This weekend at the EA SPORTS 500 race at Talladega Superspeedway, the competition heats up early and often amongst top NASCAR drivers. In addition to the race excitement on Sunday, several other weekend activities are planned, including head-to-head racing between top drivers of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series as Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, and Ryan Newman pick up the controllers and race in the 3rd Annual EA SPORTS Drivers Challenge on Friday night. On Saturday, Dale Earnhardt Jr., last year's EA SPORTS 500 race winner and avid videogame player, is scheduled to trade paint with an EA SPORTS NASCAR Thunder 2004 video game fan. The EA SPORTS 500 race will be telecast on NBC Sunday, September 28 at 12:30 p.m. EST.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2004, the number one golf title from Electronic Arts is available in stores today on four platforms. EA, continuing its exclusive partnerships with the PGA TOUR and the world's best and most famous golfer, Tiger Woods, brings new features that appeal to golf and videogame fans alike. Still the most realistic golf videogame available, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2004 is packed with new modes and gameplay.

Lacing up its high tops and taking to the air with its legendary NBA video game action, Acclaim today announced that it has shipped its eagerly anticipated title, NBA JAM, for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system and the Xbox video game system from Microsoft. Developed by Acclaim Studios Austin, NBA JAM returns with its trademark over-the-top, arcade-style 3-on-3 gameplay, "On Fire," "Big Head" mode and hot spots, as well as all-new rim-rocking moves specifically designed for the next-generation gaming systems.

Mayhem Studios (the chaps behind Empire of Magic) today released an update from their latest PC/X-box fantasy RPG (Final Fantasy style) project, Neverend.. Release date is set to spring 2004.. Read more below for the update/gameinfo and a bunch of new screens!

Nokia today announced the ConnectCoder, N-Gage Mobile Game Deck Game Battle 2003, a competition for game developers across Europe, the United States and Canada to find the hottest game ideas that take advantage of the unique mobile online functionality of the Nokia N-Gage game deck. Helping to unleash the creative and innovative spirit of the game community, the competition runs until January 31, 2004.

Shrapnel Games and Malfador Machinations are proud to announce that gamers can try out the latest entry in the Space Empires series, Space Empires: Starfury, thanks to the newly released official demo. The demo, which provides players with a nice sense of what to expect in the final release. Read more for download links ...

The battle for Middle-earth is about to begin...Electronic Arts officially announced today the development of The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth for the PC under the EA GAMES brand. Developed at EA Los Angeles by the same team that created the award-winning real-time strategy (RTS) PC hits Commander & Conquer Red Alert 2 and Command & Conquer Generals, The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth game will capture the epic battles from The Lord of the Rings films and deliver them to PC gamers in summer 2004.

P.M. STUDIOS announces the on-line publishing of the first images from ETROM Comic. Here is a clip from the announcement:

"The development of ETROM project goes on with great enthusiasm and effort. As people know since last July announcement, ETROM is a multi-faceted project, which consists in a Videogame, a classic RPG and a Comic. We decided to publish on-line the first images from the Comic to give everyone that has enjoyed our work since its genesis a further step into the amazing Universe of the Knight of the Absolute, "Etrom Zediostruin". We're sure that the visual and the "feel" of the published images will make your curiosity and interest for our project grow "in fieri". Enjoy them!"- Fabio Belsanti Managing Director & Lead Designer-P.M. Studios.

Konami of Europe has announced that Pierluigi Collina - the most respected referee in the modern game and arguably one of the most regonisable faces in football - will be on the packaging of Pro Evolution Soccer 3. The publisher has also confirmed that the PlayStation 2 game will be launched October 17th, while a PC version will follow later in the year.

NDL, a leading developer of 3D graphics technology for the computer and video game industry, announced today that its Gamebryo technology is being used in *The Adventure Company's much anticipated Traitors Gate II: Cypher. The publisher agreement with DreamCatcher Interactive Inc, announced earlier this year, allows their development teams to create unique and compelling video games for the PC, Xbox, PlayStation2 and Nintendo GameCube.