This afternoon, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced their decision to include music from interactive games in the competition for Grammy Awards. Three new categories (in the new field, Music for Film, Television and Other Visual Media) will premiere at the Grammys next year: Best Soundtrack Album; Best Song for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media; and Best Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Check out the full story at Adrenaline Vault.

Adrenaline Vault has a follow-up to its article about computer game music at the Grammys.

"The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences ... is considering including game music in the film and television categories at the next awards presentation in February 2000. This means game music released on audio CD can potentially be nominated alongside John Williams’ soaring film score for The Phantom Menace in the "Best Instrumental for Film, Television and Interactive Entertainment" category. In addition, [Chance] Thomas’ ballad Road Goes Ever On from Sierra’s upcoming adventure Middle Earth could be up against Celine Dion’s latest platinum-selling single in the "Best Song for Film, Television and Interactive Entertainment" category."

In other game music news... the May issue of Computer Game Music Monthly has been published (note the new address).

GK3 has made another successful appearance at E3, capturing the attention of numerous gaming publications. Here is an overview of the coverage you'll find online:

IGN - IGN PC picked GK3 as the Best Adventure Game of this year's show

Games Domain Review - a few minor puzzle spoilers, but gives us a good idea of how the puzzles will work in 3D; the G-engine has been modified for use in SWAT 3 (so that's the mysterious project that Jim Napier was working on)

GameSpot (1) - GameSpot named GK3 one of the Hottest Games at E3; a short preview mentioning a "mysterious ending that supposedly caused quite a few ripples at Sierra"

GameSpot (2) - since GK3 was one of GameSpot's Top 10 Sequels last year, and one of the criteria for selecting the top 10 this year was that the game wasn't a pick last year, GK3 was not eligible to be one of GameSpot's 10 Most Promising Games for 1999. However, GK3 was honored as one of the three Notable Adventure Games

Gamesmania - once again, the folks at Gamesmania bring us an extensive preview of GK3, including many informative comments from Jane Jensen

UGO (1) - a pre-E3 preview of GK3; not a whole lot of new info, and a couple of mistakes (part third-person action??)

UGO (2) - the post-E3 preview with a promised, yet still missing, video interview with Jane Jensen

Adrenaline Vault - a brief preview and some very impressive screenshots

PC Paradox - an interview with Jane Jensen and the new screenshots

Adventure Gamer - a brief preview; not much new info

GameCenter - the latest screenshots: smaller versions of those at Adrenaline Vault

AGN3D - a short preview and the new screenshots

All Games Network - go about 39 minutes into this RealVideo clip to see an interview with Jane Jensen about GK3

E3.net has another preview of GK3, however I cannot find the video interview that is referenced at the end of the article anywhere on their site.

The first review of Gabriel Knight III can be found in the June 1999 issue of Computer Gaming World. You can find the scanned article at Sidney. Just Adventure has two new GK reviews. The first is a Blast from the Past review of GK1. The second is the entry of GK2 into the JA Hall of Fame.

According to Bastion, the Gabriel Knight Mysteries Pack will be available in the UK starting June 26 at a suggested retail price of £19.99. Check out the press release for more information.

GameSpot finally updated Jane Jensen's Designer Diary. In the new entry (dated 2/23/99), Jane gives us an update on progress so far and a rough timeline for the rest of GK3's development. She also addresses the potentially controversial storyline and the level of anticipation for fans of the series that was not present with the prior two GK games.

Gabriel Knight III made a big splash at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last year with several awards and lots of enthusiastic previews. One year later, GK3 is at E3 again and has gaming publications raving once more. GameSpot listed GK3 as one of the Hottest Games at E3 1999 and has posted some terrific new screenshots. UGO's E3.net has a new preview of GK3. Gamecenter has some new game grabs from GK3. And Adrenaline Vault has included GK3 and the new screenshots in its E3 coverage.

Matthew Arcilla's excellent site, Schloss Ritter, has returned! This site has more original content than almost every other fan site on the web. It's great to see this terrific site back and better than ever.