The console versions of Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars have officially been released! Handled by the folks at Nerve Software and Underground Development, respectively, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 flavors of ETQW feature everything you've come to know and love from the PC game and a few extra bits and pieces to better adapt them for their newfound next generation homes.

Coinciding with the release, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the official statistics site have gone online as well so you can track your progress and see how you stack up against the rest of the world. We also hear that demos for both systems are in the works, so keep an eye out for those.

It doesn't seem possible but Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, our first actual factual released game is five of your Earth-Years old. Today. Soon it'll be old enough to drink. And vote. And play with other games.

An enormous thank you to everyone who worked on Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, and played it and are stiiiiillllll playing it and made it so popular and thus helped Splash Damage become the Pulsating Temple of Possibilities that it now is.

Following up on the smash hit that was the initial installment, ETQW Mapping's Terry 'Salteh' Seidler once again deploys his all-seeing editing community observer telescope for another episode of Snap to Grid.

In this latest chapter, we take a look at the very cool Dusk mod, which seeks to combine the thrill of being chased by a horde of hungry Strogg zombies with the excitement of getting the heck away from them. There's also a round-up of some of the maps currently floating around the editing forums, complete with download links and such. On to the words!

As we continue to expand for our unannounced title with Bethesda Softworks, we are looking to add a Technical Animator to our team. Follow the link for a full job description, including desired skills and experience, and benefits we offer.

In addition to this opening, we are actively hiring for a number of other positions across most major development disciplines - an up-to-date overview of all vacancies can be found in the Jobs section.

After months of rumors and speculation, we're very excited to announce that Splash Damage has entered a long-term partnership with developer and publisher Bethesda Softworks for our latest project. Founded in 1986, Bethesda is the company behind blockbuster titles such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and is currently working on the highly anticipated Fallout 3.

More details on this deal can be found here in the official press release, while information about what we're working on will be provided in the coming months.

Members of the media may direct any inquires related to this announcement to press@splashdamage.com.

We are currently looking to expand the console side of our Programming Team with the addition of a Senior Xbox 360 Programmer and a Senior PlayStation 3 Programmer. Hit the respective links for more information on the positions, including what we're looking for in prospective candidates and the benefits we offer. A full list of all open positions can be found in the Jobs section.

The latest Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars game update is now available for download both via the in-game updater and the mirrors below. 1.5 comes with a large number of improvements and fixes, a full breakdown of which you can find in this blog update. If you have the Steam version of Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, you can get the update automatically by simply starting up your Steam client. The Mac version of the update is still rumbling through Aspyr's QA department and should be released within the next few days. Click 'Read more...' for a list of download locations!

With the impending release of the latest update for ETQW, we've got a new version of the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Software Development Kit (SDK) for you to download. This one's fully compatible with ETQW 1.5 and incorporates the following improvements:

EditWorld:
• Added shortcut key for active XY view (Shift+F5)
• Fixed autocompletion in the editor's console
• Fixed compile warnings not properly showing in references
• Fixed brush texture find and replace replacing the entire brush's texture
• Fixed properties sometimes not showing their values
• Changed Warning window to stay "locked" to the world it was initially loaded with

Code:
• Added XCode projects to allow mods to be compiled for OSX

Hit the 'Read more...' link for a list of download locations!

Great news - The latest Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars game update is currently headed straight for the tubes of the internet! We're planning to push the the Windows and Linux versions along with the upated SDK this evening London time, while the folks at Aspyr are currently putting the finishing touches on the Mac version. If you want to read up on the changes and improvements included in 1.5, you can do so by way of this blog update. To round out the impending file assault, we'll also have the final version of the Official Competition Mod available within the coming days.

As soon as the 1.5 update is ready for download, we'll publish a list of mirrors here on the ETQW Community Site, so keep checking back!

To make the latest installment of our on-going staff documentary especially exciting, we unearthed the most digital of bobs in the entire world, Gordon 'digibob' Biggans. Gordon is a Senior Programmer here at Splash Damage and has been a member of our tapir-obsessed cult since the Early Days of Q3F. He now spends most of his time transforming the most outlandish of gameplay ideas into neatly formatted chunks of code and can often be seen sleeping on his DDR dance pad. More about Gordon, how he ended up at Splash Damage, a meticulously detailed breakdown of his daily tasks, his gaming exploits, and an extra dose of celery can be found in his extremely digital staff profile.

US military newspaper Stars and Stripes recently had a chat with id Software's Kevin Cloud and Splash Damage's Senior Game Designer Ed 'BongoBoy' Stern about Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars and some of its design aspects. Since their readership largely consists of military types, a good part of the Q&A actually focuses on how ETQW's weapons were evolved from what's available on the battlefield today and the philosophy behind the combat tactics featured in the game. Even if you know ETQW inside out and have devoured every interview published so far, this one should make for some very interesting and fresh reading, so don't miss it.

For those planning to pick up the Xbox 360 version of Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars and wondering what magical achievements they can look forward to, look no further! We've compiled the complete achievement list right here, sporting some 50 achievements in total. The goods are fairly evenly spread out across ETQW's instant action, campaign, and Xbox Live multiplayer modes, so there's something for everyone. Click the 'Read more...' link for the full list.

I thought I'd start this blog update with a quick look at something that I've neglected to cover until now, a mod. This isn't the much vaunted Wheels of War that you will have seen around the ETQW Community Site, nor the upcoming Official Competition Mod but rather a mod that has already been heavily integrated into the Quake Wars competition scene: ETQWPro.

Made by a collection of programmers from the ETQW competition scene, ETQWPro modifies the basic game to enhance it for competition play, adding the sort of features and gameplay changes many players feel are needed for tournament play. The team behind the mod includes former PigMod creator Blaze and Ultraviolet Productions' frag movie guru Hannes.

Here it is, your bi-weekly look into the gaming exploits of Splash Damage. While Grand Theft Auto 4 continues to maintain its firm grip on our gaming consoles and makes us tumble into bed at completely unreasonable hours, Boom Blox took the office by surprise and managed to win people's hearts and minds in an instant.

There are also a few other, less mainstream (and thus, according to conventional internet wisdom, infinitely cooler) games being played here inside the Splash Damage blimp - read on to find out what they are, and don't forget to share your recent virtual adventures with us in the comments!

Just a quick update on where things are at with the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars 1.5 game update. We're currently doing some last minute testing with id Software to track down a few issues that have turned up, but we don't anticipate this to take too much time. We really just want to make sure that all the issues we're aware of are actually addressed rather than pushing out an update with a big asterisk and a list of It'll-break-if-you do-this-ers attached to it.

Distribution is being sorted out at the moment as well and if there are no further complications, we anticipate having the update out next week. We'll try and keep you as updated as possible from here on out, so as soon as we've got a definite release date, you'll read it here first.

For the latest installment of our award-avoiding series of staff interviews, we decided to dig our new Art Director Olivier 'nosebone' Leonardi out of the pile of Wacom tablets he's been hiding in ever since he arrived here. Olivier came to Splash Damage from UbiSoft Montreal where he art-directed several games including Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and Rainbow Six: Vegas.

To find out about his work for UbiSoft, how and why he ended up at Splash Damage, and all those other things he doesn't want you to know about, read the full interview in this profile!

Lifted straight from the June issue of the magazine, PC Zone's investigative feature "Wrecking the Mod" is now available online. The piece takes a long, hard look at the current state of the modding scene and whether or not it's past its prime. Several developers chime in with their thoughts on the matter, including Splash Damage's own Steve Gaffney. It's a worthwile read with some interesting insights, so go check it out!

Hello playmates. Having lost previous months to big, deep, long games, recently I've been snacking heavily on lots of small ones. I was really impressed by the Independent Games Festival nominees at this year's GDC, and ever since have felt compelled to cast a tiny piglike eye over some of the less famous titles and genres.

With the end of May and the release of Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 inching ever closer, several more previews have appeared in the mysterious tubes also known as the internet.

• PSW Magazine
  "One thing is certain; Enemy Territory is going to be a blast. It looks fantastic, 'plays more intuitively since the console revamp' claimed a fellow journo who poured hours into the PC version, and packs in reams of vehicles and weapons. And with twelve huge maps there's going to be plenty to do."
• Worthplaying
  "What's here is an amazingly faithful translation of the game that plays just as well, if not better, than the original. FPS haters will want to avoid it, but those with lesser-spec computers will likely flock to the store when the console ports hit shelves at the end of next month."
• VideoGamer
  "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is shaping up very nicely on consoles. The key to the game's success will undoubtedly rest in how accessible it is, and strides are certainly being made here. While the PC original did a great job at getting new players involved, it's even easier on consoles."
• Fragland
  "I haven't been able to play the whole game of course, but from what i've seen, i am very pleased. Nerve Software seems to be doing an excellent job at porting the PC version of ID Software and Splash Damage to console. Something like this can only be seen as a positive thing!"

If you missed them previously, more console previews can be found here.

Work on the latest game update for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is steaming ahead at full knots and we're now testing the latest version of it internally to see if there are any glaring issues left to fix. Even more exciting, we've put together the final changelog for the update, which you can find concealed somewhere within this blog update. In a smallish nutshell, 1.5 brings a number of new features and customization options to ETQW and fixes all of the issues left over from 1.4. Let's have a look:

Splash Damage owner and Creative Director Paul Wegdwood will be part of a business panel at this year's Develop conference. Descriptively titled "Why We Sold Our Studio; And Why We Didn't", the panel will also feature Bizarre Creations's Sarah Chudley, Kuju Entertainment's Ian Baverstock, and Intent Media's Michael French. Develop 2008 is set to take place from July 29th to 31st in Brighton, England, and will feature over 90 speakers across 60 sessions. More information on the event and how to register for it can be found at www.develop-conference.com.

We've always known that the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Limited Collector's Editing was Cool Looking™, but now it's officially an award-winning design! For those who are incredibly confused, allow me to explain: The MI6 Game Marketing Conference took place in San Francisco last month and among a number of talks and panels about game marketing, the event also recognized outstanding achievements in product design, promotion, and marketing with a number of awards. The Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Limited Collector's Edition was bestowed the Silver Muse for Best Wrapping - Product Packaging and joined a number of other high profile titles such as Halo 3, Assassin's Creed, and Bioshock in this year's line-up of winners. You can see a small picture of the awards statue on the right - click the Read more link for a larger version!

It's GTA4 week! Few games are as ... present as Grand Theft Auto 4 is around the office, so expect much of this installment of Stuff We're Playing to focus on the latest incarnation of the franchise that is single handedly eroding the morals and humanity of every child on the planet. It's not all about capping punkz this week, though, since both the Metal Gear Online beta and Wii Fit were released right before the Grandest of marketing onslaughts.

So, without further ado, let's see what's currently lurking in people's disc trays: