WorthPlaying is trying to spread the holiday joy by giving away bunches of goodies in two contests, sponsored by Electric Artists and Strategy First! Good luck to everyone ... both contests end December 19th! Read more for details, or click on the banners above.

Quotes from Arnold Schwarzenegger and the rest of the cast and crew about the game, which they generally agree is "really great"... Check it out below!

GMX Media announced today that it has secured the rights to publish FirePower for the PC in North America. FirePower is currently scheduled for a Q1 2004 release.

GolemLabs has posted its first developer diary of six on its official website today, detailing the development of its upcoming real-world strategy game SuperPower 2. DreamCatcher Games will publish the title in late 2004. The sequel to SuperPower is, like its predecessor, a global geopolitical simulation game that gives gamers the power to control four aspects of a chosen country: politics, economy, military and demography. Compared to the original game, however, SuperPower 2 has been improved with new gameplay, 3D graphics and an incredibly smart A.I.

UbiSoft has now also released the dedicated Win32 server for 1C Maddox's WW II flight sim IL-2 Sturmovik: the Forgotten Battles to synchronize it with yesterdays v1.21 client patch. Read more for download links ...

Gearbox has revealed that they are working on yet another patch for their PC port of Halo: Combat Evolved. The v1.03 update patch is expected to be released early next week and will add several new features (anti team killing, increased network performance, etc.) as well as various game fixes and dedicated server updates. Read more for a detailed fix list.

Right after the Unreal II SE announcement, Atari now also revealed that a demo version of Unreal 2 Expanded Multiplayer a.k.a. XMP, will be released tomorrow. The demo will not require a copy of Unreal 2 to try out and will feature one map entitled XMP-Garden. The full version of XMP, which is included with Unreal 2: Special Edition, will be a free download for existing owners of Unreal 2, and is absolutely brilliant (thanks Andy). Stay tuned for we WILL have it on our fileservers of course ..

TDK has released a new patch for Synetic's racing game World Racing. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.4.4 and adresses some control issues, fixes bugs and some sound improvements. This patch also allows you to download new cars and the first one "slipstream" is already included (thanks 4Players.de). Read more for details and download links ...

Atari is expanding the gameplay of Unreal II: The Awakening this December with Unreal II: The Awakening ­ Special Edition for the personal computer. The Special Edition package will include the original single-player campaign, first released in February 2003, as well as an all-new multiplayer experience called XMP, or “Expanded Multiplayer.” Developed by Legend Entertainment (an Atari studio) in conjunction with Epic Games, Unreal II: The Awakening is the follow-up to Epic Games’ 1998 smash hit Unreal and incorporates the same story-driven gameplay, cunningly ferocious enemies and nail-biting tension that made the original title a best seller.

The Elemental is a total conversion of Gas Powered Games Dungeon Siege. Elemental is set in an alternate mythical version of ancient Judea that is gritty, mean, and profane. In a world full of Romans, thieves, and monsters the only real way to describe the Elemental experience is with one word, Biblepunk (thanks Jason). Read more for details and download links ...

Atari, Inc. has announced that the sequel to last year's hugely successful Dragon Ball Z: Budokai game has shipped to retail stores nationwide. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 for the PlayStation2, takes the best-selling fighting game of 2002 and 2003 (through October)*, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, and transforms it into a heart-pounding new way to immerse fans in a quest to recover the seven Dragon Balls and the battles between good and evil that define the DBZ world.

ESPN Videogames has announced its newest sports title set to debut in Spring 2004 - ESPN Major League Baseball. Formerly known as the "World Series Baseball 2K" series, ESPN Major League Baseball will deliver the exhilarating drama and heart-pounding action of the "Major Leagues." ESPN Videogames is proud to announce that New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi will be the official spokesperson and cover athlete for ESPN Major League Baseball. Providing players with the complete ESPN experience, ESPN Major League Baseball will feature two stalwart ESPN baseball veterans: Jon Miller and Karl Ravech. Miller, who is set to begin his 15th season on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, will handle the play-by-play duties on the virtual diamond, while Ravech, the host of ESPN's Baseball Tonight, will provide the in-studio analysis. Read more for details & screens ...

Shrapnel Games and Stormcloud Creations has released an updated for the upcoming fantasy gladiatorial management sim, Coliseum. The demo gives players an enormous taste of what to expect in the full title to be released later this month. This v1.01 fixes a few bugs but also adds or modifies many features and addresses some perceived balance issues. Read more for download links ...

Enemy Technology has released a demo for their upcoming sci-fi RTS game I of the Enemy, featuring 2 extra missions (a total of 5) from the first campaign. I Of the Enemy is a "science fiction, real-time strategy war game in the genre of Command & Conquer and Warcraft and will blast its way onto the retail scene in a simultaneous launch across all territories across the world in Spring 2004." Read more for download links ...

Diversions Entertainment today announced that One Must Fall: Battlegrounds, the long-anticipated online action fighter for the PC, has gone gold. One Must Fall: Battlegrounds offers players a fun and engrossing single-player tournament campaign experience complemented by a comprehensive online multiplayer mode, offering players the opportunity to match their fighting skills against up to 15 other players at once!

Get your Sims off the couch and out of the house! The Sims Bustin' Out for PlayStation2, Xbox, and GameCube has gone gold and is scheduled for release on December 16, 2003, just in time for the holidays. Read more for details & some new screens ...

Eidos today announced its Fresh Games line will bring R-TYPE FINAL, the newest iteration of the classic R-TYPE franchise, to North America for the PlayStation2 this Winter.

IGN Entertainment and GameSpy Industries, on Thursday said they will merge to create a company offering gaming news, information, downloads, data services and community features. San Francisco-based IGN and Irvine, California-based GameSpy, both of which are privately held, said the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2004. IGN Chief Executive Mark Jung will be CEO of the combined company, and GameSpy Chairman Mark Surfas will be chief strategy officer. Both the IGN.com and GameSpy.com brands are expected to be retained after the deal closes, the two sides said in a statement.

Running With Scissors, the pugnacious publisher and developer of POSTAL 2: Share The Pain, proclaimed that the contractual blood tests were back and that they could now safely hook-up with the morally casual distribution demons at Tri Synergy, Inc., the videogame co-publishing company that will be handling sales services for Running With Scissors in North America.

A beta demo (the same version that was shown at E3 a few months back) for Benoit Sokal's Syberia 2 has been released allowing you to check out a small part of Microids upcoming adventure game (thanks multiplayer.it / HomeLAN).

UPDATE : Microids contacted WP to inform us that this demo is not suitable for public release, thus we have removed the download link...