Listen to this week's news instead of reading it! Click the speaker to begin. (Left-Click To Stream; Right-Click 2.1MB D'load)
HOW DO YOU BEAT THE AI? (15 June 2000, 14:21 EST/Civ3) Another Chris Pine question(isn't it wonderfull when developers ask these kind of things? :)) So, I was wondering if people could tell me some of their best strategies for beating the AIs? In particular, what does the game allow you to do that the AI should do, but doesn't? Give your answer now! -MarkG
CIV1 SECTION RE-LAUNCH (15 June 2000, 21:44 EST/About) We are pleased to announce the latest in a string of section upgrades on Apolyton: Civilization I.
FC 1.11.0 BETA COMING (15 June 2000, 20:20 EST/Alt) The following message was posted yesterday on the official FreeCiv website by webmaster Paul Zastoupil:
"There is a feature freeze for version 1.11.0 of Freeciv. There are lots of great, new features in the development version that now need to be tested as thoroughly as possible before release.
The target date for the release of Version 1.11.0 is June 27th.
During the beta period (from now to release), we will generally be focusing on bug-fixing, and only committing bug-fix patches to the CVS. It is also the time during which the set of translatable strings will (hopefully) stabilize enough to give the translators a chance to catch up.
The first beta test version of the source code for this release cycle will be available soon here". -DanQ
Apolyton & Friends News
11-20/June 2000
FIRAXIS HIRES INDUSTRY VETERAN (13 June 2000, 10:00 EST/Misc) For immediate release:
Hunt Valley, Maryland, June 13, 2000 -- FIRAXIS Games, continuing its aggressive expansion, today announced the appointment of Mike Gibson as Director of Development. He’ll be responsible for directing the audio and visual development of all FIRAXIS products.
Mike is a ten-year veteran of the gaming industry having worked most recently as Director of Creative Resources at Disney Interactive Victoria, where he was responsible for the art, animation, audio and design for their games. He began his career in gaming with Microprose Software in 1990, where he advanced from a staff artist to a producer in four years. Mike went on to become an Art Director and Game Designer at Sanctuary Woods Multimedia, until joining Disney in 1996. He brings a tremendous amount of management and design experience to FIRAXIS.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be at FIRAXIS”, said Gibson. “The energy in this company is phenomenal and I’m excited to be a part of one of the gaming industry’s leading developers”.
As they celebrate their fourth birthday, FIRAXIS Games has reached a major milestone: the company is now 30 people big and poised to deliver two of the most highly anticipated games in the industry: Sid Meier’s Civilization III and Sid Meier’s Dinosaurs.
“We are exactly where we want to be in terms of the depth and talent of our group and Mike Gibson has the management and production experience to help us continue to deliver top notch games”, said Jeff Briggs, President and CEO of FIRAXIS Games. “Sid and I couldn’t be happier with the state of our company”, he added. -DanQ
HOSTED SITES
SCENARIO LEAGUE (June 20, 2000) 2 new scenarios for review.
GOTTA HAVE STRATEGY (19 June 2000, 22:14 EST/Misc) GamersCentral is conducting a poll on gamers' preference of genre. The question is: "if there's no ... in it, I won't play". The "..." is one of either Strategy, Shooting, Racing, Adventure, Roleplaying or Flying.
At present, Strategy is in the lead with 26.8% of total votes, with Shooting trailing behind at 19.6%. Vote today! -DanQ
ACTIVISION RESTRUCTURING (17 June 2000, 12:58 EST/Misc) Read the following carefully to understand its meaning:
Activision has announced that on June 9, it reorganized into a holding company structure. According to the press release, the purpose of the reorganization was to provide the corporation with "a more adaptable organizational and capital structure and to enhance its financing options".
As a result of this restructuring, a new parent corporation, Activision Holdings, owns 100% of the once public Activision, Inc. As part of the reorganization, the former Activision, Inc. changed its name to Activision Publishing, and Activision Holdings changed its name to Activision, Inc. -DanQ
NEW LOOK... AGAIN (12 June 2000, 15:35 EST/Misc) Big Huge Games has redesigned their website for the second time in as many weeks.
"It's not enough to be big, you must be BIG and HUGE" proclaims a statement that can now be found throughout bighugegames.com. What do you think of the re-re-design? Let their webmaster know. -DanQ
