PC.IGN.com has posted a new MechWarrior 4: Black Knight preview, looking ahead to Cyberlore's expansion pack to the stomping 3D action game by FASA Studios and Microsoft. After a brief introduction, the article offers an overview of the new 'Mechs and other vehicles that will feature in the add-on, along with the new multiplayer modes you will be able to combat in. Visuals are provided in the form of ten new screenshots and no fewer than seven short gameplay clips in AVI format that show the new 'Mechs in action.

• Stronghold
  Firefly Studios sends along a new batch of Stronghold screenshots, showing off their upcoming castle-building strategy game in nearly two dozen new scenes.
• Bridge Commander
  The official Star Trek: Bridge Commander site has been updated with four new screenshots as well as a brief progress update on the creation of this capitol ship space sim by Totally Games, mentioning among other things that "some kind of demo will be released before the game ships to stores".
• Galactic Battlegrounds
  LucasArts has released nine new Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds screenshots (oddly dated 8/29 like the previous single shot--story) on the official site for their upcoming isometric RTS, and also provided the system requirements.

Blizzard sends along a brief announcement of a new collection pack for their Diablo series of isometric action RPGs, which is shipping to North American stores today. Here is the description of what you can expect to find in the pack:

All Hell breaks loose on September 25 when the Diablo Battle Chest is unleashed on stores across North America. This ultimate collection contains Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the original Diablo, as well as an expanded strategy guide covering both Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. A perfect gift for the uninitiated gamer in your life, the Diablo Battle Chest will sell for around $50.

In addition to their report on the previously mentioned European distribution agreement for the game (story), GameSpot has word that Dark Age of Camelot has gone gold, and Mythic Entertainment's medieval MMORPG will be arriving in stores by the middle of next month.

As is their way, Real.com has now released their downloadable games Axis (33.7 MB) and Clusterball (27.5 MB). Axis is the robotic anime-style first-person shooter by Jamie System Development, while Clusterball is the flying combat sports title by Daydream Software, and for both you can download a demo for free or the full game for US$ 19.95. For multiplayer you also need the new RealArcade version 1.0 that was released yesterday. Thanks HomeLan Fed for the tip. Finally, Strategy First posted a follow-up to our earlier story on Clusterball, clarifying that while Real.com distributes the game online, "Strategy First is responsible for publishing the retail version of Clusterball to the North American market."

As promised, Sierra Studios has released non-beta patches for TRIBES 2, updating Dynamix' multiplayer shooter to version 24834. You can update from either the last official v23669 patch (2.4 MB) or the earlier v22460 patch (3.0 MB), and if you applied any of the beta patches that you first need to apply a reverse patch from the Official Tribes 2 Central Download Site.

Vircom Interactive has released a new movie trailer of Black Moon Chronicles, their isometric MMORPG in development. This new Gameplay Demo movie sports some two and a half minutes of footage in three different download sizes, introducing the game's back story and offering new in-game footage from this game that's based on the graphic novels of French artists Froideval and Ledroit, complete with panels and speech ballons.

If you are participating in the ongoing beta test, chances are you're already aware of this, but the official Fighting Legends site has word of a new patch for this massively multiplayer role-playing strategy game by Maximum Charisma, available via the auto-updater. The update includes a list of the changes, which include improvements to awards and rewards, new tips and help options, NPC enhancements, new key assignments, and more.

Today's Anarchy Online update has more on all the problems resulting from Friday's patch (story), saying: "We recognize we should have had more information available earlier after Friday’s patch, and apologize for not providing it. We have had another look at what happened after the 12.6 patch, and have more information about the problems that occurred." In addition, the Anarchy Online Patches Page now has the manual patch for the update released Friday via the game's auto-updater.

Sierra Studios has released a new patch for Half-Life: Initial Encounter, bringing it to version 5.1.5.8. Initial Encounter is the retail Half-Life package that included the Half-Life: Day One OEM demo and a stand-alone version of Team Fortress Classic, and this 50.3 MB patch brings all previous versions of that TFC edition in line with last week's version 1.1.0.8 release of the full game.

• WarCraft III
  Blizzard has released a single new WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos screenshot, featuring a new combat scene in their upcoming 3D role-playing RTS game.
• Sea Dogs II
  There are three new screenshots of Sea Dogs II and three new concept images on Freelancer, illustrating the 3D RPG-at-sea that is currently docking at Akella.
• Harbinger
  RPGDot has posted three new Harbinger screenshots, and GameSpot has four more, all showing off this isometric action RPG being crafted at Silverback Entertainment.
• HoMM4
  To The Game offers up five new Heroes of Might and Magic IV screenshots, depicting new scenes in the turn-based strategy sequel in the works at 3DO.
• Another War
  Adrenaline Vault has posted half a dozen Another War screenshots, showing more from this isometric RPG that's been know since May (story) to be in development at Mirage, while Games Domain has also posted six screenshots, four of them the same.

Mythic Entertainment Announces Dark Age of Camelot Partnership with GOA.com and Wanadoo Edition is a press release announcing plans for localized European servers for Dark Age of Camelot, Mythic Entertainment's upcoming MMORPG, saying: "Wanadoo Edition will distribute the game and GOA will establish localized servers and support throughout France, the U.K., and Germany."

Moon Tycoon, the game formerly known as "LUNA: Moon Colony Simulator," is now gold. Word from the developers is: "The game will ship on October 9th and will be landing soon on a store shelf near you. Keep your eyes peeled and prepare yourself for the space adventure of a lifetime!"

There's an Excalibur Interview on Gameplex which is the English-language version of their Q&A with Ken Turner, which is also available in the site's native German. Ken is the lead game designer and project director on Excalibur, Auran's upcoming action game set in the post-Arthurian dark ages that is centered around the legendary king's legendary sword. The Q&A describes what to expect from gameplay, including the role of the player, the role of the sword, the game's comparative lack of gore compared to games like Severance, what combat will be like, what weapons and gadgets will be involved, and more. The first couple of the included screenshots are new exclusives.

There's a Kohan Ahriman's Gift Preview on GamesDomain with a look at the upcoming prequel to Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns. the preview is based on hands-on play with a preview version of TimeGate's upcoming fantasy RTS game. They offer considerable enthusiasm for the project, saying: "it looks like TimeGate will once again show that the full potential of RTS gaming has only begun to be tapped." The article goes on to give a pretty detailed narrative of what gameplay is like from building through combat, and includes 18 new screenshots.

Strategy First signs another exciting title to its 2001 line-up is a press release from this publisher announcing their deal to distribute Clusterball. This caused more than a little head-scratching on our part, since we just recently linked to an Avault article that said this upcoming "online sport" game is to be distributed online by Real Networks (story). We contacted Strategy First to clarify this, but just came away more confused, since they told us their deal was for North American distribution only, even though the press release quotes Anders Gothefors, senior marketing and sales manager for Daydream Software, as saying if the Strategy First deal: "This gives players from all over the world the opportunity to play this unique game." We expect that a further clarification on this (or perhaps further confusion) will be showing up sooner or later.

Throne of Darkness Ships Today is the press release from Sierra announcing that Throne of Darkness, Click Entertainment's Japanese-themed Diablo-style action/RPG is now shipping to retail outlets worldwide. Here's a bit on ToD from the release: "Throne of Darkness offers gamers a massive single-player and multiplayer experience. Tightly based on Japanese mythology, the single-player game casts gamers in a fight to overthrow the Dark Warlord and his army of the undead. Seven distinct samurai are ready to challenge the evil that stalks the land. Lead up to four of these characters into battle with the unique Play Calling system for controlling the computer AI. The multiplayer game allows up to eight gamers to battle for supremacy in this ancient land." In a related note, RPGvault has posted four new ToD screenshots, showing off the Dark Warlord's castle.

The PunkBuster Online Countermeasures website (thanks Aaron Gross) has news on the latest developments there. This includes the good news (for them) that they are pushing forward towards the realm of commercial software that will lead to the inclusion of their anti-cheating technology in other online games and the bad news (for many Half-Life and Counter-Strike players) that they are also dropping support for Valve's products, since Valve is apparently unwilling to join in an agreement with them to directly integrate PunkBuster technology directly into their games. This is part of what they have to say about this:

At this time, we are suspending development of the Half-Life version to focus on game platforms where the developer is willing to support the effort. We sincerely believe that we have had a positive impact on the Half-Life community and we truly appreciate the support of our hundreds of thousands of users. However, from the beginning we have said that we did not want to charge users directly for our product and we intend to abide by that decision. The remaining bugs, problems, issues, etc. with the Half-Life version cannot be addressed properly without direct integration with the game, and at this time, there is no hope of that even being a possibility.

GameSpot UK's C&C Renegade Developer Interview talks with Westwood's Dan Cermak, executive producer on this upcoming action game set in the Command & Conquer universe. Topics include why they refer to this as an action game, rather than a first-person shooter; how the game's missions will be connected; why you can't control the air and sea vehicles in Renegade; the interactivity of the game's environments; being stealthy in the midst of a war; enemy AI; and more.

Derek Smart sends word that Battlecruiser Millennium, the third installment in his storied Battlecruiser series, is officially gold. Battlecruiser Millennium is described on the Galcom website as: "Complete with over nine new or enhanced engines, including AI, graphics, soundfx etc, BCM steps into the new millennium flaunting the most advanced and visually splendid title ever seen in the series." Derek's announcement goes on to say: "And being me, I already had a speech prepared," which can be found on this page.

The Adrenaline Vault's Jumpgate Release Interview talks with Scott Brown, the president of NetDevil, to discuss the launch of this online space game that takes place in a persistent state universe. Topics include the game's evolution from its original design concept over the course of development, features of the game that will attract veteran space combat gamers, the game's creative and technical accomplishments, post-release plans, plans for additional content, and more.

There's a Scott Miller Interview Player.at talking at length with the president of 3D Realms about Duke Nukem Forever, their upcoming shooter sequel. Topics include what 3D Realms has been up to in the five-plus years since the release of Duke Nukem 3D, the current atmosphere of the development team, the game's emphasis on story, the continuation of Duke's tendency to quip in the sequel, the continuation of 3D Realms' brand of biting humor, comparisons to other games ("That’s a very good question. There’s absolutely no FPS game that comes close to the experience DNF will deliver. Nothing out right now even comes close."), their enhancements to the Unreal engine, Scott's hope that some external developer will make another Shadow Warrior game (in ducking the question about Prey's future), and much more.

Earth 2150: Lost Souls Interview on Gamers Pulse talking with Dirk P. Hassinger of ZUXXEZ Entertainment about progress on the upcoming third installment in the Earth 2150 series. Lost Souls, which is being developed "by an external team Infinite-X, which consists basically of hardcore Earth 2150 fans," is being released as a stand-alone produce (at an expansion pack price), and the brief Q&A describes what to expect from the project.

Better red than dead? on Codemasters asks the press release announcing Operation Flashpoint: Red Hammer, an expansion pack to the tactical action game by Bohemia Interactive that sees you trading places and join the Soviet forces, your enemy in the original game. The pack is scheduled for a December release, and here is an excerpt on what you can expect:

Operation Flashpoint: Red Hammer delivers a completely new campaign with 20 new missions, a new lead character, new Russian-accent voices and fresh cut scenes that unravel the single-player narrative.

Operation Flashpoint: Red Hammer sees the player back on the islands, only this time as Dimitri Lukin of the Soviet force. Dimitri is a tough Soviet career soldier - a highly trained professional killer but one who has suffered demotion in recent times. More ruthless and menacing than the raw American recruits, who populated the original game, Dimitri starts as a grunt as the invasion of Everon Island begins.

GameSpy.com Previews The Art of Magic and The Gamers Press Previews the Art of Magic with a pair of looks ahead at the upcoming Magic and Mayhem sequel with a storied history that saw the demise of its original developer, Charybdis that lead to the completion of development by Climax. Both previews go into The Art of Magic's mix of real-time strategy and role-playing, the GameSpy article describes the simple concept behind combat as this: "Each mission is usually some kind of wizard's duel, though there's still quite a bit of variety within that framework, such as fights on ships, barroom brawls, stealth missions into a troll camp, and so on." The previews go on to describe a bit more about how this combat works, from the resources spent on spells, to some of the strategic complexity of the battles, to the tactical impact of which types of creatures you choose to summon, impressions of the game's story, graphics, multiplayer play, and more.

GameSpy.com's Etherlords Developers Diary Volume 12 is penned by Andrey Fedorenko and Denis Borzenkov, the music team at Nival Interactive, discussing their musical contribution to Etherlords, Nival's upcoming strategy/role-playing game. They discuss how the various themes they created were tailored to the game's environments, the gameplay they would accompany, as well as the technical considerations that had to be taken into account. Accompanying the article are some .mp3 samples of Etherlords music for download on FilePlanet. Along the same theme, the Fighting Legends Bonanza on XGR offers the sound track for Fighting Legends for download in .mp3 format, along with the opportunity to win a Fighting Legends t-shirt.

Vircom's Black Moon Chronicles goes Public beta on October 4, 2001 is the press release with news that this upcoming online RPG will be holding a public beta. Here's a bit:

Montreal, Canada (September 25, 2001), On October 4th, 2001, online RPG fans everywhere will be able to play the anticipated beta of Vircom’s PC online game– Black Moon Chronicles - Winds of War. This cartoon-based, massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is built around the fantastic universe of the graphic novel best seller that sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide. To get a sneak peak of this product before October 4th, the company has released the official game preview demo, which reveals actual gameplay sequences and interface previews. For those who will need a little help getting started on this online adventure, Vircom has included an optional In-Game Tutorial with the beta.

The Mimesis Online Developer Diary, part 10 on RPGDot is entitled bug hunt, where Derek Handley of Polish developer Tannhauser Gate describes the version of Starship Troopers that gets played at the end of all development, the hunt for bugs, describing the art of beta testing as "a slow and demanding process." Also, this Mimesis Wired Chat Log (apparently this log is not that friendly to non-IE browsers) recaps a recent online community chat, also with Derek, also discussing progress on Mimesis Online, here's the list of highlights they posted atop the log: "First community chat, one dev, Derek, showed up - much to our joy. Seems that soon there will be more beta slots, and when the next big phase starts, they will introduce humans (apparently right now in the beta there are only Hiruduns). Derek also made a comment about the 'Stregoica,' saying that psionics will go in when they go in. Read on for the whole log (some parts were edited out, they were just taking up space and nobody would have read them anyways)."

Hands-On with Phantasy Star Online PC on PC.IGN.Com offers their impressions of the PC version of this online console RPG. Naturally this will inspire comparisons with its console counterparts, which is apparently good news if you compare it to the Dreamcast version, but is also bad news if you compare it to the upcoming GameCube version, as this quote demonstrates:

We're at a loss for words on how to describe the game at this point, not because it blew us away, but because it looks pretty much exactly like its Dreamcast counterpart. The stage and character models look identical, the control feels the same, and the game even moves at the same middling frame-rate as the DC version. It seems that the resolution is higher, of course, but most would have a hard time differentiating the PC version of the game in its current form from the Dreamcast version, which is somewhat of a surprise since the upcoming GameCube version is already showing improvements (a four player split screen mode being just one).

Shacknews' GameCube Diary is online with some first-hand impressions from our old pal Bagpuss, and EuroGamer's GameCube preview likewise offers hands-on impressions of Nintendo's upcoming system. A new Digital Extremes Developer's Update is up with the latest on progress on Unreal Championship for the Xbox. Unparalleled Nintendo Gamecube Marketing Campaign Enters Final Phase is the press release from Nintendo warning that this is probably the first of many press releases from Nintendo over the next several weeks. Also, GTA3 Website Moves Into Phase Two on PS2.IGN.Com has word on Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto 3 website, saying that: "The new site gives users a virtual tour of the commercial district of Liberty City."

The North American release of a game already available in Europe to pass along: Typing of the Dead Released on Gamesmania has word of the availability of this game that might as easily be named "Mavis Beacon kills zombies" or "Ash Williams teaches typing," or something along those lines.

There's an outline of the format of Myth III Player Decals on Player of Games showing how to make your own personalized icon for the game. Also, RUST interviews Jason 'Wolfen' Spencer talking with this level designer at Kodiak about his work and his role in the community, which at one point included a stint as webmaster of the QERadiant website.

• Anachronox on Game Nation TV (thanks GameSpyDaily).
• Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura on MPOG and Khabal Gaming.
• Clusterball on GameSpot.
• Codename: Outbreak Demo on 3DActionPlanet.
• Commandos 2: Men of Courage on Khabal Gaming.
• Diablo II: Lord of Destruction on The Armchair Empire.
• Flanker 2.51 on WomenGamers.
• Max Payne on BBC News (thanks Rich Wild).
• Myst III: Exile on Games Radar UK.
• Open Kart on PC.IGN.com
• Remote Assault on Gamezilla.
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer Test on DeadAlfs 2000 and Gamer's Pulse.
• RUNE (for Linux) on Evil3D.net.
• Soldier of Fortune Platinum Edition on The Armchair Empire.
• Spider-Man on Game Over.
• StarTopia on Gaming Age.
• Steel Soldiers on Game Nation TV.

• Antec SX830 Case on CheckYour6.net.
• AOpen H600A midi-tower Case on Dan's Data.
• DiskOnKey 16 MB Drive on Envy News.
• Koolance 2 Water Cooler on [H]ardOCP.
• Lian Li PC70 Case on Slautech.
• Lian Li PC-76 Server-Tower Aluminum Case on GamePC.
• Promise FastTrack TX4 Controller on PC Hardware.
• Samsung 770TFT LCD Monitor on PCinsight.
• Tyan S2460 Tiger Motherboard on LostCircuits.
• Vantec CCK-6027D and CCK-6035D Coolers on Little White Dog.
• Vastech 4 Port PS/2 Auto Electronic KVM Switch on OverclockersClub.
• VisionTek GeForce3 Video Card on Extreme Overclocking.

• There's a new shareware version of Hard Core, an arcade tank game, on the Swicked Softworks page...
• There are photos of a Commandos 2 press launch event on Khabal Gaming...
• There's a Glimpse Inside at the Progen Culture on the Earth and Beyond website. Thanks Earth N Beyond.

Achoo! Ooops, sorry about that, I seem to be fighting one of those change of season colds. Fall means keeping a rake at hand for falling leaves, and Kleenex handy to clean sneezes from the monitor. Blech.

Achoo!

Play of the Day: Spaced Penguin. Shockwave required. Thanks Zdim.
Link of the Day: The Buzzword generator. Thanks Andrew Arace.
Bonus Link: Campbell's Chunky's Click for Cans. Thanks Dave Merrill.