The demo countdown timer on the Need For Speed: Underground - Australian Website hit zero today, sat for a bit, and has now been reset to 10+ days and counting. There's no word on what happened to the planned demo release for the street racing game, but there is a headline that simply states: "PC Demo now early November" (looks like late in the day (EST) on November 6 at this point). Thanks Jay Holder.

• DX: Invisible War
  There's a Deus Ex: Invisible war Q&A on Etoychest (thanks HomeLAN Fed and GameSpyDaily) talking with "the infamous Warren Spector" (infamous?) about various aspects of ION Storm's upcoming FPS/RPG sequel.
• Call of Duty
  There's a Call of Duty Q&A on Game Chronicles talking with Zied Rieke, lead designer at Infinity Ward, about their imminent World war II shooter. Topics include the game's ever-more-popular setting, creating immersion, game play, and more. Thanks Frans.
• NWN: Hordes of the Underdark
  There's a Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark Q&A on ToTheGame getting answers from Darcy Pajak and Sydney Tang of BioWare about progress on the second NWN expansion, discussing new features and changes.
• Star Wars Galaxies
  EGCore's Star Wars Galaxies Q&A converses with a few of the folks behind the Star Wars MMORPG about supporting the game, how they feel things have been going since the launch, and more.
• There
  There's a There Q&A on GameSpot talking with Andy Donkin, chief marketing officer of this newly launched MMORPG.
• Flagship Studios
  Voodoo Extreme's Flagship Studios Q&A is the latest Q&A with Bill Roper about their start-up developer. Once again game specifics are not fair game here, but they manage to ask some questions about the business side of things that haven't been previously covered.

• Dead to Rights on GameSpot.

• Dark Age of Camelot: Trials of Atlantis on Camelot Vault.
• EverQuest II on EverQuest Vault.
• Wish on Wish Vault.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Tech companies feel impact of wildfires.
• Microsoft unwraps 'Longhorn' operating system. Thanks Tony!!!
• NVIDIA Editors' Day 2003 on Bjorn3D.
• Dell unveils MP3 player.
• Japan plans mobile phone pay plan.

A new Worms 3D demo is now available on the official website of the imminent next installment in the wacky turn-based strategy series. The 93 MB download is mirrored on 3D Gamers, Computer Games Online, Gamer's Hell, GameTab, Loadedinc (registration required), and Worthplaying, where they have sorted out a problem with the original file (the executable installer had a .zip extension). Here's the description: "The new demo features loads of new wormy things for you to get your teeth into - two new levels, a new weapon set, a 2 player game and a single player game against mid-strength AI. Previous compatibility problems have been sorted too."

Gathering Announces Railroad Tycoon3 Has Shipped is the press release announcing that PopTop Software's latest installment in this series of train mogul games will be available throughout North America by October 31. Here's the deal: "In Railroad Tycoon 3 players can realize their dream of founding and expanding a railroad empire. By building rail lines, purchasing trains and transporting cargo to launch the railroad, players can burst onto the scene during the 'Golden Era of Railroading' and sustain dominance through the modernization of the industry. Players must expand their business into major cities, acquire the latest locomotives, force competitors into bankruptcy, and manipulate the stock market to become the ultimate Railroad Tycoon. Make a fortune the old fashioned way - take it from someone else!"

The official Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds Website is online, offering a Flash-y home to the upcoming real-time strategy game based on the popular collectible card game.

A new note on the 4D Rulers Website (thanks Frans) announces the completion of Secret Service: Security Breach, a first-person shooter that they've been quietly developing. The update is post dated by a few days, but still doesn't go back far enough in the wayback machine to precede word on EBgames that the game actually became available on October 22. According to the gold announcement: "The graphics technology of Secret Service Security Breach are superior to any game shipping this year."

This Strategy First Downloads Page offers downloads of a Europa Universalis II Conquest Pack Save Patch for the "North American Conquest Pack version only." Word is: "Please use this patch if you bought Europa Universalis II as part of the Conquest Pack. This patch fixes the problem where when you try to save a game, EU2 crashes and gives a save error." Thanks Frans.

As promised (story), the Call of Duty "Dawnville" demo that was released as a cover-mount CD on PC Gamer magazine is now available online, offering a second sample of Infinity Ward's imminent World War II shooter that picks up immediately following the events depicted in the first CoD demo (story). Mirrors of the 160 MB file are available on 3D Downloads, 3D Gamers, Boomtown (registration required), CoDFiles, FileFront, FilePlanet (registration required), Filerush, FileShack (registration required), Gamer's Hell, GameSpot (registration required), GameTab, Happy Puppy (registration required), IGN, Jucaushii, Loadedinc (registration required), Pixelrage, and Worthplaying.

A post to The ION Storm Forums indicates that there is not going to be a release of a Deus Ex: Invisible War SDK for mod authors (thanks DeusExZone) when the upcoming FPS/RPG sequel is released. Here's the deal:

there are currently no plans to release the SDK. it would take a long time to get them in a stable, usable state for release, and right now we're already switching the company's focus to shipping thief 3.

Shrapnel Games now offers downloads of five different demos for Dominions II: The Ascension Wars, their now-gold fantasy strategy game. The demos run between 60 and 71 MB, covering Win32, MacOS, Solaris Sparc, Linux (Power PC), and Linux (Intel-based). Word is: "In Dominions 2 players assume the role of a god in a quest to become the One True God. To do this you'll need to raise armies, assassinate enemy leaders, wield powerful magic, and in general crush all non-believers. With up to sixteen other opponents, either AI or human, the competition will be tough but the games played legendary in nature! From the music, to the graphics, to the interface and overall gameplay this is a game of epic proportions."

Wish You Were Here, See You There (thanks Mike Martinez) is an article on the launch of There.com after a lengthy test period. There, Inc. Delivers a Brave New Online World to Consumers (thanks HomeLAN Fed) is the press release on the Sims Online-style game, with a novel-length description of the game's concept, extensive corporate sponsorship, economics (with the game's currency exchangeable for real cash), and its appeal to women.

• Valve
  There's a Marc Laidlaw Q&A on Gaming Nexus Article talking with the Valve writer about his background, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and more.
• Halo
  There's a Halo Q&A on Halo Ops (thanks Frans and HBO) talking with Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford about his own background as well as about their PC version of Bungie's shooter.
• UFO: Aftermath
  There's a UFO: Aftermath Q&A on Rebell.at chatting with ALTAR Interactive's Jiri Rydl about their recently released counter UFO strategy game, discussing future plans as well as the reasons certain design decisions in the game were made.
• Massive Assault
  There's a Massive Assault Q&A on Jolt.co.uk talking with Wargaming.Net president Victor Kislyi about their massive turn-based strategy game, its recent North American release, and its imminent release in the U.K.
• Dark and Light
  RPG Vault's Dark and Light Q&A Part 2 chats with Stephane Quilichini about the quest system, grouping, death, and more, in their upcoming particularly massive online RPG.
• Dark Horizons: Lore
  Warcry News Network's Dark Horizons: Lore talks with Adrian Wright, president of Max Gaming Technologies and lead designer for Dark Horizons: Lore, discussing plans for the upcoming mechanized combat game.
• A Tale in the Desert
  EGCore's Andrew Tepper Q&A chats with the president of eGenesis about A Tale in the Desert, their combat-free MMORPG.

GameSpy.com's XIII Developer Diary Volume 2 is online, in which: "technical director Nathalie Provost talks about creating the game's unique graphical look." The article describes various aspects of how the upcoming first-person shooter's cel-shaded graphics were created, and the combination of effects they are implementing.

• Chrome on Action Vault.
• Darkfall Online on RPG Vault.
• FireStarter on Action Vault.
• Warhammer Online on RPG Vault.

A new version 0.22 of the Multi Theft Auto modification for Grand Theft Auto III is now available. While not yet 100% crash-proof, a majority of unhandled exception errors have been addressed, and the new version of this mod that adds multiplayer support to GTA3 now also adds a stunt mode to the game.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Intel takes axe to P4, Celeron prices.
• Microsoft steers developers to Longhorn.
• Brazil Becomes a Cybercrime Lab (registration required).
• Slashdot | NSA Turns To Commercial Software For Encryption.
• ATI Catalyst 3.8 Editorial on Gamers Depot.
• Number portability may spark switching.
• With Cable TV at M.I.T., Who Needs Napster (registration required)?
• A Case of Piracy Overkill?

There is a Jedi Academy Multiplayer Etiquette multiplayer guide on TechTastic with some quick tips on how to show proper respect for your fellow combatants in the latest Star Wars shooter.

• Ghost Master on GamerDad.
• KnightShift on Strategy Informer and Volari Gamers.
• Max Payne 2: the Fall of Max Payne on Gaming Nexus, The Armchair Empire, and GameGossip.
• No Man's Land on DailyGame.net.
• Savage: the Battle for Newerth on The Entertainment Depot.
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy on The Junkyard and Game Chronicles.

• Altec Lansing AHS-502 Headset on GruntvillE.
• AMD Athlon 64 3200+ and Asus K8V Deluxe Motherboard on Penstarsys.
• AOpen H360 Mini ATX Case on 3dXtreme.
• Asus K8V Deluxe Motherboard on [H]ardOCP.
• Asus P4P800S-E Deluxe (Wireless Edition) i848P Motherboard on Digit-Life.
• Asus Radeon 9800XT Video Card on GamePC.
• Canon EOS 300D Camera on Digit-Life.
• Corsair CMX512-3200LLPRO RAM on Ohls-Place.
• Corsair TwinX1024-4000 Pro Series RAM on ExtremeMhz.
• Crucial Hi-Speed USB 7-in-1 Card Reader on 8Balls Hardware.
• Gigabyte R9800 Pro 256MB video Card on PC Guide.
• Hewlett-Packard iPAQ h2210 PDA on Digit-Life.
• Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 7200 RPM Hard Drive on HardwareZone.
• IceMat Mouse Pad on TechTastic.
• Kingston HyperX 512MB PC4000 RAM on Envy News.
• Maxtor Atlas 15K Hard Disk Drive on X-bit labs.
• MicroSolutions Backpack External DVD±RW on Bjorn3D.
• NVIDIA Quadro FX3000 Video Card on LostCircuits.
• OCZ PC3200 Cas 2 EL Dual Channel Reg. RAM on AMDZone.
• Polaroid PDC3350 Digital Camera on MODSYNERGY.
• Silverstone ST-360W PSU on Ascully.com.
• X-Trac Hammer Mouse Pad on DarkVision Hardware.
• Zalman TNN-500A Heatsink Case on enscape.net.

• Frictionless Insight's 2003 Machinima Film Festival Profile is online, as well as their write-up for The Second Annual Machinima Awards...
• Sony pulls terrorist segment from video game. Thanks Dr. Del...

Will be tweaking stuff around further today, and will be adding a couple of the elements folks are missing, while trying to iron out a couple of browser-specific issues.

Link of the Day:	IFOCE's "One Eater." Thanks Travis.
Stories of the Day:	Women join New York nude photo shoot. Gadget may wreak traffic havoc.
Science!:	Study suggests life sprang from clay.
	Thanks Mike Martinez.