While the rest of the team was busy working on 1.5 and other, more secretive things, my web friends and I did our best to flood the Splash Damage website with all kinds of stuff about ETQW and the team behind it. Here it is in bite-sized chunks:

• ETQW Limited Collector's Edition Officially an Award-Winning Design
  Let's start off with some truly delightful news. The Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Limited Collector's Edition won the Silver Muse award at the MI6 Game Marketing Conference for Best Wrapping - Product Packaging! The MI6 awards are handed out anually and reward outstanding achievements in product design and marketing. Click the link above to see a picture of the flashy awards statue.
• Snap to Grid - ETQW Mapping Spotlight: Comm Link and Meltdown
  In this brand-new series of blog updates, ETQW Mapping's Salteh presents some of the maps currently being worked on in the ETQW mapping community, complete with screenshots and download links. First up: Comm Link and Meltdown. If you've got any maps you'd like to be featured in future updates, please let us know in the comments section of the feature.
• Currently Hurling Controllers / Mice At... - Grand Fit Auto
  Apparently Grand Theft Auto 4 or some such nonsense came out last week and has been occupying the minds (and hands) of large chunks of Splash Damage ever since. To find out what else we've been playing and what we're looking forward to, click the vaguely orange colored link above.
• In the Crosshairs: ETQW Competition Round-up: Webisode 3: Debate Edition
  This fairly recent installment of our regular look at the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars competition scene features results from all major tournaments currently taking place around the world. We also examine some of the on-going competition-related forum discussions, including the level of skill in the European scene versus the North American scene.
• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Manuel 'katzeimsack' Virks
  Environment Artist and new Splashinite Manuel 'katzeimsack' Virks is the latest subject in our seemingly endless (and nevertheless thrilling) series of staff interviews. Manuel talks about what he does at Splash Damage, how he ended up here, his continued involvement with the modding community, and much more!
• Splash Damage All Over PC Zone UK June Issue
  The June issue of PC Zone features several cool Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars articles, including a look at the state of modding (with a special mention of ETQW's Wheels of War!) and a retrospective on ETQW's development featuring Creative Director Paul Wedgwood and ETQW's Art Director Richard Jolly. Click the link for a picture of half of the latter article!
• Bongoboy is Hurling Controllers / Mice At... Games That Don't Take All Week To Finish
  Taking a break from the enormous racket that is traditional hardcore gaming, Senior Game Designer Ed 'Bongoboy' Stern takes a quick look at several more casual titles for that quick fix in between Strogg killing sprees.

Lastly, in our ever-continuing quest to build the world's coolest next generation treehouse, we're currently looking for lots of artists among many other things! Also, more tapirs.

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 1.5 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:

To celebrate the upcoming console release of Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, the official ETQW website has received a bit of a makeover with 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.

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!

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 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.

It was a busy week (or so) in Splash Damage land and there's a nice amount of new stuff on the site poised to replace Facebook as the internet's largest timesink. For your convenience, we've summarized The Good Stuff below in list form:

• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Dave 'ducks' Johnston
  In the first of (count them!) three new staff interviews, we chat with Dave 'ducks' Johnston, creator of Counter-Strike's de_dust and now part of Splash Damage's armada of level designers.
• In the Crosshairs: ETQW Competition Round-up: Webisode 2: ClanBase Edition
  In the second (and even more fun) installment of In The Crosshairs, resident clanologist Matt 'Anti' Lowe brings you all the latest competition results, with a special focus on ClanBase's recent tournament exploits.
• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Paul 'MoP' Greveson
  An environment artist here at Splash Damage, Paul 'MoP' Greveson was one of the people tasked with optimizing ETQW's levels to find the right balance between pretty and fast. Find out everything about him in this interview!
• Currently Hurling Controllers / Mice At... Viking Band: Vegas 2 Prologue
  Find out which games we're currently playing at Splash Damage and what we think of them.
• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Flavius 'Flawe' Alecu
  Finally, adding a bit of much needed flava, tools programmer Flavius 'Flawe' Alecu makes a shocking connection between Pong and toothpaste in the final staff interview of the week.

Also, tapirs.

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.

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.