The Forgotten Hope mod in all indications maybe one of the largest mods released. Current estimates put it at 1.0GB- 1.3 GB and split into several files...that even surprised me. The reason given for the split files is so it can easily be copied onto CDR's and distributed to friends who want the mod. That may also be another reason for an early week release so that when the weekend arrives at least there are some of us who have received and installed the files...though that is just speculation on my part. I hope I'm not wrong about the size...if I am I'll just have to adjust about what I report and double-check my sources...

Longest Day reports that the single player map Omaha Beach has been released...here's the official from Reynolds...It's here and available for immediate downloading! I'm still having trouble figuring out lightmapping for custom objects, but when I do I plan on releasing those as a minor map update along with any needed bug fixes if any are found (fingers crossed). Visit their site for more info on the map...direct links for the player version here and the dedicated server version here...

There's a new map out there for DC called California Valley...here's the premise...Background Situation: Inspired by "Red Dawn". The Coalition takes one country too many and the majority of the world turns against the coalition. Conventional warfare with limited NBC use has been going on for several years. Coalition forces, although powerful in technology, do not have the numbers to push back the overwhelming size of invading forces. Britain, America's strongest ally, had fallen shortly with little resistance after a quick and decisive coup immediately after the conflict started.
Iraq's newly formed army was retrained and re-equipped shortly after the American withdrawal from the middle east.The US has been in a controlled withdrawal back to American mainland for a year now in hopes to overextend the enemy and counter-strike at the opportune moment. The hope is to push the enemy out of north America, seize control of key Canadian and Mexican territories, and force the enemy into a stalemate. The seized territories will become satellite nations, used for their resources and to act as land buffers from future foreign invasions from the north or south. The author is Dorian and you can read more about the map here and find the download link as well. Below you'll find the pic of the ingame map. I'm currently downloading it and hope it's a good one!

New Map for DCX called Kandahar. The map is apparently as big as NoFly Zone and will go through some modifications...nonetheless here are some preview pics and if you want to be able to follow the makings and possible release of the map go here...now for some pics...

Hopefully we're not watching the death of a mod but if you're wanting to 'get your feet wet' ( sorry ) the Ocean Warfare mod needs you! Here's the plea from compuguy1088...Yes, it is a sad thing to say, but Trevor has left OWmod. Because of limited support and the leaving of TheArrow, and Xe7, he has decided to leave. I'm all that is left, and I REALLY need the help of the BF community so that people can join OWmod.....
We do have fans, but none that seem to mod. I'm finally at my last wits, Im pleading to the BF modding community to have some of them join OWmod, or its dead and the only mod that will have focused on naval combat is Forgotton Hope. So, please, Spread this to other people and to people that mod that OWmod needs now an entire new staff, and I really want Trevor to come back, he's been one of the best parts of our team, and has put more work into the mod than anybody else. So please help us, we are on our last legs, and probably wont survive without the communities' help. Make sure you visit their site if you have something to contribute.... here.

PlanetBattlefield is taking a close look at the maps in Battlefield Vietnam....there are tons more screenshots at their site here...while we've provided 2 for you...

Not sure if this is old news or not but TeamSpeak2 is out...here's a little about the application...TeamSpeak is an application which allows its users to talk to each other over the internet and basically was designed to run in the background of online games. The voice quality and hereby the bandwidth usage is configurable and can be low for modem users or as good as normal phone calls for better connections. Still the client's maximum bandwidth won't exceed 25.9 KBit/s (=3.3 KB/s) upstream. You can go to the homepage here....

A few days ago we told you that FPB was wondering which weapon to use in it's mod...well, not that it's been decided but they've released a numbers of renders by Dragunova....here they are -  SKS, Romanian AKS74U, MPi AK-74NK, M80, MPi AK-74N, AKS-74, and the CZ-52.

Got a treat for those of you looking forward to the Lost Battalion release....some in-games over Wake Island. Apparently they've just completed converting the Pacific maps... here are the screens...

The Longest day map team will release it's creation this coming Friday...this posted by Reynolds...I'm shooting for a release date of Friday, February 27th, depending on a few factors. The LCT skin is nearly finished so that's not a problem, but I'm tidying up the models to reduce any FPS reduction in game. Part of the process of learning how to make custom models includes building lower poly collision mesh's, something I was not doing a good job at to begin with. Consequently, on less-then-average systems there has been a noticeable FPS drop around the LCT and custom bunkers, although not so bad you still can't enjoy the game.
The other major factor is the pending announcement of the mapping contest winners. If Dice/EA make the announcement on Friday - along with the expected "map pack" of the five winners - then I'll hold off until early next week to do my release so as not to take anything away from that big announcement (nor watch my own map release get lost in the shuffle *grin*). For more information be sure to visit their website.

Look for the mod Shattered Skies to *not* be completed. Currently they are completing an informal poll and so far 60% of those polled are wanting to move onto a different engine...we'll let you know as soon as the final tally is in.

Lost Battalion, as other mods, are facing the release date of BFV. No doubt some attention will shift and that's why this mod plans to release before the release of BFV. No specific date was given but that's the talk...just wanted to let you know what their plans were...

There was an informal interview with a german site which I just ran across and found Elkrider provided a translation... here it is along with some pics...

Rusty: Hi Koricus-9te, nice of you to spare some time for us. The last BG mod version was 096 Beta - will the next one be 1.0 Final or a Final Beta?

Koricus-9te: Hi Rusty. Well, it's correct that we're working on 1.0 and the job proceeds tirelessly. But I wouldn't declare Beta 1.0 as final version, rather a milestone on the way. We are aware that 1.0 is a special number and will do our best to live up to the expectations.

Rusty: What will be the difference between the Final and previous versions?

Koricus-9te: We'll give a facelift to various things, remove some from the mod and think over other stuff. Well, now for a few 1.0 facts! The heart of 1.0 will be the new class lineup. It'll contain 6 classes. More specific details will come in later news because we're not 100% done yet.

Rusty: Will we see again all 09x maps in the Final?

Koricus-9te: Some of the 09x maps will probably not make it into the final but we'll include new ones. We don't want to uselessly inflate the download. Maybe we'll offer the removed maps in a separate map pack, but this isn't certain yet.

Rusty: How about the models in the Final?

Koricus-9te: As I said at the beginning, there'll be some facelifts. Lots dates back to the start of BF modeling and we've got better in time, so it's just logical. Frequently the claim is made that we're a pure vehicle mod. To push this back some, infantry and vehicle-less combat will receive increased attention in 1.0. Well, it doesn't work without vehicles so we'll throw in some stationary artillery. The airplane factory hasn't been idle in the meantime. The Air Force has a few new sweeties, especially the allied ground attack planes. The tank drivers will not like it, the pilots will love it but the last word will be spoken by the AA guys. We'll include a whole bunch of AA vehicles. I think that's now enough about 1.0.

Rusty: Yes, thanks a lot - but when is the Final due?

Koricus-9te: We've decided to release a version 098 to bridge the time gap until 1.0. This version will spread the content of the 1.6 patch a bit and smooth over some errors. No official release date is yet set but I think it'll be done by the end of next week.

Rusty: Thanks for this informative chat.

Eve of Destruction has released the manuals of manuals - Team member Tool has compiled and arranged a 54 page manual for Eve of Destruction. It contains a wide range of information, including weapons, vehicles, armies and classes. Also included is a handy helicopter guide, which should make flying these beasts somewhat easier. This document should answer many questions people have about Eve of Destruction.
This handbook is helpful for both beginning and advanced players, so download your copy today! You can find download mirrors here...

Gamespot has a huge review of BFV...here's a snippet...On all of the maps we played, one thing became abundantly clear to us: Battlefield Vietnam plays very differently than Battlefield 1942. Many of the maps have a much tighter layout than the wide-open Western Front areas found in the previous game. Now there are more uneven elevations, more rivers that cut through straight paths, more choke points, and more vegetation.... and another ... In addition, at least a few aerial maps, like Operation Flaming Dart, simply aren't large enough to accommodate free-roaming flight. Like in Battlefield 1942, any soldier who attempts to leave the boundaries of the map will continuously take damage until he either returns to the battlefield or is destroyed. This also holds true for the fast-flying F4 Phantom, which can rain death from above with napalm charges but must be carefully steered around the borders of the map at all times to avoid the risk of flying out of bounds and being counted out. To visit and take in the entire article check it out here...

Gas from the DCMaps group has just released a new map that includes a 5 ton truck and a camel...not kidding...download it from FilePlanet here.

The Who Dares mod has the B52 ingame....here's the mandatory pic.... :)

DCX has released it's .7.2 patch...This is a small patch that fixes up some issues in our latest DCX release. The most important part of this patch update is the fix that allows all maps to be played online. We've solved the "Death" bug that caused problems when dying inside a vehicle on certain maps. This bug also caused some problems when trying to spawn in the class selection screen. Installation...To install Download the patch from our downloads page HERE ...Unzip the file to your Mods folder in BF1942. The default location where you normally unzip this file is "C:/Program Files/EA GAMES/Battlefield 1942/Mods". A self installer will be released soon to help out anyone who have a bit of difficulty with unzipping files to specific folders. Go here for the patch...

Flashpoint Balkans is picking what the main weapons is going to be for one of the particular warring parties involved...you can see the pick below and the thread goes here, they want your feedback apparently...

The Lost Battalion has released some new map pics for it's upcoming release...This from Wierus...Well, in keeping with the spirit... more map screenies! Here we have a near complete map done by Wierus and i||usionary called Salamaua! Here is a little background info: The Salamaua campaign was designed to screen the preparations for the Lae offensive and to act as a magnet to draw reinforcements from Lae to Salamaua. Also, in other news, we have some new members joining our team. KIA17 will be helping out Gus and myself in the mapping department, and melvosh will be helping out Pimpdaddy with modelling and skinning! Welcome aboard guys. Here are the pics... and make sure to visit their site here to check out the Austrailian voice samples they have for Roger! and Requesting a Pickup!

Awesome EOD pics is an understatement if you take a look at these taken by KillerBudz. They are 1600x1200- high Detail...this will give you a little idea of what EOD is about....

We've modified our intro page just to be 'flashy'...sorry...we've also taken it and made a screensaver from it which you can download if you want to...just go to the download section...if you like it let me know!

Forgotten Hope has a large update on their website.... here's what they have to say....That's right, this is the end of the road to 0.6 series of updates. The reason? Because within the next 4-10 days we will be posting a release date for Forgotten Hope 0.6. We're currently awaiting the upload of the current internal to the play server, then we have to make sure that's all set. The only thing that would push us to the end of those 4-10 days is the fact that our compiler has had to take time off. We pondered waiting the 3 weeks until he returned to release but decided that we want to get this out as soon as possible, so we're going to cover for him and get this sucker out to you very very soon. Here are some of my favorite photos but for more head on over to their homepage. My guess.....this coming Friday will be the release...nice time for mod releases...

Several new map releases have been pointed out by our friends over at BF42 Single Player...one is Omaha Beach Historic and this map is huge and contains some nice looking landscapes...for some awesome pics of this map hit this site....beware, lots of pics...download site is here... and also there is a map by FourCentsShy, the maps name is Piti...here's a little from the author...This level features the island of Piti (not really, Piti looks nothing like this one), a childhood favorite of mine. It's a nice place to visit and a beautiful place. Have fun tearing it up. I don't know if any battles at all took place there, but since I grew up in the islands and have seen all the pill boxes (Japanese strong points). I suspect there may have been. I designed this level just to see if I could solve the AI landing craft problem. I don't think anyone, outside of EA GAMES has gotten them to work yet. I did.we've got only one screenshot here but you'll find the download and more screens here....enjoy!

Desert Combat Extended has reported that it will be shortly issuing a patch that will allow it to be played with all BF maps...not just DC and DCX maps. That report from Driod...DCX Admin. Also from Droid is the following - We are looking for soem Server Admins for the Offical DCX server ... to apply please email the following to admindcx@dcxtended.com ,name, age, nick, experience admining server (With BBO and with console remote admin) explain why you would be good for this position. One more direct download link for DCX 0.7 is here. Another Quick note from DCX - First of all, we'd like to thank everyone who's downloaded the latest version and who joined us on the sx server last night for some fun and games. We are well aware of the "spawn bug" and the "death bug", we've been fighting these problems ever since the 1.6 release so please, no more posts about them. It was decided to release without a fix so that you, the community would have something to keep you happy and to end the long wait (believe me it's grated on us just as much, if not more then you) so any bashing about us putting out a buggy release is really quite unwelcome. We are doing our best to get a patch out to resolve these issues and all that we ask is that if you are posting a bug report PLEASE read the previous posts to see if your problem has already been discussed, if it has not then we need the following details; the map you were on when the bug happened, were you on singleplayer, LAN, online, coop, conquest etc. With this info we can try to at least duplicate the problem and solve it that much quicker. On a positive note, there will be a new map pack released shortly that will feature many of the new items and vehicles, so remain patient and thanks for your support.

By now you know that EOD has been released but did you know that they were planning a patch shortly? While it is a pretty major release there are a few bugs that need to be worked out...so you may want to wait before you install it. Visit the EOD website here, go to the forums and read them before you install....