The official Fantastic 4: The Game Website is live, a Flash home to the upcoming game based on the upcoming movie based on the classic comic series. The site launches the Fantastic Four Sweepstakes, which has a grand prize of Fantastic Four #1 autographed by Jack 'King' Kirby. Please don't enter the competition so I can win myself. Thank you. Also, the official Total Overdose Website is online (thanks Frans), a Flash home to Deadline's upcoming drug war game, offering some info, screenshots, and a coming soon Easter egg dealie.

Artematica Entertainment announces plans for Ducati World Championship, a PC and Xbox motorcycle racing game with content licensed from the Italian bike manufacturer:

After the sales successs of MARTIN MYSTÈRE, Artematica is proud to present: DUCATI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, a 360° view into the world of motorcycle racing allowing you to take up a career as a pilot racing in the amateur, semi professional and professional racing classes, intent on reaching the Superbike and the Grand World Championship.
The prestigous licenses of Ducati World Championship:
    • DUCATI,
    • DUCATI CORSE,
    • LORIS CAPIROSSI,
    • DR. COSTA and the MOBILE CLINICA,
    • LACUNA COIL, famous 'gothic metal' music group, authors of the SWAMPED

Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. – Official Licensed Product

Developed with RENDERWARE technology, for the XBOX and PC

• Coverage: Loadedinc's Day Two. MMOG Info's Day Two and Day Three. FileFront. Gaming Illustrated.
• NCSoft E3 2005 Impressions on MMORPG.COM.
• Old Guy/PC Gamer Attends E3, Survives Relentless Assault on Senses.

The N-Fusion Website now features a new patch for Elite Warriors: Vietnam, updating the tactical military shooter to version 1.03 (thanks Frans). Word is: "This 3mb patch fixes many multiplayer issues, as well as several bugs and balance issues in single player. Note that some save games from 1.00 may not load, if you find a save game that causes the game to quit out it is suggested you delete it."

A new version 2.1 patch is now available, addressing some performance issues in the most recent sample of Juice Games' racing sim. The download is available on 3D Gamers and FilePlanet (registration required).

Thanks Frans.

• Quake 4
  IGN's Quake 4 Video Page now features a video interview with Todd Hollenshead in which the id software CEO discusses Quake 4, the upcoming shooter sequel in the works at Raven Software.
• Gene Troopers
  The Gene Troopers E3 movie is now available, showing off Cauldron's upcoming first-person shooter. The 32 MB download is available on 3D Gamers and FileFront.
• Knights of the Temple II
  More of what's cooking at Cauldron is on display in the Knights of the Temple II E3 movie, a 27 MB download, available on 3D Gamers and FileFront.
• El Matador
  The El Matador Product Page now offers the E3 movie from the upcoming stealthy shooter, along with a batch of new screenshots from the game.
• UFO: Aftershock
  The UFO: Aftershock Product Page likewise now features the E3 movie and some screenshots from the upcoming counter-UFO sequel.

• Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures on RPG Vault.
• Alan Wake on Eurogamer.
• Anarchy Online: Lost Eden on GameSpot.
• Battlefield 2 on SuburbanWarfare.Net. Including a ShakyCam movie of a bridge getting blown up real good.
• Dark and Light on GameSpot and MMORPG.COM.
• Fear Factor: Unleashed on IGN.
• Heaven vs. Hell on GameSpot.
• Operation Flashpoint 2 on SimHQ, TotalVideoGames, and WW2EC. Thanks MATRA.
• The Movies on Boomtown.
• Out of the Park Baseball 2005 on GameSpy.
• Scarface: The World is Yours on Gamer's Hell.
• The Witcher on GameSpot and Review Outpost.

This Ubisoft Download Page offers a new patch for Settlers IV, updating BlueByte's management/strategy game to version 1516a. The update fixes a startup crash that impacted some systems. Thanks Frans.

• Chaos League: Sudden Death on Game-instructions.com.
• ER on Game-instructions.com.
• The Lord of the Rings Online on the Official Website. Thanks Frans.

Fully Interactive Surfaces has the release of a proof-of-concept of the Terminal DOOM modification for DOOM 3, which is sort of a DOOM port as well, as it allows the original DOOM to be brought up on a terminal within DOOM 3. There are documents and screenshots to explain all this, though the "Outlook" section makes it sound fairly moot: "To use the full potential of interactive surfaces for designing interaction and innovating gameplay, the feedback loop has to be closed: player inputs fed into a terminal have to change the game world's state in a way that affects the player directly and immediately. Terminal DOOM does not feed back into DOOM3 in any meaningful way - as a mod, it has no lasting value."

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Just how backwards compatible is the Xbox 360?
• Infinium Labs Needs Money Gizmodo.
• Hideo Kojima Interview on Boomtown.
• IBM will unlock door to Cell.
• Epic Offers Unreal Deal For PS3.
• Sega's Fifth Phantom Saga.
• Game with Fame - Seether.
• Old school works for Sega.
• Sega hints at future next-gen projects.
• Autodesk Jumps on PS3 Bandwagon.
• The Generation NEX.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Question: Are you excited about the Gizmondo?
• RPG Vault's Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade Q&A.
• Gameboy Retrospective.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Intel's Mix-and-Match Computing.
• AMD Geode Takes Desktop Power to Consumer Electronics.
• AMD's Athlon 64 X2 4800+ & 4200+ Dual Core Performance Preview.
• Microsoft SP2 makes Windows 15 times safer. Thanks Ant.
• Wi-Fi standard impasse makes 802.11n merger likely.
• Gates: No AV, No Problem - So then why buy Microsoft OneCare?
• Prodisc Boosts DVD-R Capacity.
• Mass Confusion about NVIDIA's G70.
• Lead Google engineer heads for the stars.
• Samsung Takes Flash to the Next Level with First NAND Disk.
• Torrent Search Engines - Begin bending to DMCA takedown requests.
• What Happened to Bush's Broadband Plan? Critics decry lack of national broadband vision.
• Cox to Offer 15Mbps Speeds - But so far only in Northern Virginia.
• iPodlounger creates iPod coffee table.
• The Internet goes Greek.
• My Family, My Movie.
• Close Encounters of the Worst Kind.
• As Cartoons Go Digital, Something Gets Lost.

As noted in the .plan file of id programmer Timothee Besset, a new version 1.3 patch is now available for DOOM 3 for Windows accompanied by an updated SDK and a new Linux client/server. The new Linux version adds support for the Resurrection of Evil expansion, and the SDK now incorporates support for the add-on as well. Additionally the new version adds PunkBuster support EAX 4.0 support, bug fixes, and more. Some or all of the downloads are available on 3D Gamers, FileFront, FileShack (registration required), Gameguru Mania, Gamer's Hell, and Worthplaying.

Though Gears of War has only been announced for the Xbox 360, Microsoft's J Allard on Xbox 360 on Eurogamer (thanks Tiscali Games) seems to let the cat out of the bag with the Xbox chief's answer to one question about Epic's upcoming action game:

Eurogamer: But is that exclusive to Xbox?

J Allard: It's Xbox and PC.

An updated demo for The Bard's Tale is now available, offering an updated chance to sample inXile's wacky RPG remake. The update adds a tutorial and improves the installer. The 265 MB download is available on 3D Gamers, FileFront, Fragland.net, Gameguru Mania, Gamer's Hell, Happy Puppy (registration required), and Worthplaying.

This Sierra Entertainment Downloads Page features a movie with back-to-back F.E.A.R. and Scarface as well as console games The Incredible Hulk and Crash Tag Team Racing (thanks Frans). Also, the Alpha Prime teaser website now offers downloads of a new trailer showing off the Meqon physics in Black Element Software's upcoming first-person shooter. The movie is an 18 MB download. Finally, a new Scratches movie is online, showing off more of the upcoming 3D adventure. The clip can be found on the Nucleosys Website.

The Settlers: Heritage of Kings Website has word on plans for a Settlers V expansion, due for release on June 24. No title is provided, but the immediacy of the release date seems to indicate this is the expansion already released in Germany under the title Nebelreich. Here's the deal:

Today, Ubisoft, one of the world’s leading videogame publishers, announces The Settlers: Heritage of Kings Expansion Disk, a new add-on for The Settlers: Heritage of Kings, the popular construction-based strategy game series.

The expansion pack extends the story of the original game with a fresh campaign, additional units and buildings, new gameplay features, a map editor and three exclusive heroes.

Storyline:

After Kerberos´ defeat, the Old Kingdom is led by its legitimate leader, Dario. His realm has regained peace since the evil attack of the Dark Knight and is prospering in harmony. But not the whole of the kingdom is peaceful. Rebellions have been reported from a construction site and one of Dario’s closest companions has been murdered. A new danger appears clearly on the horizon, and once again it is Dario who has to fight for his heritage and the peace of his country’s residents.

Game features include:
    • A fresh campaign : Discover a mysterious and unknown land and decide its fate in nine missions
    • Original Single and Multiplayer maps: Play on more than ten single and multiplayer maps
    • Three exclusive playable heroes: Three characters will fight with Dario throughout the campaign and in multiplayer games- one good, one evil and one hero who changes from Saulus to Paulus
    • Build bridges: This new gameplay feature enables players to build bridges at several points on the maps to gain a strategical advantage for exploiting resources or in battle (stone bridges, drawbridges, plus one special mission bridge).
    • Brand-new fighting unit: Riflemen
    • Enhancement of landscapes and weather effects: swamps and steppe landscapes create a different, mystical dark atmosphere
    • Map editor: enables the player to create his own scenarios

• E3 2005 Compiled Coverage on Gamers With Jobs.
• Music Games Rock Out at E3. Thanks Mike Martinez.
• E3 Report- New Practices in Licensing and Ancillary Rights.
• E3 2005 Awards on MMORPG.COM.
• LANmaniac Photo Gallery Day 3.

• Hammer and Sickle
  Gamecloud's Hammer and Sickle Q&A converses with Dmitri 'Zak' Zakharov of Nival Interactive about their upcoming Silent Storm game: "Let’s put it that way: it will be more thinking oriented. Before taking each action, especially aggressive actions, you will have to think over all 'fors' and 'contras'. The man you are going to attack now might be very useful to you in the future, and the fire-fight in the town streets may attract attention of the patrol, which you want to avoid. Since you are a Soviet agent undercover, you have to behave with great accuracy. There is a “Inadequate Behaviour meter' in the game that counts all cases of armed clashes with authorities or violence against civilians. If it reaches a threshold value, the American service decides that Soviets have activated their sabotage actions to get ready for the WWIII, and the war starts."
• HoMM 5
  StrategyCore's Heroes of Might and Magic 5 Q&A (conducted along with Celestial Heavens) discusses Nival's upcoming continuation of the long-running turn-based strategy series: "Since we're on the subject, I'd like to say a few words about Ghost Mode. We haven't discussed that earlier. There will be a mode in multiplayer that basically allows you to play even if it's not your turn. The problem with multiplayer in turn-based games is that you spend most of your time waiting for the opponent to finish his turn. It's basically a hotseat mode, where the opponent is under pressure and can thus not spend eternity finishing his turn."
• Future Force Commander
  Gamecloud's Future Force Commander Q&A discusses Zombie's plans for a commercial release of their project created for the U.S. Army: "The ultimate goal is to give the user real insight about FCS operational capabilities. FCS has myriad systems, each of which has unique capabilities. These stand-alone capabilities will be demonstrated in the game. More importantly, however, the game will show how all of these systems operating in tandem can create a force multiplier beyond anything that has ever existed in the battlespace. This is truly cutting-edge stuff; it’s very exciting."
• Night Watch
  Gamecloud's Night Watch Q&A talks with Nival Interactive's Max Vakhrushev about their book/movie tie-in RTS game: "We created our own original plot as we wanted the story of the game to be interesting and thrilling with unsuspected intrigues, in the traditions of the original book (by the way, Sergey Lukyanenko participated in creating the story of the game). Should we make the game by the plot of the movie, we wouldn’t be able to keep any intrigue. Yet the game has some parallels to the movie – you will meet some familiar characters and learn more about some of the movie events, as in the game they will be shown from a different angle. So the game and the movie will have points of interaction as they are set in the same universe and actually represent two different chapters of one life story."
• Rising Kingdoms
  RPG Vault's Rising Kingdoms Q&A, Part 1 eschews their chosen genre to chat with Ivko Stanilov and Alexander Savchovsky of Haemimont Games about their fantasy-themed RTS game: "We aimed at making a very dynamic and feature-rich game that challenges the player to make different strategic decisions each time a game is started. With independent colonies playing a major role in your strategy, every game plays differently depending on the closest colonies, as well as those nearest to your enemies."
• City of the Metronome
  The City of Metronome Q&A on Worthplaying discusses this upcoming project, though target systems for the Reality-engine game have not yet been revealed.

• Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures on GameSpy and Worthplaying.
• Alan Wake on Gamecloud.
• Battlefield 2 on GameSpy.
• Blitzkrieg 2 on GameSpy.
• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth on GameSpy.
• Fable: The Lost Chapters on GameSpy.
• Gods and Heroes Rome Rising on GamersInfo, GameSpy, and Worthplaying.
• GT Legends on GameSpy.
• Khan: The Ultimate Power on GamersInfo.
• Outfront II on GameSpy.
• Parkan II on GameSpy.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow on GameSpy.
• Shattered Union on GameSpy.
• Tactica Online on GamersInfo.
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes on Killer Betties.
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Winter Assault on GamersInfo.
• Warhammer Online on GameSpy.
• Whirlwind of Vietnam on GameSpy.

• Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures on 3D Gamers.
• Dreamfall: The Longest Journey on 3D Gamers.
• Prince of Persia: Kindred Blades on 3D Gamers.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Next Gen Insight From J Allard.
• Samsung 90nm 512Mb XDR DRAM for Sony PS3.
• NDL Announces Gamebryo 2 for PlayStation 3.
• Metrowerks To Support PlayStation 3 With CodeWarrior.
• Atari: Reaching for the Joystick.
• Nintendo picks creativity.
• Dog Tag screenshots on NoMansLand Network. From the Xbox 360 version.
• Rumor Dept: Killer Instinct III, New Banjo-Kazooie coming to Xbox 360.
• We Love Katamari preview on game-instructions.
• Sammy's pinball machines a hit for sagging Sega.
• Square Enix Expands Kingdom Hearts Sequel.
• Inside the Honeypot, Inside the Game.
• Konami Debuts New Yu-Gi-Oh!.
• Konami Announces New Frogger Titles. George Costanza will be so pleased.
• Konami To Publish Winx Club Games.
• Rumour: US Animal Crossing For July.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Konami Officially Announces Castlevania For DS.
• LucasArts Announces Two New Titles.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Intel, AMD to launch new CPUs.
• HD-DVD, Blu-ray Camps Press On With Separate Plans. Makes me want to beat someone with my BetaMax.
• 802.11n Standard Stumbles - Still no agreement on next flavor of Wi-Fi.
• Facing 'new world of work,' Microsoft locks up Office.
• Microsoft Must Comply or Face Fine (registration required).
• Fans Flock to Firefox Flix. Say that three times fast.
• Analysis Intel and Apple--Apples and Oranges?
• House Approves Spyware Penalties.
• FTC plans international 'zombie'-awareness campaign. How about color-coded zombie alerts?
• Never too young for a copyright lesson.
• Data at Bank of America, Wachovia, others compromised.
• Web Infection Holds Computer Files Hostage.
• Publishers Protest Google Library Project.
• Gates Unveils MSN Virtual Earth.
• CA fixes bug in antivirus products.
• Skype's 1,800-strong club.
• IPod Plug-In Sets Music Free.
• Internet's Bad Boy Grows Up (registration required). Paging Alanis...
• Lost. And, Often, Found (registration required).
• Intel exec quits to run LSI Logic.
• EBay Drop-Off Stores Balk at Regulation (registration required). Don't we all?

Version 5.3 of the Galactic Conquest modification for Battlefield 1942 is now available. Thanks PlanetBattlefield and Ant.

RPG Vault's World of Warcraft Tips #25 is online, discussing the pros and cons of the night elf class as well as equipment options for priests.

Multiplay UK is offering a £1000 prize for a one off CS Cup at their upcoming i24 event.

Modeling for Games and Texture Painting DVDs Released. Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Efficient workflows could mean more bang for less buck.
• A Gamers' Manifesto. Thanks Mike Martinez.

• 1944: Battle of the Bulge on 3DAvenue.
• Dangerous Waters on PC Gameworld.
• Delta Force Xtreme on Just Press Play.
• DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil on netjak.
• Risk Your Life: Path of the Emperor on GameZone.
• Space Interceptor: Project Freedom on PC Gameworld.

• AGEIA PhysX Physics Processing Unit on PC Perspective.
• AMD64 3200+ Venice S939 CPU on Techgage.
• Asus Extreme Radeon AX800XL-2DTV Video Card on Hot Hardware.
• Axis Communications 221 Day & Night Network Camera on TrustedReviews.
• DD2 Memory Round-Up on TrustedReviews.
• Elonex Lumina 40in Media Center PC on TrustedReviews.
• Gigabyte X800 & X800 XL Video Card on hardCOREware.net.
• GSkill 2-3-3-6 PC3200 Memory on ap0calypse.
• Logisys Remote Multi-Function Panel on PimpRig.
• NZXT Trinity Mid-Tower Gaming Case on ExtremeMhz and OCIA.net.
• Samsung SyncMaster 243T LCD Monitor on PyroPort.
• Samsung YP-T7Z 1.0 Gigabyte Multifunction MP3 Digital Audio Player on Futurelooks.
• Sonos Digital Music System on Designtechnica.
• Swiftech MCP-350 and PolarFLO TT Pump on Gruntville.
• Thermaltake Big Typhoon Universal CPU Heatsink on LAN Addict.
• Thermaltake PurePower TWV 500W PSU on SystemCooling.
• Thermaltake Sonic Tower Case on Red & Blackness.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Dingo Games now offers downloads of the PC and Mac demos for Laser Dolphin: Saving the World has a New Porpoise...
• NCsoft now a force in U.S. online games. Thanks nin...
• Video Games Get Academic Props...
• Howard Shore Steps Into The SUN...
• EA Increases DICE Stake To 67.8%...
• The AlanWAKE.Net Forums (thanks Pete) offer discussion of Remedy's upcoming game. Though on a fan-site, these look to be the official forums, as noted on the Alan Wake Website...

A doubly sad day for animation fans.

R.I.P.: Voice of Fred Flintstone has died at 85 and Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Tony the Tiger, dies at 91.

Link... Lank... Lunk!	Thanks Mike Martinez, Ant, and EvilToast
Links of the Day:	Straight Line Designs. Thanks Chris. Preople.
Stories of the Day:	Sci-Fi Synergy (registration required). Man pronounced dead begins to talk at morgue. Thanks Jim. Critics take aim at Burger King's 'Star Wars' meal.
Science!	Digital Immortality - Download the Mind by 2050. Thanks Warren. Chinese climb Everest to see if it's growing. Building the world's most powerful laser.
Images of the Day:	Pool hygiene. Thanks Kar.
Media of the Day:	American Chariot.
Follow-ups:	Cloning a champion. Solar sail launch set for June solstice.