Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

New AvP Demo  [7:32 PM EST]
The Adrenaline Vault PC Release List has posted the second version of the Aliens versus Predator Demo, where the player plays from the Marine Point of View. Thanks Moondog.

TRIBES Skins  [7:32 PM EST]
The Forge has posted the first batch of skins for Starsiege TRIBES. Thanks The Game Complex.

Resident Evil2 Demo  [3:41 PM EST]
A playable demo of Resident Evil 2 from Capcom has appeared on AGN3D and 3DFiles.Com, weighing in at a hefty 60 MB. RE2

TRIBES Scripting  [3:41 PM EST]
The Starsiege Tribes Scripting resource is an unofficial guide to the largely undocumented TRIBES scripting language.

3D Map Junkyard  [3:41 PM EST]
The 3d Map Junkyard is a new site that will be home to those unfinished maps that every level author knows they have hanging out on their hard drive, with the idea that others can tinker with them, and perhaps some good levels can come from something you might eventually delete. This is a pretty clever idea, I hope it turns out to be as useful as it sounds.

Unreal Tourney Preview, Mark Rein Interview  [1:38 PM EST]
Adrenaline Vault interviews Mark Rein talking to the Epic MegaGames biz guy about Unreal Tournament, Unreal II, and other current and future projects. The AVault has also posted their preview of Unreal Tournament. From the Rein interview comes the latest on the long awaited Unreal shareware:

The shareware is just around the corner. We are just waiting for 220 to stabilize, which means releasing a 221 version, and once it does we will create the "official" non-beta patch for Unreal and build the shareware from it. We are also going to release five new deathmatch maps around the same time as the offical patch is released.

Heretic II Tips  [9:48 AM EST]
Raven's Jeremy Statz updated his .plan with word on how to read the HereticEd manual/tutorial included with Heretic II even if you don't have Word97. There is also info there on how to bind keys in Heretic II using command shifting, another way to bind extra commands to the same key in addition to the double tap technique the game also supports.

Heretic II Shots  [9:48 AM EST]
This is a correction to the original story: Hexen2.com and Heretic II.com have posted some spectacular 1152x864 24-bit color screenshots passed along by Raven's Ken Hoekstra from a Heretic II print add (I originally wrote they were from the upcoming H2 Enhancement Pack in error).

New Quake II Deadlode II  [9:48 AM EST]
Word on The Coven News page is their Deadlode II page has a new public beta 1231 of Deadlode II, the sequel to Deadlode, the popular add-on for TeamFortress Quake. The update is for servers only, you don't need the upgrade if you already have Deadlode II. With the new version, you can play Deadlode II on any Q2CTF map as well as Deadlode II specific maps.

WinGate  [9:48 AM EST]
Version 3.0 of the WinGate 3.0 Proxy Server is now available. This can apparently help users behind a firewall play Quake, etc. on the 'net using GameSpy, as well as connecting multiple computers to the Internet through a single net connection.

Voodoo2 Overclocking  [9:48 AM EST]
Tweak3D's guide to overclocking your Voodoo2 has been updated. Overclock at your own risk, but it might be nice to warm your room if you're in the northeast US like me (it's below zero with the wind chill today).

Resolutions  [9:48 AM EST]
There are some '99 New Years Resolutions on Gamersdigest giving vows from some folks you may be familiar with like Monolith CEO Jason Hall, and User Friendly creator Iliad.

Reviews  [9:48 AM EST]
FiringSquad reviews Labtec 4620 Performance Series speakers.

Out of the Blue  [9:48 AM EST]
Nutty link of the day: Furby Autopsy. Thanks Randy Perry. The new year puts one in a reflective mood, and while I don't have any Blue's News '99 manifesto to lay on you, with the dust settling from the recent server move (my DNS finally switched this morning, I must be the last in the world), I'm considering plans for the continued growth and improvement of this site. While I consider things like this, I figured I'd solicit opinions and suggestions if you wanted to hammer me while I am considering such things. Hope you had a great New Year's Eve. Happy New Year everyone! Oh, yeah, yesterday's quote was George Carlin (and Bill & Ted), from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Myth II Fix  [8:14 PM EST]
A fix for the uninstaller bug in the Myth II demo (story) is up on bungie.net that will fix the bug in both the demo and the registered CD.

New Winamp  [8:14 PM EST]
Version 2.06 of Winamp is out offering a bunch of new features including enhanced support for the new streaming SHOUTcast dealie. Thanks Korb and Tetsuo Plastic.

Half-Life FAQ  [7:29 PM EST]
Here's version 1.1 of a cool unofficial Half-Life FAQ that covers a bunch of bases on Valve's shooter. Thanks Apache at Planet Half-Life.

TRIBES Joystick Patch  [7:29 PM EST]
The busy folks at the Starsiege Tribes Players site have posted a TRIBES release 1.1 joystick patch. This is a beta patch and is only recommended for users experiencing problems trying to use a joystick or a gamepad. Thanks [R2]Sphinx.

New PowerStrip  [7:29 PM EST]
The EnTech Taiwan site has a new beta of PowerStrip, the monitor control utility. Thanks Tim at 3DFiles. The new build supports optional command-line parameters that allow you to shift clock speeds via an ordinary Windows shortcut (changes take effect in real-time, and there are no confirmation prompts, so use with caution).

George B on DNF D3D  [6:48 PM EST]
3D Realms' George Broussard added a follow-up to the Duke Nukem Forever progress report thread he started on the 3D Realms Bulletin Board on 3D Portal addressing concerns that Duke Nukem Forever will share some of the Direct3D teething pains that Unreal has had, since it will use the Unreal engine. Thanks Apache. Here's the update:

The ultimate goal is to try and move DNF over to D3D, so the video card hassle is minimized. This is an issue we will start to address after we patch to the 220-222 Unreal code base and evaluate the state of the current D3D drivers.

TRIBES Skin Editor  [6:27 PM EST]
The Starsiege Tribes Players page has a skin editor from Dynamix as an unsupported release to allow you to create skins for use in TRIBES. Thanks Matt King.

TeamFortress2 Screenshots  [4:36 PM EST]
There are nine Team Fortress 2 shots on ScreenShots.Net, some of them from the recent PC Gamer print article (hopefully reproduced with their blessings). Thanks Spiff from PlanetFortress.

Online Gaming Article  [4:36 PM EST]
Online Gaming Could This be the Year? is the question asked by a new GameSpot article that says that 1998 was not the banner year for online multiplayer gaming that many predicted, and 1999 might not be either.

New (Safer) Myth II Demo  [3:13 PM EST]
The Adrenaline Vault PC Release List has posted an updated version of the Myth II demo with the uninstaller bug fixed (though the last thing you want to do is uninstall the older version of the demo to install this one, read this story for the poop).

Final FreeSpace  [2:53 PM EST]
Volition has released version 1.06 of Descent FreeSpace, which they hope to be the final update (if no problems arise). If you have the US/North American or UK releases, you can hit "Update FreeSpace" in your FS Launcher to apply the update. Downloadable patches for all releases are also available on the FreeSpace Downloads page. Version 1.06 adds checksum to weapons.tbl, fixes a standalone bug that would cause debriefing reset, fixes a Mission Simulator crash when no missions are present, improves framerates on all processors, significantly improves framerates on 3DNow! processors, improves lighting code, and fixes a traitor.tbl bug in the German version.

Final HexenWorld Plans  [2:27 PM EST]
Raven's Rick Johnson updated his .plan with word that he's put up a HexenWorld website, and is looking for feedback so he can produce a final version of this Hexen II add-on that offers QuakeWorld-style Internet connectivity for multiplayer play:

New Year's resolutions come early this year. I've put up a web site to help me get the final version of HexenWorld produced. Mainly, at this point, I'm looking for feedback on what's currently broken in the version that is out on the net. Over the next few weeks, given that my spare time holds up, I'll be putting out test versions for feedback. So if you are still interested in Hexenworld, check out the page and give me some feedback.

System Shock 2 Shots  [2:27 PM EST]
Through the Looking Glass has posted some new screenshots of Looking Glass Studios' upcoming System Shock 2.

New Creative Labs Drivers  [1:26 PM EST]
The Creative Labs FTP site has new Windows 95/98 drivers for the Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT, as well as a new 3D Blaster Banshee OpenGL driver for Windows 9X and Windows NT4.0, and new Windows 95/98 Graphics Blaster 3D drivers. Thanks BetaNews.

PSX Quake II Interview  [12:10 PM EST]
PSX.IGN.COM interviews Chris Stanforth of Hammerhead talking about Hammerhead's upcoming PlayStation port of Quake II. Thanks QuakeStation.

Heretic II Interview  [12:10 PM EST]
HereticII.com has posted an interview with Steve Stringer, Activision's Producer on Heretic II in a conversation that covers Steve, Activision, and their relationship with Raven Software.

South Park Preview, Shots  [3:20 AM EST]
CGO/OGR's South Park preview is online giving a look ahead at the upcoming shooter based on the Comedy Central hit, offering more new screenshots.

AMEN Interview  [3:20 AM EST]
CaveNews has posted a Q&A with Greg MacMartin, the project leader for AMEN, the upcoming shooter from CaveDog.

BattleCruiser 3000 AD Patch  [3:20 AM EST]
The BattleCruiser Online downloads page has a new version 2.01 patch for BattleCruiser 3000 AD for the full retail version 2.0 of the game.

Heretic II Decay  [3:20 AM EST]
A second beta of version 1.0 of the Decay mod for Heretic II is now available. Decay is a multiplayer mod that requires players to maintain their health by doing damage to each other. The new version has some teamplay bug fixes, a new scoreboard, and now a Decay game won't begin until two players have joined the game (like Rocket Arena).

Quake II R.I.P.  [3:20 AM EST]
The 5thD team page has version 3.2 of their R.I.P. mod for Quake II featuring a bunch of changes and bug fixes, such as a fix to the chaingun shooting problem, a 'ripflags' server variable added, password checking is fixed, a 'playerlist' command has been added, and more. This Quake II teamplay mod is currently running at quake.tvcom.ru:27916.

Linux LMCTF & Linux Quake II Mods  [3:20 AM EST]
Loki's Minions Capture the Flag has a beta Linux Alpha version 4.22 of LMCTF, their Quake II CTF enhancement (hey an alpha beta!). The new release is supposed to be stable, but is untested. Also on the Linux mod scene, the Linux Quake II Mods page now has more Linux versions of Quake II mods than you can shake a stick at (if you don't believe me, you try shaking a stick at over 50 Quake II mods). Mod authors that have Linux ports should make sure the information on their mod is included and accurate, and of course Linux server operators can view this as the home shopping network.

Drakan Previews  [3:20 AM EST]
On top of the screenshots released yesterday (story), a couple of previews are now online, as FiringSquad previews Drakan giving Thresh's take on the game, and Sharky Extreme's Drakan preview is online as well.

Shooters  [3:20 AM EST]
A reminder that Shooters is again off this week, and will return next week at its usual time.

Reviews  [3:20 AM EST]
Voodoo Extreme Hardware reviews the EverGlide mousepad, which sounds like a worthwhile choice for a gamer to consider.

Competitions  [3:20 AM EST]
The UKML homepage is dedicated to the UK Loki's Minion's League, gearing up to get underway January 16, with registrations just underway.

etc.  [3:20 AM EST]

• TigerInvestor.com Issue #12 is out offering coverage of the 3Dfx/STB merger...
• The Archives is a new site on Unreal Nation that looks to help any upsurge in Unreal multiplayer that the recent improvements to netplay will cause by offering a central point of information about teams of Unreal players who form "houses," apparently the preferred term over the Quake equivalent of clans...
• There's a Top 5 Best and Worst Game Companies on The Game of the Moment with their opinions on the best and worst game companies, as well as a special page with all the praises and flames they've received...
• Noel "Shadow" Stephens sends word that the razorZedge website is now out of beta, offering the ability to personalize the page to pull from various gaming news sites of your choice...

Out of the Blue  [3:20 AM EST]
Yesterday's quote of the day was Fred Sanford, dedicated to Aunt Esther. For the final Out of the Blue of the year, it seems appropriate to mention my extreme gratitude for all the great support you all show for this site. Whether it's by simply visiting and spreading the word about the site to others, or by sending links to news, links to wacky stuff, moral support, lectures, or comments on the news of the day, it's all appreciated, even if I can't always respond. I will raise a glass tonight in honor of all of you. If you are celebrating tonight, please be safe and careful (please don't drink and drive), and most of all, be excellent to each other. Happy New Year!   

South Park Shots  [5:14 PM EST]
South Park is Coming! is a very short preview on GameSpot that offers six new screenshots of the PC version of this upcoming shooter from Acclaim.

Drakan Shots  [5:14 PM EST]
Psygnosis has posted some new Drakan screenshots showing off their upcoming action/adventure.

Aliens versus Predator Interview  [5:14 PM EST]
This week's PC Gamer Online interactive interview will talk with David Stalker, producer of Fox Interactive's upcoming Aliens versus Predator. If you've got a question to pose, send it in to askpcg@pcgamer.com.

More John Carmack on Q3A Programming  [4:53 PM EST]
John Carmack made a .plan update to follow-up on his technical .plan update from yesterday (story) about Quake III Arena. The newer update explains why the shortcut he described in the older update (for those who understood it) will not be used because it won't work cross platform with 64 bit pointer environments like Linux Alpha.

Rainbow Six Sequel & Mac R6 News  [4:18 PM EST]
An update by Rainbow Six author Tom Clancy to the Red Storm Entertainment site gives word on what to expect from a sequel to R6, and a mention of a possible Mac version. Thanks Scandalon by way of Macintosh Gamer's Ledge. Here's the update:

The game version of Rainbow Six has worked out almost as well as the book, which I can live with, and in the hopper for next year are a couple more which ought to live up to our reputation--AND the possibility of a Mac version of Rainbow, which means that I will be able to play the game on my personal machine.

Next year we look at land warfare on a somewhat larger scale. Hard to do special-operations in a tank, but harder to kill a tank with a light machine- gun. And the baseline scenario will be fairly similar to the next Ryan book, which I will be starting shortly for a summer release--if everything works out.

Behind that, if I can talk my CEO into it, will be a game on my all-time favorite military campaign, which took place in 1942 in the southwest Pacific. I promise that one will be open-ended and two-sided, with victory going to the one with brains

New Webdog  [2:40 PM EST]
Version 0.52 of Webdog, the gaming website watchdog system tray utility for Windows is now available. With this update auto-updates work again (they were broken in version 0.51), there are a load of other bug-fixes, and there is totally new download code to hopefully solve some compatibility problems.

Duke Nukem Forever Update  [6:13 AM EST]
3D Realms' George Broussard made a post to a thread titled What's going on with Duke Nukem Forever on the 3D Realms Bulletin Board on 3D Portal giving a DNF update, mentioning adding skeletal animation and L.O.D. modeling to their Unreal-engine game. Thanks Aurora51. Here's an excerpt from the post, which also mentions that they're adding an in-house motion capture studio to their offices (life-like jiggle on the strippers!):

Code: Been adding lot's and lot's of neato features so our mappers can do insane, and I mean insane amounts of interactivity. Also working on things like skeletal character system, level of detail, and preparing to do a major patch to Unreals version 220+ code base (Janurary).

Maps: the guys have been working steadily on majorly detailed level scripts, so that we know where you are and what you will be doing on a level per level basis. This is analogous to a blueprint for a house, or a script for a movie. They are about to start on "real" maps according to the scripts we've drawn up. Major design meetings and level reviews have been taking place as we continue to refine the game.

Art: Modellers have been building some characters and smaller decorative objects for the game. We are amassing a library of items that can pop into the game at any time and they know how to react to being shot or USEd. Texture guys are always jamming on textures for the levels, or skins for the characters.

Q3A-Style Quake II HUD Icons  [6:13 AM EST]
Jaruzel's Quake3:Arena Style HUD Icons For Quake II are now available, providing Quake II players a set of HUD icons like those seen in Quake III Arena screenshots.

Quake II Map Runner  [6:13 AM EST]
Version 0.92 of the Quake II Map Runner (Q2MR) is out, an updated version of this utility that associates Quake II map files in Windows 95/98 so that you can launch Quake II with the map of your choice by double-clicking it.

QuakeStarter  [6:13 AM EST]
The Official QuakeStarter Homepage has version 0.66b of this front-end for both Quake and Quake II. Here's what's changed, in addition to bug fixes: Support for IceBot is added, support for QPong (extra options), HTML files can be viewed, QuakeStarter can create a config file instead of using the command line, and improved Compression Manager support.

Unreal Skateboard Mod  [6:13 AM EST]
The second alpha of the Unreal skateboarding mod Usk8:Freeflow is out as an unsupported release (there are known bugs). The new 220-compatible version offers new physics code, better in-air animations, different camera views, improved multiplayer support, and trick separation.

Quake II Commercial Add-on Scoreboard  [6:13 AM EST]
John Callaham has updated his Upcoming Quake II Commercial Add-Ons article which gives the available details of the various Quake II projects in the works (though I don't believe all of these will ultimately be authorized products).  Dirty Harry has also posted an article called The Games of 1999 that is a brief rundown of many of the titles expected next year.

AvP Preview  [6:13 AM EST]
FiringSquad's preview of Aliens versus Predator looks at this upcoming first person shooter that puts you in the role of Alien, Predator, or lunch (human).

Redline Preview  [6:13 AM EST]
Gamer's Alliance previews Redline looking at Beyond Games' upcoming game of auto and foot combat.

Shogo Editing Tip  [6:13 AM EST]
Monolith's Jason "WolfeN" Spencer updated his .plan with an editing tip on how to create a transparent brush using the LithTech engine.

ATi Rage Fury Preview, Petition  [6:13 AM EST]
VoodooNation's preview of the ATi Rage Fury is up. Also, there's an ATi Rage Fury DVD - Dolby Digital Decoding Petition up looking to coerce ATi into doing something different with their DVD decoder to allow surround sound.

Obsidian2 Drivers  [6:13 AM EST]
Quantum3D Driver Download Page has what appear to be new drivers for their Voodoo2-based Obsidian2 line. Thanks Mammon.

Competitions  [6:13 AM EST]
This eGamez.com giveaway offers the chance to win Half-Life and an STB Velocity 4400 in a competition unashamedly tied to viewing the banner ads on their site.

MailBag  [6:13 AM EST]
After a week's hiatus for the holidays, the MailBag returns, offering a weekly look at what's making Blue's News readers go postal. This week's correspondence includes musings from a TRIBES fan, a Thief fan, a Linux Fan (related to Unreal), some bitching about pimping, someone hot over the heat specs of the ATI Rage Fury, more barbaric sports, and a little separated at birth.

etc.  [6:13 AM EST]

• The (Un)Official Half-Life Bug List has been updated with some workarounds for Half-Life. Thanks Voodoo Extreme...
• This In the Flames of DIVX page has a RIVA TNT help section with lots of game-specific workarounds...
• The Quake II Bootcamp is back up and running, providing deathmatch strategies for Quake II and other FPS games...

Out of the Blue  [6:13 AM EST]
It's the return of the giant condom story that went missing the other day! Thanks m0rb for digging up a working link to the giant condom story courtesy of Yahoo, describing a 3,000 pound, half-mile long mock prophylactic designed to raise AIDS awareness. "It's the big one, Elizabeth!"

Unreal 221 Not  [11:27 PM EST]
Unreal 221 was briefly released this evening, but pulled due to a glitch. Here's the PlanetUnreal update (thanks Apache):

About an hour back, a link was posted on Planet Unreal to 221. This link should be ignored. 221
is not ready to ship yet. However, if you obtained the link, the downloaded file will NOT extract.
Other news sites may link to the file, but, coming straight from GreenMarine and CliffyB, 221 still
has bugs and is not ready for release. As of now, there have been a few circulating copies that
work, but they are not supported and are

Macro Extender for Kali  [11:27 PM EST]
Version 2.5 of Kali Nexus is available allowing Kali users to store as many chat macros as they need.

Cliff B Interview  [7:48 PM EST]
Unreal Nation has posted a short interview with Cliff Bleszinski talking with the Epic level designer about what's going on down at their new digs in Raleigh, Cliff's role as executive producer of Unreal 2 and more.

More on the New MX300 Drivers  [7:48 PM EST]
Randy Perry points out that the new version 4.06.2015.05 MX300 drivers released earlier (story) are actually based on a build number that is .1 lower than the current Aureal drivers (4.06.2015.06), so if you've installed the reference drivers, you'll be back-tracking a version by installing these drivers.

John Carmack on Q3A  [6:31 PM EST]
John Carmack made a .plan update giving the programmer-type lowdown on his latest thinking on virtual machine implementation.

H2 Enhancement Pack Update  [6:31 PM EST]
Raven's Kenn Hoekstra updated his .plan on a few topics, including a review of Heretic II on Cro's Page, and a bit on the upcoming Heretic II enhancement pack:

The Heretic II Enhancement Pack is still under construction. In addition to the new DM maps, team deathmatch support, and other various features, a number of bug issues will also be addressed. If you reported bugs to Raven directly or on one of our message boards, odds are it will be fixed. One such issue that several people have sent e-mail to me about is the joystick code. While we do have a patch that works for most joysticks, it has come to our attention that the game code no longer contains the literals for "joy_upsensitivity," "joy_downsensitivity," or  "joy_sidesensitivity." We took out this out since it didn't actually affect the sensitivity, and we didn't immediately realize people used it to reverse axies. We've since added a switch to do just that in the options menu. We apologize for the inconvenience and we wanted to assure you joystick users out there that help is on the way.

New QuArK  [6:31 PM EST]
The Official QuArK Homepage has version 5.3 of QuArK, the Quake Army Knife. Described as the final release of QuArK 5, the latest version of this all-purpose level editor offers support for Half-Life as well as untested Sin support.

MDK2 Interview  [6:31 PM EST]
Gamer's Alliance interviews Greg Zeschuk talking to the President and Joint CEO of BioWare Corp. about MDK2, the upcoming sequel to none other than MDK.

DoomBot  [6:31 PM EST]
The DoomBot Home Site has version 2.21 of the Doom Bot, an actual AI opponent for Doom. In the works by the same author is Doom CTF with bots.

Myth II Recall  [6:31 PM EST]
I received word on this problem from a couple of readers, and then an official announcement from Bungie that there's a problem with the version of Myth II that hit the shelves today that's prompted a recall. Here's the announcement:

CHICAGO--December 29, 1998--Before Myth II: Soulblighter hit the shelves, Bungie discovered a problem which warrants a recall of the title. Though the problem is likely to affect only a small number of Windows users, it nevertheless could be serious for them. Recalling a product is a difficult decision to make, but Bungie believes strongly it is the right thing to do.

In certain unusual cases, using the Uninstaller can cause problems. If a user chooses an installation directory other than the default directory, they should NOT use the Uninstaller but should manually drag the Myth II folder into the Recycle bin and delete it.

Anyone who has the game but has not yet installed it is asked to wait for a new version of the Installer which we will release shortly. If you have already installed the game, there is no harm in playing it, but players should be careful not to use the Uninstall executable. If you have already Uninstalled and not experienced obvious problems, there is nothing to worry about.

This is only the case with version 1.0 of the game. We are now replicating a new CD, which will be clearly labeled "version 1.1" and will have it on the shelves in a couple of weeks. Bungie deeply regrets the inconvenience to our customers.

MX300 Drivers  [6:31 PM EST]
The Diamond Multimedia Monster Sound MX300 Drivers page has new version 1.0101Bw drivers for their brand-new Monster Sound MX300 sound cards. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

Gauntlet Quake II  [4:58 AM EST]
Beta 1.0 of the client/server pack for Gauntlet Quake II is now available offering two new weapons and two new levels. Gauntlet is a mod that offers a Virtua Fighter-style combat system and a third-person perspective.

Freeze Frag  [4:58 AM EST]
Vectrox Freeze Frag is a new Quake II deathmatch mod that offers several features, most noticeable being the way levels cycle between day and night as the game progresses. The mod is server-side only, but there are .wav files you can download for local sound effects. There is a server running at 204.117.195.78:27910.

Jihad and PurgeCTF for QW FvF  [4:58 AM EST]
FvF QW Headquarters has the release of two new teamplay mods for QuakeWorld Future versus Fantasy, Jihad and PurgeCTF. "Jihad is a version of the cult-popular Purge mode of play with two deities," while CTF/Purge adds CTF to the mix.

BGR Updates  [4:58 AM EST]
Some updated bgr software, a new DirectControl for DirectX, and a new TweakIt for Voodoo/Voodoo 2/Direct3D/Glide. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

Textures: WadTool (Mac) & Wally  [4:58 AM EST]
Wally's Home has a new version 1.29E of the Wally texture tool, which solves a problem with Worldcraft 2.0. Also, a new version 1.0.2 of the Wadtool texture management tool for the Mac is now available.

Reviews  [4:58 AM EST]
WarZone reviews Starsiege TRIBES. Also, Sharky Extreme's Hercules Beast Supercharged review is up looking at a faster version of the Beast.

Competitions  [4:58 AM EST]
WWI - FlagShip War Arena is a Quake II CTF tourney on that All-Star CTF2 maps with the season getting underway in January. Also, Da HiZousE has word of the formation of the QuakeWorld Draft League, in which QuakeWorld players sign up as individuals, and are drafted by team captains, creating league teams that are independent of the clan scene. GameStats Brings Fireteam To Your Door giving away seven copies of Multitude's new game.

Corrections  [4:58 AM EST]
Once it was relocated, I could not conjure a working link to yesterdays link of the day to the giant condom story (in spite of several readers' attempts to provide an AP link), I'm sorry to say if you missed it, you may never see it. Also, thanks Mike McGary for clarifying the art credit in the F.A.K.K.² story yesterday. Finally, I got a correction to my attempt at a correction about the MacOS dealie. Here's the poop straight from David Evenson "It's also not a "MacOS" port, but rather a Rhapsody or 'MacOS X Server' port, or in other words its more OPENSTEP than it is MacOS. sigh, I know.... don't ask. At any rate, that means that it runs on a DR (DR2 specifically) of OSX for the moment and folks with plain old MacOS are out of luck. The same is true of Charon."

etc.  [4:58 AM EST]

• The Microsoft Pointing Devices page has new version 2.2 IntelliPoint drivers. Thanks Beta Bites...
• A few hardware links More Tips for the Overclock-Crazy is an article on Ace's Hardware, a newer Ace article is Understanding the Performance of the K6-3, while Red Misquito's Banshee Support page is a new resource for Voodoo Banshee owners...
• A couple of hot potatoes in the "I don't cook it, I just serve it department, first there's this article called Glide Wrapper and the ensuing litigation by 3Dfx, sent along by several readers, which details a programmer's apparent struggle with 3Dfx over a D3D Glide wrapper, and the latest installment of Hardware Group Therapy giving the latest rumblings from the hardware newsgroups, including some swipes at Tom of Tom's Hardware Guide...
• This page has a couple of Windows95/98 startup screens using a Quake II "rusty steel" theme...

Out of the Blue  [4:58 AM EST]
Holiday festivities will continue in the Blue Tower through tomorrow, when lil Bro Blue returns to the wilds of the north, so that may impact updates. I think the questions recently raised about pimping for votes on polls is answering itself. On one poll front, it turns out the email wasn't getting through over at Pels Interactive, which explains why they never replied to my question about their polls being tampered with on Christmas Eve. Now that communications have been restored, the poll there has been discontinued. It's too bad, I used to think that these kind of simple polls were harmless, but if they're getting to this point, I'm reconsidering whether to participate in the future. The other oddball poll dealie of the day is that World Charts Top 100, where this week Blue's News slips to 13th place after receiving 148 votes (third most votes on the chart), while the site that moved up from 13th to 12th garnered eight votes. In fact, if you add up the scores of the seven sites on the charts ahead of Blues News, they don't add up to 148 votes. I wrote that folks at chartHQ, and they said it was due to the high number of unique votes the site received, but that doesn't really make much sense, nor does the site's ranking considering the voting. All in all, I can't complain of bad treatment at that chart's hands, having been #1 for so long, but that all is still damn odd, don't you think?

More TeamFortress2 Reactions  [4:41 PM EST]
Mod Central has posted another bit of Q&A with Valve/TeamFortress Software's Robin Walker discussing the recent announcement that TeamFortress2 would be a stand-alone game, rather than an add-on for Half-Life. The latest Xtreme Opinions on ActionXtreme is an editorial on the same subject as well.

More Redline Beta Servers  [4:41 PM EST]
More servers running the Redline beta are online, as Steve sends word of five servers that are always running at Accolade at:

206.79.6.238
206.79.6.239
206.79.6.240
206.79.6.241
206.79.6.242

Quake II eVolution CTF  [4:41 PM EST]
Version 1.01 of eVolutionCTF for Quake II is now available, incorporating some minor changes required for SolarWave Development's LAN and Tournament Quake II mod.

Voodoo3 FAQ  [4:41 PM EST]
There's a very short new Unofficial Voodoo3 FAQ on Voodoo3.net.

Back Online  [4:41 PM EST]
I got my Email running again, so it looks like all systems are go in the new home.

FAKK2 Movie Art  [5:07 AM EST]
Ain't It Cool News has some pre-production art for the upcoming Heavy Metal film FAKK2 (or Heavy Metal F.A.K.K.²), which is the inspiration for Ritual's next project, a third-person action title. The art is by Simon Bisley, though it's credited to Kevin Eastman.

Redline Servers  [5:07 AM EST]
Redline Enemies & Allies League has what can serve as a server list for the Redline beta, as active servers are listed on their message board for this game of drivin' and shootin'. Thanks Ralph.

Max Payne Screenshots  [5:07 AM EST]
FiringSquad previews Max Payne, 3DRealms' upcoming third person John Woo-style action game, in a profile that includes screenshots.

Unreal Tech Update  [5:07 AM EST]
An update by GreenMarine to Epic's Unreal Technology page gives the status of the latest Unreal patch, saying "221 will be out any day."

Paul S. Editorial  [5:07 AM EST]
A new Adrenaline Vault Feature Article is a featured editorial from Paul C. Schuytema titled "Playful Ruminations," offering the ex-leader of the Prey project's views on play, since the play's the thing.

Faith Quake II DM  [5:07 AM EST]
The Faith CTF has the first release of Faith DM, with version 1.0 of the deathmatch variant on their CTF mod. Faith is a mod that offers features like controllable turrets, pseudo classes (with advancement), and spells.

Western Quake II Music  [5:07 AM EST]
The Wanted! page now has a music track available for download showing off the tunage from this upcoming Western conversion for Quake II that will apparently be a commercial release.

Out of the Blue  [5:07 AM EST]
The link of the day is a news story from Tampa Bay online describing the construction of the world's largest condom in Bogota Columbia. Fill in your own joke here, the big ole prophylactic was constructed to help AIDS awareness. Thanks Cannelbrae. With the server move, I think I may be losing email from those who have already had their DNS' update, if that's the case, I should get that straightened out today. As shai points out, the guys at pair rate MAD PROPS for their efforts, both because of how well the server is running, and also because it's been a while since I've written MAD PROPS!

Shogo Man vs. Machine (Squishie)  [11:48 PM EST]
The Shogo:MOD page has a new version 2.1 of the Squishie mod for Shogo: Mobile Armor Division that offers the opportunity for players on foot to do battle against players piloting giant robots (hence, Squishie). Thanks Chris.

Heretic II Walkthrough  [11:48 PM EST]
Hexen2.com's Heretic II Walkthru is online, giving a roadmap through the game.

Messiah Screenshots  [11:48 PM EST]
The Messiah Press has posted four new screenshots from Messiah, one of them showing off Bob the Cherub, the main character from Shiny's upcoming third person action game, playing with his computer.

Outcast Q&A  [11:48 PM EST]
Outcast Central has posted a Q&A with Olivier Masclef giving the game's project manager's answers to reader submitted questions about their upcoming action game.

South Park Preview  [11:48 PM EST]
PC.IGN.COM previews South Park taking a look at this upcoming shooter from Acclaim that uses the Turok2 engine.

Reviews  [11:48 PM EST]
FiringSquad reviews FireTeam with Thresh and Kenn looking at Multitude's new dedicated multiplayer online game that offers real-time voice communication. Also up on FiringSquad is a review of a Herman Miller Aeron Chair, an expensive piece of office furniture that offers no high-tech gaming features, but just chair-oriented features like ergonomic comfort (it's kind to your butt).

etc.  [11:48 PM EST]

• AnandTech has started their own RC5-64 encryption cracking team, if you are interested in helping Anand and his buds succeed in this competition where teams of users combine the power of their computers to crack an encryption scheme. There are links to the client you would use and more info on Anand's...

Out of the Blue  [11:48 PM EST]
I finally finished single player Half-Life, and while it's offered too late to be worthwhile as a review, I promised final impressions when I posted my initial impressions, so here goes: Half-Life is the finest single-player shooter I've ever played. The attention to detail that is evident from beginning to end, and the seamless manner of telling the story through scripted animations (in effect, in-game cutscenes), along with heavy doses of brilliant design, clever puzzles, and furious action, make this one of the finest single-player games I've ever played, regardless of genre. I could go on, and on, but it all boils down to the same thing, in a year that has to be the year of the shooter, with so many recent quality releases in the genre, Half-Life is my game of the year.

Descent 3 Updates  [12:35 PM EST]
Deep Space has posted some info about the upcoming version 1.1 patch for the Descent 3 demo, there's also now a Mini-FAQ for the Descent 3 demo, there's an IRC log on Planet Descent with a Descent 3 chat, and an update to Matt Long's Developer Notes gives the latest on robot programming in the upcoming full release of Descent 3. Finally, word from Tola Dalton at Deep Space is that the version 1.1 demo patch should be available within a week (technical difficulties are preventing him from updating his site with that info).

ClanWar Beta  [12:35 PM EST]
A beta release of Clan War (not to be mistaken with the server mod) by Premonition is now available. Clan War is a Team Fortress style Quake II mod. The beta offers six player classes, two teams, realistic weapon and falling damages, all new armor system, new weapons for the classes, and more. The first official release is expected in about three weeks with the new Player and Weapon models as well as several new maps.

Quake II Western Mod Movie  [12:35 PM EST]
Wanted! is a new (apparently commercial) mod in progress that adds the gunfighting of the North American old west to Quake II. There is now a trailer (weighing in at about 23 MB) available for download on their site that shows off the action in the mod (there's a smaller 7 MB version available as well).

Mac Quake II Server Browser  [12:35 PM EST]
The newly released version 0.2 of Charon is now available, a Macintosh Quake II server browser that works with the newly released Rhapsody port of Quake II. By the way, I incorrectly called the Rhapsody port a Quake II server port, but it is a client as well (I'll post that separately as a correction to make sure it's not lost in the shuffle).

Correction -- Mac Quake II  [12:35 PM EST]
In my original story about the Rhapsody post of Quake II, I referred to it as a server port, but it is also a Quake II client for the Macintosh (I was confused by the fact that Rhapsody's current "official" name is "MacOS X Server").

Reviews  [12:35 PM EST]
The Techs Network reviews three Microsoft controllers, the Precision Pro, the Freestyle Pro, and the Force Feedback Pro.

Competitions  [12:35 PM EST]
Mod Central's 1998 The Year in Mods offers the opportunity to vote for your favorite Quake II mods.

etc.  [12:35 PM EST]

• FvF The Frontline is a new official news outlet for Future versus Fantasy in all its incarnations...
• There's a guide to 3D on a Mac on CPR Extreme...

Out of the Blue  [12:35 PM EST]
Thanks to all who have passed along holiday greetings, hope it's all being as swell as possible for all of you. More on Christmas from around the world from Sebastian and CDC-WaR (quoted here): "While aussies might not celebrate christmas on the 24th, most of Europe does. There, the "Christ Kindle" comes the night of the 24th and all the presents are opened that same night instead of the following day. Just figured I'd point that out to you :)" Also, thanks DaFragsta for de-uglifying the pair logo below for the black background.