GameCenter's Sneak Peek at Descent 3 is up, offering a look ahead at Outrage's upcoming installment in the series. Here's a bit on how one advance in D3 should be a more distinctive feel to locations to break monotony on level design:

Descent 3 will change all that. "Every level takes place in a certain environment," explains Toschlog. "While we had names for the locations in Descent and Descent II, they all kind of looked the same. This time they really don't. We have a level that takes place on a spaceship; we have a level that takes place on a space station; we have levels in research facilities or military facilities; we have a level that takes place in a prison. And they all really look different." According to Toschlog, each level will feature different textures, objects, robots, and even unique characters and mission objectives.

GameSpot's preview of Drakan is online, profiling Psygnosis' upcoming dragon-riding third-person action/adventure. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

Arcadia has posted a new screenshot from Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament, available in two different sizes, for use as desktop wallpaper.

3DGN's Trip to Ritual Entertainment recounts their recent road tip to party with the tribe.

3DFiles.com's Requiem Avenging Angel demo page has their download for the demo and a list of mirrors, and the demo is also available on 3D Action Gamers' Archive.

There's a Q&A with Robert Duffy talking with the programmer of QERadiant (and variants), as well as the upcoming Q3Radiant, posted on Rust, the game editing and design site. It's a very short discussion, but editing types are probably interested in even small tidbits on the improvements/enhancements expected in future versions of QERadiant and Q3Radiant.

Dynamix' Scott Youngblood updated his .plan with a bit on the mission builder in the new patch:

Ok, there is a beta patch out that has the new mission editor in it. All of you mission builders out there give it a good pounding and let us know if you find any problems with it. If you do find a problem please send me mail asap and we will try to get it addressed before we release the 1.4 version.

On the new Mission front: The original Broadside is BACK! The 1.3 version has been renamed to BLASTSIDE (Thanks to everyone who submitted a name.)

A new version 0.94 of the Generations Quake II mod that combines the characters, weapons, maps, and enemies from Quake II, Quake, Doom, and Wolfenstein-3D will be released tonight at 11:00 PM EST. To celebrate the release (which still so far entails only Quake and Quake II), the team is holding a small release party. Connect to the IRC server at www.planetquake.com and join the room #Generations "to talk with the team while you download."

Tweak3D has posted more tweaks for the Kingpin demo, including tips on how to cut down on hard drive thrashing while playing.

As promised yesterday, the second playable demo of 3DO's upcoming heavenly (and hellish) shooter, Requiem: Avenging Angel, is now available. Thanks KiRiON|FL|. Here is the demo download page, which offers the demo as one big (approximately 32 MB) zip, or broken up into segments. Here's the info that Phil Co passed along yesterday on what the demo includes:

4 "JAM's" (or sub-levels) that make up the one level
Setting in the Power Plant of New Damascus
Tons of soldiers, Demon Rats, Demon Dogs, and Flying Kynthra
Tons of Angelic Powers including Resurrect, Possess, To Salt, Bloodboil, and Warp Time

Mission Objectives:
Meet with Rebel Soldier, Elijah
Find Cathcart, a Power Plant Exec Sympathetic to the Rebellion
Blow up the Back Up Reactor to set up a diversion

The demo is playable on:

Minimum:
P166
32 Megs of RAM

Software
D3D
3DFX

Spin Pop Life: Gamers offers profiles of the "Avatars of the New Millenium" with part one offering an interview with ION's John Romero (and David Deinstbeir, Game Designer at Acclaim/Iguana) answering the single question, "Which game really got you into videogames?" Thanks Lestat.

Datumplane::Starsiege interviews Dave Meddish from Dynamix about some of what will go into TRIBES 2, the sequel to Starsiege TRIBES. Here's a bit:

Yoshi: Will the maps have more buildings like a city or something?

Dave: I don't know if we're going to have more "urban" maps. We toyed around with it for TRIBES but were having poly count issues, which is why the city maps didn't make the original cut.

Yoshi: Hardware only should help.

Dave: I would think so. We'll know more once we start really cranking out new missions.

Some updated Q&As have been added to GameSpot UK's Black And White interview collection, which is becoming a Library of congress-sized repository of such interviews, now totaling well over a dozen. According to Nicola over at GSUK, "In our second batch of interviews we discover Jean-Claude Cottier's 3D landscapes, why Jamie Durrant likes Baldurs Gate, how Paul Nettleton got to know Peter, and reveal the truth behind Mark Healey."

GA-Source has posted eight Exclusive Slave Zero Screenshots showing off action from Accolade's upcoming giant-sized third-person (or third-robot) action game.

An update to Kevin Bentley's Developer Notes offers a discussion of mouse control issues, and centers around whether Quake-style mouselook (with almost instant turning) will make it into the game, a subject on which the Outrage programmer seeks feedback. The update also discusses the existing Quake-style mouse control that's hacked into the version 1.1 Descent 3 patch, and how to use it, which may be useful to experiment with for those interested in offering feedback.

3DsoundSurge's Vortex 1 Technical Support FAQ and 3DsoundSurge's Vortex 2 Technical Support FAQ are both online offering unofficial resources to answer your questions about both generations of soundcards based on A3D's designs.

Another free-PC deal emerges is a ZDNN article an another free machine to be had in exchange for your loyalty to DirectWeb's Internet service. Thanks Steve Strickland.

GameCenter's Half-Life MP3 Files offers all the music from Valve's much-lauded shooter for download in .mp3 format, including some tracks that can't be accessed as CD audio. The archive is 32 MB, and will be available from Gamecenter only until tomorrow. Thanks Ant.

Mortyr.Net has posted a new set of Mortyr Screenshots, as well as their weapons pages which offer detailed info (some of it previously unrevealed) about the armaments included in this upcoming back to the future World War II shooter.

The screenshot happy gang at GameSpot UK have posted a beefy new 30 image Descent 3 Screenshot Gallery.

PlanetUnreal has conducted an interview with Wesley Davis of Project V1 that they are going to split into a few parts and milk for a couple of days. The first part, which is up now, talks a bit about the project, going into some detail about the drivable vehicles (with mounted weapons) that will be included in this upcoming Unreal-engine game. They have also posted a new screenshot showing off a small PT boat ("The small boat?! Fat Jack!!").

Unreal Mac version 2.2.0b2 is now available on the Westlake Interactive page. Thanks Scandalon. The Mac version numbers have been changed to more closely reflect the PC scheme, and this version is based on the PC version 220. Word is that work on Mac 223 is starting soon, so the next Mac patch should be ready closer to the release of the next PC patch.

MessiahPress has posted a short Q&A with Shiny's Scott Herrington talking about what TeamEgo has been up to lately in developing their upcoming third-person action game starring Bob the Cherub, Messiah. The update offers some new character shots in addition to the new info. Here's a quote:

Tons more character animation is going into the game then we had originally thought of. It just seems to keep piling up. This is the last time we make a game so flexible! Every character has to work in just about every scene/environment in the game - and that means a truckload of animation for each.

Most of the placeholder sfx are in the game, the full list has been turned over to Tommy for the 'official' effects.

AGP code is being worked on so that we don't have to reduce textures at all. People with AGP machines are going to have a truly stunning looking version of the game when the code is complete.

With the recent news of Worldcraft Pro being cancelled, a concerned Andy Basler wrote Valve's Harry Teasley asking what the future holds for the official Half-Life editor, and here is Harry's response:

We're working all of our Worldcraft issues out right now. We'll have something to say on the matter soon. Rest assured that we haven't abandoned Worldcraft, and there will be updates.

The RIVA 3D TNT-2 Review has been updated with more visual examples of the TNT2/Voodoo3 comparison, and similarly, Planet RIVA's 16-bit versus 32-bit color article has been updated with new info and comparison shots.

Get a load of this load of competitions and such. Get your scorecard ready:

• The second annual Quake Easter Egg Hunt will take place this (Easter) Sunday, offering a teamplay Quake II egg hunt with $100 in cash prizes.
• Rioport.com is giving away two Force Feedback Kits, featuring Microsoft's Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel and a Sidewinder Force Feedback Joystick along with two games with support for Force Feedback: Microsoft's Motocross Madness and LucasArts' Rogue Squadron.
• This GA-Source Contest offers full iRiS AntiVirus packages to 30 winners.
• The Mplayer Daikatana Deathmatch page has info on Phillip 'R-Gauss' Marcus, winner of the first week's competition, the first of four contestants who will journey to Dallas to battle in a final showdown.
• Thousands die on screen - at PC party is a BBC article on what's described as the UK's biggest ever LAN party this past weekend.
• It's never too early, so the World Deathmatch Tournament homepage is already online. The WDT is a Quake III Arena tourney planned for the first quarter of 2000 to be held in the Palexpo exhibition center in Geneva, Switzerland (which can hold up to 1,500 contenders).
• Finally, here's the scoop on this weekend's festivities at The Bay Area Network Gaming Group:

The Bay Area Network Gaming Group is gearing up. only 6 days left 'til the Big BANGG, a 200 person LAN Fiesta in San Jose, CA. Held at the Santa Clara Convention center April 2-4th, it's gearing up to be one hell of a party! Nearly 150 sign-ups so far, and over 200 expected!

Sponsors have lined up left and right, including 3dfx, nVidia, S3, AMD, Logitech, Mad Catz, and more! There will be many great prizes to be given out, including coupons for a free TNT2 when they come out retail! S3 will be demonstrating their Savage4 chipset with Unreal Tournament and the Quake3 Demoloop. AMD will be sending a team with their K6-3 computers (equipped with Voodoo3s and TNT2s) to show off, and maybe give away! Logitech will be premiering their Wingman Gamers' Mouse, and giving away 6 of their Wingman Formula Force steering wheels in a Need for Speed III race-off! Sponsors are still lining up, even in this, the week of the event!

• PC Gamer UK reviews X-Wing Alliance. Also, Pete's Hardware Domain reviews XWA.
• 3DGaming.Net reviews Recoil.
• ATI All-In-Wonder 128 review at the GamersDepot.
• Sharky Extreme reviews the Intel Pentium III/500Mhz CPU.
• Ace's Hardware reviews the AMD K6-III/400.
• Gigabyte GA-BX2000 Review @ bxboards.com is the MoBo review of the day. Rather than a single BIOS chip, this board has two, a Primary and Secondary BIOS.

• The new issue of the Voodoo Review is online...
• ZDNN Melissa mutates: Virus variants detected, the latest on the 'Melissa' virus...
• ZDNN Relief, anger greet Mitnick plea...
• The final round of voting in The Quake Movie Library's Quake Oscars is underway (with $500 in prizes at stake)...

Nothing like a middle of the night troubleshooting session to get the adrenaline flowing, I rebooted after playing some TRIBES, and proceeded to repeatedly lock-up. A couple of hours ago I pulled my soundcard, and my machine suddenly booted again, whee! Yesterday's Pop Culture quote was from Steve Martin's The Jerk. Randalls offers a quote in return that echoes a popular response: "These cans are defective - they're springing leaks! Come over here and look at this!" I'll confess right now that today's quote (yes, there's already one up there somewhere) is paraphrased.

Link of the Day: Bunny survival Tests (reminiscent of some classic peep experiments)... with Easter coming, science marches on. Thanks Ultraboy.It really is me.

An update by Tim "Slacker" Gift to the Starsiege TRIBES players page about the TRIBES patch in the next story makes it clear this is really geared towards the TRIBES Server Corps, and is not recomended for end users. Thanks JeKill. Here's the update:

This is a beta version of TRIBES. We don't recommend that you install this version unless it specifically addresses problems you are encountering, or you wish to help us test the game.

This version is geared towards server operators and mission builders, though it also includes that latest OpenGL driver.

Only a 1.3 to 1.3.12 patch is provided. As this is a beta release, there may not be a 1.3.12 to 1.4 patch when version 1.4 is released.

Client & Server Changes:
- Banning problems introduced in version 1.3 have been fixed.
- A server side crash related to players dropping items then quitting has been fixed.
- The remoteBuyItem() function now properly checks for team item limits.
- Performance improvements for nVidia TNT cards.
- OpenGL & 32 bit desktops. If your graphics card supports 32 bit rendering, then the TRIBES will now run 32 bit accelerated, otherwise the software OpenGL driver is run, which is extremely slow.
- A crash bug related to having shadows turned on while using the Glide drivers has been fixed. This was a bug introduced in version 1.3.
- Staying connected to IRC while playing the game could cause the client to crash.
- OpenGL is now enabled by default, you no longer have to set the $OpenGL::Enabled variable.
- If a client is missing custom files (or missions) loaded by the server, a "missing file" error message now appears during the loading process.
- Clients now get a "connecting to modified server" notice when connecting to servers which have mods loaded. Mod or server operators may set an optional string ($MODInfo) that is appended to the notice.

Mission Editor Changes:
- New mission wizard for creating new missions
- Ability to scene light the current mission from within the editor
- Ability to move and edit mission static lights
- Random terrain generation from within the editor
- User configurable terrain, mission and world types for use in the mission wizard
- Script based landscape generation
- Ability to choose and place terrain textures
- Auto regeneration of command map after leaving editor
- Hotkey support for terrain editor
- Ability to add custom volumes from within the editor
- Ability to create new terrain types through scripts
- Can create a mission or enter the mission editor from the command line

The PlanetStarSiege Download Center has a new version 1.3.12 patch for Starsiege TRIBES. The new patch is unsupported by Sierra but adds a list of new features, including a new mission editor wizard, a fix for banning problems, and OpenGL fixes.

I received word from Phil Co, lead designer on Requiem: Avenging Angel, that a new playable demo for the game should be available tomorrow. From the description, this demo sounds like it will be a bit more substantial than the first one:

The Second Requiem Playable Demo should be up by tomorrow.
Here's the breakdown:

4 "JAM's" (or sub-levels) that make up the one level
Setting in the Power Plant of New Damascus
Tons of soldiers, Demon Rats, Demon Dogs, and Flying Kynthra
Tons of Angelic Powers including Resurrect, Possess, To Salt, Bloodboil, and Warp Time

Mission Objectives:
Meet with Rebel Soldier, Elijah
Find Cathcart, a Power Plant Exec Sympathetic to the Rebellion
Blow up the Back Up Reactor to set up a diversion

The demo is playable on:

Minimum:
P166
32 Megs of RAM

Software
D3D
3DFX

The LoneGunmen's page has been updated with 10 new demos showing off different techniques including cool turret destruction lessons and a guide to the mysterious writing on Broadside. There are also seven new crosshairs for download, and a set of guidelines for proper "care and feeding of your turrets" is in their general tips section.

GameCenter's RIVA TNT Tweaker's Guide is online, offering tips for improving visual quality and performance.

A post to the Deus Ex messageboard by Bob White offers a progress report on ION Storm's upcoming Action/RPG. Thanks Gollywog at StormTroopers. Here's the quote:

Well...We have an internal deadline to reach by April 1 of a playable first section of the game (a couple of missions). Also we have set a high goal for ourselves of also having all geometry for everty mission complete. This team is strong and driven to get their tasks completed. I am proud to say that this team will reach the goal and on time.

These first two sections of the game, based in the burrows of NYC, will also comprise the demo, since they could be stand alone and provide an excellent set-up or the rest of the missions. You will get to see these at E3 if you are one of the lucky ones to get a glimpse of the game.

The programmers have been sailing along and a good deal of the functionality is in place. The first two missions scripts are in the game and voice overs are also in place.

Hopefully more screen shots and additional game information will soon start trickling out to help whet your appetites.

The D0gz Pack has (haz?) posted the version 1.2 general release of their TRIBES statistical utility, TRIBEStats, which now includes "Strategic Initiatives" where you get points for destroying enemy turrets and generators. Also, Team Killing stats have been included, where collecting a literal frag will earn you points for the "Hall of Shame."

Microsoft Splits Into Five Groups In Reorganization announces the long expected re-org in Redmond that splits the software (and hardware) giant into separate groups: A Consumer and Commerce group, a Business Enterprise division, a Consumer Windows division, a Business Productivity group, and a Developer group. Calling this "the reinvention of Microsoft," the company has "also created a separate home and retail products division to focus on consumer-targeted retail products such as games, input devices and reference products." Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski.

The official MechWarrior 3 site is online, dedicated to the next installment in the giant Mech series, offering info, screenshots, and of course, downloads of the recently released demo.

HardwareCentral's Permedia3 Preview looks at the upcoming 3D accelerator from 3D Labs.

The Prince Of Persia 3D Screenshot Gallery on GameSpot UK has been updated with 14 new screenshots from Prince of Persia 3D, the upcoming 3D sequel to the pair of classic side-scrollers.

PCGamePro.Com previews Giants: Citizen Kabuto, the upcoming game of living large from Planet Moon Software and Interplay in a preview that offers a bunch of new screenshots.

Word of a couple tweaky bits of news come from the tweaks at Tweak3D: The TweakAll Download Page has a new version of this program that allows control over a bunch of settings for your machine like VCACHE and some 3Dfx settings, and Tweak3D's own Windows Shell Tweak Guide is up with info on how the power-hungry can replace their Windows 98 shell with the "faster Windows 95 shell," tweak either the Windows 95 or 98 shell, or even replace your Windows 95/98 shell with a custom shell of your choice.

Tonight's GameTime will offer a chat with Epic's Cliff Bleszinski discussing Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament. The show begins live at 6:00 PM EST, RealPlayer required to watch the show, and you can join the simultaneous chat using an IRC client and server chat1.pseudo.com, channel #allgames, or by using the iChat plugin.

It's just for laughs, but I can't resist posting this .plan update from Scott Miller that reproduces what has to be the spam of the week (if not more):

Got this via email. If anyone needs game ideas, we now have a source!!!

----------

Hello,

My name is [name withheld] and I own a game ideas development company. I would like to co-operate with you. If you don't understand what we do here, I will explain. What we do here in Creative Gamers is create Game Ideas. We create the game idea and then sell the rights to Game DEVELOPMENT company's. We sell 2 things in our company:
1) A game idea with some specific details - Low Price.
2) Create a full draft of a game, charachters, background, story and everything - Price varies according to length of the game.
We want to work with you. We produce ANY KIND of game in a very short time, the longest time it took us to create a full draft for a game was 3 weeks and that was a 2 cd game.

Thank you very much.

P.S. Please reply if you want more information like full price list or just a specific type of game, or just a Yes or No.

Kraemer's Q3Arena preview is up on Dimension 128 and sCary's own article on Q3ATest (click here to read the next two words) are both online, like Redwood's, each based on their recent foray to id to play the latest build of the test.

There is a speculative article on Thresh's FiringSquad that offers some conjecture about 3dfx' upcoming plans based on history, common sense, some reading between the lines, and perhaps a session with the crystal ball.

There's a feature on Gathering of Developers on GameSpot TV offering video interview with big Mike Wilson talking about this unusual game publishing company in RealPlayer format. Thanks i am jilted.

The Adrenaline Vault previews Requiem: Avenging Angel looking at this shooter from 3DO/Cyclone Studios that just went gold. Here's a bit from the preview on what Requiem is about:

Borrowing heavily from these words and others like it, 3DO and Cyclone Studios are almost ready to bring Heaven and Hell to your computer screen like you've never seen or heard before. Requiem: Avenging Angel relies heavily on non-player character interaction to develop its multi-layered storyline much the same way Half-Life does. The game is a three dimensional action shooter with fiction that combines the prophecies of ancient religious texts and includes a script right out of the movie Spawn. Requiem is truly a religion all its own.

GameSlice has posted five screenshots for Acclaim's upcoming third-person adventure-shooter, Shadow Man.

The Half-Life Editing Resource Center has posted an overview of the Half-Life teamplay entities included in the 1.0.0.9 Half-Life executable included with the TeamFortress Classic LAN release as well as the Worldcraft game data files with the entities from the new release. This is a whole new set of teamplay entities separate from the TeamFortress Classic stuff. They are of a much simpler nature than TFC entities, and are less powerful as a result, but they do allow mappers to add enhanced teamplay aspects to deathmatch maps. Of course, some of the information is subject to change for the final release of TeamFortress Classic (currently planned for April 2).

The BattleCruiser Online site has a new version 2.06 patch for BattleCruiser 3000AD, you can read about what's new in the version control file. The new release also includes version 2.06 of the BC Game Control System, which allows you to create modifications for the game.

The new loonygames is here, the new loonygames is here! "This is the kind of spontaneous publicity, your name in print, that makes people!"

loonygames laughs at issue thirty-one! Thirty one issues? Yowza... Baffling you this week:

• Mike Wilson and the Glory of G.O.D.: We chat with the founder of the Gathering of Developers about DWANGO, id Software, ION Storm, the publishing biz, and...Howard Stern? [Monday]
• Thinking Outside the Box: It took thirty-one issues, but at long last...we've got nudity! Yeah, baby! Oh yeah...and there's some kind of 3D modelling tutorial in here somewhere, too. [Tuesday]
• Painting on Polygons: Rick Grossenbacher's 2D art tutorial series continues with this piece on creating Anime style art using Adobe Illustrator. [Wednesday]
• User Friendly: All this week, it's the ever popular Star Wars parody! [DAILY!]
• PLUS: Not one, but two new Penny Arcades [Wednesday, Friday], we check out South Park [Thursday], a new Pixel Obscura [Tuesday], critiquing game reviews in Pad Happy [Thursday] and more! And then some more, because we do it to spite you.

The Xtreme Gaming Network is offering an interesting-sounding new service for TRIBES server operators that will create a custom TRIBES map for their server. If you run a dedicated server and you would like a custom map please contact optimizer@xtremegaming.net for more information.

The Grassy Knoll has posted a config file for the newly released TeamFortress Classic LAN editions (and presumably subsequent TFC releases, as well) that lets the player cycle through nine class specific configs, and sets up several useful aliases. Functions include a one-button sentry build/detonate toggle and an instant color change for the spy class.

Jason's Rage 128 FAQ offers answers to frequently asked questions about ATI's newest chipset.

• I Play Games reviews Carmageddon 2.
• CPU Review reviews the AMD K6-400.
• Tweak3D reviews the 3dfx Voodoo3 3000.
• Sharky Extreme reviews the 3dfx Voodoo3 2000.
• HardwareCentral's Elite P6BXT-A+ Review looks at ECS' latest Mobo.

• Word on Challenge-au is that Reload, one of Australia's top-ranked Quake players, has landed a sponsorship deal with Intel...
• A new Sin messageboard has been added to the Bot Board Forums discussing the AI in Sin. There are currently seven boards active, including Quake, Quake2, Quake3 Arena, Half-Life & TF2, Unreal & Unreal Tournament, Sin, and "Other Games"...
• The Good Old Days of Quake article posted the other day (story) is now back online if you tried to read it before (the server went down shortly after the link was posted)...
• The Ars Technica Interview with an Ultima Online addict talks with the woman who paid $2,025 for a UO account on eBay...

Doh! One more bug (at least) still does remain from our recent spate of database bugs here at the old Blue Tower, I find in browsing back through the news archives, some stories will not be displayed once you go back a couple of days (Thursday to be exact). The stories not displayed are the same stories whose headlines were not displaying last week (and it is the workaround that is making the headlines show now that is making the stories since Thursday work), but fortunately, any story that matches your search criteria still seems to work when you search. The last thing I ever expected to ramble about in my Out of the Blue ramblings is bug reports, and needless to say, this episode has caused a couple of policies to be quickly enacted to make sure future software updates here go more smoothly. I guess in the meantime we're waiting for the Blammo point release .