GameProWorld has posted a brief preview of MDK2, BioWare's sequel to MDK, along with a bunch of new screenshots. MDK, as everyone knows, stands for My Darling Klementine.

Also online at GameProWorld is a new gallery of Evolva, featuring an even dozen screenshots from the action/strategy game that will see you dipping your toes in the gene pool.

As promised, Dynamix has released version 1.10 patches for Starsiege: TRIBES. Here are local copies with a few mirrors of the patch to upgrade version 1.0, the patch to upgrade version 1.9, and, for those who already have the Map Updates installed, even the patch to upgrade version 1.9.1. Thanks Ryan Stotts (who must have been watching Sierra's ftp server like a hawk). Here is the list of changes for this version:

- Fixed a health kit bug/cheat issue.
- Fixed armor/damage level bug.
- Fixed a server crash bug issue.
- Fixed OpenGL "black bug" with new maps.

InciteGames has posted a bunch of new screenshots from Raven's Quake III Arena engine title Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force. The shots show off a few different areas, and even a borg or three. Update: the same eight shots, and seven more, are available on GameProWorld.

There is a new preview of Ground Control on Gamecenter, consisting of a short interview with Massive Entertainment lead designer Martin Walfisz, and seven new screenshots of their 3D real-time strategy title.

GameRush has posted ten new screenshots from Digial Anvil's Starlancer, roughly half of which are in-game, and half of which are from the game's pre-rendered CGI.

chUmbaLum sOft has released a new version of their low-polycount 3D modeller MilkShape 3D, which offers static, experimental Quake III Arena support (meaning, it doesn't support tags or animations as of yet). Thanks to Pheral for the tip.

InciteGames has posted some new screenshots from an early build of Soulbringer, a new RPG in development at Gremlin. There are seven in-game shots, as well as two from the pre-rendered CGI sequences.

This week's slew of 3D RTS site openings (story and story) continues, as Activision has recently unveiled its official Star Trek Armada site, featuring information, screenshots and the first short movie trailer of their upcoming Trekkie RTS (thanks GamesMania). The kick-off feature is a look at the Romulan Star Empire's fleet and their special weapons.

AVault has posted some preliminary information and conceptual renders from Dreamland, a new tactical combat game for the PC and Playstation 2 from the creators of X-COM. It should be stressed that the images, while impressive, are not in game, but conceptual renders.

As further proof that the game is in its final stage of development, Unreal Universe has posted a status update from Deus Ex designer Bob White, who says just that, as well as some details on the QA team that's working on the game.

HalfLife.net has posted an interview with Brian Martel, former 3D Realms and Rebel Boat Rocker employee, and currently at Gearbox Software where he worked on their Half-Life mission pack Opposing Force. The interview focuses mainly on his texture work, but he also comments on other games and trends in the industry.

Westwood has posted the official FAQ for their isometric action game Nox (thanks Noxious.net). The FAQ contains various questions about the game, from the different character classes and the game's deathmatch style of multiplayer to some technical issues as well.

Eurogamer.net has posted a preview of ION Storm's Deus Ex, which is based on a demonstration they were given by the game's lead designer, Warren Spector. The preview features some new images, as well as quotes from Spector himself about the game.

Recently re-opened EliteForce.Net has posted an interview with Chris Foster, Raven's lead designer of Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. Conducted over IRC, the talk has a freely roaming nature, but it does cover a fair amount of info on the game.

If (like myself) you're wondering if upgrading to Windows 2000 is right for you, check out ZDNet's massive Windows 2000 special which features all kinds of useful stuff, including a list of compatible hardware and software, as well as a comprehensive guide to the new OS, and even downloads to help you beef it up once it's released (on February 17th).

Dear lord, it's another on-time edition of the Mail Bag. In this week's 'bag: the mysterious power of Blue, the closing of the Ultima IX boards, a beef one reader has with Devil's Bridge, an open letter to 3D Realms, and were Soldier of Fortune and SiN switched at birth? Head over and take a read.

E-tailer Checkout.com has posted an interview with Peter Molyneux, the creator of the classic Populous, and who is currently working on his latest "god game" Black & White. The interview covers his whole career, including questions about the released-too-early title Powermonger, and even the classic Magic Carpet (and of course, questions about Black & White). Thanks love ME for the tip.

AVault has posted a special on the Blair Witch Project games in development from the Gathering of Developers, which features all kinds of good stuff. There's an article examining the trilogy of games, which features quotes from the developers, the publishers, and even the producers of the movie. They've also posted a new interview with Jeff Mills, a producer at Terminal Reality, and if that's not enough, they've scored some new concept artwork as well.

GA-Strategy interviews The Rift is a talk with TrushWave's lead developer James Thrush about their space-based RTS, for which a playable demo should be released on February 9. A tenner of new screenshots is included as well.

GameSpot UK has posted a detailed preview of Shogun: Total War, the upcoming 3D real-time strategy game by Creative Assembly and Electronic Arts, illustrating their hands-on encounter with an alpha build by a set of new screenshots.

Diamond's Underground site has posted all kinds of stuff for owners of S3 cards and Quake III Arena. There are a whole bunch of new S3TC textures available for download, as well as a handful of new levels available (which presumably use the S3TC textures, although it doesn't specifically say so), and they've even got a page up with tips for level designers (thanks Voodoo Extreme for the tipoff).

Deus Ex Incarnate has posted some screen grabs from a Deus Ex movie on the March 2000 Incite Magazine CD. Because they're shots of a movie, and not actually from the game, the quality is a little questionable, but they do show off some previously unseen (or rarely seen anyway) areas of the game, including the augmentation interface, a sniper shot, the appearance screen, and even some good ol' fashioned crate bashing.

Voodoo Extreme has posted three screenshots from BioWare's upcoming third person action title MDK 2. MDK, as everyone knows, stands for More Danish Kabobs.

A new version of QuakeWorld Forever, an encrypted client/server build of the QuakeWorld source code (making it nigh-impossible to cheat) has been released. Along with this new release, the developers have also completely released the source code according to the GPL under which the Quake source code was released.

Tim Sweeney updated the Unreal Technology page with some kind words for the latest Unreal engine licensee (story) as well as an update on the state of the Playstation 2 version of Unreal Tournament. According to Tim, the engine is running on the hardware in bare bones form, and he says, that he's "thrilled with the Playstaton 2" and that "consoles will be a big priority for Epic from this point forward."

GameSpot UK has posted a preview of Daikatana 64, the Nintendo 64 port of ION Storm's Daikatana. The preview is based on a playable build of the game, and they've posted nine new screenshots and two new movies in addition to a detailed critique of the game.

Building a starship, Part 1 is how Computer Games Online kick off their preview of Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, the Q3A-engine powered action game currently under construction at Raven. Construction is literally the angle chosen for this article, as it describes the efforts taken, and changes made, to convert the Voyager TV sets into a playable game world, and a number of side-by-side screenshots (including the first in-game image of Seven of Nine) illustrate this. The preview then moves to look at the game itself, which is described like this:

Over the course of our visit we had a chance to take a close look at how far Voyager: Elite Force has come since we saw it at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last year. The game is still a ways from being finished, but Pelletier feels confident that the team is still on target for a spring release. There were a number of levels in a semi-complete state—some merely empty environments, others with AI characters and some scripted events in place. The team also had one mission to show that was effectively content-complete, a rescue mission that takes place aboard a Borg Cube.

Gamers Central has posted a new movie of Killer Tank, showing off three and a half minutes of gameplay from this tank action game by Russian developers ElectroTECH. The movie is also available on the official site, but in the less convenient format of 11 small downloads.

• GT Interactive has opened their official site for Imperium Galactica II: Alliances, providing info and some screenshots on the space-based RTS being developed by Digital Reality.
• A Talent For War has word of several updates to the Conquest: Frontier Wars site, where a new developer's journal, a new team bio, and four pieces of concept art were posted for Digital Anvil's entry in the space-based RTS arena.
• PC Zone UK has posted four new screenshots of Command & Conquer: Firestorm, the upcoming expansion pack to Westwood's Tiberian Sun.

A new version of the System Shock 2 FAQ and walkthrough is up on GameFAQs, adding more tips for survival on deck 4, as well as various other changes.

Surreal-News.com has posted a huge list of changes planned for the upcoming version 445 patch for Drakan: Order of the Flame. In addition to general changes, like the removal of the CD check, there will be several multiplayer enhancements to Surreal's third-person dragon-riding action game, including new server administration options, teamplay changes, and new multiplayer design/gameplay features included for the editing community. They also have quoted a messageboard post from Stu at Surreal describing the pieces already in place that could be used by an intrepid mod author to create a form of persistent online multiplayer universe.

• Thresh's FiringSquad's Bitboys interview talks with the Bitboys Chief Graphics Architect Petri Nordlund and their new President and CEO, Shane Long about their Glaze3D accelerators, among other things touching on the delay from the initial expectation that they have produced their first silicon by now.
• The Oxygen Tank's Voodoo3 Tweaking for Quake III Arena.
• ASUS V6600 Deluxe (SGRAM) video card is reviewed on CTNews.
• 3dfx Voodoo3 3000 is reviewed on Tweak3D.net.
• Diamond Multimedia Monster Sound MX400 sound card is reviewed on GA-Source.
• Soyo SY-6VBA133 VIA PC133 motherboard is reviewed on BXBoards.
• Super Duper Slot Fan is reviewed on PCstats.
• Iwill Slocket II adapter is reviewed on Extreme Hardware.

The Wyrm news page has the debut release of Wyrm 3, the Quake III Arena version of Wyrm 2 (for Quake II), which is a teamplay modification that features roll-your-own classes. The mod supports up to 32 user-made classes, and offers class support for bots as well as players.

The newly-relocated Beryllium website has a new version 0.99B of this Quake III Arena mod that offers a highly configurable set of options to create a custom server much in the vein of the Lithium II mod for Quake II (each mod also taking its name from the Periodic Table of the Elements, if not Uncle Duke's medicine cabinet). The new version features a new Micromod system, said to be able to get your custom server up and running in minutes.

A new version 1.2 of Merc's Q3A TeamMod is now available. The new release adds a ton of changes and fixes, including a boatload of new variables. A full rundown on the new features and changes are listed here.

The Black Knight Productions page has the first beta release of their Prisoners of War (PoW), a teamplay mod for Quake III Arena, along with info on a beta server where the mod is running. Thanks Ryan Stotts.

A new version 2.0 of the Servarena Quake III Arena dedicated server launcher is now available, described as the final version of Servarena 2.0. Thanks Killjoy. The changes in the new release are significant enough that there is only a full installer, and rather than a patch for users of version 1.x, they have the suggestion that you uninstall your previous version before using the full 2.0 installer.

Borderfield Software has released the debut version 0.1 beta of their Q3A Shader Editor, Q3ASE, which provides a real-time preview of your texture effects in an OpenGL accelerated window. There are still some rough edges, and the opening of existing shaders is not yet supported. Speaking of Shaders, id Software's Shader manual, detailing the secrets of this mystic art, has been converted to HTML format from the original Word document. gXp interviews g1zm0 talking with the author of the Japanese Castles map for "Beben 3 Arena," the euphemism they must use for Q3A since they are based in Germany, where the game is "Indexed."

Another follow-up, today's is regarding the new version 1.1 of Reload Be Gone for Quake III Arena on Quakeheads.Com reported yesterday (story). Word from the authors is that the new version ads extra ammo to the weapons with an increased firing rate making the caution from the Quakeheads we passed along about being conservative with your fire unnecessary, the Tony Montanas among you will be pleased to note.

The Razer CPL Event website has word that registration for this upcoming $100,000 tournament has been delayed "because of heavy loads that caused a third party registration software to fail." Registration is now expected to open on Monday, February 7 at 5:00 PM EST (4:00 CST).

Crossroads' Design Your UO2 Contest offers three winners prizes straight from Origin for the best suggestions for things to include in Ultima Online 2, the upcoming sequel to their massive multiplayer RPG. While the Origin folks will be assisting in the judging, winning does not guarantee your ideas will definitely make it into the game. Also, are you proud of your pocket protector? Geek and Guru is holding a competition to find "Who Is The Sexiest Geek Alive?"

• A4Tech 4D+ WWW-11 mouse on Overclockers Australia.
• Age of Empires II: Age of Kings on AMPGO.
• Battlezone II: Combat Commander on Games Domain Review and Electric Playground.
• Codename Eagle on EuroGamer.
• Descent 3: Mercenary on Games Domain Review.
• Hangsim on GameSpot.
• Jane's F/A-18 on GamePower.
• Mortyr on Thresh's Firingsquad and Computer Games Online.
• Quake III Arena on AMPGO.
• Quake III Arena versus Unreal Tournament on GameCritics.
• Soldier of Fortune Demo on Maximum3D.
• South Park: Chef's Luv Shack on Game Revolution.
• South Park Rally on PCGamers.net and Game Over.
• SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle on GameLinks.
• System Shock 2 on AMPGO.
• The Sims on Games Domain Review.
• Tread Marks on Computer Games Online.
• Wheel of Time on Insane Gamers.

• Epic Programmer Steve Polge replied to a thread called Epic Can you fix the Unreal I Monster AI so that they will attack Bots on the GT Forum saying "It will be fixed in the next patch...coming soon." Thanks devilbunny...
• Sgt. Hulk sends word that TeamEvolve's Zaero mission pack for Quake II is now available at Sgt Hulka's Web Store for $9.95...
• BennyBoy's Clan List has been newly relocated and redesigned, now supporting various forms of QW, Q2, Q3A, UT, HL and TRIBES, featuring "just under 500 registered clans in the UK & Ireland." Also, there's a new Q3Center Player and Clan Listing for Quake III Arena...
• Like the sands of time through an hourglass, another Diablo II screenshot of the week is up, as is the new D2 cinematic shot of the week...

Tomorrow is Groundhog day (does that make this Groundhog eve?), when we traditionally attempt to gauge how much winter remains based on whether a groundhog sees his shadow...

Tomorrow is Groundhog day (does that make this Groundhog eve?), when we traditionally attempt to gauge how much winter...

Tomorrow is Groundhog day (does that make this Groundhog eve?)...

Tomorrow is Groundhog day...

Tomorrow...

Link of the Day: MrMethane, "the world's only performing flatulist." Thanks Lars.
Story of the Day: UK Man dies in crucifix race. "The seven-mile race...in memory of the 'orginal (sic) tough guy' Jesus Christ...has drawn criticism from church leaders who say it is disrespectful..." The victim died after treatment at New Cross hospital.
Image of the Day: Rorshach's Comedian movie poster on Tritin Films.