Weekend News Spin — July 21-22, 2001 (Weekend)

Diablo comic book due in November

Diabloii.net is relaying a story based on this message board post about a Dark Horse Diablo comic book on the way.

Dark Horse's Diablo comic, Diablo: Tales of Sanctuary will ship in November, and will feature three original stories featuring characters and creatures from the game. According to the publisher, the stories feature a Barbarian named Renit and a Necromancer named Cairo as they search the fabled "Hand of Naz" in order to overcome a demon horde; a Paladin named Hale as that is fighting an evil that will cause him to question the very nature of his existence; and a Druid named Azgar as who fights to defend his village and the demons that lie deep within him.

Diablo: Tales of Sanctuary is written by Phil (Nevermen) Amara and illustrated by Francisco Ruiz (Battlegods) Velasco. The one-shot will run 64 pages and will retail for $5.95.

That's the problem with comic books these days. Sixty-four pages will take about 20 minutes to read. At $6, that's an expensive 20 minutes.

Retro Studios lays off 26, cancels RPG

Retro Studios, the company where former Simtex mainstay Steve Barcia works, has laid off 26 and have cancelled their Gamecube RPG Raven Blade, according to this IGN story. They'll focus on the Metroid game they're working on for the Gamecube.

There have been rumors for months now that Nintendo has been displeased with Retro's progress. There may have been some fire behind the smoke.

Mickey bangs Minnie

It's the next evolution in MMOGs — play as a cartoon character and have sex. Seducity has it all, from traditional intercourse to S&M. Check out the sample page. If you're turned on by cartoons, you're sure to be aroused. If you're turned on by cartoons, you're also weird. Spotted this at Lum's.

See ya!

It's official. John Romero and Tom Hall have left Ion Storm. In fact, the entire Dallas office may have been laid off, though no official confirmation of that has surfaced yet. If true, we wonder about patches for Anachronox?

Sega pulls plug on SegaNet

Just a year after launching the Internet game service, Sega's dumping it, according to this Orlando Sentinel story.

SegaNet has about 250,000 subscribers, but the vast majority don't pay the $21.95 monthly access fee. Instead, many float on free trial accounts. Sega executives declined to specify the number of paying subscribers.

As of Friday, users who wish to continue access must find another Internet service provider, such as EarthLink Inc., which forged an agreement with Sega to assume service for paying accounts.

Sega will continue to operate its Web site, Sega.com, which matches players for games such as "NFL 2K1" football and "Phantasy Star Online." Users will be able to log on to the site from any ISP.

Makes you wonder if Nintendo wasn't right about ignoring the Internet when they designed the Gamecube? We'll make a prediction: The Internet will be a negligible factor in next gen console use for years to come.

Gamepower turning off the lights

Add another game site to the list of sites that have closed or are closing. Gamepower, a CMP publication, is shutting down at the end of the month. The reason put forth by CMP is that they want to focus on business-to-business publications, but the wretched state of the Internet advertising market probably didn't help.

Myth II: Green Berets gold

Where did this Talonsoft game come from? It uses the Myth II engine and is not a fantasy game but a Green Beret game. Should be on the shelves before the month is out.

Sir-Tech? Sirtech? Spell it toast, now

Bad news from the North. According to this Blue's News story, Sirtech has laid off its Jagged Alliance 3 and Wizardry 9 teams.

Ottawa, Ontario July 20. On July 19, Sirtech Canada announced layoffs affecting its Jagged Alliance and Wizardry development teams. Development work on both Jagged Alliance 3 and Wizardry 9 has halted, effective immediately.

Reasons cited for the layoffs included difficulties in obtaining timely funding for Jagged Alliance 3 and Wizardry 9, as well as failure to receive royalties due from the European publishers of Jagged Alliance 2 and Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business.

Sirtech Canada is still seeking funding for Wizardry 9 and Jagged Alliance 3. Obtaining funding within the next four to eight weeks is crucial if work on these projects is to go forward.

Wizardry 8 is apparently finished, but Sirtech is still searching for a publisher. Before you wonder why they are having problems finding one, the rumor has been that they want a better financial deal than is the norm in these developer-publisher relationships.

Also, and we don't have any facts at our fingertips to back this up, the rumor is that the Jagged Alliance series was never a big seller.

Sad news. Where's Ivan with some choice Russian curse words when you need him?

Jones in the armchair

The Armchair Empire interviews George Jones, former EIC of Computer Gaming World and currently grand poobah of Ziff's Internet gaming properties.

What lead to your departure from CGW?

In one word, the Internet. I realize that sounds a little outdated, but about a year ago, I got to thinking about the current state of the gaming web sites. They're all compelling, but I began to feel like they were still locked into the magazine-on-the-web model. And no web site has done an excellent job of combining visual appeal, strong editorial, and the entire universe of gaming. So as I began to contemplate this, Ziff Davis sold off ZDNet (and Gamespot, our onetime partner) and decided to renew the company's desire to have a strong presence online. All of a sudden, my boss was like, "George � you still want to do that online plan?"

We're deeply insulted. Wounded even. Perturbed. No website has done games right? By god, we're going to kick his ass! Tom, you're much closer to San Francisco, so get on this ass-kicking mission right away, and don't forget to bring a footstool to stand on. George is about 8 feet tall.

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world

We don't normally link to reviews but we liked this Hardnews review. It takes Anarchy Online over its knee and gives it a good spanking.

If ever a release was full of bullshit, this is it. Funcom's promises were grand indeed, and by releasing the game in such a shoddy unplayable state, they've failed to deliver on virtually every one of them. After taking flack from players for weeks, Funcom representatives declared that they were beginning the billing cycle and counting down the free month, and then all but vanished entirely from the message boards. Their "daily updates" on the status of the many, many, many bug fixes needed to make this game worth the money paid for it have became every-other day updates, at the time of this review, it's been four days since players have heard a peep from Funcom. Unless, of course, you count the frequent in-game messages, with such helpful content as "We apologize for this inconvenience: all servers are going down in five minutes for emergency maintenance. No ETA is available at this time for restoration of service."

The Anarchy Online release — the best thing to happen to World War II Online.

3am

Here's a nice resource for MMOGs, a collection of links to fan sites, called MMORPG.VG.

Speaking of press junkets, the LA Times has a story about movie critics coming under fire for accepting trips from the studios. Thanks Supertanker!

Frag is a new first-person shooter pen and paper game from Steve Jackson Games. Spotted at Blue's.

This special weekend edition of the Quarter to Three news has been brought to you by the letter D and the number 2, as in Diablo 2, which kept us from updating the site on Friday. Damn that game anyway!

Click here to read Thursday's news