 Crytek shows off DirectX 10 in-game footage
Despite the fact there are currently no cards that support DX10, Crytek managed to pull off a demo at PDC 2005 using software layering to show what to expect when the DX update & cards are out. They used the Farcry environment to show:
Dynamic Day/Night Cycle
Fully interactive environments
Sunrays + Diffuse transmissions
Real-time soft shadows & Soft particles
Interactive/destructive environments
Volumetric clouds
and last but not least, Advanced shader technology!
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 20, 2005, 4:27 pm
Download : DX10 Demo
Get scared on October 18th - F.E.A.R. goes gold
LOS ANGELES, CA – September 16th, 2005 – The countdown to one of the biggest PC game launches this Fall has officially begun, as Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) today announced the October 18th global street date for F.E.A.R.™ (First Encounter Assault Recon) from Sierra Entertainment. Additionally, VU Games unveiled plans to release an all-new F.E.A.R. multi-player demo in late September. The multi-player demo will follow on the heels of the hugely successful single-player demo that has reached more than 1.5 million downloads since its release in August, making it one of the most popular game demo downloads in history.
“As evidenced by the popularity of the single-player demo and the early critical praise from game reviewers, F.E.A.R. has already become the must-have game to own this Fall,” said Philip W. O’Neil, Chief Operating Officer and President, North America for VU Games. “Delivering a global street date of October 18, 2005 will ensure that the game simultaneously hits retail shelves around the world on the same day and will enable hundreds of thousands of gamers to experience the thrill of F.E.A.R. together.”
Developed by Monolith Productions, F.E.A.R. is an intense first-person close-quarters combat experience with rich atmosphere and an engaging, paranormal horror storyline. Already named ‘Best Action Game of E3 2005’ by the E3Critics, F.E.A.R. has been called ‘Vivendi’s classic-in-the-making’ and ‘the PC’s top shooter’ by PC Gamer (September 2005). In August, the game earned the “Best PC Game” award at the 2005 Leipzig Games Convention in Germany.
Last week, VU Games announced that a special “Director’s Edition” DVD will be release in North America, which will include exclusive content. The DVD will feature a “Making of F.E.A.R.” documentary, a developer’s roundtable commentary video, live action “declassified” interviews with Alma, and an exclusive F.E.A.R. machinima episode from Rooster Teeth Productions of Red vs. Blue fame. Gamers who pre-order F.E.A.R. Director’s Edition DVD will also receive $5 off the final SRP when the game hits streets on October 18th.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 20, 2005, 4:26 pm
Quake 4 Multiplayer Movie Trailer
There is a new movie trailer of Quake 4, showing off the sci-fi first-person shooter sequel under construction at Raven Software. This is a multiplayer movie that sports a bit under a minute of fast-paced deathmatch footage.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 20, 2005, 4:25 pm
News Source : 3DGamers
Download : Trailer
High-Res Metal Gear Solid 4 Screens!
We already brought you the first details on Metal Gear Solid 4, but the screen shots were stuck in the pages of Famitsu Weekly. If you haven't come across scans floating around the 'net or would rather see them in their proper, high-resolution, widescreen wonder, then you've come to the right place.
Japanese website Ruliweb has snagged our first real look at Hideo Kojima's latest opus, and we don't have to tell you twice how great it looks. It's too bad we won't have our hands on Snake's latest mission for a while yet, but at least we have an assuredly fantastic trailer to look forward to soon.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 20, 2005, 4:24 pm
News Source : 1up.com
Xbox 360 Launch Dates
Microsoft have finally revealed the worldwide release dates of it's upcoming next generation console, the Xbox 360. The 360 is set to launch on the 22nd of November in N. America, 2nd of December in Europe and finally the 10th of December in Japan.
Microsoft's ambition to have a worldwide release of the new console before Christmas is all set. Although, Microsoft are still keeping quiet about shipment amounts of the 360 in the three regions.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 20, 2005, 4:23 pm
News Source : GamesIndustry.biz
 Worm creates fake Google site
A worm that modifies a user's HOSTS file to redirect visitors of Google.com to a spoof website has been discovered. The worm was found by Panda Labs and is currently circulating on P2P networks Shareaza and Imesh. It is masquerading as an executable of popular Star Wars game Knights Of The Old Republic 2.
If infected, several Google domain names will be redirected to an unofficial German version of the search engine. Although the site looks identical to the original, the results have been modified in such a way that certain companies will gain an unfair higher ranking, and therefore will appear at the top of search results.
Luis Corrons, director of Panda Labs said: "Its aims are to increase visits to the pages linked by the creator of this malware, or to earn an income from companies that want to appear in the first few results in computer where the identity of Google has been spoofed. In both cases, the motivation of the author of this malware is purely financial."
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 20, 2005, 4:10 pm
News Source : Neowin
 Opera 8.50: Now completely free of charge
In what could be considered a very surprising move, and one that easily could shake the browser market, Opera has made it's award winning browser available to the masses for free, void of it's built in Advertisement Banner, giving people the choice of one of the most powerful, flexible and a very secure web browser.
Opera Software today permanently removed the ad banner and licensing fee from its award-winning Web browser. The ad-free, full-featured Opera browser is now available for download - completely free of charge ? at http://www.opera.com.
"Today we invite the entire Internet community to use Opera and experience Web browsing as it should be," said Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "Removing the ad banner and licensing fee will encourage many new users to discover the speed, security and unmatched usability of the Opera browser."
Opera was previously available free of charge with an ad banner. Users had the option of paying a licensing fee to remove the ad banner and receive premium support.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 20, 2005, 4:09 pm
Download : Opera 8.5
BitTorrent flaw allows ratio cheating
Many of today's BitTorrent trackers rely on a ratio system to ensure leechers (P2P users who download data but do not share) to a minimum. The ratio system basically tracks a user's upload and download amounts and ensures a fair minimum upload ratio is maintained. Now it looks like an exploit has been found which would allow users to "cheat" a tracker into thinking they had a more favourable ratio than they actually did.
However, trackers are already wising up to this exploit and banning users that 'trick the tracker' from the network, don't say you weren't warned.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 20, 2005, 4:08 pm
News Source : Slashdot
Opera announces 'Merlin'
Opera is planning on a major overhaul for its desktop browser.
According to a source, Opera will release a new version of its desktop browser, which will contain major modifications to the browser's User Interface (UI). The new version will sport a simpler look.
Merlin is the name of a small falcon, an Ancient, and as Olli mentioned, the code name of the next major release.
XSLT 1.0, WF2, a new IMAP back-end, and some CSS3 Selectors. A new designMode (rich text editing), are some of the new features going in "Oh, there's more, but we can't reveal all our secrets now." One Opera spokesperson said
'Don't worry, we also had to fix a bunch of bugs. So, we made OBJECTs and IFRAMEs respect z-index, improved our margin-collapsing code, fixed problems with width inheritance for positioned elements, and nearly completed support for Acid2. There's way, way more to talk about, but that'll come later."
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 20, 2005, 4:07 pm
News Source : Tim's Blog
 Forceware 'Rel80' goes for ATi's jugular
NVidia have always been a company to look closely at it's history before making a step forward, and it's paid off. Not wanting to take a nose-dive like 3Dfx did in it's day, the company has always kept a few surprises up it's sleeve.
A couple of years ago, GeForce3 was the dominating product on the market, while ATi relied on original Radeon marchitecture, which was no match for the GeForce 2 GTS, Ultra and of course - GeForce3!
Just as ATI went for the launch of its answer to GeForce 3 - the Radeon 8500 baby - Nvidia came out of nowhere with a "performance driver", which solved several bugs and enabled GeForce3 to leapfrog over the newcomer.
Now it intends to do the same as it did back then by releasing a driver that allows a user to mix different vendors (in the same series) on SLi mode, Linux will see SLi mode with the release of the driver, and well.. if you can't wait until the official release heres a link to the v81.26 beta driver that has leaked.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 20, 2005, 4:06 pm
News Source : Neowin
Download : Beta Driver
Day of Defeat: Source Begins Pre-loading
As promised earlier last week, Valve has allowed Steam users to begin the process of pre-loading Day of Defeat: Source files on their hard drives. The process of pre-loading involves downloading the game's files, in encrypted form, before the actual release date. Using their software distribution network, Steam, Valve can then simply activate the game on all accounts on the day of release, September 26th. Users who choose to pre-load Day of Defeat will be granted instant access to the game as opposed to having to download it, along with thousands of other users, on the day of.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 15, 2005, 4:16 pm
News Source : Neowin
Xbox 360 Launch Dates
Microsoft have finally releaved the worldwide release dates of it's upcoming next generation console, the Xbox 360. The 360 is set to launch on 22nd November in N.America, 2nd December in Europe and finally the 10th December in Japan.
Microsoft's ambition to to have a worldwide release of the new console before Christmas is all set. Although, Microsoft are still keeping quiet about shimpment amounts of the 360 in the three regions.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 15, 2005, 4:15 pm
News Source : Neowin
PSP launches in the UK
The PlayStation Portable has launched at last in Europe, with queues of hundreds of people forming before midnight last night in London's Oxford Street as the very first European units went on sale. Hundreds of stores opened across the UK at midnight to give gamers a chance to buy the hardware as early as possible, with Paul Arneil being the official first buyer in the UK, at the HMV store in Oxford Street. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz just minutes after the doors opened at midnight, Sony Computer Entertainment UK boss Ray Maguire predicted a sell-out launch, with over 100,000 units likely to be sold in the first day.
"We've got more stock coming in, obviously, on a daily basis all the way up to Christmas," he said, "so hopefully there should be sufficient, there or thereabouts, to satisfy the demand." You can read our full interview with Ray Maguire, where he discusses his hopes for the console in the run-up to Christmas and the reason why it's taken so long to arrive in Europe, on the site today.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 2, 2005, 11:35 am
News Source : GamesIndustry.biz
Sony "Unlikely" To Offer Two Versions of PS3
VP of studios questions Microsoft's wisdom in offering consumers a choice of Xbox 360s
Microsoft recently announced that the Xbox 360 Core System, which does not include a hard disk, will retail for GBP 209.99 at launch. For GBP 279.99, consumers will be able to purchase a console with a 20GB hard disk, wireless controller, Xbox Live Silver membership, HD-AV cable and removable faceplate. Speaking at the European Game Developers' Conference in London today, when asked if Sony might follow in the Redwood giant's footsteps the VP of studios replied: "Unlikely." "Are there two versions of the Xbox 360 that people want to buy, is my question," he continued. "I don't know." "This is my personal view, not my corporate view, but when I look at those formats, I think it just confuses the audience. They don't know which one to buy, developers don't know which one to create for, and retailers don't know which one to stock." "So I think we wouldn't take that strategy. We wouldn't create confusion," he concluded.
However, Harrison did go on to suggest that consumers will have a variety of options to choose from in the longer term. Harrison did commend Microsoft with regard to the success of the Xbox Live service, telling the audience: "Microsoft has done a lot of things right, and there are certainly things that are going to form the model for many of the high quality consumer experiences that we will deliver with PS3." Unsurprisingly, Harrison declined to comment on a possible price point for the PS3, telling the audience: "It would be foolish of me to make any comments about pricing at this early stage."
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 2, 2005, 11:34 am
News Source : GamesIndustry.biz
Auto Assault Slips to 2006
One of the most original massively multiplayer online (MMO) games in recent years, Auto Assault has had it's release date slipped back to spring 2006, at the earliest.
NetDevil producer Steven Snow posted this on the official forums, "The beta testing period has spawned some great ideas that we want to include before launch. NetDevil and NCsoft are both companies with a strong commitment to releasing 'only when it's ready,' so we want to extend the beta into the spring of 2006."
Snow also stated that the team will be continually be adding content and tweaking Auto Assault, including better level progression, better character creation, better client performance and more.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 2, 2005, 11:33 am
News Source : GamesIndustry.biz
 Deal for Film Version of Microsoft Game Halo
Microsoft has signed a deal with two film studios to make a movie based on its popular space-based video game series Halo, Universal Pictures said on Wednesday.
Universal and 20th Century Fox agreed to pay Microsoft $5 million plus a percentage of ticket sales. The total price being paid is capped at 10 percent of domestic box-office receipts.
The deal ends months of speculation over which studio would win the right to make a Halo film, which came to Hollywood last spring highly promoted by Microsoft and its representatives at Creative Artists Agency.
Messengers delivered a script to the studios wearing costumes and toting laser guns.
Under terms of the agreement, Universal will oversee production and domestic distribution, while Fox will handle overseas distribution.
Paul Pflug, a Universal spokesman, said the studios were aiming for a summer 2007 release of a movie based on Halo and Halo 2, a science fiction series about an alien-fighting warrior named Master Chief.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 2, 2005, 11:32 am
News Source : NY Times
X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse Movie
Activision has released a new movie trailer for X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse to show more of the top-down 3D superheroic action sequel in the works at Raven Software. This brief clip illustrates the game's premise in half a minute of most in-game footage.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 2, 2005, 11:31 am
News Source : 3D Gamers
Update for Windows XP (KB897663)
Microsoft has received a report of an unexpected behavior in the way that the Windows Firewall User Interface handles malformed entries in the Windows Registry. By creating malformed Windows Firewall exception entries in the Windows Registry, an exception could be created in the firewall that would not be displayed in the Windows Firewall User Interface. However, this exception is displayed by the command line firewall administration tools.
It is important to note that this is not a vulnerability. Administrative privileges are required to access the associated section of the Windows Registry that contains this configuration information. By using documented methods to manage and create Windows Firewall exceptions, it is unlikely that a malformed registry entry will be produced which would exhibit this behavior. It is more likely that an attacker who has already compromised the system would create such malformed registry entries with intent to confuse a user.
Install this update to ensure that a firewall exception created via the registry is listed in the Windows Firewall interface the same as if the exception was created in the interface itself. After you install this update, you may have to restart your computer. This download is available running genuine Microsoft Windows.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 2, 2005, 11:30 am
Download : Update
Creative Ships Virus Equipped Zen Neeons
According to the F-Secure blog, Creative has reported it has accidentally shipped almost 4000 MP3 players with a Windows virus. This happened in Japan with the 5GB Zen Neeons players that have been shipping for two months now.
The file system on the players contains one file that is infected with the Wullik.B (also known as Rays.A) email worm. The worm won't infect PCs unless user browses the player files and clicks on the infected file.
The worm in case is over two years old and spreads by emailing copies of itself and dropping itself to shared folders.
Creative is reporting (in Japanese) that the virus affects players with serial numbers between 1230528000001 and 1230533001680.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 2, 2005, 11:29 am
Londoners Whoosh Up to 24mbps
After years of lagging behind mainland Europe, it looks like super-fast broadband might finally be making it to Britain's shores. Local loop unbundling has already offered 8mbps speeds - and now one operator is going three times faster as it pilots a 24mbps scheme.
Be has launched its pilot project in central London, and promises speeds as fast as 24mbps for those within a kilometre of their exchange. Users a bit further out will see their speeds drop a bit, but many should still be able to race around the net at up to 15mbps without a problem. The scheme is based on ADSL2+ technology, and is being offered to the first batch of subscribers for ?20 a month - cheaper than many existing 1 or 2mbps services.
Previous LLU services have faced problems with a massive oversubscription. However, Be insists it is prepared for a large take-up of its new service.
Initial subscribers are also being offered an extra enticement to join up - a free wireless ADSL router comes with the service. The requirements for joining up also include "A rampant thirst for speed", as well as the more traditional items like a phone line and a computer. The site's FAQs suggest users could be up and running at the high speed within two weeks of signing up.
News Posted by : DoDgEtHiS On
: September 2, 2005, 11:28 am
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