At long last, the QuakeCon hive mind has announced this year's event line-up, including not one, but two Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars tournaments. Six player squads will get to battle it out on both the PC as well as the Xbox 360 for a total of $25,000 in prize money. Information on sign-ups and official tournament rules is said to be appearing soon, so keep an eye on the QuakeCon website.

The chaps over at Game-Rigs have rolled out some really funky looking Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars console skins for both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Aptly titled Battleskins, they protect your console from scratches and other wear and tear, while also covering them in great looking ETQW art, so it's pretty much a win-win for everyone. And should you ever long to clad your console in rosier attire (perhaps featuring pinatas), the skins will come off without leaving any marks. Head on over to the Game Rigs site for more information on the QUAKE Wars Battleskins, including larger images and where you can buy them from.

Update: For a limited time only, you can grab either Battleskin for just $19.96 (QUAKE's release year, incidentally) at GearTab. These guys actually ship worldwide, so you can dress up your console even if you aren't in America.

Snap to Grid, Splash Damage's regular look at the happenings in the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars editing community, is back and this time it's personal! This week, ETQW Mapping's fearless captain Terry 'Salteh' Seidler takes a look at the alpha release of Donnovan's Retake of the Andes map for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars and checks out the latest alpha release of the highly anticipated Wheels of War mod. To top it all off, the saltiest of Terrys even throws out a challenge to all the aspiring zombie crushers / destruction derby participants out there in the form of Wheels of War's freshly added global lap times leaderboard. Roll on over on the Splash Damage website to read the full feature!

To mark Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory's recent five year anniversary, Splash Damage has received id Software's blessing to release the source files for all of the official multiplayer maps packaged with the game. It's even possible to import these into Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars's level editor, so you can create faithful ETQW ports of these if you want to. You can grab the source files here on the Splash Damage website.

Another week, another Splash Damage round-up. This one has news of our latest glorious, if completely unlikely, venture: football. But there's more:

• Name Splash Damage's Football Squad, Win Signed ETQW Guide
  MCV's and Microsoft's annual Games 5s football tournament is coming up and in a moment of complete madness, we decided to throw our collective hats into the ring and crush everyone else. Better yet, we're still in need of a name for our heroic squad, so feel free to leave your suggestions at the link above. The winner will receive an ETQW BradyGames Guide signed by the entire development team as well as a Razer Tarantula keyboard.
• Splash Damage lurking within Jim Rossignol's This Gaming Life
  Jim Rossignol's just-released book 'This Gaming Life' chronicles his gaming related adventures in different parts of the world. One of Jim's stops is Splash Damage (that's us) in London, an adventure extensively covered in two of the book's chapters. Recommended reading!
• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Tim 'Huntle' Rose
  Production Coordinator Tim 'Huntle' Rose was dragged to the interrogation chamber for our latest staff interview. Originally stemming from the competitive Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Tim has since risen through the ranks and is now the Programming Teams caretaker and proud owner of his own mustache.
• Currently Hurling Controllers / Mice At... Metal Gear Solid
  The latest installment of our bi-weekly gaming rollcall is here and largely stuffed with Metal Gear Solid 4, though there are plenty of other games being played by Splash Damage folk. Follow the link above to find out what else was worth our time.

The final nominees for the Golden Joysticks 2008 have been announced and thanks to your previous voting efforts, Splash Damage and Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars are up for no less than six of the 'sticks now!

Since the Golden Joysticks are decided purely by public voting, we're calling on all of you to help ETQW and Splash Damage win as many of these as possible. How can you help? Simple. Just head over to this page and cast your vote. Better yet, every 10,000th vote gets one of many cool prizes, including Xbox 360s, Sony tellies, games, and more!

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars and its PC developer Splash Damage are up for the following:

• Nuts All Nighter - Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars
• PC Game of the Year - Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars
• PlayStation Game of the Year - Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars
• UK Developer of the Year - Splash Damage
• Ultimate Game of the Year - Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars
• Xbox Game of the Year - Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars

Go vote! Technicians everywhere will thank you.

The Official Competition Mod for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars has been released and can be grabbed from the Splash Damage website. The mod allows server admins and tournament organizers to easily implement and enforce specific rule-sets via a host of new customization options. An extensive Wiki page detailing the features of the mod and how to use them can be found here in the Splash Damage Wiki. On top of all this, we're also intending to release the Competition Mod source code in the near future for all you aspiring modders to tinker with, so keep an eye out for that.

Things may be busy here at Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars PC developer Splash Damage, but that isn't stopping us from machinegunning the intertubes with all sorts of new content. Here's a round-up of the latest bits and pieces:

• Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Turns Five
  The little game that started it all is a respectable five years old now. Amazingly enough, it's still one of the most popular online shooters out there - here's to you, Wolf: ET!
• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Aubrey 'Bezzy' Hesselgren
  Technical Game Designer and parkour fetishist Aubrey 'Bezzy' Hesselgren stars in this latest staff interview. Find out how he came to Splash Damage, what he does all day long, the reasons behind his parkour addiction and much more.
• In the Crosshairs: ETQW Competition Round-up With a Side of ETQWPro
  Senior Clan Analyzer Matt 'Anti' Lowe returns with another look at the latest goings-on in the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars competition scene. Matt also takes a closer look at the most popular competition modification out there at the moment, ETQWPro.
• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Gordon 'digibob' Biggans
  Gordon 'digibob' Biggans has been with Splash Damage for longer than he can remember and was one of the programmers on Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars. Read his life's story in this interview of autobriographical* proportions.* interview may not actually be longer than normal
• Currently Hurling Controllers / Mice At... - LEGO GRID Band
  Summer may be here, but new game releases aren't slowing down. See what the guys and gals at Splash Damage are playing at the moment and we're looking forward to.
• Things You Were Too Afraid to Ask: Mark 'static_mover' Lack
  Pretty rooms are the domain of Mark 'static_mover' Lack, the latest addition to our crack squad of environment artists. Mark previously worked on the PS3 game Heavenly Sword and you can find out all about him in this interview.

Aspyr has at last released the Mac version of the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars 1.5 game update. It contains the same improvements and fixes as the Windows version detailed here and can be grabbed from the sites below:

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars 1.5 Update (Mac)
• Aspyr
• eXp.de
• FileFront
• Gamers Hell
• QuakeWars-fr
• The Patches Scrolls
• Warriors of Hell
• Wolfmap.de

More mirrors to be added as they pop up.

The long list nominees for the 2008 Golden Joystick awards have been announced and Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars scored an amazing seven of them! Long list voting takes place until June 16th and is completely open to the public. The top games in each category will then move on to the next round.

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars and its PC developer Splash Damage are in the running for the following:

• Nuts All Nighter
• Online Game of the Year (NEWLY ADDED)
• PC Game of The Year
• PlayStation Game of The Year
• The Ultimate Game of The Year
• Xbox Game of The Year
• UK Developer of The Year

Go vote and help Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars make the cut!