There's a John Carmack Q&A on GameSpy.com and a Tim Willits Q&A on HomeLAN Fed catching up with the id mainstays during QuakeCon. The Q&A with Willits is an article-format conversation with the id lead programmer covering various aspects of DOOM 3 development, while also touching briefly on Quake IV. Quake IV also comes up in the John Carmack Q&A, as id's lead programmer makes it perfectly clear that their next project will not be another sequel:

John Carmack: Wolfenstein worked out so spectacularly well. Inside id there is a group that really, really does not want to do another sequel. Our next game is not going to be a DOOM, Quake, or Wolfenstein sequel, it's going to be something new and that is a foregone conclusion.

We knew that we were going to license that out and let someone do it.

The work that was done with Wolfenstein, in the end it turned out great, of course, everybody loves it, but it was painful during the development. At one point we had every programmer at id working, trying to stabilize the code base to make things okay for shipping.

But still, we looked at that as a success and we are hoping to replicate that success with Raven doing Quake IV. Raven has always been our lead engine adopter. It was a foregone conclusion that Raven would get the Doom engine early, the only question was what they were going to work on.

XIII Characters: Volume I on GameSpy.com kicks off a series introducing the characters in Ubi Soft's upcoming conspiracy-laden shooter, written by the design team. The debut installment discusses the history of Major Jones and her role as the player's guardian angel, and the titular XIII the game's hero (and player character).

GameSpy's Space Colony Preview is online, taking a look at Firefly Studios' upcoming project that they call "Sims ... in ... space." They discuss the space station management the game offers, and the personalities of your little people, and how that impacts gameplay: "The real challenge, though, will be managing your workers. Unlike the passionless automatons that populate most management simulations, the twenty characters that man Space Colony come complete with their own likes, dislikes, and desires. Tami LaBelle, for example, the country-western cowgirl and serial monogamist, is addicted to small talk. She gets lonely quite easily and needs frequent companionship."

HomeLAN Fed's Everquest Lost Dungeons Of Norrath Q&A chats with Robert Pfister of Sony Online Entertainment about the upcoming expansion for their MMORPG. They discuss the story, new environments, new items, monsters, and more.

• BREED on Loadedinc and news0r.
• Colonies on the Official Website. Thanks Andreas Göransson.
• Halo: Combat Evolved on the Official Website. Thanks Frans and HBO.
• Secret Weapons Over Normandy on the Official Website. Thanks Frans.
• War of the Ring on Middle Earth Warcry.

A new version 1.20 of the Forward Observer server browser for America's Army: Operations is now available. The update adds America's Army 1.9 support, enhanced master server support, new filters, interface enhancements, and more.

The debut release of the HydroRacers modification for Battlefield 1942 is now available. The mod features water-racing, but also retains the combat and teamplay of the original game, as well as player (or boat, rather) classes. Included are five conquest maps for multiplayer, and one solo map (albeit with fairly busted AI). As this screenshot demonstrates, you can even race under the colors (or color, in our case) of some gaming websites.

Game Menu Headquarters now offers a new version 1.16 of Quake 3 Menu for Quake III Arena. Quake 3 Menu is described as "a huge script program, that uses an easy to use in-game menu via echo, that allows you to set virtually any command known to man, from the console." More than 1000(!) commands are supported.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Microsoft: 'No impact' from second 'Blaster' attack.
• SCO to argue General Public Licence invalid.
• Good Day for Concerns That Help Save Data (registration required) and Blackout a Boon for Backup Tools.
• It's a Flawed World After All.
• Wireless service performs poorly in big blackout.
• Sony polishes up flash memory card.
• Our obsession with paper.
• In refugee camp, a P2P outpost. Thanks Sharon.
• Techdirt: When Is Unlimited Not Unlimited?

Video to play in the sun (thanks Mike Martinez): "Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand, available in September, is the first video game to incorporate sunlight into the game plan, according to its maker, Konami of America Inc."

• Chariots of War on Computer and Video Games.
• Dark Fall on GameZone.
• Postal 2 on ESCMag.
• Rise of Nations on Video Game City.
• WarCraft III: the Frozen Throne on Computer and Video Games.
• XIII Demo on GameAxis.

• Crossover Mission 5 Water Cooling Kit on The Tech Lounge.
• Western Digital 250GB SATA Hard Drive on HardAvenue.

• The Edinburgh International Games Exhibition report on Boomtown offers thoughts on the Scottish game exhibition...

Being under the gun to get caught up after the blackout yesterday, I didn't take the time I normally would to scrutinize all of yesterday's Links of the Day, and one of the links in particular was a little (a lot) stronger politically that I like to let things get here on this gaming site. I just want to acknowledge the unhappy reaction from a some readers on the topic, and apologize for pushing anyone's buttons, as it was not really intentional (though it certainly is understandable how it would).

Play Time:	DHTML Lemmings.
Links of the Day:	Aviator George W. Bush. Let's try that once more as intended. Thanks Jim Scott. Pilot Project. Thanks Ant. How about Fox Force Five? Oil-Cooled Computer. Thanks Shadowknight.
Stories of the Day:	Power up! and Experts Warned of Weak Power Grid. to B or not to b. Schwarzenegger banned from TV. Thanks Ant.
Wild Science:	E-mail pager scores in crisis.
Weird Science:	How a butterfly's wing can bring down Goliath - Chaos theories calculate the vulnerability of megasystems. Women 'driven to road rage by their fathers'.
	Thanks Mike Martinez.