The Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault Website (thanks Frans) announces that the game has been pushed back to a November release, a minor setback from the previous plan to have the World War II shooter sequel come out next month:

EA has listened to the feedback of critics and consumers who have played an early build of Medal of Honor Pacific Assault; their high expectations encouraged us add some extra time to the development schedule in order to add new features and an extra coat of polish to the game.

Medal of Honor fans will benefit from some exciting additions. For the first time in the history of the series, players will be able to control their squad in the heat of battle, enjoying greater tactical maneuvering through a new feature called Combat Squad Control.

With Combat Squad Control, gamers under siege can bark orders on the fly, using only a single keystroke to order squad-mates to "Advance!", "Fall Back!", "Give Suppression Fire!" or "Assemble!" We believe that adding this new feature and giving the game more time for polish will pay out. It will help us build on the integrity of one of the greatest franchises in gaming.

This Battlefield Vietnam Community Update features a patch to address a crashing problem on servers with XML logging turned on caused by some sort of conflict connected with NVA spawn tunnels (thanks Frans). The post goes on to describe the final stages of testing currently being conducted on an updated Mod Development Toolkit update and accompanying version 1.1 debug executable. They offer a peek at new features from the new tools, which are expected to be released sometime next week. Also, the corresponding updated Battlefield Vietnam Linux server is now available on the Battlefield Dedicated Server Forum.

• MoH: Pacific Assault
  Another new Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault Developer Diary is now online (thanks Frans). This "Special Edition" diary is penned by TKO Software's Jeff Zaring, lead level designer on the multiplayer component of the upcoming World War II shooter sequel. In what may be considered an unfortunately timed entry in light of the game's just-announced delay (story), Jeff describes the extremes they went to in order to prepare a pre-beta version of the game for a tournament at the recent CPL event, though perhaps this was the showing of the early build that spurred the delay decision.
• Cold War
  Voodoo Extreme's Cold War Developer Diary, Vol. 3 is online, with "Karel Papik on creating a realistic communist Russian environment in Mindware's espionage-themed tactical title."
• Dawn of War
  The Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Developer Diary #3 on GameSpot is written by Relic designer Andrew Chambers, on the subject of "Creating the Campaign" in the upcoming Warhammer RTS game.
• Atriarch
  A new Atriarch Development Update is online, on the subject of "tracking gazillions of unique objects in a single, stable, massive, seamless world."
• Knights of Honor
  The debut Knights of Honor Developer Diary is online, though rather than recounting a tale of development from the upcoming real-time strategy game, the diary offers a brief Q&A to acquaint us with lead programmer Panayot Vaniozdravov Yanazov, A.K.A., "Otto."

Myst IV demo premieres Monday on GameSpot has news to expect a demo of the next installment in Cyan's adventure series next week. Word is: "The demo plops players in Atrus' room, which contains a number of objects, a trademark Myst puzzle, and an FMV flashback of Atrus' daughter."

The Chaos League Website (thanks Frans) heralds the availability of the fantasy-themed sporting game in the UK: "It's August the 6th 2004, which means you can go down to your local game shop and pick up your copy of Chaos League complete with bonus demo and UK exclusive comic. Its time to rise through the ranks of the Chaos League and take your team to the very top. The pig is on the field, let the new season begin."

• Neverwinter Nights 2
  Neverwinter Vault's NWN2 Interview with BioWare CEOs talks with Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, the pair of doctors that share the CEO position at BioWare, to learn more about plans for Neverwinter Nights 2. Likewise, Neverwinter Nights 2 First Details on IGN is an article format conversation with BioWare and Obsidian on the project. Not to be left out (all three of these Q&A's are from the same company after all), the Neverwinter Nights 2 Q&A on GameSpy talks about the game with Obsidian's Feargus Urquhart.
• Ultima Online: Samurai Empire
  RPG Vault's Ultima Online: Samurai Empire Q&A, Part 1 chats with Anthony Castoro about the upcoming expansion that will add Japanese-themed content to the MMORPG: "Samurai Empire is largely a content expansion made to give more to our current players while we also work on the larger vision for UO. So in many ways, it is a conservative expansion and not a radical one. It gives our players exactly what they tell us they want - new lands to explore, new professions to choose from, and new items and loot to acquire."
• Stalin Subway
  Gamona.de's Stalin Subway Q&A talks with Nickolay Sitnickov and Vlad Suglobov of G5 Software to discuss their cold war shooter: "The Stalin Subway is a realistic historical first person shooter the actions of which take place in Moscow of 1952. The Soviet Union is still ruled by Iosif Stalin – the general secretary of the Communist Party. He is already 72 but still at the helm and able to hold everybody in awe."
• Diabolique: License to Sin
  It’ll be Hell on Earth if the Devil Has His Way in "Diabolique: License to Sin" on GameZone is a Q&A with Grzegorz Miechowski about Metropolis Software's just-announced project: "It's an action game, sneak-em-up mixed with heavy combat. Player needs to infiltrate enemy terrain, use his powers and gadgets. It sounds very typical, but... remember, that our hero is supernatural ;)"

The fourth installment in the "inside the battle" series of movies for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth is now available. The "Building Middle-earth" clip is available in a few different sizes in both QuickTime and Windows Media Player formats, one or more of which can be found on 3D Gamers, Computer Games Online, and FileFront. Also, a new Worms Forts: Under Siege movie is now available, showing off the next installment in Team17's squirmy strategy series. This clip is a 9 MB download, available on 3D Gamers.

• Torrente on GameZone.
• Zoo Tycoon 2 on GameSpot.

Thanks Frans.

• Hearts of Iron 2 on the Official Website.
• Neocron: Beyond Dome of York (Wallpaper) on MGW.
• Starship Troopers on the Strangelite Website.
• Universal Combat: Hold the Line on the Official Website.
• War World on the Official Website.
• World of Warcraft on RPG Vault.

The Silent Hunter III Chat Log (thanks Frans) recaps an IRC session where the developers on the upcoming submarine sequel surface long enough to be hit by a few salvos of questions. The log is organized into a Q&A format, covering various intricate details about gameplay.

• XP SP2 Hits RTM - Awaited Security update arrives. Thanks Ant.
• Big Chip Players Better Suited to Weather Downturn.
• More Investor Doubts Cloud Google IPO.
• Record Industry Faces Duel Over New 'DualDiscs'.
• Court Opposes Jail 'Reality Show' on Web.
• Computer Users Share Private Files with Their MP3s.

This DOOM 3 and Winex CVS Instruction Page outlines how to get DOOM 3 up and running under Linux with the help of the WINE not-emulator. The method "requires a lot of work and a good deal of klugery" in the words of Agrajag, who sent this along, but it does provide a chance for those with penguin-powered PCs to check out the game while waiting for the promised official Linux version.

• QuakeCon
  HomeLAN Fed's QuakeCon Q&A talks with id Software's Marty Stratton about plans for QuakeCon: "We'll have a list of panels and seminars posted on the website in the next couple days, but some of the highlights will be the traditional id keynote, a Q&A with DOOM 3 lead programmer Robert Duffy on making DOOM 3 mods, as well as Kyle Bennett from [H]ardOCP with his hugely popular hardware workshop. ... No, we will not be showing anything from QUAKE IV this year. We will however have the fantastic DOOM 3 Xbox content, that was shown at E3 this year, available for fans to play at the Activision booth."
• American McGee
  HomeLAN Fed's Chat with American McGee recaps a phone conversation with the designer to assess the multitude of projects his company is developing. Included are details on City of the Dead, Scrapland, and Bad Day LA.
• Knight Rider II
  HomeLAN Fed's Knight Rider II Q&A tracks down Lambert Wolterbeek Muller of Davilex about the upcoming TV show game sequel: "We were very pleased with the reactions we received. Most people were very positive. We also looked very closely at the less positive remarks about the game to learn from it and to make sure Knight Rider 2 will become an better game then its predecessor and a worthy tribute to the Knight Rider TV series."
• Return to Mysterious Island
  There's a Return to Mysterious Island Q&A on Warcry News Network talking with Benoît Josjan, president of Kheops Studio, about the fine-tuning process for their upcoming adventure game sequel: "We spend a lot of time defining an intuitive, mouse-only, user interface and pay a lot of attention to ergonomics. This is particularly difficult if we try to introduce something new. For example, in Return to Mysterious Island, we have an inventory that works like a laboratory where it is possible to compose/decompose items with each other. We are waiting for player feedback to check if we succeeded."
• DTP
  The DTP Q&A on RPGDot talks with Christopher Kellner from the German publisher, along the way discussing Dungeon Lords, The Moment of Silence, and Sherlock Holmes: The Silver Earring.
• Paraworld
  The Paraworld Q&A on Gamers With Jobs talks with Carolin Batke of SEK about Paraworld, their upcoming RTS game: "Our 3D engine is called PEST and was specifically designed and developed to be used in strategy titles and RPGs. That said, it's capable of managing and displaying an abundance of objects at a time. And still, one should be able to turn and move the camera around freely and zoom in on something very closely. Which means that objects have to be detailed enough. An example of that would be character models, which can consist of up to 6000 polygons in the PEST engine – despite many units being on the screen at the same time."

Last report we had on a projected release date for Operation Flashpoint 2 was 2005 "at the earliest" according to a story published in September 2003 (story). It turns out the Operation Flashpoint 2 Website was updated shortly thereafter with another updated release date for Bohemia Interactive Studios' upcoming shooter sequel that went unnoticed at the time (thanks GenGamers), as the image there says: "Coming Spring 2006."

• Battlefield 2 on Yahoo! Games Domain.

The Official Sacred Website now offers new beta version 1.7.31 patches for the various language editions of Sacred. This forum thread tracks what's up with the beta, though it's currently lagging a couple of revisions behind. Also, a new patch for the German edition of Gotcha the Game is now available, updating the paintball simulator to version 1.2 This page offers details (in German) on what's included in the update. Thanks Frans.

The Qtracker Homepage now offers a new version 3.81 of the Qtracker server browsing utility. The new release addresses some bugs, while adding the timely feature of DOOM 3 support.

A quickie Duct Tape modification for DOOM 3 is now available. The mod addresses the absence of this essential tool and provides the ability to attach your flashlight to your machine gun.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• When does Doom 3 Need a Fast CPU? on AnandTech.
• Doom 3 Graphics Deathmatch on AnandTech. Thanks Hammer.
• DOOM 3 high-end graphics comparo on The Tech Report.
• HomeLAN Fed's Doom 3 Zboard Q&A.
• Image flaw pierces PC security.
• Security Update CD program cancelled.
• Microsoft on verge of releasing XP Service Pack 2.
• Order Windows XP Service Pack 2 on CD.
• Nvidia sees profits, revenue decline.
• Yahoo sued over anonymous abuse.
• State AGs warn file-sharing companies.
• Security Cavities Ail Bluetooth.
• Loving Google but Not Its Public Offering (registration required).
• Computer science school breaks with tradition.
• Whimsy on a Child's Desk With Signature Mouse Ears (registration required).
• Fark Sells Out. France Surrenders.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Toby Gard tapped by Crystal Dynamics?
• Full PS3 specs promised in March 2005.
• Pixar strikes multi-game deal with THQ.
• Sony signs hockey great Gretzky for PlayStation 2 game.
• Nintendo Target Female Gamers. Zelda to be even "princessier."
• PlayStation launches Athens 2004 game News Site.
• Call of Duty: Finest Hour Screenshots.
• KuruKuru Squash Details.
• Pure Pinball Set to Ship.
• Street Racing Syndicate Gameplay Movies.
• GTA: San Andreas Preview on Game Chronicles.
• GameLoft Q&A on Experience Gaming.
• SNK Neo Geo Q&A on Xequted.

Bjorn3d.com's Fragapalooza Coverage is online, recapping the action at the big Canadian LAN soiree.

Beyond3D's DOOM3 FAQ and Tips Thread has performance tips and tweaks, including a response from John Carmack about using NVIDIA's "UltraShadow." Also, the sidebar on the Groove Games Website (thanks Frans) now offers a game guide for Marine Sharpshooter II: Jungle Warfare in Adobe Acrobat format.

• Chaos League on Computer and Video Games.
• Crusader Kings on Gaming Age.
• DOOM 3 on IGN, GamePro, Gameplanet NZ, FiringSquad, Game Industry, Games Domain, Bjorn3D, (multiplayer impressions) on GameInformer, and (first impressions) on Game Club Central.
• Ground Control II: Operation Exodus on GameAxis.
• Spider-Man 2 on Gamers Depot.
• The Suffering on Game Over.
• Thief: Deadly Shadows on The Wargamer.

• Aspire AS500W 12V ATX PSU on TechFreaks.
• ASUS WL330 Wireless Portable Access Point on LostCircuits, Tech Advice Guide.
• Buffalo Firestix FSX5000V DDR Memory on PCStats.
• Coolmax Taurus 140mm Silent Switching PSU on Hardware Hounds.
• Dell Dimension XPS Gaming PC on TrustedReviews.
• DVD Burner round-up on TechSpot.
• Enermax ATX Sea Hawk CS-656TA Case on 3DXtreme.
• FIC Condor SFF System on Designtechnica.
• HP ZT3201 Laptop on Overclockers Online.
• Klipsch ProMedia 4.1 Speaker System on Bona Fide Reviews.
• OCZ Enhanced VGA & HDD Power Leads on OcPrices.
• OCZ Gold PC4000 Memory on InsaneTek.
• Opus Technologies TT-501 Titanium Tiny Case on NewsTechInfo.
• Plextor PX-708A DVD±RW/DVD±R Drive on Voided Warranty.
• Plextor PX-712SA DVD±RW/DVD±R Drive on Gamer's Depot.
• Razer eXactMat Mousing Surface on hi-techreviews.
• Shuttle SB81P XPC on bit-tech.net.
• Thermaltake Twv-480W PSU on Red & Blackness.
• Transcend JetFlash DSC Camera on Phoronix.
• Transcend Wireless 128MB JetFlash USB Drive on PCStats.
• Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU on ViperLair.
• X-Micro EVA Portable Audio Player on CoolTechZone.

• In the Background, a Man in the Gaming Forefront (registration required) is a NY Times profile on John Carmack, id Software and DOOM 3, in roughly that order. Thanks Mike Martinez...
• Aspyr sends word that Spider-Man 2 for the Macintosh is gold, and is expected in stores by August 20...
• Konami to release Silent Hill 4 soundtrack. Thanks Mike Martinez...
• BioWare trademarks new game engine. NWN2 to use the "Eclipse Engine"...

Man... a midnight snack of Doritos was a really bad call... two Alka Seltzers and a Pepcid later and my heartburn has almost (*burp*) abated. Damn those tempting chips and their deadly powdery coating!

Play Time:	Eagle Eye Archery Flash Game. Thanks Jim Chaney.
Stories of the Day:	Tech '54, Where Are You? New Reality Show Helps Immigrants Get Green Cards. Thanks Kar Hlava.
Science!:	Lecturer shuts door on draughts. Mysteries of the Ocean Deepen. Less-than-risky business?
Image of the Day:	UserFriendly. Thanks Ant.
Auction of the Day:	Broken Damaged Non Working Out Of Commision Kaput X BOX.
Follow-up:	Spacecraft Finds Belt Around Saturn Unlike Any Ever Seen Before (registration required). Da Vinci Gambles on X Prize.
	Thanks Mike Martinez