"Midtown Madness 3," the latest in Microsoft Corp.'s popular "Midtown Madness" franchise, allows gamers to get behind the wheel of more than 30 vehicles while competing in exciting race modes such as Blitz, Checkpoint and Cruise. With a robust Career mode featuring 14 driving careers, "Midtown Madness 3" delivers the rush and excitement of street racing while challenging gamers to put their driving skills to the ultimate test... Nine new screenshots. Take a gander at the Paris Bus and the Corvette Z06.

JoWooD Productions is proud to announce the first official details of the 50 defensive and destructive magic spells set to feature in Gothic II, the breathtaking role-playing action adventure game... Read more for all details of the game's 50 magic spells - just the ticket for making it through Friday 13th, and four screenshots of spells in action.

Previously, Phantagram Europe has announced in celebration their Top 20 entry in ChartTrack, Phantom Crash, which was released 22nd November 2002, with a prestigious event titled Phantom Crash Battle Royal Competition. Already they have been receiving many entries but time is running out. With the deadline on 29th December 2002, competitors that have already entered the competition have demonstrated their skills greatly. This is all in bid to win a "Year supply of Phantagram titles on all formats", "Phantarama CD", "discount" off your purchased copy of Phantom Crash and a free copy of "Kingdom Under Fire Gold". For competition entry, the player has to play Phantom Crash playable Demo on Official U.K. Xbox Magazine that was released 27th November 2002. They have to defeat 25 opponents in the fastest time possible and prove the results to Phantagram Europe via Photo or Video Tape... Find out more below!

On Wednesday, the 4th of December techland finished working on FIM Speedway Grand Prix. After two weeks of testers' intensified work and final improvements of the game, it was sent to replication on Thursday, the 5th December at 11.15. Despite of the extreme tiredness and sacrifice of all the SGP Team, all people who worked on FIM SGP have been very satisfied with the achievement. The game will apear in Poland before Christmas. Distributors for other countries will be found soon and the game will be released worldwide in Q1 2003.

Paradox Entertainment has licensed the British developer Virtual Programming Ltd the right to convert the award-winning historical strategy games Legion and Hearts of Iron to Apple´s PowerMac. The games will be released during 2003. Paradox Entertainment has previously licenced the Macintosh rights to Europa Universalis 2 to Virtual Programming Ltd who has specialist competence in converting into the MacOS.

Infogrames announces that it will be shipping Micro Machines for Nintendo’s GameCube and Game Boy Advance to retailers in January 2003. Infogrames’ Sheffield House development studio (responsible for the GameCube version) and Paragon 5 / Infinite Dreams (who made the Game Boy Advance version) have produced polished, vibrant games that are sure to delight Nintendo fans of all ages with their quirky sense of humour and fast and furious gameplay.

French police raided Vivendi Universal's headquarters and other unspecified premises Thursday as part of a financial-accounts investigation, judicial and police sources said Thursday. The raid, by financial-division police, is part of a probe into potential irregularities in Vivendi's accounts when under the leadership of former chairman and chief executive Jean-Marie Messier, the sources said. A spokesman for the French media company has confirmed a search was being performed at Vivendi's headquarters and was related to the accounts investigation.

The action moves into high gear with the release of Activision, Inc.'s Rally Fusion: Race of Champions. Based on the Michelin Race of Champions, which is held annually in the Canary Islands, the game lets players take on the top racers from the world of motorsport with the ultimate goal of becoming the "Champion of Champions." Developed by Climax, Rally Fusion: Race of Champions for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system and Xbox video game system from Microsoft has been rated "E" (Everyone) by the ESRB and has a suggested retail price of $49.99.

MindComet, the industry leading new media solutions provider, today announced that it has designed and developed an online game in support of the Nextel/National Hockey League All-Star Challenge. The Nextel/NHL All-Star Challenge is a national shootout competition, taking place in 11 NHL team markets and through a national sweepstakes (U.S. residents only) over a three-month period. The competition will culminate at the 2003 NHL All-Star Weekend presented by Nextel in Sunrise, Fla., where one fan will have the opportunity to shoot against Tampa Bay Lightning star goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin for $250,000.

NVIDIA the worldwide leader in visual processing solutions, today announced a series of new corporate initiatives that will extend the Company's leadership position in the Linux market and ensure that NVIDIA graphics and multimedia processors continue to be the highest performing in the industry. As part of the Company's ongoing commitment to the Linux community, NVIDIA today revealed details of a technical support program for end users and professional customers; a new software driver package that includes performance enhancements and new features for NVIDIA's advanced graphics features, including NVIDIA's CineFX architecture delivered by NVIDIA's Unified Driver Architecture (UDA); and support for the latest PC technologies, including AGP 8X and OpenGL 1.4.