I have a confession to make ... I didn't know that much about Enemy Territory: Quake Wars going into this. I'd heard of the title and knew that it wasn't your normal entry in the Quake series, meaning that it's not the typical first-person shooter where your goal is to run around looking for bigger and better weapons while fragging the enemy back through the gates of Hell.

Instead you'll be building those weapons, like turrets and anti-aircraft guns, ordering your teammates to repair your vehicles, and generally trying not to get killed. Just be prepared to fail at that ... a lot. In fact, imagine yourself failing at staying alive, and then multiply that by a lot. At least you'll be mentally prepared.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is one of the next big shooters from Id, and GameTrailers shows some in-game multiplayer footage. We've seen better demos of the game, but this video gives an idea for some of the gameplay and style of the title, just in time for the public beta. Is Quake Wars on your FPS radar?

See the video after the break, or view the HD version if unimpressed with the embedded clip.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars producer Neil Postlethwaite has announced on the community site that the upcoming game will feature in-game advertisement. The ad revenue is to help the developers to "provide a higher level of on-going support to the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars community than would have been possible otherwise," he said.

Postlethwaite explains that the ads will be appropriate in content and placement (e.g. the side of container trucks), non-intrusive and non-interactive. The developers have absolute approval rights. "If it's not appropriate or it's distracting, it won't go in," he said. No personal data will be collected. "All they track is if an how long you look at the advertisements."

Since we've yet to see any in-game ads in the screenshots, we don't know how well developer Splash Damage will implement them. However, that Postlethwaite is being open about the process is always appreciated, and he keeps to his word and it does mean more substantial support (e.g. free content packs in the future), it doesn't sound like a bad trade-off to us. The first sign of the advertisements will be seen in the upcoming public beta.

The community site for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars has announced that it plans on doing a public beta of the game soon; no start date has been given, but license keys will start to be given out "in the middle of this week."

There will be 60,000 slots available and only one map for testing -- Sewers, according to a dev blog post, which is said to feature "an interesting mix of outdoor and indoor, vehicle and infantry combat, deployables and counter-deployables and good old-fashioned FPS combat." It's likely the map with the most possible situations for bug-testing. All slots will go to FilePlanet users, with half of the slots set aside for those who pay for the premium subscription.

The post makes it very clear that this is not a demo. "If you want to just play a game for free you may find it a frustrating experience," it said. It also cautions that the beta will be taking data about your hardware configuration, "so you shouldn't apply unless you're comfortable with that."

Multiplatform game publisher, Aspyr Media, will stay current with its Mac roots by publishing that version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars sometime this year. (Aspyr had previously mentioned those plans but today's statement marks the official announcement.) Aspyr has already released Doom 3-engine games on the Mac, and its port is being developed by in-house coders.

Quake Wars will be a tactical- and objective-based first-person shooter instead of the traditional Quake deathmatch. No release date has been named, but assuming that Aspyr is accurate when saying the Mac version will be out this year, PC and console versions may be out by the fall.

At an early session Friday, id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead gave a lecture on the problems of piracy on the internet. During his speech, Hollenshead revealed that, although they are still primarily a PC developer, id Software had begun to look at console game releases as a way to financially combat piracy.

"Piracy has pushed id as being multiplatform," Hollenshead said, noting that the current project Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is being scheduled for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Hollenshead's rationale is that console piracy is, by a large factor, minimal relative to the rampant PC piracy.

In Hollenshead's lecture, entitled "The Videogame Piracy Problem: Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest," was a discussion on the problems of piracy, his company's experiences with the issues, and suggestions to help the diffuse the issue.

Activision's latest financial reports reveal that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is now positioned in the broad release window of the "fiscal year 2008." While that could imply a major delay (as late as March 2008), it could also mean that Quake Wars is on schedule for an early, in this case April (2007) launch. A previous, but unconfirmed delay last year pushed the game's release from fall 2006 to spring 2007.

An Activision spokesperson told Eurogamer that Quake Wars is expected before Christmas, adding ominously, but "it's an id Software title so it's done when it's done."

On Friday, John Carmack gave his keynote address at the annual QuakeCon, devoting much of the presentation to id Software's next project. This new 3D action title will support multi-processor systems, and employ an updated version of the megatexture technology for the game's expansive outdoor environments.

Carmack also reaffirmed his company's commitment to the PC, which involves fragging software piracy. For additional highlights, check out GameSpy's breakdown.

See also: Quake Wars pushed back to 2007

In an effort to expand Asian operations, Activision has acquired its Korean distribution arm, CSR Entertainment, based in Seoul. The American publisher has made similar moves in Europe in recent years, and is hoping a stronger localized presence will help games such as Enemy Territory: Quake Wars capitalize on Korea's massive online gaming market.

See also:

• Disney, Shanda bring online content to China
• Take-Two announces 2K Shanghai

Activision had a huge LAN set up on their floor space showing off Quake Wars: Enemy Territory that let attendees get a taste of the multiplayer mayhem. Players assume the role of either the devious Strogg or the GDF. The campaign we played involved the Strogg going on the defensive and the GDF attempting to re-take the region that they've been contaminating.

The creators of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory are hard at work on their next project, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, based on the upcoming Quake 4 game. The online tactical shooter will take advantage of both the Doom III engine and a new "megatexture" technology developed by John Carmack. With this new technology, the Splash Damage team will be able to render environmental terrain all the way out to the horizon and also assign different physical properties to the various types of terrain. For example, asphalt will be louder to walk on but offer better traction for land vehicles, while sand will make your footsteps quieter but at the same time will bog down vehicles. And don't expect every map to be located in the desert. Quake Wars is set to take place across Earth, so we should see some temperate and jungle environments in the mix. We'll keep you posted.