4/30/2003
Doom III!!!! Must I say anything else? Go see the pretty pic!
And Gamespy has a preview sampling of a book coming out about id and the creation of Doom. Looks like a good read. Two excrepts that I enjoyed:
"He [Romero] dashed back into his office, and Carmack started the game again, this time with Romero connected from his own machine. Romero watched as the space marine Carmack controlled ran down a hall. Romero chased after him, unleashing a shot from his gun -- boom! -- sending Carmack flying back through the air in a spray of blood and screams. "Suck it down!" Romero cried."
Truly proving that FPS games haven't changed much. Which ain't a bad thing.
The other quote:
"On Friday, December 10, it was finally DOOM time."
Why is this important? Because I remember my buddy Maverick sitting in his dorm room at the college we went to just staring at his screen, continually trying to dial into a BBS. "What's up man?"
"I'm trying to get this game downloaded but the line's busy."
A few hours later I sat there dumbfounded at what I was seeing. And things have never been the same.
4/29/2003
Hello and good day to you all.
If you're a Radeon 9x00 enthusaist like I am (I love my 9700!), then check out this tweaking guide. It's amazing that I have graphics card whose bottleneck is my AMD 1600 XP processor.
In other news:
The fellow to the left of Arafat is the new Palestinian Prime Minister. As you can see he's signaling the Palestinian protestors to change their tactics from using rocks to using scissors. It's believed, though unconfirmed, that paper will be used if the scissors fail to work. The Homeland Security Department, in an attempt to stop such terrorist acts, is calling for a ban on paper before it falls, "Into the wrong hands."
4/28/03
Hey gals and guys. Wow, look at this coincidence. First, there's news about the new Jedi game with news being released by Ken Hoekstra. Then, there's this news about Ren & Stimpy coming out on TNN in something called Adult Party. Ren's last name? Hoek. Think about it. Yeah, I know.. it means nothing. Screw it. Go back to getting ready for geekdom heaven in the next two weeks as we have X-Men2 and Matrix 2 coming out 1 1/2 weeks apart. Mmm..
And for the record, Soldier of Fortune 2 has now become the toughest damn single player FPS I've ever played. I'm getting slapped around so much. Though unlike a completely sucky FPS game like Iron Storm, I'm enjoying it.
4/27/03
Well good morning to all. First, big thanks to my buddy Maverick. Some of us went out last night and had a good time over in Ft. Worth drinking and hanging out. And a happy Orthodox Easter to my friend Istoria who's up in New York. Mm.. a girl who's into computers and has a sense of humor. How cool is that.
Ok, checked for news but there's really nothing new to report. So, go outside and play. We'll pick it up Monday.
4/25/03
Here's my own little piece of help for those playing Enemy Territory.
ign.com has an article about pending movies (pointed out by /.) based on games. So, dear reader, let's just cut to the friggin' chase here and get pissed off. Check out this crap:
Doom "The first-person shooter that started it all could be coming to the big screen. Warner Bros. currently holds the rights to the Doom motion picture, tentatively based on the forthcoming Doom III game. The studio has until January 2004 to start production on the project or the rights revert back to the game's developer. No writer or director have been attached. Warners has hinted that they intend the tone down the notorious violence and gore of the game and make a PG-13 flick, a move that isn't likely to please hardcore gamers."
PG-13? Are you friggin kiddin' me!! Whatever. Why not just not have special effects in the Matrix or not let Dirty Harry carry his .44 Magnum. This web owner has one word to sum up this: BAH! Excuse me while I go kick my neighbor's dog. Again! But on the plus side, there's talk of a Wolfenstein movie. I dunno. Do you think Hugh Jackman could do that? I doubt he would though since his star's about to explode bigger than ever thanks to X-Men2. Still it'd be kinda intersting. A sort of WWII picture mixed with a bit of Bond sneak around and some zombies.
4/24/03
Well, it's sorta like going to a strip club since you don't get the full show, but the map test for Enemy Territory is out. Go grab it at 3dgamers. Yeah!
If you're a complete newbie to Wolfenstein, then read this site too.
My server's running the test map as well. It's called >R< Come Get Some and is located at 65.247.172.55:27999
Other news today:
CNN has some buzz regarding Half-Life 2 and Tribes is coming back again but developed by others. Most notably the group that made Freedom Force which makes me wonder if I'll ever see Freedom Force 2
4/23/03
Nothing of great importance on the news front today as far as I can tell. Except something about some game called Half-Life 2. I still say it's vapor. Vapor I say!!! Shack is buying the propoganda however so go read their stuff.
Ok, now here's some news. Matrx at Imax. Now that's news!
4/22/2003
Proof that the world is full of dumb people: Exhibit A, and B. Gingrich? Give me a break. Powell rocks!
EA is set to release even more Medal of Honor Expansion Packs. At this rate, the expansions of EA willl last longer than WWII. Similar to M*A*S*H and Korea. They will also, once adjusted for inflation, have been able to pay for the entire Manhattan Project.
Now, next to Wolf, my favorite game of the past year or two has been Medieval: Total War. And now, they're announcing an expansion pack dealing with the Vikings. Now this doesn't mean they're going to drag a police woman under their car, but there will be tons of death, bludgeoning, and pillaging to go around on your PC. With this coming out I do believe my testosterone levels will be full. While that will cost me more of my hair, it does allow me to pillage and wreak havoc. Trade offs I suppose.
4/21/2003
Good day to you all. Over the weekend some idiot tried to post the password and location for the Enemy Territory closed Beta. Now, others in the closed Beta, who are now not saying much, stated that id, Activision, and Splash Damage are majorly upset. Makes sense to me. They're about to release a game that will be using recent graphics and proven net code for absolutely free to the general populace. And some dork tries to short circuit the system. Damage control is in order. Time to get id's mailing address and a place that delivers beer.
In other news, you are as dumb as you think. This kid proves it.
And there's a demo for MechWarrior 4, even though this whole series hasn't been good since MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear Legacy.
4/20/2003
Ok, I did a little more reading regarding the announcement yesterday regarding client side mods being removed from Battlefield 1942. After some hand holding by Kamarov to explain the difference between client side and server side mods, I think I get it now. Basically, client side mods include such things as changing all the player's skins, changing textures of the map, and other items. This quote came from BF42 forum I found:
"Nah, what they mean is that they diasable support for modifications on BF ITSELF. So, yes, you wont be able to use the merciless creations texture addon anymore, but desert combat, and any other mod that must be enabled through the custom game menu will still work. I think its pretty good that they do it, first fo all i havent been using any texture addons anyways, and i BET, that some guys abused that to make their own texture addons, TRANSPARENT texture addons, if you know what i mean..."
Why is this good? Well, someone changes the skins to be bright pink. Now they can see another player from a long distance whereas the standard color uniforms might match the surrounding environment.
This is, I believe, essentially what Punkbuster does for Q3 games. The difference is that the PB programming running on the game scans each individual client in real-time and the server admin of a Q3 game can set his own specific settings for such things like cvar_picmips, cvar_overbrightbits and so on. Or even turn PB completely off.
I conclude then that this newest patch for BF42 is a pure brute force technique to fixing any cheater issues. This will probably upset some but straw polls taken on forums seem to suggest the majority are for this new patch. Honestly, perhaps this is the way to go as well on RtCW. PB only scans for cheats it knows about in it's database. What EA is doing is just throwing it all out regardless.
4/19/2003
Well, a quiet weekend here at the ward so I finally was able to get around to rent a DVD this afternoon and I chose "Bourne Identity" Not a bad movie at all. However, Blockbuster completely pissed me off. The DVD I rented was not letterbox. Apparently, most of the people who rent movies are idiots who "don't want them thar stupid black lines at the top and bottom of my picture box when I'm watchin' 'Smokey and the Bandit'." So, rather than educating people or even making a little flyer to explain letterbox, Blockbuster will just take the easy way out and cater to the lowest level of intelligence. Oh another plus of this movie: Julia Stiles is in it.. mmmmm.. yummy!
Just saw this regarding Battlefield 1942 and while I applaud EA for addressing cheating issues, I think completely disabling client side mods is a bit of a hardcore approach and much less elegant such as what's used with Q3-engine base games (Punkbuster). While I haven't played BF42 I hear a lot of good things so hopefully this won't hurt the community but I really doubt it. It would seem that any mods such as Desert Combat will have to be redone to be full server-side mods. Ick...
Looks like Madonna got owned.
4/18/2003
Well, well, various forums are really starting to light up with information on Enemy Territory as the people in the closed beta are apparently being allowed to discuss it and answer questions from the proletariat class. Good stuff and so now this of course is making me want this game to play and host a server even more!
Blues had this link regarding a story that Washington State wanted to ban all violent video games from sale to kids under 17. I just don't get it and really doubt it'll go anywhere. Parents, watch what your kids are doing. I bet this bill is based on some Senator getting an angry phone call from some mother who watched her son buy Vice City with his own allowance money. "I swear I didn't know it was going to be violent. My son's such a good boy. I'm afraid he's going to go jack cars, buy hookers, and become an underworld kingpin!"
4/17/2003
Apparently, today is supposed to be the official day the place I'm having this site hosted is supposed to go online. Therefore, in my never ending attempt to be a nice fellow (except to those I play Wolf with on ND80s servers... you know who you are!), I wanted to give a big shout to my buddy Maverick who is a generous sort to help me get some free webspace on his servers. So, thanks man! We'll get you online with the Star Wars Galaxies Beta soon. So nice of those folks at SWG to put a second key on my Beta3 CD to give to a buddy.
So a quick intro. I'm Sphinx and I play games. With that said, maybe some more news. Still no Enemy Territory as of Thursday evening. I realized a while ago I'm addicted to RtCW nd more importantly: it doesn't bother me a bit! It's not deathmatch but it's not an MMORPG either. Just a nice tasty morsel of choas broken up into 10-15 minute segments. Unlike an MMORPG, if I screw up, hey no big deal, the map will restart but it's not a you against the world mentality of games like Quake.
That's not to say I won't cover other types of games. As money presents itself I will buy games that look good and review 'em. Rest assured the reviews aren't influenced by bribes or free stuff. If this site ever gets to that stage of existence I won't share the proceeds with any of you. My bling-bling!! MINE!
Oh lookie here, I just stumbled across the new T3 trailer too. Now I know that everyone who is under 20 is only looking forward to seeing the next Matrix movie and maybe X-Men 2, but for me and my friends, Terminator was what we enjoyed. A young Linda Hamilton's naked top? oh yeah..
And by the way, the Flux Capacitor is a reality! And profitable!
4/16/2003
Uh-oh. Looks like the digital crack that is Everquest is now going to also become an RTS game. This festering pool of addiction is spreading rampant everywhere now. I worry that hard-core RTS players, not the most stable bunch, will tip over the edge with an Everquest based RTS and never leave their parent's basement or kill themselves. Imagine if the entire population of South Korea got hold of this like they did with Starcraft. Can a whole nation commit suicide?
Next thing they'll have an FPS and turn-based strategy game based on Everquest. Instead of vertically leveraging the game like EA did with the Sims, Sony's going to try to completely wipe out every gaming genre there is with Evercrack.
Other tidbits:
Like any good maitre'd, the French are now sucking up to us again. They're just looking for a nice fat tip.
4/15/2003
In one week, my social life is over for a couple months. Enemy Territory map test will be here. You don't even need the original. So listen up you Counter-Strike fools. Put down your binds and walk away from your kiddie scripts. Enemy Territory doesn't require the original game meaning it doesn't cost any of your allowance and you'll actually be able to see what it's like to get your smack-tard self slapped around by people who are unable to cheat and actually rely on skill thanks to Punkbuster.
But my buddy Maulf brought up an interesting question. "Wow, whose taking the hit on releasing this thing free as a stand-alone game?" My guess is Activision at the "suggestion" of id software. I can see the conversation.
Activision guy: "We can't release that free, we'll just patch it up later."
id: "Uh, Doom 3."
Activision: "But all the money we paid for the distribution and Gray Matter and the group that made the single player."
id: "Uh Doom3 will be out this year and even your small percentage will make you a trove of cash."
Activision: "Hmm.. a trove of cash?"
id: "Dude, it's Doom3. Forget it, we'll just take Doom3 and our Ferrari's to someone else."
Activision: "Eh.. sure! Enemy Territory for free!"
4/14/2003
Half-Life 2 news? Sorry Blue, but I think I'll only believe it when I see the game in my wrinkled little hands.
4/12/2003
I hate pop-quizzes, but this one is acutally pretty good over at BBSpot. Which OS are you?
4/11/2003
Tycho at Penny-Arcade linked this article to news about RtCW: Enemy Territory. Here's some snippets:
"Each class also has its own role-based special abilities - for example, the Engineer is able to arm and disarm explosives and construct command posts to aid his team. These can greatly affect the flow of battle, because once built, a Command Post provides the team with faster power-bar, air-strikes, artillery, and often comes with its own health and ammunition cabinets." Uber.. here's a bit more:
"A player can also now form a Fire-Team, and invite friends or other team members to join. Once part of a Fire-Team, all members are aware of each other's location via the Command Map and grid reference. In addition, the order system is extended, allowing you to send very specific role-based orders to members of your Fire-Team directly." Sounds like a piece of the now dead single player was fused into the multiplayer. And finally:
"We wanted to provide two balanced options for gameplay. While our Campaign mode encourages team play through multiple missions and the development of personal skills and rewards, Last-Man Standing is round-based and much more about your individual skill to survive."
All in all this sounds pretty good and I really wish they'd stop teasing me dang it!
4/10/2003
Bluesnews (one of my favorite sites), had a press release from Nvidia and EA regarding a partnership between the two companies. As I see it, this suggests that NVidia is trying to get some sort of exclusive thing going with EA to have any game published by EA be optimized for Nvidia. I just really don't understand why though. Some speculation is in order:
1. NVidia's latest video chipset isn't up to snuff and ATI is slowly eroding NVidia's marketshare so they do this to ensure some sort of pipeline to emphasize the goodness of their products? In other words, it's a marketing ploy to scare avearge joe customer from buying an ATI card in case it won't work with Battlefield 1942 or (heavens forbid) the Sims. I'm wondering if this is the real case after what I read about the nForce2 chipset at Dan's Data (that clever Aussie Dan).
2. NVidia chips are in Xboxes, EA publishes a lot of console games and Microsoft is having trouble making in-roads with Xbox against Sony, so this might be the first step of Microsoft buying EA or even Nvidia (though I would really doubt that since Microsoft has pretty much stayed clear of hardware. But then again with all this wiring of homes and integration of stuff into household items it could be possible I suppose).
I really don't understand this move by them so I'm intersted to see what happens next. Also, since games usually all run under DirectX wouldn't this be a moot point anyway. An ATI card can read Direct X and so can Nvidia. Hmph.. I just don't get it. I mean EA would still have to support other chipsets, right? They'd quickly lose business if they stopped supporting a certain chipset or making games for them. PCs aren't consoles... (thank goodness).
4/7/2003
Ok, first day of the new site so let's have some fun. I'm Sphinx and I like gaming and other stuff. For now, let's talk games.
So, Activision stole a bunch of the folks from 2015 to make a new game called Call of Duty. Gamespy writes:
"Soldiers will fight both solo and alongside each other during full-scale assaults, stealth missions, sabotage operations, tank battles and other types of missions that have become staples of the genre. Realism is also a major focus of the title, with historically accurate weapons and battles lifted directly out of the WWII history books."
Golly gee, where I have seen this game before? Ha, just kidding I'm sure it will be pretty good. At the very least I hope the multiplayer is as intersting as Wolf's. But hopefully the single player will be a lot lot better.
There's a game called Def Jam Vendetta coming out soon that mixes wrasslin' and rap music. It's probably the first time that anyone's been able to combine a sport with white trash roots with a pre-dominantly black form of music. Honestly, I think this will be a hot seller. Think about it. Most white kids want to be black and think they're all "gangsta" and wear baggy pants since they've obviously forgotten what a belt is for in the clothing section of a store. Wow, I'm getting old to say something like that.
Anyway, this will give those kids a chance to persue their dream without having to worry about poverty, unequal schooling, or police profiling while still listening to a def beat. But personally I think if the game doesn't have Run-DMC or Public Enemy in it what's the point?
On another note, if you read my stuff over at Swankygames, you know I hate Counter-Strike. Yup, one million other people are wrong. Now I read that Day of Defeat, yet another Half-Life engine game is coming out. Enough is enough dang it!! I want Half-Life 2. Maybe now that Valve has hopped over to Activision that might happen. Or maybe like Duke Nuke'Em, Half-Life 2 will just be vaporware forever. Why do the good games continually get delayed but Daikatana or Black & White still come out? Now there's two weapons of mass destruction that the UN needs to do something about ASAP.
Speaking of FPS games, I'm an addict of RtCW. I know the review I wrote kinda sucks but it was the first one I wrote for Swankygames. I'm a frothing addict of it and am quickly growing impatient for the expansion to the game. I mean, for cripes sakes soldiers will be able to carry mortars! What perplexes me is that at Quakecon back in August they already had two levels up and going but it's been nine months now and there's still no word about a set date. Gamespot posts 9/13/2003 but I would think earlier than that. Like before Quakecon in 2003 so they can have another tournament for money and prizes. And they need to do it soon since Doom III and Star Wars Galaxies will probably be out before the end of the year or else no one will play it.
I'm currently playing Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix. It's quickly shaping up to be the best dang Single Player FPS I've ever played. Better than Half-Life and way better than RtCW. I'll try to have a review up soon but if you don't have the game either please feel free to click here to read a review that was probably paid for by Raven to these companies.
Other Tidbits:
Anyone think that some of the diagrams being used by the news correspondents look like they got their diagrams from Turn-Based strategy games. Seriously. Look at this picture from a game released a few years ago called People's General (fun game by the way):
Yep, looks like we still hold Um-Qasar but looks like the Iraqis are moving in some water cannons there in the middle.