What better way to pass the time before E3 than with a little friendly competition? With the industry's biggest event right around the corner, Xbox.com and Xbox Live have teamed up to present two amazing E3 contests for its most enthusiastic game fans: "Xbox.com Apprentice Contest" and "Major Nelson and TriXie's L.A. Sweepstakes". Read more for details ...

Dark Age of Camelot developer and publisher Mythic Entertainment today announced that Jeff Hickman has been named executive producer of "Dark Age of Camelot." In this new role, Hickman will report to Matt Firor, vice president of development, and will manage the overall direction of "Dark Age of Camelot" by being responsible for design decisions and ongoing expansions to the game. Hickman has been with Mythic since 2001.

Cossacks: Napoleonic Wars returns one of the most successful strategy games of the past years to the real-time battlefield - with reinforcements: Meet Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France and probably the most ingenious strategist in European history! Enter the battle on the side of one of 10 great European nations and rewrite European history in six exciting campaigns. CDV has released a patch for the German edition of its RTS game fixing various installation problems (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

Coded Arms is a first person shooter in where you take the role of a computer hacker who infiltrates the abandoned virtual reality system. Gamers will use weapons and power-ups that they discover while exploring the expansive single player mode. Coded Arms will also utilize the PSP handheld system's wireless capabilities for multiplayer action for up to four people.

At a midnight DOOM 3 launch event in Dallas Texas, id Software's Hollenshead gave QuakeCon visitors a nice surprise by revealing that "We'll have Quake IV multiplayer to play. And because it's also the 10-year anniversary of QuakeCon, we'll have a few other surprises as well." On top of that it was also confirmed that the new IP id is working on will be yet another FPS. Whether the DOOM 3 expansion pack will make an appearance on the Xbox, remains yet to be seen, but it is being considered and tested. Now that id has made its first step into the console market, Hollenshead also gave a glimpse of the future : "I don't know if we'll be releasing multiple SKUs at the same time, but as for PS3 and Xbox 2 and so on, yes, we will continue our development effort on the consoles."

Epic's Joe Graf has posted in the Epic forum that the game is finished and thus seems to be on track for its April 14 release date. UC2: The Liandri Conflict continues the Unreal franchise on the Xbox and introduces an evolutionary new gameplay style to the traditional FPS genre: acrobatic melee combat. This highly anticipated sequel also features new single-player and multiplayer gameplay, person camera mode and intense melee abilities. Unreal Championship fans can play as any one of 14 characters from the Unreal universe, each with spectacular new Adrenaline Powers that enable new offensive and defensive combos (thanks ve3d).

Stolen is an ultra realistic, third person, stealth-based, action game based around a high-tech female thief. Along with innovative high-tech stealth/robbery game actions and events, Stolen also boasts some truly amazing technical and presentational features to give it a spectacular look that will captivate gamers. Read more new screens.

Championship Manager 5 lets you choose a club and manage it to glory, dealing with everything from transfers and training, to tactics and the media. The action can be viewed via a 2D match engine enabling you to make tactical decisions as the game unfolds. Eidos has released a demo for Championship Manager 5 allowing you to play 6 months into a season. Read more for download links ...

To become an expert in monkey business, you first have to go to monkey school, so enrol now at the craziest college the world has ever seen. You can work your way up through the school years by winning wacky mini-games, but keep an eye on your classmates – students they may be, but when it comes to trouble and tomfoolery, these goofy monkeys are pros!

Bet On Soldier is a first-person shooter which presents something considerably different in order to stand out from the crowd. With a corporation-takes-over-the-world-style plot, Bet On Soldier allows players to do exactly what it promises with its title - that is, bet on the outcome of encounters with specific enemies. Before entering battle, players can wager on which particular enemy soldiers they are going to kill.