Slashdot Mirror

Thanks to the nice people at Gamespot, we have an in-depth look at the first expansion to Neverwinter Nights - Shadows Of Undrentide. This add-on to the popular PC RPG title, which ships in the US on June 17th, is easily classified as 'more of a good thing', with an all-new story, prestige classes to extend your character's abilities, and the vital Bigby's Crushing Hand spell. You can find more info on the official Shadows Of Undrentide site.

Thanks to the folks at Gamespot for informing us they have the first in-depth preview of Lords Of EverQuest, the recently announced real-time strategy game for PC seeking to extend the EverQuest franchise to other genres. The game, being developed by San Diego-based Rapid Eye Entertainment, is focused on the single-player experience, promising over 75 hours worth of action, and Gamespot closely compares the game to Blizzard's Warcraft III, even suggesting that "If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, Lords of EverQuest heaps lavish praise indeed at Blizzard's feet." But they also emphasize some differences, and still, Warcraft III didn't suck, right?

Thanks to the folks at Gamespot for informing us they have the first in-depth preview of Lords Of EverQuest, the recently announced real-time strategy game for PC seeking to extend the EverQuest franchise to other genres. The game, being developed by San Diego-based Rapid Eye Entertainment, is focused on the single-player experience, promising over 75 hours worth of action, and Gamespot closely compares the game to Blizzard's Warcraft III, even suggesting that "If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, Lords of EverQuest heaps lavish praise indeed at Blizzard's feet." But they also emphasize some differences, and still, Warcraft III didn't suck, right?

It seems that Gamespot has an exclusive look at Thief III, the latest in the stealth action FPS series from Looking Glass Studios and now Ion Storm Austin. The PC and Xbox game shares an engine with the other new Ion Storm project, Deus Ex: Invisible War (also previewed on Gamespot recently), hence similarly advanced AI and use of dynamic shadows, but claims much more focused gameplay goals compared to DX2, as well as its markedly different medieval setting. Looks like this new Thief could continue the Looking Glass tradition in fine style.

It seems that Gamespot has an exclusive look at Thief III, the latest in the stealth action FPS series from Looking Glass Studios and now Ion Storm Austin. The PC and Xbox game shares an engine with the other new Ion Storm project, Deus Ex: Invisible War (also previewed on Gamespot recently), hence similarly advanced AI and use of dynamic shadows, but claims much more focused gameplay goals compared to DX2, as well as its markedly different medieval setting. Looks like this new Thief could continue the Looking Glass tradition in fine style.

captainstupid writes "The first Half-Life 2 previews are hitting the Web, and Shacknews seems to have the first post-NDA preview." There's also a preview at IGN.com, and another at Gamespy, plus yet another at Gamespot, giving us a whole cornucopia of different looks at what may be the most keenly awaited PC game of the year.

Galactic Civilizations is a recently released PC space-based strategy game (see our earlier story on it, or check out an elegant review at Gamespot), notable for favorable comparisons against the none too favorably received Master Of Orion 3. There's now a Windows demo (51mb) of Galactic Civilizations available, originally released via Gamespot, but also downloadable from Gamershell, Fileshack, and from Gametab's BitTorrents page. Not bad for a game originally developed for OS/2 back in 1994.

Galactic Civilizations is a recently released PC space-based strategy game (see our earlier story on it, or check out an elegant review at Gamespot), notable for favorable comparisons against the none too favorably received Master Of Orion 3. There's now a Windows demo (51mb) of Galactic Civilizations available, originally released via Gamespot, but also downloadable from Gamershell, Fileshack, and from Gametab's BitTorrents page. Not bad for a game originally developed for OS/2 back in 1994.

According to Gamespot, who have exclusive details and a single piece of concept art up, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has been announced for PC, courtesy of publisher Activision and developer Troika Games (of Arcanum and former Fallout-involvement fame.) Quite apart from the excellent RPG pedigree of the team working on it, this is an FPS blend which is the first announced third-party title to utilise Valve's Source Engine, as being used in the gorgeous-looking Half-Life 2.

According to Gamespot, who have exclusive details and a single piece of concept art up, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has been announced for PC, courtesy of publisher Activision and developer Troika Games (of Arcanum and former Fallout-involvement fame.) Quite apart from the excellent RPG pedigree of the team working on it, this is an FPS blend which is the first announced third-party title to utilise Valve's Source Engine, as being used in the gorgeous-looking Half-Life 2.

Courtesy of Gamespy, we can now see new screenshots for Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon, the THQ-published sequel to the two previous acclaimed graphical adventures. As this Gamespot preview makes clear, this sequel is an attempt to take the puzzle-solving of the graphical adventure and apply it to a 3D action title. All this ties in well to Slashdot Games' earlier discussions on whether adventure games were 'dead', or just metamorphosed into a more contemporary form. In related news, the game's developer, Revolution Software, has made available for free download Lure Of The Temptress, the 1992-published graphical adventure classic which was their first ever game.

Several readers point out the new preview of Enter The Matrix over at Gamespy. The staff there got a chance to play a near-final version of the Shiny-developed game, minus the hour of new movie footage that'll be included when it ships on May 15th for PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, and PC. Other previews (such as this one at Gamespot) have been positive, if slightly guarded. Do you know kung fu?

According to Gamespot, Lucasarts have announced Armed And Dangerous, an action game "with a twist of humor" for PC and Xbox. This is particularly notable because it's the new title from Planet Moon Studios, who were responsible for the excellent MDK while at Shiny, and went on to produce the interesting and cultish Giants: Citizen Kabuto for Interplay. Looks like this new title will turn up the quirkiness meter up significantly, too.

Xs writes "GameSpot.com has confirmed the new Metal Gear Solid title for GameCube titled, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. The game sports the original MGS plot, but with totally revamped graphics. Plus, the game is being supervised by both Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto! Sounds pretty awesome - hopefully they will add more than just the upgraded graphics." This was one of the best games around back when the Playstation was all the rage. With the resources of the GameCube thrown at this game, it could be gorgeous to behold.

Xs writes "GameSpot.com has confirmed the new Metal Gear Solid title for GameCube titled, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. The game sports the original MGS plot, but with totally revamped graphics. Plus, the game is being supervised by both Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto! Sounds pretty awesome - hopefully they will add more than just the upgraded graphics." This was one of the best games around back when the Playstation was all the rage. With the resources of the GameCube thrown at this game, it could be gorgeous to behold.

Arcane writes "This interview with id lead designer Tim Willits at Gamespot goes into more detail about Doom 3 than the usual 'mind blowing graphics' or 'changes the future of gaming' phrases." It's nice to see some new screenshots, mention of multiplayer modes, and most of all, Tim's descriptions of actually playing the game. New trailer debuts at E3, apparently.

John Callaham writes "HomeLAN gives its brief but hands-on impressions of Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, based on playing a build of the upcoming Interplay PS2/XBox console action game at last week's VUGames press event." There are also further impressions and screenshots of this title at Gamespot. While this new Fallout title has been vilified on Fallout fan sites for ignoring the more in-depth RPG leanings of its classic predecessors, those people who love the original PC series can at least now download the Fallout 2 editor from the Black Isle site.

Agent Provocateur writes "Here's a great use of biofeedback to control your game. Instead of using a joystick or mouse to control on-screen characters, the game uses sensors stuck to a player's body. See the story at the BBC." This was developed for educational and recuperative purposes, but seems to be the latest in a long line of unorthodox control devices like the Nintendo Power Glove or the Samba De Amigo maracas.

Several readers have pointed out the announcement (Gamespot story) of a new PC MMORPG from Microsoft, centered around Norse mythology and called "Mythica." There's a detailed preview on Gamespy which expands greatly on the press release and includes some first looks at in-game and concept art. A title to watch for 2004?

Obiwan Kenobi writes "Online Journalism has an excellent article on video game reviewers and the ethics of such a position. It includes comments from the editor of gamespot and insights from well-known movie critics who are subjected to the same junkets that try to influence reviewers into writing good things about terrible products (or just mediocre ones). Inside I talk about my limited experience in video game reviewing and the influence free stuff can have."

Obiwan Kenobi continues:

The junket used in the article as an example was Ubi Soft's recent Rainbow Six: Raven Shield launch, where the writers got to dress in SWAT garb and have a paintball battle against mock terrorists and disable a dirty bomb. Things like this happen all the time, even more so in the movie industry (which the gaming industry is quickly mirroring).

Not that I was a big-time reviewer or anything. Back in 1997 or so, I ran a small website of my own (hosted on my ISP webspace) called Obiwan Reviews. Since I was just getting out of high school and into college (read: broke), I reviewed Quake mods, such as AirQuake, Quake Rally, After the Fall and others. Soon I tried to spread my wings a little and get a gig at a real gaming site, which would give me the ability to review retail titles. I found that site, frag.com, and the position was given to me by Jonathon "ZyFly" Works after many requests. Though the site itself is no longer with us, the experience was certainly eye-opening.

Technically I only reviewed two retail titles, Tomb Raider 2 and the X-Men Quake mod. I also got Dungeon Keeper and its expansion, The Deeper Dungeons, though I never got around to writing about that one.

In my first "professional" review, I lavished praise on X-Men, which deserved about 75% of it, and the last 25% was, I fully admit (now that I'm nowhere near this "industry") given just because it was free and I'd never gotten a free game before. Yes, it was unethical as hell, but I was under the deluded thinking that if you trash a free game the free games stop coming. I wish I could tell you I knew better, but back then I did not.

An upshot of that bloated thinking came a week later when I got an email from the guys who made that X-Men mod. They thanked me for the kind words and the payoff for some of their hard work.

This is not something that a biased reviewer needs to hear.

This put me in the mindset that "everything is great, just tell em what they want to hear." That way I could get in the industry and be loved by all! Or...so I thought.

After Tomb Raider 2 dropped on my doorstep, I played it for a few days and was very disappointed. Terrible clipping, clunky controls, sometimes buggy levels and graphics. Not that it was all bad, I still had a good time with a few levels, but the majority of the game was a misfire.

But this didn't stop me from hyping it up, telling everyone it was the greatest thing to come out yet.

A week or so later I got another email. Not from the developer, but from a reader. And he was pissed.

While I don't have the email any longer, I certainly remember the gist of it: He bought the game and he saw through my candy-coated review in about thirty minutes. He had trusted my words and was out $50 thanks to me.

I felt terrible and conflicted. I wasn't sure I wanted to review any more at all, considering that I knew there would be others who would purchase titles based on my words. And if those words were false, who was gaining here? The studios producing the titles or myself? The guilt was tough, but the review had ran and a retraction of my gushing paragraphs would mean that nothing I did from then on would be taken seriously. Not that those who purchased TR2 because of my review would do so any longer, but hey, I've got the rest of the readership to worry about.

After some soul searching and mid-terms, I made my decision.

That was my last review for frag.com, and my last video game review. Though I have since written hundreds of movie and DVD reviews, I still look back on those reviews for a free humbling experience any time I need one.

The points that are brought up in articles like the one at Online Journalism are very much factual. If you let yourself be taken in by the free food, games, flights, and gala of a modern-day junket, your reputation is at stake. Roger Ebert has since stopped letting movie studios pay for anything in regards to press gatherings and interview sessions, and I highly commend him for it. Everyone else would be happy to throw a few hundred loving words toward a bad movie because they got to shmooze with the stars and eat an expensive meal alongside them.

This thing happens all the time.

Trust me, I know.

Geaty writes "Gamespot has an article up about Microsoft's big PC plans. Topics covered include why DirectX 9 will be the last DX for a while, the increased game support in Longhorn, and a 'standard' PC controller. Looks to this ignorant reader like Microsoft is trying to tackle the games market (again?), cornering matchmaking and patching. The controller issue seems like an attempt to bring to the PC platform some of the uniformity that consoles have."

Geaty writes "Gamespot has an article up about Microsoft's big PC plans. Topics covered include why DirectX 9 will be the last DX for a while, the increased game support in Longhorn, and a 'standard' PC controller. Looks to this ignorant reader like Microsoft is trying to tackle the games market (again?), cornering matchmaking and patching. The controller issue seems like an attempt to bring to the PC platform some of the uniformity that consoles have."

DiZASTiX writes "Just saw this on Gamespot about LOTR: War of the Ring a Warcraft III like LOTR game: "The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring has only been in development for around seven or eight months, but at a press event in Berlin this week we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the game in its current state. The map itself was relatively featureless at this stage of development but boasted some great grass textures and trees, which were occasionally shadowed by the suggestion of clouds passing overhead. More impressive still were the character models on display, which, although unfinished, bore more than a passing resemblance to the colorful, stylized units of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.""

A reader writes:"Febuary 11th marks the day that the future of the Command and Conquer universe will be determined. Electronic Arts has taken over the franchise and has even shut down Westwood Studios. Many of us will remember Westwood for such games as Dune II. They basically invented the RTS market which makes this a sad time. Electronic Arts today launches what they are hoping will be the WarCraft 3 killa. This game along with SimCity 4 is what EA is counting on. Here is an amazing 430 screenshot pictorial of the Generals single player missions. "

markpapadakis writes "Gamespot and Gamespy have released their top games for 2002. Gamespot features worse game of the year as well as some additional categories."

Nicholas Palmer writes "GameSpot has a really in-depth feature story on the development process behind The Sims Online. It gets into things like how the team had to refactor the game's 3 million lines of code last year. Will Wright mentions his desire to see TSO to grow into a community similar to Slashdot's." Great game - although the latest wipe of the game means all Blockstackers' hard work on our house will be gone. Still, the social dynamics, IMHO, are much more interesting in TSO, because it enforces cooperation.

Nicholas Palmer writes "GameSpot has a really in-depth feature story on the development process behind The Sims Online. It gets into things like how the team had to refactor the game's 3 million lines of code last year. Will Wright mentions his desire to see TSO to grow into a community similar to Slashdot's." Great game - although the latest wipe of the game means all Blockstackers' hard work on our house will be gone. Still, the social dynamics, IMHO, are much more interesting in TSO, because it enforces cooperation.

ytzombe writes "Gamespot News is reporting that for about 5000 yen an attachment will be available to play GBA games on the Gamecube. The serial port underneath the system will be the gateway to the device and will include a port to enable multiplayer games. This will finally allow me to play the Castlevania games without fusing my naked retina to the screen."

randomizer9 writes was among several readers who noted that Microsoft has changed the configs on the XBox and really messed up the hackers who have been trying to coax the box into being divx players, linux boxes, microwave ovens, white noise generators and so on. Kinda doubt the conspiracy angle, but it certainly is annoying.

Rainier Wolfecastle writes: "Non-high-end-comp-owning geeks rejoice! GameSpot is reporting that John Carmack has confirmed that Doom III is Xbox-bound. Carmack said that id is totally commited to bringing the game to Microsoft's console with its visual splendor intact. Best of all, the game could be available on the Xbox as soon as May next year." And Warrior-GS writes: "John Carmack gave a two-hour presentation about Doom 3 and engine technology. GameSpy reports on the presentations and analyzes Carmack's comments and how they apply to the future of gaming. There is also a look at the demo of Doom III"

Anonymous Coward writes "EverQuest is coming to a Mac near you, as reported on GameSpot. Sony is planning to release it on Mac OS X sometime next year. You can also find details on Apple's website. Scott McDaniel, vice president of marketing for Sony Online said 'Combine the power and stability of Mac OS X with Apple's outstanding desktop systems and you've got an incredible gaming environment that'll take full advantage of EverQuest's huge and seamless 3D world.' (sounds good to me =)"

Anonymous Coward writes "Wowie! The folks at Electronic Arts look to be working hard on the next installment of SimCity! Although there's no official, dedicated release date, they plan on demoing it at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Gamers.com has an article, as does GameSpot, and both seem to have a number of screenshots. Interesting: there now seems to be a nighttime mode, and perhaps there's some weather effects? The note from MaxisJoseph claims there will be a personal angle to every high-level action taken; will there be a chance for dynamic screenshots of our cities during, say, lightning storms, blizzards or sandstorms? And will they ask Koch or Guiliani for endorsements?" I know I'm not the only one who wants to play the Sims in the SimTower in the SimCity on SimEarth with the pesky SimAnts in the balcony garden.

Disoriented writes "Cool interview about the Warcraft 3 single-player campaigns. Has me drooling for a June release." Hopefully Blizzard will drop their attack against Bnetd before the release.

Conspiracy_Of_Doves writes "Gamespot has an article about the new Tron 2.0 game in the works to accompany the movie. It looks like they are being very true to the original, the new light cycles are even being designed by Syd Mead, the same guy who designed the old ones. You will get to visit locations from the movie, as well as play around inside desktops and PDAs." IGN has another article on the game. Watch out for the gridbugs.

Conspiracy_Of_Doves writes "Gamespot has an article about the new Tron 2.0 game in the works to accompany the movie. It looks like they are being very true to the original, the new light cycles are even being designed by Syd Mead, the same guy who designed the old ones. You will get to visit locations from the movie, as well as play around inside desktops and PDAs." IGN has another article on the game. Watch out for the gridbugs.

Initri writes "I read a news article (here) on Gamespot that the Freespace 2 source code has been released by Volition. You can download it there, or you can also download it here. Since I don't have the game installed anymore, I wasn't able to try out the code, but it did successfully compile under MSVC 6.0. Looks like there's a lot of learning potential here." Freespace 2 was one of my favorite games, and I wasted many hours playing it.

-PS-Sangloth writes "Gamespot, arguably the best video gaming website will expand in July to a pay service(Gamespot Complete). It seems that while review scores will be free, the actual reviews for new PC games will cease to be available to non-payers 7 days after the review was written. This is a real pity, I suspect many PC Gamers, like me, don't have credit cards(or cash), and Gamespot has good, hard, objective reviews. Read what they said at Gamespot Complete."

DebateUSA writes "If you ever played the game M.U.L.E. on the Atari or Commodore computer systems in the early 1980's, there's a company producing a new version for the PC. " Ah, resource allocation.

Skyfire writes "According to GameSpot, it looks like Blizzard is dropping the Orcs from Warcraft 3. They also say that this will delay the game somewhat."

Skyfire writes "According to GameSpot, it looks like Blizzard is dropping the Orcs from Warcraft 3. They also say that this will delay the game somewhat."

krugdm writes "Gamespot is reporting that The Sims has now sold 6.3 million copies and has overtaken Myst as the best-selling PC game ever." My Sims lie dormant awaiting a wine that can breath life into them once again. I just have been too busy to reboot.

Kevin Tomaya writes: "GameSpot has posted a really in-depth story about a brand new Command and Conquer game that is in all 3D. It's called C&C Generals and has the US and China fighting against a terrorist organization. The article is like that Metal Gear Solid 2 story they did last year. It takes you through the whole genesis of the project and introduces the development team."

Kevin Tomaya writes: "GameSpot has posted a really in-depth story about a brand new Command and Conquer game that is in all 3D. It's called C&C Generals and has the US and China fighting against a terrorist organization. The article is like that Metal Gear Solid 2 story they did last year. It takes you through the whole genesis of the project and introduces the development team."

Kevin Tomaya writes: "GameSpot has posted a really in-depth story about a brand new Command and Conquer game that is in all 3D. It's called C&C Generals and has the US and China fighting against a terrorist organization. The article is like that Metal Gear Solid 2 story they did last year. It takes you through the whole genesis of the project and introduces the development team."

magicsquid writes: "GameSpot is carrying the news that Square has finally returned to Nintendo systems after a 5 year absence. This brings with it the knowledge that Final Fantasy XI will truly be playable on every console as well as PC to be uniquely massively multi-player." Planet Gamecube has a similar story.

adpowers writes: "Anandtech is running an article about their preview of AMD's Hammer. They had one machine running 32-bit Windows and the other running 64-bit Linux. The Linux machine had a 32 bit program and an identical program that was compiled for 64-bit processor support. Both processors were less than 30 days old and running without any crashes, but they weren't at full speed." We did one Hammer story a day or two ago, but there have been several more posted since then (wild guess: the NDA expired). Tom's Hardware has a story, so does Gamespot.

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Gamespot.com has an interesting article on abandonware games. They go so far as to seek out opinions of "game makers" with some interesting results. Some of them actually are flattered that their games have gone to that big abandonware site in the sky. Then there's Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry creator) who jokingly replies to the question of why gamers seek out free games, "Because they're cheap bastards, that's why! Always looking for something for free! Sucking the lifeblood out of us poor humble programmers! Now leave me alone so I can download more free pirated music!"" The first couple of pages are boring, with predictable opinions from big publishers. But it gets more interesting as you go on.

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Gamespot.com has an interesting article on abandonware games. They go so far as to seek out opinions of "game makers" with some interesting results. Some of them actually are flattered that their games have gone to that big abandonware site in the sky. Then there's Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry creator) who jokingly replies to the question of why gamers seek out free games, "Because they're cheap bastards, that's why! Always looking for something for free! Sucking the lifeblood out of us poor humble programmers! Now leave me alone so I can download more free pirated music!"" The first couple of pages are boring, with predictable opinions from big publishers. But it gets more interesting as you go on.

KidIcarus writes: "Four lawmakers in Georgia have submitted a bill that would make it a criminal offense to sell or make violent video games available to minors. Full text of the bill here. Seems that politicians still don't have a clue, despite indications that video games don't cause violence." This may remind you of the (since overturned) law segregating certain video games from others in Indianapolis.

KidIcarus writes: "Four lawmakers in Georgia have submitted a bill that would make it a criminal offense to sell or make violent video games available to minors. Full text of the bill here. Seems that politicians still don't have a clue, despite indications that video games don't cause violence." This may remind you of the (since overturned) law segregating certain video games from others in Indianapolis.