After graduating from the corporate world of big budget games, Dynamix co-founder Jeff Tunnell and his partners are once again making games. Their company, an independent publisher named GarageGames, is putting the focus of computer gaming back on fun, skill, and innovation with the titles Chain Reaction, Marble Blast and Robot Battle.

Just noticed on Shacknews that according to this post on the official Ubi Soft forums, we PC gamers will finally get the chance to play Splinter Cell next week. The PC demo will debut next Thursday, December 19. Thanks, Kurashu! Now THAT is something to be all excited about!!!

In celebration, Logitech would like to thank customers for making them the Leader in Cordless Peripherals. On December 20, 2002, between 12:00 P.M. and 5:00 P.M., the company will be giving away 20,000 Logitech Cordless Navigator Duo SE mouse & keyboard combinations. How to Enter: Visit the LogiTech web site - between 12:00 P.M. and 5:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, December 20th. Follow the directions given on the site.How to Win: Return to the above web address as many times as desired. Winners will be selected randomly. No purchase necessary.

Acting as an elite soldier, players of "Vietcong" command the A-team, part of the U.S. Special Forces, in realistically represented Vietnamese environments. Players will lead as many as six expertly trained soldiers through 20 dramatic missions, and follow a storyline that captures the danger, fear and unpredictability of the war itself. The full-featured multiplayer mode also allows gamers to play as U.S. Special Forces or Vietcong soldiers and to battle over specially designed levels. Today we scored a multiplayer demo for Vietcong allowing up to 32 players to check out the Death Match, CTF and Protect the Pilot modes. Read more for links where to grab the goods.. (thanks EvilAvatar). UPDATE : Freaky fileservers, issues resolved, happy downloading ..

Psychotoxic is a first person shooter with an exceptionally exciting story line. The setting is New York, in the year 2020. Three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse have caused terrible damage on Earth. The fourth horseman is now preparing for his return. Violence and aggression are increasing drastically. Humanity's last hope is protagonist Angie Prophet. Basically a human, she is also an angel and guardian, marked centuries ago to save mankind. Play on two different levels: The reality level contains the main elements for the battle against the horseman, including both indoor and outdoor scenes. In the mind level, Angie enters other people's thoughts - here time and space have no meaning. A few new freaky screens for this freaky Friday the 13th!

Twice the game as the original -- Devil May Cry 2's level design far exceeds the original. Much of the game's environment is outdoors and will include a Gotham-like cityscape and an old European town. More environments will be announced as the release date approaches! Check out the new batch of screens ...

Duga-Group – the site-group which manages the content for 3 sites ( Site1, Site2 & Site3 ) – just informed us that there will be a follow-up to their first successful DugaLan. DugaLan V2.00, the name of the event, will be an event where hundreds of gamers will be giving their very best over network for three days on a row. As is custom to a LAN party there will obviously be some competitions and lots of prices to go with it.

Infinite Ventures, an independent game producer, today announced the release of the first interactive horror game for DVD Video, . This unique DVD production is playable on any DVD video player but thanks to its innovative design the same DVD disc is also fully playable on the Sony PlayStation2, Microsoft Xbox or a PC with DVD-ROM drive.

Hundreds of years in the future, several dominant races (Human, Jaldari, and Velleakan) occupy a host of solar systems and discover new planets on a regular basis. Huge conglomerates vie for rich resources on every new world, resulting in fighting, smuggling and the emergence of pirate clans. To combat this growing trend towards war, the government sets up a group of highly elite Rangers, who are quickly brought down by an unknown traitor. Mace Griffin, the only surviving ranger, becomes a bounty hunter and sets out to discover the truth behind his team's ruin. Read more to check out the trailer showing off some spiffy in-game action...

There is a bunch of new patches released today and we posted up some direct links to them. Njoy! .. (thanks Blues)

• G.I. Combat 1.02e patch for G.I. Combat at 3DGamers
  
• Flashpoint: Resistance 1.91 patch for Resistance and GotY edition on official site
  
• Delta Force Land Warrior version 1.00.42 patch on official site
  
• Battlecruiser Millennium 1.0.08 RC29 patch for the retail version on 3DGamers

SpellForce is the latest creation of Phenomic Games , the team surrounding Volker Wertich, whose claim to fame includes designing and creating the world-famous 'Settlers' series... Today JoWooD launched the official website for Spellforce: The Order of Dawn. The site includes weekly news updates, screenshots and general game information, they will also be giving you a glimpse behind the scenes with making-of videos, concept art, sketches and other goodies. In addition, every month will feature a closer look at a new race – first in line are the Elves.

The New World is ablaze in American Conquest, the newest real-time strategy offering from the makers of Cossacks! In the year 1492, travel to America as Christopher Columbus and ignite the fire that will fan 300 years of heated battles for land, riches and freedom. In 8 historical campaigns spanning 42 missions, you play great legends such as Pizarro and Washington, commanding epic real-time battles containing up to 16,000 soldiers. Play with fire! Conquer America! Check out some sketches of American conquering. Maybe they'd make nice Christmas cards or something.

Mutant Storm is inspired by Williams classic RoboTron, Smash TV and Jeff Minters fantastic Llamatron. To those unacquainted, this means two joysticks, one controlling fire direction, and the other controlling movement. Sounds confusing? ...don't worry, its very simple once you try, and very effective when you're used to it...

Zoo Tycoon fans can add to the allure of their parks as Microsoft Game Studios and developer Blue Fang today announced the availability of the Atlantis Theme Pack. The Pack contains the following Atlantean items: a gift shop, three undersea ruins, a new tank wall, two unique decorative fences, a statue, urn and archway. Blue Fang is also introducing a new animal to the Zoo Tycoon world - the barracuda. Both the Atlantis Theme Pack and the barracuda can be downloaded by visiting the official Zoo Tycoon site. The Pack requires players to either have Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania or the 10.9 update to Zoo Tycoon, which can be downloaded here!

In the next three weeks CDV going to present the intro movies of the three campaigns from Blitzkrieg. They starting off with a spectacular movie from the allied campaign, featuring some great mixing between historical and rendered imagery. The movie is about 21MB in size and is now available for download from the official Blitzkrieg homepage.

Played in massive outdoor environments with vistas rendered as far as the eye can see, the team-orientated LAN and online multiplayer games in IGI 2: Covert Strike – due February 2003 for PC – are set to be one of the title's major highpoints... New screens released today show impressive images from IGI 2: Covert Strike's multiplayer games, running under the game's enhanced graphics engine.

"Midtown Madness 3," the latest in Microsoft Corp.'s popular "Midtown Madness" franchise, allows gamers to get behind the wheel of more than 30 vehicles while competing in exciting race modes such as Blitz, Checkpoint and Cruise. With a robust Career mode featuring 14 driving careers, "Midtown Madness 3" delivers the rush and excitement of street racing while challenging gamers to put their driving skills to the ultimate test... Nine new screenshots. Take a gander at the Paris Bus and the Corvette Z06.

JoWooD Productions is proud to announce the first official details of the 50 defensive and destructive magic spells set to feature in Gothic II, the breathtaking role-playing action adventure game... Read more for all details of the game's 50 magic spells - just the ticket for making it through Friday 13th, and four screenshots of spells in action.

Previously, Phantagram Europe has announced in celebration their Top 20 entry in ChartTrack, Phantom Crash, which was released 22nd November 2002, with a prestigious event titled Phantom Crash Battle Royal Competition. Already they have been receiving many entries but time is running out. With the deadline on 29th December 2002, competitors that have already entered the competition have demonstrated their skills greatly. This is all in bid to win a "Year supply of Phantagram titles on all formats", "Phantarama CD", "discount" off your purchased copy of Phantom Crash and a free copy of "Kingdom Under Fire Gold". For competition entry, the player has to play Phantom Crash playable Demo on Official U.K. Xbox Magazine that was released 27th November 2002. They have to defeat 25 opponents in the fastest time possible and prove the results to Phantagram Europe via Photo or Video Tape... Find out more below!

On Wednesday, the 4th of December techland finished working on FIM Speedway Grand Prix. After two weeks of testers' intensified work and final improvements of the game, it was sent to replication on Thursday, the 5th December at 11.15. Despite of the extreme tiredness and sacrifice of all the SGP Team, all people who worked on FIM SGP have been very satisfied with the achievement. The game will apear in Poland before Christmas. Distributors for other countries will be found soon and the game will be released worldwide in Q1 2003.

Infiltrate terrorists' positions, acquire critical intelligence by any means necessary, execute with extreme prejudice, and exit without a trace! You are Sam Fisher, a highly-trained secret operative of the NSA's secret arm: Third Echelon. The world balance is in your hands, as cyber terrorism and international tensions are about to explode into WWIII. We have heard and seen plenty, but now it is time for it to withstand the gruesome WP test ... or something like that. Read more for our final answer (and it's quite a lenghty read)!

No rules radio-controlled racing through a variety of off-road realistic worlds. Smash Cars drivers steer remote-control cars in a high-speed race where daily life is in full swing with giant objects and people interacting with and hindering the path of your tiny car. Don’t drop the hammer too fast or people, animals, cars and a variety of other real-world obstacles may spin you into trouble. A one- or two-player game, Smash Cars provides special control features including power boosts, jumps, and the most realistic physics for enhanced driving action. A few news screens ...

Black & Bruised thrusts players into the colorful world of 18 lively boxers, each forced into competitive boxing for individual reasons. Competing in 18 different arenas, players learn the life story of each boxer and how winning will benefit them. Characters are differentiated not only by their look, but by their individual personalities, which are enhanced by the game’s advanced AI system. More than 30 unique and detailed facial animations are used to convey the boxer’s mood and reaction to landed punches. Read more to check out some new screens and a new trailer.. Njoy!