TheNomad writes "Made in Fountainhead Entertainment's Quake III-based tool, Machinimation, 'Anna' is a real-time generated machinima showing the story of a single flower's life, from birth to - well, I won't spoil it for you. There's a showcase of the film over at Machinima.com, and they also have a download page, as well as a FilePlanet mirror." We've recently run an interview with Katherine Anna Kang, Fountainhead boss and ex-id software employee, and also discussed the 2003 Machinima Film Festival Awards, in which 'Anna' won several awards.

Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing how important it is to release a playable demo of your games before the game debuts. Although he points out: "If your demo does not go over well with the public, it may end up being detrimental to the retail product", the writer notes: "My observations have consistently indicated that a demo's impact can be far more significant if it is released before, rather than after, a game. Look at Doom and Quake. Look at Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Battlefield 1942. The demos made these games." He even suggests games deserve delaying to get a representative demo released: "Given that resources are limited, should a game be delayed just so a demo can be released? ...I'm going to say the answer is yes."

Sacrusha writes "The developers of UFO: Alien Invasion finally released a technical demo for both Windows and Linux, using a modified Quake 2 engine to feature turn-based tactical combat against alien forces on three different maps, in both single and multiplayer modes! UFO: AI is going to be a totally free, fan-made game and is heavily inspired by Microprose's X-Com series - the developers are looking for your input on the product."

An anonymous reader writes "Quake master Johnathan Wendel, better known as Fatal1ty, talks about his life and the professional gaming scene over at ZDNet. Asked how he keeps his reflexes sharp, he said: 'I use the same tactics in 'Quake' that I used in tennis. It's all about mind games, knowing what your opponent's thinking, knowing where a shots going to go. Anything in a computer game, I can relate it to something in sports I've played. The rail gun (the heaviest weapon in 'Quake') -- that's like going for the overhead slam in tennis. You set 'em up and then you drive it home with your hardest shot. It's like all the shots in tennis are, back and forth, trying to get them off balance. And when you do, you slam it down their throat. Same as gaming.'"

An anonymous reader writes "I have been playing videogames for years, but only recently got a DSL line in my house and so have never played any online games before now, as dial up was always too slow. Now that I have a fast connection, I want to get into online gaming, FPS gaming in particular. My problem is that Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike, Quake and all the other popular games seem to be dominated by people using cheats, and by established clans of players who are a lot better than me. Are there any online FPS games or servers whose barriers to entry are not too high for the average player? I am looking for something that I can just connect to for a half an hour now and then when I am bored and can have fun with."

Lane.exe wonders: "So I just got a new Apple Mac G5 (Dual 1.8s, 1GB RAM, Radeon 9600, etc) and I was thinking about getting back into some gaming. I was looking over the game selection for Mac, and it's not looking as bright as I'd hoped. But I think this is due more to my ignorance of good games than anything else. What I'm looking for is a few good multiplayer shoot-em-ups (like Quake, UT or Half-Life) and a nicely engrossing RPG. The last few games I've played were Icewind Dale, Pool Of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, and MechWarrior 4. Has anyone got any suggestions along these lines?"

RogeR writes "Silicon Ice Development, authors of the popular Urban Terror mod for Quake 3 Arena, will be porting their mod over to recently made modifiable PC title Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. They have been discussing this for a while now with id Software and Splash Damage, and have decided to move forward with their plans. Basically, this means Urban Terror will, when conversion is finished, become a free stand-alone game, using Enemy Territory's beefed-up Quake 3 engine. Oswald, the project manager, said: 'Those people who complained of legit keys or not being able to find Quake 3 - rejoice, you will be able to play'."

TheNomad writes "Many of you probably know about Machinima, most easily described as 'filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment', but did you realise that some people are taking it a stage further, and performing improvised Machinima comedy live, using Quake II? There's an interview with the ILL Clan on Machinima.com, talking about their live Machinima work, of which the latest part is called 'Larry & Lenny on the Campaign Trail'."

An anonymous reader writes "Cube, the Open Source (ZLIB) multiplayer and singleplayer FPS game and engine for Windows/Linux, has finally put out a new release. New features include demo recording/playback, new arena multiplayer modes, jumppads, improved mapmodel physics and configurability (bridges), mp3/ogg playback and a completely new cube soundtrack, many cool new maps and more! Get this 'Doom/Quake-style [engine] with some uncompromising brutal oldskool gameplay' at cubeengine.com."

gooshy1 writes "Ok it's getting near the end of the year and people are beginning to wind down for the holidays. What I want to know is are there any decent multiplayer games that an office of about 4-7 can play, preferably action. The machines that we use are not all that great, P4 1.7Ghz with 2 year old NVidia graphics cards, so Quake and the likes are out of the question. A favorite is BZFlag due to its playability and nice tunable graphics. All thoughts welcome, and Merry Chistmas/Happy Holidays :-)"

Thanks to GameSpy for their interview with the creators of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, as the long-in-development survival horror PC FPS, based on the Chaosium RPG, in turn based on HP Lovecraft's 'weird fiction' writings, discusses its setting ("The majority of the action takes place in the sea port of Innsmouth, the setting for the famous Lovecraft story 'The Shadow over Innsmouth'"), and uniquely Lovecraftian gameplay traits: ("The concept of Jack's mental health and its slow degradation is one of the core concepts in Dark Corners of the Earth. This loss in sanity will risk the development of specific mental conditions; these include shaking, blurred vision, hallucinations, dizziness, and panic.") As for its previous videogame heritage, Lovecraftian influences seem particularly noticeable in id's Quake series - but if in doubt, you can always Cthuugle for it.

Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting a press release revealing a U.S. company called TvHead is attempting to make inroads into the games-via-cable-TV market, and has "secured agreements with... Midway Games [and] PopCap Games" to publish games such as Bookworm, Gauntlet, and Smash TV for availability as part of a cable TV service. The company's founder claims that: "Gaming revenues via interactive television have been projected to be as high as $2.7 billion by 2006", and players are meant to "...access the TvHead Games Channel with their remote control just as they would any other channel." The company's official site links to a recent CED magazine article that discusses advances in this area, including ICTV "showing off a version of Quake playing on DCT-1000s and DCT-2000s [cable boxes]."

Truist writes "My wife and I have started playing games together (side by side at the computer) recently, and we're having a hard time finding games that we both like. Specifically, I tend to like FPS games (Quake) and she tends to like puzzle games (Myst), but we're both happy to meet in the middle. She doesn't seem to like Worms, but Return to Castle Wolfenstein was a huge success for both of us. What are your suggestions for good games that we can play together, and that we'll both enjoy?"

Thanks to Planet GameCube for reprinting a press release announcing the 'Bang The Machine' game-related art exhibit, which opens in San Francisco early in 2004. It includes previously Slashdot-mentioned pieces such as the Pong-equipped Painstation and a Waco-interpreting FPS, but also newer material, including a Carpet Invaders game which is "a floor projection of a videogame that simulates the early Space Invaders.. [but] made to resemble Afghani rug designs", and a 5-foot-high sculpture called '650 Polygon John Carmack', based off a "low polygon game avatar of him... developed for... Quake III."

ErnstKompressor asks: "In light of the endless debate regarding top-dog performance between all flavors of OS/Hardware, the failings inherent in the various methods of testing such diverse systems, and the cost of existing software solutions, I was wondering what the Slashdot community recommends in the way of free, open-source, cross-platform, performance evaluation software. Additionally, how should one go about testing systems to obtain the fairest results? What compilers are evenly matched amongst different hardware? What balance should one strive for regarding optimizations and platform specific enhancements versus results that represent real-world performance? Finally, should such tests take into account the sub-systems available, such as 3D performance and the various Quake-FPS metrics?"

polarfleece writes "November 3 is the first anniversary of the Denali Fault Earthquake that rocked Interior Alaska. America's greatest engineering marvel, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline just happens to cross the Denali Fault and, as described in Dan Joling's AP story "Alyeska engineers anticipated the effects of a bruising quake" the line came through just fine."

Thanks to Telefragged for their review of Activision's World War II-themed PC FPS, Call Of Duty, which they seem to approve of, commenting that "the action and pacing... is done just right", though they point out your enjoyment depends on "whether you still enjoy WWII shooters" after so many predecessors, notably Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault, which Call Of Duty developers Infinity Ward also developed. GameSpy are extremely impressed, hailing Call Of Duty as "one of the best games of 2003", with "tons of amazing missions", alongside"solid [Quake 3-enhanced] tech and lots of white-knuckle combat." Finally, GameSpot are also effusive, hailing the shipping-now title as "an all-around excellent game that confidently challenges, head-on, all the other WWII-themed shooters out there and comes out on top."

Dot.Com.CEO writes "IGN PC reports that the final version of Doom III will be capped at 60fps, quoting John Carmack as saying 'A fixed tic rate removes issues like Quake 3 had, where some jumps could only be made at certain framerates'. Will this put a stop to fans arguing whether there is a tangible benefit for frame rates over 60fps? What do Slashdot Games readers think about id's decision?" Elsewhere, there's a new preview of Doom III at C+VG, including a mini-interview with Carmack in which he comments: "Now's where it goes from being an interesting demonstration of all the technologies to being a fabulous game, and that really does all happen at the end."

jmahler writes "The Legends Development Team is proud to announce the availability of our Linux client and server downloads for Legends. Legends is a fast-paced, FPS-style multiplayer game. The game is designed to take advantage of the beautiful environments in the Torque Gaming Engine while still offering the breakneck pace and variety of gameplay styles available from classics such as Quake and Tribes. Our game has been made for gamers, by gamers, and will always remain free (as in beer), supported, and improved as long as there is interest in it." There's also a Windows version of this still-in-development Beta on their download page, and the Tribes-style gameplay looks intriguing ("jetpack use" through large, often open-air multiplayer maps.)

Thanks to BBC News for their article featuring a counterpoint to the view that games are just for 'geeks and guys', a point of view recently given publicity by Microsoft's Laura Fryer. The respondent, David Braben, co-creator of seminal 3D space title Elite, argues for the importance of empathy, and suggests that "the 'shoot-it-if-it-moves' mechanic of games like Quake [is] a fundamentally empty experience, unless you're fighting people you know well", even commenting that "...in Elite, we made shooting another space craft illegal, so the player had to think before opening fire." He also discusses his company's forthcoming Sony-published PS2 title, Dog's Life, a mainstream-aimed title which "seeks to create [an] emotional bond with the player" through cute, endearing dog interaction, and, uhm, a 'Smell-o-vision' mode.