Daily News Spin — April 19, 2001 (Thursday)

Fallout Tactics patch available

Interplay has released the long-awaited patch for Fallout Tactics. This 12.8 meg patch fixes too many issues to reference here. You can view the readme at this link.

The First Quarter reviewed

Joystick101.org has reviewed Steven Kent's The First Quarter, his history of the first 25 years of videogames.

This history was also a little thin on interpretation, for my liking. Good histories tend to arrange stories, interview data, or facts in a manner that is relatively free from obvious distortions or biases (i.e. objective), but also tell a story in a way that builds an interpretation of historical events. For the most part, The First Quarter is devoid of such interpretation, and it lacks any introduction, theses, or conclusion. As such, it reads more like a journalist piece than a history, perhaps revealing Kent's background as a journalist for publications like USA Today, MSNBC, and the Chicago Tribune. Tackling recent history is admittedly difficult, but stating theses, organizing material to make arguments, and providing analysis is the work of the historian. David Sheff's History of Nintendo (Game Over) is an excellent example of a history that is lively, engaging, and gives the reader a deep understanding of the gaming industry with some walk-aways that can be applied to current gaming events.

The book is apparently self-published, which is a bit suprising given Kent's stature as an industry writer.

Harpoon 4 not in Davy Jones locker

We thought it was scuttled, but like a bag of White Castle sliders, it's resurfaced. Here's a bit from the Computer Games Online story:

A senior manager close to the project confirmed today that the game, which had been in development by Ultimation until Ubi Soft killed it last month, was once again on the production schedule. Though no details were available today, the game seems to be still on track for a release later this year.

The BBC roasts computer games

This is funny stuff. Normally there's nothing more tedious than "humorous" articles about games "we'd like to see." The BBC has a rather fresh take on this though, raiding the classics to come up with some interesting game concepts. Here's an excerpt:

Wagner's Digital Ring Cycle @ E-Bay-reuth �

Uncle Wotan's Virtual Valkeries lead players through complex interactive galleries in pursuit of the golden ring of the Niebelung, stolen from heroic warriors by jealous dwarfs.

The traditionally broad-chested chief Valkerie, Brunhilda, could well become the thinking man's equivalent of Lara Croft as she bounds from mountain top to mountain top warbling like a canary.

The scenario consists of the usual demented heavy-metal gothic nonsense full of castles, loud repetitive music, explosions, mountain pathways, leather-clad Xena-types and naked Rhine Maiden babes - so, perfect for computer games designers and fans alike.

An added attraction is that the computer explodes at the end of the game, setting fire to Valhalla and bringing about the end of the universe.

Heh heh. We spotted this story at WomenGamers.com.

Final Fantasy, The Expensive Movie

MSNBC has a look at the making of this expensive movie.

By the time Square finished making its �conglomerate,� some 200 programmers, animators and software engineers had been hired to work on a big-budget production that some outsiders have estimated to cost over $70 million. (While $70 million is not all that outlandish a budget for a Hollywood blockbuster, it is a nearly unprecedented amount in video game circles.)

Much of the money that went into creating �Final Fantasy� was used to create new animation technology, technology that Sakaguchi and company can use in future projects. At their 1999 investor relations meeting, Square Soft executives pointed out that the technology that was developed for the movie will be used in game and movie projects for years. Amortized over several projects, the movie�s budget seems almost reasonable.

$70 million is just a little bit more than we spent developing this website.

Legends of Might and Magic demo out

Good? Bad? Whaddya think of it? You can download it here.

We played it a bit last night and don't know what to think. It's certainly not a fantasy version of Counter-Strike based on our brief time with it. It's class-based, but the emphasis is on action.

The game is on in China

Computer games were illegal in Chinese Internet cafes until new regulations went into effect on April 11, according to this Reuters story reposted on Yahoo. Now they're booming in popularity.

Wang Yuesheng's chain of Internet cafes in China has doubled the number of computers they offer since the beginning of this year. He is not too worried that new regulations will curb his expansion.

Wang said his daily turnover had spiked by 30 percent since last week, when Beijing released new rules governing Internet cafes.

Surfing for porn is still illegal at Chinese Internet cafes, according to the article. In other words, no wang at Wang's.

Verant plays hardball with new EQ expansion

Shadows of Luclin is the newly announced EverQuest expansion. Gamespot has a brief interview with producer Jeff Butler that reveals some details.

Luclin will include a new player-character race (Kerran), class (Beastlord), and starting city, along with all-new player-character models and textures, DirectX 8 support including hardware T&L, and at least 25 new adventure zones. It is designed for players of all levels.

The Kerrans are the cat people, which will no doubt spur an endless number of in-game pussy jokes. The expansion is due out in the 4th quarter this year and will feature significantly improved graphics, as you can tell from this screenshot. IGN has a couple of other screenshots as well.

In short, Verant is releasing a large expansion for the most popular online game with graphics that will rival or better any of the other MMORPGs currently in development that will be out this year. Seems kind of mean almost, doesn't it?

3am

Nintendo's Gamecube has slipped its launch back a couple of months to September in Japan and November in the U.S. Good news for Sony and Microsoft in the console wars. Meanwhile Sega is cutting its workforce by 28%.

Mrs. Robinson, what are you doing? You Are the Weakest Link is being made into an Activision game and will feature the voice work of the emcee, Anne Robinson.

Mark has a new GameSpin column up at GameSpy. Speaking of game spies, we wonder what Gilman Louie is up to these days as a CIA consultant? No doubt making cigarette lighters that double as flame-throwers. Given his track record with initial releases of the Falcon series and Microprose games, we wouldn't want to be a CIA field agent testing v.1.0 of Mr. Louie's devices.

Here's a new screenshot from Ensemble's Age of Mythology which shows several mythical creatures, including a giant and what looks to be a sphinx.

There's an Internet cafe in Russia that's really a training ground for orphans, giving them part-time jobs. Kind of a feel good story, though the cafe had to overcome some local resistence.

The local priest, Father Vladimir, initially called the cafe the work of the devil, but he was won over and consecrated the cafe as a holy place of the Orthodox Church, splashing water on the computers in the process. Father Vladimir now reads Alexy II's messages at Matrix the day they are issued on the patriarch's personal web site, instead of waiting two weeks to get them by mail.

We're not sure splashing holy water on computers is a good idea, though we've certainly wanted to perform exorcism rites over ours before.

Finally, did you catch the news recently about Three's Company? They've been torturing Nickelodeon viewers with reruns of the old sitcom, and after all these years one viewer noticed something a bit strange in one episode. John Ritter was sitting on a couch in shorts and for a moment his scrotum was visible. After getting a letter from the viewer, Nickelodeon reviewed the episode and said yes, yes, his family jewels were on display, so they edited out the moment. This didn't sit well with John Ritter, who asked that both the edited and unedited versions continue to be shown, because, in his words, "Some days you feel like a nut, and some days you don't."

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