GameCenter has posted a new exclusive movie from 3D Realms and Remedy Entertainment's upcoming title, Max Payne (thanks Ant). The 31 meg AVI uses Intel's Indeo Codec, so you may need to download that first.

GamesDomain has posted an interview with Bungie PR guy Doug Zartman, talking about their upcoming third person action title Oni. The interview was conducted during the last hour of the last day at E3, and contains this quote that serves as a good introduction to the game:

Oni is the first 3rd-person game that will "do action right". The core idea behind Oni was to mix hand-to-hand combat (kicks, punches, throws) with gunplay in one unified interface. 3rd-person games are notorious for having controls that are either awkward or oversimplified, and for having action components that are essentially "rail" experiences. Oni changes that by using standard first-person action controls, that most gamers are familiar with, and uses the mouse buttons for punching and kicking when Konoko (the main character) is unarmed. Konoko's special martial arts moves are done with key combinations. For example, a player might hit the kick key once to kick forward, then hit it once while moving backward and jumping, to do a spinning backward kick in midair.

Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart updated the Unreal Technology Page with details on two new tricks for mod and map authors that are in Unreal Tournament: "mapshots" and "mutators" (thanks Bink-er...Vangie).

Tetrad of Descent 3D.com sends along word that Descent 3 has been sighted in both Electronics Boutique and Babbages stores. A few quick calls from the Blue crime lab verified that it is indeed available in stores throughout the NY area, and most likely across the US as well.

The Hive has posted an interview with Valve's Harry Teasley, talking about mods, the Half-Life SDK, and Team Fortress 2.

GASource has posted a follow up to yesterday's Q&A with Shiny PR guy Scott Herrington, with a clarification on their reasons for releasing the multiplayer patch for Messiah after the game is finished.

ASC Games producer Rich Rosado posted to the ASC Games Message Board with word that they're looking to hire some beta testers for their upcoming Unreal engine title, Werewolf: The Apocalypse (thanks PlanetUnreal). Here's the scoop:

Well folks, you've read about it and dreamnt about it, now you can test it too!
We're currently looking to hire a few lucky beta testers to test Werewolf and other ASC product.
Before you jump up and run out the door to our offices, make sure you fit the following:

You must be at least 18 years of age,
live in the NY/CT area,
be able to travel to our office on a daily basis,
have flexable hours (Werewolves don't sleep!),
Have good writing skills, and
Have some kind of PC knowledge.

Were offering both full-time and temp positions (I'll explain it if you get an interview ).

If you think you have what it takes, e-mail me with a contact number and resume at:
rrosado@ascgames.com.

Good luck to those interested,
-Rich Rosado

Well-Rounded News is reporting that Fox Interactive has decided to add an in-game save feature to Aliens vs. Predator. Here's a quote from David Stalker, AvP Producer for Fox:

We have received a lot of feedback from our consumers on both sides of this issue. Some gamers enjoy the suspense and excitement of this game without the option of hitting the save button. On the other hand, we understand the frustration of some players who are used to an "in game save" feature available in this type of game," said David Stalker, Producer, Fox Interactive. "The 'save patch' ultimately takes care of this debate."

Q3Arena.net has posted an interview with id software cartographer Paul Jaquays, that features this bit of advice for dealing with curved surfaces, amongst other topics:

Proceed with caution. They can chew up your poly counts extremely quickly. Use them in grand and obvious ways. Try to keep the curve patch dimensions in even integer multiples of the size of the texture being used (2x, 3x, etc.). That means if a texture is 128x128 pixels, try to make the curve patch be a multiple of 128 (256, 384, etc.).

Planet-Tribes has posted a quick Q&A with Dynamix' Tim "storm over" Gift, talking about the transition from Starsiege: TRIBES to TRIBES 2.

It's off-topic, but as many sites (including this one) were part of the "stop DIVX" campaign, it seems necessary to point out that according to this ZDNet article, the baffling format is dead in the water (thanks Jason Bruce).

It's screenshot mania! The BattleCruiser Online Screen Shots page has been updated with some new shots of Tamara, the female commander character in BattleCruiser 3020. Act Three -- Screen Shot 13 is the new Diablo II screenshot of the week, and there is also a new render of the Diablo II barbarian character suitable for wallpaper and stuff like that. There are also a bunch of new Blade screenshots on oneZone. The Dawn of Darkness News page has a pair of new shots from this upcoming Quake II conversion. Finally, the Redemption page has new shots up from this Half-Life mod in-progress.

Fredrik at mdk2.com sends word that The unofficial MDK 2 FAQ has been updated, and I'll take his word for it, even though the version number is the same (version 0.5) as after the last update.

SailorScout's GC has posted a short Q&A with ION Storm's John Romero, mostly soliciting his opinions on the circumstances surrounding the termination of the Generations mod (story).

New Intel740 drivers and an Intel Roadmap the Sharky team smuggled out of Taipei in this morning's Tech Bits:

• Intel® Graphics Accelerator Driver Download page has new version PV4.0 Windows 95/98 OSR 2.1 (& Up) drivers for their Intel740-based accelerators, said to resolve a DX6.1 missing texture issue on several applications & other miscellaneous issues. Thanks Andrew Petrushanco.
• Sharky Extreme's Intel Roadmap According To Sources Close to Intel gives what they say is inside info on what the Big I has planned for the future.
• The hyperactive Hyperionics page has yet another new version of HyperSnap-DX, bringing the version number of this screen capture utility for Voodoo-series video cards up to 3.41.00. Thanks BetaNews.
• This 3D Gaming Hardware Guide might not actually help you with your purchase decisions, but it sure contains a lot of information, with lots of definitions of terms.
• A $1000 supercomputer? asks CNN (as do we all). Thanks Eric Rose.

Today will be the monthly Daikatana Cabana chat session with the ION Storm team working on Daikatana. The chat is at 8:00 PM Eastern Time, and you can connect through IRC at www.ionstorm.com and join the channel #ion, or through the online section on the Ion Storm web site.

Version 0.99a of Gunslinger Quake 2 marks the first release of this Quake II old west conversion that gives you an arsenal of 10 "cowboy-action" weapons, and a bunch of other authentic features (like no armor). The page has 20 screenshots from the mod if you want to window shop before downloading.

• MechWarrior 3 review at the MeccaWorld.
• Thresh's FiringSquad's Elsa 3D Revelator Glasses Preview.
• Hot Hardware reviews the Sono International 1008S motherboard (Slot 1 with integrated audio).
• Voodoo3.net's Slipstream Enhancer Review looks at this Voodoo cooler.

• The ICQ FTP directory has new files dated yesterday, and the ZDNet Software Library calls it a new beta version 2.22 of ICQ (though it says version 99a Beta 2.21 build 1800 just like the last few versions--the app is dated May, so it's hard to be positive how new it really is). Thanks BetaNews...
• Version 4.0 beta 1 of GetRight, the resumable download manager, is now available. Thanks BetaNews...
• The Official GX Mouse Cam is probably proof the GX guys have a little too much time on their hands...

Regarding the KDE dealie mentioned here yesterday, this is not just a browser, but actually a desktop environment (hence the "DE" in the name), and the problems are with the integrated file browser, which can display simple HTML as well as contents of the hard drive, which is what I meant I thought not too many people were using (seems KDE is becoming pretty popular in the Linux crowd). While a couple of loyal KDE users defended it against being dismissed as not widely used, others were quite willing to concede the integrated browser's shortcomings, saying there are many sites it will not display properly.

Link of the Day: Innovation Ray gun freezes victims without causing injury reports the London Sunday Times, an article sent along by Ryan "Joltox" Greene who comments it sounds like a working lighting gun, though it seems the way the Quake lightning gun works would probably actually cause some injuries (or at least nasty static cling)... Cool science fiction/fact cusp stuff nonetheless.