Planet Halflife.com has posted a news tidbit that Valve Software's Erik Johnson has sent word they will be releasing an SDK before the release of their upcoming first person shooter, Half-Life 2.

And Shacknews has had a chat with Gabe Newell and Yahn Bernier from Valve about the multiplayer physics in Half-Life 2.

Just spotted this at Planetunreal.com:

The The Unreal Technology Page has a new RAD Pixomatic-based software renderer for UT2003. It's designed for those of you with low resolutions and crappy PC's.

Tiscali.Games have posted the E3 2003 Unreal Tournament 2004 Trailer coming in at 7,5 MB! Please note their server is running slow.

This is just a rumour at the moment but I've had a few emails says that a technology demo for Half Life 2 has leaked to the web. I am off to do some investigation! Looks like another head will roll if this is true.

Update: Well I've found some links for a supposed Half Life 2 technology demo but as the links are being hit hard I've haven't been able to download the demo! So we can not confirm anything yet! But I did get an email from someone claiming to be from Valve! The short of it: don't post links or we'll sue your ass. Since HL2 is intellectual property of Valve Software we will not post any links to any source - regardless if this rumour is true or not. Any comments containing links or instructions will be deleted.

Here's a roundup of the latest E3 2003 games movies for:

Resident Evil Outbreak They Came From Hollywood Shade Counter Strike (Xbox)

Just got word that the Soldier of Fortune II: International Crime Syndicate's multiplayer mod is out! ...... I.C.S. is `the` must have `Balls-To-The-Walls` mod for Soldier Of Fortune II, with all new commercial quality content and improvements; not just a mod, I.C.S. is a better way to play and enjoy SOF2!

ICS enhances the familiar SOF II 'action' experience with a new theme, expanded scenarios, game-modes, commercial quality level and sound design, and all new feature content. Smoothing out SOF II's rough edges ICS offers a feature rich higher quality game.

Here's a roundup of the latest E3 2003 games movies for:

Doom 3 E3 2003 full trailer Terminator 3 Beyond Good and Evil Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

FilePlanet has posted a Half-Life 2 hi-res QuickTime video which runs for 25 minutes and requires a 500 MB download! It's also on Irc, If you find a link post the link in comments.

They also have a 60MB video of DOOM 3! I haven't downloaded this, so I don't know if it's an old Doom 3 movie or a new one.

Once again persuing the previous release, a new patch for Enter the Matrix is available to bring the 3D action game by Shiny Entertainment to version 1.52. This time details on the new release are available, and they include graphics improvements, a new options screen, EAX support, and the ability to Alt-Tab out of the game. Download

Gamers Hell reports that Rockstar Games has issued the first patch for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, bringing it to version 1.1. There aren't much details about the changes it makes, but this patch is supposed to "fix graphic corruption problems".

Thanks to Macky D for the heads up! Unreal Ops has snagged the first footage of Atari's UT2004.

In this short video you finally get to see the vehicles in action. The Tank looks very cool and the skimmer looks fun. The video comes in different streaming flavors but alas even the 100k stream is getting killed by the West Coast traffic right now. If you have the ability to record from a stream and can grab a copy for us to keep locally let me know.

Here's a roundup of the latest E3 2003 games movies for:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Oblivion Lost Matrix Online Rainbow Six Athena Sword Prince of Persia Sands of Time

The peeps at Gayspy were given a chance to take Valve's latest baby for a spin and have posted their 3 page report, which includes the first look at live gameplay!

Last week, we presented our massive Half-Life 2 preview, based on a trip to Valve Software during which we saw roughly a dozen short demonstrations of the company's new Source engine in action. This week at E3, in a theater at the ATI booth, Valve Managing Director Gabe Newell took us another tour, showing us a (mostly) new series of roughly a dozen demos, as well as a very brief look at the game being played live in front of us.

Just saw this bit of news at Amdzone.com:

We have learned today from AMD and confirmed with Valve here at E3 that there will be a x86-64 port of the Half Life 2 client. This is in addition to the x86-64 port of the Counterstrike server that will be available soon. We saw the Half Life 2 demonstration and it looked amazing. Doom III and Half Life 2 will sell some video cards.

Gamers Hell reports that Atari has issued the first patch for Enter The Matrix, bringing Shiny's action game to v1.51. No details are available right now about the changes it brings, but the update is for all versions of the game.

GaySpy check's out John Carmack's Chats about tech and design decisions behind DOOM 3, as well as the state of games development at this years E3 Show! Here's a snip.

Amidst the noise and bustle of the Expo, it was a relief to get into the relative quiet of a conference room. On stage sat John Carmack, id Software co-founder and arguably the most influential gaming graphics programmer in the world. He was there to talk about DOOM 3, as part of a public interview hosted by Newsweek technology editor N'gal Croal, but DOOM 3 was only part of the discussion. During his hour-and-a-half talk, Carmack touched on the problems associated with building graphically intense titles, the time needed to create modern content, challenges faced by small developers, and even eclectic topics such as rocketry or creating an online "metaverse."

Want to watch the 9 Half-Life 2 trailers available at Gamespot for free? Yes, I hear you cry! Then click on the HL2 logo and scroll down to jjjayb post at Rage3D forum and follow the instructions or here at Shacknews.

LucasArts has now launched the official Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike website. All included X-wings, B-wings, speeder bikes, AT-STs, tauntauns. You?ll have to master them all to save Luke, Wedge, Han, Chewie and Leia from Darth Vader and his Imperial forces in this return to the classic Star Wars trilogy.

Who says a decent FPS game can't come from Germany? Uh, well check out this amazing trailer from Crytek showcasing the game coming this year. Far Cry is set in the future that features exciting new elements and 3D worlds set in both vast detailed outdoor and indoor areas. Far Cry will showcase the latest AI and physics technologies to recreate the most believable character movements, as well as realtime 3D atmospheric sound rendering, weapon bullets and footsteps as if you were there, in the game.