GarageGames announces the kick off of Realm Wars, the first GarageGames Community Project and Demo to be built on the popular Torque Game Engine (their modified Tribes 2 engine). Realm Wars will allow massive numbers of players to team up and fight battles in a real time, team based, FPS, action format. To prepare for battle, the player chooses a race, customizes his character's abilities and appearance with a wide array of weapons, armor and items. Characters can join simple team based skirmishes, controlled battles, or epic wars, with persistent stats kept on the player's performance. They us know that they've just launched their official website for Realm Wars and have a 6mb demo available that gives you an impression of what to expect ... and for that small a demo, i can tell you its packing some serious heat! read more for links and other goodies

Posts on Gone Gold and GameSpot indicate that Hitman 2: Silent Assassin has slipped from its expected release this month, and the new projected ship date is June, or even worse that the fate of IO Interactive's contract killing sequel won't arrive in stores until September, simply to give it more development time.

As announced over the weekend we would get word today about the unreal name changes ... Infogrames let us know that Unreal Tournament 2003 is coming this summer, Unreal II will arrive for the holidays. They also announced the name change for Unreal Tournament II to Unreal Tournament 2003. The original report also indicated that Unreal II would also be renamed to Unreal: Episode II, but Tim's post revealed that this was a misunderstanding based on a PR glitch, and this change was still being debated. The release announces that Unreal Tournament 2003, in production at Digital Extremes, is due this summer and Unreal II, being created by Legend Entertainment, is shipping this fall. Unreal Tournament 2003 is not actually described as a name change, as no title for the shooter follow-up had been formally announced.

DVD Region X, the DVD import movie player for PS2, is being given away for free on the cover of the latest issue of PSi-2 Magazine (UK version ONLY). Worth £19.99, the full version of this best-selling product allows you to watch DVD movies from any region on a PS2. It also gives you better picture quality by removing the “green screen” effect that usually appears when trying to watch any DVD movie via SCART or RGB on a PS2. DVD Region X is available exclusively in issue 18 of PSi-2, which is on sale now in all good newsagents and game stores. The product comes supplied in a black DVD case, and full instructions are supplied inside the magazine. PSi-2 is a 132-page monthly PS2 magazine published by Thin Ice Media.

There's a Freedom Force Q&A on the Electric Playground where they chat with Irrational Games' Ken Levine about Freedom Force, Irrational's superhero game that recently went gold. There's also a Dragon Throne Q&A on Games Domain talking with Persy Zhang, executive director at Object Software, about the game (and also a preview). There's (a Warlords Battlecry II Q&A on GameSpyDaily talking with Ubi Soft's Garrett Graham, producer on the recently-released RTS sequel. There's a Kreed Interview on HARDWiRED where they sat down for a face-to-face conversation with Dmitry Andreev of Burut to discuss progress on Kreed, their upcoming first-person shooter.

Ubi Soft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, today announced that it has shipped Mike Tyson Boxing for the Game Boy Advance, offering fans and critics alike the opportunity to climb into the ring and show Iron Mike who's boss. Featuring more than 100 different heavyweights, and a full arsenal of rib-crunching body shots, brain-rattling roundhouses, and jaw-busting uppercuts, Mike Tyson Boxing for the Game Boy Advance gives players the chance to build a boxer and take him to the top. Mike Tyson Boxing has an MSRP of $29.99.

Get in and hold on! You are about to go off-road with the latest, greatest 4x4s the world has to offer. Every power-sliding, mud-slinging beast in Off-Road Wide Open handles just like the real thing. Off- Road Wide Open uses the latest and greatest technology to accurately simulate real-world driving and handling characteristics. Each vehicle has exactly the same suspension, steering control and performance as the real thing! The locations are actual places, with scenery realistic enough for a postcard. Drive through mud, snow, ice, sand, gravel, grass and rocks. Deserts, forests and mountains are just some of the terrains you will race across in the no-holds-barred, four-wheeling mayhem that is Off-Road Wide Open. The Xbox leprechaun's have gone totally nuts today ... i'm off for some cold beer!

The setting is Tokyo, in the year 2024. Freedom is a valuable commodity and freedom of expression even more so. JSRF – Jet Set Radio Future uses the power of the Xbox to create living, breathing cities that are filled with opportunities. Featuring unique anime-style graphics, new tricks and incredible stunts, JSRF – Jet Set Radio Future brings the hippest game ever into a futuristic world. Choose a character, strap on your rocket powered skates and immerse yourself in the vast environments. The story unfolds depending upon which areas of the game you explore. Along the way, you’ll compete with rival gangs, be chased by the cops and perhaps discover something unthinkable. The multi-player aspects will let you work together to reach seemingly unattainable places, create new attacks and perform astounding stunts. Wherever your adventure takes you, it’s all about extreme skating, extreme action and of course extreme style.

Only a short time after the launch of the next-generation console, SWING! will release the prestige title of the action genre for Xbox in the 2nd quarter of 2002: Enclave. This makes SWING! one of the first German publishers to provide a game for Microsoft's game console. Awarded IGN "Best Action Game" at the E3 2001 fair, Enclave promises to become a successful third-person shooter. A mixture of shooter, adventure and RPG elements, this fantasy game guarantees intensive gameplay and great variety. Especially the graphics demonstrates the full capacity of the Xbox. Next to the online RPG Shadowbane appearing in late May for PC and Macintosh, Enclave will be SWING!'s second reference title in the 2002 line up.

This new version of Mortal Kombat is scheduled to ship for Nintendo GameCube™ and other next-generation game systems in Fall 2002. Mortal Kombat delivers all-new punishing action fans of the franchise crave - intense hand-to-hand combat and special-weapon combat, secret hidden moves and combinations with deadly body blows. A few days ago we announced the launch of the official website , check it out if you havent yet .. or just check our new screens..