Empire Earth 2 07.09.2004
One new preview, five new movies.

Men of Valor Preview 07.09.2004
A promising Vietnam FPS enters the fray.

PC Games
None.

XBox
Room Zoom, NCAA Football 2005, Samurai Warriors.

PS2
NCAA Football 2005, Karoke Revolution: Volume 2, Bunjingai, Athens 2004.

GameCube
NCAA Football 2005, Tales of Symphonia, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow.

DVD
Agent Cody Banks 2, Best of INXS, Bourne Idenity: Explosive Edition, Justice League - Starcrossed, Manchurian Canidate, Project Greenlight 2, Zatoichi. More DVD releases.

Movies
I Robot, A Cinderlla Story.

Guild Wars Q&A; 02:12 pm - Jeff Tom - games: mmog (0 comments)
Warcry have slapped up an interview on Guild Wars community day. Not a whole lot here but here's a cut:

GW: What about level restrictions on items and skills? Do you think it will come to that? What about Twinking?

Pat: Twinking isn't always a bad thing. Say you or your friend hasn't been able to play for awhile and he or you are now behind the rest of your friends or your guild. This is were the no level restriction is an advantage. Weapon customization sort of defeats the purpose of level restrictions, if you customize a weapon to make it better only your character can use it forever.

WorthPlaying Previews 11:31 am - Steejee - games: general news (0 comments)
WorthPlaying has postd up a trio of previews today:

First up, the next installment of the never ending Final Fantasy series. Like every other recent Final Fantasy, the game will feature gorgeous cut scenes and bizarre clothes, but what else?

We came away with mixed feelings about FFXII after having played the game. The fully 3D environments sound good on paper, but all they equated to was less impressive graphics on the screen I was looking at. The pre-rendered backgrounds of the previous PS2 games just look better, IMO. The combat dynamics threw me for a loop also, as they now occur on field in real-time. It didn't take long to realize where Square was coming from with this bold "new" direction.

Second, Def Jam: Fight for New York for the PS2 and XBox I'm sure everyone is all set with cash in hand for this one.

Finally, WWX: Rumble Roses for the PS2 If the title isn't clear, how about a little helper on the basis of this one:

The first thing you notice about Rumble Roses is its sexy female wrasslers, wrasslin' it up. The second thing is the realistic 'jiggle' physics in all the right parts of said female wrasslers. Then you notice the sexy ladies again. After that you notice the jiggle. This goes on for about 10 minutes before whether the game is actually fun to play comes into question. So I picked up the DualShock and proceeded to find out.

In Other News 07:53 am - Jeff Tom - in-house: in other news... (19 comments)
Not a lot going on right now so I'm going to weigh in on the Doom 3 issue. I believe that if id doesn't have the game go gold before QuakeCon, on August 3 as retailers have set for a relase, they'll have to at least relase some multiplayer test to have people ready to play at QuakeCon for the tournament and from everything id has said they're not going to release a multiplayer test for Doom 3, but this could change of course. As far as just having Doom 3 there, some version just for QuakeCon, that's going to be played by many people there and with tons of volunteers around the area, if they just do that I don't see how it couldn't leak so hopefully they'll just allow everyone to enjoy it with a test when QuakeCon hits as opposed to those just lucky enough to get into the competition. I'd much rather have the game go gold and released this summer so that there's something worth playing and we can't quit talking about it. :)

What music do you listen to while you're playing a game if you do?

GameSpot: We understand that the game will take place in one huge city, divided into four districts. Why was the decision made to design the world in this way, rather than as a single, continuous city or as multiple cities separated into different areas?

William Westwater: After meeting with John Gaeta (the visual effects supervisor of the Matrix movies) and some of the other production designers on the films, we got our hands on the high-level maps of Mega City. It turns out that the Matrix is not so much a replication of 20th century America as an extrapolation of it. That's a wordy way of saying that there is only one city in the Matrix. Oh, it's a big city--infinite, in fact--but it's still one enormous city. Now, we could have made something infinite, but we somehow thought better of that, and instead we focused on some of the most interesting parts of the city center. We are shipping with four districts but fully expect that more of the city will be revealed in the future.

Men of Valor Preview 01:31 am - Jeff Tom - games: action (0 comments)
One more Men of Valor preview today, this time from GameSpy on the first-person shooter. Enjoy:

One of the key elements of Men of Valor is that you'll rarely be fighting alone -- you'll usually have other soldiers fighting alongside you, helping you work your way up the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other settings. As a result, the game progresses with an extremely cinematic feel: your squadmates are always chatting with you, there's lots of yelling during battles, and there are lots of brief scripted events that push the game along. You don't have any control over your teammates, but the developers at 2015 are working hard to maintain balance for your computer-controlled buddies: some of them can't be killed because of their overall role within the story, but at the same time, you won't be able to lay back and let them do all the dirty work. There are reportedly over 8000 lines of dialogue being recorded for the game, so expect to get rather chummy with your squadmates.

Halo 2 Preview 01:28 am - Jeff Tom - consoles: xbox (0 comments)
GameSpy have put up part three of their preview of Halo 2, taking a look at graphics and audio this time around. Check it:

Possibly the biggest visual change has been the introduction of new lighting effects. While it doesn't utilize light in the showy way that a game like Splinter Cell might, it's easy to notice the effort that went in to making the lighting as realistic as possible. If you watch the multiplayer demonstration, you'll notice that there is a tremendous increase in quality of the reflections off characters and objects, from the armor on the Master Chief's arm to the hood on the Warthog. The lighting, of course, is all real-time, too. If you fire a rocket from the launcher on the Warthog, the light will be reflected by nearly every surface it passes.

WoW Update 01:26 am - Jeff Tom - games: mmog (8 comments)
GameSpy have also put up their two cents on the new World of Warcraft patch for the Blizzard MMORPG. Here's a whiff:

The third major addition in the patch is what looks like it might be the final change to the controversial "Rest" system. The system now only has two tiers - Rested, which nets 200% experience, and Normal, which gets 100% experience. The "Rested" state only lasts for about 30 "bubbles" or 1.5 levels of play, and players can only gain back one "bubble" per 8 house of logout time. Effectively it eliminates the Rest system for players who log on every day, while giveing more casual players a chance to keep up with their friends.

Empire Earth 2 Preview 01:24 am - Jeff Tom - games: real-time strategy (1 comment)
GameSpy have also put some up some impressions on Empire Earth 2.

"Empire Earth worked," Mysliwy said, "no question about it. It was a great game." The challenge for the Empire Earth II team, then, was to tear Empire Earth apart and find out just why it worked, then figure out a way to advance the franchise without losing the particular magic that captured so many fans of the original. In the end, what they realized was that the original game didn't really need to be added to or improved -- it needed to be streamlined. Indeed, one of the chief complaints about Empire Earth was that the game was just too darned broad. While playing, it became entirely too easy to lose focus on the overall strategic situation because the player had to micromanage too many things and too many bits of information were vying for the player's attention.

Men of Valor Preview 01:21 am - Jeff Tom - games: action (1 comment)
More weekend action from IGN as they've previewed Men of Valor, the first-person shooter from 2015 and published by Vivendi Universal. Enjoy:

Men of Valor starts out in 1967, and you play the role of Dean Shepherd, an African-American recruit who'll be heading to Danang for the storied Tet Offensive. We're told that things will start out with a basic mission-oriented setup, but, like many things in Vietnam, the fit hits the shan pretty quickly--it will be more about survival than mission success. There are four single-player operations strung together, containing a total of 12 missions across 60 maps for an estimated 20 hours of gameplay, so you can expect things to get pretty hairy. There's also two bonus single player maps for the PC version.

Warhammer 40K Preview 01:18 am - Jeff Tom - games: real-time strategy (0 comments)
IGN is ripe with RTS previews, this time of Warhammer 40,000, from the RTS from Relic getting a ton of media coverage this week. Here's some background on the game:

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is somewhat of a hybrid between tactical games like Ground Control II and base building titles such as Warcraft III. The main reason for this is the way the game handles resources. Instead of harvesting minerals or some other precious natural resource, players will have to capture and hold victory nodes. They'll be your source of income throughout the game. Each team will also have to build power generators to be able to access some of the bigger weapons and vehicles. As many RTSs have been trying to do lately, this keeps the action turning as players are forced to get out onto the map in order to capture victory locations or face a grisly death at the hands of a much better equipped enemy.

Empire Earth 2 Preview 01:16 am - Jeff Tom - games: real-time strategy (0 comments)
PC.IGN have also slapped up a preview of Empire Earth 2, from Mad Doc Software. Here's the poop:

It'd be hard to find a real-time strategy game that's as big and broad as Empire Earth. Spanning thousands of years of human history (and stretching into a speculative future), the series virtually defines the word epic. After seeing the latest build of Empire Earth 2 earlier this week, we're happy to say that the sequel is every bit as ambitious as the original title. With over 350 units and almost as many buildings spread across 15 major civilizations, Empire Earth 2 lets you recreate a massive variety of engagements spread across the last 12,000 years of human history and even a few hundred years into our future. But there's much more to this Gamebryo-powered game than raw numbers; the developers have incorporated lots of new gameplay-oriented content as well.

Kohan II: Kings of War Preview 01:15 am - Jeff Tom - games: real-time strategy (0 comments)
PC.IGN have scored a preview of Kohan II: Kings of War, getting some hands on impressions with the RTS. Check it:

For those who are just catching up with the series, the Kohan of the title are immortal warriors who were almost wiped out when the big, bad dude, Ahriman in this particular case, brought about a Great Cataclysm. The Kohan begin a new holy war (told in Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns and Kohan: Ahriman's Gift) on the world of Khaldun. The forces of Ahriman, known as Ceyah, are hunted down by a grand alliance. But even as the allies eradicate the last of the Ceyah, a new threat looms. The Shadow is coming back over the world. Here is where Kohan 2 picks up, with the alliance fractured and unprepared for the coming danger.

More On Doom 3 Release Date 01:12 am - Jeff Tom - games: action (7 comments)
PC.IGN have news story with a new ad someone sent them featuring Doom 3, claiming id's long awaited first-person shooter is done and tieing together all the recent news about the Doom remake. Here's a bit:

While validity of the ad is still up in the air, id has already officially announced that this year's QuakeCon will be host to the first ever DOOM 3 deathmatch tournament. Knowing id's dedication to perfection, their attention to detail and considering the game has to be pretty stable and near completion to be used for a tournament, we can only assume that the game is coming close to completion and will be released within a few weeks time.

In Other News 01:03 am - Jeff Tom - in-house: in other news... (21 comments)
I checked out Anchorman last night with Will Ferrel and I expected it to be good, but damn, that's the funniest movie I've seen in years. Truly, just every few minutes laughing out loud, few dull moments. It's very random and Will Ferrel and Steve Carrel are geniuses in it with some amazing cameos as well. It's definitely not your typical straight forward comedy, more like great sketch comedy tied together by a thin plot they can get some nice jokes out of.

Game wise, I've just been playing UT2K4, pretty bored overall with what's coming out. I need to get back into SW: KotOR but the game has issues with ATI video cards. :(

What are your plans for the weekend?