The roar of the crowd. The warm summer air. The dirt on your pants. Backyard Baseball brings the excitement of summer ball games to the GameCube – with all new 3D graphics! Catch all the great baseball excitement with the Backyard Kids and real pro baseball players as kids. Pick your team, position players and choose a field to play on for single games or an entire season. Choose from all 30 MLB teams or create your own winning line-up with custom team names and uniforms. It’s the chance of a lifetime to play with the pros right in your own backyard!

Turn-based magic moments from the life of Artemian, a budding mage... Sharpen your swords and gather up enough magic power because in the end of this summer a strategic delicacy arrives - Empire of Magic... Read more for game story and key features!

BioWare has released a new patch for Neverwinter Nights, updating their role playing game to v1.28. There have been some Aurora toolset changes, there's new ATI code for the Catalyst 3.0/3.1 drivers, and there have been some stability fixes among other things. Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

The Official Shadowbane website just released two new Herald journals detailing the latest events inside of the closed Ubi Soft beta test. The first journal is called Avarice: The Jewel of Southern Tyrranth which is a guided tour of one of the most successful player cities inside of the Shadowbane beta test. The guided player-city tour contains screenshots of buildings and hirelings at work, and two interviews with beta testers who manage the town. The second Herald journal is called The Power of Gold, a follow-up report to the earlier chronicles surrounding the Siege of Stormwood last month. This journal includes screens, and details the rise of mercenary companies inside the heated political and military conflicts of Shadowbane's beta test. Read more to check out the screens ...

German publisher Ascaron released their latest RPG/Fantasy Adventure game Sacred in Spring 2002, but no word about English release date. Sacred will allow you to choose one of 6 (3 male/3 female) totally different characters, ranging from Magicians, Gladiators, Dark Elves and more. Your journey will take you to the wastelands of "Ancaria", far at the southern border of the human kingdom, where the evil Magician 'Shaddar' hides in his tower after he was banished for his on-going cruelties. Check out these 6 new screens ..

Republic: The Revolution is the ground breaking new strategy title boasting jaw-dropping visuals utilising the most advanced graphic engine ever seen. Republic: The Revolution is being developed by London based Elixir Studios and is already one of the most talked about titles of the year. Elixir Studios also let us know that they, as of today, will start a daily Q&A on their Forum with key members of the Republic Team where you will be able to ask questions, discuss topics and debate the fine details of the forthcoming Republic: The Revolution. They also released a new batch of screens, so read more and check them out!

Worms 3 will utilise the full power afforded by next-generation platforms, featuring ground-breaking fully deformable landscape technology, and will continue the wild humor and intensive, addictive fun that gamers expect from the Worms franchise. Worms 3 will showcase a raft of new gameplay features, while retaining all the familiar chaos of the original titles, complete with bizarre power-ups, loopy weaponry, and crazy cartoon graphics -- in both single and multi-player modes. Check out these 8 new wormelicious screens ..

The Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide site is updated with a new Creatures of the desert unite wallpaper. This new wallpaper features an abundance of many-legged creatures massing in the desert! Also in upcoming weeks, they will be showcasing aspects of the 3 new Shadows of Undrentide tilesets, starting this week with the Giant Statue Head, Chasm Stairs, and Oasis tiles from the Desert tileset! (thanks gamezone.cz)

Play from a distance so great you can't see the telly any more with this new Xbox controller. And Logic3 has its own S-styled one too... SpectraVideo plc are now shipping the new Logic3 FreeBird RF Wireless Game Pad and the S-Pad– both for the Xbox console. These two new controllers feature an improved ergonomic design, but with out losing any of the functionality found in the earlier, larger controllers.

WarBirds just got a new makeover! WarBirds, Pacific Theater of Operations is an upcoming major update to the award winning WarBirds III family of products. New terrain, new airplanes, new flight models, new strategy, and new fun all will be had with this exciting new version! The remarkable game play featured in WarBirds PTO is incomparable to any previous versions of WarBirds!

Sabotage is intended to be the first game that will give the player complete freedom in complex interior environments as well as in huge exterior surfaces. It takes place in a near (and pretty depressing) future where the player is in charge of a company that buys off employees’lives in order to give them dangerous and highly strategic missions: from industrial espionage to sabotage... Sabotage combines real time strategy and ultra-fast action to offer a unique experience. The game should run on PC and Xbox platforms. Check out the new batch of screens ...

Mike at the German racing site Race-Zone let us know that they now have a complete list of all 109 vehicles from Synetic's upcoming racing game, Mercedes Benz World Racing.. The game features a revolutionary 3D Landscape Engine, which not only creates separate race tracks but facilitates the creation of kilometre long 3D sceneries allowing a virtually realistic full driving experience. The player can select his favourite model car from a nearly complete range of cars from Mercedes-Benz. Each model is sculptured based on original data from Mercedes-Benz.

Today Infogrames announced World of Outlaws Sprint Cars - the greatest show on dirt - will be available in all major retail outlets for Windows PC. The product's mind-blowing graphics are a direct-result of developer Ratbag's award-winning Difference Engine. We also got a batch of new screens for your enjoyment ...

Infogrames just revealed details about a new upcoming title "Humvee Assault". Track down and eliminate dangerous forces from behind the wheel of the world’s most relied upon front-line vehicle — the HUMVEE. Whether rumbling through a sun-baked desert, steaming tropical jungle or frozen tundra, it’s up to you to deliver a knockout punch to America’s enemies. With simple pick-up-and-play controls and immediate arcade-style action, this is your war to win. This is HUMVEE Assault! Read more for details and a few new screens ...

Sierra has just launched the official website for their dinosaur theme park sim Jurassic Park Operation Genesis (developed by Blue Tongue Software). The new web site features a bunch of new but lo-res screenshots, links to the previously released demo (which we have mirror'd here), as well as a new trailer (also mirror'd here). Go check it out!

Cold Zero is an action adventure game where the player takes the role of John McAffrey, a former marksman with a SWAT team who was discharged from service after shooting a hostage by accident. His skills helped him get a job providing high level security for high profile corporations. One of his clients is BioResearch Inc, a company that created the genetic weapon known as Cold Zero. After a terrorist group attacks the laboratory and steals this virus, John sets our to find the terrorists before they have a chance to unleash a catastrophe of global proportions. It has been a while since out last Cold Zero screens, but here they finally are .. Njoy!

I saw that Geek News posted up information about that Bill Gates did some talking to the French press, revealing tantalizing tidbits about the Xbox 2. Here is the cut and past:

Gates says the new box will have a lot of multimedia functions beyond just gaming. "The next-generation Xbox will feature digital media capabilities such as video and photo editing in addition to games," Gates was quoted as saying. This isn't very surprising, since the future of home console gaming seems to be moving more and more toward becoming multimedia devices that can replace everything but the TV in your entertainment center.

Coming to the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system, Tenchu 3: Wrath of Heaven features impressive new stealth attacks, an enhanced fighting engine, new weapons and tools, larger levels, improved character animations and new multiplayer options... 12 new screenshots to take a look at.

GoldenLand is a role playing game with a global gameworld, developed role system, divaricated storyline allowing multiply passes of every quest, and turn-based battle system. The multiplayer mode allows players to join their energies on struggles against the enemies, to fight against each other and even to establish economical relations with other players. Three new screenshots available. Warning: includes frightening skeletons.

Activision, Inc. announced today that two of its acclaimed titles for the Xbox video game system from Microsoft -- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and WRECKLESS: The Yakuza Missions -- have been selected for inclusion in Microsoft's "Xbox Platinum Hits" program. The new "Platinum Hits" program launched on February 11, 2003 with over a dozen best-selling Xbox games, repackaged with the "Platinum Hits" banner. The titles carry a suggested retail price of $19.99.