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of the first two games just prior to the release of DX2. 3DActionPlanet was trying a new interview thing, in which we interviewed game characters by sending questions to their writers and project directors. The second game was disappointing, because of the pandering to console gamers. From what I've read of TFA, they're promising to try the same kind of a thing again. The problem is that developers are being pressured to make games that work on a variety of different platforms. These games are limited by the number of buttons, the lack of a mouse, small level sizes, and the (assumed, rightly or wrongly) lack of intellect of the player base. I'll buy the game, but as far as more Deus Ex fun, it looks like I'm going to have to settle with being content with being the only person to interview JC Denton.

Please see: GameSpy's 3DAP. The entire site was shut down a few years ago, along with all of the staff, so that the parent site could control who recieved what kind of review. The staff was informed about the closing about a month in advance, with a reason given as something along the lines of "content issues."

I was involved, anon for obvious reasons.

I missed the space sims, then I got the B5 total conversion of Freespace 2. Let me just tell you, Minbari fighters piss me off.

I don't enjoy most RTS games. I'll manage an economy, but I don't want to deal with workers in between managing tank assaults. I'll go Railroad Tycoon or something if I want an economy. The closest a classic RTS comes to working for me is Dawn of War - it's got a great background, excellent art and animation and it's all tactics beyond building your base. The strategic points concept really helps it.

But we do have two good sims out right now, both WW2. Silent Hunter III is an amazing sub sim. Even if you aren't keen on subs or naval sims, it's worth the $40. It's gorgeous and captivating, probably sim of the year. And for flight sims, Pacific Fighters is outstanding. This is the lates in the IL2/Forgotten Battles series. As a standalone it just covers the Pacifc theater, it can also be merged with FB to do Western Europe and Russia. The single-player mission selection in PF is lousy (lots available online), but the campaigns and online play rock. This sim looks almost movie quality, and it's got a good flight model and *great* damage models (so damaged planes look right). It's a worthwhile investment for anyone with a current video card and a joystick. Get the FB+AEWP gold edition and Pacific Fighters for full effect.

Those two are keeping it real in the sim community. I won't link to Steel Beasts (which the US and Danish armies use for training)... because I can't hit a moving target, or to LOMAC because I find modern BVR air combat boring.

Yes, you can play on linux!

Excuse me, I have to go wipe the drool.

Yes, I've played all the way through both of the missions (using wine). The linux client has a couple crasher bugs that need fixing.

Steal this Game was part of an ad campaign that was run for one of the early GTA games:

"Does anyone remember the 'Steal this Game' posters that were plastered over the major cities of the world to advertise Grand Theft Auto on debut? Or even the billboards with free copies of the game attached to them? Certainly funny, and also draped in a little irony, that they would spend countless money on an advertising campaign effectively asking people to rob the companies money."

Reference: here!

Ironic really (isn't it?) how things come back round.

1. the only game i've seen that has a real spectator mode is ghost recon... ghost recon allows you to just ghost people... you dont have to pick a team or anything... oh yeah, RTCW has this also...

I guess I'm spoiled. Savage has a really nice spectator mode as well as a unique commander mode and other views of the game.

At any time, pressing TAB brings up the player stats per team, and with SEP (Savage Enhancement Project). While playing the game, pressing Alt and Ctrl bring up team damage details and current tech available. Quite nifty.

There are quite a few sites out there but I find this one good for DS stories and news and this one good for PSP news and rumors.

Freespace 2 is one of those great games which makes you wonder why on earth it didn't sell better.

In fact, I believe it is one of the only mass-produced American games to sell for more than the original MSRP on eBay several years after its release. It's not uncommon for a copy of FS2 to sell for $75.

But enough on the price of the game. The game itself is sweet. Gameplay is simply awesome. The graphics are amazing -- not even taking their age into consideration.

I've only played the CD-rip version of the game which didn't include the music, cutscenes, voices, or cinematics (which I am told are some of the best parts of the game). Even still, the gameplay is excellent, the storyline is pretty cool, and it's addicting as hell. (Word to the wise: Don't start this game the week before exams!). It's a pretty unique experience being caught in the midst of two capital ships battling it out, and has yet to be duplicated in any other game.

Plus, the engine's open source! There's a working linux port and a mac port! (The mac version is still under development and doesn't have a permanent website. You have to hunt around to find it). Even cooler is that a bunch of coders ported the entire Freespace 1 campagin to the FS2 engine.

So. In short, go out and buy this game! You will not regret it. It has much more longetivity and replay-value than most games made today.

Oh yeah. You can still download the CD-Rip for free. Chances are that HOTU will take it down in the next few days, as the game is now commercially availible once more. (Would somebody seed this as a torrent?)

I used to work for GameSpy, running 3DActionPlanet -- violence in video games was a topic which we covered several times. Yeah, it's possible that violent games cause violence in teens... but isn't it also possible that violent teens are DRAWN to violent games? :) Stupid people. Take some fucking responsibility!

I used to work for GameSpy, running 3DActionPlanet -- violence in video games was a topic which we covered several times. Yeah, it's possible that violent games cause violence in teens... but isn't it also possible that violent teens are DRAWN to violent games? :) Stupid people. Take some fucking responsibility!

I used to work for GameSpy, running 3DActionPlanet -- violence in video games was a topic which we covered several times. Yeah, it's possible that violent games cause violence in teens... but isn't it also possible that violent teens are DRAWN to violent games? :) Stupid people. Take some fucking responsibility!

I used to work for GameSpy, running 3DActionPlanet -- violence in video games was a topic which we covered several times. Yeah, it's possible that violent games cause violence in teens... but isn't it also possible that violent teens are DRAWN to violent games? :) Stupid people. Take some fucking responsibility!

Gamespy reports JC himself has stated these are the target min specs for Doom3 for comparision.

1GHz CPU
256MB RAM
GF1 or Radeon 7xxx series card

No mention of the minimum card for HL2, though they do shamelessly plug ATI in general. Sell out, with me oh yeah...

All just for comparison.

Well, it doesn't jog -my- memory (little does these days), but I Google'd your clue. It looks like you're right, though none of the sources are worth citing (can't anyone spell any more? the trekkies make slashdot look immaculate). One clever observation is that both races name their ships after birds.

Most of the trek speculation about Romulans and Klingons centers on the Klingon transformation from the lightly soiled guys of TOS and the ridged monsters exemplified by Worf. Some speculate the smooth foreheads were the result of Kligon/Romulan interbreeding, later after Romulan betrayal driven out of the species.

A search for "klingon engineer" brings up a moderate amount of stuff, mostly citing Voyager's half-Klingon B'Elanna Torres. Several others are mentioned. In the current Enterprise ("Sleeping Dogs") there was an Officer Bu'kah on the bird of prey rescued from being crushed in a planet's atmosphere. There was also a female Klingon scientist is one of the TNG's. There is no end to further speculation.

In Voyager, they threw in a sensitive engineer from the Harogen (phonetic).

Then there are the Ferengi. They probably just bought it, for a good price.

Nice, but this funnier.

I suggest you go look a game called "Arx Fatailis" and download the demo. It has an Ultima Underworld kind of feel and it is a breath of fresh air.

As to the lack of 'new stuff' I blame that on the demise of Looking Glass Studios. The people from LGS were always injecting something unexpected and original into the gaming market. All the way back to the Ultima Underworlds and System shock to Thief: The Dark Project and the very original System Shock 2, LGS always danced to their own beat. Too bad they had a bunch of financial problems appear at the same time. They were truly a giant among giants.

The kids would really enjoy a game of Hitman.

The kids would really enjoy a game of Hitman.

Oh, my friend, how wrong you are. Let me explain.

I'm a gamer, and a professional one at that. I love games. I play them every single day, be it a PC title, or PS2, or Xbox, or whatever. In fact, I run a website devoted to the stuff, and get paid EXCELLENT money to do it.

I conducted a survey a while back on said site and the average age of the visitor was between 18 and 27 years of age -- college students. I don't know any 13 year olds who are going for a BSC at Harvard. =)

In the onering-5.large.jpg, is that I man walking his turkey?

thought of making the dog taking the shit in the picture disappear?

onering-2.large.jpg
onering-5.large.jpg

onering-2.large.jpg
onering-5.large.jpg

There is a full preview of the demo available at http://www.3dactionplanet.com/features/firstlooks/ mohmpdemo/. (It IS a huge demo; take a look there to see if you want to take the time to download it.)

I'm a bit late to the discussion but these are not new. 3D action planet (and probably the rest of the gamespy network) have had these things for a while. Their advertising page mentions DHTML adverts - these really do suck. Imagine reading an interesting article - all of sudden, your machine freezes for 2 seconds, and then this big ad blocks the text. You can't close it or move it so you can read the article. You have to watch it (and hear it).

These are bad, and the only thing they do is manage to alienate their readers. The last thing we need is these things becoming more popular. And that name is terrible - pop-overs maybe better (it 'pops-over' all the interesting info you see, rather than pop-up). I hope these can be disabled, or sites persuaded not to use these. Unfortunately i think its a bit late - once one person does it, others will follow.

http://www.3dactionplanet.com/citizenc/magnus_opus _phone_test.shtml

The Magnus-Opus domain has been slashdotted to the extent that it is impossible to access their "test-your-phone-number" flash movie. It is mirrored above.

TechTVs History of the First-Person Shooter
Blue's News FPS Guide and History
First Person Shooters
MediaPipes History of the First Person Shooter
3D Action Planets History of the FPS Shooter.

Also, here's a link to Spasism that claims to be the first First-Person Shooter 3D multiplayer networked game, circa 1974!.

If anything, you could say Doom was the first game to show that the PC could now be considered a serious games playing machine.

liB

(if someone actually has an important, legit reason for using a messenger service, please correct me...).

Wolfenstein E3 Trailer Never to See the Light of Day Again?
by Thrrrpptt! Friday, May 25, 2001

Just got this email from Greg Goodrich, Executive Producer on Return to Castle Wolfenstein:

I've been reading quite a bit lately (on a number of different forums) that a lot of people are waiting to see the "Return To Castle Wolfenstein" E3 trailer. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this is going to happen anytime soon. Let me explain.

When the trailer was originally cut for the show we used a music track called "Bishop's Countdown" from the movie "Aliens". We were told at the time that the rights to the music had been secured through Fox (owner of the "Aliens" property and the parent company of Fox Interactive). And they were. Activision had indeed paid a large sum of money for the rights and we were free and clear to make our trailer.

We fully expected to make it available via download after the show (as everyone else has recently done) but unfortunately this was not to be the case. Just hours before the start of E3 our fine friends from Fox Interactive were granted a special request to preview the trailer. Immediately following the private showing they decided it wasn't in their best interest to allow us to use the music or make it available for download. It was (and still is) the belief of Fox Interactive that by allowing us to do so would cause "confusion" in the marketplace between "Return To Castle Wolfenstein" and "Aliens vs. Predator 2". I'll leave it up to you to decide.

Hopefully, those of you who went to E3 enjoyed the trailer. It captured the essence of what "Wolfenstein" is shaping up to be and was edited with 100% game play footage from the current build of the game. Unfortunately, unless someone captured it via camcorder (from one of the monitors) and makes it available on their own accord, it will most likely never be shown again.
Man, that sucks. The trailer was really cool and I was looking forward to seeing it again. If anyone hears of its being released, make sure you send me a note.

There is a thread on the 3DActionPlanet boards about this topic that you can reply to if you think Fox is just trying to pull a dirty trick to prevent the promotion of a rival game (or, for that matter, if you think they are NOT).

I wont count Gamespy as they are ready to close down shop as well

will Gamespy and the other mass information and preview "outlets" start warning us about ad-riddled games before we buy?

This editorial was written as a response to Grey Loki's editorial entitled Are We Living In A Broadband World?.

For the goatse.cx weary, http://www.3dactionplanet.com/features/editorials/ broadband/

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CitizenC

You missed the "Pictures" part of the site -- featuring nazi-dressed models with a whip.

How can anyone resist these two nazi's?

:-)

Also, http://www.3dactionplanet.com/features/editorials/ modemusers/ is a good article about game developers and companies for analog modemers.

.. this editorial was written as a response to Grey Loki's editorial entitled Are We Living In A Broadband World?.

For the goatse.cx weary, http://www.3dactionplanet.com/features/editorials/ broadband/

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CitizenC

"// this is the most hacked, evil, bastardized thing I've ever seen. kjb"

'Twas the night before Christmas when all through the LAN
Not a gamer was playing, 'cept the dude with the van.
The cables were hung by the server with care,
In the hopes that by morning the hubs would be there.

Want more? =) Check it out at 3D Action Planet!

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CitizenC

How people are effected by gaming/the influence that games play does not have a concrete answer that fits everybody. There are several factors that contribute to how a person will react.

First, above all, is context. Currently, I work for GameSpy Industries, as the site director for 3DActionPlanet, plus I also work on PlanetQ3F. The work that I do REQUIRES that I am up-to-date on the latest 3DAction games, 90% of which are 3D shooters. I play them not only because I like too, but because it is also part of my job.

The second is the game itself. I am currently playing Hitman: Codename 47, which I will then be reviewing. It isn't a shooter; rather, you play a Hitman, and you're given missions that involve killing somebody. The issue I have with the game thus far is that it is WAY to realistic for some gamers. The weapons you can use include a piano wire, which you use to strangle people. (The animation is very convincing.. there is even gasping, if you listen closely.)

When a game is ultra-realistic, some people may get the idea to try some of the things they have seen.

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CitizenC
My name is not 'nospam,' but 'citizenc'.

I currently work for GameSpy, both as an admin on GameSpy Arcade, and site director of 3DActionPlanet. However, because I live in Canada, and GameSpy is in California, that is quite a daily commute. So, I telecommute, and I can tell you right now that I don't need ANY other perks.

I find that when I'm at home, relaxed, listening to whatever I feel like listening too, my creativity flows like a faucet -- I'm a productive dynamo!

Plus, by telecommuting, all of my computer stuff is tax-deductable ;)


------------
CitizenC

Now, onto my main point. 3dfx has a very thin fanbase, and there is a clear reason behind it. 3dfx, time after time, again and again, has been making the same mistake of denying the future. We've heard the argument that the Voodoo3's lack of 32 bit color support (and the memory to handle that feature) is what started 3dfx on its downward spiral. Yet, 3dfx has AGAIN made this mistake with their resistance twoards using a hardware transform and lighting solution... Any game developer will tell you that Hardware T&L is the way of the future, and 3dfx is shooting themselves in the foot. And what about the FSAA card? 3dfx did have a point when the voodoo5 was released and creamed the GeForce 2 in antialiasing performance, but those days are over, and with new drivers, the GeForce 2 beats the voodoo5 in its home territory, FSAA.

So to conclude, us "nVidia fanboys" have reason behind what we believe in. As soon as 3dfx comes out with a better chip than nVidia, count me in on the 3dfx bandwagon. -Matt "ObeseWhale" Grinshpun
-The Darker Sector
-Website coming soon! Team Corrosive Quake 3 mods.

(from the 3D Action Planet story about half-way down)

• Concerning consoles, Carmack said that an Xbox version of the Doom game will be a "no brainer", since it will be so easy to port the code to the PC-like console.
• However, on the topic of the Playstation 2 and the Dreamcast Carmack was much less optimistic, since the technologies those consoles use don't support many of the "cool things" he wants to do with the new game. The consoles also lack the 128 MB or RAM [emphasis mine] that Carmack anticipate will be required to run the game. Porting the game would require a major rewriting and reworking of many of its parts, and if such ports happen at all they will happen several months after the PC/Linux/Mac/Xbox release.

So on the one hand we have the great Carmack, seemingly confirming the 128MB rumours (by implying that the X-Box is somehow immune from the 128MB problem - either by actually having 128MB, or some other method), and on the other hand we have Mike Abrash's DDJ article, seemingly confirming the 64MB configuration.

Hmmm, that's actually quite amusing: Carmack & Abrash together again (albeit pointing in opposite directions).

Of course, the DDJ article could be MS misdirection. Of course, the rumours could be MS misdirection. :)

Al

Of course this didn't get on Slashdot. There is an article on 3D Action Planet regarding BeOS as a gaming platform. You can find it here

You seem quite happy with the fact consoles are becoming more like PCs - personally, I think it's a shame - for this very reason.

I'm a die-hard home computer/PC gamer, ever since the Sinclair Spectrum, and have never owned a console (well, except a gameboy, but that doesn't count ;-). But I like consoles like the Dreamcast, because everything just works.

With the evolution of OSs, software, and hardware on PC's i feel that eventually pc's will eventually be used primarily for development, mission critical applications, and serving a broad range from home network administration to asp's.

Yeah, PCs as we know them may become rarer, like you say with devices like consoles taking their roles, but I doubt that they will die out. In the same way that there are car enthusiasts, who fix up their own hot-rod, there will be PC enthusiasts, who tinker with their PCs.

Carmack explains, "it's not a matter of a game console versus a PC, it's more a matter of PC versus another gaming platform."

Take a PSX2/Xbox with a harddrive, hook a modem, keyboard & mouse up to the USB ports, and you've got yourself a PC, in my book. It may not be a PC in the "IMB compatible" sense - but you still hear people reffer to Apple's as PCs, as in "Personal Computer". The only difference is that is has a funky custom chipset and you plug it into your TV set - sounds like this could be the new Amiga we have been waiting for.

It's like the difference between night ... and slightly later that night ;-)

Finally, a little off topic, but if you are reading this article, you may be interested in this link, that I spotted on the page: Mein Leiben!

Some other pages with info on Carmack's QuakeCon talk:

3DActionPlanet
Stomped
PlanetQuake

-jfedor

3D Action Planet had this from QuakeCon:

The Doom Movie?: id Software took a look at one script and decided it was terrible. Then they looked at another script and agreed it was pretty mediocre. Nobody moved on it and the option on the movie rights expired, so the project is -- for the time being -- dead in the water.