Unreal Universe has posted a hands-on preview of Legend's Wheel of Time, complete with a detailed writeup and twenty four screenshots from what the author calls, "the most graphically advanced game I've ever seen."

This Quantic Dreams download page has some new movies from Quantic's upcoming third-person action game Omikron: The Nomad Soul on the heels of the older one mentioned earlier (story). The newer ones, like the earlier one were spotted by our eagle-eyed friend Frans from 3D Action Gamers. One movie is a new collection of some FMV clips previously released, and the other a new movie showing off more gameplay, and each is available as both a heftier mpeg and in more svelte RealPlayer format.

The maXtron main site has RiEvEr's port of his bot code to work in Kingpin: Life of Crime, Xatrix' Quake II-engine game. This first release of the port from the author of the ReDeMpTiOn Bot and the Licensed To Kill bot for Action Quake2 is intended as a base for mod authors to include in their own Kingpin mods. Thanks Poisonville. Speaking of which, there's a new Licensed To Kill bot for Action Quake2 version 0.14 beta on maXtron as well. The new release has "the first version of the shiny new pathing system so the bots get around a lot better..."

Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart updated his .plan with word on why GameSpy users are having problems with their ngWorldStats, a problem he says will be addressed in some way:

GameSpy users won't be able to properly create ngWorldStats account with the demo. My method of ensuring correct account creation requires that the connect URL be created by the game. I overlooked the fact that 3rd party programs use their own connect URLs to open a game. This will be addressed.

Frans at 3D Action Gamers sends word of the semi-recent release of another Omikron movie on Eidos' FTP site to promote Omikron: The Nomad Soul, Eidos Interactive's upcoming third-person action game. I call the release semi-recent because though it is dated September 24, it doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet, certainly not here. The AVI format movie is a hefty 47 MB, is 320x240 with a 2:48 minute running time, and features a voice-over by David Bowie along with appearances by his in-game character, among other cut-scene and in-game footage.

Doomworld has a re-released version of id Software's source code for Doom, which was previously released, now available as a GNU General Public License release, which alters the terms of the code's availability. It is now theoretically legal to sell programs based on the code, provided the new code remains freely-available under the GPL. Here's the accompanying quote from John Carmack:

Any DOOM based EXE would have to have the source available upon request. It doesn't necessarily have to be included, but you have to be able to get at it if you wish. This would prevent a gldoom episode.

The GLDoom episode to which he refers is the loss of the source code to one high-profile Doom source port to a hard drive crash.

The Official DESCENT 3 Web Site has the announcement of Descent 3: Mercenary, an official add-on for Descent 3, their recent sequel to the flying and shooting Descent series. Thanks Descent3D. The add-on will include some user-created levels, and there are details up on the contest that for third-party map authors to get their work included in the add-on if it's good enough. Not much more in the way of details about the new add-on are currently available.

A new GameSpy 3D version 2.16 shareware is now available. The new shareware release adds the same Unreal Tournament Demo and Deer Hunter 3 support included in the just-released registered version of this server browser.

The Tread Marks Screenshots page has been updated with a couple of new shots from this upcoming game that allows you to accelerate around in 3D accelerated tanks, racing (and shooting) at similarly equipped opponents.

A new beta of SciTech GLDirect is available updating this program that allows you to run OpenGL-based applications using Microsoft DirectX 6.x or later drivers on "any graphics card that supports DirectX 6.x." Thanks Demo News.

Mod Central Unreal has posted a new Unreal Tournament Demo mutator for download. The new mutator changes all the weapons and other pickup items so they are triple their normal size. The weapons also remain absurdly sized after you are holding them if you check out third-person view for some real anime-style action (though they remain normally-sized in first-person view so you can see where you're going).

A new version 1.06 of the CronosBot for Quake is now available. Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski. The new release offers a new pathing system that allows the bots to play any level ("but on a pre-programmed level they move around more optimally"). The new gameplay offered by the updated bots is described as "really very good for some nice one on one action."

On the heels of the announcement that Thief Gold is gold (story) The Adrenaline Vault has word that another of Eidos' upcoming games is nearing completion, saying that the action./RPG Revenant should be announcing that it is gold (code complete and off to manufacturing) any day now.

There's another listing of Q3Test Console Commands on PlanetQuake 3 with a rundown on variables they say should be complete, along with a command listing they are not as positive is comprehensive (they are therefore eager of any new info on these anyone can send along).

There's a JailBreak report on PlanetQuake offering an explanation of what the current situation is with this popular Quake II modification, clarifying that there will be the promised version 2.5b of the Quake II version of the mod, in spite of some recent events that left JailBreak fans fearing that this had been cancelled. The article also puts rumors to rest about the future of the mod, saying there will be a Quake III Arena version of JailBreak when the time comes.

Thanks Frans at 3D Action Gamers:

• Sharky Extreme reviews System Shock 2.
• PC.IGN.Com reviews FreeSpace2.
• PC.IGN.COM reviews Homeworld.
• GameSpy.com reviews Drakan: Order of the Flame.
• Ingava reviews Age of Empires II: Age of Kings.
• Glide Underground reviews Rage of Mages II: Necromancer.
• ESCMAG reviews Civilization II: Test of Time.
• Game Forces reviews the Matrox Millennium G400.

• There's a Rogue Spear Rainbow Six comparison article on RainbowSix.Net offering an assessment of the differences between the newer and older release in Red Storm Entertainment's pair of tactical shooters inspired by events depicted in Tom Clancy's best-selling Novel...
• There are a pair of new Evolva screenshots on 3DGPU.com, one showing off a wireframe from the game running on a GeForce 256...
• Speedy 3D interviews RedKnight discussing the state of the Star Wars TC for Quake II...

I have a new theory (ahem) that I wonder might not be true: it seems the last few weekends have been quieter news-wise than the bunch that preceded it, and I'm wondering if part of the cycle of this stuff is that the heavier news we were just getting used to on the weekends is related to the summer somehow, though I'm not really sure why this would be (just trying to read the patterns here). Anyway the quiet time allowed me to find the glitch in the rollover code in the menu bar that was causing the text size to jump for readers who have selected a different than normal text size in their browser's preferences. Now if I could only figure out why that font size seems to change for so many without having selected a different text size. It happens to me all the time in MSIE 5.0, where I'll notice this setting has changed itself to "smaller." Could there be something in the HTML of one or more of the sites I visit (possibly this one included) that causes this? Theories and solutions are more than welcome.

Link of the Day: THE REGISTER Games developer to eat insects if bugs infest software (replacement for a dupe LoD posted earlier, sorry). Thanks Nick Morrow.