• Medal of Honor
  The official Medal of Honor: Allied Assault site has been updated with three new screenshots of the Normandy Beach landing level in the first-person shooter being crafted at 2015.
• O.R.B.
  Both GameSpot and Voodoo Extreme have posted a new set of O.R.B. screenshots, showing off the space-based RTS under construction at Strategy First.
• Iron Strategy
  There are ten new Parkan: Iron Strategy screenshots on Worthplaying, offering more scenes in this 3D action strategy game by Russian developers Nikita.
• Venom
  The official Venom site has been updated with half a dozen new model and concept images as well as two new wallpapers, illustrating the two man squad-based shooter in the works at GSC Game World.
• Neocron
  Three new screenshots of Neocron are online at Neocron Central, showing more from this futuristic MMORPG in beta testing at Reakktor Media.

As promised, Dynamix has now released the development team beta patch for TRIBES 2 on their Official Tribes 2 Central Download Site. The patch comes as a small 830 KB download and brings the game to version 23376, but if you find to regret the update, a reverse patch back to version 23115 is also available. Details on the changes are at their main page. Update: the Linux beta patch is now also available.

GameActive Networks sends along a development update on 3D World War II, the budget-priced first-person shooter in development at LippieSoft. The update is too lenghty to post on the news page, and has information on the next demo that expected towards the end of this week, the upcoming beta test, and the game features planned for the final game, so check out the full update here.

Monolith has released the game source code for No One Lives Forever, their spy shooter of last November. The source code is for version 1.003 of the game and offers budding mod makers everything they need to get started (together with the tools released earlier). Here is our local copy with mirrors of the 5.5 MB download, and details on its contents can be found the NOLF Team .plan update.

id Software's Graeme Devine updated his .plan with the news that he has posted a new version of the Quake III Arena 1.29f patch for Mac OS X. Here's our local copy (with mirrors), and here's Graeme's .plan update, which also says he's now working on a patch for older versions of the OS:

A new Mac OS X 1.29f Beta is in the process of being posted to the id ftp site.

This fixes some os the issues related to the slow sound code in the first release, many of you had written that timedemos were much faster with sound off than on (more than to be expected).

The filename is quake3-macosx-129f-2.dmg

I'm now working on the Classic release.

This shouldn't come as much of a surprise since the original Unreal engine was used for Deus Ex, but nonetheless Eidos Interactive and ION Storm Austin have sent out a press release announcing that the companies have licensed Epic's next-generation Unreal technology for their upcoming projects (two of which are Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3). The press release also says that more information on ION Austin's use of the engine will be shown in next month's issue of PC Gamer. Here's an excerpt:

San Francisco, CA. (June 20, 2001) - Eidos Interactive, (NASDAQ: EIDSY), a leading worldwide interactive entertainment publisher, today announced that ION Storm Austin has been granted a license to use Epic Games' next generation Unreal Engine in their upcoming games. ION Storm Austin used an earlier version of the Unreal Engine technology in the creation of the award winning, genre-bending, first person shooter, Deus Ex.

"Everyone at Epic is extremely proud of Deus Ex and the tremendous job the ION Storm team did in creating an innovative and deep gameplay experience using our technology," says Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games Inc. "We're excited that they're now developing games with our next generation Unreal Engine technology. ION Storm Austin represents the absolute highest standards in game design and we're thrilled to play a role in their very exciting future."

"The decision to use the original Unreal Engine as the foundation for Deus Ex was one of the best decisions we made," states Warren Spector, project director on Deus Ex and Studio Director for ION Storm Austin. "Unreal, and the Unreal toolset, freed us to focus on design issues rather than technology which, given the response of public and press to the game, seems to have been a good thing! Looking ahead to future projects, the next generation Unreal Engine offers us even more power, even better tools and a multiplatform solution."

Fan page Horizons Web has conducted a Q&A with Jeremy Statz of Artifact Entertainment (thanks RPG Vault). Jeremy talks about what he does on HORIZONS, Artifact's upcoming massively multiplayer title, and he also discusses some gameplay elements, including the size of the game's underworld, how much of the world will be run by the players themselves and more.

Although Interplay announced this morning that Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal started shipping to retail stores today (story), we've received several reports from readers that BioWare's isometric RPG expansion is already available in some places (but as always call ahead to be sure). Also, Eidos sent along word that Startopia, the quirky 3D space station management game by Mucky Foot, started shipping today and this game has likewise been spotted in some stores already. Finally, the Zeus Official Expansion: Poseidon add-on in Impressions Games' ancient city-building game series is shipping as well, according to a note we received from publisher Sierra On-Line.

While it was originally scheduled for a release today (story), Simon & Schuster Interactive now sends word that the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars patch is delayed until tomorrow, as it is being put "through additional QA testing to ensure it is a clean release."

Both Gaming Age and Gamesmania report that Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates has gone gold, and this standalone expansion pack to Taldren's space strategy universe is expected in stores towards the end of the month.

Well-Rounded Entertainment is reporting that American McGee and fellow former id Software employee Dave Taylor are forming a new company named Carbon Entertainment. The new company intends to create properties that work in more than one medium, so whatever game they produce would theoretically be designed to be a movie and vice versa. Also mentioned in the news update is word that American has also signed a deal with Miramax that will have him producing and directing feature films, and he is also currently in talks to direct television commercials and music videos.

A beta version 2.0 patch for MechWarrior 4: Vengeance has been released, and while the included README states that it is "not intended for public use," we verified with the MW4 development team today that it is allowed to be distributed beyond beta testers. The unsupported 12.9 MB patch can be downloaded from MW4Online.com (thanks gb_operator), DropShipCommand (thanks ArKhaine), and FilePlanet (thanks Patches Scrolls), and the former two sites also offer a dedicated server .BAT file and the NFO Editor (to alter multiplayer missions) for download. Details on all three files can be found at the MechWarrior 4 developer site.

A Q&A with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars producer Mike Wallis is online over at GameSpy Daily today. The Q&A was conducted before the game was released, so while there aren't any questions about the imminent patch for the game, Mike does comment on some more general topics, such as how modifiable ships are in the game, how its storyline ties into the last two seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and more.

Intelligamer managed to get their hands on one of those MechCommander 2 betas, and so they have posted a preview of the game. The author is clearly familiar with the original game, so much of the preview focuses on the changes and improvements in this sequel, and there are some new screenshots here as well.

Westlake Interactive has posted a news update, announcing that the "unnamed project" listed on their project status page is in fact a Mac OS port of Age of Empires II. According to their news update, the game will be published by Bold, a division of Destineer Studios. In other Mac gaming news, Aspyr Media has announced that they have shipped their Mac OS port of Tomb Raider Chronicles.

Canada Gaming has conducted an interview with MindArk's Patric Sundström (thanks RPG Vault). Patric talks about their upcoming title Project Entropia, explaining how the massively multiplayer title will be available for free and how they will make money by using real dollars as in-game currency, and he also comments on the game's engine, which utilizes the NetImmerse 4.0 renderer.

Tolstiy's Place interviews Alan Freemantle, talking with the level designer at Piranha Games about their upcoming title Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza. Alan explains how the game uses scenes from the first Die Hard movie while at the same time providing new areas to explore, and he also explains the brain, heart and lungs meters that were shown off in screenshots of the game. Alongside the interview are three new shots from the game.

The official Strike Force site now offers a version 1.61 patch for this Unreal Tournament mod, as well as a new demo version. The patch brings three new maps, some HUD improvements, anti-cheating measures, and more, and comes as a 40 MB download for Win32, Linux and Mac. The demo is a 52 MB download for those who found the full 250 MB release of the mod too much to stomach, and it includes two maps to give you a feel for the real thing.

A new Q&A with Chris Longpre, the producer of Emperor: Battle for Dune is up at GameZone.com this morning. Chris talks about the challenges they faced in moving the series to 3D, why they decided to make five unique worlds, the differences between the single and multiplayer aspects of the game and more.

Forbidden City, a Rogue Spear: Urban Operations conversion of the mission of the same name from the Rainbow Six: Eagle Watch mission pack has been released. The map is by The Rooster, a Rogue Spear mod maker, with help from John Sonedecker, a Red Storm employee and author of the original Eagle Watch version, and is available for download at The Rooster's Nest. Thanks Rogue Spear Retreat for the tip.

Shrapnel Games has released a sixth patch for their 4X strategy game Space Empires IV. This patch contains fixes for a few bugs along with some gameplay tweaks and improvements.

After last week's auto-update (story), Westwood has now also released downloadable patches for Emperor: Battle for Dune on their ftp server, available in English, German, French, Korean and Chinese editions. The patches clock in at a tiny 370 KB each, and for the change list you can check our previous story.

Simon and Schuster sends along word that they plan on releasing a patch for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars today. Here's the scoop:

Simon & Schuster Interactive and Gizmo Games will be releasing a patch for Star Trek Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars (today). The patch will be available via the Dominion Wars web site or via online games sites. The patch file will be a small download.

The patch will address these issues:

• Inability to save over the same filename fixed
• Ships will now fire correctly after loading a saved game
• Game no longer crashes when anti-matter or nanotech bombs are transported to a planet
• Purchased upgrade devices are automatically applied when the game loads
• Breen weapon upgrade now works properly. Each upgrade applies to 1 torpedo launcher (same with the Quantum upgrade)
• Maximum crew limits are now in effect on all ships after respawning in multiplayer games
• Crew combat/boarding party combat has been sped up for larger battles
• All components now have descriptions.
• B'Rel's will now chase the ship with the Founder on the 2nd Dominion mission once ordered to do so
• The Romulan Cloaking device is now no longer transportable to other ships
• All "Find the Founder" maps fixed in multiplayer (objects now can be seen by all players)
• Slowed down the planetside combat of troops for the 6th Dominion mission. Fast combat was causing the "mission failed" message pre-maturely.
• Slowed the station combat for Federation mission 7 (crew battle only)
• Fixed some Gamespy start-up problems not bringing remote players into the game
• Only one Thomas Riker now appears in Federation mission 5
• Enemies in Federation mission 3 are now smarter
• Fixed the invisible ships in Dominion mission 3
• DS9MP map fixed for multiplayer (attack defend starbase game type)
• Final Federation mission enemy ships have improved AI
• Components are now race related in campaigns and in multiplayer
• Components are now "revealed" during the campaign (they are not all available from the start of the game)
• Escape/Options window now can be activated when game is paused
• Warp 2 Captains rated as a '10' now get the correct rank
• Game will now wait for a slow host start in Gamespy

Though the article points out that Throne of Bhaal, the already gold (story) expansion pack for Baldur's Gate II: The Shadows of Amn, may be in stores as early as today (as Interplay has announced that the game has shipped), there's still time for one last pre-release developer's diary. GameSpy.com's Throne of Bhaal Developer's Diary Volume 5 is now online, a group effort that offers thoughts from several members of the team on the occasion of the game going gold. The diary includes the words of producer Alan Miranda, lead programmer Mark Darrah, lead designer Kevin Martens, QA lead Scott Langevin, lead animator Tony DeWaal, lead tools programmer Don Moar, and Bill, the guy who pastes the system requirements labels on the boxes.

Conquest: Frontier Wars beta signups are now underway, offering the opportunity to get on the beta testing team for this upcoming RTS game from Fever Pitch Studios and Ubi Soft. There is no initial indication of how many testers are being accepted. Thanks GameSpot.

• New 4-in-1
  There are new final version 4.32 VIA 4-in-1 drivers on VIAHardware.
• New HyperSnap-DX
  The HyperSnap DX Home Page has a new version 4.03.00 of this screen capture utility.
• VGA Charts
  The newly-launched VGA Charts on RIVA Station list benchmark results for 22 popular accelerators to help you find the top of the pops.
• More IIS Security Woes
  Web at risk from new MS flaw (ZDNet). Ooops.

A new version 1.2.1 of the Simple DirectMedia Layer has been released. The latest iterating of this cross-platform multimedia library adds Linux PlayStation 2 Graphics Synthesizer support among other things. Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski.

3DO Ships Legends of Might and Magic is the press release announcing that "Legends of Might and Magic game for PC has shipped to retail outlets throughout North America."

A story on EuroGamer about yesterday's release of the Dreamcast Q3A map pack (story) that was supposed to provide interoperability between the PC and DC versions of Q3A reports that at this point, PC users will have to "downgrade" their Q3A installation before this can happen, just as they predicted in an editorial over a year ago. Also, Sega to expand beyond games on ZDNet has word on Sega's plans to broaden their horizons. Also, there are four new PS2 TRIBES 2 screenshots on TribalWar.Com and PS2 New media from Giants: Citizen Kabuto on GameSpot with gameplay movies and a gallery that attempts to determine if 56 new screenshots is a good thing, or overkill. Also, GameSpot's PS2 Red Faction Game Guide is online. Moving right along, the Emedded Processor Forum Presentation on Cube.IGN.Com offers "Nintendo's keynote presentation in bulleted form with quotes, facts, and diagrams." Finally, an article called Game Boy Advance Too Dark? on Pocket.IGN.Com offers a tip for the bold on how to adjust the contrast on a GBA.

ProMode.Org now offers a new version 99u2 of their Challenge ProMode Arena modification for Quake III Arena which features a few tweaks and fixes of problems in version 99u1. This is not an update to maintain compatibility with the new Quake III Arena point release, so you do not need to base whether you update you CPMA installation on whether you have upgraded your Q3A client.

• B-17 Gunner: Air War over Germany on Games Domain.
• Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (first impressions) on Baldur's Gate Haven.
• Emperor: Battle for Dune on TFH Gaming (thanks Jon Su), Gamerush, Gameplanet NZ, and GameOn.
• Empire of the Ants on GameZone.
• Gangsters 2: Vendetta on GamePower.
• Half-Life: Blue Shift on Games Domain and Happy Puppy.
• Independence War 2 Demo on FiringSquad.
• Leadfoot on ActionTrip.
• Myst III: Exile on GameVisions.
• Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis on EuroGamer.
• Pearl Harbor: Defend the Fleet on Gamezilla.
• Startopia on GameSpot.
• Swedish Touring Car Championship 2 on PC Zone UK.
• Train Simulator on Gamezilla.
• Tropico on Intelligamer.
• Ultima Online: Third Dawn on ESCMag.
• World War II Online (first impressions) on Games Domain.
• X-COM Enforcer on Computer Games Online.

• Abit KT7E motherboard on SoundCardCentral.
• Abit Siluro T400 GeForce MX400 video card on 3DnHardware.
• CaseAce GearGrip CRT Harness on The Adrenaline Vault.
• Evergreen RumbleFX 3D Sound Amplifier on BoomGames.
• FIC AZ11EA motherboard on TweakTown.
• IBM Ultrastar 36Z15 hard drive on StorageReview.
• MSI K7T266 Pro-R motherboard on PC Hardware.
• Thermaltake Dragon Orb 3 cooler on I am not a geek.
• Vantec CCK-6035 copper heatsink on FrostyTech.
• Vantec FCE-6035D cooler on Overclocker Cafe.

• The Official TRIBES 2 Central Download Site is online, offering a comprehensive archive of TRIBES 2-related downloads. Thanks the Junkyard...

I just heard a report that brings new meaning to the phrase "your tax dollars at work." Seems the US Government is spending $21 million dollars to send letters to tax payers announcing their tax refund and explaining what kind of check to expect. Fascinating.

Link of the Day: Scared, a Java first-person shooter. Thanks Ant.
Bonus Story: Gates pledges $100 million to fight AIDS (ZDnet).
Weird Science: Ethiopian has 222 nails removed from stomach (Ananova). My deck should have so many nails in it. Thanks R9Games.
Wild Science: Frozen Light (Scientific American). Thanks Frightener. "Slowing a beam of light to a halt may pave the way for new optical communications technology, tabletop black holes and quantum computers."