Slated for August 9 - 12, this year's event marks the first NVIDIA QUAKE III Arena Championships at QuakeCon boasting over $50,000 in cash and prizes. This 512-player battle pits the world's top players in the only QUAKE III Arena tournament officially sanctioned by id Software, a leading independent developer of entertainment software. The competition reaches a climax Saturday night when the QUAKE III Arena champion receives a $30,000 cash prize and lays claim to the title of QUAKE III Arena champ.

In addition to the champion's tournament, QuakeCon 2001 includes a 24-hour-a-day, 1,250 person bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) LAN-party, and four days of workshops and discussions on everything from game development and technology to the latest in computer hardware. Attendees also have the unique opportunity to check out yet-to-be-released games and hardware from some of the industry's top developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers in the QuakeCon exhibitor area. Additionally, attendees can participate in a number of smaller tournaments featuring team competitions and varying types of game play.

Registration for QuakeCon 2001 and The NVIDIA QUAKE III Arena Championships at QuakeCon will be open to the public at the official QuakeCon Web site later this spring. The registration date, in addition to other event news, will be available on the QuakeCon Web site.
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Immersion Corp., announced that Dynamix, a division of Sierra, one of the world's most respected computer game publishers, has incorporated TouchSense technology into its newest release, TRIBES 2.

Using Immersion's patented TouchSense technology, Sierra added tactile sensations that correspond to onscreen action events within TRIBES 2. These sensations add the missing sense of touch to visual and audio effects, bringing a whole new dimension of realism to the gaming experience. TRIBES 2 offers PC gamers new tactile weapon effects as they explore and battle in massive and breathtaking worlds. A computer user can feel a wide range of physical sensations that have been incorporated into the game using a computer mouse with TouchSense technology such as the Logitech iFeel Mouse or Saitek's Touch Force Optical Mouse.
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Immersion Corp., has announced that Saitek is incorporating Immersion's patented TouchSense technology into a new optical computer mouse with tactile feedback capabilities. Immersion's TouchSense technology allows computer users to feel objects and actions that correspond to events, graphics or icons on a computer screen. Saitek's Touch Force Optical Mouse, complete with Saitek's distinctive industrial design, will enhance the whole PC experience. This mouse will allow everyday PC users to reap the benefits of tactile feedback in Windows applications and on the web. Now gamers can reach new levels of interaction in some of the latest game titles such as Black & White, TRIBES 2 and Unreal Tournament using Saitek's new mouse configured for a wide range of game play.
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According to this new Sierra teaser site, it looks like Homeworld 2 is in development. We should expect to see more details about this game in 55 days...
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Shrapnel Games announced today that a new patch has been released for Horse & Musket Great Battles of the Eighteenth Century and is ready and available for download at their website. The Patch, version 1.13, adds features requested by the Horse & Musket Gamers. Included in the Patch:

• In the Edit Army Names dialog (under the Armies->Edit Names menu) there are now edit boxes to the right of the army names that you can use to enter the bitmap name for that army.
• Infantry can no longer initiate assaults with cavalry
• It now costs a cavalry unit 2 Movement Points to disengage (instead of all).
• When a Corp Leader is promoted to Overall Leader, he keeps his name.
• New terrain graphics are added.

Intel Corporation announced that the Intel VTune Performance Analyzer is shipping as part of Xbox video game system Development Kit from Microsoft. The Intel VTune Performance Analyzer is designed to make performance tuning easier and more efficient for Xbox game developers.

The Intel VTune Performance Analyzer collects, analyzes and displays software performance data from the system-wide view down to a specific function, module or instruction in an Xbox game developer's source code. The tool specifically helps developers easily recognize potential performance bottlenecks and produce a higher level of performance and competitiveness.  Intel's VTune Analyzer has been used for years by software developers to optimize their code for Intel's latest microprocessors. Version 5.0 is now available for optimizing code for Pentium 4 processors.
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