Sunday - February 10, 2002
A reviewe of Wizardry 8 has just been posted at BlueMonday. With a very positive rating of 9.4 this fits well into the majority of reviews we have seen so far. Their summary reads like this:
Wizardry 8 is easily the best RPG published during the last 12 months, and it’s now definitely part of my all-time favorites list (which is really pretty short). The reasons why Sir-Tech had so many troubles to get it published are still a mystery (or not, depending on how much you know about the industry), but the whole issue makes it an even greater achievement.
I still hope to see a new Wizardry some day, but even if it never happens, this game brought a truly fantastic end to the saga. I don’t think I need to tell you this game is a must have for any fan of the series, but even if you never heard of it before, Wizardry 8 is a game no player can afford to miss. |
The official site for the Ultima 6 Project (a remake using the Dungeon Siege engine) has been updated with an announcement of a nice promotion:
U6P is pleased to announce its first promotion! In conjunction with the release of Dungeon Siege and The Ultima VI Project, we've created a series of collectible trading cards that will appear one a week on this web site (and only this web site!). These cards will highlight the major players in the game - some old, some new, all breathtakingly interpreted by Lead 2D artist Julio Vanzeler. |
Chris Avellone has revealed some nice Fallout 2 secrets on the Black Isle forums. Here is what he said there:
karlmarx9001: I've noticed in the dialog files entries for gaining hit points in Vault City from both guzzling a ton of alcohol-z in the uppity bar and using the autodoc repeatedly. Has anyone got these to work? I suppose I could figure it out myself, but the only .int script documention out there is in Russian.
MCA: Alcohol-Z
The way it's supposed to work (I was looking at this this morning) is that you need to have a Luck of 9 or 10, and you need to buy like a 100 glasses of the stuff. Luck 9 should give you +2 Max HP, and 10 gives you +10 Max HP - bad luck characters, however, get penalties to their HP if they drink a hundred glasses - LK 1 gets -4 Max HP, and LK 2 gets -2 Max HP. If you have cash to burn ($20 a drink, each drink normally heals 3 HP), feel free, but as far as an Easter Egg goes, it's pretty out there.
I was going to test it, then I realized my LK sucked. Let me know if it actually made it into the game.
plus:
MCA: Oh, the above is for the Councilman Bar in Vault City. I just checked the Auto-Doc in the VC Courtyard, and you're right: What happens is this:
1. If you don't fix the Auto-Doc, and you're below 3 IN, talk to "Doc" Andrew.
2. Make sure you're hurt, then ask him to passh you up.
3. He'll go, "okay."
4. After you're done, ask "to ride again!" If you have a LK below 9, then you get +2 Max HP, if you have a LK of 9 or 10, then you get a +4 Max HP Bonus. |
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Posted by Rendelius @ 17:27 - Top 
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| There is an insane number of Warlords Battlecry 2 screenshots at WorthPlaying, dated February 8th. I can't remember having seen them before, and these are rather sweet (not the thumbs, they look like crap, but open them and you will be pleased). |
| Bonusweb.cz has posted a bunch of Harbinger screenshots, but I can't really tell you if these are new ones. Harbinger is a futuristic RPG developed by Silverback Entertainment. | | Source: ToTheGame |
| An updated version of the Fallout Bible is now online at Duck & Cover. This is Chris Avellone's effort to put together background info on the game - and it is interesting and fun to read, really. You can either get it in web format, as word document or as .pdf. |
| The French fansite, Divine Divinity: L'Auberge, has created a wallpaper based on some of the exisiting screenshots from the game. Check it out right here (it's the top one). |
Warcraft3.org has published an interesting beta report from the ongoing Warcraft 3 beta. Here's a bit:
After producing quite an army, I went in for the attack. I scouted around,and got another Necropolis, gold mine, and leveled up one of my Deathknights to level four. My attack failed miserably. He had already rebuilt his whole army and had some defensive buildings that seemed to prove quite well against my army. I wasn’t sure what to do; I had just wasted quite a lot of units and didn’t even deal that much damage. I then realized it, I hadn’t upgraded. I began upgrading, revived my heroes, maybe my next offensive would be a little better. However, before I could attack, I was rudely interrupted by a swarm of Wurms attacking my base. Unfortunately, I couldn’t counter them very well -- most of my Fiends were gone. At that point I was getting tired and we decided to call it quits. The game had lasted 2 ½ hours mainly because neither of us really knew what we were doing, so we were chatting as the game went on.
I exited, checked my stats, and logged off Battle.Net. I went over to my other computer and checked messages. Edgewize wanted to play. At this point I’m extremely tired, and it’s around 3:00 AM. I say alright, and we meet in channel ORG. (Note that in screenshots his name is Mongoose). We start up, he chooses Humans, and I go for Undead. At this point I’m a little more experienced, and actually am beginning to understand what I’m doing. The countdown begins, and I’m again greeted with my Acolytes and my ghoul. This time I take a different strategy and head directly for air. I expanded about 7-10 minutes into the game, and quickly was greeted with a small army from Edgewize. He quickly retreated, as I had about 4 or 5 defensive buildings up. I continued my buildup, and got about five or six Wurms, and quite a few banshees and gargoyles. |
The official Star Wars: Galaxies website announces an upcoming chat for Tuesday:
The 3rd official Star Wars Galaxies Developer Chat is set for Tuesday, February 12th at 5PM Pacific, hosted by Station.com. Join guest developers Anthony Castoro and Raph Koster for a discussion of game systems and skills! |
Over at CyberArena, you will find an interview with Primo Pulanco, Technical Designer and 3D Artist for Black Isle Studios. He talks about his work on the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series:
Nixlord: Now that you've mentioned it, what's the deal with Icewind Dale 2? Is there anything new in the engine or system?
Proxi: We're still using the same engine used in the previous Dale games but we've also incorporated some of the 3rd edition rules for Icewind Dale 2. We've added more classes or kits that players can choose from to make their characters. Sub-races were also added. Some cool new monsters, and even new items for players to discover and equip themselves with. I really like the first Icewind game and I'm very excited about this sequel.
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Talking about Freedom Force: HomeLan Fed has posted a preview of this game today. Once again, here's an interesting snippet:
When you complete a mission’s objectives or do something special (like rescue a lady from muggers, for example) you earn prestige points that you can use to upgrade your character’s special powers and abilities. You can also create your own hero or heroine if you wish. The character generation menu is, like everything else in Freedom Force, designed to look like a comic book and has tons of ways to customize your character to your liking
Of course, if you don’t have big scale battles in a super hero game you might as well turn over your cape and cowl. Irrational Games has altered the NetImmerse engine to allow for (almost) total and complete property destruction in the game’s levels. Your characters can lift cars, take apart streetlights and even bring down entire buildings, all in the service of foiling the villains and their thugs. (Lots of property destruction will bring down your character’s prestige points, however) Playing the beta, we can testify that Freedom Force has a very satisfying super hero gameplay experience that pretty much fulfills all those fantasies that comic book readers have had for ages. Combat is handled by right-clicking on your target and selecting which special ability you want to use to bring them down. You can even pause the action to set up your team and give orders. It’s a novel approach that makes the combat strategic enough for hardcore players yet easy enough so that people who just want to beat up on super villains can do that as well. |
Gamespy has conducted an interview with Ken Levine from Irrational Games about their upcoming superhero MMORPG freedom Force. Taste that bit:
GameSpy: When you first fire up the character creator how many prestige points do you get? How many attribute points do you get?
Ken Levine: The character creator can be used independent of the game, i.e. you can create a character as "expensive" and zippy-cool as you like. What's the catch? In order to recruit them into Freedom Force, you're team has to have earned enough prestige. What's cool about this is you can sit around and create Superman like mega-studs all day, build their powers, mess around with their stats, but you won't be able to bring them onto your team until you've earned it… |
Game Critics has posted a review of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2). Overall the game scored 7.5 and got this summary from them:
If you're only looking for an innovative and ground-breaking gaming experience, then Dark Alliance is best avoided. Fans of the PC Baldur's Gate series should rent and see if the transition from turn-based strategy to real-time hack-and-slash action works for them. Fans of arcade action games like Gauntlet should give it a look, although a rental is still probably in order due to the short length of the game. For those of us who are addicted to the 'let's go shopping while busting heads' dungeon-crawl gameplay made popular by Diablo and the roguelikes, Dark Alliance makes a good case as the game to have for the PS2, despite its many shortcomings. Parents should be aware of the bloody nature of the combat and the sexually revealing nature of the graphics for the female character and NPCs. The 'Use of Alcohol' warning is probably because of one specific example of obviously irresponsible drinking, but it is presented in such an obviously comical sense that I hesitate to validate it as a serious concern. |
| Don't get fooled: the preview of Final Fantasy XI at Gamespot UK is a repost of the one at Gamespot from January 24th... |
| A gallery of 23 new screenshots from Heroes of Might & Magic 4 (showin mostly creatures) has been put online at CRPG.ru... |
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