Starting July 31st, the QuakeUnity.com coverage team will be live on-site in Dallas providing high definition video and live audio of selected QuakeLive and ETQW tournament matches along with videos of all the major events happening at QuakeCon.

Former Radio iTG commentator Django will be casting the matches along with various guests including Slasher. All videos will be produced on-site at QuakeCon in 720p high definition and be made available for download and streaming via flash video very soon after they are shot. To reach the widest audience, multiple versions of each video will be available for download along with the option of choosing either a high quality h264 or a standard quality flash video stream. You can check out a sample video page here. More details will be announced as the event gets closer.

Download: Bid for Power Final 3.0 Update

An update for players of the Bid For Power Final mod has been released. The patch includes many bug fixes and new things including 20 new models, 11 new maps, and an anime add on which allows you to play with anime characters and much more!

Just got the press release below in announcing that long time id Software publisher Activison will not be distributing id's upcoming title "RAGE".

E3 Expo, Los Angeles – July 14, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that it has signed an agreement with id Software, award-winning creators of iconic gaming brands and industry defining innovations, to publish RAGE™, the studio’s next blockbuster franchise. Built on id Software’s newest game engine, id Tech5, RAGE is an all-new take on the first person shooter being developed for release on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360™ system from Microsoft, PC and Mac.

“RAGE represents a new direction for our games,” said Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software. “RAGE is a shooter unlike any other, developed on our cutting edge new technology, and built to the exacting standards id is famous for. We’re excited to have the support of EA Partners to launch RAGE on the world.”

“The RAGE publishing deal is the epitome of EA Partners’ mission: Provide the world’s best developers with access to the world’s best publishing resources,” said David DeMartini, senior vice president and general manager of EA Partners. “The team at id Software is one of the best development studios in the world. We’re excited to work with id Software to give RAGE a blockbuster launch on the global stage.”

Stay tuned for additional information about RAGE at QuakeCon 2008 in Dallas, Texas from July 31 to August 2nd. More information about Quakcon is available at www.quakecon.org.

MESQUITE, Texas – July 9, 2008 – The thermometer is rising and it’s time to warm up those keyboards and controllers as the QuakeCon tournaments are upon us. QuakeCon 2008 will play host to a diverse and exciting line-up of events for competitive gamers, including the first ever Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars™ console game tournament, the return of the any-one-can-win Quick Draw contests and the debut of competitions using QUAKE LIVE™.The QuakeCon 2008 Competitive Event Lineup is:

The Intel QUAKE LIVE Championships:
QuakeCon 2008 will mark the debut of the first-ever Intel QUAKE LIVE Championships pro tournament. QUAKE LIVE is id Software’s new game created to deliver the excitement and energy of a first-person multiplayer game to a broader audience through a free and easily accessible browser-based experience. The Intel QUAKE LIVE Championships will feature a classic $12,500 One Versus One tournament along with a $12,500 Capture the Flag Team Tournament.

The Activision Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Team Championships:
Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars™ makes its second annual tournament appearance with the Activision Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Team Championships. Featuring competitions on both PC and for the first time on Xbox 360, the tournament contests will enlist six-person teams to battle it out in double-elimination bracket-style competitive play, in which each squad will have the chance to attack and defend. On the Windows PC side, 16 teams will compete for $15,000 in prize money and in the Xbox 360 competition, eight teams will vie for $10,000 in prizes.

More information, including map names, prize money distribution, detailed format and rules, and sign-ups for both tournaments will be available soon at www.quakecon.org.

MESQUITE, TX – July 7, 2008 – Ventrilo, the premier group voice communications program used in tournaments and multiplayer games, is thrilled to announce that it’s sponsoring the first annual “QuakeCon Ultimate Power Up” Sweepstakes contest. One lucky winner will be driving away from QuakeCon 2008, in a brand new 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe, valued at approximately $55,000. The 13th annual QuakeCon is North America’s largest video game festival, party and tournament and will be held at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas from July 31 – August 3, 2008. QuakeCon admission is free to all attendees.

“We’re extremely excited about our partnership with id Software to be a QuakeCon sponsor this year,” said Brian Knapp, president, Flagship Industries. “This is our way to thank the hardcore gaming community for helping make Ventrilo the preferred group communications tools.”

250 tickets for the Corvette drawing will be awarded to QuakeCon attendees for everything from performance in the QuakeCon Pro and Quick Draw Tournaments to participation in other QuakeCon contests, events and random drawings. The winner will be randomly selected on Saturday, August 2, as part of the event’s tournament finals party.

Additional information about contest rules, eligibility and requirements will be available at www.quakecon.org.

The Bid For Power Final site, now hosted here at QuakeUnity, has news that the next version of the popular anime themed mod will be released on July 19th. Along with their totally revamped site, they have added a new team member Fraesh who will be assisting with coding and graphics.

If you didn't know already, Bid For Power Final is a standalone modification based on the popular anime series, Dragonball Z/GT/AF. The mod has over 120 characters and 60 maps. Each character has his own Attacks like Kamehameha, Final Flash along with an easy to use melee system. You can grab the files needed to play the mod below:

Bid for Power Final 2.5 Full
Bid for Power Final 2.6 Patch

Download: Q4Max v0.82

A new version of Q4Max, a competition mod for Quake4 has been released. There are 3 significant changes in this release along with the usual assorted other tweaks and updates such as: extra SuperHud options, infinite ammo votes, and fixes for some invisible projectiles coming from nowhere, a gui bug leaking large amounts of memory on dedicated servers, and "the headless quaker" bug.

• Tutorbot. The tutorbot allows you to record and playback snippets which you can share with other players, or use for practicing yourself.
• cg_unsmoothclients. This new cvar (defaulted to the preferred value of 2), makes the prediction of the other players' positions more accurate, and so makes the game much more playable at higher pings at the cost of some smoothness.
• The Domination gametype ("callvote mode dom"). This is a team-game where you gain points for your team by capturing points throughout the level.

QuakeUnity has been down since Saturday evening because of an incident at the data center which houses our servers. If our host had not come back online this morning, I was going to setup a temporary server at another provider, but thankfully they've restored power and connectivity to the data center.

I'm sorry for the downtime and just wanted to let everyone why we have been offline so long.

Santa Monica, CA – May 27, 2008 – The alien invasion has begun with the announcement that id Software’s Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars™ published by Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system has shipped to retail stores nationwide. Set in the year 2065, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars pits the armies of Earth’s Global Defense Force (GDF) against the invading alien menace, the Strogg, in an all-out struggle for the fate of the planet. Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is slated to arrive on European and Australian store shelves on May 30, 2008.

"Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars raises the bar for next-gen console games with its variety and intense combat," said Kevin Cloud, Executive Producer, id Software. “Whether you’re playing online with fifteen friends, or playing a single-player campaign against amazing AI, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars delivers a new level of team play and combat strategy to the PS3 and 360.”

Set within the expansive QUAKE® universe in the year 2065, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is the ultimate team and mission-based multiplayer warfare game offering console gamers distinct classes, vehicles and weapons to choose from, giving players countless ways to join the battle. Players work as a team to defeat the enemy and achieve objectives either online against other players or battle offline with surprisingly lifelike AI. Across multi-mission campaigns, players earn experience and promotions while stats are recorded globally for players to track their rank and prestige in the community at www.enemyterritory.com.

Based on the critically-acclaimed game from id Software and Splash Damage for Windows® PC that has received over eighty awards and nominations, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars was developed for the Xbox 360 by Nerve Software.

GamePolitics has news that id Software is following in the steps our their longtime publisher Activision and leaving the Entertainment Software Association.

If your not familiar with the ESA, they are the group that puts on the E3 event that was a huge event for the gaming community until last year's massive downscale. With Activision and id Software both not attending E3 this year, we should mostly expect another big year at QuakeCon in terms of the two companies using the annual gathers of gamers as a platform for announcing their high profile projects to the world.

If you haven't before, check out QuakeUnity's pictures and videos from our E3 2006 coverage to get a feel of what the event was like. My two favorite videos from the event: