Raven have just released the minimum system specifications you'll need to play Wolfenstein on PC; as a point of reference they're approximately double the system specs needed to play Doom 3 and about 25% more than those for Quake Wars. So, if you're struggling to play the latter smoothly then you might have problems with Wolfenstein, certainly when running at one of the higher screen resolutions.

Software requirements:
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP or Windows Vista(R) (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c (included & required for Windows XP & Vista)

Hardware requirements:
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3400+ processor
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA(R) Geforce(R) 6800 GT or ATI Radeon(TM) X800
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
HDD Space: 8GB (Plus an additional 800MB for Windows swap file)
Media: 100% Microsoft Windows compatible DVD-ROM drive
Internet: Broadband connection and service required for multiplayer

The old tutorial explaining ways to get around the annoying issue of ASE models exported from Blender not having correctly set up smoothing (smooth groups) has been archived and replaced by a more up-to-date version; since spelunkarr updated Goofo's original Blender ASE export script, there's now no need to go through the old, fiddly and protracted process of 'hacking' a mesh to get smoothing to work on exported ASE models - all that needs to be done now set the groups (manually or automatically), run the updated script and voila, jobs done.

• Read the updated (and shorter) tutorial on getting UE3 models to smooth group properly here.

ZeniMax Media, the parent company behind Bethesda Softworks have 'acquired' id Software. The full press release is up on idsoftware.com. Didn't see this one coming, although one could argue it was on the cards with the recent announcement by Splash Damage that Bethesda was publishing their new IP "Brink", id software seem to be going through quite a change in 'philosophy' in recent years, mainly it seems to keep up with the market, especially when games need shorter and shorter development time which means studios have to hire more people.

Bethesda Softworks will publish the titles of id Software other than upcoming releases previously committed to other publishers.

Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software, commented on the transaction: "This was a unique opportunity to team with a smart, sophisticated publisher like Bethesda Softworks where the interests of the studio and the publisher will be fully aligned in the development and marketing of our titles. In addition, we will now have financial and business resources to support the future growth of id Software, a huge advantage which will result in more and even better games for our fans."

id Software will continue to operate as a studio under the direction of its founder, John Carmack. No changes will be made in the operations of id Software in the development of its games. All the principals at id Software have signed long-term employment contracts, assuring they will continue in their roles developing games at the studio.

"This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward," said John Carmack, who will continue to serve in his current role as Technical Director. "We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them. We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am."

Just updated the Oblivion hints and tips page with a location of a large 'cashe' of the Dragon's Tongue plant, one of the two hard to find plants needed to get back into the Mages Guild when you get kicked out for stealing or some such from the Guild. The good thing about this area, south of Bravil, is that a good number of plants grow in one place, which saves you the effort of roaming around trying to find the required 20 plants elsewhere.

• Rewort and Dragon's Tongue plant growning locations

If I caught this many 'phish' I'd have a phish farm, with lots of stock to make loads of money selling phish to people.

If you get the following message (addressing you in one way or another as a supplier of game assets), delete it, it's what's commonly called junk, spam or more correctly a phishing attack - although, calling it an "attack" is like saying Michael Palin 'attacked' John Cleese when he slapped him with a kipper down by the canal lock, doesn't quite work that does it. Anyway...

Hello Good Day
My Name is bob ams from PA.... I will like to know whether you carry (Free textures ) in stock for sale. If yes, email me back each size and with the prices of (1) attached to it so that i will let you know the size and quantity i will be ordering.... More over I will like to know whether you do accept credit card as themethod of payment....
Hope to read from you again....Stay Blessed.
Kind regards
bob ams

And yes, as it happens I do have a lot of textures on site, you were probably looking at them when you wrote the letter. It's usually a good idea to know what you're going to buy before you try and buy it;

"I'd like to buy something".
"Oh?".
"Yes I'd like to buy something".
"OK. What exactly?".
"I'd like to buy what you have".
"But I don't have anything".
"Yes, I'll buy that please".
"Er, OK. That will be £1.5 million".
"You pay my shipping agent to collect from the £2 million I send you?".
"Sure. Send me £2 million", *cough*.