The Parsec Homepage has posted a new screenshot from this upcoming "Fast-paced multiplayer cross-platform 3D Internet space combat" game. Thanks BarrysWorld. According to the page, a self-running demo will be released "in the next few months." Also, Man at game Gallery shows off Iron_Strategy, an upcoming game of giant robot combat that melds the action and RTS genres. And the BattleCruiser site has some new screenshots from BC 3020AD.

Starsiege Ride Your Herc to Victory is a CNET Gamecenter Game Guide presenting strategies for Dynamix' game of giant HERC combat. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

There are a bunch of TFC prefabs on the Half-Life Editing Resource Center to ease the way for mod authors into the world of editing TeamFortress Classic. Also, Billy at VE sends word of another Unreal Technology page update, this one for mod authors, talking of changes in the upcoming version 224 that will prevent backward compatibility with older versions.

Mortyr.Net, who probably would have a tough time being carried in mainstream department stores themselves with a swastika in their masthead, have posted a story saying that Mortyr, Interactive Magic's upcoming World War II game, is not going to be carried by certain stores because of some of the game's content.

Gamers Central's Hidden and Dangerous preview is online, offering a look ahead at this upcoming World War II shooter from Illusion Softworks illustrated with a bunch of new screenshots.

GameSpot TV's Quake III Preview offers the Quake III Arena video shown at the MacWorld Expo in RealPlayer format, with different versions available for different connection speeds.

Earlier today 3dfx sent along a utility to fix a problem with the shipping drivers with their Voodoo3 accelerators that prevented the "Use higher quality but lower performance video" button in the 3dfx Tools utilities from working properly. The utility was for reviewers only because it hadn't passed QA, but now they send word that it has, and may be distributed for Voodoo3 owners until new drivers are made available. Here's a local copy & mirrors of the 3dfx V3 config utility (16 KB).

Sierra sent along the announcement of the first official add-on announced for Valve's award-winning shooter Half-Life. Here's the poop on Half-Life: Opposing Force ("Op For"), being developed by Gearbox, made up of members of the now-defunct Rebel Boat Rocker:

Sierra Studios Announces Official Half-Life Game Expansion Half-Life: Opposing Force Due Fall 1999

BELLEVUE, WA (April 15, 1999) - Sierra Studios proudly announces that it will release an official game expansion for the highly celebrated 3D action thriller, Half-Life, this fall. Half-Life: Opposing Force (a.k.a. "Op For") is the official game expansion for Half-Life, the game named the 1998 "Game of the Year" by over 40 publications worldwide. Half-Life: Opposing Force is being developed by Gearbox Software for Sierra Studios.

In Half-Life: Opposing Force, players return to the Black Mesa Research Facility to engage in an entirely new episode of single player action and will be offered an enormous variety of new multiplayer content. Gamers play a soldier this time around, instead of Gordon Freeman. Having the option of playing on the opposing force, the player will experiment with a host of new military, experimental and alien weapons. Also a key feature will be to battle a fierce new alien race as well as interaction with more human characters. Finally, in addition to the extensive new single player experience, gamers will compete in new multiplayer maps designed by industry all-stars.

"Gearbox is extremely psyched to be working with the superior Half-Life game system and universe," said Randy Pitchford, lead designer of Half-Life: Opposing Force at Gearbox. "Our number one goal is to preserve the integrity of Half-Life and provide new experiences that expand upon the sensation of the original-we intend to make Half-Life fans very happy."

"Sierra Studios is excited to formally announce this expansion and to be the first to work with Gearbox Software," said Doug Lombardi, product manager for the Half-Life franchise. "Op For will take full advantage of the remarkable technology that Half-Life produced; including: enemy AI, rendering technologies, skeletal animation system and the extraordinary multiplayer technology that helped Half-Life become the quintessential benchmark action game."

Raven Programmer Jake "the Gent" Simpson updated his .plan with a bunch of stuff on his GDC experiences, and his update includes this bit on the recently released Heretic II Enhancement Pack:

So the EP is out there. And it has a couple of bugs in it. This highlights our blind spot of real Internet testing. QA at activision didn't catch a couple of bugs, but then we are lucky we got any QA time at all, since they had their hands full of Civ 2 and a golf game. I just want to say thank you to them for putting in the time they did. Anyway, we ARE going to fix the bugs that cropped up. Infact, they are fixed, and QA is once again doing their thing on the code. Its just a question of time before we release this fix. When its released, I'll do a .plan update listing what we fixed and why.

Frans at 3D Gamers sends word that while the Mortyr preview referred to earlier (story) is new, the accompanying movies have actually been available on the Interactive Magic FTP site for a while now, and are not actually new themselves.

GA-Source interviews Mike Maza, talking to the producer of Maximum Overkill about this upcoming first-person action title from NovaLogic. Also, Voodoo Extreme interviews Seamus McNally, lead programmer of the upcoming tank racing game, Tread Marks, being developed by Longbow Digital Arts.

NVIDIA has announced that a new line of Medion desktop PCs will have an NVIDIA RIVA TNT graphic accelerator embedded on the motherboard. Here's the word:

SANTA CLARA, CA -- APRIL 15, 1999 -- NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) today announced that the award-winning RIVA TNT 3D graphics processor will be featured in Medion's new desktop PCs. Directly integrated on Intel's newest 440BX motherboard, NVIDIA's RIVA TNT delivers state-of-the-art 3D performance, in addition to 2D and video acceleration to the mainstream PC market. The RIVA TNT is the first high-performance TwiN Texel 128-bit 3D processor to be integrated into a mainstream motherboard offering. "Incorporating the TNT-based BX Motherboard in their new desktop PCs allows Medion to deliver a high-end visual experience to a broad range of users," said Jeff Fisher, vice president of worldwide sales at NVIDIA. "NVIDIA's award winning RIVA TNT 3D processor is not only the perfect choice for the end-user who wants the ultimate visual experience in 2D and 3D, but it also gives Medion a winning edge in a highly-competitive market."

The Medion line of personal computers is sold directly from Medion, and is designed to meet user demands for the most advanced package of new technologies and features without the premium price. Each Medion PC is built to order and comes with a number of advanced features, including the integrated RIVA TNT graphics processor.

I figure if the idea of the bulleted collection of miscellany was fair game for adoption by others, that I'd exact payment by borrowing the idea in return of posting a second such collection in a day:

• The Doom LEGACY Home Site has version 1.28 of Doom LEGACY in two versions, a DOS and a WIN32 variety. Word is a new Linux version will follow soon.
• Volunteer rebels rock Web community is a ZDNN article describing a U.S. Department of Labor investigation into complaints by former AOL volunteers who claim AOL treated them like employees, but didn't pay them or give them benefits. It's possible fallout from something like this trickle down, as the article quotes an expert saying "If the Department of Labor pulls the plug on this you're definitely going to see some domino effect with online companies [using] volunteers..." As you are probably aware, several community gaming websites make use of volunteer labor...
• Be afraid: The Virtual Hunt Gets Bigger and Better With WizardWorks' `Deer Hunter II Extended Season' for the PC. Thanks Sharky...
• A monster Truck Madness competition on the MSN Gaming Zone offers the chance to win a loaded Toyota Tundra...
• Joe Siegler points out that the Apogee/3D Realms Site has a version 1.2 patch for their Balls of Steel pinball game. Yeah ,pinball is pretty off-topic here, but this is etc., etc., and besides, how often do you get to type "Balls of Steel"...

Zombie and RTIME Announce Spec Ops II and Agreement to Co-Market Integrated Viper 3D Game Engine With RTIME Networking Engine is the announcement of a new integrated Viper 3D (Spec Ops) engine with RTIME's networking engine that will be marketed to developers. Thanks Sharky. Here's some of the release:

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 15, 1999-- Zombie Virtual Reality Studios and RTIME, Inc. today announced an agreement to integrate the RTIME Interactive Networking Engine(TM) into "SpecOps II: Green Berets", slated for release in July, 1999.

SpecOps II, which is being co-published by Take-Two Interactive (Nasdaq:TTWO - news) and Ripcord Games, is the latest in the SpecOps franchise that has sold over 250,000 SKUs worldwide. Zombie and RTIME also announced a co-development and co-marketing agreement to sublicense the combined Viper 3D Game Engine and RTIME Interactive Networking Engine(TM) to game developers and publishers, allowing them to bring new, high quality titles to market in a fraction of the time and cost.

I goofed earlier when I said The AVault News story on Unreal 224 didn't contain new info (story), as my recollection of a previous announcement of LOD (Level of Detail) modeling in the upcoming Unreal-engine Duke Nukem Forever (story) led me to think this had already been announced for Unreal, when it had been not (sorry about that). Here's the part on LOD that's new:

Another major enhancement to be included in 224 is continuous level of detail, which varies polygon counts on objects such as player characters and power-ups relative to their distance from the camera, or player's perspective. In Unreal Tournament, this will enable the engine to place more characters and objects on the screen and still maintain a consistent and fluid framerate. Rein said this is an important feature not just for Unreal and Unreal Tournament but also for engine licensees since it also opens the engine to new game types, such as real-time strategy titles, that were not previously obvious choices for the engine.

Through the Looking Glass has some information obtained from Looking Glass' Tim Stellmach about the possibility (or lack thereof) of Ultima Underworld 3 ever getting made...here's a quick quote:

Obviously we can't do Underworld 3 unless EA contracts with us to do it: it's their property. Just as obviously we could do a fantasy role-playing game without the Underworld brand. What we're actually planning I am, as usual, not at liberty to say, but we're keeping plenty busy.

Ultima Underworld 1 and 2, you may recall, were Warren Spector's projects while at Looking Glass (he now resides at ION Storm, where he's working on Deus Ex) and amongst the first first person games ever. In other LGlass news, Billy "shock the monkey" Wilson has posted two new screenshots from an alpha version of System Shock II over on that page of his that show off a bit of the standard HUD.

There are a bunch (six, to be precise) of in-game movies from iMagic's upcoming Nazi-killing FPS Mortyr, over at pc.ign.com, showing off a great deal of their architechture, as well as their various weapons and character animations. If you haven't been able to get a feel for the game from the screenshots (see story), I recommend checking out these movies as they are relatively small downloads.

In a press conference this morning, Sega's Bernie Stolar made an announcement about the launch of their new system, the Dreamcast. With its Microsoft OS, modem, PowerVR graphics chip and Internet access, it resembles a mini-PC more than any console to date. According to Stolar, the system will retail for $199, and will launch with ten to twelve titles at launch (including the impressive Sonic Adventure, Sega Rally 2, and Virtua Fighter TB). No specifics were given about their Internet strategy, although he did say that details will be given at E3. The Dreamcast is set to launch stateside on September 9th (yes, that's 9/9/99). Games of note in development include MDK2, and a Dreamcast version of Unreal.

Creative Shines a Light on that Mud is a Sharky Extreme article following up on their recent discussion of how clockspeeds have still not been revealed for upcoming TNT2 releases, discussing the matter with Steve Mosher Vice President of Graphics Business at Creative Labs. The result is some interesting stuff on clock speeds and Creative's TNT2 and "Ultra-TNT2" plans (as well as a few shots at 3dfx, he keeps calling the Voodoo3 the Banshee2, for instance), though the light he shines is limited, as he doesn't make any concrete statements about planned clockspeeds either. Also, Planet Hardware has been redesigned, and to celebrate they have posted a few new pieces, including reviews of the 3dfx Voodoo3 2000, the Elitegroup P6BXT-A+ Slot-1-S70 Motherboard, and the Matrox Marvel G200-TV.

Responding to my comment of not recalling seeing shots from the 2093 portion of Interactive Magic's upcoming shooter Mortyr, Mortyr.Net sends along word of this page and this page with a whole load of such future shots compiled into one place.

Afflicted.Net has posted a new screenshot from CaveDog showing off the editor being used to create their upcoming shooter, Amen: The Awakening.

GameSpot's Preview of Descent 3 is up offering a look ahead at this upcoming action space flying shooter from Outrage. DFWM, who sent this along points out that, like X-Wing Alliance (see the Image of the Day from April 6 this year), this game contains its own Quake reference, as evidenced by this screenshot.

The Adrenaline Vault News has posted an article about the version 224 of Unreal being planned for release soon by Epic. The lengthy update doesn't offer any new info, but does summarize all the features currently planned for the patch, as well as an outline for Epic's plans for the release of an Unreal Tournament at some unspecified date prior to the release of the full game (though it doesn't mention if it will be out before the Unreal shareware).

ION Storm's Mike "Tarix" Montague updated his .plan with a follow up on his recent interview on PlanetDaikatana (story), filling in some info he failed to provide about A3D sound support. Thanks Daikatana HeadQuarters. Here's most of the update:

In this article I failed to mention anything about A3D which caused a flood of email. We currently do support A3D 1.0. Soon we will have support for A3D 2.0 as well. Anyone with a card that supports A3D, D3D, or EAX and has a set of 4.1 or 5.1 speakers will have an awesome sound experience! At the time of the interview I was working strickly with the EAX features of the SoundBlaster Live! I now have a test computer with a Live! and one with an MX-300 so I can test equally and they both sound great!

My tasks lately have been: Fixing sound problems in the engine, working on the save and load routines, and tweaking monster behaviors and weapons.

We are showing single player stuff at E3. Stay tuned.

Designing Enemies with Distinct Functions is a Gamasutra feature by ION Storm's Harvey "Witchboy" Smith discussing what goes into making good bad guys (posted a few days back).

A new version 2.0 of TOW Arena, the mod that brings the competition of Rocket Arena to Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, is now available. The new release includes a dedicated server, and offers improved stability, many new features, and bug fixes. TOW Arena 2.0 now also prevents people from connecting to the server if they don't load the TowArena.rez file.

An update for Beta 5 of Terror Quake2 is now available, offering a couple of small new features, as well as several bug fixes.

The Boomstick Joint has posted what they modestly call one damn good guide to Team Fortress Classic, which includes descriptions of all the classes and tips with strategies for different maps.

• Just two more days in the fabulous Blue's News name the two guys in this picture contest.
• Uberfest 99 has been announced, a follow-up to last year's event which was held concurrently with E3. This time around the event will be June 25-27, again in Atlanta GA, sponsored by the very cool PyroPimps Show. Info on this, and other upcoming LAN events are on our LAN Parties page. Also, LAN Arena.com has word of a large event in Paris on May 8-9.
• The Dark Army 3 Half-Life Clan Page is hosting a 16 clan, 4-on-4, double elimination Half-Life deathmatch tourney. Head over and enter (if you can stand the Another One Rides the Bus midi on the page).
• Doomed's Armor Contest looks for the best original Starsiege TRIBES light armor design, with a copy of TRIBES autographed by the development team as the first prize.
• If you've got a clan or a league, you can add them to the database at LeaguePlay.net, "a meeting place for many online, and offline, multiplaying gamers."

• GameCenter reviews Redline. Thanks Jamie Fullerton.
• Thresh's FiringSquad reviews Requiem: Avenging Angel.
• Game Post reviews TeamFortress Classic.
• IGamer.Net's EverQuest review.
• Wicked PC reviews the AMD K6-III 400.
• Thresh's FiringSquad reviews the Pentium III Xeon 500.
• Sharky Extreme's Gigabyte GA-BX2000 440BX Mainboard review and Hot Hardware's Elite P6BXT-A+ Socket 370-Slot 1 Board review.
• FPS3D reviews the Trident Blade 3D graphic card.

• The Line Up offers a site devoted to beer, games, and cigars. I don't know if they chose that path to get a link from me, but it sure worked...
• Birdman's Lair has a couple more new files up to help with Space Orb support, one for the MechWarrior 3 Demo, and another for the updated version 1.1.1 Descent 3 demo...
• GameCenter has got a Release Dates dealie up that I think is new (thanks Matthew Rorie). These things are tough to pin down, but it's something...
• One for the anti-bargain bin: Monster 3D II 8 MB. Thanks Easterbunny. Sure, it's $5,192,508.02, but shipping is free...

Today is the day U.S. citizens are required to file their income tax returns, as well as the 87th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. I'll let you draw your own connections between the two. There's something going on for some readers that's causing the site to refresh, sometimes multiple times, I'm looking into it, but so far it has me stumped. Also, as I mentioned earlier, we had a problem with a full hard drive for a short time yesterday, it turns out that in addition to resetting a couple of .plans in the BlueTracker, this resulted in a bad upload of the Diablo II movie, my apologies to anyone who had a problem with the truncated file. Once we're sure the storage issue is under control, we'll get back on the stick with the local copies of files. Thanks esses for today's Link of the Day, which follows the full disk theme:

Link of the Day: Microsoft's tips for Windows 3.1 to increase disk space.