TrackMania Sunrise, the legitimate heir to the throne, is shifting up a gear. Sunrise moves faster, handles better and features improved air-control – vital for making the massive jumps – to ensure that gameplay never moves at anything less than fast. And it's all about the gameplay.

SCEA and 989 Sports announced today that it has signed the Major League Baseball 2004 American League MVP, Vladimir Guerrero, to grace the cover of its MLB 2006 videogame, due to hit stores in Spring 2005, exclusively for the PS2. A top defensive playmaker and premier offensive threat, the Angels outfielder will team up with a host of other top MLB stars to promote the popular 989 Sports baseball title.

Area 51 is set in the U.S. government's most top-secret and secure facility located in the Nevada desert. Players take on the role of Lt. Nick Cross, a hazardous biological waste specialist sent to investigate. Read more for details, and a few screens..

Jowood has released a new patch for its RTS/RPG game SpellForce bringing your retail game to v1.52a (for all language versions) and fixes a problem encountered with the Gold Edition of Spellforce and the latest Patch 1.52, players were asked for a cd-key although the GE doesn`t require one. Read more for download links ...

Kicking off the new year with some noise, Electronic Arts today announced that Beastie Boys' song "An Open Letter To NYC" headlines the in-game soundtrack for the hottest street hoops experience on the market -- NBA Street Vol.3. The game features 13 explosive tracks including new music from some of the coolest names in hip-hop and rap. The street courts of NBA Street Vol.3 will never sound the same.

Activision today announced that it has acquired game developer Vicarious Visions, most recently known for Spider-Man 2 on NDS. Vicarious Visions' proven proprietary Alchemy middleware technology and tools will be combined with Activision's next-generation tools and libraries to further enhance the company's overall development efforts.

Bringing a new dimension to stealth action games, Second Sight gives players control of a character endowed with incredible psychic abilities. The game offers multiple approaches to completing levels either via stealth, dramatic gunplay, psychic powers or a combination of all three. The ability to psychically influence characters and remotely manipulate objects and individuals provides for a totally fresh gameplay dynamic.

A few days ago Ubisoft announced that it was working on a plan to defend itself against what it considers "a hostile takeover" from Electronic Arts. Today French financial newspaper La Tribune may have revealed more on the matter as it ran an article in which it claims that Ubisoft is having positive talks with Take Two and Activision to form a front against EA. Ubisoft President Yves Guillemot is also quoted as saying that he is working with the shareholders to ensure they act in the best interest of the company and stay on the same page as the Guillemot family.

1C Company and KDLab revealed today that they are working on an addon for last year's innovative RTS Perimeter. Scheduled for release in Russia Q1 2005, Perimeter: Emperor's Testament will feature all new & updated graphics, tons of new units and structures, a new soundtrack by the St. Petersburg Orchestra, and a total of 25 new missions. Until we get more details, enjoy the first 20 screens ...

'FIFA Street' is a combination of arcade action blended with the culture of freestyle street football. By removing the rules from the simulation football experience, 'FIFA Street' exposes the heart of the world's beautiful game, on-the-ball flare and individual style.

In Killer 7, players take on the role of Harman Smith an unlikely assassin who lives life at his own pace. Switching between seven different personalities, he employs each character’s abilities to terminate targets he deems deserving to die. Capcom has updated the official Killer 7 website indicating that it has pushed its action game, which was originally slated for Feb 2005 release date, back to early June 2005.

Ubisoft and Sony Online Entertainment today announce that an EverQuest II character creation tool is available for players who want to introduce to the world of EverQuest II. This tool is free and can be downloaded from the official Everquest 2 website. The tool sizes 365 Mo and the languages available are English, French and German. Players will be able to create and save their own hero. Please note that a full version of EverQuest II (sold separately) is required to use the character.

Roma Victor is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) based on the Roman Empire, circa 180AD. Roma Victor features social interaction on a massive scale, freestyle and mission-led gameplay, one on one combat in the Coliseum, tactical warfare on the battlefields of Europe and a deeply rich and varied non-combat crafting and skill system.

Area 51 takes the player through eight massive levels within a clandestine government complex. Combining intense combat, exploration, adventure, discovery, and puzzle solving, the game blends graphic violence with science fiction. Further confirming earlier speculations, the official Area 51 website now has a "PC CD ROM" logo added to the list of platforms (hover over the blank space next to Xbox logo at the bottom right of the page), indictating that Midway's shooter is indeed coming to the PC.

Matrix Games announced today that the tactical wargame Flashpoint Germany has officially gone gold and is set for release sometime next week. The game will be available both via CD and download from the Matrix Games website.

Champions: Return to Arms introduces two new playable races, a whole new non-linear storyline letting the playing chose to team both with the forces of Good or Evil, the ability to import characters from the original game, more character customization options with up to level 80 levelling, thousands of new items, weapons and spells, beautifully detailed environments, innovative medal system which unlocks secret gameplay modes, more online and multiplayer options and much more.

Red Ninja: End of Honor is an action-adventure title, developed by Tranji, which will feature a variety of innovative game-play features blending action, adventure, stealth, seduction and fighting. These elements have been placed in a historical Japanese environment with an event-driven story written by famed Japanese feature film director, Shinsuke Sato.

Blitzkrieg II is created with a new focus on fast-paced gameplay, a strategic layer and new tactical opportunities. A completely new engine takes WWII into full 3D where players can command famous aces and units, strategically plan battles in multiple theatres, choose their reinforcements and use a wide range of new unit types such as aircraft and ships.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding yet another update for its Source SDK which adds SDK bot sample code, source files for HL2 SP maps, interface plugin to add bots to mods, bspzip tool, and fixed resource leak. Restart Steam to get the latest update. The HL2: DM level design contest is over, the winners maps will be included in the HL2: Deathmatch release, as well as two new weapons (Slam and Stunstick). Later this week there will be an update to the Half-Life SDK this week which most notably will include source files for six Half-Life 2 maps.

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 :

• Second Sight - Trailer [PC]
• Splinter Cell Chaos Theory - Trailer #9
• Blitzkrieg 2 - Trailer #3
• Close Combat: First to Fight - Trailer
• Iron Phoenix - Trailer #3
• LotR: Battle for Middle-Earth - Trailer #10