Set in the ancient European seafaring time, Tales of Pirates presents players with a fantastic world full of numerous cities and unprecedented great scenery. Players can experience the mystery of the endless seas and the adventurous life of a pirate. Friday, Mar. 30 Tales of Pirates closed beta ends, but the open beta will begin at 12:00 PM (EST), that same day.

MySims, designed especially for the Wii and NDS, introduces a charming cast of whimsical characters while delivering the creativity, customization and classic open-ended gameplay.

Roma Victor developer RedBedlam announced The Escalation, the first expansion for its MMORPG. It features significant updates for the guild and encounter systems, including a sophisticated mechanism for player elections, founding new settlements and even introduces the possibility of conquering, pillaging and looting these player-run settlements.

Majesco announced The Wild West for the Nintendo DS. Developed by Happy Happening and scheduled for a summer release, The Wild West will deliver touch-screen shootout scenarios on the untamed frontier.

Enlight Interactive announced Circus Empire, the world's first ever 3D circus simulation game. Players will be able to design their own circus in three dimensions, complete with trapeze artists, clowns, lion tamers and a variety of other performers, each with their own distinct personality.

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

• DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road [PS3/X360/PC] - Trailer
• Spider-Man 3 [PS3/X360] - Intoxicated Trailer
• Guitar Hero II [X360] - Launch Trailer
• Combat Mission: Shock Force - Trailer (2)
• Code Lyoko [NDS/Wii] - Trailer
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  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

In Pirates of the Caribbean Online, players try to become the Caribbean's most legendary pirate, all while forging alliances, hunting for buried treasure, battling evil undead forces and facing off against enemies from the movie franchise.

Battlestations: Midway follows the story of naval recruit Henry Walker, whose first assignment as a gunner at Pearl Harbor is the starting point of an incredible career at the heart of the US Pacific Fleet in 1942. Eidos has released 2 new historical battle maps and brand new vehicles now available on Xbox Live Marketplace.

BioShock is 2K Games' hybrid first-person shooter, which is in development at System Shock 2 developers Irrational Games and combines elements of sci-fi and role-playing genres. 2KGames' Elizabeth Tobey claimed that if the online petition asking for a Collector's Edition reaches 5,000 signatures, Take Two would listen to the masses and make it happen, although she failed to specify what sort of extras it would include....

Escape from Bug Island known in Japan as Necro-Nesia, is a third-person survival-horror game that takes a quirky, creepy and over-the-top journey onto an island filled with giant evil insects and mutant creatures.

Established in January and based in Helsinki, Finland, Recoil Games, firmed by former Remedy and Bugbear employees, focuses on the creation of action games with the scope, feel and ensemble cast of disaster movies. A large untapped area of the industry and Recoil plans to lead the way with its innovative Cinegames design techniques.

Stardock Entertainment and Ironclad Games announce that Sins of a Solar Empire Beta 1 is now available to all who preordered the game, and its primary purpose is to act as a compatibility test, to ensure that Sins runs beautifully on a wide range of system setups. Beta 1 allows for single-player sandbox games as the Trader Emergency Coalition, while future beta iterations will add progressively more features, leading to the final game release.

Sacred 2 is a deep fantasy RPG where players are immersed in an epic journey through the medieval-like kingdom of Ancaria. Highly action-oriented, Ascaron's Sacred 2 features pitched battles and a wide range of enticing quests.

Heart Of Osiris is not a sequel to last years point & click adventure Ankh, but a standalone expansion pack. Ankh: Heart Of Osiris is situated in the same environment as the original but now lets you play the game from a different perspective and character, the Pharaoh himself. This v1.01 patch adds GeForce 2/4 MX support, and fixes a load save game issue.

Team17 is working on a patch for the Xbox Live Arcade edition of its turn-based strategy game Worms. Various issues / exploits are being addressed, faster AI, but mainly a problem with 4-player games crashing. Team17 is also working on downloadable content that did not make it in the original release due to the 50mb limit at the time, such as a new theme, a bunch of audio, a stack of additional voice-banks and the usual themes & gamer-pics.

Sporting various new features, and a new graphics engine, Arena Wars Reloaded is an action strategy game focusing once again on fast-paced RTS action and multiplayer mayhem.

Another day, another batch of games shipped to stores. Instead of giving them all their own posts, we grouped them, and so far there are announcements for:

• Pogo Island (NDS)
• Purr Pals (NDS)
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  We will update this throughout the day when new announcements become available. Read more for details ...

Genesis Rising: The Universal Crusade is a futuristic 3D game that uses the best elements of RPGs within the context of a fast moving RTS game, set in a mysterious future universe where organic machines are built using genetic engineering. This v1.031 fixes a CD recognition issue caused by the previous v1.3 patch.

Beniot Sokal's White Birds Productions studio is working on Sinking Island, a dark detective adventure story, set on a tropical paradise, at a millionaire's hotel a crime is committed, and while the island seems to be sinking for unknown reasons, you, as detective Jack Norm, have to find out who did it.

F.E.A.R. is a paranormal action thriller presented entirely in first person. It is an unprecedented adrenaline rush of close-quarters combat seamlessly melded with the spine-tingling, shocking intensity of the unknown.