LinuxGames relates an exchange a reader of theirs had with id Software Technical Director John Carmack over plans for Linux ports of future id games (thanks Ant). Linux Wolfenstein is "unlikely," as it is being developed by Raven, and though id has been a longtime supporter of Linux, there are "no firm plans" for Linux RAGE or DOOM 4, "but it certainly isn't off the table." The reason for the uncertainty isn't that his code is less portable, but that OpenGL support is becoming less practical:

Wolfenstein is pretty unlikely, since it was developed at Raven, and published by Activision. There are no firm plans for linux ports of the idTech 5 titles, but it certainly isn’t off the table. I don’t think it will be very difficult to get them running on the binary nvidia drivers, but bringing them up to functionality and acceptable performance on other OpenGL drivers would probably be a more significant undertaking than we could afford.

Electronic Arts has confirmed growing suspicions that Dante's Inferno is not heading to the PC, reports Big Download. EA's statement on the topic is short and to the point: "When Dante's Inferno was originally announced in December, we attached no platforms to the project. When we came out with a first look for press in February we announced 360/PS3 and then in April we announced PSP. We never announced a PC SKU nor are there plans for any." On a related note, EA today announced a six issue comic mini-series based on the game, with the first issue to debut at Comic Con that will employ the talents of Diego Latorre and Christos Gage. Comic Con will also feature the premiere of the trailer for the direct-to-DVD animated feature that will be released at the same time as the game.

GamersGate and Steam now offer the snarky Pirate Bay free DLC preorder bonus Paradox Interactive announced last week for East India Company, the upcoming naval RTS game. The game us currently scheduled for release on July 28 (though Steam says July 31).

• Aion on IGN.UK.
• Alien Breed Evolution on Eurogamer.
• Left 4 Dead 2 on GameSpy.
• LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues on IGN.
• Need for Speed SHIFT on IGN.
• Singularity on Hooked Gamers.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars -- Republic Heroes on IGN.

• Champions Online on the Official Website.

Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Legendary Pictures Present Where the Wild Things Are.
• EA and DC Comics Enter Nine Circles of Hell with Dante’s Inferno Comic.
• Xbox LIVE Update Preview Program.
• Brütal Legend Multiplayer Details Revealed.
• New Streaming Gaming Pilot Launched in Israel.
• Now Bayonetta delayed until ‘10.
• Force Unleashed DLC Half Price This Week.
• Frak to Cleveland Steamer.
• Capcom doesn’t want anybody to kill themselves over the Mega Man 9 secret.
• Santana confirmed as unlockable character in Guitar Hero 5.
• PaRappa creator raps about Natal's musical possibilities.
• Dark Lord Heads Up Week's Nintendo Downloadables.
• This week on Xbox LIVE Arcade- Splosion Man.
• EA could stack Boom Blox on other consoles.
• NBA Refused Mortal Kombat Court for NBA Jam.
• 2DBoy gives hint to secret WiiWare project.
• LittleBigPlagiarism- Sackboy stolen for Brazilian show.

Thanks Ant.

• Oh my: 'Wizard of Oz' game arriving this fall.
• Mobile Internet- Final frontier for game vendors.
• Zer01's mobile offer may be too good to be true.
• Palm readying game framework for webOS.
• Blu-ray movies get direct iPhone control.
• T-Mobile UK gathering unlocked foreign iPhones.
• Barnes & Noble intros e-books for iPhone, more.
• iPhone App Store roulette- A tale of rejection. Thanks Slashdot.
• NY Public Library gets dedicated Wi-Fi room. No sex in the Wi-Fi Room. Thanks Ant.

Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.

• Do you really need a high end graphics card?
• Intel's 34nm-based 320GB solid state drive creeps closer to reality.
• Microsoft Releases Linux Device Drivers As GPL.
• Microsoft posts Office 2008 Service Pack 2.
• A Pictorial Guide to Computer Hardware.
• Can computer software account for climate change.
• Hacking Hi-Def Graphics and Camerawork Into 4Kb.
• AMD 785G supports patch BIOS to hack 2,3 core to quad.
• Wind-Powered Data Center Planned. Thanks Slashdot.

Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez.

• Sims 3 Leads June PC Software Sales…
• MAME and MameUI version 0.133 are now available…
• Open Source Transport Sim Showdown…
• Pizza Morgana: more new adventure launching next month…
• Credit Where Credit Is Due: Original Creator of L4D2 Charger Speaks Up…
• Mirror's Edge Limited-Time Sale…

Links of the Day: The 10-year-old who helped Apollo 11, 40 years later, Mythbusters Moon Landing, and Forty Years of Lunar Lander. Thanks Mike Martinez and Slashdot.

MTV Multiplayer has word from Jeff Gardiner of Bethesda Softworks on new weapons and a new perk to be added to Fallout 3 in the upcoming Mothership Zeta DLC for the post-apocalyptic action/RPG. The mission-specific perk is called Xenotech Expert. Word is: "It increases the damage you do with alien weapons, including the Alien Blaster if the player had found that in the wasteland." And here's what Jeff told them about new weapons:

Mothership Zeta is full of the most high tech weaponry in the game. It includes a Shock Baton for melee fighters, multiple new firearms including an Alien Atomizer, a pistol, and the Alien Disintegrator, a new rifle. There's also a new grenade type, a Cryo Grenade, which freezes enemies for a short period of time. On top of that there are new unique weapons, and a new heavy weapon.

A Gabe Newell Interview on Good Game is a video conversation with Valve's managing director as well as John Cook and Jason Holtman. The conversation with Gabe has him recounting the history of how Valve got started back at the very beginning and also includes an interesting take on piracy representing under-served customers and how copy-protection is a step in the wrong direction. A topic highlighted by Kotaku is Gabe discussing the idea that there may be a way to develop games with the community investment, rather than publisher funding. It seems the community does this when buying games, but Gabe is talking more about up-front money and how it may help with the creative end. He says:

One of the areas that I am personally super interested in right now is how we can do financing from the community. So right now, what typically happens is you have this budget, it needs to be huge, it has to be ten million to thirty million dollars; it has to be all available at the beginning of the project. And then there's a huge amount of risk associated with those dollars so all the game decisions have to be incredibly conservative.

What I think would be much better would be if the community could finance the games. In other words, ‘Hey, I really like this idea that you have and I'll be an early investor in that.' In venture capital there's a concept that your best investors are your customers, because they have 'secondary gain.' If you are successful they not only want a return on their money, but they're incredibly happy if you actually make a great game that they get to play. It would be really great if we could evolve Steam in a way that made it possible so that a developer could say, you know, 'if you want this game to start moving forward, here's the sort of 'seed round',' were people can sort of opt-in and say 'I'll pay thirty dollars and I own a piece of this game going forward.'

The Dawn Of War II Website announces the conclusion of beta testing for the upcoming "There is Only War" patch for Relic's Warhammer 40K RTS sequel. Word is the test has been successful, though they also indicate the patch will include bug fixes and balance updates that weren't tested, for some reason:

The beta has been successful due to the overwhelming amount of community feedback and support. We have received hundreds of balance suggestions, numerous bug reports, and countless suggestions to undoubtedly make Dawn of War II a stronger, deeper, and more balanced game.

The full release of ‘There is Only War’ will be out soon. In addition to the new content and balance updates included with the beta, the full release of ‘There is Only War’ is coming with even more bug fixes and balance updates.

The week four update (conceptually, not real-time) update is now live on After the Impact, the high concept web home to RAGE, id Software's upcoming shooter. Even more of the image on the site is interactive for your zooming and magnifying pleasure.

Paradox Interactive Announces a week-long 50% off sale on digital distribution of all their titles this week, in celebration of the completion of their first-decade in the business. GamersGate already has their sale prices up, and presumably other sites will follow shortly. Update: The sale is now on Steam as well.

Command and Conquer Files has information about Command and Conquer 4 and screenshot scans of the coming RTS sequel from the new issue of French gaming magazine PC Jeux. The information includes a few gameplay details and word that the FMV cut scenes "won't consist of much asinine babbling" in front of blue screens. As said, the shots are scans from the magazine, but APOC tweeted this, so any copyright questions can be directed at him.

Dyack- ‘Dominance of gameplay will recede’ on Develop reflect comments in a Develop keynote address by Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack, who feels a shift in games from being dominated by technology and gameplay towards a more narrative focus is underway. He makes an analogy to the early days of cinema, where movies had little narrative focus, depicting scenes like putting out fires and feeding babies that gave way to a more story-oriented approach. Our initial tendency is to disagree, as this seems to ignore the interactive aspect of games that's not present in movies (idiots talking to the screen aside), but Denis seems to think the correlation is there, saying, "if you want to follow the history of film – if videogames follow that similar history, the dominance of gameplay will start to recede."

Develop has word that the ultimate price tag for Activision's acquisition of Bizarre Creations could rise to above $107 million if certain performance milestones are reached. Apparently the deal began with a $67.4 million cash payment, but that another $40 million in bonuses could be on the way, depending on the success of Blur.

Gameplayer - Do or Die for id Software.
Well there is no doubt that it is time to deliver. We need to see id Tech 5 in full swing. We need to see genuine gameplay footage of the still in development RAGE and the announced but secretive Doom 4. We need to hear of other developers jumping at the chance to get in on its exciting new middleware. We need hope. And you get bet your original sealed box copy of Doom that new owner Zenimax will expect to see results, and see ‘em soon. Because with new stable-mate kicking goals with Elder Scrolls IV and Fallout 3, id are at serious risk of running a distant second at its new home, and furthermore, of watching a whole generation of gamers come and go without ever knowing the true awesomeness of id.

Gamasutra - Why The Keyboard Is PC Gaming's Secret Weapon. Thanks Ant and Slashdot.
In the name of saving your fingers a stretch, the same button for jump can also be used to climb ladders, run across walls, and cling to ledges. The confines of the controller dictate how the game plays, on a fundamental level, and it's producing some wonderfully inventive ways of interacting with your games. The opposite, however, is true of the PC. With over 100 keys to choose from (back of the box quotation right there), the possibilities are near endless, if you start to think of shift and control functions altering the purpose of keys. It means that, when the developers start to make their game, they don't have to worry about the limitations of the interface, knowing that, if all else fails, they can always assign the compass to K, even if that's a bit of a stretch to all but the pianists. The keyboard is the friend of ambition, and ArmA 2 is the testament to that, in all its surrealist, broken glory.

• Nominate now for the Games Media Awards.
• Pro gamers’ league signs big deal with Electronic Arts.
• The ASUS VGA Treasure Hunt on Overclock3D.Net.
• Weekly Giveaway #10 - Thermaltake V9 and five 8gig USB drives on Test Freaks.

• StarCraft II on IGN.

• Need for Speed SHIFT on SimRacingWorld.
• Order of War on Strategy Informer.

• Xbox handheld is coming.
• Coral Sea Unlocked for Playstation 3 Users. Thanks Ant.
• PS3 firmware 2.80 released. Thanks VG247.
• Spyborgs given September date.
• The Conduit interview on Skewed & Reviewed.
• Life as an Achievement Whore on GameShark.
• Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson - Show #326- Gaming in Germany, Gears of War and 'Splosion Man.
• Bleszinski on Dark Corners SP and Natal.
• Xbox LIVE Deal of the Week- The Force Unleashed- Jedi Temple Mission Pack.

• Resident Evil 5: Graphics cards benchmarks.
• Contemporary Graphics Accelerators in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.
• How Lowry Digital is saving our history for a digital future.
• Choosing an Office PC.
• Back to School 2009 Gift Guide on TechReviewSource.

• Microsoft backs down over IE8's default domination. Thanks Slashdot.
• Med Students Get Training In Second Life Hospitals. Thanks Ant.
• Why the Photos On Wikipedia Are So Bad.

• Easy on the violence, publishers warned.
• Why would Microsoft patent a 'butt hinge with butt straps'? Why WOULDN'T they?

• DRM is Dead, RIAA Says. Thanks Slashdot.

• 2029 Online on Test Freaks.
• Anno 1404 on Games32.
• Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood on RealGamer.
• The Sims 3 on 2404.
• Tales of Monkey Island - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal on GameTopius.

• Accelero Xtreme 4870 X2 Graphics Card on Guru3D.
• Altec Lansing VS2421 Speakers on [Phoronix].
• AMD Phenom 2 905e CPU on RBMODS.
• Asus P7P55D Evo LGA-1156 Motherboard on eTeknix.com.
• Asus Rampage Gene II Motherboard on MADSHRIMPS.
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler on Overclocker Cafe.
• Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU Water-Cooling Kit on MADSHRIMPS.
• Gigabyte 9800 GT Silent Cell Graphics Card on Bjorn3D.com.
• Gigabyte GA-P55-UD5 Lynnfield Motherboard on PC Perspective.
• Kingston KTA-MB1066K2 4G Apple RAM on Motherboards.org.
• Mophie Juice Pack Air Case & Rechargable Battery on OCIA.net.
• MSI N275GTX Twin Frozer OC Graphics Card on Overclockers Club.
• Hard Drive Roundup on InsideHW.
• Lamptron FC-2 Rheobus Fan Controller on Tech-Reviews.
• M-Rock Yellowstone 511 and Ozark 505 Camera Bags on Futurelooks.
• OCZ Neutrino 10″ DIY Netbook on Test Freaks.
• Patriot Gamer Series PC3-12800 6GB DDR3 RAM Kit on TweakTown.
• SanDisk Ultra Backup 32GB Flash Drive on t-break.
• Sunbeam SATA-IDE-USB Adapter on Benchmark Reviews.
• Thecus N4100PRO NAS Server on X-bit labs.
• Thermaltake Element G Gaming Case on OverclockersHQ.com.
• Thermaltake Element T (VK90001N2Z) Mid Tower Case on XtremeComputing.
• ZOWIE IO1.1 Professional Gaming Bundle on TweakTown.

• UK CHART: Harry Potter goes top…
• 1969 One small step. 2049 One big bang. Futuremark on the moon in Shattered Horizon…
• Voltron- Film Finally Makes Progress. Thanks Ant…
• Video game stokes debate over skill vs. chance…
• Aiming for success After 'Left Behind'…

I guess the commemorations of the Apollo 11 mission will come to a head today, as this is the day they landed on the moon. A giant leap for mankind indeed.

R.I.P.: 'Angela's Ashes' author McCourt dies in NYC at 78.

Leaping Links:	Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez.
Play:	Run or Die 2.
Links:	10 Gaming Gadgets That Will Make Us Hurt Ourselves. The 10 Geekiest Pieces of Furniture in the Universe. Rare pandas find a new surrogate mum. Thanks Neatorama.
Stories:	Report: Abdul's return to 'American Idol' doubtful. Thanks Digg. Sony Plans Michael Jackson Film.
Science:	Strike a Pose, Cyborg! Space station toilet breaks down. Thanks Slashdot. Impact mark on Jupiter. Thanks Slashdot.
Images:	How to take a joke. Thanks Digg.
Media:	Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit up. Thanks Digg and nin. Ringwraith statue comes to life. AGAIN. Fox News Guest Makes Really Odd Face.
Follow-ups:	Astronauts on ISS drink recycled urine for the first time.
The Funnies:	xkcd - Estimation. If The Wizard of Oz Got a Gritty Reboot.