A Heretic II enhancement pack beta tester (legLess) sent along the following from Activision's Steve Stringer that gives the lowdown on the upcoming release:

We're close enough that you all can start talking about the beta and the program.

What's New:

• Eight new deathmatch maps from Raven's top designers!
• A3D 2.0 enhanced 3D sound support.
• EAX enhanced 3D Sound support.
• New defensive weapon: Whirlwind
• New shrine: Boots of Speed
• Custom skin and model support.
• All-new female model: Kiera the elf!
• Additional skins: Howitzer, SirLoin, and Domino.
• Network download capability for skins, models, and maps.
• Team deathmatch games with grouping by models or by skins.
• Staff-only "Bladematch" mode.
• Advanced swordstaff moves, including the back sweep and downward stab.
• New blocking capability for more exciting staff-to-staff combats!
• Keys can now be easily bound for quick defensive spell usage.
• On-screen Armor meter.
• All new death animations.
• New ignore feature so players can ignore the chat messages other online players.
• New modifiable welcome message on joining a multiplayer game.
• Variable player model translucency.
• Hidden "First-person POV" mode.
• Diagonal jumping (Run+strafe+jump should keep diagonal momentum)
• Prediction of player sounds and effects, for better-looking player in a high-lag situation.
• Separated and releasable player code. This makes it possible to create as many spells/weapons/items as a modder wants. It will also allow programmers to completely modify animations, controls and add new sequences.
• New easy-to-use deathmatch flag setting commands for dedicated servers.
• New HTML-capable logfile for tracking number of kills and team scores in tournaments.
• Enhanced water effects for swimming under the surface and running through it.
• All-new extra-hard "Armageddon" difficulty level.