Missed this earlier, but I spotted on ValveNews that Jenni from Valve sent a response to I.Am-Half-Life about Randy's posts about problems with the patch (story):

• The last time I checked we had 950 HL servers running, and expect that number to go up as the day progresses. (At our high point we had gone from 0 to 1000 servers in less than 24 hours, which makes us very happy. :-))
• We're sorry that the update overwrites any existing TFC autoexec.cfg file. We didn't anticipate that this would be such a big problem for people, and next time we'll make sure the update creates a back-up.
• The reason demos recorded under previous versions of HL don't work now is that we had to make a trade-off to address the fact that a lot of people using cable modems weren't able to play the game. (To fix their problem we had to make a change to the network protocol.)
• All of the Half-Life mods are working with the update. (We posted 8 mods to our mod server yesterday.)

Right on the heels of our late report earlier of a new beta of Q3Stats (story) comes another version, this one actually brand new, and now available on their newly relocated homepage. New to beta 2 of version 2 is the program's new name (it was formerly Q3TStats), a native Linux version, more commandline options, more parser enhancements, the score formula has been adjusted, and a bug has been squashed.

Billy has posted a new screenshot from Nocturne on Voodoo Extreme showing off gameplay from TRI's upcoming third person gothic thriller.

Power Gamerz interviews Viet-Tam Luu talking with this software engineer from NVIDIA talking about accelerator features, including some discussion of the t-buffer, as well as other stuff about the business, game playing, and more.

Part 2 of the Kingpin Mapping Guide is up on IPlayGames covering "Expanding Your Map."

Though not on Team Evolve's Red Odyssey page there's a version 1.3 patch for the Red Odyssey add-on for BattleZone on the irrepressible Sgt. Hulka's Bootcamp. The new release is described as a "Major fix, no more BD invisible tanks!!!"

Version 3.04 of the WinGate Win32 proxy dealie is now available. Thanks BetaNews.

3D Accelerated Gaming interviews Laurant Weill of Visiware Studios about their upcoming Fox Interactive game, Planet of the Apes. The piece discusses gameplay for the game (expected second Quarter 2000), and offers some screenshots.

Speaking of planets, Billy at VE sends word that Planet Iridium build #99 is now available, updating this massive multiplayer Internet space simulation, currently undergoing free beta testing throughout the summer.

Saw on PlanetUnreal (by way of Unreal Nation) that GT has posted a new UT level of the week called CTF November, along with some new screenshots.

BWwire Interviews Steve Jackson talking with the writer on Lionhead's upcoming god-game Black & White.

I noticed an interesting post to the Quake Arena Road Tour messageboard by Savage Lucy titled road bus review that gives a neat rundown on what's up with the version of Quake III Arena being played on the bus. I'm guessing loonyboi will have more to say about this after he catches up with the tour (which will happen sometime this evening, though I'm not sure when we'll first hear from him), but the portion of the post about the game seemed well worth passing long here as it mentions new features that us users of the public test have not seen yet:

Just got back from stopping by the Quake III bus in Houston and I must say, what a trip! The new level that I played on is very cool, it is somewhat similar in style to Qtest 1. The grenade launcher is included in the level but I did not find it very useful, I mainly stuck with the plasma gun (it was very refreshing to have a ping less than 350!).

There was a quad-damage included, along with an invisibility rune which seemed alternate with the quad as far as which one would spawn. When invisible, nothing at all (not even eyes) can be seen. It was great to walk up to people and melt the crap out of them!

There are several new models included. There are of course the two that are included with the later test version but in addition to this, there is what appears to be a female version of the marine but without the visor, and the coolest model there was essentially a giant eye with legs. It was truly hilarious to see a whole bunch of eyes walking around holding rocket launchers and plasma guns!!

A couple of updates from earlier in the week to Q3Test log parsing programs, both spotted on Beta Bites. First, Q3TStats 2.0 beta 1a, is a a fix to the beta 1 of Q3TStats, a Q3Test version 1.08-compatible log parser. Also, Q3dmstats version 0.45 has been released, offering bugfixes and improved output.

Saw on the Descent Chronicles has posted word on a Descent 3 FAQ on Jamie's Sweet Home Page has posted a Descent 3 Skinning FAQ (zipped--direct link--oddly there doesn't seem to be a link to this on it's own site) by Biggyshake intended on helping those interested in skinning in D3 get underway.

The Adrenaline Vault News has posted a bunch of screenshots from Tomb Raider IV, the upcoming next installment in the third-person adventure franchise. Also, for your Lara tracking pleasure, there are More Tomb Raider Movie Details on GA-Source which describe the plot of this upcoming Merchant-Ivory (just kidding) production, and mongers a few rumors over possible casting decisions.

The Creative Labs' Downloads page has new 3DBlaster Banshee Windows 95/98 and 3DBlaster Banshee Windows NT drivers for their Voodoo Banshee-based boards (you may be amused to note that the page misspells the name of their card as "Basnhee"). Thanks BetaNews. The new Win95/98 drivers offer support for AMD's 3DNow!, improved control for memory clock setting, and allows proper installation with plug & play monitors. The WinNT drivers correct reported cases of Internet Explorer (Versions 4 & 5) freezing up on certain websites (if you do not have that problem, or if you are using another browser, you do not need these drivers).

Drakan.Net has a tip for SoundBlaster Live! owners that are having trouble with Psygnosis/Surreal's just-released Drakan: Order of the Flame to make sure that have the latest Creative's Live(!)Ware 2.1 update. They also have word of problems with that nasty DirectPlay API that are causing difficulties on multiplayer servers when too many players join that should be addressed by a future patch. Here's the word from Stu at Surreal on what's up with Drakan multiplayer (thanks again Drakan.Net):

1. Until the Winsock patch is released, we recommend keeping the max number of players at 4. That seems to be the most players that DirectPlay can handle, no matter how much bandwidth Drakan is using.
2. We recommend setting the server connection speed in the Drakan.cfg file to "Modem56" This is the default speed, and produces pretty good player movement at this rate.
3. Server operators should create a file called "ServerRules.txt" and place it in their Drakan root directory. The file should contain e-mail contact information so Surreal can contact them with problems or solutions. Surreal is monitoring most of the current servers.
4. DirectPlay only allows one server per machine to be run. This is a limitation of DirectPlay, not Drakan, and therefore this issue will be resolved by the Drakan Winsock patch.

Version 2.0 of TriCon the console administration utility for Starsiege TRIBES, is now available. New to this version are a bunch of features like the ability to minimize to system tray, a User List Function to automatically auto-admin, superadmin, ban/kick, nick reserving, and more.

There are a pair of new TRIBES Extreme Screenshots on GA-Source showing off TRIBES Extreme, the upcoming sequel to Starsiege TRIBES that promises a single-player campaign, in addition to enhancements to the game's multiplayer capabilities.

Randy from I.Am-Half-Life sends word that he's updated his tweaks page with a new version of his benchmarking demo that works under Half-Life 1.0.1.3 (the new release does not work with demos recorded under older versions.

• Saw on BetaNews that they've dug up some new drivers for the Diamond Multimedia Stealth III S500.
• NT Game Palace has posted some updated INF files from Anthony Toste to use 3dfx-based graphic cards under Windows 2000 (now with new readme and installation instructions).

Computer Games Online's Q&A With Sierra's Rod Fung talks with the producer of SWAT 3 Close Quarters Battle about gameplay in this tactical shooter currently in the works. The next part (currently being slowly and lovingly HTML-ed as if by monks of yore), is promised soon, covering Multiplayer and AI issues.

Unreal Kingdom has a reply from Tim Sweeney to their question about running single player Unreal maps on Unreal Tournament (thanks PlanetUnreal).

UT will ship with all the Unreal 1 sounds, textures, and models, so the maps *might* work. We haven't been testing the Unreal 1 game code in the UT codebase for months now, so I can't promise that certain aspects of the gameplay haven't broken, but at least everything compiles and seems to work at a glance. So I expect a lot of the U1 single player user maps will work with UT right away, and if some break, they can probably be modified to work.

Extreme Hardware has more information gleaned from various sources around the Internet about the swirling rumors of Hercules' demise (story). The report quotes Riva Extreme's coverage of the topic, an "unverified" USENET post, and an email confirmation from someone at Hercules. Also, The Adrenaline Vault News has a report up on the subject.

Intel slashing chip prices Monday is a ZDNN article detailing deep slashes from the chip giant in wholesale quantities of Pentium II and Pentium III processors. Only the price of the top-of-the-line 600 MHz Pentium III will remain unaffected by the cuts, which drop the prices of some CPUs as much as 41%. Thanks emperor_jeremy.

Sean Segel sent along a report he wrote up from a foray to Hercules' corporate headquarters, with what would appear to be proof that they are out of business. Expect a formal announcement next week, but until then, here's what Sean had to say:

I Just got back from Hercules of Fremont California. I was just informed by the staff that Hercules is indeed "out of business". The anonymous employees told me that they site financial woes as the main reason why Hercules can no longer continue. The staff also informed me that the employees have not been paid for two weeks. The reason that they do not answer the phones is because they are working for free and are basically clearing their desk out. It will be clear very soon when Hercules issues their press release regarding their departure from the graphics business.

Hercules will also be calling the game sites with additional statements. The staff also said that its unlikely that they will be fulfilling any more video card orders, even the ones that have been ordered weeks ago. They did say that there was some employees(out of charity) still there packing up some cards for shipment. So if your credit card was not charged, then you should not be receiving a video card. I was able to get what is probably one of the last new Hercules TNT2 Ultras that will be seen again. They sold me the Hercules TNT2 Ultra /TV-out with dvd software for a discount price of $200. They said that if you are lucky enough to live in the Fremont area, able to arrive at Hercules Co. with the next days before they clear out, that you could also get the Hercules TNT2 Ultra/ TV-out with dvd software for the discount price of $200.

Just as I was about to print this, Maximum PC posted their report on the subject, with an "anonymous source" confirming that the company has indeed closed down, with all products no longer being shipped, and almost all employees having resigned.

Extreme3D has posted an article called "The History of Q3Test" which illustrates the evolution of Q3Test from version to version.

Version 1.7 of Cold Ice, a deathmatch mod for Half-Life has been released (thanks PlanetHalfLife). This version adds several new weapons (including a grappling hook), a Kamikaze Dynamite Vest, two new maps, and more.

Version 1.41 beta of the texture editing program Wally has been released. This version boasts many new enhancements over its predecessor, including browsable image types and palette files, caching for faster directory browsing, and lots more.

According to the fan page XCommand, when E-Mail X-Com is released in early October, it will contain a preview movie for X-Com: Alliance, the Unreal engine title in the series, on the CD. Thanks to UnrealEngine.com for pointing that out.

GASource has posted four new screenshots they received from KaosKontrol, showing off their urban 3D strategy game Block War.

• Next-Generation reviews (glowingly!) Drakan: Order of the Flame.
• 3DActionPlanet reviews System Shock 2.
• GamePen reviews System Shock 2.

• Mike Wilson updated his .plan with great excitement over the fact that both FLY! and Darkstone are selling extremely well for the PC, with Railroad Tycoon II selling well on the Mac.
• The Ministry of Development has posted an interview with with Damian Scott of Kanonball, a Half-Life mod.
• IMG Magazine is offering a free subscription to anyone who donates $40 to the Red Cross' Turkey International Response Fund. Just donate (be sure to select "Turkey" as the country of choice) and copy/paste the confirmation mail (without the CC information) into a letter to tuncer@imgmagazine.com along with your mailing info.

• GameSpot reviews the TurboWriter CD-RW.
• GamePC has posted a Quantum Atlas 10K vs. Seagate Cheetah 18LP shootout, comparing these two hard drives.
• Maximum Hardware reviews the Diamond Viper 770 TNT2 Ultra.

Okay, it's time for a Moronic loonyboi Story™. Whee. Yeah, I did something very stupid. I have this habit of keeping things inside my Palm Pilot case. Stuff like checks, prescriptions, etc. So yesterday during my foray into the city, I was depositing a whole boatload of checks, and well...I left my Pilot at the bank. Since the bank closed before I made it home, and I had left it in the part that was open 24 hours, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out that it's gone forever. Doh. The only upside to this whole thing is that it's forced me to upgrade from a Palm Professional to the swanky IIIx (Blue has a Palm V, but I just couldn't justify spending the extra cash for less RAM) but I still feel like a complete twit. I also took the opportunity to pick up Tiger Woods' PGA Tour Golf for the Palm Pilot. Damn, that looks good. Someone want to explain why golf the sport bores the heck out of me, but I can't get enough of golf games? Strange, strange, strange.

Link of the Day: Dog Shoots Master. It's one of those news stories you sort of wish were made up (thanks James Boswell).