The first glimpse of the much-anticipated Doom movie - as first seen by Comic-Con attendees - is now available for your viewing pleasure over at IGN`s media center. Though the creatures are supposed to be mutants, some of the beasts shown in the trailer are eerily reminiscent of the baddies that scared our shorts off in Doom 3.

The guys over at LMS (Last Man Standing) have released their official 1.0 version of their popular mod, with many new features, bug fixes, new weapons and maps, and more! Not only a full fledged mod in its own right, LMS is popular as one of the most enduring and reliable Cooperative mods out there, allowing players to run and gun their way through the single player game with friends. Find out more about the mod at their website at http://lms.d3files.com.

For those of you unfortunate people "doomed" to play Doom III on the Macintosh, Aspyr has released a patch for the game to 1.3. New in the patch is functioning 5.1 surround sound, support for Punkbuster, and more! Patch up here, and get ready to frag in 1.3 style!

Ever wanted to crush the Rock? Maybe you`ve always thought GI Joe ripped off the DOOM marine from his proper recognition as an American toy icon. Either way, you`ll get your wish. First 4 Figures has announced they will be making toys based on the upcoming DOOM movie, and even if you`re not a toy person, some new screens of the movie are also available on the official First 4 Figures website.

Recently, the Mod N Mod team took Last Man Standing for a test drive and gave it a snazzy 9.3 out of 10 score. Their review covers what they liked and did not like about the mod, as well as what they thought the mod needs. You should check out the review here, or download it here and give it a try for yourself!

Official Benchmarks Show the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra and the GeForce 6800 GT GPUs Outperform Comparable Competitive Solutions in Blockbuster PC Gaming Title

SANTA CLARA, CA—NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in visual processing solutions, today announced that independent third-party testing confirms that the NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 Ultra and the GeForce 6800 GT graphics processing units (GPUs) deliver faster performance than comparable competitive offerings in Doom 3™, regarded as one of the most highly-anticipated PC games in history. The testing reveals that the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra GPU offers the best performance in the upcoming Doom 3 title, with GeForce 6800 GT running a close second, outperforming the high-end graphics chip offered from the leading competitor that costs approximately $100 more. In the testing, the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra beat the comparable competitive offering by up to 40%. The GeForce 6800 GT performed up to 70% better than the competitor’s comparable offering¹.

“From the simple data here we see that the GeForce 6800 Ultra and GeForce 6800 GT are in a class of their own, putting some very good distance between themselves and the competition’s flagship,” stated Kyle Bennett editor in chief for HardOCP in the article. “If I had to make a list of high end video cards to purchase to play Doom 3, the GeForce 6800 Ultra and GeForce 6800 GT would easily take the number one and number two spots...”

The official benchmarks were released by the creator of Doom 3, id Software™, with the help of HardOCP.com (www.hardocp.com), a leading hardware enthusiast’s Web site. The NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra and GeForce 6800 GT took the top two spots in every PCI Express test. The GeForce 6800 Ultra and GeForce 6800 GT GPUs also finished at the top of their respective categories in every AGP test, missing another sweep of the top two spots by a mere one tenth of a second.

“All that considered, for those of you that are in the high end video card market, the GeForce 6800 GT looks to very much be the sweet spot when it comes to playing Doom 3 with all the eye candy turned on at high resolutions. Obviously the 6800 Ultra is even faster for those of you that need the best no matter the cost,” the article states.

The entire article can be viewed at the HardOCP Web site here.

Apparently the Director of Competitions at QuakeCon decided to take a mulligan and do the Doom III Tournament rules over again. Some rather major changes are in, including the addition of a single elimination 1on1 to reduce the players from 128 to 64, whereas originally QuakeCon had planned to do four player Free For Alls all the way from 256 to 64. Some other rule changes (and more explicit rule wording) have been added as well. Head on over to the official rules on QuakeCon, or keep reading here for the new ruleset.

The 256-player tournament includes three sets:

Set 1 – One Round of Free-For-All (4 players) reducing number of players from 256 to 128.

Set 2 – Single Elimination One-On-One reducing number of players from 128 to 64.

Set 3 – Double Elimination One-On-One reducing number of players from 64 to 1.

Compliance with all general rules and game-specific rules of the event are a mandatory condition of participation in The NVIDIA Doom 3 Deathmatch Championship .

Tournament Maps

The map for the Free-For-All rounds will be d3dm1. Maps for the double elimination parts of the tournament must be chosen from the approved list and include: d3dm2, d3dm3, d3dm4 and d3dm5.

One on One matches will be played on a single map, lasting 15 minutes. In the event of a tie, the match will automatically enter sudden death overtime (next frag wins)

During double and single elimination matches, the players may mutually agree to play their scheduled matches on any of the approved maps. In the event they cannot mutually agree on a map, a map will be selected for them via simulated dice roll. All maps will be included in the roll, maps may NOT be removed.

* You may lose one match in Set 3 and stay in the tournament. Those who lose a match enter the loser`s bracket and are then reduced by single elimination. Winner of the loser`s bracket may still win the tournament by winning two matches against winner of the winner`s bracket.

Rank is based on the number of frags. If there is a tie in an FFA round, players will advance according to the following criteria: most frags then least amount of deaths and finally, damage given.

If there is a tie in the 1v1 rounds, the match will automatically enter sudden death. Next frag wins.

Menu, Console Commands, and Cheating

Players may change nearly any item in the GUI prior to the match beginning with the following exceptions:

System Options:

* High or Ultra Quality Video Setting ONLY

Advanced Tab:

* High Quality Special Effects set to YES
* Enable Shadows set to YES
* Enable Specular set to YES
* Enable Bump Map set to YES
* Vertical Sync set to YES

Game Options:

* Show HUD set to YES
* Show Gun Model set to YES
* Show Decals set to YES

THE IN-GAME CONSOLE MAY NOT BE USED AT ANY TIME

A batch script will be provided allowing players modify:

* Sensitivity (Default is 7)
* FOV - must be between 90 and 110 (Default is 90)

• Device drivers which permit players to see through walls, or enable any form of transparency not intended by id Software, are strictly forbidden and grounds for immediate removal from the tournament. Players may use aliases, however, no alias may be used which assists players in determining spawn times, or performing any action which in any way inhibits the ability of an opponent to perform a legal action in the game.

• Except for control drivers and device settings, no commands are allowed outside the game or in command line. Except for control drivers and device settings, no alteration, deletion, or addition of files is permitted. Your player model, colors, and name must remain the same throughout the match. Any commands or combination of commands that allow seeing through walls, player warping, message spamming, auto-aim, radar, or similar action will be considered cheating and grounds for disqualification. Questions regarding setting of variables and commands and how they relate to cheating should be brought to a tournament official before your first match. NVIDIA Driver settings may NOT be modified in any way. You may change the game`s resolution setting.

• Players shall not use any external program to alter computer video settings. Video settings must remain at a high level of quality throughout the competition. Specific questions regarding quality of video may be directed to tournament staff. Graphic fidelity will be maintained.

The CDoom (Classic Doom - Doom3 Mod) Developer chat was a huge success. Gazz, Kazahana, Deadite4 and Sonicclang all turned out from Flaming Sheep Software to make the event. We`d like to thank everyone who showed up and submitted questions. We would also like to thank all the guys from Flaming Sheep Software for making it. The full Transcript can be found by clicking HERE

The Developer Chat with Flaming Sheep Software was a big success with over 120 people in the channel at the time of the event! We would like to thank everyone who showed up to attend the event. We would also like to thank Gazz, Kazahana, Sonicclang, and Deadite for taking the time out their busy schedules to answer everyone`s questions. The full question/answer transcript will be posted shortly, so that those of you who were unable to attend will be able to read it at your convenience.

Though they were lacking in QuakeCon`s rule release a little while back, the official tournament rules for Doom III at QuakeCon have been released. The tournament is free for all deathmatch, and the game console settings that will be mandated are in the rules as well. So head on over, grab the rules, and get used to it, because it might not be what you normally look at. You can get the rules straight from the QuakeCon site, or keep on readin`!

Doom 3 1v1 Tournament Rules

The 256-player tournament includes two sets:

Set 1 – 2 Rounds of Free-For-All (4 players) reducing number of players from 256 to 64 .

Set 2 – Double Elimination One-On-One reducing number of players from 64 to 1 .

Compliance with all general rules and game-specific rules of the event are a mandatory condition of participation in the NVIDIA Doom 3 Deathmatch Championship.

Tournament Maps

The map for the Free-For-All rounds will be d3dm1. Maps for the double elimination parts of the tournament must be chosen from the approved list and include: d3dm2, d3dm3, d3dm4 and d3dm5

During double elimination matches, the players may mutually agree to play their scheduled matches on any of the approved maps. In the event they cannot mutually agree on a map, a map will be selected for them via simulated dice roll. All maps will be included in the roll, maps may NOT be removed.

* You may lose one match in Set 2 and stay in the tournament. Those who lose a match enter the loser`s bracket and are then reduced by single elimination. Winner of the loser`s bracket may still win the tournament by winning two matches against winner of the winner`s bracket.

Rank is based on the number of frags. If there is a tie in an FFA round, players will advance according to the following criteria: most frags then least amount of deaths and finally, damage given.

If there is a tie in the 1v1 rounds, the match will automatically enter sudden death. Next frag wins.

Menu, Console Commands, and Cheating

Players may change nearly any item in the GUI prior to the match beginning.

Drawgun will be forced ON.

Graphics settings must stay at “High”.

The console may not be used at any time . A batch script will be provided to modify:

• Sensitivity

• Device drivers which permit players to see through walls, or enable any form of transparency not intended by id Software, are strictly forbidden and grounds for immediate removal from the tournament. Players may use aliases, however, no alias may be used which assists players in determining spawn times, or performing any action which in any way inhibits the ability of an opponent to perform a legal action in the game.

• Except for control drivers and device settings, no commands are allowed outside the game or in command line. Except for control drivers and device settings, no alteration, deletion, or addition of files is permitted. Your player model, colors, and name must remain the same throughout the match. Any commands or combination of commands that allow seeing through walls, player warping, message spamming, auto-aim, radar, or similar action will be considered cheating and grounds for disqualification. Questions regarding setting of variables and commands and how they relate to cheating should be brought to a tournament official before your first match.

• Players shall not use any external program to alter computer video settings. Video settings must remain at a high level of quality throughout the competition. Specific questions regarding quality of video may be directed to tournament staff. Graphic fidelity will be maintained.