Activision released nine more screenshots from the upcoming Soldier of Fortune 2 patch which includes new levels for Raven's shooter. If everything goes well, the patch should be released mid next week.

PlanetSoldier has an interview with Bryan Dube of Raven Software discussing the SoF2 development and plans for the future patches to be released online for the game.

Activision sent along eight screenshots from new levels found in an upcoming Soldier of Fortune 2 patch. There will be four new maps: Kamchatka Factory, Airport Warehouse, Hong Kong Streets, and Barn. Activision did not give an estimate release date for this patch, but we can expect "more interesting stuff" in addition to the new levels. The patch will also address several game issues.

The site formerly known as 3D Spotlight, TechSpot, has a Soldier of Fortune 2 tweaking guide. It will help you get a few more frames per second out of the game.

There's a Soldier of Fortune 2 game guide on GameSpot, offering tips and strategies for Raven's latest. You can find weapon strategies, level walkthroughs, multiplayer tips and cheat codes.

Also on PC.IGN is the second part of their John Mullins video interview. This time the inteview focuses more on John himself and his adventures. Mullins was a military consultant on Soldier of Fortune 2.

IGN has a video interview with John Mullins, the military adviser for Soldier of Fortune 2. He talks about improvements of the game, origins of the game idea, and some knitting techniques.

Bryan Dube over at Raven Software has a .plan update with quite a few details on Soldier of Fortune2 stuff, specifics on multiplayer changes and bug fixes as well as announcing some new multiplayer additions:

[snip] Along with bug fixes we will also be adding some new content as well. This content will include the demolition (someone set us up the bomb) gametype which is a nice alternative to infiltration and allow servers to change it up a bit. Along with this gametype we will also be including a few new Raven made maps, at least one which will support the new demolition gametype. This is the first installment of new content for Sof2 multiplayer from Raven and im sure will be a welcome addition.

As if that werent enough we are also working on integrated voice communications. This should make the process of using voice communication in sof2 a much easier process. More details will be released on this when its becomes available for use. [snip]

Also, the Shacknews gameservers are being updated to the full version of SoF2. Most should be working today or tonight.

ModPortal is hosting the multiplayer SDK for Soldier of Fortune 2. You can read about the release in Rick Johnson's .plan update.

Activision sends along word that Best Buy, EB and CompUSA will have all specials which involves including Soldier of Fortune Platinum with Soldier of Fortune 2. Best Buy will have a specially marked Soldier of Fortune 2 box which includes a free Platinum edition of the original game. EB and CompUSA will give out the Platinum CD to the first group of customers, supply is limited.

SoF Center is the latest site asking Kenn Hoekstra of Raven questions about Soldier of Fortune 2, the recently completed action shooter. Kenn answers questions comparing SoF2 to the original game, what they've added to the Quake 3 engine that really stands out, features they would've liked to have in the game but couldn't add, plans for an SDK, among other things.

GameSpot has posted some brief impressions from the full version of Soldier of Fortune 2, touching on the gore options, AI improvements over earlie builds, mission locations and weapons, and multiplayer. More screenshots are up as well.

The guys at Substance TV send word that they'll be hosting a Soldier of Fortune 2 tournament at their Promised Lot during E3. The tournament is from May 22 till May 24, the last day of E3. Prizes include an Alienware PC, graphics cards from Matrox and more. Addition info about the tournament as well as the Promised Lot is up here.

Activision has announced that Raven's action FPS Soldier of Fortune 2 has gone gold! The game should be in stores next week. A multiplayer test of the game was released in April, a single player demo will be released as well.

Worthplaying is the latest site with a new set of screenshots from Raven's upcoming action FPS Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix.

We have a Soldier of Fortune 2 multiplayer Q&A this morning, as Raven programmer Rick Johnson took the time to answer a few questions. Rick talks about the reponse to the test, the random mission generator, plans for a future demo and more.

Shack: The test map has a pretty good layout, with several ways in and out of the building. Are levels in the full version similar in that aspect? And can you perhaps tell us what a few of those levels are like?
Rick: The maps which support Infiltration have lots of different flows. The Colombia map is more set up for a defensive posture, whereas as the “Raven Office” map has a ton of different entry / exit points to it. The Finca “house party” is a mixture of a house being built and an open backyard / pool area. There are several maps geared towards straight deathmatch, such as Prague city streets.

Raven programmer Rick Johnson updated his .plan file, saying some internal hardware at Raven will be upgraded this Saturday. This means that the master servers for Elite Force, Jedi Knight 2, and the Soldier of Fortune 2 Test will be down from 9am CST until the early afternoon.

VIDEO YANKED!

In the spirit of underground guerilla marketing tactics, we managed to get a hold of this new Soldier of Fortune 2 video showing off lots of people dying. I guess it's appropriate in a way considering the news item this morning about Congress eh? This isnt an official Activision video or anything, so I guess this isnt officially SoF2. You could be downloading some random video with children eating puppies and wouldnt even know until you hit that play button. Imagine that, thousands of people watching kids eating puppies! But this is really SoF2, I promise. It's just over 14megs and you need DivX to play it btw.

update: It seems that we just cant get away with what we used to. Activision came down on us and we caved like pansies asking us to remove the video. No word on why exactly they wanted it pulled, I'll try to find you guys a puppies video in place of it.

Games Fusion has posted yet more screenshots from Soldier of Fortune 2, Raven's upcoming shooter. The shots show some dismemberment action going on.

Raven programmer Bryan Dube managed to create his first .plan file entry. In the update, he lists all the changes/fixes/updates in Soldier of Fortune 2 multiplayer since the release of the test version.