LucasArts has released a patch for Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. According to AVault, this small patch improves gameplay and AI. It's available from LucasArts' FTP site.

PC.IGN has posted an interview with Louis Castle, Executive VP at Westwood Studios. The topic of the hour is Command & Conquer: Renegade, the third person action title set in the C&C universe.

The latest edition of the always nutty Daily Dementia features none other than Epic's Cliff Bleszinski. Topics include Cliffy's Unreal Tournament tips, lots of level design stuff, and Gary Coleman. It's 30 bizarre minutes of audio fun, but you'll need a Real (or compatible) player to check it out.

PlanetStarsiege has posted the final three panels of their installment in the ongoing Starsiege: TRIBES comic. The rest of the comic will appear on the CD when TRIBES Extreme ships.

Infogrames has released a miniscule patch (30k) for Slave Zero which enables force feedback on the game's official site. Just unzip it to your "scripts" directory, and play with a force feedback joystick. The patch should work on both the demo and retail versions of the game.

FilePlanet has posted the 1.3 patch for Hidden & Dangerous. Here are the details on the patch, courtesy of Tactical Planet:

1. Improved AI of allied soldiers. Status: Improved Follow mode, Move on command and overall AI of allied soldiers.

2. Improved AI of enemy soldiers.
Status: Improved covering after being shot. Walking by preprogramed path. Smarter grenade throwing. Overall enemy intelligence improved.

3. Killing by the knife through the wall.
Status: Fixed.

4. Vehicles.
Status: Vehicles sky launch bug fixed. Vehicles falling under terrain fixed.

5. Hardware fixes.
Status: PIII compatibility promblem fixed. Running HD on low memmory cards improved.

Please note: If you are experiencing display or other problems, we recommend that you check that you have the latest drivers installed for the hardware in your PC, these should be available to download from the web sites of the manufactures of your hardware.

id Software's Graeme Devine updated his .plan with word that he's doing some work on the authorization server - so if you're having problems with the Quake III demo, don't panic. Here's the scoop:

I'm debugging some stuff on the authorize server (and using you guys as testers on it). If you can't authorize for the next few hours please be patient!

This week's development update on the official Wheel of Time site no longer concentrates on development, as the game is out now, but instead has lead designer Glen Dahlgren looking back at the demo release, the public's and his own feelings about it, as well as the response to the full game in the first reviews.

sCary's Shugashack has posted a movie (and three screenshots) of the biker model from Quake III: Arena...uh, getting funky. As sCary himself put it, "it wont exactly give you any real insight into Quake3 but it will give you a close look at a new Quake3 character in animated form."

E-tailer CheckOut.com has posted a Q&A with Garry Gaber, LucasArts' project leader on Force Commander. The questions deal with general gameplay issues for this upcoming 3D strategy game that's set in the Star Wars universe.

Well I'll be...it's a new edition of our Mail Bag. In this week's strange, strange, mail bag: Sony's digital toilets, Old Man Blue, strafe jumping, buying Quake III on eBay, and those dang authentication errors. Hop over and take a look.

No less than ten different members of Looking Glass Studios' Thief 2 team are interviewed in a massive new feature at Thief2-MetalAge.com. Questions range from the sane ("which gameplay style in [Thief 1] did you prefer?) to the unquestionably insane ("how much 'shroom tea do you drink a day, and how much does it affect your work?").

We've gotten numerous reports that Half-Life: Opposing Force has started showing up in Electronics Boutique stores around the country. In addition, people who pre-ordered theirs through EBWorld have been getting their copies as well.

GASource has posted six new screenshots from Hired Team, an upcoming tactical first person shooter from Russian developers New Media Generation, as well as a description of the engine's features from the title's lead designer.

AVault has posted 35 new screenshots from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen, showing off a variety of different scenarios from Simon & Schuster's upcoming third person action title that uses the Unreal engine.

A lot of people were terribly confused by the Unreal Tournament press release that we posted yesterday, since it claimed the game would be arriving in stores on "Friday, November 22nd" and of course, the 22nd is actually a Monday. We've just gotten a confirmation from GT Interactive that the game will in fact be in stores on Monday, not Friday, so it looks like you'll have to change your weekend plans after all.

Electronic Arts Team Up With MGM Interactive and Danjaq, LLC to Bring James Bond to the Interactive Entertainment Market in the New Millennium is the press release from Electronic Arts announcing "an exclusive multi-year worldwide licensing deal with MGM Interactive, Inc. to develop, publish and distribute a series of interactive entertainment titles based on the James Bond character, the world's most renowned secret agent." They don't mention what genre or genres the games will follow, but a post by on Stomped says "Rumors has persisted for months that EA will licence the Quake 3 Arena engine for the Bond game."

TacticalPlanet has posted 13 new screenshots from Devil's Bridge, the expansion pack for Hidden & Dangerous, including a new shot showing off the new team.

There is a brief preview of Codename Eagle up on GameProWorld, looking at an alpha version of the upcoming first-person shooter by Refraction and TalonSoft. An even dozen screenshots accompanying the article.

Thresh's Firingsquad has posted a preview of Soldier of Fortune, Raven's upcoming game of mercenary mayhem. The article looks at the new graphics technology, gameplay and a quick run-through of some of the levels, and includes a set of new screenshots.

LucasArts has posted a walkthrough of the first level of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. The walkthrough takes an exhausting 45 steps, each illustrated with a screenshot and a description of what to do in that particular situation.

The official European Dungeon Keeper site has posted the v1.61 patch for Dungeon Keeper 2. This version adds Elite Creatures to the game, which are tougher, faster, stronger versions of their ordinary creature counterparts. Thanks WereBear.

Here's a local copy of the Mac version of the Quake III Arena Demo Test (49.3 MB) along with a list of mirrors. Keep in mind that this will require the new Mac OpenGL drivers mentioned in Graeme Devine's .plan.

id lead programmer John Carmack updated his .plan with word that the Mac version of the Quake III Arena Demo Test is now available. It's an extensive update that also gives the status of the Linux version, as well as the announcement that the final Mac and Linux executables will not be available for download until after Christmas, and possibly may not be in stores as soon as the Win32 version, even though there will not be a significant gap between the completion of each version. Here's the whole darn deal, minus his latest worklog, which follows the update:

The mac version is out. Go to www.quake3arena.com for links.

The mac version going out has the executable fixes that we have made in the last couple days, but most of the fixes have been in code that runs in the virtual machine, and we can't update that without making it incomptable with the pc version.

The game remains very marginal in playability on 266mhz imacs and iBooks.

A 333mhz imac should be playable for a casual gamer if the graphics options are turned down to the "fastest" setting.

There is still a lot of room for improvement on ATI's side with the RagePro drivers. Almost all the effort so far has been on the Rage128 drivers.

The G3 systems run fine, but a little slower than a pc of equal mhz

The rage128 cards in the G3s are only clocked at 75mhz, so you can't run too high of a resolution, but you can get very nice image quality. I usually play with these settings:
r_mode 2 // 512*284 res
r_colorbits 32 // 32 bit color
r_texturemode gl_linear_mipmap_linear // trilinear filtering

I haven't played on one of the new iMacs or G4's but they both use the rage128 driver, which is fairly high quality now, so they should perform well.

We found a fairly significant problem with inputSprockets and mouse control (motion is dropped after 40msec). I have done a little working around it, so mouse control should be somewhat better in this version, but it will hopefully be fixed properly by Apple in the next IS rev. It isn't an issue if your framerate is high enough, but iMacs never see that framerate on their very best days...

Linux version tomorrow night, if nothing horrible happens.

Some advance warning about something that is sure to stir up some argument:

We should be handing off the masters for all three platforms within a day or two of each other, but they aren't going to show up in stores at the same time. Publishers, distributers, and stores are willing to go out of their way to expedite the arrival of the pc version, but they just won't go to the same amount of trouble for mac and linux boxes.

THE EXECUTABLES FOR ALL PLATFORMS WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD UNTIL AFTER CHRISTMAS. This means that if you want to play on the mac or linux, don't pick up a copy of the pc version and expect to download the other executables.

Our first update to the game will be for all platforms, and will allow any version to be converted into any other, but we intend to hold that off for a little while.

We are doing this at the request of the distributors. The fear is that everyone will just grab a windows version, and the separate boxes will be ignored.

A lot of companies are going to be watching the sales figures for the mac and linux versions of Q3 to see if the platforms are actually worth supporting. If everyone bought a windows version and the other boxes sold like crap in comparison, that would be plenty of evidence for most executives to can any cross platform development.

I know there are a lot of people that play in both windows and linux, and this may be a bit of an inconvenience in the short term, but this is an ideal time to cast a vote as a consumer.

Its all the same to Id (I like hybrid CD's), and our continued support of linux and mac (OS X for the next title) is basically a foregone conclusion, but the results will probably influence other companies.

On this subject, id Software Designer Graeme Devine updated his .plan prior to the release of the Macintosh version demo with word on where to get the proper video drivers:

Okay, the Macintosh Test build is going up real soon now. It's all built and working well. I'm really happy with the way we're working on the Mac. I've been building the new id servers on a G3 using Java and it's been a real nice change from the PC.

You'll need the newest version of OpenGL for the Macintosh, which came out today. It's available at http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11545. Go download that while we're coordinating on getting the Mac build out there through Sandpiper.

BTW. There's been over 1 million downloads of the Win32 build!!!

There are three new Soldier of Fortune Screenshots on 3D-Unlimited showing off gameplay from the full version of Raven's upcoming Quake II-engine game of mercenary mayhem (as opposed to the OEM demo).

Hot new Messiah pic-- Sniper Mode on Developer's Corner, as the title suggests, is a sequence of screenshots that shows off the sniper mode from Messiah, Shiny's upcoming third-person action game.

Another week another shot, as PlanetBattlezone has posted word of another new screenshot of the week from Pandemic studios showing off gameplay from BattleZone II, their upcoming sequel to BattleZone.

The GLSetup Home Page has Build 1.0.0.110 GLSeup, another new version of this utility that can automatically detect and configure your video card with the latest OpenGL drivers. The new version is available via Sandpiper, which should make downloading easier.

• The Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6 page has been updated with a Winsock hot fix. Thanks PureMassacre.
• There is a new ABit BIOS for the dual-Celeron BP6 (direct link). Thanks Martin.
• Sharky's Private Eye Volume 5 - Comdex is up, with some inside skinny on Microsoft's top-secret X-Box, some Q&A with 3dfx, and word on the possibility of PCI GeForce 256 cards.
• Also from the show, HardwareCentral's Comdex Live Coverage Nov. 15th and Nov. 16th are up. Likewise, Ars Technica Comdex Special Report, Thursday is online, as is Dr. Evil's Comdex dispatch on the Tech Report.
• HardwareCentral reviews the Guillemot Maxi Gamer Cougar.

This Adrenaline Vault Featured Article interviews both Andy Orjuela, the special projects coordinator at ADV films, and Mark Dochtermann, programmer for Ritual Entertainment about the status of that animated Sin movie that was announced a while back. According to the Q&A, "The film is tentatively scheduled for a summer 2000 release on VHS and DVD formats, with the game being included with the DVD."

PlanetUnreal has word of their upcoming coverage of an official Unreal Tourney release party this Friday evening. Word is there will be streaming audio broadcasts from the event, which looks like it will be attended by employees of Epic and GameSpy Industries.

In addition to announcing the new international patches noted Tuesday (story) an update yesterday to the Surreal TECH Page gives a status report on plans for an updated editor release for Surreal's Dragon riding third-person action game, Drakan: Order of the Flame. The updates will include "Surreal Modeler" for texturing and basic manipulation of existing Drakan models or custom models for Drakan. The addition of file export functions for textures and models to the level editor, and Plug-ins for exporting models and characters for 3D Studio MAX and SoftImage. Thanks Surreal-News.com.

A new version 4.26 of Name Maker Studio is now available, hot on the heels of version 4.25. The new release fixes a bug in the previous version of this animated and colored player name creation utility that prevented it from working with the Quake III Arena Demo Test.

• GameSpy.com reviews Delta Force 2.
• GameSpot reviews Spec Ops II Green Berets.
• Unreal Universe reviews Wheel of Time.
• Game Revolution reviews Nocturne.
• PC.IGN.Com reviews Nerf Arena Blast.
• Computer Games Online reviews Revenant.
• Game Revolution reviews Revenant.
• Game Revolution reviews Asheron's Call.
• GameSpy.com reviews Septerra Core.
• GameOver.Net reviews Carnivores 2.
• The Wargamer reviews Star Fleet Command.
• Latest Updates reviews TrickStyle.
• GameSpot reviews Lander.
• PC.IGN.Com reviews Seven Kingdoms II: The Fryhtan Wars.
• Gamelinks reviews Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.
• The Gamer's Press reviews Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings multiplayer.
• 3DRage reviews Age of Wonders.
• Games Domain Review reviews Armored Fist 3.
• GamePower reviews Armored Fist 3.
• Computer Games Online reviews M.I.G. Alley.
• Papa Doc reviews Flanker 2.0 (please no more dictator nicknames!).
• BarrysWorld reviews the Indiana Jones 3D Demo.

• Outcast Central has posted a video capture of one of the endings from Outcast that's a bit of an Easter egg...
• Half-Life mod developers are encouraged to register for the next #Mod-Bash, a fifth such session to chat with folks in IRC about your mods in development. Answering all sorts of questions like, when will it be done, when will it be out, and of course, when will it be released....
• RealPlayer 7 Basic or RealPlayer 7 Plus are now available for download...

I really didn't expect to have the first update on the status of the servers here by now, much less daily updates, but sometimes you can't predict these things. Anyway, turns out we're going to work out the .plan for getting things straightened out here this very morning, so things are proceeding at what I'd call a whirlwind pace. This sounds like yet another status report on this tomorrow... I'll try not to get too tedious about this (or too much more tedious).

HBO has started running promos for the new season of the Sopranos. I've been trying to put off anticipating this too much, but now I'm pumped. The new season begins January 16, 2000. Time to start popping corn.

Link of the Day: PawSense. Catproof your computer. Thanks Ant. No? How about Magical Balloon-dude Dale? Thanks bryan. Sorry, guess I'm just feeling cuddly this morning.