I love that headline, it's like, did you read the USA Today today? Anyway, I noticed over on Voodoo Extreme that Thief Gold, the enhanced version of Thief: the Dark Project, Eidos' stealthy first-person shooter (or skulker) is gold, and should be on store shelves by October 19.

NVIDIA Chat Log at Bjorn3d.com with the unedited log from an IRC chat with Dwight Diercks and Nick Triantos from NVIDIA. Thanks nV News, where they have posted some highlights from the chat, including some new info about the GeForce 256. Here's a little bit of what they've posted:

• We take all competitors seriously, currently our target with the GeForce256 is to crush the UltraTNT2 performance levels.
• It runs great (the GeForce) with a P2/400 that I've got on my desk, too.
• Quake2 and Quake3 both run a TON faster on GeForce compared with even a TNT2 Ultra
• We don't currently have plans for an Ultra Chip per se. You guys are reading the INF's from the win2K drivers that were worked on 5 months ago
• Final GeForce drivers will work with both the TNT and TNT2

There's a new StarLancer Screenshot on GameRush keeping up with their promise of a weekly glimpse at this upcoming space sim from Microsoft, Digital Anvil, and Warthog. "This week shows an attack run on a large enemy ship."

• RIVA 3D has word up on tweaking the new NVIDIA 3.34 drivers, including how to turn off vsync.
• Slashdot reports Red Hat Releases Version 6.1. Thanks Ant.
• Chip Testers Weekly Hardware Price Update shows the RAM price increases are finally subsiding.
• EMUTECH2000 reviews the Guillemot MaxiGamer Xentor32.
• 3D Gaming Network reviews the Guillemot Maxi Gamer Cougar TNT2 M64.
• Thresh's FiringSquad reviews the Aureal Vortex2 SQ2500 Quad PCI soundcard.
• The Hard Drive and Memory Tweak Guide on Tweak3D has been updated.
• GA-Source reviews the ABIT BE6 II Motherboard.

3D Action Planet previews Heavy Metal F.A.K.K.2. with a look at Ritual's upcoming third-person action/adventure game that will use the Quake III-engine to depict the world of Kevin Eastman's Heavy Metal comic and upcoming movie.

There's another Q&A with John Carmack on Thresh's FiringSquad talking with the id Software lead programmer about the changes to the Quake III engine mentioned in his most recent worklog (story). Here's part of the exchange towards the end of the piece that touches on the footsteps issue, and opens the door to the possibility of some sort of pre-set "pro mode" geared towards high-end competitive play:

Firing Squad: Would you consider turning off footsteps only for the tournament mode of gameplay? The weapons idle sounds and item pickups should be enough to keep players on their toes, and a 1 on 1 with footsteps is guaranteed to be much more "dead" and quiet compared to one without. Also, if you think about it, since sound is so important, taking out footsteps can also keep reduce bunnyhopping/strafejumping, since they'll be able to remain silent at full running speed (otherwise the convention goes "why should I run and make footstep sounds when I can go faster by bunnyhopping?") Thanks again, and sorry for the constant badgering!

JC: I have been thinking hard about that. I see your points, and they make sense, but we just added a bunch of character specific footsteps, and for non-professional gamers, we think they add to the experience.

If there were a small set of professional rules that I agree with in theory but have chosen not to pursue because they conflict with more common play, then an official "pro mode" might make sense. Any other suggestions along those lines?

Kickass Gaming Network interviews Nels Bruckner talking with the Dynamix programmer who is the manager on TRIBES2 and TRIBES Extreme about work on TRIBES2, the upcoming sequel to Dynamix' online multiplayer teamplay shooter.

Tim Sweeney updated the Unreal Technology page with a big update with an explanation of, or at least the confirmation of, the problem where TNT/TNT2 cards suck down an extra 25 MB of system RAM in UT, some cool links, and some tweaks for TNT users to improve performance in the Unreal Tournament Demo. Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers. Here's the tweaky part:

TNT Users, Try This!

Tweaks:

• Play in 16-bit color, which is significantly faster than 32-bit color.
• Turn the detail options down in the Preferences/Video menu.
• Use the "-" key to reduce the HUD size.
• In Preferences/Game, turn off the display of your weapon.
• If you have enabled Advanced Options / Audio / Use3DHardware audio support, TURN IT OFF for now! Big driver performance problems.

Experimental improvement for the brave:

• Try NVidia's Beta Detonator 3.34 drivers (thanks to Anandtech's site for the link).
• Try putting this new D3DDRV.DLL into your \TournamentDemo\System directory. Please back up your existing one first!

These two downloads are beta and haven't been rigorously tested yet, but in our gameplay sessions here, they're a huge improvement on low-RAM machines with the TNT, TNT2, and GeForce256.

Please let us know how these work for you, by emailing utbugs@epicgames.com

3DNews' Titanium Angels Interview talks with Ben Gunstone, the producer on Titanium Angel to learn more about plans for this upcoming first-person/third-person hybrid. Thanks Frans.

Sidney has posted an interview with Jane Jensen, the lead writer & designer of Gabriel Knight 3.

A new version 1.18 of the ReDeMpTiOn Bot for Sin is now available on the ReDeMpTiOn Page. Thanks Demo News. From the update on the page, it sounds like the last version of this AI opponent for Sin for a while, as the author is taking a break from Sin projects for a while (though bugs and problems will continue to be addressed).

The Adrenaline Vault Downloads Patch has a patch for Westwood's just-released Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. Thanks Solar.

Epic's Mark Rein made a post to GT's Unreal Tournament forums with a warning for any S3 users out there (thanks VE):

WARNING TO S3 USERS:

The demo version on the net contains a file used for chipset recognition that is out of date. The current demo version does not detect the Savage4 chipset on almost all machines.

S3 is sending us an updated version and we'll get it out to people shortly. Please watch unreal.epicgames.com for more information about this.

We apologize for this oversight.

This week's Unreal Tournament Level of the Week has been posted over at GT's official site. This week's level is Facing Worlds, a CTF level that takes place on a giant asteroid. As usual, there's three screenshots posted, showing it off.

MSNBC has posted an article on the Unreal engine, titled, The Little Engine That Can Do More, which talks about Unreal Tournament, as well as the plethora of non-gaming apps the Unreal engine is being used for (thanks Brian "Somberfire" Smedley).

John Carmack updated his .plan with the latest installment of his Quake III: Arena work log. Here's the whole thing, since there's a lot of interesting stuff in here:

* 10 crosshairs to select from (cg_drawCrosshair 1 - 10)
* cg_crosshairx / cg_crosshairy adjustment
I'm not convinced these are a good thing, because the crosshair is accurate in Q3 at the default position (unlike Q2, which had an offset firing position)
* more packet encryption
* join as spectator in all team games
* cg_predictItems 0 option to not do local prediction of item pickup
* rank players counting ties, so the third player when the lead is tied is third place, not second
* properly stack all status elements in upper right and lower right corners so they can all be visible
* faced q3map problem giving black corners in vertex light
* fixed +button4 not causing footsteps
* fixed bad groundplane clipping on angled jumppads
* show "snc" on lagometer when g_syncronousClients
* new shader command: rgbgen const ( )
* new shader command: agen const
* snap dropped item positions
* randomized offsets of bubbles
* fixed cgame restarts processing snapshots from 0
* proper setup for external/predictable player events
* fixed q3map vertex lighting bug after alphashadows
* do personal pain sounds on health transitions so they can never be missed
* timeout clear player events
* fixed hang in UI_ProportionalStringWidth
* quad event implicit on weapon fire
* fixed gamestate not retransmitting bug
* fixed timeout issue when paused
* subdivide command times if <15fps, fixing low
com_maxfps physics exploits
* fixed footsteps playing when walking backwards
* new options at start of animation.cfg file: footsteps headoffset

Jeez, there's a headline that feels a few years late...Blizzard has announced that Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition has gone gold, and will be available in stores, "later this month." This special edition of Warcraft II contains over 100 levels, including the ones in the original Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, as well as the mission pack Beyond the Dark Portal, as well as full support for Blizzard's free online service, Battle.net (thanks Razor).

GameProWorld has posted their strategy guide to the 3D space RTS Homeworld. The guide contains general tips, as well as level specific hints for every single player map.

PowerGamerz has posted an interview with NVIDIA's Nick Triantos, talking to the engineer about their GeForce 256 and its advantages over the competition (and their previous products).

StrangeCompany's official site for their upcoming LithTech Film Producer has gone live, and offers a great deal of information about this LithTech engine based method for creating standalone 3D movies.

Registration for The Frag 3 will close on Friday, October 15th at midnight, so make sure you sign up if you're planning on going. Nobody will be allowed in without a pass on Friday or Saturday, however a limited amount of Sunday-only passes will be available. The Frag 3 is the latest CPL event, which will take place October 29th through the 31st.

• GameWire reviews the Sony 21" 500ps monitor.
• Part 4 of PCGamer's Tweak Guide has been posted at Tweak3D (it's posted with their blessing).

Thanks as always to the infallible, unfwapable Frans o' 3DGamers for these.

• GameSpot UK reviews Homeworld.
• GamesMania reviews Homeworld.
• Gamer's Central reviews Prince of Persia 3D.
• EuroGamer reviews Shadowman.
• PCArena reviews the Odium demo.

• Glide Underground has posted an interview with Rob Elam, talking about the 3D fighting game One Must Fall: Battlegrounds.
• A demo version of the combat flight-sim Jane's USAF is now available at its official site.
• The newly relaunched GameSpy site has posted an article on the future of gaming, featuring comments by Civilization designer Bruce Shelley as well as Total Annihiliation's Chris Taylor.
• After years of service to the gaming community, the Cooler Servers are going offline on October 3rd, and to make sure they go offline with a bang, they're doing what they do best - playing a whole lot of games.

So, while I admittedly didn't spend nearly enough time this week playing games (jeez, what happened?), I did manage to play a bit of Unreal Tournament, which I'm enjoying quite a bit. A friend of mine came over a couple of times, and we had a good ol' time playing CTF against each other with each team balanced out with 4 bots. I'm pretty sick of that level already (I long for the wide open spaces of TRIBES) but it sure is fun. The success of this only makes me more excited for the first batch of bot-centric games, such as the full Unreal Tournament (duh), but also TRIBES Extreme, and of course, Quake III: Arena. If you haven't tried out the bots yet in the UT demo, I highly recommend them. If nothing else, they're a great way to ensure a balanced team.

Link of the Day: Metric System Caused NASA Crash. Thanks to Steve Silva, who points out the quote, "you would think it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to realize that, but actually, it did."