Atari and Firaxis have announced that Sid Meier's Pirates! has gone gold and is on target for a U.S. in-store date of November 22nd.

Few things say "Happy Holidays!" more charmingly than cockroaches, and this holiday season is assured loads of festive roach-infested fun as Got Game Entertainment today announced that "Bad Mojo" has gone gold. This award-winning cult classic adventure "roach game" for both PC and Mac is set to crawl onto retail shelves across North America this December.

Set before the events of the two films which starred Vin Diesel as the anti-hero Riddick, the new developer’s cut offers players exclusive content in the form of a mech for players to control, as well as a new arena where players can test their survival skills against some of the most hardened criminals in the galaxy.

Developed by Irrational Games, SWAT 4 allows players to take control of a squad of up to five police officers tasked with performing dangerous operations such as high-risk arrests, hostage rescue and counter-terrorism. Read more for details and some new screens.

In Tales Of Rebirth, Namco's latest RPG, you will play as a swordsman in a world called Callegeia. Read more to check out some new screens ...

Spike TV today announced the categories, nominees and several performances scheduled for the 2nd annual Video Game Awards. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 top this year's nominees list with five nominations each.

Starting now and ending in the middle of December, a few lucky testers will be selected to participate in the Elemental Wars beta test. Testing will include exciting head to head play via peer to peer and in the Playful Minds game lobby. Also testers will be asked to outwit the challenging computer players who have three levels of difficulty. Active, selected testers will receive a free copy of the game plus be given in game testing credits.

Atari today announced it has shipped Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 for the PlayStation2, with a nationwide retail in-store date of November 23.

Picking up right where the game’s story left off, Battle out of Hell includes an additional single-player chapter with 10 levels, as well as new multiplayer modes, maps and models. It will also offer an amplified arsenal of un-deadly weapons, bigger and badder bosses and the map editor Software Development Kit. Check the new screens...

Soldiers ... it's time to heed the call and experience cinematic intensity and the chaos of battle as never before with the release of Activision's Call of Duty: Finest Hour, a gritty new World War II action game for the PS2, Xbox and GameCube.

Half-Life 2 is out, and you better believe it! But with new game releases come new bugs, and this is no different for Valve's HL2. For people who are running into the bug on startup that looks like "Map Version is 0, expecting 19," Valve's Erik Johnson suggested trying this to see if it works:

1. Go into your "/Steam/SteamApps folder"
2. Rename the file called sourcemodels.gcf to something else.
3. Relaunch the game.

This is going to require a redownload of this file, but if you want to get playing tonight it's probably the best path. There are a couple of people now who were in this situation and fixed the error in this way.

Electronic Arts and Cherry Lane Music Publishing today announced that the two companies have teamed up to create Next Level Music LLC, a music publishing company that will sign established as well as emerging new artists, acquire publishing catalogs, produce original music and further develop EA's rich catalogue of music.

Chat live with Yannis Mallat on PlayStation.com today Tuesday, November 16th @ 10:00am until 11:00am (Pacific Standard Time). Website visitors will have a chance to ask Yannis questions about the upcoming Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and his involvement with the critically-acclaimed, award-winning franchise.

Slitherine are pleased to announce Legion II, its new 4X strategy game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit & eXterminate). Initial design work on Legion II began early in 2004 and the game is slated for a late 2005 release. Legion II is set in the ancient Mediterranean world and players can choose to take control of any of the major civilizations at the time including the Romans, Carthaginians, Gauls and many more.

Mistland have another project lined up for the near future, "Alfa: AntiTerror". The sad reality of life in many countries. The global problem of modern times. A war, which can neither be won nor lost. The unpromising forecasts of scientists and experts concerning further development of things. Terrorism is waiting for our answer. An answer we are about to deliver.

Valve made good on its promise and has unlocked Half-Life 2 for people who pre-ordered it through its online delivery system Steam. "Half-Life 2 is available now for purchase and to play. Those who pre-purchased their copy via Steam may access the game by double-clicking on the Half-Life 2 icon in their Steam Games directory. To purchase your copy via Steam, please visit www.steampowered.com." The Source remake of the original Half-Life is now also available.

COPS 2170: The Power of Law is a colorful hybrid of tactical strategy and RPG elements where players take on the role of a rookie cop as she patrols the mean streets of a futuristic, cyberpunk metropolis. Read more for details and a few new screens ...

Jolt Online Gaming is pleased to announce that it is providing hosting and infrastructure for the German-developed MMORPG, Face of Mankind.

Former Argonaut development studio Just Add Monsters (JAM), creators of Kung Fu Chaos and one of the first developers to tackle next-generation development has been rescued and are now working under the Ninja Theory Ltd name.

"Stranger" is a real-time strategy game, with elements of role playing games set in a world, split in two parts, surface and a subterranean one, which are in a tenuous balance. 'Stranger' will also feature multiplayer although details beyond "The players may play on their own, or unite in teams" are a bit sktechy.