PlanetFortress has posted some info from Valve on the next Half-Life patch, which they say will be available "hopefully on Sunday." Here's what's new in the upcoming version 1.0.1.3:

• We are changing the version number of the Win32 server from 1.x.x.x to 4.x.x.x to differentiate between the server and clientreleases.
• If you are running a Windows NT server you can use the -conheight command to change the size of the dedicated server console (default is 50 lines).
• Typing 'version' at the server console will give you the version you are running.
• TF Stats included with this update. This will take server log files and create a web page with the results of the match.
• Server now allows banning by userid and WON uniqueid.
• Updated TFC manual with information on running a TFC server.
• Fixed problem where too many packets were being sent at signon that was causing problems for cable modem users.
• Team 4 can now score on 4 player TFC maps.
• Fixed the 'phantom nail grenades' from soldiers in TFC.
• Mod browser now supports .zip file compression.
• Demo Playback fixed.
• Trigger_changelevel works (this was a request by TFC map makers)

Jim Gaynor, who was nice enough to send along his impressions from last year's GenCon festivities, has offered to be our eyes again from this year's edition of this annual celebration of games in the Midwest. This Soldier of Fortune report from GenCon gives Jim's stream-of-consciousness impression of the first day's showing of Soldier of Fortune, which consists of single player stuff. He says that they are showing off deathmatch tomorrow, and he hopes to send in a report about that as well, perhaps along with some photos (thanks Jim!).

GameFan interviews Kenn Hoekstra talking with the normally reclusive Raven Software Project Administrator and "chief fortune-seeker," Kenn Hoekstra. Thanks Apache at Voodoo Extreme. The Q&A covers Raven, gaming, and of course, progress on Soldier of Fortune, Raven's upcoming Quake II-engine game where you play a mercenary.

Next-Generation Online Alone in the Dark Goes Fourth, announces Alone in the Dark IV, a spooky sequel in development on PlayStation, PC, Dreamcast, "and perhaps N64" (and possibly the Game Boy, as well). Word is: "For the moment it is too early to announce a release date but we can say that AITD IV will be on the shelves before the twenty first century."

AGN3D has posted another one of those German gaming magazine movies, this one is showing off Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, Raven's upcoming Quake III engine game. The original video is a 42 MB MPG, but they also have posted Binky-ized RealPlayer versions slimmed down to 6.7 MB and 2.5 MB. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

A new version 0.2 of the X11Spy Q3Test server browser for X Windows running on Linux is now available. The new release has a fix for a bug that became apparent upon the release of the latest versions of Q3Test, and a feature has been added to sort the program's output by originating master server. X11Spy requires GTK and Qstat to run, in addition to the Linux Q3Test.

Inside Mac Games interviews Bryan Speece, 3dfx Director of Macintosh Marketing and Business Development "about 3dfx's renewed involvement in the Mac market and what we can expect from 3dfx in the future."

Microsoft and Fasa announce Battletech 3025, a new multiplayer addition to the MechWarrior family said to support over 50,000 simultaneous players. Here is the full press release, and here is a portion of it which describes sign-ups for beta testing currently underway:

New Online Game Supports Over 50,000 Simultaneous Players

GEN CON® GAME FAIR/MILWAUKEE, WI -- Kesmai Corporation, the world leader in online games, today announced development and publishing plans for MultiPlayer BattleTech: 3025, an online game developed with capacity to support the largest game community at more than 50,000 simultaneous players. As the much-anticipated sequel to Kesmai’s MultiPlayer BattleTech: Solaris‘, MultiPlayer BattleTech: 3025 brings a persistent, role-playing world -- the battle for the Inner Sphere -- to the BattleTech universe.

Beginning today, BattleTech fans can register exclusively for MultiPlayer BattleTech: 3025 beta testing at http://www.battletech3025.com. The game will soon be available on Kesmai’s Internet games network, GameStorm at http://www.gamestorm.com. MultiPlayer BattleTech: 3025 is based on FASA Corporation and Microsoft“‘s popular BattleTech property, which encompasses a rich universe of stories, games and characters.

MultiPlayer BattleTech: 3025 is a large-scale military game that takes place in a persistent universe, where every day, the game dramatically changes and evolves. Players select their BattleMechs“ and battle on 3D, first-person battlefields for domination of one of the five great Houses to gain control of the Inner Sphere. The results of these battles determine territory won or lost for a specific House. Victorious players gain access to new, more powerful BattleMechs and rise in rank. The player’s ultimate goal is to become a House leader and win the war.

Australian PCGamer Online has posted a Giants preview that features an interview with PlanetMoon's Tim Williams about this quirky upcoming third-person (or persons if you play the Meccs) action game, along with some brand new screenshots.

The Æstats Page has a new version 4.04 of Æon's stats program, which is a log file analyzer for many first-person shooters with Stats/Ranking output in HTML. The new release fixes Q3Test 1.08 support, and adds a few tweaks and fixes.

Including "the fastest gaming solution for hardcore gamers:"

• Guillemot and Falcon Northwest announce they "have created the fastest gaming solution for hardcore gamers." A hopped-up version of Guillemot's Xentor 32 TNT2-Ultra.
• 3DHardware.net's Videologic Press Brief talks of seeing the PVRSG-based Neon250 in action.
• 3dfx sends word that Gary Tarolli will demonstrate T-Buffer technology on Monday, August 9, as part of the Eurographics Hot 3D Systems workshop at SIGGRAPH '99 in Los Angeles.

Apparently the report from earlier (story) was premature. Here's a quote from Psygnosis on Gone Gold (thanks Steve P):

"Drakan is not officially gold, but is very close. I'm waiting to hear myself but I doubt it will be today."

Word on a pair of online chat sessions tomorrow. First is a Rage3D Chat with ATI talking about their newly-announced Rage Fury Pro accelerator at 2:00 PM EDT. Then later, at 9:00 PM EDT is August's AnachroChat, a live online IRC session with the developers of ION Storm's upcoming RPG, Anachronox. You can get to the chat via "the Chat Lobby" in the "Online" section of the ION Storm home page, or through the IRC server www.ionstorm.com in the channel #ion.

The Q3Tweak has a new archive of the same version 1047 of this Q3Test front-end tweaking utility. the new archive is a WinRAR file, since the problem with the original is suspected to be a WinZip self-extractor error. Thanks Serberus. Not everyone experienced the problem, so if you were able to use the last release, it sounds like you won't need this one.

Doh! Now this kind of makes sense: Frank Zegarra sends word that the Dreamcast emulator story that follows is a joke that CNet (and I guess now some more of us) fell for. Apparently this gag program was originally released some time ago.

Update: Looks like this is a gag... see the story above for the explanation. CNET's Download.com has the initial release of Nightmare, the first Dreamcast emulator for Windows 95/98/NT. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme. One note from the site is: "To use Nightmare with commercial ROM images you must already own the game on the original game CD. If you use ROM images illegally (i.e those you do not own the original CD for), you are in violation of United States and international laws." Of course, the Dreamcast doesn't even go on sale in the US until September 9, so I don't know what you are supposed to do with the program right now. Another note points out that: "Since the Dreamcast is such a powerful machine it takes quite a powerful PC to emulate it. As a result you must have at least a Voodoo-based card; Voodoo2 is preferable."

Saw on Gone Gold that the Midtown Madness Demo is up on 3DFiles.Com set to allow you to take out your road rage from the comfort of your own home.

Speaking of driving carnage, Computers R Us has posted 17 screenshots from Interstate '82 that they say are new showing off gameplay from the upcoming sequel to I'76 with the welcomed updated graphics engine, and the questionable updated soundtrack.

According to Drakan.Net, Drakan: Order of the Flame, Surreal and Psygnosis' upcoming dragon-riding, third-person action/adventure, is gold, and off for mass duplication. There's no word on when to expect arrival of the game in stores, though the site is speculating 3-4 weeks.

Gameguides.com (GameSpot's) Kingpin guide is online, ready to offer help for those who are finding that crime doesn't pay in Xatrix' new gangsta game.

A new version 6.08 of the Weapons of Destruction mod for Quake II is now available. Thanks GrOucH. WoD is a class-based mod that offers a bunch of gameplay changes and new weapons. The mod is described on the page as: "not for the snooty sophisticates, the Old Guard, or hoity-toit programming and modeling gurus. This mod is for the chaos freaks, the nutballs, the closet terrorists, and anyone else that could care less about a bunch of 'rules', and just wants to have a fragging good time."

Some naysaying about 3dfx' T-Buffer announcement:

• 3Dlabs Software Developer Program white papers offers the "Tea-Buffer," saying "No need to wait for next-gen hardware - you too can try out the joys of TeaBuffering right now. Works on Permedia2, Permedia3, Oxygen VX1 and Oxygen GVX1, and might even work on other makers' cards. Source code included. NOT GUARANTEED TO WORK - uses undocumented features. Please see readme.txt." Wild stuff.
• Also, Jari Jokivuori's page has a program called T-Bluffer that looks to simulate 3dfx' just-announced T-Buffer technology on virtually any accelerator. Thanks Conan Ford.
• Ars Technica's: A Tale of Two Soundcards offers a head-to-head audio shootout (shout-out?) between the SBLive! and the Aureal Vortex2 SuperQuad.
• AnandTech reviews the MC1000 & MC2000 Peltier Coolers.
• Sharky Extreme's Intel Pentium III processor Overclocking Guide is up for those that can't stand the way those pokey PIIIs drag their virtual feet.

Volition's www.freespace2.com Screenshots page has been updated with 10 new shots showing off action from the next edition of the space-based spin off of the Descent family. The hardware-accelerated screenshots are from the upcoming FreeSpace2 demo, which they say they "hope to release very soon."

The TRIBES Extreme site on the Tribes Players site has launched, and is open for business. The site will be a source of news and information about Dynamix' upcoming follow-up to Starsiege TRIBES, and is home to a TRIBES Extreme screenshots page which has a shot up to start, with a promise of more to come.

New POP3D Screenshots on GA-Source show off the 3D action from the upcoming new installment in the baggy-pantsed prince's jumping, climbing, swordfighting adventures. The new shots show off the female Persian assassin. Word on PoP3D is that a playable demo will be released on August 23.

3d Wars interviews Keith Galocy of 3dfx about his role in developer relations talking about 3dfx, gaming, and general trends in the 3D accelerator market.

On the heels of version 1.6 from earlier (story), The Cold Ice page has news that they've released a quick 1.61 patch to fix client side overflows in this Half-Life mod. Thanks HalfLife Dot Org. Also, a couple of sharp-eyed readers write in to point out that the System Shock 2 shot from earlier (story) may be from the full game (as the blurb says), but the exact same scene is available in the playable demo.

The newly opened PlanetDrakan has posted an interview with "Duncan" (who as far as we can tell has become a single name like the Levelord, or Xuxa) a game designer at Surreal Software, the developers of Drakan: Order of the Flame, as well as a writeup of the game's multiplayer (which is based on one beta tester's experiences playing it).

The BW-Admin site has a new version 1.63 of the BW-Admin program (thanks Killjoy). This is a "transparent" DLL that adds the following features to virtually any Quake II mod: "ZBot detection and kicking (with logging to file). Rate and 'cl_maxfps' capping. Player IP and NAME banning. Server MOTD and other Admin options." Also offered are configurable item/weapon spawning, reserving nicks (by IP), and flood protection and filtering for "offensive" keywords. There are versions compiled for Windows 95/98/NT, Linux (RedHat 6.0 glibc v2.1), Linux (RedHat 5.2 libc), FreeBSD (ELF Binary Format), Sparc Solaris, and Intel Solaris, and the source code is also available.

sCary has posted six more screenshots from Legend's Unreal engine game, The Wheel of Time. Like his earlier shots, these come by way of a mysterious UK source, and are very high quality. The shots show off the game's spectacular architecture very nicely, and I highly recommend checking them out if you're into that sort of thing.

Billy "second coming" Wilson has posted two more of those funky QuicktimeVR screenshots from Messiah over on that page of his, showing off Shiny's game of toddler action.

Although it hasn't popped up yet on the official site yet, the UK, German, and French versions of the Mechwarrior 3 patch are available for download on Microprose's FTP site. Thanks Frans, who's also set up a mirror of the files on 3DGamers.com.

The Adrenaline Vault News has posted a new System Shock 2 shot, ominously titled their Screenshot of the Day. The shot is taken from the final version of the science fiction RPG sequel, which is slated to hit the streets (or at least the stores that line the streets) on August 12.

Dreamcast.IGN.com has posted six new QuickTime format movies showing off BioWare's upcoming third-person action game, MDK2, the sequel to the game with practically the exact same name (go figure). Thanks shiro. As you would imagine given the nature of the site, these movies are from the Dreamcast version of the game, but it has been said all along that the PC and Dreamcast versions will be identical. MDK of course, stands for Marlena Deitrich's Knockwurst.

Just a quick reminder that the AVault's Nocturne Live Chat is tonight at 7:30 PM EDT on the AVault's IRC server. This page has all the details on the session discussing TRI's upcoming "third-person horror-themed 3D experience that places players in the shoes of a 1930s investigator of the supernatural."

PC.IGN.com has posted three "outtake" movies from Outcast, Infogrames' voxel-powered action/adventure title. The movies, in MPG format, are described on the site as being created to convey the game's "impressive movie feel."

The third and final part of Computer Games Online's Nocturne mini-preview is up looking at how light and shadow are being handled in Terminal Reality's upcoming 3D "noir adventure." The piece is illustrated with three screenshots (3000 words worth).

AGN3D has posted RealPlayer versions of the German Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption movie released yesterday (story). The new versions are a choice of a slimmed down 6 MB version, or a positively starved 2.3 MB version, either of which has got to help if you were daunted by the 38 MB original.

More new Wicked 3D Drivers, Tom versus Metabyte, and a new ATI accelerator:

• The Wicked3D Drivers page has newer drivers than the ones released the other day (story). Again these is a super single file installer for Wicked3D Voodoo2, Wicked3D Vengeance and Wicked3D eyeSCREAM setups, and word is this file no longer requires CD to install with Wicked3D featuring Voodoo2. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.
• Tom's Hardware Guide's 32 Graphic Card Meltdown Part One is online giving the THG staff's take on a load of accelerators.
• Speaking of: Metabyte's Rebuttal Against Tom's Hardware responds to allegations in Tom's Hardware Guide's Monday Blurb that their ballyhooed PCG technology was a sham.
• Interview with ATI at Gamers Depot talks with ATI about their newly announced Rage Fury Pro.
• 3d Wars Bitboys Oy History looks at the past of the Oy Boys who just announced (story) that Glaze3D dealie.

Version 1.6 of Cold Ice for Half-Life is out, offering a deathmatch mod that replaces all the game's weapons, and includes the "Smart Hud Notification System" in which the client of the HEV is updated with all sorts of helpful info as well as a "voice identification system" which both plays wav files and displays messages on the HUD. Thanks Half-LifeNews.

Both the stories from yesterday about the Messiah QuickTime VR scenes originally mis-identified the releases as movies, thanks Dave Marandino for the clarification. Also, we posted word of some new Earth 2150 shots that turned out to be old, so I pulled the story (I hate when that happens). Thanks Hendrik, who points out 15 of the shots are from their German Preview of Earth 2150 (here's the customary, often duplicated, link to BabelFish if non-German speakers want to read it).

With QuakeCon almost upon us, it bears noting that TRIBEScon99 is less than two weeks away, and over 100 people are signed up, with just one day left to pre-register. Word is Dynamix has donated 20 copies of the upcoming TRIBES Extreme as prizes at the event.

The special QuakeCon edition of the Test Your Game Knowledge game is still cranking along. Eat some fish for brain food, and head on over.

All hardware this morning:

• Tweak3D reviews the Leadtek WinFast 3D S320.
• SystemLogic reviews the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Value.
• Hardware One Reviews the TennMax TNT Detonator Cooler.
• Speedy 3D reviews the HD200 Hard drive Cooler.

• Sega, AT&T to launch gaming portal (thanks Tim Hamlin) talks of the online dreams of the Dreamcast, and Sega-AT&T alliance to frag PC-only Net? (thanks Tim Kerby) discusses the implications...
• PlanetShogo has posted a Shogo Source Code Hierarchy Chart, as well as more info about the anti-cheat patch they posted the other day (story)...
• Gamecenter Feature - Game Clichés That Just Won't Die. Thanks Ant..

We're gearing up for QuakeCon, but I have been playing zero Q3Test lately. Ahhhh! (Home Alone-style scream.) I'm going to get some news posted and go out and play some so I'm not totally out of practice when I play. Though wait, that's a built-in excuse if I don't, isn't it? Hmmmm.

Link of the Day: Park Wars The Little Menace Trailer B. Thanks Jason Lee...
Bonus Link: It's All About the Pentiums. Admit it, Weird Al's the man.
Image of the Day: New Q3Test features Stackmatches! Wheee!