October 2001

New World Order Screenshots ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 3:36 PM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
Cutting The Edge has some new screenshots of New World Order, featuring 11 new weapon shots and 3 new player model shots from this upcoming FPS by Project Three Interactive and Termite Games.

CS: Condition Zero Interview w/Randy Pitchford....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:53 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
Computer and Video Games has posted an interview with Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford talking about the upcoming single player Counter-Strike title, CS: Condition Zero. They discuss the transfer of the project from Rouge to Gearbox, the Half-Life engine, weather effects, new character classes, new skins, the AI, team orders, and more.

As a single-player game, how will you implement a coherent sense of continuity, and will there be any consequences from succeeding at a previous mission, but not executing it perfectly?

RP: The single-player game is driven by a narrative that makes the player understand why it's so important to succeed in each mission. Each scenario requires a number of objectives to be completed, nine out of ten of which are new. As objectives are completed, additional funding is earned for the squad that enables the player (as the squad leader) to invest in an improved arsenal, squad training or recruitment of new members. There are some other surprises that money can be spent on as well. Completing all of the objectives of one scenario will yield more funding for the squad, which will give that squad the resources to be better equipped to deal with the next scenario. In some cases, however, it will be necessary to move ahead and acquire things from later missions before the player can go back and complete every objective in an earlier scenario. Resources and weapons will also be transferred from one mission to the next. The single-player game is very well layered and there are tons of incentives to just keep going. I'm very proud of the design for this one as it's clearly the most innovative thing Gearbox has ever done.

Ghost Recon Preview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:49 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
Games Domain has posted a Ghost Recon preview where they take a closer look at various aspects of this promising Tom Clancy-inspired game from Red Storm including multiplayer, the graphics engine, AI and a whole lot more. Here's a bit on the graphics:

Red Storm has implemented a brand new graphics engine, and the game looks frankly fantastic. Each character is rendered in painstaking detail, right down to the eyes blinking, and the landscapes match accordingly. Each tree even moves according to the weather, and you'll have plenty of opportunity to admire the ground cover as you crawl through open areas on your face. There's also plenty of variety, and we'll leave it up to you to discover just how painstakingly accurate some of the real-life urban landscapes have been recreated.

New Eternal Arena....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:47 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Eternal Arena Website now has downloads available of a new public beta 2 of version 5 of this Q3A mod. The new release adds two new rail types, missiles that can be destroyed, progressive zooming, and real weapon physics option. Public beta 2 is available as a full release or as a patch for public beta 1, and in addition to this release, they also have released a special "Pumpkin Edition," in honor of Halloween, adding "some additional pumpkin graphics and sounds."

The Fine Line Between a Feature and a Gimmick ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:19 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Fine Line Between a Feature and a Gimmick is the latest editorial on 3DActionPlanet, giving their views on what seperates between a a game feature and simply a gimmick. Among others, they talk about the bullet-time in Max Payne, and the Geo-Mod technology in Red Faction.

Game Mods -- Volume 1....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:16 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
Kazi Wren shares the latest mod information from across the game industry in a new column for GameSpy. Here's his intro to get you started:

"Like you, I've spent more money than I can remember buying games over the years. Some were absolute dogs to play, while others were incredible works of art and technology.

Instead of uninstalling a game I enjoy, I jump online to check for any mods that were created by other gamers. You see, developers learned quickly that their games could live on with an editing community. Release a few tools and let gamers take it from there. It wasn't a bad idea, and long since DOOM, players have breathed new life into an assortment of games.

I've kept up on popular mods like Counter-Strike (Half-Life), but my real curiosity surrounds games that have gone relatively quiet since being released. If editing tools were released, then chances are good someone in a game community has cranked out a mod."

Deadly Dozen Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:12 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
Specforce.net has posted a Deadly Dozen interview with the development team that discusses its forthcoming action game. Here's a snip:

What game feature are you most proud of? (great AI, save-anywhere, awesome sound, immersive environments, etc.)

Jason: I think I'm most proud of the gameplay. We started off with a rough idea of the type of game we wanted and not nearly enough time to do it. Our original goal was lofty, we wanted to present a realistic wartime environment to the player and let them figure out how to complete the mission completely on their own. Kind of like Deus Ex, where you have a ton of ways to solve any obstacle and its up to you to create a solution. What we ended up with is very very close to our original goals, much closer than I even thought we'd get.

AvP2 Tourney Sign-ups....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:10 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
The CPL says that they have opened online registration for their upcoming Aliens vs Predator 2 tournament. The grand prize is a car: "a high-end customized 2002 Ford Focus ZX3, designed by APC of Corona, CA. and valued at approximately $40,000", according to The CPL.

New Q3 Gridiron....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:07 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
A new version 3.1 patch for the Q3 Gridiron modification is now available, updating this mod that adds the violence of American football to the competition of Quake III Arena. Described as a "final version 3.1 patch," this update fixes a few bugs and adds "some nice code and map tweaks."

Film and Television Arts Awards ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:06 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards have been handed out, with Max Payne winning for best PC game, and Black & White winning for "interactivity" and "moving images," and Shogun Total War: Warlord Edition winning for best music.

Chaser....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:05 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
Here's a bit on Chaser from Fragland.net's Fishtank Development Update. Check it out:

"The development of the potential ego shooter hit (Release: 4th quarter 2002) is coming along exceptionally well. So well, in fact, that we expect a fully functional multiplayer version including bots (!) to be ready for internal testing by November."

Command & Conquer Renegade Developer Q&A part 2....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:53 AM MST Wednesday, October 31, 2001 [Comment on news]
Action Vault has posted a Command & Conquer Renegade Developer Q&A part 2 where they talk again with Dan Cermak, the Executive Producer on the upcoming action game based on the C&C RTS universe.

FATE Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:59 AM MST Tuesday, October 30, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameSpy Daily has posted an interview with a few guys from Ireland-based developer Torc Interactive, talking about FATE, an upcoming free FPS they're working on. They talk about the reasons to make the title free, the main character, weapons, levels, multiplayer, other titles the company is working on, and more.

Codename Outbreak Preview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:57 AM MST Tuesday, October 30, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameSpot has posted a Codename Outbreak preview, taking a look at GSC Game World's upcoming shooter. They talk about the plot, missions, gameplay, AI, interface, the engine, sounds, and more.

GeFest on EuroGamer....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:37 AM MST Tuesday, October 30, 2001 [Comment on news]
Need advice on picking a GeForce 3? EuroGamer has an article today that may help. Here's their intro to give you a taste:

"Upgrading your graphics card has never been so expensive. To pick up a cutting edge card based on NVIDIA’s cracking Titanium 500 reference design could set you back upwards of £350. These days you could probably replace your monitor for less. If you have to buy NVIDIA though – and judging from the emails we’ve been getting that’s a lot of you – then you probably want to know whether it's worth sifting through the various boards on the market, or whether you should simply go for the cheapest. It would be impossible for us to scrounge every single GeForce 3-derived card on the market, but by examining a cross-section of the products on offer we can establish whether any performance difference exists, or not... "

Making A High Performance Silent PC ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:33 AM MST Tuesday, October 30, 2001 [Comment on news]
On a different note, Making A High Performance Silent PC on GamePC offers a guide to adding MIPS while removing decibels.

Tactical Ops ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:30 AM MST Tuesday, October 30, 2001 [Comment on news]
A post to the Tactical Ops Forums has a feature list for the new version 2.10 beta of the Tactical Operations modification for Unreal Tournament as well as a list of mirrors where the new files can be downloaded. The new version rebalances the weapons, adds new sounds, improves firing sounds, fixes an AI bug, updates some maps, and adds a bunch of new features, tweaks, and bug-fixes.

Croteam Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:29 AM MST Tuesday, October 30, 2001 [Comment on news]
Ferrago.co.uk has a Croteam Interview posted where they chat with designer Davor Tomicic and programmer Nikola Mosettig about progress on Second Encounter, their upcoming follow-up to Serious Sam: the First Encounter. Among the subjects covered is how the feedback about the first Sam game is influencing the follow-up, the premise for Second Encounter, new enemies and weapons, new environments, gameplay changes since the original, graphical improvements, what the future holds for Sam, and more.

Ghost Recon Update: FAQ Additions & Screenshot....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:27 AM MST Tuesday, October 30, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Ghost Recon site has been updated with some new questions and answers in the official FAQ.

An FPS-Themed Board Game?....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:26 AM MST Tuesday, October 30, 2001 [Comment on news]
It may sound crazy to many online gamers, but that’s the essence of FRAG, a new board game release from Steve Jackson Games. The game does a great job of simulating the action of your average first-person shooter, where you die constantly, only to respawn and do it again. Sweet! Check out 3D Action Planet's review.

C&C Renegade beta....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:22 AM MST Tuesday, October 30, 2001 [Comment on news]
The official C&C: Renegade site was updated with the news that the game has gone into the first stages of beta testing! The first 20 lucky winners will get to play the game starting this weekend. Here's the info:

The names have been picked, the invites have been sent and the planning has begun for the first stage of the Renegade beta test! A select group of less than 20 people was chosen to give the Command & Conquer multiplayer mode in the near future! You're sure to be hearing about it soon, and keep your ears peeled for word on the upcoming beta which will allow everyone to apply!

Windows XP Review ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 3:40 PM MST Monday, October 29, 2001 [Comment on news]
Firing Squad has posted a review on Windows XP and have given it an overall score of 85%. Here's a snip about whether you should upgrade or not:

The question simply comes down to whether or not you need and or want the new features that Windows XP offers. If you're a gamer and are satisfied with Windows 98SE, by all means, don't upgrade and risk losing the ability to play some of your favorite games. If you're at the office, you might want to steer clear for a while to let many of the bugs get addressed before making the plunge. Some of us are already experiencing some problems at work getting Windows XP to communicate through the network with older Windows machines. Ask critically and carefully, and then decide, after examining all the features that Windows XP provides and compare them to what you currently have, whether or not to take the XP route.

Mac Gaming....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 3:37 PM MST Monday, October 29, 2001 [Comment on news]
InsideMacGames has word that the OS X version of Giants: Citizen Kabuto has begun shipping and all pre-orders should be arriving soon.

Renegade Screenshots ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 3:35 PM MST Monday, October 29, 2001 [Comment on news]
ToTheGame has twelve new screenshots from Westwood's upcoming first person shooter, Command & Conquer: Renegade.

Team Factor Developer Update....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 3:34 PM MST Monday, October 29, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's a Team Factor Developer Update on Cutting The Edge where the folks from 7fx give a rundown on what's up with their upcoming team-based shooter, broken up into several departments: Conception, Attraction, Storyline, Scenarios, Progress, Game Specs, and System Specs.

Q3A: New Weapons Factory Beta....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:08 AM MST Monday, October 29, 2001 [Comment on news]
Weapons Factory Arena Beta 3.1b Now Available For Testing. You can download the new beta right here. Weapons Factory Arena is the popular Quake 3 Arena mod with classes and teamplay and all that good stuff

QuakePro Plus Updated....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:04 AM MST Monday, October 29, 2001 [Comment on news]
QuakePro Plus has been updated to version 1.05. Tons of new features and updates have been made, here's a quick quote on the increased ease of use:

QuakePro+ now includes its own menu and is easier to use than ever before. While in game just go to Menu and at the bottom of the list go to ' QuakePro+ Settings ' and setup all your custom settings there.

Croteam Update ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:56 AM MST Monday, October 29, 2001 [Comment on news]
The latest update has been posted on the Croteam website, this time mentioning that they've finished beta 2 of Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, and that the game should be going gold in the next ten days:

On lighter note, we finished Beta 2 (tm) of The Second Encounter, which is already on its way to Talonsoft. For those who don't know, Talonsoft is Take 2's team which did Serious Sam: The First Encounter beta testing and now they are doing it for The Second Encounter as well. Next week we'll be shipping Beta 3 and 4. If all goes well, we should be finishing with Release Candidate 1 (RC1), RC2 and Gold master in the next 10 days. Meanwhile, we are preparing all things (translations, voice overs, menu, manuals, etc.) to be delivered to Take2 for translations, since Take 2 plans to ship both versions (US and Euro) at the same time. Looking back at Alpha and Beta, we did huge things in terms of visual appearance of game. Also we added many cut sequences, not to make game time longer, but to help making traps and puzzles easier. We haven't found many major bugs in Beta, which is a good sign of hard work and concentration. Level editors did tweaking to playability, making some fight easier and tweaking performance issues. Art department is finishing polishing some of the levels and models for Seriously Warped DM which plays really good. It should be heaven for all multiplayer freaks.

Firearms Update....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:54 AM MST Monday, October 29, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Firearms Half-Life mod website has been updated today, giving the word on the latest happenings with the upcoming 2.6 RC. In this update, they talk about the maps, giving the list of maps that will be added, removed, or updated, including a single screenshots for each map.

Uncrossable Parallel....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:45 AM MST Sunday, October 28, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Uncrossable Parallel mod site has been updated with some new info and screenshots of their latest build.

Renegade Update....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:34 AM MST Sunday, October 28, 2001 [Comment on news]
The latest Command & Conquer: Renegade update has been posted on the game's official forums, as producer Dan Cermak talks about the latest happenings with this upcoming shooter, scheduled for a February 12th release:

Guess it's been an interesting week for everyone, ship date announced and beta test set up. Things continue to progress, in single player we are focused on one last pass at the exterior terrains, looking for places where the AI units and the player might need a little extra cover. I don't expect much in the way of changes but I want to be sure that the AI has enough cover points to make it interesting for the commandos out there. After that we will take a final pass at lighting the levels and we will be locked on the terrains. From the design side of single player we continue to work on the bugs and tweak with the balance a bit. We have a couple of leader "Boss" characters that have some pretty special moves and attacks, makes for some very intense fights. We have to make sure you guys can win them somehow....

Multiple play continues to polish up nicely. We added new base and character status keys, cool to see the health of your base and the enemy base at a key******. The game is getting very addictive, in fact we normally have 2 sessions a day to check out new base layouts or changes in interface, etc and we have been getting more and more people from marketing, audio, PR playing because it really provides a different experience. I canceled an afternoon session to focus on a build and did I hear about it....

Wolfenstein's Weapons ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:30 AM MST Sunday, October 28, 2001 [Comment on news]
Return To Castle Wolfenstein, as everybody probably knows, features real-world-based weapons from the World War II era. However, not very many people know all that much about the original weapons themselves -- where did they come from? What were they like to use? 3D Action Planet's fr0sty has done us a great service, answering these questions and more!

Team Factor ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:27 AM MST Sunday, October 28, 2001 [Comment on news]
The official Team Factor site has been updated with half a dozen new screenshots of the team-based multiplayer shooter in the works at 7FX.

Countdown Quake3 ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:25 AM MST Sunday, October 28, 2001 [Comment on news]
The debut release of the Countdown Quake3 mod is now available. This is an interesting new mod that plays Quake III Arena deathmatches backwards. This works by starting every player out with the number of frags in the game's fraglimit and all the weapons except the BFG10K. Killing an opponent gets you -1 frag, while being killed gets you +1, and a suicide will get you +2. As you get down to certain frag levels, one weapon at a time will be removed from your arsenal, until you are down to trying to get the final frag with the gauntlet, and the first player to get to zero frags wins.

New WolfStat....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:24 AM MST Sunday, October 28, 2001 [Comment on news]
The WolfStat Homepage has a new version 0.8.0 of WolfStat, a utility that can extract statistics from the server log file for a Return to Castle Wolfenstein Test server. The new version features a new design, and adds support for Quake III Arena.

Half-Life Movie....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:49 AM MDT Saturday, October 27, 2001 [Comment on news]
Valve sent over the following note, asking whether or not you would like to see a Half-Life movie:

Valve has been approached by a number of filmmakers interested in developing a Half-Life movie. Would you go see a Half-Life movie and, if so, what would you like to see in the film? (i.e. actors, story lines, etc.) To enter your opinions on the subject, even if your comments are limited to, "Yes, I'd go see a Half-Life movie," simply email your thoughts to movie@valvesoftware.com Thanks.

MechWarrior 4: Black Knight Goodies....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:47 AM MDT Saturday, October 27, 2001 [Comment on news]
PC.IGN has also posted some new movies and screenshots from the upcoming MechWarrior 4: Black Knight expansion pack.

New World Order Tech Demo....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:46 AM MDT Saturday, October 27, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameSpot has posted a new two minute tech demo of Project Three Interactive and Termite Games' upcoming New World Order shooter. Check it out!

R.E.D. Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:42 AM MDT Saturday, October 27, 2001 [Comment on news]
In the business of making video and PC games in 2001, a developer not only has to come up with a cool game idea but also has to sell their idea to a publisher. These days, with multi-million dollar budgets becoming the norm rather than the exception, developers have to deal with the business side of creating a game. Enter R.E.D (Representing Entertainers & Developers) a video and PC game agency who has garnered a growing clientele of developers such as 4D Rulers (Gore) Silverback Entertainment (Harbinger) and many others. Just this week the agency announced it had secured a development team to work with Sega to bring their Dreamcast game Skies of Arcadia to the Playstation 2 console. HomeLAN got a chance to chat with R.E.D co-founder Jeff Brunner to find out more about what his agency does for game developers and the gaming industry.

Goretest2 Release!....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:38 AM MDT Saturday, October 27, 2001 [Comment on news]
4D Rulers has released a new test demo of Gore, their upcoming multi-player first-person shooter that is a 69.2 MB download. This test demo includes two new levels and one from the original test, 4 characters (2 UMC and 2 MOB), CTF and Tactical game modes in addition to deathmatch, all the weaponry from the first demo and half a dozen new weapons, and more.

Here's some download mirrors for you:

Blue's News
3D Gamers (3 FTP Sites)
FilePlanet

CPL AvP2 Tournaments ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 4:32 PM MDT Friday, October 26, 2001 [Comment on news]
The CPL has announced that Aliens vs. Predator 2 has been chosen as an "Official Tournament Game of the CPL". Here's a snip:

Los Angeles, CA - October 26, 2001 - Sierra(tm), Fox Interactive(tm) and the Cyberathlete Professional League(r) (CPL) are excited to announce that Aliens vs. Predator(tm) 2 has been chosen as an "Official Tournament Game of the CPL". To kick off this partnership, the Aliens vs. Predator 2 tournament, also sponsored by PNY Technologies(r), will be included in a 30-city tournament at the CPL qualifying centers, a worldwide online tournament with the Cyberathlete Amateur League( and the upcoming CPL World Championship event. The Aliens vs. Predator 2 finals tournament will have gamers from across the nation competing for the grand prize of a high-end customized 2002 Ford Focus ZX3 courtesy of American Products Company located in Corona, CA.

"We are excited to be partnering with the CPL to showcase Aliens vs. Predator 2 to the gaming community all over the world. This unique tournament, with over $60,000 in prizing, will be one of the biggest computer game tournaments ever," said Ivo Gerscovich, Director, Promotions and Strategic Partnerships for Fox Interactive. "The common vision the partners shared in putting this event together will hopefully serve to set the standard for future tournaments."

Soundblaster Windows XP Drivers ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 4:29 PM MDT Friday, October 26, 2001 [Comment on news]
Soundblaster.com has new Windows XP drivers for the Sound Blaster Audigy series, the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 series, Sound Blaster Live! / Value cards, and Sound Blaster PCI 512 cards. Word on Sound Blaster Live! (CT4620, CT4670, CT4760), Sound Blaster PCI 16/Vibra128/AudioPCI, Sound Blaster PCI 128, and Sound Blaster PCI Compact (CT5808) support is to be "available end-November," while other Ensoniq audio processors, the Sound Blaster AWE series, the Sound Blaster 16, and the Sound Blaster Pro are already supported by native Windows XP drivers.

Ghost Recon Preview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:35 AM MDT Friday, October 26, 2001 [Comment on news]
PC.IGN has posted a Ghost Recon preview, talking about the multiplayer part as they give their impressions from playing a late build of the game.

And the level of detail on everything is incredibly high. While many people thought the foliage in Operation Flashpoint was hot, the trees and bushes and grass effects in Ghost Recon are much more believable. It's a shame that you can't tell just from the screenshots but the way the trees sway in the wind adds a whole new level of credibility to the environments. The buildings, water and sky effects also add a touch of realism.

And while the details are certainly important, it's the way the levels are put together that really supports the illusion of reality. My favorite of the maps is a secluded, wooded valley. The hills and trees of this level are gorgeous and the small little cabin lying at the bottom of it all quickly became a point of contention. Mostly that was because of the .50 caliber machine gun emplacement on the porch. While it allowed you to mow down anyone who got within your field of fire, it left you vulnerable to an attack from the rear or the side.

Tim Sweeney Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:33 AM MDT Friday, October 26, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's a Tim Sweeney interview on Tolstiy's Place talking with the Epic lead programmer about technology. You can check it out here.

Chaser Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:47 AM MDT Friday, October 26, 2001 [Comment on news]
Blue Monday has posted a Chaser Interview where they talk with David Durcak of Cauldron about Chaser, their upcoming first-person shooter. The conversation offers some background on Cauldron, the Chaser storyline, and more. Here's a taste:

What can you tell us about the CloakNT technology? What are the most important features of the engine?

The engine itself is the most important feature :) It allows us to design levels and characters with much less restriction than it is with other engines. We have very detailed characters with an advanced system for animations. This system allows us to combine many animations together, resulting in very nice looking and fluent characters motions. Characters can have facial expressions, so they can smile, frown, etc. We can use curved surfaces, which give better detail to the levels. The portal system of the engine allows us to create more complicated levels without loss of performance, and with the particle system we can create great looking explosions and effects.

Ghost Recon Chat Log ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:43 AM MDT Friday, October 26, 2001 [Comment on news]
Icegameware has posted the log of the recent IRC chat with the Red Storm team, where they discussed this just gone gold military shooter, Ghost Recon.

Q: How does GRs AI match up to previous AIs from Rainbow 6 and Rogue Spear?

A: Like night and day. They actually miss sometimes. And they duck for cover if you shoot at them and miss... Its really cool to see... And they taunt you too. Weasels. The AI enemies in GR are much more responsive and aggressive, making for more of a cat-and-mouse feel to much of the engagements. It is better about using tactics and terrain for cover. The AI will show a surprising degree of tactical intelligence. In addition, they can flank uoi and work together very well. And they shoot good, too.

AvP2 Release Date ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:42 AM MDT Friday, October 26, 2001 [Comment on news]
AvPNews has posted word from a Sierra rep, saying the current US shipping date for Aliens vs Predator 2 is Tuesday, October 30th. Check it out!

MechWarrior 4 Q&A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:40 AM MDT Friday, October 26, 2001 [Comment on news]
Gamespy has an interview this morning with FASA Studio Program Manager Andrew Brown, and Studio Manager Dave Luehmann chatting about MechWarrior 4: Black Knight. Here's a snip:

GameSpy: Where do you see the franchise going in the next year? Five years?

Dave Luehmann: Oh well, how can I say this without giving it all away? Let me just say there are some very interesting things in the works, great new gameplay ideas as well as story lines that will play big roles in our future releases.

Combat Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:38 AM MDT Friday, October 26, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan has an interview up with Paul Schuytema, from Magic Lantern Playware, who is working on Combat, a remake of the old Atari 2600 game.

Top Ten Shooters For Low-End PCs....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:34 AM MDT Friday, October 26, 2001 [Comment on news]
3DAction Planet has an article posted today called Top Ten Shooters For Low-End PCs. Here's their intro to get you started:

"That brand new computer you got two Christmases ago -- you know, the one with the blazing 300Mhz Pentium II processor and 8MB Voodoo3 card? The one you've been meaning to upgrade, but were afraid would become immediately outdated again? Well, now it's really outdated. And Return to Castle Wolfenstein is going to bring it to its knees. What are you going to do now?"

New World Order Movie....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 4:40 PM MDT Thursday, October 25, 2001 [Comment on news]
Project 3 Interactive has released a new technology trailer of New World Order, the team-based first-person shooter in development at Termite Games. The hefty 67.1 MB download shows off some new areas that weren't in the previous trailer, and runs for more than two minutes in high-res (640x480) AVI format.

Operation Flashpoint Gold Edition....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:55 AM MDT Thursday, October 25, 2001 [Comment on news]
Codemasters announced this morning the Operation Flashpoint Gold Edition. This complilation pack will include Red Hammer: The Soviet Campaign, all the latest updates, a prima strategy guide and the original game. Look for it in the UK around November 30.

Unreal 2 Screens & Concept Art....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:55 AM MDT Thursday, October 25, 2001 [Comment on news]
On C&VG this morning, there are some new Unreal 2 screens & concept art worth checking out.

3D Games Get Physical as Karma and Unreal Combine....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:03 AM MDT Thursday, October 25, 2001 [Comment on news]
Agreement results in complete professional game development solution for physics-based behaviour in realistic 3D environments.

MathEngine and Epic Games today announced they have created a complete game development solution which incorporates MathEngine?s Karma physics into Epic?s Unreal Engine. The resulting engine offers professional game developers the ability to create new game worlds featuring objects with physics-based behaviour within completely realistic 3D environments.

Since May 2001, a team of MathEngine engineers has been working with some of Epic?s top development talent (including Unreal designers Tim Sweeney and Cliff Bleszinski) to integrate Karma physics into the Unreal Engine. The results, which expose most of Karma?s functionality through the Unreal Engine editor and allow for swift placement of physical objects within realistic 3D environments, were debuted at the recent ECTS (London, September 2nd-4th 2001) and received a great response from game developers from around the world.

?We initially approached Epic because we believed that a collaboration between our two companies could produce something special. However, even we were pleasantly surprised by the exceptional results we have achieved in such a short time,? says Mike Gamble, Business Development Director for MathEngine. ?This is the future of middleware - companies working together to provide extended solutions for the development community.?

?The combined efforts of Epic and MathEngine have produced a technology solution that is immensely attractive to game developers, no matter what genre of game they are creating or what platform they are designing it for,? adds Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games. ?The integration of Karma?s real physics adds an extra dimension to the Unreal Engine and we believe that the combined engine can be used to create games of almost any type. You want to build a basketball game? Unreal Engine gives you the court and Karma gives you the ball.?

Epic?s development team is so pleased with the results of the collaboration that they are jointly promoting the updated tools with MathEngine.

Although the two products are now tightly integrated, they will continue to be licensed as standalone offerings.

For more information, please visit www.mathengine.com.

Codename Outbreak FAQ ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:56 AM MDT Thursday, October 25, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Codename Outbreak FAQ has been updated with a load of info about this first-person shooter following its release in Europe and the UK.

Ghost Recon Movies....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:55 AM MDT Thursday, October 25, 2001 [Comment on news]
Belgian site SpelletjesGarnaal has posted two new Ghost Recon movies, showing more from the squad-based tactical shooter that just went gold at Red Storm Entertainment. The movies feature a bit over a minute each of in-game footage in MPEG format, showing off the Characters (35.9 MB) and Vehicles (38.1 MB) in the game.

Operation Flashpoint: Red Hammer Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:51 AM MDT Thursday, October 25, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan Fed has posted an Operation Flashpoint: Red Hammer Interview with Codemasters' Executive Producer Jonathan Smith. They talk about this planned add-on for Op Flashpoint that will allow players to assume the role of the Soviet side in the cold war tactical shooter.

Mobile Forces Interview....
Posted by [luckee] @ 12:55 AM MDT Thursday, October 25, 2001 [Comment on news]
Frag-girlie recently had the opportunity to chat with Colin Macdonald from the Mobile Forces Team, an upcoming FPS from Rage.

Here's a lil snip from her intuitive interview:

FG: From where did you get your influence for this game?

CM: Everywhere! The most obvious influences would be Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament and Codename Eagle. But when you?re going through the design phase, you end up making references to hundreds of different things ? many of them not First Person games at all.

Films also always make excellent reference material ? the ones I can remember having to buy ?for research purposes? include the Die Hard?s, the Mad Max?s, Leon, Godzilla and Dirty Harry.

It?s also amazing what you can find in the local area if you just look hard enough, so there?s been people from here out and about with digital cameras just getting as much relevant reference material as possible.

FG: What tools did you use to create such beautiful detail?

CM: Mobile Forces is based on Unreal technology, so a lot of the level design has been done in a heavily modified version of UnrealEd. For the finer detail on vehicles, terrain, and some very intricate parts of the levels, we use 3D Studio Max.

Multiprocessing in Windows XP ....
Posted by [luckee] @ 12:22 AM MDT Thursday, October 25, 2001 [Comment on news]
Q: I know that Windows XP Professional supports dual processors, but I was wondering if the XP Home version also supported dual processing. Which operating system should I purchase?

-- Josh via email

A: Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) is a technology that allows a computer to use more than one processor. The most common configuration of an SMP computer is one that uses two processors. The two processors are used to complete your computing tasks faster than a single processor. (Two processors aren't necessarily twice as fast as a single processor, though.)

In order for a computer to take advantage of a multiprocessor setup, the software must be written for use with an SMP system. If a program isn't written for SMP, it won't take advantage of SMP. Not every program is written for SMP; SMP applications, such as image-editing programs, video-editing suites, and databases, tend to be processor intensive.

You can read the rest here.

Rho-Bot 2.0 Beta 2....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 1:32 PM MDT Wednesday, October 24, 2001 [Comment on news]
Version 2.0 beta 2 of the Rho-bot Half-Life deathmatch and teamplay bot has been released. The new version has been updated for Half-Life v1.1.0.8 compatibility, and also offers a few minor changes.

Another New MOH: AA Movie....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 1:30 PM MDT Wednesday, October 24, 2001 [Comment on news]
The EA Games frontpage offers a new Medal of Honor: Allied Assault movie for viewing in the usual high-res (8.5 MB) and low-res (1.1 MB) QuickTime formats. This 47 second clip shows the continuation of the events in last week's movie but with a different ending than yesterday's movie where the events continued on a another track (and for which a piece of footage is still missing in action).

Luckee's Tech News....
Posted by [luckee] @ 9:58 AM MDT Wednesday, October 24, 2001 [Comment on news]
- Anandtech has an article on the AMD Hammer CPU.
- HardOCP reviews the ATi Radeon 8500 3dcard.
- Sony has enabled the use of Linux on the PS2.
- 50 things that you didn't know about WindowsXP.
- NeoSeeker reviews the Echo MIA Soundcard.
- EnvyNews checks out the Abit KG7-Lite Motherboard.
- They also review the Crucial PC2100 256MB DDR SDRAM.
- TweakersAsylum has updated their Win9x detonator database.
- Gideontech has a liquor case mod.
- HardwareZone reviews the Vivitron CDP-2880 MP3 cd player.
- ExplosiveHardware takes a look at ACPI and Win2k.
- Radeonic reviews the Nanotherm Ice thermal paste.
- PCStats checks out the Samsung DVD-P401 DVD Player.
- They also review the Philips Acoustic Edge PSC706.
- Electic has Windows media player 8 for Windows 2000.
- D-E shows you how to make a SlotA water block.
- OCOnline mod checks out a AOpen HQ45 case.
- Dan checks out the Lian Li PC-60USB case.
- PCfusion reviews the Klipsch ProMedia 4.1 speaker system.
- ViperLiar reviews the Antec SX1030B SOHO Case.
- AcidHardware checks out a rainbow neon.
- IANAG has a guide to modifing the HP A1097C monitor.
- Hardware-Test checks out the Gigabyte GA-7DXR DDR mobo.

Eternal Arena Mod for Q3A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:50 AM MDT Wednesday, October 24, 2001 [Comment on news]
Version 5 of the Eternal Arena mod for Quake 3 Arena has been released, offering a ton of changes including new main menu and background, map rotations, random maps, head/body model switching, full awards logging for all games, anti-spawn suicide timer, awards on scoreboard miniscoreboard, better map selection, and more. You can grab it here.

Ghost Recon Goes Gold....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:49 AM MDT Wednesday, October 24, 2001 [Comment on news]
Red Storm's military shooter Ghost Recon has gone gold and, as previously stated, will be released on November 13.

Ubi Soft Entertainment is delighted to announce that the title Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon has reached Gold Master Status.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon has been developed by Red Storm Entertainment, the studio behind the multi-award winning 'Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six' franchise.

Set in the year 2008, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon is a squad based tactical combat game that follows the exploits of a fictional US Special Forces team. Russia has fallen under the control of ultra-nationalistic leaders intent on rebuilding the Iron Curtain. This leads to conflict with NATO as Russia attempts to reclaim the breakaway republic of Georgia, and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. As the war escalates, casualties mount, hostages are taken and the Ghosts are sent in.

The player takes command of the Ghosts through a series of missions that range from demolitions, to search and rescue, to all-out firefights for survival.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon ships on PC CD ROM on November 13th 2001. MSRP $49.99

Techland Announces Chrome....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:43 AM MDT Wednesday, October 24, 2001 [Comment on news]
Techland, a Polish developer and publisher of interactive entertainment, after success of Crime Cities, announced that Chrome is in development for PC platform.

Chrome is a TPP/FPP tactical action game taking place on newly colonized planets of a distant star system. The player takes the role of an Interstellar Bounty-hunter, who performs various missions challenging both reflex and tactical skills. There will be an opportunity to execute missions in 10 different environmental locations, such as: tropical jungles, futuristic military bases, underground mines, orbital bases, severe moons, etc. Very often a success of a mission will depend on tactics, reflex and use of enemy premises and vehicles.

Chrome is an unusual story...
Logan reaches Valkyria System at a moment, when a disagreement over the deposits of one of the planets starts. The conflict includes more sides than it seemed at the beginning. A peaceful resolution is not very likely. Situations like that can be very favourable for independent mercenaries working for those, that pay more. But sometimes money is not the only criteria for the right decision.

Chrome has an outstanding list of new features, including: huge locations, on which action takes place; an advanced level design; the first time such realistic visual effects in a computer game; realistic human, vehicle and other objects physics; biotechnical innovations of the 25th century like implants and stimulators diametrically changing characters' traits; organized and hard to anticipate enemy troops; and finally, a revolutionary multiplayer mode - enabling playing in a dexterity as well as tactical mode.

Taking the role of mercenary Logan, the player is armed with a massive arsenal including knives, pistols, sniper rifles, machine guns, plasma rifles, flame throwers and rocket launchers. Our hero is also given Implants, which can improve character's parameters (like accuracy, health, or speed), and Equipment, which includes flashlights, radar, sonar, med-kits, drugs (stimulators), various explosives & grenades, and other non-firing weapons, which can be used during missions.

Techland's Chrome is currently slated to arrive on store shelves in spring 2002!

Ask the AI Guy....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:39 AM MDT Wednesday, October 24, 2001 [Comment on news]
Voodoo Extreme has posted up "Ask the AI Guy" where they have ION Storm Austin's AI programmer Paul Tozour answering a whole bunch of questions that their readers sent in about artificial intelligence. He answers all sorts of stuff ranging from games that impress him in the A.I. department, the possibility of an A.I. accelerator and more.

SoF2 Sound Diary....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:35 AM MDT Wednesday, October 24, 2001 [Comment on news]
The 7th installment of the Soldier of Fortune 2 sound diary is up at GameSpy where Raven's Zachary Quarles talks about how the sound in their upcoming Quake III engined FPS is coming along. Looks like there might be a couple new screen shots in there as well. Here's a snip:

Mr. John Mullins came into town and he shared some of his insights on both the game and the events that are transpiring in the world these days. It was very interesting to hear about some of his experiences and ideas. I would tell you what he said but I can't remember any of it because I was in fear of my life. He could snap me like a piece of celery.

Rogue Spear Black Thorn Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:28 AM MDT Wednesday, October 24, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan Fed has a Rogue Spear Black Thorn Interview where they chat with Patrick Naud, Associate Producer on Red Storm Entertainment's now-complete tactical shooter. Topics include the changes that were made to the game in light of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the touchy aspects of releasing a game that deals with terrorism in the current environment and more.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Movie ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 12:11 PM MDT Tuesday, October 23, 2001 [Comment on news]
The latest Medal of Honor: Allied Assault movie is online at Computer and Video Games today, showing more from the WWII first-person shooter by 2015. This clip continues with the action from Mission 5 Level 3 and offers a minute and a half of in-game footage in QuickTime format.

Renegade Release Info....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:59 AM MDT Tuesday, October 23, 2001 [Comment on news]
Westwood's Cliff Hicks made a post to the official Renegade forums saying that they're aiming to release this first-person shooter on February 12th:

We are currently aiming for a target release date of February 12th, 2002 and we feel confident this is about when you will be seeing Renegade. (Allow a few days either way for the possibility of things beyond our control.)

TV Shows To Action Games....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:57 AM MDT Tuesday, October 23, 2001 [Comment on news]
3DActionPlanet has posted a new article, taking a look at some TV shows that could make good action games. They talk about Law & Order: Criminal Intent, America’s Most Wanted, Thieves, The Tick, Dark Angel, Stargate SG-1, and a few others.

Call Sign Charlie Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:55 AM MDT Tuesday, October 23, 2001 [Comment on news]
Blue Monday posted a brief Call Sign Charlie interview with Outsider lead developer Tomas Roller about this Vietnam themed action game.

Operation Flashpoint Mission Editor Uber Reference Guide....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:53 AM MDT Tuesday, October 23, 2001 [Comment on news]
"The Merciless Creations Operation Flashpoint page has the Operation Flashpoint Mission Editor Uber Reference Guide," a 302 page downloadable compendium of Operation Flashpoint editing tutorials.

Ghost Recon FAQ ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:51 AM MDT Tuesday, October 23, 2001 [Comment on news]
The official Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon FAQ has received a major update. You can check it out here.

Chaser Movie & Q&A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:50 AM MDT Tuesday, October 23, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Cauldron Team has released a Chaser video from ECTS that features "a few locations from Montack city and animations of characters" in Windows Media Player format. This is a different Chaser ECTS video than the one that appeared immediately after the show, though three short sequences in the 1:19 clip are part of the previous shorter clip. On a related note, there's a Chaser Interview on Jolt.co.uk offering some general background on this upcoming first-person shooter from Cauldron before moving along to a Q&A with David Durcak, the game's project manager. Topics include the state of the game's progress, how Chaser will stand out in the FPS market and more.

Max Payne Cinematics Postmortem ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 1:54 PM MDT Monday, October 22, 2001 [Comment on news]
Machinima.com has posted a Max Payne Interview where they talk with Saku Lehtinen and Anssi Hyytiäinen, level designers at Remedy who were also responsible for a good deal of the work on the cinematics in the recently-released third-person shooter. Topics covered along the way include the pair's background in film, their influences in this project, pros and cons of doing this sort of work with the Max Payne engine, the tools they used, what the production process consisted of, what went right and wrong along the way, the length of the project, and their feelings about the final result.

Red Faction Patch....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 1:52 PM MDT Monday, October 22, 2001 [Comment on news]
Word on the official Red Faction site is that a new update for Volition's earth-shattering first-person shooter is now available, taking to the game to version 1.10. This patch is currently only available through the auto-updater, and includes some two dozen changes, improvements and bug fixes.

Opera Half-Life Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:37 AM MDT Monday, October 22, 2001 [Comment on news]
Multi Player Zone has posted an interview with Vermilion of the Opera team, talking about this Half-Life mod. They talk about the concept, name, the development process, features that didn't make it into the mod, and more.

NVIDIA GeForce Ti Overclocking....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:50 AM MDT Monday, October 22, 2001 [Comment on news]
Wondering how an overclocked GeForce3 Ti 200 stacks up against the GeForce3? How about the GeForce3 Ti 500? Find out how all these boards perform at stock speeds and when overclocked in FiringSquad's latest article.

Aliens vs Predator 2 Multiplayer Demo Review....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:48 AM MDT Monday, October 22, 2001 [Comment on news]
The multiplayer demo for Aliens vs Predator 2 has finally been released and now all four species are playable in this one-level demo. But how does it shape up? Does the Alien still reign supreme? How does the Predator do? Is the Human still a wimp? 3D Action Planet's Dr. Foxy tells all in his demo review.

Greed Mod for Q3A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:40 AM MDT Monday, October 22, 2001 [Comment on news]
The GreenHouseEFX website has the debut release of the Greed modification for Quake III Arena. The game offers a bunch of features and three distinct game sub-types, but the general idea behind gameplay can be summed up as: "No weapon pickups and the stakes are high. Everyone starts with the same weapon(s). Tokens are dropped by a player when they are hit and can be picked up by the attacker and used to purchase more powerful weapons and health."

Æstats v5.21 ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 5:22 PM MDT Sunday, October 21, 2001 [Comment on news]
A new version of Æstats has been released. This version, 5.21, includes a complete redesign of the output, no longer using frames, as well as lots of bug fixes. For a full list of updates, visit the Æstats web site.

Renegade Update ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 5:20 PM MDT Sunday, October 21, 2001 [Comment on news]
The weekly Command & Conquer: Renegade update by producer Dan Cermak is up on the Renegade forums. Check it out to see what he has to say!

Half-Life: Stargate SG2 Alpha 1.3 Released....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:35 AM MDT Sunday, October 21, 2001 [Comment on news]
The first patch for the Stargate SG2 mod has been released. Alpha 1.3 contains some fixes and additions, forwarding this mod into greatness. Anyone who is a fan of the Stargate SG1 TV series will probably be particularly interested in it. Here’s the usual info:

-- fixed main menu buttons
-- sounds fixed
-- 7 new models
-- bug fxes and setting changes

Eye-Trek Personal Viewing System ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:28 AM MDT Sunday, October 21, 2001 [Comment on news]
Techno-videophiles no longer have to share their view, thanks to products like the Eye-Trek personal viewing system that sits on the face and serves images just beyond the eyelashes. Check out what Tech Extreme has to say about them!

High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:26 AM MDT Sunday, October 21, 2001 [Comment on news]
Looking to build a high-end gaming machine? This month's High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide at Sharky Extreme has been updated to show you what $2500 can buy you.

GXP Q3 Tourney, Gamers Cove iCafe Partnership ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:24 AM MDT Sunday, October 21, 2001 [Comment on news]
If you're in the bay area in Northern California, stop by Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale for the GXP's Best of the Bay Quake 3 Tournament. Word is that there will be some good players showing up to show off their duel skills.

In other news, GXP has also announced a partnership with the Gamer's Cove iCafe in San Dimas.

GXP Affiliates with Gamers Cove iCafé
GXP, a GX-Media company, is pleased to announce its first iCafé affiliation: [GXP]Gamers Cove, located in San Dimas, CA. With 34 P4 systems and all the latest PC games, Gamers Cove is perfect for awesome head-to-head play. If that's not enough, they're sitting on a sweet T1 connection as well.

Check [GXP]Gamers Cove out at www.gamercove.com. To celebrate the new affiliation, Gamers Cove will be offering a $1/hour discount to all first-time visitors that mention seeing this article. Go check 'em out!

GXP is a GX Media Company. GX Media was founded in 1997 and is the parent company of Gamers.com and Firingsquad.com. For more information about GXP and about upcoming GXP events, visit www.gx.com/gxp

PC Action Games....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:18 AM MDT Sunday, October 21, 2001 [Comment on news]
3DAction Planet has posted an article on action games for the PC. They talk about Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, AvP2 and Rogue Spear: Black Thorn going gold, Quake for Halloween and more. Here's their intro to get you started:

"The action world has been quite packed lately. With games like Aliens vs. Predator 2 going gold and Serious Sam: The Second Encounter in the works, it should be a good Christmas for action junkies. Around here, we're pretty excited about the next Serious Sam instalment, and I'm sure most of you are as well."

Serious Sam: Second Encounter Q&A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:09 AM MDT Sunday, October 21, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's another Q&A online today about Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. This time HomeLan Fed has tracked down Dean Sekulic, Davor Tomicic, and Alen Ladavac of Croatian developer Croteam to discuss progress on Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.

Hidden & Dangerous 2 Q&A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:03 AM MDT Sunday, October 21, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's a Hidden & Dangerous 2 Interview on Hidden & Dangerous Fanatic chatting with Petr Vochozka of Czech developer Illusion Softworks about progress on their upcoming World War II tactical shooter sequel. Questions and answers cover things like the impact of the recent departure of lead designer Tomas Pluharik, how the lead designer role is now being dealt with, their current release schedule, plans for a demo, what they are currently working on, planned improvements over the original game, how the changes at publisher GodGames will affect the project, and more. Included with the chit-chat is a small batch of three new screenshots.

AvP2 Linux Server Plans....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:01 AM MDT Sunday, October 21, 2001 [Comment on news]
A post on the Shacknews Forums by Monolith's Jason Hall reveals that there are plans underway for a Linux dedicated server for Aliens versus Predator 2. Here's the update:

We are (and have been) working on a Linux server for AvP2 now. Unless we hit some kind of technical impossibility, the AvP2 community can expect to get Linux server support in the near future.

Jason Hall

AvP2 MP Demo Patch Info....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 6:40 PM MDT Saturday, October 20, 2001 [Comment on news]
Monolith CEO Jason Hall sends along an update on the patch for the Aliens Vs. Predator 2 multiplayer demo. The update contains a list of changes that are being tested at this time, as well as other information regarding servers and the features of the demo (particularly the gameplay balance). Here is a snip from the update:

Here's the list of changes for the upcoming new version - hopefully all of them will pass the testing process and be made available to you:

Fixed the crash bug on the Join screen.
Added async listing of game servers, so it will now add them in blocks at a time and you can see the progress.
Added a "[D]" to the end of server names that are dedicated... this helps spot them in the list without the filters, and it allows GameSpyArcade to filter them.
Added the player rename functionality during an MP game... use ' Spanky' to change your name.
The server list now filters out servers that can't receive proper game information and reduces the total server count by that amount.
Added a recommendation warning to players who try to start a non-dedicated server with more than 8 players as the maximum.
Added PageUp and PageDown support to the server list.
The arrows on the server list now act as PageUp and PageDown instead of just Up and Down.
Added mouse wheel support to the server list.
Added double click join support to the server list.
Made sure you can skip the FOX intro logo with the keyboard... previous it only worked with the mouse.

Infiltration Stuff....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:46 AM MDT Saturday, October 20, 2001 [Comment on news]
There are some new screens of what's to come in Infiltration, with a new map by Alpha_9 called Skopje. On another note, according to a recent article in Maximum PC Magazine, Infiltration is "one of the 10 Best Online Games You're Not Playing."

Luckee's Tech News....
Posted by [luckee] @ 10:16 AM MDT Saturday, October 20, 2001 [Comment on news]
- IANAG checks out the Samsung 171MP monitor.
- HardwareZone reviews the Altec Lansing AVS300 speakers.
- OC'd Cafe checks out the Globalwin YCC-8870 case.
- FlipChip reviews the AVerMedia AVerTV Box.
- NeoSeeker reviews the HP Jornada 565 PDA.
- They also review the Fujifilm FinePix 6900 Zoom Digicam.
- ViperLiar takes a look at the Therm altake crystal orb.
- TweakTown reviews the Asus A7V266 mainboard.
- FrostyTech checks out the Akasa Icicle 238 Heatsink.
- PCHardware reviews the MSI Geforce2 MX400.
- OCshoot has some chipset cooling.
- ATi Radeon 7500 reviewed here at 3DExtreme.
- IANAG checks out the Thermaltake Active Memory Cooling Kit.
- FrostyTech reviews the Fortis Tech A102 Heatsink.
- TweakTown reviews the OCZ Dominator2 HSF.
- DivX codec Version 4.02.
- ViperLiar reviews the Vantec CCK-6027D HSF.
- Rojakpot checks out the Microsoft Office Keyboard.
- They also review the Akasa Silver Mountain CPU cooler.
- RatedPC have a guide to running a Linux server.
- EnvyNews reviews the Belkin 6-Port FireWire Hub.
- OCIA checks out the Matrix Orbital Graphic LCD.
- Intel 845 chipset article at Radeonic.com.
- LivePC show you how to Configure a Linksys Router.
- Dan has some very weird stuff.
- ClubOC takes a look at the 51.1cfm Delta Fan.
- Guru3D has a Geforce Tweak Utility 3.1 RC2.

Chrome First Look ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:12 AM MDT Saturday, October 20, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameSpot has posted up an exclusive first look at Techland's upcoming sci-fi shooter Chrome, where players assume the role of an interstellar bounty hunter. They've also got some screenshots to check out here.

Freedom Force Character Builder Q&A ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:06 AM MDT Saturday, October 20, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's a Freedom Force Character Builder Q&A on GamePro.com discussing the creation of characters for this upcoming superhero game. Check it out!

Beginning of a New Era for Gamers and Linux Users....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:04 AM MDT Saturday, October 20, 2001 [Comment on news]
In a bit of different news this morning, TransGaming and MandrakeSoft have announced the upcoming release of "Mandrake Linux Gamer Edition" which will be shipping on November 9, 2001. Included in the bundle will be Mandrake Linux 8.1, Electronic Arts' The Sims and TransGaming's WineX portability technology which allows many other games designed for Windows to run on Linux. In their words: "This release marks the beginning of a new era for gamers and Linux users, as dual booting is no longer necessary for gaming on Linux." MSRP for the bundle is $69.99.

Seriously Warped Deathmatch Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:02 AM MDT Saturday, October 20, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan Fed has posted a Seriously Warped Deathmatch Interview where they talk with A Few Screws Loose, the folks behind the Seriously Warped mod for Serious Sam, which has been announced that the next version of the mod will be included in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. The Q&A corners several members of the team, discussing their backgrounds, their first reaction to Serious Sam, the head-start they received from Croteam, their experiences working with the Serious Engine, their reaction to the big response the mod has received, new features to be included in the "commercial" version, their plans for the future, and more.

AvP2 MP Demo Released....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 2:35 PM MDT Friday, October 19, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Aliens vs Predator 2 multiplayer demo has been released. This post has what's included in this 63MB demo. Here's a list of some mirrors:

Blue's News
3D Gamers
4Players.de
PlanetMirror
ShackNews (Registration Required)
FilePlanet
BonusWeb

Ghost Recon Preview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 2:16 PM MDT Friday, October 19, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameSpot UK has posted a Ghost Recon preview, offering their impressions from Red Storm's forthcoming military shooter, schduled for a November 13 release. They discuss the difficulty in playing the game, saying it requires patience, observation and planning, mostly talking about the squad command feature that let's you give a variety of orders to your squad.

nVidia Offers Exclusive Gear at New Online Store....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:41 AM MDT Friday, October 19, 2001 [Comment on news]
NVIDIA® Corporation today announced the opening of the ?NVIDIA Gear Store?, a secure and comprehensive online shopping site, selling a variety of exclusive gear and merchandise, all adorned with the distinctive NVIDIA logos and corporate colours. The new e-commerce store can be reached here.

"We have been inundated with requests for an NVIDIA on-line gear store,? stated Dan Vivoli, vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. ?We?re thrilled by the groundswell of enthusiasm over the NVIDIA brand.?

The NVIDIA Gear Store has something for everyone. In addition to apparel for men, women, and children, the store is also offering other unique items such as baseball caps, bags, pens, scooters, key-chains, umbrellas, and cycling jerseys. The NVIDIA Gear Store is a secure e-commerce site and implements the highest level of encryption for credit card transactions.

In the future, visitors to the NVIDIA Gear Store will be able to interact in 3D with select NVIDIA products online. Potential customers will be able to spin, zoom and test the functionality of each enhanced product model - discovering the unique and specific features of these leading-edge products.

NVIDIA shoppers can track their purchases on the site, or ask questions about their orders via e-mail through NVIDIA?s customer care centre. With online (custserv@pds.com) representatives, shoppers are assured the highest level of customer service.

More AvP2 Demo Info....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:35 AM MDT Friday, October 19, 2001 [Comment on news]
Sierra sent some info on the upcoming multiplayer demo for their just gone gold Aliens vs Predator 2 title.

-- The playable characters will be the Alien Drone, the Predator, Harrison or Dunya.
-- The weapons for the Marine will be the knife, pistol, shotgun, pulse rifle and smartgun.
-- The weapons & tools for the Predator will be wristblades, spear, plasmacaster, netgun, charger, medicomp and mask.
-- The map will be "A Lesser Fate".
-- The modes will be Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch.
-- There will be Internet/LAN support for up to 16 players.
-- The total file size is 65MB.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Movies....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:32 AM MDT Friday, October 19, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameSpot has six new Serious Sam: The Second Encounter movies, showing the sniper rifle, flamethrower and the chainsaw in use, and of course showing Serious Sam fighting a herd of enemies.

Ghost Recon FAQ ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:28 AM MDT Friday, October 19, 2001 [Comment on news]
The official Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon FAQ is now online answering general, gameplay, visual, and technical questions about the game.

Bull Arena Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:26 AM MDT Friday, October 19, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's a Bull Arena Interview on Jolt.co.uk talking with the team behind this upcoming Serious Sam modification

CPL Europe Changes Planned....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:25 AM MDT Friday, October 19, 2001 [Comment on news]
CPL Europe has announced that their final 2001 event, scheduled to be held in Paris, has been postponed until Spring 2002. A post on ShackES by Angel Munoz announces the changes in the special CPL version of Counter-Strike that replaces some of the terms in the game, including "terrorist." Here's the list of changes:

1. The words "terrorist" and "counter-terrorist" have been replaced with the clan's name.
2. In-game text files containing the words "terroist" "counter-terrorist" have been replaced with "offensive team" and "defensive team."
3. The text files containing the word "bomb" have been replaced with "device" and "communication device."
4. Sound wav. files containing explosion sounds have been deleted.
5. Models are now forced and the entire offensive and defensive teams can choose only one model per team.

Ghost Recon Still Coming to PC....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:22 AM MDT Friday, October 19, 2001 [Comment on news]
EuroGamer has a confirmation posted saying Ghost Recon will be coming to the PC, confirming the speculation that accompanied the "Xbox exclusive" report that this referred to console exclusivity and not the PC.

AvP 2 Q&A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 4:41 PM MDT Thursday, October 18, 2001 [Comment on news]
AvPNews has posted a Q&A with directors Eldritch and Sadogoat, who have been participating in the beta testing of the game, as they answer some reader-submitted questions about this upcoming shooter sequel. Topics include improvements made since the Marine demo, movement and maneuverability of the different species, AI, level design, ambience, multiplayer, and more.

Operation Flashpoint Patch....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 4:39 PM MDT Thursday, October 18, 2001 [Comment on news]
A day earlier than promised, Bohemia Interactive has released a new patch for Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, updating their tactical shooter to version 1.27 beta. This 5.0 MB patch adds another batch of changes and fixes to the ones from version 1.26, all listed in detail on this page, and comes with a new dedicated beta server to match. Lastly, the Grenade Launchers pack is also available, adding the MM-1 and 6G-30 to the game's arsenal.

Aliens vs Predator 2 Gold....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 4:37 PM MDT Thursday, October 18, 2001 [Comment on news]
Sierra and Fox Interactive send along the announcement that Alien versus Predator 2, their three species first-person shooter sequel, has gone gold. Here's the press release:

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS!
Sierra and Fox Interactive Announce Aliens vs. Predator™ 2 Goes Gold

Los Angeles, CA - October 18, 2001 - The around-the-clock shifts have ended and the countdown begins as Sierra(tm) and Fox Interactive(tm) announced today that Aliens vs. Predator 2 has indeed gone gold. It's only a matter of time until players can immerse themselves in a game that combines elements, creatures, and settings from the hit movies Aliens™ and Predator™ in three unique, interlocking stories. Aliens, predators, and humans share one powerful trait-the enduring will to survive. The only question left to ask is "Will you be up to the challenge?"

"It's been a long journey on the Aliens vs. Predator 2 project and I'm proud to see this one set sail! The team over at Monolith has created a great product that I'm quite sure the AvP fans will enjoy," said David Stalker, producer for Fox Interactive. "My thanks go out to all the Monolith team members, as well as the folks from Fox, Sierra and Vivendi Universal who gave their very best for this game...now everybody go get some sleep!"

Aliens vs. Predator 2 will be available at retail late October for a suggested retail price of $49.95. For more information, go to AvP2.sierra.com or order by phone at 800-757-7707.

AvP2 MP Demo Coming Soon....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:36 AM MDT Thursday, October 18, 2001 [Comment on news]
Sierra passed along word that a multiplayer version is in the works and will be released soon. Here's the announcement:

Three species, one world - it is survival of the fittest and only one species will emerge victorious. Your chance is coming to be one of those species in the soon-to-be-released Aliens vs. Predator 2 multiplayer demo. Which species will you choose...

The odds are stacked against the marine as he faces these two deadly foes, but never underestimate the heart of a marine and his will to survive.

Challenged by human and Alien obstacles, the Predator must discover his will to survive must be greater than the lust for the hunt.

Striking from within the facility, the Alien seeks to save its queen stopping at nothing to ensure survival of the Alien race.

Stay tuned for more details...

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:34 AM MDT Thursday, October 18, 2001 [Comment on news]
Game Helper interviewed Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford about Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, the single player stand-alone Half-Life engined game based off of the popular Counter-Strike mod. Here's the scoop on the gameplay:

GH: Will the missions still consist of the familiar “rinse and repeat” gameplay style? (repeat the same missions, gaining round wins, until a set time limit is reached?)

RP: In Condition Zero, you’ll become very familiar with the combat environments, but you won’t have to repeat the same objectives over and over. The goal is to complete the primary objective, but to also complete secondary objectives often returning to the same locations if necessary to do so. By completing objectives, you’ll earn more funding for your squad and can use those funds to invest in new weapons and equipment, recruiting new squad members or training current squad members to become more effective in the field.

Global Ops shots....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:33 AM MDT Thursday, October 18, 2001 [Comment on news]
Barking Dog Studios released a pair of new screen shots for Global Operations, the LithTech engined tactical action / teamplay game that Crave is producing. Today's images are from maps in Mexico and Quebec.

Duke Nukem interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:32 AM MDT Thursday, October 18, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan has posted a Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project Interview with ARUSH Entertainment who are making a series of episodic games (to be released on the Internet) based on the Duke Nukem series. Here's a clip about the gameplay:

HomeLAN - The game is being described as a third person action game with some side-scroller elements. Can you be more specific on what type of gameplay you are trying to make?

Donald Case - It truly is a unique 3D game that just can't be described in the traditional sense. DNMP will be a cutting-edge game that will be easy to get into and play. Even though it has a lot of the mechanics of a platform game, it will actually be fully 3D in nature. (Using the Prism3D Engine) Since the environments are constructed in a true-3D engine, we shall enjoy the natural visual benefits this conveys such as depth of field, fully three-dimensional obstacles and a deeply visually interesting environment. Plus, the player can go back into the environment in certain areas, giving the game more depth of motion than just left/right and up/down directional control.

MOH:AA Movie....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:30 AM MDT Thursday, October 18, 2001 [Comment on news]
The official Medal of Honor: Allied Assault site features a new movie trailer of the first-person shooter in the works at 2015. While billed as part 2 in the five part series covering Mission 5 Level 3 in the game, this clip actually contains the same gameplay action as last week's clip, with just half a minute of further footage appended it's available in low-res and high-res QuickTime formats.

GOTY Maps....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:28 AM MDT Thursday, October 18, 2001 [Comment on news]
As promised, yesterday Monolith released the multiplayer maps from the Game of the Year Edition of No One Lives Forever as a separate download, so that owners of the original game can play the new maps online as well. The 50.2 MB file requires the version 1.004 patch to be installed first.

Full Metal Jacket interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:25 AM MDT Thursday, October 18, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's an interview with SenseOred on BarrysWorld on the subject of the just-released Full Metal Jacket modification for Quake III Area

Inside Windows XP – Gaming Nirvana?....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:48 AM MDT Wednesday, October 17, 2001 [Comment on news]
Some of you may remember Kevin Barton from Planethardware, who has a new article over at Source Magazine. In his article he takes a long, hard look at WindowsXP and what it means to the gamer. Here's a snip:

Microsoft recently released their next version of the Windows operating system, dubbed Windows XP, which is based on the Windows 2000 technology. Essentially, one can think of WinXP as Windows 2000 with a facelift – especially in the UI, or user interface area. For years, computer novices have complained that the Windows interface was too difficult and non-intuitive to pick up easily. WinXP aims to fix all that by simplifying the overall interface by making buttons bigger and easier to distinguish, and by adding some aesthetic changes to the look of the OS.

Luckee's Tech News....
Posted by [luckee] @ 9:01 AM MDT Wednesday, October 17, 2001 [Comment on news]
- Neoseeker reviews the Spire 5T060B1H3R Socket CPU Cooler.
- HardwareZone takes a look at the Dell 2GHz PC.
- TweakTown has some Kingmax PC2100 Compatibility Tests.
- AMDMb reviews the Shuttle AK31 Rev3. Motherboard.
- Electic has info on the Intel Nocona processor.
- They also have a post about RIAA hacking computers for MP3's.
- EnvyNews reviews the Logitech Optical mouse.
- AthlonOC takes a look at overclocking the AthlonXP.
- HWExtreme reviews the Inwin Alaska Case.
- Dan gets into some connection sharing.
- HotHardware checks out the Shuttle AV40 P4 DDR mobo.
- ClubOC reviews the Silver Pro Gamer case.
- IANAG also reviews the Silver Pro Gamer Aluminum Case.
- OCOnline have a AthlonXP 1700+ review.
- VR-Zone reviews the Leadtek WinFast 7350KDA mobo.
- Guru3D has a GF3 Ti500 writeup and review
- Tweakers Asylum reviews the MSI K7T-Turbo R Limited Edition motherboard.
- IANAG checks out the Dynatron DC1206DM-O638 HSF.
- PCStats reviews the the OCZ Ice 150 - PC150 SDRAM.
- They also review the SyncMaster 150T LCD Flatpanel.
- OC'd Cafe reviews the Aluminum Silver Pro Gamer case.
- RatedPC checks out the Samsung ML-1210 laser printer.
- NeoSeeker reviews the Soyo Dragon DDR mobo.
- They also have info on the AMD Hammer CPU.
- Radeonic show a heatsink testing method.
- They also review the KingMax PC2100 DDR SDRAM.
- G3D has a Dragon ORB vs OCZ Gladiator HSF shootout.
- Electic also has info on the AMD Hammer processor.
- EnvyNews reviews the AOpen CRW1635 CD-RW Drive.
- They also review the Antec SX635 Case.

ThreeWave CTF Mod Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:23 AM MDT Wednesday, October 17, 2001 [Comment on news]
PlanetQuake3.net has posted an interview with Dekard of the ThreeWave CTF mod team, talking about his position in the team, his involvement on the ClassicCTF mod, future plans for the mod, and more. They also have a download available here.

Uncrossable Parallel Maps ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:21 AM MDT Wednesday, October 17, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Uncrossable Parallel team has updated their website with a "massive map update" of several maps they are working on. Check 'em out!

Interview: Croteam on Serious Sam: TSE....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:18 AM MDT Wednesday, October 17, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's another Serious Sam: The Second Encounter interview up today, this time at 3DAction Planet. Here's their intro to get you started:

"Earlier this year, a little shooter named Serious Sam arrived on U.S. shores and garnered hordes of fans. A throwback to the days of DOOM, the game featured non-stop action, waves upon waves of enemies, and one of the most entertaining co-op modes for any game in recent history.

With the game's success, Croteam has been hard at work on a standalone expansion called Serious Sam: The Second Encounter ("TSE"). We've had a chance to play through a preview alpha version of the game, and it looks like it could be even better than the original. We managed to corner a few members of the team and ask them a few question about the upcoming game.

Among the team members were Dinko "Evil D" Pavicic, 2D artist; Petar "Der Punkt" Ivancek, 2D artist, and Admir "Blondie" Elezovic, 3d artist. Here's what they had to say."

Is this really necessary?....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:14 AM MDT Wednesday, October 17, 2001 [Comment on news]
Gamers Depot has a very interesting article up by Joel Durham Jr., the former C|Net GameCenter Senior Technical Editor, titled "Is this really necessary?" In this article, Joel sheds some light on the recent terrorist activities and helps put things in perspective on how it relates to the gamer inside of us. Here's a snip:

I'm not in the mood for games right now. I'm not in the mood to review hardware, to fart around with sound cards and speakers, to play I-War 2 which, until a few weeks ago, I'd be drooling for.

Is that a weird thing to say for a lifelong gaming enthusiast and EIC of the remerging Gamers Depot? How could I possibly feel that way?

For one thing, I'm going to do the fashionable thing and blame it on the September 11 attacks, and on the grizzly but necessary conventional war we've begun fighting in Afghanistan. I know that our esteemed president and the inspiring mayor of New York City (can anyone in their right mind deny that Giuliani is the very definition of a hero?) have advised us to go back to our normal lives, but a month later it's still damn hard.

NOLF Bonus Pack Soon....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:10 AM MDT Wednesday, October 17, 2001 [Comment on news]
According to NOLF Girl, Monolith will be releasing the bonus "Game of the Year" multiplayer map pack to No One Lives Forever as a free download later today (it's about 50 megs). Check outNOLF Girl for the details.

Napster clone Guide....
Posted by [luckee] @ 7:15 PM MDT Tuesday, October 16, 2001 [Comment on news]
AudioFile is proud to present its at-a-glance Napster clone chart. For a link to each clone's site, please click on the full review.

Please note: The following file-sharing programs are upgraded regularly. Some newer versions contain invasive spyware. Also note that there is a movement afoot in the House of Representatives to educate parents about pornography that can be accessed (intentionally or not) via file-sharing. Please be aware, and trade responsibly.

more here @ techextreme.com.

Gore Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:20 AM MDT Tuesday, October 16, 2001 [Comment on news]
Prophecy.co.za has interviewed 4D Rulers' President and Creative Director Joel Huenink about their upcoming fps Gore. Here's a snip from Joel:

"We're working very hard addressing issues people had with our first multiplayer test, and I strongly urge anyone who didn't like it, to give it another shot this fall when GoreTest 2 comes out. GoreTest2 will have tons of new art work, models, improved animations, many minor gameplay feel issues corrected, team play modes, some new maps, more shader effects, dynamic lighting and more eye candy, and a ton of other things. We've read every comment anyone has sent in, and our forums get a ton of people making suggestions there, so send away any critique/suggestions you have to feedback@4drulers.com. We are listening, and we want Gore to be the best it can be."

Detonator XP “Designed For Windows XP” ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:00 AM MDT Tuesday, October 16, 2001 [Comment on news]
NVIDIA® Corporation announced today that its Detonator XP unified driver architecture (UDA) has been awarded certification from the Microsoft® Windows® Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) for all versions of Microsoft’s highly anticipated Windows XP operating system, available on Oct. 25. This certification further solidifies NVIDIA’s commitment to produce the best software and hardware products specifically designed to unleash the power and features of Windows XP. In addition to the WHQL certification for both Windows XP Home and Professional Editions, NVIDIA is the first company to receive certification on Windows XP 64-Bit Edition. With full workstation features and capabilities, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition is the most advanced operating system to support the Intel® Itanium™ processors.

The WHQL certification enables Detonator XP to carry the “Designed for Windows XP” logo, a Microsoft-run program alerting developers and consumers to only those products that have met a high-quality bar and deliver a great computing experience on Windows XP. NVIDIA’s products also meet the “Designed for Windows XP - Optimized” requirements.

“NVIDIA’s world-class software team has consistently delivered the highest quality drivers in the industry for Windows operating systems,” said Dwight Diercks, vice president of software engineering at NVIDIA.

The WHQL certification process ensures that only those products meeting a high bar of quality standards have the opportunity to bear the ‘Designed for Windows’ logo, and we’re delighted that Detonator XP is the first product to be awarded with this honour.”

Detonator XP includes specific 2D and 3D technology enhancements designed to accelerate special features contained in Windows XP, delivering top performance and a sleek new way to navigate the Windows XP desktop. Detonator XP provides acceleration for Windows XP’s new graphical interface, and optimisations for a variety of traditional applications including digital video and photo editing, streaming multimedia, music creation and 3D gaming.

Written specifically for Windows XP, Detonator XP contains NVIDIA’s proprietary Detonator XPress Link technology. Working with the patented Direct Memory Access (DMA) found on all NVIDIA hardware, Detonator Xpress Link provides a direct connection from the hardware to the operating system, resulting in the fastest available performance by accelerating the power and features of Windows XP.

Detonator XP is currently available free-of-charge here.

Microsoft: Good for Gamers?....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:14 AM MDT Tuesday, October 16, 2001 [Comment on news]
You may not see Microsoft as beneficial to much of the computing industry, but what about gaming? FiringSquad takes a look at what MS has done to help gamers in the last decade, and what they hold for the future of PC gaming.

Garage Games Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:08 AM MDT Tuesday, October 16, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan has posted up an interview with Garage Games that talks a bit about its licensable modified Tribes 2 engine - Torque (previously called V12). Here's a snip:

HomeLAN - There is a huge gaming development community being created on your web site. What does GarageGames get out of encouraging other developers to talk and share with each other?

Tim Gift - Well, the obvious side benifit is that these developers get exposed to our product, and hopefully they'll join the ranks of Torque developers :) But that's not why we created it... there are a number of game developer, and project sites out there, but we didn't feel like any of them quite did what we wanted, so we decided to write our own. I'm not sure ours does quite what we want either, but it's our first web site :) We'll keep working on it. I've always wanted a nice resource center for finding game related information :)

SoF2 Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:07 AM MDT Tuesday, October 16, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Armchair Empire interviewed Raven Software's Kenn Hoekstra about Soldier of Fortune 2. Check it out!

Generations Arena Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:04 AM MDT Tuesday, October 16, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's a Generations Arena interview on Jolt.co.uk talking with several members of the team on this upcoming Quake III Arena modification. Here's their intro telling you a bit about this mod.

"Many moons ago there was a Quake 2 mod called Q2Gen which brought together characters and weapons from Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake and Quake 2 for one almighty deathmatch slugfest massacre. Unfortunately, soon after the game was released onto the web id declared the mod ‘illegal’ as it poached models and maps from their earlier games. Because of this the mod was pulled and the gamers wanting some inter-title gibbing had to crawl back into their dark holes and get back to merely dreaming.

This gruesome story will have a happy ending though, it seems. A development team known as Wirehead Studios are resurrecting the Q2Gen premise in the Quake 3 mod Generations Arena. Base Quake 3 already has player models from the earlier id games, so essentially all the Wirehead boys would have to do is add their own versions of the older games’ weapons and maps. What they have been working on, however is much more complicated than that, as all the characters will experience authentic in-game physics to give the player an authentic Quake 2 or Doom ‘feel’."

Updated Wolfenstein Admin Bot....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:00 AM MDT Tuesday, October 16, 2001 [Comment on news]
An updated version 0.91 of the Wolfenstein Admin Bot is available, the new release of this Perl script that can help police teamkillers and otherwise maintain order on a Return to Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer Test server adds "many bug fixes, more useful error reporting, an easy to use installer, a new "admin" flag for users, added kick messages, Perl < 5.6.0 compatibility, better logging on bans, and more."

Serious Sam 2nd Encounter Preview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 6:58 AM MDT Tuesday, October 16, 2001 [Comment on news]
There is a new preview of Serious Sam: the Second Encounter on Adrenaline Vault, looking ahead to the new episode in this fast 'n furious shooter series that is in the works at Croteam. The article makes the not unreasonable assumption that the first game is familiar, and jumps right into gameplay impressions from a pre-release build, describing the new Aztec setting and maps, new weapons and enemies, and more along the way. Ten new screenshots are also included.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:33 AM MDT Monday, October 15, 2001 [Comment on news]
Shacknews has posted an interview with Admir Elezovic, one of the individuals working on Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. Here's a snip:

Shack: What can you tell us about Serious Sam: The Second Encounter?

Admir: First, Egyptian levels are definitely out. SE is sequel to original Sam. It continues where The First Encounter ended, logical step in SS neverending saga. We learned alot from SS. Feedback we got from fans who bought SS was very valuable too. It forced us in minimizing mistakes and adding some new stuff in playability and visual look.

Game Sales Climb ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:28 AM MDT Monday, October 15, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Wall Street Journal reports that video game sales have begun to pick back up, a month after the September 11 terrorist attacks on US soil. The data, which came from an NPD report, shows that during the week of September 11, video game sales slumped 20 percent. The cause of this slump is being put squarely on the shoulder of video game retailers who closed shop during that time period. But the good news is that video game software and hardware sales are on the rise again. For the week ending Sept 22 video game sales rose 6 percent, and for the week of September 29 video game sales continued to climb by 13 percent. Good news for the game industry, who already had enough problems before the September 11 attacks. (Spotted on Voodoo Extreme)

Fixing Nvidia Refresh Rates on Win2000/XP ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:34 AM MDT Monday, October 15, 2001 [Comment on news]
For quite some time now there have been some major problems with OpenGL and Direct3D games running on a Nvidia based card under Window 2000 or XP. Today, Speedy 3D shows you how to fix your refresh rates for better gaming in this simple how to guide that has been updated for Detonator XP Drivers. Check it out!

Top PC and Add-in Card OEMs Select New nVidia GPUs....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:24 AM MDT Monday, October 15, 2001 [Comment on news]
NVIDIA® Corporation announced today that its GeForce™ Titanium series of graphics processing units (GPUs) has secured design wins with the industry’s top suppliers. Starting October 12th, products based on these new NVIDIA GPUs will be introduced by the following add-in card companies in the next 45 days, including: ASUStek Computer, Inc., Creative Labs, ELSA, Leadtek Research, Inc., Gainward Co. Ltd., Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd., MSI, PNY Technologies, and Visiontek, Inc.

In addition, the top global PC OEMs will be shipping GeForce Titanium Series PCs. Manufacturers include Compaq Computer Corporation, Dell Europe, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Hewlett-Packard Company, MicroPC, and NEC Corporation. Other OEMs and partners will be announced in the coming months.

“With the new GeForce3 Titanium series, NVIDIA is able to deliver a DirectX 8-based graphics solution well beyond the enthusiast market,” said Jeff Fisher, executive vice president of worldwide sales at NVIDIA. With these new GPUs, we’ve clearly accelerated our growing lead in the graphics market, and maintained our position as the technology leader for all of our partners.”

By adding the GeForce Titanium GPUs to already successful product lines, the industry’s top OEMs and add-in-card companies will be able to deliver more complex, cinematic images than ever before possible on a desktop PC. With their unprecedented 3D and 2D performance and feature set, unmatched cinematic-quality, and support for the highly-anticipated Microsoft® Windows® XP support, the new GeForce3™ Ti 500, GeForce3 Ti 200 and GeForce2™ Ti provide ground-breaking levels of performance and visual quality for their distinct markets.

New AEStats....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:07 AM MDT Monday, October 15, 2001 [Comment on news]
A new version (5.14) of the AEStats server log program has been released and can be downloaded at the program's official web site. Added to this version is event, role, team tracking for Counter-Strike, the French version of Unreal Tournament and a number of bug fixes.

Red Faction Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:37 AM MDT Monday, October 15, 2001 [Comment on news]
Red Faction Center has posted an interview with James Tsai, the producer on Red Faction, about various aspects of Volition's just-released first-person shooter.

Dual Duron Performance Review....
Posted by [luckee] @ 11:22 AM MDT Sunday, October 14, 2001 [Comment on news]
Dual-processors for budget systems? Not since the Celeron/slocket days have we heard more buzz about this quirky idea, but products such as Windows 2000, XP, and the Duron MP are all changing that. Today, we take a close look at AMD's new SMP-capable Durons and see if it will help usher in a new era of multiprocessing for the masses.

Read the rest here @ firingsquad.com.

Enhancing Security: Can the Internet Help?....
Posted by [luckee] @ 11:17 AM MDT Sunday, October 14, 2001 [Comment on news]
Given the many Internet security breaches that have occurred this past year, many are wondering whether -- and how -- the Internet can help in thwarting future incidents or aiding in rescue and recovery efforts.

Read the rest here @ techextreme.com.

Maelstrom shots ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:53 AM MDT Sunday, October 14, 2001 [Comment on news]
Virigin Interactive released some shots of Maelstrom, the Unreal Warfare engined action game set to be released on the PC, PS2 and Xbox next year. (Spotted on Voodoo Extreme.)

Ask Chris Carollo ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:48 AM MDT Sunday, October 14, 2001 [Comment on news]
VoodooExtreme has posted the Ask Chris Carollo column, with the lead programmer of Deus Ex 2 at ION Storm Austin. He talks about how he begins development on a game once deciding on a core concept, his opinions on community beta testing, the challenges in having a sim-game with a linear storyline, the challenges in inventing new aspects of gameplay, and other things.

Command & Conquer: Renegade....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:47 AM MDT Sunday, October 14, 2001 [Comment on news]
Command & Conquer: Renegade producer Dan Cermak has posted a development update for this upcoming shooter, talking about the test sessions, adjusting some of the balance, high level characters tweaking, and other things.

Counter-Strike Update....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:46 AM MDT Sunday, October 14, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Counter-Strike website has been updated with four screenshots from a couple of new maps that will be used during the qualifying rounds of this December's CPL World Championship.

Shooter Roundup 2001 ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:41 AM MDT Sunday, October 14, 2001 [Comment on news]
Shooter Roundup 2001 is an article on GameSpot that looks at the upcoming crop of first-person shooter titles, with looks ahead at Aliens versus Predator 2, Command & Conquer: Renegade, Ghost Recon, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. The article starts with a look at games that have already been released, and on the upcoming titles, including new screenshots of each along with their write-ups.

Croteam Update....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:39 AM MDT Sunday, October 14, 2001 [Comment on news]
This week Alen Ladavac usurps the soapbox at the Croteam website and offers word on some of what to expect from Sam's Second Encounter as far as sound is concerned, as they are switching sound engines, as well as plans to support iFeel force-feedback mice in SE as well as First Encounter. Here's the update:

Play it Vorbis Sam...

Mmmmmm... sunday update...... /me stretches What do we have for you today? Well, first of all, The Second Encounter already looks great, and plays great. I've just had a chance to do some playtesting and can say that I am pleasantly surprised. I've been working more on technology and support, so I haven't seen most of the content before. The guys did a great job on levels, models, textures and special effects. There is even more secrets and easter eggs than in the FE, etc, etc. Parts with bosses and cut-scenes that were added after the alpha version (the one that was used for the previews) are also very cool. You'll see :).

Anyway, let's talk about technology now. You've all seen the procedural vegetation rendering and the flamethrower in the previews. There are also some more new destruction effects and similar, etc. The new tree destruction is cool. Start your chainsaw and yell: "Timbeeeeer!" Also, if you've missed the strange physics features of the engine that really were not overused in FE, you'll be more than happy with SE.

We did a major change in the sound engine between FE and SE. And its name is Ogg Vorbis. Yeah, that's right, we're using ogg for music playing. In case someone hasn't heard of it yet, Ogg Vorbis is a patent-free, open source audio codec project. Or in english: a music compressor that plainly rocks. Make sure you check it out. We've tried encoding all the music for SE with Oggdrop at 64kbps and the quality was perfect even at such low bitrate. In the final version, since we won't need the extra space, we'll be shipping with 128kbps music tracks, for even higher fidelity. The guys there are really helpful and supportive and the whole project is surprisingly functional already. There are plugins for all major music players and other music programs.

And just one more cool feature: starting with SE, (and also next patch for FE), we support iFeel tactile feedback mice. So if you have a tactile feedback mouse with proper drivers installed, you will be able to really feel the minigun rock the world. Thanks to guys from Immersion for helping us with the support.

Alen Ladavac

P.S. Yes, Admir is still alive and well, just that Dean and I have usurped the soapbox a bit.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein Preview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:35 AM MDT Sunday, October 14, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameSpy.com has a preview of Return to Castle Wolfenstein that takes a look ahead at the Quake III-engined Wolfenstein 3-D follow-up in the works at Gray Matter Interactive and Nerve Software. The preview is based on some hand-on play at a recent Activision press event where they got to check out some new levels and things like cut-scenes that were not on hand for the showings of the game at this year's QuakeCon. The article offers impressions of the single-player stuff on display, as well as some newer aspects of multiplayer play that are not evident in the multiplayer test, going into a bit on what will be changed in the final version of the game based on feedback from the test.

Should You Upgrade to XP? ....
Posted by [luckee] @ 5:35 PM MDT Saturday, October 13, 2001 [Comment on news]
TechTV's Becky Worley answers the question on every geek's mind..Here's a lil snip:

Microsoft is at a fever pitch and geeks are drooling over the gee-whiz factor, but, come on, all you want to know is if the benefits of Windows XP are worth the hassle and expense of upgrading.

The answer is, "It depends, but it's probably not worth it!"

Let's start with the hardware requirements for the XP upgrade. Our minimum recommendations are:

500-MHz Processor
256MB of RAM
5GB hard drive (XP alone takes up 1GB)

OK, that's it for your computer, but what about you?

If you're an early adopter -- the first to get the new gear, the one who pushes the envelope of computing -- then you don't need me to tell you to upgrade. You know you want to, and XP is tempting to any geek.

It boots 16 seconds faster than Windows 2000 and 11 seconds faster than Windows Millennium Edition. On overall performance, our benchmarks put XP about 10 percent faster than Windows

Read the rest here.

Examining the Windows XP Hype....
Posted by [luckee] @ 5:33 PM MDT Saturday, October 13, 2001 [Comment on news]
Most people shouldn't upgrade to Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system, due out in October 2001, says Brian Livingston, the author of ten books on Windows, including "Windows 2000 Secrets" and "Windows Me Secrets."

"Windows XP has no major new features that make it worth buying... or make it worth going through the hassles of upgrading," Livingston said.

Most of the changes incorporated into Windows XP, he added, aren't benefits to users but are revenue enhancers for Microsoft.

Read the rest here.

Too Much Payne?....
Posted by [luckee] @ 5:15 PM MDT Saturday, October 13, 2001 [Comment on news]
3DActionPlanet have posted an article designed to let you know when you've had Too Much Payne. The article gives you the top 10 signs that you've been playing too much Max Payne. Here's a lil snip:

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that the so-called "med-kits," common to just about every action game out there, are about as realistic as...well...they're just not very realistic. What's in those things anyway? Band-aids? Tourniquets? Robitussan? Obviously, Max Payne was designed with real life in mind, so instead of administering instantaneous first-aid on himself, Max pops a few painkillers to relieve that decreasing health status. Nothing clears up gaping shotgun wounds like a few Tylenol Gel-caps. Problem is, some players have begun to believe they too can have an indestructible stomach lining just like Max. It doesn't happen that way in real life folks.

Read the rest here.

No One Lives Forever GOTY Patch....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 2:15 PM MDT Saturday, October 13, 2001 [Comment on news]
Monolith has released a patch for the game of the year edition of NOLF. "This patch is simply to allow regular NOLF players to play with/join GOTY (1.004) servers. NOTE: You must have Update #3 in order for this patch to work."

Iron Storm Preview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 2:13 PM MDT Saturday, October 13, 2001 [Comment on news]
EuroGamer has an Iron Storm Preview that is another short write-up based on getting to check out Iron Storm at this year's ECTS. They describe the game as a "semi-realistic shooter, with a choice of first and third person perspectives that is set in an alternative universe where the First World War is still going strong in 1964, with millions of soldiers dead and no end in sight. The result is a bizarre mixture of the two World Wars and Vietnam, with much of Europe in ruins, trenches criss-crossing the continent, and technology focusing on tough, reliable weaponry rather than sophistication." They offer favorable impressions of the game, saying it was the game at the show that really caught their eyes.

Operation Flashpoint Review....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 2:04 PM MDT Saturday, October 13, 2001 [Comment on news]
Our man Blood has given us his Operation Flashpoint Review this afternoon. Here's a snip before you check it out:

"The most amazing thing that struck me about the game was all the tactics we used, and the way the missions were lined out, it was exactly like it was in the Army. This game is the closest thing to being in the real military as you can get, short of signing the line. Another aspect of the game that I really enjoyed was the ability to fly a helicopter, drive jeeps, tanks, trucks, and any other piece of equipment in the game."

Aliens vs. Predator II Contest....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:45 AM MDT Saturday, October 13, 2001 [Comment on news]
PlanetAvP is holding a contest to celebrate their 3rd birthday. The two lucky winners of the contest will receive a free copy of Aliens vs. Predator II courtesy of Vivendi Universal Interactive. For full details and the terms, visit the Contest Page.

nVidia GeForce3 Ti 500 Review....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:41 AM MDT Saturday, October 13, 2001 [Comment on news]
Sharky Extreme has posted up an nVidia GeForce3 Ti 500 Review. Here's a snip:

"To put it in overly simple terms, the GeForce3 Ti 500 is basically a GeForce3 on steroids. Their building and improving upon an existing architecture would, in earlier product lines, have earned the card an "Ultra" status. But times change, I suppose, and so do names; and so we're left with what are being called Titanium GPUs, with the Ti 500 sitting at the top of the heap."

Todd Hollenshead Video Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:34 AM MDT Saturday, October 13, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameSpot has posted up a video interview with id Software's Todd Hollenshead talking at a recent Return to Castle Wolfenstein press event. Topcis discussed include id's involvement on the project, the multiplayer test demo, and the decision to have Nerve Software work on the game's multiplayer aspect. The video is available in downloadable and streaming versions.

Unreal Tournament Infiltration Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:32 AM MDT Saturday, October 13, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan Fed has an Unreal Tournament Infiltration Interview where they talk with Jesse "Warren" Taylor about this popular mod for Unreal Tournament.

Unreal Arena Screenshots ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:58 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Mean Arena website offers some new screenshots from their Unreal Arena Quake 3 mod, which is described as an Unreal Tournament to Quake 3 partial conversion. The screenshots shows some custom map work as well as some weapons.

Operation Flashpoint Patch....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:54 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
Bohemia Interactive has released a new beta patch for Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, bringing their 3D tactical action game to version 1.26. The 5.1 MB patch "introduces major rework of the network code that should lead to notable improvement of multiplayer performance. There are a lot of bug fixes as well." A new dedicated server for this version is also available, and a complete list of changes is online as well.

Day of Defeat....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:57 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Day of Defeat: HL mod website was recently updated with some new information on their upcoming beta2. Here's a snip:

"It's been a while since we've shown you all something substantial from beta so we decided to give you a look at the new HUD for beta2. Before I begin with the description let me tell you that the new HUD is no longer black and white. All of these images were taken in the new iNw map dod_ramelle. Thanks to Agent~0 for the fabulous work on the HUD."

GameSpy 3D and Threewave....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:54 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
For people who have been looking for servers for the newest Threewave mod that just came out for Quake III, you're in luck. There's a new Threewave GameSpy 3D tab for everyone that uses GameSpy 3D. You can pick it up here.

Speedball Arena Preview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:45 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
Games Radar UK has posted a Speedball Arena preview, taking a look at the upcoming combat sports game by The Bitmap Brothers. The article was posted in the current issue of PC Gamer UK, and offers their look on the game after visiting the Bitmap Brothers offices, talking about the previous Speedball games, the concept of the game, the RPG elements, computer teammates, game mechanics, and more. Quotes from Designer Ed Bartlett are included.

New Wolfenstein Info....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:43 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
Achtung Wolfenstein has posted an article that offers ten new pieces of information about the upcoming Return to Castle Wolfenstein. This info is based, like some other recent previews, on the Activision press event held earlier this month.

GibMatch for TRIBES 2 ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:41 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
A new version of GibMatch for TRIBES 2 is now available. This mod is described as a mixture of Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, TRIBES 2, "and a bit of every thing else good," and in addition to some new code, weapons, sounds, and textures, the new version also adds blood to Dynamix' shooter sequel.

WW2 Online Free Time Extension....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:39 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
The World War II Online website has word on the next version of this online WW2 shooter from Chris 'MO' Sherland, the game's producer, saying they "are in the final phases of testing 1.3.0 and it appears we will be ready for release on Monday" Word is that the game's 30 day free trial, originally set to end on October 14, has been extended a week beyond the release of this new patch, and is now planned to run until October 22. Additionally: "All coupons for additional free play time will be honored. Anyone providing payment information please note- no billing transactions will be processed prior to October 22nd."

Rcon Commander Utility....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:38 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
Fragomatic has available for download version 3.00 of the Rcon Commander utility, which offers enhanced remote administration capabilities to game servers, including those running Quake III Arena, Team Arena, Return To Castle Wolfenstein, Quake II, Sin, and Star Trek: Voyager-Elite Force. The new version has been updated to be compatible with the new Quake III Arena point release.

Team Factor Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:36 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan Fed has posted up a chat with Pavel Sinagl, the marketing manager at 7fx, the Czech-based developer of Team Factor, an upcoming first-person shooter. Here's a snip:

HomeLAN - What types of levels and missions will be in Team Factor?

Pavel Sinagl - The missions are designed to be believable "shadow" operation scenarios, ranging from gathering information, stealing industrials secrets, capturing VIP's...

Counterstrike: Condition Zero Q&A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:32 AM MDT Friday, October 12, 2001 [Comment on news]
Ferrago.co.uk has posted a Counterstrike: Condition Zero Q&A where they talk with Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software about progress on their upcoming version of Counter-Strike that will add single-player elements to the mod/game's multiplayer madness.

New Detonator XP Drivers....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 12:37 PM MDT Thursday, October 11, 2001 [Comment on news]
nVidia has released Detonator v21.83 drivers today for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows ME Windows 95 & Windows 98 -- as well as WindowsXP 64-bit WHQL 20.20 drivers (these are only compatible with the Quadro, Quadro2 MXR, Quadro2 Pro, and the Quadro2 EX) . Here's a description the release notes:

The NVIDIA Detonator XP Unified Driver Architecture (UDA) delivers new performance optimizations and features in both DirectX and OpenGL, offering industry-leading performance, visual quality, and high reliability in the industry’s only true integrated software upgrade. Detonator XP provides a free performance upgrade for your Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), including the TNT, GeForce2, and GeForce3 families of GPUs. Detonator XP also offers full hardware and software acceleration for Windows XP, the next-generation operating system from Microsoft, enabling the best digital experience for Windows XP Home Edition and Professional users.

AMD Athlon XP 1800+ CPU Review....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:59 AM MDT Thursday, October 11, 2001 [Comment on news]
Got|apex has posted a review on the AMD Athlon XP 1800+ CPU. Here's their intro to get you started.

"In the world of microprocessors, the speed rating of a chip is given the final de facto as to whether or not to purchase. While in the past, this performance weighing methodology may have carried some merit, nowadays the story is quite different. The importance of the operating frequency is being surpassed by the importance of the processor's IPC or Instructions Per Clock. So who is spear-heading this shift of tech jargon and marketing lingo revolution? Why AMD, of course! The first question that may be popping into most of your minds right about now is that this is a simple marketing ploy by AMD to take focus off of themselves losing the gigahertz war with Intel. On one hand you would be correct in this assumption, but the facts are valid and those facts are that while Intel is winning the gigahertz war, AMD is killing Intel where it counts - the performance battle. In just about every instance that we have tested, the AMD Athlon chips, both Thunderbird and Palomino cores alike, have soundly outperformed higher clocked Intel Pentium 4 chips. While this does validate the info on AMD's new branding scheme that we are about to explain, it is not necessarily a clean slamdunk for AMD in terms of consumer acceptance..."

Op Flashpoint Beta Plans....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:55 AM MDT Thursday, October 11, 2001 [Comment on news]
A post called Major changes since 1.20 in the Operation Flashpoint Forums by Ondrej Spanel, lead programmer on Operation Flashpoint, has some information on what's expected from the upcoming version 1.26 beta patch. The list is not all inclusive, but offers the most significant changes including multiplayer interface/lobby improvements, multiplayer core code improvements, and general bug fixes.

MOH:AA Goodies....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:46 AM MDT Thursday, October 11, 2001 [Comment on news]
EA has updated the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault website with new video footage, desktop wallpaper and mission 3 (Normandy Beach) summery for 2015's upcoming Quake 3 engined WW2 era action game.

Soldier of Fortune 2 Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:45 AM MDT Thursday, October 11, 2001 [Comment on news]
Voodoo Extreme has posted an interview with Raven Software's Kenn Hoekstra about Soldier of Fortune 2, the Quake 3 engined first person shooter that puts you in the shoes of mercenary John Mullins, as he takes out terrorists throughout the world. In the interview they chat about if the recent WTC events changed any of the content in the game, how its progressing, about the demo, future mod support, potential multiplayer and more. Here's a taste:

Is there any chance of a multiplayer addon being released prior to the game hitting shelves?

KH: Multiplayer remains the one big decision that has yet to be made for Soldier of Fortune 2. Because we're in an Alpha state and working towards Beta, we need to make a decision soon whether or not to include multiplayer and if we do decide to include it, we have to decide WHEN to include it. Some options we're considering include releasing multiplayer with the original game when it ships, releasing multiplayer as a patch, releasing multiplayer as part of a Gold edition of the game or building an expansion pack around multiplayer with more single player stuff thrown in. All things considered, we really want to include multiplayer in Soldier 2. Raven staffing and time considerations are the only things holding up the final decision. We'll keep you posted.

Second Encounter Q&A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 5:01 PM MDT Wednesday, October 10, 2001 [Comment on news]
XGR has posted an interview with Davor Hunski, a programmer and game designer with Croteam, about Serious Sam: Second Encounter, the upcoming follow-up to their fps Serious Sam. This interview is illustrated by about 30 new screenshots taken from an alpha build of Second Encounter.

The Future of Game Design ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 4:57 PM MDT Wednesday, October 10, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Future of Game Design on the IGDA website has reproduced a keynote address from a recent game conference in Montreal by Harvey "Witchboy" Smith of ION Storm Austin. Harvey was one of the designers on Deus Ex, and is now project director on Deus Ex 2, its upcoming follow-up, and the address offers a detailed look at several aspects of Deus Ex development as well as a look forward at Deus Ex 2 in discussing the challenges game designers face in trying to create an immersive environment for players.

Kreed Interview Part 2....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 4:56 PM MDT Wednesday, October 10, 2001 [Comment on news]
Part two of the Kreed interview is now online at Cutting The Edge, continuing their conversation with several developers at Russia-based Burut Software about this upcoming first-person shooter. They detail the system requirements for the game (without providing a definition of how they're counting generations of graphics accelerators), and talk about the storyline, the number of missions, single- and multi-player features, and more, as well as some GeForce 3-related topics.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Screenshots....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:57 AM MDT Wednesday, October 10, 2001 [Comment on news]
3DActionPlanet has posted nine new screenshots from Croteam's upcoming shooter sequel, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, taken from an alpha build of the game.

Operation Flashpoint Patch on Friday....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:56 AM MDT Wednesday, October 10, 2001 [Comment on news]
A forum post on the official Operation Flashpoint site by Project Leader Marek Spanel reveals that a new patch for this tactical shooter should be released on Friday.

Version 1.26 of Operation Flashpoint executable is coming out soon (ETA: Friday Oct 12) and it will be available as public beta. New version will introduce dramatically reworked and improved netcode and over 50 of other bug fixes and improvements. More information coming soon...

New Custom Q3A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:53 AM MDT Wednesday, October 10, 2001 [Comment on news]
PlanetQuake3.net has a new version 1.04 update for those who have previously installed Custom Q3 version 1.0. This mod adds Quake and Quake II features to Quake III Arena.

Operation Flashpoint Flag Pack....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:51 AM MDT Wednesday, October 10, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Operation Flashpoint page has a new Flag Pack for download that adds many different national flags and bonus flags for Codemasters' tactical first-person shooter. You can grab it here.

John Mullins Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:48 AM MDT Wednesday, October 10, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameOn has interviewed John Mullins, SoF's namesake, from the original SoF and the upcoming SoF2. The Q&A discusses his career as a Special Forces operative, the kind of trouble such a job can cause, violence in gaming, his relationship with Raven Software, the difficulties of creating a game based on real-life, and more

New WolfStat ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:46 AM MDT Wednesday, October 10, 2001 [Comment on news]
A new version 0.6.1 of both the Linux and Windows versions of WolfStat is now available, updating these Perl scripts that will help create sensible statistics out of the data in the server logs for the Return to Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer Test. A sample of the program's output can be found here.

Command & Conquer Renegade Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:44 AM MDT Wednesday, October 10, 2001 [Comment on news]
Ferrago.co.uk has posted a Command & Conquer Renegade Interview where they talk with Dan Cermak and the Renegade team at Westwood about progress on the upcoming action game set in the C&C universe. Here's a snip:

Artificial intelligence must play an important role in combat with the enemy; what kind of cunning strategies will our foes be employing?

DC: The AI is very powerful. They will use the cover the surrounding terrain will offer and will learn from your actions in that if you jump out of a window they will learn that they too can jump out the window. The AI uses audio and visual cues to determine where you are and how best to respond. For example if you use your suppressed pistol to create a ricochet the AI unit will normally come to where the bullet hit (since they can't hear the muzzle fire) and start looking around. You can use this concept to draw them out at times. But often they will be on defend mode and will not move from their assigned area. Also their actions will often be determined by their weapon type. Flamethrower and Chemical Weapons units will close to attack and can be very aggressive.

Max Payne Patch ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 2:53 PM MDT Tuesday, October 9, 2001 [Comment on news]
3D Realms has released a new patch for Max Payne, updating Remedy's third-person action game to version 1.02. This is a minor update, addressing the following problem: "The clock and other desktop icons are no longer randomly flashing during the game." It also includes the changes from the previous version 1.01 patch.

Kreed Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 2:51 PM MDT Tuesday, October 9, 2001 [Comment on news]
Cutting The Edge has posted a Kreed Interview with some of the folks at Russian developer Burut about their upcoming first-person shooter. Here's a snip:

With an engine using the Geforce 3's features so heavily, will the game be playable for those without a Geforce 3? And if so, can they still expect good frame rates?

Dmitri "And" Andreev: We will try to provide such setting that would be adjustable for those few who won't have installed the Graphic Card of the 6th Generation by next fall. Some features will be missing, but the speed will remain. We aim to provide maximum freedom for players in adjusting the game to their wishes and abilities with any type of cards. Anyway, what you've seen in the video and first screenshots will work properly on the 5th generation cards.

Gravis Xterminator Force Feedback Game Pad Review....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:37 AM MDT Tuesday, October 9, 2001 [Comment on news]
It's been a while since we've heard from him, but our very own T-Rock17 has given us a review of the Gravis Xterminator Force Feedback game pads. You can check it out here.

Coliseum2 version 2.6 ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:31 AM MDT Tuesday, October 9, 2001 [Comment on news]
GreenHouseEFX has released version 2.6 of their Coliseum2 Quake 3 mod. The new release fixes a bug that didn't allow the mod to be played with some 3rd party CTF maps, and adds a server side variable that allows server admins to "convert" CTF spawn locations into regular ones for non-CTF games.

Mobile Forces interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:29 AM MDT Tuesday, October 9, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLAN has posted a Mobile Forces interview, talking to Rage Software's Colin McDonald, producer and designer on this upcoming Unreal engined FPS, that was announced at the recent ECTS trade show. They talk about how they came up with the idea for the game, the things the game will add to the first person shooter genre, settings and levels, weapons, the drivable vehicles, AI, and more.

Threewave Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:28 AM MDT Tuesday, October 9, 2001 [Comment on news]
Digital Arenas has posted an interview with Scancode, a mapper for the upcoming Threewave Unification CTF for Quake 3, that is scheduled to be released in a couple of days. They talk a lot about the maps, on subjects such as the creation process, the fact that a lot of the maps in Threewave are very different from the standard Quake 3 and Team Arena maps, his preferences with maps, and more. Other topics include gameplay and the different modes, the voting system, and future releases from the Threewave Unification team.

Global Operations update ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:27 AM MDT Tuesday, October 9, 2001 [Comment on news]
Voodoo Extreme has posted a Global Operations update from Crave Entertainment's Mike Arkin, Executive Producer on this upcoming tactical team shooter. Mike mentions that they are about a week from Beta, talks about the features in the current build, and a bit about the forthcoming beta test. Several new screenshots are also available.

Game Creation System ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:25 AM MDT Tuesday, October 9, 2001 [Comment on news]
Pie in the Sky Software has released version 3.0 of their Game Creation System for the construction of first-person shooters, described as "a set of software tools which enable people to create 3D action games with no programming. Build your game levels with simple mouse click-n-drag operations. Then sell your games for $$$ or give them away for free. The GCS is royalty-free, so even if your game makes millions, you don't owe us a dime."

Codename: Outbreak Release Date Set....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:00 AM MDT Monday, October 8, 2001 [Comment on news]
The official Codename: Outbreak website has posted the news that the official release date for the game is set for October 12th.

Medal of Honor Preview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:52 AM MDT Monday, October 8, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's a Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Preview on MGON based on getting to play with a preview build of 2015's upcoming World War II action game. The article offers some background on the project, which includes the fact that 2015 visited several of the historic battlefields, including the beaches of Normandy, to research the game, and goes on to offer hands-on impressions after getting to play the game at a recent press get-together. Those impressions include a bit about the weapons, the appearance of the soldiers, the enemy AI, and what's being done to add touches of realism to Allied Assault. There is also a batch of previously published screenshots.

Tribal CTF Feature....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:45 AM MDT Monday, October 8, 2001 [Comment on news]
Planetquake has posted up a new feature that looks at the new version of the Tribal CTF mod for Quake III Arena. The feature includes a Q&A with two of the mod's team members. The new version is due to be released at 3 p.m. EDT today.

Serious Sam Update....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:42 AM MDT Monday, October 8, 2001 [Comment on news]
The weekly Serious Sam update by Croteam talks about how the latest 1.04 patch now supports ATI Trueform technology. Here's a snip of the update:

As you may already know, the patch 1.04 supports ATI Truform technology. First of all, I'd like to say that Truform is a great piece of work. Thanx ATI! And it's *very* easy to implement it in the engine. Took me about an hour (and extra three to find a "bug" that didn't exist in first place:). Never mind ...

Anyway, there are some things that I should clarify. First, this patch (1.04) has emulation-only Truform support (software). This is due the fact that ATI exposed Truform OpenGL extension to be 'experimental' for 7x00 boards. Real, hardware extension is provided for Radeon 8500, but support for this one didn't make it into current patch. :( The bright side is that it'll be in the next one (which will probably be out in time for 8500 release). So, there... :)

Second thing is that even Truform is easy to implement from the coding point of view, Serious Sam (and not only SSam) needs a re-work of several models. Especially weapons! Simply put, normals for weapon models aren't fine-tuned for Truform, and that can have hilarious consequences. :)

SuperIP Updated ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:38 AM MDT Monday, October 8, 2001 [Comment on news]
The latest version of SuperIP (an on-line game management system and server query tool for mIRC) has been updated to support the latest Tribes 2 patch (24834). SuperIP supports Tribes, Tribes 2, Quake 3, and Half-Life (including most major mods).

Luckee's Tech News....
Posted by [luckee] @ 8:49 AM MDT Monday, October 8, 2001 [Comment on news]
- HardwareZone reviews the Canon S600 Bubble Jet Printer.
- ViaHardware has the new 4.34 Via 4-in-1s.
- Amdmb reviews the Kanie Hedgehog Type-W Heatsink.
- CaseJunkiez checks out the Enermax CS-688AL-01 aluminium case.
- OCAU reviews some PC2100 Kingmax SDR DDRAM.
- VyW checks out a rounded 68-PIN SCSI cable.
- TweakMax reviews the Mouseman Cordless Optical.
- EnvyNews reviews the OCZ Implosion FT-1000 case.
- Romulus2 has an article on WebTV browsing.
- LegionHardware reviews the BitsPower NP80D/NP60D cooler.
- Go buy some Dan Rutter gear! yeeeehaaw :)
- Animated GIF of ATi Trueform technology in aciton.
- Acid Hardware has a Via P4X266 motherboard shootout.
- OC'd Cafe reviews the Fortistech SocketA coolers.
- OCMojo shows you how to build a rack cabinet from scratch.
- Tweakers Asylum has the 21.85 Nvidia Dets.
- TweakTown reviews the OCZ Dominator HSF.
- OCIA shows you how to mod your PC with contact paper.
- While LivePC shows you how to build a 10" backlight.
- 8Balls reviews the EnvyNews.
- New site, DA OCPlace.
- Grab the MSI K7T266Pro2-RU v3.0 BIOS.

WinXP and Games....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:47 AM MDT Monday, October 8, 2001 [Comment on news]
Windows XP Professional : A Gamers Perspective on GamePC is a look at fun and games on the new OS.

New WolfStat ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:35 AM MDT Monday, October 8, 2001 [Comment on news]
A new version 0.5.2 of Linux version of WolfStat is online, which is the first Linux version of this statistics package for the Return to Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer Test. There is also a new version 0.5.3 of the Win32 version, which addresses a bug in the previous release. A sample of the program's output can be found on this page.

Ghost Recon Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:18 AM MDT Sunday, October 7, 2001 [Comment on news]
Ghost Recon Operations has posted an interview with Gerben, one of the beta testers for Ghost Recon. The interview finds out what Gerben does, how the LandWarrior system works and what items of kit will be available.

Altec Lansing 641 Speaker System Review....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:02 AM MDT Sunday, October 7, 2001 [Comment on news]
For those of you who are like me and enjoy music, GameSpy.com - Hardware has "plugged into PlanetHardware" for a review on the Altec Lansing 641 Speaker System. Here's a taste:

"The moment you open the Altec Lansing 641 speaker box (or any high-end Altec package for that matter) you know there's going to be something rockin' inside. The ADA890's were a sign of things to come, pumping out 120 watts of pure power, and this time around Altec has packed 400 watts into their newest monsters. It's really amazing how much punch you get from these. I've tried on several occasions to max them out and push all levels (they feature separate bass and treble controls with three different settings), but have been too afraid -- and I'm not afraid of much. From the fancy aesthetics of the front-firing subwoofer -- it's black, and silver with blue trim, and as large as my mini-tower case -- with its two 6.5" drivers, and four satellites, each equipped with a separate tweeter and full-range driver -- this is one class package."

Half-Life Front Line Force Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:32 AM MDT Sunday, October 7, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan Fed has a Half-Life Front Line Force interview where they talk with Michael “AD Squirrel” Melgares, spokesperson for the Front Line Force team, discussing that mod, as well as their upcoming Front Line Tactics mod.

Half-Life Global Warfare....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:29 AM MDT Sunday, October 7, 2001 [Comment on news]
Beta 1.2 of the Global Warfare Half-Life Modification, which features goal-based tactical teamplay, is now available. Due to the large number of changes it entails, this update is only available as a full 63 MB installer.

Tribes 2 Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 12:04 PM MDT Saturday, October 6, 2001 [Comment on news]
Tim Clarke, the Producer for the Tribes 2 soundtrack, has been interviewed by K2Games.net. The interview includes how Tim got into making music for games, how he feels about Dynamix's shutdown and how he is still involved in the Tribes 2 community.

Urban Terror News....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 12:02 PM MDT Saturday, October 6, 2001 [Comment on news]
I happened upon some news about Urban Terror that they posted about beta 2.4. While they've been slow due to the changing of the guard so to speak, they haven't stopped. They're looking for some bright individuals to join the Urban Terror team to make the progression less of a hassle. Also there is only 41 more days left in their "Level Design Contest" with November 12th being the last day for submissions.

Operation Flashpoint Review ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:57 AM MDT Saturday, October 6, 2001 [Comment on news]
PC Hotgames has posted up a little review of Operation Flashpoint. Here's their intro to get you started:

"It was the #1 PC game in Europe for several weeks after its launch a few months ago, and now one of the most complete military simulations on the market has finally been released in America. Is it the war sim to end all war sims? If you’ve read our previews and hands-on impressions of this game in the past then you should know the basic score, but for all you green G.I.’s out there, we’ll just say this: Operation Flashpoint is one tough game. And it should be – it’s war. Not in the way that Return to Wolfenstein is war or even the way that Medal of Honor is war – Operation Flashpoint is a real-life tactical simulation where one false move or one well-aimed (or lucky) enemy shot will inevitably lead to death. Realistic? Oh yes. Fun? Mostly – but also frustrating in the way that most PC games that aim for realism over playability usually are."

DoD Team Game Server on Recongamer.com....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:34 AM MDT Saturday, October 6, 2001 [Comment on news]
DoDTeam Launches new Public DoD Game Server on Recongamer.com.

"This is the Team's "official" Game Server and we are proud to have it on a quality Game Server Host like Recongamer.com.. Anyone looking to rent fast and reliable Half-Life Servers for DoD oughta check em out..."

New server info:
IP:168.143.176.167:27015
Server Name:"Recongamer.com Official DoDTeam Server"

Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:30 AM MDT Saturday, October 6, 2001 [Comment on news]
Find out just how much you can get for around $1000 in this latest Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide.

Playtest Global Ops....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:27 AM MDT Saturday, October 6, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's a post on the Global Ops board from Crave that is asking for people in the LA area to playtest the game. While no details are given, if you live in the LA area and would like to visit to check the game out, just drop by its forum and give a shout. Learn more about this Counter-Strike like game here.

FreeStrike download....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:24 AM MDT Saturday, October 6, 2001 [Comment on news]
Perseity Entertainment has released a shareware game called FreeStrike that comes in at a little over 8 megs. You can take a look at some of the screen shots of the arcade-type shooter here.

You are Cadet John Blake and reports are showing some activity in the newly established "free zones" bordering the outer regions of the Earth Alliance Defense Grid. These areas were established to promote free commerce and attract new members to the Alliance. A new resistance group has formed and they are stirring up trouble. Known as the New Space Resistance (NSR), they are considered extremely hostile and you are authorized to neutralize this threat by any means necessary.

You've been assigned to patrol zones one through seven. Your mission is called Operation "freestrike" and you will pilot the LRTD-50X. This is an experimental long-range tactical defense ship. It is equipped with new advanced weaponry and shield technology as well as an enhanced quantum pulse engine. This is a top-priority mission and confidence is high.

Sniper Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:23 AM MDT Saturday, October 6, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan has posted an interview with IncaGold’s General Manager Daniel Aurell talking about Sniper, the upcoming LithTech engined value / action game. Here's a snip from the interview:

HomeLAN - What will the gameplay be like for Sniper if you do not plan on creating the normal FPS game?

Daniel Aurell - The player's role (as Dominick) is as a mafia sniper. While there are opportunities for traditional frag-fest style shooting, one of the things we wanted to introduce to the game was the sense of a hitman setting up that perfect shot. So in the game, the player has a map for a tactical view of the terrain, from which he can plan his approach. The player might circumvent stongpoints, find the high ground and pick off isolated guards at his leisure...then move in and discover clues that lead to his mission goals.

Full Metal Jacket ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 2:47 PM MDT Friday, October 5, 2001 [Comment on news]
Full Metal Jacket Beta 1 has been released. Here's a snip from the official website:

"The whole team wants to thank all the guys who supported us and who made it possible to create such a mod. We hope you will enjoy the result of our work. Please report any bugs in our bug-report forum. One last thing: please read the readme.txt. And to the server admins: please run your server sv_pure 0. That is very important."

Aliens vs Predator 2 movie trailer ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 1:59 PM MDT Friday, October 5, 2001 [Comment on news]
Sierra has released a new Aliens vs Predator 2 movie trailer (along with a little write-up). The film comes in a variety of sizes and formats and runs for a minute and ten seconds.

New Q3A Art of War....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 1:57 PM MDT Friday, October 5, 2001 [Comment on news]
A new version 1.9 of the Art of War modification for Quake III Arena is now available. The new version of this class-based teamplay modification offers a fourth playable faction, called the Keepers of Fate, which features four playable classes, and while the Manual is not yet up to date with this, the tutorial is. They also have word on how you can get the file through IRC if you can't get it through FilePlanet.

Serious Sam Patch....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 1:55 PM MDT Friday, October 5, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Croteam Updates Page has a new Serious Sam version 1.04 patch for Croteam's first person shooter. There's a patch that will update any of the previous versions of the US version or the European versions of the game to version 1.04. Word is: "The new version is not network-compatible with the older versions, so everybody needs to upgrade, both servers and clients." Here are features of the new version:

- new in-game server browser with sorting and filtering of server list by any column
- RCon utility for remote server administration
- loads of new server configuration features (VIPs, max observers, ...)
- added protections from several cheats that people used in network
- new very useful editor tools and features
- useful additions for mod coders
- and really a lot more....

Serious Sam Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:25 AM MDT Friday, October 5, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameSpot has posted a new interview with Croteam's Roman Ribaric about their upcoming action FPS sequel - Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. Here's a nibblet:

GameSpot: Clear up something for us. Is this an expansion pack to The First Encounter or an all-out sequel?

Roman Ribaric: We have cleared this up a bit in the past week or so, and it is worth restating. Since Serious Sam: The First Encounter was released, we have had fans asking for a look at Serious Sam 2. However, we have planned from the very start to release Sam [games] in an episodic format at lower prices. So The Second Encounter is neither a mission pack nor a sequel; it is simply the next episode.

MOH:AA Mission Briefing....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:11 AM MDT Friday, October 5, 2001 [Comment on news]
EA has updated the official Medal of Honor site with a new mission briefing for the North Africa campaign.

Team Factor Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:09 AM MDT Friday, October 5, 2001 [Comment on news]
Prophecy has posted an ">interview with 7fx about their upcoming tactical FPS - Team Factor. Here's a taste:

A lot of games in this genre either don't use open areas a lot or skimp on te interior detail. What is TF planning to do?

PS: Hehe :) Well, actually any game deals with the polygon count and for the sake of performance it has to keep the polygon count within reasonable levels. This is actually why we are so happy with our own engine, which is tweaked and tuned really hard to handle the demanding scenes we have; so we can afford to play with some details.

Craig Hubbard Interview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:05 AM MDT Friday, October 5, 2001 [Comment on news]
IntelGamer has posted the second part of its getting into the gaming industry interview series which stars No One Lives Forever designer - Craig Hubbard. Here's a snip:

Intelgamer: What is the role of the creative designer and lead director?

Craig Hubbard: As lead designer, I'm responsible for spearheading a specific project from inception to completion. Typical duties include drafting design documents, developing the story, writing the script, directing voice sessions, doing level design work, implementing the cinematics, conceiving and balancing game systems, falling asleep in meetings, etc. The whole team contributes to design, so I spend a lot of time making sure everybody's ideas fit together in a way that benefits the project.

As Creative Director, my job is to supervise the design of all Monolith products. The position was created shortly after NOLF shipped (we also have a Director of Development, who monitors the organization and progress of all our games, and a Director of Engineering, who coordinates the company's engineering efforts and system design and helps define our technology goals). Basically, I help other project leads clarify design goals, identify problem areas, prioritize features and tasks, strengthen or develop story lines, write or edit scripts, direct voice sessions, and whatever else is needed.

Soldier of Fortune Tweak Guide ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:02 AM MDT Friday, October 5, 2001 [Comment on news]
3D Spotlight has put together a Soldier of Fortune tweak guide worth checking out. With the recent Gold & Platinum update/versions being released this guide couldn't come at a better time for new SoF players.

Red Faction LAN Parties ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:03 AM MDT Thursday, October 4, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Red Faction News page has word on several Red Faction LAN Parties that are taking place around the US this weekend where you can win Red Faction prizes and t-shirts.

WolfStat Utility ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:02 AM MDT Thursday, October 4, 2001 [Comment on news]
A new version 0.5.1 of the WolfStat utility is now available allowing you to create statistical output from a Return to Castle Wolfenstein Test server.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:59 AM MDT Thursday, October 4, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Hitman 2 announcement on Multiplayer.it is an English-language version of the official announcement of the upcoming sequel to Hitman: Codename 47, with some of the first details about the game, including first mention we've seen of the planned subtitle Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. Also, the first four in-game screenshots are up on PC Pointer.de. Here's a bit from the announcement:

Hitman 2's storyline begins in a Sicilian monastery. His attempt to distance himself from his violent past is detoured as he is discovered by a Russian crime lord and tricked into returning to his trade. Caught in the middle of a ring of deception, Hitman soon discovers that he has been manipulated and is now a target himself - of a highly trained ex-Spetsnaz assassin.

Hitman 2 has an outstanding list of new features, including: a choice of 1st and 3rd person viewpoints; mid-mission save options; a revised and enhanced inventory system allowing gamers to acquire and carry weapons and equipment from mission to mission and ending pre-game "shopping"; a new ranking system; multiple play styles allowing missions to be accomplished with the primary target as the only casualty or "blast-your-way-through," and variations in-between; and finally, an advanced level design and engine dynamics providing gamers with open levels and no set path.

Playing the role of a for-hire assassin, Hitman is armed with a massive weapons arsenal such as knives, handguns, sniper rifles, various explosives and grenades. Hitman is also given new non-lethal weapons and pacifying gear including chloroform, poison darts and stun guns as well as laser-aiming devices, night vision goggles, lock picks, and remote cameras. Gamers will acquire more hidden bonuses throughout the game.

Top Five Things Wanted In Gaming's Future....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:18 AM MDT Thursday, October 4, 2001 [Comment on news]
Nobody is sure what the future holds: money, power, fame -- it is all out of your hands. Games are the same way -- we, as gamers, don't really have the chance to voice our opinions. Well, until now. Grey Loki and CitizenC from 3DActionPlanet sat down and made a list of the five things that they would like to see in the game of the future.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Interview and Movie....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:10 AM MDT Thursday, October 4, 2001 [Comment on news]
The official site for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault has tossed up an interview with Stephen Townsend, the game's Associate Producer. It's an eight-question piece that covers topics including missions. Here's a snip:

History is always better than anything you can make up, and we often use real events as a launching point for a mission. There are some very key moments of the European Campaign the game touches on -- like Operation Torch in North Africa and the Normandy Invasion in France --but what can be even more fun are the missions that focus on real events or circumstances that were crucial in the progress of the war but perhaps not as well known to the public at large.

For example, the second mission of the game puts you on the trail of new Nazi technology that will upset the balance of power between Allied shipping in the North Atlantic and the German U-boat fleet -- something that could (pardon the pun) turn the tide of war in the German's favor if you don't put a stop to it. It's all real stuff, which makes it all the more exciting.

GeForce3 Ti 200 and GeForce2 Ti Performance Preview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:03 AM MDT Thursday, October 4, 2001 [Comment on news]
FiringSquad has posted up a performance preview that takes a look at the GeForce3 Ti 200 and GeForce2 Ti boards to see how they compare to the rest of NVIDIA's lineup.

Weekly Price Guide....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 12:56 PM MDT Wednesday, October 3, 2001 [Comment on news]
3D Spotlight has updated their weekly price guide with prices on computer components, including a list for Socket 423 motherboards and also a new list that will rotate each week featuring different products. This week it is Hard Drives.

C&C: Renegade Chat Log....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 12:49 PM MDT Wednesday, October 3, 2001 [Comment on news]
The fan site Renegade Realm has posted up a log from GameSpyArcade's Command and Conquer: Renegade chat event that was held yesterday. The chat was attended by several Westwood Studios members who talked about their upcoming first person shooter.

GtkRadiant Update Available....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 12:45 PM MDT Wednesday, October 3, 2001 [Comment on news]
Version 1.1.1 of GtkRadiant, the level editor for Quake III Arena, Quake III: Team Arena and all Quake III Arena modifications, has left beta, and is now available for download from the QERadiant website. GtkRadiant is available for both Windows and Linux, and the new release is described as "by far the most stable and complete version of GtkRadiant to date." A complete changelog describes what's new in this version, with the most noteworthy changes described as noclip-type camera movement, per face patch and models selection, lots of UI improvements, OpenGL lighting, and generic support for mods editing. Finally, here's what Tim has to ay about the future of the project: "The GtkRadiant project is now heading towards a version 1.2 which will bring the editor to a whole new level, mostly with multiple games support."

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Screen Shots ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:28 AM MDT Wednesday, October 3, 2001 [Comment on news]
Electronic Arts has released a trio of new screen shots for 2015's Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the World War 2 era first person shooter.

AvP2 interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:07 AM MDT Wednesday, October 3, 2001 [Comment on news]
HomeLan has posted an Aliens vs Predator 2 interview with a couple of the guys working at Sierra / Fox about its forthcoming LithTech 2-engined first person shooter. Here's a snip:

HomeLAN - What were the main goals in designing Aliens vs. Predator 2?

William Westwater and Paul Pawlick - The original AvP was excellent at scaring the crap out of you but the game was mostly a series of levels linked together with little connection between them. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of game. Just play Serious Sam for some great shoot-em up fun that’s a little light on the plot side of things. So one of the main goals when designing AvP2 was to try and tell an intertwining story involving all three species. We hope that the player feels a real sense of progression as they go through the game. There are also tidbits in each species storyline that help contribute to the understanding of the story as a whole. You can play just one species if you want but you should play all three if you want to see everything.

Unreal Tournament X Troubleshooting Tips....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 6:58 AM MDT Wednesday, October 3, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Westlake Interactive website offers an Unreal Tournament X Troubleshooting Guide for the OSX version of Unreal Tournament.

Operation Red Falcon....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 5:54 PM MDT Tuesday, October 2, 2001 [Comment on news]
The Operation Red Falcon team has finally gotten around to designing a new website which includes some new screenshots and renders. For those unfamiliar with Operation Red Falcon, it is a Half-Life single player total conversion. Check it out here.

Future of Online Gaming Part 2....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 5:52 PM MDT Tuesday, October 2, 2001 [Comment on news]
Slow News Day has posted up The Future of Online Gaming Part 2, collecting the same cast of characters together for their opinions on stretching the boundaries of gaming, inquiring whether "the industry will ever create 'Rated R' type MMORPGs that have adult content and themes such as sexuality and graphic violence."

New HyperSnap....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:02 AM MDT Tuesday, October 2, 2001 [Comment on news]
A new version 4.12.01 of the HyperSnap-DX screen capture utility is now available.

Max Payne Q&A ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 9:01 AM MDT Tuesday, October 2, 2001 [Comment on news]
Ferrago.co.uk has posted an interview with Petri Jarvilehto with Remedy Entertainment, discussing Max Payne. Questions include their motivation "to push the genre to these new levels," Max's inspirations, the possibilities of a sequel or add-ons, how they created the game's immersive environment, what they would like to have done differently, the positive response the game has received, and more.

GibMatch for TRIBES 2 ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:50 AM MDT Tuesday, October 2, 2001 [Comment on news]
Version 1.0 of GibMatch for TRIBES 2 is now available, calling itself "The Ultimate Tribes 2 MOD," the mod offers new weapons, new code, new textures and new game modes, in a 4 MB download.

New QStat....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:48 AM MDT Tuesday, October 2, 2001 [Comment on news]
A new version 2.4e of the QStat Quake and game server status utility is now available. The new version fixes a bug in TRIBES 2 support that became evident with the release of the latest patch, and also adds support for Descent 3. A final apologetic note adds: "Sorry, the real -noconsole support did not make it into this release."

The Future of Online Gaming Part One ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 8:47 AM MDT Tuesday, October 2, 2001 [Comment on news]
Slow News Day (formerly Lum the Mad's) has posted an article called The Future of Online Gaming Part One, in which they discuss where the genre of online gaming is heading. The article features comments from many luminaries from the field, including Richard Garriott and Star Long of Destination Games; Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings and Mark Jacobs of Mythic Entertainment; John Smedley, President/CEO of Verant Interactive; Bob "GBob" Roland of NetDevil; and more.

NVIDIA Introduces the GeForce Titanium Series....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 12:39 PM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
NVIDIA® Corporation has announced its new GeForce Titanium series of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). The GeForce3 Ti and GeForce2 Ti series of GPUs deliver breakthrough graphics technologies, each providing unprecedented levels of performance and visual quality. These new products also utilise NVIDIA’s high-performance Detonator XP driver, incorporating special software optimisations that immediately take full advantage of the newest features of the Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system.

“Today’s introduction of our GeForce Titanium series of GPUs continues our quest to deliver dramatic advances in 3D technology and cinematic-quality graphics on every PC,” stated Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO at NVIDIA. “The GeForce Titanium Series is our most aggressive product introduction ever. We are delivering twice the performance at every price point. We are also taking a giant step to drive NVIDIA’s ‘GeForce Shader Technology’ aggressively into the mainstream. The combination of GeForce3, Xbox, and the GeForce Titanium Series will create an installed base of NVIDIA’s GeForce Shader Technology exceeding 5 million units by early next year. And with our patented UDA driver architecture, we’re bringing our industry recognised driver quality, stability, and application compatibility, to the XP platform. The Geforce Titanium Series will be the unambiguous graphics platform of choice of Windows XP.”

Vivendi Universal Publishing and Interplay Deal....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 12:33 PM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
Vivendi Universal Publishing and Interplay Entertainment Corp. have announced they have a North American distribution agreement which grants VU Publishing the exclusive rights to distribute Interplay's PC and video game console products through 2003 with the exception of Neverwinter Nights(TM).

"Interplay has a steady track record of developing strong franchise titles that have already established a loyal following in the gaming community," said Philip W. O'Neil, Senior Vice President of Sales, Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing North America. "The addition of Interplay to our distribution portfolio is another example of how we are strategically broadening our market position and creating partnerships in which both parties benefit from the other's key strengths."

"By leveraging the marketing and distribution capabilities of Vivendi Universal Publishing, we will be able to maximize the exposure and reach of Interplay's highly anticipated games," said Brian Fargo, CEO and Chairman of Interplay. "We look forward to working with Vivendi Universal to deliver high-quality franchise hits in 2001 and beyond."

Updated Duke Nukem Forever FAQ ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 12:24 PM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
Planet Duke has updated the official Duke Nukem Forever FAQ with a few new questions and answers pertaining to 3D Realms' upcoming Unreal-engined action game. The additions deal with powerups, weapons, size, technology and others.

Full Metal Jacket Interview....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 11:12 AM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
There's a small Full Metal Jacket interview on Q3 Center with the development team's SenseOred. Here's a snip:

4.What is left to do to complete the beta?

SenseOred: A couple of sounds, some anims and some bug killing.

New Aliens Vs. Predator 2 Screenshots....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:59 AM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
AVPNews has posted up five new screenshots from Aliens Vs. Predator 2, the upcoming LithTech powered first person shooter from Monolith, Fox Interactive and Sierra Studios

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Q&A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:58 AM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
MGON sat down with Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford to talk about their single player game, Counter-Strike Condition Zero. They discuss everything from development to the controversy surrounding the game's development which began at Rogue Software and finally ended up at Gearbox.

Top Ten Features for Quake 4 ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:55 AM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
GameSpy has a new Top Ten list of features for Quake 4. The article is written by Darren "Klown" Clark and includes everything from character AI to weapons. Check it out to see if your interests are present on the list.

Mac OSX patch for Q3A....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 10:50 AM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
id Software has now released the Mac OSX patch for Quake III Arena and Team Arena version 1.30 for download from their ftp server.

Luckee's Tech News....
Posted by [luckee] @ 9:03 AM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
- Info here on Leadtek's SiS 735 AMD mobo.
- InsaneHardware has info on the Tt Crystal ORB.
- Guru3D has released 1.4 of their GeForceAASet Utility.
- FrostyTech reviews the Akasa Silver Mountain Heatsink.
- D-Link launches the Roq-it MP3 Player.
- OCIA checks out the Tweakmonster Light Tape Kit.
- NeoSeeker reviews the Z43 Photo printer from Lexmark.
- Rojakpot has updated their BIOS optimisation guide.
- ClubOC reviews the silver rounded IDE cables.
- Dan checks out the Via C3 processor.
- OC'd Cafe is holding another contest.
- AcidHardware has a mini Geforce3 roundup.
- Tweakers Asylum reviews the Soyo K7ADA DDR mobo.
- ClubOC reviews the Easy Disk portable USB HDD.
- PCStats reviews the Archos MP3 Jukebox Recorder.
- Guru3D has RivaTuner 2.0 RC7 available.
- OC'd Cafe takes a look at some rounded IDE cables.
- Via Hardware reviews the MSI MX400 Pro-VT32S Video Card.
- HardwareZone previews the Chaintech 9BJA i845 motherboard.
- FrostyTech reviews the OCZ Dominator Microfin Heatsink.
- AmdMB reviews the AMD Duron 1.1GHz CPU.
- Electic has the Radeon v.7167 drivers for Win 2K/9X.
- They also have the Hercules 4500 8.162a drivers.
- Tweakers Asylum reminds you of their massive giveaway.
- The 99th issue of ZZZ Online posted.
- 8Balls checks out the Fortistech Socket A cooler lineup.
- OCAU compares the ThermoEngine cooler variations.

jDOOM ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:11 AM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
The jDOOM site has released a new model pack for you retro gamers out there still getting your 2D on. If you're wondering - "jDoom is an enhanced win32 version of id Software's legendary Doom."

Quake 3 Navy Seals ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:09 AM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
There is some new Quake 3 Navy Seals media available at the official site this morning, which includes some screen shots, movies and more for this covert operations modification.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein Preview ....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 7:07 AM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
Gamers Uplink has posted a preview of Activision's upcoming Return to Castle Wolfenstein title. It looks like this preview is based on the author having played through the recently released multi-player test version.Here's the intro to get you started:

"One of the most influential games of all time, but not the first of its genre as many people believe, id's Wolfenstein 3-D was unleashed upon a stunned PC community back in 1992. To say this was a seminal breakthrough in gaming is like saying that water is wet and it speaks volumes that nearly a decade later, id Software is still on the top of the pack. This return to the classic though is not being written by id, it does not contain bleeding edge features and it will not require a PC upgrade to play. So what is all the fuss about? It's simple, the game just flat out ROCKS..."

Operation Flashpoint Stand-alone Server....
Posted by [Frag-girlie] @ 6:59 AM MDT Monday, October 1, 2001 [Comment on news]
The downloads page on Codemasters' Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis site now offers the standalone server for Bohemia Interactive's soldier sim for download. This 1.3 MB file requires version 1.20 of the full game and allows you to run multiplayer games without having the CD-ROM in the drive.