It's John Romero day! You too can be John's bitch. Check out the new interview with the Ion Storm designer leading up Daikatana, as well as hop in a chat later tonight (5pm PST) with the developeres of Daikatana. Thanks DKHQ. Here is The Romero on what makes Daikatana different:

Well, Daikatana is definitely very different than Quake III and Unreal Tournament as they are multiplayer-only games and Daikatana is a single-player game with multiplayer included. As for single-player shooters, Daikatana is really different in the fact that you travel with two sidekick characters through four different time periods within a large story. It's not your typical, basic shooter or team-based/mission-based shooter either. It's mostly an action adventure.

Checkout Speakout is having a Daikatana IRC event tonight talking to John Romero and others from ION Storm tonight at 5 PST.

The Daikatana download page has this 5.0mb Daikatana Trailer (Realvideo required), showing off gameplay in Eps 2, 3 and 4 and ingame cinematics. Thanks Frans.

Daikatana may be taking a pounding in a lot of places, but this Time Digital article on Daikatana finally shines a positive light on the game which says we may finally be seeing John Romero's Daikatana and be made his bitch for Christmas.

With all the crazyness that came out with word that Daikatana may possibly not be making Christmas, GameSpot has this blurb from an Eidos rep stating that they are in fact still targetting a completion before the end of the year although the game is not completed just yet.

...A spokesperson for the company says that the game has not officially gone gold, as "new versions of the game arrive every day." The company remains firm in their insistence that the game will ship in time for Christmas (December 25).

There is a Daikatana shindig going down on the 17th of this month here in Dallas which I'll be showing up at so If I find out anything about the game I'll make sure and let you guys know. As much as Daikatana gets slapped around for the goofy PR they do with trademarking 'Suck It Down' etc I'm still very anxious to play the game. Romero is no slouch, and if the game does come out in his vision, I'm sure it will be good. The question being if the revolving door of staff changes on the team can make his vision.

Total shocker news of the day, Daikatana won't make Christmas! Who would have thought huh? Apparently that gold CD that was submitted a while ago got rejected and now ION Storm is still slaving away at the game. The following comes from Evil Avatar, who supposedly got it from Gamefan, but the link doesn't work and I can't find it in their news section either.

Though it was reported 'round the Net that Daikatana, ION Storm's first-person shooter, went gold and would be in stores before Christmas, we just got off the horn with the 'peeps at Eidos regarding the state of the game, and guess what? It's not gold, or even close. The gold masters that were submitted have been rejected, and the team is back to work. According to our source, Daikatana will not make the holiday deadline.

5:00pm update Steve: The cook has released some new screenshots of Daikatana for episode2 that you guys can check out on Daikatana.com I've also got a huge index of Daikatana screenshots listed right here. Oh yeah, if you're wondering wtf that headline Maarten posted means, check out this article.

PlanetDaikatana has posted some new screenshots of Daikatana in addition to all these shots that have already been released.

The Monolithic Illusions page has a couple of images you can check out of the Ion Storm Daikatana maps while in QERadiant. Should interest a few of you aspiring game developers and mappers.

The Daikatana.com website is kicking off Daikatana month with new features that should be going up uh.. throughout the month. They are starting with an overview of all the weapons you can see in the game. Also, I've got the new indexed Daikatana screenshot section online, almost done with the overhaul! Lastly, there is a new Daikatana chat scheduled for December 2nd, I'll remind you guys when it goes down.

Gamespot has a couple of new screenshots for those of you who suddenly forgot what Daikatana looks like.

Steve touched on this last week, but now there's a report on Evil Avatar about the going gold of ION's much plagued and delayed title Daikatana. Check the deal (supposedly coming from inside sources):

Eidos has a release canidate of Daikatana. They are still doing testing, but the game is unofficially "Gone Gold".

Daikatana will ship on Monday December 20th and be in stores starting as early as December 21st.

Eidos has said that if bug fixing cannot be finished in time for the December 20th ship date, they will just ship the current release canidate and "patch later".

This is pretty much what I heard myself from people I know. I'm sure everyone loves the "patch later" part. It would be pretty dissapointing if the game came out in a very buggy state, especially if they want to regain any kind of respect.

The guys at GamersVoice have scored a few new screenshots of Daikatana. The game is rumored to be going gold within the week (yes, I actually saw a pig flying yesterday) so now might be a good time to take a look and see what's up. Thanks loony. You can also check out the very large index of Daikatana shots in the screenshots section. Should have a totally revamped sshots section in a few days btw.

Oh man, when I saw this new IOTD today I just about died. Deserving a topic all of it's own.All of you fans of Daikatana should really appreciate the efforts that are underway at Ion Storm to insure the game ships.

It looks like all that rumbling of Ion Storm being bought out to Eidos is finally coming to a close. According to this article on GameSpot there will be an announcement tomorrow that Eidos has a 51% share of ownership of the as well as the boot being given to 2 of the owners. Todd Porter and Jerry O'Flaherty. Things on the Daikatana front have been quiet recently but supposedly Daikatana is going to ship before Christmas as well. Fear not, John Romero will still make you his bitch.

The Doomworld guys have a shot of Doom2 map1 converted into Daikatana. Both projects were started around the same time from what I've been told. (Ok ok, sorry.. hey as long as the game is taking I think it will be fun)

PlanetDaikatana is gonna do an infamous Screenshot of the Day thing, where they will be showing a new screenshot of Daikatana every day. Only this week though, so no PC Gamer Quake 2 kind of situations for those of you who remember that.

The CGO guys have a preview of Daikatana, the much delayed ION Storm title which is supposed to be done pretty soon. There's a few new screenshots in the preview as well, but I'm sure we all quite know what Daikatana looks like now.

There's an interview with John Romero over at PC Gamer UK, talking about Doom, Quake and Daikatana.

CGO has a new Daikatana preview, offering a quick overlook and five new screenshots. Saw that on Blues.

An updated Daikatana chat log is available now in Q&A format. Much easier to read for those of you who didnt like those raw logs.