Earlier this week it was revealed that Yahoo was filing a lawsuit against Xfire claiming it broke Yahoo's messenger patent with the free Xfire gamers messenger service. Xfire on the other hand says they have reviewed the patent infringement claims with our lawyers, and Xfire does not infringe the Yahoo patent and have approached Yahoo expressing its willingness to let Yahoo review the code used. Xfire also announced it has reached one million registered users in its first year.

The latest Settlers game takes the franchise and pushes it to the next level with fully animated 3D technology and enhanced gameplay features,. The game will take the player to a medieval setting, to re-conquer the kingdom currently under the domination of an evil tyrant. While Heritage of Kings is not released yet in English territories, Blue Byte is already working on a "The Fog Realm" addon with new maps, new heroes, and editor.

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

• Act of War - Trailer #2
• Wild Arms: the 4th Detonator - Trailer
• Mythic Blades - Trailer

In the style of Hollywood’s popular horror movie genre, Obscure tracks a group of five all-American high school students who discover the halls they walk each day are anything but safe from their most horrifying nightmares. A string of mysterious disappearances and unexplained events set the stage for a night more horrifying than any trip to detention...

Samurai Western is the 3rd installment in the 'Way of the Samurai' series where your main character Kiryu Goujiro makes the trip from Japan to the US in search of his older brother. Goujiro, a young samurai, lives by the bushido code of honor and his belief that the Japanese sword is the strongest weapon in the world, which puts him against all odds versus gunslinging cowboys.

This fighting-action game features up to 16 playable characters, all free to simultaneously roam and destroy a vast 3D world. With Xbox Live and System Link Play support, players can now experience cooperative and competitive gameplay with friends and foes while talking smack via Xbox Communicators. Bonus online features include downloadable items, weapons, stories, stages, characters, sound files and much more.

Control the fate of the galaxy in LucasArts' all new RTS game Star Wars: Empire at War. Set a few years before the events of Episode IV A New Hope, the game will let players rewrite history as well as experience the aftermath of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, the creation of the Rebel Alliance, and Darth Vader's rise to power. Read more for new screens ...

Nuclear Vision has now released the English demo version for its cyberpunk FPS Psychotoxic: Gateway To Hell. This demo features 2 levels, the Underground Garage, and the Harbor (thanks Fileplanet). Read more for download links ...

In 'Playboy: the Mansion' you step into the virtual slippers of world-famous Playboy Founder Hugh Hefner, building Playboy Magazine and the Playboy Mansion into dynamic cultural icons. Arush has released the first patch for Cyberlore's 3D Playboy Sim game, bringing your retail game to v1.01 and addressing various crashes, bugs fixes, a save game issue and graphical problems. Read more for details and download links ...

In this new episode, you lead Team Rainbow, the world's most elite counter-terrorist unit, as they are called into action and unfamiliar territory to battle a bioterrorist threat. Stakes escalate as they are personally targeted by an evil terrorist organization. Used to protecting the lives of others, Team Rainbow must now embark on a mission to fight and save some of their own.

Sony Online President John Smedley looks back at when EQ first luanched, but also towards the future and speaks out on where he sees Everquest going, and MMO's in general. Read more for the rest of his community statement ...

In advance of the Counter-Strike: Source update mentioned recently, Valve will also be releasing an update for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch. This update will include two new weapons (the StunStick and the Slam) as well as a return of the trusty crowbar, and a new map called "Steam Lab."

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

• Close Combat: First to Fight - War Psychology Trailer
• NARC - Trailers (2)
• Star Wars: Republic Commando - Droids Trailer

Liquidator is an action-packed, first person shooter game with large cinematic adventure components. Set in three unique game environments, the game features massive fighting sequences, a rich variety of unique characters and super-charged power-ups that contribute to incredibly strong gameplay. This demo features an intro level, 6 of the full game's weapons and a bunch of different enemies (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

"Sagas" is the first cross-platform Dragon Ball Z game to launch simultaneously, the first Dragon Ball Z action/adventure game for console, the first Dragon Ball Z game for the Xbox, and the first Dragon Ball game to offer cooperative story mode play.

At New York's Central Park Zoo, a lion, a zebra, a giraffe, and a hippo are best friends and stars of the show. But when one of the animals goes missing from their cage, the other three break free to look for him, only to find themselves reunited ... on a ship en route to the island of Madagascar. When their vessel capsizes off the coast, however, the friends, who have all been raised in captivity, learn first-hand what life can be like in the wild.

For super-powered heroes in the massively-multiplayer online game City of Heroes, NCsoft and Cryptic Studios are providing the perfect gift to give that special non-City of Heroes playing friend -- 14 free days of game play that can be given only as a gift to a would-be crime fighter buddy.

Today, Ubisoft announced the creation of the Ubisoft Campus in Montreal, a training institute which will offer a series of college and university level training programs in the key video game development fields.

Enlight announced today that American McGee Presents Scrapland has gone gold and is on target for its February 25 ship date for the Xbox. Currently available for the PC, the Xbox version of Scrapland features the same gameplay experience as well as a unique lock-on targeting feature that makes the combat more accessible to console gamers.

Bet On Soldier is a first-person shooter which presents something considerably different in order to stand out from the crowd. With a corporation-takes-over-the-world-style plot, Bet On Soldier allows players to do exactly what it promises with its title - that is, bet on the outcome of encounters with specific enemies. Before entering battle, players can wager on which particular enemy soldiers they are going to kill.