Produced by Hideo Kojima and directed by Shuyo Murata, The 2nd Runner takes interstellar combat to epic extremes! As the battle rages across deep space, cityscapes, enemy fortresses and beyond, fans will find plenty of new heroes & enemies, scenarios, and gameplay to test their mettle.

Blizzard announced today that the 'Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos' Epic Action Figures are now available at retailers across America. Fresh from the battlefields of Azeroth are the Orcish warchief Thrall, Dwarven mountain king Muradin Bronzebeard and Night Elf arch-druid Furion Stormrage. Each collector-quality figure stands between 5½" and 6½" tall with approximately eight points of articulation, and will retail for approximately $10.

Eidos Interactive announces Way of the Samurai on PlayStation 2. The game reached No.1 in the Japanese gaming charts when it was released in February this year. Licensed from Japanese publisher Spike Co. Ltd, Way of the Samurai will be released in September in Europe and Australasia only.

Dreamcatcher has just released the first update patch for their 3D space real-time strategy title Project Earth :Starmageddon by Lemon Interactive. Read more for detailed fix list and links where to grab it.

Interplay and Journeys, a leading teen footwear lifestyle retailer, announced today a national promotion showcasing Interplay's highly-acclaimed game Hunter: The Reckoning exclusively for the Xbox. The promotion will start July 1, 2002 in 560 Journeys stores nationwide and will feature a contest and special offers from Journeys footwear and other sponsors.

Headfirst Productions & Vivendi have released a patch for Simon the Sorcerer 3D upgrading their 3D adventure game to v2.0. Read more for some details and links where to grab it. (Thanks Blues).

Mythic Entertainment, creator of the multiple award winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Dark Age of Camelot, today announced that design work has begun on its next-generation MMORPG, code-named Imperator. The game is being developed exclusively by Mythic Entertainment and is designed to be a radical departure from the current generation of online games.

Eidos Germany has announced Frontline Attack: War over Europe, a 3D real-time strategy game in the works at Poland-based development teams In Images and Reality Pump. Frontline Attack: War over Europe uses the Earth III engine known from games such as Earth 2140, Earth 2150. Eidos seems to have picked up the rights to Zuxxez Entertainment's "World War II: Panzer Claws", the 3D RTS that was already in development since last year. German RTS fans can rejoice, the game will be released a full month earlier than anywhere else. Njoy the screens!

Microsoft Game Studios today announced that the official Rise of Nations Fan Site Kit (FSK) is now available. The Rise of Nations FSK file (6 MB) contains the following items to help webmasters achieve global supremacy with a Rise of Nations site of their own. Also JoWooD and Arkane Studios have not forgotten about the web community and made the Arx Fatalis FSK available today. Read more for details and links where to grab the files.

Creative Assembly has released a playable demo of Medieval: Total War, their upcoming 3D real-time and turn-based strategy game, for download from Games Domain. The demo was previously available on the cover-disk of PC Gamer UK, which may be a more convenient way of obtaining a copy of the massive 235.3 MB file, and this Battle Tutorial demo offers eight tutorials and a single-player mission (the Battle of Jaffa) from the full game. Read more for links where to grab it (as we'll be updating as more links become available, (Thanks Blues)).