Argo, from the D3: Hell on Earth project dropped us a line with news that a work in progress screenshot of the textured of the Baron of Hell is currently being displayed in their Media Section. They are also working on new weapons, the modeling of the Spectre and adding the finishing touches to their maps so that they will be ready for a demo some time in the future. You can check out the mod teams progress at the D3:HoE site.

The British Academy of Film and Television have announced the nominees for their Games and Interactive awards. DOOM 3 has grabbed a few nominations in Best Audio, Best Art Direction, Best Technical Direction and Best PC game. The list of categories and nominees can be found on their site and the winners will be anonunced at their award ceremony, March 1st 2005.

The Recall to Hell mod team sent over a peek of their latest concept shot which just so happens to be of an old friend of DOOM 3's. The concept art is that of the early Hell Knight which some people endearingly named "Larry". The mod is planning on adding this creature to their mod and are looking for some modellers to help pull it off. You can hit their site to check out the concept image as well as some other concept art and rough drafts they have come up with as well.

DOOM movie script writer Dave Callaham wrote an open letter to Homelan Fed to address the DOOM fans about the current uproar over the direction the movie seems to have taken. Dave goes on to say that recent quotes that were presumably by him were not and that they did need to take some liberties in changing the DOOM story for the film. Here's a snip:

"The screenplay I wrote DOES differ in a number of ways from the games. I want to be very honest and forthcoming in saying that, and I know that I won't make any friends amongst the fans of the game in doing so. But it should be mentioned that it was never the goal of anyone involved in this film, from myself and the producers to the studio to the guys at id, to make a direct film adaptation of the game(s). The thought process has always been to create an extension of the Doom universe that will give fans an interesting new take on the themes that they've come to enjoy in the game. Because let's be honest here: as far as a completely immersive and cinematic experience, we were never going to top Doom 3 anyway, and we all knew that. Instead, we have toyed with some elements of the game, and yes, I am pretty much solely responsible for that, since it was my pitch and my screenplay that got made. Let me assure you, though, that the themes and elements that you love about Doom are ALL represented strongly in the film...just with some new twists."

Be sure to head on over to Homelan Fed to read the letter in it's entirety.

Doom3[CC] is a mod that aims to close caption Doom 3 so that hard of hearing and deaf gamers can enjoy ot without missing the important plot details, enemy sound clues and intense atmosphere created audibly. This mod is also helpful for those who wish to learn the English language by reading what the spoken dialog says. This first initial release is an early version, and while not 100% complete, does provide captions for dialog, monsters and environmental ambience. Future versions will support color coding based on who is speaking and additional languages for the captions. You can grab the file here and be sure to hit up their site for more information.

The Hexen based mod, Edge of Chaos, have posted up a few new screens on their site. The pics include a shot of a gargoyle model, a lantern and some new skyboxes that are quite impressive. Be sure to head on over to Hexen: The Edge of Chaos to check them all out for yourself! We are also pleased to announce that Edge of Chaos is now hosted by us here at planetDOOM and we are more than happy to have them aboard!

Napalm, the creator of the Material Generator program, MaGen, dropped us a line to let us know that version 2.0 of MaGen has now been released. The new version contains several bugfixes and improvements, such as qer_editorimage resizing and bumpmap from diffusemap generation and material type definition. You can head over to their site or over to fileplanet to grab the file.

Calimer from the Last Man Standing mod shot us over an e-mail with some news of their progress. Team member Timbobsteve has been working on a difficulty script and seems to have it nailed down so that when more players join the game, it will add more monsters to the map to compensate. As well he is also working on a shoulder mounted flashlight that will be able to be toggled on and off. Everthing seems to be going smoothly for the team and they hope to have it all full gear for the release of their New Year Beta. Head over to their site to get the full scoop on all their updates!

Eleven years ago today, DOOM stepped on the scene and totally changed our perception of video games. The horror that was know as DOOM had a big impact on the videogame industry as well as what people came to expect from games there after. If you haven't played it in awhile, load up your copy of DOOM and give it a run through today for old times sakes. Cheers to DOOM and id Software, for what is to this day, still one hell of a game!

Just got word that DOOM3world.org forums have been hacked and that they are being re-directed to a different site. Just wanted to let DOOM3world know that everyone here at planetDOOM hopes that they can restore their forums quickly and fully and hopefully without too much of a hassle to get everything going again.

HandD from D3maps.de sent us word about a Machinima movie they have up for download entitled Engine. This Machinima video, created by fUrZkOeBBe, is based on the Doom 3 engine from id Software and its concept is to synchronize the movements of various machines from the game with the sounds they make to a rhythmic flow of imagery and music. The video really is very cool to watch and very interesting to see the machines from the game put together this way. You can head over to d3maps download section to grab the 147 meg video to scope out for yourself.

In a short blip on Macworld.com, it is mentioned that the "Macintosh conversion of the hit action game from id Software Doom 3 has reached its beta development milestone. Doom 3 -- the first Mac game to require a G5 processor, according to Aspyr's preliminary specifications -- is expected to be released in February, 2005." Good news for you Mac users who are looking forward to the gruesome DOOM 3 experience!

The Internet Movie Database apparently has been updated with a few more cast members from the upcoming DOOM movie. The new additions are characters named Duke, Destroyer, Baron, Goat, Dr. Carmack and a few others. Also there have been some "unofficial" pictures posted on doom.aktualne.cz that show the stand-in persons for each actor as well as a card reader and a helicopter from the set. Hit the IMDB for the DOOM page and character list and doom.aktualne.cz to see the pics.

Thanks to Dirtygreatflamer and Joachim for the heads up!

Map tool and Level Builder, Gtk Radiant has released it's latest version 1.5.0. The latest build has some nice cosmetic enhancements, as well as fixes for some minor bugs. You can check out the full list of changes right here in the changelog and you can head over to qeradiant.com to grab the file in both Windows and Linux flavours.

The folks over at Doom3Fortress have posted an update on the status of their mod which has been rumoured lately to halt work and jump ship to bigger and better things. It turns out that the team will be stopping work on the mod due to certain factors for a while and will be turning their attention else where. Here's the update:

Those of you who frequent our forums already know we've been having some problems with D3F. The main culperate being Doom3. It just seems there is no interest in Doom3 anymore, most of the team we had has disappeared without saying anything. When I send emails, I get no replies. On top of losing talent, is the Doom3 netcode issue. We've come to a road block that we were hoping we could overcome, but this hasn't been the case. The Doom3 netcode as it is just can't support the player base we have in mind. So with those things in mind... Doom3 dying out already, loss of talent, and the netcode, here is what will happen with D3F.

Either Doom3 will have to release an update that can support at least a 16 player base, or we wait for Quake4. We'd like to get a release for Doom3, but until a netcode update comes along, I don't see this happening.

I'd like to thank everyone who has been supporting us. This doesn't mark the end of D3F, it simply marks a problem in development where we need to wait for something to happen. This mod WILL be finished, i promise you that. Whether its Doom3 or Quake4, it will happen. I'd also like to thank planetdoom for all their patience, help, hosting, and pimping they have done for us, I could have never asked for a better host.

In the meantime... some of us are working on a HL2 mod. Introducing Rocket Arena: Source! RAS will be our own version of Rocket Arena based on the awesome series of mod's for the Quake series by David 'crt' Wright.

Good luck to the guys in their future endeavours and here's to hoping that D3Fortress makes it to the surface one day.

GameSpy.com has put up their lists of nominations for you, the fans, to vote on the games you thought were the best of this year. Unlike other game "best of"'s that are taking place, GameSpy actually gives you a choice of many games in each category to pick from and not just 4 games, 2 of which haven't even been released, like other game votings. Keep in mind also that this is not for GameSpy's Game of the Year, this is voting for GameSpy's Gamer's Choice, what the gaming population and communities thought were the best games. Out of the 11 categories, DOOM 3 has a nomination in 3 of them. They are, best Overall PC Game, Best Action Game and Best Multiplayer. Head on over to GameSpy's Gamer's Choice and get voting!

Ice Weasel from IDDQD Games dropped us a line to let us know they are hard at work on DOOM 3.1, a total conversion for DOOM 3. As you can tell from the name, they are bringing back the old Doom experience and adopting it to DOOM3 with updated graphics and all that hullabaloo. They have updated their site with screens 'o plenty of levels E1M4 and E1M8 that are in the works. He also mentions that they could use a helping hand with texture creation, modelling, coding (in the SDK), scripting, sound work and GUI creation. If you want to know more about DOOM 3.1 or think you would be able to give them some help, head on over to their site and drop them a line!

VIA Gamers Arena have released the second in their series of DOOM 3 Deathmatch maps, VIAVGA DM2. VIAVGA DM2 is a heavily detailed level that has been built to accomodate large sized deathmatch and team deathmatch games, offering a well-lit free-flowing design. Created by Borg, the same author of the popular VIAVGADM1 map, this map will be a definate keeper and a must in any servers rotation. You can check out the map and more info on it right here.

Trevor's Doom 3 Coding Center is up and open for business. One of the latest sites to be hosted here at planetDOOM, the site is filled with tutorials about the Doom 3 SDK and more are being added all the time. For all you coders out there, this is one site that you will want to keep an eye on! Head on over to the DOOM 3 Coding Center to take a look.

Dark Horizons has the latest bit of info about the DOOM movie posted up from a correspondent that recently attended the set in Prague. The article goes into details about many of the changes the movie has over the games and I'm sure it has the DOOM community shaking their head and asking "WHY?". You can check out the article right here.

Thanks Ant for the heads up!

Calimer from the LMS mod sent over a list of updates that the team has been hard at work on. Among the updates are a "Plasma Thrower" weapon model that is in development, custom music and sounds being developed for the maps and an end game score list that will show everyone's final frag count, time alive, score and list it in order from highest score to lowest. They have also updated their media section on site with images from their latest map, hanger_incursion created by timbobsteve. For the full run down of all the updates they have been working on, be sure to head over to the LMS website now!

The Spaniard from whutDuFuk.com had a chance to catch up with the mod team from DOOM 3: Evolution and rifle off a few questions at them. The interview goes well into detail about the mod with talk about the gameplay, the weapons and the gametypes that will be found in it when it is complete. Head on over to WhutDuFuk.com and scope out the interview for yourself to learn more!

The DOOM 3: Hell on Earth mod team have posted up their final image of the Combat Shotgun and what it looks like skinned and ready to go. Now that there is one weapon done and in game, they are that much closer to having this great looking mod available to play! You can hit their media section to take a peeksy at the screen.

In the recent Ask Squishy article, it was brought up that the rotund Helga, from Planetwolfenstein's Dear Helga, would be able to kick the Squish's ass in a deathmatch. With Polly not liking that cracker, the Squish immediately issued a challenge to the butcher of the english language, and the fight was on. The game was Quake3Arena and the prize was nothing more than utter humilition of your opponent and bragging rights. You can check out how the matches transpired right here.

The Recall to Hell team sent over word that they have posted up 6 new screens on their site to show off the environments and maps of the upcoming mod. The mod which is currently looking to hire some mappers, modelers and coders has also just launched discussion forums on their site. Want to know more? Head on over and take a peek at Recall to Hell!

A new total conversion on the horizon for DOOM 3, entitled Hexen: Edge Of Chaos, takes the form of none other than the classic Ravensoft game, Hexen. The TC will feature all of the weapons as featured in Hexen 1 and as a bonus, the gravity gun will be used in the form of a magical spell. There will be 3 episodes with 6 maps initially, then they intend on releasing another 12 maps, for a total of 6 episodes to match the content of Hexen 1. Sounds pretty excellent, although you will be waiting a while to get your hands on it. The intended release date is February or March 2005. They also have a help wanted section up, so if you would like to give them a hand, head over to their site and drop them a line!

Napalm, the creator of the Material File Generator, or MaGen for short, dropped us a line to let everyone know that version 1.0 of his tool is up for download. The MaGen tool is for batch generation of material files for DOOM3 engine textures to save a lot of scripting and cut and pasting. To use the generator properly, you'll need to use id's naming conventions, but all is explained in the readme that comes with the file. Head on over to chainsaw.cz or fileplanet to grab the file.

The team creating the Total Conversion for DOOM 3 entitled, The Evil, have added a few new screens to their media section. The new screens show off some location environments, water effects and a spiffy melee weapon, the cleaver. Head on over to their site to check out the goods.

Our brand spanking new Level of the Week reviewer, Fallen, has handed in her first article for everyone to mull over. The review covers a small but fun deathmatch map entitled, Wrong Turn and was created by the level designer Method. Not to be content with just a review of the map, as an added bonus, Fallen even snagged an interview with the author and fired off some questions at him about the map and mapping in general. You can check out the review here, the interview here and when you are done with the reading, go grab the map right here and frag to your heart's content!

According to TTimo's .plan file update, the new DOOM 3 GNU/Linux Binaries are available. The binaries include a new sound file which includes multichannel sound output as well as some bug squashes from the pevious version. For the full scoop on the update, you can read the .plan file here and grab the binaries here from fileplanet and here from fileshack.