Lionhead’s Master Plan on CheckOut.Com alludes to the recent "engine wars" dispute, describing the method of game production at Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios as a third alternative to creating or licensing game engine technology, making the analogy to the old "studio system" of movie production. The method actually sounds like a more full-featured version of a traditional licensing agreement, but maybe there are unmentioned provisions for sleeping with studio executives or something.

CheckOut Games also interviews Kevin Perry talking with the Red Storm designer about progress on Shadow Watch, RSE's upcoming strategy/RPG that goes against the current trend of cutting-edge 3D graphics by following an old-school 2D design.

There are a couple of shots from Neocron on GA-RPG from Neocron: Virtual City, an upcoming online 3D RPG from Reakktor Media "set in a 27th century metropolis." According to the caption, "These screenshots show how the textures add detail to the low poly tank class character."

There's a new Vampire: Masquerade--The Redemption video special for download on the German site The Graveyard, that's taken from the covermount CD from the German gaming magazine Gamestar. The file is in Windows Media Player Format, with a German voice-over, but the video portion is about half gameplay with the other half consisting of cinematic sequences, the first such scenes made available as far as we can recall.

Eurogamer.net Evolva interview talks with three members of the Evolva team, Vince Farquharson (Producer), Rik Heywood (Lead Programmer), and Karl Wickens (Lead Artist) about Computer Artworks' upcoming first- and third-person shooter.

FAKK2 Engine Details and Screenshot on GA-Source offers a look at Ritual's "Morpheus Script System" they are using in their Quake III-engine game that "allows for unsurpassed control of actors and objects." The update includes some engine details from Ritual Programmer (not to be confused with a Ritual Killer) Scott Alden giving some details about this tool, which F.A.K.K.2 has inherited from Sin.

A comment by John Carmack to a thread titled Dave 'Zoid' Kirsch Leaving id Software on SlashDot (thanks ShugaShack) discusses the reasons behind the Zoid's recently announced departure (story), starting off saying: "I had talked with Zoid about it a few times over the years, and I think he is making a pretty good decision," and concluding: "We are parting on the best of terms (leaving right AFTER a project completes is the considerate way to go). He is going to finish up the Quake2 linux updates (better X/GLX support), even if he has to complete the work from his new job."

VRND Nearing Completion, Dark Magic in Development on GA-Source offers development details and screenshots for both the "architecturally accurate representation of the Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris," and Dark Magic, which is looking to bust out of being just a mod to become a full retail UT product. There are also some new high-resolution screenshots of Earth 2150 on Beta Bites showing off the upcoming 3D RTS that, for no reason you could ever justify to me, offers the subtitle "Escape from the Blue Planet." GameSpot UK's Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun Firestorm Preview is accompanied by a modest (for them) seven shot Screenshot Gallery. Also, Starbase Armada has screenshots of the upcoming Star Trek Armada multiplayer beta, scheduled to enter a limited round of closed beta-testing tomorrow (story). Also, there are four new Sudden Strike screenshots on Gamesurf.De. The first LightBikes version 2.0 shot is up. Finally, there are shots of new upcoming enhancements to the Blitz 3D engine on the ACID REIGN page.

• Gainward just released new Savage4 drivers for Win9x (direct link) that Savage News reports are version 8.20.06 which apparently include DX7 support.
• The Dimension Technologies Inc. page has word on some interesting-sounding technology that will produce 3D images on an LCD monitor without the use of shutter glasses.
• A new version 2.64 of the PowerStrip monitor/video card control utility is now available. Thanks 3DFiles.
• Fast Graphics' Cebit 2000 highlights Part one and Part two.
• Sharky Extreme's Weekly CPU Prices have been updated, as have HipHardware's and Cole 3D's.
• EPoX 7KXA motherboard is reviewed on Overclockers Workbench.
• DFI PC64 motherboard is reviewed on HotHardware.
• AOpen HX-08 case is reviewed on Codebloat.com in what is also a nice guide to custom case configuration.
• In a similar vein, Cliff's Fanbus Lab Notes offers information on building your own fan control devices.
• Gen-X Tech Computers AMD Athlon OC Combo is reviewed on 3D Wars.
• Senfu Water Cooler is re-reviewed on Magic Torch Overclocking.
• The Card Cooler is reviewed on G3d.

Computer Games Online 's Shogun: Total War preview offers "a Japanese combo platter, with rice, Part 2" (presumably this is from Column B, while yesterday's part one (story) would be from Column A). Shogun: Total War is an upcoming 3D RTS from Creative Assembly where you play a warlord in feudal Japan.

A new mutator (in the most literal sense) for Unreal Tournament titled Crotch Shot is now available. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out that this is a modification that rewards you for shooting someone where it hurts, prizing the Crotch Shot as much as the C.O. giving the photographer his marching orders for the Ann Margret USO show in Full Metal Jacket (there was a long run for a short bus ride, huh?).

A new release of the BoomBall for Unreal Tournament Modification (A.K.A. Nuke the Flag) is now available. BoomBall is described as similar to Capture the Flag, where two teams compete for a single ball (which they point out "looks suspiciously like a redeemer rocket") which will spawn at any point on the map, emitting a noise to aid in location (its heading and distance are also noted on the HUD). Scoring is accomplished by returning the "ball" to your base, where it will explode, making any glory you will receive for your efforts to be posthumous, although you can die knowing you will take any pursuers to the grave with you.

A new release of MouseBall for Unreal Tournament, frogstomper's oddball mouseball sport for UT, is now available. The new release adds "Trigger Darts" a placeholder projectile weapon (temporary until a more mouse-oriented metaphor can be conjured up), and other changes including a ball that acts more like a ball.

The "much anticipated" public beta release Classic CTF for Quake III Arena is now available, promising the "Same Game, Different Engine!" Word is "The public beta includes a grappling hook, runes, super nailgun, weapons stay, CTF Optimized Weapons Physics, as well as lots more. There's a new exclusive high-quality map in there, too!"

A new version 3 of the Elite HUD for Quake III Arena is now available on Equims Emporium. "Features include a new mini-scoreboard (don't need to press 'tab' to see) and the ability to 'hold' your weapon in multiple positions (e.g. in your left hand, your right hand or in the centre, Quake 1 style)."

A new version 1.7 of The Jumbot for Half-Life is up on Rich's Project Warehouse changing the bot so that the default map CFG is executed every level right before level configs, so level settings can be applied on top of the default settings, fixing a small bug in item retrieval, and many other bug fixes.

There's a new version 0.1.1 the QuakeForge OpenSource Quake development project. "This version fixes all known bugs in 0.1.0 and will hopefully be the last version in the 0.1 series. The project is busy working hard and making major progress with the 0.2 series which we hope to bring you soon!"

There are some Unreal 2 editor bits & pieces on Unreality and Unreal2Ed Shots and Info on Unreal Universe each talking with Warren Marshall, level designer at Legend Entertainment (currently working on Unreal 2), about Unreal2ED, the updated Unreal level editor mentioned in several .plan updates yesterday (story) that will be released by Warren "when he's feelin' randy." The MapFinger site has passed the 900 map mark and now lists over 500 map authors with their own .plan files. Version 0.31 of the DOS-based Quake Unit Conversion Tool will quickly convert various real-world measurements into quake units and vice versa. Turn down your speakers before visiting Grandpappy's Cabin, where they are posting a .utx file with new Unreal Tournament textures every day for the next week. Word on the Tread 3D page is the project may not be dead just yet (thanks FloppyDisks). Unreality's Mini Q&A with Clawfist talks with the author of three of the maps in the new UT Bonus Pack. Finally, Pure DM's editing contest has two phases: a Dead Simple contest and an Empire contest, with rules, and prizes, and everything.

The winners in the Domination category of the $150,000 Make Something Unreal Contest have been announced (thanks Josh Tyrell). The First Place winner is DOM-Reliquary by ruineR, second place is DOM-Hysteria by Entropy and Cyanlongbow, and third place is DOM-Syncronicity][- by No ReMoRsE.

That missing Eudora 4.x-4.3 update for registered users is finally up on the Eudora Pro Email v4.2.2 Updaters page, also beta 2 of WinZip version 8.0 is now available (thanks Schnapple). A new beta 1 version 1.2.6 of the Voodoo Lights screensaver (thanks Voodoo Extreme) has been released and a new version 2.0 of the PondLife screensaver is up on DemoNews.com. Finally the year 2000 Geek Pride Festival has been announced.

• Delta Force 2 on EuroGamer.
• Everglide Giganta mouse pad on Delta-Force2.com and 3D-Unlimited.
• Hidden & Dangerous: Devil's Bridge on PC.IGN.com.
• Microsoft Sidewinder Dual Strike game pad on GameFan.
• Mortyr: 2093-1944 on GamesMania.
• Nox on PC.IGN.com, 3DGN, Outer-Edge, and Ingava.
• Ratpad mouse pad on Magic Torch Overclocking.
• Razer Boomslang mouse on Chick's Hardware UK.
• SWAT 3: Close Quarter Battle on ActionXtreme.

• Painful Detail has another update with eight new Unreal Tournament skins and ALPHAwolfs Den has a new model among their collection for Quake III Arena...
• Word from Majesty - Dragon is that Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim, Cyberlore's upcoming fantasy/strategy sim is now gold, and should be in stores soon...
• Some updated Descent Manager Modules are available from the Descent Network Team, who have updated versions of ANIVIEW32, FSMVIEW32, VPVIEW32, and the Descent Manager FreeSpace Kit...
• GameTrakker is now available, a GPL Perl app "that will help a server administrator keep track of server usage" acting as a "'glue' program which ties Steve Jankowski's QSTAT with Tobias Oetiker's MRTG in order to present a very nice web-based game monitoring platform."...
• There's a new UT Weapon Guide on Unreal Tournament Center...
• Pamela Lee Does Gaming reports The Adrenaline Vault (thanks The Oxygen Tank). I'm not going to touch that headline (or anyone who has been with Tommy Lee for that matter) with a 10½ foot pole...

In case you tuned out during loony's "what's on TV as I write this" update yesterday, tonight's episode of the X-Files is an episode co-written by cyber-punk author William Gibson titled First Person Shooter, which has the following description on The X-Files site, "A murder inside the high-tech world of a virtual reality game leads Scully to battle a deadly digital character in order to save Mulder's life." They also have images from the episode and video (in RealPlayer format) from the filming of the episode. Thanks Drew and the many others who mailed in about this.

Link of the Day: Squirrel Fishing. Thanks Fredrik Skarstedt.
Bonus Link: Something.Com. Thanks DethMan. Sorry, there doesn't seem to be a low-bandwidth version.

On the heels of the Homeworld Cataclysm shots GameSpot posted yesterday (story), there's a Q&A with Michael Gyori of Barking Dog on GameSpot talking about Homeworld Cataclysm, Barking Dog's upcoming stand-alone Homeworld follow-up he says offers "new features that push it well past being just an add-on." In addition to the interview, they've posted a preview and more new concept art and screenshots. Thanks Jason Todd and Relic News.

RPOV Interviews Nihilistic Software talking about gameplay in Vampire: The Masquerade--The Redemption, Nihilistic's upcoming third-person Vampire RPG. The Q&A discusses the game's adherence to the plotline of all the vampire games under the White Wolf license, efforts to ensure its appeal to those unfamiliar with the pen-and-paper originals, discussions of multiplayer issues, and more.

There's a 60 shot Evolva gallery on Gamedata.com, the site that declares itself "le nouveau magazine online de jeux videos" (and who are we to argue...since we don't speak French), taking several pages from GameSpot UK (actually their Evolva gallery was a skimpy 30 images by comparison). Evolva is a an upcoming first- and third-person shooter from Computer Artworks.

There is a new The Rift interview on Gamers.de with the English translation of the German version of this Q&A with The Rift developers ThrushWave Technology, whose most noteworthy previous credit is "Disney's Cyberspace Mountain ride, which is now installed at the DisneyQuest amusement centers in Orlando and Chicago." The Rift is an upcoming strategy game hoping to be one of the first to incorporate the challenges of a true 3D environment, and the interview speaks of their efforts to "break away from the stagnation in the RTS genre with all of the games that basically follow the C&C methodology."

The Adrenaline Vault interviews Paul Schuytema and Scott McCabe, talking with both former 3D Realms employees about their work on Second Genesis, an upcoming science-fiction themed cross-genre 3D RPG from Alternate State Entertainment and Magic Lantern Playware. The Q&A discuss the choice of the Unreal Tournament engine, how martial arts fit into their company's stated plan to "turn away from visceral violence," and more about this game that's currently slated for release third quarter 2001.

There's a Blade Feature on Informatica, a Spanish-language site, offering goodies on this upcoming third-person action game from Spanish developer Rebel Act Studios. Included are several screenshots, six RealPlayer movies (a couple of short scenes of gameplay, an intro-type movie, and some developer-speak), and a Q&A with Rebel Act in their and the site's native Spanish, for which we can only offer the usual semi-accurate AltaVista Translations.

The Battlecruiser Online Galcom News Network has a pair of new screenshots from the upcoming Battlecruiser Millennium, one the first shot of the game's "planetary terrain engine" in action, depicting the surface of mars, which will not just be streaming by beneath your ship as you fly about, but also beneath your feet, if you end up down there in first-person shooter mode.

There is a large Earth 2150 preview on PC Paradox based on some hands-on play with an alpha build of Earth 2150, Escape from the Blue Planet, an upcoming 3D science fiction RTS from TopWare interactive.

Daily Radar's Half-Life Interview talks with Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford getting more detail on their work on the upcoming Dreamcast port of Half-Life, again stressing their clarification on the potential for multiplayer: "The Half-Life multiplayer game is very important to us, and the modem is a feature of the Dreamcast we'd like to see taken advantage of. But it is still too early to discuss specifically how multiplayer games will be handled." The conversation also covers controller issues, the attractiveness of Half-Life's strong single player play to the console market, as well as some general questions about the futures of console gaming and first-person shooters.

A thread called Release date for PC on the Volition, Inc. message boards gives an updated release date for Summoner, Volition's upcoming fantasy RPG, as Winter 2000/2001, with the PSX2 version planned for Fall 2000, with the delay attributed to their desire "to concentrate on making the PS2 version very strong and then the team will focus our efforts on the PC and Mac versions and multiplayer support, since this will not be included in the PS2 version." A follow-up post from Volition reiterates that the multiplayer element is the strongest factor at work here, saying: "Pushing the release of the PC and Mac versions to winter 00/01, we can pretty much concentrate 100% on multiplayer during that time. (That and working on the kinks on the graphics cards). The extended date will really allow us to deliver a solid multiplayer experience on both of those platforms."

Computer Games Online Terminus interview Part One and Computer Games Online Terminus Interview Part Two are online talking with Karthik Bala, Vicarious Visions' CEO and director of development about Terminus, Vicarious Visions' upcoming space simulator. Among other things, the Q&As discusses what goes into landing a publishing deal, relevant to the recent announcement that Terminus had finally landed a publishing deal with Vatical Entertainment, as well as a great deal about gameplay in Terminus, which will offer a persistent online world, using the "Quake-style client-server model," meaning no subscription fees.

Daily Radar ends their Deus Ex week with a brief interview with Warren Spector, talking to the ION Storm designer about his upcoming 3D action RPG. Here is a quote about the game's inspirations:

But I hope people look a little further back and see Deus Ex as the next logical step in the progression from Underworld 1 and 2 to System Shock to Half Life to Thief to Shock 2... All of these games were, at least in part, designed to make players feel like they're in an alternate world -- a world that responds to their actions in direct, obvious (and very cool) ways. We're trying to take design ideas introduced in those games and take them a step further than those games did. And, of course, we're throwing in some new ideas of our own!

Shogun: Total War is a Japanese combo platter, with rice, Part 1 is a new preview at CGO of this 3D real-time strategy game by Creative Assembly that will have you acting out the ways of a warlord in feudal Japan. A couple of new screenshots and quotes by product manager Jason Fitzgerald are provided.

This post on the official Star Trek: Armada forums announces the single-player closed beta test for Activision's upcoming space-combat RTS. Signups will commence on Monday, February 28 (no time specified) and one hundred testers will be selected from those who apply.

GameSpot has posted four more new screenshots of The World Is Not Enough, mixed in with five others that were released yesterday on the official site (story) and this here news site. The World is Not Enough is the upcoming Quake III Arena engine James Bond title by Electronic Arts.

Also on GameSpot are five new Star Wars: Force Commander screenshots, along with a development update on LucasArts' ground based real-time strategy game, which they say could be released by the end of next month.

Legend's technical lead Mark Poesch updated his .plan (at Legend's own tracker) with a pair of updates about his work on U2Ed, running down the enhancements and changes they made to the editor for developing Unreal II, the sequel to Epic's first-person shooter. Thanks UnrealEngine. Update: Screenshots of the editor can be found in the .plan's of Scott Dalton, Warren Marshall, and James Parkman.

There are a square nine new screenshots of Star Trek: Klingon Academy on the official site, showing off new galactic scenes from Interplay's upcoming space-combat sim, for which the demo is now expected early next week according to this forum post.

Several updates in recent days to the Surreal Artist Loft bring a new look, a finished 3D Modeler Tutorial, the release of the Dragon's textures, and a few other changes.

The Black Knight Productions page has a new beta 2.0 of the Prisoners of War mod for Quake III Arena. This release includes five new maps, several changes related to switching teams, and numerous bug fixes.

Dave "Zoid" Kirsch, contract programmer at id Software and author of Threewave CTF for Quake, Quake II, and Quake III Arena, has updated his .plan to announce that he will be leaving id to start a new job at Retro Studios, a company developing games for Nintendo’s next generation game console, codenamed Dolphin. Here's the scoop:

In September of 1996, I made a small modification to the popular id Software game Quake and called it ThreeWave Capture the Flag. That simple modification grew into the last three and a half years of working with id Software and the Quake community. The job that id Software gave me over this period has been very rewarding. It has also been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed watching the community grow. I was also overwhelmed at having been able to work on a series of some of the most amazing games ever created. But, like all good things, it must come to an end.

I feel that I have learned a lot in my time with id, but I find myself looking for new challenges. I have decided that in order to pursue them, I must leave my association with id Software. Having done so, I plan on exploring new opportunities.

My contract with id terminates at the end of this month (Feb). My zoid@idsoftware.com address will probably stop forwarding to my permanent address shortly after that. My permanent address is zoid@threewave.com for people that wish to reach me.

I would like to thank id Software (and especially John Carmack) for giving me such great opportunities, and allowing me to work with all the talented people there. I am going to miss it.

In March, I will begin a new position at Retro Studios, http://www.retrostudios.com/. I look forward to joining the team there and working on some exciting new projects.

So long and thanks for all the captures.

Here are a few tips for the just-released Unreal Tournament Bonus pack for you this morning: a GameSpy filter tab for the pack is available at PlanetUnreal, which filters only servers running the new maps or Relic mutators. Also, Epic's Alan Willard updated his .plan with word that if you rename the map DM-Cybrosis][ to DOM-Cybrosis][, it will act as a Domination map, complete with all the control points in place. Lastly, here's a tip if you're having troubles installing the Pack, care of the Unreal Technology page:

To install the Bonus Pack, just double click the .umod file and it should begin installing. If you are having trouble, extract the ZIP file to a temporary folder such as C:\Temp, and then use Start | Run to run the following command:

C:\UnrealTournament\System\Setup.exe install C:\temp\UTBonusPack.umod

A new installment in their Baldur's Gate II journal is up at PC.IGN. This week's edition is by lead programmer Mark Darrah, and details some of the decisions he has to make during the design process. There are also four new screenshots from the game alongside the article.

Also new at PC.IGN this morning is a new preview of Blizzard's Warcraft III, based on a demonstration of the game the author was given by producer Rob Pardo. The preview is chock full of gameplay details, and worth a read if you're a fan of the series.

A brief preview of Crimson Skies, the upcoming air-combat game from Zipper Interactive (the developers of Mechwarrior 3) and Microsoft is up at GameRush, complete with familiar screenshots, new concept art, and what they describe as "1937-styled pics of the game's characters."

Raven Software has posted some preview images from the Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force comic book that's coming soon from DC Comics. Raven is "working closely" with the team on the comic, which will be loosely based on the story from the game, and may also include a game tips and strategies section in the back.

Rick Jones 2, a new Quake II demo movie has been released, and is available for download at Machinima.com in both its original Quake II demo format, and as a Real Video file. The movie is described as, "Rick Jones clears foos, hos and p1mps out of his way as he goes after the Highly Organized Crime Syndicate" and as the description would suggest, it is tongue-in-cheek. It is also quite well-made, as the authors have paintstakingly lip-synched the film frame-by-frame.

A new version of the ultra-violent Quake III Arena deathmatch mod Excessive has been released, and is available for download on its official site. This new release adds new excessive versions of the BFG and Lightning Gun, plus a "Quad surprise."

• ATI has announced their S1-370 TL a low-cost chipset that features hardware Transform & Lighting and 32-bit color support (thanks Jeff Magill).
• The Microsoft Sidewinder Dual Strike is reviewed at GameFan Online.
• The ABIT BP6 Dual-370 motherboard is reviewed at 3DAG.
• Tweak3D ("Your Freakin' Tweakin' Source!") has posted their CPU/Motherboard and BIOS Tweak Guide.
• The PC Power & Cooling Personal Mid-Tower case is reviewed at Ars Technica.

A Talent for War has posted four screenshots from the upcoming Parsec self-running demo. Parsec is a multi-platform, freeware multiplayer space sim. According to the developer's site, the demo is set to be released in the next week or so.

Vigz of Clan Suspicious Minds has released the TFC Logbot, a Perl program that broadcasts Team Fortress Classic games over IRC.

• PureDM is holding a "Dead Simple" deathmatch level design contest, with a new Diamond Multimedia graphics card, or a custom ATX case as prizes.
• The Razer CPL event site has gotten an overhaul to "match the look and feel" of the event's sponsor, Razer.
• Speaking of which, SystemLogic is holding a contest to win a Razer Boomslang mouse.

• Delta Force 2 on Electric Playground.
• Final Fantasy VIII on Gamers Central.
• Grand Theft Auto 2 on GameSurge.
• Nox on GameSpot UK, Game Revolution, and (quick take) on Gone Gold.
• Rising Sun on GameSpot.
• The Sims on Clan Nexus.
• Ultima IX: Ascension on Thresh's Firingsquad and Gamer's Press.

• The second part of game designer Rich Wyckoff's article on designing outdoor levels is up at loonygames.
• The Unreal Technology Page has word of a Hungarian translation of Unreal Tournament, complete with player and narrator voices.
• QuakeRally.com has posted some MakeFiles for Quake III Arena, said to speed up recompiling of the game source code.

I'm a big fan of Dennis Miller Live, and while it's pretty much always wacky and a little bizarre, last night's edition was nothing short of insane. The guest was Tom Green, and some of the highlights included Tom giving out his cellphone number (and having it ring incessantly for the duration of the show), and of course, Dennis and Tom giving a senseless beating to a sleeping bag while threatening to kill some guy in Wisconsin. It will be re-airing for the next week or so, and if you're a fan of the show (and get HBO, of course) be sure to watch it. It's strange stuff indeed. One last TV note: Sunday's episode of the X-Files is titled "First Person Shooter" and is co-written by sci-fi author William Gibson. Should be interesting.

Link of the Day: The Quake Speed Tester (thanks Gregory Bloom).