Compound 2 - the classic revisited. This reworking of the mighty Compound level includes several new features, such as an extensive underground tunnel network, climbable buildings and an extended playing field to accommodate the larger teams that the latest Steam versions and more powerful server hardware allow.

Bethesda Softworks is happy to announce the release of our Beta Patch. Please understand that this is not the final version of the patch, this is a Beta Patch. If you are not experiencing any problems while running Oblivion, it is not recommended that you install this Beta Patch. ElderScrolls

I've put together a four-page Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter Tweak Guide, based on the demo of the game. It provides the known methods of optimizing and customizing the game. Note that the demo and the retail version are essentially identical in terms of performance and tweaking, and as such download the demo and tweak it using the guide, as this will give you a genuine idea of how good the retail version will look and perform on your system. The full version of this guide will be released shortly after the retail version of GRAW is out.

TweakGuides

Last week saw the release of a demo of the latest game in the Ghost Recon series, Advanced Warfighter. This game has taken the Xbox 360 by storm, and its PC version has also garnered plenty of interest thanks to its advanced graphics and support for AGEIA's PhysX boards.

Legendary game programmer John Carmack discusses the impressive MegaTexture system for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

World of Warcraft has over six million users. EverQuest still has a loyal following, and even smaller MMOs have loyal followings. Loyd Case has decided he's fed up with all of them.

ExtremeTech

Sierra has released a new patch (22.35MB) for F.E.A.R., bringing the sci-fi first-person shooter by Monolith Productions to version 1.04. This patch adds support for the updated SDK (587MB) and is accompanied by corresponding Win32 (118MB) and Linux (112MB) dedicated servers. Sierra

The eagerly-anticipated playable demo for Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is now online, offering the first opportunity to try out this imminent squad-based tactical shooter sequel by GRIN. This demo contains mission 2 from the full game, playable in single-player or on LAN with up to three other Ghosts.

Wondering if Oblivion truly takes advantage of dual-core processors? And if so, by how much? Does L2 cache size play a role in performance, and what clock speeds yield the biggest performance improvements?

Oldblivion is a piece of software which allows graphics cards which are pre DirectX9 to run Elder Scrolls: Oblivion from Bethesda. This means that Oblivion can run on cards such as Geforce 3, Geforce 4, Radeon 9200 and so on. Oldblivion is still in an early development phase but it's fairly stable, however there still are a few bugs and kinks to work out.

Activision has issued new retail patches for Quake 4 to bring the Win32 edition of Raven Software's sci-fi first-person shooter sequel to version 1.2. You can update from the previous v1.1 or any older version, and this release includes all of the changes and maps in v1.1 along with addressing the widescreen problem and other issues.

It's Far Cry 2 in everything but name, and Crytek's next generation FPS, Crysis, has some of the most cutting-edge graphics ever seen. Click for 18 all-new screenshots and the tech behind them.

Bit-Tech

Activision has released the promised retail patch for Call of Duty 2, upgrading the World War II tactical shooter sequel by Infinity Ward to version 1.2. This release adds PunkBuster support, a pair of multiplayer maps titled mp_harbor and mp_rhine, more multiplayer enhancements and fixes, and other changes.

Last week we took a look at Oblivion's performance with the latest high-end graphics cards and found that ATI's Radeon X1900 XTX delivers the best overall performance. But what if you don't have $500 to spend for a graphics card? That's where today's article comes in!

JCal's interview feeding frenzy continues today, as he takes a bite out of BioWare's co-CEOs and gets their comments in Jade Empire, Mass Effect and their plans for E3!

FiringSquad

Elite Bastards have investigated ATI's 'Chuck patch', released at the tail-end of last week, looking at how the game both performs and looks using this new driver and the added ability to use anti-aliasing alongside High Dynamic Range rendering which it brings.

After a lot of testing and tweaking, my 13-page Oblivion Tweak Guide has finally been completed. My main aim in writing this guide was to sort out the fact from fiction by personally testing all the .ini file options and performance tweaks floating around and document only the safe, working ones; to accurately describe all the in-game settings correctly; and draw together all the available sources of optimization and troubleshooting information into a single reference source which will remain up to date as we find out more about this amazing game. There are no 'magic' tweaks which instanly double your FPS, but I genuinely believe that if you go through and follow the advice in the guide, your Oblivion experience will improve.

When it comes to outdoor visuals, there aren't many games out there today that can match up to Oblivion. But with all that eye candy comes a huge hit on frame rate, and thus, many of you are in the market looking to upgrade.

Elite Bastards take a look at a game that has garnered a lot of attention since its release, and rightly so - The latest game in the Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion. To give the review a slightly different flavour, they've tried to offer some insight into whether this game is of any interest to those who wouldn't normally 'do' RPGs.

The playable demo for Tomb Raider: Legend has been released, offering the first opportunity to try out the imminent third-person action adventure sequel by Crystal Dynamics. This demo contains one expansive mission set in Bolivia where your objective is to find an ancient artifact.