The d2pro dev team has announced the release of new firmwares for its 9-wire and 15/19-wire modchips. Changes include a fix for an eject issue that was affecting both chips. Further details are available in the full article.

If you've always wanted to get the Wii experience on your trusty PC, here's one way of doing it. Deviant Art contributor allewund took the easy trip to Wii-ified PC avenue by hand-crafting 18 cursor images based on the Nintendo Wii cursor appearances. Each one supports transparency effects, so that it would look great on LCD and high contrast monitors.

While most of the cursors are relatively static, he does provide a few animated ones to choose from so they don't get boring quick. The cursor set has been designed over Windows XP, and we've tried our luck with a couple just for kicks. We're not sure if this cursor set will work on Windows Vista as intended, but they go great with a certain Wii skin available for Windows XP.

They don't come with a cursor profile, however, so you'd have to assign each cursor manually after extracting the files to the universal cursor directory (that's the Cursors folder just under Windows). And we warn you, some non-Wii-heads installed this set together with the aforementioned skin, and lost the resolve to stave off buying a Wii as they originally planned.

Between Gears of War on the one end and Unreal Tournament 3 on the other - not to mention Square Enix - Mark Rein (vice president of Epic Games) must be one jolly soul. Very jolly, very happy, one interview with GameInformer during Midway Games' Day 2007 is all you need to see why. Hey, he describes himself as "Mr. Optimism," and that's bound to be a good thing.

For example, when GI asks him, and we quote, "Do you think Sony is in trouble?" Rein replies, and we quote, "No, god, no. Somebody asked me that earlier, and I was like, 'What a ridiculous question.'" And it's not just because he feels confident about UT3's chances on the PS3 - which is why Epic Games is also looking to move copies of UT3 for the 360, too.

"So as long as people are willing to pay the price for the machine - and I’m sure lots of people are - I think they're hopefully in a good situation." If you ask him, PlayStation Network works fine, the games are of "high quality," and he thinks Sony's gonna be fine. Hey, he likes Resistance and is looking forward to MotorStorm.

And the Wii, for that matter. It seems that comments he made on the Wii and its games may have been misunderstood. Replying to impressions that he may have said some negative things about the Wii, he replied:

It wasn't a statement about the Wii itself, it was about the games that will come out for it and how people will bring games on it that are just there because of the controller, and I wasn't exactly wrong, was I?... I always said, "Nintendo will make great games." And, sure enough, Wii Sports is frickin' awesome. So I think they'll do well, too. I bought Wario—it's fun, I like the games they made for it.

If Mark were to make an essay on today's attitudes, it might be on the ugliness of negativity. "I've really noticed this over the last couple of years. It's really turned a corner from positivity to negativity, and it's overwhelming sometimes. It makes you want to kill yourself." He may have been misunderstood as (overly) critical in the past, but when you hear this guy heap critical praise for all three consoles, it kinda makes you realize what a big heart he actually has. He's one honest fellow, and he's well-known for his honest assessments about Epic Games.

Anyway, on to the other important stuff.

• For PC owners, Unreal 3 will support D3D10 right out of the box. Don't worry about future-proofing your rig, though: Mark says elsewhere that Epic will continue supporting Windows XP for quite some time to come.
• Too early for Epic to talk about Xbox-PC multiplayer or Windows Live-specific plans. (We're wondering, with THREE platforms running UT3... er...)
• Because GI asked - again - the question. No immediate plans to bring Gears to PC. To clarify: it will run on a PC, no problem there, it's just a question of "when." And "when" ain't now. Also, Epic's busy supporting Gears, so no word on potential sequels for now.