• Tribes: Vegeance Beta Test Registration Begins Testers will be chosen at random from the pool of qualified applications. Chosen users will be notified via email. Testing experience is preferred but not required. The closed beta program will begin June 14th.
• Unreal Tournament 2004 Patches v3236 (PC and Linux) and v3239 (Mac) are now available. The identical updates includes bug fixes and enhancements for general gameplay, the menu system, networking, mod support, and more. Download the patch for PC and Mac at 3DGamers. PC and Linux patches are available at GamersHell.
• McFarlane's Evil Prophecy (PS2) The PS2 game codesigned by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and Konami will arrive in stores shortly, according to Gamespot. Check out this review by Alex Navvaro at Gamespot.com. In EP players battle monsters based on McFarlane's renditions and original creations including Dracula, the Mummy, the Werewolf, Frankenstein, the Sea Creature, and VooDoo Queen. EP is rated "M" for mature.
• Sue Maker of Game Copy Software Making perfect copies of video games is what GamesXCopy claims to do. Now the software is at the center of a legal action brought by Atari and other major video games maufacturers who want to stop its distribution. Story at Yahoo Finance.
• 'Bored Housewives' Play Games Research by Screen Digest indicates that 20 year-old males are not the majority of online gamers any more. Story by David Williamson of The Western Mail.
• True Crime: Streets of LA Review at GameInfoWire.com.
• Mac Games Reviewed At MacCentral the most recent games for Macintosh are reviewed every week.
• Three Weeks in a Row for Harry Potter UK games sales have been topped for the last three weeks by Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, by EA. Could it have something to do with the language? Kristan Reed at EuroGamer gives you the skinny on this and other gaming trends from the other side of the Atlantic.

• Women's Game Conference Issues Paul Hyman at HollywoodReporter.com wrote a news article that highlights some of the issues to be discussed at the Women's Game Conference, Sept 9 - 10 in Austin, Texas. The story includes interesting facts and figures about women gamers and comments from game industry big-wigs.
• Gamers Use Pirated Software: Survey Macrovision conducted a software piracy survey that found of 2,219 PC gamers who responded, 52% said they had cracked software, and 15% percent admitted to obtaining 15 or more pirated games within the last two years. Story at GameSpot.
• GameRiot Announces Game List GameRiot, the traveling Xbox/PC game fair, has announced its 2004 lineup; the North American event will feature unreleased Xbox games this year which begins at SummerFest in Milwaukee, WI, on June 24. GameRiot will travel around the U.S. during its tour that runs through October and appear at events such as Lollapalooza.
• Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict Preview Microsoft and Epic Games will launch this title for Xbox Live in October, and Andy Cheng at Gamers.com thinks it's gonna be the one of most fragalicious FPS title of Fall 2004: "Without a doubt, Unreal Championship 2 was one of my favorite games at E3; it was one of the reasons I came back to the Microsoft booth over and over. This is truly a game that was designed for a console in mind... Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict definitely will be a great buy this fall, yet another feather in the cap for the Xbox library." Full preview at Gamers.com.
• Players Assualt Game Company Representatives Unresolved disputes between gamers and customer service reps usually end in an "escalation" of the customer's complaint to a manager; heated discussion takes place by telephone. In China, however, some gamers skipped the telephone and took matters into their own hands. Story at English.Eastday.com.

• Tribal-Wars 2004 is a bi-costal Tribes I and II competition being held in N. America July 22 - 25. On the East coast the event will be held at in Chantilly, VA, and the west coast event in Los Angeles, CA. Big-name sponsors include Sierra, HomeLAN, and ATI. Excellent prizes will be awarded to competition winners. “We strongly suggest registering early,” says event founder Tom “Cheater” Szabo. “In the past few years the event has sold out in less than 24 hours. We fully expect that to happen again with the level of sponsorship we’ve received this year.” Registration opens today at www.tribal-wars.com.
• Doom Movie You've heard forever about a Doom movie in the works but not much ever materialized. Cinescape now says that Universal Studios is considering the project after Warner Bros. let their option to make the film run out. The movie script is based on the upcoming storyline of id Software's much, much anticipated Doom III game. Story by Patrick Sauriol at Cinescape. Also, check Reuters' coverage at Yahoo Finance.
• Comcast to Offer Games on Demand The largest cable operator in the U.S.has announced that it will soon offer subscribers fee-based access to more than 60 PC-based games, from mainstream titles to educational software. New titles will be added each month, the company says. Comcast runs the cable TV gaming channel G4 and recently acquired TechTV.
• Final Fantasy XI Wedding Ceremonies Beginning today FFXI will officially support wedding ceremonies in Vana'diel. Check out the wedding halls at playonline.com.
• Challenge ProMode Arena 1.31 The latest version of this "pro competition mod" for Quake III Arena is now available. And, CPM players are goin nuts over it. Find out why at promode.org.

Female Gamers Wanted!

Ubisoft, a global leader in the video games and entertainment software industry, is currently seeking to cast female gamers for online promotions and marketing. Gamers will work closely with the marketing department and the Community Management team. Gamers will provide services for 10 – 40 hours per week as independent contractors for Ubisoft and will not be entitled to any benefits as Ubisoft employees.

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See the complete help wanted post including qualifications and responsibilites at Craig's List.

• Women's Game Conference Announced The event will focus on women working in the computer and video game industry, how women are portrayed in games, and women as gaming consumers. The conference runs September 9-10, 2004 at the Austin Convention Center, Austin, Texas. So far it seems like a total industry affair. This is not an evil thing, but where are the leading lady gamers on the WGC's steering committee? Like, ones who are not being paid a salary by the gaming industry or academia. Hmm...
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl Preview THQ's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. takes place in the near future after another nuclear accident has occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.You play as a stalker or mercenary looting the exclusion zone for treasure and items that corporations will pay big money for. Mutated animals and zombie-types are among the many dangers you face. Eight different ending are possible in this unusual first-person shooter. Check out the preview by Windex at PCArena.com.
• PS2, Xbox Rigged for Pirated Games In China, the average game player would never consider paying full retail prices for games like Tomb Raider of Final Fantasy, not when they can get copies at less than a dollar each. All you need is a hacked PS2 or Xbox console and you're good to go in Bejing. Story by Juliana Liu and Daisuke Wakabayashi (Reuters) at Yahoo Finance.
• Star Wars Gallaxies: An Empire Divided FilePlanet Founder's Club subscribers (the folks who pay) can download a 14-day trail of SWGED right now. But wait, we plain, old FilePlanet subscribers (the Wookiees who don't pay) can get our dirty little hands on the SWGED trail soon after the trial period ends for the rich kids. Wookies click here to view the details.
• Area 51 Video Interview Midway's Area 51 FPS should be released in November/December 2004 with Xbox Live and PS2 multiplayer connectivity. Direct competitor titles will be Halo and Half-Life 2. Check out the video interview of Area 51 producer Zach Wood.