Voodoo Extreme
 
News
Boards
Contact Us
RSS Feed
Submit News

Games
Cheats
Entertainment
Reviews
Previews
News
Game Help
New Media
Buy Games

Vault Hub
RPG Vault
Anarchy Online Vault
Camelot Vault
EverQuest Vault
EVE Vault
Neverwinter Vault


 


Rome: Total War Faction Feature
Those sneaky Seleucids.

Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault Feature
The Battle of Tarawa

- Counter-Strike Source Video
- The Shield Q&A;
- Jade Empire Interview
- Mercenaries Preview
- Xbox Live! Interview
- Shade: Wrath of Angels Release Date Set
- Just Adventure Niblets
- Review Roundup
- IGN Nuggets
- Hardware Roundup
 

Tribes: Vengeance 07.19.2004
Up, up and away! Our hands-on beta report.

Ultima Online: Samurai Empire Preview 07.16.2004
New lands, new monsters, new housing, and more.

Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault 07.16.2004
Hands on impressions and loads of movies.

Tuesday , July 20, 2004
Counter-Strike Source Video 12:45 am - Apache - games: action (0 comments)
Valve has released some hi-res video footage of Counter-Strike running off of the Source engine that comes in at around 93 megs. You can snag it from FilePlanet, 3D Gamers and WorthPlaying.

The Shield Q&A; 12:27 am - Apache - games: action (0 comments)
HomeLan chatted with Sammy's Ed Duran about The Shield, which is based off of FX's critically acclaimed TV show:

HomeLAN - How will combat be handled in The Shield game?

Ed Duran - The combat system will mimic that of a true-to-life cop, Vic will have the ability to search, handcuff, chase, grapple, ground grapple and melee. He will also have access to club class weapons, and of course use his firearm. Combat will be fairly realistic, where any guy with a gun is pretty dangerous. Don't expect to be able to waltz into a room full of bad guys with guns blazing. Well, you can, but don't expect to walk out of there alive if you take a few hits.

Jade Empire Interview 12:20 am - Apache - consoles: xbox (0 comments)
Xbox.IGN cranked out a massive six page interview with BioWare about its forthcoming Xbox exclusive Far Eastern flavored role playing game - Jade Empire:

IGN: Jade Empire is inspired by Chinese mythology. I was wondering if you could give us a little bit more detail on some of the myths you're basing the game on. Where do you find inspiration in Jade and is the mythology only influencing the locations and creatures or will its presence be felt in every aspect of the game?

Jim: The world of Jade Empire is a fictionalized version of ancient China, as seen through its own myths and legends. In this world dragons and phoenixes and demons are objectively real, the August Personage rules over a court of minor deities in heaven, sorcerers harness the five esoteric elements to magical purpose, and of course warriors use secret and exotic martial arts to defeat each other in personal combat. We've worked hard to create a rich and detailed world from the source material, with surprises even for longtime fans of wuxia literature and movies.

Some of the sources of inspiration for the project include what are sometimes called the great Chinese novels: Outlaws of the Marsh, Journey to the West, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In addition we've read stories like Tales from a Chinese Studio, a great deal of Taoist and Buddhist religious literature, modern novels like the excellent Bridge of Birds, and plenty of miscellaneous folk tales and older myths. This was by no means dry, academic reading -- the exploits of Monkey in Journey to the West are some of the best stories ever written, in any language and any century, and Outlaws of the Marsh has a lot in common with the modern western and war movie. In addition to all this reading, we watched a lot of movies -- everything from genre-defining films like Hero and Fist of Legend to some, um, less good movies. The less said about Shaolin Dolomite, the better...

Mercenaries Preview 12:19 am - Apache - games: action (0 comments)
TeamXbox shot up a preview of Mercenaries, the upcoming Korean conflict themed shooter from LucasArts:

The story for Mercenaries plays out as such: North and South Korea have put their differences aside and have agreed to a reunification. As monumental an event as this is, a certain North Korean leader, Gen. Song, isn't too keen on the idea and stages a coup; taking control of the North Korean military and threatening the rest of the world with terrorist acts and nuclear war. Several nations send in their own forces in an attempt to thwart Gen. Song, but have little success. Soon after, a one hundred million dollar (in your best Dr. Evil voice) bounty is put on the general and his cohorts and that's where you come in. As a mercenary working for the company "Executive Operations", you are sent in to North Korea to take care of business, and hopefully get paid in the process.

Xbox Live! Interview 12:17 am - Apache - consoles: xbox (0 comments)
Activewin interviewed Larry Hryb, Director Of Programming for Xbox Live about a few things including how Microsoft is looking to remove those pesky n00bs from joining your games:

ActiveXbox.com: Can you hint at improvements or developments that may be coming to Xbox Live in the near future?

Larry Hryb: The team realizes how important the community is, and we are putting a lot of thinking behind how can we create a service to connect more like minded gamers. Specifically…if you are a person who is real hard core, your probably don't want a bunch of n00bs in your game. And the n00bs don't want to be in your session either. We are looking at how to give each group the best gaming experience we can.

Shade: Wrath of Angels Release Date Set 12:16 am - Apache - games: action / adventure (0 comments)
Cenega Publishing and Tri Synergy, Inc announced that Shade: Wrath of Angels would be released on October 1st:

Shade: Wrath of Angels is a 3rd person perspective action, horror, adventure game where intrigue grips the player as our hero begins to unravel the mystery surrounding his brothers disappearance.

Our hero receives a strange and ominous letter from his brother asking him to travel to a small mountain town. Together with the letter the envelope contains a strange item, roughly resembling some type of key. Puzzled, our hero surmises that his brother is in serious trouble and without hesitation hurries to rescue him.

As the story unfolds, our hero embarks on an intrepid adventure across 4 alternative worlds; the Present Day , Middle Ages , Ancient Egypt and The Shadow Land where nothing is what it seems as you solve puzzles and battle demons, angels, zombies, mummies, rats, shadows and much, much worse.

Just Adventure Niblets 12:16 am - Apache - games: adventure (0 comments)
Hey, Adventure games need a little love too:

Review Roundup 12:15 am - Steejee - games: miscellaneous round-ups (0 comments)

PC:

PS2:

XBox:

GC:  <(*.*(<

GBA:

N-Gage:

IGN Nuggets 12:15 am - Apache - games: general news (0 comments)
A few odds and ends from IGN:

Hardware Roundup 12:15 am - Steejee - hardware: hardware round-ups (0 comments)

Video:

Mice:

Cooling:

Other:

In Other News... 12:03 am - Apache - in-house: in other news... (4 comments)
T-Minus 2 weeks until DOOM III hits stores...

Today's question is What is your favorite multiplayer map of all time? It can be from any game.
 
 

Monday , July 19, 2004
The Matrix Online Preview 10:27 pm - Jeff Tom - games: mmog (0 comments)
GameSpy have slapped up a preview of the locations in The Matrix Online, the MMORPG based off the popular movie franchise. Check it:

If you've been following our previews or our previous guided tours, you know that The Matrix Online will take place entirely inside the computer generated City that makes up the virtual prison of The Matrix. If players are going to be effective, they're going to have to know the lay of the land. That's why Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Sega and GameSpy have been giving you weekly sneak peeks at the ultimate virtual battleground. Last week's entry took readers through Appolyon and introduced the Raini and the Five Points Gang. This week we're headed for The Barrens to meet a very... colorful family.

Monday WPG 04:44 pm - Apache - games: general news (2 comments)
Enjoy:

Tomb Raider 7? 03:16 pm - Jeff Tom - games: action (10 comments)
GameSpot have news that Top Cow have stopped production of their Tomb Raider comic book in order to start it again in conjuction with a new Tomb Raider game in the summer of 2005. Eidos will not confirm the date and the story also has word of rumors that Ion Storm's Warren Spector is working on the game with Crystal Dynamics.

Artifact Files for Chapter 11 03:04 pm - Apache - games: mmog (4 comments)
Artifact Entertainment, the makers of Horizons, announced today that the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. To help explain why, they posted a handy FAQ:

Q: What is Chapter 11 and how will it affect Artifact Entertainment business and Horizons service? Will the company continue to provide ongoing service to Horizons' fans during the restructuring period?

A: Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is used by companies experiencing cash flow difficulties who need time to restructure debt to continue operations. Continental Airlines and May Company department stores are two examples of companies that successfully used Chapter 11 protection to get their businesses into better financial health. We have sought court protection in order to prevent interruption of service and are taking every step possible to ensure Horizons' players experience seamless game play. In fact, Artifact Entertainment has been working diligently to create new content for the game, including the development of new creatures, quests, events and lore that will be introduced within the next two months.

Tribes Vengeance Preview 03:00 pm - Jeff Tom - games: action (2 comments)
GameSpot have slapped up a preview of Tribes: Vengeance from Irrational Games, one of many previews popping up today. Here's a bit to get you started:

Vengeance's multiplayer has plenty of different weapons and items already available for use at this point, including 10 different weapons and four different equipment packs. The new packs work similarly to how they did in Tribes 2; each imparts a special ability and you can carry only one of them at a time (though you can re-equip yourself with a different pack by using an equipment terminal or picking one up from a fallen enemy). Packs provide both a general bonus and a special ability that can be activated. The four packs currently in Tribes are: the energy pack, which generally increases your jetpack recharge rate and can also provide you with a speed boost when activated; the shield pack, which provides either a slight protective bonus or a significant bonus when activated; the repair pack, which either slowly regenerates its wielder's health or quickly repairs any nearby damaged terminals and injured teammates; and the speed pack, which either provides a slight bonus to your running speed or a significant bonus to your reload speed.

Rome: Total War Factions 02:52 pm - Apache - games: real-time strategy (0 comments)
PC.IGN popped up a preview of Rome: Total War which takes a look at the upcoming real-time-strategy game's various competing factions. Interested parties can check that out here.

Religon in Games 01:47 pm - Apache - games: general news (23 comments)
GamerDad posted a feature called Game with God which takes a look at religon in games. Included, are quotes from gaming legends Sid Meier, Richard Garriott, Peter Molyneux and others. Here's a taste:

Richard Garriott received a lot of fan mail from his early Ultima games; a lot of them were from, in his words, "religious extremists protesting the very idea of role-playing games." This was during the early 80's, back when Dungeons & Dragons was being blamed for all sorts of societal ills, like Devil worship and teen suicide. Garriott didn't dismiss these letters; instead they made him think about the content of his games, and more importantly, the context of his game world.

The result was Ultima IV: The Quest of the Avatar, a game that used a series of ethical questions to determine your character class, and then thrust you into a world that offered a great deal of freedom. There were monsters to slay, treasures to take, and quests to perform, but behind the scenes the game tracked you based on eight virtues. If you ran from a battle you would lose Valor, for example. Lie to characters and your Honesty would suffer. The result was a game that had no traditional villain. It had monsters and quests, but behind the scenes it had a code of ethics to live up to. The goal was perfection, to become the Avatar for Garriott's imaginary world. This internal and highly moral quest for virtue and redemption became the theme of all the Ultima games that followed.

Close Combat: First to Fight Q&A; 01:38 pm - Apache - games: action / strategy (0 comments)
Gamespot shot up a Q&A; with Destineer president Peter Tamte to shoot the breeze about Close Combat: First to Fight for the PC and Xbox:

GameSpot: What was the impetus behind this project? Who created the initial concept?

Peter Tamte: It was a joint effort between three parties: the Marine Corps--our partner in the project--Atomic Games, and us. It started when Atomic (creators of the very popular, original Close Combat series) became aware of a specific Marine Corps first-person-shooter training need while it was developing real-time-strategy simulations for the Marine Corps. After we showed the marines a demonstration of the 3D game engine Destineer had been developing for the past couple of years, the Marine Corps decided to expand the first-person-shooter project to become what it is now.

SWG: Jump to Light Speed Beta Sign Ups 01:17 pm - Apache - games: mmog (0 comments)
Thanks to Murphy7 for the reminder that The Station is now accepting beta applications for Star Wars Galaxies: The Jump to Lightspeed, the space combat expansion to SOE's popular massively multiplayer role playing game. Not to point out the obvious, but you need to be a active SWG subscriber to apply.

Pariah Multiplayer Details & Map Editor 01:11 pm - Apache - games: action (2 comments)
Digital Extremes, the co-creators of Unreal and Unreal Tournament series, sent over some details about the multiplayer portion of Pariah. They also mention the game ships with a map editor:

Topping the list of features is the Pariah MAP (Make and Play) Editor. Inspired by the editing tools provided in all the Unreal Tournament PC games, the objective of the Pariah M.A.P. Editor is to provide an extremely easy way for players to make their own unique multiplayer maps and then share them with friends.

Made popular by the PC 'mod' community online, Digital Extremes designed a way for Xbox owners to share the experience of creating and modifying multiplayer levels. Now with the Pariah MAP Editor, Xbox players will have the opportunity to create their own levels and share their maps through system link, memory cards or Xbox Live. PC players will get the best of both worlds, the Pariah MAP Editor as well as the full suite of Unreal Ed tools.

The underlying principle for the Pariah MAP Editor tool set is: simple, but powerful. The Editor will provide the player with a great deal of flexibility while allowing for ease of use and a low enough learning curve that anyone can make their own unique multiplayer map for Pariah.

The full feature set for the Editor is still being finalized however, some of the primary features, gamers can expect to have the ability to manipulate include terrain, texture changes, object placement, lighting, environment settings and player start points.

Along with the MAP Editor, Pariah's vehicles and customizable weapons come together to create the ultimate multiplayer experience online and off. Some of the multiplayer gametypes include traditional favorites such as Deathmatch and Capture The Flag as well as new gametypes like Siege and Frontline Assault.

"While the game is centralized around an intricate storyline and an immersive single-player experience, it would be against our nature not to include a robust multiplayer component in the game," said James Schmalz, founder and creative director of Digital Extremes. "Our goal with Pariah is to deliver the full gaming package: inventive, immersive and above all, fun."

Men of Valor: Vietnam Impressions 12:59 pm - Apache - games: action (0 comments)
Eurogamer shared some impressions of the Xbox version of 2015's Men of Valor: Vietnam:

It's very much run and gun at the moment. VC troops strapped with bushes and other forms of camouflage nestle in dugouts and behind trees, popping out and up to loose a volley of rounds, and you quickly get to work picking them off. They're not simple creatures, it seems, but everyone has to reload, and even if you run short on rounds, you can always fix a bayonet (A) to stab at them as they fumble a cartridge in front of you. Or toss a grenade in their direction. They're not psychic either, and if you can remain behind cover then they won't know where you are, just as you might not see them until the last minute as you plod through the jungle.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein 2? 12:56 pm - Apache - games: action (9 comments)
Here's the poop on a possible sequel of Return to Castle Wolfenstein from Eurogamer:

id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead has let slip that a sequel to Return To Castle Wolfenstein is in development. Speaking in an interview with G4/Tech TV, seemingly recorded prior to Doom III going gold last Wednesday, Hollenshead mentioned a sequel to RTCW whilst commenting on what id Software plans to do next.

"Return to Castle Wolfenstein... basically the sequel to that is a project that's already under works at another studio," he responded as he ran over which franchises id wouldn't personally be developing next.

Tribes: Vengeance Preview 09:41 am - Jeff Tom - games: action (0 comments)
Action Trip is the latest site to preview Tribes: Vengeance. Here's a cut:

The game engine is not the only thing that got a facelift: the inventory stations that are used to switch equipment and armor are much more futuristic and ergonomic looking. Also, the armor, vehicles and weapons your player wields are more detailed and somehow more militaristic looking from their earlier versions in the other two games. You will also notice how jets on vehicles and your backpacks are made of articulated parts that change direction as they thrust in different direction to move you to your destination. Weapons are also more detailed and have nice animated touches as they are fired. The chain gun has a heat sink on the side of the barrel that changes from a flat black to a cherry red if you fire it for too long. It's a little thing but it's a nice detail nonetheless.

Fallout 3 Q&A; 09:33 am - Jeff Tom - games: action (3 comments)
Computer&VideoGames; have slapped up an interview on Fallout 3, acquired by Bethesda. Here's a snippet:

What's impressed you most about the Fallout series and, going forward, will this or these things still remain a core part of the third in the series?

Hines: There are a number of things that stand out. Fallout had a great setting: the environments, tone, story, characters, and so on. The role-playing aspect and the SPECIAL system were terrific. From a technical standpoint, it had great animation, voice work, lip-synching, etc. So there were a lot of elements that went into making it the memorable title it was. Our plan is to bring as much of that into Fallout 3 as possible.

Jump to Lightspeed Preview 09:31 am - Jeff Tom - games: mmog (1 comment)
RPGVault have slapped up a preview of the Star Wars Galaxies expansion, Jump to Lightspeed. Here's a whiff:

You'll be able to fly using either a joystick or mouse and keyboard. Both were made available for some hands-on dogfighting. Based on about 20 minutes of flying time split about evenly, I didn't notice any significant differences in ease of use. However, my experience with flight games of any kind is pretty limited, so I also asked two of the people demonstrating about the team members' preferences. It seems each control system has its supporters, which would seem to be a positive sign. The pace of the action was fairly quick, not so fast as to be daunting, but rapid enough to present the prospect of a less than instantaneous learning curve for me, and presumably for other gamers who normally spend little or no time in virtual cockpits. While I definitely enjoyed my relatively brief flight stint, the demo ship was equipped with shields that made it almost impossible to be shot down, allowing me to play more aggressively than I might have had circumstances been more normal.

Tribes: Vengeance Previews 01:52 am - Apache - games: action (0 comments)
PC.IGN shot up a massive five page hands-on preview of Irrational Games' Tribes: Vengeance, which includes all kinds of information about the various weapons, power ups, maps, game types and more. Here's a snip about the beta:

At this point, the beta is very limited. So limited, in fact, that only about 50 of the most experienced Tribes players are in right now. Even though I usually end up getting my ass kicked by one (or several of them at once), I've still been having a lot of fun with the beta so far. Of course, don't forget that the Vengeance beta is only the multiplayer side of the game, and there's an entire single-player side as well that we'll be bringing you more information on before the game is released later this year.
There's another preview up at Gamespy.

DOOM III Theme Song Released 12:26 am - Apache - games: action (46 comments)
Read over at Planet DOOM that Tweaker's blog/music site has the full version of the DOOM III theme song available for download. There was a 20 second clip of it on DOOM3.com, but this is the full two minute version.

Counter-Strike Source Beta To Use One Map 12:23 am - Apache - games: action (5 comments)
Noticed over on Planet Half Life that Valve's Gabe Newell revealed that the beta test of Counter-Strike: Source would likely include one level:

"The release of CS:Source is basically the Source engine plus CS game code plus the content to play one map (probably de_dust).

The reason we are doing this is primarily to find out what problems there are with the Source engine when we give it to a couple of hundred thousand people."

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Q&A; 12:20 am - Apache - games: action / adventure (1 comment)
Gamesdomain took a bite out of Troika's Leonard Boyarsky with an interview about Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines:

GD: How have you found the Source engine to work with? You've made extensive use of the facial animation systems it provides -- how do they work, and is producing realistic expressions as hard as it sounds?

LB: Being one of the first teams to work with the Source technology has been a fantastic opportunity and privilege for Troika. As you've said, we've really put the facial animation system through its paces.

In general, we run our dialog through a utility that parses a script and a sound file and automatically assigns phonemes to our characters. From there we do clean up on the phonemes and hand animate the facial expressions of the characters as needed. Producing realistic expressions is a challenging task, but we have a team of extremely talented individuals here and they've been doing a fantastic job.

They also have part five of their video walkthrough online as well.

Lord of the Rings: Third Age Preview 12:19 am - Apache - games: real-time strategy (0 comments)
HomeLan pumped out some quick impressions of The Lord of the Rings: Third Age:

Perhaps the coolest aspect outside of the combat system however, is the Story Card system in the game's menus. Story Cards are individual snippets of the LotR movies that have been re-mastered and voiced over by Ian McKellen, that provide a piece of the backstory in to the game. There are 100 cards in all, and in our quest, we came across an appropriate card for the Mines, which had McKellen discussing how we were far luckier than the Fellowship in traversing the mines. While this really isn't critical to the core gameplay, it's good to see EA doing more than just slapping a LotR name on a RPG, and calling it a day.

In Other News... 12:05 am - Apache - in-house: in other news... (39 comments)
Ah the joys of Monday, good thing that nasty weekend is over, eh? Okay, maybe not... Absofooking nothing going on yet, but lets see what we can dig up.

Today's question is Which multiplayer option excites you the least? DOOM III's 4-player deathmatch or Half-Life 2's Counter-Strike: Source?. DOOM III is said to ship with 5 multiplayer maps, and Half-Life 2's Counter-Strike: Source is said to be the same old levels but ported to the new engine.

 
 


Send this page to a friend