Next-Generation Online is reporting that Pennsylvania Senator Jack Wagner (D) in addition to the legislation proposed earlier today making it illegal to sell "violent video games" to people under 18 in his home state (see story), also introduced to Congress a resolution to require submission of games to the ESRB for review and rating. According to the article, "such a requirement exists in no other entertainment industry." According to Wagner he's not advocating censorship:

"What I am proposing is not censorship," Wagner said. "Individuals and companies would still be free to create, sell and rent violent video games. They could not, however, offer such games to minors. I believe the restrictions I am proposing are reasonable, justifiable and in the best interests of Pennsylvania's children and children across America."

Starsiege TRIBES - Multimedia and Downloads page has the new version 1.4 for Starsiege TRIBES as a patch for versions 1.0, 1.3, and 1.3.12. Thanks Datumplane::Starsiege.

The Hive interviews Randy Pitchford talking to the Gearbox Software president about RBR and Gearbox' upcoming Half-Life mission pack, Opposing Force. There's also an interview there with Ward Six Entertainment's Jason McIntosh talking about their upcoming TC Dawn of Darkness. Finally, Two of Nine is the pretty darn clever title of an interview on earthQuake with feared Swedish Quakers Paralyzer and DOOMer from Clan 9.

No easy explanation for Columbine killings is a CNN article discussing the debate about the "effects of violent entertainment," quoting the maintainer of Doomworld (author of this editorial), among others (thanks Bartender). Captive of an Alien Reality is a Washington Post article about Quake II that describes a newbie's attempt to assess the game's impact by checking it out (thanks Xenon). Finally, thanks CiDcO for word that there are three new related articles on CNET Gamecenter: Violent Games in Spotlight, Senator Introduces Video Game Bill, and Sex in Games Revisited (complete with mature warning of its own).

Gamer's Central has previewed Appeal and Infogrames' upcoming third person voxel-based title, Outcast, complete with several new screenshots.

• Rendition has posted new reference drivers for V2x00 based boards.
• Computers R Us reviewed the ATI Rage Fury.
• Dimension 128 has reviewed the MSI MS-6163 motherboard.
• Sharky Extreme has updated their weekly CPU price guide, featuring some new information on the AMD K7 processor.

The official Descent: Freespace 2 website has been updated, with a ship gallery, 19 new screenshots, and word that there's an IRC chat tonight at 8:00 CST with members of the development team.

The friendly folks at Accolade sent us this new screenshot from Slave Zero to show you all. Enjoy!

Another follow-up on the story from earlier today about the possibility that Kiss' Gene Simmons was purchasing the film rights to Max Payne (story and first follow-up) comes from 3D Realms' Joe Siegler, who sent along the following follow-up shedding some shadow on the situation:

Q: Is it true that Gene Simmons of KISS has bought the movie rights to Max Payne?

A: No, he hasn't bought the movie rights, but he is acting as a sort of agent talking to some movie production companies about things that we aren't talking about yet. :)

• S3 Ramps Up Support is a GameSpot piece announcing that some 50 game developers have pledged their support for the company's S3 Texture Compression (S3TC) technology and will incorporate it into games released this year.
• Intel launches new graphics effort is a CNET News.com article detailing the Big I's return to the graphics accelerator market with the i752 chipset, and the upcoming i754.
• Viper 3D has posted a TNT2 reviews page with links to all the articles they've found on NVIDIA's new chipset.
• Speaking of which, AnandTech's review of the NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 is up.

QuakeCity Gaming Network interviews John Scott talking to the Raven Programmer about Soldier of Fortune. The article also includes a pair of new exclusive screenshots showing off action from this upcoming Quake II-engine game based on the mercenary magazine of the same name. The piece also mentions that more info about Raven's upcoming first-person shooter based on the Star Trek : Voyager franchise will be revealed at this year's E3.

Ritualistic has posted a short interview with Ritual programmer Mark Dochtermann about the recent revelation that Ritual's upcoming FAKK2 is to use the Quake III engine. The three question Q&A discusses the reasons behind the decision, what it's like working on the yet-to-be-completed code, and their plans to maintain Mac and Linux cross-platform compatibility.

GSUK's Quake III Arena week rolls right along with a Quake III Arena Preview, written by Mat 'The Lurker' Bettinson (who you may recall from the Carmack audio .mp3 release incident). The preview is written based on a couple of hands-on sessions with recent builds of the full game, one in combat with the game's bots, as well as a deathmatch with the id staff. Additionally, Sconfig's Quake 3 Test Screenshots page has been updated with another QuickTime movie showing off action from the Mac version of Q3ATest (this is a third video, in addition to the one reported earlier this morning).

GA-Source has posted 8 Heavy Gear 2 Screenshots with more exclusive looks at Activision's upcoming giant robot (gear) game.

I've received word from both 3D Realms (Scott Miller by way of Joe "Superman" Siegler) and their PR firm, that the info in the CGW story quoted earlier (story), is inaccurate: Gene Simmons has not purchased the rights to the Max Payne movie (that's cool, John Woo needs to do this one anyway).

I.AM Half-Life has an updated list of console commands for version 1.0.0.9, complete with all the Team Fortress Classic Commands, as well as a bunch of custom aliases for TFC. Oh, and server admins looking for a good laugh should try out sv_birthday 1.

Rorshach's Journal ("I leave it entirely in your hands") has a wireframe Quake 3 skin available for download for those of you who want to get started on those skins right this second.

Inside System Shock 2 is the name of a brief article on SS2 over at Next-Generation Online. The piece contains a good overview of what to expect from the game (complete with three screenshots), and is chock-full of quotes from Ken Levine, president of Irrational Games.

As promised earlier in the week, sconfig has posted another Quake 3 quicktime movie, this time showing off actual Internet gameplay. This one's only available in a high quality version, but at 674k it's hardly what I would call a hefty download.

• The Windows 98 tweak guide has been updated, with all kinds of info for speeding up Windows 98.
• Wish you could have a case as cool as those new G3s, but don't want to buy a Mac? Kevin sends word of these cases from A-Top that look surprisingly like the new Macs. Of course, they won't play Q3Test yet, I'm afraid.

According to the latest issue of Computer Gaming World, Gene Simmons (that guy from KISS) has bought the film rights to Remedy's upcoming action title Max Payne (thanks 3DPortal). There's nothing that says Gene is interested in playing Max, but after 90 viewings of Runaway, I gotta admit that he plays a mean badass.

Digital Dungeons, the article from this week's Time magazine has been posted online. The article questions the finger pointing that's coming towards violent video games, and is one of the more rational pieces you're likely to find.

• Version 1.1 of King of the Server is out, fixing a number of bugs.
• There's a second beta out of the server side mod Fishman's DM mod.
• Version 2.4 of the Abandon mod from Clan Incarnations of Immortality (Piers Anthony rules!) is out, adding Eraser bot support amongst other things.

• Sharky Extreme has posted an exclusive review of Expendable, the latest 3D title from Rage Software.
• pc.ign.com reviews Requiem: Wrath of the Fallen.
• Strategy Planet reviews Machines, the 3D strategy title from Acclaim.
• Games.net reviews Wages of Sin, the mission pack for Sin.

• Clan DDZ is giving away one of those Everglide mouse pads and a Quake keychain to the first person to top their current high score of 142 frags in 15 minutes that was set by Swine [DDZ] back in October.
• QuakeCity is giving away a copy of Quake: Quad Damage to one random person that fills out their poll.

• A new version of Crazy Marbles is out, adding Banshee and Voodoo 3 support to this horribly addictive Marble Madness clone (full support is only in the registered version). Thanks Billy "crazy balls" Wilson.
• There's a one-level demo available of Space Bunnies Must Die! over on 3DFiles, offering you the chance to play the game that annoyed everyone at last year's E3 with their incessant music.
• Redhat 6.0 is available for download, with the retail version arriving soon. On a similar note, I recently spotted Open Linux 2.2 in a store around the corner from the loonyBin. Both Redhat and Open Linux offer easy installations of the previously intimidating Linux OS. Of course, neither one will play Q3Test yet, but hey...that'll be here soon enough.

Yep, that was the winning title...it was actually sent by several people, although Andrew Ebbatson was the first. Other good suggestions, "Blue loon" and "loon with a view" (both from Andrew) and "Ravings of a Loon" from Opafaf-[CoD]-. THL suggested "Loonyfud" saying, "go for 'Loonyfud', it's ace!" Take that as you will. Kevin Dow had a good suggestion with "Lunatic Fringe" although the most entertaining entrant has got to be devilbunny's suggestion: "the loonytic is on the grass." Since I was listening to that album as I read that, I actually laughed out loud (and then I closed the blinds...you never know). Thanks for all the suggestions...it's amazing how creative people got. A quick reminder to everyone: as the Blue guy is still off on his much-deserved day off, send all news to news@bluesnews.com to ensure that I get it as well.

Link of the day: Scenic Drive Resort (thanks Paul Danis). Why? Go there...that's an actual loon you're listening to. Woo! I try not to do that often...it scares my neighbors.