NCsoft and Cryptic Studios announced the addition of two new members to the City of Villains development team, a sequel to City of Heroes. Dave "Zeb" Cook has been named senior designer and Shane Hensley will serve as senior writer on the City of Villains team.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory will offer a high adrenaline experience thanks to never seen before close range attacks, a totally open level design, a completely immersive and interactive environment, and challenging advanced AI. In addition, it will offer the best graphics in this generation of games and a unique, collaborative multiplayer mode available for online and offline.

"Blitzkrieg II" builds upon the success of our best selling RTS "Blitzkrieg" 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.

As promised, Activision has released the demo for demo for Creative Assembly's 3D RTS Rome: Total War, featuring a tutorial playable as the Roman Julii Family, and the Battle of Trebia map playable as the Carthaginians (thanks Fileplanet). Read more for download links...

Eidos announces it has secured the distribution rights to LEGO Star Wars with Giant Interactive Entertainment Ltd for all countries except Japan. The game will be released in April 2005 for the PS2, Xbox, PC and GBA.

EA today announced that award-winning composer Mark Mothersbaugh is the composer of the theme music for the highly-anticipated simulation game, The Sims 2.

The Future Network plc today announces that its UK subsidiary Future Publishing has acquired the title and goodwill of two UK games magazines - PC Zone and CVG - from the Dennis Publishing group for a consideration of £2.5m in cash. The acquisition also includes the related website computerandvideogames.com.

From the makers of FIFA Football, Total Club Manager 2005 will pit your football wits against the best managers in the world. Whether you are scrapping for points in a relegation battle, or on the verge of European victory, TCM 2005 will guarantee you feel the pressures of the modern day football manager.

Use destructive weapons and innate mental powers to take on the most feared enemy in the galaxy - Mankind! Play as Crypto, an alien warrior sent to Earth to clear the way for the Furon invasion force. Your mission is to infiltrate humanity, control them, harvest their brain stems and ultimately destroy them. You choose the method - infiltration or disintigration!

In this inspiring adventure based on The Polar Express movie, players will take an extraordinary ride through eight exciting chapters. A mysterious Conductor shepherds players aboard the train and onto a journey to meet Santa Claus at the North Pole. Along the way, they will meet memorable characters from the film including the Girl Know-it-All, Lonely Boy, the Hobo, Smokey & Steamers and the Elves.

SCi today announced that its anticipated PC version of rally sim, 'Richard Burns Rally', has today gone gold and will be released in UK, Germany and France on September 3rd, with other territories to follow shortly after.

In Tribes: Vengeance's single-player campaign, gamers become immersed in a roiling galactic thriller. Throughout the game, the player catches glimpses of other, interrelated stories that are unfolding behind-the-scenes. In addition, gamers are given the opportunity to experience the full scope of the single-player story through multiple viewpoints and characters.

Full Spectrum Warrior is based on a light infantry-training simulator designed by Pandemic Studios for the U.S. Army as a tool to reinforce Army doctrine and squad tactics amongst troops. Full Spectrum Warrior is a squad-based, tactical-action game that delivers the experience of squad level command in the heat of battle.

The game will provide players with extremely dynamic gameplay of fast and tough combats, where players are to oppose dangerous and wise enemies, a large set of multifarious weaponry, possibility to control various machinery, incredible detailing and game world interactivity, story-driven single player with original team gameplay, a well-balanced multiplayer with numerous modes: DeathMatch, CTF, Cooperative, various team games and much more.

Miami Vice was one of the most popular TV series of the 80's taking millions of viewers on under-cover missions through the streets of Miami with characters like the cool Sonny Crockett, his trustworthy partner Ricardo Tubbs and the demanding Lieutenant Martin Castillo. The Miami street scene, the atmosphere of the series and the thrilling adventures of the detectives give an ultimate setting for sensational gameplay.

The Tank Gang have managed to escape from the dentist's office! Help Nemo, Dory, Marlin, Bruce, Crush, and Squirt get them to their new homes in the ocean. Revisit all your friends from the Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a Pixar Animation Studios film, Finding Nemo.

NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup challenges players to battle through a ground-breaking new story mode to rise from entry-level series to NASCAR stardom. Drivers compete for opportunities in NASCAR Featherlite Modified, NASCAR Craftsman Truck, and NASCAR National rides before competing for million-dollar purses in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series.

Blizzard has released yet another new Warcraft III map, this time called "Excavation Site"... Map info: "With the help of Gazlowe's engineers, an unexplored city was recently excavated near Durotar. Quickly secure the gold mines in the center before your enemies do." This is a Medium map and the suggested no. of players is 2v2 or FFA. It is based on the "Sunken Ruins" tileset. Go download it here!

The Xbox version of "Doom 3," the long-awaited PC video game recently released to wide acclaim, is not likely to be released in 2004, dealing a blow to enthusiastic game players who are anxiously awaiting it.

Wings of War puts gamers in the cockpit of over 25 Allied and German aircraft in massive air battles and bombing runs across the vast landscape of war torn Europe. Players will take on hordes of enemy aircraft in detailed planes or take control of anti-aircraft guns mounted on trains, zeppelins, boats and more.