Online retailer GameStop is now taking pre-orders for SOCOM2, expected in stores this coming October. The new issue of EGM will have a feature on SOCOM2, including screenshots according to Shacknews. Hunt terrorists down in multiple environments in the sequel to SOCOM, the game that set the standard for online gaming for PlayStation 2. Pick your team, equip them, get some intel and head out on several gripping missions that will test both your nerves and reflexes. Once you have mastered the single player game, take it to the next level and battle online against players from all over the world. Bring it on!

Gamespot dug up some info on a, so far unannounced, Activision game from Trokia Games (currently also working on Infogrames' Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil). Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, a first person action-RPG, will be using Valve's Source engine which also powers Half-Life2 and is expected somewhere in 2004. In Vampire you will play as a fledgling vampire who will belong to one of seven vampire clans, each of which has its own distinctive strengths and abilities, including superhuman strength and speed, invisibility, and mind control, to name a few. As players progress through the game, they'll earn experience points that they can spend on improving their powers. These abilities and the game's major vampire factions will be drawn from White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade pen-and-paper game. Check out the Gamespot article for more details ...

Got a game designer inside of you dying to get out? Here is your chance! Vivendi Universal Games and Monolith Productions are proud to announce the release of the editing tools and source code for No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way, the sequel to the award-winning The Operative: No One Lives Forever. This release provides the latest level and model editing tools from the Jupiter engine - the powerful package behind NOLF2's creation. Read more for the highlights & details of what you can expect in the editing tools, as well as download links ...

Sony Online Entertainment announced that its highly-anticipated massively multiplayer online first-person action game, PlanetSide will make history when it launches on May 20. The groundbreaking game will allow thousands of players to fight online in an all-hours-of-day global war that has never been seen before in the first-person action genre. The company also announced that it will add squad-based voice chat functionality to PlanetSide, further enhancing the experience of fighting together with a squad and working as a team. PlanetSide will be available on May 20, 2003 in North American retail stores.

Sony Online Entertainment has opened a new server for EverQuest. For the first time, a new server has been named after a human player character within the game. The 47th server has been named "Stromm," after a 55th level halfling druid character run by a player who was one of EverQuest's first thousand subscribers! Eight character names were randomly selected from the first 1,000 players who subscribed to EverQuest back in 1999, and who are still active. The brand new server gives first-time EverQuest players and experienced players searching for a fresh start in the world of Norrath the opportunity to start at the beginning. The new server also offers more room for the EverQuest community to grow as new people continue to enter the world of EverQuest in the continually evolving online adventure.

Logitech announced today that the Logitech USB Headset for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system will be available on retail shelves in the U.S. and at logitech.com later this month for a suggested retail price of $39.95 US.

Not really a major secret since it was already mentioned in their E3 lineup but Strategy First Inc. announced today that they have signed War Times for the North American market. Developed by Spain’s Legend Studios, War Times is a Real-Time Strategy game that lets players follow the tumultuous era of the Second World War through the actions of Germany, Great Britain, the USA or the USSR; each nation is totally different and uses unique strategies in their attack and defense and all the campaigns are based on real historical events, bringing an unparalleled realism to the fight.

Chaser is set in the year 2044 with players taking the role of John Chaser who, at the beginning of the game, wakes up suffering from amnesia on board the spaceship HMS Majestic being pursued by a crack team of heavily armed shocktroop soldiers. The game then takes players into an apocalyptic future set on Earth and Mars. This singleplayer demo features a tutorial level and a section from the Little Tokyo. This demo came with the UK edition of the new PC Zone, so we decided bring it online and make it available for everybody to enjoy!

Mythic Entertainment, developer and publisher of the worldwide success Dark Age of Camelot, will immerse fans in a new expansion, Dark Age of Camelot: Trials of Atlantis, later this year. Designed around a series of exhilarating trials available to players of all realms, the expansion will challenge high-level players to survive this all-new underwater domain. Rendered with a visually stunning new graphic engine, Trials of Atlantis will continue to keep Dark Age of Camelot at cutting edge of graphics in the MMORPG world.

Players will experience fast-paced shooter action through 10 huge varied levels and additional expertly designed multiplayer maps. The Ancient Greek/Roman setting allows for unique weapons that support the game's theme, including a Medusa Gun, Flaming Crossbow and Acid Rifle. The game's "real-time shattering" technology allows for a wealth of breakable objects, providing gamers with the experience of a truly interactive environment. The demo features one level from the full game. You MUST have DX 9 installed and your video card MUST support hardware transform and lighting. Read more for details and download links ...

Interstellar Trader 2, the latest release from Shrapnel Games, now has a patch available that brings the game up to version 1.3. The 422 KB sized patch is available here. The patch includes a wide variety of modifications to the game. While there are the normal changes found in a patch (i.e. stomping out pesky bugs), a number of the revisions are gameplay related.. Read more for a complete list of fixes/additions.

Disney Online, part of the Walt Disney Internet Group, today announced it will officially launch its online, downloadable version of Disney's Toontown Online, the first massively multiplayer (MMP) 3D online game for kids and families, on June 2, 2003.

Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Comics announced today that Electronic Arts has been awarded the worldwide interactive rights to develop, publish and distribute computer and video games based on the world's greatest super hero, Superman. Financial terms of the deal with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Comics were not disclosed.

Electronic Arts today announced that The Sims 2, the next generation of the #1 PC game of all time, is in development at the company's Walnut Creek-based Maxis studio. For the first time, players control their Sims over an entire lifetime. Every choice that is made has a relevant and dramatic effect on the life of a Sim. More life-like Sims, all-new gameplay, and the ground-breaking addition of genetics, with the DNA of Sims passed down through generations gives players a more vivid, realistic, and in-depth Sims experience. All of this takes place in a new amazingly life-like 3-D world. The Sims 2 will be unveiled to industry insiders on May 13th at the Electronic Entertainment Exposition in Los Angeles and is scheduled to ship in early 2004.

LucasArts announce the PC version of its critically acclaimed role-playing game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, is expected to release this fall. A version for the Xbox video game system from Microsoft is expected to be available this July.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is highlighted by a entirely original storyline set some four thousand years prior to the events in Star Wars: Episode I. The ancient era is dominated by an epic struggle between the Jedi and the evil Sith. The game features customizable male or female heroes and evolving playable characters, as well as dynamic lightsaber combat. Players can choose to pursue divergent paths of good or evil as they journey through numerous locations both familiar and new throughout the Star Wars galaxy.

Another day, another batch of game trailers were released. Instead of giving them all their own post, we grouped them and so far there are trailers for :

• True Crime:Streets OF L.A (Activision)
• Mythica (MicroSoft)
• 
  
  Read more for download links ...

O.R.B. is a visually stunning 3D Real-Time strategy game that pits the forces of two races against each other in a desperate struggle to control the resources they need to expand their empires. O.R.B. stands for Off World Resource Base and what happens in the ‘Off World’ is the stuff that dreams or nightmares are made of. This update (v1.04) adds 4 new playable units, 2 new Alien units, 8 new Skirmish/MP scenarios, new weapons, new and improved sound effects, improves multiplayer stability, AI behavior, loading time, and more. This update works for US/UK versions. Read more for download links ...

Ground Control 2 : Operation Exodus takes place during the year 2741 AD, roughly 300 years after the events in the original game. The democratic and freedom caring Northern Star Alliance (NSA) is being hard pressed by the warmongering Terran Empire. The war has recently entered a new stage; a brutal and deadly ground war, as the Empire has managed to land their first troopships on the last NSA controlled planet – Morningstar Prime... Read more for a few new screens!