There's an interesting news item on VIAcga that is potentially good news in a number of ways for die-hard PC gamers; Microsoft have just announced a new service they're working on for their next iteration of the Windows platform, Windows VISTA, called 'Live Anywhere'.

According to a press release the service will be included with Vista as part of Microsoft's drive to get the PC back into the frey as a gaming platform, something to which they have admitted, has fallen by the wayside because of their focus on the XBox's.

In theory Live Anywhere will allow gamers to compete against each other on Xbox, PC or even mobile phone; as borg mentioned over on VIA, maybe this will finally put to rest the "who's best" argument.

For modders this new service could be the injection needed to counter the slow (apparent) decline of creating custom content for various game; the PC is basically the only platform this can be done on and aside from the increased time and effort involved, as has been happening over recent months, developers and publishers seem to be ditching the PC in favour of console cash ignoring the additional shelf life modders bring to their products.

It does raise one question though; XBoxer's generally speaking need to pay for additional content; new levels cost a few dollars, so can PC gamers expect a similar sort of service being applied to 'Live Anywhere'? New content has to be bought to bring it in line with the XBox.

It's also interesting to speculate if this could be the start of modders making a few bucks for their efforts with the 'reselling' of their content via the Live service (there are reports of this actually being the case with the current XBox Live service); there have been some general industry rumors to this effect, the fruits of which can be seen in places like Second Life and Entropia Universe.

However, would PC gamers be prepared to pay for content they had 'traditionally' been getting for free, certainly if they were a dollar or two; there's definitely going to be a need for some sort of quality control or official stamp of approval to go with this.

For those interested in seeing the Blender 3D source file for kat_q4dm1, or anyone interested in looking at one way to build and layout a map using 3D software - Blender 3D in this case - you can now download the *.blend file for the above mentioned custom Quake 4 map.

You may need to use the latest version of Blender (1.41 at time of wrting) to view the file, although opening in older versions shouldn't present too much of a problem becasue the file just contains mesh, UVW and texture data.

• Blender 3D source file for kat_q4dm1 c.800KB

idsoftware have released an update patch to fix the security issue that were recently discovered that effected Quake 3/Team Arena, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and RtCW:Enemy Territory.

This would be considered a 'priority update' if it were Windows XP so you'll need to download this one.

We have released updates to all three games to fix some security issues discovered following our release of the Quake III Arena source code under GPL.

You can get patch updates for Quake 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory from idsoftware web site.

Beyond3D has posted an interview conducted with Arnout ‘RR2DO2’ van Meer from Splash Damage in which he talks, with slightly greater technical depth, about MegaTexture and how it works as well as a couple of other 'terrain' related rendering questions. Good read.

• Beyond3D's Quake Wars interview

If you've not heard about this, or if you have and want to take a look, the industries E3 Expo (Electronic Entertainment Expo) has started. This is basically a marketing junket where all the industry players - large and small - expose themselves to the public, flashing their wares from underneath plastic hoardings and exhibition stands.

Of course it's notorious for Booth Babes, but since there's been a bit of a clamp down on that in recent months (for 'good' or 'bad') you can expect this year to have more focus on games!.

There's a tonne of video previews and product screenshots on the web site so it's worth a visit.

• Electronic Entertainment Expo

Some notable offerings

• 'Prey'
• 'Orc's & Elves'
• 'Dreamfall : The longest Journey'