The Wheel of Time page has undergone its weekly update (thanks Billy "proud mary" Wilson) with the status on WoT deathmatch, AI, levels, cut scenes, and more, as they gear up for E3 (and the release of Star Wars: Episode 1, apparently).

Here you go kids, a new screenshot from Volition's recently announced upcoming space shooter, Descent: Freespace 2. Here's a description of the game's complex plot:

Thirty-two years ago, in the Altair system, Vasudan scientists discovered the remnants of an extinct civilization we now call the Ancients, and here we found the secret to defeating the Shivans. How close did we come to being a footnote in the history of a future species that would happen upon our ruins ten thousand years from now? Would they have indulged in the fiction of their own immortality until the Shivans came for them? Now, we have uncovered the map of the Ancients' dominion, the mesh of stars and subspace filaments weaving the fabric of space and time. Jump nodes we never knew existed. We have launched our ships through these portals, and all have returned but one…

Got a couple o' TRIBES related bits for your reading enjoyment this evening. Rifter o' PlanetStarsiege sends word that the TRIBES dev-team status page got a brief update, and now shows the 1.4 patch as being 100% done and 60% in testing. Also, this thread on the TribesPlayers forum has details on how to import 3D models into TRIBES.

Granted it has nothing to do with games, but Apple has released Quicktime 4 for download. To give you a decent reason to download the software, there's a new version of the ever-popular Star Wars trailer in 640x288 with full 44khz stereo sound that's only 25 meg (the same size as the old one). The catch? You need Quicktime 4 to play it.

GA Source has posted a quick Q&A with Mortyr developer Mike Pearson about the controversy surrounding the game, in particular the game's packaging. Here's an excerpt:

Think of the subject matter and how difficult it was to convey the story with this subject matter. As it is, you've got a German officer's helmet with a bullet hole going through it and a pool of blood. To me this thing screams shooter, and guess what you get to shoot? Nazis. Not demons or aliens, but Nazis, mankind's worst enemy, a real quantifiable evil.

Microsoft unveiled their latest mouse today, the oddly named IntelliMouse Explorer (thanks Quiller). It's a wacky looking thing with four buttons and no moving parts, and will be available in September. Here's a snippet from the press release:

The most significant improvement is the addition of Microsoft IntelliEye, an innovative new optical tracking technology that makes mouse balls and pads seem as archaic as the dot matrix printer. An optical sensor captures images of the work surface at a rate of 1,500 images per second, and a digital signal processor (DSP) translates changes between the images into on-screen movements.

This technique, called image correlation processing, results in smooth, precise pointer movement. The mouse works on any surface - paper, walls, your jeans - no mouse pad is required. And since the mouse has no moving parts, cleaning is unnecessary; after years of use, the IntelliMouse Explorer will be as responsive and accurate as the day it was purchased.

Looking for a laugh to get you out of that Monday rut? Swing by this week's edition of The Mushroom for such stories as "Belmonts Are An S&M Cult," "Mavis Beacon Teaches Pimping," and my personal favorite, "Hunter S. Thompson To Start Software Line." Also out there on the fringe of taste today is National Gamer Review, whose lead stories include, "Playstation 2: Is It Getting Enough Hype?" and the hilarious "Command and Conquer Found At Root of Kosovo Crisis." And of course for those of you out there who are really gullible, swing by Requiem HQ for "an early technology video from Requiem 2." (Thanks to Billy "gullible" Wilson for that last one.)

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for their Interactive Achievement Awards this afternoon...here's some categories of note:

Action Game of the Year (pc)
Half-Life, Sierra Studios/Valve
Starsiege Tribes, Sierra Online/Dynamix, Inc.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Red Storm Entertainment, Inc./Red Storm Entertainment, Inc.
Unreal, GT Interactive Software/Epic Games and Digital Extremes

Action/Strategy Game of the Year (online)
Airwarrior III, Aries Online Games/Kesmai Studios
CyberStrike 2, Simutronics/Simutronics
Starsiege Tribes, Sierra Online/Dynamix, Inc.

Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design
DMG Pokemon, Team Pokemon, Nintendo of America/Creatures Inc./Game Freak, Inc. (Game Boy)
Half-Life, Team Half-Life, Sierra Studios/Valve
Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima, Konami of America, Inc./ KCEJ (PSX)
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Brian Reynolds, Electronic Arts/Firaxis Games
Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Team Zelda, Nintendo of America/Nintendo Co. Ltd. (N64)

Best of luck to all the nominees! You can take a look at the full list of nominees at the AIAS page, and the winners will be announced on May 13th, during E3.

The ever-popular community site 10 Questions with SamHell has relocated to sCary's Shugashack, and picked up a swanky new logo by illiad of User Friendly fame. This week's interview is (gulp) me...so head over there if you want to read me making a fool out of myself.

Sharky Extreme News is reporting that sometime today, Infogrames will announce they are acquiring Accolade Games. According to Sharky's report, the sale, reportedly for some $42 million, will not impact the release of Slave Zero, which is still planned for this June.

The Creative Files Download page has new WinNT 4.0 drivers for all Sound Blaster ISA cards (SB16, SB32, AWE32, AWE64 and AWE64 Gold), and new NT drivers for the Sound Blaster PCI128, as well as new Windows 95/98 drivers for the Sound Blaster PCI128 (CT4700). Thanks BetaNews.

id's Anna Kang sends word that registration for QuakeCon 99 was a resounding success, reaching the limit of 1000 entrants within 16 hours of opening up. As a result, registration is now closed, but they are still accepting registration for a waiting list expecting a "fairly good possibility that spots will open up" as they validate all the registrations they've received. Registration spots that become available will be filled from the waiting list in the order the waiting list registrations were received.

I received an email from EP, who had problems running the new Expendable demo (story) on his Voodoo card, and the reply he received from Rage to his inquiry about this indicates that the demo will only work on a 2D/3D combo card, not systems with a 2D card and a 3D card (this will not be a limitation of the full game). Here's the skinny:

The Expendable Demo will not work on machines which have a proper 2D only card in conjunction with a 3D card. This is a known bug and has been fixed for the full version of the game. Sorry, but you will not be able to play this demo.

The first release of the Q2sdb, or Quake II server database (though they point out "it isn't a real database") is now available. This is a "smallish" Java application which queries Quake II servers building an internal database of server information. Client applications can connect to this database and query for servers meeting certain criteria, such as a particular game or map name, or a server with a particular player. Here's a quote to describe what this can accomplish:

Since the server refreshing is done by the computer running Q2sdb, it can answer client queries simply by looking up information in its database. So if you just want to find out if your buddy (or clan) is playing (and where), why refresh the entire list of servers locally, when you can just query Q2sdb and have the answer in a second or two?

This code is capable of querying over 2000 Quake II servers per minute on a reasonable connection (384Kbit ADSL in my case), meaning the internal database is always quite fresh.

The code is very threaded, making it quite efficient. Each client connecting is handled in a separate thread so many clients can connect at once.

Also included is a sample client application called 'q2grep' which will display servers which match a number of given criteria.

I'll post the loony p1mpage this week just so no one gets the impression that it's something he does when my back is turned. Here's the lowdown on the articles to be posted all week in the new loonygames, replete with more exclamation points than you can shake a stick at(!):

loonygames types issue thirty-four! Thirty four issues! I think my hands are starting to hurt. Writing the great American novel this week:

• Writing the Game!: Jason "loonyboi" Bergman chats with Mark Laidlaw, novelist, reporter, and game designer about life before (and at) Valve, games in general, and of course...The Matrix. [Monday]
• Pixel Obscura: Josh Vasquez checks out Myth II: Soulblighter! [Tuesday] Also look for Jason "loonyboi" Bergman's look at Myth II in The Top Shelf! [Thursday]
• From the Mouth of Madness: Palm Pilot gaming! [Monday]
• PLUS: A pair of Penny Arcades [Wednesday, Friday], Beaker's Bent [Wednesday], Behind the Curtain [Thursday] and lots more! And then some more, because we can't stop! Dear lord, we can't stop!

A couple of sites recently posted an illegal playable demo of Rage's upcoming 3D action game, Expendable, which was then quickly pulled at Rage's request. Tim at 3DFiles managed to get to the bottom of the problem Rage had with the demo, which, among other things, was that it needed to be burned onto a CD to work. Now, with Rage's approval, the 72 MB Expendable demo is available here from 3D Files.com, offering a fix that no longer requires the CD burning dealie. The demo is still unsupported, but you can possibly find, or offer, help on the 3DFiles message boards.

The Unreal Technology page has an update about network cross-compatibility that Tim warns is "nitty-gritty technical info," describing a new technique he's devised to incrementally update Unreal's .u files to allow mixed versions of the game to operate together in the future, though he points out that "Really major updates will always break code assumptions and require downloading an update."

The Adrenaline Vault News has posted an interview with 3D Realms' George Broussard, following up on the recent announcement that there would be no E3 showing of Duke Nukem Forever. Here's a quote talking, and not talking, about the state of technology in DNF:

Broussard also said the technology is 90 percent complete. “The remaining technology falls into two classes. Technical things to fix in the way the engine operates and implementing new technologies. We recently completed our bones-based animation system, and it's in the game using our motion captured data. We do have one more piece of significant technology we have created to implement in the game, and no, I'm not discussing it,” Broussard finished with a grin.

There is an interview with Tony Zurovec of Digital Anvil (in English) on the Italian-language GoL - Games on Line talking about D.A's upcoming Loose Cannon.

The Perfect One's Online Magazine interviews Jason McIntosh of the Ward Six development team about their Quake II project Dawn of Darkness, as well as the progress on their "Renaissance Engine."

• A pair of Tweaks: A new version of the APK 3dfx Tuning Engine 2000++ is now available, offering V3 support. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme. Also, a new version 1.0 of the TweakAll utility is out.
• Mondo TNT: Extreme Hardware's guide to TNT2 Video Cards is up. Also, this SystemLogic article on TNT Detonator Drivers performs some experiments with the newly discovered Detonator drivers and Mr. Natural's hardware patch. Also, The RIVA 3D TNT-2 Review has been updated with side-by-side shots on Kingpin trying to show the difference between 16/22 and 32-bit color. Finally, along those lines, Reverend's Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 Visuals Tweak Guide for the Kingpin demo is now up.
• 3DsoundSurge's Half-Life audio benchmarks compare performance in the game using four different sound cards.
• Ars Technica's Life after SP4 examines whether you should really patch your NT install.
• Finally, it's that time again, a new virtual issue of Voodoo Review has hit the virtual newsstands.

A new version 0.92 of the Gladiator Bot is now available. The new version of this Quake II playmate offers new CTF and teamplay AI, the ability to give teammate bots instructions, and more. Word is "For the best bot performance you will have to re-aas your maps."

Gloom's Official Homepage has a new version 1.1d release of Gloom, adding flood protection, fixing balance issues, and providing what should be a more stable server for this class-based mod for Quake II that follows a space marines versus aliens (small "a" ) theme.

A pair of front-ends: A beta of version 2 of the Half-Life Game Launcher is now available. The new release includes full TFC support and a "Deathmatch Maker," to configure a server, and the full version 2 is expected to include a Map Organizer and a Bind Editor. Also, The Quakelaunch website has what's described as the latest and probably last version of Quakelaunch, the Quake front-end that made its debut way back in 1996. Quakelaunch includes its own server browser and also stores all maps and patches as zips.

• The ClanWorld Network is now underway, three new sites affiliated with Won.Net devoted to online multiplayer competitions: Clan World Tournament, Clan Ladder.com, and Clan League.com.
• The TF Times has a contest where they will give away a copy of TeamFortress2 when it's available.

The results of the name the two guys in this photo contest are in, the two in the shot were Robin Williams and Ritual's Levelord, congrats to Leif Schweiss, winner of the tiebreaker, who earned an autographed copy of Sin for his efforts (as I said, revealing the prize at the outset of the contest would have been too much of a giveaway). There were a bunch of funny comments that rolled in along with folk's guesses, so I compiled a bunch of them on this contest results page.

Okay, here's the deal on this week's contest: for those with artistic skills (or spirit): design a new IE5 favorites icon for Blue's News. I believe the .bmp format icons are supposed to be 16x16, but the only real rule will be whatever looks the best when it is installed. Deadline will be Friday April 23, 1999, at 11:59 PM. Send all entries to contest@bluesnews.com. Good luck to all who enter.

• Thresh's FiringSquad reviews X-Wing Alliance.
• Mod Central reviews TeamFortress Classic.
• Wicked PC reviews the 3dfx Voodoo3 3000.

• Dave's Video Game Classics is back up and running at a new host (Warzone). Thanks Tony Fabris...
• PCVelocity's EverQuest Newbie Guide is online...
• There's a form on Evildead.com where clans, etc., can reserve private time on their server for things like matches and practices...
• The Xenophobia Quake2 mod (formerly Predator Quake) has closed up shop, and have released the existing source for their project for use by those interested...
• The Mushroom interviews the thug from Kingpin, as you can imagine, the language on this one is a bit raw.

Thanks to those who offered suggestions for the random freezing problem, but as I mentioned yesterday, it seemed to abate as soon as Disk Doctor pronounced my hard drive healthy (perhaps all it needed was reassurance). I'm assuming it had to do with corruption in something in Virtual memory, but that's just uneducated guessing based on the outcome. As I also mentioned yesterday, the true explanation is clearly that F.M., or as someone (sorry, can't find the mail for the name) wrote in recalling as P.F.M. Same old F.M., the "P" is for "Pure."

Link of the Day: Scientific American: Taking Ballistics by Storm describes an electronic gun with no mechanical parts that fires a million rounds per minute. As Nick Altmann, who sent this along points out, "I bet quakers would still bitch about the slow firing rate."

It's that time of the week kids...it's a Sunday, so here's your Mailbag. In this week's zany collection of letters: more on the lawsuit, the whereabouts of the Unreal shareware, Balls of Steel, Daikatana, mice, brain plugs, and of course the inevitable more. Swing on over there and take a look at what your fellow readers are saying.

GA-Source has posted eight exclusive Giants screenshots offering a look ahead at PlanetMoon's upcoming Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Also, Sharky Extreme's First Glimpse at BattleZone 2 is up offering a teensy look ahead at the upcoming action/strategy sequel from Pandemic Studios with a few screenshots. Finally, Lorien at GA-Source sends word that the Illusion Softworks website has been updated with some more new screenshots from their upcoming WWII action/strategy offering, Hidden & Dangerous.

Not "PM" bits, we hedge and leave that available in case more bits pop through the wire this evening:

• Tweak3D reviews the UltraTNT2 and there's a Voodoo 3 2000 Review @ BXBoards.
• Still more follow up on the Win98 VXD patch dealie (story and original follow-up). I received the following from someone I consider a credible source. There is also a post up there by Mr.N Natural, creator of the patch to answer questions and concerns, but to give an example of what they are, I'll pass the email I received along (don't be offended by the bit about "non-advanced users" he's referring to someone other than you specifically):

VMM32.VXD is a file built during Windows Setup. All of the VXD's people say Microsoft forgot are actually rolled up into this file. VMM32 is a required file to boot Windows. Why roll them up into one big file? Boot performance. It's better to load one VXD at boot time than load 30. There are reports on Anandtech of people not booting after installing the "patch" or coming up with viruses. Other people have run dedicated system benchmarks and seen no performance gains. Others have said they see gains but have not posted anything but a timedemo score or, in one case, a 3d benchmark score. As to why anyone would get a performance gain from this, I don't know. But messing with the system VXD's (you know, the ones that load Ebios, Vcache, Vfat, Vcomm, and so forth) is not a wise thing to do for anyone but an advanced user. And a lot of non-advanced users read your page.

Here is a post from someone on Anandtechs BBS (called Cyprus) who contacted Microsoft about the "patch":

"there is no reason to put these files into your windows\system directory. win98 did NOT forget to put them there, and vmm32.vxd is not some generic replacement for all the other files. This vmm32.vxd file isn't even one file, it is all the other files specific to your machine grouped together into one file to speed up load times. This file is built at setup time. If you manually copy all the files into windows\system, you're not helping anything, and unnecessarily causing load/boot times to increase..."

GA's Lorien sends word that registration has begun for SegaSoft's massively multiplayer title, 10six. They're looking for all of 1,000 people this time around, so if you want in, run over there now. If you don't know anything about the game, it's a combination action/strategy title, played from a number of different perspectives, including first person, third person, and top-down. Note: GoNINzo points out that you must be a premium member of HEAT.net to register.

The Rocket Arena website has a new version 2.5 of Rocket Arena 2. The new release has no programming changes, but adds a new map pak compiled by Multi-Arena HeadQuarters with nine new maps containing a total of 57 new arenas, bringing the total number of maps in RA2 to 28, with an impressive 172 total arenas. The full version is now a robust 41.3 MB and the upgrade for previous versions is 14 MB, and both are available on the RA2 downloads page.

Ear On Games interviews Kevin Schilder and Chia Chin Lee of Raven Software, turning a keen eye, or ear, rather, towards the sound effects in the recently released Heretic II, and the upcoming Soldier of Fortune.

SubXero at Requiem-HQ sends word of a new "top secret level" they've made available for download. Here's the deal on this:

I just got my hands on a top secret level for Requiem: Avenging Angel. The file weighs in at a little less than 400kbs. The secret level reveals credits for people who worked on the game including people who left the project early and were unable to get in the official credits.

• Microsoft has newer version 1.15 WHCL Certified RIVA TNT Detonator reference drivers (direct external link) for any TNT board running under Win98. These drivers are from March 12, 1999, but apparently slipped by until noticed by Tweak3D.
• I've received enough commentary on the report of the My 3DMark score jumped up 100 points after installing this WIN98 patch thread on the AnandTech BBS (story) to believe there is something to it. Like much of the feedback on the BBS, several emails describe this patch as being effective at improving performance on some people's systems. The patch's contents seem to be widely accepted as files that Win98 has on the CD, but often fails to install on your system. For more info, check out Mr. Natural's Hardware, home of the patch, where a new version is now available.

A new version 1.2 of the Quake 2 2 mod that allows two players to have a Quake II deathmatch on the same computer is out on the Blackmoon development site. The new release offers a brand-new interface, and as a result, old versions of the mod must be removed before installing the new one.

A new version 2.3 of Demoplay, is out, the first shareware release of this formerly freeware utility that allows you to easily play back demos recorded in Quake and Quake II under Windows 95/98 using nifty VCR-like functionality without having to contend with that nasty 12:00 (this joke is Netscape enhanced).

More coffee anyone? The Q2Java site has relocated, and to commemorate the occasion, they have released a new version 0.9.3 of this program that allows the creation of Quake II mods coded in Java. There is also a new Q2Java mailing list for those interested in detailed discussion of the project.

Two new ones: Version 1.10 of the Quake II Console Parser is now available. This program can use either log files or demo files produced by Quake II as input, and can output analysis in a few forms, including HTML formatted tables. New features in the new release include chat logging, and support for the PureDM, Lithium, and Battleground Quake II mods. Also, the Console Stats Webpage has version 1.1 preview 2.21 of Console Stats offering some bug fixes and tweaks for this feature rich Quake II stat analysis program. Future versions will support QuakeWorld, and Loki's Minions CTF.

Giles' Quake Tinkertoys has a new version 1.12 of the meQanno Quake modeling utility for the Macintosh, and a new version 1.30 of MacQFE, the MacQuake front-end. According to the accompanying update, these releases mark the end of the current cycle of development as the author considers more advanced modeling tools and Quake II and Quake III support. Thanks Scandalon.

• As mentioned in the follow-up below, word was posted here yesterday of a level design contest that has actually already ended. As if to balance the books, the deadline in the SP3D Quake II Level Design Contest, originally last night, has been extended to next Saturday.
• 3D Rant is holding a "name the Rant Chic" contest, offering a PII-450 CPU for the winner.

• GA-Source reviews Starsiege.
• MeccaWorld reviews Team Fortress Classic.
• Tweak3D reviews Expendable (the OEM version packed with the TNT2).
• Beyond 3D reviews Tank Racer.

I posted mention of PCXL's Ultimate Ultra Hyper Excellently Stoopid Design Contest, but it turns out this has already ended, sorry about that. Here's hoping they come up with another contest soon, considering how cool the name of that one was.

• The results of the 3rd Methos Ultimate Quake Poll have been posted...
• The Q2PMP has posted a new plugin for 3D Studio MAX and Character Studio 2.1 that allows modelers to adjust and modify their work on Quake II models "and specifically Half-Life models which currently require the use of MAX/CS..."
• The Terror Quake2 site has posted a new online manual for this Quake II mod...
• d-TOP has posted a new Rainbow Six wallpaper from Steve Reid, creative director at Red Storm Interactive...
• The Sonique Downloads has a new version .95c of this .mp3 player with the unique interface, which includes plug-in support for the new Microsoft Audio 4.0 thingy. Thanks Manpreet Jagpal...

I'm worn out... something suddenly got terribly unhappy on my machine, and it froze up about 20 times while making this morning's update, requiring a hard reboot each time. The crashes came more and more frequently, thwarting any attempt at addressing the problem until I finally resorted to a full checkup from the old Norton Disk Doctor, which gave the disk a clean bill of health, saying it found no problems to repair. Of course, the system has been perfectly happy since then. I learned long ago the term for such occurrences is F.M., with the "M" standing for magic... As always, I feel better for sharing, thanks for your time. The answer to the contest and winners, along with a brand-spankin' new contest (wheee!) will go up tomorrow.

Link of the Day: Lumpynet - Teletubby Execution Chamber. Thanks devilbunny.