Medieval: Total War - Viking Invasion challenges players to control eight new factions, including the Vikings themselves, the Saxons, Scots, Irish, Welsh and Picts, and embark on a campaign to dominate the British Isles. With a wealth of new historical heroes, players can lead a range of new units into battle, including Viking Berserkers, Saxon Huscarles and Fyrdmen, while conducting sieges enhanced by the introduction of flaming arrows and boiling oil. Check these 8 new screens ...

A post from last week on Gameplanet says that the latest New Zealand release schedule from Electronic Arts lists a new add-on called Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons scheduled to ship in September of this year. No further details are provided other than a listed $49.95 MSRP or $28.00 in the U.S (thanks Bluesnews).

ARUSH Entertainment, Groove Games and Digitalo are pleased to announce that the 2-level multiplayer demo of the much-anticipated FPS Devastation has been released. The demo lets gamers play Devastation’s “Streetwar” (just like Deathmatch) and Capture the Flag game types over a LAN or online. It features two amazingly detailed environments, the Embarcadero Depot, and the abandoned Union Rail Yard. The maps are stocked with amazing weapons, including the powerful P*Laser and the remote-controlled Rat Drone. They have now updated the multiplayer demo and included the fix issued yesterday. Read more for download links ...

Vic DeLeon Sr. Producer @ Digitalo Studios posted up following information on Devastation forum:

The majority has spoken. Apparently this was a legitimate enough gripe and we will comply like the good developers we are trying to be. Most of the weapon sounds will be given an overhaul, with more bass, and pitch adjustments. I cannot promise anything but these changes should be in the full patch.

Thanks again for all the feedback and support. Keep it comin!

Live for Speed, developed by Scawen Roberts, Eric Bailey and Victor van Vlaardingen, is a realistic racing simulator for the PC platform. Now they have released a test demo that is available for download at liveforspeed.net. Since it's release in august 2002, Live for Speed has proved to be doing what they have focussed on: Bringing realistic, intense and fun driving on the pc for everyone. For more info, screens and download links, Click Here!

Champions of the forthcoming "official" Battlefield 1942 National Championship, hosted by iGames.org and Firingsquad.com, will be appearing in the next edition of Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records. As part of a broad campaign launched by the editors of the Book of World Records to identify the top players on all PC, arcade and console games, the champions of the Battlefield 1942 event will receive 2-3 pages of coverage in the record book, including player biographies, photos, statistics and a table displaying the final rankings of the national champions.

Article pulled at request of publisher, game/developer no longer exists ...

Metropolis team, developers of ArchAngel, revealed more details on their new game project with the code name, Gorky Zero. The game is a prequel to the highly acclaimed PC title, Gorky 17, and it's a tactical sneak-em-up action game set in military environment. Gorky Zero story has been written by a highly acclaimed writer and publicist Rafal A. Ziemkiewicz, three times laureate of Janusz A. Zajdel Award. Read more for additional details and the first screens ...

Nina - Agent Chronicles is one of the first two titles from City Interactive, the new Polish development house formed by the brains behind such hits as Project Earth and Aces of World War 1. But this is an action adventure with a difference, performed in an environment where completing tasks and solving puzzles is just as vital has eliminating your opponents - where tactical use of available weaponry beats just being quick on the draw! Stay tuned for our upcoming preview!!

I noticed that Bluesnews posted up info about a new patch "v1.17" for Prince of Qin. It's a 23 MB download, and in addition to providing all the fixes from prior patches, addresses several other gameplay issues, and also adds a chat filter.. Read more for download links ...

Evening Europe news.. Nintendo of America and Electronics Boutique (EB Games) Kick-Off The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’s Launch. In honor of Link’s famous green attire, Nintendo and Electronics Boutique are hosting an event where fans line up dressed as their favorite Zelda character to be the first to get their hands on the most highly anticipated game of the year, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for Nintendo GameCube.

Playnet and Cornered Rat Software have released a major update to the massively multiplayer online game, World War II Online and announced an exclusive free trial for Macintosh users at Inside Mac Games. Version 1.8 has introduced several new features including updated terrain, new special effects, network update rate increase for better playability and the introduction of French, German and British 1941 vehicles to the European Theater of Operations. The Hawker Hurricane IIc, Supermarine Spitfire MkV, German Panzer III H and Daimler Mk I Armored Car are just some of the vehicles included.

CHRIS VRENNA has been tapped to compose an original song for the upcoming MATRIX II : Enter The Matrix video game. The title of the song will be “Take The Pill”. A top producer, composer and remixer, VRENNA is known as one of the founding members of Nine Inch Nails as well as for his current TWEAKER incarnation. Acclaimed for his work in motion pictures, VRENNA has worked with U2, remixing “Elevation” for the Tomb Raider soundtrack as well as remixing P.O.D. “Set It Off” for The Scorpion King, Drowning Pool’s “Bodies” for the xXx soundtrack, Gavin Rosdale’s “Adrenaline” for the xXx soundtrack and the song “Fire Fight” for the recent Cradle 2 the Grave movie staring DMX and Jet Li. (thanks GameSpy)

With their recent office relocation to Maidenhead and additions to their staff, which include a new UK Office/International Marketing Manager, Cenega Publishing is planning for the future. At this years Score event Cenega Publishing will be presenting their three titles planned for 2003 on the Pinnacle stand. Shade: Wrath of Angels (PC/Xbox), UFO: Aftermath (PC) and Korea: Forgotten Conflict (PC/Xbox) which have already received extensive UK and Europe coverage with the leading UK magazines tipping these titles as ones to watch out for in 2003. (All three titles are planned for Quarter 3/4 2003 release.)

Deus Ex 2 allows players to participate in the telling of a powerful story, rich in mystery, lies and intrigue. In addition to a host of new conspiratorial friends and foes, players can expect encounters with a variety of characters from the original Deus Ex game. And, once again, players visit a variety of real world locations made more exotic by the passage of time.

Cheating-Death (C-D) is an anti-cheat system for Half-Life, which includes both a server and client. Unlike HLGuard, which is a server-side only anti-cheat, C-D offers more protection by blocking the cheats themselves before the player joins the server. Now the UA Anti-Cheat Team has released another update (client only) with these changes:

• [NEW] Added Auto-update.
• [FIXED] Fixed Code[32] for ATI Radeon users.
• [FIXED] Fixed problems for AU8830 chipset soundcards.
• [FIXED] Fixed Code[16] for ActionHL.
• [FIXED] Fixed third person spectator mode.

Sony Computer Entertainment UK today announced the PlayStation 2 Creative Award 2003 and also announced that renowned BritArtists Dinos & Jake Chapman and Marc Quinn will be on the judging panel for the award. Designed to recognise fresh talent from UK universities, nominations for the PlayStation 2 Creative Award 2003 will be taken from work submitted to an intriguing art exhibition, "Primal Art - portrait of the artist as a video gamer".

Fasa Studio's Von revealed following MechWarrior information on their forum:

Over the past few months there has been plenty of speculation, email, and pleas for information regarding the future of the PC MechWarrior franchise, namely MechWarrior 5. Although an exceptional effort was made by an extremely creative and talented development team, we have decided not to continue the development of the project at this time. There were several factors in this decision, but most prevalent was our concern that we were not advancing the genre enough to meet and exceed our customer's expectations. Please know that this was a very difficult decision, but one we felt was in the best interests of our customers.

We deeply love the Mechwarrior franchise, and are committed to keeping it alive. Our plan is to re-invent Mechwarrior in a way that brings a fresh experience to our devoted customers and new fans alike. We would like to thank all of you for your continued support of the Mechwarrior 4 series of games, and greatly appreciate all the feedback we've received on our games. We are intensely focused on delivering outstanding game experiences, and rest assured we are working feverishly on some wonderful next-generation games.

Shrapnel Games announced today that Interstellar Trader 2, the strategy game touted as easy to learn and difficult to master, has begun shipping. Interstellar Trader 2 is the sequel to the original strategy simulation Interstellar Trader where you become the owner of a start-up merchant business in outer space. You do this by traveling from planet to planet in the galaxy, buying and selling items in the various marketplaces.

A few days back Take-Two Interactive announced VIETCONG for the PC went gold. VIETCONG, a first person shooter set during the Vietnam War, is set to hit stores shelves in March 2003. Now you can listen to the hot newcomer band Rude Kostry and its instrumental soundtrack for VIETCONG, playing at Radio Vietcong. (thanks Unrealik)