Articles in the archive contain broken links because outdated files are removed.

Soldier of Fortune Interview, Shots  [9:21 PM EST]
Stomped interviews Eric Biessman talking to Raven's Project Coordinator for their upcoming Quake II-engine Soldier of Fortune about the game in a profile that also offers a pair of brand new screenshots.

Squad Shooter Roundup  [9:01 PM EST]
There's a new Squad Shooter Roundup on GameCenter that looks at several upcoming shooter-type games that share an emphasis on squadron-oriented action. The piece looks ahead at Rainbow Six: The Sequel, Spec Ops 2 Green Berets, Richard Marchinko's Navy SEALs, Flashpoint, and Team Fortress II, as well as a look at what's upcoming further Down the Line (Delta Force, GI Joe, and Soldier of Fortune).

Scott Miller Interview  [9:01 PM EST]
An interview with Scott Miller on FragLand is part one of a series they're calling the history of the first-person shooter. The Q&A talks to Apogee's President about the history of 3D Realms, and looks at the future as well, with a bit on Duke Nukem Forever and Prey, with this answer sounding like Corrinne Yu and company are busy under the hood of the Prey engine:

"DNF is proceeding full speed ahead and looking great. Prey's engine tech is being greatly rewritten and enhanced currently."

New Tank Screenshots X2  [9:01 PM EST]
The Longbow Digital Arts site has posted five new screenshots of their upcoming "off-road" OpenGL accelerated tank game. The shots show off a new detail texturing scheme to make up close views of the terrain look better. Also, the ElectroTech Multimedia Killer Tank site has posted some new screenshots from their upcoming Killer Tank game. The shots are part of an overhaul to the site to provide more info about the game, and the plan is to update the news there regularly.

Brian Hook on Q3A Servers Part II  [7:36 PM EST]
As he mentioned he might, id Software's Brian Hook has posted a follow-up to his comments earlier (story) on Quake III Arena server requirements to his .plan. Here's the update:

Here's the deal with servers. Quake3, in theory, will take up a slightly smaller amount of CPU per player due to various optimizations and changes in the server architecture. HOWEVER, this incremental gain in performance will be offset by the overhead incurred by the virtual RISC machine interpreter. How much the interpreter will cost in terms of performance is difficult to say at this time.

Support will remain for pure DLLs, but we do not intend on shipping client and server game DLLs (i.e. we'll only redistribute the interpreter code). So for hardcore server admins, they can take the various game source, compiled it with the MSVC, and get an X% speed bump (X is not defined yet).

With Quake2 the general rule of thumb was 8MHz of CPU per person. Quake3 will have a ratio similar to this. A safe bet right now is 10-12MHz per person, so in theory (and this is REALLY in theory), a Pentium/200MMX should support a 20 person game. A PIII/500 should, in theory, support around a 50 player game.

RAM requirements for servers will be fairly similar between Quake2 and Quake3.

Hi-Res Messiah Shots  [6:14 PM EST]
There are five exclusive new Messiah Screenshots on GA-Source that show off Shiny's upcoming action game in 1600x1200 resolution in shots taken using a TNT.

Improve Your Half-Life 'Net Connection  [6:14 PM EST]
There's  an improving your connection article on Gamers.Com describing how to improve your internet connection to get a smoother multiplayer game of Half-Life.

ParadoX Interview  [3:12 PM EST]
There's an interview with ParadoX talking with Ritual Level designer Tom Mustaine up on Ritualistic talking about his all-time favorite game of all-time, his favorite game of the moment, level design, life after Sin, and stuff like that.

Q3A Screenshots  [2:16 PM EST]
Online Gaming with U-NET Internet has posted some new screenshots from Quake III Arena scanned from February's issue of the Edge, a UK gaming magazine.

NVIDIA Goes Public  [2:16 PM EST]
NVIDIA Corporation announces their IPO of 3.5 million shares of Common Stock, and from later in the trading day, NVIDIA Opens Near $22 After $12/Share IPO are two stories detailing the expected Initial Public Offering from NVIDIA, and the response from investors.

John Romero Interviews  [2:16 PM EST]
CGO/OGR interviews John Romero in another conversation with ION's Chairman about the recent reports of trouble at ION Storm in the Dallas Observer, and the current state of their upcoming Quake II-engine shooter, Daikatana. Thanks Desslock. Also, there's another John Romero interview on PC Gamer Online also discussing fallout from the Observer piece. Finally, on the subject of the Observer article and its aftermath, Journalist's email subpoenaed is a CNet article that's made its way to ABCNEWS.com. Thanks the Lithtech Depot.

Permedia2 Drivers  [2:16 PM EST]
3Dlabs' Permedia driver download page has new Permedia2 drivers for Windows95/98. Thanks Mohammad.

Hook on Q3A Server Requirements  [6:32 AM EST]
A post by Brian Hook to the sCary's Shack Quake3 Forum gives an approximation of what kind of server is required to run a game of Quake III Arena (sounds like a follow-up on this should be expected as well). Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski:

A P233MMX w/ 96MB should easily handle a 16-24 player game of Q3. A PII/450 should, in theory, handle around a 50-60 player game. This question has come up enough that I'll double check these numbers with John and post an update.

Kenn Hoekstra Interview  [6:32 AM EST]
Gamer's Dimension interviews Kenn Hoekstra, Project Administrator at Raven Software, talking about Raven's upcoming Quake II engine game, Soldier of Fortune. The interview is a two parter, with the follow-up planned for tomorrow.

Unreal Tourney Preview  [6:32 AM EST]
Inside Unreal Tournament is a preview on GameSpot of Epic's upcoming multiplayer Unreal follow-up, offering loads of info. Thanks CiDcO at StormTroopers. The article includes some word on the gameplay variants to be included, thus:

Of all the big features that Unreal Tournament Epic touts, assault mode will grab gamers' attention the most. Assault basically places two teams head-to-head to protect certain objects in their area from harms way. The team that destroys all the other team's objects wins.

One level positions two teams on a moving train where they both try to beat the other by stopping the train. With motion blurred textures racing by on the train, it feels about as close as gamers will ever get to becoming James Bond.

Rune Preview  [6:32 AM EST]
The Adrenaline Vault previews Rune, looking at this just-announced upcoming game that uses the Unreal engine. The profile includes some original concept artwork for the game.

Voodoo3 Screenshots  [6:32 AM EST]
There are several in-game Voodoo3 screenshots on The Techs Network offering looks at Quake II, Unreal, Shogo, and Tomb Raider III on 3Dfx's upcoming accelerator.

More Rainbow Six Tactics  [6:32 AM EST]
There are some updates to the Rainbow Six Tactics section on thestation.net, as well as a new R6 Map of the Day: Road Ambush.

TRIBES on a LAN  [6:32 AM EST]
I didn't know there was a trick here, but Shankaran Shanmugabaskaran sends along info he says will help get a Starsiege TRIBES server up and running on a LAN:

To play over a LAN using IPX, go into your TRIBES directory and locate the serverprefs.cs file. Find the line that reads

$Server::Master2 = "IP:Broadcast28001";

and change it to

$Server::Master2 = "IPX:Broadcast28001";

If you want to be able to use both IPX and TCP/IP, leave the Master2 line along and instead add a third line beneath it

$Server::Master3 = IPX:Broadcast28001";

Open up a DOS box, go to the TRIBES directory and type in "tribes -dedicated"

etc.  [6:32 AM EST]

• Wired News has some coverage of the ION Storm/Dallas Observer dealie...
• The FvF Redemption page has a couple of shots of the upcoming FvF game's main character asking reader opinions on which one is the keeper...

Out of the Blue  [6:32 AM EST]
But two respondents ventured a guess in yesterday's edition of the pop culture quote game, which was from Bugs Bunny, though severe bonus points for Brian Weck who points out the monster's name was Gossamer. I found Swatch time rather amusing when I wrote it up yesterday, but several of the emails I've received were not as amused, and certainly suggest that many have as much interest in Swatch Time as they have in a Swatch. A follow-up on yesterday's Quote of the day II: Through other threads on the Epic MegaBoard, and a subsequent .plan update, GreenMarine has clarified what he did and did not mean by his comments yesterday.

Image of the day: Battle Against the Thrall, a GameArt Spotlight on a piece by Ritual's Beau Anderson.

Heavy Gear II Movie  [10:12 PM EST]
There's a new exclusive Heavy Gear II movie up on GameCenter. Thanks Darrell Mozingo. The movie, an 8.5 MB AVI, is the pre-rendered opening sequence from the game.

Descent III Screenshots  [10:12 PM EST]
There are a half-dozen new Descent III Screenshots on 3D Gaming World.

Todd Porter Interview  [8:27 PM EST]
GA-Source interviews Todd Porter talking to ION Storm's CEO about ION's games, Dominion, Daikatana, Anachronox, and Dues Ex, with no mention of the Dallas Observer article.

John Romero Interview  [8:08 PM EST]
GameDAILY interviews John Romero in a Q&A that discusses the Dallas Observer article, and the future of Daikatana and ION Storm. Thanks McGarnicle.

Female Heretic II Model Shots  [7:03 PM EST]
Raven's Kenn Hoekstra's .plan gives word that he's released the promised screenshots of the Kiera female player model for Heretic II to www.gamegirlz.com, www.hereticii.com, www.ravenarchives.com, and www.avault.com. Each site has different views of the model.

ION COO Terminated  [7:03 PM EST]
A report on the Adrenaline Vault gives the word that Steve Pittsenbarger, originally hired as Chief Financial Officer at ION Storm, and who became the company's Chief Operating Officer "a couple of months ago" has been terminated. The report has this tidbit to add to the saga of what's up with Daikatana:

On an interesting side note, Eidos Interactive has told us they are at ION investigating the status of John Romero's Daikatana and Tom Hall's Anachronox.

Multiplayer Half-Life Guide  [6:18 PM EST]
Regenerated Forces' Half-Life Striking Guide is a fully detailed guide for playing Half-Life "as a pro even if you're a beginner." The guide includes strategies, tips, and assorted information. Thanks Apache at Planet Half-Life.

Guide to TRIBES  [6:08 PM EST]
There's a new Guide to TRIBES on The Boomstick Joint offering strategies and tips for Starsiege TRIBES.

Half-Life Server Manager  [5:39 PM EST]
A new version 1.2.1 of the Half-Life Server Manager is now available, fixing a problem that prevented some of the multiplayer settings from loading from the server.cfg, and a few other bugs.

New PowerStrip  [5:39 PM EST]
A new version 2.35 of Entech Taiwan's PowerStrip utility that provides extended control over your video card and your monitor is now available. The new release offers better support for ATi and NVIDIA chipsets, as well as some fixes for the G200 and Savage3D. Thanks Jonathan Gray.

Multiplayer AvP Screenshots  [2:33 PM EST]
Some screenshots of multiplayer Aliens versus Predator have been added to the Aliens Vs Predator Special on GameSpot UK.

Celeron 400 Preview  [2:33 PM EST]
Sharky Extreme's Intel Celeron 400 Slot 1 CPU review is up on the heels of their Celeron Slot1 SEPP 366MHz Review and their Celeron S370 PPGA 366MHz Review.

Soldier of Fortune Screenshots  [10:18 AM EST]
The newly opened Frag Fortune, dedicated to Raven's upcoming Quake II engine game, Soldier of Fortune, has posted four new exclusive screenshots from SoF, showing off some architecture and a pistol. Additionally, there are two more brand-new shots from SoF on GameGirlz, both basically architecture/atmosphere-oriented. Also, Kenn Hoekstra's .plan mentions the possibility that a screenshot of their new "Kiera" female player model for Heretic II may be released today.

Kingpin Screenshots  [10:18 AM EST]
Billy has posted some new screenshots showing off Xatrix's upcoming Quake II engine shooter, Kingpin, on Voodoo Extreme.

GameTime Inside ION  [10:18 AM EST]
Tonight on GameTime the intrepid AllGames reporters will be talking with Christine Biederman, the Dallas Observer reporter whose recent article about ION Storm has prompted some controversy about all that's going on with that situation. The show starts live at 6:00 PM Eastern time, RealDealie(tm), or FakeDealie, required. Also (thanks Ben Hamilton) there's a reaction on the Observer with their response to the subpoena they were served over the article.

Shooters  [10:18 AM EST]
Okay Shooters is shot this week, the cancellation due to my interrupted schedule from dentistry, and my uncertainty I can speak clearly today. We will resume next week at the same bat-time, same bat-channel (if you miss it too much this week you might try hitting yourself on the toe with a mallet for 50 minutes).

Paul Butterfield Q&A  [10:18 AM EST]
There's a short Q&A with Monolith's Paul Butterfield on PlanetShogo talking about the state of multiplayer support in Shogo, the status of the mission packs, and what he's been up to lately.

Jonn Gorden Interview  [10:18 AM EST]
Stomped interviews Jonn Gordon of Zero Gravity entertainment about their previous work on X-Men: Ravages of the Apocalypse, for Quake, and hinting about the three projects they currently have in the works.

Elexis Speaks  [10:18 AM EST]
Stomped also interviews Hannah Logan the actress who plays the voice of Elexis Sinclaire in Sin.

Gestalt Interview  [10:18 AM EST]
Gamersdigest.com's John "Gestalt" Bye Interview talks to the head of "the coven" talking about their upcoming Quake II project, Disposable Heroes.

Linux & Amiga Heretic  [10:18 AM EST]
A Linux post of Heretic is now available, based on the recently released source code for Ravens Doom-engine game. This port runs with either X or the GGI library, and "[a]s of this writing, sound and network support are broken." Thanks Daniel Zinsli. Also, Kenn Hoekstra's .plan mentions the Amiga Port Authority where there's info on upcoming ports of Hexen and Heretic to the Amiga.

I'82 Status Report  [10:18 AM EST]
A message from Interstate '82 Director/Writer Zak Norman to the messageboard on The I'82 Initiative gives the status of the game (thanks i76.com), admitting that there were delays because of new features they've decided to implement, going on to describe them. Here's an excerpt:

Here is a list of the features we have decided to include in the game:

We intend to upgrade the renderer to DX6 - this will give us multitexturing - a more rich environment and more texture detail and volume; Bumpmapping - more texture to each texture; Environment mapping - shiny shiny metal cars, glass and water surface reflection effects; Multiple Resolution Support - hardware can handle multiple resolutions and res-swapping on the fly; 32-bit color - ‘nuf said; Multiple monitor support - I’82, you’re soaking in it! - Irradiate your brain - warm your home courtesy of NEC! <snip>

We managed to come up with far more optimizeable AI algorithms so the game will run faster and support far more cars in combat in any one area - so we’re putting that in.

Extra time = extra weapons and better weapon effects!

In terms of audio - we now support A3d, Eax which gives us monstrous sound support for DVD.

The extra time will also give us more dynamic support for all input devices as well as better native force feedback and even Pentium III optimizations.

Perhaps most important of all - the extra production time provides us with much that much more optimization, bug fixing and polish.

Charitable Gamers  [10:18 AM EST]
Gamer's Allied Against Hunger is the homepage of a new organization trying to get the gaming community to participate in a charitable effort to fight hunger in the US. They are currently looking to get someone to contribute a logo.

Swatch Time  [10:18 AM EST]
Scheduling online competitions can be tough when the participants live in multiple time-zones, so an effort was made oh-so-long-ago to institute "Zulu time" as the standard for scheduling clan matches, etc., but didn't meet with much success. Now the folks at Swatch looking to find a convergence between their once-trendy plastic watches, and the now-trendy Internet, by introducing a new international standard called (of course) Swatch - Internet Time (thanks Brian). With downloadable desktop clocks, and a program available to easily convert a given time to "S.I.T.," if it catches on, this is something that could accomplish what Zulu time did not, provide an easier way for gamers to measure the fourth dimension to allow easier scheduling of international online competitions.

New QuickStart  [10:18 AM EST]
The Sloshy Software page has a new version of the QuickStart Eraser bot Wizard, which puts you in command of all the commands to command your Eraser bot ("Monsters are such interesting people..."). The new release offers several bug fixes, and a new uninstall feature.

Reviews  [10:18 AM EST]
There's a Blood 2 review at MeccaWorld looking at Monolith's latest shooter.

etc.  [10:18 AM EST]

• Today's Daily Dementia talks with Tom & Jean from 3DLabs about their upcoming Permedia 3 and its features, and how it performs running games like Unreal and Quake III Arena...
• The first batch of DC-Con photos are online...
• Happy (belated) one year anniversary to the Jailbreak mod for Quake II...

Out of the Blue  [10:18 AM EST]
I received the most interesting note about my ongoing comments about my ongoing dentistry, from a fellow who was a dentist himself, pleased that I don't use the opportunities when the subject arises to bash the profession (hey, they're just doing their job... if I thought the Dentist was the problem, rather than my teeth, I could solve the problem by not going...). Thanks Viz for the first Quote of the day:

Quote of the day: "[Starr] ...sought to confine the waywardness of man's sorrow and desire within the parameters of a video game. Captain Starr, home alone with Doom or Quake, furiously working his joystick against the monsters attacking at light speed from the black depths of the human heart."
--Current Harper's Magazine

Quote of the day II: "The is also the second time I have posted something intended for the MegaBoard and it makes its way to Blue's News or worse. I have no intention of making my every spoken word "gaming industry news" and am sick of the trend. I understand that as a developer at Epic people are going to spread what I say around. It seems the best way to avoid it is to just not communicate with non-developers. (A little bit of wisdom it seems most people in the industry already know.) There doesn't appear to be much gained from forums like these."
--Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart -- Epic Programmer (posted to the Epic MegaBoard).

Kingpin Interview  [11:01 PM EST]
Next-Generation Online goes Gangster Trippin' With Kingpin in an interview with Xatrix's President Drew Markham, talking about their upcoming Quake II engine game, Kingpin, and the influence their work on the first Quake II mission pack has had on the project. Thanks CiDcO at StormTroopers.

Sin Add-on Preview  [11:01 PM EST]
Sin and Sin Again is a preview on GameSpot of 2015's upcoming Sin add-on, Wages of Sin. Thanks Ant.

BFRIS Gold  [11:01 PM EST]
Aegis Simulation Technologies Recent Developments/News page announces that BFRIS is gold, and will be available soon via direct mail order. Thanks ewhac. BFRIS is a 3D accelerated (OpenGL required) flying action game that allows you to fly six different combat fighters and "battle with plasma cannons and ten different power-ups in a maze of interconnected battle arenas." The game's physics engine includes velocity, acceleration, momentum, and inertial effects, and power-ups include shields, jamming systems, camouflage, etc. Perhaps the most talked about aspect of this game, however, is that it will be released simultaneously for Windows and Linux. Other OS ports are possibilities, and a playable demo is in the works.

Rainbow Six Tactics  [11:01 PM EST]
thestation.net has posted a new Rainbow Six Tactics section including an R6 map of the day section that will be updated daily with new map specific tips.

Ask Thresh  [11:01 PM EST]
Diamond Multimedia Underground's Ask Thresh column is up with reader supplied questions that Thresh will be answering on a weekly basis.

Final Kick 16/32 Demo  [11:01 PM EST]
Kick Engine site has what's called the final version of their 16/32 demo that shows a scene rendered side-by-side in 16 bit and 32 bit color. This version was produced for NVIDIA to promote the TNT line, but is also compatible with the Matrox G200 and Rage 128 chipsets.

More Quake III Arena Preview  [7:37 PM EST]
An In-Depth Look at id's Quake III Arena is an article up on The Adrenaline Vault that gives cyberathlete Dan "RiX" Hammans' impressions of the game after a recent sojourn to id's offices in Dallas.

Anna Kang Interview  [7:37 PM EST]
PlanetQuake interviews Katherine Anna Kang, id Software's Director of Business Development about her job, giving some insights into the planned unveiling of Quake III Arena.

Slave Zero Interview, Shots  [7:37 PM EST]
GA-Source interviews members of the Slave Zero team, talking with Matt Powers, Sean Vesce, and Ken Capelli of Accolade about their upcoming third-person giant robot action game, offering three new screenshots along the way.

Dallas Observer Reporter Subpoenaed  [7:37 PM EST]
Dallas Observer Under Fire, a GameSpot article, is reporting that Christine Biederman, the author of the recent articles in the Dallas Observer about ION Storm, has been served with a subpoena by ION's attorneys "requesting all e-mails she received and sent in the course of reporting and researching the article." Thanks Redwood. According to the article, Biederman and the paper are refusing to release the e-mails, and are prepared to duke the issue out in court.

PVRS2 & PVRS3  [7:37 PM EST]
There's an article on Sharky Extreme about what's up at PowerVR that gives the status of the perennially expected PVRS2 chipset, as well as some of the skinny on the successor to the PCX-1's successor, the PVRS3.

Heretic II Video Card FAQ  [7:37 PM EST]
The Heretic II Video Card FAQ is a compilation of all known video card issues, hints and workarounds for Heretic II, compiled with the assistance of Raven programmer John "Pagan" Scott.

Intel's Chip IDs  [7:37 PM EST]
Intel to embed ID numbers in chips is an article detailing a plan to embed an identifying serial number in every future Intel CPU. The article deals mainly with e-commerce, but also caps off with some info on the implications this has on determining if a chip has been overclocked and is being sold as a higher model CPU than it actually is. Thanks again Redwood.

Q3A Test Details  [11:24 AM EST]
Disruptor made a post to the Quake3 Messageboard on sCary's with word on what to expect from the Quake III Arena test when it's released (currently planned for March):

We're hoping to have bots included in Q3Test, but it all depends on how things go between now and then. ...
We're primarily focusing on 1-on-1 maps and up to 16 player FFA maps at the moment. We'll see how much time is left toward the end of the project for 32+ player maps, but that's not our focus at this time.

Messiah Interview  [11:14 AM EST]
There is a Scott Herrington interview on The Coming talking about Shiny's upcoming action game, Messiah.

New Weapons Factory  [11:14 AM EST]
A new version 4.0 of The Weapons Factory for Quake II mod is now available. The new version offers several tweaks to several of the player classes. There was a corrupt file in the Unix distribution when this was first uploaded, so if you had a problem with an early download with that, there's a corrected version available. Other tweaks to WF include, a weapon damage meter on the HUD, variable rate for Sniper Rifle, Viewable weapons, a 60 second period at the beginning of the game where players can not take the flag, and more.

Abandon Hope for Quake II  [11:14 AM EST]
No, that's not a headline of impending doom (or even Wolfenstein) for id's shooter, but a new mod called Abandon Hope that offers an off-hand grapple (color client-customizable), seven runes (including Invisibility and Pestilence), and 75 male and 47 female verbal taunts to insult your opponents (I haven't checked this out: do you suppose there's even a chance that they're all politically correct?). There are separate versions available to work with Quake II, and with each of the Q2 mission packs.

Hexen II DM3  [11:14 AM EST]
HexenWorld has posted a "final" version of the conversion of the classic quake deathmatch level DM3 (The Abandoned Base) for Hexen II.

Celeron 300a Lives  [11:14 AM EST]
Reports on Ars Technica, and Maximum PC say that the recent rumors about the end of Intel's Celeron 300A line of processors are incorrect, the MaxPC blurb saying that Intel plans "to continue production on the 300a in 'slot 1' while there is a demand for it in the sub-$1K and sub-$500 market."

GamesCon Interview  [11:14 AM EST]
Mark Chandler of GamesCon is interviewed on Game-Interviews talking about his organization, GamesCon, and discussing their upcoming event this February in Toronto.

New LMPC  [11:14 AM EST]
Version 3.2.4 of The Little Movie Processing Centre is now available, an updated version of Uwe Girlich's demo utility that handles Doom, Doom2, Heretic, Hexen, and Strife .lmp format demos, offers rudimentary support for Duke Nukem 3D and Redneck Rampage DMO files, as well as support for Quake DEM files, QuakeWorld QWD files and Quake II DM2 files (client and server recorded). The package also includes a DEM file cutter tool (DEMcut), a DEM Text File Analyzer (DEMA), a Demo Broadcasting Server (DBS) and The DM2 file concatenator (DM2cat).

etc.  [11:14 AM EST]

• The results of the Quake Women Forum's 1998 Quake2 Year in Review are online...
• JediKnight.Net has posted the inside story on where that car Easter Egg in Rogue Squadron originates, which, when the true story unfolds, turns out to be a 1969 Buick Electra 225 convertible, rather than a Cadillac, as originally thought...
• Tim Cook made another update to his .plan with more on the WinRoute/WinGate stuff from yesterday (story) adding info on getting Linux working with a proxy...

Out of the Blue  [11:14 AM EST]
Terribly sorry about the late start here today, unfortunately there's another fly in the ointment here today, what will be one of the final lengthy visits I will have to make on my now year-long foray into the world of tooth repair. Today is also probably one of the last two visits of any length--I've gotten to the point where I can work around the shorter ones with little disruption, but this one would be all afternoon, and I won't be surprised if I'm fairly useless afterward (okay, even more useless than usual). Anyway, that's the deal... boy am I looking forward to the end of this. Remember, be true to your teeth, and they'll never be false to you.

Quake III Arena Preview  [10:22 PM EST]
sCary has posted his 12 page preview of Quake III Arena which includes details on all the weapons, power-ups, and gameplay, as well as a short Q&A with John Carmack.

Unreal Tournament Preview  [10:22 PM EST]
PC.IGN.COM's Unreal Tournament preview has been updated with a little more on the game after some hands-on playing.

John Romero Interview  [10:22 PM EST]
John Romero Speaks is an interview with JR about "Daikatana: the controversy and the future" talking about the recent Dallas Observer article and what's up with Daikatana. Thanks Redwood.

New Vortex 1 Drivers  [10:22 PM EST]
A3D Drivers Download  page has new version 4.06 Windows 95/98 reference drivers for Aureal's Vortex 1 based cards which add Direct X 6.0 support. Thanks Frank at 3DsoundSurge.

Wicked3D Beta Drivers  [10:22 PM EST]
The Wicked3D drivers page has the new Windows 3.15 beta drivers for Wicked3D accelerators (for real this time, after a false start). The new release is based on the latest 3Dfx DirectX 6.0 drivers. Thanks Tim at 3DFiles.Com.

Viper V550 NT Drivers  [10:22 PM EST]
Diamond Multimedia Viper V550 Series drivers page has new version 44.00.1381.0203 Windows NT drivers for the Viper V550. Thanks Winter.

Unreal 221 Update  [4:29 PM EST]
There's an 221 Status Report thread on the Epic MegaBoard where Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart posted a couple of updates on the state of Unreal 221, as well as some info on what everyone in the team is working on for Unreal Tournament. Thanks Matthew Rorie. Here's the lowdown on 221, which will now include demo recording when it's released:

221 was originally planned for release around Christmas, but has suffered a little feature bloat since then :-)

Steve and I are finished with our fixes for 221 and have been for a little while, but Tim has been working on a few extra things that have warrented us holding back on the patch.

Specifically, 221 will contain a completely new OpenGL driver. Unreal owners with Riva TNT cards or other cards with a good OpenGL driver will find the game to completely kick ass now. Configuration under OpenGL is as easy as changing one line in the .ini (no more driver registry hacks) and running the game. Tim has tested the OpenGL driver under TNT and a few other cards...I don't have a complete list of what cards have been tested, but I'm sure Tim will post one to the Tech Page (unreal.epicgames.com) when he's finished. The new OpenGL driver will allow for fast hardware acceleration in a window, so UnrealED will be able to use OpenGL now.

Steve, Jack, and I have been focusing our efforts on Unreal Tournament, but some of the Unreal Tournament code has worked its way back into the Unreal codebase. In particular is demo recording, which will be available in 221. Demo recording works in online games and botmatch but not in single player.

I don't have a projected date for 221 at this time, but as soon as we have some idea I'll let you know.

Nelno Interview  [4:29 PM EST]
GA-Source interviews Jonathan Wright, talking with Bloodshot Entertainment's own Nelno the Amoeba about Bloodshot's upcoming LithTech engine game based on Kiss: Psycho Circus.

Unreal-Engine RUNE  [1:21 PM EST]
A report on the Adrenaline Vault gives the lowdown on RUNE, a game using the Unreal engine to blend Norse mythology and high-fantasy to be created by Epic Megagames and Human Head Studios. The article includes a piece of concept art from the game by Ted Halsted (previously of Marvel Comics). Here's a description from the article of the game, which is due sometime next year:

RUNE transports gamers into the Dark Ages, when the Vikings were the conquerors of a cold, dismal world, and paganism ruled all of the northern lands. Taking on the role of Ragnar, a rugged young Viking warrior, players are challenged to fight off Nordic creatures and uncover an evil perpetrator who is annihilating the Viking population. RUNE combines melee combat and exploration, with a colossal story line and an active environment, to recreate a period in history characterized by savagery and the sword.

South Park Preview  [1:21 PM EST]
CNN previews South Park looking at the PC version of the Turok 2-engine shooter that features the cast of that wascawwy cartoon series. Thanks Redwood.

Unreal Tournament Shot  [9:10 AM EST]
Billy has posted a new screenshot showing off a network setup screen from Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament on Voodoo Extreme.

Requiem Status  [9:10 AM EST]
A post by the Requiem team to the Requiem message board in response to some skepticism about the progress of work on this upcoming first-person shooter from 3DO/Cyclone Studios gives a status report on the state of the game:

Wow. Dead, huh? Well, in that case... We're mainly fixing bugs and game balancing right now. Ron Little's working on the Install. Kerry's working on some sound goodies. Most of the artists have moved off of Requiem. That leaves the rest of the team just plowing through the bug database and making some lists of fixes to make of our own. Of course, Multi-Player is being tested as well. I played in my first 4-player game the other day. A couple of the Angelic Powers are really unbalanced - like Locusts and Brimstone and we're trying to tone those down. Great work, by the way, to David Maynard and Adam Forgang on the Multi-Player Game. It's really almost there.

Messiah Shots  [9:10 AM EST]
There are a bunch of new in-game screenshots of Messiah on Shiny Entertainment's Messiah site. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Mike Wilson Interview  [9:10 AM EST]
Extreme Games interviews Mike Wilson, talking to the high priest of g.o.d. (Gathering of Developers) about games and game publishing.

Derek Smart Interview  [9:10 AM EST]
Next-Generation Online discusses "Smart's Battlecruiser Vision" in an interview with Dr. Derek Smart about the ups and downs of the storied development of his BattleCruiser series. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Dakota Interview  [9:10 AM EST]
Action Xtreme interviews Darren "Dakota" Tabor, maintainer of Allstar Quake2, Captured.com (celebrating their first anniversary today with a trivia contest), and the Gamer's Guide.

Proxy Setup  [9:10 AM EST]
TeamGamespy's Tim Cook updated his .plan with some info on the various Windows proxy programs out there, and some brief thoughts that might help you get your games and GameSpy running from behind a firewall, on a second machine on the LAN, etc.

Quake II Pay2Play  [9:10 AM EST]
The Mod Shop has posted word of an update to Pay2Play that brings this Quake II mod up to version 1.1. Pay2Play is a server-side deathmatch modification where players must buy their weapons with their health and armor.

QuakeStarter  [9:10 AM EST]
QuakeStarter's Official HomePage has a new version 0.67b of the QuakeStarter front-end for Quake and Quake II. The new release sorts servers by TC, and includes web links for TC homepages.

TRIBES Axis Commander  [9:10 AM EST]
The Game Complex has posted a new version 1.1 of the TRIBES Axis Commander utility that allows enhanced joystick control in TRIBES, and adds support for alternate controllers. The new release fixes a couple of bugs.

Newer QStat  [9:10 AM EST]
Version 2.2b of QStat, the command-line program that displays the status of Internet Game servers is out, hot on the heels of the just-released version 2.2a. The update fixes a problem with -raw mode in Half-Life.

Reviews  [9:10 AM EST]
WarZone reviews Thief: The Dark Project, giving it 4½ stars. Also, 3DFiles.Com reviews Starsiege TRIBES. Finally, HardwareCentral's ATi Rage Fury 128 review is online.

Competitions  [9:10 AM EST]
Falcon Mach V Fan Page is holding a give-away of a copy of Half-Life (it's not a Falcon system, but it's nothing to sneeze at should you not already have it for some strange reason). Also, Narf! '99 Tournament is an invitational LMCTF tournament set to begin on February 1, and is aimed at the humorous side of life with modifications made to the standard 20 LMCTF maps, including maps with zero gravity, some with lots of quads and all will have the standard weapons completely swapped. Finally, as a follow-up to my comments yesterday (story) about The P.V.G.S. (I mentioned I was unclear on the legality of the whole deal), I received the following from "The big guy" over there:

We have researched the legality of this concept and have not come across anything that shows it to be different from other professional sports (PGA, NASCAR). Anyone is eligible to participate as long as persons under 18 have their parents permission. As you know, there are some 13 and 14 year olds making good money in professional tennis and skateboarding. If you have any other questions or would like info, please e-mail me at the.big.guy@pvgs.com

etc.  [9:10 AM EST]

• Microsoft Again Delays Windows 2000: Quote: "Microsoft has again pushed back the release of a new test version of its Windows 2000 operating system for business computers, raising doubts about whether the final version of the long-overdue product might ship this year." (Special bonus for the guy who talked them out of calling it Windows '99) Thanks Phil "Cain" Hall...
• Queen Village Trinkets (QVT) has new info on their site about their .plans for more game-related jewelry in the future. When visiting id a while back, I received a really cool Quake II key-chain that is now a prized possession, which I only later realized was an example of one of QVT's products. Word is the new lines in development are Quake III Arena, Duke Nukem, Half-Life, TeamFortress 2...
• Fast Card is a new overclocking Utility for TNT/3Dfx cards (zoom)!...
• Ghost Sites, devoted to all that has gone the way of all things on this fast-paced Web of ours, mentions Quake Cafe as one of their ghost sites this month. Thanks Mopar. Wanker, come back! All is forgiven!...

Out of the Blue  [9:10 AM EST]
Let me mention that the most requested feature of the BlueTracker .plan tracker is indeed being worked on: A single page with a summary view of all the .plans updated within the past 24 hours, I don't expect much of a delay getting that online. Yesterday's Jethro Tull reference was only (I believe) the second, but spurred a bit of Quote of the Day re-run backlash (mostly mentioning repetitions of Monty Python), so I'll be sure to shake the QoD magic eight-ball thoroughly before the next edition. After all, as Sarcastro points out, the rivers are full of crocodiles nasty...

Rainbow Six Eagle Watch Released  [2:31 PM EST]
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Eagle Watch Released Worldwide is the announcement from Red Storm Entertainment that they've released the upcoming Eagle Watch mission pack for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, and it will be available in stores January 27 in a worldwide launch. Thanks GameStone. From the page, here's the poop on the mission pack, which will offer new multiplayer games, new levels, new weapons, and new operatives:

Rainbow Six is once again called into action! Terrorist threats have increased around the world, and this time they are attacking the world's most famous places. The Taj Mahal, Big Ben, the Forbidden City, The Senate Wing of the US Capitol Building, and a top-secret Russian shuttle are all in danger! Use the full "watch" mode to simply observe your hostage rescue team taking down terrorists, or play your friends with new multiplayer games! Choose from four new operatives, such as Louis Loiselle, pulled directly from Tom Clancy's best-selling novel. Experience better team and terrorist AI than ever before.

South Park, Turok2 GameSpy Support  [2:31 PM EST]
Though it's been mentioned in several of the previews of both games, the official announcement is up on Acclaim.Net that the upcoming PC version of their FPS titles Turok2: Seeds of Evil, and South Park (which shares the Turok2 engine) will both ship with GameSpy support.

Jason Hall Interview  [2:03 PM EST]
Tonight on the Lilith & Eve show, Monolith's Jason Hall will stop by for a live RealAudio chat about what's going on over at Monolith, with Shogo, Blood2, and the assorted LithTech stuff in the works. The show starts live at 5:30 PM Eastern time, RealPlayer or equivalent, required.

Sin FAQ  [12:31 PM EST]
The Sin Frequently Asked Questions up on Ritualistic has been updated with loads of info to make it current through the full release of the game. New topics include Who is that real life Elexis model?, What are Sin's cheat codes?, Is there going to be a mission pack?, Can I play cooperative Sin? and more. You can also now submit your own questions for future editions of the FAQ.

Wolf-ish Doom II TC  [12:31 PM EST]
The WolfenDOOM Home Page has a Doom TC available for Doom II version 1.9 (Mac or PC) that is a Wolfenstein-3D homage, which is hopefully foxy enough to avoid being so "Wolfy," that is gets "Foxed." ("Well it's Bungle in the Jungle, and that's all right by me...").

Commercial Quake II TC Demo  [5:50 AM EST]
The Katana Software Homepage has posted a playable demo of Infinity: The Kai'Ren Threat, a Quake II conversion said to be slated for a commercial release. The demo of the TC weighs in at about 22 MB, and contains two single player levels and one deathmatch level.

NVIDIA Public This Week  [5:50 AM EST]
RIVA 3D sends along the report that NVIDIA will make their Initial Public Offering this week (they sent this yesterday, but I was having trouble accessing their site). This Yahoo article on the IPO says "NVidia is also expected to garner healthy, but restrained, interest in its $24.5 million-31.5 million deal led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter."

John Romero Interview  [5:50 AM EST]
Here's a short interview with John Romero conducted by John "Dirty Harry" Callaham that gets back to gaming, discussing the current status of Daikatana and the future beyond its release.

Jay Wilson Q&A  [5:50 AM EST]
PlanetBlood has posted a Q&A with Monolith's Jay "Shade" Wilson talking about the Blood2 add-on pack, other games, and a bit of speculation about Blood3.

New Heretic II Decay  [5:50 AM EST]
A new beta 4 of the Decay mod for Heretic II is now available. In addition to some bug fixes, this release also adds four runes to Heretic II deathmatch, the Idol of Icarus (jump higher, longer, farther); the (oddly named) Shield of Zeus (double damage), the Vial of Athena (Decay twice as slowly), and the Crystal of Hades (all hits give back double health). This is said to be the last release before Raven releases a Heretic II patch.

Blood2 Tips  [5:50 AM EST]
CGO/OGR's Blood2 tips are online giving a rundown of general rules to consider while playing, and a brief run-through describing how to succeed on each level.

Warren Spector on RPGs  [5:50 AM EST]
Remodeling RPGs for the New Millennium is an article on Gamasutra by ION Storm's Warren Spector talking about the future of RPG design. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

loonygames  [5:50 AM EST]
Wake the kids, phone the neighbors, it's time for the run-down on this week's issue of loonygames, as always, posted in dribs and drabs during the week in accordance with the ticking of loony's loony internal chronometer:

I'm sorry, Dave, that's issue twenty one of loonygames! Putting your crew in danger this week:

• 2001: A Gaming Odyssey: While all those other gaming sites are predicting 1999, loonygames writer Jon Mars jumps ahead into the distant future of 2001. [Monday]
• From the Mouth of Madness: Jason "loonyboi" Bergman discovers that GameSpy does indeed have a future. Features the PR stylings of Mark Surfas, biz guy of Team GameSpy! [Monday]
• Pad Happy: Comparing the console systems. Which one of the big two is really better, anyway? [Thursday]
• PLUS: A slew of User Friendly comics [DAILY], a new Paul Steed editorial in Thinking Outside the Box [Tuesday] new Code on the Cob and Graphic Content installmetns, [Wednesday] Josh Vasquez looks at Ridge Racer 4 [Tuesday] and of course, much, much, more! And then some more, because we're just programmed that way.

loony Interview  [5:50 AM EST]
On the subject of the loonster, there is a loonyboi interview on GameGirlz that discusses some of what's behind loonygames and what's behind his general loonyness.

TRIBES Axis Commander  [5:50 AM EST]
The Game Complex has posted the TRIBES Axis Commander, which isn't a Rommel Bot for Starsiege TRIBES, but rather a utility that allows you to set up alternate controllers in TRIBES.  It has default configurations for the FP gaming Assassin 3D/Panther, Panther XL, MS Sidewinder, Space Orb, and standard joysticks.

Reviews  [5:50 AM EST]
Game Post Reviews Starsiege TRIBES calling Dynamix' multiplayer shooter a reviewer's choice. Also, PCTechware´s TNT Rally on Pfuscher´s Techware reviews seven RIVA TNT boards.

Competitions  [5:50 AM EST]
The P.V.G.S., or the Professional Virtual Gamer's Society claims to offer weekly cash prizes to participants in their Quake II competitions.The first prize currently listed there is $500.00 (though it's in white-on-white type, so I don't know if that's an HTML error, or not officially posted), but there is also a $45.00 "license fee" to become a "professional gamer" who is eligible to participate (I'm unsure of the legality of all this).

etc.  [5:50 AM EST]

• Another Bloody interview is up (a fictional conversation with one of the Blood2 characters), talking to a cultist...
• Tolwyn's Music has info on how you can get a just-for-gaming CD by Tolwyn, who has done music for TeamTNT, Gothic DM, and other Doom projects, and who is currently still involved in producing music for games...

Out of the Blue  [5:50 AM EST]
Hey, the BlueTracker seems to be a success, the feedback about its layout and functionality are very positive. I'm aware that it probably doesn't look right at 800x600, but I'm going to see if there's more that can be done to fix that. In the meantime, I hope you dig it.

Dopey link of the day is the Quake players favorite Roller Derby team (I think the return of the derby is proof everything eventually comes back into style). Thanks Mordred.

Half-Life FAQ  [5:57 PM EST]
The fourth revision of the unofficial Half-Life FAQ has been posted to this site. Thanks Apache at Planet Half-Life.

Wavelength Valve Visit  [5:57 PM EST]
Wavelength, the Half-Life editing site recently visited Valve Software and wrote up a brief article about the experience.

Panzer Elite Screenshots  [5:22 PM EST]
There are nine New Panzer Elite Screenshots on GA Source showing off this upcoming tank simulation from Psygnosis.

Quake II Outbreak  [5:22 PM EST]
Version 1.0 of the Outbreak mod for Quake II is now available, offering two new maps, and a teamplay mod that pits prisoners versus guards in a quest to control a portion of the map. Thanks Mod Central.

Quake 2 Peek  [5:22 PM EST]
Version 2.11 of Quake 2 Peek, a Windows 95/98 system tray utility to monitor Quake II LAN server activity, is now available, offering WAN server support, as well.

Terrain Tutorial  [5:22 PM EST]
The Cool-Ass Terrain Tutorial is a new article on Rust by Daikatana level designer Bobby Pavlock discussing a technique for level designers called the "triangle method" described as an extremely simple but effective method for constructing natural terrain.

BlueTracker  [11:58 AM EST]
With the help of RonSolo and Bagpuss of Webdog, I'm pleased to announce that .plan file tracking on Blue's News is now running locally on his server, meaning, among other things, that for the most part, the .plan updates will be current as long as this server is running (if you can reach this page, you'll be able to reach the .plan files). The new system even has message boards where you can post a comment about a .plan file, and the whole deal represents a leap into the 90's for Blue's News in terms of technology, so I'm very excited about the move in that light. By the way, this is not a knock against QuakeFinger who have proved excellent .plan file coverage here up 'until now, and in particular, I want to note that the lag on the .plans listed at the top of the page here since the last server move has been due to QuakeFinger not yet having a proper login on my server, not because they've been slacking. I want to instead take this opportunity to thank Dweomer, Bastard and all the PlanetQuake/QuakeFinger gang for all the fingers they've been giving me all this time. Excelsior!

Unreal Deathmatch Pack  [11:58 AM EST]
The Fusion Map Pack, a collection of six new Unreal deathmatch maps is available as a free release from Epic Megagames on PlanetUnreal, among other places. Epic's Cliff Bleszinski updated his .plan with word on the release:

Shifting gears- I swear that the SUPER HAPPY UNREAL MAP PACK will be released any moment- this FREE map pack includes:

• DM-cybrosis- Skaarj base deathmatch with neato jumping pads by Alan Willard. Well built with a nice flow.
• DM-twilight- Skycity run and gun with lots of traps by Jeremy War.
• DM-mojo- Sequel to CURSE, tight and fast DM by yours truly.
• DM-letting- BLOOD LETTING by Myscha, one of my all time favourites. No where to hide on this one.
• DM-shrapnel- Extremely tight industrial DM by me, my favourite of my DM maps IMO.

Servers, please cycle these bad boys from now on and let's move on from
Deck16 and Curse. ;)

Q3A Preview  [11:58 AM EST]
I'm not much for previews where the game being previewed hasn't been seen by the author, but the Quake 3 Arena Guide on Q3Arena.net is a well organized collection of most, if not all, known info about id's upcoming Quake III Arena.

Deus Ex Interview  [11:58 AM EST]
Altered Worlds interviews Chris Norden about his work on ION Storm's upcoming Unreal-engine RPG, Deus Ex.

Hab-12 Interview  [11:58 AM EST]
Gamestream.Net has posted an interview with Ratloop's Pete Gonzales asking a few questions about their upcoming Hab-12, along with a new Hab-12 preview.

TRIBES Recruiting Center  [11:58 AM EST]
There's a Starsiege TRIBES Recruitment Message Board on Datumplane::Starsiege where TRIBES players can hook up with a tribe of their own, and Tribes can likewise advertise for members.

GameSpy TRIBES?  [11:58 AM EST]
Jack "morbid" Mathews updated his .plan with word he was looking to dope out some of the working of TRIBES to implement GameSpy support, and was looking for any help that could be provided. Here's the deal:

Oh, and has anyone got the Tribes networking spec laying around? I'd like to put it into GameSpy already :). Actually, I was at a LAN party and saw someone had a cool port snooper, anyone got one lying around? Thanks.

Machines Preview  [11:58 AM EST]
Sharky Extreme's Machines first glimpse is up looking at this upcoming 3D first-person/RTS hybrid from Acclaim.

OSP Tourney DM  [11:58 AM EST]
The Orange Smoothie Productions page has version 1.06i of their Quake II OSP Tournament DM mod for Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD. The new release fixes a problem for Linux server crashes related to logging as well as a few minor enhancements to some gameplay issues. This release also includes a glibc version of the mod for native glibc Linux systems. Complete info on this tourney mod is available on the OSP Tourney DM page.

TeamFortress Mailing List  [11:58 AM EST]
Speckz sends word of an unofficial TeamFortress mailing list he's begun, to try and re-spark some email discussion about TF. To subscribe send email to imailsrv@speckz.com and include in the body of the message "subscribe teamfortress <your email address>" (without the quotes).

DirectX 6.1  [11:58 AM EST]
DirectX 6.1 has not yet appeared on Microsoft's DX site, but if you're feeling daring, several sites, including BetaNews have linked to copies that are available for download from Microsoft's ConXion servers that they say is the final core build. Thanks runabout.

WadTool  [11:58 AM EST]
For editing types on Macintoshes, a new version 1.0.3 of Wadtool, the texture management tool for the Mac is now available. The new release fixes one specific bug that caused a crash after using the Import command.

Reviews  [11:58 AM EST]
Avault reviews Starsiege TRIBES

etc.  [11:58 AM EST]

• There's a new version 1.01 of that SHOUTcast dealie that allows streaming audio over the internet through Winamp. Thanks Jan T. Sott...
• The CD Time Bomb: Detractors say compact discs are deteriorating with age is an article that re-examines the debate about whether the so called permanent CD may be more ephemeral than originally stated. Thanks Ant...
• Captain Immy signs off of Pointless Audio (for now, at least). I didn't always agree with a lot of his content (not so much the Blue/Shooters bashing as the excessive homophobia, and the like), but I've always felt he was an enormously talented orator. I hope he returns to the RealAudio waves in the future to fulfill his destiny to be the Howard Stern of the internet (or at least the Rush Limbaugh)...

Out of the Blue  [11:58 AM EST]
As I said already, I couldn't be more excited about getting a little more high-tech here and getting the local .plan file updates running. I have learned not to curse myself by speculating on future plans (it's historically the kiss of death), but I hope to be able to offer a few more new wrinkles in the near future that will further enhance the site's functionality, without harming what currently is working.

Drakan Interview  [4:55 PM EST]
There's an interview with Tim Ebling, Shaun Leach, and Stuart Denman on The Flamelands, talking with the programming team from Surreal Software working on the upcoming action adventure Drakan: Order of the Flame.

Romero on Bad ION Press  [4:01 PM EST]
The folks at PCBlitZ wrote ION Chairman John Romero asking for a reaction to the recent bad press ION has received, specifically, the stories in the Dallas Observer (story and follow-up). Here's John's response:

Well, of course we're not happy about the negative press and the fact of it is that an ex-Ion employee was instrumental in setting it all up. Daikatana is doing great and the team is really positive and pumped, although this kind of news is disturbing.

Baldur's Gate Patch  [4:01 PM EST]
Interplay's Baldur's Gate page has a new beta update patch for BG (this is not the final patch, another is expected "soon"). Thanks hELLsPAWN.

Half-Life Primary Server 1.0.0.8  [4:12 AM EST]
WON's Half-life page has the updated version 1.0.0.8 of the Half-Life primary server program, a 65 MB download that will allow you to run a Half-Life server separate from your purchased copy of Half-Life (or if you don't have one, for that matter).

Half-Life Server Manager  [4:12 AM EST]
Version 1.2 of Half-Life Manager for Servers is now available. The new release of this program that helps manage running a Half-Life multiplayer server fixes a few bugs and adds IP banning.

Sin Add-on Info  [4:12 AM EST]
Carl "General War T" Glave made a .plan update with a little "Yakity Shmakity" (gotta be from 3D Enhanced Mini-Golf) on what to expect from one of the monsters in 2015's upcoming Sin add-on, The Wages of Sin.

Gabe Newell Interview  [4:12 AM EST]
Gamestream.Net interviews Gabe Newell talking with Valve's Managing Director about TF2 and Half-Life. Warning: that page has more Java than all the Starbucks in Seattle.

Kali Interview  [4:12 AM EST]
Tweak3D interviews Jay Cotton, author of Kali, about his venerable server browser, which they call "the world's largest Internet gaming network."

GC SBLive! versus MX300 Shootout  [4:12 AM EST]
GameCenter's SBLive! versus Monster Sound MX300 shootout is out to try to help those trying to decide between A3D's and Creative Labs' newest releases make a sound decision. The SBLive! featured in the review is the $99.00 value edition, rather that the $199.00 model.

Viking DM & CTF  [4:12 AM EST]
A new release of the Viking Mod server-side Quake II mod is now available, offering a bunch of features to enhance both regular deathmatch, and CTF. Work on a Linux port is said to continue along.

Reviews  [4:12 AM EST]
WarZone reviews Blood II: The Chosen.

Competitions  [4:12 AM EST]
Gamer's Alliance has relaunched, splitting into two different sites (or something), and to celebrate, they're giving away $12,000 in prizes. Also, GameStats Pick Your Own Prize Contest is underway (sorry, there are limits, it's not like they're Jeannie). Also, InterBurp Software is giving away a copy of Blood2. Finally, here's a bit on the plans for the upcoming Euroquake (not to be confused with that new Quake logo Euro money), planned for the weekend of February 27-28 in London to take part in a European Quake championship:

QuakeWorld
Clan UK vs Clan 9, in a 5 game series. Will Clan 9, who many believe to be the World`s greatest after beating Death Row last year, fend off a UK All-Star team including the likes of Sujoy and Timber?

Quake II
UK champs Clan Unreal take on Clan MM from Norway, NINE from Sweden, 7th from Denmark and Respawned, also from Sweden, in a epic battle to decide once and for all if the UK has what it takes to cut it among the Big Boys(tm) in Europe.

etc.   [4:12 AM EST]

• Levelord updated his .plan with a Dick story, fans of this down-home wit and wisdom rejoice. Also amid the wit and wisdom in the .plans of the day are Myscha the sled dog's picks for games of the year...
• Tweak3D has a program for download called Gamer's Assistant that offers the odd hybrid of a front-end to connect to multiplayer game servers of a few games, along with a TNT overclocking utility. The plan is to eventually turn this into a full-featured TNT tweak program....
• Windows 2000 release to slip to second half of '99 is word on ZDNet. Thanks Redwood....
• The Gamers Mosh Pit has no slam-dancing, but is a game links site whose motto is "links that don't suck." They have a contest underway to give away a choice of either Half Life, Baldur's Gate, or Thief: The Dark Project...

Out of the Blue  [4:12 AM EST]
I guess I have myself to blame, but it's probably a bad legacy that people think of me when they see things like Penguin Caffeinated Peppermints "perfect for people who want more from their mints." Obviously Guy Smiley [Muppet Clan] thought of me when he saw it, since he sent along the link (along with word that he was ordering two dozen tins). I wonder if they would help your breath after Magic Coffee?