Square Electronic Arts the exclusive publisher of all SQUARESOFT products in North America, and Disney Interactive announced today that "KINGDOM HEARTS" for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system will start shipping to retail stores nationwide on September 17, 2002.

Project Three today announced it has released the New World Order public multiplayer beta-test version 2.0. It is a much-improved version of the original public MP beta-test, which was released at June 1st. The version 2.0. can be downloaded here, it also requires DirectPlay 8.2 beta, which you can download from Microsoft. "case-sensitive Beta ID: DXBeta, password: DirectX9"

Capturing the emotions and consequences of being a professional rally champion and the gruelling reality of the rally season, Colin McRae Rally 3 takes the off-road driving game experience to the limit. Players take on the role of McRae himself at the beginning of a three-year contract to win a series of championships for the Ford Rallye Sport team.. Read more for details of how you actually get to "be" Colin and 14 more shots to satisfy that McRaeving, including stills from the service area.

Microsoft Corp. today announced that BioWare Corp., which specializes in creating computer and console video games, has signed a deal with Microsoft Game Studios to develop an exclusive first-party Xbox game to be published by Microsoft. BioWare is known for its extremely popular "Baldur's Gate " role-playing game (RPG) series, of which more than 4 million copies have been sold worldwide. Currently BioWare, in conjunction with LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, is developing an RPG for the Xbox video game system titled "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic." BioWare recently released "Neverwinter Nights," which debuted at No. 1 in North America and remained there in its first two weeks at retail.

Sega send over 15 more pics of cars from the Xb game, Sega GT 2002, including lots of Lotuses. Release date for this xbox title is set to October 2002!

Shrapnel Games is announced today that Space HoRSE, developed by Gilligames, has begun shipping. Tim Brooks, President of Shrapnel Games, commented, "We have begin shipping Space HoRSE this morning. This game has garnered a lot of interest both from the media and the gaming public. It is expected to be a best seller for us through the Christmas season. We expect to have all pre-orders shipped by Thursday, August 8th."

It's the 7th December in the year 2150, time is ticking away before a cosmic catastrophe will destroy the Earth and you're right in the middle of it... Oxygen Interactive announces that it is to publish Earth 2150: Lost Souls, the third Real Time Strategy (RTS) title in the Smash hit Earth 2150 series. Both previous 2150 titles received critical acclaim and scooped a mass of awards. Earth 2150: Lost Souls, is being developed by Reality Pump (previously known as Topware), the same team that created the first two titles and have been heavily concentrating on developing advancements in their 3D engine technology.

Big Scale Racing is a simulator-based, action packed, highly addictive and fun racing experience featuring 240 unique AI-players, 6 detailed tracks, realistic physics, LAN-multiplayer, and more.

Check out 23 screenshots of a medieval action strategy game with the title, Ballerburg. Publisher is HD Interactive and the game got a release date set to October 2002.

Codemasters send us a mail this morning with a IGI2: Covert Strike progress report, including information about the beta will be released in August, and will be available for download for Phase 1 (200 testers). Read more below for full article!

‘New World Order’ set for release in September 2002 is a single and multiplayer team based shooter developed in Sweden by Termite Games. This highly anticipated game promises to take the first person shooter genre to the next level by combining uncanny graphic detail with adrenaline pumping realistic action. Today we posted up a game overview, including game modes, levels/maps and features.. Read on!

CodeFire, Inc., an interactive entertainment developer, today announced the acquisition of the intellectual property rights to Wiz-War, a popular board game featuring battling wizards and stolen treasure. The company acquired the rights from Jolly Games. CodeFire plans to develop a 3D action shooter for game consoles based on the Wiz-War property as well as an online personal computer version of the classic game by the 2003 holiday season.

Atlus U.S.A., Inc. announced today a new title, Cubivore, for the holiday season. Originally released by Nintendo in Japan under the name of Dobutsu Bancho (Animal Leader), Cubivore will ship this November for the Nintendo GameCube console.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell will release in time for the lucrative Christmas 2002 market exclusively on Xbox, with a PC version to appear by the end of the year. Xbox is the lead development platform for the game, which has been designed to take full advantage of the advanced graphics and sound capabilities of Xbox. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell will also feature online elements using the recently announced Xbox Live service. Check out the nifty action in these brand new steaming hot screens ;)

Ubi Soft Entertainment today announced it is publishing Super Bust-A-Move 2, for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and Nintendo GameCube. Super Bust-A-Move 2 is the latest version of the hugely popular Bust-A-Move franchise featuring challenging puzzles, a fun cast of characters and highly-addictive gameplay appealing to gamers of all ages. Super Bust-A-Move 2 for the PlayStation 2 is scheduled to ship to U.S. and Canadian retail shelves in October with the Nintendo GameCube version following this December.

Interplay Entertainment Corp. announced today that the highly anticipated Icewind Dale II has gone gold and will be available at retail in early September. A preview is in the works as we speak so stay tuned to get the latest on this beauty...

Beta test the release of The Art of Conquest, an upcoming Empire Earth expansion. This beta will allow you to play a single multiplayer map through all 15 of the expansion pack's ages and test out the new units, powers, and buildings being added to the original game. It also offers a look a the new multiplayer interface. Grab this 278.6MB dowlnoad from Sierra or FileShack. (thanks ShackNews)

Tiscali Games tossed up an new 6.5MB DivX video of Unreal II: the Awakening, showing a minute of gameplay footage. (thanks Blues)

Activision are pleased to announce that Even Balance, Inc. is working on integrating PunkBuster into Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix by Activision and Raven Software. They will release more details as they become available. Any PB supporters who have specific knowledge of where to download hacks and cheats for multiplayer SOF2 should send information to research@evenbalance.com.