The Independent Games Festival (IGF) has named the winners of the 2006 Student Showcase as well as the finalists for the Modding Competition. Each will be playable and on display during the Game Developers Conference (GDC), from March 20-24 in San Jose, Calif.

Back in April 2005 an email from a musician who claimed he had returned from a recording session in Bratislava, with the local Radio Symphony Orchestra, started the Diablo III rumor, and now Blizzard themselves fuel speculations. A new job opening on the Blizzard website states "The team behind Diablo I and II is looking for a talented, motivated, and experienced Art Director to help lead our art team in developing beautiful, cohesive game worlds for an unannounced PC Project" Some requirements are "experience modeling and texturing a diverse visual range of characters and creatures." and "experience animating both human and non-humanoid characters"

Another day, another batch of game trailers was released. Instead of giving them all their own posts, we grouped them, and so far there are trailers for :

• Battle of Europe: Royal Air Forces - Trailer
• Driver Parallel Lines [PS2/Xbox/PC] - Crashes Trailer #2
• Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy - Behind The Scenes #2
• Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends - Trailer #2
• The Sims 2 Open for Business - Walkthrough Trailer
• Stacked with Daniel Negreanu - Masters Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

In Tycoon City: New York, players become moguls by constructing and customizing hundreds of businesses and famous landmarks anywhere and anyway they want in a bustling simulation of New York City. Players must create and improve their businesses to outclass the competition, and become rich and famous in New York City.

EA released its 3rd quarter ended Dec 31, 2005 and over all net revenue dropped 11%, resulting in a 31% profit drop. NFS Most Wanted, FIFA 06 Harry Potter, Sims 2 and Madden NFL 06 each sold over two million copies in the quarter, while NBA Live 06, SSX On Tour, Tiger PGA TOUR 06, From Russia with Love and BF2: Modern Combat sold over one million copies.

Combine fully-automatic, weapon-equipped vehicles with highly detailed and interactive urban environments and you have Full Auto, the most destructive racing action ever experienced in a game. This racer allows players to choose from a wide selection of unique vehicle designs and arm them with any combination of machine guns, cannons, and other deadly weapons.

Paraworld combines a setting never seen before with personalized unit management, bringing new life to the real-time strategy genre. Modern elements blend with primeval conditions in a long forgotten, incredibly beautiful prehistoric world. Sunflowers unveils new units, today its up to the Woolly Rhino, the Wild Boar and the Megaloceros.

SEGA revealed that original Sonic creator Yuji Naka, and character designer Naoto Ohshima, are bringing Sonic back to its roots to create the most intense sensation of speed ever experienced in videogames with an innovative combination of art, physics and game design. Not many details are available at this point, but we do have some new screens...

EA announced today that it has signed on with Tiger Woods for another 6 more years to use his likeness and name in their golfing game franchise. electronic Arts does not have any exclusivity deal with the PGA Tour but their Tiger Woods PGA Tour titles are widely considered the most popular golfing titles on the market. No financial details were disclosed, but I'm sure Tiger didn't go down cheap ...

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror is scheduled to be released in North America March 2006 and will not only see the return of Gabe Logan, but also Theresa, Lipan et Lian Xing. The PSP version will allow you to give commands to the rest of your team a la SOCOM, and a multiplayer wi-fi mode is also par of the new features.