Even though GameSpot's doors were closed for the longer Memorial Day weekend, the shortened week was chock-full of interesting PC gaming news. From Brian Hook leaving his lofty position at id Software to the uncertain future of I-Magic's Mortyr, there was a great deal going on. Let's recap what happened during the week in news and give you the inside information you most desire.

　　Working at id is every gamer's desire, and the idea of leaving id Software to do something else may seem pretty alien, but programmer Brian Hook did just that. After being taken in by the EverQuest addiction that has been cropping up at several big-name developers, Brian said good-bye to John Carmack and Texas for a long ride in his Dodge Viper up to sunny San Diego to help Verant Studios build the new technology behind Verant's next titles. As people were speculating about where Hook would be heading after announcing his departure from id, we got a call from a source who knew exactly where he was going, so we wrote about it. Initially, we called Verant's president and CEO John Smedley for comment, but he was unfortunately out of town. When Smedley returned to the office to finalize the official release, Smedley sent the release to GameSpot News congratulating us for getting it right. Considering the great game that EverQuest is, with its immersive 3D worlds, the talent and creativity of Brian Hook can only make Verant's next series of games even better. We can't wait to see what those games look like.

　　Last week, Interactive Magic announced that Ubi Soft would be buying its CD-ROM division. Yes, we were as shocked as most gamers were. Since that time, the remaining Internet gaming division of Interactive Magic, now with some money in its long-empty wallet from the acquisition, turned around to buy the popular strategy-wargaming web site, The Wargamer. The I-Magic's strategy seems to be a little foggy, but it looks like I-Magic wants to grab a much bigger piece of the Internet pie by complementing its online gaming service with more news and reviews. But during the same phone press conference, the heads of the company mentioned an option for an exit strategy. Sounds like there may be loads of I-Magic news in its future. Later Thursday afternoon, we found out that Ubi Soft wouldn't be publishing I-Magic's controversial Mortyr game. The game has taken heat as big retailers like Best Buy have decided not to sell the title. Apparently retailers are worried about the game's violent nature and Nazi theme (even though it's your mission to take out the Nazis). Ubi says that a new publisher for the game would be announced in the next few weeks even though the game was originally set to release sometime this month.

　　Bleem has been getting all sorts of press lately - both good and bad - about its popular PlayStation emulation software that lets users play PlayStation games on their PCs. GameSpot News associate editor Sam Kennedy had a chance to talk to the company's president, David Herpolsheimer, about what it feels like to hold up his small company against Sony. The first edition of the software had some nasty bugs that caused games to run a little slower than desired, but the programmers at the company have found some new ways to fix the apparent DirectX bugs. Herpolsheimer told us that he's already working on making Bleem! ready for DirectX 7.0 action when it releases to the public.

　　As far as games getting close to release, Sierra Studios and Relic Entertainment announced that Homeworld will finally hit shelves worldwide on September 1. For 360-degree flight junkies, Interplay's Decent 3 has just been completed and should be hitting stores on June 15. The company also scored a distribution deal for Monolith's Septerra Core, Rage of Mages 2, and Odium - all due for your fall gaming pleasure.

　　Lastly, ION Storm rumor junkies haven't heard too much on what will happen with Todd Porter or Jerry O'Flaherty - readers may remember that we reported both would soon be leaving the company. We were told that a release would be issued to the media detailing their departure and that Eidos would be taking a commanding stake in ION Storm's day-to-day life. Since last week, ION's CEO Todd Porter has written to us to let us know he's still there and that all the rumors are false. He clarified that the option for Eidos to purchase ION has been in the contract for three years and that the meeting that took place in Los Angeles was related to that option. But we're still hearing from a source that ION and Eidos have fired Porter and O'Flaherty and that company lawyers and PR staff are just bouncing around with the legal issues before Eidos can publicly comment on the happenings.

　　We'll keep our ears open to what's going on in the gaming world.