The official VIETCONG site got a new 15MB movie available for Gathering's recently released first-person shooter, VIETCONG (thanks Unrealik). "Enter the jungle in Vietcong, an action-packed first person shooter set in the harsh landscape of Vietnam. As an elite member of the US forces, you'll lead up to six team members on 20 dangerous and intense single player missions. Multiplayer action lets you choose either a US or Vietcong soldier, and battle up to 64 players on a variety of detailed maps".

Eidos Interactive has joined forces with the Government of Novistrana to offer people the chance to be included in the forthcoming PC strategy-simulation game Republic: The Revolution. An exclusive competition has been set up on the just-launched Novistrana website. Twenty lucky winners will be featured as 'Novistranian' characters and will receive a home address for their character. This will enable them to identify themselves among the thousands of inhabitants of Novistrana. 100 runners-up will also have their surnames assigned to characters in the game. All that's needed to enter the competition is simply to register on the site. The closing date for the competition is April 15th 2003. Winners and runners-up will be notified by 30th April 2003.

Media Inc. announced today that they will co-publish NASCAR Racing 2003 Season for the Macintosh. The Macintosh conversion of NASCAR Racing 2003 Season is being completed by Westlake Interactive and will feature teams, drivers, sponsors, and every track of the 2003 NASCAR Cup Series. NASCAR Racing 2003 Season features new 3D graphics, an enhanced physics model developed with the input of official NASCAR team engineers, and informative driving aids for both seasoned and novice drivers.

NDL, a leading developer of 3D graphics technology for the computer and video game industry, announced today that it has issued a publishing license of its Gamebryo 3D graphics engine and toolkit to DreamCatcher Interactive. The agreement, which covers multiple game platforms, will allow DreamCatcher's development teams around the world to create unique and compelling computer games for the PC, Xbox, PlayStation2, and GameCube.

PowerVR - a division of Imagination Technologies - is pleased to announce that it will support Crytek's Polybump technology with the PowerVR MBX embedded core. The combination of PowerVR MBX and Polybump can enable the high-end techniques found in the latest games titles, like real per-pixel lighting, even on embedded and mobile devices. Support for Polybump is featured in the PowerVR MBX SDK (Software Development Kit) available to PowerVR MBX licensees and third-party software developers.

Game Ops, the interactive industry's first troubleshooting agency, today announced the launch of a unique new freelancer service designed to address the critical issue of outsourcing in the games development sector. Game Ops retains a number of highly experienced staff across a broad range of disciplines including coding, art & animation, game design, localisation, testing, audio and massively multiplayer gaming.

Requesting reinforcements! There are new battles to be fought and won. Electronic Arts Inc. and Digital Illusions today announced that development is underway on the latest expansion pack for the award-winning Battlefield 1942 PC game series. Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII, scheduled for release in fall 2003, will significantly enhance the multiplayer combat experience by bringing the most unique and deadly weapons from the German and Allied laboratories to life on the battlefields of World War II.

The German site GameCaptain let us know that JoWood has just announced "Railroad Giant" an upcoming railroad sim for PC to be released in Germany in September 2003. You find the first two screens here and use Bablefish to translate the announcement from German to English!

CM4 was released on March 28th 2003 by Eidos Interactive. The game, developed by Sports Interactive, is the latest in the best-selling series of football management games which has sold more than 3,000,000 copies worldwide since its initial launch in 1992.

Ground Control 2 : Operation Exodus takes place during the year 2741 AD, roughly 300 years after the events in the original game. The democratic and freedom caring Northern Star Alliance (NSA) is being hard pressed by the warmongering Terran Empire. The war has recently entered a new stage; a brutal and deadly ground war, as the Empire has managed to land their first troopships on the last NSA controlled planet – Morningstar Prime... Read more for a few new screens!