id's Graeme Devine updated his .plan with this update on the status of Q3Test...here's the scoop:

No news is good news they say! We're still working hard to get the test out. If you could refer questions to me (zaphod@idsoftware.com) regarding the test I'd appreciate it, everyone else here is plenty swamped. Obviously if it's just "when?" then that is pretty hard to answer, because "when" will be as soon as it's done!

But watch this space and remember to follow the white rabbit.

FEED magazine has a new issue up entitled, "Brave New Worlds" that's devoted entirely to videogames (big ol' thanks goes out to Slashdot.org). Articles of note include a dialogue with contributions from Valve Software's Marc Laidlaw, an editorial about violence in games, and a critical piece on game history. If nothing else, the issue's got a terrific links page, with links to such classic articles as Marc Laidlaw's "The Egos at id" piece for Wired Magazine amongst others.

Here's a pair of reasonably sized demos for your Friday enjoyment: GameSpot UK has posted a demo of "The Golden Mask," that new free add-on for Tomb Raider II (yes, II, not III). This one-level demo does not require Tomb Raider II, and is all of 10 meg. For those space shooter fans out there, 3DFiles has an 11 meg demo of Storm, Buka Entertainment's shoot-'em-up game.

PC Zone's Anachronox preview is up, with another big new look ahead at ION Storm's upcoming Quake II-engine action/RPG, offering interviews with the team, as well as some new screenshots. Once again, to avoid the glitches that caused some readers of their Q3A preview to have to log into the site, the URL above has a generic login built-in.

I knew knocking off the AM on this morning's post would provoke a spate of PM bits, it's just the contrary way of the world:

• Sharky Extreme's TNT2 Preview of the Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor 16MB.
• Thresh's FiringSquad reviews KryoTech's Cool K6-III 550.
• Viper 3D looks at TNT2 and TNT Benchmarks asking: "To Upgrade Or Not To Upgrade?"

The official Unreal Tournament site has gotten its weekly update, and there are two new weapons on display: the Sniper Rifle and Rocket Launcher. Regular images, as well as a high-res .zip file are available for your downloading pleasure.

Yep, Doom, Quake and Mass Murder is the name of a well-written and researched article on the whole Colorado shootings/Doom connection over at Salon. Making this article stand out from the multitude of others is the fact that this one features quotes from members of the industry, and even has commentary by our own Papa Smurf. A related article worth checking out at Salon is Kneejerk Mafia, which documents the Internet hysteria that has sprung up since the tragedy.

Valhammer, a Polish Mortyr site, has posted some new multiplayer screenshots from Interactive Magic's upcoming time-travelling WWII game as well as some of the game's music in .mp3 format. The shots are under the link marked "Grafik," while the tunes are filed under "Musik." There you go, a combination news bit and Polish lesson. Thanks Mortyr.Net. For a further Mortyr/Berlitz combo, Das OnlineMagazin für Video- und Computerspieler has a German language review of a beta of Mortyr they are checking out because Mortyr will not be available for sale in Germany (huh?). Remember stick a BabelFish in your ear courtesy of AltaVista, if you want a rough translation of either article.

TRI's official Nocturne Site is up with a smattering of info about this spooky looking upcoming action/adventure. Word is that once E3 comes, more details and info on the game will become available.

Seumas McNally, lead programmer at Longbow Digital Arts sent along a brand new 1024x768x32-bit color screen shot of one of the jumps on a track in Tread Marks. As Seumas puts it, "The tanks have quite a bit of traction. :)" More info on the game can be found on Longbow Digital Arts' Tread Marks page. Here's the shot:

• The World's Fastest PC is the title of the article on Tom's Hardware Guide where "Tom lets Kryotech meet Celeron and this results in a blasting Celeron at 618 MHz."
• Stealing Bandwidth is a CPU Review article that claims to show how Intel's new Unified Memory Architecture can "steal" up to 50% of your memory bandwidth.
• Wicked PC reviews the KryoTech Cool K6-III-550 and there's an AMD K6III-450 review at Gamers Depot.
• Extreme Hardware's Terratec Xlerate Pro Review looks at this Vortex2-based soundcard.
• A pair: Fast Graphics' First Look at the Asus V3800 TNT2, and HardwareCentral overclocks the Asus V3800.
• RIVA 3D has posted benchmarks running a Voodoo3 on a K6-3.

According to a report on MacAddict, MacHalf-Life, as well as future simultaneous Mac/PC releases from Valve have been announced, though if the report is accurate, it seems odd not to have seen it elsewhere already. What they say is: "Half-Life marks Sierra's return to the Mac platform in a big way. The company has committed to making all of its upcoming titles cross-platform, and it's also shooting for simultaneous PC/Mac release dates. Expect to see Half-Life arrive this fall." Thanks Seb.

The Adrenaline Vault previews Giants looking at PlanetMoon's upcoming game that believes size matters. From the sound of the following clip, the game, described as an action/strategy hybrid, is becoming more of an action title as development progresses:

According to artist Bob Stevenson, Giants started as a blend of action and strategy, but has been simplified to concentrate on the action. People inhabit one character at a time and complete mission-oriented maps. As gamers proceed through the 30 levels, they come across timid characters called Smarties, a peaceful race that can create valuable things, such as weapons and bases. Feeding and protecting them earns their appreciation and good will, and the more of them that are found, the more sophisticated the things they create become. For instance, the Smarties can create innovative forms of transportation, such as the 30-foot tall elephants with mounted gun turrets.

Beta 5.5 of Digital Paint's PaintBall for Quake II is now available, as a client-side only release. The new version offers several new features, including new maps, including a couple of Paintball 1 favorites converted to Digital Paint by Fryth, new gun sounds (higher quality audio), and more.

Version 4.2 of The Weapons Factory for Quake II is now available. The new version is called a major release, with the new features centering around server administration and clan match support.

Three of them: The ServerConfigMOD download page has the source code for this Quake II mod that offers a bunch of configurable options to set up a multiplayer server. Action!Quake2 Server Launcher is a front-end to set up AQ2 servers meant primarily for LAN parties. Finally, Infos & Downloads zu Q-Start & Q2Start has a new version 2.1 of the Q-Start front-end for Quake (1), which is now freeware instead of shareware.

• PC Gamer Online's Hunted Contest looks to reward the creators of the best "Hunted" maps for TeamFortress Classic. First prize will earn $500, while second and third places will each earn $200.
• One last time for our Icon Contest: Here are the updated (as of Tuesday) rules to our IE5 Icon Contest: It turns out that the IE5 icon can be 32x32 under some circumstances (blame loony for making me think my original 32x32 posting was wrong), so it causes a bit of a change in the rules. We'll award a prize for both the best 16x16 and the best 32x32 .ico format icon. Entries go to contest@bluesnews.com, and are due by 11:59 PM EDT tonight.

• Computer Games Online reviews Redline, saying "it's a Mad Max world."
• 3DGaming.Net reviews Starsiege.

• The Doom LEGACY Home Site is looking for testers for their OpenGL alpha of Doom LEGACY. Thanks Billy "CyberDemon" Wilson...
• Tweak3D interviews Ben Smedsted of BioWare about Tales of the Sword Coast, the upcoming Baldur's Gate expansion...

Letters keep coming in about the Colorado shootings, the MailBag yesterday spurred some interesting further responses, so there will no doubt be some of them in this weekend's regularly scheduled batch of correspondence. More on the subject can be found at the shooting-inspired internet campaign against violence, there's a Public & The Internet Open Forum thread on Slashdot (thanks Sigil), and Hooligan[C&M] sends word of the Columbine High School Services and Information page, with information on how concerned folks can help out.

Had I known it would be so easy to get under Old Man Murray's wrinkly skin with a simple link, I would have posted one long ago. In honor of the cranky old coots ire, I hereby declare Old Man Murray Game Reviews the Blue's News Analinkus charity link of the month. Congrats Murr . Getting into the swing of things, loony posted a pop culture reference yesterday with a Big Lebowski quote. GreenMarine replied with a counter-quote: "Don't worry about it dude. They are nihilists, they won't hurt you."

Watching Anachronox is the name of a new Anachronox preview over at GameSpot. The preview has a bunch of new images (after a couple of old ones...trust me, they're there) and a description of the battle sequences. Here's the dirt on those:

The battle sequences appear similar in style to Square's Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger, but instead of transporting the characters into another setting, the fight stays in the normal environment. The attack menu is currently icon based and rotates around the character when called up.

GameSpot has posted a GameGuide for Dynamix' mech title Starsiege that covers the title's single player and multiplayer scenarios, and even has some general non-spoiler tips for those of you who just want a teeny bit of help.

Two bits of Levelord related well...lunacy for you today: first up, there's an interview with his 'lo-ness over at The Hive, with some thoughts on the recent mission pack Wages of Sin, and a heartfelt confession about his first love: programming? If you're looking for something a bit more...visceral, Hexagon sends word that Ritualistic has released a 2-6 player Sin DM level by the 'lord. Here's the details, straight from the creator's mouth:

For my favorite webpage Ritualistic.com, here is my latest SiN deathmatch level called "Keefer" (still think about `cha, Marge;). It is a small level and it was first published by one of my favorite game magazines, PC Games, in their April 1999 issue. It is with gratious permission that it is being made public now ;)

Trekkies rejoice! Computer Games Online has a preview of the Unreal engine Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen, showing the first (to the best of my knowledge at least) look at this third-person game developed by The Collective. Move aside Lara, this game lets you play as either Sisko, Worf, or Kira. Ooh yeah.

Due to the overwhelming number of letters we've gotten about the Colorado shootings, I've slapped up a special edition of our Mail Bag for your reading pleasure, with your feedback. Head over there and check out what your fellow Blue's readers have to say about it.

ElectroTECH's FTP directory has the new playable Killer Tank Demo (as four files: KTApr99.exe, KTApr99.r00 - KTApr99.r02). Here's the deal on KT, according to ElectroTECH:

'Killer Tank' is a fast and furious 'gore and fun' 3D-accelerated game featuring destructive tank action in a number of diverse photorealistic environments. The title is developed by ElectroTECH's 'Alter Ego' team since September '98, and is due to release end-Q3 '99 by a yet unnamed publisher. The first technological demo of 'Killer Tank' spread over WWW in December '98 enjoyed a very warm welcome from the web gaming community. It had but the only major fault, though excusable for that early stage of development, namely the lack of real gameplay challenge. The current work progress demo is set to improve this. Some basic modules of the program - enemies' AI and pathfinding, physics and destruction effects, Direct 3D and EAX support - are still in works. So, this is NOT an official pre-release demo, and should not be taken as such. Our only aim at this pre-Alpha stage is to show a bit of gameplay as it is conceived in the final version. Download the demo and enjoy. Your comments are appreciated (please address to: nataly@electrotech.ru, cc: landa@electrotech.ru).

ftp.home.electrotech.ru/users/eltech Files: KTApr99.exe, KTApr99.r00 - KTApr99.r02 (self-extracting archive in 4 parts) The new demo features one single-player mission, one new weapons, new enemies, and some nice visual effects. System requirements: P-200 MMX or higher, 32 Mb RAM, ca. 50 Mb HD space, Sound, Mouse, Windows '95, Windows'98, NT. Important! The program requires a 3dfx-compatible card: Voodoo 1-2, or Banshee. It is not tested on Voodoo 3 yet, but most probably it will work OK. Riva, ATI, Matrox, S3 and other Direct 3D boards are NOT supported in this version. Aiming modes: You can try two different control types / aiming modes - 'strife' and 'direct'. By entering console command (to change aiming mode during gameplay): 1) press ~ key (tilda, console activation); 2) type 'aimmode 1' or 'aimmode 0'; 3) press Enter.

The official Gearbox Software site is online, a haven in cyberspace for the ex-sailors from Rebel Boat Rocker who are now working on the official Half-Life add-on, "Opposing Force." There's also a bit of news there, as their talent page lists Mike "Giggler" Wardwell (recently of Ritual Entertainment), as one of their level designers. Thanks Jobe.

Microsoft Patches Bevy of IE Bugs is the name of a piece on News.com (thanks Von) that points out that Microsoft has released a new patch for both Internet Explorer 4 & 5, fixing a number of security flaws. The article also mentions that there's a forthcoming patch that fixes still other security exploits that should be out soon.

GA-Source has posted three new screenshots from Nihilistic's upcoming 3rd person RPG slash n' hack dealie, Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption. You may recall that the team working on this has an impressive background, including work on Jedi Knight, Descent, Starcraft and the Quake (1) mission pack: Dissolution of Eternity. "They were nihilists, man...they kept saying they believed in nothing."

Tactic sends word that a trailer for Fox Interactive's Aliens vs. Predator has appeared on the official site. This is the trailer that has been airing in theaters, and he points out that, "this is not the poor quality copy that was filmed in a theater going around but the real deal." Swing by there and snag the 20 meg zipped Quicktime movie.

A special version of the ReSaurus newsletter went out this morning, pointing us Quake toy fans to their updated Quake Toys page. Hop over to the Quake II: Upgrade 1.5 section to check out images of all the new versions of the Quake II toys, which like their predecessors are extremely detailed, and totally badass. In case you missed it, here's a link to yesterday's story regarding the future of the toy line, including ReSaurus' plans for Quake III: Arena toys.

Beyond 3D sends along a quote they obtained from D.Harold from VideoLogic saying the report on the EETimes mentioned here earlier (story) is not accurate. Here is the explanation of the error:

In regard to the EETimes: it is indeed a mistake. An NEC spokesperson in Japan did discuss the PowerVR 250 with them which is the chip on the Neon 250 from VideoLogic which has a shipping date of June. Unfortunately, they then went on to discuss NEC's plans for future PowerVR parts in the second half of this year and the two dates became confused, resulting in the published story.

I hope this clears up the confusion.

2015's General WarT sends along the version 1.04 server patch (as well as the source code) for their official Sin mission pack, Wages of Sin. Here's a local copy of the patch (789 KB), as well as a local copy of the server source (803 KB), as well as mirrors. Here's the word on the new version:

Here it is, the unawaited, yet still cool WOS 1.04 server patch. This adds some spiffy new things from Sin 1.04 such as reduced weapon latency and client-side death messages, as well as adding a bit of it's own with Message of the Day support for multiplayer servers and the necessary handful of misc. code tweaks.

If that's not spiffy enough for ya, then here's the long awaited WOS 1.04 source code as well. The first time in history that a new game patch is released along with its source code at the same time! :-o I think it might also be the first official add-on patch ever, but I'm not sure on that one.

In the ongoing story about the trials of emulators in the courts, Sony Scores Against Connectix is a Next-Generation Online article announcing that Sony, who had previously been awarded a temporary restraining order against Connectix preventing them from using certain software from developing a Windows version of their PlayStation emulator, has won another round in their legal battle (thanks Hostage). According to the article, a San Francisco Federal District Court has issued a temporary restraining order forcing Connectix to suspend shipments of its PlayStation emulator, Virtual Game Station, currently available for G3 Macs, though the decision apparently does not apply to units that Connectix has already shipped. While fighting this decision, Connectix says it will continue marketing the product already on shelves, while developing improved versions, and continuing to develop the Windows version of VGS.

A pair of Raven interviews: There's an interview with Raven's Kenn Hoekstra on Computer Gaming Review talking briefly about Raven's upcoming projects, Soldier of Fortune, Star Trek: Voyager, and their mysterious "third project," as well as stuff like .plan files. Also, there's an interview with Michael Raymond-Judy on Sailor Scouts GC in a lengthier conversation with this Raven level designer about his work.

The Hive interviews Cliff Bleszinski briefly talking to the Epic designer about Unreal Tournament and the like.

• PVR Delayed Again! NEC delays rollout of 3-D graphics chip is the announcement the "Design glitches will delay NEC Corp.'s introduction of a 3-D graphics processor based on VideoLogic Ltd.'s second-generation PowerVR architecture until late summer, marking the second delay in the chip's production in a year." Thanks Billy "PowerPR" Wilson.
• Mr. Natural's Hardware page has a new version of the Win98 power users VMM32 driver "fix" that some claim boosts video performance. Thanks DemoNews.
• The Diamond FireGL1 Review on Fast Graphics looks at this new high-end accelerator from Diamond Multimedia with a 256-bit data bus and dual-CPU support.
• RIVA 3D has posted some big (1152x864) TNT2 screenshots from Expendable.

Something I missed on the Extreme Audio Reality page earlier this month is a new version 1.55 of their Extreme Audio Reality (EAR, get it?) interactive surround sound program. The update is minor, but word is that Aureal A3D users should grab the latest version (since the component now recognizes the 2.05 a3d.dll). Thanks Gareth Davies. I also see details on the page about their plans to create an EAR patch to add surround-sound to WinDoom.

The Webdog site now has a page up where gaming websites can apply to be tracked by this desktop app that, well, tracks gaming websites, as well as .plan updates. There's also a version 1.07 update there that fixes a couple of minor things, but they didn't even announce it, so it's obviously pretty minor. Finally, for Webdog (right, not WebDog) fans, there's a Webdog Preview on BetaBites talking to Richard "BagPuss, err Bagpuss" Smith about the project.

Nihilistic's Lead Programmer Rob "Innerloop" Huebner updated his .plan with word on their experiments with continuous level of detail technology, which he describes as "pretty painless," encouraging other developers who haven't taken the LOD plunge yet to do so.

It Starts Action Games Blamed for Violence is a Mining Company article that brings together some of the known information about the gaming interests of the alleged shooters in the Colorado school shooting, offering the opportunity to post feedback to their messageboards. Speaking of feedback on this situation, the mail has been pouring in on the subject, so we'll probably compile another special edition of the MailBag with selected responses on this.

All you iconoclasts entering the Icon Contest, please make sure you've taken note of the updated rules below. Thanks.

• Clan League.com is taking sign-ups for Tribes and Jedi Knight Sabers one-on-one leagues, the Clan World Tournament is now accepting registration for their Half-Life three-on-three Tournament, to be held on Saturday May 1, and A TRIBES five-on-five CTF tournament that will be held tomorrow. Also, Clan Ladder.com is running a bunch of ladders in different action games.
• The results of Shrubfest '98 are up giving the outcome of their Q2CTF season. Ni!
• Icon Contest: Here are the updated (as of Tuesday) rules to our IE5 Icon Contest: It turns out that the IE5 icon can be 32x32 under some circumstances (blame loony for making me think my original 32x32 posting was wrong), so it causes a bit of a change in the rules. We'll award a prize for both the best 16x16 and the best 32x32 .ico format icon. Entries go to contest@bluesnews.com.

Just one this morning: Computer Games Online reviews Wages of Sin.

• BioWare's Schedule Gets Busier is a Next-Gen piece talking with BioWare founder Dr Ray Muzyka about the imminent Baldur's Gate add-on "Tales of the Sword Coast," as well as MDK2...
• The five new companies that will be allowed to register new Internet domains were named yesterday, as expected, AOL was one of them. The whole story is up on News.com. After a test period 29 other registrars will be authorized...
• The Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications sends word of telecom.eu.org, the homepage of what has become a coordinated European Telecommunications Boycott involving the participation of ten countries planned for June 6...
• Talking To G.O.D. (the Gathering of developers headlines just write themselves) is a photo-illustrated GameSpot piece profiling g.o.d.'s creators (let the theologians work on that a while) talking about the company's formation...

Back on a more normal schedule again here (or normal for the Blue Tower). Got a couple of things cranking along, as I mentioned above, we'll probably post a MailBag later today with reactions to the mentions in the news about the gaming interests of the alleged shooters in the Colorado school tragedy. On a lighter note, Wade Bowmer passes along word there have been some posts that have gone a bit awry of the HTML standard here recently because I forgot to show loonyboi a trick to make sure the yellow quoted text is coded properly, so for those keeping score at home (likely Opera users), can note the change.

Link of the Day: The Earth Day 1999 Website. Hug a tree today.