Private equity firm Elevation Partners (remember the Eidos/Bono story?) has announced the formation of a creative and management partnership with Pandemic Studios, LLC and BioWare Corp. The combined investment, including future capital needs, will be more than $300 million, creating one of the world's largest independent game development houses.

EA has shipped the latest installment in the James Bond videogame franchise, From Russia With Love, starring Academy Award-winner, Sir Sean Connery. The new game will follow the plot of the original "From Russia with Love" film, including the battle on the Orient Express and the boat chase sequence, but will expand the story with new action sequences.

In Dragon Quest VIII, the first time on the PS2, old meets new, as classic gameplay is married to sumptuous graphics, delivering a sweeping adventure. Characters designed by Akira Toriyama are brought to life by "cel-shading," bringing gamers of all ages into a world straight out of Japanese anime.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding the latest update for its online delivery system Steam. This release fixes a problem with commentary and the save/restore problem in Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, while rare crash in the physics system, and a line error command have been have been addressed in the Source Engine. Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

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 :

• The Matrix: Path of Neo - Trailer #2
• The Movies [Xbox/PC] - Trailer #16
• Dreamlords - Trailer #2
• Battles of Prince of Persia [NDS] - Trailer #2
• Battlefield 2: Special Forces - Trailer #4
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  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

X³: Reunion utilises a new generation game engine, developed to immerse the player into the most realistic, living universe, ever experienced. The economy model in X³: Reunion is more complex than any previous X game. Coupled with the massively enhanced A.L. (Artificial Life) system, X³: Reunion will present players with an ever changing, evolving universe; where a player’s actions really can shape the future of the universe.

LucasArts Producer Julio Torres revealed today that the Star Wars Galaxies developers are going to gradually roll out an overhaul of its much-debated Star Wars-based MMO. In his community letter, Torres points out that user feedback has indicated the learning curve to be too steep for beginners and not enough immediate action, resulting in people leaving again. The primary areas of focus include combat and profession and character development. Check out the producer letter for additional details ...

While Konami America could not confirm this earlier today, it seems Japanese gamers will get their hands on a compilation of no less than 5 Gradius titles on the PSP, scheduled for February 9 2006. Gradius Portable will include Gradius I through IV and also contain the original PS1 title Gradius Gaiden. While the games are mostly straight ports, Konami will add a few new features such as possibility to switch to 16:9 widescreen, save/load anywhere you want. For the nostalgic people out there it will also contain viewable movies from the PS1's Gradius Deluxe Pack, Gradius Gaiden, PS2's Gradius III & IV, and to top it all off soundtracks from all five games, Gradius on the X68000 included.

Dungeons & Dragons Online will provide players with the definitive online "Dungeons & Dragons" experience, complete with dramatic dungeon crawling, terrifying monster combat and challenging puzzles, character advancement and guild-based power struggles.

Konami America today announced a partial song list for Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3 (DDR Ultramix 3) for the Xbox. Featuring more than 70 songs across multiple genres and styles of music, DDR ULTRAMIX 3 will get gamers moving and grooving with the largest music variety of any Dance Dance Revolution title released in North America to date.