• We've been given a couple-three new screenshots of the upcoming Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project.

  It's a great looking game, but unlike the *cough cough* other Duke game coming out this year, to quote ARUSH Games, the publisher, "This 3D platform-style game shows Duke in a third person view, and not just from the side. The dynamic camera follows Duke as he goes around buildings or through tunnels, rotating above him, in front of him, behind him and on both sides. You can even zoom in if you want to get a closer look at the action."

  Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project is being produced by Sunstorm Interactive and developed by 3D Realms. We're expecting it to be released this Spring.

• There's some news from the Earth and Beyond site, reporting that they have signed on Academy Award winning Design Director Doug Chiang. As Craig Alexander, online Vice-President and Executive Producer of Earth and Beyond Online, puts it, "We are absolutely thrilled to have an artist of Doug’s caliber working on our project."

  The full press release is available here. Thanks to Niak for the tip.

• If you're a regular here at ComputerGamers.com, you've already (obviously) noticed the changes made to the front page here. If you're not a regular, trust me, it's a new format... We're trying to make the site look a little better, but it's going to take some work. If you've got an opinion on the new look, let's hear it! Just drop by our Forums and have at it!

• Interplay has announced that an agreement has been reached with Bioware regarding rights and publishing of the role-playing game Neverwinter Nights which "will be published worldwide by Infogrames subject to certain pre-existing Interplay licenses."
• The long awaited and much hyped Medal of Honor: Allied Assault has recently hit the shelves (and the first patch for it has hit the internet).

  Lucasarts' latest offering, Star Wars: Starfighter is also in stores now.

  Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy, the sequel to the award winning Disciples: Sacred Lands (both by rising star Strategy First), has been available for a few days now as well.

  And finally, Mimesis Online was launched this week. In case you didn't know anything about the game, it "...is a science-fiction Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game set in a world that's been slowly rebuilding itself after a cosmic scale cataclysm that completely changed the natural order of things, twisting everything, even time itself." We'll be keeping our eyes on this one.

• Playnet.com, Cornered Rat Software, and Strategy First have decided to give former account holders a second chance to play World War II Online for free! Their intent is to give those players that canceled their subscription shortly after the game's release a chance to evaluate all the changes and improvements that have been made since then. So, between January 11th and 25th, canceled account holders can "...simply log into the game and auto-update their software to the latest version and start playing. Once the free time ends on January 25th, account holders will be encouraged to re-activate their subscription to keep playing." More information can be found on the World War II Online Official Website.
• Strategy First reports that a new add-on pack for Microsoft Train Simulator is nearing completion, and "...features 20 Classic Locomotives in use in U.S.A. and Canada, as well as a brand new cab interior." It is scheduled for release at the end of January.
• Veteran game development company Vulcan Software has announced the release of 'The Sanctuary', the second episode of their Valhalla Classics Speech Adventure for the PC.
• French developer Sismoplay sends word that they are accepting applications for beta-testers for DuelField Expert, an enhanced version of DuelField. The beta test is expected to last about two months, with the version going live as a subscription based service (unlike DuelField Disciple, which is 100% free) in March 2002.
• Meanwhile, here at ComputerGamers.com we've been hard at work reformatting and editing the Reviews section and rebuilding the store. You may have seen some small changes in the last week, such as The Bargain Bin on the left here, and more are on the way!

by Edric

• It would seem that the new year is bringing a whole host of changes with it! As Jared pointed out in the post below, we've gone a long way towards refining the inner mechanics of the site, ensuring that it will work as well as we can possibly make it. (I am not quite as adamantly against Frontpage, as I do think that it's got its uses, just that this isn't one of them...)
• As for the other great change recently made, Jared has decided to take a leave of absence from the active, day-to-day running of the site. He's been hard at work on ComputerGamers.com for about two years now, the great majority of it entirely on his own. He feels he needs to take a step back, do some recharging, and focus on Real Life for a while. He will still be around to lend guidance to me when necessary, and does plan on taking the reins back at some indeterminate point in the future.
• To that end, I have been asked to take over the duties of Webmaster and General-Guy-In-Charge. I have known Jared for a few years now, and have been working actively on ComputerGamers.com for about nine months. I initially signed on to be the Patches Editor, with the duties of reformating, rebuilding, and enlarging our patch database. I am very honored that Jared feels I've got the ability to guide ComputerGamers.com for the present. I will do all I can to build on what we've already got, and to continue to give you, the Gamers, a friendlier and more personal resource than you can get anywhere else. That's the whole idea behind ComputerGamers.com. We may.. okay, we definately ARE not the biggest gaming site on the net, but we feel that we can give something that the other sites don't: somewhere you can go to when you need help and a search engine just won't cut it.
• Now, just so you know who I am and where I'm coming from: my name is Mark (but I go by Edric, a holdover from my UO days), I've been playing computer games for nearly 20 years now, having started on a TRS-80 and a Commodore 64. I am in college, working towards a BA in History. I love computer games, and have found that I enjoy, immensely, working on this site. My personal favorite game of all time is Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, followed very closely by Civilization II. I do have a part time job, so with that in addition to my schoolwork I will have only a limited amount of time to donate to the site. But I WILL do as much as I possibly can with the time I've got.
• And that's probably more than enough for now. As anyone that ever attended a squad meeting that I ran in UO will attest to, I am nothing if not verbose. Have a nice day!

• I hope everyone had a safe and happy holidays! You may have noticed we have been offline for awhile. When we created this site it was built using Microsoft Frontpage. Since then the site has gotten very large and we have learned alot more about web design. So over the holidays Edric and I figured out some of the things that were wrong with the site and fixed them. Basically, what it comes down to is I do not recommend buying Microsoft Frontpage 2002. We have had major compatability issues with the new 2002 extensions, and it caused us a lot of problems. Edric and I have been working hard to get the site Microsoft free, and we should be back and active soon.
• I am very proud to say our site has been published in some major game magazines, in the ads running for Dark Age of Camelot. Check us out in this month's editions!