NCsoft announces the launch of North American commercial service for Cryptic Studios "City of Heroes" and "Lineage II". City Of Heroes is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) where players don costumes to become super-powered heroes, and fight against evil to save the world. Lineage II is the much-anticipated prequel to the world's most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Lineage.

Eidos has released a demo for Hitman: Contracts, giving you a chance to try out the Syberia mission (Bjarkhov Bomb) from the recently released stealth/action game. Hitman: Contracts delivers more action-packed and suspenseful missions, with a greater variety of ways to make the perfect hit and an increased arsenal of firearms and close-combat weapons. Read more for download links ...

Medieval Lords takes aspiring city governors to the middle ages, combining rich city-building challenges with evolving military forces to defend against relentless attacks from neighboring enemies. A first for the genre, Medieval Lords features a full 3D engine that enables innovative new gameplay elements. The city building game genre will take on a whole new dimension when Monte Cristo Games ships "Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand” in Fall 2004. Read more for some new screens ...

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 :

• Men Of Valor - Trailer
• Van Helsing - Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

Crave Entertainment announced today Strike Force Bowling has reached gold master status for the PlayStation2 and the Xbox.

American Technology Research analyst P.J. McNealy said the Xbox was likely to overtake the PS2 on a units-sold basis for the first time ever in the United States in April. He estimated Xbox sales of 275,000 units this month, versus about 200,000 units for the PS2. PS2 sales have been falling in the United States this year, and in the just-ended fiscal year Sony said PS2 unit shipments fell 37 percent in North America. Unless Sony cuts the price on its PS2 in order to spur sales, U.S. game software makers, many of whom track Sony's fiscal year, may find sales growth targets harder to reach, analysts said. Read the full story here...

While Piranha Bytes is hard at work on Gothic 3, not much has been heard about the Gothic II: Night of the Raven expansion, andhere is why : "Bad news concerning the addon. I've talked with Plex if there will be an english version of the addon (Nacht des Raben), and he said that's a very difficult question. Many political problems are here within and it's not sure if there will be ever an english addon. this is out of the hands of JoWooD and Atari doesn't respond. Seems that the addon is temporary on ice or it died long before." (thanks RPGDot)

With the nation currently going snooker loopy thanks to the World Championships culminating this week in Sheffield, Ignition Entertainment can confirm that the much-anticipated Game Cube version of Archer Maclean's Pool Paradise will be released on 7th May 2004, at the remarkably low suggested retail price of £19.99.

NCsoft has chosen SpeedTree for use in Auto Assault, a massively multiplayer game currently under development by Denver-based NetDevil, LTD. The animated, incredibly realistic and efficient foliage generated by SpeedTree will be visible in virtually every Auto Assault level, both in town and on the highways, promised NetDevil CEO Scott Brown.

Gamers who want to stake a claim to the mysterious monster hunter Van Helsing, can take a stab at the legendary hero with the announcement of the game’s pre-order campaign. Fans who choose to preorder the game at select retailers will receive an exclusive DVD featuring a “Making of the Game” featurette, the films theatrical trailer and a high definition game trailer.