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| New UW Adventures Release - Darkwarrior - 6:47:46 PM EST |
I've just been informed that there's a new release of UWAdv out, called "cheesecake." Read the full details here.
Thanks, team UWAdv!
- [Edit by Digi] -
I just took a look at it. In a nutshell, the program allows you to view the opening titles (which is cool, considering that most PCs are so fast, they just skip these screens while playing the game), and the intro (though it doesn't play the music in the intro like the real game does), and the credits, and if you click on Journey Onward, you go to an in-game view. All I could manage to do was look up and down, and look inside the sacks and pack. Oh, and I could take the armor off the paper doll. If you can do anything else in this version (like, uh, move) then I missed it. :)
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| Official Arx Fatalis Trailer! - Elenkis - 8:48:14 AM EST |
Our friends over at RPGDot have got another sweet exclusive for you to enjoy. This time it just so happens to be some in-game footage in the form of an official trailer! The 59 seconds long AVI comes in two flavors: a 3MB version in 320x200 res, or a higher quality 13MB version in 480x350 res.
Both can be found right here.
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| German Patch Released - Elenkis - 8:33:07 AM EST |
Arkane have released a new 2.20MB patch for the German version of Arx, bringing the game to v1.12. You can read the complete list of changes right here. Not being able to speak German I unfotunately cannot tell you anything else about it (and you don't even want to know what results I got from trying to run the changes through Babel Fish) :) But be sure to go download it if it applies to you.
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| International Release Date - Elenkis - 11:15:31 PM EST |
EuroGamer have posted an update about the eagerly awaited international release. Looks like September 27th is the date to mark on your calendars!
Eagerly anticipated first person role-playing game Arx Fatalis will finally see the light of day on September 27th, courtesy of Austrian publisher JoWooD. Arx Fatalis is set in a (literally) dark fantasy world where the sun has disappeared, plunging the city of Arx into darkness and leaving its inhabitants scurrying underground into the old dwarven mines beneath it. Now it's up to you to brave goblins, ratmen and giant spiders in a bid to defeat the evil cult of Akbaa and save the world from ruin. And as if that's not pressure enough, there's also the slight matter of uncovering your own true identity, because your character is (you guessed it) suffering from amnesia.
To make the two month wait a little sweeter (or perhaps more painful?) the update is accompanied by 10 spiffy new screenshots!
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| Arx Impressions on Usenet - Elenkis - 10:59:35 PM EST |
Looks like some usenet folks are getting in on some Arx gaming. Two great first impression threads can be found in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg newsgroup. Both threads offer some good impressions of the full game in a nice amount of detail, they're also pretty darned positive ;) Here are direct links to the threads:
Subject: Arx Fatalis first impressions
Subject: arx fatalis review?
And a quick snippet:
To sum it up. I got NWN yesterday and started to play it. But after fireing
up Arx Fatalis today just to check it before going back to NWN I have to
think that NWN has to rest a little bit more. Arx simply is awesome, this
one definitely goes very high into my all time favorite list if it can keep
the high standards it sets at the beginning!
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| Scanned Underworld Articles - Elenkis - 9:24:18 AM EST |
With many thanks to the kindness of Mauricio Vives we now have quality scans of some classic Underworld articles added to the UW Articles section! They make interesting nostalgia pieces, so be sure to take a look. Ah, the memories... Check out the listed price in the CGW review; and people complain about games being more expensive today?! ;)
Note that in order to maintain a readable quality the JPGs are fairly large (up to 250k).
CGW's "25 Miles of Terror!" Ad - 190k
Origin's Software Entertainment Technology Report - (page 1) - 180k
Origin's Software Entertainment Technology Report - (page 2) - 214k
Computer Gaming World Review - (page 1) - 224k
Computer Gaming World Review - (page 2) - 219k
Computer Gaming World Review - (page 3) - 249k
Thanks again Mauricio, great stuff!
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| German Arx Reviews - Elenkis - 8:35:30 AM EST |
It seems a whole bunch of reviews have gone online since the German release date of Arx. Having not scanned any German news sites recently they all went completely unnoticed by me until now! Needless to say they're all in German, but any that I could find have been added to our review page.
Gamestar German Review - 84% - 07/01/2002
RPGWelt German Review - 83% - 07/02/2002
4Players German Review - 84% - 07/05/2002
Game Captain German Review - 85% - 07/08/2002
PC Games German Review - 83% - 07/12/2002
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| Gamer's Hell: Arx Interview - Dave - 3:38:20 PM EST |
Gamers' Hell Has posted an interview they've conducted with Raphael Colantonio, Arkane Studios' CEO and lead designer on Arx Fatalis.
As always, a little quote doesn't go amiss:The first time we got the spell system working we all went 'Wao', we knew that we had something really unique within our hands, but what I personnaly like the best is our scenario and universe: we've spent long hours meeting and debating on very small details in order to get the story and world absolutely right.
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| New Arx Screenshots - Dan - 10:54:00 AM EST |
RPGDot, ever the champion of Arx (I love you guys!) have posted up a set of new Arx screenshots, and this cool title image!
Hhehe. Right, here's the link.
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| Arx on XBox Rumor - Dan - 10:49:37 AM EST |
As posted on RPGDot, Arkane is muttering about how they'd be interested in doing an XBox port of Arx (which is a good idea, more platforms = more sales = more money for next game ;). Negotiations about this have NOT begun with Jowood & MS.
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| Gamer's Hell Arx Review - Elenkis - 4:56:44 AM EST |
Gamer's Hell looks to be the first site online to bring us a review of the full version of Arx Fatalis (German version of course). The review is very positive overall, with the exception of graphics which cause the total score to drop to a (still very good) 8 out of 10. The review concludes with the following enticing words:
Plain and simple: RPG Hardcore fans get it now or if you don't know any german and have to wait for the international release later this year pre-order it. The people at Arkane Studios had some refreshing ideas of how to put the pieces of a classic RPG together to realize new ideas.
For all the others think about what you really want in a game. Be warned regarding these aspects of the game: Arx Fatalis offers good but maybe not top of the notch graphics. In addition to this please note that Arx Fatalis is one of those games you can play for months and still haven't discovered every single secret of the game or even worse still haven't reached the end. If you can live with these perhaps even look for these in a game you neither won't regret buying it. Arx Fatalis will lure into the darkness. How you return is your problem.
Congrats to Raf and the guys! Now when is that US release? ;)
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| RPGDot First Impressions - Elenkis - 4:41:57 AM EST |
Garrett from RPGDot has been lucky enough to get his hands on a German copy of Arx Fatalis. After playing the full game for three days he has written up some brief first impressions to make us even more jealous ;) Here's a snippet:
Overall, this few starting hours showed the potential the game has and it is a great potential. The graphics look great (I play it smoothly at 1600x1200x32 on my P4 1.8GHz and GF3), EAX Sound is fantastic (I rarely before felt so much fear in a dungeon) and controls are good, after you took 1 or 2 hours to get used to them.
You also can eat, no, you actually have to eat (how I missed that after the old Ultima games died), and eating also makes you heal faster.
All in all, I am very content with the game, if the story unfolds and the immersiveness is going at that high level through all the game, this will be one of the top games ever and a true heir for Ultima underworld.
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| Ultima IX: Redemption is Alive! - Darkwarrior - 12:38:09 AM EST |
Yay! Apparently the Ultima IX team was just looking for a home, which was why the last post was in February.
Go ahead and take a look at this URL:
icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/~fountain/
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| New Ultima Adventures Release - Darkwarrior - 12:22:24 AM EST |
Just got a message that the newest version of Ultima Adventures is out and ready for download. It's called "poppypastry," since the UWA team doesn't like version numbers. :)
Get the news here.
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| Ultima I: Reborn Tech Demo 2.5 for Linux Released - Darkwarrior - 11:43:10 PM EST |
Linux users can finally enjoy the newly released Linux version of U1R's tech demo! I highly recommend you get it, as graphically there are very few Linux games that are superior to it. Check out this link to grab the demo.
I've been informed that there is another Ultima remake in development--one for Ultima IX, and will use Neverwinter Nights as its base game. The remake is called Eriadain and can be found here.
Stay tuned for more details as I compile a general fact sheet about this remake.
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