We're currently seeking several more artistically inclined individuals to join our talented team. This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone looking to work on a new and unique property coming to consoles and the PC. Click one of the positions below to find out what we're looking for, what we offer, and how to apply:

• 3D Artist
• 3D Animator
• Texture Artist

In addition to these, we're still hiring for several other positions, a full list of which you can find in the Jobs section.

Freshly plucked from his native Germany, Manuel 'katzeimsack' Virks makes up what is arguably the most continental portion of our ever-growing environment art team. Like Mister MoP, he stars in what is basically Extreme Makeover: Game Level Edition, though unlike the television namesake, he has to work closely with our level design department in order to achieve that perfect balance of gameplay and visuals. To shed some light on what kind of man it takes to make all of this happen, we forced encouraged Manuel to be the latest subject in our on-going series of staff interviews. Better yet, the results are now in and you can find out everything Wikipedia doesn't know about Manuel in his freshly enhanced profile.

The QUAKE Wars SDK was released about five months ago and people have been working hard creating new content for the game. Most of you will have heard of the Wheels of War and ETQWPro mods, but what about maps? Good news! The first few maps have already reached beta stage and are nearing completion. With all this new content on the horizon, we thought it would be a good idea to dedicate a new series of blog posts to it.

Enter the supremely cleverly titled "Snap to Grid" written by Salteh of ETQW Mapping fame. In this initial installment, he'll be taking a look at Comm Link by zig-zag and Meltdown by Chris.

Who can truly say when the love affair between Splash Damage and the noble Tapir first began? One way or another, we've all received noble service from the Tapir. It has lurked playfully in our forums. It has adorned our GDF Strategic Strike Missile. It has hidden within the text on the GDF Field Ops' visor. It even played a vital part in the MegaTexture technology itself.

Now it's time to give something back.

Despite many a distraction with 'real' work I've had time to hack together another brief news round up from the world of the ETQW competition scene.

First, let's take a look at the current state of the various competitions around the globe. In Europe, the ClanBase Nations Cup XI has concluded with the Swedes (who always seem to win the various Nations Cup games!) beating the Netherlands team 4-0 on Ark and Salvage in the final. Sweden has been less fortunate in the ClanBase EuroCup XVII, though, as their leading clan, Epsilon eSports, have decided to take a hiatus from ETQW and have subsequently dropped from the event. The EuroCup is now entering the play-off stages and with the withdrawal of Epsilon, Four Kings are the clear favorites to win this cup. The other teams in the final eight are n!faculty.Tagan (DE), VAE.QW (UK), Wiechury (PL), Team Infinity (DK), DEFAULT.Team (PL), Geh aB Clan.ETQW (DE) and Inferno eSports (IT).

Those of you who like paper will be thrilled to learn that the June issue of PC Zone UK has a bunch of pretty cool Splash Damage-related content in it. First up, Pavel Barter investigates the state of the modding scene and asks whether or not it has become a mere shadow of its former glory. Several mod-teams-turned-game-developers share their pearls of wisdom and we couldn't help but chip in as well. Better yet, the article also highlights four of Pavel's favorite mods at the moment and we're delighted to see that the promising Wheels of War mod for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is the first one in the list! We tip our proverbial hats to Domipheus and the gang over at the WOW garage and can't wait to play the finished thing!

To celebrate the upcoming console release of Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, the official ETQW website has received a bit of a makeover. There's an all-new front page showcasing the shiny new intro movie for the console versions, and a few assorted bits of fresh content sprinkled througout the site. A few really cool updates are coming up in the next weeks, so check back often and keep your eyes peeled for those.

Here inside Splash Damage's hollowed out volcano, we've been keeping a close eye on the Xbox 360 version of Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars and it's certainly shaping up great. Just last week we received the latest build of the game and it's been running constantly on the Xbox 360 in the break room ever since.

Now that the console versions of ETQW are riding the certification train towards their release date at the end of May, we thought it would be a splendid idea to drag id Software's Kevin Cloud and Nerve Software's commander in chief Brandon James to our interrogation chamber and extract a few more bits of information about the long-awaited Xbox 360 incarnation of the game. Head on over to the ETQW Community Site to read what they had to say about the goals and challenges of bringing the game to the Xbox 360, the improvements they've made, achievements, and whether or not we'll see a demo.

Hot on the heels of the release date announcement, we've also got a few Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars console previews for you to peruse. All of these guys and gals were able to spend a few hours with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game and have put together their impressions at the links below:

• 1UP
• Gamespy
• GameZone
• Gaming Trend
• IGN
• Playstation Universe | Interview
• Team Xbox

If you've spotted any other previews, please let us know in the comments!

Tools whiz Jared 'jRAD' Hefty briefly emerged from his Visual Studio cocoon today to answer a few questions for the latest of our staff interviews. Aside from making sure the development team has what it needs to be as productive as possible, Jared also provides code support for our various in-game user interfaces and is frequently tasked with providing celebratory exclamations of joy (also known as woohoo!) during meetings that involve more than three people. To find out more about the inner workings of Mr Hefty, read the full and extremely emotional interview with him in his profile.

At long last, id Software and Activision have revealed the release dates for the long anticipated console incarnations of Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars. You'll be able to pick up the game for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 on May 30 here in Europe, while the Americans among you will be able to get it from your local game store on May 28. You can get the full scoop along with lots of marketing buzzwords right here in the official press release.

Gather 'round, children, it's time for another installment of Stuff We're Playing. This past week saw the release of Nintendo Characters In Tiny Vehicles, which has since become a popular lunch and evening distraction here on the Splash Damage Peninsula of Productivity.

For those keeping track, we've got a new face joining us this week, with Ben 'Randles' Hopkinson of Rackage fame strenghtening our ranks as IT Manager. *applause*

The marketing machine for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is starting to spin up - if you missed it, don't forget to check out the first round of previews. More are sure to come within the next few weeks along with a few other cool announcements related to the console versions. In more PC-centric news, there have been quite a few questions about the status of the ETQW 1.5 game update on the forums, so here's what's currently happening with it.

The enigmatic being more commonly known as Paul 'MoP' Greveson is the subject of the latest installment in our on-going series of staff interviews. Paul is part of our small fleet of environment artists whose sole mission it is to make game levels really pretty without turning them into performance hogs. Easy, right?

To find out more about what Paul does at Splash Damage, his occasional guitar wailing, being involved in the Polycount community, and telling really bad jokes, read the full interview in Paul's profile!

I guess my last report didn't offend anybody and was considered interesting enough to warrant a sequel so woot for me! Looks like I'll be able to carry on doing this "interweb web-log-blogging" thing, bringing you round-ups of the various happenings in the Enemy Territory QUAKE Wars competition scene.

Actually truth be told I had the impression not much had happened these last few weeks, what with the last round of tournaments having recently been completed and the bulk of new ones just starting up. For a moment I thought I might struggle to find much news to bring you, but a quick check on the various cup and ladder websites soon made me realize that a large number of clan battles are still raging on, in fact I might struggle to fit all the news in!

This week's subject of our no-nonsense Q&A sessions with the Splash Damage team is Flavius 'Flawe' Alecu, the newest addition to our programming team. Flavius has teamed up with Jared 'jRAD' Hefty to provide our development team with all sorts of handy tools, programs, and widgets to make game creation as easy as possible.

To find out what drove him to Splash Damage, how he got his start in the industry, and how one can play Pong with toothpaste tubes, read the full interview in his profile!

With Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars now shipping for Mac OS X in North America, the folks at Apple.com have taken a closer look at the game. Creative director Paul Wedgwood was on hand to walk them through a typical match and the article offers many of Paul's insights into the design philosophy behind the title.

There's also a second page filled with information about the two warring sides, all the maps, system requirements, and even single player cheat codes, so if you're wanting to get up to speed on all things ETQW, this is a great way to start.

So now that the April Foolery is over and done with, let's try and get back into the serious business that is the internet and this here blog. And what better way to do this than with a brand-new installment of What We've Been Playing? Actually, I can think of a few, but since I've already got the content for this update, let's just go with it, shall we? As a special bonus, our newly imported Technical Game Designer Aubrey 'Bezzy' Hesselgren makes his blog debut this week, so let's all give him a warm welcome.

Start your engines and prepare to slide sideways through hordes of zombies! The team behind the highly anticipated Wheels of War for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars has just released an alpha version of their mod! They caution that with this is the very first release, not all the features are included yet (zombies, stunts, and upgrades are still to come apparently) and that there may be a bug or two. Nevertheless, the guys want to get as much community feedback as early as possible, so don't forget to post your thoughts and impressions in the ETQW forums.

The mod currently comes in Windows and Linux flavors - a list of download locations can be found on the Wheels of War site, where you can also find a new trailer celebrating the alpha release. For more on Wheels of War, check out this interview with the team behind it!

It's been a while coming...

A lot of you have been pestering, cajoling and badgering us for details of our next project and previously we've just fobbed you off with some jokey response or stalled for time, assuring you that one day we'd announce the New Thing. Well, thank you for your patience. But you need be patient no longer, for that day has come.