Daily News Spin — May 29, 2001 (Tuesday)

The Fifth E3 Quartet

We have another four E3 previews ready to go. Take a gander at our looks at Ghost Recon, Shadows of Luclin, The Sims Online, and O.R.B.

Interplay looking to sell

Yahoo has a brief story stating that Interplay is in talks to sell itself, though they note that a deal is not imminent.

The Irvine, Calif.-based company said its talks with an unidentified party have included a buyout price that reflects ``a modest premium to the holders of common stock from the average trading price over the last 20 trading days.''

We hope the eventual buyer will keep putting out interesting games. Interplay's had some clunkers, but they've also had some of the better games we've seen in the last few years.

Games Workshop talking Hollywood

Games Workshop, the force behind space orks and other Warhammer races, is talking to Dreamworks about a big screen adaptation of their gaming universe according to this Money.telegraph.uk story.

The film has provisionally been titled Bloodquest, after the graphic novel on which it is based. A draft script has been written by Gordon Rennie, author of the original work. The story is set in the year 40,000 and features characters from Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K. Customers liken it to a darker version of Star Wars.

Sounds interesting, but we'd settle for a decent PC adaptation of Blood Bowl.

A match made in E3 heaven

Some opt for a romantic moment in front of a fireplace. Others go for dinner at a nice restaurant. Some wait for the lab reports to come back. But has anyone ever proposed at E3 while waiting in line to see a game? Now someone has, according to this IGN story.

While he and his wife-to-be, Kristin Vakillian, were quick to point out that they had long been looking to get married and Nintendo's event seemed the perfect opportunity to solidify their future, we believe it was Nintendo's awesome GameCube showing that inspired Mr. Ybarra. After one look at the innovative Pikmin and a quick glance at the masterful Star Wars Rogue Leader, Ybarra most likely felt overcome with joy, giddiness and a sense of peace never before experienced by a member of the human race. Of course, being a red-blooded, Yamauchi-fearing American, he wanted to share this sensation with the girl of his dreams, and hence the proposal was made � in line, in front of everybody, and to the surprise and happiness of a cheering crowd.

Nintendo gave the happy couple a Game Boy Advance. We would have held out for a Gamecube. Thanks Evil Avatar.

That game company job may be tough to get

The Dallas Morning News has an article about getting a job in the game industry. Seems everyone's looking for low-paying jobs with long hours. Getting a job at Ensemble is a job in itself.

Applicants at Ensemble spend about 50 to 60 hours in the application process to make it through all the phases of technical competence testing and interviews. They then face a companywide vote where any one of Ensemble's 75 employees can veto the hiring.

"The hit-to-miss ratio is pretty extreme," said Chris Rippy, a producer at Ensemble.

That's a pretty freaky application process. We don't think that even the Illuminati screens applicants that stringently. Thanks Stomped.

PC Strategy Games magazine sold

It's a UK magazine so we don't see it all that much here in the colonies, but it's been sold to Paragon Publishing. Their website has the announcement.

The high quality niche magazine publisher has sold the title to be merged with Paragon�s Strategy Player, which will offer PC gamers an unrivalled package dedicated to the biggest strategy, management, and role-playing titles.

Strategy Player, the new issue of which goes on-sale on 7 June, will combine a strong mix of both titles. Written for a more intelligent and discerning gamer, Strategy Player will adopt a unique reviewing style, reviewing and previewing the biggest strategy games from around the world. A dedicated online gaming section will bring readers the major developments on the Web and every issue will also feature a free CD-ROM packed with the latest demos, patches and add-on utilities.

We'll be curious to see what this "unique reviewing style" will be.

No Internet play for Xbox Halo?

Firing Squad has a story about how the Xbox version of Halo may not have Internet play because Microsoft has yet to nail down the network standards for the Xbox.

As first revealed last week in this messageboard post from Matt at Bungie, it is currently impossible to code Internet play for Halo right now because Microsoft has yet to solidify a network standard for the Xbox. Bungie is considering a separate product for Halo Xbox Online, but as it stands, that is still very much undecided.

The Xbox launch is less than six months away. Better get this stuff finalized, Microsoft.

Roundup of the roundups

You can't take out the garbage without stumbling over an E3 Roundup. We've taken a look at some of them and made them into a tossed salad of information.

Gamespy's awards for best of show. Republic, with Star Wars Galaxies and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault as runners up.

Gamespot's awards for best of show. Star Wars Galaxies, with The Sims Online and Age of Mythology as runners up.

IGN's awards for best of show. Star Wars Galaxies, with Battle Realms, Medal of Honor, Neverwinter Nights, and Republic as runners up.

Well Rounded Entertainment''s award for best of show. Medal of Honor, with Sigma as the runner up.

Electric Playground's awards for best of show. Max Payne, with Neverwinter Nights and Planetside as runners up.

Intelligamer's award for best of show. Neverwinter Nights.

Voodoo Extreme's awards for best of show. Max Payne, with Medal of Honor as the runner up.

GamersClick's award for best of show. Duke Nukem Forever.

3am

Fantasy author Tad Williams (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn) is starting a serial fantasy story on the web. It looks to be a fee-based enterprise, but we're not sure of that. You can visit the website and read the prelude for free here. Thanks Stratics.

GamersClick has a look at why we're attracted to RPGs. Apparently it's not the large-busted elves.

Only two Gamecube games were running on actual Gamecube hardware at E3? Say it ain't so, Nintendo Dojo!

The Austin Chronicles writes about Goodwill Computer Works in Austin, which has also become a museum of sorts. The article has some pictures of gaming systems like the Vectrex and Famicom if you feel like strolling down memory lane.

``If you want your child to become a violent anarchist, this is a great training game.'' Washington state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson on State of Emergency from Rockstar Games. It's an ``urban riot game set in the near future, where the oppressive American Trade Organization has declared a state of emergency." Cool.

The universe may apparently be one big song and dance act according to this article about the current theories of the origin of the universe, which posits teensy tiny superstrings or quantum loops vibrating at high speeds.

But I do rather like the idea that, at some terribly small scale of reality, the ultimate essences of space and time are little immaterial strings or loops that sing the universe into existence. The Pythagoreans told us thousands of years ago that it was all music, and maybe they were right.

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