UA recently held an online Counter-Strike tournament with $10,000 in cash & prizes sponsored by ZipZoomFly. Nearly 1000 players participated and six of the top 20 CS clans played as well. Team3D and the runner up teams United5 and Deadzone were awarded prizes worth $10,000, including $5,000 in cash and $5,000 in top-of-the-line AMD Athlon 64 processors and motherboards.

Future Tactics is a turn-based tactical RPG that looks and feels like an action/platform game. Built around a highly complex turn-based battle engine, the adventure showcases a single-player Story Mode, as well as a two-player Battle Mode. The plot is set in the not too distant future, when Earth as we know it has succumbed to a race of extra-dimensional creatures. Now the final hope for restoring order to the planet rests on the shoulders of a young boy, his sister and a rag-tag assembly of unlikely warriors. Read more for some screens ...

Encore and JoWooD have released a demo for Phenomic's RTS/RPG game SpellForce: The Order of Dawn. The demo features the usual tutorial as well as a singeplayer map (Rift), and a multiplayer map (2-player map Ashvale). Read more for download links...

The main hero of the game, the lumberman from the introduction, comes from Earth. He came to this planet with the whole earth civilization when the Earth resources started to exhaust. The mankind was forced to leave the Earth and leave for another planet (thanks GenGamers). Read more for details & screens ...

Larian Studios announced today that Beyond Divinity will officially become the new title for the latest adventure set in the Divinity Universe. Divine Divinity, launched in 2002 was critically acclaimed for its depth and level of interactivity. In Beyond Divinity, Larian Studios takes what made Divine Divinity so deeply appealing, and pushes it one step further. Using an enhanced version of the original engine, the final product delivers infinite character development, unparalleled levels of interactivity, a wide variety of enemies; tons of quests and a brand new combat system. By catering to all of these elements with equal levels of importance, Beyond Divinity will truly deliver a total RPG experience.

Whiptail Interactive, a global publisher of PC games, today announced that the kung fu action role-playing game Blade & Sword has gone gold. The game will ship on December 22, 2003 with an MSRP of $29.99 and has been rated M for Mature.

Black-haired and sullen-eyed, a thief, a reaver, a slayer. The legends that surround his name, speak of the world before history, where shadows of magic and dark alien gods shrouded the known world and the fate of whole empires were dependent on the strength and skills of a single sword. And this is one of those legends. Conan is a 3rd person action game, with few elements of RPG and adventure. The game is divided into chapters, each chapter with different environments and creatures. Each chapter contains several levels. Read more for some new screens ...

GMX Media today announced that it has secured the rights to publish the PC RTS title – Cold War Conflict in the UK. "Based on the Gameplay of the award winning Sudden Strike 1 & 2 but with flair of the cold war theatres, this is certain to take the UK by storm." Commented Barry Leonard COO of GMX Media. “We are due to kick off a massive marketing campaign in 2 weeks which we hope will all but guarantee a chat position on release.” Read more for details and a bunch of new screens ...

In the gaming industry, the free playable demo is one of the most popular and powerful tools to interest gamers in the final product. It therefore seems logical to expect publishers will maximise the game's exposure by giving the demo the widest possible release. Unfortunately this is not always the case, and sometimes a demo is given the most restricted release: to one site for several days or even a week. This hurts the industry at large much more than it can help a single relationship. Read more for the full letter ...

Electronic Arts today announced that The Sims Bustin' Out for the PlayStation2, Xbox , and GameCube has shipped under the EA Games brand. For the first time, Sims console players can get their Sims out of the house and into all-new locations to play, work, and meet a cast of outrageous new characters.

Slated for release in Spring 2004 for the Xbox and the PC, Race Driver 2 will provide gamers the most diverse and thrilling range of motor sports ever seen in one game. Designed as the definitive racing experience, the game will feature complete head to head Xbox Live and PC online functionality. Read more for details ...

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 :

• Spellforce - Trailer
• Hitman: Contracts - Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

Codemaster has released a new upgrade for their stealth/action game IGI 2:Covert Strike. This upgrade will bring your retail game to v1.3 and adds anti-cheating features and framerate optimizations. Read more for details and download links!

Microsoft Game Studios and Valve today announced that two new multiplayer maps for Counter-Strike for Xbox are now available for free download via Xbox Live. The red-hot "Inferno" and fan-favourite "Office" are the latest urban battlefields on which to stage Counter-Strike's world-famous, action-packed multiplayer gameplay.

With noses red from their victims' blood, Running With Scissors announced the release of POSTAL 2: Share The Pain. The brazen videogame developer's Christmas balls were hanging with joy as they landed their first title as a publisher onto the shelves of retailers across North America.

Eidos today announced the eagerly awaited return of the world's deadliest assassin in Hitman: Contracts. The game is the third installment in the critically acclaimed, multi-million selling Hitman series. Hitman: Contracts is being developed by Io Interactive and will be available for PlayStation2, the Xbox, and PC in spring 2004.

Experience the thrill of top speed racing and high flying freestyle action in the most authentic motocross video game to date. Choose from more than a dozen top pro riders and battle it out for first place in fast-paced, realistic racing on a variety of Supercross (indoor) and Motocross (outdoor) levels or take on challenges outside the circuit. Read more for a few new screens ....

Gamespot got word that Sony's 'Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain' has been pushed back in order to give the development team more time to polish the game. SCEA's John Garvin, creative director of Omega Strain developer Sony Bend (located in Bend, Oregon, hence the name), and Chris Reese, technical director of the studio, explained the delay in a statement. "The team took a close look at how much tuning and gameplay balancing was necessary to complete the game with our original vision intact. We then decided to take some additional time to implement that extra bit of polish into the game," the two designers said.

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. Powered by an enhanced version of the Unreal Engine, the world is brought to life with characters that have facial expressions and fully-realized personalities, vehicles that kick up dust as they pass by, and weapons that display spectacular effects. Check out these new screens ...