Gaming News

Dabs have recently re-opened their TradeDoubler affiliate scheme. We have been accepted as affiliates to the scheme, so please can you all make any future Dabs purchases via the Affiliates Page.

BobLAN starts tomorrow, and the attendance list is looking good. Even the Thursday evening setup has around 10 names down. Friday is due to be the busiest day, with many of us taking the day off work \o/

I know it's not easter, but Bob's verse still applies :)

The DFC website and forums have moved home. We've been hosted by FreddysHouse for the past couple of years, however with Deebs scaling down his hosting operation we were made homeless. }data{ offered to host us on his server, the move to which was completed today.

Thanks to Deebs for his hosting and help over the past couple of years, and to data for the new hosting and smooth transition.

Age of Empires III has been updated to version 1.09. The update gives players experience points after each game, meaning all Home Cities will now level up faster. There are also network and client fixes.

There is a download link on our AoE III page.

A major update to Battlefield 2 was released today. Version 1.4 comes in a clinically obese 530MB download. The release is mainly a collection of bug fixes, however there is a new conquest map called Road to Jalalabad, and a new "No Vehicles" game mode.

Links to the download can be found on our Battlefield 2 page, and further information on the update is on the EA Games site.

The radar updates for CS:Source were made available today - it rocks :) de_train has also had a facelift. The update will be applied automatically next time your Steam client loads.

PC Zone are reporting an interview with Valve, where details of some updates and improvements to CS have been revealed.

The main gameplay improvement come in the form of a radar overhaul. If a player focuses on an enemy for long enough for him to be identified, that enemy becomes visible on all team mates' radars. RTS players will be familiar with this idea.

On the mapping side, de_train is being given a HDR Lighting facelift, along with minor layout changes.

Read the full article on the PC Zone site.

TdC at Freddys has started a Wiki for all things BarrysWorld/FreddysHouse. We've got a DFC entry, which anyone can update if they like. There's also Wij's non-crusted pie matrix, which contains too much mince for my liking.

Head over and have a browse round - some amusing stuff in there :)

Our friends at Ultimate Fun have formed a new clan called Evil Twin. Most of the former UF members have moved across. Their forums are up and running, as is their CS:Source server. There's no sign of a TS server or HLStatsX yet tho.

We have updated our Friday Night is Gaming Night and Game Servers pages to reflect the change. Simply click on the IP address links to connect to the server.

Good luck to Gee and the team, and thanks again for letting us hang out on your server on Fridays :)

Update: Evil Twin TeamSpeak 2 server now up at 83.142.230.106:8768 - password 'startrek'

An update to the Steam client has been released. This update addresses minor issues such as startup time and downloading. Read the full release notes on the Steam News site.

The friendly against Desert Fox Squad is off - we were unable to raise a team, primarily due to the World Cup.

Some of us will be around, however our usual server - UF - is out of action. We will be on Almighty Trellis' server instead - 217.146.89.3:27055

We have been challenged to a friendly match by Desert Fox Squad this Friday evening. They are a UK CS:Source clan, with their leader being based in Sheffield, so not too far away from most of us lot.

A bug and exploit fix has been released for Call of Duty 2. Find a download link on our Call of Duty 2 info page.

I missed this one when they were released a couple of weeks ago, but Battlefield 2 and Age of Empires III have been updated to versions 1.3 and 1.07 respectively. Links to the patches can be found on the Game Info page.

Another Steam update, this time relating to the Friends system. This is now out of beta and officially avaialable for use. Also the backup functionality for Steam game content and settings has been improved.

Full details on the Steam site.

Valve have released an update to the Source engine that addresses a few minor bugs, and adds some SourceTV features.

They have also announced a launch date for Half-Life 2: Episode One - this will be available via Steam only from 1st June 2006. Episode One is the first in a trilogy of episodes that will conclude by Christmas of 2007.

iD have released a patch for Quake 3 (and also RTCW and Enemy Territory which use the Q3 engine). The patch fixes an auto-download issue and an exploit.

Anyone still playing Quake 3 can download the patch from our Quake 3 page (it's an incremental update on point release 1.32).

So... What will we be playing over the next 12 months? Well most of them will be showcased at this year's E3 over the next week:
Tom's Hardware E3 2006 Coverage

A page has been added to the site to help with our regular Friday night CS sessions with UF.

See the Friday Night is Gaming Night page for details.

Note that clan members will see more if they are logged on!

Thanks to Deebs at FreddysHouse, we've got a TeamSpeak 2 server again. It's by far the best way to chat during a gaming session, is easy to setup and configure, and is good quality.

Visit the TeamSpeak 2 Client Setup page for a download link and server details.