Vivendi Universal has held talks with at least three potential suitors to sell its video game arm but no deal is believed to be near, according to banking sources familiar with the situation. Vivendi Universal Games has talked to Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. and Electronic Arts Inc. about a possible acquisition, though those conversations were described by the sources as preliminary. The talks come as Vivendi Universal Entertainment, which encompasses the Franco-American conglomerate's TV, film, music, theme park and game assets, has itself been the subject of a takeover bid, with oilman Marvin Davis spearheading a deal worth about $15 billion for the unit.

CDV's small Christmas Platform game, Santa Claus in Trouble is slowly conquering the Internet! So far they got about 250.000 downloads in the first week, and the count is still rising. The official homepage for Santa Claus in Trouble is updated with a brand new Tips & Tricks section to help you to get the ultimate high score..

Strategy First has released a new patch for their WWII based strategy war title Hearts of Iron. Fixes include: interface and gameplay tweaks, generic bug fixes, AI fixes, scenario setup and events adjustments.. Read more below to download this 4.23MB patch and for a more detailed listing!

BOOMER is a upcoming ballistic missile submarine simulator game, developed by Frozen Lung Canada, and is expected to hit store shelves in winter 2003... The new site includes faq, features, forum, screens and more.. "Take command of the US Navy's most Lethal Machine, the Ohio Class Ballistic Missile Submarine. Too much for you? Then you can take it's conventional sister out for a spin (OHIO SSGN), complete with 154 Tomahawks!!"

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb features The Collective's proprietary 3D engine that supports completely immersive, highly interactive environments. The game will offer 10 levels, all set in unique locales such as a 15th century castle that looms over Prague, an underwater palace in Istanbul, and a mountaintop fortress in China. A sophisticated camera tracking system makes sure that the player always has an optimal view of the third-person action. Today we scored a nifty little trailer showing off some good in game footage, looks quite nice to be honest.

After graduating from the corporate world of big budget games, Dynamix co-founder Jeff Tunnell and his partners are once again making games. Their company, an independent publisher named GarageGames, is putting the focus of computer gaming back on fun, skill, and innovation with the titles Chain Reaction, Marble Blast and Robot Battle.

Just noticed on Shacknews that according to this post on the official Ubi Soft forums, we PC gamers will finally get the chance to play Splinter Cell next week. The PC demo will debut next Thursday, December 19. Thanks, Kurashu! Now THAT is something to be all excited about!!!

In celebration, Logitech would like to thank customers for making them the Leader in Cordless Peripherals. On December 20, 2002, between 12:00 P.M. and 5:00 P.M., the company will be giving away 20,000 Logitech Cordless Navigator Duo SE mouse & keyboard combinations. How to Enter: Visit the LogiTech web site - between 12:00 P.M. and 5:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, December 20th. Follow the directions given on the site.How to Win: Return to the above web address as many times as desired. Winners will be selected randomly. No purchase necessary.

Acting as an elite soldier, players of "Vietcong" command the A-team, part of the U.S. Special Forces, in realistically represented Vietnamese environments. Players will lead as many as six expertly trained soldiers through 20 dramatic missions, and follow a storyline that captures the danger, fear and unpredictability of the war itself. The full-featured multiplayer mode also allows gamers to play as U.S. Special Forces or Vietcong soldiers and to battle over specially designed levels. Today we scored a multiplayer demo for Vietcong allowing up to 32 players to check out the Death Match, CTF and Protect the Pilot modes. Read more for links where to grab the goods.. (thanks EvilAvatar). UPDATE : Freaky fileservers, issues resolved, happy downloading ..

Psychotoxic is a first person shooter with an exceptionally exciting story line. The setting is New York, in the year 2020. Three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse have caused terrible damage on Earth. The fourth horseman is now preparing for his return. Violence and aggression are increasing drastically. Humanity's last hope is protagonist Angie Prophet. Basically a human, she is also an angel and guardian, marked centuries ago to save mankind. Play on two different levels: The reality level contains the main elements for the battle against the horseman, including both indoor and outdoor scenes. In the mind level, Angie enters other people's thoughts - here time and space have no meaning. A few new freaky screens for this freaky Friday the 13th!

Twice the game as the original -- Devil May Cry 2's level design far exceeds the original. Much of the game's environment is outdoors and will include a Gotham-like cityscape and an old European town. More environments will be announced as the release date approaches! Check out the new batch of screens ...

Duga-Group – the site-group which manages the content for 3 sites ( Site1, Site2 & Site3 ) – just informed us that there will be a follow-up to their first successful DugaLan. DugaLan V2.00, the name of the event, will be an event where hundreds of gamers will be giving their very best over network for three days on a row. As is custom to a LAN party there will obviously be some competitions and lots of prices to go with it.

Infinite Ventures, an independent game producer, today announced the release of the first interactive horror game for DVD Video, . This unique DVD production is playable on any DVD video player but thanks to its innovative design the same DVD disc is also fully playable on the Sony PlayStation2, Microsoft Xbox or a PC with DVD-ROM drive.

Hundreds of years in the future, several dominant races (Human, Jaldari, and Velleakan) occupy a host of solar systems and discover new planets on a regular basis. Huge conglomerates vie for rich resources on every new world, resulting in fighting, smuggling and the emergence of pirate clans. To combat this growing trend towards war, the government sets up a group of highly elite Rangers, who are quickly brought down by an unknown traitor. Mace Griffin, the only surviving ranger, becomes a bounty hunter and sets out to discover the truth behind his team's ruin. Read more to check out the trailer showing off some spiffy in-game action...

There is a bunch of new patches released today and we posted up some direct links to them. Njoy! .. (thanks Blues)

• G.I. Combat 1.02e patch for G.I. Combat at 3DGamers
  
• Flashpoint: Resistance 1.91 patch for Resistance and GotY edition on official site
  
• Delta Force Land Warrior version 1.00.42 patch on official site
  
• Battlecruiser Millennium 1.0.08 RC29 patch for the retail version on 3DGamers

SpellForce is the latest creation of Phenomic Games , the team surrounding Volker Wertich, whose claim to fame includes designing and creating the world-famous 'Settlers' series... Today JoWooD launched the official website for Spellforce: The Order of Dawn. The site includes weekly news updates, screenshots and general game information, they will also be giving you a glimpse behind the scenes with making-of videos, concept art, sketches and other goodies. In addition, every month will feature a closer look at a new race – first in line are the Elves.

The New World is ablaze in American Conquest, the newest real-time strategy offering from the makers of Cossacks! In the year 1492, travel to America as Christopher Columbus and ignite the fire that will fan 300 years of heated battles for land, riches and freedom. In 8 historical campaigns spanning 42 missions, you play great legends such as Pizarro and Washington, commanding epic real-time battles containing up to 16,000 soldiers. Play with fire! Conquer America! Check out some sketches of American conquering. Maybe they'd make nice Christmas cards or something.

Mutant Storm is inspired by Williams classic RoboTron, Smash TV and Jeff Minters fantastic Llamatron. To those unacquainted, this means two joysticks, one controlling fire direction, and the other controlling movement. Sounds confusing? ...don't worry, its very simple once you try, and very effective when you're used to it...

Zoo Tycoon fans can add to the allure of their parks as Microsoft Game Studios and developer Blue Fang today announced the availability of the Atlantis Theme Pack. The Pack contains the following Atlantean items: a gift shop, three undersea ruins, a new tank wall, two unique decorative fences, a statue, urn and archway. Blue Fang is also introducing a new animal to the Zoo Tycoon world - the barracuda. Both the Atlantis Theme Pack and the barracuda can be downloaded by visiting the official Zoo Tycoon site. The Pack requires players to either have Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania or the 10.9 update to Zoo Tycoon, which can be downloaded here!