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Fully Clickable Version here - http://play.game.net/newsletters/14thNovember.htm
GAME.NET News
Two major bits of news for you this week and the first is the long-awaited unveiling of our new Clan Servers. If you've never heard the term Clan Servers before they are like your very own Bookable server that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, giving you full control over the server settings and also complete admin power, the option also being there to make the server available to all the public to join should you choose that kind of server. We are especially proud of our new service because we've managed to come up with an offer that:
- Has very low prices, charging you only for the most expensive game / mod you choose to buy
- Gives you the choice of public or private servers
- Gives you full FTP access to tinker with the server if you so wish
- Allows you use the easy to configure system that has made our Bookables so popular
- Supports custom configs
- Gives full in-game control
- Utilises the GAME Bank system to allow you to share the cost of your server with your friends
- Includes a free TeamSpeak channel
- Includes free web hosting
With 28 player public BF 1942 servers retailing at under £51, 14 player public Halo servers for under £35 and 12 player private Quake 3 servers for under £26 we think you'll find we are amongst the most competitive offers in the Clan Server market and you can get a quote for your own particular server here.
One of the available games on the new clan servers is Call of Duty, the acclaimed WW2 FPS game also receiving support in the shape of a variety of servers that should cater for your every whim as a Subscriber:
GAME.NET - Retrieval (1) - 213.221.174.69:24960
GAME.NET - Search & Destroy (1) - 213.221.174.69:24961
GAME.NET Bookable - Call of Duty (1) - Available - 213.221.176.46:24960
GAME.NET Bookable - Call of Duty (2) - Available - 213.221.176.46:24961
GAME.NET Preview - Team Death Match (1) - 213.221.178.84:24960
GAME.NET Preview - Search & Destroy (1) - 213.221.178.84:24961
If you have any comments, suggestions or questions about these servers feel free to drop by our chat channel - #game.cod - or post in our Call of Duty forum.
With the launch of the Clan Servers & Call of Duty there hasn't been much time for other bits of server stuff to be done in the past seven days but we have managed to add the TacOps-for-Unreal Tournament 2003 mod FragOps as an option on our Bookable & Clan Server, the 175 MB Alpha v1.2 the version we are currently running.
Other server updates this week are as follows, links where appropriate are available in the Files & Patches section below:
Tactical Ops anti-cheat TOST software updated to v4.1.7.2
Quake 3 mod Q3F updated to v2.3 beta (as of Saturday morning)
Soldier of Fortune 2 mod OSP updated to v0.3p beta (as of Saturday morning)
Jedi Academy updated to v1.01
What's On
Sunday 16th November 2003
Operation Flashpoint @ 14:00
Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy @ 15:00
Counter-Strike @ 20:00
Monday 17th November 2003
Elite Force II @ 19:00
Half-Life: Team Fortress Classic @ 21:00
Tuesday 18th November 2003
Battlefield 1942 @ 20:30
Vietcong @ 21:00
Wednesday 19th November 2003
Medal of Honor @ 19:00
Natural Selection @ 19:00
Battlefield 1942: Desert Combat @ 21:00
Thursday 20th November 2003
Half-Life: Day of Defeat @ 20:30
Half Life: Team Fortress Classic (TFC) @ 21:00
Files and Patches
Trailers
A lighter weak on the file front sees me starting off with a nice trailer for STALKER: Oblivion Lost, a promising looking FPS game that I showcased in one of the first Newsletters I wrote earlier this year. You can download the 46 MB trailer by clicking here and if you do you'll see some quite nice atmospheric effects that will feature in the full game, if you haven't heard of it before you basically take the role of a scavenger who scours the Chernobyl Radioactive Zone for artifacts and genetically mutated animals to sell to the highest bidder. From arguably one of the more impressive FPS games in the pipeline to a "budget" title and a 20 MB trailer for Secret Service Security Breach, some nice touches in the trailer but it doesn't really grab you as a game you want to rush out to the shop and buy, which is just as well because it isn't available in the UK yet as far as I know. The same is true of the third FPS game I have trailers from this week, two blobs of in-game footage in fact for the very gory PainKiller. Due out in March of 2004 this gothic story-based game looks visually quite impressive and you can get a sneak preview of the Catacombs and Train Station levels by clicking their names.
You don't have to wait quite so long to get your paws on the Dungeon Siege expansion pack Legends of Aranna, due out in a fortnight a 12 MB trailer has been released to showcase some of the in-game footage but to be perfectly honest I found it a bit disappointing with the stand-and-hack nature of the combat not particularly impressive. A bit more promising is a 26 MB selection of in-game character movies from Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance 2, due out next year on Xbox and PS2 I'd hope that it may appear on the PC at some point as it certainly looks a lot more dynamic than the Dungeon Siege cash-in.
Two broom-broom trailers to bring you next with both taking an deferential approach to the genre. The first as 14 MB in-game movie for RC Squad, a Radio Controlled simulation the trailer itself showing a dirt-track race between a number of vehicles. Initial impressions are that the game looks like it could be a blast, for me personally multiplayer driving games that take things a bit less seriously have always had the edge over the hard-nosed Grand Prix simulations so it might well be a game I check out. Fun also seems to be the theme for TrackMania, allowing you to create your own race tracks with a variety of stunt sections there also seems to be a heavy emphasis on the multiplayer aspect with easy swapping of tracks and a whole host of game-modes to chose from, the 34 MB trailer looks quite promising with the full game due out in a couple of weeks.
Playable Demos
As with the trailer section not that many demos have landed our on FTP this week but there are a few notable ones including a 218 MB preview of The Temple of Elemental Evil: A Classic Greyhawk Adventure. Vying for the prize of longest game name ever this demo allows you to play the tutorial & a complete level from the finished game using a set of pre-created characters, of course in the game proper you get to play with dozens of adventurers with hundreds of skills and spells in what attempts to be a faithful interpretation of the Dungeons & Dragons universe. A patch for the full game is in the next section, meanwhile if you like your gaming a bit more pedestrian you could always try this 109 MB demo for adventure / puzzle game Uru: Ages beyond Myst, it offering a brief glimpse of what awaits you in the full release which is available as of today.
That Uru: Ages beyond Myst is looks quite demanding on the old PC front with quite high minimum system requirements, should you in fact want to get an idea of just how fast your PC is running at the moment then click here to download the 178 MB 3D Mark 2003 Build 340 benchmarking utility that will push your PC to the limits to find out just what sort of 3D processing power you have at your disposal. Personally I never really find much use for these kind of tools but if you've ever wondered just how good your PC is then this is your chance to find out.
A couple of driving games to end this section with the very Americanised Rebel Trucker first on my list, this truck racing simulation not available in the UK yet but the 88 MB demo gives you a chance to see the intro sequence from the full game and also take the driving certification test (i.e. get behind the wheel). If 18 wheelers aren't your thing then perhaps with the Rally season ending this past week you are hankering for the chance to get behind the wheel of your own souped-up production car with V-Rally 3, released today, just the thing you need. I've enjoyed Rally driving games in the past like Colin McRae, this one goes perhaps for quantity over quality with almost 50 tracks and 20 cars in the full game, if you want a little taste then click here to get the 64 MB demo that features one car and one full track from the finished game.
Game Patches
Perhaps due to the large number of game releases in the last couple of weeks we've seen a massive number of patches released over the past seven days although in most cases the games in question have been around for a while. One such game is the retro-FPS title Tron 2.0 for which two sort-of-patches have been released this week, the first being a 19 MB Windows XP only DeathMatch add-on, the second being a similarly sized official all-Windows patch that contains pretty much the same content and some extra stuff which takes the game to v1.040. Fellow FPS game Jedi Academy gets the patch treatment this week with the game's first update, coming in at 11 MB v1.01 corrects various Single/Multiplayer issues and also fixes some graphical problems caused by the latest ATI drivers, more on which later, our servers all being updated to this version.
The FPS theme continues with an update for the not-released-in-UK-yet Contract J.A.C.K, at just 7 MB if you plan to get the game on release I'd recommend grabbing v1.1 now and keeping it somewhere safe until next Friday. No such need to wait to patch Mafia though, the well received 3D action game getting a 17 MB overhaul in the shape of v1.2 with mainly hardware issues resolved although there are a couple of gameplay tweaks in there. The hardware issues that patch fixes includes some ATI-related ones and indeed two games this week have seen tiny ATI-related fixes released to solve problems with the latest set of drives for that card. The first is for survival-horror game Nosferatu and is available here, whilst the other is for Secret Service Security Breach and is available by clicking here.
Two very different games covering the field of aviation saw patches released this week, the first to mention being for the flight-sim IL2 Sturmovik: The Forgotten Battles. I should point out that it is a beta patch so you install it at your own risk, if you fancy having a look then download file #1 (16 MB) and #2 (70 MB) and unzip them into your game directory, this will update you to v1.2 and fix various bugs, along with introducing some gameplay tweaks. If you'd rather make the planes than fly them I think Airport Tycoon 3 would be your cup of tea, not out in the UK yet if you happen to own a copy you should download the relatively small Update #1 considering it fixes various gameplay and technical issues.
I mentioned The Temple of Elemental Evil: A Classic Greyhawk Adventure earlier and a patch has been brought out to shorten the name to TOEE. Whilst that might not be a bad idea the 9 MB patch actually serves a more important purpose with it taking the game to v1.0 (does that mean it was unfinished on release?). Looking through the list of bug fixes pretty much all areas of the game are given the treatment with corrections / tweaks to the quests, spells, rules, gameplay, interface and engine, a must have patch if you happen to have bought the game recently. Most of you will not have bought the cartoon adventure game The Hobbit as it isn't available for a fortnight but if you are planning to purchase it then download the 22 MB v1.2 patch now and make sure you keep it handy for when you install the game as there are some important crash-fixes in the patch and also a fix for one of the levels which is a bit messed up in the game as it retails.
Mods
Kicking off this section we have some mod-tools, the first being some source levels for Max Payne 2 which compliment the previous release of the Mod Tools the other week. The 31 MB file can be downloaded by clicking here and features a complete level from the game along with various objects, a good start for those of you looking to try and design your own mod for one of the best games this year. For the really advanced mod maker a set of Warcraft 3 Art Tools have been released, these requiring a professional 3D art package to use but allowing those of you serious about Warcraft 3 modding to tinker with animation and particle settings.
Further mod tools made available this week include an updated version of those on offer for budding BattleField 1942 enthusiasts, the MDT (Mod Development Tool) being updated to v0.9c with the tiny file being more than worth its weight in gold with it containing detailed tutorials on how to create your very own 2 GB mod for the game. On to some proper mod stuff and this week saw a long overdue update to Q3F, the popular Team Fortress for Quake 3 mod seeing an incremental 92 MB patch taking it to Beta 2.3 with a load of new maps added and gameplay tweaks made. Please note that this is a public beta update, and as such should not be treated as final, but we will be updating our servers with it.
Special Offers
To many of you football fans Championship Manager 4 will have been something of a disappointment, a bit like Emile Heskey it had bags of potential but was let down by simple flaws (like not being able to score). Fear not though for if you are a fan of the series you'll be glad to hear that the sequel to it - Championship Manager 2003 / 2004 - is a vast improvement and is hitting the shelves next Friday. Not only this but the nice blokes at the GAME.NET Shop have slashed the price of this standalone game to just £19.99.
Our Deal of the Day that I mentioned last week has proved immensely popular since it was unveiled, the past few days have seen the PC version of Max Payne 2 available for just £14.99 and the acclaimed GameCube title Viewtiful Joe for under £20. Due to the popularity we are now going to be varying the time of the Deal of the Day, sometimes it will be at noon whilst others will see it at 7.00pm, this move giving everyone a chance to get their hands on a bargain.
Also worth mentioning is the release today of Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, this action adventure game has been receiving some very good reviews and if you are a fan of the genre I'd thoroughly recommend it.
Regards,
Dave "BigFoot" Angus
GAME.NET Community Liaison
If you need any help or have any questions, we have a page set up to help you.
Please don't reply to this e-mail - we have all the support you need ready for you elsewhere.
http://www.game.net/
http://www.game.uk.com/
To Unsubscribe from this Community Newsletter simply go to this page, Logon and click the Unsubscribe button.
GAME.NET News
Two major bits of news for you this week and the first is the long-awaited unveiling of our new Clan Servers. If you've never heard the term Clan Servers before they are like your very own Bookable server that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, giving you full control over the server settings and also complete admin power, the option also being there to make the server available to all the public to join should you choose that kind of server. We are especially proud of our new service because we've managed to come up with an offer that:
- Has very low prices, charging you only for the most expensive game / mod you choose to buy
- Gives you the choice of public or private servers
- Gives you full FTP access to tinker with the server if you so wish
- Allows you use the easy to configure system that has made our Bookables so popular
- Supports custom configs
- Gives full in-game control
- Utilises the GAME Bank system to allow you to share the cost of your server with your friends
- Includes a free TeamSpeak channel
- Includes free web hosting
With 28 player public BF 1942 servers retailing at under £51, 14 player public Halo servers for under £35 and 12 player private Quake 3 servers for under £26 we think you'll find we are amongst the most competitive offers in the Clan Server market and you can get a quote for your own particular server here.
One of the available games on the new clan servers is Call of Duty, the acclaimed WW2 FPS game also receiving support in the shape of a variety of servers that should cater for your every whim as a Subscriber:
GAME.NET - Retrieval (1) - 213.221.174.69:24960
GAME.NET - Search & Destroy (1) - 213.221.174.69:24961
GAME.NET Bookable - Call of Duty (1) - Available - 213.221.176.46:24960
GAME.NET Bookable - Call of Duty (2) - Available - 213.221.176.46:24961
GAME.NET Preview - Team Death Match (1) - 213.221.178.84:24960
GAME.NET Preview - Search & Destroy (1) - 213.221.178.84:24961
If you have any comments, suggestions or questions about these servers feel free to drop by our chat channel - #game.cod - or post in our Call of Duty forum.
With the launch of the Clan Servers & Call of Duty there hasn't been much time for other bits of server stuff to be done in the past seven days but we have managed to add the TacOps-for-Unreal Tournament 2003 mod FragOps as an option on our Bookable & Clan Server, the 175 MB Alpha v1.2 the version we are currently running.
Other server updates this week are as follows, links where appropriate are available in the Files & Patches section below:
Tactical Ops anti-cheat TOST software updated to v4.1.7.2
Quake 3 mod Q3F updated to v2.3 beta (as of Saturday morning)
Soldier of Fortune 2 mod OSP updated to v0.3p beta (as of Saturday morning)
Jedi Academy updated to v1.01
What's On
Sunday 16th November 2003
Operation Flashpoint @ 14:00
Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy @ 15:00
Counter-Strike @ 20:00
Monday 17th November 2003
Elite Force II @ 19:00
Half-Life: Team Fortress Classic @ 21:00
Tuesday 18th November 2003
Battlefield 1942 @ 20:30
Vietcong @ 21:00
Wednesday 19th November 2003
Medal of Honor @ 19:00
Natural Selection @ 19:00
Battlefield 1942: Desert Combat @ 21:00
Thursday 20th November 2003
Half-Life: Day of Defeat @ 20:30
Half Life: Team Fortress Classic (TFC) @ 21:00
Files and Patches
Trailers
A lighter weak on the file front sees me starting off with a nice trailer for STALKER: Oblivion Lost, a promising looking FPS game that I showcased in one of the first Newsletters I wrote earlier this year. You can download the 46 MB trailer by clicking here and if you do you'll see some quite nice atmospheric effects that will feature in the full game, if you haven't heard of it before you basically take the role of a scavenger who scours the Chernobyl Radioactive Zone for artifacts and genetically mutated animals to sell to the highest bidder. From arguably one of the more impressive FPS games in the pipeline to a "budget" title and a 20 MB trailer for Secret Service Security Breach, some nice touches in the trailer but it doesn't really grab you as a game you want to rush out to the shop and buy, which is just as well because it isn't available in the UK yet as far as I know. The same is true of the third FPS game I have trailers from this week, two blobs of in-game footage in fact for the very gory PainKiller. Due out in March of 2004 this gothic story-based game looks visually quite impressive and you can get a sneak preview of the Catacombs and Train Station levels by clicking their names.
You don't have to wait quite so long to get your paws on the Dungeon Siege expansion pack Legends of Aranna, due out in a fortnight a 12 MB trailer has been released to showcase some of the in-game footage but to be perfectly honest I found it a bit disappointing with the stand-and-hack nature of the combat not particularly impressive. A bit more promising is a 26 MB selection of in-game character movies from Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance 2, due out next year on Xbox and PS2 I'd hope that it may appear on the PC at some point as it certainly looks a lot more dynamic than the Dungeon Siege cash-in.
Two broom-broom trailers to bring you next with both taking an deferential approach to the genre. The first as 14 MB in-game movie for RC Squad, a Radio Controlled simulation the trailer itself showing a dirt-track race between a number of vehicles. Initial impressions are that the game looks like it could be a blast, for me personally multiplayer driving games that take things a bit less seriously have always had the edge over the hard-nosed Grand Prix simulations so it might well be a game I check out. Fun also seems to be the theme for TrackMania, allowing you to create your own race tracks with a variety of stunt sections there also seems to be a heavy emphasis on the multiplayer aspect with easy swapping of tracks and a whole host of game-modes to chose from, the 34 MB trailer looks quite promising with the full game due out in a couple of weeks.
Playable Demos
As with the trailer section not that many demos have landed our on FTP this week but there are a few notable ones including a 218 MB preview of The Temple of Elemental Evil: A Classic Greyhawk Adventure. Vying for the prize of longest game name ever this demo allows you to play the tutorial & a complete level from the finished game using a set of pre-created characters, of course in the game proper you get to play with dozens of adventurers with hundreds of skills and spells in what attempts to be a faithful interpretation of the Dungeons & Dragons universe. A patch for the full game is in the next section, meanwhile if you like your gaming a bit more pedestrian you could always try this 109 MB demo for adventure / puzzle game Uru: Ages beyond Myst, it offering a brief glimpse of what awaits you in the full release which is available as of today.
That Uru: Ages beyond Myst is looks quite demanding on the old PC front with quite high minimum system requirements, should you in fact want to get an idea of just how fast your PC is running at the moment then click here to download the 178 MB 3D Mark 2003 Build 340 benchmarking utility that will push your PC to the limits to find out just what sort of 3D processing power you have at your disposal. Personally I never really find much use for these kind of tools but if you've ever wondered just how good your PC is then this is your chance to find out.
A couple of driving games to end this section with the very Americanised Rebel Trucker first on my list, this truck racing simulation not available in the UK yet but the 88 MB demo gives you a chance to see the intro sequence from the full game and also take the driving certification test (i.e. get behind the wheel). If 18 wheelers aren't your thing then perhaps with the Rally season ending this past week you are hankering for the chance to get behind the wheel of your own souped-up production car with V-Rally 3, released today, just the thing you need. I've enjoyed Rally driving games in the past like Colin McRae, this one goes perhaps for quantity over quality with almost 50 tracks and 20 cars in the full game, if you want a little taste then click here to get the 64 MB demo that features one car and one full track from the finished game.
Game Patches
Perhaps due to the large number of game releases in the last couple of weeks we've seen a massive number of patches released over the past seven days although in most cases the games in question have been around for a while. One such game is the retro-FPS title Tron 2.0 for which two sort-of-patches have been released this week, the first being a 19 MB Windows XP only DeathMatch add-on, the second being a similarly sized official all-Windows patch that contains pretty much the same content and some extra stuff which takes the game to v1.040. Fellow FPS game Jedi Academy gets the patch treatment this week with the game's first update, coming in at 11 MB v1.01 corrects various Single/Multiplayer issues and also fixes some graphical problems caused by the latest ATI drivers, more on which later, our servers all being updated to this version.
The FPS theme continues with an update for the not-released-in-UK-yet Contract J.A.C.K, at just 7 MB if you plan to get the game on release I'd recommend grabbing v1.1 now and keeping it somewhere safe until next Friday. No such need to wait to patch Mafia though, the well received 3D action game getting a 17 MB overhaul in the shape of v1.2 with mainly hardware issues resolved although there are a couple of gameplay tweaks in there. The hardware issues that patch fixes includes some ATI-related ones and indeed two games this week have seen tiny ATI-related fixes released to solve problems with the latest set of drives for that card. The first is for survival-horror game Nosferatu and is available here, whilst the other is for Secret Service Security Breach and is available by clicking here.
Two very different games covering the field of aviation saw patches released this week, the first to mention being for the flight-sim IL2 Sturmovik: The Forgotten Battles. I should point out that it is a beta patch so you install it at your own risk, if you fancy having a look then download file #1 (16 MB) and #2 (70 MB) and unzip them into your game directory, this will update you to v1.2 and fix various bugs, along with introducing some gameplay tweaks. If you'd rather make the planes than fly them I think Airport Tycoon 3 would be your cup of tea, not out in the UK yet if you happen to own a copy you should download the relatively small Update #1 considering it fixes various gameplay and technical issues.
I mentioned The Temple of Elemental Evil: A Classic Greyhawk Adventure earlier and a patch has been brought out to shorten the name to TOEE. Whilst that might not be a bad idea the 9 MB patch actually serves a more important purpose with it taking the game to v1.0 (does that mean it was unfinished on release?). Looking through the list of bug fixes pretty much all areas of the game are given the treatment with corrections / tweaks to the quests, spells, rules, gameplay, interface and engine, a must have patch if you happen to have bought the game recently. Most of you will not have bought the cartoon adventure game The Hobbit as it isn't available for a fortnight but if you are planning to purchase it then download the 22 MB v1.2 patch now and make sure you keep it handy for when you install the game as there are some important crash-fixes in the patch and also a fix for one of the levels which is a bit messed up in the game as it retails.
Mods
Kicking off this section we have some mod-tools, the first being some source levels for Max Payne 2 which compliment the previous release of the Mod Tools the other week. The 31 MB file can be downloaded by clicking here and features a complete level from the game along with various objects, a good start for those of you looking to try and design your own mod for one of the best games this year. For the really advanced mod maker a set of Warcraft 3 Art Tools have been released, these requiring a professional 3D art package to use but allowing those of you serious about Warcraft 3 modding to tinker with animation and particle settings.
Further mod tools made available this week include an updated version of those on offer for budding BattleField 1942 enthusiasts, the MDT (Mod Development Tool) being updated to v0.9c with the tiny file being more than worth its weight in gold with it containing detailed tutorials on how to create your very own 2 GB mod for the game. On to some proper mod stuff and this week saw a long overdue update to Q3F, the popular Team Fortress for Quake 3 mod seeing an incremental 92 MB patch taking it to Beta 2.3 with a load of new maps added and gameplay tweaks made. Please note that this is a public beta update, and as such should not be treated as final, but we will be updating our servers with it.
Special Offers
To many of you football fans Championship Manager 4 will have been something of a disappointment, a bit like Emile Heskey it had bags of potential but was let down by simple flaws (like not being able to score). Fear not though for if you are a fan of the series you'll be glad to hear that the sequel to it - Championship Manager 2003 / 2004 - is a vast improvement and is hitting the shelves next Friday. Not only this but the nice blokes at the GAME.NET Shop have slashed the price of this standalone game to just £19.99.
Our Deal of the Day that I mentioned last week has proved immensely popular since it was unveiled, the past few days have seen the PC version of Max Payne 2 available for just £14.99 and the acclaimed GameCube title Viewtiful Joe for under £20. Due to the popularity we are now going to be varying the time of the Deal of the Day, sometimes it will be at noon whilst others will see it at 7.00pm, this move giving everyone a chance to get their hands on a bargain.
Also worth mentioning is the release today of Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, this action adventure game has been receiving some very good reviews and if you are a fan of the genre I'd thoroughly recommend it.
Regards,
Dave "BigFoot" Angus
GAME.NET Community Liaison
If you need any help or have any questions, we have a page set up to help you.
Please don't reply to this e-mail - we have all the support you need ready for you elsewhere.
http://www.game.net/
http://www.game.uk.com/
To Unsubscribe from this Community Newsletter simply go to this page, Logon and click the Unsubscribe button.