A new screen shot for Diablo 2.

RB6 New Skins: New skins that RSE made available for download.  The skins are of the FBI, and the Australian Federal Police.  They come in their own install that makes installing them  a snap.   They are 2 separate files, the FBI is available here, and the Aussie skins are available here.  They are both small about 128-150K so grab them.  They are not required by the server and the client to play, but to see the new skins both client and server must have them.  If the client does not have them, then they will see the normal skins that coincide with that map.  Enjoy

News on Diablo 2 from a German TV interview (yes, it's translated).

Internet 5.0: Microsoft has released the final version of I.E 5 after numerous Beta releases. The Microsoft site is incredibly slow so it would be worth heading over to somewhere like TUCOWS to grab the new version. Personally, I am gonna wait a few days and listen for bugs.

DOWNLOAD: Giants Movie

Online: Planet Moon has released a new movie of the massively-anticipated Giants in action. It's 15 Mb, available for download right away, and contains some stunningly cinematic footage of the game and music from The X-Files' Mark Snow. Head over to Interplay's Giants download page .

Some decent motherboard/chip prices here: http://www.tigerdirect.com

Force 21 Beta Now

Online: In case you didn't know, signup for the Force 21 beta test is now underway. Go here for all the details.

Some decent gaming news about Diablo2. Check it out.

Daikatana DM Release Today?

Online: According to AGN3D, Kelly Hoerner, producer of Daikatana, has informed a source that the Daikatana Mplayer demo will be online today. Both Ion Storm and Eidos were unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

New Star Wars Phantom Menace Trailer. Hit that link to go to the page that will have a link for the download if you want it. It's 11 MB.

Diablo 2 Preview. Not too much new, but interesting nevertheless.

Team Fortress2: Check out a preview of the eagerly-awaited team play version of Half-Life. With intelligent bots, character classes, vehicles, and the promise of rousing online first-person battles.

RB6: Well here you have it, the best weapons guide around! Zewy has created one kick butt JavaScript page to go over all the weapons in Nato 2.0 and see what they look like, their stats, and their rate of fires. This page is very graphic intensive and takes a while to load but it is worth it! Check it out by clicking here .

Diablo: Some interesting spell news on the old classic, Diablo.

X-Wing's Golden Alliance

Multi: X-Wing Alliance has completed beta testing and has gone gold. Lucas Arts' highly-anticipated Star Wars title is already headed for mass production and is set for release on March 23rd. You can check out the official page at http://www.lucasarts.com/products/alliance

Cool new Diablo 2 news. IT's short but has some interesting tidbits. Check it out.

The latest "reader controlled" interview with RSE is in! You can check it out here.

DOWNLOAD: Slave Zero

Online: AGN3D is hosting a demo of Accolade's Slave Zero, which puts you in control of a 60-foot high mech striding destructively around a massive, detailed city environment. The demo is a hefty 51.4Mb, but will be worth downloading if this is your type of game. There's no need to hang around - you can download the demo now. If someone downloads this, tell me how it is.

Rainbow 6 Sequel Confirmed

Multi: In an interview with Rainbow 6 Retreat, a spokesperson from Red Storm has issued the meagerest of details on a follow-up for the highly successful squad-based skulk-about, Rainbow 6. There may be a hint of excitement here: "The Sequel is looking incredible!" the spokesperson screamed. I can't wait to be able to talk about it. It is a true sequel! Sorry, I cannot comment on the sequel's features. You will just have to trust us: it will be a truly amazing game."

TRI's Highly Detailed Flight

Multi: Terminal Reality's upcoming flight sim, FLY!, will contain Vector maps which "are completely worldwide," the developer has announced. "Sectional maps are limited to the United States only. Most worldwide NAVAIDS are available and fully functional, including frequencies and runway information for airports. The addition of new incredible navigational tools, like the GPS, combined with amazingly detailed tried and true navigation devices, like vector maps, will greatly add to the realism and playability to make for an enjoyable experience every time you want to FLY!." You can jet over to Terminal Reality's site now to see more details on FLY!, which is set for publication by Gathering of Developers for PC and Mac this month.

ICQ99a build 1700 is available.

Tib Sun Not Yet Gold

PC: "Tiberian Sun has not yet gone gold," Wetwood's Chris Rubyor has informed, following widespread rumor of its imminent completion. He continued: "At this moment we are slated for a late March master."

Rainbow Kits

PC: A new version of the Rainbow Six Tool kit has been released, reports AGN3D. The kit will allow owners of the game to quickly join Rainbow Six multiplayer games. Options for disabling the windows keys so it doesn't crash are also included. Players will also be able to enter in domain names instead of IP addresses of servers.

Tiberian Sun's Release

PC: It has been reported that the long awaited Tiberian Sun, from Westwood Studios, has entered debugging mode, and should be ready to ship on the scheduled release date of Easter weekend. Westwood has yet to comment on a firm release date, although EA's Web site has a Spring/Winter release penned in for the game.

From the makers of Red Baron 3D . . .

Starsiege Update

PC: Dynamix's Gerald Harrison has updated his .plan with some rather wistful copy on the eve of the Starsiege launch. "After playing the game for almost a year straight I can honestly say I still enjoy playing it, and there are not many games out there that I can say that about," said Harrison. "I feel we have a really great product. One of the nice features that made it in is the ability to restrict any vehicle weapon or component in a multiplayer game. If there is a certain weapon or Herc you don't likem, start your own server and don't allow it. We even created a server script for an ATR1 style game which is a lot fun and brings back old memories." Harrison went on to reveal what he really likes: "There is no better feeling that taking out one of the big boys with your trusty old Emancipator." Starsiege should be going gold within the next week.

MWarrior3 Date Set

PC: MechWarrior3, the latest iteration in the astonishingly popular series, is now 80 percent complete. The full version of the title will be shown at E3. "It's 75 to 80 percent complete right now," informed a spokesperson for Hasbro. "We'll be showing it complete at E3. We're planning on shipping it the week after the show." Hasbro will publish the FASA developed title, and if screens are anything to go by, this could be shaping up to be a hit acquisition for the company. Roll on May...

Interview with Diablo 2's Bill Roper. And yet another much shorter interview, but I think this one was all fiction.

Fancy Winning A Free Voodoo3?

Online: STB Systems is running a contest being hosted on 3Dfx's homepage, meaning you could win one of the first-ever manufactured Voodoo3 3000 boards by answering a few simple questions. Other prizes include a Voodoo3 pullover jacket for second place and a Voodoo3 t-shirt for third place, but you'll need to hurry to enter - the compy shuts down at 12pm PST tomorrow, February 24th, with the winners being posted the following day. Hit this link to head over to the entry site right away.

Diakatana Demo

Online: The Diakatana demo has reached beta testing, reports Online Gaming News. The demo will be released at the Diakatana Deathmatch event at Mplayer once it is completed. The Elite Beta Test group, made up of 200 people, has already begun testing the demo in preparation for the main event.

Weapons sound cool . . .

Napalm II Mod

Online: The Coven Web site has posted news of a new Napalm II mod for the multiplayer title Quake II. The mod adds a secondary firing mode to all of the weapons featured in the game. The patch's main features are single player and deathmatch support, fireballs, incendiary rounds, napalm rockets and more, use the hyperblaster as a flamethrower, and railguns can now fire flaming meteors which trigger a firestorm on impact. Hit the link above for full details. Thanks to Blue's News.

News and yet more new screen shots on Diabloii.net. A majority of the news can be found at this link.

Quake III: Arena: PC.IGN.com "New Quake III screen shots from id Software."

Online: A hacker, only known as mesachicken, left a message on the opening page of id Software's Web site calling for the release of jailed hacker Kevin Mitnick. The orange and black message read: "4 Years in Prison this Monday; Free Kevin Now!" The guys over at id quickly sorted the problem out and have returned everything back to normal.

SMOKIN' PC: It has been revealed that Intel has successfully tested PIIIs at speeds up to 650MHz. This was announced by executives at a San Francisco engineering conference on Monday. According to Intel's Stephen Fischer, the estimated clock speed has been tested on Intel's existing 0.25 micron-manufacturing process. Intel are officially previewing the chip today prior to its February 28th launch.

PC: Intel has slashed the prices on its Celeron processors, as the chip maker turns up the heat on smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices, reports The Adrenaline Vault. The price of the giant's 400Mhz Celeron chip has dropped to $133 from $158. The 366Mhz chip was cut to $93 from $123. Intel hopes this move will win back market shares in the low-end of the PC market lost to AMD.

Online: A spokesperson for the upcoming Borderline Productions’ Half-Life mod, The Russian Front, has explained why the team decided to use the same modified Quake II engine used in Valve’s Half-Life. "We switched to the modified Quake II engine because it is so ideal for Russian Front. It was after I had finished some of Half-Life's later levels (you know the one where you run around a smashed town and are constantly killed by snipers) that I realized ‘man, this is the feel I want for The Russian Front!’ We immediately switched!" A release date for the mod has yet to be announced.

Jane WWII demo - this is a 60 meg download, but supposed to be worth every minute.

Review of Eagle Watch.

A short bit about Blizzard's updates to battle.net at Diabloii.

Some new, very nice looking screen shots and tidbits on Diablo II.

EA Ships Alpha Centauri

PC: EA has announced the shipping of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri for PC. "Alpha Centauri represents the next generation in strategy gaming," voiced Meier. "We've taken compelling gameplay and added a whole host of new features and innovative ideas which make Alpha Centauri a completely unique and fun experience." (There is a demo available - Weed)

Diablo II's Warcraft Wish

PC: Blizzard's Bill Roper has spoken about his aspirations for the eagerly-anticipated RPG-sequel, Diablo II. "The goal is to have Diablo II compare to Diablo as Warcraft II did to Warcraft," he revealed. "We want to have people play this game for months and still not have explored very nuance it has to offer. We want to continue our work on introducing new people to the RPG genre as well as multiplayer gaming through elements like Battle.net and a game that is easy to learn but difficult to master." Roper finished by explaining the fundamental aim of his title, as he informed: "Diablo II is going to have the most important feature any game can have - its going to be F-U-N." Diablo II is set for PC release in the second half of '99.

(1:15 pm EST) An update for Daikatana.

Daikatana DM Site Live

Online: MPlayer's Daikatana Deathmatch site is now operational. Scheduled for issue towards the end of February, the demo will be playable on site and a competition against John Romero is planned. The game itself is looking awesome - get over there immediately.

Half-Life Goes Cannibal
Valve has released additional multiplayer features for the mighty Half-Life. You can look at the full release here courtesy of Blue's News. The download contains the G-Man multiplayer model, the Recon Grunt multiplayer model, the Cannibal multiplayer model, the Skeleton multiplayer model, new decals (a collection of multiplayer decals including flags, political parties, barnyard animals and other images) and the Team9.bsp (a new team map intended for four on four competition). Get over there immediately.

I've been working on the planes for the Screamin' Eagles. Ran into a small problem with the Squad IDs, but Flybert clarified the problem.

I forgot to mention Battlefield Communicator last time. This is a very worthy program to have and I'd say a must for gamers online. I will have a link for it up later today.