Hexen

Just a few screenshots to show the current stage of architecture in this Hexen mod's main city:

Hillside housing:

The cathedral and an NPC:

Balconies and arcades:

Tenements:

More screenshots coming soon, in the meantime you can visit the Korax Heritage homepage and forums!

The Korax Heritage team is officially introducing the Korax Heritage Trilogy! This trilogy builds on the world and lore of the original Hexen. The story spans several decades, each part introducing new characters to play.

*The Chaos Sphere

The first part of the trilogy, it portrays the havoc wreaked on Korax armies, his destruction and the dimension travels with the Chaos Sphere.
This story was told in the original Hexen (including the Deathkings of the Dark Citadel expansion pack), and can be replayed with enhanced graphics and a wide range of RPG elements as Korax Mod. This first part has already been finished and can be downloaded and played.

*Scattered Evil

This sequel takes place a few months after the events of the first part. This time, you explore a large part of a country, visiting dozens of locations consisting of all-new 3D maps. All fights are pure-bred 3D First Person Shooter fights, traveling and interaction with NPCs is classic RPG-like. This part of the trilogy is currently in development and has been recently greatly overhauled for more immersive and enhanced 3D environments and more engaging AI.

*The Serpent Power

A pure role playing game with a seamlessly connected enormous 3D world, you lead a team of young adventurers of the three orders of Chronos on their journey across a whole continent, decades after the death of Korax. You search after the mystical "Serpent Power", which you don't even know what form it takes. Is it physical? Is it spiritual? Is it magic? Nobody seems to know. This game brings back epic storytelling and immersion in the style of the classic 1990s RPG series and is currently in the design phase.


For more information you can visit the Korax Heritage homepage and forums regularly.

From The RGN Crew, we Would Like To Wish Everyone Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas And A Happy New 2008 Year!!

Hi all,

it's for once the time of the year again to announce these sweet words of joy and festivity's.

Comming from the RavenGames.com crew,
we wish you all a
Merry Christmas
and a
Happy Newyear

Our best Regards.
the RGN crew

This just came from the Raven Soft forums. C.Bernstein has posted the next text to inform us all that they will be closing their boards.

---

Everyone. We regret to inform you that we will be shutting down the message boards. The message boards on the forums.ravensoft.com website will be down for an indefinite period of time.

---

By this, I think that RGN is in the urge of getting the website done and finished in order to welcome the guy's from over Raven Boards

(Source: Raven Soft Forums)

Hi everyone and welcome!
I am John the new owner of the Raven Community.
We took over a little while ago but after some problems with the content management system and then some more bugs and issues we finally have everything ironed out!

There is a ton of awesome information here and as a gaming freak I am excited to carry on the legacy of the previous owners and contributors.

Much will remain the same like informative information from Jorge and Col.J.P. and some things will change a little. A new CMS will be added in the relatively near future and the forum will change soon as well. Don't worry nothing will be lost. All of the content and posts will move as well.

Enjoy!

John aka Freak

Dark Realms is an experience like none other. It originally started off as a wadfile for Raven Software's game Hexen, which has over the past decade become an instant bestseller amongst 1st person shooter fans. However, unlike the original Hexen, which is composed mostly of action and some adventure parts, what DR will do will be out of this world. You will be forced to think hard if you wish to overcome many of the obstactles, because Dark Realms is a critical thinking game.

Inspired by Zorkish puzzles and the character interaction found in many other underrated classics like Betrayal At Krondor, Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure, and, most importantly, Stonekeep, Dark Realms will provide the one link Hexen has been solely missing: the human dimension, and the emotion that makes role-playing so addictive. But know this: this will not be a role-playing adventure, or at least not in the sense of mainstream role-playing games like Dungeons And Dragons. This Hexen experience will be completely original, and purely authentic.

Unfortunately, what is planned for Dark Realms and what actually has been implemented are two complementary things. It is still in its infantile stage, for much of its beauty has yet to shine. Nevertheless, here is a very brief description of is promised for the project in the near future:

* at least thirty new maps, divided into six hubs
* at least ten new enemies, each with new battle tactics -without replacing a single sprite
* at least eight new weapons, all entirely new and not just borrowed from elsewhere
* the three original classes (fighter, cleric, mage) may be merged into one, who would have all the original twelve weapons and plenty more
* dozens of new puzzles, obstacles, items and artifacts unlike any other seen in any Hexen MOD before
* a haunting new musical score, written by me (all the songs will be replaced)
* lots of new scenery and artwork
* more friends to make; more alliances to form
* the biggest battle Hexen has ever seen...

You definitely need to pay a visit to the Dark Realms Homepage and see for yourself, I know I love this mod!

This will be my last post here, it all started with Hexen and Korax Mod almost three years ago and it is ending up with Dark Realms! Its been one hell of a journey but one needs to move on to new projects and new dreams!

So long guys (and gals), I'm sure I'm going to miss you all!

"I'm writing this open letter to announce my resignation from Raven Software effective Wednesday, June 30th and to let everyone know that this pending departure is both amicable and mutual. What can I say? It's been a hell of a ride.

In the past seven plus years I was fortunate enough to be able to contribute to twelve Raven Software titles alongside the most talented group of people I've ever had the good fortune to work with. I want to thank Raven for giving me the opportunity to start my career in game development and I send out my best wishes to everyone at Raven and Activision for their continued success. I know you'll all do well.

I'm sure the question many of you are asking is "why?" (Then again, maybe you aren't!) Put simply, I've reached a point in my life where it's time for me to move on to new challenges…to take some risks and make some time for a few things I've always wanted to do. I don't deal well with "what might have been" scenarios. That said, there are some shots I need to take and I believe now is the time for me to take them. The way I see it, if I don't do it now, I may never get the chance again."

More details can be found at Kenn's World.

Good luck Kenn!

Well, if you ever wondered who's all behind this RavenGames.com Network project then you should have a look at our new 'Crew Page'. You can check the Crew page by clicking this link:

View our all new Crew Page!

If you would like to become a part of our team, you can always email us your details using our contact form.

Some communities now require anyone selling used video games to give fingerprints for police records. The question is: why?

Some stores that buy used video games have begun taking their customers’ fingerprints and turning them over to police, but the stores say they’re just complying with local laws.

In addition to recording drivers license, telephone numbers, and addresses of customers who sell used games or consoles, some are routinely requiring a thumbprint. Retailers are collecting the information under a law intended to regulate pawn shops and make it easy for law enforcement officials to track down thieves who fence stolen goods. A number of states have such laws and Utah passed its own version just last month.

More...

Source: www.gamespot.com

The old RavenGames.com as you all know it was given to sneax, Col.J.P. and EuT by RambOrc. We will continue running this site, with some improvements and we will try to make sure that you, our visitor, has the best fun of browsing our pages.

The site is now udergoing big changes and might show errors, images not loading or simply a lot of 404 errors. These will be fixed as soon as possible. The new system will make sure that it's easyer for us to add data, and so this means more information for you!

As a first added feature towards the user, there is now the ability to post comments on newsposts. You can login using the form in the left hand menu. Your login is the same as the forum - no need to register a new account! More will be added in the future.

Have fun,
sneax

The last version of the classic Korax Mod, KMOD 2.8 is released today. New features over 2.7 are now damage skins for all foes and also fire death animations for all monsters (earlier on, this was available only in multiplayer Hexen). See this page for the download link.

This is truly the last release of the 2.x KMOD series, because the next KMOD release will be Korax Mod 3.0, featuring a long range of enhancements, including technical ones like higher base resolutions and RPG elements like a journal and a spellbook. It'll also come with better support for custom maps. See the Korax Mod homepage for more infos.

A new version of Vavoom has been released. It features more improved Strife support as well some bug fixes and implemented some requested features.

A report from CBBC demonstrates the use of a video game controller used to manipulate the game world directly from the brain. In the game Mind Balance, a player dons a lightweight, wireless headset and helps the alien character Mawg walk a tight rope between sci-fi inspired buildings by focusing on left and right flashing boxes. If Mawg sways too much to the left, the player focuses more on the right box to counterbalance. Neither the game not controller are available for purchase, however, this first generation will enable researchers to create more sophisticated applications and devices for retail use.

Take a look at BBC News Round.

(Source: GameSpy Daily)

The Korax' Heritage team reports that they have a new mapper called DarkRaven, who is already working on deathmatch maps for an upcoming multiplayer project (not yet announced).

At the same time, work on the Scattered Evil town goes on, using more and more of the Vavoom engine's superior features.

There is also news that the next release of Korax Mod, KMOD 2.8, will be out in the near future, finally bringing a release with damage skins for all enemies, and also a nifty new feature (surprise yet).

For more info, see the Korax' Heritage website. To talk to the team, visit their forums.

I just got word that both Hexen and Heretic soundtracks are available for download at Sycraft website and in his own words:

"Though I was never as big a fan of Hexen as I am of Doom, it is still a great game in its own right, with some really cool music. Up to this point, I have been unable to find any soundtracks for Hexen like there are for Doom and Heretic. So, with a little encouragement, I went ahead and made one. Like with the Doom soundtracks, it is made to work with the Doomsday engine.

A good deal of time has passed since I did the Doom soundtracks, and the equipment I own and have access to has changed significantly, therefore this soundtrack is version 3.0. It sounds quite different from the Doom soundtracks since it was made primarily with Roland hardware, whereas the Doom soundtracks were done exclusively with Creative Labs (Emu) hardware. I will be redoing the Doom soundtracks to version 3.0 in time.

Also there are three different versions of the soundtrack available, a normal, high and low quality version. The only difference between these versions is the bit rate they were encoded at and hence the size. The normal quality version is encoded at 128kbps (quality 4) nominal and is what I highly recommend to most users. The high quality version is encoded at 256kbps (quality 8) nominal and is good if you own high grade sound equipment and want the most from the soundtrack. The low quality version is encoded at 45kbps nominal (quality -1) and should only be downloaded if space or bandwidth is at a premium.

I finally got around to finishing off a Heretic soundtrack, which now caps off my collection of Doomsday soundtracks. I left Heretic for last since, as a whole, the quality of the Heretic soundtracks out there is better than the Doom ones. It is much smaller than the other soundtracks, because Heretic has fewer and shorter songs than the other games."

You can find the Hexen soundtrack available in low, normal or high quality here and the Heretic one here!

A somewhat belated Xmas present for KMOD and Hexen fans, this new version includes 4 new damage skins (Afrit, Wendigo, Stalker, Wraith), a message notifying you every time you sold an item at the shop, and smaller bugfixes.

You can download KMOD 2.7 here at Korax Heritage homepage!

The Korax' Heritage team reports a lot of progress on their upcoming new Korax Mod version, KMOD 3. Besides gameplay changes (like a new attribute system), there are a lot of graphical enhancements, including not only Damage Skins for nearly all monsters by now, but also new weapons. For more info and screenshots, check out the Korax Mod website.

The latest version of the Hexen RPG mod is out. The most important new feature is the ability to sell unneeded items in the shop. Two new damage skins and a couple of bugfixes are also included. For more info and to download the mod, check out the Korax Mod website.

Following the announcement on the continuing development of Korax Mod 2 and the release of the new Korax Mod 3, there is still more news from the Korax' Heritage team: they announced even more new features for Korax Mod 3 (foremost among them better coop mode and support for 3rd party maps), and also that the base engine behind Scattered Evil will be changed from Doomsday to Vavoom, which allows for more immersive 3D environments. To read the full announcement and see a couple of screenshots of what's meant with more realistic 3D worlds, check out the Korax' Heritage homepage.

The Korax' Heritage team posted a new roadmap on their site, telling us about the near future of their projects. The most important change is that because of the delays with their grand-scale RPG, Scattered Evil, they'll continue the development of Korax Mod, implementing quite some of the new Scattered Evil technology like NPCs, conversations, quests etc. For more information, read the Korax' Heritage homepage.