DreamCatcher Games today announced Painkiller: Battle Out Of Hell has reached gold status. The Expansion Pack for the award-winning FPS, Painkiller, will begin shipping to North American retailers on November 11th and will begin releasing across Europe on November 24th.

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE) today announced that EverQuest II has shipped to North American retail stores. EverQuest II is the highly-anticipated follow-up to Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest. More than 100,000 people have already pre-ordered EverQuest II in hopes of being among the first to experience this massive gaming phenomenon.

Full price PC RTS game "The Dark Legions" will only be released before Christmas in a few territories. With amongst others Atari as distribution partners the pre-sales count already exceeds 75.000 units with more in store in the weeks to come. The reason for the slipped release date in many territories, including most of Europe and North America is that several distribution agreements for the title are not in place yet.

Fluent Entertainment announced today that it has acquired the Crusty Demons license from Fleshwound Films, LLC for use in the creation of console video games. A Crusty Demons freestyle motocross game will be based on the popular ‘Crusty Demons of Dirt’ videos, which is the largest-selling action sports video series of all time with 9 titles and sales to over 60 countries.

Flat-Out is an adrenaline-inducing racing game with an exciting story line, spectacular crashes and a not-too-serious attitude in the best movie-like fashion. One of the 'Flat-Out' features is the "stunt" event where you race your car, and catapult the driver at a specific moment using him as a dart, bowling ball and other projectiles. For people interested in playing Flat-Out multiplayer online, Flatout HQ found out some Finnish people managed to concoct a work around.

In Xenosaga EPISODE II, thousands of years into a war-torn future, humanity has advanced to such a degree that its substantial resources of weapons and technology distort the boundaries of human limits. In this sequel, contend for control over the original Zohar to unravel its mystery and defeat the threat of the Gnosis. Xenosaga 2 will ship exclusively for the PS2 in February 2005.

From the arcade racing series gamers know and love, Ridge Racer DS delivers a whole new experience to racing fans by offering true analog steering through the Nintendo DS touch screen, up to six-player multiplayer races, a variety of exciting single-player racing modes and much more. Ridge Racer DS offers all the fast-paced action gamers have come to expect from the Ridge Racer name -- now in the palm of their hands on the Nintendo DS.

Dead to Rights II marks the return of action-hero Jack Slate and his K-9 companion, Shadow. In this super-charged sequel, Jack and Shadow find themselves once again in the squalid, mean streets of Grant City, ensnared in a labyrinth of crime, corruption and betrayal.

NCAA March Madness 2005 allows users to be the floor general and lead one of more than 320 Division I schools to the Big Dance. With the all-new Floor General System featuring a new play-calling system and an innovative new timeout menuusers can take complete control and play college basketball as it was meant to be played.

CDV will be holding an online chat on Thursday, November 11 at 2:00 PM EST to discuss Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder, the upcoming stand alone expansion to their popular WWII RTS Blitzkrieg. Mario Kroll, the game's Associate Producer, and Ernst Stein, a WWII historian will be available to answer questions from interested gamers. To submit questions, gamers can log into the Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder forums during the QA session on November 11.

While earlier this week Capcom officially announced that its survival horror game Resident Evil 4 will be released on PS2 and Gamecube, rumors have it that an Xbox version might be in the works for a simultaneous release with the aforementioned PS2 version. At the Golden Joystick Awards earlier this week, unconfirmed sources claimed that it was indeed coming in "less than a year's time." I'll be picking that one up if its true, no question about it ...

Packed with new features, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 is the third in the successful PlayStation 2 series developed by DIMPS, and promises to be the ultimate DBZ fighting experience on next-generation consoles. Read more for another helping of screenshots ...

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 :

• Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith - Trailer [Game]
• Xenosaga: Episode II - Trailer
• Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth - Inside the Battle Vol8
• Psychotoxic: Gateway To Hell - Trailer #3

ESPN Videogames is proud to bring all the pageantry of college basketball to gamers everywhere with ESPN College Hoops 2K5. With over 320 Division 1 teams, more than any other college basketball video game, ESPN College Hoops 2K5 is the only answer. Fans will enjoy all the new gameplay enhancements, feature additions and visual improvements that make ESPN College Hoops 2K5 the most complete college basketball video game.

"Dungeon Siege II" promises to set a new standard in role-playing games by combining an intriguing story-line with intense real-time party combat and cutting edge 3D graphics. Read more for some spiffy new screens ...

In Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, fans follow the Baudelaire orphans as their luck goes from awfully bad to incredibly worse. Based on the popular book series and the upcoming movie starring Jim Carrey, this treacherous tale allows players to experience the eccentric adventures of Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire.

THQ has released a new patch for Relic's 3D RTS Dawn Of War. This update brings your retail game to v1.1 and features 5 new maps, a tons of units/game balancing, cheat fixes and the usual crash/bug fixes. The English patch is for the English, Traditional Chinese, Russian, and Polish versions, the International for every other edition. Read more for detailed fix list and download links ......

NovaLogic has released a new patch for their multiplayer shooter Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising. This update brings your retail game to v1.4.17 and adds weather system, network improvements, new chat system, 3rd person view, and a few other tweaks. Read more for a detailed fix list or download links..

Valve has released the Source Software Development Kit (SDK) Tools via Steam. A precursor to the release of the full SDK, which will be released shortly after Half-Life 2 is made available, the Source SDK Tools release offers a comprehensive toolset for starting production on Source-based MODs, including Hammer, XSI EXP for Half-Life 2, compiling tools, the Source Model Viewer, documentation on programming, modeling, building materials, and more. For more information, visit Valve's dedicated mod website ...

Digital Leisure will ship "Dragon’s Lair 3," the epic all-new adventure of Dirk the Daring, this month in DVD and CD. The game includes improved graphics, utilizing Toon Shading technology, as well as new characters, challenging levels and three never-before-played bonus scenes. Read more for screens or download the Dragon's Lair 3 demo allowing you to play one full scene of the final game...