Hey Everyone. Just doing a giant wrap-up of everything news because I feel like it.
First off, a reminder that
The Official C&C Generals Message Boards has a contest every week where you can win a Generals T-shirt. w00t! Head the message boards (Community -> Message Boards, from the main page) for more info.
Next,
MacCentral is reporting that C&C Generals for the Mac has aparently gone gold. You can preorder it
here.
Aspyr Media Inc. has announced that its Mac conversion of Command & Conquer Generals has gone Gold Master, the final step before the game goes into duplication. Aspyr expects Command & Conquer Generals to hit stores by April 16, 2004.
Command & Conquer Generals requires Mac OS X v10.2.6 or later, a G4/1GHz or faster, 256MB RAM, 1.6GB free disk space, ATI Radeon 7500 or Nvidia GeForce2 MX or better 3D graphics with 32MB of VRAM, and a DVD drive in order to install and play.
Rated T for Teen by the ESRB, Command & Conquer Generals costs about US$50. It's still available for pre-order from Aspyr's Web site.
CNCDEN is reporting that the oringal C&C is frequently mentioned in the 10th aniversary edition of PC Gamer. The SE describes it as the 5th most influential game on the list. It's in very good company and will most likely be worth the read no matter how you get hands on it. Buy it from a bookstore, buy it from a newstand, or read it in a Barnes and Noble.
Planet CNC is hosting a new in-site mod called
Enduring Freedom.
Enduring Freedom Mod (EF) is a highly realistic (and I mean HIGHLY realistic) modification to the game Command & Conquer: Generals. It also takes advantage of the benefits provided by the refined Sage Engine in Zero Hour.
It takes place in Afghanistan and centers around the current war against the terrorist group called Al Qaeda. We are working on a historically accurate campaign that will cover the war down to every detail. We are using actual satellite information to reproduce locations such as Kandahar and Kabul. We are also including every U.S. Military Division and group that was actually deployed to Afghanistan in 2001. These groups include: The 10th Mountain Division, 15th & 26th Marine Expeditionary Units, Navy Seals, Delta Force, & Soldiers from the U.S.S. Enterprise Carrier Battle Group (ENTBATGRU CVN-65).
Fans of
CNC Series know that the site has been down for a little while but "no worries!" it's back online.
The Blitzkrieg2 Mod keeps chugging along. They have released some news shots of the action. Check 'em out.
The screenshots for today show the Go229 in action, bombing a group of Soviet tanks. Right now they each carry 2 bombs, but we plan on adding machine guns to it as well to take on fighters as well. This may seem like a bit much, but the plane will only be available to those who decide to use the Aircraft tech tree for the Germans (meaning they won't be able to get some of the other goodies like the Maus, Sturmtiger or V2 as well). Flyby did the model and skin for the Go229.
CNC Unleashed is following a familiar trend in the community as it is looking for staff members. They need News Updaters, File Managers, and Interviewers/Reviewers. Interested? Check them out. Not interested in them? Check
us out.
It seems that EA and Gas Powered Games have teamed up.
The two companies have partnered to create a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game for the PC. The new title is slated for release in 2006. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
This agreement reinforces EA's commitment to nurturing independent game development studios and providing them with the tools, expertise, and distribution power needed to succeed in the global marketplace.
Now for some non-Generals related news... or is it?
Bill Gates says that in 10 years, we won't be spending money on hardware... it's the software that will cost us. He say's that hardware will be almost free. Gee, not that I think that it's all part of his elaborate scheme for him to be the only person in the tech world making money.... the entire article is
here.
"Ten years out, in terms of actual hardware costs you can almost think of hardware as being free - I'm not saying it will be absolutely free - but in terms of the power of the servers, the power of the network will not be a limiting factor," he said in an interview at the Gartner Symposium in San Diego yesterday.
Listen to music while you play Generals? Do you actually own it? Does it really matter? The Harvard Business School reports that the RIAA is full of themselves... well, almost. The story can be found
here.
According to the worst-case scenario of the researchers' findings, it takes 5,000 downloads to reduce sales of an album by one copy. Using those estimates, CD sales would have decreased by 2 million copies from 2000 to 2002, when actually they dipped by 139 million copies. Meanwhile, for the top 25 percent of best-selling albums (with more than 600,000 copies sold), downloading went hand-in-hand with increased album sales.
AOL took down a spammer. The world is a better place. Infact, they are giving away the Porche Boxter that they got from him "at the successful conclusion of a legal action taken against the spammer". More details are
here. You know, often, criminals are put in jail in legal action have to pay for things they have done. As a result, their possesions are put on auction to raise money. Now, atleast there is some dignity in having your belongings auctioned, but given away? Oh yes, AOL has finally put spammers where they belong... below criminals.
AOL said it seized the 2002 Porsche Boxster convertible "at the successful conclusion of a legal action taken against the spammer" and would launch a sweepstakes to give it away "as a gesture of support and thanks to its members for their cooperation in the fight against spam and spammers".
Well, that's my news. Phew. Long enough? I'd say so. It kind of reminds of a site I once read where halfway through there was a line that said: If you are still reading, you could have... *insert a large list of activities here*.
Peace-out!
