New Today 05/04/01

20:10 HRS. EST

X-tension
[1.5 MB]
Version: 2.1

New features in XT 2.1:
=======================

- All player property is marked green in the all menus.

- Objects (Ships, Stations etc.) are sorted by name and type in menus.

- An exciting new mission awaits every friend of the paranids!

- TL type ships (large transporters) can now be sold.

- Your fighting rank now goes up no matter what sector you are in and no matter if you have a police license or not.

- Sector and Station defence ships now also defend one another.

- Pirate stations now produce ships in cycles, much like shipyards.

- You now get additional information about your notoriety with the Goner. Also your start notoriety with the Goner is better now, so that shooting at a single Goner ship won't stop you from landing at their temple immediately.

- The trade ranking is now also affected by your factories' activities.

- All big ships including TL transporters, M1 carrier and M2 destroyer of ALL races (optionally also including the Xenon) are now rebuilt if they are destroyed! However, when loading an old save game, only a few missing TL transporters are built to make up for eventually missing ships. Potentially this can lead to Xenon destroyer or carrier ships flying from a Xenon shipyard through other races' territories.

- When manually entering text into the log, you can now also use ',' '.' and '!'.

- Stations send out defence ships only when these ships do have lasers installed and they do not currently have a command such as "get ware for best price".

- When shooting at a NPC ship, your notoriety is affected less than before. Only if you destroy NPC ships, your notoriety is deducted more.

- The command "Get ware for best price" has been improved. Now ships also take the amount of resource types into account when ordering.

- Memory management (fastmem) has been changed in XT 2.1! Many systems should get a better performance because of the new change. However, in some cases the game might consume slightly more memory than before. If this occurs, you can turn off the new memory management with the command line option "-nofastmem". This can be done using a system shortcut or by calling the game from the command line: X-Tension.exe -nofastmem

- The TL docking bug of X-TENSION 2.0 has been fixed. Many other minor bugs are also fixed. This docking bug could lead to TL transporters not docking at a shipyard  under certain special circumstancesafter you commanded them to.

- An issue with the latest version of NVIDIA drivers has been fixed so that X-tension 2.1 should now work fine with all versions of NVIDIA graphic card drivers.

- Player logos were sometimes displayed with incorrect colours in X-tension 2.0. This has been fixed.

- Save games of older Versions are now compressed when loading them for the first time. We suggest loading all save games once and saving them again immediately. Then quit X-tension and restart the game.

- And many other smaller new features...

- One remaining issue of X-tension's voice output in combination with Direct X 8.0 can unfortunately not be fixed in the EXE. The game can sometimes disturb all spoken sentences by a few milliseconds in affect cutting off parts of words from the beginning and the end of sentences. This only happens since version 8.0 of Direct X! Microsoft has told us that this will probably be fixed with the release of Direct X 8.1! So for the moment the only solution we can offer is the suggestion to stay with older versions of Direct X (the X-TENSION installation will install Direct X 7 if no newer version is already present).

Grab it here from Egosoft.

18:35 HRS. EST

Battle of Britain
[117 KB]
Version: N/A

This patch fixes "Sky banding in 16 bit graphics modes" and reduces "'Stuttering' seen on certain high-end PC configurations."

Grab it here from Empire.

18:30 HRS. EST

Blade of Darkness
[2.1 MB]
Version: Patch 1

Retail version patch:

• Exit to Windows when starting the game.
• Error "Player1 not declared in pj.py" at beginning of game.
• Hang when user presses Esc/F1.
• Quadraphonic sound implemented.
• Stability improved.
• Hangs when saving during cutscene videos.
• Hangs during combat against Dal Gurak .
• D3d.dll generates "non-blue screenshots".
• Problem preventing change of resolutions .
• Various problems saving & loading.
• Camera control in close quarters.
• No sparks when loading savegame from different map.
• Problems with -nosound option when loading sound database during savegame.
• Problems loading while falling to death.
• Problems during "killing blow" (levelling up effect above level 20).
• New Glide raster for Voodoo 1-2 (r3Dfx Voodoo 1-2.dll).

Grab it here from Avault.

18:25 HRS. EST

Age of Sail II
[1.5 MB]
Version: 1.51

V1.51 includes the following improvements, added features, and tech support updates:

• save/load bug
• Crashes on some computers after loading fixed.
• flags in campaign fixed
• Flag on ships that player buy in campaign game fix
• prize crew fix
• Improved mariners calculation and icon fix
• multiplayer game optimization
• sound of sunken ship improvement

Grab it here from Talonsoft.

18:20 HRS. EST

Warm Up!
[54 MB]

Time to burn some rubber. A new racing game which offers the best mix of simulation and arcade on the market. 22 racing cars available, a 'Ghost' mode to fight against its own lap times or against ones collected via Internet. Tension: total. Concentration: maximal. Nerves of steel: indispensable and the Pause button for when the stress is too much!

Grab it here from 3DFiles.

17:20 HRS. EST

G.O.D. Games

Please keep the Myres Family in your prayers, as well as the folks at GOD Games.

Douglas Wayne Myres, Jr.
September 9, 1964 – May 3, 2001

Just before midnight on May 3, 2001, GodGames lost our heart and soul, and I lost my best friend in this world for the past 4 years. Doug Myres left us suddenly and unexpectedly due to an asthma attack, at the age of 36.

Doug was quite simply the best human being I have ever known. I won’t get into all the reasons why right now, being that it’s about 6 hours after I got the phone call that I’m writing this, and I’m still very much in shock.

We will be updating this page later with thoughts and reflections on Doug from the many, many people who were touched by him, as well as details on how and when people can pay their respects to Douglas and his family.

For now, suffice it to say that Doug was the kind of person who made me want to be a better person. He was a walking, talking reason to believe in the human spirit and goodness.

Services will be held at 2PM Monday, May 7 at the Laureland Funeral Home in Ft. Worth, TX. Visitation will be Sunday night from 6 to 8 PM. For more information, contact Bob Artiz at 817-572-0196.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that anyone wishing to send something make a donation to the Friends of Ft. Worth Nature Club and Refuge or a charity of your choice in Doug's name.

For anyone out there who loved Doug and would like to attend the services, but are faced with financial difficulties in doing so, please contact me at mike@godgames.com and we'll get you here.

-Mike Wilson

12:20 HRS. EST

Rules of the Game

My thanks to friend Jason Hill for sending the word my way. Looks like this one will take a while to hit shelves even though it's gold, with a shelf date of 06/12/01.

Rules of the Game is a must have for any sports fan! Answer multiple-choice questions covering real game day scenarios. There are over 1,500 fan-friendly questions that will provide hours of fun. Questions are divided into popular sports categories so there’s something for everyone (pro and college basketball, pro and college football, pro baseball, professional golf and one miscellaneous category). Rules of the Game features tons of entertaining animations & audio clips and is internet enabled. Up to 4 players can participate.

Pre-Order:

Rules of the Game

11:20 HRS. EST

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force Expansion Pack

The Gold Version copy just arrived at my door step. This is super news for sure and an addition to one of the best FPS created. Look for this one on shelves as soon as the end of next week!

Voyager is being attacked by a strange alien ship, and it’s mysteriously transported into a sort of star ship graveyard, where it is stranded without power or systems. You play the part of Voyager’s elite "Hazard Team", and have to defend the Voyager whilst trying to find a way out of the graveyard.

Pre-Order:

Elite Force Add-On

11:15 HRS. EST

Updated:

Desperados
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood Of Steel
Fur Fighters
Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns
NASCAR Racing 4
Outlive
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
Rune
Severance: Blade of Darkness
Worms World Party

There is only once place to go when looking for gaming information...

The Gold Guide

11:05 HRS. EST

Good Morning. Once a month, if that, my wife will go out with a girlfriend and do some shopping or get their nails done and have some dinner. It leaves my little one and myself some "guy time" as we call it and while she's enjoying her free time, we're acting like typical guys... eating an informal dinner in front of the TV (Usually pizza or the like.), getting dirty, playing games and being loud, all the stuff Mom usually puts the breaks on.

Last night was one of those nights. Guy night also entails a bath (Which is nothing out of the ordinary, although a "Daddy Bath" consists of bubbles that almost come out of the tub and toys, while a Mommy bath is more like the average human bath.), a snack (Again, Daddy Snack = Big, Mommy Snack = normal) some TV time with cuddling and the bed. He's still at the stage where he likes to be read to before he goes off, as well as have someone sit or lay with him for a while until he dozes off. This si the part Daddy usually messes up on and dozes off first. 

Last night was no exception and the next thing I know I hear my son snoring in my ear while my wife is tapping on my shoulder, letting me know she was home and it was time to come to bed. Imagine my surprise this morning when I booted up the site and saw a post I hadn't put up. Wow! This was quite a surprise and one I had no clue was coming. 

It's quite humbling to have so many people feel a connection to the site and the people behind it. I can't thank you all enough for such a kind and considerate show of support. I am truly grateful. While it is incredibly nice of all of you to allow the spotlight to fall upon me, I believe the praise and adulation is misplaced. 

It should be shared by all. Not just the one knucklehead who got lucky with an idea, or the people that work very hard to bring you thoughts and news each day, but everyone. All that come here and make Gone Gold a true community should be proud and congratulated. Whether you realize it or not, we are all a team and without all of you, the workers of this site would have nothing to do each day. Well, everyone but Dave, who would be writing reviews for anyone that would have them. ;)

Since I don't get a chance to do this often enough, I want to take the opportunity to thank my fellow co-workers as well. I guess it's not easy to see up front, but "behind the scenes" Andy Stingel, the gentleman that brings you the Gold Guide almost daily, has become one of my closest friends. Oddly, I have never met him face to face, nor have I ever heard his voice. However, almost daily we talk via ICQ and share our joys and sorrows. He has become someone very important to me and I want to thank him for not only keeping us all on top of of our favorite games, but for sharing himself and being there for me, for these past two and a half years.

Dave Fisher also works very hard "behind the scenes", organizing all the reviews you read as well as editing them and adding in as many comma's as he can. He too has become a close friend and I thank him for all he does and continues to do. Thanks goes out to his impeccable staff as well and as much as I kid about reviews, I'm very proud to have such wonderful writers contributing to Gone Gold.

It's truly an honor to have Joel Mathis on board as well and his support of Gone Gold has truly surprised me. Joel has gone above and beyond the call of duty on the site many times and has shown me that it's not just about writing and goofing on the Industry... it's about taking pride in what you do and truly caring about the site and its readers. Inside that hard shell is a good friend and I have been lucky enough to see it.

I would also like to thank everyone and anyone that has contributed to Gone Gold. Although most equate the site to "Rich", there could be nothing further from the truth. It is all of the people above as well as all of you that make this place a joy to maintain and read. Special thanks to Tim Challies, who did such an incredible job on the card that has left me speechless. (OMM is just too funny!) Thanks too to all that continue to write, I will get back to you as soon as I can. For now,

Let me get to work.

Safe Tour,
~Rich

New Yesterday 05/03/01

18:00 HRS. EST

Congratulations!

Today Gone Gold has achieved a milestone. The counter on this page has broken the 5 million barrier, thanks in part to the team responsible for the site but mostly to the readers who like what they've seen here and keep returning for more. In honour of this occasion, members of the Gone Gold community have contributed to a "card" dedicated to Rich and we have turned to his best friend to ask what this achievement means to him. Mary Jo LaPorte, Rich's wife, writes the following:

I know what is most important to him... and it's not the connections to all the Industry people... it's the connection with the people... his fellow gamers. I often wonder if readers truly realize how important they are to him. He's a very modest guy and doesn't say much, but what he loves most is hearing from the people that come to the site and enjoy what Gone Gold has to offer. 
I can tell you that Rich is 100% sincere when he says he considers the Gone Gold community a big part of his life and how much he enjoys conversing with his fellow gamers. It's sincere when he tries to go out of his way to get deals for the readership on software and hardware. In fact, he spent a big part of today dealing with a hardware company, trying to get a good deal on some sort of Chip or Card for the community. He was excited thinking he could surprise everyone with an excellent offer. I don't know if people realize this is a person who really does care. 
He has mentioned many times that Gone Gold has allowed him to meet some of his heroes of the gaming world, but all of that doesn't compare to the kind letters and friendships he's made. I know for a fact that Rich will love hearing from people that consider him a friend, rather than any Industry people he may work with. 
Please print this for the fellow Gone Golders... Let them know how much they truly mean to him and in turn, mean to me. I know so many by name that I feel as if I know the community just as well. 
Again, thanks so much to everyone for giving so much to Rich. I know he doesn't think so, but he deserves it and I'm very proud of what he has done with his "little site" (As he refers to it.).

From all visitors, friends and Gonegolders, we would like to give Rich our congratulations and sincere best wishes for the future.

Read the card here.

17:20 HRS. EST

The Moon Project
[Game Was: Supplied]

Jeffrey LaMarche takes the lead in the race to make the review longer than the actual game. Just kidding. ;) Jeffrey does a fine job in giving us the low down on this particular game...

If you have not played Earth 2150 and are yearning for a deep and engrossing RTS game, then The Moon Project might be exactly what you are looking for.

Get ready to enjoy a good read and...

Read the full review right here.

16:35 HRS. EST

Summoner
[Game Was: Supplied]

Carla Harker knows a great game when she sees one, that's for sure... 

"The game is pure addictive fun, and anyone who likes action games with a bit of role playing thrown in will get a lot of enjoyment out of it."

Read this fine review and see why I was addicted to the game for so long...

Read the full review right here.

16:00 HRS. EST

Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns
[Game Was: Supplied]

Rob Charette tells you about this extremely addiction Real Tine Strategy game that, oddly enough, plays very much like a turn based game...

"In many ways, Kohan resembles a classic turn based strategy game such as Age of Wonders or the Heroes of Might and Magic series. You have hero-controlled armies that you move across the map to conquer the enemy hero and his armies."

Read the full review right here.

14:30 HRS. EST

Fly! 2
[Game Was: Purchased]

I've been meaning to get this Take up as a warning to those of you interested in this one (As well as answer your e-mails Scott Lewis! ;D). Since the initial price of the game is higher than most, I assume most gamers are waiting for it to go on sale anyway. If that's the course you're taking, smart move. Read on to find out why...

Install:

Flight Sims are notoriously large and this one is no exception. There are three installation size options:

Typical
Compact
Custom:
Primary Maps: 45568 KB
Extra Maps: 59840 KB
Total: 1.3 GB

I went with a complete install and the game installed without incident.

Manual:

Here's the big rub with the game. The pamphlet that ships with the game has the following information:

"Given the size and complexity of the program, you may be surprised at the slimness of this little manual." [38 pages 5.5 x 8.5 inches] "Don't worry a complete, illustrated, printable manual is provided on the Fly! II website (www.iflytri.com). Not only does this let us pass the savings in printing and production costs on to you; it allows us to eliminate printing delays so we can provide you a manual that's totally up-to-date and current with the software version you receive."

What's the expression? Don't piss in my ear and tell me it's raining. At 45 bucks, where's the savings? OK. Forget that... How about just "Where's the manual?!" The game was released 04/27/01, almost one week ago and still no manual is posted to the site.

Perhaps a first person shooter or even your basic Real Time Strategy game could get away with no manual, but a Flight Sim? Especially one that prides itself on being "richly complex". Poor Scott Lewis has been sticking with the game trying to learn how to use it since he picked it up. I'm not so sure too many gamers would be so dedicated.

The shame of it is, Fly! II has a lot of potential. It's giving fans of civilian flight sims a choice over the same programs we've had for years and then it does something as knuckleheaded as this. If you don't have a manual ready for posting, at least have the courtesy of posting some type of information about it! Perhaps "We apologize, but it's on its way." Something to give those that popped for your game the day it came out some glimmer of hope that one day they'll understand the program. Lets go Terminal Reality, show the kindness I know you're capable of. ;D

The game comes on one CD and is encased in a plastic jewel case.

Game:

Quite frankly, I've shelved this one until I have something to dig into. I booted it up and took a look and as expected, the graphics are very nice. Unfortunately, when I plowed into the ground, my plane just bounced once again, so no crash modeling is included this year either.

There are some very neat planes included in the sim, along with the Bell 407 Helicopter. An editor is included that allows you to set up your environment within the game. Quite impressive, actually. Hopefully, the manual headache will be resolved shortly and then gamers will be able to see the depth the sim has to offer.

If you're interested in this one, I recommend keeping an eye on its homepage and waiting to see what they plan on doing about a manual first.

System Requirements:

P II 333
64 MB RAM
4X CD ROM
3D Accelerator with 16 MB 

Recommended:

P III 500
128 MB RAM
32X CD ROM
3D Accelerator with 32 MB 

11:20 HRS. EST

In stores today...

Off-Road Redneck Racing $19.99

11:15 HRS. EST

Updated:

Alice
America
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Black & White
Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Half-Life
Hitman: Codename 47
The Longest Journey
MechCommander 2
Quake III Arena
Tribes 2

There is only once place to go when looking for gaming information...

The Gold Guide

11:10 HRS. EST

Interplay endorses Piracy? That trickster Joel is up to something... Find out what it is, on...

The Hot Sheet

11:05 HRS. EST

Good Morning. Yesterday I mentioned that my wife and I are way beyond the "Necking through the entire movie." stage. I received some interesting responses to what I thought was a passing statement, one which I really meant nothing by. (Speaking of responses, the two and a half days of no service has me way behind on mail, but each day I get closer to catching up. My apologies for the wait, but resending me your mail only makes more work... it doesn't get it answered quicker.) One gentleman in particular, was thinking of tying the knot for the first time and thought perhaps love dims as time goes by.

Nothing could be further from the truth, when you are with the right person. Before I met Mary Jo, I was sure I knew what love was all about. I dated quite a few different women and I enjoyed it much more in my mid twenties than in my teens. As a teenager, you have that whole "steady" thing going on as well as your hormones doing your thinking for you.  You think your parents are clueless and you're experiencing things that they would never dream of doing.

Once I hit my mid twenties, I was still in "party" mode, and relationships were much easier. Anyone looking to get close was dumped rather quickly. I enjoyed single life and seemed to hang out with partners that didn't seem to mind a "casual" relationship. I didn't ask what they did when I wasn't around and they didn't ask me. It was a great set up and I was really happy with it. I think that's what was so great about having Mary Jo come into my life... I wasn't looking for anyone. However once I was around her, I knew she was the one to hold onto. I've already told the story of how we met and if you missed it, you can bore yourself to tears by reading the Roll Call from March 14th.

I have learned a lot about love through being with my wife and continue to do so. For instance, I never understood how someone could love a person more later in life than when they first fell in love. In my mind, love was love and saying that was like saying "I kind of loved her when I married her, but now I finally really love her.". I also had two children at the time that I have loved with all my heart since the day they were born. My love for them is unchanged.

However, as time goes by, I find my love for Mary Jo does indeed grow. Perhaps matures is the better word. I've learned that truly loving someone is an on going process and not something that hits a point and flat lines. I am constantly surprised at how my love continues to grow and as time goes on, we become as one. Although we may not neck at the movies anymore, the truth is, we never did. Public Display of Affection (PDA) just isn't for us and we rather do that sort of thing in the privacy of our own home.

Unfortunately, I haven't been playing much of anything these past couple of days. I'm sure it looks like the site must take an hour or two out of the day to maintain, but that's not the case. I've been swamped with keeping the site updated as well as a few other things I've got coming your way. One of the things that continues to eat up my time is the nest of wild bunnies we have in the backyard.

My son has one of those Little Tykes outdoor play sets which has slides rooms and such. In one of the rooms, a rabbit dug a small hole and had her babies. She must have had them a while ago, since these little guys look like a full grown rabbit, but they're still small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. My wife found them when she saw a bunch of grass and fur over in the corner and started cleaning it out.

When the grass started moving, I got the call to come have a look. Being a city guy all my life, I had no idea how rabbits set up an area to have babies, but when I picked up this "blanket" of grass and fur, there were seven baby rabbits underneath it. Apparently it's time for them to leave the nest since the mother removed that blanket and they're now hopping around the ground. My son has us take him out to see them every five minutes or so. I can't wait until they all hop out of the little room.

It is cute though, and fun to watch my son interact with them. The mother ducks took their babies out for the first time yesterday too, so we had to feed them bread as well. I'm a regular Dr. Doolittle lately. For now,

Let me get to work.

Safe Tour,
~Rich