AvPNews.com has posted an edited chat log from the David Stalker chat which was held July 30 on Mplayer.com. David is the producer for Fox Interactive's Aliens versus Predator and the chat answers questions about why an AvP level editor has not been released ("the tools used are not suitable for public release"), and much more, including this about something I've wondered about myself, Alien co-op:

Dave Stalker: Honestly, Alien coop is tricky because of AI issues but it's something that we may investigate in the future expansions that we will be doing.

The Dawn of Darkness News page has word that plans for this commercial Quake II conversion have been scrapped. Here's part of the update, which goes on to describe plans for the free release of some of what they've worked out for the project, as well as plans to continue to develop Dawn of Darkness as a franchise:

It is with a great sense of bitter-sweet that we make the announcement first mentioned last month. Bluntly and plainly:

Dawn of Darkness, as a Quake II total conversion, has been officially and voluntarily cancelled.

Realizing that there is no market left for commercial Quake II products, that the Quake II engine is showing its age, and with a desire to do justice to the Dawn of Darkness concept, we have ended development of the conversion. Though it pains us to cancel the project, there are several good things about it...

Ant points out the FTP directory at ftp.icq.com has some new binaries dated today, and Violent J. points out Tucows has a new ICQ release dated today with a version of 99a Build 1800 244, so it looks like they've crept another new public beta out in that strong silent way of theirs.

Datumplane::Starsiege has broken the news drought by noticing a post by Dynamix' Rick Overman on the messageboards on StarsiegePlayers about the status of the 1.004 patch for Starsiege:

I said I wouldn't do it but being a programmer kinda guy I always reserve the right to change my mind at the last second. So... I am going to change the network protocol for patch v1.004. But I will allow 1.004 servers to optionally be backward compatible with older clients. You will be able to set up a 1.004 server that will only accept 1.004 clients. This is great for matches because you can assure that no one is using any hacks!

OR

You can set up a 1.004 server that will accept any client. The downside is you don't get some of the hack fixes.

Question?
How many of the Dynamix dedicated servers should be configured to ONLY accept 1.004 clients? I'm thinking all but 2 games should be converted. At least this way there will always be a server for those who have not downloaded the patch yet.

Pels Interactive's latest Q&A is with Raven designer Eric Biessman playing their now-classic ten questions discussing Soldier of Fortune, Raven, life in the biz, and all the more you can cram into ten questions. The piece also offers two new screenshots from Soldier of Fortune.

• Extreme Hardware has summarized some posts from the hardware newsgroups trying to convey some of the general feelings being expressed on USENET on 3dfx' newly announced technology. The summary states that "opinions were pretty well split down the middle on the...announcement, with some feeling it was too much hype for a technology demo, and others really interested in the Anti-Aliasing and other features that were mentioned." Head on over for the full treatment.
• Sharky Extreme's MACWORLD Expo New York summary is up with their resident Mac expert giving his take on last week's Big Apple Apple festivities.

Tweak3D has posted 12 new screenshots from Drakan: Order of the Flame giving a dozen detailed looks at Psygnosis' upcoming third-person dragon-riding action/adventure in 1280x1024 resolution and 32bpp color.

There's another Tim at work shot on Unreality from Epic's Tim Sweeney. This is not actually a photo of him at work programming, but rather a screenshot of the latest look of the UnrealEd interface, perhaps of interest to level design-types.

3drage.com's Werewolf: The Apocalypse preview follows their recent Vampire preview (story) with their first impressions of another third-person game based on a pen-and-paper RPG from White Wolf Studios, Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of Gaia.

Another Blitz engine release, and a new version of the Act 3d visualization engine:

• The Acid Reign Site has the release of the source code to version 1.2 of the Blitz Engine. This has similar features to the version 1.0 release (story) but now also includes a "completely hand-crafted 32-bit MMX optimised realtime span-level RGB rasterizer with span-level mip-mapping in assembly (Phew...) as seen in Unreal."
• Saw on Voodoo Extreme that 3DFiles has posted the 6th generation of the Act 3d visualization engine. "The latest versions includes loads of new features to create even more stunning graphics than before. This demo displays 4 different 3d models. You can use the mouse to navigate around the models. Direct X 6.0 and an 3d accelerator are required for this demo."

A new version 1.1 of NOP is now available. NOP is a small, speedy, freeware tool that parses q3test-server-logfiles and generates rankings using an HTML template. The program is currently only available for Win32, but they are looking for someone to do a Linux port. Here are a few of NOP's main features:

• generates ranking tables by calculating 'points' for every player
• you can change the table design via style-sheets
• uses a ban-list to avoid ranking of certain players
• strips color-codes from playernames
• converts q3test's special characters to ascii-characters
• you control the number of lines per page and the number of users in the list
• re-run feature: e.g. let NOP update rankings every 20 minutes

Electronic Arts poised for Net play reports CNET News.com (saw that on Tom's Hardware). Here's the lowdown on the report, which currently is still all speculation:

REDWOOD CITY, California--Electronic Arts, the No. 1 video-game publisher, is poised to unveil a series of Internet initiatives that may boost its profit and stock price, analysts and investors said.

While company executives declined to comment on the plans, chief financial officer Stan McKee has been telling investors that Electronic Arts wants to get 20 percent of its sales from online sources within three years. That could equal several hundred million dollars a year for the Redwood City, California, company, which had $1.2 billion in sales for fiscal 1998.

Electronic Arts' bet on Internet-based gaming could help it weather transitions to new game-console technology, which could cause industry sales to stall as consumers wait for new consoles to buy new game software. Still, the company must overcome technical and marketing barriers to lure millions of users to pay for online games and entertainment, analysts said.

UGN3D Q&A with Bill Roper of Blizzard entertainment talking about Diablo II and Battle.net. An interesting bit to note from the article is word that they have not yet finalized how many players can be in a single game. Also MGON interviews an unnamed Blizzard rep on the same subject.

I see on Half-LifeNews a version 2.4b of a mod called DMPlus has been released. This teamplay mod offers features like a grappling hook and a cloaking device, as well as gameplay tweaks like bleeding and increased lethality that can result in single shot kills.

A post titled Venom Compatibility Test Demo Released on GA-Source gives word of the Venom Test Demo now available for download. Venom is a 3D action shooter being developed using the "Vital Engine ZL," but this is not a gameplay demo, but "is a compatibility test demo, which has been released to test how the game works on different hardware, so the developers can remove most bugs before releasing a playable game demo of the first level later this month."

There's a new High Resolution Slave Zero Screenshot on GA-Source showing off Accolade's Giant robot combat game in 1024x768 glory with bump-mapping enabled.

The Kingpin FAQ on Planet Kingpin has been updated to version 0.9 with he addition of a couple of new Q&As about Xatrix' gangsta-shoota. Also, new questions and their corresponding answers have also been added to GT's Unreal FAQ and GT's Unreal Return to Na Pali FAQ. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

A Quake III Arena Road Tour page has been added to the Quake III Arena site. Thanks Maddes. There aren't a lot of details there, but there is a picture of a big ole Quake III bus, and a list of destinations in the US Southwest that can get the imagination going for locals (or those willing to travel):

• Dallas • Houston • El Paso • San Antonio • Austin • Albuquerque • Phoenix

• Las Vegas • Seattle • Tacoma • Portland • Eugene • Sacramento • San Francisco

• Oakland • Fresno • San Jose • San Diego • Irvine • Los Angeles

Creative Labs Products Graphics Voodoo2 page has a new beta 1.1.2.0025 release of an optimized mini-GL driver for both the 3D Blaster Banshee and the 3D Blaster Voodoo2. Thanks Von. According to the update, "you must be running Creative Labs drivers for the mini-GL to install and operate properly." The update is dated July 28 (and says the driver date is July 23), tough I haven't seen word of it previously. According to the site, the new driver "includes several improvements from the June 16th release," including:

• Support for Quake3 Test 2 (Version 1.07)
• Support for Quake3 Test 2 (Version 1.06)
• Support for Tribes
• Performance Improvements
• Corrected Lighting Issues in Quake3
• Installs newer Glide files to provide better gamma support

Quake 3 Arena Benchmarks on the Meter give Mercury Research's Q3Test benchmarks, which have the TNT2 cards showing up on top. Thanks Tom's Hardware via Stomped.

Voodoo Extreme has posted a pair of new screenshots from Shiny's upcoming third-person action game, Messiah.

There's a new GameSpy LAN Master program on LANParty.com. This is a local master server you can run on your LAN that allows connected clients to easily find multiplier games on the LAN simply by using GameSpy. You can understand the usefulness of this if you've ever been to a large LAN party and tried to keep up with all the servers folks are launching (often running local webserver to provide server IPs). The initial version of the LAN Master includes support for QuakeWorld, Quake II, Q3Test, Half-Life, Kingpin, and TRIBES. More games may be added in the future.

Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart made an update to the Unreal Technology page describing five days of work on a Linux client for Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament. Word is "It runs very well under my Voodoo 3 3000 at 1024x768 (Redhat 6, Linux 2.2.5-15)," saying "The only major issue left on my todo list for the client is to port the Galaxy sound library." The update includes a couple of screenshots and word that "if everything goes well, then the client will be on the 2nd CD of UT."

id's John Carmack updated his .plan with the latest installment of his Quake III Arena worklog with word on the latest progress on the game.

• Anand's 3dfx T-Buffer Overview is up, as well as is a look at 3dfx' new announcement from SystemLogic.
• Speaking of 3dfx, Voodoo.dk interviews 3dfx in a very short Q&A with a "Keith" about unannounced products (which he can't talk about), and inquiring whether the "nightmare" of overclocking will continue with new products.

An update to the Quake Info Pool adds more information about some bugs, including a fix for the FTOS() bug in the Quake engine (which can also be fixed by hacking the Quake executable). Also, a new Ultimate Regular Quake Patch v1.04a and Ultimate Regular QuakeWorld Patch v1.04f have recently been made available.They have also enhanced all the bug-reporting forms there to use cookies.

There is a page up with info on playing the normal Half-Life single-player maps co-operatively on SvenCoop - Atomic Half-Life. I don't know if there's anything on the page that's changes since the SvenCoop stuff was first announced a while back, but questions on "how do I play co-op Half-Life" show up in the mail here all the time, so there it is (described as "far from a perfect method, but it's fairly playable").

The Q2Utils site has a new release of DemoMan, a utility to makes viewing Quake II demos simple. When installed, you can launch a demo and view it simply by double clicking it (rather than opening Quake II and proceeding manually). The program even works to view demos from within .zipped archives.

Now that the mod is release, sign-ups for an Action Half-Life Tournament is underway, though the tournament will not begin until the "AHL teamplay is improved." Also, screenshots, photos, and demos of the Tempolagy LAN Party are now online.

• Action Half-Life Demo Review on 3DGaming.Net.
• 3D Alpha Hardware Station reviews the ASUS V-3800 TVR 32 MB.
• Exxtreme3D reviews the SoundBlaster Live! Value.

• The Console Help section on I.Am-Half-Life has been updated, and a new TWEAKS section has been added...
• RainbowSix.Net has word of a skinpack for Rainbow Six called the Rainbow Skin pack (as far as I know, that's a reference to the game's name, not any Sgt. Pepper's-oriented outfits). Both clients and servers need the pack for R6 skin support to work...
• UrbanChaos.Net interviews Mucky Foot's Mark Zarb-Adami about his roles as lead programmer on Urban Chaos...

The turning of the calendar pages to August serves as a reminder that QuakeCon is coming up quickly, just next weekend in fact. As I anticipate the event, I am trying to figure out the most frightening of these three prospects: Playing Q3A against people who spend as much time deathmatching as I do HTMLing, eating at Denny's more than once in a 24-hour span, or accepting a ride from 3DRealm's Chris Johnson. You see, it's not just the gun-control laws (which require that all citizens over the age of three be fully armed) that make Texas such an intimidating place.

Link of the Day: Virtual Crack Rock(tm). Thanks Ant. They have their own domain for crying out loud!

Changing The Playing Field A Night At The Half-Life Mod Expo is a 3D Action Planet article by Sluggo (of Mod Central HL) taking in all the action at last week's Half-Life mod expo, where a bunch of new Half-Life mods were unveiled. Word is to expect reports on this stuff all next week, but he kicks things off with a look at the whole event, including some Q&A with Valve's Harry Teasley and Erik Johnson, and a few newsworthy quotes from Valve's Gabe Newell like the following:

"We're going to be releasing a new version of Half-Life next week...The new release, basically, is due to conversations we've been having with mod developers - they need some functionality specifically for bot technology. So, next week, there will be two bots released for Half-Life."

Games Domain Review previews System Shock 2 with a heavily-illustrated (with screenshots) hands-on look ahead at the sequel to System Shock, the classic science-fiction RPG.

Beta Bites sends word of their Rogue Spear Preview that offers a hands-on look at this upcoming tactical shooter saying it makes its predecessor (Rainbow Six) look like a Commodore 64 game.

The cinematic types at Zarathustra Studios have teamed up with the speed freaks over at Quake done Quick to release a set of recamed movies of the Quake2 done Quick2 speed demos. The downloads are available at either site, along with the unedited originals. This is still not the full-blown "official" QdQ speed run through Quake II, which is still in the works, but it is the world-class Q2DQ2 run reshot from a spectator's point-of-view, likely to give a better vantage point of the action.

A new version 1.04 of GameStalker is now available. GameStalker is a server browser program for both Linux and Windows with an emphasis on speed, and the new version adds an editor for creating custom queries to find only the games you want, making it "even faster than before." Also, there are two GameStalker related mailing lists: One for users (email minordomo@zero-ping.com with a subject of "subscribe gs-discuss"), and one for developers (email minordomo@zero-ping.com with a subject of "subscribe gs-dev"). Finally, if you are a server operator running any platform that supports Java (Linux, NT, Solaris, etc) and are interested in running a Zpdb (Zero-Ping Database) server, the database server back-end which enables GameStalker to find games so quickly, please contact them.

The Science and Industry page has the debut version 0.94 of the Science and Industry mod for Half-Life. While this initial release only contains one map, a second map is expected, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, and there is also a map kit in their maps section to encourage others to design more maps, which they are soliciting for inclusion in version 1.0. The manual for the mod is online to give a comprehensive look at this mod, and here's a short description to start on:

Science and Industry is a teamplay mod for Half-Life, in which players assume the role of Security Officer at one of two rival corporations striving for domination in the cutthroat world of chemical and weapons research and development. The player's job is to protect and acquire scientists, who develop weapons to use against the other corporation. The more scientists a team has the faster they'll make new discoveries, but the only way to get new scientists is by kidnapping them from the competition. Science & Industry features interaction with NPC's in multiplayer, new weapons, and a bunch of new gameplay features.

PlanetUnreal interviews Alexander Brandon, the music composer for both Unreal and Unreal Tournament. The short Q&A comes on the completion of his work on U.T., and as you can imagine, mostly discusses music.

Kokak's Doom Page has a new version 0.8 of DoomGL, an OpenGL compatible port of id Software's Doom. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

So many mods are announced and abandoned, that we usually don't turn too much spotlight onto community-type projects until they're released. There seems to be too much ado about the announcement of the Fortress Europe project to let it pass unmentioned, however (especially on a weekend ). Fortress Europe is planned as a World War II mod set in Normandy using the Starsiege TRIBES engine. The homepage has info and shots of the mod, and PlanetStarSiege Fortress Europe Interview with Optimizer and WarMonger talks with part of the squad behind the mod about what it's all about. Though there is no projected release date, word is that the project has been in development for four months, and a release is expected "soon."

PC Paradox' Messiah Interview with Dave Perry talks with the Messiah-maker about Shiny's upcoming diaper-wearing third-person action game that puts you in the role of Bob, a cherub with a problem with possessiveness.

3D Unlimited has posted an interview with Rich Fleider, talking to Rogue's Vice President and Lead Artist about his work on the N64 port of Quake II, the early days of Rogue, and lots of other stuff he can't talk about right now.

GASource has posted four new images from the unfortunately titled Varginha Incident 2, the sequel to the original Varginha Incident, which was notable for being the world's first Brazillian first person shooter. Varginha Incident 2 differs itself from the original by utilizing an original, fully 3D engine that takes full advantage of Intel's new Pentium III processor.

A typically slow Saturday gives another off-topic post a chance at prominence. The Microsoft Windows Update page has a new version 6.4 beta (at the bottom of the page) of the MS Media player. Saw that on BetaNews.

There are a couple of notes on PlanetStarSiege about the newly released version 1.7 patch for Starsiege TRIBES (story) that describe reports of problems with some older 3dfx chipsets, including Voodoo RUSH, Voodoo Banshee, and some Voodoo 1 cards (specifically mentioning Pure3D cards). There's no word yet on fixes or workarounds, but if you are a user of one of those cards and are experiencing problems with the new patch, that is the explanation.

Billy "SEEDling" Wilson has posted his exclusive SEED demo by HumanSoft. This 22.7 MB demo contains one level, with two enemies and three weapons, and is meant to introduce the game to the public. While we won't be making a local mirror out of respect for Voodoo Extreme's exclusive on the demo, it should be pointed out that it is also available for download on the official SEED homepage.

The Acid Reign Site has a public release of version 1.0 of the Blitz engine. The released source does not contain the MMX-optimized version of the engine (as it's been lost), and contains some un-optimized routines. Word from the author is "The aim of this release is to provide people with some help and a starting block to build their own kick-ass engines. It contains code on BSP Trees, S-Buffering, Portal rendering, Z-Buffering, Translucency, Particles, Direct Draw programming, Direct Input Programming, Surface Cacheing, Collision Detection and most importantly, my completely hand crafted 16-bit realtime span level RGB interpolative rasterizer (Surface cacheing at run time)." He also sends word that the mailing list subscription for the Blitz Engine "now works" and the site also contains a new tutorial on spherical volumetric fog.

Spectra Software Download Page has new version 3.10.01 Windows 9X drivers for the Canopus Spectra 2500/3200. The drivers are available in two versions, one with just the the drivers and the other with the drivers and the utilities. Thanks P3D.

As promised, PC.IGN.com has posted their exclusive Jane's Fleet Command Demo, a playable demo of this air-sea operations combat flight-sim dealie. The demo is about 45 MB. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

3D-Unlimited interviews Harvey Smith talking with ION Storm's "Witchboy" to fill them in on what Deus Ex, ION's upcoming action/RPG will be all about.

It seems like everyone and their brother's posting articles on 3dfx' new technology, but PC.IGN has posted not only a detailed explanation of the new gee whiz features, but also a few MPEG movies to illustrate them.

Next-Generation Online has posted an interview with Looking Glass Studios' Steve Pearsall, talking about their sneaky sequel Thief 2: The Metal Age.

Registration has opened up for the Descent 3 LAN tournament being hosted by the Cyberathletes at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The space is limited to 250 computers, so if you're planning on attending, sign up now or never.

Well, the Blair Witch Project opened nationwide last night, on a whopping 1000 screens. If you haven't yet, I recommend going to see it. I'm going to be dragging the girlfriend to see it tonight, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it a second time myself. Actually, we tried to see it during its limited run here in NYC, but it was sold out days in advance (and apparently it's breaking records left and right). Pretty cool stuff.

Link of the Day: Tom Hall vs. the World. One of those parodies that just had to be made - leave it to Tom Hall to do it.