Gamershell have the demo of this game from The Adventure Company available here (213.7 MB)

Based on The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, the game will be available in the U.S. on 26 Oct and in Europe on 12 Nov.

Return to Mysterious Island follows Mina, a strong young woman alone on a round-the-world sailing expedition. Caught in a tremendous storm, she becomes stranded on the shores of a wild and apparently uninhabited island. As she explores her new surroundings, she uncovers artifacts, living spaces and technologies left behind by the people who came before her to this uncharted island.

Creating a new life, Mina builds a home from the remains of Granite Rock and uses her survival skills against the wilds of the jungle. She soon becomes aware of a figure in the shadows who, seemingly aware of her troubles, offers her assistance. She eventually identifies this figure as the unsettled ghost of Captain Nemo, whose body is located in the Nautilus deep below the island shore. Piecing together the hints and clues he provides, Mina must travel to the Nautilus, retrieve his body and give him a proper burial in order to free his tortured soul.

Take on the role of Mina and solve a variety of clever puzzles and use the various technologies found on the Nautilus to return to civilization or remain cast away on the island forever.

More info:
The Adventure Company: Return to Mysterious Island
Discussion >>

4 new screenshots have been put out giving fans a glimpse into the graphical quality of the next installment of Morrowind, making you wonder where reality stops and fantasy begins.

Release date for pc is yet to be announced...

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is another leap forward in role-playing with its combination of freeform gameplay and cutting-edge graphics.

In keeping with the Elder Scrolls tradition, players will have the option to experience the main quest at their own pace, and there will be plenty of opportunities to explore the vast world and make your own way. Numerous factions can be joined, such as the thieves or mages guilds, and each contains its own complete storyline and the chance to rise to the head of the faction and reap further rewards.

Oblivion is a single-player game that takes place in Tamriel's capital province, Cyrodiil. You are given the task of finding the hidden heir to a throne that sits empty, the previous emperor having been killed by an unknown assassin. With no true Emperor, the gates to Oblivion (the equivalent of hell in the world of Tamriel) open, and demons begin to invade Cyrodiil and attack its people and towns. It's up to you to find the lost heir to the throne and unravel the sinister plot that threatens to destroy all of Tamriel.

View the screens here
Morrowind IV Official Site
Check out the F.A.Q here

After fans were given the news that Half Life 2 went gold, Gamespy sent a few questions in the direction of Valve's Doug Lombardi.

Q. Will the boxed versions of HL2 require any sort of Steam installations?

Doug Lombardi: During installation the user will be prompted to authenticate the copy and create a Steam account. After that is complete, the single-player and LAN games do not require an Internet connection.

Q. When will the tools be released for the mod community?

Doug Lombardi: Now that development on the game is done, a number of engineers are preparing the first version of the Source SDK for release. I don't have an exact date for when this will be available, but it shouldn't be too much longer and will send out word when I have an ETA.

Check out the full interview here
Half Life 2 Vs Halo 2
Collectors Edition HL2 Box Preorder Available For U.K Gamers

Discussion >>

After Firefox advocates' called on the public for donations to pay for an advertisement in The New York Times. It seems that the target has been reached (and then some). Starting from Tuesday, the goal was to get 2,500 people to donate $30 or more within 10 days, or before the official release of Firefox 1.0 on Nov. 9.

According to Bart Decrem, spokesman for the Mozilla Foundation, the Spread Firefox organization has already raised more than $100,000--enough for a couple of ads in The New York Times.

We've definitely funded the ad and then some," Decrem said. "It's so impressive--the excitement around this and the numbers. People are coming out of nowhere to join in

Full Story
Mozilla Website
Download the preview release of Firefox 1.0 here (4.5 Mb)

Discussion >>

Freed from the non disclosure agreement barring players from posting about the beta test, IGNIQ member dek has posted a detailed preview of the EverQuest II beta:

K, EQ2 has now found its way onto my blacklist, but this is hopefully only temporary.

I'll start by saying this, yes you can have lots of customization with your character, not so much as SWG with weights, but facial meshes are yours to play with as well as wodes and hair (which has 2 tones, very unique look). However, with these customizations you get the worst hairstyles I've ever seen, they're just horrible.

Now the good part, the first 20 levels are great and focused and make you feel like an important part of the gameworld unlike most other MMOs out there.
You start up going to level 7 on the Isle of Refuge, there you are introduced to the new combat and magic systems and you learn how to link HOs (Heroic Oppurtunities) through your actions. Basically spells and special moves drain only one of your status bars (health, power, concentration) - power unlike SWG's rediculous draining all three.

Then you leave the Isle and have to become a citizen in either Freeport or Qeynos. After you become a citizen you cna start leveling again. At lvl 10 you choose your more specific class, and you can begin quest (which are quite good) for that specific class. Eventually you hit lvl 20 and can become the specialized class you want, personally I went with the warrior subclass of Berzerker an offense oriented tank.

Graphics and sounds what can I say. Even with what was previously thought of as "weaker" model of a nVidia card this game looks amazing.
I defy another MMO to even try the detail you see in this game; for the performance I get (feels like 15-30 fps) I can run the clip plane and shader details at 75%, I can run character models and draw details on max, environmental textures on max (high while in cities), particle bias on max limiting the count to 2 per each character on screen, flora on about 50% and shadows that actually look like shadows (at the cost of 8fps or so) all on a Geforce 5900SE w/ 128mb ram. Also have to mention they make extensive use of blurring and heat distortion which makes the game look as fantasy like as Fable at times, both of which can be turned off of course but you gotta keep them up for the full effect in this game.

This is also the only game that sounds perfect on my horrible onboard sound chip. All music is very well performed orchestral scores, and its everywhere: every battle, every discovery leading to knowledge about what happened, its all got a score. One thing that surprised me was the voice overs. Nearly every character has one and they either sound great or goofy depending on dialogue, but it really catches you off guard when an NPC yells at you as you pass by.

Obviously Christopher Lee and Heather Graham are in there (not implemented quite yet though) and I'm sure SOE will recruit other high profile actors and actresses as well, but they are already getting voice actors (which I can't name) from games like the MGS series, KOTOR, etc.

Now what am I? I'm a level 24 iksar berzerker who deals more damage then all guardians, and most other tank classes I've come across, however my strangely my specials are weak by comparison. And now my ability to actually maintain the aggro I hold so well (I hold perfectly while guardians struggle) I can easily die because of the difficulty of mobs from the last patch. At levle 24 (midway through the game mind you) they can hit for 700 damage, 700 damage while I (one of if not the most badass zerkers on the server) only has 990hp buffless and maybe 1400 buffed. That is two hits, thus you have to have 2 healers just to chainheal the tanks to keep them alive. Absolutely rediculous.

Item decay: really no point to it. Its there, once you die you go into xp debt for a short while (50% of gained xp is wasted til you get out of debt) and items take 10% decay. It cost next to nothing to repair and items never weaken or get ruined, so why even bother as its not working on anything I'd even consider a fractino of its intent?

Stability: none at all. This game is running so poorly server side that its not worthy of even looking at when it hits shelves.
I would NEVER buy a game that is so unstable as this is at its current state, all stemming from the last patch. Servers (mainly my xp zones) come down w/o warning and last however long it takes to get them up, I was soloing (which is getting harder and less beneficial which is NOT what SOE was promising) and my zone crashed 4 times, 4 times I came back and most of them I would have died had I not been riding a horse.

So what is EQ2 as of now?
2 weeks or so ago I started, last weekend I got to 20, now I find no fun in it. I know its beta and I do report bugs and feedback what I find unlike most of the noobs who get excepted who play to play, however, this game is one month from its expected release date and if it ships now with such huge bugs in stability, combat, healing, encounters, and quest it will flop miserably even though its still much better in beta then SWG is now.

This game is quickly becoming a game where you group to advance, just like EQ, its a game that has most of the good content (ie: Nagafen and Vox the two original EQ dragons) not even included until the first expansion, and its a game that is marketing is gonna push and sell based solely on its ungodly production values. As is now I would never buy it, if they somehow manage to fix these issues before launch then I may just.

There, the first preview to describe settings in detail, quite an accomplishment the scaleability is, shame its in such a buggy game. Oh bare in mind this is a game that relies quite wholely on pixel and vertex engines, so if you set your settings to minimul or basically no pixel based shading you will see flat textures with little to know design...something to consider.

Discussion >>

HomeLANFed noticed a list on Atari's official website included unannounced games, shortly after they posted about it, the new games were pulled from the page.

The list included:

Civilization IV, which is most likely the next game in the long running and popular strategy game series. Other unannounced games listed include three identified as "action" titles with the names Chronos (PC-Xbox), Enemy In Sight (PC-Xbox) and Rat Race (PC). Besides the titles and the game platforms there is no other info available on these games.

More info:
Slashdot: New Atari Games Revealed
Discussion >>

A third official trailer has been released for GTA: San Andreas.
Check it out on the official site (*Explicit lyrics)

Added: The Wonderland game blog has the full track-listing for the GTA: San Andreas soundtrack here

The game will be released next Tuesday for the Playstation 2 (U.S., Friday in Europe).

More info:
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Leaked
Rockstar Games
Discussion >>

According to msfn just two months after Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released to the public, 106 million downloads of the long awaited and significantly beta tested service pack have been tallied.

Full story here

Microsoft recommends XP users read over their thorough tutorial page on downloading, understanding, installing and working with the new portion in service pack 2, which includes a built in firewall, new internet explorer features, and a security centre among other features.

I Personally have found that turning off the built in XP firewall and choosing a good third party solution truly makes this package a more secure and worthwhile endeavour, for more reasons than the fact that sp2's firewall does not monitor outbound communication made from your pc : (

Download the network install here (272.4 Mb) or turn on windows update. Alternatively you can order the cd from Microsoft free of charge here
Drivers and service pack listing
Fed up with Internet Explorer ?

Discussion >>

A previous report of GTA San Andreas being leaked turned out to be a false alarm, but now it has been confirmed that copies of the game have hit the file sharing networks.

Gamespot.com report that Rockstar Games have issued a statement:

The proper authorities are investigating the theft and are continuing to investigate all possible leads to ensure there is no further dissemination of our creative content

The company also posted an email address in the statement for fans to report sightings of the leaked files to: piracy@rockstargames.com

GTA: San Andreas will be officially released next Tuesday in the U.S., and next Friday in Europe.

More info:
Official San Andreas website
Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas leaked to the masses early
'GTA: San Andreas' (PS2) Leaked On The Web
Discussion >>

The Guardian Unlimited's Gamesblog have 5 copies of The Sims 2 to give away.

Just register with them and put your email in the form on this page to be in with a chance of winning.

Previous posts:
The Sims 2 Breaks EA Sales Record (28 Sept)
The Sims 2 Released (17 Sept)
Discussion >>

Have you ever wanted to send a file to a friend trough e-mail, but the file was just too big ? I stumbled across a neat little site that lets you upload any file to its server you like ((as long as it's under 1 Gb)) ad a friend's e-mail address and they will send on a link for them to download the file from their servers.

Handy for sending a song, game patch, application software or whatever it may be : )

YouSendIt privacy policy

Discussion >>

Although everyone was aware of what the Half Life 2 front cover would look like, according to tothegame the UK/European box art for Half Life 2 will be a DVD only release in the UK and Europe.

This will be far less cumbersome than a bucket load of cds ((especially for the Gold and Silver releases))
But bad news for people without a dvd drive.

The game has also been given a rating of 18 + despite early speculation and Half Life getting a 16 + rating for its incarnation.

Post-Gold Valve interview
Half Life 2 Bink video mirrors

Discussion >>

IGNIQ have three awesome trailers for Risk Your Life - check them out here:

• 30 second WMV 3.92 MB
• 60 second WMV 7.84 MB
• Extended 5 minute WMV 44.9 MB
• Bit Torrent package of all three 56.8 MB

The music accompanying the trailers is a track written especially for RYL by the band Pain For Pleasure from California.

More info:
Risk Your Life official website
IGNIQ: RYL Artwork
IGNIQ RYL Online BETA Review (4 out of 5 stars)
Discussion >>

Bungie have broken "virtually every pre-order sales record" for a game with Halo 2:

With three weeks to go before the game hits store shelves, pre-orders for “Halo® 2” – the highly anticipated Xbox® exclusive from Microsoft Game Studios – have eclipsed the 1.5 million mark in the United States

Read more from the announcement

The scope of the record is huge - according to gameindustry.biz, it will generate more profit on it's first day of release than the opening day of any movie in history.

The breaking of the record comes in the same week as a version of the game leaked onto the Internet. Bungie & Microsoft vowed to come down hard on anyone partaking in the piracy: "Microsoft is currently engaged in a full scale investigation and to those foolish enough to partake in this piracy, you will soon witness the firepower of this fully operational battle station."

More info:
Official website
Halo 2 breaks records....before it's even (legally) released!
Halo beats the pirates
Bungie: DO NOT POST LEAK INFORMATION
Discussion >>

Previously barred from posting about the EQ2 beta by a non-disclosure agreement, gaming sites have begun posting their impressions in previews. Via HomeLANfed, here are three:

Jadedgamer.com: EverQuest 2 - A Sneak Peak

If I was asked to pick out the single, most important aspect of EverQuest 2, I would have to pick the quest system. After all, with a name like EverQuest 2, one would expect lots of quests. And one would not be disappointed, there are literally hundreds of quests to do at the lower levels, with every sign that this will continue right throughout the game. They range from the go there, do this or visit him type quests, to the more in-depth storyline quests.

GamePro.com: Everquest II Preview

Sometimes, it's the little things that count. The designers aren't just blindly adding to the cherished EverQuest II mythos. Many additions and changes are specifically designed to address particular gripes with the first--and still extremely popular--EverQuest.

Gamehelper: EverQuest Preview Part 1

Moving into the next generation of MMORPGs, a variety of options during character creation has become standard. Even with this expectation, EQ2 will impress with a multitude of options, including 15 different races, the option of being good or evil, and a variety of different eyes, heads, tattoos and body sizes to choose from.

More info:
EverQuest official website
Heather Graham, Christopher Lee In EverQuest 2
Discussion >>

Anyone who is exchanging files over the internet should be aware by now that having a personal firewall (or better yet, a hardware firewall) properly installed to monitor both their incoming and outbound communication to the rest of the world is a must.

To aid a personal firewall in protecting your pc, antivirus software is essential. Especially if you download a lot of files from the internet and wish to combat against picking up a nasty virus.

I have gathered together a list of the more reputable personal firewalls / antivirus software products and links to download or buy. Choosing which one is right for you is really a case of personal preference coupled with trying a few to see which meets your own specific requirements.

Some handy tutorials also to better educate yourself and help you decide on which protection you require.

Personal firewalls:

Sygate personal firewall pro 5.5
Outpost firewall pro 2.5
Zonealarm personal firewall 6.0
Kerio personal firewall 4.0
BlackICE PC Protection 3 Pack
Norton personal firewall 2005
McAfee internet security suite

Antivirus software:

Norton antivirus 2005
AVG antivirus 7.0
PC-cillin Internet Security 2005
McAfee virusScan
Panda Titanium Antivirus 2004
Sophos antivirus
Avast 4 home edition

Info and tutorials:

Introduction to firewalls
Beginners guide to firewalls
More info about trojan horses
Top personal firewalls benchmarked
Computer virus tutorial

Related:
How to make an XP Service Pack 2 Slipstream CD
Drivers and Service Pack Listing
Discussion >>

America's Army has just been upgraded to version 2.2. Changes include major bug and ompatability issues plus two new special forces multiplayer missions. Full changelog here.

Enemy forces have established an outpost from which to
launch reconnaissance patrols and conduct ambushes of
friendly indigenous forces operating in a remote
desert location. Reconnaissance of the outpost must
be conducted in order to identify the location of this
guerilla base. A Special Forces ODA, along with the
help of Indigenous Forces, must then proceed to the
proper safe location in order to upload their
reconnaissance findings to HQ.

America's Army is a freely downloadable online first person shooter army simulation. It has actually been designed by former army personnel themselves.

Minimum specs are:
64mb 3-d graphics and support hardware and transformation and lighting
1.3ghz CPU
98/me/2000/XP
256mb ram
1.62gb uncompressed hd space
direct x 8.1 or higher
56.6kps
32bit compatible system

Recommended
128mb 3-d graphics and support hardware and transformation and lighting
2ghz CPU
512mb ram
1.62 uncompressed hd space
direct x 8.1 or higher
broadband connection 256k+

America's Army Official Website
List of download locations for full clients or patches
America's Army review by IGNIQ'S Dave Dalley

Discussion >>

The _render_ game blog points to a September news article about two companies (inGame and Massive Inc.) developing software that communicates with an ad server, which then inserts targeted ads into games:

The companies say they can serve ads to any gaming platform-console, portable console, PC, online network gaming, or mobile phones--as long as it's Internet-enabled.

Both platforms enable advertisers to target by demographic and geographic location, and adjust campaign duration in real-time. Targeting features must be agreed upon with game developers, and usually require players to provide opt-in registration.

Most gamers would probably react to this news the same way _render_ did:

I can tolerate a little product placement, as long as it's subtle and appropriate to the setting, but this is disturbing. I don't want adbots in my games or anywhere else on my computer

Read the article here

More info:
Massive Inc. official website
inGame Partners official website
Video Games infused with ads getting even more attention
Discussion >>

IGN.com have got their hands on the new PStwo (to be released on 1 November) and have a write up about the features:

The first and most overwhelming thing about the new PS2 (aka the PStwo) is that it's tiny. Not just small or svelte or wearing some slimming outfit, but the new shape is a small fraction of its former self. Measuring in at 1"x9"x6" the PStwo can easily be overwhelmed by a graphic novel and can be stacked right next to some games with anyone barely noticing. As soon as we put it down on Tal's desk for an impromptu photo shoot everyone dragged out every other console they could find for a comparison. Aside from the PSone, the new PStwo is one of the smallest consoles in recent history.

Read on here

Thanks to forevergeek for the link

More info:
Sony Press Release: PLAYSTATION®2 GETS STUNNING NEW LOOK
Discussion >>

Vivendi Universal Games have officially announced Half-Life 2 Gold - the game will hit the shops on 16 Nov.

The global anticipation for Half-Life 2 has reached unprecedented heights, as consumers around the world mark their calendars to buy the game at retail on November 16th. The Half-Life 2 product will include Counter-Strike: Source. VU Games will also release a Half Life 2 Collector’s Edition that will include Half-Life 2 in DVD-ROM format, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life: Source, a free limited edition t-shirt, and a Half-Life 2 Prima strategy guide book.

Read the official press release

More info:
Half-Life 2 gunning for November 16 release date
Half-Life 2 Goes Gold ... For Real
**OFFICIAL** **CONFIRMED BY VU** Half-Life 2 is GOLDDiscussion >>

evilavatar.com point to an announcement on Clanbase that they will be disabling ladders on their server because of cheaters:

Various built-in cheats or methods to play unfair have forced us to close down the ladders because there is no way of detecting them. They will be re-opened when Valve has fixed them, and we have no way of knowing when that will be.

What allows these cheats to work appears to be developer commands left in the game that are being exploited.
Discussion >>

I have gathered together a list of all the high-res Bink videos of Half Life 2 plus mirrors for those who have not yet witnessed the splendour, and also for people who wish to see them again ((who could blame you))

Coastline: 49.77 MB

1 2 3 4 Bittorrent

Psyche: 16.19 MB

1 2 3 Bittorrent

Striders: 148.24 MB

1 2 3 Bittorrent

Barricade: 164.27 MB

1 2 3 4 Bittorrent

Bugbait: 165.9 MB

1 2 Bittorrent

Tunnels: 97.76 MB

1 2 3 Bittorrent

Traptown: 185.99 MB

1 2 3 4 Bittorrent

Kleiners lab: 82.41 MB

1 2 3 Bittorrent

Docks: 47.94 MB

1 2 3 4 Bittorrent

G-Man: 68.64 MB

1 2 3 4 Bittorrent

IGNIQ Half Life 2 Factlist

Discussion >>

Screens of the next installment to Irrationalgames Swat series of tactical shooters have been put out, whetting the appetite of fans the world over but no sign yet of a release date from Vivendi Universal

The press got a chance to play SWAT for the first time at World Cyber Games, the event I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. We caught editors from Gamespy, IGN, PC Gamer, and CGW playing SWAT and word on the street is that they got a bit rowdy.

Check out the screens here
More info here

IGNIQ Were allowed to get their hands on some RYL artwork. Very impressive. Take a look at the shots here!

Forum Link (With artwork)

Exclusive IGNIQ review by Dave Dalley
Risk Your Like Official Website

Browse our archives:

Igniq.com Weekly News Archives

Archive for this week:

23.10.04 Return To Mysterious Island Demo
22.10.04 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Screenshots
 Doug Lombardi - Half-Life 2 Q & A
 Firefox smashes funding target
 EverQuest II Preview by dek
 New Atari Games Revealed
 GTA: San Andreas Third Trailer Available
21.10.04 106 Million XP SP2 Downloads
 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Leaked
 Win A Copy Of the Sims 2
20.10.04 File to big for e-mail ? Try YouSendIt
 Half-Life 2 Box Art Revealed ((DVD Only))
 Exclusive Risk Your Life Trailers
 Despite leak, Halo 2 Breaks Records
 EverQuest II Previews
19.10.04 Personal firewall / Antivirus list
 America's Army version 2.2 download
 Targeted Ads Coming to PC, Console Games
 New Playstation2 Review
18.10.04 Half-Life 2 Goes Gold - Official
 CS: Source Targeted by Cheats Already
17.10.04 Half Life 2 - Bink Video Mirrors
 Fresh Swat 4 Screenshots
 RYL Artwork