News from the Net From our reporter, Alex van Kaam @~Hi and welcome back to the news section. @~One of the biggest topics at this moment is PowerPlay, a new @~internet protocol that will have huge impact on gamers all over @~the world so I figured I would best post the following article, @~taken from http://www.voodooextreme.com, to make sure you all @~understand what it is about: Valve Software, the makers of the critically acclaimed Half-Life, and Cisco Systems, the predominant Internet infrastructure company, have announced an amazing new technology called PowerPlay. The folks over at Valve Software were kind enough to give us the scoop on this killer, lag abolishing product and boy, are we impressed! Eleven well-known game development warehouses, including Bioware, Ensemble Studios, Epic, and Shiny have also announced their support for this awesome new product! If this information isn't enough to satisfy your taste buds, be sure to check out the PowerPlay web site for more information at http://www.powerplayinfo.com! Without further a do, here's the information on Powerplay: PowerPlay Overview When the Internet was originally conceived and deployed, the idea that it would one day create a consumer entertainment platform that would rival traditional entertainment networks like television was not a factor. However with games like Valve's Half- Life generating over 120,000,000 player minutes a month on the Internet, it is clear that for a large group of consumers, the Internet is becoming an increasingly important source of leisure time activities. Given the rapid growth in Internet-based entertainment (around 100% per year), it won't be long until popular multiplayer games are reaching more people for a greater period of time than many cable or broadcast television shows. A key issue in that growth is the quality of user experience. The Internet wasn't designed for entertainment. Routers are optimized for traditional business traffic. Internet service providers primarily provision for e-mail and web hosting. Content developers focus on mitigating the worst case of Internet traffic rather than optimizing for the best experience. Recognizing the need for a coordinated effort to address the issues of consumer entertainment on the Internet, representatives of Cisco, the predominant Internet infrastructure company, an as yet unnamed leading Internet service provider focusing on quality of service issues, and Valve, makers of Half-Life, PC Gamer's 1998 Game of the Year, met to discuss ways to move the Internet forward. The result of these development activities is PowerPlay, a set of protocols and deployment standards for Internet consumer entertainment. PowerPlay will be the basis for a vastly improved quality of service for consumer entertainment on the Internet. The first stage will be in Q1 2000, in which a proof of concept deployment will occur. In coordination with Cisco, the ISP will make available a PowerPlay enhanced service for dial-up customers. The first month of service will be completely free to allow as many users to try out the advantages of PowerPlay as possible. As part of that service, customers will receive a PowerPlay enabled version of Valve's Team Fortress. Once this wide-scale demonstration is in place, development activities will commence on a PowerPlay 2.0 specification that will be extend PowerPlay in two important ways. First, PowerPlay 2.0 will address additional key issues such as the integration of high- quality voice, the use of multicast IP for further network optimization, new lower latency modem standards, and bandwidth reservation. Secondly, PowerPlay 2.0 will be an open industry standard that will involve the participation of a wide group of developers, service providers, and hardware manufacturers, resulting in dozens of important games and applications utilizing PowerPlay. Developers who have announced participation in the PowerPlay 2.0 standards effort include: Developer - Contact - Notes Bioware - Dr. Ray Muzyka - Developers of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Neverwinter Nights, and MDK2 Ensemble Studios - Dave Pottinger - Developers of Age of Empires I and II Epic - Tim Sweeney - Developers of Unreal and Unreal Tournament Looking Glass - Justin Waks - Developers of System Shock 1 and 2, Thief 1 and 2, and Flight Unlimited Outrage - Matt Toschlog - Developers of Descent 3 Red Storm Entertainment - Jason Snyder - Developers of Rainbow 6, and Rogue Spear Relic - Alex Garden - Developers of Homeworld Ritual - Mike Dochterman - Developers of Sin and F.A.K.K. 2 Shiny - Dave Perry - Developers of Messiah, and R/C Stun Copter Valve - Gabe Newell - Developers of Half-Life and Team Fortress Volition - Mike Kulas - Developers of Freespace 1 and 2 Q&A 1) What is PowerPlay? PowerPlay is a set of standards and protocols for improving games and entertainment on the Internet. 2) Who is involved in PowerPlay? Initially PowerPlay has been defined by Cisco, the leading supplier of Internet infrastructure, a leading US ISP, and Valve, creators of Half-Life. Over time, PowerPlay will become an open industry standard. 3) Why did these companies get together? When the Internet was originally conceived, it wasn't designed to deliver high quality consumer entertainment. As a result, developers have focused on mitigating the worst rather than optimizing for the best. In order to bring about the necessary changes in the Internet to allow for great consumer experiences, it became clear to the three companies that a coordinated solution between content developers, service providers, and infrastructure manufacturers was necessary. 4) How does it work? The initial focus of PowerPlay is on Quality of Service (QOS). There are a wide variety of protocol and deployment issues related to improving QOS. Valve brought experience and technology related to client applications design, our ISP partner addressed deployment issues, and Cisco addressed router and access concentrator issues. 5) What's the result? Users who have a PowerPlay enabled system will have a dramatically better entertainment experience. Problems with lag, packet loss, jerky play and so on will dramatically be reduced. Basically PowerPlay brings the quality of LAN play to the Internet. 6) How will PowerPlay be rolled out? The first stage will be a proof of concept deployment to demonstrate the benefits of a coordinated effort to improve Internet entertainment. Our ISP partner will launch a PowerPlay dial-up service for the US in Q1 2000. In order to give the greatest number of people the opportunity to try out PowerPlay for themselves, there will be a free 30 day trial available to anyone with no obligation. Valve will also release a special stand-alone version of Team Fortress Classic that has been modified to support PowerPlay. This will also be free. The next steps will be to extend the PowerPlay technology and open PowerPlay to a wider number of participating companies. This will result in PowerPlay 2.0, the first set of public specifications for high quality gameplay over the Internet. A number of software developers have already committed to participate in the PowerPlay 2.0 effort, including Bioware, Outrage, and Epic Games. Some of the issues that will be addressed in PowerPlay 2.0 are the integration of voice and multicast IP, the definition of a PowerPlay modem standard, an adoption of a bandwidth reservation protocol, and further deployment qualifications similar in nature to the THX standards used to qualify movie quality. PowerPlay will initially be deployed in the US as dial-up service for PCs. It is expected that there will be announcements of PowerPlay delivery for markets outside of the US, for higher- speed connections (DSL and cable modems), and for non-PC clients. 7) Is this just for games? Games are probably the most demanding application, but other applications such as voice or streaming video will benefit from the issues addressed by PowerPlay. For example, bandwidth reservation, which will be addressed in PowerPlay 2.0, is applicable to a wide variety of Internet communications and entertainment applications. 8) Why is the Internet important for entertainment? Probably the best argument is that leading creators of today's entertainment already realize the key role the Internet will play in the future. "Steven Spielberg has forecast that the Internet will eventually become the primary source for entertainment. Appearing on NBC's Today show on Thursday, Spielberg told co-host Katie Couric: "I think that the Internet is going to effect the most profound change on the entertainment industries combined. And we're all gonna be tuning into the most popular Internet show in the world, which will be coming from some place in Des Moines." When Couric remarked, "Great, I'm gonna lose my job," Spielberg interjected, "We're all gonna lose our jobs. We're all gonna be on the Internet trying to find an audience." See www.imdb.com, December 3, 1999 News Section. Quotes "In sitting down with the Cisco and our ISP partner's engineers, it was clear that there were a lot of opportunities to extend the Internet to better handle games and entertainment. Giving gamers a free copy of PowerPlay enhanced Team Fortress and a free month of PowerPlay service will let them see the progress we've made so far. PowerPlay 2.0 will benefit from the broader participation and deployment of an open standards initiative." Gabe Newell, Managing Director Valve, LLC. gaben@valvesoftware.com 425-889-9642 XT 101. http://www.valvesoftware.com "As the market leader in remote access equipment-the point of contact where a gamer first touches the Internet-Cisco has tremendous opportunity to improve a gamer's dial-up connection. But to achieve maximum improvement, the game itself, the network it is deployed on and the dial-up connection have to be optimized. Gamers get the best possible Internet gaming experience with PowerPlay because it combines Cisco's key enhancements with those of Valve and our service provider customers." Mathew Lodge, Mgr, Product Marketing Cisco Systems. mlodge@cisco.com. 408-527-4908. http://cisco.com "Getting the network infrastructure manufacturers, the service providers, and the software developers to work together on PowerPlay just makes a lot of sense. The industry needs to work through these standards so that the Internet can become a much more robust platform for consumer entertainment." Dr. Raymond Muzyka, Joint CEO Bioware @~Since Half Live was mentioned so much about here is something @~about Half-Life Chronicles, free to download from the net at @~http://www.radioactivesoftware.com/indexdecaf.html Essentially, Chronicles is a mini-series of single player missions, downloadable over the Internet. These mini-series consist of Episodes, which each contain anywhere from 3-15 .bsp files. Each Episode is a stand alone set, that draws on "what if?" scenarios in the Half-Life universe. Each episode begins with a pivotal scene from the original Half- Life (the opening train sequence, the first Osprey attack in "We've got Hostiles", the encounter with G-Man, etc) and then alters the flow of the story from the original. An example would be this: You're in the opening train sequence, and are heading towards the Anomalous Materials labs. Suddenly, a series of explosions rocks the complex, and your tram falls off of its rail...it would seem that your colleagues got tired of waiting for you, and conducted the experiment without you...leading to some unforeseen consequences. You would have to arm yourself and suit up, and then get the hell out of the area! @~As some of you might have found out/read, Ultima Ascension has not @~had one good review, well none that I could find, the game is @~filled with bugs and it's a clear sign that Origin (once again) @~gave into the pressure of Electronic Arts and released a game @~which was not finished yet. Popular rumour has it that Origin has @~promised all Ultima IX buyers will get a new CD sent to them from @~Origin once they have fixed the game fully. This also seems to be @~why Ultima IX has not yet reached Europe. @~The Games Domain released a nice preview of the coming year at @~http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/arcidx.html#column Last Updated: January 7, 2000 Turbulence Ahead Seeing as everyone else is writing gushy sentimental reviews of 1999, I've decided to do something different. So I've clambered onto a limb and looked far into the future. Allow me to present my top ten predictions for the new year and beyond: Blizzard releases Diablo 2 in late March and the "May 19th phenomenon" is revisited as offices and classrooms sit empty all across North America. UPS struggles to cope with the sheer volume of pre-orders and some shipments are delayed. As a result, reports of hazings committed against brown-uniformed individuals spike for the month. By the end of April the game has sold over a million copies. The United States' second quarter GDP falls by 50% as productivity reaches an all time low. The release of Diablo 2 coincides with id's third Point Release for Quake 3 Arena which actually introduces interesting multiplayer modes. A week later, two Internet backbones suffer catastrophic collapses as Internet traffic surges to record levels. In somewhat related news, the week-long disruption of Internet services saves Amazon.com $40 million in operating losses. 3D Realms announces that it is switching Duke Nukem Forever from the Unreal Tournament engine to the Quake 3 engine. George Broussard offers the following explanation: "This was a business decision and based on what we wanted to do with Duke Nukem Forever as a game." The long rumored Tomb Raider: The Motion Picture finally hits the silverscreen, staring Denise Richards in the role of Lara Croft. The film is panned by critics everywhere. Roger Ebert declares the movie to be "nothing more than formulaic, predictable action sequences strung together by a shoe-string plot." Only strong sales from teen audiences save the movie from being a total box- office flop. Two months later, Tomb Raider 5, based on the movie, is released for the PC and PSX2. It immediately knocks Tomb Raider 4 from the top of PC Data's sales charts. Sierra releases Opposing Opposing Force, an add-on for Half Life that supposedly allows players to revisit the events at Black Mesa Complex from the perspective of a Vortigore by the name of Xog. Says Sierra's website: "Xog must survive attacks from both elite government marines and Gordon Freeman in his attempt to enslave the human race!" The game receives good reviews all around and several hundred thousand copies are sold before it is discovered that the game boxes are empty and the game was but a ploy initiated by Valve to divert attention away from the horribly late Team Fortress 2. Team Fortress 2 is never released. Daikatana is finally released. The game eventually sells 150,000 copies, far short of the 2 million that Ionstorm was reeeally reeeally hoping for. The company goes on to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. John Romero, finally humbled, quits the company and takes on a junior position at Eidos Interactive. Eidos president Rob Dyer is quoted as saying "what was that about bitches, John?" Ironically, the game wins a Codie award in 2001. Electronic Arts releases Need for Speed: The Express Lane. Featuring authentic shopping carts, the game allows players to race down produce aisles and check-out lanes at break-neck speeds in 16 different supermarkets (4 if you discount the mirror and reverse racing modes). "We thought that having pretty much beaten the dream car theme to death in our four previous games," says one EA spokesperson, "players will love the refreshing gameplay." Fan response is lukewarm. Gamers are inundated by Star Trek games as Interplay and Activision join forces in adopting a "Practice Makes Perfect" policy. Klingon Academy and Voyager: Elite Force usher in a new era of Trek-related mass merchandising, despite Paramount's cancellation of the Voyager series after the departure of Jeri Ryan. Some good does come out of the mess, however, as the first good Star Trek action game is accidentally developed. The much-anticipated space epic Freelancer by Chris Roberts is released by Microsoft, accompanied by a $100 million advertising budget. However, initial sales are slow due to the fact that the system requirements to keep the game playable is an overclocked 2 GHz Athlon (advertised minimum specs: P200/32MB RAM). Microsoft saves the day by bundling the game with its Windows Millennium operating system and Freelancer goes on to ship 70 million copies. The subsequent Freelancer movie (starring Jake Lloyd as a young space pilot) doesn't do nearly as well. Raven releases its ultra-violent shooter Soldier of Fortune. The United States Congress enacts a bill to ban the game, and most Western countries soon follow suit. The game is pulled from store shelves worldwide, but not before it falls into the hands of countless impressionable young children. Twenty years later, humanity devolves into a race of desensitized savages. All hell breaks loose. @~Talking about Daikatana, I downloaded a multiplayer demo of it a @~few weeks ago, and I was stunned at how bad the game was in the @~looks department, the original Duke Nukem 3D looked better, I sure @~hope it will have better graphics than those I saw or it will be a @~huge disaster. @~Interstate 82 has been released, it's like Interstate 71 but also @~has the option for you to leave the car. Played the demo, finished @~it in 15 minutes, was fun but easy, but I am sure the game will be @~better, for a web review check out: http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdr.cgi?zones/reviews/pc/jan00/i82.html @~I also downloaded and played Crusaders of Might and Magic, I was @~not sure what to expect, I really just downloaded it because it @~said Might and Magic, I really thought it was something tactical @~or RPG-like but in fact it was a very very very smooth and great @~looking 3D shooter, but instead of the guns you have swords and @~Axes, you also gain levels like in an RPG. I enjoyed the Demo a @~lot and this game will be on my shopping list for sure.... you can @~check out a preview at http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdr.cgi?zones/previews/dec99/cmm.html @~Well because of the large part on PowerPlay I already have reached @~my limit for the news section, so see you next time with some more @~news. - o -