Dogmeat is a companion character that appeared in the first two games, and yes, he's a dog. He's also back and better than ever in Fallout 3. We're assuming that this is a different Dogmeat altogether than the original, but since the game deals with a radioactive wasteland brimming with mutants, who knows? Dogmeat is a potential companion for your character, one that will fight by your side and help fetch whatever you need. You find Dogmeat during a random encounter in the wasteland, when he and his owner come under attack from a group of raiders. In this case, we watched as the battle took place in a junkyard. His owner is killed in the battle, and Dogmeat will come up to you afterwards and whimper and bark his way into your heart if you let him.

Since the game is still deep in development, there were still a few bugs on display, but the idea with Dogmeat is that you can converse with him (he'll answer in barks, whimpers, and other appropriate canine noises), and he'll be knowledgeable about the surrounding area. For instance, you can send him to go scavenge for food, weapons, and more, and he'll disappear and return with what you ask him to retrieve provided that it's actually in your general area. We'll see how useful that actually is in the game, as apparently he can disappear for long periods if you're not careful. To us, Dogmeat's value seems to be in combat, where he can harass and distract foes for you, as well as take some down. You'll need to be careful, though, as he can get killed, and it sounds like he's gone if that happens. If you don't want Dogmeat around, you can tell him to go to Vault 101 where he'll stay until you need him, but he's also smart enough to stay behind if you tell him, too. That will be useful in situations where you know he might be a detriment in combat.

Boards

• Gigabyte X38-DQ6 - OCC
• MSI P7N SLI Platinum - [H]

  Cases
  

• SilverStone KLO2 Kublai Series Case - GamePyre
• Sunbeamtech Silent Storm Case - Hardware Secrets Cooling
  
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - Bjorn3D
• Tuniq Sanctum Hard Drive Cooler - Techware Labs
• Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU Cooler - XS Reviews

  Memory
  

• Crucial Ballistix Tracer Red PC2-6400 4GB Memory Kit - 3DGameMan

  Power Supply
  

• Mushkin XP-800AP 800W - OCC

  Video
  

• ASUS EN9800GX2 Top - I4U
• NVIDIA QuadroFX 3700 512MB Workstation Graphics Card - HotHardware
• Sapphire HD3870X2 - Hi-Tech Reviews

Dreamlords Wrap Report
With a new iteration of Lockpick's massively multiplayer strategy title in development, we learn about the original

Jumpgate Evolution First View
Our key impressions based on what we currently know about NetDevil's massively multiplayer space combat project

IGN: So to what extent is BioWare working on this and to what extent is Demiurge working on this?

Diarmid Clarke: It's pretty much co-development now. Demiurge has primarily been responsible for the bulk of the work of moving the game onto the PC, dealing with all the PC technicalities, and also putting some of the improvements into the game that we highlighted that we wanted to do.

What we've focused on is being the guardians of quality, pushing little new changes of design and things that we wanted to make work for the PC. Obviously Matt sent out the information on the new tactical HUDs and we developed that with the core Mass Effect team. They're the right guys to do something that's a fundamental change to how you interface with the game.

IGN: Why create a new HUD?

Diarmid Clarke: We started with the wheel system for the Xbox 360 version and it was a nice system and worked very, very well for the 360. We thought we could take it further for the PC. We set our goals which was "this game must absolutely feel like a naturally developed PC experience." We thought that by moving to the new tactical HUD where we can put the three component parts of the wheel all on the screen at the same time, it's just something that the PC can do very well because of the control method with the mouse and keyboard in conjunction with the hotkeys that we have. We were fortunate enough to be able to call upon the actual Mass Effect team to develop it so we knew it was really within our control and what we wanted.

IGN: Does the reworked HUD have anything to do with the release date getting pushed back?

Diarmid Clarke: Oh yeah. I mean you have to make it quality. It's something we take very seriously. [The HUD] is quite a big change, after putting it into the game, and it's got to absolutely work totally naturally. And so there's a little bit of extra time involved in making that work.

Yes, charged-for bonus content includes Bring Down The Sky, which isn't included with the game.

Gamecock Media Group announced today that due to pirated copies of Blazing Lizard’s upcoming Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball being on the loose the game will be revamped and held until later this Spring.

“We see the irony in all this,” noted Christopher Stockman, Studio Director at Blazing Lizard. “Rest assured, we have a crack team of Ninjas on the case and hunting down all pirates. On the positive side it gives us a chance to go back and add in additional content to the game.”

What this means for fans of Pirates (the sea-faring kind) and Ninjas is more bang for their buck when the game releases (this also includes fans of the other teams in the game, Robots and Zombies). In addition to the free-flinging arcade dodgeball events already in place (look out for Peg-Leg Stomps and Shuriken Attacks.), Blazing Lizard is adding more traditional rules dodgeball modes where teams stay only on their side and multiple dodgeballs are in play. Now we can settle the score once and for all.

[Disclaimer: the game has not been pirated but we wanted an excuse to announce the wait for the game and the new game mode.]

Boards

• ASUS P5E3 Premium/WiFi-AP @n Edition - SysOpt
• XFX N780-ISH9 на NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI - 3DNews

  Cases (and stuff)
  

• Cooler Master Cosmos S - OCC
• Lamptron Clearpuk - BurnoutPC

  Cooling
  

• Noctua NH-U9B CPU Cooler - Dragonsteel Mods
• OCZ Vendetta 2 HPT CPU Cooler OCZVEND2 - BMR

  Memory
  

• Kingston Hyper X PC3-13000 2GB Memory Kit - Hardware Logic

  Mice
  

• Optical vs Laser Mice - Techware Labs

  Performance
  

• Crysis: DX9 vs. DX10 - [H]
• Windows Vista SP1 Performance Test - hardCOREware

  Power Supply
  

• БП Hiper: 680 Вт и 880 Вт модели Type R MKII 85%+ - 3DNews

  Video
  

• ASUS EN9800GTX 512MB - TechGage
• BFG GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB OCX edition - Guru3D
• Biostar GeForce 9600GT - Overclockers Online
• Diamond HD 3650 1024 MB DDR2 - TechpowerUp
• Leadtek WinFast GeForce PX8800GT 256MB - ReviewLab
• NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Overclocked - Tweaktown
• Palit 9800 GTX review and SLI testing - Neoseeker
• PowerColor Radeon HD 3870 SCS3 - Hartware
• XFX N780-ISH9 на NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI - 3DNews

Grand Chase Peek #1
An edifying discourse on the playable character element in KOG's fast-paced massively multiplayer fighting title - Includes three exclusive screenshots

Silkroad Online Media #10
A new group of images in which we observe an array of Chinese characters carrying and using a variety of weapons - Six exclusive 1280x960 screenshots