Playback: The Week in Review

This was a great week for gamers. The latest beta test version of Quake 3 Arena released with a new level. Also, we got our first glimpse at the next Tomb Raider, Bungie's top secret gaming weapon, and more.

The joke in San Francisco among hardware gurus is that everyone sues nVidia, since both Silicon Graphics and S3 filed patent infringement suits against the chip developer. Gamers speculated that the suits were a reaction of sorts to nVidia becoming one of the big movers in the 3D graphics world with its TNT and TNT2 chips. Earlier this week, Silicon Graphics (SGI) announced that it would drop the suit and work with nVidia. As a result, both companies have licensed 3D graphic technology from each other. On top of all that, they've decided to work together on upcoming 3D technologies. It seems odd, though, that SGI would sue one year then suddenly befriend nVidia the next. Theories anyone? With nVidia remaining as the only independent consumer 3D-graphics card maker in Silicon Valley for the Windows consumer platform, and with SGI looking to solidify itself in the Windows NT market, we have some ideas on what may happen. More on that later.

On Friday, we caught some details on nVidia's next chipset, the NV10. While the company won't talk much about some of the exact output specifics, rumors suggest that the company may introduce the chip to consumers as early as September. Considering it has just launched its latest chipsets, September seems unlikely. But with the way that nVidia has become increasingly competitive - anything goes.

Lara Croft. A definite image pops up in Gamers' minds almost every time they see the name of gaming's queen in the news. On Monday, Eidos Interactive gave GameSpot the exclusive rights to announce the title to the world. And gamers responded. Core still is a little sketchy on the specifics of the game when it says that it is looking back at its roots. Tomb Raider III didn't incite the same response as the original or TR2 did, so this may be a conscious decision to fall back into grace with third-person gamers. Regardless, more polygons on Lara can't necessarily be a bad thing, can it?

First shown to gaming print journalists at E3, Bungie formally announced its upcoming title, Halo, at Macworld this week. The game has been under lock and key under the code name "Blam," and while a Macworld announcement seems odd, the game shows the power of the geniuses at Bungie (or their increased use of safe and legal smart drugs). After seeing the title on the Macworld simulcast, we knew we needed to tell you more about it. Luckily, ZDTV (Ziff-Davis' cable network) had a direct feed to the conference, and we decided to post a video to give gamers a better feel for the title. The quality isn't perfect, but you get the gist of what the game encompasses, with rich details, deep textures, amazingly long viewable distances, and more - all rendered in real-time OpenGL. We can't wait to see it in action. In the meantime, our first movie was a little cloudy at 15 frames per second, and Bungie asked that its logo appear in the movie so, we added it along with a smoother frame rate of 24fps. Enjoy.

The multi-monitor feature in Windows 98 seems to be the one feature I'm simply amazed that more gamers haven't played with. Having two monitors is a pain to figure out at first, since some cards don't work together in some configurations, and there is a tiny performance hint. The secondary monitor doesn't do any Direct3D effects, DVD overlays, or the like, but, in some games, the tactical advantage of having your game running on your primary monitor while you read an online strategy guide (like GameGuides' offerings) on the secondary monitor works well (I know because I tried it). The biggest downside is that you can only have one primary card (hopefully AGP) and the secondary one as the PCI. If you don't have many slots open, it becomes a pain to manage both cards' drivers and make sure they're both working well. I'm not sure Matrox had this in mind when developing its G400 series, but these cards have the distinct ability to operate two monitors at once with one fast AGP card (one more open PCI slot and only one set of drivers heaven). For now, the company has only shipped cards to those who ordered early - others will have to wait. Matrox has added a game, called Matrox's DualHead, to support its multi-monitor feature. Soccer-game developer Silicon Dreams is building the game Warmonkeys - a tactical strategy title. It's good to see early support for the technology, and we hope that more developers pick up the useful technology. If it catches on, we hope Microsoft will build up DirectX for better multi-monitor support.

A short time ago, I hated golf. I thought golf carts were beefed up Larks for older folks. At E3, EA introduced my Palm V and me to Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf. I still hated golf for a short time, until I had some time to play. The graphics aren't anywhere near as good as my Pentium II 350 with a Rage 128, but the little game is fun to play, extremely addictive, and mechanically rock solid. It may not be perfect, but the Palm doesn't have many solid games and no major gaming company built any of those games. In short, I learned to like golf, and I even bought some (insanely cheap) golf clubs to take out to the driving range when I lose in our office Q3A deathmatches. This week, GameSpot and ZDNet hosted the exclusive download so interested gamers and gadget gurus could experience Palm-sized golf. If you own a Palm with 250k free, take a look.

Activision posted its quarterly earnings yesterday, and while the company has some great games ahead, its financial outlook still looks a little bleak. Regardless, gamers should remain focused on what they want the most - great games. This week, Activision showed off Vampire: The Masquerade, Soldier of Fortune, and Star Trek: Armada. Take a look at the latest eye candy.