The Loki Games FTP directory has the Linux version 22755 TRIBES 2 patches for both clients and servers bringing the Linux versions in step with the Windows releases.

E3 still cranking along is not enough to deter Westwood from their appointed rounds, as they have released another map pack for Red Alert 2, just like the always do on alternating Fridays. The twist for this pack, the 12th such release, is that it will not be available on Westwood's FTP until Monday, and has been released in the meantime to some community sites, something we were informed of by Planet Command & Conquer when they posted their copy on FilePlanet. The pack offers a pair of maps, a two player map called Loaded Barrel and a four player team map called Sea of Isolation.

Ubi Soft sends along this press release announcing they will develop and publish games "based on the intricate story and intense martial arts theme" of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the wire-fu epic that won four Oscar awards. Word is in "Spring of 2002 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will debut on formats including PlayStation2, PC, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Xbox."

• PC.IGN.Com
  PC.IGN.com's E3 Coverage now includes looks at Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Praetorians, Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates, Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, Star Wars Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos, Star Wars: Starfighter, a Command & Conquer Renegade Movie and an AvP 2 Movie.
• GameSpot
  GameSpot E3 2001 PC Previews now include looks at Master of Orion III, Myth III: The Wolf Age, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Star Trek Bridge Commander, Red Faction, Ozzy's Black Skies, Freedom Force, Star Trek: Armada II, Anno 1503, and more.
• EuroGamer
  EuroGamer's E3 Coverage has new screenshots of Conflict Zone, Dragon's Lair 3D, Evil Twin, Ghost Recon, Pool of Radiance, Rogue Spear: Black Thorn, and more.
• Games Domain
  Games Domain's E3 Coverage has impressions of Max Payne, Earth and Beyond, and more.
• Miscellaneous
  E3 Show Daily has a short Q&A with John Carmack (it's in a pop-up window, so you'll have to hunt down the link), there's an E3 Keynote transcript on GameSpyDaily, there are Unreal II impressions on UnrealCenter, there's an Armada II video on PlanetSTArmada and a Jumpgate video on IanStorm.

Green-Berets.com has gone live as the homepage for Myth II: Green Berets, which is what it sounds like, the RTS gameplay of Myth II mated to gritty modern combat in the jungles of Southeast Asia. The pre-order links indicate this is a bargain title, with an MSRP of $19.99. In related news, a story on The Adrenaline Vault has the first screenshots released from the game.

• MechCommander 2
  There are some hands-on impressions and new screenshots of MechCommander 2 on Pixel Kill (thanks Anaardvark) and even more screenshots on ActionTrip, all based on a new beta build of Microsoft's 3D RTS.
• Breed
  As reported last week (story), CDV has officially signed the 3D action game Breed by Brat Designs, and opened a preview page for the game with a few new screenshots.
• Divine Divinity
  CDV also sends word that their official Divine Divinity site is now open for business, showcasing the isometric RPG in the works at Larian Studios.
• Anarchy Online
  The official Anarchy Online site has been updated with five new screenshots from the E3 version of Funcom's futuristic MMORPG.
• Dark Age of Camelot
  There are five new Dark Age of Camelot screenshots on fansite The Camelot Guild, showing more from the medieval MMORPG being beta tested at Mythic Entertainment.
• Zeus: Poseidon
  Impressions Games has posted three new Zeus: Poseidon screenshots as well as a concept image of their upcoming management strategy expansion pack.
• Spells of Gold
  As is their way, RPGDot has added another two new Spells of Gold screenshots to their expanding gallery for the isometric RPG by Jonquin Software.

Holy Doppler Effect Batman! According to an update on GameSpot all the blue in the world could not prevent Blue Shift from going gold, as they have news that Gearbox Software's upcoming Half-Life follow-up that puts players in the role of one of the security guards in the ill-fated Black Mesa Research Facility actually went gold a few days before E3. In a slightly ironic twist, only the PC version, which is expected on store shelves by June 12, is complete, while work on the Dreamcast version continues, even though this project was originally planned for the Dreamcast only.

LucasArts Unveils BioWare RPG on GameSpot has news from the E3 floor that BioWare has finally revealed the name of their upcoming RPG that was announced last summer (story) that will be set during the height of the Sith versus Jedi conflict 4000 years before the Star Wars movies. The game will be called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The story offers scant other details about the game other than to mention its use of a brand-new 3D engine, but they also promise a hands-on preview later today.

There are some La Femme Nikita screenshots on GamePort.ru showing off this upcoming action/adventure game for PCs and "next-generation consoles" based on the TV series of the same name (which was itself based on a movie of the same name). These are the first-ever publicly released screenshots from the game.

There is a new Dungeon Siege movie on GameSpot, offering a variety of gameplay sequences from the 3D role-playing game being crafted at Gas Powered Games. The movie runs for a bit under a minute in MPEG format (8.4 MB) or various streaming formats.

The State of Colorado, Office of the Governor, Columbine Review Commission Report has been published offering the results of the official investigation into the school shootings that some have suggested were somehow inspired by the two shooter's interest in video games (Doom, in particular) as well as other media influences. Interestingly, however, the 188 page report (Adobe Acrobat required) makes only a single reference to video games and other media influences, and that is in a footnote that reads: "Such social problems arise, for example, from the culture of violence glorified by popular media, including rap and other popular music, the ready availability of firearms, and video games that desensitize young people to violence and killing." The actual main conclusion of the report is to place the blame on the authorities who missed the warning signs that all this was going to happen and then failed to respond properly, as an article titled Columbine report faults police on CNN summarizes, saying: "Two years after the nation's bloodiest school shooting, a commission appointed by the governor to review the tragedy at Columbine High School Thursday faulted the initial police response to the incident."

After this morning's auto-update (story), Dynamix has now also released manual patches for TRIBES 2 for download from Sierra's ftp server, updating their team-based shooter to version 22755. There are patches to update the original version 21570 (3.4 MB), the previous version 22460 (2.5 MB), and the temporary version 22649 (2.3 MB). As before, the extensive list of changes can be found on this page.

The official BACTERIA site (Flash required) has been updated with news that this all-caps action game by German developers FINarts inspired by sci-fi movies like Fantastic Voyage and Innerspace will be published by Net-Games AG (at least in their home country). To celebrate they have released six new screenshots as well as a small version of their E3 trailer for download. This 5.0 MB download offers a minute of mostly in-game footage in AVI format. Thanks Internet Gaming Zone for the tip.

Blizzard has released a new movie trailer of Warcraft III, available for download from WarcraftIII.net (and another mirror on Fragland). The new cinematic trailer runs for nearly two and half minutes in self-executing Bink format and takes 29 MB to download.

TimeGate announces Kohan expansion pack on GameSpy has word that TimeGate Studios are working on an expansion pack called Kohan: Ahriman's Gift. Word is the add-on to Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns, their isometric RTS, should be released sometime this summer. Included with the announcements are a couple of quotes from TimeGate as well as some expansion pack screenshots.

A report on Well Rounded Entertainment has more detail on Destination Games, Richard "Lord British" Garriott's new company which was just officially announced yesterday (story). Included is word that this is probably not going to turn out to be "X," a project previously mentioned by Garriott, as well as several quotes from his lordship himself, which includes a discussion of pricing plans, including the following bit which is sure to be chilling news for frugal online gamers (unless you're planning on selling NCSoft buckets to haul the money away with if this works):

Before you cheer, though, it's worth noting that the monthly charge for Lineage players is higher than what U.S. gamers are used to. Individuals who have accounts in Korea and other countries pay $30 per month to play. The majority of the games players, though, meet in arcade game rooms, which pay a $70 per month licensing fee.

"One of the biggest mistakes Starr and I made with Ultima Online was only charging $10 per month," says Garriott. "(NCSoft) started in Korea at $30 with no resistance. We think we could have asked a lot more."

Lock the doors, board the windows... it's coming again!

• GameSpot
  GameSpot E3 2001 PC coverage has been updated with articles on Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, Civilization III, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Star Wars Starfighter, Unreal II, and Neverwinter Nights.
• PC.IGN.Com
  PC.IGN.com's E3 Coverage has new features up with PlanetSide Movies and Warcraft III Movies with ShakyCam(tm) footage from the floor, as well as looks at Battle Realms, Throne of Darkness (with new screenshots), Magic and Mayhem- Art of Magic (more new screenshots), Aliens vs. Predator 2, Stronghold, Empire Earth, a speculative E3 2001- Starfighter for PC? article, and more.
• GameSpy
  GameSpy.com's E3 Coverage has been updated with coverage of the Keynote speech, Star Wars Galaxies, Hidden & Dangerous 2, Operation: Flashpoint, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Max Payne, Age of Wonders 2, and more.
• GamePen
  GamePen's E3 Report: Day One is online with some brief hardware, console, and PC impressions.
• RPGDot
  RPGDot@E3 - day 1 is up with very brief impressions of Dark Age of Camelot, Diablo 2 Expansion, Throne of Darkness, Arcanum, Dungeon Siege, and Freedom Force.
• And More
  IncaGold and LithTech Ink Deal is a press release announcing the licensing of the LithTech development system for the creation of no less than 40 upcoming IncaGold games. Also, there's a Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight 2 Preview on Gamesmania, some new Diablo II expansion artwork on DiabloII.Net fresh from Blizzard's E3 booth, some more Diablo II: Lord of Destruction screenshots on Open Tech Support, some WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos screenshots also on Open Tech Support, and there are Command & Conquer: Renegade impressions on E3 Command on Gamer's Pulse.

Slovakian developers Cauldron send word that their official Chaser site has been opened for business, and on the topic of business they have also signed with publisher Fishtank Interactive. The site offers some information on this first-person shooter and their CloakNT engine that powers it, as well as the first half dozen screenshots that show what it looks like.

Jim McQuillan sends word that the TRIBES 2 version 22755 update is now available via the in-game auto-update utility, re-implementing some of the changes from the previous update, which was subsequently "recalled" due to bugs (story and story). The list of things addressed by the patch is to lengthy to post on the news page, so I've reproduced it here.

PlanetBlackAndWhite has posted an excerpt from a GameSpy Daily piece that gives some details on what to expect from the next Black & White patch, which will include "new code that allows villagers to play football, new spells and buildings, tweaks to existing buildings, and an enhanced "dancing creature controller" that provides more accurate choreography when playing music CDs while playing Black & White." Though the patch, like the game before it, will obviously be ready 'when it's done' (to borrow a phrase), Peter Molyneux has apparently chosen to stick his neck out on a release date again, promising it will be released on May 21.

Volume four of GameSpy.com's One Must Fall Battlegrounds developer's diary is online, written by Kevin Byrd, lead artist on the upcoming sequel to One Must Fall where you do battle via weapon-laden robots. This installment describes the process of rebuilding already completed graphics from the game in order to accommodate next-generation video accelerators, the GeForce 3 in particular.

Looks like we caught just about all the pertinent screenshot posts yesterday but this straggler: there are nine new Stronghold screenshots on The Adrenaline Vault News showing off this upcoming "castle sim that combines building and communal management with real-time strategic combat" ("So long boys... have fun storming the castle!").

The bungie.org news page has posted three movies taken at Bungie's Fanfest. The good news is they show off new footage of Halo, Bungie's upcoming Xbox & PC shooter (including four-way split screen deathmatch play). The bad news is that the movies were shot by pointing a video camera at monitors showing the movies, so not only is this second-generation footage, it is also at times quite shaky, occasionally losing track of the screen altogether. The video is nonetheless fairly well focused, and probably does a better job of conveying a feel for gameplay than this description suggests.

• New Mesa 3D
  A new version 3.4.2 of the Mesa 3D graphics library is now available. Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski.
• New radeontweaker
  The radeontweaker homepage has a new version 1.18 (Development Release) of this Radeon Tweaking utility. Thanks Savage News.
• New GetRight
  A new beta 6 of version 4.5 of the GetRight download utility is now available. Thanks File Flash.
• CPU Examinations
  Intel's Pentium 4, a closer look on Hardware Analysis looks at the P4's architecture, while Athlon 4: A technical Overview part one on AthlonOC gives the same treatment to AMD's latest.
• GeForce 3 Comparisons
  There's an NVIDIA GeForce 3 Manufacturer Comparison Guide on SystemLogic.net.

If you don't mind that the site sort of hijacks your browser, the FoxBot website has a new version 0.68 of the FoxBot for TeamFortress Classic. The new release fixes some bugs, and adds new features, including a scripting system and a zoning system.

A new version of the FragAndFlag:Arena utility is now available, updating this front-end that can insulate server operators from command-line parameters and config files by providing a simplified checkbox and buttons front-end for setting up a server running Quake III Arena, or any of a variety of Q3A mods.

The official CPL Rankings at CSports.net have been updated to include the results of the recent CPL Holland competition. Also, organizations wishing to hold qualifiers for the CPL's $150,000 Counter-Strike Tournament (December 6-9, 2001 in Dallas, TX) should email Mike Wardwell. Plans are to begin registration for the CPL World Championship Event on Friday, June 1st, 2001 at 9:00 PM Eastern. Team captains will now be able to register their entire teams at one time. Also, part two of GameZ' interview with Stevie "KillCreek" Case is online, capping off their Q&A at the recent CPL Holland event, again with some questions also directed at Fatal1ty.

Shadowbane week continues, as they've added a new section eight (Corporal Klinger would be so jealous) to their Frequently Asked Questions that covers the information they added yesterday about City Building.

The QERadiant.com Files page has a new version 1.1-TA of the GtkRadiant level editor for Quake III Arena and Team Arena. In addition to bug fixes, the new release also offers the inclusion of the handy "bobtoolz," an improved version of GenSurf, a new BSPC 2.1h, and more. Also, the folks at The Wadfather announce that they have posted their 300th public domain environment map for free download. Finally, a new Win32 MultiEx Commander 3.2beta is available, adding support for 13 new games to this resource extractor.

• Evil Dead: Hail to the King on Game Over.
• In Cold Blood on Game-Guru.
• Serious Sam on The Entertainment Depot.
• Star Trek: Away Team on 3D Gaming Daily.
• Thames Racer on PC Zone UK.
• Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle on Electric Games.
• X-COM Enforcer on Game Over and Game Doctor.

• Abit KT7E motherboard on HEXUS.net and [H]ardOCP.
• AOpen AX3S Plus and AX3SP-1394 motherboards on VIAHardware.com.
• Coolermaster ATC 201 cooler on ChillBlast.
• Eclipse Computer Light on Dan's Data.
• EPoX 8KTA3+ motherboard on Overclockers Online.
• Kustom Pc's Round IDE Cables on Jsi Hardware.
• Logitech Wingman Force Extreme controller (in German) on GamersUnitedNetwork.
• MSI K7T Turbo Limited motherboard on VIAHardware.com.
• Socket A Copper Heatsink Roundup on Aware Magazine.
• Swiftech MC-462A Rev 1 cooler on Amdmb.com.
• VisionTek GeForce 3 video card on Björn's 3D World.

• TDK Mediactive sends along this press release that announces they have inked a deal with Mattel that gives them world-wide rights to create games based on the RoboTech series, which will hopefully help make up for the lack of futuristic giant robot combat games ("but where does the pilot sit, professor?" ... "In the head, of course!")...
• The latest Baldur's Gate II Throne of Bhaal Developer Profile on RPG Vault introduces us to Tony de Waal, lead animator on Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal...
• A Little History of the World Wide Web (in honor of it's 10th anniversary) Thanks John T. Ayres and Slashdot...

Well we're actually having a lot of fun here in the trenches covering E3 (and there's no soldier you'd rather have in your foxhole than Frans when the news is invading), and the trenches analogy continues to bear up under further milking... not only are we attacked by wave after wave of incoming E3 reports, but we are fighting the enemy within, as the server has been having trouble keeping up with the load (I think the Duke Nukem Forever video alone was enough to bring our little gaming corner of the Internet to a crawl yesterday, even without all the other goings-on). Anyway, if we can track down furn, we may try to take the messageboards offline for a bit of experimentation soon, since we've long had a theory that there's a bug in there that causes the CPU to bog down, and with all the E3 happenings, this would be a fine time to test that theory in the hopes that at least we could improve the server performance in the short run.

Link of the Day: Kent Kage Arm. A Flash-based game where you blow up sheep (and no description can cover how warped this one is). Thanks Chris Chatterson.
Bonus Link: Talking Beer Opener. Thanks Ade.
Weird Science: Suck it and climb (BBC). Thanks [MP] Wolverine [MP].