According to the Kemco USA Website, Yager, the eponymous science-fiction aerial combat game from Yager Development, is now available for the PC and Xbox (thanks Frans). Here's a bit:

Ultimate control of your fighter ship is essential. Yager features a complex control system that is both easy to learn and quick to master. Sagittarius has the capability of switching between hover and jet modes so you have even more variability in the ships maneuvering capabilities.

Intense aerial combat, with a combination of dog fighting missions and ground attack objectives.

22 large scale levels! Magnus Tide’s world is enormous with multi-faceted terrain that must be used integrally in the flight strategy depending on the mission objectives. Dive into canyons and soar over mountains but don’t let the impressive landscapes distract you from your task at hand.

The Camelot Herald is where to apply for beta testing of the upcoming Catacombs expansion for Dark Age of Camelot, Mythic Entertainment's MMORPG (thanks Voodoo Extreme). Applications will be accepted until Monday morning, and word is: "From this pool, we will randomly select thousands of players to creep through damp passages, explore hidden worlds and shadowy cities, and generally fight evil."

A new Hidden & Dangerous 2: Sabre Squadron movie is now online, showing off the upcoming expansion for Illusion Softworks' World War II tactical shooter. The clip is available in your choice of two resolutions on 3D Gamers. Also, the MadMinute Games Website now features another movie showing off the American Civil War gameplay in Take Command 1861. Finally, there's an A Tale In The Desert 2 Trailer on the Apple Website along with a MacOS beta of the game client.

• Guild Wars
  The latest Guild Wars Fansite Friday is on TheGuildWars.net, where ArenaNet answers a few more questions about their upcoming MMORPG: "The PvE content is extensive, as we've mentioned before, and has a very deep and involving storyline. PvP will also involve a story, but it's in PvE that you learn the back-story of Tyria, and discover the factions, the shifting loyalties, and the surprising revelations of who is friend and who is foe."
• Project X
  Sector's Project X Q&A talks with Dragan Medencevic of Stardev Studio about Project: X, their mysterious upcoming first-person shooter: "Work on the game really began early 2004. We are still coding parts of the engine (we just began looking at physics, with the 3d engine being mostly complete) and our graphists are working on textures and stuff. We are still far away from release."
• Origin of the Species
  The Origin Of The Species Q&A on Gameguru Mania discusses the upcoming action/adventure game with Colin M. Paterson of Nu Generation Games: "There exist certain black projects within the military, ones outside of the control of the government and the people. A group of local youths camping in the desert will have a ring side seat to witness this disaster in the happening as the DNA mutations quickly grown beyond all expected control. What follows is a young girl's struggle to escape the experiment, save those she care's about and discover the ultimate secret hidden in the depths of the black operation."
• Konung 2
  RPG Vault's Konung 2 Q&A features 1C Company's answers to some questions about their upcoming RPG that includes some RTS elements: "During the three years after the original Konung was released, we were literally attacked by fans demanding a sequel. The official forum was full of messages that included big lists of changes and improvements that visitors would like to see in the new game. Therefore, the main task for the upcoming sequel was to take into account as many of the fan requests as possible, while keeping the foundations of the original game."

The Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight Website now features downloads of a new version 9.1 patch for the latest installment in the long-flying flight-sim series. The update improves stability and framerates while also adding in over 160 missing bridges as well as new auto-gen detail for JFK airport. Thanks Valcor.

A new Call of Duty: United Offensive Linux dedicated server version 1.41e is now available. The new version adds some memory fixes, that hopefully address the Jeep crashing problem. The 474 KB download, which requires the retail game to run, can be found on 3D Gamers.

The Live for Speed Website (thanks Frans) now offers a new Patch H for Live for Speed S1, the realistic racing simulation. There is an incremental patch for those already up to Patch G, a full patch to upgrade any prior version, and a new Version H dedicated server.

The Groove Games Website has news that WWII Sniper: Call to Victory, Jar Head Games' value-priced sniper game, has shipped to stores. To accompany the release, they have launched the game's official website. Thanks Frans.

• Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay on GameSpy/IGN and IGN/GameSpy.
• Dungeon Siege 2 on IGN.
• Empire Earth II on GameSpot and IGN.
• Freedom Force Vs. The Third Reich on GameSpy.
• Hearts of Iron II on Boomtown and IGN.
• Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile on GameSpot.
• Need for Speed Underground 2 on GameDaily.
• Scrapland on 1UP.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl on IGN.
• Star Wars Republic Commando on GameSpy.
• Star Wars: KOTOR II - The Sith Lords on IGN.

A moment of silence please, as the House of Tales Website (thanks Frans) has word, in German, that The Moment of Silence has shipped in Germany. No word is offered on availability of the adventure game in other territories.

The German Restricted Area Website now offers a new version 1.05 patch for the German edition of Master Creating's action role-playing game (thanks YiYas).

Thanks Frans.

• Aurora Watching: Gorky Zero on the Official Website.
• Hearts of Iron 2 on the Paradox Entertainment Website.
• Sid Meier's Pirates! on the Official Website. Thanks Cutlass Isle.
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords on the LucasArts Website.
• TrackMania: Speed-Up! - Local Shots.
• Vatan on GenGamers.
• World of Warcraft on RPG Vault.

Version 1.0 is now available of the Xfire server-browser/instant messenger client for gamers. The new release adds a feature called "Cross-game messaging," that allows messages to be sent to players who are already playing a game, and can even send messages from a player within one game to a player within an entirely different game, with this example offered: "So for the first time, a gamer playing Quake 3 could send messages to a friend playing Everquest or to a friend playing Counter-Strike, and so on."

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Copyright bill dies in US Senate as others advance.
• Judge rejects AMD plea for confidential Intel documents.
• New reason to avoid 'unsubscribe' links. Thanks Ant.
• Intel Shows Off a Web-Surfing Surfboard.
• ATI CEO confirms AMD PCI-E chipsets shipping.
• Bill imposes prison time over 'spyware'.
• FTC stops bogus anti-spyware firm.
• Dell recalls 990,000 notebook AC adapters.
• Irritation-Ware - First do no harm?
• Apple Computer may have rights to Apple name for digital music.
• New Google Service May Strain Old Ties in Bookselling (registration required).
• AOL prepares its own browser. Its own MS browser.
• UK music to sue online 'pirates'. Thanks Simon.
• Coping with a Serious Data Loss from your Computer.
• Google IDs 1993 hit-and-run victim.
• RivaTuner version 2 release candidate 15.2 is now available. Thanks PullMyFinger.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• DOOM 3 for Xbox Neraring Completion.
• Sony CE CTO reveals new PSP details, reassures on release dates.
• Fable creator explains online apology.
• Halo 2 - Can You Hear That?
• Tapwave Zodiac invades Europe.
• 1UP's Nintendo Summit Wrap-up.
• Nintendo's handheld strategy proceeds on a dual track.
• DS Mysteries Unfurl: Wi-Fi Pokemon Wizardry Explained.
• Square Enix Talks Nintendo DS.
• Samurai Finds Way West.
• Get Yer Race On For Cheap.
• Video game dance craze sweeps club.
• Classics back from the dead!
• EA Announces Fifa Street.
• GameMethod's Nintendo Gamer's Summit 2004 Wrap-up.
• For many players, original PlayStation is still number one.

PlanetBattlefield has word that ("Final") version .8 of the Desert Combat modification for Battlefield 1942 is slated for release on October 16. Thanks Steven.

• A Month with a Mac: A Die-Hard PC User's Perspective on AnandTech. Thanks Mike Martinez.
• Rumor Control on GameSpot.
• HomeLAN Fed's The Hard Wire.
• Videogaming Distastefuls.
• Don't Feed the Pirates.

The Unreal Tournament Website now offers a list of finalists for the FPS and Non-FPS categories for Phase 4 of the NVIDIA $1,000,000 Make Something Unreal Contest.

The Server Watch Development Lab now offers version 1.0 of the Server Watch SDK plug-in, which will allow the creation of third-party plug-ins for this server monitoring utility. The SDK is known to work with version 3.5 though version 3.5.2 of the program.

The Human Head Studios Jobs Page (thanks Shacknews) has news of an opening: "We're looking for an experienced level designer for an unannounced Doom3 engine based game. If you think you have what it takes, come check out the details on our Headhunt page."

• Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion on Adrenaline Vault.
• Call of Duty: United Offensive on GamingNext, Gamezilla, and Boomtown.net.
• Codename: Panzers on ActionTrip.
• EverQuest: Omens of War on Warcry.
• Halo: Combat Evolved on GamersInfo.net.
• Kohan II: Kings of War on Gamers Europe.
• Leisure Suit Larry on Gamer's Hell.
• Myst IV Revelation on Quandary.
• Star Wars Battlefront on AuphanOnline.
• Tony Hawk's Underground 2 on ActionTrip, IGN, and Worthplaying.
• TRIBES: Vengeance on Game Over and (first impressions) on RPG Vault.
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War on Game Revolution and Gamer's Hell.

• Antec Neopower 480 PSU on GruntvillE.
• Asetek WaterChill CPU Cooler Antarctica on Overclockers Online.
• BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra Overclocked Video Card on HEXUS.net.
• BTC 9128CRF Wireless Office Keyboard Kit on hi-techreviews.
• Cable-Safe Cable Manager on PimpRig.
• Corsair XMS2 DDR2 PC2-5400 Memory on 3dGameMan.
• D-Link High Speed Home Network Review on Penstarsys.
• Enermax Coolergiant PSU on eXtremeReviews.net.
• GeIL Ultra-X PC3200 Memory on PCStats.
• Logisys Dracula Blue Special Edition Case on Phoronix.
• Moore Medio Media PC on TrustedReviews.
• OCZ Gold PC3700 V3 and EL PC3200 Platinum Rev2 Memory on MADSHRIMPS.
• PowerColor A350A-VF (ATI 9100 IGP Pro) Motherboard on Bjorn3d.
• Sapphire Radeon X800XT Video Card on Rage3D.
• Seagate Savvio 73GB Ultra320 SCSI Hard Drive on Legion Hardware.
• Sunbeam 20W Rheobus "Final Revision" on BurnOutPC.
• Swissbit TwistPro 2GB - USB Memory Key on TrustedReviews.
• Wisetech ATA 100-133 Round IDE Cables on GideonTech.
• X-Micro EVA MP3 Player on nvmax.

• Codemasters has a Club Football 2005 release day patch. The page states it's for the Manchester United version, but it actually works on all PC editions of Club Football 2005...
• Australia And New Zealand To Celebrate Excellence In Computer Games. Thanks Mike Martinez...
• Eidos announces that "Athens 2004 for PC has gone gold!... Athens 2004 will allow you to compete in over a dozen of these Olympic events from track and aquatics to weightlifting and archery... Athens 2004 for PC is shipping to stores across North America on October 12, 2004."...
• Makin' Woohoo. On the phenomenal success of The Sims. Thanks Mike Martinez...
• Aspyr announces that the MacOS edition of Call of Duty: United Offensive, has entered the beta testing phase of its development...
• Doomsday Launcher User Study. Thanks Ant...
• US lawyer links video game to murder plot (thanks Mike Martinez). Guess which one...

Well, it's a bit of an anniversary here, as this site first moved to its own domain here at bluesnews.com eight years ago today. The move came after the site spent the preceding 15-or-so months on my home ISP's webserver, so the frightening implication of the math on this one is that we're not too far off from our 10th anniversary overall... which of course is like a million, in internet years.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for your continued support through thick and thin. Here's to the future... may it be ever thicker (or thinner, whichever one of those is supposed to be the good one).

Play Time:	ai pengo.
Stories of the Day:	Partial solar eclipse is a real time-twister. Monks Seek Homes for St Bernard Rescue Dogs. New PC in Old Mac Clothes.
Science!:	Anniversary launch for 'nanosats'. Drier Times Ahead in the West. Beauty and the Brain.
Media of the Day:	Outrun 2 Flag Guy. Thanks dave.
Follow-ups:	New Breed of Cat Clones to Make Debut at Annual Show (registration required). Shy flower causes stink in Sydney.
	Thanks Mike Martinez.