PC.IGN was able to get a look at Chris Taylor's upcoming RPG Dungeon Siege, and they have posted a new preview based on what they saw. The preview is quite complementary, and features a detailed look at the character creation process (or lack thereof), the overall gameplay, the different locales and the 3D engine, and while there are some shots here they are pretty old.

PC.IGN's Gangsters 2 Interview talks with Jason Stapleton of HotHouse about their upcoming game of questionable morals. Jason explains how this game differs from its predecessor, the character specialization features, its new emphasis on city-life and more.

PC.IGN.com has posted a new movie trailer of Emperor: Battle for Dune, showing off the 3D real-time strategy game that is nearing completion at Westwood. The 11MB trailer runs for a bit under a minute in MPEG format, and offers a mix of in-game and cutscene footage, as well as a little promo that pre-ordering the game at certain online retailers will get you three free new units.

Rounding out PC.IGN's updates tonight is a new installment in the Battle Realms History that was originally supposed to run on the now defunct Daily Radar. Like the earlier portions, this continues the fictional backstory for Battle Realms, and it contains two new screenshots as well.

• New World Order
  Termite Games has updated the official New World Order site with sixteen new screenshots from their upcoming team-based multiplayer shooter, as well as word that they are now working on a gameplay movie.
• Anachronox
  Also on PC.IGN this evening is a new Anachronox Character Profile of Paco "El Puño" Estrella, one of the party members in ION Storms hopefully imminent 3D role-playing game, along with a new screenshot.
• Age of Wonders 2
  The Gathering of Developers E3 site (Flash required) offers a new Age of Wonders II: the Wizard's Throne preview page with a handful of new screenshots of the isometric turn-based strategy sequel under construction at Triumph Studios.
• HoMM 4
  Another isometric turn-based strategy game on the horizon is Heroes of Might and Magic 4 from 3DO, and Freelancer has added another pair of screenshots and more concept art to their gallery for the game.
• Galactic Civilizations
  Turning upwards towards space, GameSpyDaily has posted four new Galactic Civilizations screenshots to show off Stardock's upcoming turn-based 4X strategy title.
• Anarchy Online
  The usual triplet of new Anarchy Online screenshots has been appended to EuroGamer's ongoing gallery for the 3D futuristic MMORPG being beta tested at Funcom.
• Lord of Destruction
  Another day, another pair of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction screenshots on the official site for the isometric action RPG expansion that just started beta testing at Blizzard.

As promised, Dynamix has released a new patch for TRIBES 2, currently available only via the auto-updater in the game, although MoreGaming and TribalWar have made the files from their auto-update mirror available for direct download as well. This version 22649 patch brings a sizable list of gameplay changes and bug fixes, shown in detail on the in-game news system (thanks Jim McQuillan). Update: as expected, Loki Games has released the Linux patches for download from their ftp server as well.

AvPNews has posted the first nine screenshots of Aliens Versus Predator 2, the three-way first-person shooter sequel in development at Monolith (thanks Stomped). While some of the images have already appeared in print magazines, all of them are published online for the first time, and naturally they show the Aliens, the Predator, and the hapless Marines caught in the middle of them. More screenshots are promised soon.

The official Black & White site offers an English language patch for download, containing the English audio and text files for other language editions of Lionhead's 3D god-playing game so that those players can experience the game as it was originally created. Understandably considering the nature of the patch, it weighs in at a hefty 89.8 MB. Thanks slothdog for the tip.

Interplay has released a German patch for Starfleet Command II: Empires at War, updating this edition of Taldren's space strategy game to version 21055. The patch takes 21.4 MB to download but, oddly, the resulting version number is different from the US and UK patches, so it's unknown how this affects multiplayer compatibility. Update: If you're having trouble fetching the file, try this direct ftp link.

For the last few weeks Maxis has been dropping hints about Sid Meier's involvement in an upcoming Sim game, and surprise, it's SimGolf. GameSpot has posted an exclusive preview of the game, which is officially known as Sid Meier's SimGolf, which features among other things an explanation for how such a strange concept came about, a look at the overall gameplay (which is more like SimCity than PGA Tour Golf) and of course some in-game screenshots.

It's certainly been a while since the last truly bizarre Quake source port was released (although TextQuake will never be forgotten) so it's certainly good to hear that PanQuake is now available. PanQuake produces a full 360 degree panoramic view, which actually works correctly with mlook. The files, and some really weird screenshots are all available at its official site.

The Unreal Technology site offers a new beta OpenGL renderer for Epic's shooter, in which the only change is a fix for the "black screen at exit bug." Thanks Stomped for the tip.

Bethesda Softworks sends word of an update to the official Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind site (Flash required), which now offers a new development diary by artist Noah Berry, who talks about his previous experiences with the Elder Scrolls series, as well as his current work on the sky system in this upcoming 3D role-playing game. The diary is illustrated with a pair of new screenshots, and two more screenshots and a wallpaper have also been added to the site.

As noted on the official Gothic site, a new patch for Gothic is now available for download from 4Players.de, bringing German edition of the third-person action RPG by Piranha Bytes to version 1.08h. The patch includes a huge list of gameplay improvements, bug fixes and other changes, all listed in detail on the patch information page.

The official Conflict: Desert Storm site, which takes a somewhat wayward approach to your browser window, sports a new entry in the development diary for the upcoming squad-based 3D military action game by Pivotal Games. The brief diary is penned by senior artist Paul Truss who discusses their landscape creation system and the methods they implemented to achieve the desired results.

Simon & Schuster has released all kinds of new media from the various games they will be showcasing at next week's E3 Expo, and we've got it all up for your viewing pleasure. We've got new trailers in AVI format from Darkened Skye (29.2 MB), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars (24.9 MB), and their recently announced Farscape game (22.1 MB), as well as seven new screenshots and the box artwork from Dominion Wars, the first shot to be released from Farscape, eight shots and the box art from Real War, and seven shots, a character render and a box shot from Darkened Skye.

Fox Interactive and Electronic Arts today announced a deal where EA will publish several of Fox' titles, including Aliens: Colonial Marines for the Playstation 2 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the Xbox. Missing from this announcement is any reference to the PC version of Buffy which was originally planned, and Stomped has confirmed with Fox Interactive that this version of the game has been canceled. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a third person title from The Collective, the developers of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen.

GameSpyDaily has conducted a new interview on Half-Life: Blue Shift, the upcoming stand-alone episode that puts you in the shoes of a Barney in the Black Mesa complex. As usual, Gearbox' Randy Pitchford is at hand to talk about the game's back story and how it intertwines with the original story surrounding Gordon Freeman, the amount of play time to be expected, the multiplayer features, and the direction of the Half-Life franchise.

There is a new preview of Shattered Galaxy on XGR, looking ahead to the massively multiplayer RTS that has been in beta testing at Nexon for some time. The preview is based on extended play time with the beta, and offers a fairly lenghty write-up of the game's premise and features, their gameplay impressions, and nearly 30 new screenshots.

Stomped has conducted a Q&A with Wallace Wachi, the producer at NovaLogic on their upcoming first person horror game Necrocide. Wallace explains how the project came about, the plot line, the various weapons and what will set it apart from the other shooters being released this year (he says the game is on track for a late summer release). In addition to the Q&A, there are also two new screenshots up, along with three others that have been previously available elsewhere.

After an English-only beta release last month (story), the official MechWarrior 4: Vengeance site now offers version 1.5 patches for the stomping 3D action/sim by FASA Interactive and Microsoft. The 7.8 MB patch is available in English and a slew of international editions, and addresses "numerous gameplay issues including the Warping or Increased Lag problem." Note that multiplayer games with this version via the Zone will not be possible until tomorrow. Update: In addition to the international patches above, the official developer site also lists a Nordic patch for the game.

• Max Payne
  Italian site Multiplayer.it has posted four new, fairly dark Max Payne screenshots on their frontpage, offering more scenes from the John Woo-inspired third-person action game nearing completion at Remedy and 3D Realms.
• Emperor
  Westwood has released a new 3D QuickTime screenshot of Emperor: Battle for Dune for download from their ftp server (1.1 MB), allowing you to rotate and zoom your way about in a scene from their upcoming 3D RTS.
• Orion Pirates
  Five new screenshots of Star Trek: Starfleet Command - Orion Pirates, the recently announced stand-alone mission pack (story) to the space strategy game by Taldren, are online at PC Zone UK.
• End of Twilight
  There are three new End of Twilight screenshots on eUniverseGames, revealing more from the just-announced fantasy 3D action RPG by New Media Generation (story).
• "NINE"
  Last month Polish developers Mirage (creators of the WWII shooter Mortyr) released the first sketchy details and nine screenshots of NINE, the codename for a new 3D action role-playing game. Thanks Adrenaline Vault for the tip.
• Another War
  Also from Mirage comes Another War, a 3D role-playing game with prerendered graphics, and the page has the first three screenshots along with an overview of the game's premise and features.

The Anachronox preview on PC.IGN.com is online (following some glitches getting it up on the server when they first attempted to post it last night), offering hands-on impressions from ION Storm's upcoming enhanced Quake II-engine RPG after getting to play with an alpha version. Unlike most non-committal previews this one offers strong opinions about what they like ("the story and atmosphere have me hooked") and dislike ("the Quake II engine is starting to show its age") about what they're experienced from gameplay. Accompanying the article are over a dozen new screenshots.

The Gamer's Box previews Empire Earth after attending the second Empire Earth University session where the developers of the upcoming RTS sought more feedback from members of the gaming community. The preview offers hands-on impressions and a couple of screenshots. Meanwhile, this article on The Gamer's Box offers a recap of attending this semester of the University, which was held in Boston.

GameSpy.com Previews OMF BattleGrounds with a look ahead at the robot combat follow-up to One Must Fall: 2097. The preview is based on hands-on play with a preview copy of the game, offers six new screenshots, discusses many aspects of how gameplay will be handled, and almost manages to avoid pimping the GameSpy software.

In a disturbing turn of events, the RIVA Station is reporting that the folks at ASUS have quietly sneaked the wireframe and transparent wall features back into their latest drivers, in what would be assumed is an attempt to boost sales to gamers regardless of the consequences to the game community. You may recall that there was talk last summer that these features would be implemented (story, story, and story), though, due to all the hue and cry (story), when the drivers were released (story), the only gamer feature included was an inoffensive super-gamma brightness feature, with ASUS saying they would reevaluate the other features for possible inclusion in a future release based on user feedback (story). It is not apparent whether that feedback actually indicated this feature was desired, or what the reasoning behind this move is, but we can only hope by bringing it to light there can be a more positive outcome to this than simply inspiring more people to download the offending drivers.

There is a set of new Diablo II: Lord of Destruction screenshots on RPGPlanet taken from the stress test version of the upcoming Diablo II add-on, which has been sent to testers. Meanwhile, there's also a Diablo II: Lord of Destruction preview on GamePen where they have already run their copy of the stress test through some of its paces in order to present some hands-on impressions.

Inside the Sausage Factory on Computer Games Online is the online version of an article that originally appeared in the April 2001 issue of Computer Games Magazine. Penned by Phil Steinmeyer of PopTop Software, the article pops the top off of some aspects of the development of Tropico, their recently released island dictator simulation, though due to the lead times required for print, the finishing touches they were applying at the time it was written are referred to in the present tense. One of the main thrusts of the article is how Phil experimented with creating low-memory options for the game by trying it out on his wife's 32 MB PII-233.

Hypothermia interviews Ken Capelli talking with the lead artist at Planet Moon Studios in the latest in what has been a recent flurry of Q&As related to Giants: Citizen Kabuto, their off-beat action game. The conversation offers the site's usual mix of topics, which range from gaming, to personal, to the downright unusual.

The sad occasion of Doug Myres' passing is the reason for a new installment of Askin' Haskins on GodGames, which breaks from its planned hiatus to offer another tribute to Doug. In a related note, the original In Loving Memory of Fresh tribute on the Gathering's site has been relocated to its own page.

The Front Line Force website has a new version 1.3 of the Front-Line Force modification for Half-Life. The new release fixes a few bugs and adds some features, but is "a nice clean single file download, nothing as complicated as last time." The FLF manual has also been updated to reflect what's changed in the latest release.

Metroid Teaser Only on Cube.IGN.Com reports that "Retro Studio's Metroid based first-person adventure will not be playable at E3." Meanwhile, Dinosaurs and Cubes on Cube.IGN.Com runs through the rumor mill to figure out if Turok will be shown on the Cube at E3. Also, there's a Commander Keen interview on Pocket.IGN.com that talks with "the development head of the GBC version of the PC classic." Meanwhile, the LucasArts E3 2001 page finally confirms the already-widespread assumption that Obi-Wan will be an Xbox-only title, at least for now (thanks MSXbox). Computer and Video Games interviews Mike Stemmle about plans to bring the classic Monkey Island franchise to consoles for the first time (on a related note, LucasArts E3 2001 Escape from Monkey Island Playstation 2 page is now online). Finally, Crawfish GBA 3D shooter revealed on Computer and Video Games reveals more about this upcoming shooter from the folks that did the GBA tech demo that used Doom II levels.

The QuakeCon 2001 website has been updated with word that registration for QuakeCon 2001 will begin this Friday (May 11) at 9:00 PM EDT. The event will offer a 1250 seat Bring-Your-Own-Computer LAN area, and a 512 player Quake III Arena tournament. QuakeCon 2001 will be held August 9-12, 2001 in the Mesquite Convention Center (Mesquite, TX). Also, The Salary Cap of Gaming? on eSports-america speculates that a recent policy change in how the CPL will handle teams in Counter-Strike tournaments impacts the scene. Meanwhile, Pro Gaming on The Rise on Domain of Games discusses the state of pro gaming, offering quotes from CPL founder Angel Munoz, while I guess it's a related note that EuroGamer says that "a new report from research company DFC Intelligence has forecast that as many as 95 million people could be playing games online by 2005." Finally, word on Battle.net is that the "Diablo II Standard and Hardcore Ladders will be reset in late June signifying the start of the new season."

The Gamers Press Serious Sam walkthrough is now online. Also, Gamesmania Arcanum Demo walkthrough is online, showing how not to get scalded by the game's namesake Steamworks and perhaps clearing up some of the more Obscura details about the game's Magick.

The Fallout Tactics Editor Petition looks to convince Interplay to release the editing suite for Fallout Tactics as a free release, rather than bundled with the upcoming expansion pack.

• Black & White on PC Arena.
• Clive Barker's Undying on GameVault SA.
• Emperor: Battle for Dune (beta) on PC Zone UK.
• Eurofighter Typhoon on SimHQ.
• Evil Dead: Hail to the King on Computer Games Online.
• Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel on GameVault SA.
• Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns on ESCMag.
• NASCAR Racing 4 on PC Arena.
• Robot Arena on Games Domain.
• Rune: Halls of Valhalla on GamePower and Gamesmania.
• Serious Sam on GameVault SA.
• Settlers IV on MGON.
• Star Trek: Away Team on Gameraiders.
• Tropico on ActionTrip.
• Ultima Online: Third Dawn on PC Zone UK.
• X-COM Enforcer on GameSpy.com.

• Abit KT7A-RAID motherboard on DeezTech.
• Addtronics W8500 Workstation Chassis on PC STATS.
• Aopen HQ08 case on ipKonfig.
• Asus V8200 Deluxe GeForce3 video card on Tweak3D.net.
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 on Nightstrike.com.
• Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 video card on Digit-Life.
• Iwill KK266-R KT133A Socket A motherboard on OcPrices.
• Logitech Cordless MouseMan Optical mouse on NeoSeeker.
• MSI KM 133M Pro Micro ATX Socket A motherboard on SocketA.com.
• Mushkin Revision 3 PC133 SDRAM on SystemLogic.net.
• Swiftech MC462-A Rev1 heatsink on FrostyTech.

• id Software is one of the companies cited on this year's RedHerring.com top 100 companies list. Thanks Stomped...
• Word on GameSpot is that Eidos Interactive has announced that it has shipped Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition...
• Perhaps not realizing D&D is not actually a computer game, Computer Games Online interviews Jonathan Tweet, the man behind the D&D third edition rules, in their third pen-and-paper D&D interview in as many days, thought the conversation does touch on Neverwinter Nights and other CRPGs...
• I never really read one before, but I checked out the latest GameSpy.com's Daily Victim after the link was passed along, and turned out to be an interesting bit of gaming writing (I believe it's the work of Fargo, who has a way with words). I assume it's all fictional, but I guess you never know...

In a recent exchange with Hoby of BAWLS Guarana, I asked where in the Westchester (New York) area one could find BAWLS, which is, of course, the world's finest soft drink. Sadly, the answer was nowhere in the area! Since BAWLS only comes in 10 oz. bottles (about my only complaint about it, other than its lack of availability), getting cases shipped in the quantities I'd desire is not terribly practical, so I'm just seeing if by posting this here I can inspire some semi-local shop-keeper to stock some BAWLS, since I could guarantee being personally responsible for buying a few cases a month. So if you are a store owner in the area who has some BAWLS, or plans to get some, by all means, please let me know.

Link of the Day: Arse Race. Shockwave or Flash or something else I already have installed required. Thanks Ant.
Bonus Link: Art Bell - Continental Airlines Accident. Thanks jfp51.
Story of the Day: NY Grade School puts the Kibosh on Mothers Day (Fox). Thanks theAntiELVIS.
Weird Science: Professor set to 'control' wife by cyborg implant (London Sunday Times). Thanks satan.
Wild Science: Secure Computing Challenge Site, where you can win up to $100,000 by busting through their firewall. Thanks JB.
Media of the Day: Pokethulhu Miniatures from Steve Jackson Games. Thanks Zdim.