U.S. based Netamin, developer of the first Massively Multiplayer Online Sports Game – Ultimate Baseball Online (UBO), has increased its international reach with the opening of an office in Taiwan. The new facility, called Netamin Asia, allows the company to strengthen its presence in Asia and establish itself with the growing online gaming community in the region.

Our buddies at VE3D send over the following MicroSoft announcement. Historic hockey rivals will face-off this week as the quest for the coveted Stanley Cup begins. With intense NHL Playoff battles opening throughout the league, Microsoft Game Studios announced today its first hockey title for the Xbox, "NHL Rivals 2004." The game is scheduled to “go top shelf” in stores this fall. “NHL Rivals 2004” will have all the modes of play that hockey fans want including single game, playoff mode, season mode and online play. Read more for details and the first batch of screens ...

Codemasters is to increase the number of individual team-specific football action games in its Club Football series to a total of 17 titles, each officially licensed and headlined by a major European football club. Now Real Madrid Club Football and Celtic Club Football will join the already impressive roster of football clubs Codemasters is working with to produce individual PlayStation 2 and Xbox football action games for. Read more for additional details and screens ...

Publisher Big City Games and developer Techland are very happy to announce that the first game on the Big City Games label, Pet Soccer, has shipped to retail stores nationwide. "We are very excited about the Big City Games launch," says Don McFatridge, President of Big City Games. "Our lineup is packed with great games and Pet Soccer is a great way to kick things off." "Pet Soccer is quite simply, an amazing game," says Steve Milburn, Director of Marketing for Big City Games. "It's fun, it's addictive and the graphics are great. We are very proud to be bringing the first Pet title to the market with Big City Games, and we know that consumers are going to love this franchise."

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

• Tube Slider (NEC)
• The Hulk (Vivendi)
• Splinter Cell (GBA/NGC, UbiSoft)
• Korea: Forgotten Conflict (Cenega)
• Paradise Cracked (Buka)
• Heaven & Hell (CDV)
• Chaser (JoWooD)
• Sphinx Shadow Of Set (THQ)
• 
  
  Read more for download links ...

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. today announced that Tropico 2: Pirate Cove for the PC has shipped. Published by Take-Two's Gathering label and developed by San Francisco based Frog City Software, Inc. in association with Take-Two's Pop Top Software studio, Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is now available in stores nationwide and will be available in Europe on April 25th.

ARUSH Entertainment, Groove Games and Digitalo have released the prevously announced patch for their recently released FPS Devastation, bringing your retail game to v380. The major fixes include sound changes for weapons, stability fixes for multiplayer, tweaks to the Territories gametype, a new server browser interface, and tons of other improvements that will make the game smoother and better. Read more for download links ...

Arxel Tribe & Sinister Systems have released another updated Mistmare demo to bring the alternate-history adventure/RPG demo to v1.4 (thanks 3DGamers). No specific details are know as to what exactly this new version brings to the plate. Read more for download links ..

The Sydney Mystery is a mystery adventure game fully photographed on location in Sydney, Australia. The full game features over 240 scenes, 17 real Sydney locations, and 11 characters. Your uncle, a retired private investigator, has been kidnapped, and as his niece you must explore this rich world, talk to an intriguing cast of suspicious people and ultimate solve the mystery. As announced earlier Twilight Software has just released a demo featuring Act 1 (including 2 characters) of the full product, read more for download links ...