With a host of top grade titles heading for Christmas and the New Year, Empire have acquired the services of leading game music composers Richard Jacques and Tim Follin, to ensure that up and coming products sound as good as they look and play. Richard and Tim are experienced industry musicians and come with an impressive CV of classics under their belt.

In the dark and atmospheric world of Archangel, players discover that Michael Travinsky, an innocent family man, has been tragically killed in a horrific car crash. However, the Lord of Light decides to resurrect Travinsky as he believes he has the potential to become a hero and save the world from a deadly evil that looms in the shape of vicious demons and ghosts. Their presence is growing yet humans continue their existence utterly oblivious to their impending doom. Today we serve up the demo so all you people can check it out! Njoy!

Gameguru Mania has a new Q&A with Massive Development Managing Director Alexander Jorias talking about their upcoming submersive shooter, AquaNox 2: Revelation. Action Vault has a new Q&A with Spellbound Studios' Jean-Marc Haessig talking about their upcoming strategy game, Robin Hood - The Legend of Sherwood. InGaming has a new Q&A with Reflexive's Ion Hardie talking about their upcoming medieval RPG, Lionheart. HomeLan Fed has a new Q&A with Chris Taylor from Black Label Games talking about upcoming multiplatform Tolkien novel based game, The Fellowship Of The Ring. GameSpyDaily has a Q&A with Tesseraction Games' President Kelly Asay talking about their upcoming naval combat MMORPG (and just gond gold single player part), The Enigma: Rising Tide.

PC.IGN.COM reports that Serious Sam 3, is apparently far into development and scheduled for release in 2003. Here is a clip:

The new game, Serious Sam 2, ironically now possibly referred to either factually or mistakenly by reps as Serious Sam 3, is apparently far into development and scheduled to hit in 2003, completely compatible with the Xbox's own Live multiplayer setup. Even fewer details are known of the PC version, but assumedly it is in concurrent development, since musings of that one have been around since well before the Second Encounter even hit.

Owners of IL-2 Sturmovik and the gaming community as a whole will warmly welcome the news of the add-on. Following its release last November, 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 will be featured in IL-2 Sturmovik: The Forgotten Battles. Check out the new screens ...

Larian has just put up the second patch (names Hotfix Nr2) on the official Divine Divinity websitel updating all English versions of Larian Studios' RPG (including the U.S. version) to v1.32. This patch addresses a few bugs and tweaks. Read more for detailed fix list and links where to grab this puppy. (thanks bluesnews).

Heading back into space to destroy an invading armada, Majesco, one of the fastest-growing publishers of interactive entertainment software, announces Iridion II for Game Boy Advance. The sequel to the original Iridion 3D, Iridion II maintains the intense graphic detail of its predecessor, while adding exciting new features.

Race, Battle, Reign Supreme! Ubi Soft Entertainment announced it has shipped Rayman Arena for all console platforms and the PC. The first ever action-intensive multi-player game in the Rayman franchise, Rayman Arena combines intense footracing action and gladiator style battles, featuring the cast and environments of the Rayman universe. Players are immersed in up to 30 different worlds while unleashing the power of nine playable Rayman characters in the quest to reign supreme.

'BloodRayne in the Bayou' Contest Kicks-Off; Offers Gamers Chance to Win a guided vampire tour with a Playmate! Majesco, one of the fastest growing publishers of interactive entertainment, today announced they have partnered with Playboy.com, one of the premier online lifestyle and entertainment destinations for men, to promote the Halloween release of Majesco's new action/horror video game, BloodRayne.

Kemco today announced that the highly anticipated title Batman: Dark Tomorrow will launch Q1 2003 across Xbox, Playstation 2 and Gamecube. The extra development time will ensure that the game delivers the best in gaming experience..

New Role Playing Strategy game "Lethal Dreams" involves player into events taking place in a fantasy world on the side of one of the six magicians. Each of them is a specialist in one of the six paths of magic: Evocation, Incarnation, Necromancy, Portals, Enchantment and Transmutation. Besides the above, a seventh path exists in the game. It's a magic of Images. This path is open for all magicians. Each path has unique combination of spells that makes the opposite sides absolutely different from each other. The gaming world consists of battles between magicians in real time in the domains, small islands of substance, hanging in a limitless ocean of Chaos. Check the new magic screens!

"Crashday puts the player in a world of stunts, dents and adrenalin. His task is to scrap his vehicle with breathtaking stunts or to wreck cars in aggressive street races, showing his opponents that they made a fatal mistake in choosing him as their enemy. The battle setting place in maps partly created by the player is sponsored by a crazy video shop owner who sells new vehicles, weapons and other upgrades from time to time." Today we scored a destructive kind of trailer showing off what the game is and will be all about. Read more for links where to grab it (thanks EvilAvatar).

Black Label Games, a studio of the Games division of Vivendi Universal Publishing, announced today that it has signed an agreement to license the interactive rights to Quentin Tarantino's ("Pulp Fiction," "Reservoir Dogs") upcoming Miramax film "Kill Bill."

VR1 Entertainment President Richard P. Wnuk announced today the company has joined with Jaleco USA, a publisher of entertainment software, to form the multi-platform software gaming publisher Jaleco Entertainment.

New Riders announced today that "Get in the Game! Careers in the Game Industry" by Marc Mencher, an informative guide to employment and careers in the game industry is hitting store shelves this week. The book will be distributed to major retailers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. announced today that its Gotham Games subsidiary has shipped Conflict: Desert Storm for the PlayStation2, the Microsoft Xbox and the PC. Licensed from SCi (SEG.L) and developed by UK based Pivotal Games, Conflict: Desert Storm is now available at stores in North America. This is the first product release from Gotham Games, a publishing label established by Take-Two earlier this year.

Electronic Arts today announced the release of The Sims Deluxe Edition, the definitive version of the top-selling PC game of all time, The Sims. The Sims Deluxe Edition combines the full version of The Sims, the best-selling Sims expansion pack The Sims Livin' Large, and exclusive new content including the all-new Sim customization tool: The Sims Creator. The Sims Deluxe Edition combines the full version The Sims with the first in the series of Sims expansion packs, The Sims Livin' Large. The Sims Livin' Large allows players to put their Sim families into zany situations and settings. Its content adds dozens of extreme items like a home chemistry lab, a heart shaped bed and a crystal ball as well a cast of wild characters like the Grim Reaper, the Genie and the Tragic Clown to the lives of The Sims.

TDK Mediactive, Inc announced today a worldwide licensing agreement with E.C. Publications, Inc., the publishers of MAD Magazine, to bring the mischievous and iconic "Spy vs. Spy" cartoon strip to next generation gaming console systems.

7FX today released a new demo 50MB of their upcoming shooter game, Team Factor. Now you can test drive all the new features of just recently released version 1.1 of the Team Factor game in the most favorite level Mekong Delta (mini-manual is available here). Also LINUX server software 10MB (#190) is available for dedicated hosting of the game demo version 1.6.

Westka Interactive closes its doors!! The German game developer Westka Interactive GmbH will cease its business operations today, October 1st 2002. Westka was founded in 1993. Westka had to file for insolvency at July 31, 2002 after the necessary funding for the companies biggest project "The Y-Project" could not be ensured although an LoI for the project with one of the leading worldwide publishers had been signed. Despite several measures to restructure the company, an additional agreement with another publisher and a very positive feedback from the international press on the versions of the "The Y-Project" and "Race Tracks Unlimited" shown at the the Games Convention and the ECTS, the sustainable funding of the company couldn?t be ensured. All remaining 44 employees had been laid off at September 30, 2002. Since September 2000 BRAINPOOL TV AG, one of the leading German TV producing companies, owned a 60 % majority equity stake in Westka.