There's an interview with Kenn Hoekstra on MindlessGames.com where the Raven Software project administrator talks about, well, Raven Software projects, including an update on Soldier of Fortune II, a (non-)update on a final Soldier of Fortune (1) patch, what in the name of DNA are they referring to with that "Double Helix" stuff, the possibilities of a Hexen III, and what little he can say about Jedi Knight II, which is even less about the game than is already known. Included with the interview are some new screenshots from Soldier of Fortune II.

There is a MechCommander 2 preview on GameZilla looking ahead at Microsoft's upcoming sequel to their RTS Mech game. The preview is based on hands-on play with a near finished beta, and describes improvements in the sequel compared to its predecessor, including the inclusion of familiar Battletech features missing from the original MechCommander, an improved interface, the use of a full 3D engine, and more.

Maybe it's time to hide in the storm cellar?

• Red Faction
  Action Vault's Red Faction E3 Report is online looking at all the Red Faction action (woo!) from the show, talking up the graphical goodness of the upcoming PC version as compared to the already-available PS2 version.
• Disciples II
  RPG Vault's Disciples II Dark Prophecy E3 2001 Report is online, taking a look at Strategy First's upcoming turn-based strategy sequel, focusing on its depth of gameplay, "especially since the RPG elements in the new game are being given a more substantial role." Accompanying the report is a Disciples II: Dark Prophecy E3 2001 Gallery.
• Judge Dredd
  GameSpy.com's Rebellion at E3 report catches up with the folks who developed Aliens versus Predator to see what they are working on since they acquired British comic publisher 2000AD, which is a game based on the Judge Dredd series, mortalized by the Sly Stallone movie. The game is in fairly early development, but they pick up some details about the unusual graphical treatment the game will offer, and show it off in a few familiar screenshots.

• TORN
  There are four new TORN screenshots on FREELANCER showing off more of this upcoming LithTech-engine RPG.
• Battlecruiser Millennium
  There are some new Battlecruiser Millennium screenshots on the Galcom website showing off the game's versatility with some underwater action, as the series of shots depicts a Battlecruiser crash-landing in the drink, and its pilot hopping out for a swim.
• Trade Wars
  There are four new Trade Wars screenshots on RPGvault.ign.com along with four pieces of concept art from this upcoming massively-multiplayer RTS game, and GameSpyDaily has two more shots along with the aforementioned images.
• Anarchy Online
  There's another trio of Anarchy Online screenshots on EuroGamer as we continue to see all of the beta for FunCom's upcoming MMORPG three views at a time.

Dev TV's Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal interview(s) take on an interesting format, as the five questions they asked of four members of the team at work on the upcoming BG2 add-on are provided in text, with the answers offered in accompanying links which play them in streaming Windows Media Player format. Questions cover the basic story line for the expansion, technical improvements over BG2, and new spells; weapons; magical items; and characters, and the respondents are producer Alan Miranda, lead programmer Mark Darrah, lead designer Kevin Martens, and QA lead Scott Langevin.

Matt's Halo Update on Halo.Bungie.Org offers the usual weekly musings from Bungie's Matt Soell on progress on Halo, as well as the latest happenings over at Bungie. This is a fairly brief update, so here it is in its entirety:

Both Peter and Jason celebrated a birthday today, which only added to the chaos, but I'm taking a breather from the non-stop party that is Halo's Development Cycle to bring you these teasing tidbits of trivia:

- Stephen is reworking the flamethrower animation and working out animations for one of the other weapons added last week.

- Chucky has beaten the pathfinding code into a nearly-final state.

- Matt Segur did lots of sound stuff for Marty and Jay.

- Marty and Jay, thrilled with their new powers, spent the week placing ambient sounds and looping music tracks - new music, as yet unheard outside the Bungie offices. They also have Doppler shifts working.

- Cortana has these nifty light patterns that ripple over her body.

- The Mighty Chris Butcher has done the work necessary for AIs to fight in midair. He's also created a bunch of tools for Jaime to use when populating the human ship and assigning behaviors to its inhabitants.

- Jaime is halfway done with the training level.

- John is busy dealing with some control issues and working with the Sin-O-MatiXXX team to get a final list of all the mission-specific cutscenes.

- Bernie put in a new lens flare that I have not seen but have heard wondrous things about.

- Detail objects are back in the game.

- The tank is back in, too.

There is an interview with Bill Roper on PC Zone talking with the senior producer at Blizzard Entertainment about what's what. The conversation makes ample use of both the caps-lock and the "more" button, as it manages to spread 11 all-caps questions and their accompanying answers over five pages. Topics include Diablo II's popularity, the possibility that they will create a persistent state RPG in the future, why they would have made Diablo II smaller in retrospect, online cheating, and more.

There's a HORIZONS development update on Voodoo Extreme penned by David Allen, CEO of Artifact Entertainment. Like many of these development diaries, this doesn't really live up to its name, as it doesn't really offer much in the way of development news for this upcoming MMORPG (though David does comment on is how pleased he is with "the in-depth relation between the entities that exist within this living breathing world"). What the diary does discuss is the recent acquisition of Destination Games by NCsoft (who will distribute HORIZONS), as well as an in-depth explanation of why they are being so stingy with screenshots and so tight-lipped about the game lately.

When AvPNews.com released a new Aliens Vs. Predator 2 movie last night, their server was quickly overwhelmed by the traffic and the file was revoked (story). They kindly send it along this morning though, so here is a local copy with mirrors of the movie, zipped to 29.0 MB to reduce its download size. The movie runs for a minute in 576x432 resolution AVI format and mixes new and previously seen in-game footage in an unusual layout where the main image is simultaneously also shown in the four corners of the window. There is also a 5.1 MB Windows Media Player version on AvPNews now, in the hopes that it won't overload their server again.

RPG Vault has posted their Black Isle Studios: TORN Designer Diary, Chapter 5 with lead designer Dave Maldonado once again penning this thoughts on this upcoming LithTech-powered 3D role-playing game. The update offers a tongue-in-cheek round-up of the game's current development status, including progress in the art, programming and design departments, and also shares his "E3 Tale of Woe."

There is a new Empire Earth movie trailer on 13th Street, showing off the 3D real-time strategy game under construction at Stainless Steel Studios. The movie mixes previously released cinematic footage with new in-game sequences, and runs for a minute in a QuickTime pop-up window.

LucasArts has updated their E3 page for Star Wars: Jedi Outcast - Jedi Knight II with seven screenshots, two of which offer new scenes in the first-person shooter in the works at Raven Software. The other five images already appeared online earlier this week (story). Thanks JediKnightII.net for the tip.

PC.IGN has posted an interview with Philip Holt of Volition, talking with him about their FPS title Red Faction, which was recently released for the Playstation 2 and will be released for the PC later this year. Philip explains their decision to use "geomods" so extensively in the game, the different influences on its design, the political message that may or may not be conveyed in its storyline and more.

Also on PC.IGN this morning is an interview with members of the team at Cinemaware, the recently resurrected studio that's currently working on Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown for the PC and Xbox. The interview covers a lot of ground, and the questions deal with the company's phoenix-like rise from its ashes, their internally developed Cinematech engine, their thoughts on cross-platform development and lots more.

As PlanetIcewindDale and PlanetHeartofWinter must have been busy last month with something else, PlanetBaldursGate has conducted an interview with Steve Bokkes, a designer on Icewind Dale, its add-on Heart of Winter, and the free downloadable add-on for that add-on that will be released in the near future. Steve explains what will and will not be included, and he also explains why they decided to make an "expansion expansion."

Rome at War, which is billed as "possibly the largest modpack to date" for Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, has been released. The mod is one of the rare complete total conversion projects, and it features five new units, 35 new buildings, a completely reworked interface and lots more. One minor caveat: you'll need to watch the Flash movie in order to get to the download link.

• Price Guidance
  GameSpot has posted a CPU Price Guide, which of course contains the latest prices on Intel and AMD processors.

Just a few days after the last such update, the official Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind site has been updated again. This time around there is a new downloadable wallpaper image as well as the text to another of the in-game books in the site's fiction section.

The official Shogun: Total War site has been updated saying that The Mongol Invasion will be released on June 29th in Europe, and will coincide with the release of the Warlord Edition re-release in the US. This isn't quite as solid as it sounds, Electronic Arts has said that the game isn't gold just yet. In more solid news, the official Gangsters 2 site has been updated with the news that the game has shipped to retailers across Europe, and that the US release is "imminent." Regarding the playable demo, the update says that it will "follow very soon."

Although Interplay has yet to mention the name of the company they are currently negotiating with, both Stomped and GameSpot are reporting that the company is in talks with Pacific Century CyberWorks Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of Pacific Century CyberWorks, the company that was first mentioned as a possible suitor (story). PCCWJ owns much of the Internet infrastructure in Asia as a whole, and in the last year they have acquired publisher Jaleco and VR-1 Entertainment, the latter of which they said they did in order to build an online gaming network.

A "tech demo" of X-ISLE: Dinosaur Island has been released, and is available for download at DemoNews. This isn't really a playable demo, but instead it is a showcase for Crytek Studios' CryENGINE technology.

GameSpot has posted their latest game guide, this time for the dictator-sim Tropico (thanks Alex "Phalex" Caceres). In other guide news, Xezol.com has posted a walkthrough for the recently released expansion pack for Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force. Another week has gone by, and so naturally the official Star Wars Galaxies FAQ has been updated. This week's addition is a single question that deals with their plans for player versus player combat. Also, the official Dark Age of Camelot FAQ has been updated.

GameSpot Australia managed to attend the recent E3 Expo in Los Angeles, and they have posted an interview with Xbox guru Seamus Blackley that was conducted at the show. Enter Runix: Linux for the Playstation is the name of an article at ZDNet that reports on a freely-available port of Linux for the Playstation. Finally, for those unable to attend Peter Molyneux' demonstration of Project Ego at E3, Xbox.IGN has posted a downloadable MP3 file of the man describing this extremely ambitious Xbox RPG.

The Tech Zone is holding a contest where you can win an AMD Thunderbird processor.

Mark Kreuzwieser sends along this link to an unofficial editor by Tony Saunders for Age of Sail II. The site is bare bones, but it does contain a download link and some screenshots of the editor in action.

It's not really a mod, but nonetheless, Quake Terminus has conducted an interview with Guy Paddock, the project leader of Cool OS, an attempt to create a 3D operating system using the Quake 1 source code (pre-alpha screenshots are included). Also, the official Alliance site has been updated with details on version 2.5 of this Quake III Arena mod, which will be released after id's next Q3A point release.

• Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition on R9Games.
• Europe Universalis on GameGenie.
• Giants: Citizen Kabuto on DeadAlfs 2000.
• Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns on Gameraiders.
• Lineage: the Bloodpledge on Wewp! Entertainment.
• Merchant Prince II on Electric Playground.
• The Sims: House Party on ActionTrip.
• The Ward on Gameraiders.

• GIGABYTE GA-FTI1394 card on Digit-Life.
• Intel D815EPFV Desktop Board on PC Hardware.
• Iwill KA266 ALi Magic motherboard on Active-Hardware.
• LaCie PocketDrive CD-RW 8424 on CDRLabs.
• NAPA DAV309 CD/VCD/MP3 player on Alltechbox.com.
• Shuttle AE23 motherboard on Active-Hardware.
• Socket A Cooler Shootout on Technoyard.

• A new edition of Askin' Haskins is up at the official Gathering of Developers site...

Considering how esoteric some of the birthday messages here are, it does seem pretty bizarre that yesterday we mentioned Alanis Morissette's 27th birthday, but neglected to mention the fact that Marilyn Monroe would have been 75. I hesitate to call that ironic, even in the Alanis sense, but considering her mastery of the English language, perhaps Alanis would consider this an oxymoron ("you know, like Swiss cheese").

On a less upbeat note yesterday saw the passing of three people that couldn't possibly be more different (thanks theAntiELVIS for all three links):

R.I.P. Hank Ketcham, Dennis the Menace creator, at 81.
R.I.P. Actress Arlene Francis Dies at 92.
R.I.P. Nkosi Johnson, young AIDS activist, at 12.

Story of the Day: Laid-Off Guinness Workers Get Beer (Reuters). Thanks Chris Johnson. I think my new goal in life is to get hired and repeatedly fired by the Guinness corporation.
Bonus Story: Over Three Million Chinese Drink Their Own Urine (Reuters). Thanks Saba_Diver.
Weird Science: Sex in Space Forbidden, Says Russian Cosmonaut (Space.com). Thanks Butch Nowlin.