Microsoft Game Studios announced today that "Project Gotham Racing 2" for Xbox will be available in North America on November 18. In addition to the all-new Kudos ranking system, tons of hot cars and cities to explore and a massive list of authentic music tracks, "PGR2" also defines the Xbox Live experience. "PGR2" is built from the ground up for seamless online experiences in both Solo Play and Multiplayer modes. Players can get updated scores, scoreboard changes, Live Ghosts and challenges in real-time as they play.

Microsoft Corp. said on Friday it acquired the rights to the "High Heat" baseball video game franchise from bankrupt software publisher 3DO Co. The company did not immediately disclose the purchase price. 3DO's assets were sold at a bankruptcy auction in San Francisco on Thursday. When the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 28, it said it would try to sell its assets. Microsoft already has its own baseball game, "Inside Pitch," for its Xbox but game critics have long considered 3DO's "High Heat" as the best among numerous competitors.

Big Huge Games sent out notice announcing that they are looking for beta testers to try out an upcoming patch for their RTS game Rise of Nations (thanks HomeLAN). If you are interested you can sign up for the beta test right here, or read more for a detailed list of what fixes to expect in the update patch.

PC and Macintosh gamers can now experience the ultimate skating challenge with the release of Activision Inc.'s Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 video game. The multi-platform game was developed by Beenox and published by Aspyr. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 lets players take on the role of legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk and 13 other professional skateboarders as they skate through enormous free roaming levels, choose from 190 progressively harder goals and build their skills to perform 14 of the greatest skateboarding stunts of all time.

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 :

• Worms 3D - Trailer
• Commandos 3 - Trailer
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  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

The DesertCombat team is pleased to announce the next major public alpha of DesertCombat. Since the alpha tests have been so successful, we were able to get valuable feedback and bug reports to make this mod even better. Public Alpha 0.39 features a slew of bug fixes and additions aimed at creating one of the best war game experiences on the PC. In this stage of development each is roughly balanced with some minor advantages to each, making gameplay much more fun and exciting. Read more for download links ...

Unleashing the horror throughout nine levels, The Suffering features dynamic lighting that illuminates frightening visions of horror-filled exploration and frantic combat sequences. In the dark world of The Suffering, creatures attack from the shadows and emerge from jail cells, chambers, the ground and trees, surprising the player in the most disturbing ways possible. As Torque, the main character, players encounter a cast of uniquely hardened criminals, prison guards and grotesque apparitions. Check out these new screens ...

Codemasters' Club Football range of 17 team-dedicated games is coming to PlayStation 2 and Xbox this October. It's a whole range of games featuring an individual and official video game for 17 football clubs - from Manchester United Club Football to Real Madrid Club Football. Each club-headlined game will be published simultaneously. Everything in each individual game is officially licensed from the club. Every player from the 17 clubs' first team is unique, having had their likenesses individually modelled.

Command an elite, multinational squad of special operatives against a hidden terrorist foe. In Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, the third installment in the wildly popular Rainbow Six series, Team RAINBOW races against time to stop terror and unravel a mystery. In locations around the world, from London to the Cayman Islands to Rio de Janeiro, lead Team Rainbow in a desperate effort to battle a madman and foil his doomsday plot. Another 20 Xbox screens just rushed in. Check them out!