COLUMN #152; BY RAINGOON (3 February 2001, 23:33 EST) Raingoon stands by his conviction that since Firaxis is spearheading CivIII's development, it should play as it looks in his latest article entitled "What Civ 3 Should Look Like".
Comments/questions welcomed in our forums, or you may opt to contact the author directly. If you would like to write for this ongoing feature, please see our Article Submission Page. We are in need of columns for the coming weeks, including next.
ACTIVISION`S FINANCIAL RESULTS (3 February 2001, 15:26 EST) Activision today announced financial results for the third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2000.
Net revenues for the third fiscal quarter were $264.5 million as compared to $268.9 million for the third quarter of the last fiscal year. Net income was $20.5 million compared with a net income of $22.3 million for the comparable period last year.
Net revenues for the nine-month period increased to $493.4 million from $468.4 million as reported for the nine-month period last fiscal year and were the highest in the company's history. For the first nine months of fiscal 2001, the company reported net income of $19.6 million compared to a net income of $18.8 million for last fiscal year's comparable period. [Source: The Adrenaline Vault]
The strategic agreement, signed this past December, is composed of three main elements: Infogrames's acquisition of all of Hasbro Interactive's assets, including Atari and MicroProse; its acquisition of Games.com; and a long-term licensing agreement with Hasbro Incorporated that gives Infogrames exclusive rights to develop and publish digital interactive games based on current and future Hasbro properties on all existing and future digital interactive formats.
Infogrames purchased 100 percent of the common stock of Hasbro Interactive for $100 million--$95 million in Infogrames Entertainment securities (approximately 4.5 million common shares) and $5 million in cash. The deal was unanimously approved at a general meeting of Infogrames Entertainment shareholders on January 23.
GREAT NATIONS: ALL WELL (29 January 2001, 11:21 EST) The Great Nations site(gn.gameshock.com) has been out of reach for the last few weeks and we started wondering. So we contacted Toni Wilen who explained that there were problems with their ISP for the last 1.5 weeks. The site will hopefully be back tomorrow.
As for the game itself, Toni mentioned that a new version should be released soon...
GSPY: MEIER A TOP DESIGNER (29 January 2001, 21:46 EST) John M. Keefer, Managing Editor of GameSpy Industries, wrote and posted an article on GS' website entitled Top 10 Designers You'd Buy Games From. Sid Meier did not come in first or second in Keefer's list, but rather third.
Here's what this GameSpyer had to say about Meier:
[His] games are usually easily recognizable because they have his name as part of the title. It is not vanity that caused this, but an acknowledgement that if Meier is associated with the product, it is going to be quality. With such classics as Civilization, Alpha Cenaturi and Gettysburg!, Meier has set a tremendous standard for the turn-based strategy genre, and there are no signs that he plans to stop any time soon.
Meier was beaten out by Peter Molyneux of Black & White fame and Warren Spector, perhaps best known for Deus Ex 2.
Apolyton News
28/Jan-3/Feb 2001
NO UNIT WORKSHOP IN CIV3 (3 February 2001, 6:39 EST) If you thought from the Twin Galaxies feature that Civ3 would have customizable units like smac, you were right to think so. But it's not. Dan Magaha posted on our forums to make the correction
We will *not* be using a design workshop, nor will there be any type of "mix and match" unit designer.
What we said was that there will be significant tools available for mod creators and everyday users alike to create their own units and import them into the game. While the design workshop was an interesting feature of SMAC, its design constraints are wholly inappropriate for a game that covers as much ground as CivIII
Back in July 1999, we had a poll about it: 23% answered "Yes, with access throughout all the game", while 31% "Yes, but it must be limited by technology, difficulty or something else". Another 21% says "Yes, but it should be optional" and another 13% "Yes, but only for scenario design/cheat mode". Finally, 8% says a big "NO" to the whole idea, and 1% doesn't care...
So what do you think about it now that we've got this decision? Vote in our new poll!
GILMORE ON TWIN GALAXIES (1 February 2001, 17:35 EST) John Zamarra from the Twin Galaxies website emailed us this afternoon about a recent discussion he had with Firaxis Games' Kelley Gilmore, Communications Manager for the company.
Unsatisfied with the few details available on the site, I spoke to Kelly Gillmore, a representative for Firaxis about the upcoming Civilization III, Zamarra begins.
Items discussed include maps, units, customization, economy and even music.
Overall the news is looking great and only making it harder and harder to wait for the game to come out, Zamarra concludes.
TOP AL&PD LINKS FOR JANUARY 2001 (3 February 2001, 12:05 EST) After a long time of small changes, here is a surprise: Civ3: The Third Time's the Charm jumped to the second position in our AL&PD Top 10 chart! In another big move, our Civ2 section dropped to the 5th position due to a (not so objective imho :)) review. Here's the full listing.
AL&PD Stats Total Links: 230 (221) Total Reviews: 791 (773) Total Rated Links: 129 (128) Average Rating: 6.99 (7.00) Total Hits: 85181 (73132) Average Hits/Link: 370.35 (330.91)
PCDATA: JANUARY 20, 2001 (31 January 2001, 18:12 EST) For the week ending January 20, 2001, the Top 10 Selling PC Computer Games based on sales data gathered by Reston, Virginia's PCData are listed below.
1) The Sims | Electronic Arts 2) The Sims: Livin' Large | Electronic Arts 3) Roller Coaster Tycoon | Hasbro Interactive 4) Unreal Tournament | Infogrames Entertainment 5) Hoyle Casino 2001 | Havas Interactive 6) Diablo 2 | Havas Interactive 7) Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 | Electronic Arts 8) Age Of Empires II: Age of Kings | Microsoft 9) Combat Flight Simulator 2.0 | Microsoft 10) RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loony Landscapes | Hasbro Interactive
This chart is developed from data provided by 42 retail chains comprising more than 80% of the U.S. market.
PBEM CHART 28/1/1 (28 January 2001, 16:40 EST) As of thiw week we will start doing we should bedoing for some time now, that is posting the pbem ratings and ranking charts as they are posted in out CTP-Multiplaying forum. Here we go
CTP-MAC SALE ON ETOYS (31 January 2001, 19:47 EST) In addition to the sale price for MGE and TOT for Windows that we posted about in the Civ2 section, eToys is also offering Civ Call to Power for Macintosh for $20.99 (51% discount). It's not $8 bucks, but it's not to sneeze at either! -macuser
MEDIEVAL MOD 4.13 (29 January 2001, 7:27 EST) Wes released version 4.13 of the Medieval Mod for CTP1.
G100: PUSHING TOWARD BARRIER (28 January 2001, 13:57 EST) In the 421st installment of the Top 100 PC Games, published every week by Global 100, Civilization: Call To Power pushes towards the Top 40 barrier charging into 43rd spot over its performance in 52nd last week.
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