CDV Software have joined forces with the Virtual Gaming Alliance (www.vga.org.uk) to bring their 40+ LAN gaming centres around the country a week of exclusive pre-play of its upcoming and highly anticipated expansion pack “Cossacks: The Art of War”. UK gamers will now get a chance to sample the new huge maps, nations, and units, and indulge in the host of new multiplayer features. Cossacks: The Art of War has already shipped and will be in UK stores on Friday 8th February. Read more below to check out the list of UK venues..

The Shadowbane Closed Beta test has expanded! 200 more Non Disclosure agreements have been going out since this morning! Here is the statement:

We are excited to allow more of our community the opportunity to help us test this next generation MMORPG! Stay tuned for more information next week, and don't forget to keep your Beta database information up to date!

Ubi Soft Entertainment, a world leader in interactive entertainment, and the International Tennis Federation (ITF), today announced a worldwide licensing agreement allowing Ubi Soft to develop and publish games based on the Davis Cup, the premier team competition in tennis. Under the license, Ubi Soft will create titles for multiple platforms including PCs and new generation consoles, the first of which is expected to launch in May 2002.

GamingGroove today reports that Freedom Force is almost gold. Here is a snap from the article and the game's project manager and lead designers message:

Actually, we're heading towards a first gold submission this week. we're basically fixing bugs and tuning, which is what you do in this period of the project. The team is busting butt to get everything in there and the game is looking great... Wanna read more? Then click HERE!

Black Isle Studios, the role-playing game division of Interplay Entertainment Corp., announced today that a sequel to the award-winning computer role-playing game Icewind Dale is currently in development and will be distributed by Vivendi Universal Games in North America. Icewind Dale II is scheduled to ship to retail on May 28, 2002.

London-based entertainment software developer Asylum Entertainment announces the launch of a new web site for its first home grown IP Curse: The Eye of Isis. Curse is a gripping, mysterious, action adventure that takes players from the grime of Victorian London’s streets to the pyramids of ancient Egypt in a suspense filled action adventure. It will be published on PS2 by Wanadoo Edition in the autumn of 2002.

Infogrames, through an agreement with renowned game developer BioWare Corp., has secured the global publishing rights for the hotly anticipated role-playing game (RPG), Neverwinter Nights, excluding certain pre-existing licenses help by Interplay Entertainment. The PC game, based on the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons game published by Wizards of the Coast, is scheduled to be launched worldwide in the Summer of 2002.

Codemaster tossed over some new screenshots and a bit of gun art not yet seen anywhere in the press from IGI2: Covert Strike. Enjoy!

We got 27 new shots, including the first two-player ones. With the inevitable textual harrassment. Check them out below!

Today the Postal 2 developers "Running With Scissors" released a pressrelease that you can check out below! Postal 2 is using Epic’s Unreal Warfare engine.

Blizzard releases their daily screen shots ... here are another 3 in anticipation of it arriving on the shelves ...

Shawdowforce "Razor Unit" is a new First Person Shooter (FPS) from Activision Value. Usually the Value brand brings what it stands for ... budget games. A few days ago the demo got released and, being a big CS fan, I decided to give it a whirl. For a budget title it is pretty well done and has a promising multiplayer aspect with deathmatch, CTF and team deathmatch .. the demo only has 1 single player map and 2 multiplayer maps so limited playability, but what i saw simply kicks ass .. nice range of weapons, smooth play ... ill be getting this one as soon as i see it!

Microsoft Dungeon Siege website has a new "fan site kit" available for people who want to set up their own fan site .. it has several items such as a disclaimer, screenshots, factsheet, wallpaper and plenty more ... check it out HERE.

Paradox Entertainment has announced that it will publish Legion, the upcoming strategy game being developed at Slitherine Software. The game is set in Roman times, and players will command huge armies in their quest to build an empire out of the city-states that occupy ancient Italy and France. Legion is scheduled for release this summer.

Ubi Soft Entertainment has launched a new official Web site for Rayman Arena, its upcoming multiplayer action game set in the Rayman universe. It´s loaded with screens, wallpapers and a video footage of the game. Rayman Arena is scheduled for release in March.

Here are some new screens of Namco's upcoming arcade fighting game Soul Calibur II. Check out the new images of Asterisk and Cassandra over at The Magic Box. Release: Summer 2002.

Opps, seems we missed to post this one up before.. Well here it is anyway! Trecision S.p.A., Italy’s most important videogames developer, has entered a publishing deal with Got Game Entertainment (GGE), a division of US company Sales In Action, which will publish and distribute the adventure game The Watchmaker in the USA, Canada and South America.

Lets bring up some interview links.. EuroGamer has posted up a Y-Project interview, HomeLAN snapped up a Shadow Force interview, GameSpot posted up interviews from Age of Wonders 2 and Heroes of Might & Magic IV and as final Homelan also whipped up an PlanetSide interview.. Enjoy!

Blizzard today let us know that they have posted yet another screenshot from Warcraft 3. The new screenshot shows the Night Elves storming a Human outpost. Follow this link.

Shacknews reports that Grand Theft Auto fans won't go long without another fix of wanton violence and pillaging. GTA3 Xbox is a given (with online play?), but we'll also soon hear the details on GTA4. Rockstar's stayin' silent on the subject, but I could name a few hundred thousand fans ready to part with $50 a piece for it. The current talk indicates that DMA will take the GTA3 framework and turn it into a massively multiplayer online game for the four installment, where you're free to create your own mobs and anyone in the city could be a "real" person. Word is it'll also be set in a real U.S. city this time.