Gaming News

After quite a lengthy wait, the single player version of Counter-Strike is out today. The game will be familiar to all online CS regulars, however there are a few subtle differences in order to make it work in a single player mission-based model.

The progress through the game has a bit of a PGR feel to it, as you earn points and unlock maps by completing objectives, and you spend your points on buying better team mates in the next round.

There are a few new weapons, in fact you may be forgiven for thinking that all the weapons are new. In fact, they have renamed all the old CS weapons for some political correctness reason. The first map you will encounter is Dust.

The tactical elements of the enemy and team AI is excellent. The coders have clearly observed a lot of online play and got most things right. The only weakness is a lack of awareness of what's going on behind them - human players constantly check all around to make sure nobody is sneaking up behind them. The AI doesn't do this too well, although it does pick its camping spots well :/

All in all, a great game.

Just a reminder that BOBLAN 2004 is on the cards for this Easter. The weekend begins on the evening of Thursday 8th April and goes on until Sunday 11th. Hopefully there will be a good turn out for the weekend.

Have your say on what we play on the DFC Forums.

A major Steam client update is due shortly. Here are the highlights:

• Offline Play


• Account validation (via e-mail)


• A new Half-Life 2 hardware survey


• Support for purchasing games through Steam

Update - this will take place on Weds 3rd March.

EA have put up a site for the forthcoming Battlefield 1942 mod Vietnam. Here's a brief snippet from the site:

The Battlefield franchise enters a new era equipped with more firepower, modernized weaponry and vehicles, and a deeper infantry experience from the jungles to the beaches of Vietnam. From villages on the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the city streets of Hue wage modern warfare as the United States or North Vietnamese Army (NVA).

It is hoped that Vietnam will be out prior to the LAN at Easter :)

DFC have received their first payout from the affiliates scheme :) This should get the kitty off to a nice start at the LAN in a couple of months time.

Thanks to all who bought using the Affiliates page - it really does make a difference.

A beta demo of Unreal Tournament 2004 has been released by publishers Atari. Most of the usual mirrors are hosting the download, including Fileshack and Jolt.

Also, there was a Steam update a couple of days ago. This included the main engine, plus a few tweaks to Counter-Strike. This should all auto-update next time Steam starts up on your PC.

As mentioned in the last news item, the updated version of the BF1942 mod Desert Combat was due out on Friday. It was released on time, and download links are available from desertcombat.com.

A new patch was released for Battlefield 1942 this weekend - version 1.6.19. Check the EA Games site for the full change log.

Now that GAME.NET has gone, our usual FTP source is no longer available. One decent download source is bf1942files.com. I got a steady 46KB/s download speed. The full point release is 274MB, and the update from v1.5 is 148MB. Yes, that is correct - they are double the previous patch sizes :/

For those unable to download, mail Mesmer to request a CD with client and server versions on. It is doubtful that both the BF patch and Desert Combat will fit on a single CD now.

Note that GCW have yet to supply an enhanced version :) Also, there are issues regarding Desert Combat and this patch. Version 0.7 of DC is due for release on 6th February.

The invites went out for the next DFC LAN at Bob's today. It will run from the evening of Thursday 8th April til Sunday 11th (Easter weekend). There is a forums thread regarding the LAN already running on the DFC Forums - have your say.

Don't forget to help our pizza fund. We will need to hit the £30 mark soon otherwise we'll miss the next payment date.

Following the announcement last month, the closure of GAME.NET, formerly known as BarrysWorld happened this week. All services have been terminated, including clan servers, bookable servers, web hosting and email accounts.

Our previous site was hosted with GAME.NET, hence the timely move over to FreddysHouse, which is now nice and stable - cheers Deebs :)

Good news regarding Trebz, who was made redundant by the GAME.NET closure - he's found another job with MNP, starting early Feb - congrats m8 :)

We now have £29.29 in our LAN pizza fund. However, we need £30 in order to be able to draw it out, so get buying!!

After a few teething problems, the new site is now fully functional and stable. The issue was to do with network connectivity and not the server itself. Thanks to DBs and data for the fix.

The forums are also up and running. Have your say on the state of hinge making in the realm of Midgard :)

The DFC site is now on its new home at https://www.desertfoxclan.com. Please mail Mesmer if you spot any problems with the site.

Coming soon will be our forums - something to keep Wij happy while he compiles the latest Fox of the Week :)

A big thanks goes to DBs and FreddysHouse for sorting out our hosting post-BW.

The time of the game is 7:30pm on one of DF-Lynx's servers. It'll make a nice change from all this Xbox nonsense :)

AngryDaz has organised a Battlefield 1942 / Desert Combat this Friday. Some will be playing on the LAN at Bob's, and several will be coming in over t'internet.

The exact start time has yet to be determined, as has the server address. If there are more than a couple of remote players, then a BW server may be in order.

A news feed using the RSS 2.0 specification has been added. To use the feed, link to the RSS feed page.

Several sections of the site content are now included in the search index. Aswell as News and match reports, you can now search on Fox of the Week, Humour, clan member details and some static content pages.

See the top of the left menu bar for the search box.

The DFC web site has been updated to allow it to be searched. All news items and match reports are searchable, and Comedy and Fox of the Week are to follow shortly.

To perform a search, simply enter your search string in the box above the menus. The Advanced Search page allows you to select a start and end date, and it also has instructions on all the options available.

Yet another sad day for online gaming in the UK sees GAME.NET, formerly BarrysWorld, announce their closure. BarrysWorld have come close to going before, but have always managed to survive. Alas, not this time.

This has an impact on DFC on various levels. Firstly, this web site is hosted by GAME.NET, so we'll have to find a new home.
Secondly, a number of DFC members work for GAME.NET, and worked for BarrysWorld before that. DF-Trebz is being made redundant, so our thoughts are with him.

Parts of the BarrysWorld experience will live on however. The community is being rebuilt in its ancestral home of FreddysHouse. Most BW regulars have already registered and are happily posting the drivel we've come to know and love :)

All good things...

EA have announced that version 1.6 of Battlefield 1942 will be available early in the new year. Changes include various fixes, and the addition of PunkBuster support.