The Return to Castle Wolfenstein Enemy Territory Preview on PC.IGN.Com is based on getting to break bread, beer, and bratwurst at an event to show off the upcoming RtCW follow-up. They describe the game's story and setting, impressions of the first showing of the pre-alpha single-player campaign, AI, the interface, resources, commanding your troops, and give first-hand impressions of multiplayer play, including class rebalancing, the advancement system, new maps, radio communications, and more.

There's a One Must Fall Battlegrounds Preview on GameSpot with a look at Diversions Entertainment's upcoming follow-up to the robotic combat of One Must Fall: 2097. They discuss the game's two-tier character system of the robot and its pilot, characteristics, the types of levels that will accommodate the planned 16-player multiplayer support, hazards, game modes, the "laser ball," controls, the engine, single-player support, modification support, and more. Included is a huge batch of new screenshots.

Freelancer: Inside the Sirius System on PC.IGN.Com helps flesh out the back story of Freelancer, giving an account of the exploration and development of various planetary systems in the Sirius system in the upcoming science fiction game in the works at Digital Anvil. The article is pretty context-free, just jumping in with a description of the story, and at this time the links to the second and third pages of the article seem to be broken.

The Söldner Development Diary Volume 1 on Computer and Video Games licks off a series describing the development of Wings Simulations upcoming online military shooter. The journal is written by Teut Weidemann, who describes their goals for the game, and goes on to discuss environments, including generating landscapes, vegetation, villages, roads, and more. Also, there is a new screenshot on the Official SÖLDNER - Secret Wars Gamesite (thanks Loadedinc.com).

• Kreed
  The Kreed Q&A on Computer and Video Games catches up with Burut's Aleksey "GinunGagap" Leshev to discuss their upcoming FPS. Topics include the team's background, Kreed's story, solo play, environments, NPC AI, weapons and equipment, and more.
• Shrouded Isles
  The Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles Q&A on Gamersclick talks with someone at Mythic about their upcoming MMORPG expansion. Topics include the new islands, new races and classes, housing, monsters, RvR combat, and more.
• Asheron's Call 2
  RPG Vault's Asheron's Call 2 Q&A #4 catches up with the development team at Turbine to ask the following question about their upcoming MMORPG sequel: "What is the biggest surprise you have encountered during the development of Asheron's Call 2 Fallen Kings?"
• Buka
  Action Vault's Buka Q&A talks with Maxim Mikhalev from the Russian publisher about their company's history, gaming in Russia, being an international distributor, their plans to find a partner in the west, and more.
• Big Huge Games
  The Big Huge Games Q&A on Ogre's Network talks with Doug Kaufman, designer at Big Huge Games about Rise of Nations. They discuss how the upcoming RTS game will offer "World history in under an hour," his history in gaming, and more.

There's a log on EveGate taken from yesterday's IRC chat with CCP and S&SI to discuss EVE-Online, their upcoming outer space MMORPG. The chat featured extensive discussion of gameplay and progress on beta testing, and the log has been organized into an orderly Q&A format.

• AO: The Notum Wars on Gamer.no.
• AquaNox 2: Revelation on Worthplaying.
• C&C Generals on Generals Xtreme, along with some game music.
• Call of Cthulhu on Just Adventure.
• IGI 2: Covert Strike on PC Gaming Xtreme Network.
• IL-2 Forgotten Battles on Oleg Maddox's Ready Room. Thanks Loadedinc.
• March! Offworld Recon on Action Vault.
• Ryzom on RPG Vault.
• Ultima Online: Age of Shadows on GameSpyDaily.
• Xenus on Action Vault.

Microsoft: Xbox Live is living large (thanks Mike Martinez) reports: "Microsoft announced Friday that it has nearly sold out of its initial shipment of 150,000 starter kits for Xbox Live, the new online service for its video game console."

• HyperSnap-DX version 5.01.01 is now available, offering bug fixes and a smaller installer for this screen capture utility.
• A new CPUCooL version 7.1.6 is now available. Thanks File Flash.
• A new version 2.2.9 of CPUFSB is now available. Thanks File Flash.

The Black Isle Studios Employment Page has been updated with details of their hunt for talented console programmers. Applicants are expected to have "3 years game programming experience and/or have shipped at least one console product."

HomeLan Fed's Orange Smoothie Q&A talks with Jason "Rhea" Keimig of Orange Smoothie Productions about their modification team and their various projects. Topics include the team's longevity, the popularity of the OSP mods, RtCW support, plans for the future, the competitive gaming scene, and more.

The VERC Collective has posted some new game development tutorials, as well as some more material posted over from Valve ERC, their previous effort.

• Arx Fatalis on GameSpot.
• Avernum 3 on RPG Codex.
• Batman Vengeance (in German) on YiYas.
• Beam Breakers on GameSpy.com.
• Ghost Recon: Island Thunder on Ownt.com.
• Iron Storm on Computer and Video Games.
• K. Hawk: Survival Instinct on MadGamers.net.
• MechWarrior 4: Clan & Inner Sphere Mech Paks on GameSpy.com.
• Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Spearhead on Computer and Video Games.
• Michael Schumacher Racing World Kart 2002 on GameSpot.
• RalliSport Challenge on BarrysWorld.
• Revolution on GameSpot.
• Robin Hood: the Legend of Sherwood on PC.IGN.com and Gamezilla.
• The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring on Gamezilla.
• Unreal Tournament 2003 on Adrenaline Vault.

• Albatron PX845E i845E Silver Motherboard on PCStats.com.
• Corsair DDR XMS3500 RAM on Explosive Labs and Extreme Overclocking.
• eDimensional wired 3D Glasses (in video) on 3dGameMan.
• Logitech MX Mice on Dan's Data.
• MSI 845PE Max2-FIR Motherboard on PCStats.com.
• PowerColor Radeon 9000 PRO 128MB Video Card on I am not a geek.
• Samsung Syncmaster 181T Monitor on MonkeyReview.
• Shuttle's SB51G XPC System on HotHardware.
• Thermal Compound Shootout on Viper's Lair.
• Xoxide Variable 4 Port Baybus on ASE Labs.
• Zalman ZM80-HP VGA Heatpipe Cooler on Spode's Abode.

• Dark Galaxy version 3 sign-ups are currently being accepted. Thanks Jonathan.A.Serna-1...
• NFL afraid real life imitating video games. Thanks eurodeseo|OSLT...

Had a bit of frustration yesterday, as I brought my laptop and its nifty new wireless adapter to my buddy hoosier_dadi's house to try to connect to his wireless network, which runs off of one of those Apple Airports. After trying and failing to get it running with the Airport's WEP encryption enabled, we managed to get it connected with WEP shut off, and subsequently got it to inexplicably work with WEP turned back on. If that wasn't enough to set off the F.M. meter, it then ceased to work again for whatever reason. Some poking around on some support forums show that getting PCs to connect to Airport networks is a trick that plenty of other folks have problems with, so this shouldn't be too surprising... I guess I'm surprised that over the years cross-platform operations have progressed to the point where we had any expectation that this could work in the first place.

Play Time:	Smurfs Games On-line. Thanks [PIT]SlayerAODsk.
Link of the Day:	The Smurfs as a Paradigm for Communist Society. Thanks [PIT]SlayerAODsk for sharing his Smurf hunt.
Stories of the Day:	Child Porn Pops Up in Businessman's Slide Show. Thanks SlashDevNull. Pentagon drops Internet ID plan. Thanks [PIT]SlayerAODsk. Spam king lives large off others' e-mail troubles. Thanks Kenneth Cheung.
Wild Science:	Assembling the Digital Sky. Thanks Mike Martinez.
Weird Science:	New Drug Could Give You a Tan - And Much More. Thanks LoonyBomber.
Media of the Day:	Money Funny. Thanks jercilla.
Auction of the Day:	Napster Auction. Thanks Malikhan.
Follow-up:	Fans buy Commercial Time to Save Show (story). Thanks [BFD] iJohnny Verga!