PC.IGN has posted a second installment of their ongoing Allegiance designer diary (thanks AllegianceVault). This week's installment has Lead Designer Rob Girling talking about the gameplay of their space sim, which is currently in beta testing.

A new preview of Imperium Galactica II, the sci-fi strategy game, is up at GameSpot. The preview is fairly detailed, and well illustrated with new screenshots from various different parts of the game.

New screenshots from Soldier of Fortune have been posted over at GameSpot news. The seven new shots focus on the later levels of the game, so they depict a completely different locale from the demo.

Two Icewind Dale interviews have popped up this evening. First up, is an interview with Feargus Urquhart on incitegames, complete with two new screenshots from the game (one of which shows a previously unseen part of the game). Another Icewind Dale interview is up on GameFan, where they've interviewed Interplay's producer on the title, Chris Parker.

Westwood has announced that Command & Conquer: Firestorm has gone gold, and will hit store shelves on March 9th. Firestorm is an expansion pack for Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, that adds 18 new single player missions and 15 new multiplayer maps.

id's John Carmack updated his .plan in response to the author of the QuakeLives Quake 1 project's decision not to release his source code (a direct violation of the GPL license under which the Q1 source was released). Here's what Carmack had to say:

This is a public statement that is also being sent directly to Slade at QuakeLives regarding http://www.quakelives.com/main/ql.cgi?section=dlagreement&file=qwcl-win32/

I see both sides of this. Your goals are positive, and I understand the issues and the difficulties that your project has to work under because of the GPL. I have also seen some GPL zealots acting petty and immature towards you very early on (while it is within everyone's rights to DEMAND code under the GPL, it isn't necessarily the best attitude to take), which probably colors some of your views on the subject.

We discussed several possible legal solutions to the issues.

This isn't one of them.

While I doubt your "give up your rights" click through would hold up in court, I am positive that you are required to give the source to anyone that asks for it that got a binary from someone else. This doesn't provide the obscurity needed for a gaming level of security.

I cut you a lot of slack because I honestly thought you intended to properly follow through with the requirements of the GPL, and you were just trying to get something fun out ASAP. It looks like I was wrong.

If you can't stand to work under the GPL, you should release the code to your last binary and give up your project. I would prefer that you continue your work, but abide by the GPL. If necessary, I will pay whatever lawyer the Free Software Foundation reccomends to pursue this.

Microsoft sent word that their Crimson Skies site has officially opened for business. Crimson Skies is a fantasy action flight-sim in development by Zipper Interactive, and the site offers information on the game's story and features, as well as some new screenshots and an already familiar movie trailer.

StrategyPlanet has posted three new action-packed screenshots from The Rift, a 3D space-themed strategy game from ThrushWave Technology.

Gamerush has posted a brief preview of Flying Heroes, the upcoming action flyer by Illusion Softworks and Pterodon. Although brief and illustrated with familiar screenshots, the article also includes the intro movie trailer of the game, showing over two minutes of footage in Cinemascope 440x200 format.

The official MDK2 site has been updated with seven new screenshots, again all showing off the doggie character Max in BioWare's third-person action sequel. MDK, as everyone knows, stands for My Deadly Knee-caps.

• A new patch for Need for Speed: High Stakes is out, and available at 3DFiles, although nobody seems to know what it does (thanks Magnus "Psycho" Jonasson).
• Version 1.0 of K-Stats, a LAN party/tournament managing program has been released, complete with full documentation.
• Q3Comp Beta 2 is out, adding customizable command listings amongst other changes to this competition mod for Quake III Arena.
• 3DDownloads has posted a Quake III Arena remake of the Stomping Grounds map from the Quake II mission pack The Reckoning. The map was made by Alex Mayberry, the lead level designer on the Q3A engine game The World is Not Enough.
• The first version of the Q3A deathmatch ranking mod Kings & A--holes (and they say all the good names are taken) is out there, with a server set up running it at 208.236.41.194.

Eurogamer.net has posted a hands-on preview of Evolva, Computer Artworks' hybrid first/third person action game, complete with gameplay details galore, and 12 new screenshots.

It's a Wednesday, which means it's time for a new edition of the Blue's News Mail Bag! In this week's edition: bizarre disclaimers, carpal tunnel advice, some letters on Windows 2000, a driver plea, Outlaws, and lots more. Head over and check it out.

German games site nonstuff.de has posted two additional screenshots to their Sacrifice image gallery. The shots, like the original ones, are quite impressive looking. Sacrifice is Shiny's upcoming 3D strategy title, which uses some (but not all) of the Messiah technology.

Gearbox Software's Patrick Dupree updated his .plan with a clarification regarding yesterday's announcement that the Linux dedicated server port of Half-Life: Opposing Force was held up while they add WON.net support. Here's the scoop:

One clarification on the WON verification in the dedicated server. Our game will work the same way that Half-Life works. A dedicated server doesn't require a WON ID. The support I have to add for WON is checking to ensure that the people connecting to the dedicated server have been verified through the WON service. So never fear, you can still play and run dedicated server at the same time.

GA-Source has posted six new screenshots from Hired Guns, VR-1's teamplay-based shooter, that's powered by the Unreal engine.The game uses a multiple viewpoint system, which is well-illustrated by the screenshots.

A new interview with Derek Smart, the outspoken Battlecruiser 3000 AD creator is up in The Mushroom's "legit section" dealing with a wide range of topics, including his current feelings about Take Two Interactive (the original BC3K publisher), and the upcoming Battlecruiser Millennium.

Today's Daikatana shot of the day has been posted over at PlanetDaikatana. Today's image shows the Daikatana sword in its "powered up state" from episode 1.

GASource has posted six screenshots and ten character renders from Devil Inside, the upcoming spooky action/adventure game from the creator of Alone in the Dark (one of the first such spooky action/adventure games).

Daily Radar continues their Deus Ex week with a preview of ION Storm's upcoming 3D action RPG, covering the story, gameplay and features into some depth. About two dozen screenshots (some of them familiar) show off more of the game's futuristic world, as designed by Warren Spector.

Part 1 of a preview on Terminus is up at Computer Games Online, subtitled Thinking outside the box (didn't Paul Steed copyright that phrase?). Terminus is a role-playing space-combat title in development at Vicarious Visions, and the article has info on the story and gameplay, as well as some new screenshots.

PC.IGN.com has posted a preview of Kingdom Under Fire, a recently surfaced RTS by Korean developers Phantagram that aims to throw a bit of role-playing in with the strategic fray. A slew of screenshots illustrate the 2D looks they chose for the game.

Doing It For The Money With Rick Johnson is an interview with Raven Programmer Rick "You can call me Ray" Johnson. The conversation starts with Rick's gaming roots on the C64 and Amiga, covers his post-college work career (entirely at Raven), and talks about progress on his current project, Soldier of Fortune.

There's a Randy Pitchford interview on GameLinks.Net talking with the Gearbox software director/designer about the success of Half-Life: Opposing Force and discussing a bit of the future, including plans for their Dreamcast Half-Life game, Barney's Adventures in Securityland.

This Evolva Preview by 3D Rage has a bunch of screenshots taken from a beta build of this upcoming shooter from Computer Artworks. GA-RPG Exclusive Anarchy Online Screenshots give a pair of looks at Anarchy Online, an upcoming science-fiction MMORPG "set nearly 30,000 years into the future." A new Screen Shot of the Week is up on the official Star Trek Armada website. This Stars! Supernova preview on SpieleCity is in German, but there are also a bunch of shots of this upcoming space turn-based strategy game. New Beasts Details and Screenshots on GA-Source give looks at this upcoming bigfoot based game (you know what they say, big feet... big shoes). Finally, even though you can do your own free preview with the open beta, here's a GameSpot UK Allegiance Preview with a four shot screenshot gallery. There's also an Allegiance wallpaper on the Allegiance Vault.

Thresh's FiringSquad's Shogun: Total War preview offers a set of interview questions with Creative Assembly on Shogun: Total War. There's a Dark Age of Camelot Interview on the newly opened Camelot Vault discussing Dark Age of Camelot, an upcoming massive online multiplayer dealie where chivalry is encouraged, and hygiene is not.

• Elsa has posted new Windows 2000 drivers for Elsa Erazor II with OpenGL support on their German FTP site (direct link). Thanks NT Compatible.
• Word from the programmer of the Utah-GLX ATI Rage Pro driver, the new Linux Q3A version 1.16j now supports Rage Pro workarounds such as a special translucent smoke texture and other approximations. Now "all forms of ATI Rage Pro chips can now play Quake 3 under Linux without having to suffer from opaque smoke trails and other visual artifacts."
• Gaming with Windows 2000 on GameSpy.Com offers thoughts on the subject from Will "Rhoam" Lally, a member of the Windows 2000 Development team.
• State of the GeForce SDR and DDR considerations on Ars Technica compares the two flavors of GeForce on different speed CPUs to determine the sweet spot on whether to select the DDR or SDR, and when it may not pay to upgrade over a TNT2-Ultra.
• ZDNet News Bandwidth bonanza bubble bursting? Thanks Ant. "Many experts believe a bandwidth surplus leading to cut-rate telecommunications costs will not materialize in the near future. In fact, some analysts are predicting a shortage."
• ABIT Announces Newest in Hot Rod Family, the Hot Rod 100. Thanks {dbd}Lagged_Newbie[AsS].
• There's a new version 3.2.0.1 of the Hardware sensors monitor for Windows 95-98-NT 4+ (thanks Tweak Files). Also, version of the day of the Motherboard Monitor is 4.15, fixing a problem with the Asus KM7.
• Hardware One Experiments With Different Slockets and their impact on overclocking the FCPGA Pentium III.
• Gen-X Tech 800MHz Athlon OC Combo is reviewed on AMDZone and the Gen-X Tech 850MHz Athlon OC Combo Speedy 3D.
• GlobalWin VOS32 Heatsink is reviewed on Tweak3D.net.
• The Card Cooler is reviewed the Guru of 3D.
• Alpha CO-6035MFC CPU fan is reviewed on The Tech Zone.

Outside The Garage - 3D Games World, on Machinima.com is the first in a regular series to find out what the "outside world" thinks of Machinima (game cinema), talking with Andrew Brazier of Headfirst Productions, Tom Hall and Jake Hughes of ION Storm, Paul Steed of id Software, and Joshua Vasquez of loonygames. Also, in Engine Coding for Machinima - Part 1 Anthony Bailey of the Quake done Quick team gets under the hood of the Quake source code with some sound tutorials.

A post on GA-Strategy quotes Al Rivera, producer on 10Six, saying "SegaSoft's million player strategy title will be released next week, Feb. 28, 2000." 10Six is the strategy game that will theoretically support up to 1,000,000 players online, breaking the current online game record by 990-something thousand.

Version 0.9 of Slave Master is now available, the first beta release of this mutator for Unreal Tournament. In Slave Master fragged players respawn as slaves to the player that fragged them, and can regain their freedom by collecting weapons and power-ups for their master (or they can laze around and wait for the slave-driving old bastard to croak).

The first release of the Quake III Arena Bloodwolf Matchmod is available on the Team Bloodwolf site. This is described as mainly a mod to setup matches, though it also offers some client-side enhancements including a new scoreboard and HUD, extra info from the id function, and a time remaining display. Server-side features include match setup, countdown, linger state at the end of a match (to allow time to note scores, etc.), lock and unlock teams, force a player to a team, make everyone a spectator, a kick command that supports partial names, control of timelimit, fraglimit, capturelimit, dmflags, gametype, map, etc., deferred spawning, and more. The manual has a complete list of features.

ShellShock's Crater has a new version 00.02.22.00 of the Q3Offline front-end specifically designed for setting up offline games against bots in Quake III Arena. The new version fixes problems with the Play & Exit button and with maps/bots not randomizing.

Version 0.09 of the FrikBot for Quake is now available offering a "client simulator" for classic Quake, a bot that can play on almost any level or modification with no adjustments whatsoever.

A new version 1.3 of MapViewerPro is now available. As its name implies, this is a tool for checking out maps in Quake, Quake III Arena, or Unreal Tournament (with support for more games to come). "Simply enter the name of the map like E3M5 or other information and you get small pictures in the program of the level as well as the name of the level."

Paul Steed's Thinking Outside the Box on loonygames offers 3DS Tutorial #1: CyberGuy, demonstrating how to create a Quake III Arena character model in 3DStudio Max, as well as some reflections on the consequences of expressing the type of strong opinions he did in his column last week.

The Crystal Space page has the second 0.15 beta release of the Crystal Space free 3D engine. Here is the note on the release: "A LOT has changed compared to 0.14 and also to 0.15r001. Note that 0.15 is only a beta release. There are no guarantees of anything. It may not even compile. But I'm confident that it should work on most platforms. This beta (0.15r002) corresponds to a CVS snapshot of 23 February 2000."

The HEATCIGL, HEAT's Collegiate Internet Gaming League, has announced a $5,000 all-star tournament in April playing Quake II, Quake III Arena, and Unreal Tournament. Also, there are interviews with the participants in the Razer-CPL Qualifier on Eurogamer.net.

• Battlezone II: Combat Commander (second opinion) on Games Domain Review.
• Close Combat IV: The Battle of the Bulge on PC Gamer UK.
• Flanker 2.0 on PC Gamer UK.
• Half-Life: Opposing Force on PC Gamer UK.
• Interstate '82 on Gamezilla.
• Killer Loop (quick take) on Gone Gold.
• Mortyr on Gamecenter and GameProWorld.
• Nox on GameSpot.
• Panzer Elite on PC Gamer UK.
• Quake III Arena on Intelligamer.
• Razer Boomslang mouse on SystemLogic.
• Rising Sun on The Gamers Net.
• Slave Zero on Electric Playground.
• Superbike 2000 on PCGamers.net.
• SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle on Well Rounded Entertainment.
• The Sims (second opinion) on Games Domain Review.
• The Wheel of Time on PC Gamer UK.
• Urban Chaos on Xroads Gaming.
• Wild Wild West on GameSpy.com.

• Word from the Game Developers Conference is that Bill Gates will be giving the keynote address. In what is not a coincidence, Gates may take wraps off X-box plans soon is a Cnet story (thanks Jeff Magill) speculating "Microsoft chairman Bill Gates may unveil a video-game console system to compete with Sony in opening remarks at the annual Game Developers Conference in March."...
• Gender Bending in Games on WomenGamers.Com. "Consulting psychologist Doctor Kathryn Wright investigates the phenomenon of males who play as female characters (or who use female models, skins, or avatars) in games."
• There's a Tower of the Ancient Demo on DemoNews.com offering "a fast-paced puzzle game, featuring spectacular graphics and sound as you attempt to avoid the wrath of God." Also, a beta version of a strategy game called Malos that supports both Glide and OpenGL is now available...
• This Netscape FTP directory has Netscape version 4.72 for Windows, Mac, and Unix. Thanks Ant...

I have been trying to resist the temptation to be an early adopter of Win2K, because my new work machine has a fresh install of Win98 that is running like clockwork, as is basically the whole network here at the Blue Tower, a rare enough situation that I'm hesitant to mess with it. However, since loonyboi is raving about how well his Win2K experience has worked out, in particular the elimination of the dreaded system resource limitations that Windows users have been battling since the year 1 A.D. (After DOS), I think I will cobble up a non-mission critical machine and check it out. It's been long enough since my episode trying to install NT that resulted in at least 1000 BSODs that I believe most of the lumps have gone away from banging my head against the wall (and if the wall can take some more, I don't see why I can't).

Link of the Day: SMOW. Thanks Phane. "The gift for someone who has (almost) everything."
Story of the Day: IRCer Gets Laid on IRCNews.com. Thanks Fabien Delpierre. Another milestone after mIRC's 10th registration. I think the illustration in this one has to be the Image of the Day as well.
.plan of the Day: Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart. Re: "New office rule."