In a forum discussion regarding yesterday's voting start in the uDevGame contest, Carlos Camacho, iDevGames' editor-in-chief posted a message to let us know an unfortunate server error has put voting on hold until the problems can be solved.

From his message:

I'm glad to see positive remarks on this year's entries. Many nice games in the contest. That is the good news. The bad news is that our server has gone down, putting the voting period on hold. We are working on this problem, and hopefully should have the contest back and rolling soon.

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IMF Forum: uDevGame 2003

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The latest game article by Apple is up, and this time around they take a look at one of the most highly anticipated expansion packs of all time, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. Many of you know the long history of ToB's trip to the Mac, rumored to be coming, then announced its not coming, then rumored to be coming again. Well, now it's finally on its way and will be in Mac gamers' hands for by the end of the month.

Apple's article goes over the many new features and areas in the expansion, as well as going so far as to give players some tips to help them out. Here's a snippet from the article:

You see, your father was Bhaal, Lord of Murder, a deity who foresaw the coming of the Time of Troubles, when gods would be forced to walk the land. He sired a series of children who would rule over mortals as tyrants and keep his evil legacy alive.

In Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn, you learned that Sarevok, who killed your adoptive father, the wizard Gorion, was also a child of Bhaal. Sarevok knew his lineage and embraced it in the hope of becoming the next Lord of Murder by starting a war between Baldur’s Gate and Amn. You thwarted his evil plans and defeated him, but the truth behind your birth hangs heavy on you.

In MacPlay’s Baldur’s Gate II expansion pack Throne of Bhaal, which uses official Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules, your story comes to an end. You can either embrace your dark roots and rule over the Forgotten Realms with an iron fist or reject them and possibly die in the process.

Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal Feature

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In a recent interview with PC Zone, id Software programmer John Carmack hinted that Doom 3, the eagerly anticipated first-person shooter, is close to completion. Here's what Carmack had to say about Doom 3's progress:

We're really close. The last level was completed recently, but there's a huge amount of tuning that needs to be done. We've got a few levels, like the ones shown in the demo that are pretty much at the level of polish we're looking for throughout the game. But the other 20-some odd levels are not there yet.

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Doom 3 Teaser Site

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The U.S. Army has recently revamped several aspects of the internet presence for their premier recruitment tool, the multi-platform first person shooter America's Army (AA).

First off, the AA website has been revamped, complete with new flash animations and entirely new content. As a result of the revamping, however, players wanting to register for new accounts through the shooter's in-game web links will need to navigate to the website manually as all in-game links have been broken.

Further, in order to crack down on crank enlistments and problem users, the AA registration and log-in systems have been completely revamped. Users will need to re-register with the system in order to re-activate existing personnel profiles.

Finally, the U.S. Army has announced their plans of releasing the next version of the simulation / first person shooter, America's Army 2.0. The new version, also built on the modern Unreal engine, will feature new game modes and new content. The new version of the game is expected to be released for Windows in the coming days, with the Mac version set to enter beta testing soon.

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Game publishing grand-daddy Atari confirmed on Tuesday the closing of their Hunt Valley studio, formerly known as independent game development and publishing powerhouse Microprose Software Inc.

Creators of such popular games as Sid Meier's Civilization I & II, the Railroad Tycoon series, Pirates!, and the Master Of Orion series, Microprose's popularity was built upon the award-winning strategy and simulation games they distributed since their inception in 1984.

After a surprisingly large number of game releases, Microprose was bought by game publishers Spectrum Holobyte in early 1993, where the developers continued to publish new titles under the Microprose label. After a further series of corporate buyouts, Microprose found themselves in the hands of game publishing monopoly Infogrames Entertainment.

The 35 staff of the studio, who had recently completed the XBox-only Dungeons & Dragons Heroes, have all been laid off. A spokesperson has announced that Atari is currently in negotiations with "a handful" of the staff in order to retain their services elsewhere in the organisation.

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