A new preview of The Settlers IV, the upcoming strategy game from Blue Byte, is up at Daily Radar this evening. The preview is based on the author's hands-on experience with a build of the game, and it consists of his impressions, along with some new screenshots.

• Quake III: Team Arena
  The last four questions and their corresponding answers in id Software's official Quake III: Team Arena FAQ address new topics like the mouse sensitivity change, the previously released non-MMX executable, disconnections from a server and demo recording, the last two of which are being worked on.
• Giants
  GameSpy.com has posted part one of their Giants: Citizen Kabuto Quick Guide, covering the Meccaryns in Planet Moon's just-released 3D action/strategy game, as well as other tips and the cheat codes.
• Anachronox
  A new Anachronox FAQ on PlanetAnachronox puts a fair amount of known information on ION Storm's upcoming 3D role-playing game into that ever-popular Q&A format.
• Half-Life: Counter-Strike
  There is a comprehensive Half-Life: Counter-Strike Weapons and Tactics Guide on GameFAQs, still humbly going by the version number 0.01.
• Hitman
  Also on GameFAQs is an updated Hitman: Codename 47 Guide by Dune Tiger, likewise offering very comprehensive guidance for IO Interactive's third-person action game.
• Monolith's Oldies
  Monolith has restructured and updated its technical support FAQs for Blood, Blood 2: the Chosen and Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, offering a lot of support tips on their older games.
• X-Tension
  There are new technical support FAQs for X-Tension and X: Beyond the Frontier available in English and German, offering assistence with EgoSoft's space-combat sims. And in related news, A Talent For War has posted a stats and informational X-Tension Database.

A new version 4.0 beta of the Eternal Arena mod for Quake III Arena has been released, bringing it in sync with the 1.27g point release. Additionally, this release offers a slew of new features, including a Team Arena based menu interface, new player selection and server setup menus, a new scoreboard, new InstaGib Rails and InstaGib Rockets gametypes, and lots more.

GameSpot previews Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars this evening, looking ahead to the strategic space-combat game that is in development at Gizmo Industries for a Summer release. The article describes the game's premise, offers gameplay details galore including the camera and combat systems, its graphics and more, and is illustrated with 18 new screenshots. There's also a downloadable zip file with eight new wallpapers.

• Mafia
  GA-Source is the latest site to receive a pair of Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven screenshots from TalonSoft, who are publishing this third-person mobster-inspired action game by Illusion Softworks in the US.
• Warrior Kings
  There is a new Warrior Kings gallery on BarrysWorld, offering new screenshots and concept art as well as a generous helping of game information on this 3D real-time strategy game by Black Cactus.
• TRIBES 2
  PlanetStarsiege has posted scans of the huge TRIBES 2 advertising pull-out from the February issue of PC Gamer (thanks Stomped).
• Neverwinter Nights
  There is a single new screenshot of Neverwinter Nights on GA-RPG, sporting a new scene in the 3D role-playing game being crafted at BioWare.

Developers Fragile Bits have released a playable demo of The Ward, their 3D point-n-click adventure that went gold the other day (story). The demo clocks in at a reasonable 26 MB. Thanks Adventure Gamer for the tip.

It would appear that we weren't the only ones to get a gold master of Oni today, as Stomped has posted a hands-on preview of the game. It's hardly in-depth, as the author has only spent a few hours with the game, but it does have his initial impressions, including a heartfelt plea for a multiplayer mode, which was removed when they decided it wouldn't work over the Internet due to its prominent use of hand-to-hand combat (story). For more Oni fun, head over to Eurogamer.net, where they have posted new screenshots from the Playstation 2 version of the game.

Flipping through the Gathering of Developers calendar reveals another previously unannounced game, Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne. There isn't much listed for the game, but it does say that it utilizes a "top of the line Direct 3D graphics engine" and contains "enhanced empire and character building." Like the original it's developed by Triumph Studios, and an early 2002 release date is listed.

A shiny gold master of Oni care of Gathering of Developers arrived today, complete with the Gathering of Goodness calendar that will also be sent out to members of their fan club (along with a CD that may contain more on the game). The calendar, like last year's edition, features a different game and scantily clad woman for each month, and the big shocker is that the game featured in October is none other than Myth III: The Wolf Age, from developer Mumbo Jumbo. You may recall that GoD acquired the rights to the Myth series along with Oni (story), however they have never formally announced any plans for a new Myth title. There is also a URL listed to GoD's official site, however the site doesn't seem to be online yet. Here's the description of the game from the calendar:

If you find Miss October's strategically placed clothing frustrating, then perhaps you would prefer to control the strategy. Myth III: The Wolf Age allows you to do just that. The game is the highly anticipated prequel to the two original Myth games from Bungie Software. It takes place 1000 years before the start of Myth: The Fallen Lords and follows the life of Connacht - the legendary hero who saved humanity from the insidious Myrkindia and the oppressive Trow, eventually becoming the emperor of all human lands. Myth III explores the daunting past before the Great War and the destructive clashes between the races.

In 1421 AE, the world is in sheer chaos. The nightmare, Myrkindia, runs rampant over the lands. The Trow enslave the Ogre to build titanic temples to their god. A new Leveler, claiming to be Moagim reborn, has just risen and swears to smash the empire of Cath Bruig. Most of humanity has been scattered for hundreds of years, existing in war tribes who hide in fear of the evil creatures who stalk the night. Myth III: The Wolf Age will live up to even the most critical Myth fan's expectations, yet is immediately engaging and easy-to-learn for the first time strategy player.

Update: Stomped has learned from GoD's Mike Wilson that a formal announcement will be made at next week's MacWorld expo.

Garreth Graham, producer at SSI on Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, is interviewed on GameBanshee today. Garreth explains what will separate Pool of Radiance from the other RPGs out there, along with how they are attempting to please fans of D&D and other similar topics.

RPG Planet has conducted an interview with Patric Sundström of Swedish developer Mindark AB, talking with him about Project Entropia, their upcoming massively multiplayer RPG. Patric goes into some detail about Calypso, the planet where the game takes place, and explains how they are attempting to make the experience as real as possible. There are also two new desktop background images alongside the interview.

Sharky Games' Age of Sail II preview looks at this nautical strategy game from Russian developers Akella. The preview is based on the author's experience with a limited build of the game and contains his impressions along with new screenshots.

id Software's Graeme Devine updated his .plan this morning with the news that he's released the RoQ video compiler for Quake III: Team Arena, as well as an explanation for why he's now doing id's OS X work internally (instead of outsourcing it to Omni Group). Here's what he has to say:

The RoQ video compiler is now in the tools directory on our ftp server. I've included several sample param files from id's games to get you all going. If you have specific problems getting it to work, email me and I'll try to help.

The new intro animation is 512x512, which is a lot of textures to be uploading per frame (the Q3A movies are all 512x256). All the ingame videos are either 256x256 or 128x128. Ingame videos cannot have sound. I'll release the source to the decoder "soon" so RoQ can be used in other products besides Q3A derivative.

This is a command line image compression program, it takes tgas, jpegs, tiffs (or whatever) + a sound file and compresses them into a video stream. It is not Adobe Premiere! I have thought about converting it into a Quicktime codec so that it could be an export option from such a program, but time is always a crunch here at id for some strange reason.

Finally. OS X. I didn't yank, pull, grab or drop Omni's excellent work on Q3A to this platform. They are my friends, peers, and fine people. My reason for working on the OS X build in house is that I simply like OS X and I like working in it. I'll still share the code with Omni so they can help make the OS X build the best. In fact, I'd like to get more of the tools ported across to OS X as soon as possible so levels, and mod compiling can happen on this platform (see above for time crunch).

Loki Software has updated their site with the news that they have signed with Gathering of Developers to port Heavy Metal: FAKK2 and Rune to Linux (thanks Chunky Kibbles). This deal also means that the two games are now part of their beta testing program, so if you're interested in participating, head over to their beta application page.

Fragland.net's series of Q&As with game industry programmers continues this morning with a brief interview with Jonathan E. Wright of Third Law Interactive. Like the others in this series, the questions all deal with the art of programming, and he also comments on how he broke into the industry (remember the Zeus bot for Quake?).

Version 1.32a of the Demo Show Creator tool for Quake III Arena based demos has been released. DSC is a utility that lets you organize and replay demos, and this latest version adds drag and drop support for Windows Explorer and support for Q3A 1.27g. We actually posted this yesterday (story) however at that time there was no English version of the page available.

Word on the ION Storm website is that tonight, like the first Thursday of every month (or millennium, for that matter), will be another edition of AnachroChat, the online chat session with the team behind Anachronox, ION's upcoming RPG. The chat starts at 9:00 PM Eastern time (8:00 PM Central), accessible via the java applet in the online section of the ION Storm website, or through IRC server www.ionstorm.com in the channel #ion.

Another online chat session is scheduled for tonight, as Ultima Online Stratics is hosting another UO House of Commons chat at 8:00 PM Eastern Time (7:00 PM Central) with the Ultima Online development team. The conference will occur in #uohoc, and the topic will be announced prior to the chat.

Anarchy Online Stratics also sends word of another Anarchy Online House of Commons chat this Saturday (January 6), at 3:00 PM Eastern Time (2:00 PM CST). Again, the session will take place in #aohoc, and Anarchy Online developers Funcom will be on hand to answer questions. Also on Saturday is Terra Arcanum's IRC chat with Troika Games, the team behind the upcoming RPG Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. This session will be in the channel #arcanum on the server irc.gamesnet.net at 7:00 PM EST (4:00 PM PST).

• Matrox Linux Driver
  This Matrox Graphics Linux driver page has the release of a beta version 1.00.004 driver for users of Matrox graphics cards under XFree86 4.0.1.
• Speedy Celery
  Intel unveils faster Celeron chip for cheaper PCs (Reuters), announcing 800 MHz Celerons with a 100 MHz front-side bus. Thanks Phil "Cain" Hall.
• System Studio 2
  HEXUS.net has posted a new version of System Studio 2, a utility for owners of ATI Radeon accelerators running Win2K (Win9x support is on the way).

A post called Starcraft Patch 1.08 on the Battle.Net Forums offers further explanation from Blizzard about the changes found in the version 1.08 patch that was inadvertently leaked to the Internet (story). Here's the deal:

The Starcraft 1.08 Patch that is floating around is an alpha version of the patch. This is not the final version of this patch and it is not playable over Battle.net and is not supported by Blizzard. We strongly suggest you wait for the final version.

I've seen some balance changes that people are passing around are not in fact real balance changes. Many, however, are true. The Lurker Cost change for example only applies to the cost to enable the morphing of Lurkers and is not the cost to morph a Hydralisk into a Lurker.

With that said we are not listing the final official balance changes or any other changes until the Patch is released. There is no ETA for the patch.

DailyRadar.com's Mechwarrior 4 Strat Guide is online, excerpted from the official Sybex guide. Also, 3D Spotlight's Sea Dogs Tweak Guide is online, offering their usual batch of suggestions for improving your system's performance when playing this RPG set in the age of sail. Finally, Gamer's Sanctuary's Red Alert 2 guide is online offering tips for success when playing the allied side in the game.

Interplay Goes Berserk on PS2 reports PS2.IGN.Com, describing Interplay's plans on publishing as many as 13 older and upcoming titles for the PS2. Meanwhile, Broadband Adapter Available In January on Dreamcast.IGN.Com is a story reporting: "Yes, it's still coming out in January, but you'll only be able to buy it from one store."

GameSpy.com Front Line Force interview talks with Adrian "Pink" Finol, programmer and lead designer of the Front Line Force mod for Half-Life, discussing the upcoming version 1.2 in a piece illustrated by several new screenshots.

• Airline Tycoon on 3D GameForce.
• Allegiance on GA-Sim.
• Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn on Luxidion.
• Battle Isle: the Andosia War on Daily Radar.
• Close Combat: Invasion Normandy on The Wargamer.
• Cultures on ActionTrip.
• Delta Force: Land Warrior on PC Gamer UK.
• Devil Inside on Adrenaline Vault.
• Dino Crisis on GameSpot.
• Escape From Monkey Island on Reviewboard and Gaming Garage.
• Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel Demo on swankygames and (in German) on Gamingmag.de.
• Freedom: First Resistance on GameSpy.com.
• Giants: Citizen Kabuto on Gamer's Pulse.
• Ground Control: Dark Conspiracy on GameZone.
• Gunman Chronicles (in German) on Gildenweb.de.
• Hitman: Codename 47 on Happy Puppy.
• Motocross Mania on GameSpot UK and PC.IGN.com.
• No Escape on GamePower.
• Project I.G.I. on PC.IGN.com and ActionTrip.
• Quake III: Team Arena on Gamers Depot.
• Sacrifice on Gaming-Unlimited and Game Basement.
• Sea Dogs on 3D Gaming Daily.
• Serious Sam Test 2 on Frag-Energy and Online Game Review.
• Space Empires IV on Strategy Gaming Online.
• Starfleet Command II: Empires at War on Daily Radar.
• Thandor: the Invasion on Games Domain.
• Tomb Raider: Chronicles on The Junkyard.
• X-Tension on A Talent For War.

• 2CoolPC / 2CoolPC-Plus coolers on TechWatch.com.au.
• The Claw 3D Action Controller on Challenge-AU.
• CoolerGuys Cyclone 5000 ATX case on SysReview.com.
• Coolermaster ATCS 310 case on HEXUS.net.
• DFI AK74-AC motherboard on EXHardware.
• DFI CS65-SC i815 motherboard on PCinsight.
• Epox 3SPA3L i815EP motherboard on TweakTown.
• Logitech iFeel Mouse on 3d Retreat.
• Microsoft Game Voice on Gamers Crypt.
• Thermal Buster Heatsink on FrostyTech.
• Transcend TS-ASL3 motherboard on The Tech Zone.
• Visiontek GeForce2 ULTRA 64MB video card on Reverend's 3DPulpit.

• MacGamer's interview with Lane Roathe of Monkey Byte software, talking about his history in gaming, which includes work at id, and being a one-time roommate of both John Romero and John Carmack...
• j.c.f.'s FTP file directory has version 1.01 of a program called BG2SpellWhacker 1.01 that allows you to remove spells from a mage's spell book when your mage reaches his or her intelligence limit in Baldur's Gate II...
• There are instructions on making a do-it-yourself sound chair with a subwoofer on Cputweak.com. Thanks Jarred...

Thanks for the feedback on the recipe, I'm interested to hear of anyone's results (or ulcers) in preparing it. Speaking of preparations, loony has continued to slave in the galley after the launch of the redesign looking to improve the site's loading time, or at least improve the perceived loading time. He's been meeting with some success, so if cross-browser testing continues to work out, we may be ready to roll that out soon.

Happy birthday to Matt "Max Headroom" Frewer (43). Thanks Chris Morris.

Link of the Day: This History of the Chili Cook-off, on race-car legend Carroll Shelby's website. Thanks onethumb.
Story of the Day: Unusual Snow Sculpture Toppled (ctnow.com). Thanks Hendrik Mans. Snow sculpture? Well, if that wasn't a snow-man, then nothing is.
SoD Follow-up: Monolith departs as mysteriously as it arrived (Seattle Times). Thanks Chris Johnson. I hope no one's PC tried to murder them in the interim.
Image(s) of the Day: The 3D Realms Site has some scans from Next Generation magazine of Duke and Lara doing a parody of that sexy Janet Jackson album cover from years ago.