The eagerly anticipated patch for Painkiller is now available, upgrading the frantic first-person shooter by People Can Fly to version 1.15. This release adds a new map called DM_Cursed, new warmup options, demo recording and playback, a new spectator mode, a voting system, other multiplayer enhancements, experimental forward-looking prediction code, single-player improvements, bug fixes, and more.

Have you been checking out Neowin's weblog for WinHEC? No then you would of missed this bit of Info then.

ATi today launced the X800 graphics card and had machine exhibits ready for attendees to see the ?Ruby? demo. The Ruby demo has been released onto CD for attendees to view and see the effects that the X800 can render in real time. The demo was very impressive but was not a touch on the demo by Gabe Newell from Valve. This stole the whole keynote to actually see some new footage from Half Life 2. Again we got the whole video which is approximately 3 minutes long and as soon as we find somewhere with firewire we?ll get it on here asap because it?s one to watch!

So what is Halo Custom Edition (HaloCE) you ask? Simply put, it is a new version of HaloPC that is free for all HaloPC owners. This unsupported version of HaloPC is a stand alone Gearbox Software release and is not supported by Microsoft.

FilePlanet and Vivendi Universal Games have come together to celebrate the upcoming release of Tribes: Vengeance and have made the full versions of Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2 available for FREE.

In an unusual move, SimBin has released the playable press demo of GTR, their upcoming FIA GT racing simulator, for the public. Awkwardly, the demo is still protected by a password though, so you'll need to enter "GTR_Press_Demo" during installation. The demo contains the Spa track, drivable in the Lister Storm and Morgan Aero 8 cars, but as a work-in-progress release it doesn't offer the polish expected from an official public demo.

GameSpot have thrown up their Doom 3 E3 2004 preshow impressions! Here's a byte.

The Xbox version is being developed by Vicarious Visions, contemporaneously with the PC version under development at id. However, Hollenshead said that the Xbox version will ship after the PC version, and the PC version will ship when it's done. He wouldn't commit to a date; however, he did say?

Badmouthing Brat over at Neowin's forum has posted up Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic 2 scans (7 pages) from this months Electronic Gaming Monthly #179 June 2004! It's well worth checking out!

Voodoo Extreme reports that at this years E3 Expo, there will be not one - but TWO - Half-Life 2 theatres to get a look at two different demonstrations with ALL-NEW content. [...] After checking out the demo at the VUG booth (#1200), then head over to the ATI Booth #1608 - also in South Hall - for another ALL NEW Half-Life 2 demo.

Tiscali Games have snagged a few new Half-Life 2 Scans.

Gamer's Hell reports that Square Enix has released a trailer from Final Fantasy XII which introduces the principal characters through a mixture of phases of gameplay and cinematics.

The French site Jeux-france.com have snagged some Halo 2 Scans from the GameInformer magazine.

They also have the first Images for Time Splitters 3 and Devil May Cry 3! Click on above Pic for the Halo2 scans and Here for the other 2 scans.

3D Gamers reports the promised demo client of Guild Wars has been released, allowing you to prepare for the limited demonstration period of the fantasy multiplayer online role-playing game in the works at ArenaNet. This tiny client will download around 30 MB of art assets and enable you to join the three day demo during E3, May 12 through 14.

Unravel the conspiracy, and he wins his freedom...

The year is 2366, and the SolGov Federation faces turmoil. Lieutenant Kyle Hardlaw, leader of specialized commando unit Alpha Black Zero, stands accused of multiple illegal assassinations against his own government. In the courtroom on Qahira, the politically influential planet formerly known as Mars.

So what is Halo Custom Edition (HaloCE) you ask? Simply put, it is a new version of HaloPC that is free for all HaloPC owners. This unsupported version of HaloPC is a stand alone Gearbox Software release and is not supported by Microsoft.

Thanks to the Reverend over at Beyond3D for the Info.

After reading a post in our forum about the NV30-specific rendering path purportedly being removed by DOOM3's lead programmer John Carmack, I asked John if this was indeed true (and took the opportunity to ask a couple of other questions) :

FatCat over at Neowin's forum has posted up scans (10 pages) from this months PC Zone Mag! Valve's Gabe Newell comfirms Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 3! It's well worth checking out!

The planet's name is Crateus - it features a giant crater tightly packed with countries. In the center of the crater there is always-neutral high-economy country, and its conquest will be the main objective for both rivaling sides in World Wars. Numerous smaller craters and lifeless ridges will provide additional environmental obstacles leading to new tactical challenges.

The official 1.1 update for CS:CZ has been released, and all other Steam games have been updated. Here's a list of what's included.

Want to know what Bug fixes are in latest Far Cry Patch! you do then head this way to the Far Cry forums! Thanks EB

Before I list the changes, I wanted to include a few caveats. For one, please keep in mind that the following list of changes is subject to change. This is not necessarily the final list -- some new fixes may end up being included, and some changes listed may not end up in the patch. However, since I believe you all would prefer *some* information to *none*, I am posting this tentative list. The second caveat is that the release date is not final. The patch is going into testing now, and if all goes well, it will be released soon. As soon as I get more infromation, I'll be sure to post it.

Half-life2.de have scooped 9 high quality Half-Life 2 Screens from the German Mag PC Games!

Update: Can you read German! if so can you please translate this scan! and post your comments.