In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry returns for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts and discovers that much of the wizarding community has been denied the truth about the teenager’s recent encounter with the evil Lord Voldemort. Fearing that Hogwarts’ venerable Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is lying about Voldemort’s return in order to undermine his power and take his job, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, appoints a new Defence5 Against the Dark Arts teacher to keep watch over Dumbledore and the Hogwarts students. But Professor Dolores Umbridge’s Ministry-approved course of defensive magic leaves

Leading Australian games developer Ratbag is planning a sequel to its highly successful Powerslide – the futuristic racing game that propelled the company into the international spotlight five years ago.

Visitors at the E3 games expo in Los Angeles will be given a sneak preview of Powerslide Slipstream, which takes video game motor racing to a new level of intensity and excitement.

In a significant development, Ratbag is self-funding the new game after acquiring publishing rights from Infogrames.

Ratbag Chief Executive Officer, Greg Siegele, says the company has further enhanced its proprietary Difference Engine® technology to provide the new game with even greater

Microsoft Corp. debuted its lineup of ambitious new games for the Xbox® video game system at a pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) media briefing today, wowing a packed house at the Grand Olympic Auditorium with titles that redefine innovation and plug an ever-expanding audience of gamers into the Digital Entertainment Lifestyle.

Sensationally rendered thrillers such as "Halo 2," one of the most ambitious video games ever; the first three Xbox games from Rare Ltd., "Conker: Live and Uncut," "Kameo: Elements of Power" and "Grabbed by the Ghoulies"; and the highly anticipated sequel "Project Gotham Racing® 2" showcased the depth, breadth and quality

Genre: Rhythm/Adventure
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Developer: Avalanche Software (Wii), Gorilla Games (DS)
Release Date: October 30, 2007

So much of the press coverage of children's games is either overly snarky or noticeably brief, and the reasons for this are numerous. Some of it can be chalked up to a generational gap or a lack of knowledge or interest in the license, but I suspect that much of it comes from the sad fact that most licensed games developed for young audiences are surprisingly uninventive (check our High School Musical preview), often with disastrous results.

To my

Get the Italian Job Trailer off worthplaying (6mb)

The Italian Job is about mastermind thief Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg), who pulls off an amazing gold bullion heist from a heavily guarded palazzo in Venice, Italy, only to be double-crossed by one of his crew, Steve (Edward Norton). Seeking revenge, Charlie recruits Stella (Charlize Theron), a beautiful nerves-of-steel safe cracker. Together with his former gang, Charlie and Stella follow the backstabber to California where they plan to re-steal the gold by manipulating traffic signals and creating havoc on the streets of Los Angeles.

A contemporary remake of Paramount's 1969 classic by the

"Atari's 2007 E3 roster showcases some of the most exciting titles from our diverse fall line-up - from the fan-favorite Dragon Ball Z series to the graphically stunning The Witcher," said David Pierce, Chief Executive Officer, Atari, Inc. "We're excited to participate in the new E3 Media & Business Summit and look forward to having media and business partners spend time with the Atari Team and our titles."

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 combines the lightning fast fighting and action from 2005's Budokai Tenkaichi 1 and 2006's sequel Budokai Tenkaichi 2. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 delivers an extreme

Genre: Rhythm
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Developer: A2M
Release Date: August 2007

The wildly successful “High School Musical” made-for-TV movie seems to lend itself well to rhythm gaming, and not just because its title contains the word “music.” More notably, its original soundtrack has shifted more than four million units, making it the best selling album of 2006. With that kind of built-in market, not to mention the hugely anticipated August release of the Disney Channel sequel on the horizon, it would be foolish not to expand the license into the world of video gaming.

After seeing

Get the Switchball [X360/PC] trailer off WP (11mb)

Coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade late this summer and currently available for the PC on popular online gaming portals, Switchball challenges players to control an ever-changing ball along a narrow and challenging course suspended in midair. A polymorphous ball exhibits different physical characteristics as it changes form as either a standard Marbleball, a feather-light Airball, an electrically charged Powerball or a dense and powerful Metalball. Players will have to solve their way through challenging levels packed with tricky obstacles, traps and mazes. With beautifully rendered 3D environments including Skyworld, Iceworld,

The highlights for The Adventure Company will be Cypher: The Sequel to Traitors Gate and Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon. Several other titles, namely Crystal Key II: The Far Realm, Jack the Ripper, and Forever Worlds will also receive a lot of attention at E3.

E3 2003 Product Lineup

Cypher: The Sequel to Traitors Gate (PC only)
Developed by: 258 Productions AB
Release Date: Fall, 2003

CYPHER: The Sequel to Traitors Gate is an adventure game that combines brain-teasing challenges and broad exploration. The game features rich and beautifully rendered environments with a strong and believable main character, Raven. This heroic figure has a

Genre: Classics Collection
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Namco Bandai
Release Date: October 2007

The endless repackaging of decades-old classic games has been one of the least admirable developments in the modern era of gaming, and the Namco Museum series has led the charge with iterations for nearly every major system released since the original PlayStation. Luckily, Namco Bandai has sensed the series’ dwindling necessity and will be shaking things up a bit with Namco Museum Remix for the Wii.

Namco Museum Remix will pack a total of 14 games within its digital confines, but just nine of those will be pixel-perfect ports