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Apple has posted a new feature on True Crime: Streets of LA, the game that recently went golden master and is scheduled to ship on March 14th. True Crime: Streets of LA allows gamers to experience intense action on the Streets of Los Angeles. Merciless gangs are on a rampage, and the only hope to restore order is an out-of-control ex-cop whose unconventional methods leave him rejected by the police and feared by criminals.

Here's a clip from the feature:

Despite the cinematic overtones, however, True Crime doesn’t play in a linear fashion. Between the major story beats, you can go on side missions to bust perps or simply explore the game map, which covers 240 square miles of realistic L.A. scenery. You’ll pass the Staples Center, Mann’s Chinese Theater and other well-known landmarks as you drive down such recognizable streets as Venice Blvd. and Hollywood Blvd.

Apple: True Crime: Streets of L.A.

Aspyr Media

True Crime: Streets of L.A.

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IMG has posted a review of the Rumble Pad 2 Vibration Feedback Gamepad. Here's a clip from the review:

So how does it feel in the hands then? Well, you pick it up and it feels like you're home. Now it's been a couple of months since I last held the original Dual Shock in my hands, but the RumblePad sure is a good competitor. The rubber grip makes it feel good and the weight is nice, if possibly a tad to the light side (but that's just a personal preference). It really fits my rather large hands without becoming big and bulky. All in all, Logitech has made a very nice pad that on the whole feels really good.

IMG Review: The Rumblepad 2

MacWorld has posted an extremely detailed rundown of Doom 3 ahead of its impending release on the Mac. The feature takes an in-depth look at the performance of Doom 3 on a top end G5 system and compares it to PC performance of the game. It also takes a retrospective look at id Software's ties with the Mac gaming world to give a reference point to the benchmarks.

From the feature:

The demo really pushes the hardware, and it's not the same as what you'll go through in much of the game. There's a lot of movement, a lot of texture data and a lot of animation and complex geometry. When we ran Doom 3 itself with a frame counter, it often stayed in ranges much higher than these numbers suggest, and the game itself is throttled to 60 frames per second -- regardless of how fast the demo runs, 60 FPS is as fast as you'd ever see the actual game go.

id Software

Aspyr Media

DOOM 3

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IGN.com recently got the chance to play the upcoming realistic first person shooter, Close Combat: First to Fight. Close Combat is being developed with the help of marines to try and bring the player into as real a combat zone as possible. The player commands a four man squad of marines in dense urban combat in a fictional war zone. Innovative AI and authentic weaponry will add to the experience. The IGN article shows off several new screenshots and examines the Ready-Team-Fire-Assist tactical system. It also includes details of the player's role in a wider battle.

From the article:

The game starts you off with TV briefs and an entrenched reporter, Amber Wolf, who informs the viewers, you, about the hot and dangerous fictitious situation in Beirut. You're called in to set up a headquarters and to clear out the streets of Al Karatina, one by one. The streets are mostly empty, except for a few random citizens who seem to not mind the blaring war sirens, constant gunfire, and screams of religious righteousness against the American infidels.

Atomic Games

MacSoft

Close Combat: First to Fight

IGN: Close Combat Hands-on

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In a seemingly endless string of disciplinary procedures against cheaters and pirates, Blizzard has announced yet more account closures for players of Warcraft III. 4,000 accounts that were found to use "loss bots" were closed and players that were involved have been banned for a period of 30 days.

Here's what Blizzard had to say on the closures:

Blizzard maintains an aggressive stance against cheating of all kind and will continue to ensure that the Battle.net ladders are a fair and safe place to play Warcraft III. The accounts in question have been closed, and the affected players have been barred from ladder play on any account for a period of 30 days. In cases where this is the second instance of abuse or cheating, the accounts have been permanently banned from all ladder play.

To report suspected use of map hacks, please email hacks@blizzard.com with as much information as possible.

Blizzard Entertainment

WarCraft III

Battle.net

Buy WarCraft III

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Killer Betties: An Entertainment Magazine for Women has posted an interview with Diana Linnea Hedlund, or, as she is affectionately referred to, Otter, a terrain and landscape designer working for eGenesis on A Tale in the Desert.

Diana talks about what she did before getting involved with eGenesis and A Tale in the Desert, what it takes to get into the business, and what her future with eGenesis holds.

When asked what she feels about violence in gaming, Diana had this to say:

Well it's boring she says. Violence has become too commonplace in gaming and "just because some 15 yr old has a fast trigger finger and will buy anything that makes him feel like king of the hill, doesn't mean we have to market them so much that the industry is missing whole chunks of the buying public."

Head over to Killer Betties to check out the rest of the interview.

KB Exclusive: An Interview with Otter

A Tale in the Desert

Scott Kevill has released a new version of his Macintosh-only online gaming service, GameRanger. The new version, now at 4.0.8, includes the following updates:

• Added support for Doom 3
• Added support for Zero Hour
• Improved bandwidth usage for in-game voice
• Fixed some problems with in-game voice cutting out occasionally

Download GameRanger

GameRanger

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A new version of the Unreal Tournament 2004 mod Carball has been released. The mod, a vehicular-based sports mod for UT2004, is similar to soccer, where you drive vehicles to knock a huge ball into the opposing team's goal.

The new version, 2.4, includes the following changes:

- Whole new set of loading screens.
- Sound volumes can now affect vehicles
- Ball zones to where you can have info telling the player what zone
the ball is in.
- Keg o' boom and spider mine weapons
- Fix Vehicle teleporters so player does not lose his items.
- Hud incidcator for you teammate's selected pickup. Implemented as an
icon above the car.
- Wildcard Weapon base. The base spawns a random pickup from available
CB pickups.
- Force item spawns to appear after score.
- Force 3rd person only for cars
- Fix ball disappearing bug
- Fake Ball Enhancements. Fake ball physics are now exactly like the
real ball, including "touching" code.
- Lots of map enhancements
- Lots of new skins!

CarBall :: Prove you've got... BALLS!

CarBall :: Files

Unreal Tournament 2004

Digital Extremes

MacSoft

Epic Games

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