Planet Far Cry - Visit Planet Far Cry for all the latest news, information, and maps for Far Cry, Far Cry: Instincts, FCI Evolution, and FCI Predator!
Friday, January 12
Earth's Special Forces Open Beta
11:03 | by [PSOF]Reaper
After a long period of development, an Earth’s Special Forces beta is now underway! The team reaches out to you, the players, to help obliterate any bugs that they may have overlooked. There is also a short promotional video available for download if you want to preview the mod before trying it out. Check it out yourself – visit the ESF website and grab a copy of the open beta.
John Carmack & id Software Take Two Emmy Awards!
10:49 | by Jube
John Carmack and id Software's pioneering development work in 3D game engines was recognized with two technology Emmy Awards, the first independent developer to win the award.
Las Vegas, Jan. 9, 2007 - id Software had the honor of winning two Technology Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 8, 2007. The awards were given as part of the Science, Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards ceremony.
The Pioneering Development Work in 3D Game Engines award was won by John Carmack, co-founder and technical director of id Software, for his cutting edge contributions to rendering technology as the lead programmer on DOOM®. id Software, a quintessential leader in technology development, was awarded a second Emmy for the company's technological leadership in rendering breakthroughs with the QUAKE® technology.
UT2C: Second Edition Released
10:48 | by redef Unreal Tournament 2 Conversion: Second Edition has been released! The goal of this mod is to implement many features from other popular shooters (such as UT and Quake3) into UT2004’s gameplay. Below is a lengthy list of features that you can expect to enjoy, and you can find the hefty 772 MB download here.
TeamXbox reports on Halo PC at CES
10:47 | by Fluffaluffer
Not much new about Halo 2 for Vista from this years CES. According to TeamXbox the game runs wonderfully on high-end PC's and Vista gamers will be able to unlock achievements in Halo 2. You can see the full quote here below:
Finally, we spent a little time with an old friend. The PC version of Halo 2 was playable, and we were surprised to see people lined up to play a game that's been available for over two years. Of course, once we started playing, we realized that the game looks and plays wonderfully on the high-end PCs at the booth. Although there were plenty of mouse-and-keyboard setups, every one of the 6 players was using one of the USB Xbox 360 controllers to frag their enemies. The game runs extremely smoothly, too, and it features higher resolution graphics than its console counterpart. So why are we jealous of the PC gamers who will be getting the game soon? Because Halo 2 will give them achievements! Come on, Microsoft, can't you release a patch so that we can do the same thing? You know we want those points!
New Features Include Guest Passes and Ease-of-Use Upgrades
Steam, a leading PC platform for the delivery and management of games and digital content, is due for a major release next week. One of the largest in the service's history, next week's update will include Guest Passes, Background Client Updating, a completely updated user interface, and more.
Similar to the Free Weekends, Guest Passes and the features included in this Winter Update are further examples of the advanced services and functionality offered via Steam that define it as a pioneering service, reaching far beyond traditional downloaders.
Here's a look at some of the key features to be rolled out to the millions of Steam users in this Winter Update:
Guest Passes Guest Passes allow owners of certain Steam games (purchased either via Steam or at retail) to let their friends play games for free, for a limited time trial. The first game to take advantage of this new feature will be Day of Defeat: Source.
Background Client Updates Since the Steam client was first released, it has always kept itself up to date -- but now it'll do so without making you wait during startup. Instead, it will acquire new updates in the background and then (once they're downloaded) ask if you'd like to restart and apply them. Steam will also let you know what's new whenever a new update is ready to apply.
New User Interface Steam's got a new coat of paint. We've stripped away all the non-essentials and created a new streamlined appearance, available in five different colors.
Favorites Steam's catalog of games has grown quite a bit over the past year or so. The new Favorites feature in the My Games tab of Steam allows for quick access to your favorite Steam games and additional functionality for personalizing your Steam library of content.
Jim Brown On Unreal Sniper Weapons
15:12 | by redef BU points out that Epic’s Jim Brown has made a couple forum posts (one and two ) discussing the sniper rifle and lightning gun. Perhaps more relevant, he notes that UT2007 will be sticking with the sniper rifle and not make a switch to (or include) the lightning gun (although he doesn’t insist that the lightning rifle will never find a place in future UT games). His comments are somewhat lengthy, but nevertheless here they are:
Initially, I really disliked the Lightning Gun. To me, it didn't have the heft and "feel" of a solid sniping weapon. As such, I was a huge proponent of bringing back the Sniper Rifle in later titles. As time went on and I played more with both, I really grew to appreciate the Lightning Gun.
To the casual gamer, the two weapons are pretty much just the same thing with a different visual and so their opinions are largely based upon that. To the hardcore player, its the subtle differences that can really make or break a weapon. I like them both for their small differences, and these days I could really go either way except for one fact: nostalgia.
We amped up the fiction of the Sniper a bit in UC2 -- it fired a shard of enriched Tarydium instead of just a bullet, and therefore left a glowing blue trail. Although there are still obvious differences, that did help address some of the big problems with the 2k4 Sniper vs. Lightning Gun. Joe Graf used to run around the office cheering that UC2's rifle had the best feel of and Sniper he'd played. I thought it was pretty diggity, too -- especially for a console.
I'll leave the current implimentation of the Sniper as a surprise for you guys, but I do feel confident in telling you that there are no plans to impliment a Lightning gun in this title.
and...
Just to clarify, I'm not saying that we're using the UC2 design as a basis for UT. I was merely pointing out that we made a change to the fiction which made it more of an "Unreal weapon" and less of a "real-world weapon" that also allowed us to do more with it, such as the trail.
With regards to the triple shot fire (and inability to get head shots while unzoomed) on the UC2 Sniper, I think that it was absolutely the right decision to make for that game. For UT, it would be a whole different story.
Lastly, I do like the Lightning Gun, and it certainly has its place (as I said before) in that game. I think that one of the cool things that people need to consider in 2k4 maps is which of the two weapons to place, as it can have a pretty significant influence on how the map plays out (as is the case with all weapon placement). It's now permenantly part of the Unreal Arsenal, and there's no saying it won't make a comeback at a later date. Just like the Ripper, Stinger, Enforcers...
