Blade Hands-On Preview! - posted by Warlock @ 21:15

This is it! My article from my visit to Rebel Act Studios is finally finished and available for you to read! It's a pretty long read, but it should worth the time (I hope). The article is put in its own special design and includes 4 completely new and fresh screenshots! Head over to our articles section and get comfortable. Enjoy it!

New Fanart! - posted by Warlock @ 20:55

It's been a while since we got any new fanart submissions, but today I recieved a piece that just blew me away! I got a sketch, from Yan Le Gall (aka yanos in our forums), a while ago of this picture. But as I didn't hear anything more from him (until now), I was worried that we would never see the final result of it. Today, however, we got the completed artwork - and it turned out to be one hell of a picture! Check this beauty out right here!

Friday's Screenshot - posted by Warlock @ 20:23

I'd be darned if it's not Friday again! This means a new Blade screenie to chew on. This time it's the Knight fighting a Dark Knight after cutting his fellow in tiny bits.

Well - this is only to get you started, 'cause something *BIG* is heading your way today!

Multiplayer and System Requirments - posted by Warlock @ 19:26

Rebel Act Studios has gone public with some more information about the multiplayer part of Blade. You will be able to choose from 12 characters (3 skins for each of the 4 main characters), played in a fast and hectic arena mode, over TCP/IP and IPX networks (internet and LAN). However, the available game modes is not revealed yet.

Minimum requirements is set to PII 200, 32 Mb RAM and a 4 Mb video card, while a P II 400, 64 Mb RAM with 8 Mb video card is recomended. Supported 3d API's are Direct3D and Glide.

Some Information - posted by Warlock @ 17:54

First, my upcoming article, with a Hands-On Preview of Blade and a description of my visit to Rebel Act, is 99% complete (just some minor adjustments and editing left).

Second, Snikko and Miguel are working on a 3d model of Tam Can-Die, which will be really sweet! Take a look at the test-animation from the work in progress.

Third, if you have been experiencing problems with loading our site lately, it is because of the adds-server GA is using. This seems to be fixed now and hopefully it won't happen again.

Weekly Screenshot - posted by Warlock @ 18:16

It's Friday and we're back on time with our weekly screenshot of Blade. The picture is of the Knight character, engaging a couple of orcs into combat.

FYI: I'm still working on my article from my visit to RAS, but it's coming along quite well.

The Developers at work - posted by Warlock @ 18:15

Our featured article, The Developers at work, is updated with a very interesting and in-depth explanation of the artificial intelligence (AI) in Blade. The article is following the developers at Rebel Act Studios in the work on Blade, and this time it's AI-programmer Jose Raluy's turn to be unveiled. Enjoy!

Position Available at Rebel Act Studios - posted by Warlock @ 15:24

I recieved this announcement from Juan Diaz-Bustamante of Friendware and Rebel Act Studios:

REBEL ACT STUDIOS IS LOOKING FOR A LEAD PROGRAMER TO WORK ON A NEW PROJECT

Rebel Act Studios is a leading european games developer based in Madrid (Spain). Rebel Act Studios is developing now a 3D action/adventure game called BLADE, considered by PC ZONE UK as the best looking game by far at last E3.

Weekly Screen - posted by Warlock @ 19:03

Here we go with a new screenshot of Blade. It was supposed to be up last Friday, but some stuff prevented me from doing that. Anyway...this is the Barbarian fighting a orc chief. Notice the red trails from the Barbarians sword ;-)

Next Friday we should be back on schedule and bring you the next weekly screenshot on the day it was ment for. Enjoy it!

New illustration added - posted by Warlock @ 2:47

I've put up the new illustration for the third chapter of the Interactive Story, featuring Tam Can-Die. Another great drawing by our very own artist Miguel! Tam Can-Die longs for more adventures, so keep the story rolling folks!

I'm back! - posted by Warlock @ 20:15

Ahhh...I'm back from my holliday. I got to Spain Thursday 9th March without any plans of going to Rebel Act Studios. Well, to my own surprise I had the RAS phone number 'just in case' and made a phone call and talked with Xavier the day after my arrival. Monday I decided to buy the plane ticket and made arrangements with Xavier and Tuesday I was there!

I will have a full report as well as a Blade first-impression preview up as soon as I get some things done. Should be ready within the upcomming week. Until then I can tell you that Blade was all I hoped it would be and more; It's one hell of a game made by some excellent people!!! Stay tuned!

Oh! And about the weekly screenshot...looks like it will be a bit delayed. Sorry about that! It's busy coming home and today I need to spend some time with friends!

Blade preview - posted by Snikko @ 22:01

Just recieved a mail from Derk Bil, the senior editor of Gamers central, saying that they had written a preview of blade. You can check it out here. (Make sure to check the first screenshot as its a new one.)

Misc info from the forum (demo date and release date) - posted by Snikko @ 18:59

Just found this in a post by Juan in the forums

"Infogrames and Rebel Act have decided a few weeks ago, in a friendly way, not to continue with our Blade's distribution deal due to reasons that both companies will keep internal by now. Those reasons have nothing to do with the game itself or with the game playability or content.

We will announce which company/companies will distribute Blade worldwide very soon. We are speaking with well known companies that will focus heavily on the game as Blade just doesn't deserve to be just another game in a huge portfolio.
Conversations with those companies are very advanced.

We'll be in beta in April/May, looking for a September release the latest."

Weekly Screenshot - posted by Warlock @ 19:05

I know it's not Friday, but I'm going away tomorrow and won't be back until Friday 17th. This weeks screenshot features a pretty beat up Dwarf. Whatever hell hole the Dwarf is walking out of, some evil punks have left a nice mark on his face. Pretty cool!

While I'm gone, Snikko will be holding the fort.

Release date - posted by Warlock @ 12:28

Juan had the following to say about the release date, in a reply to Bernon, over at the official forums: "it will be the end of 2nd quarter or 3rd quarter". Nothing new really, just a bit more specific.

The Developers at work - posted by Warlock @ 18:55

This time we'll take a look on RAS script programmer Arturo's Desktop along with an explaination of what you see in the picture. Read about it, from the guy in charge of making some of the nasty stuff happen in Blade, right here!

Rebelact's homepage updated a bit - posted by Snikko @ 18:00

Well. Just went by rebelact's page today and noticed that they had updated it a bit here and there. In the spanish version they had made some fun with the mouse and then updated the "characters" section a bit. In the english version, only the "characters" section had been updated. But I'm quite sure they will update it some more soon, so check it often for updates.

Friday's Screenshot - posted by Warlock @ 17:54

The best day of the week is upon us once again! This means a completely new screenshot of Blade here at Blade Universe. I really like this one, the shadow effects in it is just so damn impressive and good looking! Enough said, check it out!

New illustration and chapter added - posted by Warlock @ 19:10

Miguel has completed the illustration for the second chapter added to our Interactive Story. The illustration has now been embedded into Trygve's chapter. If you havn't noticed, Snikko has added a third chapter to The Legend of Tam Can-Die where Tam meets someone in the dark forest, Eviltree. Keep the story going, while Miguel works on the next illustration!

If you want more info on this feature, please visit the Tam Can-Die info page.

Note: Appearantly our interactive story page did not load in Netscape (due to some embarassing html errors). However, it should be fixed now. Still, the form-boxes when you add a chapter, is oversized in netscape. I highly recommend using MS Internet Explorer 4+