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GC BETA 3 THIS FRIDAY
(4 November 2002, 17:32 | GalCiv) Late yesterday, Brad "Frogboy" Wardell -- Galactic Civilizations Project Lead -- posted an update on the progression and anticipated release of the game`s third beta to testers on its official website. That date: this Friday, November 8th.
It`s going to feel like a whole new game in many respects as so many features have been added. At the same time as features, performance has been worked on a great deal too so it should be much faster, Wardell says.
He also addresses the matter of game loading lags.
There`s a LOT of stuff to load now. Multithreading can hide much of this but it`s a matter of choosing when to load this stuff. It`s still a lot better than beta 2 as you get an initial screen within a second or so rather than 20 seconds sometimes in beta 2. - DanQ
`REYNOLDS ON RON` FEATURE: PART 6
(4 November 2002, 15:15 | RoN | 2 comments) The sixth and final chapter of a detailed interview with Brian Reynolds, President of Big Huge Games, about his company`s upcoming debut title, Rise of Nations, is now online. Entitled "Sans Government To Sans Work", the complete, uncut audio from which the three-page article is based is available for listening live on-demand in RealAudio format (to listen, you will need RealPlayer).
In early August, I had the opportunity and pleasure to sit down with [Reynolds]... in his summer home situated in the beautiful 1000 Islands region of southeastern Ontario, says Dan "DanQ" Quick, Apolyton CS Co-Owner/Administrator and author of the feature. You can hear the fifth ~29 minutes of the 2 1/4 hour discussion we had, completely uncut, or choose one or more areas of concentration from the game to tune into [or] you can even listen to the complete conversation organized by topic from beginning to end. [..]
This concluding chapter centres in on the absence of government types, the inability to trade units and cities, the outlook on a game demo and beta testing, and finally what the BHG team does to kick back and relax.
Accompanying the write-up is an exclusive screenshot from modern gameplay. Starting tomorrow, watch for high 1600x1200 resolution versions of all six exclusive in-game screenshots featured throughout this series over the past three months. One will be posted daily from then until Sunday. After reviewing the preview, either the text and/or audio, feel free to post your comments in the forums. - DanQ
ALL HAIL MING--APULCO
(3 November 2002, 15:09 | Civ3) 
[K]ring came across Firaxis Games` homage to Ming, Apolyton`s long-time "Off-Topic Forum" moderator and administrator -- and provided a screenshot of it to boot. Although not listed in the Aztec city name list, the Aztecian empire in Civilization III: Play The World will get around to establishing a settlement named `Mingapulco`. For those who are unfamiliar, `Mingapulco` is the hither land where those who banished from the Apolyton forums for bad behaviour.
More recently, "Civilization II" and "Civilization III" moderatorship positions have been added to the list of Ming`s responsibilities. Thanks to [K]ring for the news tip. - DanQ
LONG LIVE THE KING
(3 November 2002, 12:40 | Civ3) Elvis "The King" Presley has returned to the Civilization series fold in the CivIII expansion pack, Play The World, as a bonus unit. Like the `Settler` and `Worker` units, `The King` has no offensive or defensive points and has a movement rate of one per turn.
To see an example of `The King` in action, click here. - DanQ
MORE MOO3 MUSIC
(2 November 2002, 19:11 | MoO3) Brian Williams` "Damned Fools" is the latest sample of music from Master of Orion III that can now be downloaded from the game`s official website.
The file in MP3 format is 1.2MB in size. - DanQ
COLOR BLIND HELP IN `PTW`
(2 November 2002, 19:02 | Civ3) As first brokered on CivFanatics, the "Color Blind Help" feature in Civilization III: Play The World v1.04 does not work. It turns out the "Color Blind Help" preference got inadvertently swapped with the "Disable Population Limit Warnings" perference.
Firaxis` Mike Breitkreutz quickly responded to these concerns that "Color Blind Help" will go into effect if you check the "Disable Population Limit Warnings" box. - DanQ
