Saying that it's going to go gold "pretty darn soon," PC.IGN has a new preview of Legends of Might and Magic online this evening. The preview contains quotes from designers Christian Vanover and Bryan Farina, as well as 15 new screenshots.

A hefty update at the official Shadowbane site brings four new screenshots of the upcoming 3D fantasy MMORPG under construction at Wolfpack Studios, as well as updates to the Bestiary, a new section in their FAQ covering Character Creation, and lots more.

• Sierra's Triple Dose
  Back in their usual Monday slot, Sierra has released new screenshots of the week for Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, Empire Earth, and Throne of Darkness.
• Arcanum
  More Arcanum today, as GameSpyDaily has posted seven new screenshots of this isometric role-playing game being crafted at Troika Games.
• Lord of Destruction
  Blizzard has released not one but two new Diablo II: Lord of Destruction screenshots, showing off their upcoming isometric RPG expansion pack.
• Gorasul
  Three new screenshots of Gorasul: Lost Souls are online at RPGDot, depicting new areas in the likewise isometric RPG by Silver Style.
• Throne of Bhaal
  Isometric RPGs being the theme of the evening, Daily Radar tunes in with a new Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal monster of the week, illustrating the Fire Giant in BioWare's upcoming add-on.
• Bridge Commander
  The irregularly updated screenshot of the week on the official Star Trek: Bridge Commander site sports a new interstellar view into Totally Games' upcoming space sim.
• Anarchy Online
  Back on PlanetGSD, they also have the token number of three new Anarchy Online screenshots up, in case you can't get enough of Funcom's 3D futuristic MMORPG.

GameSpot has a new preview of Fallen Age online this evening, looking at this upcoming massively multiplayer RPG from Netamin. The preview offers a hands-on look at the current beta, and contains gameplay details, including info on how it differs from other massively multiplayer games out there, as well as some new screenshots.

The Mac Doom Legacy site has posted the first OS X native version of this port of the DOOM source code. This new version adds some new command line options and environment variables in addition to its support for Apple's latest OS. According to the main DL site, the next Doom Legacy version for non-OS X platforms will be released in the near future. Also available at the Mac Doom Legacy site is the first release of OSX glQuake, a port of the Classic Quake source code by the same author, who stresses that it hasn't been tested on anything but his own system.

Games Domain has posted a new preview of Emperor: Battle for Dune, the upcoming 3D strategy game from Westwood Studios. The preview doesn't contain any new screenshots, but it does feature some gameplay details, which are based on what the author saw at a recent demonstration of the game, as well as quotes from producer Chris Longpre.

An interview with members of the development team at Maximum Charisma Studios is up at eUniverse Games this afternoon, talking with them about their upcoming massively multiplayer title Fighting Legends. The interview provides some background information on the oddball game, which mixes RPG elements with ones more common to strategy games, and also throws a Dr. Seuss-style world in to really make things bizarre.

Fan page Entropia Stratics has posted an interview with Patric Sundström, the marketing manager at MindArk, talking with him about their upcoming massively multiplayer title Project Entropia (thanks Voodoo Extreme). Patric provides a status update on the game's development, and he also talks about their use of the NetImmerse 3D engine, the character creation process and more.

A new Q&A with Daniel Vavra, the lead designer on Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is up at Stomped this morning. The questions are all of a fairly general nature, and touch on Mafia's plotline, its 3D engine, their plans to include a Counter-Strike like multiplayer mode and more.

Italian gaming site Multiplayer.it has conducted a Q&A with members of the Worms World Party staff at Team 17. They talk about the differences between the PC and Dreamcast versions of the game, its single player scenarios, and what the chances are that we'll see a 3D Worms game in the future. This being an Italian site, the Q&A is available in both English and the site's native language.

Elite Force Modcentral's Elite Force Expansion interview talks with James Monroe, programmer at Raven Software (and, of course, fifth president of the United States) about progress on the upcoming add-on for Star Trek: Voyager-Elite Force, Raven's Quake III engine Star Trek shoot-em-up. The conversation covers various aspects of the expansion, including new weapons and power-ups, and touches on what will be included in the single-player portion, and how long it will take to complete ("Yes, when the game is good, you always wish it were longer").

GameSpy.com interviews Charles Cecil of Revolution Software talking about Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon, which is, of course, the sequel to Broken Sword 1 & 2 (you'd think after three games they'd just fix the darn sword already). The conversation discusses how the latest sequel will play off its predecessors, and bandies about a phrase you rarely hear associated with computer games: sexual tension (computer gamers, yes, but the games themselves?).

Computer Games Online's Majestic Preview offers a look ahead at the upcoming online mystery game that will blur the lines between truth and fiction as the interaction with the game will include emails, phone calls, and faxes. The preview describes how the game's episodic nature will be handled, as well as how the more intrusive aspects of gameplay can be toned down if you aren't into so much realism. Included are three screenshots.

There's a new batch of four new Fatherdale Screenshots on RPGDot with two shots of levels and two shots of weapons (one offering some wireframes as well as a rendering) showing off Fatherdale: The Guardians of Asgard, the upcoming RPG from Russian developer Snowball Interactive.

• New CPUCooL
  Another new version of the CPUCooL software PC cooling utility is now available. Thanks File Flash.
• AMD Tech Tour
  There's a Team AMD Tech Tour recap on Digital Silence with reaction to the recent tour to interact with system builders.

Version 1.0.0 of the TriCon2 remote administration tool for TRIBES 2 is now available. This first release offers barebones access to admin functions, but more features and fun stuff are promised as development of the program continues.

This TRIBES 2 Pilot's Guide offers a tutorial on how to operate the various vehicles in TRIBES 2, whether they fly, float, or roll, even offering tips for suggested load-outs depending on the vehicle in use and the role you will be filling, and suggestions on how to c0onduct various offensive and defensive missions. Also, GameFAQs Black and White page offers recent updates to their B&W FAQ/Walkthrough, their Creatures FAQ, and their Evil Walkthrough. Finally, 3DSpotlight's TRIBES 2 Tweak Guide is online.

The Xtreme Tournament Gaming League has posted the playoff brackets for their Rocket Arena 3 tournament.

There's a Doom Legacy interview on Doom Center talking with several members of the team responsible for the Doom Legacy cross-platform port of the Doom source code. Also, there's an interview with Monkeyboy on Fragtopia discussing the PVK mod for Half-Life, which features "Pirates, Vikings and Knights trying to beat the crap out of each other and steal each other’s treasure."

• America on MPOG.
• Black & White on GameSurge.
• Clive Barker's Undying on Gone Gold.
• Escape From Monkey Island on Game Forces.
• Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel on GameZone and Gone Gold.
• Ford Racing on Gone Gold.
• Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter on MPOG.
• Kingdom of Dragon Pass on EuroGamer.
• Outlive on GameSpy.com.
• Serious Sam on Gone Gold.
• Star Trek: Away Team on MPOG and Gone Gold.
• The Sims: House Party on Gone Gold.
• TRIBES 2 on HomeLAN Fed.
• Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle on Gone Gold.

I guess it's safe to assume an NDA on 1.7 Ghz Pentium 4 CPU reviews expired this morning:

• Afreey CD-2056E CD-R/W on StorageReview.
• Alpha PAL6035 S370 cooler on Tech-Planet.net.
• Coolermaster EP5-6I11 cooler on ChillBlast.
• Copper Radiator Heatsink on Mikhailtech.
• ECS P6IPA motherboard on FlipChip.Net.
• FrontX Multimedia Ports on Digital Web 3D.
• Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 video card on Hardware Avenue.
• Infinipro AquaCool PC water cooling kit on Dan's Data.
• Intel 1.5 Ghz Pentium 4 CPU on Got Apex?.
• Intel 1.7 Ghz Pentium 4 CPU on SourceMagazine, Target PC, Hardware-Unlimited, The Tech Report, and Gamers Depot.
• Logitech iFeel Mouseman (in German) on GamersUnitedNetwork.
• NEC MultiSync FE 950 19" monitor on Megmatic.com.
• Neolec Airview 405 RF mouse (in German) on GamersUnitedNetwork.
• NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX-400 video card on HotHardware.
• Plextor PlexWriter 16/10/40A CD-R/W on Shrimpwars and PlanetHardware.
• Shuttle FV24 motherboard on VIAHardware.com.
• VisionTek GeForce 3 video card on The Tech Zone.
• X-Micro Impact 4 GeForce2 Pro 32 MB DDR video card on Guru3D.

• Flashpoint1985.co.uk is online, offering the official forums for Operation Flashpoint, Codemasters' upcoming cold war shooter...

Trying to get the morning updates online earlier. So far, so good, as we gained almost an hour this morning: Call it news saving time.

Link of the Day: Videogame Ringtone Archive. Arcade game music in Nokia ring tones. Thanks naturen.
Story of the Day: Lying around is 'good for you' (BBC). Thanks Ant.
Media of the Day: Operation Compu-Drop. Been a while since we've had one of these. Features photos and movies.