Slashdot Mirror

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the Xbox.com press release announcing "that Halo: Combat Evolved has sold more than three million copies worldwide" , by far the largest-selling software title on Microsoft's console. The press release also plugs the forthcoming PC version of Halo, which, according to Avault, will have a $30,000 team tournament devoted to it at the CPL's Winter 2003 Tournament in Dallas this December. Finally, Bungie.org has news of a great-looking new Halo trick video, called 'Winning Isn't Everything' - thanks to GameTab for providing a BitTorrent mirror for this super-skilful, stunt and exploit-filled romp.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to HomeLan Fed's story indicating Epic have announced a free multiplayer add-on for Unreal 2 is in development. This announcement comes in an official Unreal 2 messageboard thread posting from Epic's Mark Rein, and briefly states: "Lack of multiplayer is a temporary issue with Unreal 2. Legend are currently reviving their XMP design for multiplayer and it will be released as a FREE downloadable add-on for people who own Unreal 2." Might this partly be because developers Legend are doing multiplayer work for the alleged Xbox conversion of Unreal 2, after the so-so reception of the PC version?

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Spong.com article discussing publisher Eidos naming this Friday, 4th July, as 'Take Lara Croft To Work Day' in the UK. According to the official site, "The 'Take Lara To Work Day' initiative was devised following a recent report from the London School of Economics on how creating a happy working environment stimulates the workforce", and the publicity stunt even has an 'Email Your Boss' link so you can beg him to let you play Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness in work hours. Unfortunately, any companies that do this may not actually be making their employees happy.

ydkcookie writes "According to Voodoo Extreme, the PC multiplayer demo of Tron 2.0 has been released! This 160mb demo features light-cycle racing and a first-person multiplayer shooter style level." There's also a BitTorrent link available, courtesy GameTab, and also a download link at GamersHell for the demo of this Monolith-developed title we previewed a few weeks back.

ydkcookie writes "According to Voodoo Extreme, the PC multiplayer demo of Tron 2.0 has been released! This 160mb demo features light-cycle racing and a first-person multiplayer shooter style level." There's also a BitTorrent link available, courtesy GameTab, and also a download link at GamersHell for the demo of this Monolith-developed title we previewed a few weeks back.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a press release and downloadable trailer (BitTorrent link courtesy Gametab) for the forthcoming Discovery Channel documentary, The X Factor - Inside Microsoft's Xbox. The program premieres on June 20th at 8pm ET/PT in the US, and "reveals never-before-seen footage of Microsoft and three game studios all racing to complete the next big Xbox blockbuster game. Will the next Xbox superstar be Microsoftâ(TM)s Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, Oddworld Inhabitantsâ(TM) tightly held secret (the fourth game in their ongoing series), or Bungieâ(TM)s Halo 2?" Some healthy scepticism is also shown, since the doc "..also explores whether the software giant has the mettle to make it in the exploding video game business." This doc could be particularly interesting because of interviews/footage from the next in the Oddworld series.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a press release and downloadable trailer (BitTorrent link courtesy Gametab) for the forthcoming Discovery Channel documentary, The X Factor - Inside Microsoft's Xbox. The program premieres on June 20th at 8pm ET/PT in the US, and "reveals never-before-seen footage of Microsoft and three game studios all racing to complete the next big Xbox blockbuster game. Will the next Xbox superstar be Microsoftâ(TM)s Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, Oddworld Inhabitantsâ(TM) tightly held secret (the fourth game in their ongoing series), or Bungieâ(TM)s Halo 2?" Some healthy scepticism is also shown, since the doc "..also explores whether the software giant has the mettle to make it in the exploding video game business." This doc could be particularly interesting because of interviews/footage from the next in the Oddworld series.

Thanks to Gametab for pointing to a new C+VG interview with the creative director of Sony Cambridge's new PS2 action title, Ghosthunter. This title uses the graphics engine of the good-looking Sony title Primal, and is summed up like this: "..imagine Ghostbusters, dark, adult, horror, but still with the little macabre weird stuff we've always done in Studio Cambridge games [like Medievil]." There also a few screenshots available on Gamespot.

Thanks to Gametab for pointing to a new C+VG interview with the creative director of Sony Cambridge's new PS2 action title, Ghosthunter. This title uses the graphics engine of the good-looking Sony title Primal, and is summed up like this: "..imagine Ghostbusters, dark, adult, horror, but still with the little macabre weird stuff we've always done in Studio Cambridge games [like Medievil]." There also a few screenshots available on Gamespot.

Simon Bysshe writes "I'm a UK film student, and have recently released a freely downloadable video documentary called 'Modern Day Gamer'. In it, I use interviews from a LAN party I went to in Brighton to try to address the main pre-conceptions people have about gamers, ie: is it really anti-social? is it only for geeks? is it a non-productive use of time?" We've also rustled up a BitTorrent link at Gametab and another BitTorrent link courtesy Jamuraa for this 75mb DivX file.

Thanks to Voodoo Extreme for pointing to GamingNext's new interview with Gabe Newell of Valve Software - he's the managing director and co-founder of the company currently working on Half-Life 2. Topics include the scalability of the Source graphics engine: "A lot of the tricky work in Source is getting it to work across a wide variety of scenes (indoor, urban, outdoor) and across a wide variety of hardware. Not only do you have to run acceptably fast on a TNT or an Intel 810 based PC, but you have to fully exploit the capabilities of the current and next generation high-end cards." On a related note, the 500+MB Half-Life 2 gameplay/engine demo (BitTorrent link) from E3 is a must-download if you haven't seen it yet.

Now that E3 is done and the press have gone home, they're consolidating all their E3 reports into handy indexes. Here's the massive Gamespot index listing all the titles they covered, here's the IGN index for E3, and you can also try the Gamespy E3 index or a multitude of others via Gametab News. Do you have a 'best in show' for E3, or at least a roundly ignored game that people may have missed amidst the hype?

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out a patch for the PC version of Enter The Matrix, just a couple of days after its release, and a FAQ which rather horrifyingly orders you that "The Vampires should be dispatched in the rooms you find them in" to stop the game from crashing completely. If you add to this the almost complete lack of official reviews, do we get a still-decent game that simply happened to stealthily launch in the week of E3 (when nobody was around to review it), or a rushed license that's deliberately trying to take advantage of gamers who buy based on subject matter? Spoiler-free opinions welcome, especially from those who've bought the game.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out a patch for the PC version of Enter The Matrix, just a couple of days after its release, and a FAQ which rather horrifyingly orders you that "The Vampires should be dispatched in the rooms you find them in" to stop the game from crashing completely. If you add to this the almost complete lack of official reviews, do we get a still-decent game that simply happened to stealthily launch in the week of E3 (when nobody was around to review it), or a rushed license that's deliberately trying to take advantage of gamers who buy based on subject matter? Spoiler-free opinions welcome, especially from those who've bought the game.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out a patch for the PC version of Enter The Matrix, just a couple of days after its release, and a FAQ which rather horrifyingly orders you that "The Vampires should be dispatched in the rooms you find them in" to stop the game from crashing completely. If you add to this the almost complete lack of official reviews, do we get a still-decent game that simply happened to stealthily launch in the week of E3 (when nobody was around to review it), or a rushed license that's deliberately trying to take advantage of gamers who buy based on subject matter? Spoiler-free opinions welcome, especially from those who've bought the game.

tplessers writes "Check out the official Half-Life 2 teaser movie (IGN.com link, .MOV format). The screenshots from last week were breathtaking, but seeing it all move in such a realistic way makes it all complete..." Looks like there are plenty of stable mirrors up for this now, including DivX versions from Fileplanet and Fileshack (registrations required), or the zero-registration P2P goodness of BitTorrent linkage from Gametab.

tplessers writes "Check out the official Half-Life 2 teaser movie (IGN.com link, .MOV format). The screenshots from last week were breathtaking, but seeing it all move in such a realistic way makes it all complete..." Looks like there are plenty of stable mirrors up for this now, including DivX versions from Fileplanet and Fileshack (registrations required), or the zero-registration P2P goodness of BitTorrent linkage from Gametab.

Ever since the Microsoft press conference at the outset of E3, various audience-filmed videos of the Halo 2 demo showcased there have been circulating, but we've been waiting for more stable mirrors before posting. So, you can find the full trailer at IGN.com if you're a subscriber, and they have freely downloadable smaller excerpts. Thanks also to Tim Grube for pointing out this 85mb MPG Halo 2 for Xbox trailer, courtesy Gaming Horizon. Finally, and most usefully, there's now a 39mb WMV BitTorrent of the trailer up at Gametab News.

Ever since the Microsoft press conference at the outset of E3, various audience-filmed videos of the Halo 2 demo showcased there have been circulating, but we've been waiting for more stable mirrors before posting. So, you can find the full trailer at IGN.com if you're a subscriber, and they have freely downloadable smaller excerpts. Thanks also to Tim Grube for pointing out this 85mb MPG Halo 2 for Xbox trailer, courtesy Gaming Horizon. Finally, and most usefully, there's now a 39mb WMV BitTorrent of the trailer up at Gametab News.

Slashdot Games is continuing to report on the E3 expo in Los Angeles, and we're working our way around the major booths, doing brief overviews of the major titles on each. Check out earlier stories for looks at Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, and Sega, but now we turn our attention to Capcom. Read on for info on Gregory Horror Show, Onimusha 3, Viewtiful Joe, and more.. - Gregory Horror Show, which is a working title and seriously rips off the Rocky Horror Show logo in current form, was a seriously bizarre Japanese-ish PS2 title that can best be described as Resident Evil with macabre, weird, square cartoony characters. It certainly had nice graphics, but follows the interesting but odd theme we saw on a number of Capcom titles.

- Dino Crisis 3 for Xbox does the obvious, or, uhh, maybe not, and goes for the 'dinosaurs in space' angle for this graphically good title. So you're stuck on a space station with mutated dinosaurs, and the game seems to stick with the more action-based formula showcased in the last Dino Crisis game.

- Viewtiful Joe for Gamecube was a seriously sharp-looking 2D platform title with plenty of 3D graphics and backgrounds. Reminiscent of titles like Klonoa or Pandemonium, but with added slo-mo blur action and crazed combos, this was another very Japanese-styled game (the main character is a masked hero with flowing cape) which looks great, but probably won't be a mainstream blockbuster in the States.

- Gotcha Force was an interesting Gamecube title, reminding us a lot of Virtual On with flying ninjas and dynamic lock-on action. It has a 2 on 2 team battle mode, and was clearly designed mainly for arena-based multiplayer tussles.

- Maximo Vs. Army Of Zin was a sequel to the much appreciated but hardly top-selling Maximo, and the basic elements of the original seem to have been carried over. We heard that Grim (the Reaper, that is) is a second playable character in the game, but didn't get a chance to check that out. Otherwise.. more of the same, in an arguably good way.

- Group S Challenge was a Project Gotham-style racing game for Xbox, which we hadn't heard much of before the show. The control seemed very solid, and there's a plethora of licensed cars.

- Onimusha 3 was only showing in video form on the bigscreen, but the trailer is gorgeous, and well worth watching if it pops up online anywhere. Set in both France of 2004 (with Jean Reno) and 1582-era Japan, the trailer starts with zombie ninjas being vomited out of an organic spacecraft into modern-day Paris, heh.

- PN-03 for Gamecube starred an extremely shapely female robot killer, in this basic action shooter. Plenty of auto-lock action with wrist-firing lasers, plus almost dance-based special moves.

- other games on the booth included Megaman X7 for PS2, with both 2D and 3D action sections and polygons a-go-go, a puzzler called Bombastic for PS2 which seemed to be an update of Devil Dice, Cinemaware's Defender Of The Crown for PS2, a surprise pick-up which uses the traditional Risk-like elements of the original, plus two leading titles, Onimusha Blade Warriors (think Power Stone with Onimusha characters!) and Resident Evil 4 (Leon Kennedy deep in the core of the Umbrella Corporation) which weren't shown on the floor. Oh, and the Steel Battalion controller is truly epic.

For further impressions, screenshots, and media, doing a search by title on Gametab News is working good for us, but you can also try IGN, Gamespot, and a whole buncha others. More hands-on impressions soon.

trub writes "The new Doom III trailer is out now on Gamespot.com (registration required). It's worth it.. don't mean to sound like a fanboy, but 'words can't describe...'" There are also mirrors that don't need registration via PlanetQuake3.net, and a BitTorrent link courtesy Gametab News for this 31mb DivX file. The game has also been officially confirmed for Xbox at E3, and you can check out more E3 news at Slashdot Games.

trub writes "The new Doom III trailer is out now on Gamespot.com (registration required). It's worth it.. don't mean to sound like a fanboy, but 'words can't describe...'" There are also mirrors that don't need registration via PlanetQuake3.net, and a BitTorrent link courtesy Gametab News for this 31mb DivX file. The game has also been officially confirmed for Xbox at E3, and you can check out more E3 news at Slashdot Games.

Earlier today, Sony's pre-E3 press conference here in Los Angeles announced their PSP handheld console, as we've already covered at Slashdot Games. But there were plenty of other important and interesting announcements in the Sony briefing that we can summarize here, in the same way as we've done for Nintendo's and for Microsoft's pre-E3 press conferences. Read on for info about Gran Turismo 4, Eye Toy, the next Grand Theft Auto, and more.. - all new Playstation 2 consoles sold in the US from June onwards will include a network adaptor. This new bundle will also include an updated version of the console, with DVD-R reading and progressive scan built-in, but will still retail for $199.99. It was later announced that the current PS2 retail box will retail for $179.99, without network adaptor, until they've all been sold.

- this had been coming for a while, especially after EA had expressed their displeasure at Xbox Live, but.. all EA Sports games are only going to be playable online via the PS2. The games will ship for other consoles such as Gamecube or Xbox, but you won't be able to play other people over the Net on those versions. Looks like Sony is upping the ante in the online console war against Microsoft.

- Gran Turismo 4 from Polyphony Digital was extensively previewed. It included some amazing-looking footage, which was often difficult to differentiate from real-life filming. There will be better AI, improved driving, and online capabilities, and the game is looking very, very promising.

- confirmed exclusives for Playstation 2 are both Metal Gear Solid 3:Snake Eater, and the 'next Grand Theft Auto title', although we don't know anything more about the new GTA yet. Any cities want to stand up and volunteer to be the new setting?

- Final Fantasy XI will launch in the US via Sony in early 2004, alongside the PS2 hard disc add-on which will be needed to play it. Interestingly, the PC version will be released by Square Enix in October 2003, significantly ahead of the PS2 version.

- Sony showed the Eye Toy, their digital camera add-on which has been in development for quite some time, and uses clever 'motion capture' style technology to put you in the (often wacky) action. It'll retail for around 40 bucks with mini-games included, and will ship towards Xmas 2003.

If you're looking for screenshots and media info on Sony products, try the usual suspects such as IGN.com, Gamespot, Gamerfeed, or just monitor all the sites with Gametab News.

Slashdot Games will be on the show floor for all 3 days of E3, and will be giving hands-on impressions of the biggest games in all the major booths, including Sony's, so keep checking the page for regular updates.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out that the playable demo of Big Huge Games' epic RTS for PC, Rise Of Nations, is now available on the Microsoft homepage. There's also a BitTorrent mirror on Gametab for this 194mb file.

StrikerObi writes "Planet GameCube has posted the first ever footage of Mario Kart Double Dash for the GameCube. It was recorded earlier off of the CNN Headline News television network. The game now has 2 characters riding on each kart, with one driving and the other using weapons. There is also some footage of the new F-Zero GX game in the reel." There's also a torrent file available from the fine folks at GameTab.

StrikerObi writes "Planet GameCube has posted the first ever footage of Mario Kart Double Dash for the GameCube. It was recorded earlier off of the CNN Headline News television network. The game now has 2 characters riding on each kart, with one driving and the other using weapons. There is also some footage of the new F-Zero GX game in the reel." There's also a torrent file available from the fine folks at GameTab.

US conversions of Japanese games can either be beautifully done or amateurishly botched. And the 2D shoot-'em-up (aka shmup) genre has seen both over the past few weeks. First, there's been Atari's conversion of Treasure's vertical 2D shmup for Gamecube, Ikaruga, which has been generally hailed as 'a great thing', with the preservation of turn-to-vertical mode (play with your TV on its side to exactly replicate the arcade version!) and even an online score ranking system. On the other hand, the budget US release of vertical shooter Mobile Light Force 2 (actually Shikigami) from XS Games has prompted howls of derision from the hardcore fans, with a bizarre Charlie's Angels-aping cover that has nothing to do with the game, and vertical mode and cut-scenes removed. But then, the game is still fundamentally intact - so how much should these import changes matter if you can snag the game cheap? Opinions, as always, welcome.

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.

Aron Schatz writes "You've probably all seen the original movie that the game is based on, but, judging by this PC preview from Gamespy, Tron 2.0 is a completely new universe." Fortunately, there are still light cycles and pseudo-futuristic glow effects everywhere, as IGN.com also noted, and these can be better appreciated in the most recently released trailer movie (Fileplanet link, Fileshack link, BitTorrent link courtesy Gametab.)

Aron Schatz writes "You've probably all seen the original movie that the game is based on, but, judging by this PC preview from Gamespy, Tron 2.0 is a completely new universe." Fortunately, there are still light cycles and pseudo-futuristic glow effects everywhere, as IGN.com also noted, and these can be better appreciated in the most recently released trailer movie (Fileplanet link, Fileshack link, BitTorrent link courtesy Gametab.)

Universal Nerd writes "Red vs. Blue are the folks with a great sense of humor who gave us the Apple Switch spoof, Mac Gamer, a while ago. They're now releasing a new movie called The Blood Gulch Chronicles, a series of episodes created using in-game footage from Halo. Well worth a look and a laugh." The fifth and latest episode came out yesterday, and this is some of the best and funniest machinima I've seen in a long time. Update: 05/05 19:43 GMT by S : Here's a BitTorrent link, thanks to Gametab.

Universal Nerd writes "Red vs. Blue are the folks with a great sense of humor who gave us the Apple Switch spoof, Mac Gamer, a while ago. They're now releasing a new movie called The Blood Gulch Chronicles, a series of episodes created using in-game footage from Halo. Well worth a look and a laugh." The fifth and latest episode came out yesterday, and this is some of the best and funniest machinima I've seen in a long time. Update: 05/05 19:43 GMT by S : Here's a BitTorrent link, thanks to Gametab.

G9o writes "The demo for Unreal II: The Awakening has been released. The 153MB file is available for download at Fileplanet or FileShack. Originally Epic said they weren't going to release a demo for it, but perhaps the mediocre reception changed their mind?" In related news, French games site FactorNews are hosting a press document that claims "Unreal II" for Xbox, "Unreal Assault" for PS2 and "Unreal Tournament 2004" for PC will all be shown by Infogrames at E3, albeit possibly behind closed doors.

Reedo writes "RPG Vault has an interesting article about securing funding for new games. The article was put together by Doug Mealy, the President of Online Marketing and Public Relations. It covers points of view from investors, as well as game developers who have succeeded in landing funding. A good read if you're curious about what's involved when trying to get a game funded."

Kintaro writes "The long awaited Master of Orion 3 is now in stores. The reviews so far have been unusually mixed, but rest assured the game is still complex - in fact that seems to be a recurring complaint among those that don't like it. And as an added bonus, the game actually runs on Linux right out of the box."