Rockstar Games' products planned for release in the fourth quarter include the launch of Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, the sequel to the hit franchise that has sold over 4 million units since its debut in 2001. The title will launch on PC, and will be in stores in North America on October 15th, with PlayStation2 and Xbox versions planned for release in the first quarter.

Gathering, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. and critically acclaimed software developer Illusion Softworks, today announced the launch of the Hidden & Dangerous 2 website. All the latest in-game movies, exclusive screenshots, game FAQ's and more are now. The game, invading stores this October for the PC, is the highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed World War II tactical strategy game.

Celtic Kings: The Punic Wars appeals to both RTS and RPG players searching for a new experience in already known genres. The multiplayer provides new strategic gameplay tuned towards the traditional RTS players. It is easy to start playing the game but there are a lot of new options to explore. Celtic Kings: The Punic Wars continues the traditions of the award winning Celtic Kings: Rage of War and will be exploring the three Punic wars between Rome and Carthage in the period 264BC – 146BC which includes the famous campaigns of Hannibal and Scipio Africanus.

Rockstar Games, the world-renowned publishing division of Take-Two Interactive Software announced today that it plans to ship the award-winning Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as a "double pack" for both the PlayStation2 and the Xbox. The Grand Theft Auto "double pack" is set to hit shelves in North America on October 22, 2003 for PlayStation2 and on November 4, 2003 for Xbox.

Take-Two Interactive Software and TDK Mediactive announced an agreement today pursuant to which Take-Two will acquire all shares of outstanding common stock of TDK Mediactive. Under the terms of the agreement, Take-Two will purchase TDK Mediactive for approximately $22.7 million, consisting of (1) $0.55 per share for each of the 23,005,885 shares outstanding (approximately $12.6 million); (2) purchase of debt of approximately $9.9 million ($1.9 million in cash and $8 million in restricted shares of common stock of Take-Two, or approximately 270,000 shares); and (3) approximately $0.2 million to retire outstanding stock options.

Activision and Disney Interactive, a publishing label of Buena Vista Games announced today that Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure video game is available at retail stores nationwide. The game gives skateboarding a magical new twist. For the first time ever, kids can skate as their favorite characters from the imaginative worlds of Walt Disney Pictures' presentation of a Pixar Animation Studios' film "Toy Story 2," Disney's "Tarzan" and "The Lion King." Powered by the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 engine technology, the game includes a Create-A-Skater option where players can customize a youthful skater's "look" by selecting clothing and accessories. Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure is rated "E" ("Everyone" -- content suitable for persons ages 6 and older) by the ESRB and is available now for a suggested price of $39.99 on the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox video game system from Microsoft and Nintendo GameCube and for $29.99 on the Game Boy Advance.

Electronic Arts announced that Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII, the latest expansion pack for the award-winning Battlefield 1942 PC game series under the EA GAMES brand, is available in stores today. From cutting edge weapons to secret forces and clandestine locations, Secret Weapons of WWII will add a new level of drama and excitement to the Battlefield 1942 experience.

MERCURYSTEAM Entertainment has today launched a totally renewed website to promote its curret action game in development SCRAPLAND. The new flash site contains details regarding the game's storyline and key features as well as a wealth of screenshots, artwork, wallpapers and a weighty section about the characters with videos, the models, their gunships and much more. It also hosts a section ready to put up community resources. The site can be found here or read more to check out some screens ...

Backyard Wrestling places you in the role of an aspiring wrestler. You must be prepared to endure extreme amounts of pain and take incredible risks in order to move one step closer to the BYW title and ultimately be crowned 'The King of Hardcore'. But the road to glory is long and dangerous. Dozens of weapons including thumbtacks, barbed wire, light bulbs, baseball bats, tables, trash cans, and stop signs are at your disposal to help re-arrange the faces of new challengers... Now has its own website, which it probably is OK to try at home.

Combining the intrigue of battle assignments with the thrill of in-your-face action, this dynamic game is a unique mix of both the adventure and flight sim genres. From air battles and breath taking 30 aircraft dog fights to bombing and spy missions Aces WW I - working title provides the kind of action packed gameplay that is guaranteed to satisfy both flight sim specialists and the wider gaming fraternity. Read more for details and screens ...

Electronic Arts today announced that based on internal tracking, two football titles launched in July and August have broken records. Madden NFL 2004 has sold through more than two million units in just over three weeks. NCAA Football 2004 has sold through close to one million units.

Vivendi Universal Games announced today that, in conjunction with Relic Entertainment, it will release a sneak-peak to Homeworld(r)2, the sequel to 1999's award-winning, space-based real-time strategy game, tomorrow. The demo will include looks at both the single- and multi-player campaigns of Homeworld 2, including the tutorial mission, two single-player missions, and two multiplayer missions, which will be playable over both LAN and the GameSpy network.

ESPN Videogames today announced that the highly anticipated ESPN NFL Football has shipped to major video game retailers across North America. The long-awaited sequel to the critically acclaimed "NFL 2K" series, ESPN NFL Football represents the highest standard of both football realism and video game entertainment. ESPN NFL Football and other ESPN Videogames titles are produced by Visual Concepts, SEGA's sports studio.

Hip Interactive announced today the signing of an agreement with Strategy First naming Hip's Publishing Division as the principal North American vendor for approximately twenty PC titles over the next thirteen months. Nine titles will be released before Christmas 2003, including the much-anticipated sequel to Etherlords, a stand-alone add-on for the popular Jagged Alliance series, and a new title in the award-winning Disciples series. Now that the cat is out of the bag Strategy First will most likely rush out the official announcements soon ...

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 :

• Commandos 3 - Sniper Trailer
• Restricted Area - Trailer
• Sega GT Online - Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

French developer Microids has announced that the sequel to last year's awards winning adventure game Syberia II is being delayed. Originally scheduled for release this coming fall it is now being pushed back to Q1 2004. Reason for the delay is to give Syberia mastermind Benoit Sokal and his team extra/sufficient time to deliver the best product possible. Read more for details ...

Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain is the next installment of the Syphon Filter storyline. Elsa Weissenger has come to Gabe Logan with evidence that a multinational corporation has been behind the Syphon Filter conspiracy from the beginning. Mara Aramov is connected to this consortium in some way that Gabe does not understand. But here is what Gabe does know: Mara has escaped custody, outbreaks of a deadly new mutation of the virus are appearing all over the globe, and Chechnyan rebels are selling the virus to other terrorists. A few new screens just infiltrated our offices ...

Blizzard have made some major upgrades to their Battle.net forums (thanks GameSpyDaily).. Here is the Change List:

-New layout for the Warcraft III forums! - If you have bookmarked any of the Warcraft III forums, you will need to delete your bookmark and create a new bookmark to the new layout. Check out the new layout. If you find the layout is too dark, please adjust your monitor’s contrast/brightness. -List of all posts by poster: Next to each poster’s name, you will see a magnifying-glass-over-a-person icon. Click on this icon and it will list all of the stored posts by that poster. To see their latest posts, you will need to flip to the last page.

-Warcraft III users: The forums now show the user’s clan and links to their clan page next to their name!

-New signature preview! - You can now see your signature and make changes to it without making test posts to the forums. Go to the options screen and make a change to your signature. You can see what it will look like and make further changes to it before it appears “live” on the forums.

-Removed post count: While this was a cool feature, we found people abused it too much in order to get higher post counts.

-Forums now have a title (top of Web browser window) which is helpful when creating a bookmark to a specific forum.

-MVPs now have a different post color

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World represents the only truly global RTS where players control unique civilizations across a timeline that spans from the Middle Ages to the modern era. Gamers lead their nation's economic growth and military campaigns in their effort to dominate the world. Each civilization has its own historically accurate units and abilities to be used as players command battles over land, sea and air. From a cavalry charge to a surprise air strike, gamers will know what it truly means to rule one of the world's greatest empires.