In development at Japanese studio d'Artoon, Vampire's Rain is a survival horror action game set in Los Angeles where you play as John Lloyd, an AIB special agent who has to fight his way past hordes Night Walker zombies.

After a few weeks of deliberation and voting, our top games of 2006 are finally being unveiled! We're starting with titles that garnered honorable mentions; these nominees received a significant amount of votes but fell just short of making the cut. Come back tomorrow for the top handheld titles, which will then be followed by the top console/PC offerings. Once that's out of the way, we'll start the countdown of the top 20 titles, including what WP considers to be the best game of 2006. Read more for the final results!

Crackdown pushes the action-driving hybrid genre into the next generation with the introduction of the first-ever truly 3-dimensional persistent playground, highly innovative co-op gameplay and an extensive prop interaction system all while taking place in a massive and highly-stylized urban center. Scanned pages from the latest GamePRO magazine reveal that Crackdown will, for a limited time only, include a Halo 3 mulipayer beta when it's released this February.

God of War II is a PS2 exclusive combat action-adventure videogame based on Greek mythology, where you will get reacquainted with the vicious ex-Spartan warrior Kratos and embark on the continuing epic odyssey. According to SCEA Santa Monica's Studio Director Cory Barlog's blog, Sony plans to release a God of War II demo in January, maybe bundled with a PS3, or through covermounted DVD.

Team17's Creative and UK Studio Director Martyn 'Spadge' Brown announced that they are in the final stages of development, and are currently hunting down the last few bugs. The lucky few people with a debug unit can already test Worms HD on Microsoft's Xbox Live developer system Partner Net. Spadge expects a formal announcement to be made early January, at the CES in Vegas. Team17 managed to get the full game into the 50mb XBLA limit, and is currently working on additional downloadable content.

Adds layers of strategy to your gaming experience by building mobile bases, wielding the power of terrifying Ion Storms on the battlefield, or customising your armies by combining units. Battle it out online with native voice-over IP, integrated clan support, and new spectator modes that let you play RTS games like a sport.

Revealed earlier this year at E3 2006, Akella has released a Russian demo for Quazar Studios' 3D space combat game.

Slope Shaiming is a young SCN soldier. Where the WRF survives slope the attack of the Syndicate soldiers, who want to take over control of the area tried in the east of Asia to break in. It decides to create a group, which oppose to the aggressors: the Resistance. Frogster has released the first patch addressing some script issues, 40% frame rate increase, etc..

Farlan Entertainment announced that in order to allow even more players to experience the uniquely immersive world of Dark and Light gaming, all Dark and Light forum members can now access the game for free.

SSX Blur, developed exclusively for Wii, is the newest version of the critically acclaimed snowboarding franchise. The huge air, blurring speed and insane tricks that SSX is known for return and the fun-factor is amplified by the unique capability of the Wiimote...

Just what the Xbox 360 needs, more Japanese RPG titles to boost its popularity in Asia. Absolute Blazing Infinity is a Tactical-RPG from Idea Factory, previously known for Neverlands. Based on the PS2 title Blazing Souls, Absolute Blazing Infinity is currently scheduled release in Japan on March 29, 2007, no specific release date for Europe or North America are available yet.

SEGA announced that it has signed a license agreement with the Sanrio group in Japan, effectively giving SEGA the right to various of its franchises, including Hello Kitty. Further details as to what platforms Hello Kitty will make an appearance on is not specified at this point. An official announcement should follow shortly ...

Frontline: Fields of Thunder is a new RTS series where players are taken to the frontline, where the gameplay is going back to its RTS roots - inspired by games like Blitzkrieg. With state of the art graphics and an overhauled interface, players will find themselves challenged in many different environments and settings.

New Rally-X, the sequel to Rally-X, is Namco Bandai's racing game released in 1981, featuring new courses and adjustments to the enemy cars, improving the overall game balance, as well as new graphics and BGM!

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:

• ShadowGrounds 2 - Teaser Trailer
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  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

According the online sources Vivendi is working on bringing Battlestar Galactica, based on the TV show, to the online masses. Currently scheduled for October 2007, Battlestar Galactica Online is only listed as being in development for Xbox 360, but lets hope there will be a PC edition as well. Hopefully the new title will be better than Vivendi's last, failed, attempt at making a Battlestar Galactica game. More details surely to come after the holidays ...

RIP 3: The Last Hero is an arcade shooter you can play with your friends thanks to hot seat feature. The game also features 100 levels, 6 peculiar characters, each bringing a different approach to the game, 25 types of power-ups, 9 types of military vehicles and 12 unique bosses.

Europa Universalis III delves deeply into the areas of exploration, trade, warfare and diplomacy and is an epic strategy game where players take control of a nation and guide it through the ages to become a great global empire.

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:

• Metal Combat (PC)
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  We will update this throughout the day when new announcements become available. Read more for details ...

Virtua Tennis 3 gives gamers the opportunity to experience new levels of realism never thought possible on a home console system with enhanced photo-realistic graphics and advanced player animations that perfectly match the behaviour and mannerisms of individual professional players.