Independent developer Foundation 9 Entertainment announced today that it has received a significant capital infusion from Francisco Partners, which will fund up to $150 million over the next few years, with access to further resources as necessary for Foundation 9’s organic growth, IP development, and future acquisitions.

Dracula Twins is a new platform action game from Legendo Entertainment where poor old Count Dracula has been kidnapped by a wicked inventor - the dreadful Dr. Lifelust – who wants to live forever and plans to use vampire blood to create an elixir of life!

DreamCatcher today announced that it is extending the development time for Xbox FPS Painkiller: Hell Wars. The additional time will be used to fine tune the gameplay so it delivers a fun, high-quality, action-packed gaming experience.

Create exactly the city you want: build uniquely-designed structures, from residences to corporate skyscrapers. Improve the quality of life by providing recreational and entertainment opportunities-without letting taxes spiral out of control. This first bonus pack includes tools to import and export buildings, edit and modify them to your heart's content, as well as tutorial documents and a few samples.

Sony has released yet another new update for its PSP firmware, bringing it to v2.71 for the Japanese, North American and European PSP editions. The new update adds a few small tweaks, like the ability to download demos (LocoRoco and Kazou, a sudoku game) directly onto your Memory Stick Duo through the PSP browser, as well as Location Free player and Portable TV support, allowing you to watch news and follow the World Cup action on the go.

In Alien Shooter 2, hack 'n slash gameplay gets dropped into a science fiction storyline packed with dozens of weapons and vicious alien life forms. Sigma Team mistakenly released the wrong demo and asked us to retract the file. Proper demo expected later this month...

Ford Racing 3 allows gamers to "drive" 47 Ford vehicles, ranging from futuristic concept cars to classic cars, as well as off-road vehicles and pure-bred track racers. Empire has released a tiny fix for the installshield addressing an issue when you had FR2 already on your system (thanks 3DGamers ).

Conspiracy Entertainment Europe is pleased to announce the signing of Zen Studios' Flipper Critters, a fully 3 dimensional, original new gameplay experience based on classic pinball. Unlike most games, which take place on small, closed tables, Flipper Critters pinball takes place on a much bigger scale.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is Nintendo's latest incarnation in the popular Super Smash Bros. series of titles. Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii will feature all new characters ranging from Kirby and Wario to Samus, and even Metal Gear Solid's Snake.

Titan Quest is an action RPG set in the ancient mythical worlds of Greece and Egypt. With an arsenal of more than a thousand pieces of unique and legendary equipment, players will have to overcome terrifying monsters and mythical beasts in their quest to save humankind from the Titans.

Determinance is a free-form multiplayer sword-fighting PC title which has been in development for three years. It boasts an intuitive mouse-based control-system and has been developed using Garage Games' Torque engine.

Industry analysts are speculating that CPU manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices may be looking to acquire graphics card ATI Technologies, consistent with AMD's strategy to increase capacity over the next few-years. Analysts believe ATI is a rare-buy in the semiconductor space right now given the near-term tie-up dynamics and while it has been rumored before, recent financial figures make people believe the time is right.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details about a hefty update to its Source engine and the Steam client itself. This update updates source engine base content to support new engine features, brings the friends list out of beta, added a file defrag option and various other tweaks and fixes. Read more for details, or just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Planetwide Games announced today the upcoming release of Nacho Libre Comic Book Creator. Nacho Libre fans will now be able to create their own Nacho Libre comics and comic books from key movie scenes, characters, tag lines, audio and graphics from the film.

As promised, EA has released The Battle for Middle-Earth 2 v1.04 patch addressing a crash, a few multiplayer desync issues, as well as modifying the Palantir button order on several units.

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:

• Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War - Trailer #11
• Panzer Command: Operation Winter Storm - Trailer #3
• Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - E3 2006 Trailer
• Heart of Eternity - Trailer #2
• Stacked with Daniel Negreanu - MTV Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

Strategy First announced today that Gameyus Interactive's RTS Alliance Future Combat has officially gone gold, and is due to hit stores in North America June 12, 2006.

Alone in the Dark returns with a heart-stopping survival experience realized through the use of state-of-the-art real-time physics and unprecedented environmental interaction combining to deliver an exhilarating action-orientated experience within a highly detailed, open environment.

Paradise is an adventure game which immerses the player in the heart of Africa, at once eternal and terribly contemporary. This v1.1.1 patch is for the European version only, and addresses various bugs, glitches and issues with older (Geforce 4) gfx cards. Due to protection scheme differences, a US patch is expected later.

In Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, players will be introduced to the world of Ashan, the new setting for all future Might & Magic games. Ashan is a dark and unforgiving world, scarred by a bloody history and threatened by an apocalyptic prophecy: the Dark Messiah.