• EverQuest II
  EverQuest II Stratics' EverQuest II Q&A chats with E.J. Moreland to get some detailed answers to questions about how gameplay will operate in SOE's MMORPG sequel. There is also an EverQuest II: The Age of Destiny preview on EverQuest-2.Com with impressions from E3.
• Rise of Nations
  There's a Rise of Nations Q&A on Sharky Extreme talking with Tim Train of Big Huge Games about their debut RTS offering, discussing influences, gameplay, comparisons with other games, and more.
• Make Something Unreal
  HomeLan Fed's Make Something Unreal Q&A chats with Epic's Mark Rein about the recently announced modification contest that offers prizes in excess of (cue Dr. Evil voice) one million dollars!
• War of the Ring
  RPG Vault's The War of the Ring Q&A, Part 2 chats with Liquid Entertainment's Ed Del Castillo and Jack Davis about their upcoming Tolkien-inspired RTS game. Topics include NPC and enemy AI, missions, and maps, multiplayer support, and more.

Microsoft pledges to cut Xbox costs (thanks Mike Martinez) describes plans by MS to cut costs, but not prices, as they are already taking a bath on each unit as they try to clean up in the console market.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Further NVIDIA optimizations for 3DMark03? Just ATI being informative.
• Supercomputing made simple.
• Slammed!
• Corel agrees to takeover by Vector. I didn't even know they were still around!

The Seriously! Downloads Section now offers the debut alpha release of the Night Raiders modification for Serious Sam. Here's the idea: "Based on the famous Akira anime this modification features high-speed carnage. Get behind the wheel of a powerful motorcycle and cream everyone in sight."

The Digital Media Collaboratory Website is now accepting registrations for their second annual AI Conference (speakers TBD), scheduled for August 21-23, 2003, at the University of Texas at Austin.

• 1503 A.D.: the New World on Computer Games Romania.
• Day of Defeat on ActionTrip.
• EVE Online: the Second Genesis on PC.IGN.com.
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on Fragland.net and GamersEd.
• Humvee Assault on Gamers Depot.
• IGI 2: Covert Strike on GamingExcellence.
• Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb on Computer and Video Games and Gamer's Pulse.
• PlanetSide on PC.IGN.com, GameZone, and GamePro.
• Postal 2 on Boomtown.
• Rise of Nations on GameAxis.
• The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon on Games Domain.
• The Hulk on GameSpy and HomeLan Fed.

• Abit IC7-G Motherboard on Digital Daily.
• ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Video Card on HEXUS.net.
• Corsair TWINX512-3200LL DDR RAM on Bjorn3D.com.
• Enermax 460Watt Whisper PSU on Overclocker Cafe.
• Icemat After Dark Mousepad on modtown.
• Intel Pentium 4-2.8C, 2.6C and 2.4C CPUs on Sharky Extreme.
• Thermalright SLK-800 Heatsink on PimpRig.
• Thermaltake TR2-M2 on OcPrices.
• Vantec iCEBERQ4 Premium VGA Cooling Kit (in video) on 3dGameMan.com.
• Xide-Pad ][ Mouse Pad on XtReMoDs.com.

• The Legend of Painkeep is online, offering a remake of Legend of the Red Dragon, a BBS Door game, adapted to the theme of Team Evolve's Painkeep universe...

Off on a day trip today to visit with the bro and pop and respective families... MrsBlue is staying behind to take care of some work, so Hudson the wonder dog and I will be making like Tony and Meadow visiting colleges in season one of The Sopranos. I just hope I don't run into any rats that need knocking off along the way.

Stories of the Day:	Government forms cybersecurity unit. Court backs cell phone number portability. Flushing fish doesn't lead to sea. Thanks Justin.
Weird Science:	Hikers, campers go high-tech in the wilderness. A Night in the Hotel of the Future.
Wild Science:	Quantum leap for secret codes. Mars rovers to follow the water.
Media of the Day:	PocketOreilly. Thanks John Collins. Helpful if you have someone you need to shut up.
Image of the Day:	The iMike. Thanks Kazmont|OSLT.
Follow-up:	Sputnik bids go sky high, then crash.
	Thanks Mike Martinez.