Thursday - March 14, 2002
RPGvault features part no. 20 in a series of developer Q&A's with the fine folks from Bethesda Softworks. As always there's just a single question which is answered by several members of the dev crew.
This time it is:
Jonric: Of the hundreds if not thousands of weapons in the game, which ones stand out as being your favorites or special in some other way?
Head on over to RPGvault to see what Ken Rolston, Douglas Goodall, Steve Meister, Ashley Cheng, GT Noonan, Mike Lipari, Mark Nelson, Jason Ruddy, Brian Chapin, Matt Krohn, and Noah Berry had to say about their favorite weapons.
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Neverwinter Vault has updated its creature browser with some new critters from BioWare's upcoming fantasy RPG Neverwinter Nights.
Here's what's new:
New creatures include:
- Wight : An undead creature with leathery skin and the ability to drain one level as well as turn slain creatures into Wights themselves.
- Dire Cat : Larger, tougher version of a normal cat
- Jaguar : Similar to a tiger. Read more here.
- Dire Bear : Can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh 6000lbs. Read David Gaider's comments on it.
Also he's updated the pictures of the Bugbear, Giant Spider and Deer from the 3d model viewer released yesterday.
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| RPGvault has posted a Mimesis Online creatures gallery for your viewing pleasure, and that should be taken literally. The quality of the shots is pretty amazing. |
According to the official Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) website and an announcement in the BioWare forums, there will be a KotOR chat next week on the 22nd at GamesDomain.
Here's the official announcement from WebJedi (Lucas Arts webmaster):
Join Project Director/Producer Casey Hudson (BioWare) and Producer Mike Gallo (LucasArts) for an informative and entertaining chat on Friday, March 22nd at 10:00 am (PST). The event will be hosted by our friends at Games Domain, so be sure to register at their site now so you're ready to chat next week.
Hope to see you there!
WebJedi
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| Gamespydaily has scored some screenshots from the X-Box version of Bethesda's highly anticipated 3rd installment in the Elder Scrolls saga. |
| Mythic updated its Pendragon test realms to version 1.48D today. The patch release note is right here at The Camelot Herald. |
Static shots at Voodooextreme
(PC: Single-Player RPG) | Posted by Rendelius @ 14:26 - Top  | Game Info | Homepage |
| Voodooextreme has scored two new screenshots from Static, a futuristic iso-RPG´. |
| According to ToTheGame, there's a citizen zero interview at LoneGamers. I just can't verify this info since the site sin't reachable for me at the moment, sorry - but maybe just have a look. Citizen Zero is an innovative third-person massively multiplayer online action-adventure game (MMOAAG) with strong role-playing elements, currently under development by Micro Forte. The game is set in the near future, on the isolated former penal colony of Neo-Eden and its two neighbouring planets. The game universe offers a diverse futuristic setting for exploration and adventure. | | Source: ToTheGame |
| And anothert reminder for the Star Wars: Galaxies chat tonight :-) (story) |
| Just a little reminder that there will be a NWN chat today (story), dealing with questions regarding module development in Neverwinter Nights... |
Over at FilePlanet, you will find a new mod for Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, called "Epic Endeavours". Here's a litte more info about it:
Epic Endeavours is a kind of action adventure variation mod with an emphasis on quest completion. This is a partial conversion for BG2:SoA in that you will play through a whole adventure without any links to the original game. The mod takes place in a generic fantasy world and is not set in any particular world or setting. Download size is 57MB. |
IGN Insider (you have to be a member to reach the article) has posted a preview of Morrowind for the XBox. Here's a bit:
Beyond just the nuances of character interaction, hardcore RPG fans will appreciate the gazillion little things that can be done in this game. One of our favorites is how law and order is juxtaposed with blatant ass kicking. Early on, you're itching for a fight, trying to make a name for yourself. You can attack any citizen you want, but if you kill them, that's called murder and you're going to the hooskie. If you call off the attack before you kill them, you'll have the option of turning yourself in to the authorities, paying a fine and continuing on your adventure. And just like in real life, going to jail has all kinds of ramifications beyond simply sitting behind bars. All of your cool crap gets taken and your skills start to deteriorate little by little. Funny thing is that they think the graphics do not look too good. | | Source: Evil Avatar |
| A new patch for Etherlords has been released. Patch 1.05Beta allows two players to compete on one and the same computer in the duel multiplayer mode. The duel hot-seat mode incorporates all features of the in-game duel mode except for the auto-combat mode. While a player is not supposed to watch the screen while the opponent is casting spells during his or her turn, this will not result in the lack of information. At the beginning of each turn the opponent player’s actions just performed will be shown to the next player. The duel hot-seat mode does not allow using cheat codes while playing. The release of the strategic hot-seat multiplayer is scheduled for the middle of March 2002. You can find the patch here. |
Gamespot has conducted an interview with Bill Roper from Blizzard about the Warcraft 3 beta and how things are going. And they are going just fine, according to Bill. Here's a bit:
GS: Which of the game's four races has been the most popular among beta testers? Which has been the least popular? If there's been a noticeable discrepancy, how are you planning to address it?
BR: Obviously, the Undead and Night Elves started out as the heavy favorites since they represented totally new ideas in the Warcraft universe. As the test has continued, we have seen swings in popularity, usually based on whatever unbalance in the game is easiest to exploit. As we work through these balance issues, our goal is to make every race have its unique character and style of play while removing as many radical discrepancies in power as possible. While the flavor of each race should be felt throughout it's game play (the Orcs being very powerful on the ground, for example) we do not want to create situations where the "correct" strategy is to always play the same units from the race. |
| A new version of the Freedom Force character tool can be found at the official page. This nifty little tool allows you to create your very own superhero for this RPG... | | Source: Bluesnews |
Sorry, had to write this headline *g*. What it means is that there is a Nevewinter Nights Interview at GamespyDaily. They talked to Greg Zeschuk about the new Aurora Tool for viewing 3D models in Neverwinter Nights, released yesterday (story). Here's a bit:
GameSpyDaily: Can you tell us about the Aurora Tools and what you hope to achieve with them?
Greg: Our goal is to make an extremely robust and user-oriented set of tools that anyone should be able to pick up and use to create modules for Neverwinter Nights using the 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons rules. When I say everyone, I really do mean everyone - anyone that can use windows should be able to make a module in the Neverwinter Nights toolset. The initial modules people make will be quite simple, but as they get experience on the tools and if they choose to learn any scripting they will be astonished and what they will be able to do. This model viewer is a simplified version of what we use to preview 3D models in Neverwinter Nights and isn't part of the toolset we normally use for production. |
| The first Exult Release Candidate has been released at the official Exult site, and it's also there that you find the doocumentation. What is Exult? Well, in short, it let's you play Ultima VII and the addons on a modern computer... | | Source: Voodooextreme |
| Over at Games Domain, you can find a Real Media movie from Ultima Online - Lord Blackthorn's Revenge. 10MB in size, and when someone of you has had a look at it, please comment this newsbit with a short summary of what is in it :-) |
Thanks to Dorota Kalinowska from Mirage Interactive for letting us know that they have put up a teaser movie of their highly anticipated RPG/FPS mix RatHunt.
It is available in a high (640x480) and low (320x240) quality version (both AVI files). The HQ movie is 19.3MB large whereas the smaller sized movie weighs in at 8.3MB. Movie content: Mirage's office, members from the RatHunt team in rather err.. unusual circumstances, and some in-game footage. All squeezed into 60 seconds. Good one. Go get it. |
"Rice fields".
Sponsored by SlamDunk.
If you have interesting pics, send them in. ;-) |
ToTheGame has posted a hands-on preview of NWC's upcoming Litech powered RPG Might & Magic 9. The reviewer had the opportunity to playtest the game for more than a dozen hours, and - after a qite detailed look at the game features, he comes to this conclusion:
To conclude my impressions towards the new M&M, I have to say I was a skeptic at first. When I started playing, trying to compare it to other games I found nothing all that outstanding about it. Yet, like the previous ones, I can’t stop playing (I admit, I have a problem). Along with the preview, you can find some screenshots as well. Highlöy recommended link :-) |
Make yourself comfortable in the Armchair Empire and read their interview with Producer Darren Monahan about Icewind Dale 2. Here's a tasty bit:
Q: What purpose will this new randomizing function on items dropped by fallen enemies serve. Are we looking at the inclusion of rare and unique items in IWD2, or will it be that instead of picking up 97 hand axes after clearing a goblin horde, being weighed down, then selling them at the shop for next to nothing, we’ll be picking up 23 short swords, 31 daggers, 12 axes, 20 quarter staffs, and 11 long swords, being weighed down, and selling them at the shop for next to nothing?
The purpose of the randomization system is to provide more variety in loot from the monsters you fight throughout the game. There are many rare and unique items in Icewind Dale 2, some that can be found if the player is lucky enough during normal fights, to others that can be found after slaying a “boss.” Each random drop has some percentage change of dropping something nicer (and on the flip-side, worse) than what you’d normally expect on a monster. Instead of always finding “Arrows” on archers, why not occasionally find some higher quality arrows, or, some lower quality arrows that do less damage? We’ve upped the number of inventory slots you have on your character by an additional row, so it can accommodate more variety. There’s a lot of generic items, but there are a lot of rare and unique items to found as well.
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A review of Warlords Battlecry 2 at Gamespot rates the game 8.2/10 and is generally rather positive. Their conclusion sums up their feelings quite well:
Warlords Battlecry II's many playable factions, persistent heroes, and dynamic campaign are innovative elements on top of a solid real-time strategy game. The original Warlords Battlecry was the one of the very first games to effectively use the concept of heroes in a multiplayer-focused real-time strategy game, before Shattered Galaxy or Blizzard's upcoming Warcraft III. If the multiplayer component ends up being popular on the Ubi.com matching service, it should be interesting to create a hero in the service's closed, server-side mode, which allows for competitive rankings. However, while the sequel makes a number of general improvements to the formula established by its predecessor, Warlords Battlecry II doesn't take a big leap forward. The game can be best recommended to players new to the series who are intrigued by the game's hero system. |
Gamespot has written a review of Grandia 2 - and while they aren't overly impressed, they rate the game a solid 7.5/10. Here's their conclusion:
The original Dreamcast version of Grandia II was released at the tail end of 2000. The PC port is essentially the same exact game, and while it shows its age, the intactness of the translation is ultimately a good thing. The PC doesn't have too many Japanese RPGs available for it, so by default, Grandia II is one of the better ones. There's no guarantee that the game will appeal to fans of conventional PC role-playing games--Grandia II's linear gameplay, "young adult" sensibility, and anime artwork aren't likely to impress someone looking for another Baldur's Gate II. Still, Grandia II can be fun if you're used to Japanese RPGs to begin with or if you approach it with an open mind. Its great combat system and its colorful cast of characters are enough to recommend it to those who have been intrigued in the past by the Final Fantasy series or other Japanese RPGs. If that's you, then consider this a good opportunity to try out a solid Japanese RPG, without having to own a console. |
HomeLan Fed has published an interview with game designer Tim Lang about the soon to be released Might & Magic 9. He talks about new things and similarities to older M&M games:
HomeLAN - How is combat handled in the game this time?
Tim Lang - The combat system is nearly unchanged, but due to the drastic differences in engines, the combat experience is very different. Monster AI is the best it's ever been, so you can expect a solid whipping from smart creatures if you're not careful, and with the addition of monster vs. monster combat in the Arena, you would be well advised to watch a few battles to study how a monster may choose to fight you.
HomeLAN - What sort of unique weapons and items are being put into Might and Magic IX?
Tim Lang - We spent some time studying medieval weapons and combat, and have included many historically influenced weapons into the game. We've also created a whole slew of new artifacts and relics that are sure to surprise and delight. | |