Aksys Games announced it is bringing Castle of Shikigami III, a vertical scrolling shoot’em-up known for its lively characters and challenging difficulty, to North America.

Consumer analysts at Turner Investment Partners concluded that casual games are catching the eyes (and fingers) of women, baby boomers and even seniors, giving video games the potential to be "one of the few retailing success stories in what may be a lackluster holiday shopping season." The company fails to mention the real casual games from companies like PopCap and Bigfish Games, and instead touts several high-profile companies of which it just happens to own shares.

Namco Bandai revealed six new plane variants for Ace Combat 6 that will be available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace, Dec. 19. A new Team Battle map will be downloadable in the coming weeks, allowing online squadrons to battle in an all-new locale.

The latest NPD numbers confirm that the Wii is still one of the hottest items on the market, with nearly 1 million units sold last month alone. During a conference call earlier today, NoA president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that large Wii shipments (20+ units) will be coming in this weekend at several retail stores such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Target and Wal-Mart. People who still can't find a Wii will be able to get a raincheck at GameStop, redeemable in Jan. 2008.

WH 40K: Dawn of War - Soulstorm features an extensive interplanetary campaign spanning an entire star system in the WK40K universe, as well as introducing two all-new factions for an unprecedented total of nine playable races.

GRIN, known for developing the PC versions of Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, announced that it is opening a new studio in Gothenburg, Sweden early 2008, to work on a yet un-announced triple A sci-fi title. Currently working on Bionic Commando for Capcom, GRIN has satellite offices in Spain, Jakarta, and Japan.

Advances in gameplay and the addition of new elements will make Disciples III richer and more interesting. The visual design follows the original ominous and gloomy style of the Disciples world, but now the entire game environment and every individual unit is in full 3D.

Another day, another batch of games shipped to stores. Instead of giving them all their own posts, we grouped them, and so far there are announcements for:

• The Orange Box (PS3)
• Ballerium (PC)
• 
  We will update this throughout the day when new announcements become available. Read more for details ...

Fading Shadows is a PSP exclusive puzzle-platformer game offering an entirely unique style of action-packed puzzle gameplay, stunning graphics and visual effects, a riveting and immersive storyline, plus a competitive wireless multiplayer game mode.

Gothic 3 is the third part of the RPG legend presenting an intense, living world and a non-linear, varied gaming experience. This v1.5.2 community patch is not supported by Jowood, but addresses a lot of issues with the game ...