Nestled within our extensive coverage of Splash Damage's forthcoming Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, executive producer Kevin Cloud reveals exactly why the upcoming console editions only support 16 players at a given time, compared to the 24 players of the PC version. He explained that the bandwidth concerns with the peer-to-peer model popular in online console gaming and the prohibitive cost of dedicated servers raised latency issues for anything beyond 16 players.

"Gameplay is still fun in eight versus eight," Cloud assured us, "because of the focused objectives." He also cited the impact of tying assets to individuals and classes instead of making weapons and abilities available to the entire the team as a factor that sets Enemy Territory: Quake Wars apart from other console offerings.

Thus far, Microsoft's Xbox Live has made heavier use of the peer-to-peer model for hosting online matches. This approach has drawn complaints from the gaming community, most recently from players of Epic's Gears of War, who complain that the hosting player has an unfair advantage with certain weapons. That said, Xbox Live does in fact support dedicated servers, as seen in Ubisoft Montreal's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas.

Meanwhile, PlayStation 3 games such as Insomniac's Resistance: Fall of Man employ dedicated servers to deliver a higher player count with less latency issues compared to Xbox Live. Furthermore, some upcoming games--for example, Incognito Entertainment's Warhawk--will allow users to host their own dedicated servers.

On the topic of release dates, Cloud would only reveal that a simultaneous release of the PC and console editions is not planned at this time. The PC iteration is slated to ship "when it's done" sometime this year, with the other versions to follow.

More hands-on previews of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars can be found at Planet Quake, Action Trip and Evil Avatar.

Over at QuakeUnity.com you can find an Enemy Territory: Quake Wars preview, as well as a video interview on the game. The preview offers impressions of the levels Ark and Sewer. IGN also has an article.

Activision sends along the latest information about the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars pre-order program, announcing that GameStop will start taking pre-orders March 26th and Best Buy will do the same April 12th. Here's what you get for reserving

- Advance Username Registration: Get an exclusive keycode to reserve your preferred username now.
- Collector's Cards: Receive the first 2 cards in a set of 12, each featuring a different Strogg or GDF vehicle or deployable with game facts and tips. The remaining 10 cards will only be available in the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Limited Collector's Edition.
- Poster: There are two posters in all, with each retail location offering one exclusive poster each.

As for the Limited Collector's Edition mentioned above, here's what it will contain.

Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Limited Collector's Edition features premium packaging with a slipcase, as well as ten collector’s cards, available only through the Limited Collector’s Edition offer. In addition to the premium packaging and collectible cards, fans will receive a bonus DVD, complete with concept art and other cool stuff for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars' biggest fans.

Over at GameSpy you can find the fifth Enemy Territory: Quake Wars development diary. This installment deals with the tools the Splash Damage guys are using to develop the game.

Due to a printing error in the April issue of PC Gamer, the magazine's preview of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is missing. Thanks to the internets and its tubes however, you can still read the article in PDF format on the PC Gamer website. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

Gamasutra has posted an article format interview with Splash Damage founder Paul Wedgwood. Wedgwood is asked about the company's mod community origins, working on Return To Castle Wolfenstein, the Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory project and the upcoming Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

There's an Enemy Territory: Quake Wars preview on 1UP, offering brief impressions based on hands-on time with the multiplayer shooter.

Activision sends along a number of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars screenshots. They are not new but might be unfamiliar to some of you (they were to me), so enjoy.

The second part of CGOnline's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Q&A is now up. Paul Wedgewood of Splash Damage answers questions about player counts, campaigns, the amount of vehicles and deployables and the importance of teamwork.

Activision sends along these two Enemy Territory: Quake Wars screenshots. They're not new, but if you missed them, enjoy.

Over at Computer Games Online you can find part one of an Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Q&A. Splash Damage's Paul Wedgewood is asked about the game's storyline, objective-based gameplay, the amount of maps, and the ranking and reward system.

Over at GameSpy you can find a new Enemy Territory: Quake Wars development diary. In this installment, Splash Damage senior game designer Edward Stern talks about the creation of the backstory for the game.

Activision sends along a new Enemy Territory: Quake Wars movie, showing several minutes of gameplay footage from the "Ark" mission. This footage was first shown at NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 launch event.

Two new Enemy Territory: Quake Wars screenshots have been released, showing both the humans and Strogg in action.

GameSpy has a new Enemy Territory: Quake Wars development diary posted. Splash Damage lead designer Paul Wedgwood talks about the important of the game's storyline in this installment.

Here are two Enemy Territory: Quake Wars screenshots, showing the level Ark.

There's a new Enemy Territory: Quake Wars preview on IGN, taking a look at the level Ark. The article offers some media and an overview of objectives.

New at GameSpy is the second Enemy Territory: Quake Wars development diary. Splash Damage's Paul Wedgwood talks a bit about QuakeCon 2006 and then explains how the project and the technology powering it came to be.

Activision also has a presence at the Leipzig Games Convention and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is part of the lineup. We have two screenshots and two movies: one Strogg tutorial video, and one GDF tutorial video.