fluor2 asks: "My ISP is providing me 8mbit ADSL, and my speed is in fact 8mbit (downstream). However, we all know that there is no relation between transfer rate and latency, eg, a high transfer rate and high latency will kill your FPS games. A packet that travels through the sky and up to a satellite is bound to give high latency. Using pathping, I discovered that my ISP provides me with a latency of 22ms before my sent packets are sent out of my ISP's backbone (6 hops). I have a friend that also tried the same, and he got only 10ms before he was out of his ISP's network. I know 22ms is decent, but I still think that it's far too high if one uses IP-phones and similar. What kind of latency can we accept for a normal 8mbit ADSL connection, and isn't it about time that we get more focus on this subject?"

As part of the continuing Half-Life 2 media blitz, GameSpy has an interview with Valve's Doug Lombardi about the much-heralded FPS sequel. This insightful interview has info on who'll be returning: "A few of your friends from Black Mesa are in Half-Life 2, and they are sort of immediately your allies; like some of the scientists and Barney the security guard character", as well as more on system requirements: "I think that Valve tries very hard to support as far back with system as we humanly can, and in this case we're going back to a Pentium II 800 with 128mb of RAM, but as get up to a Pentium 4 class you'll see better water and better effects." Meanwhile, the third direct-feed Half-Life 2 movie, 'Kleiner's Lab', is available via Steam, Gamers Hell, BitTorrent via GameTab, and most of the other usual online stockists.

Thanks to GameSpy for pointing to the new 1.5 Beta of UnrealSpeed, which describes itself as "..a racing mod for Unreal Tournament 2003. Drive a car, gliding through the twists and turns to win the race. Your car is (optionally) heavily armed, so shoot your opponent into pieces if he isn't letting you get past him." This mod, using similar re-appropriation concepts to the classic Quake Rally mod, has added "..new camera views like driver eye cam, bumper cam, roof cam and rear view camera", as well as swapping out all the car models due to copyright concerns. How many other game genres can people make from clever modding of an FPS?

Thanks to GameSpy.com for their hands-on preview of the PC FPS, Contract J.A.C.K., the prequel to Monolith's critically acclaimed but disappointingly selling No One Lives Forever series. According to the preview, "..the expansion has opted for a male hero, more action and less stealth, and a bit of de-emphasis on the campy 60's feel.. you play Jack - 'just another contract killer' - who's been hired by the nefarious H.A.R.M. to help with a little problem." Contract J.A.C.K. will retail as a stand-alone game for an expansion-pack price (around $30) when it launches in October - could this be the title to finally turn the public on to the NOLF games?

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the CSports survey showing that, over the online gaming networks they monitor, the U.S. has the most online FPS gamers, but Iceland comes out on top in terms of minutes played per person, taking into consideration the entire population of the country. The article elaborates: "Our analysis.. shows that the Nordic countries are generally the most online game crazy. Top of the charts by a country mile are the 280,000 or so Icelanders who clock in with over 7 hours of online fps game play per capita per year."

Steve Jobs announced the end of Jaguar, and the newness of Panther, today at his WWDC keynote address. Panther is to be available as a preview release now, and by the end of the year retail, for $129.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a PlanetTribes post showing off a new set of screenshots (proudly proclaiming the game '29% complete') for Tribes: Vengeance, a forthcoming Unreal-engine PC FPS being developed by System Shock 2 and Freedom Force creators Irrational. The title is an eagerly-awaited sequel to a franchise once thought extremely unwell, and an earlier preview at GameSpot explains that this newly unveiled title should ship in late 2004, and will concentrate on both single and multi-player gameplay aspects this time round.

Warrior-GS writes "GameSpy has confirmed that developer Ritual was forced to lay off most of the team that created the PC FPS Star Trek: Elite Force II, only two days after the game went gold. Apparently, a couple of other projects fell through. Ritual's other in-development games, Counter-Strike for Xbox and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero for PC are unaffected." Fansite Ritualistic has plenty of extra information on Elite Force II, which is looking promising despite this unexpected news.

Thanks to Gamespy for finishing up its 25 Dumbest Moments In Gaming set of articles by picking their Top 5 mistakes of all time. We ran a story on these articles earlier in the week, and congratulate Slashdot commenter Saige for correctly guessing Gamespy's No.1 pick, Atari passing on producing and distributing the NES Stateside. Plus, well done to, uhm, pretty much everyone for guessing a certain long-haired FPS designer might make it into the Top 5 somewhere.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to N-Sider's in-depth coverage of the forthcoming Gamecube FPS, Geist. This title was shown at E3, but the article goes into a lot more detail than most about the game, which is being co-developed by N-Space and Nintendo. Geist is described as "..a hybrid title that combines the fast-paced action and perspective of a traditional first person shooter with stealth-based game play and a unique new mechanic: the ability to 'possess' other characters in the game." Perhaps not unique, since Shiny's Messiah did something similar, but with competitive-looking graphics and multiple ways around problems ("while watching people play the demo, I noticed no one person played it the same"), it's possible that some of the developer's earlier titles may be improved upon.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a new Gamespot hands-on preview of the forthcoming PC title Tron 2.0. This FPS, which we featured a preview of last month, now has a fully playable early version, and the writer says that "..from what we've seen, Tron 2.0 seems to do a great job of capturing the essence of the original film, thanks to its distinctive art design." The preview also draws attention to the unique weaponry, which, yes, has you controlling Discs Of Tron, but there's a possible dealbreaker caveat: "..the game seems to offer a few more jump puzzles than we'd prefer for a first-person action game." However, this Monolith-developed title, which also includes a lightcycle racing section, "..still shows promise" - watch for it later in 2003.

nexex writes "You can now download America's Army for Linux as a stand-alone installer. Previously it was only available as a full ISO on a Gentoo LiveCD." The official America's Army site has more info on this Army-sponsored FPS title, first released about a year ago for the PC, which "..provides civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today's premier land force: the U.S. Army."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Gamespot first look at Unreal Tournament 2K4, which comes with the first 3 official screenshots of Epic's PC FPS. This title includes much of the goodness in UT2K3, "as well as new game modes, huge new maps, and controllable air, land, and space vehicles", and Gamespot mentions that one of the screens "provides a look at the space flyer in the assault mode, while the other two show scenes from the onslaught mode, which will take place in giant outdoor environments."

Several online sources have rumored the development of an as-yet unannounced Terminator 3 FPS title for the PC, Terminator 3: War Of The Machines, to be published by Atari for Xmas 2003. Apparently, the title is currently in development at European Steel Of Haste developers Clever's, who have a teaser splash screen on their site seeming to back up the rumor. The game allegedly has heavy online components, and is completely different from the console Terminator 3 title from Black Ops, which is also scheduled to ship later this year. Update: 06/03 14:26 GMT by S : Thanks to boomtown.net for pointing out they sneaked a look at this low-profile title at E3.

bani writes "Following just a month after the test release, Enemy Territory has finally made a full version release! You can download the Linux and Windows versions for free, it does not require the retail Return to Castle Wolfenstein product in order to play. Hats off to Id+Activision+SplashDamage for giving the community such an excellent 3d FPS, for FREE!" Update by J : Id has set up a BitTorrent for the downloads. And if anyone needs a Mac beta-tester, I'm available :)

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out that developers 2015 (of Medal Of Honor:Allied Assault fame) have opened their official Men of Valor:Vietnam page on their site. It deals with the upcoming Vietnam-themed PC and Xbox FPS, which is running on a heavily modified Unreal engine, and showcases info and latest screenshots. The unofficial movv.com site has a little more info on this Sierra-published title, which looks to be one of the more eagerly-awaited FPSes of recent.

Thanks to Blues News for pointing to this online petition demanding a sequel to Daikatana. Reasons for wanting a follow-up to John Romero's infamous PC FPS include the fact that "Daikatana's former notoriety has left many people with a feeling of nostalgia for the days leading to the game's completion." Some of comments attached to the 37 current signatures also add insight, including Attila Houtkooper's comment - "Daikatana has changed my life, I need Daikatana 2 to change it back the way it was!"

So the E3 Expo in Los Angeles is finally done, and we wrap up our coverage with a look at the best of the other booths at the show, from Activision through Take Two to Eidos. Plus, we take a quick trawl round the evil troglodytic dungeon that is the Kentia Hall, deep below the main expanses of E3. Read on for info on virtual ping-pong, Starsky And Hutch, and Futurama....

It seems that Nokia's 'mobile game deck', the N-Gage has lured John Romero and his Monkeystone Games posse back from reliving their 2D shareware glory days with Hyperspace Delivery Boy, and onto his 3D shareware FPS glory days, with their own adaptation of THQ's first-person shooter Red Faction. Here are links to the new Red Faction N-Gage trailer in MPEG-4 and Quicktime.Update: 05/13 15:58 GMT by H : We had a story on N-Gage a couple months back.

bmnc writes "After nearly a year in development by Gearbox Software, info for the PC version of Halo:Combat Evolved is finally available at Gamespy.com, in both single-player and multi-player flavors." This is absolutely a big deal, especially since Bungie have been intelligent enough to use Gearbox, FPS veterans who've been heavily involved with extending the Half-Life franchise in the past with Opposing Force and Blue Shift, to do a definitive PC version of Halo.