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Aerial shooter Strike Vector targets January 28 launch
French indie studio Ragequit Corporation has revealed an unexpectedly near-term release date for its airborne first-person multiplayer shooter Strike Vector: January 28. The game, which counts Quake 3 and Crimson Skies among its inspirations, drops players into the cockpit of the titular "Vector," a futuristic VTOL jet that can either fly like a traditional fighter plane or hover like a helicopter. The real draw of the ship though, lies in its customizable armaments. Ragequit Corporation claims that the Vector offers "hundreds of combinations" of available weaponry, which should make it easier to ensure that your flying death machine is a unique snowflake among the hordes of other pilots you'll be battling against. While no price is listed on the game's Steam page as of yet, Eurogamer claims that once on sale, Strike Vector will bear a $24.90 price tag.
Bethesda tells Mojang to lay down its virtual guns, lawyer up for a trademark battle
Time was, men could settle their disputes with glinting swords at the ready and their honor on the line. Nowadays, only the cosplaying and Comic Con attending folk alike are likely to burnish (elvish) blades, although they're rather inapt to sully them with enemy blood. Well, unsurprisingly, Mojang head Markus "Notch" Persson's modern day offer of a Quake 3 Arena simulated duel -- his proposed method of extralegal recourse -- was shot down by Bethesda, the company suing the Minecraft creator for use of the word "Scrolls" in its unreleased card game. As these are apparently sue-happy times, both parties are headed to court to battle it out, with Mojang facing the terrible repercussion of a forced product name change. From the looks of the defendant's Twitter feed, however, it doesn't appear the impending litigation's breaking this Swede's stride.
Notch: challenging Bethesda to Quake 3 duel 'might have been a poor choice'
Minecraft maker Markus "Notch" Persson has admitted a strategic miscalculation in challenging Bethesda to a Quake 3 tournament to settle their legal dispute over Notch's Scrolls, whose title Bethesda says conflicts with its Elder Scrolls franchise. Considering Bethesda owns Quake 3 and employs a handful of professional players, Notch admitted his choice of game might have been a poor one. "If it came to a Quake 3 tournament, I have a feeling we just might have to change the name," Notch told Wired. Notch isn't giving up his fight with Bethesda, saying the entire lawsuit is a "bogus claim," but attorney and game industry analyst Mark Methenitis says Bethesda has a "reasonable argument" based on established US trademark-law tests. Perhaps Notch should challenge Bethesda to a Twitter duel, because at 303,000 followers, Notch could trounce Bethesda's 50,000 roughly six times over and still have enough people left over to play the Scrolls alpha when it launches later this year, and that's ridiculous.
Minecraft creator challenges Bethesda to deathmatch for the word 'scrolls'
While Samsung, Apple, HTC and others battle it out in court with lawyers and expansive patent portfolios, one man seems to know how real geeks settle disputes -- with a deathmatch. Markus "Notch" Persson, the man behind Minecraft and head of Mojang, has decided the best way to put the trademark squabble with Bethesda to rest is two rounds of three-on-three Quake 3 Arena action. The Elder Scrolls developer is sticking with the same tactics that have made smartphone companies our new least-favorite corporate citizens, but Notch thinks ownership of the word "scrolls" can best be determined with BFGs and railguns. With any luck this will catch on and, when Steve Jobs and Larry Page lead their forces into battle in Team Fortress, we're gonna have to put on our money on the Mountain View crew.
Notch challenges Bethesda to Quake 3 deathmatch for 'Scrolls' trademark
Look, sometimes the traditional justice systems of the world just can't get it done. Some kerfuffles require alternative forms of arbitration -- like, for instance, the recent trademark dispute between Mojang and Bethesda over the former's upcoming game, Scrolls. Notch from Mojang has an interesting suggestion for solving the dispute once and for all: "I challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3," he said in his blog earlier today. "Three of our best warriors against three of your best warriors," Notch added. "We select one level, you select the other, we randomize the order. 20 minute matches, highest total frag count per team across both levels wins." The stakes for this contest would be fairly high, as Notch added, "If we win, you drop the lawsuit. If you win, we will change the name of Scrolls to something you're fine with." In related news, we've been sitting here for like, an hour, trying to turn this whole scenario into a parody song of Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." Our two hang-ups are that we're not comfortable characterizing either party as Satan, and also that we're just not Weird Al-clever.
Quake Arena Arcade finally submitted to Australian ratings board
We've been talking about Quake Arena on Xbox Live for -- wow, has it been three years? -- and we still haven't heard much on the game since id told us back in February that the game was "very close" to being finished. Now it's popped up on the Australian Classification Database, indicating that there just may be a bit of light at the end of this incredibly long, incredibly dark tunnel. We've fired off some missives to the appropriate parties for comment and will let you know what we hear back. And if you're looking to get a taste of what's in store for Xbox Live, then you may want to get acquainted with Quake Live.
Quake 3 ported to Android, shows off Droid's graphical prowess (video)
You should by now be well aware that there's no shortage of games one can play on one's beloved Droid, but just for the FPS old schoolers out there, how's about a nice Quake 3 port to pass the time with? Yup, the game that defined the term multiplayer before World of Warcraft came around has been enabled on the Android OS, finally finding another mobile home after residing on Nokia handsets for so long. For its short development time, this looks a very well refined translation of the software and offers you customizable controls to go with thoroughly playable frame rates. And if you have an older Android phone, don't despair -- Quake 2 has also been ported over, so once you've had an eyeful of the Droid, why not hit the source link to find out how to get in on the action? [Thanks, Anders]
Doom Resurrection on the iPhone now, lots more id games to come
Fellow shooter fans rejoice -- id software's John Carmack has begun delivering on his love of the iPhone with a brand new game made just for the platform called Doom Resurrection, available right now on the App Store for the price of $9.99. There's nothing small about this game at all -- it offers up 76 mb of original id shooter, including eight levels total, six on Mars, and two more (spoiler?) in Hell, all set in a graphics and control engine designed just for Apple's handhelds (you control aiming with the accelerometer while the game runs you around on rails, and hit the various on-screen buttons to shoot or jump into cover). Unfortunately, there's no lite version to test out (though we can probably expect one eventually, considering Wolfenstein Classic got one), but early reviews say that if you like Doom, you'll enjoy the game.And that's not all -- besides this original version of Doom, Carmack and id continue to have big plans for the iPhone: Quake and Quake 2 are headed there for sure, and Quake 3 probably isn't far behind, as well as a RAGE-related title. And that doesn't even include the rest of the mobile stuff they have planned: apparently Wolfenstein RPG is ready to go, and Carmack hints that they've got even more original titles like Doom Resurrection here up their sleeve. Good to see a major, established developer like id is really committing to delivering new games for the iPhone.
Nokia Quake III gains on-phone server, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse support
Remember when playing Quake III at a decent resolution required a $5,000 Alienware? Man, those were the days. Now, we can't help but be thankful for a few special Nokia handsets (the N95 8GB, E90 and N82 in particular) that can all handle the game by their lonesome. In fact, the latest version of the software adds a few remarkably awesome extras. For starters, users can now take advantage of on-phone server support, meaning that your handset can actually host a Quake III multiplayer battle (and may we recommend the server name "trashaccident?"). Also of note, the devs have tossed in support for Bluetooth mice and keyboards. We know, right? Tap the read link for all the juicy installation instructions.[Via Decoder, thanks Olli]
The Gaming Iconoclast: A side of PlanetSide
"Come on, you apes! Do you want to live forever?" - Unknown WWI platoon Sergeant, as quoted in the epigraph of Starship Troopers, Robert HeinleinThis sort of chaos, of being flung into the maw of an overwhelming and relentless foe, very succinctly sums up the jovial insanity of Massively's foray into PlanetSide's world-event realm as so-called Black Ops. Replete with frenetic action, us-versus-the-world attitude, and the ever-so-helpful seismic and meteoric stylings of a GM eavesdropping on our Skype chat, TGI hopes that our incursion into PlanetSide's universe provided an entertaining distraction to the folks for whom it's been a long-time daily driver.Our efforts could politely have been called "lambs to the slaughter." They could less-politely be visualized as a well-worn combat boot meeting a sensitive part of TGI's anatomy, perhaps the one he sits upon, repeatedly and with great vigor.It was glorious.
More info on Quake 3 for the iPod touch
That video we saw the other day of two iPod touches running a networked Quake 3 deathmatch sent ripples through the iPod / iPhone community. Those of you doubting the authenticity of the clip can probably put some fears to bed, as GameCyte has gotten a hold of the programmers, and they make it fairly clear it wasn't some elaborate hoax. According to developers Cameron and Marcia Tofer of Hermitworks, they managed to get the game up and running on the touches in, "Between eight and twelve hours," using jail-broken units, no official SDK, and modified code that added basic accelerometer support. The game in the video is being hosted on one of the devices and played over a local network -- and the Tofers claim that running a full 64-player match wouldn't be out of the question. Unfortunately, there aren't any plans to make this demo public, as the team is working on original content for the platform. So... email petition anyone?
Quake 3 Arena ported to iPhone/iPod Touch
Advertisements have shown us that the iPhone is a tool with a wide array of functions -- YouTube perusing, calamari ordering, and astronaut deafening, to name a few. But no commercials have warned of the iPhone's (and the iPod Touch's) sinister, newly implemented abilities -- fragging, railgunning, and gibbing. We speak, of course, of the handheld's recently developed Quake 3 Arena application, which uses the device's touch screen and accelerometer to crudely recreate that warm, familiar mouse-and-keyboard feeling. Just thinking of the possible on-the-go LAN parties we'd be able to hold is making us consider finally trading in our Zack Morris phonebrick for Apple's sexy cellular device.
Quake 3 hits the iPod touch, makes for portable LAN party
Future generations will most likely divide the timeline of history at this point: when Quake 3 achieved motion-sensing, wireless network play on two iPod touches. Just think, less than a year ago we were salivating (or at least mildly enthused) at the prospect of rocking Doom on this thing, and now Quake 3 Arena is yours for the taking -- or at least will be once we get any sort of hard info on this app.[Via PMP Today]
Twelve Sky public beta opens
Aeria Games and Entertainment has launched the open beta of their new MMO Twelve Sky on 12 October. During the Open Beta, Aeria will be running special events, giveaways, promotions and competitions.
Pointing out the obvious regarding the MacBook and gaming
The MacBook will play many of your really old games at an acceptable level, but you can forget about playing any recently released intensive 3D games (i.e. the ones you want to play). That's the conclusion MacWorld has reached in its first look at the MacBook as a gaming machine. The article suggests maxing out the RAM in the machine if you want to play games: the writer saw a 50fps increase in Quake 3 Arena when he upgraded the machine from 512MB to 2GB. A nice finding for owners of MacBooks interested in a bit of retro gaming.However, lets get something straight here, the MacBook is not a gaming machine. It has an integrated graphics card. No computing hardware that lacks a dedicated graphics card should be even mentioned in the same sentence as "gaming." We understand that some Mac owners may need to be persuaded to overlook this machine's blatant Achilles heel but it isn't MacWorld's job to do this. The site is doing a disservice to its readers by pointing to the poor gaming performance of the MacBook and then suggesting that people "understand [the MacBook's] limitations" and go "buy an XBox360 or Playstation2 for [their] gaming needs." It's this sort of advice that gives Apple free reign to charge $149 for a paint job (um, can I have a graphics card instead?) and allows the mainstream media to say things like "Mac users aren't into games."[Via TUAW]
Quake 3 in 10240x3072
This setup might be enough to make any hardened gamer weep with envy. Especially hardened gamers who've just splashed out on a new monitor themselves (we're not bitter). Running Quake 3 at a resolution of 10240x3072, this custom multi-panel display consists of 24 monitors powered by 12 Linux servers, created as part of a wall-based user interface research project. Warcraft II has also made it big, but at 3840x2160 it looks positively tiny next to the Quake 3 setup.[Via Opposable Thumbs]
Quake 3 Universal Binary
When Id open sourced the Quake 3 source code awhile back, developers began immediately port it to operating systems and processors that weren't previously supported. Recently, Sqonk Online has released a port of the Quake 3 application to Universal Binary, meaning it'll run natively on the new Intel Macs. Note that this isn't the full game with all the resource files, but just the compiled Quake 3.app executable. In order to get Quake 3 running, you'll need to install the game first (from retail CD) and then just replace the executable app with the Universal Binary version, or let it sit alongside the old executable.A few things: One, I have not tested this yet as I'm still awaiting my Intel iMac to arrive, but this is the method I've used to run other recompiled binaries (for instance, the Marathon port to Mac OS X) and it's worked fine. Two, please be kind to the developer's bandwidth and don't download the executable unless you're truly keen on using it. Remember, this is not the entire game, only the executable.
