I thought I'd do all the review requests I had as to give me some spare time but just as I was writing this news update I got two more requests in, dammit! Speaking of creating reviews I'm just finishing off a newer version of the MPQ Input program. I've been using it to create all this weeks reviews and it certains speeds up the time it takes to do them.

Also we now have the Quake 2 reviewers sorted out. I'll introduce them later this week. They've got a backlog of maps to work through first so please DON'T send any requests it. I'll let you know as to when you can do.

Skorpion has started up new contest at his site. Its called the 'Omicron Duel Challenge'. The idea is pretty simple. You record a demo of yourself racking up kills on one Headshots maps, Bless To Kill. A chart is kept of the highest scores and whoever does get the highest score wins. The prize is a packet of dry roasted peanuts and a pint of John Smiths. Anyway, Skorpion has come up with a good set of rules for the event and I may even have a go.

Something I must mention is that Björn Aneer (a.k.a. cyBeAr) now has a website. Looks pretty good.

I just read about the now defunct GLDoom project. Sad news. I would really have liked to have seen it finished. Seems something weird happened for Bruce to lose all copies of it, including backups. Well I hope what he works on next will be just as good.

I noticed on Scary's a link for a review of the new Celeron 466 chip. They got that little monkey overclocked to 525! Anyway, I saw the 3D Mark 99 and CPU Mark 99 scores and thought I'd see what mine was as a way of comparison. I did my tests at 800x600 (and also note they used two 12Mb Voodoo2's in SLI mode, whilst I used a 16Mb Riva TNT) and heres the results :
 

Bench Mark Type	Celeron 466 at 525	Pentium III 450
3D Mark 99	3646	4155
CPU Mark 99	4675	6978
Game 1 - Race (FPS)	39.2	40.7
Game 2 - First Person (FPS)	34.1	42.5

I've probably dug myself into a hole with that, but I thought it was interesting to see the difference.

Slyde from the Mappers Monastery dropped me a line to say they've moved. Theres a good review of Gonzo's Warfare 2 - The Quick and the Dead. Whats funny though is the maps score, it gets 7 out of 10 and if you divide it by two (to bring it down to MPQ's scoring) it gets 3.5, which is exactly what Pingu gave it...

A new version of Rocket Arena has been released. Its now up to version 2.5 and includes 9 new maps with 57 arenas. For the full download its only 41Mb. I think I'll rush off and download it... actually no I won't.  I've never liked Rocket Arena. I don't like the idea of having to wait your turn to play (since I was crap at it and kept dieing) because whilst I'm doing nothing the phone bill is nicely mounting up. If I really wanted to waste my money I'd buy an iMac. =). Oh boy am I gonna get flamed for that..

Ridge Racer Type 4 was released last Friday and I went and bought a copy. First impressions were good, nice smooth interface, good graphics (for the Playstation) and the usual crap cheesy music. After a couple of days play my opinion is that its lacking something. The updated engine with light flares and reflective car bodies is cool, but I think its the tracks. Whilst in some regards they are better, they don't have the visual impact that Rage Racer's did. That say if you're after more of the same Ridge Racer action with better graphics, then I'd highly recommend it.