"You know you have been away from your motherland for a long time...
When you have forgotten the taste of tinola",
---Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere
Matthew Arcilla

 

"I Will Survive..."  Some of you people who have been following the Ultima Online case of "Gamers vs. Electronic Arts/Origin Systems" may have been aware of a motion by EA to have attorney George Schultz (rep for the gamers) removed from the case.  The motion by EA indicated that forms by Schultz indicated that all six gamers had been already questioned when supposedly, two had been left unquestioned. This is considered serious malpractice. Additional accusations were also listed. Judge Judith McConnell gave a nasty reprimanding to Schultz, and had the options at her disposal: have Schultz tossed from the case, fine him, or even disbar him.   As stated, this motion was denied, and we have yet to see whether Schultz and Gamers have a case. A hearing in Judge McConnell's chambers this October 24th will see Schultz detailing his next moves such as whether to appeal the denial of his certification or to continue the case.   Schulyz said to Gamespot News: "I do know we're going to keep going, that's for sure."  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  Resident Evil Goes Migrant  The giant horror brouhaha that is Resident Evil 2 will be ported over to the PC. Press info has it that it'll be ready by February next year. This port, like most other games in pre-release right now, will support 3D graphics accelerators from Rendition, 3Dfx Interactive Inc., Power VR, and others.   ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  "Nighttime Show for Tonight: Werewolf! Oh Wait, We Already Have Plenty Of That On Cable..."  A trailer for ASC Games' White Wolf licensed Werewolf:The Apocalypse will be debuting tonight (on a full moon no less) this Monday at 8:12 PM EST. Expect it to pop up on most major gamesites near you, but it'll be seen debuting at this URL.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  Sounds Good, Tastes Even Better   The team at Black Isle Studios have been able to rake in some big time professionals in the sound effects industry for Fallout 2. Who'd they get? Well, they have Paul Menicini (Babylon 5, Island of Dr. Moreau) and David Farmer of EFX Systems (Mortal Kombat, Armageddon) who will be working as sound designers for the game.   This pair of Hollywood sound design professionals were brought in to further complement the existing   in-house sound team and have also been contracted to work on two other Black Isle titles. These two other titles are Baldur's Gate and Planescape:Torment.   Farmer was surprised by the challenges of sound design for this industry. Said Farmer:   "I was really surprised at how complicated the whole process was - it was almost like starting over... Our biggest challenge was to make large sounds for smaller speakers. We're used to using huge theater-quality speakers, and we had to find a way to use different frequencies to make sounds to imply size without just turning up the volume." In a press release, the following observation was made:  "Interplay (publisher of Black Isle's titles) is no stranger to top-notch sound design talent. They have worked with several award-winning sound design teams in the past. The Academy Award®-nominated Weddington Productions worked on the original Fallout game as well as Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Burbank-based West Productions, who also lent sound design to the aforementioned games, were honored recently with an Emmy® for their work on an episode of The X-Files." Mmmmm.. news that's music to my ears. Oh, and on a tangential note, Black Isle is currently in heavy crunch mode as they are in the final stages of QA and have begun manufacturing the packaging for Fallout 2.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla   Economics For Ya  The ISDA piped a market report this month that points out that the software market saw a rise of thirty percent (30%) in the first half of this year. According to said report, forty-five percent (45%) of American households own a personal computer.   Globally speaking however, the report also states that the software market loses about three billion dollars a year from software piracy.  GamesDomain Review also speaks out about this report and says:  "According to the ISDA, the US market for entertainment software is bigger than the markets for music or videos." And that's how we're doing so far.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  Adventure Maker: Not For Boys!  Purple Moon announced that they have just released and shipped Rockett's Adventure Maker. Purple Moon seeks to further the female gamer's place in the gaming industry, and this latest title is aimed at teenage girls and allows them to create characters and act out in what they call as "friendship adventures".   The company is considering making use of consumer's characters and storylines as the basis for future Purple Moon titles.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  Middle Earth Goes For Big Time Real Estate  Middle Earth, Yosemite Entertainment's on-line RPG based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, is set to occupy about 500+ megs of hard drive space. This measure is said to have been taken in order to reduce online lat and slag problems, plus reduce the chances of online hackers messing with code.  The game is still far off and will be unveiled by the turn of the century, but Daniel James from Yosemite Entertainment is confident that:  "...our stringent measures will reduce any hacking problems to a minimum, if not completely extinguish them."  Let's hope that's true. For now, we'll just have to wait and see.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  "4th Coming? Hell, There Hasn't Even Been a Second One."  Vircom's server/client based multiplayer RPG, The 4th Coming, is being touted as "close to finish" and will be up by November. Or so they say. Perhaps it will be time for the Holidays, and just good, cause tis the season to play as elves!  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  "And I'll See You on the Dark Side of the Moon..."  Southpeak Interactive's Dark Side of the Moon, is approaching the final stages of post-production and is set for release in mid-November (which was previously glibbed as an October release). This will be the second adventure by Southpeak using their Video Reality engine, the first being Temujin.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  Squaresoft Sets Up Shop in Europe  Squaresoft, developer of fluffy RPGs like Secret of Mana and the Final Fantasy series, has decided to put up its own base in Europe. They also plan to become a publisher of games, and not just in the D side of games.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla

 

"Word to your mother.",
Matthew Arcilla

 

JustAdventure Status  Randy Sluganski discusses the ethics of adventure game reviewing in his latest article, The Fundamentals of Adventure Game Reviewing - 101.While we're talking about Randy, we'd like to let you know that he's got a review of Aneiva Interactive's Cydonia up for reads. So go now, go!  Oh wait, and we've also got a lovely little preview of Enemy Zero, Sega PC's first ever adventure for the PC market. So uhhh, die infidel dogs! Wait, that doesn't sound right. Ummmm.... just get outta here or continue reading the news or something.  Real King's Quest Info  Finally, we get some real dish from Sierra regarding the overly-hyped under-revealed King's Quest: Mask of Eternity. Cnet's GameCenter has put up their own preview of Mask of Eternity, in the Sneak Peeks section.  The preview is heavy with info and reveals that the game is heavily wrought with role-playing and action elements and emphasizes the serious demeanor which the game displays compared with the rest of it's cute predecessors. However, they do try to keep old-school adventurers pleased by trying to hint at the puzzles involved.  Another note, the preview mentions that Mask of Eternity will be the series' grand finale! Can't they make 9 King's Quests? Nine is such a nicer number than eight.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla

 

Oh wait, today we've got yet another milestone! Andy Bellatti sends us some of the good ole stuff from rumor land concerning Sierra On-Line.

Today, I'm kinda screwed up cause I just lost my glasses. Ah can't bloody see nothing around here, so I'll just watch TV so I don't have to read nothing.

And just to clear this up, the news here is chronologically ahead all the time here at JANews! So in other words, news I report that appear elsewhere else as October 1, appear here as October 2, simply because I live in the Philippines which is 8 hours ahead of Greenwich meantime, okay?

"You have the option of being insane, and I don't.
And THAT drives me crazy!",
Matthew Arcilla

 

Aye, Be Quiet Parrot, Or I'll Keelhaul Ya Good!  This little newsbit is too amusing to mention. The ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) were busy searching the house of suspected software pirates when they were aided by of all things (and pretty much in an amusing irony, I might add), a parrot!  The suspects were sitting on their bed as the search was taking place when suddenly the parrot squawked out "under the mattress!". The team (consisting of ELSPA officials, local law enforcement and trade officials) looked under the bed, and the parrot was right: Two hundred copies of software were found.  And just one of the many reasons why parrots became unfashionable with pirates in the later years of treasure burying.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  Ultima Online Case: Class Certification Denied.  Regarding Ken Hinther's motion for a class certification of the UO case, Judge McConnell rendered her verdict in the motion: "Plaintiff's motion for class certification is denied."   George Schultz, who is serving as attorney for the gamers said, "By no means is this a dismissal of the case...[and] it's no comment on whether it's a good case... We're going to go forward with the suit...We see a real obligation to go forward and see what we can do to make this right."  Schultz is now considering appealing the judge's decision, or "find some way to reword the complaint [so it can be considered anew for class certification]."  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  "Schattenjager's Log, StarDate..."  Well, the good ole text version of the Schattenjager Diaries' 6th issue has arrived. It's that little newsletter that the Sierra monkeys send out to keep GK fans informed on Gabriel Knight 3 things. If you're not yet subscribed do so right here.  There's also a fancy HTML version rigged with images (as the 6th issue was originally intended) available for viewing at all good Gabriel Knight sites near you. Here're some:  Carlos Dasilva's Schattenjager.Com (formerly St. George's Website)  Nico Sels and Christy Lein's Sidney - The Unofficial GK3 Homepage.  Heath Smith's The Unofficial Gabriel Knight Homepage.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla  Sonny Bonds Rolling Over In His Grave  If y'all remember that Police Quest Adventure that we've been rooting for recently, here's some updates. Susan Frischer emailed Andy regarding all, and from the way she sees things at Sierra:   "... it looks like there's little support for a PQ adventure game among the management and marketing staff at this division at this time." She also took the time to write a public letter for JA/JANews! regulars, to explain the ugly side of things (unedited):  "Dear Police Quest Adventure Fans,  As promised, I pitched a proposal for continuing the PQ series with an adventure-action game, most likely starring Sonny Bonds.  I emphasized the many requests I received (around 500 at last count).   However, the concept did not gain significant support with the general manager,  producers, lead programmers, or marketing staff here at Yosemite Entertainment (the birthplace of Sierra On-Line and the PQ series).   Although we take fan input very seriously, there are a great many factors to be carefully considered when selecting a new project.  The fact that now is not the time for another PQ Adventure is not indicative that the series is dead, nor that this idea might not be reconsidered in the future.  We thank you very much for your input and continued support.  Susan Frischer  Designer - SWAT 2" Well, I'm glad the series ain't dead and all, but looks like those Bonds gonna have to stay on that retirement island a little while longer. And no, we will not settle for Detective John Carey.  ---c/o Andy Bellatti  Rumor Alert: GK3 Postponed AGAIN?!  The engine for Gabriel Knight 3 needs some technical tweaking and updating, so... whoops, we're gonna have to wait a little longer, folks. According to correspondent Andy Bellatti, the word is that it'll be out by Summer 1999!!!!  But then Andy goes on to say:  "I am hesitant to believe that such a game would come out during the 'Summer Slump'.  After all, if Sierra is being so careful with it, and since it is such an acclaimed series, why not release it during the Christmas Season?  Could Sierra be planning something even hotter for THEN?" I for one, have only one thing to say, in my best little Linus Van Pelt voice: AUUUUGGGHHHHH!!  ---c/o Andy Bellatti  Mask of Eternity and Dragonfire: This Year's Adventure Yardsticks  According to JANews! correspondent Andy Bellatti, Mask of Eternity and Dragonfire are sure to be watched very closely upon release by Sierra. The future of Sierra adventures will weigh heavily on the performance of these two games. If fan response is not deemed significant enough, Sierra will become even more hesitant to release adventure games at all.  ---c/o Andy Bellatti  System Shock Programmer On UseNet  Rob "Xemu" Fermier, the lead programmer of System Shock 2 was recently sighted at the newsgroups bantering with the rest, and had loads of stuff to say. It's pretty long stuff he placed in just a few posts, so I took the liberty of editing them for important stuff.  Release Date?  "Well, I can't really speak to release date yet. As you know in this biz, release dates can be hard to predict and often bring great consumer dissatisfaction if dates are missed. However, I can tell you that we've been working on the game since last November, and we are well underway.  Hardware Specs?  "Our exact hardware specs have not been settled on yet, but we are targeting a 266 w/accelerator card as our sort of 'median' machine. We have Direct3D support in, so it will work on a wide variety of cards. However, an accelerator card will be required to play the game."  Also, Fermier talked about some other bits about gameplay in one specific post, and here's most of the stuff he said:    "...we are definitely reaching back to earlier Looking Glass games such as [Ultima] Underworld and lifting various 'traditional' RPG elements that we felt worked well there.   "One thing about skills, stats, and other RPG conventions such as 'experience points,' is that they... [expose] the player to... development and... a lot of what is going on behind the scenes... Revealing numbers to the player, although it does have an element of counter-immersion, helps the player to really see what is going on in the engine and all the things we are simulating.   "Perhaps the biggest difference in actual gameplay that having these RPG elements makes is the element of player customization... That means problems can be tackled from more than one direction, and the player has to make choices about what to focus on.   "Rest assured that this is not going to be a game purely about abstract numbers. The immersion and the 3D world are paramount to us, and the RPG elements exist to enhance that experience, NOT to replace it. If you enjoyed the original Shock, I think you will enjoy the sequel. We definitely intend to provide the same experience, only more so, and one of those avenues of improvement is to let the player have more of a choice in how they develop."  Ahh... I love developers who're always around to get into the nitty gritty with the fans. Let's hope to hear more from Fermier soon.  ---c/o Matthew Arcilla