chant monuments that will grant given bonuses. These can provide some help, although I didn't find myself using the chants too much.

Down in Flames Review

October 6, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpy has thrown together a review on Battlefront.com's Turn-Based Strategy title, Down in Flames. Here's a bit on the planes:

Down in Flames pits American, British, German, and Japanese planes against each other in dogfights and missions escorting or attacking bombers. You'll "fly" the P51 Mustang, Spitfire, Zero, Bf-109, and more. You can't control the bombers, though, and Soviet planes are conspicuously absent (they're slated to appear in an expansion). Each plane has unique stats, and you gain access to better planes as you win battles, though it takes quite a while to earn enough experience points for that. Most games let you start unlocking items sooner.

BIA: Earned in Blood Review

October 5, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Finally tonight, PC.IGN has fired-up a review on Gearbox Software's recently released first person shooter, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood. Here's a blurb on the improved AI:

One of the problems with the original game was that the enemies were fairly static. Though they responded to your own movements from time to time, they never really seized the initiative and tried to outmaneuver you. This meant that players could effectively stop behind cover and spend a few minutes contemplating their next move. You won't have that kind of free time in Earned in Blood. The AI is much more aggressive now, particularly on the higher difficultly levels, and you'll find them trying to move around to your flanks.

Read on!

Raven Announces New Wolfenstein

October 5, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Reporting from this years X05, ShackNews has word that Raven Software is working on a new Wolfenstein game. Not many details are revealed, but we can expect the game to be released on the Xbox 360 and it'll being using some spiffy new tech. Anyways, click here to learn more!

F.E.A.R. Dev Diary

October 5, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpot has posted a new developer diary written by Monolith regarding the audio and music in their upcoming first person shooter, F.E.A.R.. Here's some juice:

Our team decided to abandon cutscenes in favor of a more organic, "filmlike" story progression. Creating a cinematic experience in this manner is a daunting task because players are in command of the perspective. There is no certainty that players will be looking at the right place, at the right time, to capture the story moments as they happen naturally. This necessitated an overhaul of event planning and the development of other cues to highlight story elements. Sound and music emerged as extremely powerful tools in this effort, directing players' attention and influencing the mood of the game. Just as in film, F.E.A.R.'s music serves to seamlessly transition players between scenes and areas, creating a more fluid and dramatic experience.

New Battlefield 2 Patch

October 5, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The guys over at Digital Illusions have released a new patch (v1.03) for their first person shooter, Battlefield 2. Weighing in at 175megs, this puppy includes the new Wake Island map, improved mod support and a whole lot more! Hit one of the following mirrors to get downloading:

Dungeon Siege II Review

October 5, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Kicking things off, FiringSquad has slapped up their take on Gas Powered Games' hit Action-RPG, Dungeon Siege II. Here's a bit on your characters abilities:

One of the more important ways to increase player involvement is to have him select special powers. Special powers are ability-related. Each character has four different areas where he can specialize in melee, ranged, nature magic and combat magic. It is best to focus each character on one of these fields, since they determine what kind of equipment he can use and what special abilities hell have. A special ability is unlocked or improved by using character points to buy skills. Characters receive one point per level they earn in that field. To earn levels in the field, they need to use the skills so to rank up a fighter, he needs to melee, while healers use nature magic.

Titan Quest Interview

October 4, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The RPGVault has posted the second part of their interview with a couple of the guys behind Iron Lore's upcoming Action-RPG, Titan Quest. Here's something to nibble on:

Jonric: Shifting the focus to friendly and neutral NPCs, what kinds of functions will they fulfill in Titan Quest?
Brian Sullivan: There will be NPCs in the game, and they fall into a few main classes. There is a group of NPCs that are the main quest givers and communicate most of the story. There is a separate group of NPCs that will give optional quests, and give a lot of topical flavor in their dialogue. And the last class of NPCs inhabits the cities and towns, and gives the world a realistic and lived-in feel.
NPCs cannot join your party, as mentioned earlier. You will have the ability to have pets if you select the appropriate character class, but this is a single-character RPG. All the NPCs that can communicate with the player will be professionally voice acted.

Quake 4 Goes Gold!

October 4, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

The folks over at Activision have announced that their upcoming first person shooter, Quake 4, has gone gold and should be hitting stores on October 18th. Here's a clipping from the press release:

Mesquite, TX October 3, 2005 id Software, Raven Software and Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) have confirmed Earths invasion of Stroggos with the announcement that QUAKE 4 PC has entered manufacturing and will begin shipping to retail stores nationwide on Tuesday, October 18. The long awaited sequel to QUAKE II®, QUAKE 4 enlists gamers in the role of Matthew Kane, a member of the Earth Defense Forces legendary Rhino Squad, to penetrate deep into the heart of the Strogg war machine and engage in a series of heroic missions to destroy the barbaric alien race.
On October 18, QUAKE is dialing it up to 4.0 on the Richter Scale with this new chapter in Earths war against the Strogg, said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. Fusing an epic war-story driven single player campaign, and fast-paced QUAKE III Arena® inspired multiplayer, QUAKE 4 delivers a gaming experience fans will be raving about for years.

Welp, here's something new to get your adrenaline pumping.

Black & White 2 Preview

October 4, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Computer and Video Games.com has fired-up a short preview on Lionhead Studios' upcoming 'god game', Black & White 2. Here's a snippet on the combat system:

During our brief sojourn around the new Black & White world, there were also glimpses of the combat engine, with various set-pieces like rolling flaming barrels of hay on to approaching warriors. There were also Rome: Total War-style troop movements and setups (albeit on a slightly smaller scale), all giving the impression that fans of mass slaughter are well catered for.

Read on!

Dragonshard Review

October 4, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpy has thrown together a quick review on Liquid Entertainment's strategy title, Dragonshard. Walking away with a final score of 3 1/2 stars out of 5, this might be one to check out! Anyways, here's a blurb:

The single-player gameplay also comes across as a little stilted, but it's nonetheless engaging. There are some really interesting design decisions at work. For example: each type of character you can create can be leveled up from your town. On the main map, higher-level characters will call up reinforcements -- a level four paladin can call forth three other mounted knights to fight at his side for instance. However, if he descends into the dungeon below the map, his knights disappear and he fights alone. Because of this, it's easy to quickly ramp up huge armies on the surface, while you can only adventure with small parties below ground. Neat design tricks like those give the game the right feel without overcomplicating it.

Dark Age Of Camelot: Darkness Rising Q&A

October 4, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameCloud has posted an interview with Mythic Entertainment's Sanya M. Weathers regarding their upcoming Dark Age Of Camelot expansion pack, Darkness Rising. Here's a nugget on the new sub-classing system:

Gamecloud - What other new gameplay elements will be added to the expansion?
Sanya M. Weathers - Weve added, as part of the champion quest, a sub-classing system. Essentially, if youre a fighter, you can now pick up a damage spell, or a little healing skill. And vice versa, for the other archetypes. At this point in the life of DAOC, we dont want to do anything too drastic. The sub-classing system is just a little extra customization and flavor for your character, something to make you a little more special.

Supreme Commander Q&A

October 3, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Keeping this slow news day kickin', GameSpot has tossed up an interview with Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor regarding their upcoming RTS, Supreme Commander. Here's a bit on the gameplay and strategy:

GS: There's going to be a focus on strategy in Supreme Commander, much more than what you'd expect in a typical real-time strategy game. Can you explain how that will work? For example, we know that there is a "global" view, and that you can also zoom down to the tactical level for battles.
CT: Indeed, large-scale strategy is definitely what we are injecting into the genre, and in a much bigger way than I believe has been done before. The size of the maps is the key to this. For example, you can't really have nuclear missile submarines that hide in an ocean if you don't have an ocean; lakes and little waterways that skirt the edge of the map don't really allow for this. In Supreme Commander, it's insane; you can have a group of destroyers on a search-and-destroy mission, or a battle group defending a strategic port or "preparing" a stretch of coast for an upcoming beach landing. It's important to be able to watch this sort of thing unfold at a strategic level, but when the shooting starts, you'll want to zoom in (as appropriate) to get a good sense of how the battle is shaping up, and then make tactical adjustments as you see fit.

Call of Duty 2 Preview

October 2, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpy is the latest website to fire-up a preview on Infinity Ward's much anticipated first person shooter, Call of Duty 2. Here's a snippet on the game's intense combat:

Everything about Call of Duty 2's combat is brutal and visceral, just as it should be in a WWII game. From firing your weapon to watching your grenades throw an enemy's body off of a rooftop, every aspect of the action is a refreshing blast of noisy, intense fun. Even getting hit can be fun, thanks to the game's health system. Getting shot will cause the edges of your screen to become red, and you'll hear your solider begin to breathe unevenly as he tries to get to safety. Rather than picking up health packs to recharge, you can go into hiding for a few moments to catch your breath and recuperate. Granted, it's not the most realistic system we've ever seen, but it's a lot more fun than dying from just a few hits.

Hellgate: London Dev Diary

October 1, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

Sticking with PC.IGN, they have thrown up a developer diary written by Flagship Studios' Tyler Thompson regarding his work on the upcoming Action-RPG, Hellgate: London. Here's a clipping:

Let's walk through the fun things that I do with my day. First, let's talk about programming. I write code for the game logic and the tools. Tools? You thought that we were making a game here -- not some Windows app full of buttons, sliders and graphs? Yeah, you see, a couple years ago game programmers got clever. We stopped writing hard-coded tables that define how everything works in the game, and we started making programs to create and read this data for us. Now, we hand these tools over to the artists and designers. We let them adjust the Shock Blade's damage, the timing of the Hellmeat's melee attack and how the Orbile bursts into chunks when it dies. We also write the logic in the game that uses all of this data to help draw and simulate stuff: monsters inform their buddies when you hurt them, some missiles can bounce, and electricity damage will stun a monster.

Supreme Commander Interview

October 1, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

PC.IGN has Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor in the hot seat this evening, answering questions regarding their upcoming Strategy title, Supreme Commander. Here's a nugget on their multiplayer plans:

IGNPC: And what do you have planned on the multiplayer side of things?
Chris Taylor: Well there are a couple of things.One of the great new features in multiplayer is cooperative mode. So any friends or father/son combo can play through the entire single player mission arc together as a team. And you know what, that's kind of obvious in a way but again, it's one of those things that if you don't think about it at the beginning of the process it's a harder problem to solve. We're really excited about that. We're also going to let players record the entire stream of a game so you have a complete replay file in single and multiplayer.

Guild Wars Patch Released

October 1, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

ArenaNet has released a new patch for their hit Online RPG, Guild Wars. Including a load of class balancing changes and other gameplay tweaks, you can grab this puppy by loading the game's auto-updater. Anyways, click here for a list of what's new.

Call of Duty 2 Preview

October 1, 2005 - Joe "OuTkAsT-1" Topolnisky

GameSpot has posted some impressions on Infinity Ward's upcoming World War II-based first person shooter, Call of Duty 2. Here's a bit on the France missions:

Finally, we got a look at a couple of missions set in France. The Pointe Du Hoc mission featured the now-classic beach-storming action you'd expect from a Normandy map, and later on in the mission, you'll be faced with intense trench and bunker fighting. The primary objective here is to seek out a number of artillery guns and neutralize them--with bombs, of course. The playable France mission was set in New Villers at night, and it gave us a number of strategic points that we had to capture in sequence, including a heavily defended church and the Nazis' main base of operations within the village. This mission sent us in under the cover of both darkness and an intense thunderstorm, which added some nice ambience to the pitched battles that occurred at every point we had to capture.

Hardware News

Quake IV Review

City of Villains Interview

WoW: The Burning Crusade Impressions

SWG: Trials of Obi-Wan Q&A

Call of Duty 2 Interview

WoW: The Burning Crusade Announced!

Serious Sam 2 Review

Civilization IV Review

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Released

Civilization IV MP Impressions

Black & White 2 Interview

Futuremark® Unveils 3DMark®Mobile06

Futuremark® Unveils 3DMark®Mobile06

Creates Worldwide Standard of Measurement inHandheld 3D Graphics Performance

pcm05 110 download lead3

3dmm06 lead1 announce

Call of Duty 2 Review

Gothic III Q&A

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Preview

Civilization IV Review

Havok Interview

Another Call of Duty 2 Review

Age of Empires III Review

Valve Software Q&A

New NHL 06 Patch

Call of Duty 2 Review

Black & White 2 Review

Hitman: Blood Money Impressions

F.E.A.R. Review

RollerCoaster Tycoon: Wild! Review

Quake 4 Review

F.E.A.R. Review

Quake IV Review

Vampire: Bloodlines Unofficial Patch

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Q&A

EQ II: Desert of Flames Review

Civilization IV Review

Quake 4 Review

The Movies Preview

Rise of Legends Preview

F.E.A.R. Review

Age of Empires III Review

City of Villains Preview

SiN: Episodes Preview

SWG: Trials of Obi-Wan Preview

City of Villains Interview

Quake 4 Review

Gothic 3 Interview

F.E.A.R. Patch Released

Age of Empires III Review

Hellgate: London Preview

Rise of Legends Dev Diary

Serious Sam 2 Review

F.E.A.R. Review

Futuremark Interview

New Serious Sam II Demo Released

The Movies Preview

Hellgate: London Interview

F.E.A.R. Review

Age of Empires III Review

Hellgate: London Preview

The Movies Interview

Age of Empires III Q&A

Hellgate: London Impressions

New America's Army Released

City of Villains Interview

Quake 4 Review

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Preview

F.E.A.R. Interview

Black & White 2 Review

Starship Troopers Preview

Serious Sam II Review

F.E.A.R. Review

F.E.A.R. Hands-On

New World of WarCraft Patch

The Movies Preview

Dreadnought Interview

Serious Sam II Review

3dmjotan

Creates Worldwide Standard of Measurement in
Handheld 3D Graphics Performance