I kind of missed the newsworthy portion of the Croteam's Sunday Update yesterday (thanks xxzen), which comes after the sympathies the beginning of the post offers after last week's tragic events. On a more complete reading, however, it turns out that this week's entry by Admir Elezovic also offers news that they now seem to be expecting to get the sequel to Serious Sam on store shelves in time for a December release (as well as what's become the usual small print news on the status of more Egyptian levels). Here's the update:

I have to begin again with, in behalf of whole Croteam, passing along condolences to all people of United States regarding this horrible terrorist attack. Our friends at Rockstar Games are situated just a few blocks away from the twin towers. We got an email from their producer Dave Nottingham that they are all fine, but they are still cut off and can't go to work.

I know all of you were expecting some exciting news and info about new SS game. Sadly, due to this horrible tragedy, our NY based publisher was prevented to come with press release regarding our next episode and its content. Hopefully they'll be up and running next week, so more info will be available on our site soon.

As you all know, we started work on the next episode shortly after Serious Sam: The First Encounter hit the shelves. After months of hard work, the game is nearly finished and we are entering alpha phase. We are all pleased with how things are going and the way game plays and looks. Most of hard work is done. It's just a matter of polishing and adding final touches to game's content.

With our timeline to have game ready for December release, it doesn't sound impossible to have two games as best FPS of 2001 :)

Admir Elezovic

P.S. Since our Game designers haven't agreed on inclusion of Egyptian levels in game, this matter has been moved to higher instance, meaning Board of Directors will decide on their final status.