Brave souls, come forth. The stage is set, and the battle to unite China is ready to begin once again with the release of Romance of the Three KingdomsVIII for the PlayStation2. KOEI Corporation today announced Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII is shipping to retailers throughout North America today.

Take 2/Gathering have released the first patch for their fantasy strategy game Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. This upgtade brings your retail game to v1.10 and addresses some multiplayer and editor issues (thanks Blues). Read more for details and download links ...

Ubi Soft has released the first patch for 1C Maddox's WW II flight sim IL-2 Sturmovik: the Forgotten Battles .This upgrade brings your retail game to 1.1b and has quite an impressive amount bug fixes, game improvements, graphics changes, networking & AI tweaking and tons more. Read more for a detailed fix list and download links ...

Publisher Big City Games and developer Techland announced today that their revolutionary shooter and futuristic vehicle simulator title, Crime Cities, has shipped to retail stores nationwide. “The fact that it combines the key elements of a shooter and a vehicle simulator give it an intense energy level,” explains Steve Milburn, Director of Marketing at Strategy First. “It is a blast to play.”

Madden NFL 2004, the most anticipated football title of the year and the top North American sports videogame franchise from Electronic Arts is available in stores today on six platforms. Madden NFL distributed under the EA SPORTS brand is in its 14th season with over 30 million copies sold, and the franchise recently was unveiled for display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the first videogame to receive this honor.

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 :

• Gangland - Trailer
• Hunter The Reckoning: Redeemer - Trailer
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds - Trailer
• Joint Operations - Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

Korea: Forgotten Conflict is a 3D Real Time Strategy game based on the war that no-one, save for those involved, wants to remember. In game film sequences will reinforce the atmosphere and realism within this fully interactive environment. Although there were 450,000 Allies lost in conflict (and, to date, there are still more than 8,000 servicemen unaccounted for), Communist casualties amounted to nearly 2 million. Maybe you can lessen these numbers.

Gotham Games today confirmed that Conflict: Desert Storm II - Back to Baghdad will be released for the Nintendo GameCube this fall. The game follows up on the successful title Conflict: Desert Storm, one of Blockbuster’s top-10 rental titles of 2002. Conflict: Desert Storm II captures all of the intense, third-person squad-based action of the original and builds on it as players command US Delta Forces or British SAS over the sands of Iraq to crush what remains of Saddam’s evil regime. Read more for details and some new screens ...

THQ Inc. today announced a multi-property agreement with Microsoft Game Studios that grants THQ worldwide rights to distribute titles from Microsoft’s Rare game studio, including Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge, Banjo Pilot, It’s Mr. Pants and Sabre Wulf. The first game scheduled for release under the agreement, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge, is scheduled to release in fall 2003. Read more for details & screens ...

Namco Hometek Inc. announced today the launch of a Web site for kill.switch, the innovative new military shooter shipping in October 2003 for Sony PS2 and the Xbox. Currently the official Kill.Switch website provides visitors with a taste of what’s to come with a selection of screens and trailers showcasing the realistic cover tactics and and awesome firepower packed into the game’s ultimate combat experience. Also included is some basic information on game features, including kill.switch’s sophisticated A.I. and 15 action-packed scenarios. If you haven't yet, you can also check our recent Kill.Switch preview!