Daily News Spin — August 10, 2001 (Friday)

Icewind Dale 2?

It's just a rumor, but RPGDot, one of the better RPG news sites, is saying that Interplay is working on it, so we give credence to this rumor.

While it hasn't been officially announced yet, Interplay is working on Icewind Dale 2, another BioWare Infinity engine game. While I've hinted in past ramblings that we may not have seen the end of the Infinity engine, and that Interplay was considering other Dungeons & Dragons products (in addition to Neverwinter Nights), I can now confirm that Icewind Dale 2 is in the works (and it's not necessarily the only new D&D game that is being contemplated).

Let's see...there have been seven Infinity engine games or expansions so far, and an Icewind Dale 2 will make eight. The seven are: Baldur's Gate, the BG expansion, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, the Icewind Dale expansion, Baldur's 2, and the Baldur's 2 expansion, The Infinity engine really has become a latter day Gold Box engine.

Update: We failed to notice that RPGDot was citing Desslock's RPG News site. The quote is actually from his page. Sorry about that.

Gamespot UK in trouble?

The Register is reporting that CNET may be trying to dump its UK operations, namely its UK ZDNet assets.

Staff at ZDNet were told this morning that 12 people were to be made redundant. One of them is believed to be ZDNet UK's editorial director Tony Westbrook. Most of the remainder came from GameSpot - understandable considering the state of the online games market at the moment. More redundancies are expected to follow.

More significant than this, however, the whole of ZDNet UK is believed to be up for sale. Last year, CNet bought ZDNet. Soon after it started making job cuts. The cuts have so far been centred on the US, but it looks as though the axe is beginning to fall elsewhere.

Gee, Gathering getting dissolved, Dynamix and Sierra getting weed-whacked, and now a major gaming site taking it in the shorts. We'd get drunk but we can't afford the beer.

Fighting Arena lets you prove your kung fu is best

It's a new device from Thrustmaster that lets you punch and kick and have your feeble or masterful efforts reflected in a video game, according to the BBC. Prove that you are the best, or the geekiest!

Using four infrared beams fixed on two upright poles and a touch-sensitive mat, the Fighting Arena monitors how a player is moving and translates this into the game being played. The beams can be broken using arms or legs to mimic in-game moves.

Each one of the infrared beams represents one of the four buttons on a conventional Playstation joypad controller. Breaking a beam is the same as pressing a button.

Thanks Joystick101.org.

Gamers today, surgeons tomorrow

The Ottawa Citizen gives hope to parents of kids who play a lot of video games.

As surgery becomes increasingly computerized, doctors are being forced to develop skills long associated with video and computer games like Tomb Raider, Flight Simulator and Super Smash Brothers.

Those skills include good hand-eye coordination, fast reflexes and an ability to solve problems in a virtual-reality environment, said Dr. Wiley Nifong, a cardiac surgeon who teaches surgical robotics at the East Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville, North Carolina.

"We've coined a term for it -- video dexterity," said Dr. Nifong, 39, who has taught 115 doctors how to use surgical robots. "The younger the student, the better they seem to do on the robot."

Of course, there's that little thing about years of study to get good grades to get into medical school where more years of study await. But yeah, go ahead and imagine that your kid who spends all his time either playing Nintendo or reading Fangoria is well on his way to being a doctor.

Quake IV official

Id made it official and yes, Raven's developing it. Id also announced that an untitled game is being developed for them by Nerve, the people who are doing the multiplayer content for Castle Wolfenstein. All these games will be published by Activision. Trent Renzor will probably do the music in Quake IV, which is supposed to have Matrix style effects also. Hmmm...wonder where that idea came from?

Ziff Davis revenues plummet

From Excite, the latest on Ziff Davis Publishing, parents of Computer Gaming World and Electronic Gaming Monthly. The good news is that they made a profit. The bad news is that it's much slimmer than it was this time last year.

Earnings before interest expense, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") were $3.5 million for the quarter, compared to $32.4 million for the same period in fiscal 2001.

Total revenue for the quarter was $78.9 million, compared to $125.6 million in the comparable prior year period. The decrease was primarily due to a 47.5% decline in advertising pages, partially offset by a 9.6% increase in advertising revenue per page.

The magazine industry is really being hit hard. Makes you wonder if those G.O.D. folks know what they're getting into with launching a new magazine.

3am

The 127 meg Red Faction demo is the hot download right now. Here's a link to local mirrors as rounded up by Blue's News.

People are pissed about Dopewars again.

Iomega's cutting 38% of their staff. Guess the portable storage market isn't doing well.

The LA Times has an interview with Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris.

Is your home destined to be a computer game? Nah, but this article makes that jump by reporting about technolgy that allows users to control heating and cooling and stuff with a joystick hooked to a computer. Why, we wonder? Is using the computer to turn off lights and the TV a breakthrough?

Check out the official Civilization III site.

Salon is now going to charge $10 a month for posting rights to its Table Talk section. Sad. Guess that section will be a ghost town now.

Click here to read yesterday's news