Gearbox' Patrick Deupree updated his .plan directly addressing some of the problems that have popped up since the release of last night's patch for Half-Life: Opposing Force. Here's the scoop:

We've noticed a couple things since releasing the Opposing Force patch that I just wanted to comment on.

One is that I messed up and forgot to include the new mapcycle.txt file in the installer, so a lot of servers seem to rotate to a deathmatch map when the level changes. For anyone running an Opposing Force CTF server, this is the contents of the mapcycle file that should have been included:

op4ctf_mortar "\minplayers\1\maxplayers\32\mp_weaponstay\1\"
op4ctf_wonderland "\minplayers\1\maxplayers\32\mp_weaponstay\1\"
op4ctf_chasm "\minplayers\1\maxplayers\32\mp_weaponstay\1\"
op4ctf_crash "\minplayers\1\maxplayers\32\mp_weaponstay\1\"

The other thing we've noticed is that a lot of servers seem to be going down. I was messing with some dedicated server stuff here and had a problem as well. According to Valve there's a slight bug that slipped through that involves users downloading decals from each other at signon, so they've suggested running servers with "sv_allowdownload 0" in the "server.cfg" file for the time being. A fix will be forthcoming.

Hopefully these two things will fix a lot of the problems people may have had. Just as a side note, I'm still testing some new stuff here at the office, so if anyone happens to join a server and they can't because the client dll is different, then that's probably me. I'll start a test server here at the office sometimes and by the time I'm done about 10 people have tried to join and get booted because of that. One of these days I'll just set a password, but in the meantime, sorry about that.

As promised awhile ago, Shiny Entertainment has released the official Messiah demo for download via Interplay's ftp servers, superseding the old compatibility test demo that was released last year. The demo clocks in at a heft 99.4 MB download, and Shiny's Stuart Roch sent along word that this official demo represents the final game, and requests that it replaces the outdated compatibility demo on all servers that mirrored that file.

The official Star Trek: Bridge Commander site has been updated with several new areas, including a news section, an in-depth section with background articles, a fan resource section, and more. Bridge Commander is a space-combat game in development by Totally Games where you get to command capital ships in the Next Generation universe from the captain's chair.

Gone Gold, a fairly reliable source for information of this nature, is reporting that Star Trek: Klingon Academy, the space-sim with absolutely no Tribbles, has gone gold, and will be available in stores "by the end of June."

Looking Glass Studios has updated their web page with a farewell letter to fans, now that they have closed their doors (thanks RPGDot by way of RPG Vault). Here it is, in its entirety:

To all the fans and supporters of LookingGlass:

After a decade of creating games as an independent developer, LookingGlass has run its course. Despite valiant efforts to secure funding, we ran out of cash, and unfortunately had no alternative but to close our doors.

The news of LookingGlass’ demise has spread fast. We’ve read thousands of e-mails, newsgroup postings, and letters from fans telling us how much they enjoyed playing our games, and how much LookingGlass will be missed. The outpouring of sympathy and kind words has been remarkable to witness. Clearly we touched our audience profoundly.

We want to acknowledge our fans and express our gratitude for your support over the years. Our games were made for you -- to entertain, challenge, and spark your imagination with new worlds and experiences. Your enjoyment of our games sustained us through the years, and fueled our creative passion and dedication for striving to make great games. We have been fortunate to enjoy such a loyal audience.

LookingGlass took creative risks. We introduced new kinds of game play, such as the hybrid 3D action/RPG play of the Underworld’s and the System Shock’s, the squad based 3D action/simulation of Terra Nova, or the first person “sneaker” play of the Thief’s. Even in the more cut-and-dried civilian flight simulation genre, our Flight Unlimited series took a fresh approach. We intentionally charted new game design territory.

Unfortunately, being a pioneer does have its risks. Ultimately these risks contributed to LookingGlass’ inability to continue forward. For the sake of our fans, and for the future of the game industry at large, we hope that the demise of groups like ours will not dissuade other game developers and publishers from the path of innovation. While doing better looking versions of last year’s hit titles may be a short term path to success, to thrive and grow the game industry must take some creative risks and continue to innovate.

Although LookingGlass has fallen, we pass on the flag to those who are up to the challenge.

From the LG crew

While the game is definitely not considered dead by the many who still play it, Gamasutra has posted their postmortem article of Unreal Tournament, a reprint from the May issue of Game Developer magazine. Written by now former Epic developer Brandon "Greenmarine" Reinhart, the article discusses the development of the multiplayer action game, examines what went right and what went wrong in the process, and briefly looks ahead to Epic's future development. Certainly a must-read by anyone who enjoyed (and still enjoys) playing Unreal Tournament.

Stomped has conducted a Q&A with John Romero, talking to him about life after Daikatana, the current state of id Software, and of course, what he thinks of the announcement regarding a brand new Doom game.

A new interview with programmer Keith Fuller is up on VoyagerEliteForce.com. The questions deal with Keith's work as a code monkey at Raven, as well as his background in the industry, and what he thinks of the Doom announcement (just because that's a required question these days, of course).

A new Deus Ex movie trailer (of sorts) has been posted at Games Domain. The one minute trailer features parts of the ECTS 1999 trailer that was released last October (story), mixed in with newer bits and a new soundtrack. The footage does however date back to the same period and does not represent ION Storm's imminent 3D action RPG in its current shape.

The official Flashpoint 1985: Status Quo site features a new unit of the week, showing off the T80 BV tank in a description, a few images, and a short movie clip. Flashpoint is the 3D tactical wargame in development at Bohemia Studios.

As announced earlier by Graeme Devine (story), id Software is moving to a new office building, and Christian Antkow now updated his .plan with additional information on the implications for the Quake III Arena master server, which may experience some down time even though it is their highest priority to make the transition as seemless as possible. Here is what Christian has to say on the move:

Ugh. Ok. As Todd and Graeme mentioned in their .plans, we're moving our offices starting today, and over the weekend.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, which I don't really want to get into at this time, we will more than likely have a serious disruption with our network.

I am making it my highest priority to get the Quake 3 authentication servers transitioned to the new office seemlessly by tommorow evening. I am hoping that there will be little to no disruption with the Q3A authentication servers.

Our webserver, FTP server, Mail, and more than likely, DNS server will be inactive for an indeterminate amount of time starting at approximately 11am CST on Saturday, June 10th. I'm am going to try to find a solution over the weekend to get mail limping along.

Again, this is a situation beyond our control. Through this experience, I've put ISP's and Phone Companies somewhere a few points higher than lawyers on my "scum scale rating" (previously, lawyers held a commanding lead on this scale)

I am hoping that our service will resume, in full, by Friday, June 16th. If not, someone at SouthWest Bell, Savvis, and MFS are going to have hell to pay...

Again, I apologize for any disruption that you may experience with connecting to Quake III servers over the next few days. This situation is entirely out of our hands, and I'm going to try my best to make this as painless as possible for you.

After having exposed much of the development community to Serious Sam (well, the sillier side, perhaps), Old Man Murray has conducted an interview with Croteam's Roman Ribaric. Unlike, well, everything at the site (except for maybe the banner ads) the interview is actually real, and while it's not exactly (ahem) serious, it features questions about the game's multiplayer modes, the engine, the Croatian word for "crates" and more. They even have three new screenshots up from the game in case you haven't downloaded the demo yet.

File this one under, "go figure" if you will: the latest edition of Roger Ebert's Critical Eye, a column on ZDNet, features a look at Machinima (in-game demo movies). Ebert only talks specifically about two films, "The Kick" and "Ozymandias" and isn't particularly positive about either, but he does seem to be enthusiastic about the medium. Thanks to Machinima.com for the tip.

According to GameWeek.com, during the PC Data 2000 Trends Conference, Sega.com VP of marketing and communications Greg Chiemingo let slip that Unreal Tournament is coming to the Dreamcast. Stomped has confirmed this with Mark Rein, who says that they are attempting to make the port compatible with the PC version, although they won't do it at the expense of quality.

Volition has updated their official Summoner site with another installment of their developer's diary (which actually appeared last week on PC.IGN), a new high-resolution screenshot of the week (from the Playstation 2 version of the game) and a new addition to their character gallery.

Remedy Entertainment was in London this week, showing off the latest build of Max Payne, and GameSpot UK has posted a preview based on the demo they were given. They have nine new shots up (which apparently come from the E3 press kit) with a glimpse at just how freaky-realistic the game's engine can be.

Also new on GameSpot UK this morning, is a brief preview of Heavy Metal: FAKK2, looking at this third person, Quake III Arena engine title from Ritual. The preview is a little light on text, but contains nine screenshots from the game, and for some odd reason, an additional nine screenshots are up in a separate gallery.

The last two parts of GameSpot UK's week-long preview of Shogun: Total War are online. These are parts four and part five in their "Diary of a Daimyo" series, and contain new screenshots. A full review of the game will be posted tomorrow.

id Software's Graeme Devine updated his .plan with word that they are moving into their new office today, and as a result, there may be a downtime for the Quake III Arena master server. Here are the details:

We're moving office today. Of course, various forces have collected to ensure that our T3 line is not moving over smoothly, so Xian has had his hands full (well, mostly his ear on his phone) getting things lined up.

We will be installing a second master/auth/motd server at the new office so that when the switch happens, things //should// go smoothly. Of course, things //may// not go smoothly, in which case, the master server will be down. If the auth server goes down, all servers automatically authenticate, so the worst case scenario is that the in game browser will report no response from the master.

I mentioned playing the cool Serious Sam test this morning (story), but the sole point of download was clearly not enough to cover demand, so here's a local copy of the Serious Sam Compatibility Demo (48 MB) along with a pretty complete list of mirrors.

AVault has posted a new preview of Crimson Skies, the aerial action game from Microsoft, FASA, and Zipper Interactive (the same people behind MechWarrior). The preview features a bunch of new shots, and quotes from BattleTech universe co-creator Jordan Weisman.

A new, hands-on preview of Dogs of War is up at Neoseeker. The preview is based on a preview copy of the game, and contains the author's impressions, illustrated with many new screenshots.

Not to be confused with a blue movie, Daily Radar has posted the movie trailer that Blue Byte showed at last month's E3. The trailer features two minutes of footage from three games they currently have in development: the real-time strategy sequel Settlers IV, the 3D turn-based strategy game Battle Isle: Andosia War, and the third-person action adventure Dragon's Lair 3D.

PC.IGN.com has received a playable build of Hitman: Codename 47, and exercised their right to snap over a dozen screenshots from this upcoming third-person action game from Danish developers IO Interactive.

Another patch brings the Dark Reign 2 closed beta to build 783, as before available in two different download sizes depending on your current version. Pandemic Studios has also posted information on how to get the game working when behind a firewall.

The official Icewind Dale site has been updated with a bunch of media for this isometric role-playing game under construction at Black Isle Studios. There are two portraits of female characters, a pair of new desktop wallpapers, and also two new animated characters.

Quake 3 Team Arena Interview on In the Trenches talking with id Software designer Paul Jaquays in a lengthy conversation that mainly centers around map design. The Q&A goes into specific techniques, as well as general mapping principles, discusses the pros and cons of working in the gaming industry, and touches very briefly on Quake III: Team Arena.

The Mean Arena interviews Kevin Cloud talking with the id Software artist as the folks at id move into their new offices, and gear up for work on the new Doom game (story). The Q&A discusses some of id's history, talks about the art of creating art for games, and offers "Get a good art education" as advice for you budding artists out there.

Daily Radar's Gabe Newell Chat takes the occasion of the release of the new version of Half-Life to interview Gabe Newell, managing director of Valve Software, to chat about Valve and Half-Life's support for mod makers. In the conversation, Gabe mentions something that hints at the power of the new tools that they've put in the hands of mod authors, saying: "Over time we are hoping to see completely new games emerge as the MOD community has a chance to digest the functionality in the new SDK."

RIVA 3D's Kenn Hoekstra interview talks with the Raven Software project administrator about progress on Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force, their upcoming Quake III-engine Star Trek shooter. The Q&A offers game-related questions as well as some for fun, making a couple of general sensor sweeps before digging for dirt on the 7 of 9 model, and then getting back to asking about some less specific subjects.

• There's a new version 1007 ASUS KV7 beta BIOS (direct link) which includes support for AGP 2x/4x and a "downgraded" P3v4x 1004 beta 2 BIOS (direct link), so the recent final version 1004 has been un-finalized. Thanks CTNews.
• 3D-Unlimited's 3dfx interview talks with Bubba (or as they've dubbed him, "Bubby") Wolford of 3dfx about the current state of those Voodoo accelerators.
• A new version 3.2.1.6 of the Hardware Sensors Monitor is now available. Thanks Tweak Files.

• Ratting on the Mafia
  Lead Designer on Mafia, New Screenshots on GA-Source talks with Daniel Vavra, lead designer on Illusion Softworks' upcoming Insanity-engine third-person action game where you lead a life of organized crime in the mob of the 1930s. Also, Gamers Central's Mafia first look likewise breaks the code of silence to tell of the inner workings of this upcoming game of life in La Cosa Nostra.
• Morrowind Q&A & Shots
  GameSpot's Morrowind Editor Q&A talks with Todd Howard of Bethesda about the Elder Scrolls III Construction Set, an extensive game editor that will be included with the RPG, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, the upcoming sequel to The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall. In addition to the Q&A, there are five new shots in their Morrowind gallery (including a couple of that editor), while this Morrowind Downloads page (a sub-page on the framed The Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind site) has a half-dozen new high-resolution shots.
• Star Trek: Conquest Online
  There's a Star Trek Conquest Online interview on Well Rounded Entertainment talks with Scott Kimball about this upcoming turn-based strategy game set in the Star Trek universe. Included with the interview are nine new shots of gameplay.

There are some new Starship Troopers screenshots on GA-Strategy showing off gameplay and character models from the upcoming RTS game that, like the movie, allows you to kill bugs, and lots of them (no word on whether you learn the value of being a "citizen"). There's also a Starship Troopers preview on BigKid with some post-E3 impressions.

Following the news of the closing of Looking Glass Studios (story and story), The Circle of Stone and Shadow has word that they are kicking their project into a different gear, now calling it an 'unofficial expansion pack for Thief 2.' Here's another site for the project that offers a promotional trailer in .mpg format, and here's word on what this is all about: "For the past half a year, TTLG has had in the works a massive fan-mission campaign for Thief 2: The Metal Age. Entitled 'The Circle of Stone and Shadow' (CoSaS), this campaign, set during the months before the events in Thief 2, introduces players to a new plotline and main character. In light of the recent folding of LGS, TTLG has elevated this project to the status of Unofficial Expansion Pack - and TTLG's official contribution to the legacy of Looking Glass Studios. CoSaS is currently halfway into production. A possible winter completion date is projected."

A newer beta 3 version 1.0 of the Half-Life Admin Mod is now available, hot on the heels of the release of beta 2. The new release fixes a problem with the new Counter-Strike beta.

A new version 0.03.01 of the Crusade mod for Quake III Arena is now available. Crusade is class-based mod that supports many modes of play from DM trough CTF, as well as their own teamplay mode called Crusade. Word is deleting your older version of the mod before installing the new one will fix the problem of not being able to connect to pure servers.

A new version of ArenaGen for Quake III Arena is now available. This utility can help if you've downloaded a user-created map but can't find it on the Quake III Arena menu (caused by the failure to include a .arena file with the map).

Daikatana Mercenary has posted a guide to DeathTag in Daikatana, along with a map walkthrough of Hellish Heavens, the DeathTag map included with Daikatana. There are also walkthroughs and strategies there for making your way through the game's single-player missions. Also, 3D Spotlight's Half-Life tweak guide takes the occasion of the release of the new version to offer up a collection of performance tweaks for Valve's shoot-em-up.

GameSurge interviews Punk_Kid talking about Eagle Force, a Half-Life mod currently in development.

The Gamecaster website (requires Flash) offers a telecast with clips and interviews and stuff from the $100,000 Razer CPL tournament in a really well done slick packaged show (requires RealPlayer G2), with high production values (they describe it as "SportsCenter meets Talk Soup"). One of the first "shows" of its kind, and well worth checking out.

An email from Haloplayers.com points out that in the past week we managed to post three different Halo stories that basically originated on their site while only crediting the intermediate sites where we spotted the news. We make every effort to properly credit news stories (even when it gets complicated, like in this case), so this was a complete oversight, which I'm at a loss to even explain properly. Our sincere apologies to Haloplayers.com. As an uncredited source for a lot of gaming news sites, we certainly understand how you feel when this happens.

• AI Wars: The Awakening on PC.IGN.com.
• Codename Eagle on Adrenaline Vault.
• Daikatana on GameSpy.com.
• Everquest: The Ruins of Kunark on MPOG.
• Fly! 2K on Gamecenter.
• Ground Control on Gameunit.
• Imperium Galactica II: Alliances on bloodshot.org.
• Majesty on Galactus Gaming News.
• MDK2 on PC.IGN.com and incite.
• Messiah on GamesMania.
• Motocross Madness 2 on Game Revolution.
• Rally Masters on BarrysWorld.
• SimCity 3000 Unlimited on GameSpot and Happy Puppy.
• Soldier of Fortune on Screaming 3D.
• Star Trek: Armada (in Klingon) on Qo'noS QonoS.
• Suzuki Alstare Extreme Racing on GameOver.
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption on GameProWorld.

• ASUS AGP-V7700 GeForce2 GTS video card on Sharky Extreme.
• ASUS P3V4X motherboard on The Tech Zone.
• AMD Thunderbird 800 MHz CPU on AMD Zone.
• ELSA Gladiac GeForce 2 GTS on 3D Gaming Daily.
• Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40 hard drive on 3D Alpha.

• A post on Noxious.net reveals Westwood's plans to introduce "Nox Quest," into Nox, adding a cooperative mode to their isometric-view RPG...
• Planetfortress has posted a tab that will accurately filter out any non-TF 1.5 servers using GameSpy...
• DungeonSiege.Org has word of a newer version of the E3 Dungeon Siege movie that's an easier download AVI, replacing the original streaming version...
• GA-RPG's Caeron3000 first look has concept art and a screenshot from this upcoming MMORPG formerly known as Infinium...
• High-Tech Obsessions on PC Magazine is John C. Dvorak's latest column, comparing computer gamers to athletes (Michael Jordan, no less), pointing out that while hoops and computer games promote many similar skills, "the kid shooting hoops for an extra 2 hours is seen as a hard worker, and the kid who plays computer games for an extra 2 hours is seen as a slacker." Thanks Jeff Paul...

If you are a first-person shooter fan, and in particular, fond of the original Doom and Doom II, I highly recommend checking out the Serious Sam demo from the Croatian CroTeam (here's a local copy of the 49 MB demo, since I'm told it's been tough to get since I made this post). If you've been following the events of this week or more, I probably don't need to point out that some big stories have been unfolding, so it was a few days after the release of the demo (story) before I got around to checking it out, even after several .plan updates talked about how fun it is. Well, any delay in getting going with this was purely my loss, because this demo (actually described as a compatibility test, so while I had no problems, I should note the "real" demo isn't even out yet) is terrific. This is pure fun, with hoards of imaginative enemies (most seemingly beheaded for some reason or another) and cool, powerful weapons. The action in the test is fast and fun, and the size of the groups of monsters encountered combined with their design (like guys who behave just like the snarling old pink demons, though they look a little like the monster Bugs Bunny gave a manicure to) had both MrCoffee and I repeating things like "wow, this is a lot like a new Doom!" Gameplay is still basically find the key/switch, and there are parts that aren't explained (like where all the monsters are teleporting in from, or how the beheaded suicide bombers scream with no mouths), but I was too busy having fun to worry about it. Way too much fun.

Link of the Day: BBspot - New Ford Exorbitant Comes with Spare Explorer. Thanks Judo Chop. Reminds me of the SUV seen in commercials on Simpsons, the Canyonero.