The Honorable Sarah Curley, Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Arizona yesterday approved the Tulga Games’ bid to purchase the assets of Artifact Ent, the developer of multiplayer online role-playing game Horizons: Empire of Istaria.

CDV Software Entertainment today announced that Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars, the sequel to their critically acclaimed real-time strategy title, Cossacks: European Wars, is in development and is slated to ship worldwide for the PC in April 2005.

LucasArts and Sony Online have made the joint decision to increase the investment in the game development team. LucasArts and SOE are adding more people to all parts of the development team including production, project management, programming, design, art, community and QA. Over 20 new people are being added to the SWG team this month. Read the full newsblurb over at the official SWG website...

ARUSH Publishing, in conjunction with Groove Games, today announced that the highly anticipated multi-platform video game release, "Playboy: The Mansion," will feature a diverse soundtrack including music from more than 40 artists. Players can select from eight different stations ranging from hip-hop to rock to house music, setting the mood at their virtual Playboy Mansion.

Wing Simulations has released a Building SDK for its military multiplayer shooter Soldner: Secret Wars, allowing you to create your own buildings for Soldner: Secret War’s. This package includes a detailed Tutorial, 3d Studio Max Plugins, some example files, one Testmap and the documentation. Read more for download links ...

'NFL Street 2' has been completely redesigned and reinvented challenging players to change the way the game is played. In addition to several new game modes, EA-Tiburon has added a whole new dimension to the game with interactive wall moves and style catches. 'NFL Street 2' will be online for Xbox Live as well as the PS2.

Ubisoft has released the English demo for Blue Byte 3D RTS game 'Settlers: Heritage Of Kings.' featuring a tutorial and one single player mission. Fans will enjoy fully animated 3D technology and enhanced gameplay features, but still be able to relive the experience that makes the Settlers series such a big hit. Read more for download links ...

Midway announced today the development of Blitz: Playmakers, a new, unlicensed videogame exposing the harsh realism and troubling, behind-the-scenes stories of a fictional professional football league. Blitz: Playmakers has been in development at Midway's Chicago studio for the past year in collaboration with a writer from ESPN's controversial "Playmakers" TV series.

Hearts of Iron 2 presents tons of new features including a redesigned map and interface, updated battle mechanics, re-worked technology tree, fine-tuned diplomacy and trade system as well as gameplay details like co-operative multiplayer. To commemorate the 60th year Anniversary of the Ardennes offensive on Dec 16, 1944, Paradox Interactive has released a demo for its strategy game Hearts of Iron 2. This demo features the Ardennes offensive battle scenario. Read more for download links ...

Put yourself in a spin with Codemasters' Christmas gift – an egg-shell-hen-t bit of retro fun: the complete Commodore 64 edition of Treasure Island Dizzy from way back in 1988!

Nevrax announced the release of the next chapter in the ever-evolving massively multiplayer online role-playing game The Saga of Ryzom.

Matrix Games and Destroyer Studios have released a new demo for its space sim Starshatter, which includes the training campaign, Operation Live Fire, and the first five days of the first dynamic campaign, Operation Highland, along with a few single missions and a few multiplayer missions that can be enjoyed entirely for free.

Vivisector: Beast Inside developed by Action Forms (creators of Chasm and Carnivores series) is a unique mixture of 3D Action/Horror. The game blends a thrilling interactive story with intense, high-adrenaline action and immerses players in a rich and fascinating storyline.

Due to continued demand, BattleGoat Studios is pleased to announce the re-opening of the Supreme Ruler 2010 Beta to new applicants. Supreme Ruler 2010 is a groundbreaking Economic, Political, and Military Strategy game for Windows PC's. It supports Single and Multi-Player (up to 16 players) in either “Real Time” or “Turn Based” modes. Supreme Ruler 2010 is scheduled to be released by Strategy First late Q1, 2005.

Fight and evade the powerful military force of the Conquistadors, as they seek to vanquish the seas of the pirate insurgence. Only a pirate captain who masters the power of the voodoo spells, who can outwit their foes and seize the treasure, will truly be ruler over the “Voodoo Islands”. Although Koch Media announced that their game went out of beta testing several months ago, no release date is given yet.

Players of Sacred can look forward to a game world that is 40 percent bigger than before, two new characters with distinctive and stunning abilities, 30 fearsome types of opponents and plenty of additional weapons, items and armor. In Sacred Underworld, the player will be able to re-live the excitement of the entire original Sacred adventure with two new characters, the Daemon and the Dwarf; alternatively, it will be possible to continue the thrilling story of the fantasy world of "Ancaria" with existing characters. The new adventures of "SACRED Underworld" will be available in April 2005 for €24.99.

You could be one of seven winners to have their likeness appear in Vivendi's recently announced third-person action shooter, Scarface. Fill out the form to be entered for a chance to become an environmental character in the complex world of Tony Montana, one of the most ruthless gangsters ever depicted on film. Remember, "The World is Yours."

Following the recent announcement to expand its LA Studio, Climax is pleased to confirm the first new addition to the staff roster with the appointment of Bill West as Vice President of Business Development.

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 :

• The Godfather - Trailer
• Bloodline - Trailer
• Metal Wolf Chaos - Trailer
• Shadow of Rome - Trailer #6
• Still Life - Teaser

Act of War: Direct Action, developed by Eugen Systems, is Atari new action game with a storyline and game universe created in cooperation with Dale Brown, 15-time New York Times best-selling author and expert on US military, global conflict and future military technology.