Ubi Soft Entertainment announced that its sports trivia game for the PS1, POWER PLAY: Sports Trivia, has shipped to U.S. retail shelves with an MSRP of only $9.99. POWER PLAY: Sports Trivia features more than 4,000 brain-bruising questions from the wide, wide world of football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, challenging players to climb the ranking ladder, reach the hall of fame, and become a trivia legend. Featuring two tenacious trivia modes, POWER PLAY: Sports Trivia brings sports fans and fanatics alike to their knees as they compete with up to three opponents in a virtual tournament.

Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom brings city builders inside the Great Wall of China. Leaving the Mediterranean behind, the city-building series makes its first foray into Asia and immerses the player in brand new surroundings. China has existed for over 4,000 years, but its 4,000 year history has been marked with new technologies and ideas replacing - or enhancing - the old. This is the world in which the player will take the reigns of leadership and take their cities through the twists and turns of Chinese history. Read more to check some screens and sign up for the BETA TEST

Sony has begun developing the next generation of its PlayStation video game platform for sale by 2005, when it plans to roll out a console that would allow gamers to play opponents over high-speed Internet networks, a news report said Sunday.

Since Hercules and Cyberlink (the makers of PowerDVD) announced a collaboration earlier today to bring you the best possible sound to your home, Hercules now introduces their upgraded GameTheatre XP to support and take full advantage of CyverLink's PowerDVD Pro 6.1! I want one!

CyberLink Corp., software developer of digital video entertainment applications and e-training solutions, and Hercules today jointly announced a strategic partnership to deliver a truly innovative and realistic movie viewing experience to consumers with PowerDVD Pro 6.1, offered as part of Hercules’ Game Theater XP 6.1 sound card system.

Larian Studios released the demo for their upcoming RPG "Divine Divinity" a few days ago and over the weekend they seem to have released a little fix addressing a small bug with the installed (worked fine for me). Click read more on where to grab it.

Ubisoft just released a new v1.04B update patch for their WW II flight sim. This 11mb puppy fixes several multiplayer/coop mode bugs. A new 1.05 patch is already announced which will contain new aircraft. Read more to get a detailed fix list and links where to grab it.

Tiscali Games got their hands on Ghost Master trailer, an upcoming RTS / resources managment game from Empire Interactive. It includes 2:47 minutes of new in-game footage and character animations and is available to download in high-res (15 MB) or low-res (5 MB) DivX versions here.

Now there is a 193MB English demo available from Funatics Development's upcoming third-person, modern, fantasy, shooter, adventure game 'Zanzarah: the Hidden Portal'. You can grab this demo from 3D Gamers or Multiplayer. "Explore the realm of the fairies and learn to use your heroine's increasing powers to find the fairies and to conquer them. For these fairies shall enter the arena on your behalf, whenever goblins or other magical creatures block your path".

Star Wars Jedi Starfighter for Xbox presents more than 20 breathtaking one and two-player cooperative story-based missions set amidst a variety of new and beautifully rendered worlds and environments from Attack of the Clones. In addition to the ultra-fast, ultra sleek Jedi starfighter, players can battle in three other original heavily armed and highly maneuverable craft, the Havoc, Zoomer and Freefall. Check out two new screens below!

Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer is the most authentic and exhilarating surfing game ever, featuring Kelly Slater, the most recognized surfing pro of all time. Players experience an all-out adrenaline rush as they drop down huge wave faces, pull into barreling tube rides and pull off hundreds of insane trick combinations and signature pro moves. Read more to download the 1min50sec/7.5mb trailer. Some ingame footage mixed with real life surfing images.

GameSpyDaily talked to Eric Young regarding Freedom Games' upcoming WW2 Strategy game, "GI Combat". RPG Vault has an interview with Burut Project Director and Lead Programmer Sergey Buravtsiv about his work on "GoldenLand". GameZone21 has a Q&A up with Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor, talking about their RPG "Dungeon Siege". HomeLAN chats with Marc Schröder, the main creator behind the popular Half-Life single player mod Poke646 as well as a contributor to the upcoming "Counter-Strike: Condition Zero".

EuroGamer had a chance to take a look at Divine Divinity, the upcoming Role Playing Game under development by Belgian developers Larian Studios and to be published by CDV. Gamespy has a preview for The Sum of All Fears based on playing a build of the game. The Sum of All Fears is a tactical shooter being developed by Red Storm, based on a Tom Clancy novel. A movie is also due soon starring Ben Affleck. PC.IGN previewed Westwood's upcoming 3D RTS, Command & Conquer: Generals.

Novalogic has just released the v1.00.34 Update patch for their tactical shooter, Delta Force: Land Warrior. It has been a while since last patch and no specific details are given as to what it updates .. read more for links on where to grab this puppy ...

The intro movie of the upcoming combat racing title HoveRace is now available for download. The movie is 16MB "DivX" to grab and runs for 1.5-minute, displaying HoveRace gameplay in action. The game is scheduled for release in Q3 2002. Read more below for download links.

Today we bring you six new screens and three new sketches from GSC's upcoming arcade FPS title, FireStarter. Read more below to check them out!

Since the SoF II test was release Raven Software has recieved a few hundred emails with suggestions and comments for improvements. The following is a list of what has been fixed, changed, and or updated since the test build was made available. Note, this does not mean Raven are releasing a patch for the test, instead its simply an update to let everyone know what we have been up to.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. is pleased to announce that "The Italian Job" and "Big Bass Fishing" have shipped today, May 3rd, 2002. "The Italian Job" is at retail for $9.99 and is published by Rockstar Games. "Big Bass Fishing" is part of the $9.99 "Got Game" line-up and is published by Take-Two Interactive.

Proving to be a major hit amongst critics and consumers alike, the latest chapter in the critically acclaimed Myst saga continues its domination at the top of the game soundtrack business as Game Industry News awarded The Soundtrack of the Year to the top-selling Myst III: Exile, published by Ubi Soft.

Strategy First is pleased to announce that Chuck Kroegel has joined the company as Vice President - Product Development.