The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth Designer Diary #4 on GameSpot offers an update from EA LA senior producer Harvard Bonin who goes into how they've tried to create a dynamic game environment from the linear story of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Also, the Missing Since January Dev Diary #2 on Gamer's Hell offers some anecdotes from this game that can be found in stores now (story).

• Close Combat: First to Fight on Gamer's Hell.
• MoH: Pacific Assault Weapons Feature on IGN.
• World of Warcraft Druid Impressions on RPG Vault.
• Virtual Skipper 3 on GameSpot and IGN.

LucasArts Celebrates Star Wars Galaxies An Empire Divided One Year Anniversary celebrates the MMORPG's anniversary and announces a veteran reward program when the game's spaceflight expansion takes off: "With the launch of Jump to Lightspeed, players who have maintained an active account for at least six consecutive months will be given special access to a luxury starship. 'This luxury starship will allow veteran players to venture into space with their friends and explore in comfort and style,' Blackman added. The space yacht, which is used in Star Wars® fiction by wealthy and dashing characters such as Lando Calrissian, is only the first of many rewards planned for veteran players."

• Dark Matter on MGW.
• Perimeter on Action Vault.
• Pirates of the Burning Sea on the Official Website. Thanks Frans.
• The Saga of Ryzom on RPG Vault.
• Shade: Wrath of Angels on e-Sports.cz.

FilePlanet (registration required) is now signing up folks interested in participating in the closed beta testing of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, the upcoming Warhammer-based real-time strategy game.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• CPU-Z version 1.23 is now available. Thanks File Flash.
• AnandTech: Intel Celeron D New, Improved & Exceeds Expectations.
• NVIDIA SLI First Looks on Gamer's Depot, Glide Underground, Neoseeker, and The Tech Report.

A new patch is now available for The Suffering, addressing several bugs in the PC edition of Surreal's horror game. The version 1.01 is a 4 MB download, available on ActionTrip, Gamer's Hell, and Worthplaying.

IcculusFinger now points the way to new version 2225.3 MacOSX and Linux patches for Unreal Tournament 2003, closing off the recently publicized exploit (story). Word is: "The Linux one has about a million changes over the stock 2225, since it's got all the MacOSX work on top of it. Consider it beta. The Mac version has one or two fixes, so it's worth updating." Both patches are mirrored on 3D Gamers.

Blizzard announces when sign-ups will begin for the closed European beta for World of Warcraft:

IRVINE, California - June 28, 2004 - Blizzard Entertainment today announced July 5th as the date players can start signing up for the European closed beta of its eagerly awaited MMORPG, World of Warcraft(tm). Potential testers will be able to register online through the official European Blizzard Web sites for the English-, French-, and German-speaking markets: www.blizzard.co.uk /www.blizzard.fr /www.blizzard.de. The final selection of testers will be chosen randomly to ensure a broad base of playing skills, locations, and system requirements to address compatibility and game-play issues. All submissions will receive equal consideration at any time throughout the sign-up period, which will run for approximately three weeks.

Aspyr Media announces that Battlefield 1942 for the Macintosh has shipped to stores, a package that also includes the Road to Rome expansion pack. The press release touts the World War II shooter's authentic vehicles and robust multiplayer play, but in fairness, overplays its "incredible single player action."

TDK Mediactive has released a Super Race Truck as an add-on car for World Racing. The truck is a 754 KB download, available on 3D Gamers, GameCenter.cz, and Gamer's Hell.

The Warlords Battlecry III Downloads Page now offers downloads of a new patch, updating the role-playing RTS game to version 1.01. The update introduces a bunch of bug-fixes, balance changes, and other assorted tweaks. Thanks =NaS=FURY.SWEDEN.

Lancers Reactor now offers downloads of an unofficial patch for Freelancer, a fan-created update for Digital Anvil's space sim. The update addresses a few long-standing problems, and word is: "All modders are encouraged to use this package. You are allowed to use it as a whole or parts in your mods. If you’ve already edited system files in place, the detailed information makes it very easy to patch your own system files on the fly." Thanks Frans.

• City of Heroes
  HomeLAN Fed's City Of Heroes Update Q&A talks with NCSoft's Chris Julian to learn more about how City of Heroes, their superhero MMORPG, will progress going forward: "In Issue #1, we’ve got new zones, new villain groups, a costume tailor for changing your look, and random indoor 5th Column and Circle of Thorns missions will be equipped with holding cells for defeated heroes. There are also instanced outdoor missions and a sewer trial room. For a free update, this one is pretty beefy."
• Sabotain
  The Sabotain: Break The Rules Q&A on GenGamers talks with Avalon Style Entertainment's Serge Aldoukhov about progress on their upcoming RPG/first-person shooter: "The main point is that Sabotain is actually a mixture of RPG and shooter. Besides there is very deep immersion into the story with lot’s of talking. So the role-playing system allows to play two types of a Hero – a commando with stronger arms abilities or an female assassin with more sneaky skills."
• Ryzom
  The Nevrax Q&A on Experience Gaming talks with David Cohen Corval of Nevrax about Saga of Ryzom, their upcoming MMORPG. Here's a bit on why they are making their engine OpenSource: "We decided to use the open source approach for our core technologies because it makes sense to maintain and keep fresh, robust yet flexible and evolving technologies (which are the tools we use to build games)."
• Ron Loo
  The Ron Loo Q&A on Adventure Gamers talks with Peregrius' Pavel Cernohous about Ron Loo, their upcoming point-and-click adventure game.

The Black & White 2 Dev Diary #9 on GameSpy is online as "John Mclean-Foremen revisits the story of Black & White 2 detailing how it was developed." The diary includes a spoiler warning saying that those who do not want too much of the game's plot revealed in advance will not want to read through this entry.

• Close Combat: First to Fight on NoMansLand Network.
• D-Day on ninja grapefruit.
• Knight Online on Boomtown.
• Star Wars: KOTOR II - The Sith Lords on LucasFiles.

• Sabotain: Break The Rules on GenGamers.

The Ubisoft Solution Center now offers downloads of a new patch for Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, addressing problems some owners of NVIDIA GeForce 6800 cards are experiencing running the game. Thanks YiYas.

• Nintendo Rocks The US!
• Grand Theft Auto San Andreas offline confirmed.

There's a No Brakes 4x4 Racing Demo demonstrating this racing game from Exotypos, mirrored on Gamer's Hell. Also, there's an Electric Billy demo on Gamer's Hell showing off this puzzle game from StuGroup. Finally, Galactic Federation has been released, a space strategy game with a demo that can be found on Gamer's Hell.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Slashdot | Nvidia Reintroduces SLI with GeForce 6800 Series. Thanks nin.
• Intel shaves a buck off certain Centrinos.
• Intel preps i925XE chipset with gigahertz.
• Microsoft to release next version of CE.
• EU suspends Microsoft sanctions.
• Slashdot | CERT Recommends Mozilla, Firefox.
• HP says as many as 900,000 notebooks buggy.
• Wi-Fi finds the way when GPS can't.
• One Small Step in Uphill Fight as Linux Adds a Media Player (registration required).
• This Infestation Brought to You By.... - Digging into the spyware money web.
• Ethical Hacking Is No Oxymoron.
• Huge Gaps in Europe's ITunes.
• Macromedia Takes Flash Mobile.
• Official downloads chart launches.

The Unreal Tournament 2004 Combat Guide on VIA Gamers Website offers deathmatch tips for UT2004.

• Ballance on Adrenaline Vault.
• Beyond the Law: The Third Wave on The Armchair Empire.
• Blitzkrieg: Burning Horizon on games xtreme.
• City of Heroes on Multiplayer Online Games Directory.
• Ground Control II: Operation Exodus on Gameguru Mania.
• Painkiller on VIA Gamers Arena.
• Syberia II on Stratos Group.
• Thief: Deadly Shadows on Computer Games Romania.
• TrackMania: Power Up on DeadAlfs.
• True Crime: Streets of L.A. on The Armchair Empire.
• Warlords Battlecry III on GameBiz.com.au.

• BFG 6800 Ultra OC Video Card on Envy News.
• Corsair XMS3200 XL Memory on GamePC.
• eVGA NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Personal Cinema on nV News.
• HIS Excalibur AIW 9600XT TURBO Video Card on Bjorn3d.
• Poseidon WCL-03 CPU Water Cooler on Bigbruin.
• Razer Boomslang Speed and Razer Viper Mice on Glide Underground.
• Razer Boomslang Mouse on ipKonfig.
• RCA Lyra RD2780 on WhiningDog.NET.
• Shuttle AN51R (nF3-250) Motherboard on t-break.
• Victorinox Swissbit Swissmemory USB on modtown.
• Thermaltake CL-P0006 Pipe101 Heatsink on SystemCooling.
• Thermaltake Silent Boost K7 Cooler on PC Mods.
• Vapochill Lightspeed Evaporator on xtremesystems.
• VIA EPIA MII Motherboard on Tweaknews.net and ViperLair.
• Voodoo Envy M:860 - Gaming Notebook on TrustedReviews.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Pursuing the Libido's Dark Side. On rape in online games...
• Better Science Through Gaming...
• Boy inspires cancer video game...

I am still on quite a roll of having devices die at my hands... yesterday I was giving the lawn an overdue mowing when the little handle you pull to start the mower fell beneath its blades. Not only did this replace the pull handle with a much less graspable handful of tattered string, but also managed to tangle something within, leaving the mower un-startable. The good news is that lawn mowers are one of the few devices that one repairs rather than replaces these days, but that's the bad news as well, as if it's a couple of weeks before we get it back from the shop, we may have the beginnings of a rain forest in the back yard.

Stories of the Day:	Iranian woman 'gives birth to frog'. Thanks Brian Woods. Smells that sell not to be sniffed at. Judge Says Artist Can Make Fun of Barbie (registration required).
Science!:	The Trillion-Barrel Tar Pit. Scientists claim to discover new fish. Thanks yonder.
Media of the Day:	Mountain Dew Spy vs. Spy. Thanks yonder.
Auction of the Day:	A box of air. Thanks Dr. Stephanheimer.
Follow-ups:	Beach blob mystery solved at last. USDA retesting animal for mad cow.
	Thanks Mike Martinez