EA has joined forces with Gibson Guitar and Hard Rock International to launch a European-wide music competition for a place on a videogame soundtrack. Dubbed the Burnout Bandslam!, unsigned acts from across Europe can enjoy a summer of hot competition in Hard Rock Cafes in four countries across Europe, for a chance to be featured in a future Burnout game.

Microsoft announced today that it would launch its new Xbox 360 console in Japan and Europe in time for the year-end holiday shopping season. Microsoft had already announced plans to launch the console this year in the United States ahead of the holiday season, which begins in late November. It had previously said Japanese and European launches would follow within six weeks. X360 will feature three PowerPC-based microprocessors joined onto one chip to deliver powerful computing and advanced graphics, as well as a detachable 20-gigabyte hard drive and a wireless controller.

Pirates of the XXI Century is a new FPS in the works over at Eastern European developer DioSoft. Not much info is available at this point but Pirates of the XXI Century revolves around modern day sea pirates with action taking place on load, air, sea and even underwater. You will be able to play as either a member of Hong Kong’s triads, modern day pirate or soldier of US Special Forces and have use of about 30 weapons.

EA has signed a pact with New Line Cinema extending its rights to make games based on The Lord of the Rings franchise using images and actor likenesses from the pic trilogy. In addition, EA has now also signed a deal with with Tolkien Enterprises for J.R.R. Tolkien's literary trilogy, previously in the hands of Vivendi, giving it rights to use events and characters from the books not used in the pics.

For the very first time in franchise history, the next game in the series won't debut on a Nintendo platform, but is so far only scheduled for PS3 and X360. While it is way too early to speculate on a release date, Capcom producer Takeuchi Jun says "We would need 3 or maybe 5 years to fully exploit the capabilities of the new generation of systems, but right now this is the project Capcom is putting the most effort into." From the media available, it seems RE5 will feature Chris Redfield from the original RE and Code Veronica.

Metro 3D announced today that it has reached an agreement with Data Design Interactive to publish 9 affordable Playstation2 and budget PC games in the UK. Read more for details ...

Valve lastest Steam Update has news about Day of Defeat Source and the upcoming Lost Coast release. Dod Source is currently being tested and is scheduled for release later this summer. Polishing work is being done right now on the player animations, as well as lighting work on the various maps. Current favorite features include the new grenade stun effect, and the ability to deploy the machine gun on any surface. In other news, HL2: Lost Coast (the upcoming free Half-Life 2 map for Half-Life 2 owners which showcases HDR rendering technology) is nearing completion and will be released soon on Steam. Valve promises extra, yet undisclosed, content with Lost Coast, but more info to come shortly ...

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

• Tomb Raider Legend - Trailer #4
• We Love Katamari - Trailer #2
• Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves - Trailer
• The Con [PSP] - Trailer
• Jak X: Combat Racing - Trailer #4
• Sun - Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

Frantix will put your puzzle-solving skills to the test as you adventure through surreal worlds to solve each puzzle in the shortest amount of time. Featuring frantic puzzle-solving action, beautiful 3D graphics, more than 150 challenging levels to play through, power pick-ups, and a diverse array of monsters and unique obstacles, Frantix is easy to pick up, but hard to put down.

Darkwatch is an original FPS combining the Western and Horror genres to create a cinematic experience with unparalleled depth and game play variety. As half-vampire Jericho Cross, players must hunt down a powerful vampire lord whose undead minions have overrun the Wild West. The result is a stylistic premise blending western and vampire-horror milieus, and one injected with innovative concepts.