A new version of Kali II, the server browsing IRC client, has been released, and is available at the official Kali FTP site (thanks DesktopWatch). This version is beta revision C.

PowerGamerz has posted an interview with Red Storm Entertainment CEO (and personal friend of Tom Clancy) Doug Littlejohns. In this first installment of the interview (part two is expected tomorrow), Doug talks about his general duties at the company, upcoming Red Storm projects, and the military adviser that was brought in to work on Force 21.

Thresh's FiringSquad has posted a hands-on preview of Nocturne, complete with lots of screenshots (including a separate set just for shots that show off the game's lighting). The preview is based on a playable copy of the game, and is quite detailed.

GameSpot has posted part three of their massive Diablo II preview, offering a look at this upcoming isometric action/adventure title. A big thanks goes out to Frans at 3DGamers, who also points out that we never posted part two of this preview (so naturally we're doing it now).

AVault has posted a patch to upgrade the retail English version of X - Beyond the Frontier up to version 1.9, although there's no word on what specifically this patch actually does.

Behind the Scenes of Messiah’s Character Animation System is a Gamasutra feature written by TeamEgo programmer Saxs that discusses the unusual approach to character animation the game is taking. Saxs describes it like this: "This article is not a how-to guide, it’s a brain dump from the perspective of the engine programmer (me) of Shiny’s upcoming title, Messiah." Thanks yet again Frans.

There are some screenshots on Gamecenter, but all have been previously published elsewhere (here included), except this Heavy Metal F.A.K.K.2 screenshot, which, while it looks familiar, as well, seems to be new. Thanks to the sharp-eyed (and rather hyperactive) Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

The official Outcast Support FAQ has been updated with some new information, and a general reorganization to reflect that both the demo and the full version of this third-person action title are now available. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers.

Gamecenter's Sneak Peek at Star Trek Voyager--Elite Force is online, with a look ahead at Raven's upcoming Quake III-engine shooter set in the Star Trek Voyager universe, kicking off by saying: "Then there's Voyager, the series many feel is the weakest of the four. It's surprising, therefore, that given the lackluster history of Star Trek-based computer games, that one of the most promising in years happens to be based on the Voyager license." Thanks again Frans.

There are five more news screenshots from Thief Gold on Wewp! Entertainment in addition to the five reported earlier (story) with more looks at this upcoming enhanced version of Thief: The Dark project, the sneaky, back stabbing first-person shooter.

Matrox G400 3D Gaming Enhanced Game of the Week focuses on Pandemic Studios' upcoming action/strategy sequel, BattleZone II. The feature, like their previous games of the week, offers screenshots of BZ2 using the environmental bump-mapping features of the G400.

GT Interactive's official Wheel of Time page is online, not to be confused with Legend's official Wheel of Time site. Thanks Frans. In addition to a nifty screenshot dealie, they have links to GT's Wheel of Time Forums, as well, devoted to discussion of Legend's upcoming Unreal-engine fantasy/action game.

Activision's official Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption site has undergone an update, and now features a new "letter", five new screenshots, and information on the Cainites in the characters section. Thanks TheMasquerade.org for the tipoff.

TRIBESPlayers has posted a new map by Dynamix' Mark Frohnmayer for Starsiege: TRIBES titled "Avalanche". The map originally was shown at TRIBESCon '99 a while back, and is client-side (IE: it contains new terrain) so server operators and clients alike need to download it in order to play it (thanks Datumplane::Starsiege).

Gearbox' Randy Pitchford updated his .plan, pointing people towards this preview of Half-Life: Opposing Force, their official Half-Life add on pack. This article is unique, he points out, since the author was actually given a playable version of the game to preview.

This week's Unreal Tournament Level of the Week has been posted at GT's official Unreal Tournament site (thanks Billy "goth" Wilson). This week's level is "Gothic", and it's a sort of gothic palace (complete with carpeting). Naturally, there's screenshots up showing it all off.

Quakeidge Gaming has posted an interview with id Software's Paul Jaquays, talking about that whole map making thing that he does, including some questions about the bots in Quake III: Arena, CTF, and more.

Poisonville.com ("All the filthy ass Kingpin news that's not fit to dump in the ocean") has posted an interview with the artist known as "Corky", a texture artist for Xatrix. Topics discussed include Corky's background in art (his prior work includes penciling jobs for Image and Marvel Comics), the wacky world of skinning, and how to get into the industry.

Conspiracy theorists rejoice...the official Deus Ex site has gone live. The site features a bunch of screenshots, some production art, and even a designer's diary by Warren Spector. Run over and check it out.

Brandon "BlueMarine" Reinhart updated his .plan with a good post to finish off a week, or perhaps even better to save for Monday. Sorry, wanted to note this just for fun, we've all had one of those days:

WAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!

CRUSH CRUSH!!!!!

SMASH!!! SMASH!!!! CRUSH!!!!

CRUSH STOMP STOMP SMASH CRUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!



WAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!


CRUSH SMASH SMASH CRUSH!!!!

Raven's Kenn Hoekstra sends word that the official Star Trek Voyager Elite Force website is online, here's what Brian Pelletier has to say about it:

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force now has an official website! It is loaded with content ranging from screenshots, concept art, in-game models and all kinds of game information. We, the development team, have been extremely busy developing the game...now we want everyone to see a little more of what this project is about. We will be updating the site constantly so visit often, see what we're up to and join in on the message board. Thanks for your interest in Elite Force and we promise to have a fun, informative website monitored by the development team. We will continue creating a kick ass action game and now you know where to go for the latest information. Check it out...

The Quake 3 Road Tour page has been updated, and now features an in-game screenshot of the new Orbb model that's being shown at the tour stops (scroll all the way down). Unlike the images posted here during my bus extravaganza, this is an in-game shot, not a picture of the monitor. Thanks to Russ McDaniel for the tip.

The official Unreal Tournament page has an update from Epic's Mark Rein on the next Unreal Tournament demo, which will add D3D support among other things. Thanks Unreal Universe. Word is not to expect the new demo sooner than Monday. Here's the scoop:

Microsoft has released DirectX7. You can read about it and download it from Microsoft's DirectX Page and download it on their Download Page. Now that DirectX7 is available, we're doing final testing and tweaking on the upcoming Unreal Tournament demo with Direct3D and OpenGL support. We don't expect it to be released any earlier than Monday because we want to do a little more internal testing of some additional improvements and fixes we're making over the weekend. The next version will not be network play compatible with the current 3DFX-only version but we do plan to offer both a full download and a patch to update the existing 3DFX-only demo to the new version.

Speaking of testing, We'd like to thank GT lead tester Tim Hess and the entire GT test crew. They continue to do an outstanding job helping us make UT a better tested game than any we've made before. You folks out there are definitely doing your part too and we appreciate all the bug reports you've been sending to utbugs@epicgames.com - keep 'em coming, especially when the new version arrives.

Word from Gone Gold is that Shadow Company, UbiSoft's upcoming 3D squad-based tactical sim is gold, and off to manufacture. They also have word that Seven Kingdoms 2 has apparently been gold for some time now (double-secret probation gold, perhaps?), so that should be in stores soon, as well.

S3 And Diamond Multimedia Announce Shareholder Approval of Merger is the announcement that the merger that fell short of the votes required for approval recently (story), has been approved. Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski. Word is "Under the terms of the merger, shareholders of Diamond Multimedia will receive .52 of a share of S3 stock for each share of Diamond Multimedia stock held."

AVault has posted five new screenshots from Thief Gold, the special edition of Thief: The Dark Project that should be hitting stores soon. The shots are new, however some of them are strikingly similar to previously released images.

PC Zone's Omikron: Nomad Soul preview is online with a look ahead at this unusual-sounding upcoming 3D action game from Eidos Interactive and Quantic Dream that stars, as they put it, "David Bowie and a cast of 'ladies of the night'." The preview features words straight from the mouths of the game's developers, as well as several new screenshots.

NovaLogic has posted a set of Delta Force 2 Design Notes that features a rundown of all the features in the demo, and a list of some features that will be in the retail version that were not included in the demo. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers. Perhaps the most interesting addition in the full release will be a feature I've heard people joke about in the past as an impossibility, 3D accelerated voxels! Well, at least 3D accelerator support. Here's the scoop:

3D Card Support - Finally, a Voxel Space game with support for 3D accelerators. This is a work in progress, so you may see some texture warping and/or sorting problems (particularly ground showing through the floor inside a building) depending on what kind of 3D card you're using. The final product will use Direct3D to support AGP accelerators with 32-bit color.

Vortex of Sound has posted their writeup of the Aureal retail launch party in San Francisco that was held last night, and according to them, Quake III: Arena is going to be supporting A3D with full wavetracing. They've also posted a Q&A with Jake Simpson, who seems to confirm this. Here's a quote:

Maybe I'm letting the cat out of the bag here, but I know that Quake 3 WILL be supporting at least A3D 2.0. They have an OEM deal going there, and I know that the programmer I deal with at Aureal ... is going to insert the code appropriate into the Quake 3 codebase. So we'll automatically get that into Voyager. As for EAX 2.0- well, lets put it this way, if Id doesn't, we will.

Thanks to Frans for sending word that the Outcast FAQ/Walkthrough at GameFaqs has been updated to version 0.3, and now includes walkthroughs for the bonus quests.

TheMasquerade.org has posted a news bit that Nihilistic is currently looking into releasing a soundtrack CD from their title Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption, which will be free when you pre-order the game. Also, word is that the game's soundtrack is 80 minutes long (pretty impressive for a game).

Epic's Jack "Mek" Porter updated the Unreal Technology page with word that they've created a change log detailing what improvements are being made over the Glide version of the Unreal Tournament demo for inclusion in the upcoming full release of the demo. Here are the changes to network and gameplay issues:

Network issues
- fixed inventory popping on network clients
- fixed replication of owners of unseen weapons making ambient firing sound
- fixed plasma bolt occasionally sticking around on client after you die
- improved client-side movement prediction near other players
- improved client side weapon animation (RL and shockrifle)
- added packet loss readout to the scoreboard.
- display network disconnection icon when server doesn't send updates frequently enough

Gameplay
- player no longer hear own footsteps walking
- reduce falling damage w/ jumpboots
- fixed problem with instant hit weapons at point blank range
- louder pain sounds
- startup message fades faster
- fixed difficulty level displayed on scoreboard
- translocator target no longer bounces off triggers and control points
- players drop flag if feign death
- Fixed some sudden death overtime problems (fraglimit + timelimit, tied player suicides, etc.)
- included nopowerups mutator in botpack.int
- Added frags per hour readout to the scoreboard.
- Added various stats features to the game. Game now tracks "Frags per Hour" and the top 3 deathmatchers on a server.

On the heels of the launch of the Origin-Ultima Online 2 site yesterday (story), The Adrenaline Vault News has posted a summary of most of what's known about the upcoming sequel to Origin's hugely-profitable persistent online RPG. Among the details they've dug up are the names of the designers of the project, a list that doesn't include Richard "Lord British" Garriott, as word is: "The Adrenaline Vault has learned that Garriott, who is currently finishing Ultima IX for the fall, will not be directly involved with the project; instead, he will be focusing his talents on another Origin offering." Also, there is a new Stratics UO2 General Forum, and a new UO2 board on the Vault Network, as well as a Vault Network UO2 Developer Message Board, and a Stratics UO2 Development Forum.

FirstOnes.com is holding an IRC chat session on Sunday with some of the developers of the now-cancelled Babylon 5 space simulator (story), including Lead Programmer Dan Foy, Art Director Marc Hudgins, 3D Artist Stuart Compton, Programmer Jeff Reitman, and AI Software Engineer John Walker. The chat will be Sunday, September 26 at Noon PDT, 3:00 PM EDT in EFnet #Babylon5 (the main moderated channel) and #Babylon4 (the unmoderated public discussion and questions channel).

A question for Max Schaefer... is a post on the Battle.net forums with more details on the upcoming beta test for Diablo II, including word that there are 1000 beta spots, and that signing up when the registration is announced is the only way to get in. I will explain is a follow-up post that explains why delaying the beta test will help the game come out sooner. Also, the DiabloII.Net Network has summarized a total of seven more message board posts by Blizzard outlining details about gameplay in the upcoming sequel to Diablo.

• Gamecenter's NVIDIA Interview, Part Two is up talking with NVIDIA's David Kirk about the GeForce 256. Part one can be read right here.
• Speaking of NVIDIA, Shadow Man Transform and Lighting Shots on RIVA 3D show off Acclaim's oogie voodoo (magic not video) game on a GeForce 256. Also, there are a pair of Need for Speed shots on Voodoo Extreme showing off the 3dfx T-Buffer.
• The Desktop Manager page has a new version of G400 Tweak, which allows G400 owners control over registry settings and other spooky stuff. Thanks Demo News.
• Creative Labs Products Online Specials Voodoo2 has refurbished 8 MB V2's for $19.99 and 12 MB cards for $29.99. Was it really that long ago that I paid over $300 for a 12 MB card?? Thanks BC.

Hey look, a GeForce 256 review! Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers for some of these.

• Games Domain Review reviews Drakan: Order of the Flame.
• GameSpot reviews Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
• 3DGaming reviews C&C: Tiberian Sun.
• GibWorld reviews C&C: Tiberian Sun.
• MPOG reviews the Unreal Tournament Demo.
• 3DHardware.net reviews the Creative Labs GeForce 256 Annihilator.

• Slashdot Articles Microsoft Plays Linux Games at Work is the man bites dog story of the day. Thanks Ant...
• The G-Sector page has new shots of this upcoming 3D freeware game, along with word that its release is delayed until October 30...
• Hype: The Time Quest game demo on PC Gameworld is a demo of a game they compare to Legend of Zelda...

So I'm watching this oddball mystery movie on Showtime called Stranger in the House (sounds like one of those bad Lifetime network movies about someone who finds out their husband is a murderer-Update: Shane points out I found the wrong title in TV Guide, and the move was actually The Happy Face Murders), and at one point a detective is talking to this really tweaky woman in an office who can barely pay attention because she's absorbed playing a computer game, which turns out to be Unreal. At one point she screams "die, you motherf*ckers!" at the screen, so they had authenticity going for them. Speaking of movies, in watching the Matrix DVD, I see the line from Prizzi's Honor that was recently in the pop culture game is not the same in the Matrix, where it's "Take a cookie," not "Have a cookie." There, never let it be said that an issue need be important to prompt us setting the record straight.

Link of the Day: asdf. Thanks Paul Baucom. The scary thing is, someone tried to send this in yesterday, and mis-typed the URL (no kidding).