Electronic Arts has just announced they have started shipping The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers for Xbox and GameCube. Based on the JJR Tolkien's novel and recently released movie, The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers follows Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli as they go head to head with Sauron’s army. The game spans 13 missions, boss monsters covering the first two movies, and includes movie content such as scenes from the movie and interviews with the stars of the film. The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers is rated “T” for teen, and retails for around $49.99 USD.

British Beware! The Highland Warriors are coming! Data Becker Corp. announces that its wildly anticipated 3D RTS game, Highland Warriors, has gone gold over the holiday weekend. The game, developed by Soft Enterprises, features breakthrough graphics (200,000 polygons per screen); brutal historic tales of battle and revenge, and game play elements to interest and excite new and experienced gamers.

The Observer reports that violent computer games are to be regulated by a film-style classification system that will warn parents about graphic sex or horrific images. The move comes after complaints about the content of games such as Hooligans: Storm over Europe, State of Emergency and Carmaggedon, which show graphic images of fighting, death and reckless driving. From April all computer games sold in the EU will carry the new classifications. Those with no violent content or sex will be rated 3+, indicating the age from which they can be played. There will also be classifications of 7+, 12+, 16+ and 18+.

I saw that Blues News dug up some information about a soon to be announced game, third edition in the series of Total War RTS games set in the Roman empire. Head over to GameStar.de to check out the first screens and to Total War message board for some comments from Creative Assembly developer Gil Jaysmith..

Xpand Rally races take place in different parts of the world, the player gets to race in different environments – from deserts to polar snows. This gives him opportunity to experience cars’ physics changing in different weather and on different surfaces (gravel, sand, snow, ice and asphalt). Terrains in Xpand Rally are created on Chrome Engine. This enabled the XR team to create realistic and abundant in flora terrains of a few dozens of square kilometers. It will give the players a completely different feeling from driving in a narrow gutter known from most racing games... Some new shots below!

IL-2 Sturmovik set new standards of realism and gameplay and swept almost every gaming award on its way to become the most critically acclaimed flight simulation title for 2001. In addition to the new campaigns set on the Finnish and Hungarian fronts and new single and multiplayer missions, several new playable and AI controlled Russian, German and British aircraft is featured in IL-2 Sturmovik: The Forgotten Battles. Check out latest 22 screens below, as well as the impressive fan made trailer!!

The game is in the style of ´Commandos´ where the player takes on the role of the leader of a group of military specialist in the Korean War. Along with innovative features (some never seen before), you are offered the customary classic intuitive user-friendly features. Set in Korea during the conflict between North and South Korea, the game offers an authentic setting from the period, along with all its nuances.

BBC England reports that a 69-year-old woman was hit on the head with a computer game console as she tried to stop her son being attacked by a burglar. Maureen Palmer, 69, found her 41-year-old son wrestling with the intruder at the family home in Greystoke Road, Slough, Berkshire. Mrs Palmer cried out "nobody hurts my son", but the man hit her over the head with the Playstation that he had just stolen from the living room...

Silent Storm is a true 3D game combining turn-based tactical combats and role-playing set against the background of the WWII. As the war rages on, you will lead a squad of elite troopers deep behind enemy lines to perform secret missions and prevent a disaster the true scale of which could be fully appreciated by neither of the involved parties... Today the Russian fan site silest.ru posted up a bunch of new exclusive ingame screens that you can check out here!

Hungarian developer Invictus has issued a new patch for Street Legal Racing, updating their budget-priced racing simulation to v2.2. This upgrade brings more crash bug fixes, gameplay tweaks, performance enhancements, save game improvements, and other changes. read more for detailed fix list and links where to get the goods ...

Drag-On Dragoon is being developed by Cavia, a developer comprised of some former Namco employees that worked on Ace Combat, and will ship for the PlayStation 2 during Spring 2003. Enix has released an all Japanese site for their action-RPG Drag-On Dragoon and we have local mirrors for the first trailer showing off some intro movie and in game action. Read more for download links ...

Sword of the Samurai is a story-driven sword fighting game that allows players to create a character and train their fighter in a variety of fighting techniques as they work their way to finally become the ultimate Bushido Master. Players will experience their character's growth as they develop their own sword-fighting style and learn new skills by receiving authentic advice and instruction from expert Dojo Masters. Players will fight multiple opponents including 30 of the most famous Japanese sword-fighting grandmasters, going on a variety of missions to learn new sword fighting skills and amass a collection of more than 100 authentic swords with individual statistics. Sword of the Samurai is the ultimate sword fighting game, featuring awesome combat in a feudal Japanese atmosphere.

Feel the power of commanding a modern jet fighter. Fly a variety of combat aircraft in the most graphically rich, audio intense game environment ever created for a combat flight simulator. Lock On: Modern Air Combat combines a broad scope of game play that includes a dynamic campaign system, an immersive combat environment, and in-your-face action. Choose from eight U.S. and Russian jets that range from the tank-killing A-10 Warthog and, ground-pounding Su-25 Frogfoot to air superiority fighters like the F-15C Eagle and Su-27 Flanker. Filled with intense campaigns, realistic flight modeling and flexible game options, Lock On will provide unlimited game play action to both novice and veteran flight sim fans... Read more for screens!

In Tom Clancys Ghost Recon you are invited to lead this brand-new squad as they focus on covert military strikes and international peacekeeping missions that do not always go as planned. You and your team conduct extensive missions on foot, but you’ll occasionally have assistance from troops in tanks, helicopters and close air support. In many cases, you will be working with international military forces and NATO to fight against rising dictators and rebel groups.

Ubi Soft Entertainment and MGA Entertainment, earlier this year announced an exclusive licensing agreement for Ubi Soft to develop and publish games based on the popular and fashionable BRATZ dolls for PC and all the new generation of consoles... Today we have some new shots that you can check out!

Sum of All Fears is a first-person shooter with the emphasis on actionis part of the Tom Clancy franchise. It has some elements of Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear in terms of the "close quarters combat" focus, but it also has a lot of the advance tools of the Ghost Recon engine.. Check out some shots below!

The 3DO Company announced today the completion of an agreement with founder and chief executive officer Trip Hawkins that will provide $10 million in financial support to the company. A clip from announcement:

"3DO is poised to release hit games in 2003, beginning with our top-ranked High Heat Major League Baseball 2004 in February," said Hawkins. "This agreement is a big step forward on our goals of revenue growth and a return to profitability. Our confidence is growing from good previews from the gaming press for our 2003 product slate, and promising purchase order demand for our initial 2003 releases."

A series of grisly murders brings Lara into conflict with a sinister Alchemist from the past, and a secret alliance of powerful individuals shrouded in mystery. Accused of the murder of her one time mentor, Lara Croft becomes a fugitive on the run. Pursued by the police, she follows the Alchemist into a dark world of blood, betrayal and vengeance where it is up to her to defeat this unholy alliance, and stop them from unleashing their incredible powers on the world. A bunch of new character art of Lara posing (yiha) and a few familiar screens ...

Gunfighter II is an Arcade game, in which from a covered position, you have to reveal yourself, take aim and fire at you opponents. The game is light gun compatible and will contain two different game modes : Story and Arcade mode. Three different difficulty levels represented by bronze , silver and gold spurs and a set of mini shooting games each provide many hours of fun. The use of the Asura engine allowed us to implement a lot of cut sequences into the game, in order to drive the action in front. Some new screens and character art ...