The newest version of ADaOB - Anomalies, Discrepancies and Outright Bugs was just released.

This is the first version to include ZylonBane's SS2 Enhanced Monitor Package (SHEMP).

A full list of changes is listed below.

• Inclusion of SHEMP high resolution terrain textures (mostly screens and other tech displays)
• Fixed light switch in Med/Sci corridor over training stations
• Med/Sci armoury note is now correctly ticked off
• Added shields on shuttle ports on the training stations and in the Command deck shuttle bays
• Added targets to the shooting range on Ops
• Added ceiling glass to a room in Rec that previously opened out into space
• Realigned many textures and fixed many object placements
• Re-added a small number of French-Epstein devices and Auto-repair units on Impossible difficulty
• "Plasma" pistol changed back to laser pistol. Significantly decreased degrade rate for non-overcharge shots
• Auto-repair units and French-Epstein devices can now be recycled (for 20 nanites)
• Hazard suit now makes you completely immune to toxins from worm piles
• Removed ejecting casings from blast turrets because they looked too strange
• Shrank physics model on a Rickenbacker turrent that was very hard to walk past before
• Fixed the hole between the pipes in Rickenbacker Pod 2 where you could easily fall to your death
• Localised Pyrokinesis now deals 1 damage / 400ms instead of 5 damage / 2000ms
• Replaced elevator music with high-quality full-length version from SS1
• Various minor tweaks

The file can be downloaded from Filefront. You can discuss any technical issues on the related thread in our forums, or in the main thread at Strange Bedfellows.

Thank you to Nameless Voice, Zylonbane, and everyone involved in this excellent work!

A new FM from Christine is now available! It contains three levels. This is not a typical SS2 campaign, rather it is a "Funmission", so don't take it too seriously. You are on vacation. There are no keycards, codes, security cams or respawns, and sometimes sneaking may be better than fighting.

More details and screenshots are available at Christine's homepage. The FM itself can be downloaded (~135MB) from the following location.

Important note: This campaign uses custom scripts by Nameless Voice, so make sure that the file NVScript.osm is in your SShock2 directory.

Thank you for your excellent work, Christine!

At long last, Zylonbane has announced the release of SHTUP (Shock Texture Upgrade Project) Beta 6

Here are a few details regarding this new release:

• Download size: 15.7 MB
• Uncompressed size: 43.1 MB
• Updated Object Models: 252
• Updated Object Textures: 715
• Updated Terrain Textures: 121

• Several dozen most excellently updated/retextured pipe models (IceNine)
• Updated "annelid goo" models (IceNine again)
• Updated plant models (Black Boe)
• Updated Earth skybox (Black Boe again)
• Redrawn Xerxes face (Eldron)
• Updated world model wrench textures (Ichu)
• Several fixed object models (the inimitable Esh)
• Updated "annelid goo" textures to complement IceNine's updated models
• Updated basketball hoop, basketball court (same res, but should look a little more natural now), and basketball inventory icon
• Re-Updated the MedSci "VB" door texture. This was one of the first textures I updated back in 2003, so it was looking a little rough. Thanks to Esh tweaking the door model, it's now a full 256x512 texture. Also, finally updated the damaged version of this door.
• Made some tweaks to the HUD graphics so the edges don't change when switching between Use/Shoot mode anymore.
• Cleaned up all the square warning signs with the horizontal color stripes. They should all look much more consistent now, with the stripes always on the same side and no weird Z-fighting issues. Also, the signs that used to have a flashing white stripe will now have a flashing red stripe. Turns out it was always supposed to be red, but a palette mismatch caused it to appear white instead.
• Updated all the "big red letter" signs so that each letter is its own 256x256 texture. Super sharp!
• Updated most non-square signage to use TGA textures. This means that all edges will now have a smooth, anti-aliased appearance. This is especially noticeably on signs with text.
• Updated all blood splats and blood scrawls to use TGA textures as well. In addition to the edge-smoothing effect, variable transparency was used to give the blood a nice gory smeared appearance.
• Cleaned up the Rickenbacker logos on the Rickenbacker map screens.
• Trash cans now have actual trash in them.
• The snow-covered floors now actually look like snow.
• Wedge lights now have a texture that actually looks like something, instead of the old blank white texture.
• Rickenbacker deck A/B/C signs inverted to match the Rickenbacker's deck layout (A at the bottom, C at the top).
• Three out of four stim unit faces upgraded (still can't figure out who that second guy is).
• Recreation deck room signs height slightly increased so VB logo is round now.
• Piano console screen upgraded. Name that tune!

Screenshots are available at the SHTUP site.

The file can be downloaded here. Please discuss any technical issues on the related thread at our forums.

And a big 'thank you' to all the SHTUP team for their excellent work!

Once more, Christine has produced yet another SS2 campaign: UNN Facility Polaris-32A0. It consists of six levels, and we can only expect more of the quality work that Christine has already got us used to when coming from her.

You can get a few more details and some screenshots at Christine's homepage, and discuss anything related to this new FM in its dedicated thread, over at our forums.

This new FM can be downloaded (~77MB) from any of the following locations:

• Location 1
• Location 2
• Location 3

Over at our our forums we were pleasantly surprised when MysteryDev posted this thread regarding the 'real' System Shock 2 soundtrack. How real? Well, according to MysteryDev's words, 'real as in ripped from a CD that Eric Brosius burned'.

A few more details regarding this soundtrack:

• These are the real arrangements created by Eric himself, authored as full soundtrack songs and burned as an album. It's not a fan interpretation or anything else short of the real songs from the real composer.
• This was personally crafted by Eric Brosius from the original audio, meaning that unlike the 22khz audio files from the shipping game this release is CD quality.
• The audio quality is much higher than what's out there; this was ripped from the original CD and encoded at 320 q0 mp3

Basically, this is not only the best quality version of the soundtrack, it's the version of the soundtrack that Eric Brosius himself created. It's not a fan compilation; this is the real deal.

At last, Christine has announced that the longly awaited sequel to her Ponterbee Station FM is now completed.

You can download the new FM, UNN Nightwalker, from this link. Screenshots are available at Christine's homepage, and you can discuss any issues concerning this new FM at our forums.

And Christine has pulled out of her hat yet another excellent fan mission: Shocking Ruins. This is a conversion of her last Thief 2 fan mission, Bloody Ruins. Screenshots are available at Christine's homepage.

You can download the fan mission here, or discuss anything related to it in the dedicated thread on our forums.

Thank you Christine!

Zygoptera has announced on our forums his new fan mission: Arena. Here's a brief feature list:

• Combat rather than story oriented
• Enemies and goodies are spawned randomly
• Rebalanced upgrades and weaponry
• Full automap (few rough edges to give 'Spatially Aware' purpose)
• Hackable, neutral, cameras
• New enemies, with new powers
• Plot, meek and inoffensive
• Following completion you can get a list of various statistics (shots fired, hits, nanites received, enemies slain etc.) in the final area
• Fully MP compatible
• Much more...

You can download this FM from Strange Bedfellows. If you'd like to discuss any details from this FM, you can do it in the related thread on our forums.

Christine has just announced that an updated version of her excellent Fan Mission, Ponterbee Station, is now available. Changes include:

• Many new textures
• New skyboxes
• Some of the new objects are now frobbable/pickable
• New Sounds
• Newly designed areas/new areas (e.g. mall, colony ) to increase playability/challenge
• More psi-hypos
• Custom objects fixed
• Etc...

You can check some screenshots at Christine's page, and download the FM from this link. You can also discuss any details related to this fan mission in the related thread on our forums.

Hot on the heels of the acquisition their acquisition by Take-Two, Irrational Games' General Manager, Ken Levine chats to Gamespot about the Take-Two deal, BioShock and the future.

GS: How will the deal affect Irrational's operations? Will there be any layoffs?

KL: Quite the opposite. Since the acquisition, the team size on BioShock has nearly doubled.

GS: What about Irrational management--will it remain in place?

KL: I hope so, as I'm fond of money and health care. The truth is, the kind of layoffs you're talking about happen when large companies acquire other large companies and they get rid of duplicate marketing, accounting, and other functions. At a small developer, they're hiring the development talent.

GS: Will the Irrational brand remain intact or will it be renamed? Will future games carry the Irrational brand?

KL: I think the brand was one of the things they were interested in. Somebody said it recently: Irrational's games never suck. I like that for a brand identity.

New York, NY – January 9, 2006 – Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) today announced the acquisition of Irrational Games, the award-winning development studio behind such titles as System Shock 2 and Freedom Force. Irrational Games joins the team of development studios under Take-Two's 2K Games publishing label.

2K Games has multiple titles in development at Irrational's North American and Australian studios. The first title to be published under the 2K Games label will be BioShock, a role-playing shooter for next-generation console systems and PC. Already anticipated by the gaming press as one of the most innovative next-generation titles, BioShock is planned for release in early 2007.

"We saw a rare opportunity with Irrational Games, a development studio that has consistently produced creative and original games," said Christoph Hartmann, Managing Director at 2K Games. Susan Lewis, VP of Business Development at 2K Games, added, "2K Games will provide additional resources and support to the Irrational team so they may continue to deliver cutting-edge games."

"We are excited to be aligned with a publishing label like 2K Games that shares similar development goals and vision," said Ken Levine, co-founder and President of Irrational Games. "Fans will be blown away when they see the next-generation titles we are working on."

Along with this confirmation that Irrational has been acquired by Take-Two, it also shows BioShock as having an early 2007 release. Yay!

Gamasutra has an article on unconfirmed reports that the developer of System Shock 2, Freedom Force, SWAT 4 and BioShock has been acquired by publisher Take-Two

According to unconfirmed reports from employees of developer Irrational Games, the company has been acquired by U.S. publisher Take-Two Interactive. The two companies have already been working in close conjunction, with Take-Two registering the trademark for and agreeing to publish Irrational’s forthcoming game BioShock.

BioShock has been variously described as the spiritual successor to System Shock 2 (the trademark for which, perhaps coincidentally, Electronic Arts was yesterday reported to have renewed), which was the developer’s first game in 1999. Subsequent titles have included Freedom Force, Tribes: Vengeance and SWAT 4 – produced from the company’s Boston and Braddon, Australia studios.

The staff e-mail allegedly describes the release date of BioShock as being 2007 for the PC and next generation consoles, which suggests significant confidence in the game’s quality on the part of Take-Two – with the developer not known to be working on any other titles.

Despite disappointing financial results in 2005, this new acquisition is another example of Take-Two’s attempts to expand its portfolio beyond the Rockstar and 2K Games brand. As was the case with the purchase of Civilization developer Firaxis Games last November, Irrational Games are best known for their PC titles suggesting that Take-Two stills attaches considerable importance to the format.

Make of that what you will. If true I think it's not necessarily a bad thing - there are far worse things to happen and publishes to be acquired by!

Discuss on our forums

I had a look at the December 15th trademark registration Electronic Arts took out for "System Shock" (serial # 78773880, if you want to go look for yourself... though it's nothing spectacular and all the pertinent info is in the quote box to follow)

"What would it be," I wondered. "Probably a combination of IP protection and getting ready for a budget version rerelease of SS2..." But that didn't sound quite right to me, seeing how -- as the publisher -- EA is perfectly within its rights to rerelease any games in its library as it sees fit.

Here's what I found as the Goods and Services descriptor:

IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game cartridges; computer game discs; interactive multimedia computer game programs; downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices; computer application software for mobile phones; computer game software and entertainment software for use on mobile and cellular phones, handheld computers, computers, video game consoles, both handheld and free standing, and other wireless devices.

IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Providing a computer game that may be accessed network-wide by network users; providing an online computer game accessed and played via mobile and cellular phones and other wireless devices

Perhaps that strikes you the same way it struck me.
That is to say,