News from the Net From our reporter, Alex van Kaam Hi and welcome to yet another issue of web news. I tried to do this all in a logical order but I have so many links for this issue I will just go through them as stored them in my SynTax folder.. ------ As most of you will have found out, Ultima IX is finally out, which brings me probably to the last 3 Ultima IX link I have left... http://www.rpgplanet.com/ultima9/game/orig_plot.asp This is, or claims to be the original plot of Ultima IX, if you are playing the game right now then it's not a good idea to read it, wait till you have finished it, I have also mailed the whole plot to Sue so she might/could make a separate item from it. @~ It's elsewhere in this issue ... Sue and http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~paulryan/FAQ/ultimafaqs.htm which is a FAQ about all the Ultima games. ------ Now at http://www.rpgplanet.com/ultima9/billsupdate.asp there are postings from Capn'Bill - Bill Randolph, the lead programmer for Ultima IX. Start at the bottom of the page and work your way up..... interesting to say the least !!! On a last Ultima note, this time UO2, check out http://www.uo2.com/legends-prequel_1.html with the following remark: The prequel fiction released on this site is based loosely on the fictional world of Ultima Online 2, and is not meant to represent the actual features of the game at time of release...... Blackthorn was glad he had learned the language of daemons. Had he not spoken in time, the one before him might well have snapped off his head. Instead the nobleman stood with crossed arms, staring up at the monster's face. The daemon was twice his height and must have weighed more than three horses. Its hands were larger than Blackthorn's head. Its claws were razor-edged shingles. And it was repugnant. Rotting gore and excrement smeared its pocked skin and clotted in the creases of its wings, dropping on the floor in clumps when it moved. Its huge jaw hung slack, emitting a visible miasma that slunk through the air like putrid fog. Its fangs were splotched with bilious colors. And its voice rang as deep and sonorous as a flawless iron bell. "Perhaps we can make a deal," it said, the walls resonating with its purity of sound. The words arrived on a putrescent breath. Blackthorn wrinkled his nose. "I shouldn't," he answered, "but at the moment I have no choice. Tell me what I must do." "Come closer." To accommodate the bulk of the monster, the corridor had a very high ceiling. A stairway led upward at one end of the short hallway; at the other end was a single door with the daemon in front of it. Shadows danced to the flicker of torchlight. The unadorned stone walls might have seemed out of place in the opulent Castle Britannia, except that few ever traveled this deep under the palace. This was the domain of Nystul, the ancient court wizard. He placed here only what embellishments he required -- sorcerous runes carved in the door and a magic circle inscribed around the daemon. Blackthorn stepped closer, just outside the circle. He was careful to avoid the monster's strewn droppings with his neatly polished boots. ------ Next in line for the news is Pool of Radiance: http://www.dailyradar.com/previews/game_preview_401.html has a small preview of the game of which I ripped this small extract: Class blending is of particular interest. For example, a player has the ability to start off as a paladin and at each level up, the player can continue as a paladin or choose to be almost anything else. Switching classes will not cause you to lose experience in your first class, and it's possible to switch back and forth between classes. Therefore, you could conceivably end up with a level 6 paladin, a level 4 thief and a level 5 cleric, all in the same character. In Ruins, players are limited to a combined maximum level of 16; i.e., your levels in each class are added together, and that total can't be greater than 16. Ruins will inevitably be compared to both Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment, so we asked Producer Jon Kromrey what sets Ruins apart from the current champions of the RPG world. "[The first difference is] the fact that we have 3D animation for our characters and monsters; it's not click-stop 2D animation. It is handcrafted and that allows us greater flexibility and more realism in our characters." ------ At http://pc.ign.com/news/17695.html there is the 2nd interview the producer of Pool of Radiance: IGNPC: We've talked to the development team a couple of times in the past, so let's start out with a few general questions. How's the project going so far? What are you working on now? What are some of the most recent additions to the game? Jon Kromrey: The project is moving ahead smoothly and at full steam. Stormfront has beefed up the production team to make dates and ensure a high level of quality in the game. Currently we are moving towards Alpha and looking into the prospect of adding more to the game in terms of more character models, textures and better support of the D&D 3rd Edition Rules. Most recently we had a week-long voice recording session with voice actors for the spoken lines in the game and cinematics. It's amazing to hear the characters come alive and the added emotional depth that we've gotten for our game. ------ http://www.pcgames-central.net/articles/2000/4/poolofradiance / has a first look of the game and finally http://www.wizards.com/licensed/ruins_interview_4_1.asp has an interview with one of the makers. ------ GameSpot UK has whipped up a preview of X-COM Alliance at: http://www.gamespot.co.uk/pc.gamespot/action/xcall_uk/preview .html X-COM and Microprose appear to be a great gaming double act. Just as Microprose has transformed into Hasbro, so the newest X- COM has transformed into a 3D shooter. The game uses the Unreal engine, and combines it with a tactical framework that allows you to control not only your own trooper but also three other members of your squad. From what I saw demonstrated at Hasbro's gaming event in San Francisco, X-COM Alliance plays exactly like a first-person shooter, but with all the elements that made the original X-COM such a success. In fact, the game picks up right after the Second Alien War, when your salvage ship, UGS Patton, hits a spacewarp that tosses you into the middle of an alien battle. From then on you're trying to discover what's going on, which side to help and eventually, how to scavenge the technology to get home. With your crew comprised only of a small contingent of troopers, returning to earth is not going to be achieved by blasting first and thinking later. Since the Patton is stranded far from home, you will have to "live off the land," collecting weapons and ammunition as you progress through the levels in order to keep the Patton's armoury fully stocked. ------ 3DGN has put up a small very early preview of Stupid Invader at http://www.3dgaming.net/stuff/quickie/3300.shtml Every self-respecting adventure game has to have a silly, twisted plot, and you won't be disappointed here. SI's head bad guy is none other than The Evil Dr. Slobodan Sakarin, a crazed scientist (go figure!) whose favorite pastimes include capturing aliens, giving them the Biore' formaldehyde facial, and storing them in jars at his Secret LaboratoryT. Our heroes are five aliens - Candy, Gorgeous, Stereo, Ethno and Bud who find themselves the target of the good Dr. after stopping off on Earth for a quick picnic. Not being the brightest bulbs in the box, our alien friends will need the player's help to escape from Dr. Sakarin and his hired henchman. (Good henchmen are so hard to find!) Players will be faced with a barrage of standard adventure game puzzles - find an item, take it to the head flex-o-grub and exchange it for the key.. Fortunately the developers promise that the puzzles will actually make sense. Producer Sebastien Hamon says "I hate it when you have to put the pencil in the toaster and turn the light on to open the garage door.." Look for challenges that will advance the plot, yet make sense in an otherwise twisted world. Instead of relying on meaningless obstacles to extend gameplay, the development team has added more content (Whoa! Imagine that!) Stupid Invaders will consist of more than 500 different backgrounds, and include a cast of at least 50 characters for players to interact with. Ubi Soft estimates that an experienced adventure game player will require over 30 hours to unravel the sinister plot. ------ As many of you should also know by now is that Diakatana is finished, the previews on the www about the demo are all bad, but to be honest I enjoyed playing it, it's not the best game ever made but not the worst either. Anyways over at Salon.com they have a few pages about who they made, what they all had to do etc. etc., a nice read indeed: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/03/07/romero/index.htm l and part 2 at http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/03/08/ion_two/index. html Now Ion Storm's 31 game developers don't just work in the shade, they work in the black. To get into their cubes, they part felt drapes like photographers entering miniature darkrooms. It was a fairly awesome and ironic sight as I wandered through the glass- domed gamers' haven last October. All I saw were rows of caves. And of these caves, Weasl's was the darkest. "I call myself a mushroom," Weasl told me as I crouched inside, "because I'm always working in the dark." With a couple extra layers of felt draping his cube, there's not even the slightest trace of light, let alone fresh air. But Weasl, a stocky, long-haired 20-year-old who resembles Meatloaf in the '70s, doesn't seem to mind. "Darkness is really helpful when you're trying to shut out outside influences," he explains, tweaking an animated pool of lava on his screen. "After you spend enough time in here, your personality adapts." Luke "Weasl" Whiteside is the newest level designer to join the Daikatana team and, in a way, the most enigmatic. Since he came to the company just a few months before my visit, Weasl managed to miss out on Ion Storm's tempestuous back story. He's still so awed to be working here that sometimes he doesn't leave. Underneath his desk there's a pillow. On some nights, he hunkers down below his computer, munches some M&Ms and goes to sleep. For Romero, who dreamed of populating a company with gamers as intense as himself, Weasl is as hardcore as it gets. ------ The official ST Armanda site is up at http://www.st-armada.com/, a nicely made page indeed. DailyRadar.com has put up a review of the game over at http://www.dailyradar.com/reviews/game_review_613.html Way back in our preview of this game, we noted that the greatest aspect of Star Trek is almost never delivered in any of the games. Ship-to-ship combat, while lamentably brief in the various TV series and movies, has always been one of the most entertaining parts of the Star Trek universe. Starfleet Academy was a bust and the small moments of space combat in Spectrum Holobyte's Star Trek: The Next Generation game weren't much better, while Starfleet Command is a great game, but a bit too complex for the average dope (like this reviewer). What Trekkers really need is a fast, fun starship battle game that looks as good as the special effects on the show. Man, did Activision ever deliver in spades. Armada begins off, as any good Star Trek game should, with a doozy of an intro. Players are quickly given the gist of the story in a few minutes of FMV that features the vocal stylings of Michael Dorn (Worf), Denise Crosby (Sela), J. G. Hetzler (Klingon leader Martok) and Professor Xavier himself, Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard). The Borg are once again bum- rushing the Federation, while those sneaky wannabe-Vulcans from Romulus attempt to cut a deal with the evil tin men in return for their own pointy-eared safety. Picard and Starfleet find themselves without the assistance of their occasional ally, the Klingon Empire, who are embroiled in yet another one of their own internal battles of succession . All this is delivered fast enough to get players up to speed and still have some time left over for a big pre-rendered Federation/Borg clash virtually lifted straight out of the opening of Star Trek: First Contact. After it wraps up, stunned Trekkers will be left with the ability to utter but a single word: sweeeet. ------ On another Star Trek note, the online version of the game which Activision was planning to make together with Verant seems to be off, check out http://www.mcvnow.com/servlets/Article?articleId=1964 When MCV learned earlier this year that LucasArts was working with Verant Interactive to develop a Star Wars massively multiplayer online game, our curiosity was piqued. Verant was already working with Activision on a Star Trek-based game of a similar kind. How would the company cope with the strain of two such important (and potentially competitive) deals? The answer: It won't need to. Activision is looking for a new development partner, MCV has learned. Activision is pressing ahead with plans for its massively multiplayer online Star Trek game, first disclosed to analysts by CEO Robert Kotick in early February. At that time, Kotick said he expected the game, then cited as a joint venture with Sony Online Entertainment, to attract between 400,000 and 500,000 paying subscribers. ------ Next online is something I was amazed to see, YAK is still around, heck he even has his own page at http://www.magicnet.net/~yak/. It seems he is still working on his Light engine, check out http://www.magicnet.net/~yak/gnugnus.htm Now to all of you who don't know YAK..... never mind ------ http://obi-wankenobi.net/screenshots.html leads to a few screenshots of the new Obi-Wan Kenobi game from Lucas Arts, looks nice indeed. But what was much nicer was this link I found there: http://www.lucasarts.com/e3/default_monkey.htm Yup, a link to Lucas Arts and to Monkey Island, it has few screenshots, which I will include in this mail to Sue so she can post them, they look very funny, especially the Planet Treewood one :-).... and I ripped this part from the Press Releases: Escape from Monkey Island finds Guybrush and his new bride, Governor Elaine Marley-Threepwood, returning to Melee Island from their honeymoon. They quickly discover Elaine has been declared dead, the Governor's mansion is scheduled for demolition, and the slick, yet hauntingly familiar politician, Charles L. Charles, is gunning for her job. While Elaine scrambles to launch a re-election campaign, Guybrush is dispatched on a seemingly trivial legal errand that catapults him into a maelstrom of thievery, voodoo, and experimental prosthetic devices. Armed only with his sharp wit and an uncanny ability to hold his breath for ten whole minutes, our hero navigates ever deeper into a villainous scheme to wipe out the Tri-Island Area using the fearsome power of the Ultimate Insult. Can Guybrush make the Caribbean safe for fun-loving, grog-swilling pirates, or will the twin forces of heckfire and unbridled capitalism bring an end to the swashbuckling merriment? So begins the next captivating chapter in the long-running Monkey Island series. Buccaneers, hoist the yardarms, batten down the hatches, and let the insults fly! ------ Over at http://www.softwarespecialties.com/dcforum/DCForumID7/50. html# there is an online Q&A about Wizardy 8, it's a bit like a newsgroup posting bit still very informative: Question 1- Ranged/Thrown Weapons One of the pitfalls of using projectile attack weapons (arrows, bullets, stones, darts, shurikens and such) in Wizardry 7, was having to go out of your way to restock your characters. Conversely, many people thought that ranged attack had an unbalancing effect in Baldur's Gate. We have heard of (and are looking forward to) many changes to almost every facet of your upcoming game. What kind of changes can we expect to see in regards to Ranged Combat and restocking our supply of Ranged/Thrown Weapons? (i.e. Will we be able to retrieve any of our spent ammunition?) Ranged attacks have taken on a lot more significance in Wizardry 8. It can be a real kick to protect a character with ranged weapons in the center of your formation and let him pick off targets at a distance. However, it's not a situation where you can just brainlessly wipe everything out at range (e.g. bows and ranged attacks are not so powerful as to let you do this) nor are the hand-to-hand brute force attackers minimized in any way. Ammunition is used up when you fire at range but basic ammunition, (e.g. plain arrows, simple sling stones, etc...) will be available in reasonably abundant supply and be common enough that you don't feel that you have to "go out of your way" to re-supply. Trust me, having to run around after a battle to pick up your arrows would end up feeling like major micromanagement. Unlike Wizardry 7, monsters in Wiz 8 will drop items on a more regular basis. The deadlier ammunition types will be more rare and so you may want to think twice before burning one of those viper arrows on the simple rat wandering around in the distance. ------ Part 9 of the Baldurs Gate II developers journal is out at http://pc.ign.com/news/17730.html, a interview can be found at http://www.trenches.org/projects/interviews/bgii.shtml, Interplay has put up a nice BG II site at: http://www.interplay.com/bgate2/ and Gamespot has a work in progress page about the game at http://headline.gamespot.com/news/00_04/26_pc_ bg2look/index.html Here is a small part of the interview from Trenches.org: [trenches] What is the plot for the main quest in Baldur's Gate II? [ben] In BG2 the game revolves far more around the plot, much more so than in even the original Baldur's Gate. This means, unfortunately, that I cannot really tell you much about the main plot without being a major spoiler. [trenches] What unique weapons added to the game, if at all? [ben] We have added literally hundreds of new items to the game. Because your party can reach higher levels, the items we have added are quite spectacular in both power and appearance. We have of course added the class "drool" items such as the Paladin's Holy Avenger and the Mage's Staff of the Magi, but there are many other powerful and unique items throughout BG2.. [trenches] Why should anyone own a stronghold? [ben] Owning a stronghold is an option...you do not have to get involved with one if you do not want to. There are, however, many good reasons why you should. First off, it is a great safe haven for you to rest, store items and use as a "base". Second of all, strongholds have many interesting quests and plots attached to them. These quests have VERY good rewards for the class they are attached to and add to the overall "feel" to the world itself. ------ CGO has put up yet another preview of Diablo 2 at http://www.cdmag.com/Home/home.html?article=/articles/027/060 /diablo2_previe w.html I dunno but it seems this game has been in development for ages now....... ------ Gamespot (they are busy) has put up a "hands on" on a new games called SoulBringer at http://www.gamespot.co.uk/pc.gamespot/rpg/soul_uk/preview_fl. html Soulbringer, the long-delayed roleplaying game originally developed by Gremlin bills itself as a dark and epic adventure, in which Skorn is the big, bad enemy and feared godfather of hot (and possibly funky) lava related torture. You're the hapless hero who will eventually challenge his mighty magic, despite the fact that you'd be hard-pressed to beat Paul Daniels with your spell-casting skills at the outset of the game. If you hadn't already guessed Soulbringer is an roleplaying adventure, realised in a fully 3D third-person perspective. The beta copy of the game I played was mostly complete, although there's still plenty of bug-busting to do and a fair degree of loading optimisation to boot. There's good and bad in Soulbringer. Tipping the scale towards the positive, we have the visuals, which are redolent with roleplaying atmosphere (bleak nights and lantern light). However, when the engine zooms in for cutscenes, the detail breaks down into blockiness. A seamless engine which incorporates cutscenes on-the-fly gets the thumbs up, but the game engineering hits somewhat rockier ground with the interface. It's very slow one click and our hero turns, lurches to one side and scratches his ear before finally deliberating on whether he should act on your instruction. Having said that, Soulbringer is supposed to be a pretty strategic roleplaying game. This is no hack and slasher, and I get the feeling that the tempered response is design rather than just sluggishness. The combat system certainly embodies tactical thought rather than action, with a system of clicking on the slash you want on an interface panel to the side (low cut, normal hack), all of which varies with the weapon you are wielding. Terrain and elevation in relation to your opponent also matters, but I found combat too slow and difficult to manage. It would appear that the AI hasn't been tuned yet, as some monsters seemed to hand me my posterior on a plate before I could so much as scratch them. ------ Over at http://terminus.gamestats.com/information/game/ is some info about this game (Station Terminus) Terminus is a persistent universe RPG, in space. It is a 3D simulation set in our Solar System, two hundred years in the future. In a time of war, you take the cockpit to build one of four careers, and can fight, fly, trade, or rob your way through a single or multiplayer campaign. This multi-career RPG system of gameplay is dramatically different from other space combat games, and pushes the genre forward and in new directions. ------ And that is about it, hope you enjoyed it Alex - o -