Fredrik 'Citizen' Skarstedt of www.kabuto.net sends word that if you live in California and want to check out a beta of Planet Moon's upcoming Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Interplay is holding a focus group on April 8. You must live in Orange County / LA to be eligible, and you should email betatest@interplay.com if you are interested. Also, PC.IGN.COM's Giant's Preview has been updated with ten new screenshots from Giants.

PC.IGN.COM previews Seed, an upcoming first-person action game from Human Soft (thanks Billy at VE). Here's the article's description of Seed:

While these screen shots make Seed look like it's another first person shooter, in fact gameplay more closely resembles a platformer than anything else, although there is combat involved too. In fact, the best analogy is probably to Montezuma's Return, another first-person point of view game done in a 3D engine and with a mix of jumping hazards, environmental puzzles, and combat.

The Adrenaline Vault News has posted a preview of the upcoming sequel to Carmageddon and Carmageddon 2 titled Carmageddon: Death Race 2000.

ION's Harvey "Witchboy" Smith updated his Witchboy's Cauldron with a description of a search for the Unreal CD and a Deus Ex status report. Here's the Deus Ex portion, in original semi-e.e. cummings style:

in other news, Deus Ex is looking like a game. we're a few days away from reaching Alpha. you can play missions 01 & 02, walk around, talk to numerous NPC's. we're trying to create believable NPC's, not just game thugs. it's way fun to listen to them talk and otherwise interact with them. pissing off the hulking, cybernetically freakish Gunther Hermann is actually terrifying.

currently, you can also do things like collect inventory items and use the skills your character has (chosen and advanced by the player from a selection of skills). picking locks and jury-rigging mechanical devices is cool already, though obviously we will be tuning the entire skillset as we go. also, the various in-game nanotech powers (also carefully selected and upgraded by the player) are fun to play with. (no one can have all of them, so the character building choices in some way determine how you play through the missions.)

i think the version we have by E3 will be impressive. i look forward to showing it off. warren, chris norden and i (and maybe others) will be attending the conference. i wish it was back in atlanta...to hell with LA.

In my GDC ramblings I mentioned that with hardware support for environmental bump-mapping (much cooler than embossed bump-mapping) in upcoming accelerators like the Permedia 3 and the Matrox G400 (a feature Matrox is emphasizing in its marketing), the question remained: how many game developers were going to jump in with the game assets to support the feature to make it a factor in the buying process? Matrox has sent along a list of developers who have promised such support so far, along with the titles being supported:

Slave Zero from Accolade Speed Busters from Ubi Soft Descent 3 from Interplay/Outrage Drakan from Psygnosis/Surreal Rally Masters from Gremlin/Digital Illusions Full Auto from Microsoft/Pseudo Interactive Expendable from Rage Software Black & White from EA/Lionhead Populous sequel from EA/Bullfrog AirRage from Infogrames/DID Typhoon from Infogrames/DID Vampire: The Masquerade from Activision/Nihilistic

Team Aligator from Kuju/Simis Messiah from Interplay/Shiny Battlezone 2 from Activision/Pandemic Dark Reign 2 from Activision/Pandemic Incoming Forces from Rage Software Hostile Waters from Rage Software Shadow Man from Acclaim/Iguana Carmageddon 3 from SCi Kick Engine from Kick Final Countdown from Diversal/Sylynium PowerRender from Egerter Software

There's a new Slave Zero Preview on GameSpot UK offering a look ahead at this game of giant robot rampages from Accolade. Here is a bit from the preview on the game on what differentiates it from games like MechWarrior, Heavy Gear, and Shogo:

There's an intriguing twist to the giant robot theme here ­ Slaves are grown, not made. No one pilots a Slave, rather they become one. Through an elaborate process, men are bonded to their Slaves, abandoning their humanity and evolving into something not quite human, not quite machine. It's a twist that actually affects gameplay. Bonded to your Slave, you're not just fighting oppression ­ you're fighting for your life: there's no eject button, no salvaging spare parts, no repair bays, and no commandeering another Slave to save your life. By eliminating the sim-like aspects of MechWarrior-type giant robot games and emphasising this 'kill or be killed' mindset, Slave Zero focuses its gameplay squarely on action.

The third-person perspective moves the game even further away from the usual robot-sim model ­ the designers felt that an exterior camera, not a first-person perspective, would best serve the game. We were sceptical at first, but quickly came around to their way of thinking after playing an early build.

The Wyrm 2 page has a new beta release of the Wyrm 2 mod for Quake II. Wyrm 2 offers new gameplay (CTF, Custom Classes, a new "Hell" skill level, etc.), new weapons (from the Pistol to the Energy Vortex, with stops along the way for things like BFG grenades), as well as new monsters, AI improvements, and a couple of new variables for building levels.

Kokak's Heretic Page has a new version 0.06 of GLHeretic, an OpenGL compatible version of Heretic based on the recently released source code to Raven's Doom-engine game. Thanks Raven-Games.com and Gamer's Revolt.

The folks at ASC Games have been marking recent full moons with releases of info and other events promoting their upcoming Werewolf: The Apocalypse - The Heart of Gaia. For tonight's Blue Moon (the extra-cool second full moon of the month), they have planned a live chat session about the game in their brand-new chat area with Travis Williams, Executive Producer of Werewolf: The yada yada (that's the longest game name I can ever recall seeing). The festivities kick off at 11:00 PM EST, and to participate, you need a chat room username and password (even if you already have a username and password for the ASC BBS), available at www.ascgames.com. Only the first 200 people will be allowed in.

Drakan.Net is reporting that this upcoming third-person game has entered beta testing, and looks to be on-track for a spring/summer release. Additionally, word there is that a demo version of the game has been delivered to an unspecified magazine for inclusion in an upcoming drop CD, possibly to appear on newsstands in May.

3D Spotlight interviews Derek Perez, talking to the Manager of PR for NVIDIA about the upcoming RIVA TNT2. Here are a couple of the Q's with the corresponding A's from this Q&A that tell what's up with the TNT2 and beyond:

Q: How much more time is it going to take to see TNT2 based cards in store shelves?

A: You should see boards on the shelves by May 1st.

Q: What about future products? S3 just released a bit of info on another chip that will be released by end of this year... is NVIDIA planning to release a made in 0.18 micron chip or maybe a chip with embedded memory by the end of the year?

A: We will announce a new architecture that will revolutionize the 3D graphics industry
for the fall of 1999. Unfortunatly, if I gave you any more information about the part
I would have to kill ya!!!!! :)

PC GameFan's Descent 3 preview is up with a look ahead at the game, and several screenshots.

Sharky Extreme's first glimpse at Full Auto offers screenshots of this auto combat game in development by Pseudo Interactive (not to be confused with Pseudo Online).

• Playing DM & Lithium wars & duels with Tourney explains how to use the OSP Tourney mod along with Lithium to govern tournament play.
• The Clan of Pooh has posted some demos of some recent international LMCTF action between the US and Canada.

• GameCenter reviews X-Wing Alliance, scoring it five of five. Also, Diversions of Technology reviews XWA as well.
• Voodoo Extreme reviews South Park, inspiring Billy to propose a possible "VE's steaming pile of crap award."
• Review Zone's Ultra ATA Hard Drive Roundup looks at six IDE drives.

• IE 5.0 suffers privacy bugs is a CNET News.com article with news of what would seem to be the inevitable gaps in the new browser's armor. Also, Microsoft Security Advisor Program has posted a Macro Virus Alert for Joan's daughter Melissa...
• The Thunder Home Page has the lowdown on dmDoom (tentative title), a new Doom source port looking to add Quake-style Internet playability to Doom...
• UF The Search Engine is a new search database, offering "cool, funny and geeky links"...
• Anatomy of a re-marked PII-333 is an Ars Technica article that can help the buyer beware...
• Setting up a Small LAN for Beginners is a do-it-yourself guide on Tweak3D...

I'll pass along what I learned to lick my sound card woes from last night in case it may help someone else: If you have Norton Antivirus and a Diamond Monster Sound MX300, make sure the line in your autoexec.bat that loads the Norton DOS NAV dealie is before the line that loads the MX300's DOS support program. Thanks Matthew Petrie from Falcon Northwest for the best tech support call I've ever had.

I don't want to seem like an HBO shill after my repeated recommendations for the Sopranos (which just keeps getting better), but Richard Jeni's HBO special is a scream. I had no idea he was so funny.

Yesterday's pop culture quote was from Splash, which also was good for this one, passed along by Floyd Turbo: "No, nobody's around, just me and the moron twins." ... "We're not twins."

Link of the Day: The web's only (known) Duct Tape Art Gallery. Thanks Loping.