Human Head's Mike Werckle updated his .plan with a giant update on RUNE, their Unreal 2 engine game of viking glory. There's a whole lot of info in here about their new skeletal technology - here's an excerpt:

I think you all will be very happy with the complexity of enemies that we are adding to RUNE. In the old days we used to make "enemies," or "monsters," and everyone you encountered looked exactly the same. With RUNE'S new skeletal technology we are able to have a huge varitey of meshes deformed by the same bones, and which share the same set of animations. But with the added complexity we have found a need to expand our definition of what an enemy is.

Registration is now open for The Frag 3, this October's CPL event which has a $10,000 purse for the winner of the Q3Test tournament. Even if you're not planning on entering the tournament, you must enter, since there's a limited amount of space at the event.

AVault has posted an interview with David Grenewetzki, president of Sierra On-Line. The interview (which would appear to have been conducted just this afternoon), talks mostly about their "restructuring" announcement, but there's also this bit which appears to confirm that Half-Life 2 is in production (as if there were really any doubts) and even that Homeworld 2 is being considered. Here's an excerpt:

Moving forward, we have Homeworld, which just shipped, and its sequel, Homeworld 2, which we are currently evaluating at this time. Also coming from Valve are Team Fortress 2 as well as Half-Life 2, and Mark’s got an incredible design team in Impressions Games, probably the most successful group within Sierra, which is shipping Pharaoh, an incredible title, this year.

Dynamix' Nels Bruckner updated his .plan with some thoughts on the "restructuring" going on at Sierra/Dynamix, happy news about the recently released TRIBES demo, and word that there should be a new TRIBES patch released for server operators next week. Here's what he had to say:

As many of you have read in the news there are big organizational changes going on at Sierra and therefore here at Dynamix as well. I've been through a lot of these and they are always difficult, even if the reasoning behind it all makes good business sense. It's the kind of thing you just have to figure out how to work through and move on from, for everyone involved.

On a much happier note, our Tribes demo has (finally) seen the light of day. I believe it went live on Thursday and the response so far has been tremendous. Every demo server that we put up gets instantly swamped and there seems to be a pretty consistent 200-300 people on line all the time. It is very cool to see.

Server opperators can expect a new version of Tribes sometime next week. The patch addresses two server-side crash bugs that have come to light. The patch shouldn't effect anything on the client side.

Gamecenter's Sneak Peeks at Omikron The Nomad Soul is a preview of Eidos Interactive and Quantic Dream's unusual-sounding upcoming third person action game, or as they say: "Imagine a game featuring martial arts fighting, gun combat, and David Bowie, and you've got Omikron: The Nomad Soul, a compelling and unique action-adventure title." Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

The innovative WONSwap service, that allows easy up and downloading of user-created maps, models, and skins for a few different games, has been updated to add Quake II support. Word is at this point the service does not currently support Quake II models, but they will be added soon, along with support for StarCraft maps.

The Adrenaline Vault Patch Downloads has a new version 1.1 patch for Acclaim's RC racing simulator Re-volt.

The Wheel of Time page has what's described as one of the few remaining updates from Designer/Producer Glen Dahlgren, who is soon to be off to be married (congrats Glen). Thanks BlackWind. Here's a good chunk of the update that describes how the soon-to-be-completed Unreal-engine game is shaping up, as well as Legend's plans to follow-up the release with a high-speed game server:

The end product breaks down into three sections: the single player game, the Arena Game, and the Citadel Game. The SP game is very close. Craig, Grant, and I have all been beating on it now for a while, and bugs are starting to flow in from GT's testing department. This feedback is keeping James and Matt very busy, but they're managing to stay on top of it all, and the SP levels have never been more solid and complete. Warren is finishing up 'Gathering the Seals', the climax level and the last level to be locked. I'll be beating on it today, and we should have a locked level before I leave (we'd better!).

The Arena Game is also pretty solid. We've been playing some of the newer maps when we get a chance (Scott's Hall of the Tower and Warren's huge SL map) and we have one or two more planned if we get the chance. Feedback is starting to trickle in from the press about Arena, and it's universally positive. I'll get to that in a second.

The Citadel Game is where we're focusing the most technical attention right now. It came together the latest of all of the dynamics because of its complexity, so we're bug fixing and play balancing now. There's so much potential there; we're working hard to realize all of it.

An idea that had been brewing around here for a while has suddenly become reality: after we release WoT, we will be hosting a high-speed game server, and it's my intention to keep WoT.com as your one-stop-shop for information about this server, competitions, special events, etc. In fact, once we're done with the development (as long as I'm not sucked into something else immediately), I'll have more bandwidth to spend on adding content to the page. So look forward to playing WoT on the Legend server, and screaming obscenities at the development team--as I know at least I'll be dropping in from time to time.

The ION Storm Daily Informant has a Deus Ex update (an actual update, not some weird X-Files website publicity stunt) from about the entire team, getting feedback from Designer Warren Spector, Lead Programmer Chris Norden, Design Team Leader Harvey "Witchboy" Smith, Design Team Leader Bob White, Programmer Scott Martin, Designer Steve Powers, Artist Russ Hughes, and Writer Sheldon Pacotti. Here's Scott Martin's update on progress on the game's AI, including the coveted sit in couch AI (now if only NPC's could operate the TV remote):

I'm still chugging along on the AI. I recently made some optimizations to decrease the AI's load on the CPU. Combat is getting more interesting as the NPCs get smarter. NPCs can now break glass, shoot through crates that enemies are hiding behind, react to loud noises (including footsteps), defend areas, run to alarms and trigger them to call reinforcements, sit in chairs or couches, and inconspicuously tail the player. And there's even more cool stuff on the way...

Word from the gold-diggers at Gone Gold is that Armored Fist 3, NovaLogic's game of tank combat, and Links LS 2000, Microsoft's upcoming outdoor aggravation (golf) game, have both gone gold, and off to manufacture. Also, they reiterate the expectation that Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, the sequel to RSE's tactical shooter Rainbow Six, should be appearing on store shelves tomorrow.

The official Prince of Persia 3D site has posted a patch to upgrade the retail version of the game to version 1.1, as well as a post saying that the previous patch (version 1.0) had "some problems" so if you've got that patch, be sure to download this new one. Thanks to Frans at 3DGamers for the tip.

Aureal's driver download page has posted new drivers for Vortex 2 based cards. The drivers are available as a standalone download, or as a beefy version which contains the Vortex demos, applications, and the Aureal GM MIDI set. Thanks Vortex of Sound, who sends word that new A3D drivers should be released later this afternoon.

AussieGamer has posted 33 (!) new screenshots and production drawings from Fox Interactive's Planet of the Apes game that's currently in development. No word if Charlton Heston's in the game, but hey...a guy can hope, can't he? And if not? Well, damn you Fox! Damn you all to hell!

A thread on the offical Babylon 5 message board (started by members of the development team) appears to confirm that Babylon 5, a game in development by Sierra Studios has been cancelled (thanks BrainDamag3). AVault is also reporting that in addition to B5, Sierra has cancelled Orcs: Revenge of the Ancient, and two Dynamix titles: Desert Fighters and Pro Pilot Paradise. Update: Sierra has issued this press release which makes the news official.

The Rogue Spear Retreat has posted plugins for Photoshop 5 that allow you to use Rogue Spear's RSB texture format in the program. Rogue Spear is set to appear on store shelves tomorrow, the 22nd.

EuroGamer has posted a preview of Pandemic and Activision's Battlezone II, based on a hands-on experience with the game. They've also posted a handful of screenshots, which would seem to be the ones Activision released at ECTS...so if you haven't seen them yet, they're new to you.

Longbow Digital Arts' Seumas McNally sends word of some new screenshots of Tread Marks on the Tread Marks website showing off the new Plasma Gun effects in this upcoming tank racing/combat game. There is also word there that the follow-up Tread Marks test is taking longer than expected, but when available, will offer "full Internet multi-player support, with Master Servers to list the currently running game servers, and a chat interface similar to IRC where you'll be able to get together with other players before and after the games."

Epic's Mark Rein has conducted a brief Q&A with FGNOnline, where he talks about the success of the Unreal Tournament demo. Here's what he had to say:

"Hundreds of people have been playing the demo constantly," explained the vice president of Epic Games. "The success of the demo is surprising because some of the maps in my opinion aren't the best the game features and there's also a limited amount of weapons in the demo."

PCZone has posted a preview of MDK 2, Bioware's sequel to Shiny's surreal third person action game, complete with screenshots galore. MDK, as everyone knows, stands for More Donkey Kong.

This GameSpot Nocturne Download page has the second part of the four part movie showing off Nocturne, the upcoming horror thriller from Gathering of Developers and Terminal Reality. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers. Word on the two parts of the movie now available is they "mix black & white and color character portrayals and news-like footage with shots of actual gameplay cut in between. Fairly scary stuff, makes it look like the perfect release for Halloween." I'm going to go put on my Count Floyd costume.

The Unreal Tournament website has an update from Epic's Mark Rein giving the lowdown on plans for the next version of the Unreal Tournament demo (thanks Unreal Universe). The update goes on to describe the method for getting the software renderer to run (story) and gives the lowdown on plans for Mac and Linux releases coming down the road, with a Mac release around a month away, and plans for a server only Linux demo followed by a client release. Here's the portion on what to expect from the next PC demo release:

We're working hard on getting the next version of the demo finished. It will feature support for D3D, OpenGL, Metal, Glide and software rendering. It will include another map but we haven't decided conclusively which map it will be. To use our D3D code will require DirectX Version 7 which Microsoft expects to release on their web site on Wednesday. We'll keep you posted on their progress. We definitely will not ship the demo before Microsoft releases Dx7 for downloading so don't expect the new demo any sooner than Wednesday or more likely Thursday or later. If you see Microsoft release Dx7 and you intend to run UT under D3D please go download and install Dx7. Please also make sure you have the absolute latest drivers for your video card. You may find your video card vendor issues new drivers around the same time as Dx7 ships. If you use a 3DFX card you want to use the Glide API and if you use a Savage4 card you want to use Metal. We believe Direct3D is the right API for those running Windows 95 or Windows 98 with the following cards: Nvidia Riva TNT, Nvidia Riva TNT2, Nvidia GeForce256, ATI Rage 128, Matrox G200, Matrox G400, Permedia Create3, and PowerVR 250. Apologies to any vendor we forgot here! If you're running Windows NT4 and you don't have a Glide-compatible card OpenGL may work for you. We have not had time to work on our OpenGL drivers beyond what shipped in Unreal version 225 but we do expect to improve them before the final version of UT ships.

CitizenKabuto.com interviews Shawn Nelson in a short Q&A about his career singing with his brother Gunnar, and his more recent work with PlanetMoon Studios as the lead animator on Giants: Citizen Kabuto, PMS' upcoming third-person action game.

There are some photos of a prototype Quake III Action Figure on GA-Source. There is also a post on the ReSaurus - Quake page saying they are gauging interest in creating a Quake II (not III) marine medic, but want to see how many pre-orders it generates (pre-ordering apparently does not obligate you to buy it).

Red Orb Presents Prince of Persia 3D downloads page now says the patch for the game is "coming soon," even though I can say almost positively that it was there when the story of its release was posted yesterday (story), so it looks like the page has been edited (it still says "Simply click on the link below to download the patch"). Thanks Mark Allman. No word on why the patch was pulled.

• If you thought RAM prices were bad already (they've doubled around here in the past few weeks), Taiwan Quake Seen Shaking World Chip Prices gives the news that beyond whatever other tragedies the recent quake in Taiwan has caused, it will also cause further spikes in RAM costs (it's been a while since one of these--it used to seem like the natural disasters that impact RAM prices were happening according to a schedule). Thanks Ant.
• Tweaking Your PC: Getting the Last Mile Out of Your Hardware Part 1 of 4 on Tweak3D was originally printed in PC Gamer's Ultimate Hardware Bible (reprinted with permission).
• Diamond says needs more votes for S3 buyout is the latest on this attempt at a merger.
• AMD announces the introduction of new speed grades for both the Mobile AMD-K6-2-P and the Mobile AMD-K6-III-P processor families. Thanks AMD Zone, where they are also speculating on more Athlon price cuts soon (they say Oct. 4).
• Dungeon Keeper 2 shots on Matrox G400 3D Gaming Enhanced Games showing off environmental bump-mapping in the upcoming EMBM patch.
• Asus 3800 NVIDIA TNT Overclocking Guide by The Tech Zone.
• 3DHardware.net reviews the Soyo Sy-6BA+III Motherboard.
• BoomGames reviews the CardCooler.

Planet Kingpin's Deathmatch Guide is underway, offering DM tips for Xatrix' life of crime shooter, with plans on expanding the guide to offer user submitted tips as they arrive.

3DO's Erik Robson dropped a line to mention the release of the first shots from their upcoming third-person action RPG game set in the Might and Magic universe. Shot one, shot two, and shot three are all 1280x1024 D3D shots taken on a TNT2, and the corresponding thumbnail one, thumbnail two, and thumbnail three will let you check them out first.

The Blast Chamber website has the first public beta of the Blast Chamber modification for Quake II. The mod's twist is that players are attempting to activate a nuclear device, and then race to safety before being caught in the explosion, which history has proven, can turn you into The Incredible Hulk, create Godzilla, or possibly even worse. Blast Chamber offers DM and teamplay, and there are plans to add CTF support to a future version.

WAD 99 is now accepting registrations for this big ole LAN party upcoming in Louisiana. Also, this Quake 3 Survey from Jevity Entertainment Inc. is gauging interest in a Quake III-oriented LAN even on the west coast in the beginning of 2000.

GameSpot UK's Tiberian Sun Competition offers the chance to win all manner of C&C swag.

Oops, made a boo-boo yesterday in talking about GameSlice, turns out there's a list of editorials down the right side of this page listing the stories that have indeed been going up there on a weekly basis, there has not actually been the lengthy gap between them like I said (though Geoff admits most of the places listing the stories do indicate such a lapse had occurred). Sorry to have implied Geoff was slacking, as he takes pride in keeping up with his updates.

Okay, I surrender. Though I think it's only fair to download a free demo to judge it, starting tomorrow, we'll start posting demo reviews too. Thanks Frans for a bunch of these:

• Gamers Depot reviews System Shock 2.
• Reviews R Us reviews Quake II Colossus for Linux. Thanks Stefan Folkerts.
• GamesMania reviews Outcast. Thanks Nigel.
• Sharky Extreme reviews C&C: Tiberian Sun.
• GamePower reviews Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver.
• GamePrix reviews Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
• Gamers Central reviews Drakan: Order of the Flame.
• PC Arena reviews Drakan: Order of the Flame.
• The Wargamer reviews Force 21.
• 3D Spotlight reviews the Matrox Millennium G400.

• Vortex of Sound is reporting that the PlayStation II will be supporting the yet-unannounced A3D 3.0 spec...
• Enslaved by Games' TRIBES Renegades Guide gives some tips on playing this Starsiege TRIBES mod...
• CNN - New Word virus hits Net. It was more fun when they were all "good times"-style hoaxes. Thanks Phil "Cain" Hall...
• Mushroom: Gamer Mad At Blue For Stealing His DC. Oops!...
• Yesterday's Foxtrot mentions Quake. I believe it will show up in a month or so in a link that will work if I post it, in the meantime, all the links to various syndicated versions folks send in will not actually work if posted here...

Yesterday was the third anniversary of the QuakeWorld launch event in NYC (which didn't actually mark the debut of QW) will always remain my most memorable such event. Wow, I just realized that was the first time I met Fargo, as well. I can't figure out if three years seems like a long or short time ago. Seems a bit of both. Speaking of which, today is the third anniversary of the first beta release of the Worldcraft level editor. Another blast from the past, apparently in the credits of the new NiN album, released today, id Software is among those thanked (thanks Stephen Payne and [FUN]Merlin). NiN's Trent Reznor, if you don't recall, did music and sounds for the original Quake.

I drifted off on the couch watching TV last evening and awoke a short time ago to find an infomercial for that nutty juiceman playing. I'm a little worried about the effect of this kind of thing on the subconscious, I noticed him shouting something about needing to eat living things to sustain life (being quite carnivorous, this is an eerie thought). I guess it could be worse, it could have been that Tae-Bo dude (not to mention how I used to hit the snooze bar in the mornings while Howard Stern's subliminal influence worked its subtle magic). Now you see the need for the anti-sleep policy here... it's a jungle out there.

Link of the Day: The Alibi Agency. Thanks Lori. For amusement purposes only, Blue's News does not condone infidelity.

PC.IGN has posted a bunch of new screenshots and a giant (56 meg!) MPEG movie from Interstate '82, the sequel to Interstate '76.The movie appears to be the same thing as the ones previously released, but of a higher quality. Thanks Billy "pass the dutchie" Wilson for the tip.

Red Orb's Prince of Persia 3D page has the release of the promised patch for their just-released 3D sequel to the side-scrolling Prince of Persia series. Thanks Billy "Iran" Wilson. Here's word on what the patch fixes:

Among the items that are improved with this patch: load/save, collision and force issues (swimming in currents or being pushed by objects), combat and AI, and a faster look cam. Also, this patch will auto-save your game at the start of every level. You may load the auto-saved game as you would any other game - press ESC, then select load game. You will see the auto-saved game among the list of games you have saved.

If you are experiencing problems running the game with an SLI configuration (two linked Voodoo cards), please check the ReadMe.txt file, after you have installed Patch 1.0, for the fix. The ReadMe.txt file is updated by the Patch and can be found in the directory that you previously installed Prince of Persia 3D to.

The DiabloII.Net Network passes along word they've received from Blizzard Entertainment clarifying the current state of Diablo II development, and the status of a beta test:

"We are working very diligently to get the game out this year, and by shifting the beta date until the end of October, we hope to be able to finish the game before year's end. I can assure you that there will be a beta, and by finishing Act II, Act III and the finale sooner rather than later, we will be better positioned to implement user suggestions."

Tom Clancy On Games, Rogue Spear And Terrorism on CheckOut Games discussing Red Storm Entertainment, and their tactical shooters Rainbow Six, and the upcoming Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear.

GodLike: The Q3A Strategy Guide for Quad Gods offers you the chance to achieve deity status in a few easy lessons, breaking down their Q3Test tips into beginner, intermediate, and advanced tips, so you can learn at your own pace (student loans available for those who qualify).

Interplay has been e-mailing Freespace fans with word that Freespace 2 has gone gold and will be shipping "soon" (thanks Justin Kehoe). There have been a number of "Freespace 2 gold" stories flying around for several days now, but this is the first to come directly from Interplay, so I'd assume it's true. Here's an excerpt from the letter:

Freespace 2 has now gone gold!! That's right, the game that took the space-combat market by storm last year is back and better than ever. Freespace 2, developed by Volition and published by Tantrum, is the sequel to the Descent: Freespace series. It has gone gold and will be shipping soon... so order your copy now! Many people may be waiting for other high-profile games to come out, and we all know that those games will probably be delayed... but Freespace 2 is definitely shipping soon!

• AMDZone is reporting that AMD is going to be cutting prices on their current Athlon chips when they introduce their new 700 Mhz version early next month.
• In other AMD news, the company has announced their new mobile processors, which boast a 100 Mhz bus speed, and processor speeds of up to 475 Mhz (thanks again to AMDZone).
• CombatSim.com has posted an interview with 3dfx' Scott Sellers, talking about upcoming technologies, what he thinks of the competition, and of course, fill rate, fill rate and more fill rate (thanks *Extreme).
• Creative Labs has posted new drivers for their 3D Blaster TNT2 card (thanks 3DFiles.com).

PlanetUnreal has a post up from Epic's Mark Rein giving the "final" word on the idea of adding a grappling hook to Unreal CTF, which sounds like it just isn't going to happen. Here's part of the post that further outlines their reasoning:

First of all we're NOT doing a grappling hook. Period. We've discussed it to death and decided it's not our thing. We like the translocator and we think you'll learn to like it too. We've got lots of heavy-duty CTF players at Epic and DE and we've played and played and played and played UT's CTF to ensure it's right. You guys are going to love some of the other CTF maps. But remember we're trying to do things our way not copy someone else's game. If you really love games you'll learn to appreciate the variety available to you not chastise it.

As for a grappling hook for UT - we'll leave that to the mod-makers if they feel it's necessary. I personally think you guys will get more than used the Translocator and it's particular uses and quirks. You love it or hate it the same way you love or hate the grappling hook in other games. You'll learn it's ins and outs the same way you learned the other tools in the other games.

PC Gamer Online has posted the official Delta Force 2 demo for download. There are no details on the download page about the demo, except that it's 31 MB, and requires DirectX 6.1. DF2 is NovaLogic's upcoming sequel to Delta Force their Voxel-powered, tactical first-person shooter.

Captured.Com's Quick & Dirty Guide to UTDemo CTF offers tips to help you get up to speed with the version of CTF included in the Unreal Tournament demo, describing how to properly set yourself up, and giving general gameplay strategies for commanding bot teammates, and a short guide to the use of that tricky Translocator.

The much-lauded Dteam 3d Design Guild has released a new deathmatch map for the Zaero Quake II mission pack said to be optimal for 2-4 player play.

Saw on Gone Gold that a new patch is now available for Talonsoft's Jagged Alliance 2 on their JA2 Downloads page. The patch brings this action/strategy RPG up to version 1.05r, and seems to be all bug fixes.

Apache sends word he's posted some new Omikron screenshots on GameFan showing off action from a preview build of this upcoming action/RPG from Eidos that will feature David Bowie. Word is to expect a full hands-on preview this week.

The newly-opened PlanetBattlezone (indeed brought to you by the PlanetPlanet gang) sends word that their grand opening extravaganza includes a new Battlezone FAQ and a new Battlezone 2 FAQ, as well as some new screenshots from BattleZone2, Pandemic Studios' upcoming sequel to the cult-favorite action/strategy hybrid. In addition, they are also holding a BattleZone Gold Contest giving away five copies of the just-released enhanced version of the original BattleZone for the PC (not to be confused with the original arcade game).

This teaser page on the Cyberathlete site is where you can go tomorrow evening at 6:00 PM CDT (7:00 PM EDT) and register for the event. Registration does not have a cut-off date, but, if you plan on bringing your own computer, or enter the $10,000 Q3Test tournament, you will probably want to get there early on, because those both will be accepting only a limited number of registrants. The FRAG3, will be held in Dallas, TX October 29-31, 1999.

Gone Gold previews SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle taking a hands-on look at the upcoming installment in the tactical police operations series that began with the PoliceQuest games. An interesting twist to this preview is that Gone Gold's Rich, who wrote it, is actually a police officer himself, which certainly adds an interesting perspective, though clearly the game is being discussed on its merits as a game, rather than just its accuracy as a simulation. The game ends up getting high marks for both, however, as this quote demonstrates:

The Artificial Intelligence of your team members is outstanding even in this early build of the game. I ordered my Element to clear a room (It was a bar in the hotel our mission took place.) and the men moved in cautiously. They moved in quite professionally and used excellent tactics to clear the room. As I stood there and watched them do their job, they actually leaned around corners protecting themselves from exposing a full body shot. Once they were sure the room was cleared, they message you with an "All Clear" communication.

The way it was handled really brought a smile to my face because these on screen Police Officers were doing the job correctly. Outstanding.

The Adrenaline Vault X Downloads Page has posted a bunch of 1.9 patches to update the retail German version of X: Beyond the Frontier. The have no information to offer on what the patch does.

• The Matrox Graphics Latest Drivers Home has new NT drivers for the G400 that adds Powerdesk version 4.22.081. Thanks BetaNews.
• Also from BetaNews, the Sybergen Networks Web Site has a new build 535 of SyGate version 3.1. SyGate allows you to easily share a single Internet connection between multiple PCs on a LAN (highly recommended).
• The FIC Technical Support - BIOS Update Locator has a new BIOS for download that allows overclocking the front-side bus speed as high as 133 MHz. Thanks B-Boy.

GameSlice's "The Gist List", A.K.A. The Big Eight: Hot Fall Games, is online after a considerable gap between updates (once weekly. the last editorial prior to this is from January). The update, as the title suggests, takes a look at eight titles author Geoff Keighley views as hot items for the fall season, covering Soldier of Fortune, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Gabriel Knight III, Unreal Tournament, Homeworld, Quake III Arena, Half-Life: Opposing Force, and Age of Empires II: Age of Kings. The blurb on each game includes some screenshots, and I believe the three shots with the Soldier of Fortune piece are brand-new.

Pa-Hom.Com interviews Mike Harrington in an English translation of their Spanish language interview, actually Mike's an English-speaking type, so the Spanish version is probably the translation. In any event, the conversation with the Valve co-founder discusses Team Fortress 2, specifically discussing modifications to the engine, the voice communication system, and even mentioning the possibility of a Half-Life movie.

EuroGamer has posted their coverage of the UKPCGC, a massive competition that took place last weekend, where gamers competed in eight (!!) games spread across four categories: action, strategy, driving and sports. Some of the games played were Unreal Tournament (a beta version, of course), Q3Test, Age of Empires II (beta), and Total Annihiliation: Kingdoms.

UnrealTournament.co.uk has posted a really wacky article that doesn't provide strategy for the weapons in the UT demo, but rather explains the principles behind how they work (thanks UnrealNation). If you've ever wondered how the Bio Rifle works, or considered making your own (not a good idea, you'd probably be killed the second it started up) you should probably read this article. For the record, Blue's News doesn't condone making your own weapons...unless of course they're uber-powered potato guns.

"Sony goes on a Rampage" is the name of a story on Variety's web site (and in today's edition of the paper), which goes into detail about the Redneck Rampage movie (yes, you read that correctly). According to the story, Tall Trees Productions plans to make the movie, with Betty Thomas (Private Parts) directing. The film is to be a comedy, but will, "not be any more violent than Men in Black". No script has been written as of yet, so the film may never happen...but it's still a strange turn of events. Redneck Rampage, of course, is a build-engine series of games by Xatrix (the people behind Kingpin).

A post to the GT Forum by Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart (spotted by Unreal Universe, thanks Billy) goes into detail on why there is no grappling hook in Unreal Tournament CTF, here's a portion of the post:

There will not be a grapple in UT. There are a few reasons why.

The first is that while grappling hooks give a player a lot of manouverability, they detract from gameplay. When you give the flag runner a grapple, he becomes a one man army. You might as well throw team tactics out the window. Instead of requiring the aid of your teammates to blow through a hallway blockade, you can just swing past. In Q2CTF or LMCTF, its easy for a single individual to grapple into even a heavily defended enemy base, hit the flag, and grapple out. I know because I've done it.

We feel that removes a lot of the teamplay element from CTF. Heroism is a nice thing, but should never be the focus of a team oriented game.

The translocator allows players to move into good sniping positions and to quickly get to areas they couldn't on foot. At the same time, it restricts players from quickly escaping the enemy base with the flag.

There's a new Nocturne Preview on Well Rounded Entertainment with a hands-on look at a preview version of this upcoming third-person action horror thriller set in the Lovecraftian '30s (or, as they put it, "when pulp fiction was still read by flashlight and there was a menace around every corner"). The preview includes a bunch of in-game screenshots.

The Adrenaline Vault Previews The Wheel of Time looking ahead at Legend's upcoming Unreal-engine action/strategy/adventure game. The detailed preview is capped off by a page of 3dfx screenshots.

CTNews interviews Joel Huenick of 4DRulers about their upcoming first-person shooter, Gore. Here's a little clip asking the musical question, why Gore?

Q. Why the title "Gore"? Kinda a stupid question, but will there be lots of err.. "Gore" in the game?

A. We named the game Gore because we wanted something catchy and easy to remember that we could fit into our existing story, which was a "Galactic blood bath battle over a new energy source known as ore", thus the war was dubbed Gore. It all made sense, and will be explained more in detail when we release the official story of the game. The game will also be pretty gory, but in more subtle ways, like pain face expressions on characters, twitching, convulsions and painful shouts of dying monsters, etc.

The Adrenaline Vault Editorials asks "What's in the Water?," discussing a possibly alarming trend in gaming websites, expressing concern that a growing number of sites are owned behind the scenes by ecommerce-based businesses, which can be viewed as a potential conflict of interest. The article raises what I would call some valid concerns, some that I can certainly say I share myself, and suggests that sites make a declaration of their ties to commerce: For the record, there are no "silent partners" here at Blue's News, which is 100% owned by me. There's an advertisement for an ecommerce site, here, but it's just that -- an ad.

More GeForce 256 screenshots in the bits this morning.

• There are more The Whole Experience Dragoth Moor Zoological Gardens Screenshots on RIVA3D showing off the flora and fauna of this GeForce 256 demo.
• Tweak3D.net's System Startup Tweak Guide has been updated to help punch up your boot sequence. If you're still feeling frisky after that, their Midtown Madness Tweak Guide has been updated, as well.
• There's a list of Direct X 7.0 Features on GA-Source. Thanks Ant.
• Site Sieve's The Need for Antialiasing discusses the benefits of losing those jaggies.
• Zanshin's GLDojo discusses the benefits of T&L.
• FPS3D.COM asks: Is Intel Dragging us Down?.

CliffyB made a post to the GT Unreal Forum for those failing to grasp the impact of the Impact Hammer, which is clearly more useful than most melee weapons in these types of games (I got three frags in a row with it the first time I figured it out). Thanks Firehawke at Unreal Universe. Here's the post, which should help if you're having problems with this beast:

Okay, I go onto a lot of servers and I see people not knowing how to use this gun. It is covered in the tutorial that ships with UT, which we did not include in the demo, so you get to hear it straight from me on how to use it.

1. Press fire.
2. Hold fire. (KEEP IT HELD! NEVER LET GO!)
3. Walk up to and touch someone.
4. POP!

There.

Now, the alt fire can deflect projectiles, but it is extremely hard to do. If you're starting off I'd suggest using the regular fire for offense.

You can charge the regular fire of the hammer and look down, release, and jump to get a nice impact jump. This is how you get the Damage Amp in Turbine.

5thD team homepage has the first release of their new Quake II mod that unashamedly tries to recreate the class-based gameplay of Team Fortress Quake (and QuakeWorld).

The just-announced Legacy Explorer is a new program that offers an interesting concept, allowing the management and manipulation of saved game files to allow for the use of more saves than save slots in the game, as well as other stuff like downloading and exchanging save game files. The initial version of the program supports about 20 games.

The results of the TotalMayhem Q3test tournament are online, offering results of one of the first online Q3Test tourneys. The Stickmen defeated Kiss My Ass in the finals.

Including some cool cases (literally and figuratively):

• The Adrenaline Vault Re-views Re-Volt.
• Computer Games Online reviews Braveheart calling it "A disappointing look under the kilt."
• Computer Games Online's Quick Take of Sinistar Unleashed is now up.
• 3D Rage reviews Darkstone.
• Sharky Extreme reviews the Turtle Beach Montego II Quadzilla.
• AMK 810 Overclocker's Case Review By The Tech Zone looks at this six fan case that move over 800 cubic feet of air per minute (you have to open the windows when it's on to keep your ears from popping).
• 3aG reviews the Mushkin ATX Case, a black case that features a hydraulic door.
• Speedy 3D reviews the 3dfxcool hddHO hard disk cooler.

• A short post on Unrealtournament.co.uk gives the UT Demo equivalents of a few useful QuakeWorld console commands, as sort of a quick guide to help Quake players adjust...
• Undulation has word of a variation on a chain-mapping project, where artists each add a texture to a texture file...
• There's a big ole rant on the Glide Underground complaining about Microsoft's (semi-)secret upcoming console project. Thanks SailorScout...
• I'm sad to report that Wadasia, home to game servers with that attracted some high quality players, seems to have shut down. Thanks Wicked Lester. It's possible there's some confusion here, but as of now their website just says "Play Nintendo" before forwarding to the Nintendo homepage. Too bad, this was a favorite place to play the Quake series, as well as TRIBES, and others (I even saw they had been running a UT demo server)...

Looking forward to getting back in the swing of things this week after disrupting myself pretty badly all last week playing around with hardware. The good news is, everything is running great here again, the bad (or at least odd) news, after all this trouble, is I still don't have NT installed(!). Oh well, I think I'll leave well enough alone at the moment and not break anything else for now (sometimes the technical difficulties just beat you into submission).

Link of the Day: Lip Balm Anonymous Home Page. Thanks Dan and Miller.