A new gameplay movie from call of Duty is now available, showing off more of Infinity Ward's upcoming World War II first-person shooter. The "Brothers" movie is mirrored on FileFront, Filerush.com, Gaming Asylum, and Tiscali Games. Also, CoDFiles.com has word on the second Call of Duty "Dawnville" Demo that's appearing on PC Gamer is an exclusive (thanks Ant), but word from Activision is that this demo will be distributed online at some point after the magazine becomes available.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will Rome: Total War be, as "Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced that Rome: Total War(tm), the latest installment in The Creative Assembly's award-winning Total War(tm) series, is on schedule for a fall 2004 release." This is a way of using the term "on schedule" in reporting a delay, as the latest installment in Creative Assembly's historical strategy series was originally expected earlier in 2004.

Return of the King Goes Gold on IGN is the report that Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is gold for all-platforms and is expected to be available "next month." Word is: "Take multiple gameplay paths as Gandolf, Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli, and with Frodo and Sam set on the goal of defeating the Dark Lord Sauron and his armies." Thanks Frans.

An update to the BF42.com Forums (thanks Ant) has word that the Battlefield 1942 version 1.5 patch will not be released this week as was hoped. The update describes how lag induced by use of the Destroyer's machine gun will be addressed, but chat lag will not be fixed in this patch. There are also reassurances that the CD swapping bug will be addressed when the patch finally does come out.

The official Deus Ex Invisible War Website (Flash-required) is now online, dedicated to ION Storm's upcoming first-person RPG sequel. The site offers DX info straight from Warren Spector, the final version of the Invisible War Trailer, mostly new screenshots, details on features, intros to key characters, creepy background music, and more.

A playable demo for Cold Zero: The Last Stand is now available, offering a single level and a tutorial for Drago Entertainment's action/strategy RPG. The 70 MB download can be found on 3D Downloads, 3D Gamers, Computer Games Online, FileFront, Filerush.com, Gamer's Hell, Happy Puppy (registration required), Tiscali Games, and Worthplaying.

Following the announcement that the German version of Commandos 3: Destination Berlin is gold (story), Eidos sends word that the U.S. version of Pyro Studios World War II combat sequel is official gold as well, and is expected in stores on October 15.

Word from iGames Publishing is that Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi has gone gold. Here's the press release:

Nosferatu: The wrath of malachi HAS GONE GOLD

HOBOKEN, NJ – (October 10, 2003) – iGames Publishing today announced that the highly anticipated PC game Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi™ has gone gold. The first person shooter-survival horror game will thrust players into a den of bloodthirsty vampires where intrepid adventurers must use their wits as well as the classic weapons of vampire lore…holy water, wooden stakes and more, to defeat the fanged horrors. Developed by the Swedish studio, Idol FX, the game will be released for PC/CD-ROM on October 20th in time for Halloween.

“The early response to Nosferatu has been tremendous,” said Rick Bosch, CEO of iGames Publishing. “With Nosferatu so close to release, fans are clamoring for their vampire fix before Halloween.”

Delivering a blend of atmospheric survival horror and intense first person shooter action, Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi immerses players in the terror of an ancient, gothic castle full of vampires. With the monstrous undead lurking around every corner, players must search through the shadowy halls and dank dungeons of a massive castle to free their imprisoned friends and family…failure to rescue the prisoners will not only result in their death, but in the resurrection of an ancient supernatural being who will threaten all of mankind. Nosferatu will set players’ spines tingling with dread as vampires spring at them out of nowhere, while gameplay grows increasingly aggressive and violent.

Gamers can visit the website (http://www.nosferatu-game.com/) for a peek into the underworld with screenshots and a chilling trailer. A demo for Nosferatu is available on game file download sites everywhere, including: Happy Puppy, FilePlanet, and GameSpot.

A new official U.S. demo for Beyond Good & Evil is now available, offering a another sample of Ubisoft's action adventure game with further optimizations than the European version released last week (story). The download is now up to 156 MB, available on 3D Gamers, Gamer's Hell, IGN, and Worthplaying.

The first version of the Red Orchestra modification for Unreal Tournament 2003 is now available, debuting this tribute to the bloody combat on the eastern front of World War II.

The official Worms 3D Website (thanks Frans) has word that Worms 3, Team17's next installment in the turn-based strategy series featuring the nutty squirmers has gone gold in Europe, and is expected on store shelves on October 31. The status of the game for the Americas and Asia is less certain, as their separate distributor (Atari) has yet to green light the game. There is also a status report on another demo, here's the deal:

Now that the game is finished, we'll be working on getting a new demo (with a new level) created and released in the next couple of weeks.

The new demo should run on pretty much all machines, and hopefully it will have both a multiplayer and single player deathmatch - but there won't be time for an online demo or much more content than we've released before, sorry. :-(

• Prince of Persia the Sands of Time on 3D Gamers, Gamer's Hell, and Worthplaying.
• Ryzom on RPG Vault.

• MMOGs
  Making an MMOG for the Masses on GameSpy.com has quotes from a bunch of developers of MMOGs about their genre.
• Max Payne 2
  A Smarter Max Payne on GameSpy is a brief article-format Q&A with Remedy's Sam Lake about their now-gold third-person shooter sequel.
• Hidden & Dangerous 2
  HomeLAN Fed's Hidden & Dangerous 2 Q&A chats with Graeme Struthers of publisher Gathering about Hidden & Dangerous 2, Illusion Softworks' upcoming World War II combat sequel. They discuss the story, setting, engine, and other details about gameplay.
• KOTOR
  The Armchair Empire's Knights of the Old Republic Q&A chats with Casey Hudson and James Ohlen, producer and designer (respectively) on the Star Wars RPG. Topics include the setting, combat, differences between the PC and Xbox versions, satisfying rabid Star Wars fans, and more.
• Mythica
  Inside Midgard on GameSpy.com is their Q&A with Hal Milton discussing Mythica, going into specifics about the Midgard Realm in the upcoming MMORPG.
• Lineage
  There's a Lineage: Dark Conquest Q&A on GameGossip.com talking briefly with NCSoft producer Lance "CaptSturm" Stites about their hugely popular MMORPG.
• The Fall - Last Days of Gaia
  The Fall - Last Days of Gaia Q&A on Gameguru Mania talks with Carsten Strehse of Silver Style Entertainment about their upcoming 3D Post-Apocalyptic-RPG with the "deep story and the freaky characters."
• Cleric
  The Clint Wallace Q&A Part 2 on Warcry News Network continues their conversation with the Plutonium Games artist about Cleric, their upcoming first-person shooter. This Q&A goes into specifics about how he is handling his art chores on the project.
• Garage Games
  HomeLAN Fed's Indie Games Con Q&A is their confab with Jay Moore of Garage Games about the indie games festival that looks to take some independent games out of the garage and into the spotlight.

An updated version of the Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown demo is now available, though there is no word about what is changed compared with the previous sample of Cinemaware's adventure game remake. The new demo can be found on 3D Gamers and The Adrenaline Vault.

Thanks Frans.

• Commandos 3: Destination Berlin on IGN.
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne on IGN.
• Silent Hill 3 on GameSpot.
• The Lord of the Rings War of the Ring on Games Domain.
• X2 The Threat on Games Domain.

A new KnightShift / Once Upon a Knight retail language patch/mod v1.01 is now available. Here's the text accompanying the link on 3D Gamers: "This MOD installs the complete English voiceovers and dialogs (Campaigns and RPG) for KnightShift and Once Upon a Knight. It also update the version 1.00 to version 1.01, supporting a new audio compression." The file is also mirrored on Computer Games Online and Gamer's Hell. Also, this page on the framed Aspyr Website now features downloads of a new version 1.1.1 patch for the Macintosh version of Alice. "This update fixes a number of issues, and improves performance, especially in Mac OS." The patch is mirrored on 3D Gamers.

• Dark Age of Camelot: Trials of Atlantis on Camelot Vault.
• Lord of EverQuest on EverQuest Vault. Along with a single Q&A.
• Mythica on Mythica HQ. New concept art.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Oblivion Lost on the Official Website.

A new version 3.1 of the Urban Terror modification for Quake III Arena is now available. This first update for version 3 of the mod is a 26 MB download, and requires UT version 3.0 be installed. Thanks DesRat|SlayerAODsk.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Cable firms bet on broadband speed, not price.
• CEO Says Report Critical of Copy Management Technology is Erroneous.
• Sun to release Solaris for AMD's Opteron.
• Parents sue school district for Wi-Fi use. Thanks Peter Binazeski.
• Web-based music pirate gets jail time.
• Software company to sue student over using shift key and Student sued after revealing CD copying secret.
• A Young Hacker Buys Options, Borrowing an Investor's Identity (registration required).
• Tracking Junior With a Microchip.
• Pop Goes the Cell Phone.

GarageGames has released a Demo Torque Game Engine SDK. Word is: "The 1.2 demo includes a full feature overview including details on terrain, interior, water and the mesh rendering engine features, Torque Script, GUI System & Editor and the award-winning Torque Networking layer." Also, XENTAX.COM sends word that MultiEx Commander is now up on SourceForge.net as an OpenSource project, and their next project, OpenMex, is now under development, also as an OpenSource program.

• Age of Mythology: the Titans on Gamer's Pulse.
• American Conquest: Fight Back on GameZone.
• Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour on LoadedInc and GameZone.
• F1 Challenge '99-'02 on VideoGameNews.
• Flight Simulator 2004: a Century of Flight on Gameplanet NZ.
• Ghost Master on The Entertainment Depot.
• Homeworld 2 on Strategy Informer.
• Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Breakthrough on Gameplanet NZ.
• Once Upon a Knight (a.k.a. KnightShift) on PC.IGN.com.
• Patrician III on GameZone.
• Rainbow Six: Raven Shield on Digital BackSpin.
• Starsky & Hutch on Gamer's Hell.
• The Temple of Elemental Evil on Khabal Gaming.

• Albatron KX18D Pro II Motherboard on AthlonXP.
• AMD Athlon64 3200+ 32-64-bit CPU on PCStats.com.
• ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB Video Card on Dukgamers.
• Belkin Bluetooth USB Adapter on Hard Extreme.
• Biostar iDEQ200P nF3 150 SFF PC on OC Workbench.
• Coolermaster Aero 7 Lite Heatsink on Overclockers Club.
• CoolJag CJC665C Cooler on Ninjalane.
• FIC A96P Radeon 9600 Pro Video Card on ViperLair.
• FSP Aurora 350W PSU on GideonTech.com.
• Gateway 700X Gamer PC on Gamers Depot.
• M-Audio Revolution 7.1 Sound Card on bit-tech.
• MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R K8T800 Motherboard on PCStats.com.
• MSI Mega PC on Digit-Life.
• PolarFLO SuperFinish Universal CPU Block on GruntvillE.com.
• Saitek Cyborg Evo Joystick on Guru3D.
• Samsung 173T 17 LCD Monitor on Extreme Overclocking.
• SiS655FX Dual-Channel P4 Chipset on HEXUS.net.
• Skyhawk IMC-6271 Aluminum Case on EPIACENTER.com.

• Theft Adds to VU Games' Woes. Thanks Mike Martinez. On how the Half-Life 2 situation may impact the sale of Vivendi Universal Games...
• Ubisoft sends word that customers who pre-order Uru: Ages Beyond Myst will receive a free copy of the Myst 10th Anniversary DVD Edition that includes the first three Myst titles on individual DVDs and an exclusive interview with Rand Miller, co-creator of the franchise...
• The Railroad Tycoon 3 Website now offers downloads of a mini game that features a track construction time challenge in the spirit of the train management simulation...
• Jollygood Games has released the full and demo versions of a puzzle game called Crystal Power...

It's kind of hard for me to believe, but this site has now been at the bluesnews.com domain for seven years now(!) I got the date on this scrambled, and actually should have mentioned this yesterday, which was the actual anniversary of the move, which took place on October 9, 1996. It's been a wild ride, and I want to thank you all once again for all the amazing support you have shown over all these years, which has made this all possible. Anyway, the seventh anniversary is kind of bugging me out, because I know I've written in this space about my own shock at realizing that a given game was that old, so now I have a similar perspective on this site. Blue's News (or blue's Quake Rag at the time) actually began on my home ISP over a year before (the best estimate I've been able to conjure is August 1995), so that makes us over eight, and that much closer to double digits (eeek!). Anyway, thanks again from the bottom of my heart for your support.

Definitely going to see Kill Bill: Vol. 1 today... hope it's a winner!

Play Time:	Psycho Techno Hypno Kitten Snake.
Stories of the Day:	Texas Men Tripped Up by 'Whizzinator'. Thanks Kazmont. Md. first lady's Britney quip draws fire. Thanks yonderboy. Teenager pinned under vehicle uses jack to free himself.
Science!:	Scientists think universe shaped like soccer ball. Thanks Rigs. Meet the artificial muscle man. Study: Antibiotics may help stave off Alzheimer's. If you remember to take them.
Follow-up:	Alaska Bear Mauling Recorded on Tape. Thanks Rigs.
	Thanks Mike Martinez.