It's been a busy few months here at Ensemble Studios. In addition to all the usual holiday craziness (like our amazingly kick-ass company party ) we have been making some great progress on RTS3. If you haven't been following all the bits of rumors leaked out here and there, RTS3 is the oh-so-clever code name for our third RTS game under development here at Ensemble. We finished up our latest internal milestone right before Thanksgiving, which went very well and was a very positive note for the team heading into the holidays.

The Ensemble approach to features and scheduling was also a pleasant surprise. As most developers will tell you, game development is often caught between a rock and a hard place on when the game is done. Contract deadlines, cash flow issues, or both can force a game to ship before it is ready, and yet without deadlines no game would ever ship, since there is always one more feature to add or one more system to tweak. I'm very proud of the work that I've done elsewhere in the industry, but it has always been a struggle between meeting deadlines and making the best game possible. Whenever a feature isn't quite ready there is always the implicit threat that if push comes to shove, the game can ship with any problem short of a fatal crash.

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The holidays are over and Oni for the PC finally went gold! Lots of big news hitting the web this week, and some even filtered over to the SharkyForums. This week we have some wonderful debates ranging from the Xbox, to games no one has ever heard of, and even a great thread on setting up your home network. This week's selected topics The Real Xbox; Best games No one has Ever heard of...; Lower Pings; Home Network Tech Help; Purchase Giants now or else! Check out the latest in the Forum Frag.
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Q_Check for mIRC has been released for public use. Q_Check is the original gaming script for mIRC, having been in development for three years. The script works in conjunction with GameSpy to automatically set the user away and announce his/her location upon joining a game server. The script sports a graphical interface and has numerous customization options. The Q_Check website also contains descriptions and links to many other mIRC Gaming Scripts.

• Customizable Game/Mod Abbreviations - Users can now customize game and mod abbreviations (to be displayed in away message and in the "away nick") rather than rely on the script to generate them. Abbreviations can easily be added/deleted/edit via the Q_Check interface.
• Perform Section - Q_Check can execute external mIRC commands/scripts when certain conditions are met. Currently, these conditions are When the user joins a game server, when the user returns from a game server, when someone sends the user's "trigger keyword" to a channel, and when someone sends the user a private message (while the user is playing on a server).
• Multiple Keyword Triggers - Users can now have multiple keyword triggers (previous versions were limited to just one). When someone types the user's keyword, Q_Check will announce the user's location (i.e. what server he/she is playing on).
• "Not Playing" Template - If enabled, Q_Check will display the customizable "Not Playing" template when a person types the user's keyword trigger but the user is not playing on a server.
• Other tweaks and bug fixes...

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At the 2001 International CES, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates revealed to the world the highly anticipated Xbox video game console during his keynote address. As the finale of his keynote, Gates showed off the Xbox console and game controller and demonstrated two exclusive Xbox games that highlight the future-generation console's rich and realistic graphics capabilities.

"Xbox is the future of video gaming," Gates said. "With its breakthrough technology and incredible graphics capabilities, Xbox will set the standard in gaming for years to come. It enables game designers to create a whole new world of gameplaying experiences that will captivate the imagination and competitive spirit of gamers like no other console."

"Xbox is on track for an awesome launch in fall 2001," said Robbie Bach, senior vice president and chief Xbox officer at Microsoft. "With more than 200 game companies around the world creating Xbox games for launch and beyond, the unveiling of the Xbox design is just the start of great things to come."

The Xbox game controller, which also sports the logo, is built for maximum control and comfort. Its design is the result of thousands of hours of usability testing. It features an eight-way directional pad (D-pad); left and right analog sticks; left and right shoulder triggers; six pressure-sensitive multicolored analog buttons; dual slots for memory cards and other peripherals; and a built-in "rumble" feature to increase gaming realism. The controller also features a cord over 9.5 feet long to give gamers the freedom to sit nearly anywhere they want during gameplay.
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