GameSpot reports that the release date of Half Life 2, originally scheduled for September 30th 2003, has been canceled and that the game will be released later this year. GameSpot has received this information from an unnamed Vivendi Universal representative. Without commenting on the delay, the representative reaffirmed that the game would ship this year, sometime during the holiday season. Update: Maybe the information is wrong, as Shacknews pointed out. Gabe Newell from Valve reacted to this information with: First time I've heard about this. We will see if it's true or not. We will keep you posted. Thanks to Jay for the information. German version / Deutsche Version

Wie GamesWeb berichtet, hat Valve heute nacht das Erscheinen von Half Life 2, das am 30. September in die Läden kommen sollte, revidiert und auf ein unbestimmtes Datum verschoben.
Es wird vermutet, das der Ego Shooter pünktlich zum Weihnachtsgeschäft in die Läden kommen wird, bestätigt ist dies allerdings noch nicht. Die Gründe für das Verschieben sind offen, allerdings ist bekannt, das der Hersteller derzeit noch Probleme mit dem Fullscreen Anti-Aliasing hat. Allerdings hat man bei Valve mit der Reaktion: Das ist das erste mal das wir davon hören reagiert, sodass noch alle Möglichkeiten offen sind.
Wir werden euch auf dem laufenden halten.

Die neueste Version der wohl erfolgreichsten Marke der PC-Spiele-Geschichte ist da: Pünktlich zum Jubiläum der Luftfahrt gibt es jede Menge Extras. Chip Online hat sich die Neuauflage in der englischen Finalversion angesehen, die deutsche Fassung kommt im August. Die Grafik ist - wie soll es auch anders sein - wieder einmal ein absoluter Hammer. Vorausgesetzt, Sie besitzen einen leistungstarken Rechner.

As promised, new retail patches for Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield are now available, upgrading Ubi Soft's squad-based tactical shooter to version 1.31. This release merely "fixes a server crash during countdown due to armpatch files being uploaded/downloaded," and it's currently available in US, UK, German, French and Spanish editions (with the Canadian and Italian ones presumably still to follow) from the previous v1.3 and the original game.

UnrealOps have noticed that the latest issue of PCGamer features a screenshot of UT2004's sniper rifle. Next to that you might want to check out the UT2004's announcer voice! Click on the screenshot for more information and scroll down the page.

3DGamers.com reports that a new release of Battlecraft 1942 is now available, bringing this map editor for Digital Illusion's multiplayer shooter Battlefield 1942 to version 1.1. This update includes a new Surface Map Painter, Undo functionality, a new Con File Editor, Lock/Unlock objects, a Nudge Tool, bug fixes, and plenty of other changes.

GamersHell.com have snagged the fourth Half-Life 2 video called Trap Town, from the upcoming first-person shooter sequel by Valve Software. The Bink video encoded clip weighs in at 183 MB.

Read More for mirrors.

LucasArts recently held an event in San Francisco to show off its 2003 games to the press. GameSpot was there, cameras in hand. They brought new impressions of LucasArts' upcoming games as well as new videos of games like Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike in action back with them. A short feature on the PC version of Knights of the Old Republic is also included.

Jeder richtige Fan sollte sich den nur knapp 400 KB großen Mod auf jeden Fall saugen. Der folgenden Auflistung könnt ihr entnehmen warum sich der Download lohnt:

- Der Helikopter kann genutzt werden
- Neuer Startpunkt
- Mehr Fahrzeuge
- Man sieht in welche Richtung der Spieler sich bewegt
- Flüssigeres Spielen im Internetbetrieb sowie einige andere neue Features
- Eine StuntMap (Neuer Bereich in der Stadt)
- Server und Client verbrauchen weniger CPU und Arbeitsspeicher im Betrieb

Gamers Hell.com reports that the first public release of Colosseum is now available for download, allowing you to try out this Jedi Knight 2 modification set in the greatest arena in Ancient Rome. The first version of Colosseum contains one level of gameplay, in which you must "battle in the greatest arena in Ancient Rome, and die with honor."

Monarch has released their CTF-BattleStar map made specifically for his AirPower mutator! Loosely Based on the 70's Television Show Battle Star Galactica.

Pilot a Viper or Raider to The Enemy Base land and capture the flag an return without being killed. Fight Amongst the stars in the Galactica Battle Cruiser or Cy base. Watch out for enemy laser turrets and enemy fighters on your tail.

Epic's Mark Rein has posted a bit more information about two of the game modes in UT2004: Assault and Onslaught! Here's a byte or two:

Assault is an objective/team based game mode in which two teams (attackers and defenders) battle each other in epic (and sometimes historical) battles taking place in the Unreal universe. Attackers have several objectives to accomplish in order to win the round.

If you love football this beta is a must! Thanks to GamerHell.com.

Beta version 2.0 of International Online Soccer has just been released and is now available for download. IOS is a first person online multiplayer soccer game that aims to be the online equivalent of great console soccer games but with a true multiplayer teamplay experience. IOS requires a full installation of HalfLife v1.1.1.0. or above to play.

Gabe Newell von Valve Software sieht Lösung auch für GeForceFX-Grafikkarten und hat sich auf HalfLife.net in die Diskussion um zu erwartende Darstellungsprobleme mit aktueller Grafikhardware eingeklinkt. "Da die Leute wegen des Kantenglättungs-Problems hyperventilieren, werde ich mal alle auf den neuesten Stand bringen", so Newell im Forum der auf Half-Life 2 konzentrierten Fan-Site.

Half-Life Mod: Underworld: Bloodline

Ein phantastischer Mod für Half-Life. Allein die Homepage ist schon sehenswert.

Sony Pictures promotet mit diesem Mod ihren am 19.09.03 in die Kinos kommenden Action-Horror-Film "Underworld".
Underworld Bloodline ist ein Teamplayer Spiel ähnlich "Capture the Flag", aber benutzt lebende Ziele als Flaggen.

Erste Details zum ANNO 1503 Erweiterungsset "Schätze, Monster und Piraten" Das österreichische Entwicklerteam Max Design und der deutsche Publisher SUNFLOWERS geben erstmals Details zum Erweiterungsset von ANNO 1503 preis. Mit dem offiziellen Erweiterungsset, das Anfang November 2003 für 19,95 Euro erscheinen wird, soll an die einzigartige ANNO Erfolgsstory angeknüpft werden.

Ubisoft has news that patch version 1.31 for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Raven Shield is basically finished: We've added the finishing touches to 1.31 and it is confirmed that the patch will be made available Tuesday, July 29th. Initially, the release date was set for this week but due to an addition to the patch (Windows SA Server support), it was delayed until next week.

Prepare for Doom 3. id Software and Activision are bringing Doom 3 to QuakeCon 2003. The world?s most legendary multiplayer gaming event will host the first-ever opportunity for fans to play Doom 3 multiplayer. In Dallas at the Adam's Mark Hotel from Aug. 14th ? 17th, QuakeCon attendees will go toe-to-toe at the Activision/id Software booth in the ultimate sneak preview of the most anticipated game ever. QuakeCon attendees will have the chance to play Doom 3's four-player Deathmatch on a level co-developed by id Software and U.K. based developer Splash Damage, Ltd. Splash Damage has most recently worked with id Software on Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, and will be co-developing Doom 3's multiplayer levels.

The new Tournament is faster, higher and meaner. Land and air based vehicles take combat to a new level, while an arsenal of new weaponry, daunting arenas and battlefields and the challenge of the Assault and Onslaught modes make the gladiator blood sport of the future a brand new experience.

A recent post in the Half-Life 2 forums questioning the possibility of full screen anti aliasing with Half-Life 2, especially on Nvidia GeForce FX graphics cards, has caused many gamer's a headache. Gabe Newell, Valve Software's managing director, now posted more details on the matter: Since people seem to be hyperventilating over the anti-aliasing issue, I thought I'd update everyone. 1) How bad is the problem? With current multi-sample implementations of anti-aliasing, you may sample texels outside of the polygon boundary, which may result in sampling light maps from other polygons.