The HUNT Returns: Apogee has Plans for Rise of the Triad 2

The HUNT Returns?

There was something interesting that I read on bigdownload recently. Scott Miller of 3D Realms was saying in an interview with Gamasutra that there may be plans for another Rise of the Triad game sometime in the future.

3D Realms is a smaller company now after the DNF team left, and not to mention the whole court situation with evil publisher Take-Two.

Miller says that there are about a dozen projects that he has up his sleeve, and that the revived company, Apogee LLC, will be "rebooting" the Rise of the Triad franchise, which mainly consists of Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins- the shareware version, Rise of the Triad: Dark War, and Extreme Rise of the Triad, as well as other level packs and such that are freeware on the internet. There haven't been any sequels to the game in nearly 15 years, and since so many games have received reboots or sequels, like Doom (Doom 3), Duke Nukem (DNF- haven't received it yet, but anyway), and recently, Wolfenstein 3D (Wolfenstein), I think it's about time that ROTT gets the attention it never had.

Now all we need is a another Shadow Warrior and Blood, please.



This was Scott Miller in ROTT. He played the part of this character, the Strike Patrol.

Sources:

Rise of the Triad revival coming?
Feature: '20 Years Of Evolution - Scott Miller And 3D Realms'
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4112/20_years_of_evolution_scott_.php

The HUNT Returns: Apogee has Plans for Rise of the Triad 2

Apocalypse Then: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six

Developer: Red Storm Entertainment
Publisher: Red Storm Entertainment
Platforms: Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, N64, PlayStation, PlayStation Network
Original Release date: August 21, 1998
Genres: Tactical shooter

On this day in gaming, in 1998, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six was released.

The game is based on the novel of the same name, Rainbow Six, written by Tom Clancy, but the plot of the game deviates as you progress, seeing as the novel wasn’t finished by the time the game was.

It’s a squad based tactical shooter, where you take a team of international counter-terrorists through several stages. There’s the briefing and planning stage- here you get the low down on the situation, terrorists, hostages and other information, before choosing your team from a roster of specialists. After this, you choose the gear that your team will wear as well as the weapons and tools they will carry. After this you have a basic layout of the mission stage, where you can give your team waypoints and orders to carry out once the mission starts. This means the game is less of a run and gun Quake-style game, and more in tune with strategy and sometimes luck.

Years ago I used to play this game over and over. I found it a little frustrating that one had to be prepared to play the missions over and over again mainly due to the quite poor AI and some irritating bugs, and not to mention the unforgiving and surprisingly realistic damage system. One shot from a gun will likely either critically wound a person or kill them. I also enjoyed taking out my frustrations on my teammates and hostages when things went b@lls-up.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six received an expansion called Eagle Watch, as well as a semi-sequel (as claimed by the developer) titled Rogue Spear the following year. After this, through the years there have been a number of games in the Rainbow Six series as well as similar franchises which spawned from it in the Tom Clancy’s range such as the Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell games, among others.

You can pick up Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six if you want to play a classic. Otherwise you can also try Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Gold Pack Edition, which includes Eagle Watch.

Apocalypse Then: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six

Stalker News, new Widget on AAA

I've just posted a collection of recent news items on Call of Pripyat, the next Stalker game in the series, over at my other blog, which is all about the Stalker series.

I've also got a new widget on the blog here, on the right-hand column near the bottom (for now), which lists all the latest updates on this Stalker blog of mine, Anomalous Artefact, including this latest post.

Stalker News, new Widget on AAA

John Carmack’s Birthday Today

Today is the birthday John D. Carmack II, also known more casually as John Carmack. He was born in 1970, and turns 39 today.

John Carmack is one of the four original co-founders of the legendary id software, and the only remaining one of those co-founders still with the company (John Romero, Adrian Carmack, and Tom Hall have since left). id Software, which was independent for many years, was bought by ZeniMax Media this year. id is responsible for many well known game franchises such as Commander Keen (actually Softdisk), Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake.

John is also responsible for many innovations in graphics, with id’s games, particularly the Doom and Quake series but also Rage (currently in development at time of writing), having showcased the latest developments in game graphics. Doom showed off the id Tech 1 engine, Quake II the id Tech 2, Quake III Arena the id Tech 3, Doom 3 the id Tech 4, and Rage the id Tech 5 engine, which will also be used by future games like Doom 4.

These engines mentioned have been used by many other games like Hexen, Hexen II, Call of Duty, Half-Life, Soldier of Fortune 1& 2, and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Interesting facts:

• John is a rocketry enthusiast and is the founder and lead engineer of Armadillo Aerospace, founded in 2000.
• John has a love for Ferraris, and even gave one of his away in a competition years ago.
• John was once arrested for breaking into a school and attempting to steal Apple II computers.
• John Carmack is a supporter of copyleft, or open source projects.
• John Carmack is an atheist.
• John Carmack is supposedly the one who coined the phrase, “when it’s done”, which was subsequently used and abused by Apogee, which initially published some of id’s early games like Wolfenstein 3D, and is now known as 3D Realms, particularly with Duke Nukem Forever. This is because of his tendency to avoid set release dates, which inevitably change over the course of games’ development schedules.

Many people in the industry, including gaming journalists, consider John Carmack as their hero and a genius.

John Carmack’s Birthday Today

Bethesda Speaks, People Don't Listen...Properly

Bethesda was misquoted the other day at QuakeCon when many people were lead to believe that it was said that there will not be another Elder Scrolls game in the future. Bethesda responded by commenting on their blog by basically saying "never say never, and we didn't".
There are also rumours now of an Elder Scrolls MMO, similar to World of Warcraft, presumably.

Do you really think Bethesda would drop one of their most successful franchises, next to Fallout 3? Come on.

Speaking of which, Bethesda is claiming that Mothership Zeta will be the last DLC pack for the game, and that five is enough, but then again, never say never I suppose. Of course it won't be the end of the Fallout games, as there's still Fallout: New Vegas- by Obsidian.

Bethesda's new step-sister, id Software, says that their Fallout 3, otherwise known as the hotly anticipated Rage, which will be released next year, will not feature monster-closets, a gimmick featured in Doom 3 a hell of a lot (get it?).

id also says that Doom 4 will not have much talk until next year, once Rage is out, likely.

Sources:

Bethesda: No More Fallout 3 DLC
Bethesda: Of course there’s going to be an Elder Scrolls V - eventually
http://bethblog.com/index.php/2009/08/17/clarifying-about-next-elder-scrolls-game-mmo-etc/
id: No More Monster Closets, Promise! [Id]
http://www.vg247.com/2009/08/15/bethesda-has-no-plans-for-an-elder-scrolls-v/

Bethesda Speaks, People Don't Listen...Properly

Video Games Coming out This Week in August 2009: 8/16 - 8/22

PC 360 PS3 PS2 PSP DS Wii

This week obviously marks one of the big releases this year,and my choice for pick of the week- Wolfenstein. I've watched the trailers and waited for this game intently for a long while.

It's been nearly eight years since Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the prequel. That's nearly as long as the gap between Return to Castle Wolfenstein and the original games, Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny. I'm sure I'll get this somewhere down the road, perhaps this month or next.

And not to mention that there's been talk of this ludicrous deal, announced by Manveer Heir of Raven , where if you're following him on Twitter, and Wolfenstein outsells Madden 10, you'll get your money back.There's not much chance, reportedly, but still, you could hope and pray- if you think it'll help. A lot of people reckon it's just a good publicity stunt, and they're right.

The game names below are under their appropriate platforms, and the links will take you to the games' pages, where you can pick it up.

PC

Code of Honor 3: Desperate Measures
Raven Squad: Operation Hidden Dagger
Tales of Monkey Island - Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay (Steam)
War Leaders: Clash of Nations
Wolfenstein

PlayStation 3

Wolfenstein

Xbox 360

Raven Squad: Operation Hidden Dagger
Shadow Complex (Xbox Live Arcade)
Wolfenstein

Wii

Army Rescue
Domino Rally
Spectrobes: Origins

Nintendo DS

Ant Nation
Astrology
My Dress-Up
My Friends
My Make-Up
Shorts
Sudoku Ball Detective

Source: Shacknews

Video Games Coming out This Week in August 2009: 8/16 - 8/22