SConfig's Q3Test screenshots page has a Quicktime movie showing off all the various weapons in high, medium, and low bandwidth versions. If you don't have access to a Mac, this may be the closest you'll get until it's released for other platforms. The site also mentions a second movie, showing off some Internet gameplay that will be released soon.

Zephyr over at WON.net sends word that a new version of WON Swap, their Half-Life downloading utility has been released. Here's what's new in this version:

• We now support Half-Life maps with multiple files.
• Fixes International install and US install problems
• Fixes the HUGE model bug that made users unable to download half of the
  Half-Life models (I wanted to say quarter of them for a second).
• Multiple maps and spray paints can be put into a download
• We now serve ads better, which means no more waiting for the ad to show before the download starts if the ad server is down.
• Lots more bug fixes!!!

Those crazy kids at Legend have updated the official Wheel of Time page with the latest on their Unreal-engine title (thanks "Big bad" Billy Wilson). In this week's thrilling episode, there's some details on what they'll be showing at E3 this year, as well as some scans from the WoT ads that are running in this month's Computer Gaming World.

Just when you thought Macs were only good for Q3Test, MacLedge is reporting that Interplay has signed a deal with Graphic Simulations Corporation to port Baldur's Gate, Descent 3, and an undisclosed third title. Descent is scheduled for a June release, with Baldur's Gate coming in September (thanks Scandalon).

Chris O'Brian of the A-Team sends along word that Halflife.org has posted four screenshots from the upcoming Half-Life mod, Action Half-life This is, you may recall, the HL version of Action Quake, the popular Quake 2 mod.

John Carmack made yet another .plan update (makes me all nostalgic. *sniff*) with information on how to interpret that funky lagometer in Q3Test, as well as some tips for optimizing your connection.

Buy, today really is heavy on the interviews, here are another pair: The Hive interviews Rogue's Jim Molinets, kicking off with the non-sequitorial question "Give us a bio of who you are and what you do at Stomped" (Stomped?). Also, the second BeerF*ck interview of the day is online, as there's an interview with Levelord on U-Games with more Q&A with his Lo'ness.

Ritualistic has broken the news that Ritual's upcoming FAKK2 will be using the Quake III engine, according to a revelation on page 109 of the June issue of Computer Gaming World magazine (I received a report of this a couple of days ago, but have been unable to find an early edition of the mag for a confirmation). According to the blurb, the CGW piece also includes a small screenshot.

The Unofficial Tribes FAQ on Planet-Tribes has been updated. Thanks Planet Starsiege. Also seen on Planet-Tribes, there are four new maps on Dopplegangers.com Tribes Archive (only server operators need to run custom maps, clients just connect as usual) as well as news there on how snipers can use SnipeHud to achieve a 400x zoom (seems like 20X usually strains the limits of line-of-sight anyway).

Beta Release 0.13r009 of the Crystal Space Free 3D Engine is now available (thanks Billy "Crystal" Wilson). Here's the lowdown from the site on what this engine does:

Crystal Space is a free (LGPL) and portable 3D engine written in C++. It supports true 6DOF, colored lights, mipmapping, portals, mirrors, alpha transparency, reflecting surfaces, 3D sprites, scripting, 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit display support, Direct3D hardware acceleration on Windows, Glide and OpenGL hardware acceleration on Windows and Linux, ... See the extensive list of features for more details.

The interviews keep rolling in today: QuakeCity Gaming Network interviews Levelord talking to the man also affectionately known as BeerF*ck about life after Sin (not that I have any doubts about his lo'ness failing to sin even after the game's completion), which includes his work on Ritual's next project, FAKK2 (or F.A.K.K.2), based on the upcoming Heavy Metal movie of the same name.

Voices From The Hellmouth is the name of an article on Slashdot.org that chronicles the backlash against gamers and geeks alike since the shootings in Colorado (see this week's mailbag for some reader comments on the issue). Here's one eye-opening comment from a fellow-gamer:

"It was horrible, definitely," e-mailed Bandy from New York City. "I'm a Quake freak, I play it day and night. I'm really into it. I play Doom a lot too, though not so much anymore. I'm up till 3 a.m. every night. I really love it. But after Colorado, things got horrible. People were actually talking to me like I could come in and kill them. It wasn't like they were really afraid of me - they just seemed to think it was okay to hate me even more? People asked me if I had guns at home. This is a whole new level of exclusion, another excuse for the preppies of the universe to put down and isolate people like me."

Here's a pair of updates regarding Eidos Interactive's Omikron: The Nomad Soul for you this afternoon: first up are three screenshots we've posted, and next comes word by way of GASource that none other than David Bowie may be writing the soundtrack to this third-person title. Even cooler is the rumor that he may show up at Eidos' party at E3...now there's a place to be.

Yep...it's a Monday, so I'm breaking my neck getting you a new issue of loonygames. Here's the dirt on what to expect this week:

Hey! Get offa that! That's an issue of loonygames you're sleeping on!
Startling you this week:

• Waking Graeme Devine: Jason "loonyboi" Bergman chats with Graeme Devine,
  the "new guy" over at id Software, about Quake 3: Arena, 7th Guest...and
  Pole Position? [Monday]
• Pixel Obscura: Josh Vasquez checks out Blade Runner! [Tuesday]
• Penny Arcade: The kids vent their Mac-fuled anger. [Wednesday]
• Painting on Polygons: Rick Grossenbacher delivers part two of his "Making
  a Space Scene" tutorial! [Wednesday]
• PLUS: Another Penny Arcade [Friday], a new edition of Thinking Outside the
  Box [Tuesday], Dark Vengence reviewed [Thursday] and lots more! And then
  some more, because we don't sleep...we rock.

GamePen interviews Kenn Hoekstra, Brian Raffel, and Brian Pelletier in a Q&A where Geoff Keighley talks to the trio of Ravens about their upcoming projects, focusing specifically on Soldier of Fortune.

GameSpot UK has kicked off their Quake 3: Arena week with a quick overview of the expected Q3 single player game, and a new interview with John Carmack. The interview focuses on the single player gameplay, rather than more technology type questions, making it actually readable for those of us who can't program our way out of a cardboard box (a rare thing in a Carmack interview). Thanks Apache.

id Designer Graeme Devine updated his .plan with word on known bugs in the MacQ3ATest release and the Win32 server (that have been reported more than once). If you're having difficulties you can see if your problem is on the list, and there are instructions on reporting unlisted bugs.

ATI Technologies Beta Drivers page has a new version 6.11.1 CD15 of their OpenGL Installable Client Driver for the Rage 128 for Windows 95/98 systems. The pre-release beta drivers are offered "without warranty of any kind," for testing purposes, and ATI does "not recommend installing beta software in systems used for productivity of any kind." Thanks Michael Pappas.

There's a Blood 2 Revelations Update on GA-Source with word from Tequila Software about the status of their upcoming Blood mission pack: Revelations. Word is the levels are about 75% complete, and the update offers a screenshot of the Revelations launcher front-end they've cooked up for the add-on.

The QuakeFinder page home of the Mac server browsers QuakeFinder and UnrealFinder has launched Q3Finder, their Quake III Arena server browser which allows Mac users to find servers playing the Q3ATest. The release is described as "freeware and unsupported."

Ooops, this almost fell between the cracks here, the Blade Screenshots page has some new shots of this upcoming game from Rebel Act Studios that they say they'll be showing off at this year's E3. Thanks Sharky for the news, and WiseFox for the reminder.

No, these are not MacQ3ATest shots, but rather a brand new pair of exclusive shots and a character sheet sent along by Paul Steed showing off an external view of a new female character he's just finished up. The shots are from the third-person (as Paul put it "Note the pimped out 3rd person view John threw in,"), and the accompanying toy character sheet give a great view of what the model looks like from many angles (I do believe those are ice-skates on her feet).

"this is a character I just finished up. Skin is courtesy Kenneth Scott. The level is Q3Test2 by Brandon James with art by those wacky owner artists, Kevin and Adrian. Note the pimped out 3rd person view John threw in. The reference sheet is something I did up for all the characters for the toy company to use as a model sheet."

Also, The Q2PMP has posted a bunch of shots of the Visor model that is included in the test release shot with an OpenGL compatible model viewer they will release when the PC Q3ATest is available, and there are a load of MacQ3ATest shots on Screenshots.net.

Old-timers will recall the original .plan file (well, after help@idsoftware.com) was John Carmack's .plan-based worklog, which detailed his todo list for Quake programming. Now, Mr. C's latest .plan update offers the return of his work log, giving the lowdown on what he's working on for Quake III Arena. Here's the update (I took the liberty of replacing the asterisks with bullets for ease of reading):

• converted cvar allocation to indexes to allow range checking
• cgame converted over to use vmCvar_t instead of cvar_t needed for interpreted cgame
• fixed server crashing string bug
• adjusted scoreboard for 8 players
• show hostname on connection screen
• fixed null model warning on startup
• more space for hostname on local servers screen
• fixed mac Open Transport memory buffer bug
  this was causing most of the mac crashes
• made Info_ValueForKey() case insensitive
• sv_privateClients, sv_privatePassword
  this allows you to reserve slots on a
  public server for password access while
  allowing most to be freely available
• "server is full" message on connect screen
• archive handicap in config file
• cheat protect r_nocurves
• byte order independent zip checksum
• removed cl_stereo, use glConfig.stereoEnabled

The House of Payne is reporting that Max Payne, one of my favorite games from last year's E3, will not be demonstrated at this year's show (contrary to a recent report that it would be one of the games shown off there by the Gathering of Developers). Remedy's decision is similar to the one that 3DRealms recently announced about not showing Duke Nukem Forever and Prey at E3, talking of concentrating on the game's development instead. Word is that there will still be some Payne to check out at the show, in the form of a movie showing off gameplay.

• Sharky Extreme News points out today marks the official launch date of Intel's new 466 MHz Celeron processor, as well as their new 810 chipset. More info in the big I's release plans are in Sharky's Intel Roadmap 1999.
• AMD tries life by its own devices is an article dug up by the diggers at The Register describing possible new moves at the top of the CPU manufacturer. Thanks AMD Zone.
• 3DsoundSurge's Gamer's Guide to Direct Sound 3D and A3D offers some sound advice for gamers.
• More sound thinking: UltraQ Review looks at this hardware device that can fake stereo from mono output, among other things.

10 Questions With SamHell interviews Ryan "Ridah" Feltrin about his work as a programmer at Xatrix on Kingpin: Life of Crime, his Eraser bot for Quake II, as well as issues of the day.

Computer Games Online previews Shadow Man looking ahead at Acclaim's planned third-person action game based on the Voodoo-powered comic hero, which they say "offers up psychosexual pathology with a Cajun twist."

A new version 6.06 of the Weapons of Destruction for Quake II mod is now available offering mostly gameplay tweaks and changes, as well as improved ZBot detection. Thanks Old man from scene 24.

The Clan World League has announced new leagues for Jedi Knight Sabers, Star Craft, Rainbow 6, Quake 2, Half Life, and Starsiege: TRIBES consisting of 12 week seasons plus play-offs.

Game Post reviews Starsiege.

• Lots of folks have been writing in concerned that Frag.Com has gone the way of the dodo, but never fear, the shutdown message they're displaying is in error (it's the note posted when Processed.Net shutdown), and once the problems they're having clear up, normal operations should resume. In the meantime, while their hosted domains are accessible, their hosted sites without their own domains remain temporarily unavailable...
• Dawn of Darkness The Demo, a Hint Guide is online...
• Yesterday's User Friendly Comic plays with the possible torture that could occur from the convergence of a certain game test release with the opening day of a certain movie...

Mail about the Colorado shootings continues to pour in, yesterday's MailBag even had my mom check in on the subject. I'm told last night's 60 Minutes focused on violence in games and movies and their effects on children (apparently one segment even featured Quake, thanks kill-9). I'm curious enough that I want to order the transcript of the show to see how that was handled.

I think I found the odd glitch that was causing the page to reload for some. Since it wasn't occurring on my system, I'd appreciate hearing from folks who experienced the problem in the past to find out if it's fixed now.

Link of the Day: Almost-live images to drive any geek wild! That's right, geek-porn. Thanks Ant. Just make sure you wear your pocket protector!