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.

To mark the release of the ETQW Software Development Kit we thought we'd turn our glaring internet spotlight of inquiry upon one of the most exciting looking ETQW mods in development, Wheels Of War. WOW's Domipheus and NoSoup4U were kind enough to spare some time to reply to our ruthless inquiry and even threw in a few extra screenshots.

The Open Beta hadn't been running long before the ETQW statistics page made it clear there were some fearsome players involved. One player, DomMafia, soon pulled clear of the pack...a long way clear. By some distance the highest ranked ETQW Beta player, DomMafia has dominated the ETQW stats board, and has even found the time to post demo videos (hacking the Shield Generator on Valley and flying the Strogg Tormentor). We tracked DomMafia down and forced him to explain himself.

Valley, featured in the ETQW Demo, contains all the vehicles and some of the most important objectives of the full game. It's a good place to start learning about ETQW's combat and underlying gameplay mechanics. This Guide will get you up to speed on the key objectives so you'll know what class should do what, and when.

And once again, Aloha. BongoBoy here with another slightly obsessive investigation of ETQW's gameplay that should help you with the ETQW Beta 2 and the free Demo and the finished game. In our previous installment we looked at a tactical approach to unlocking the Strogg defences in Valley called the "Strollin’ Soldier". Basically, you help your teammates complete the objectives by keeping your distance, staying about 100 metres away from the frontline and using the Rocket Launcher to keep hammering away at Strogg deployables and vehicles, ignoring the infantry firefight entirely. Even if you didn’t try it yourself, I’m sure you could think of a few problems with Strollin’ Soldier. In this installment we’re going to look at some of them, and explore some simple solutions.

aka "How do I stop dying and how can the GDF beat Strogg defences?"

Hello again, BongoBoy here with more ponderings and mutterings about ETQW's gameplay. It’s great to see that ETQW Beta 2 is generating such good feedback. Whenever I can, I've been combing the feedback forums and dropping on to Beta 2 servers; while some players have clearly got to grips with ETQW and are venturing deep within the nether catacombs of the gameplay, others are clearly having a tougher time.

Over the past few months, we've been in touch with many game server providers from around the world to make sure Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars game servers are readily available upon release and to build our line-up of official ETQW ranked server providers. One of them is London-based Rackage, headed up by Nick Kyriakou and Ben Hopkinson. Rackage has also been one of GSPs providing both ranked and unranked servers for the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Public Beta. We sat down with Nick to chat a bit about how Rackage was formed, how it operates, and what they've got planned for the future.

This is the log of an IRC chat with members of the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars development team taking place in #etqwbeta on irc.quakenet.org.

Questions were answered by the following (in order of appearance):

Adam "SyncError" Pyle - Technical Specialist, id Software
Steve "badman" Hessel - Community Relations Manager, Splash Damage
Matt "Wils" Wilson - Lead Level Designer, Splash Damage
Jared "jRAD" Hefty - Programmer, Splash Damage
Paul "Locki" Wedgwood - Owner/Creative Director, Splash Damage

Special thanks to meeb from QuakeNet for helping to organize and run this chat!

We're delighted that so many of the leading first person shooter clans are showing such an interest in Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars. To find out what life is like for members of a professional clan and what their excitement for ETQW is all about, we've interrogated Michael 'ODEE' O’Dell, Team Manager of the mighty Team Dignitas. This is the first in a series of interviews with prominent figures in the ETQW community. Look for more in the coming weeks! Click read more to read the interview.

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars(TM) is the ultimate strategic shooter: an objective-driven, class-based First Person Shooter set in the Quake universe. In the battle for planet Earth, you must choose your side and your role in the battle.