Here’s a look at eight new levels for Quake Arena Arcade. The Arena Gate map, which came with Quake 3, is included in the 40 original maps from Arena and Team Arena will be included in the bundle. The latest generation of the classic first-person shooter is headed to the Xbox 360.

According to GamerBytes, Pi Studios is getting busy with a dedicated site for Quake Arena Arcade coming online soon. Unlike certain other titles that have turned out to be big teases, it looks like you and up to 15 of your friends will actually be able to duke it out to see who has the mad skilz.

Now, much as we all love our various Mac computers here at ChannelFlip, we’re ready to admit that the issue of gaming has long been a thorn in the side of Apple fans.

But the perception that you have to have a high powered Windows PC for gaming on a computer, combined with a lack of publicity for the growing Mac gaming industry, means that a surprising number of people aren’t aware of what you can achieve gaming wise on a Mac.

Some of the games that can be played on the Mac include Unreal Tournament 3, Neverwinter Nights 2, Guitar Hero 3, The Sims 2: Castaway Stories, Fable: The Lost Chapters and World of Warcraft.

via ChannelFlip

At a recent event, Intel demonstrated Enemy Territory: Quake Wars with ray-tracing. ETQW reportedly ran at 14-29 frames per second in 1280×720 on a 16-core (4 socket, 4 core) Tigerton system running at 2.93 GHz on a 64-bit Linux operating system.

Trendwatch reports seeing physically-correct refractions of water as well as incredibly detailed glass reflections. Intel supports ray-tracing on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Linux and Windows operating systems.

Check out TGDaily for a gallery of exclusive screenshots from ET: Quake Wars.

Finally, we get a chance to check out the new Enemy Territory: Quake Wars on the Xbox 360. Um, if you missed the retail release the other week, that is…or the PS3 version…or the PC version that came out eight months ago. But that’s not important. The point is: free stuff. Everyone loves free stuff, even if it’s late free stuff that probably should have been released a long time ago. Anyway, the demo for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is available on Xbox Live for the four of you that haven’t seen the game yet. Enjoy.

Via Major Nelson

Not a bad week for the release of games especially if you are a PC user and have been awaiting the arrival of Mass Effect or the new Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies expansion. Also, whether you are a console or handheld gamer there is something for everyone this week, so without further ado, here is what you can expect to see on shelves this week.

PC

• Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition – May 27
• Mass Effect – May 27
• Bus Driver – May 27
• Stronghold Crusader Extreme – May 28

PS3

• ET: Quake Wars – May 27

Xbox 360

• ET: Quake Wars – May 27
• Lost Plane: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition

Nintendo Wii

• Death Jr: Root of Evil – May 27
• Emergency Heroes – May 27
• Kawasaki Snowmobiles -May 27
• Monkey King: The Legend Beings – May 27

Nintendo DS

• The Metallic Rose Nintendo DS is available on May 27
• Super Dodgeball Brawlers – May 27
• USA Today Crosswords Challenge (GameStop Exclusive) – May 29

PSP

• World Championship Cards – May 28

All release dates are subject to availability, so some may be in stores on the day listed, the day before, or the day after so check with wherever you purchase your games because shipping times vary.

“Bethesda Softworks has repeatedly been responsible for outstanding games as both publisher and developer.” said Splash Damage creative director and owner Paul Wedgwood. “Both of our studios share a passion for creating great games, and we’re confident that this partnership will result in even greater experiences for gamers. We’re really looking forward to working with Bethesda.”

“This could not be a more perfect fit,” said Bethesda president Vlatko Andonov. “We are extremely impressed with Splash Damage and the quality titles they produce. They are highly creative and innovative, and have demonstrated a high level of dedication to their projects. We are confident that gamers everywhere will be thrilled with the offerings from this collaboration.”

Anything they might have in store for gamers is currently under wraps, although a press release states that details on Splash Damages’s “brand-new project” will be revealed in the coming months. We’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for that and any other further developments on this story.

It’s always a little strange to see a new trailer for a game released long after the game as hit store shelves. So it looks like whoever was given this task at id decided to spice things up a bit. Thus, there are three new trailers for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, delivered in an infomercial style format. The one above addresses the dangers of “projectile dysfunction,” while the other two advertise a “human juicer” and the game itself as if it were a monster truck rally. You can check out the other two trailers after the break.

“Activision is closing its Foster City development studio which had less than 45 employees,” an Activision spokesperson told GamesIndustry.biz.

“We are currently making efforts to find opportunities for all employees at other Activision studios.”

The studio that developed the Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX and Aggressive Inline series has most recently worked on Quake Wars for the PS3. Ironically the studio’s close may coincide with the release of its last project. Quake Wars for the PS3 will hit the shelves May 27 in North America and on May 30 in Europe and Australia.

via GamesIndustry.biz

The developers of Quake Live (formerly known as “Quake Zero”) are now accepting sign ups for the game’s beta test. The game will pretty much be a port of Quake III, but completely free and playable via a web browser. Players will also be able to access friends lists, stat tracking, tournaments, and communication directly through a web browser. We’ll have to wait and see if all that can actually bring in a vibrant community. I have to admit, the prospect of being able to play a quality FPS on any computer is an enticing prospect.

To sign for the Quake Live beta, you just have to head over to the official website and submit your e-mail address.

We have known that ET: Quake Wars would be coming to consoles eventually, but Activision has kind of danced around the subject of when and where for quite some time. Today, word on the street is that it will be bitting the PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 30th.

No word still on when the demos for both systems will hit, but stick around because I am sure something will be announced soon.

Thanks: Videogaming247

According to Nerve Software designer Greg Stone, Activision is planning to release playable demos of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for both the PS3 and 360. No date as to when the demos will be made available or whether they will hit before the console versions this summer, but we will keep you posted.

ET: Quake Wars will contain all of the classes, key features and maps that the team-based multiplayer FPS had on the PC version and will also include bots and usability issues for the port to consoles has been addressed.

For more information on ET: Quake Wars, check out our previous posts.

Thanks: Eurogamer

Aspyr has announced that Enemy Territory QUAKE Wars is coming to the Mac. This shooter built on id Software’s MegaTexture rendering technology offers strategic game play and story-driven military missions. ET QUAKE Wars follows Neverwinter Nights 2, The Sims 2: Bon Voyage and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock all developed for the Mac by Aspyr.

Traditionally gamers have invested in PCs because gaming has been limited for the Mac. With more games in development for the Mac now, I wonder if we’ll start to see a shift in numbers of PC versus Mac sales among gaming enthusiasts.

via Aspyr

Mod DB has managed to narrow down over 4,000 nominees submitted throughout the month of December to the top 100. You’re invited to download and vote for your favorite five mods. The final selections run the gamut from the expected Half-Life and Half-Life 2, Battlefront and Quake mods; to mods for Freelancer and Star Wars: Jedi Academy. You can also get a glimpse of the most anticipated mod projects for 2008.

Make your vote count at Mod DB.

I’m disappointed to see that none of last year’s Oblivion or Neverwinter Nights 2 mods made it into the top 100 for 2007. I’m very curious to see what’s coming up this year though. I’d also like to know how the new Fallout 2 mod faired.

The development blog for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars yesterday brought disappointing news for Quake Wars fans, as the 1.4 update has been delayed. Problems were found while the update went through QA testing, including issues that are ATI card-specific. Developer Splash Damage is working with AMD and ATI to solve that particular problem in addition to ironing out the other issues that the update currently has.

As a result, it’s unlikely that the update will be released by the end of the year, so Splash Damage is now looking at an early January ’08 release. As disappointing as that is, it’s certainly a whole lot better than releasing a broken update that could have potentially prevented gamers from even being able to play the game.

If you tuned in to the podcast this week, then you already know what I’m about to tell you. If not, then listen up!

Gaming Today is hosting a FileFront Frag Night tonight. We’ll be playing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars on our very own FileFront server. Hostilities should commence around 9:00 PM EST tonight (11/10/07).

This event is open to the public, so come on out and join us for an evening of fragging, bagging, and tagging. The server IP is 38.118.213.150, or you can find us in your server browser under the name FileFront.com. See you there!

Joel Durham Jr., consumate mouse tester for Extreme Tech, claims that he can frag you using a two button ball mouse as easily as any of the super expensive gaming mice out on the market today. When it comes to performance in FPSs, despite what companies like Logitech, Microsoft, Saitek and Razer would like you to believe, you can perform just as well, or just as badly, with one of their gaming mice as a free Dell early gen optical mouse.

Here’s my point: Your super-expensive gaming mouse might make you more confident, but it doesn’t necessarily improve your actual game. Yeah, more buttons means you can map more stuff to mouse buttons, and comfort is certainly a factor… Nevertheless, after much testing, I’m simply not convinced that a supermouse makes a difference in how successfully I play.

I’m not trying to bash Logitech or Microsoft—or Razer or Saitek or anyone else for that matter—as they make terrific, responsive, comfortable mice. I’ve simply come to the conclusion that spending an ungodly sum of money on a mouse doesn’t help my level of competitiveness. I can plop a grenade down your pants from thirty yards with a 2-button ball mouse if I have to.

Do these super expensive high tech gaming mice really make a difference to your game, or are you just wasting money you could have spent on Call of Duty 4 on an extraneous piece of hardware?

via Extreme Tech 

Activision has announced record sales for its financial Q2 showing a 69% increase over the same quarter in the previous fiscal year. Chairman Robert Kotick commented the quarter’s earnings were the highest in Activision’s history. He also attributes some of the success to the acquisition of Bizarre Creations.

CEO Mike Griffith said Activision shipped more units of Guitar Hero III than any other game in it’s history.

“Within the first seven days, consumer sell through was more than $100 million in North America alone — our largest product launch ever,” he said.

Activision is also forecasting third quarter net revenues exceeding $1 billion. Titles due for release include the Bee Movie Game in connection with DreamWorks Animation’s theatrical release; Enemy Territory: Quake Wars in North America; Spider-Man: Friend or Foe; and Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground. In particular, the company is banking on the success of recently released titles Guitar Hero III and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Kotick is mirroring the warning of EA’s John Riccitiello regarding Rock Band estimating that Activision may not be able to meet the demand for Guitar Hero III this holiday season.

“Given initial consumer demand, it’s possible demand will outstrip supply across all platforms before Christmas. To help ensure we continue momentum, we have over 30,000 in-store kiosks where consumers can demo the game, more than triple the number of kiosks we had last year.”

via Gamasutra

Well it’s that time of week once again. Ron and Shawn have a new podcast and a new podcast link for iTunes users. Those interested in subscribing to File-N-Forget can now do so directly through the iTunes store or by clicking on this link.

This week in Episode 9: Battlefield Quake, Ron and Shawn discuss the latest Quake game – Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and compare it to the Battlefield series in good and bad ways. Can this multiplayer entry in the Quake series live up to the ET pedigree?

You can grab this episode of the File-N-Forget Podcast here.

Don’t forget, you can send us your suggestions for future podcasts by emailing podcast@filefront.com; and you can check out past episodes by visiting our FileFront podcast page at http://podcast.filefront.com.

TN Games is pulling out the stops at E for all, introducing its innovative 3rd Space FPS Vest and its new FPS game, Incursion.

TN Games patented impact-generating 3rd Space technology utilizes a quiet and durable air source to fire 8 pneumatic cells embedded in the vest. The cells are designed to simulate the direction and force of bullet fire in a first-person shooter game. In addition, a wide array of sensory experiences, from crushing explosions to fear-inducing finger taps on the gamers’ shoulders, can be experienced with the 3rd Space FPS Vest. The vest is available in black, digital camouflage and comes in two highly adjustable sizes ensuring a comfortable, custom fit.

The 3rd Space Vest will include Incursion and 3rd Space compatible version of Activision’s Call of Duty II will be shipped with the vest, which will be available for the suggested retail price of $189.00 USD. Gamers can place an order for the bundle pack starting November 21, just in time for the holiday season.

What’s even better is that there will be patches available to make Quake 3, 4 and Doom 3 compatible with the vest as well from www.tngames.com free of charge.

You can demo the 3rd Space FPS Vest at booth 906. Players up to the challenge will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a special edition 3rd Space FPS Vest, TN Games new Incursion game and a 3rd Space enabled version of Activision’s Call of Duty II game at this year’s show! The winning name will drawn at TN Games booth 906 at 12:00 pm on October 21st.

via Press Release

The folks over at Activision and Splash Damage have teamed up with id Software to bring us an updated Enemy Territory: Quake Wars demo. Version 1.1 updates the demo to sync with the code from the retail release.

If you haven’t checked out this game yet, now’s the time. If you want to see just what changes are in this update, you can see the full change list after the break.

You can grab the full version 1.1 demo here.

If you already have the demo, and want to update it, you can grab the update patch here.

If you’re running a demo server, you can grab the update for your server here.

Version 1.1 Demo Patch Notes

* Updated Linux client compatibility
* Fixed performance drop of soft particles on some graphics cards
* Removed XP award for destroying newly spawned vehicles (spawn camping)
* Improved bot control of the GDF Titan Tank
* Fixed dedicated LAN server administrators reverting to default group on map change
* Fixed players occasionally not being able to change the mission they are on
* Server Launcher now clears the map rotation when changing game mode
* Fixed localized clients reverting to unlocalized if player starts a lite server on the same PC
* Fixed image pure check (anti-cheating) erroneously failing for MegaTextures