It is 1588 A.D., a critical year of an alternate history hauntingly familiar yet fantastically alien to our own. Because of one fateful event during the Third Crusade, the history of this world diverged. This event, the Disjunction, ripped open a long-sealed breach to other worlds. Magic energy and powerful spirits flowed into the world, changing the lands and the people forever. Cast into this world, you are a character of your own devices, strengths, and abilities. Set upon by human factions and powerful spirits, you must decide how to best develop your skills in order to triumph over obstacles that lie between you and your true fate. A fresh batch of Lionheart screens as well as a new trailer have arrived!

According to a post on the BlackIsle forum by PR guru Jessica Urquhart, Lionheart is scheduled for release on August 12, 2003. The original date set was April, so there is no specific reason why the game is delayed for almost 6 months ... Read the forum post.

Strategy First and developers Paradox Entertainment and Slitherine Strategies announced today that Legion Gold, the newest edition of the high-level strategy game, has gone gold. Legion Gold is a revolutionary, high-level strategy game that incorporates both strategic and tactical elements in a unique Roman Empire adventure. At the strategic level, players control vast armies and attempt to carve an Empire, and at the tactical level, they position their armies and make use of the best formations to achieve victory. Read more for details ...

CDV Software and the e-sports company Turtle Entertainment are organising an online championship after the international release of the real time strategy game Blitzkrieg. The contest will begin at the end of April in the Electronic Sports League, Europe's largest online league, with a direct link available on the official Blitzkrieg website, so that enthusiastic strategy game players can participate directly in the championship. Further tournaments will follow in the UK, France and the USA to coordinate with the various countries' release dates for Blitzkrieg.

Another day, another batch of game trailers were released. Instead of giving them all their own post, we grouped them and so far there are trailers for :

• Planetside (SOE)
• RavenShield (UbiSoft)
• ShadowBane (Ubisoft)
• Pro Race Driver (Codemasters)
• Warrior Kings:Battles (Empire)
• Splinter Cell (UbiSoft)
• SpyHunter
• 
  
  Read more for download links ...

Publisher Strategy First and developer Stardock announced today that their highly anticipated space strategy game, Galactic Civilizations, has shipped to retail stores nationwide! "With Galactic Civilizations we've really tried to create a strategy game that provides players with a unique experience every time they play,” said Brad Wardell, Project Lead on Galactic Civilizations at Stardock. At the same time the announced Bonus Pack is now also available.

The United Cyber Games Association (UCGA) today announced a series of over 400 qualifying events around the United States to kick off the American portion of the Samsung World Cyber Games (WCG), the world's largest e-sports competition. Teaming with sponsors Samsung, CompUSA's game fixx, and NVIDIA, the World Cyber Games USA will bring thrilling competitions closer to all of America's 140 million gamers by holding its qualifying and semifinal competitions at 20 CompUSA locations across the country from April through July 2003. The U.S. competition will culminate in a national final in August; winners there will advance to the WCG 2003 Grand Final in Seoul, Korea October 12-18.

It is 1588 A.D., a critical year of an alternate history hauntingly familiar yet fantastically alien to our own. Because of one fateful event during the Third Crusade, the history of this world diverged. This event, the Disjunction, ripped open a long-sealed breach to other worlds. Magic energy and powerful spirits flowed into the world, changing the lands and the people forever. Cast into this world, you are a character of your own devices, strengths, and abilities. Set upon by human factions and powerful spirits, you must decide how to best develop your skills in order to triumph over obstacles that lie between you and your true fate. A fresh batch of Lionheart screens has arrived!

Ubi Soft® Entertainment announced today that CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is now available for the PC. Based on the hit television series from CBS, the CSI game challenges players to solve a series of crimes, acting as a new member of the Las Vegas CSI team. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is rated "M-Mature" and is available for a retail price of $29.99.

The Warriors are closing in and they are prepared for a major assault. KOEI Corporation today announced that Dynasty Warriors 4 is shipping to retailers throughout North America. Consumers can expect to find the game on retail shelves as early as Wednesday, and can still order it through online retailers including ebgames.com, gamestop.com, kbtoys.com, and toysrus.com.

Not much detailed information known about Sony's online automobile devastation (due out Autumn 2003), but here are some screens to get you by until we dig up more details ... Njoy!

Highland Warriors has over 30 single player missions and allows players to create an infinite number of multi-player missions and stage epic battles using the game’s map editor and hundreds of battle units. The game’s unique customizable game interface allows users to redesign the game presentation to suit an individual player’s ability. Drag and drop buttons, screens, a mini map, and direct access to characters can be customized according to a player’s sensibility. DataBecker just let us know that the first patch for Highland Warriors has been released! The patch updates graphics, bugs, and adds some features to the game. Read more for download links ...

Ubi Soft Entertainment announced today that Shadowbane, the ground breaking massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game for both PC and Macintosh, has shipped to retailers in North America. Shadowbane was designed and developed by Wolfpack Studios, based in Austin, Texas, and is hosted and operated by ubi.com... ARUSH Entertainment and Groove Games today announced that developer Digitalo's first person shooter Devastation is shipping to North American retailers and will be on shelves this week at a MSRP of $39.99. The game features 22 huge singleplayer missions and a whopping 14 levels for multiplayer, plus the ability to choose to play in either Arcade mode or Simulation mode, each with varying degrees of difficulty.

The next evolution in off-road gaming has arrived with the release of Cabela's Off-Road Adventure 3 for the PC from Activision Value, a division of Activision, Inc. Featuring a combination of fast-paced off-road driving action and the ability to hunt, players explore vast landscapes as they advance through increasingly more challenging missions to earn money, upgrade their rigs and unlock additional activities that will take them one step closer to reaching their goal of becoming a member of the "Cabela's Driving Club." Cabela's Off-Road Adventure 3 is available at retail stores nationwide for a suggested retail price of $19.99 and has been rated "T" (TEEN) by the ESRB.

Entertainment software publisher NovaLogic Ltd. today announced that they are teaming up with Jolt.co.uk to launch the Official UK Devastation Death Match Demo tournament. The tournament will take place on Saturday 5th April. After Qualifying rounds the top four players from each qualifier will compete in the final with the winner and runner-up decided by their total score over two maps. Prizes include a AMD XP2500+ processor, Broadband JOLT ADSL line, BMX bike and limited edition Devastation merchandise. Servers will be open from 13.00 GMT and to participate players should join one of the servers and devastate the opposition in 15 minutes of pure mayhem.

Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson have only a few days left to squabble over which of them is the best manager in the UK, as from March 28th they will have hundreds of thousands of rivals when Championship Manager 4 is released. Championship Manager 4 is the new version of the best-selling Championship Manager series, developed by Sports Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive.

Datel, the world's leading developer and manufacturer of innovative video game enhancement products, today announced the release of Action Replay for the Microsoft Xbox games console. Action Replay is a revolutionary cheat system and game save manager designed specifically to unleash the power of Xbox.

Running late, but plenty of extras promised when it reaches Europe in September... Konami of Europe has announced a raft of additions exclusive to the European version of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, with the PlayStation 2 sci-fi action title now rescheduled for a September release. Created by the dream partnership of Metal Gear Solid producer Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa, the creative talent and mechanical designer behind the original game, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is a stunning 3D action title spanning the entire galaxy and boasting a mammoth task. It has been written and directed by Shuyo Murata, who gained lots of experience with past Metal Gear and Zone of the Enders titles.

Medieval: Total War - Viking Invasion challenges players to control eight new factions, including the Vikings themselves, the Saxons, Scots, Irish, Welsh and Picts, and embark on a campaign to dominate the British Isles. With a wealth of new historical heroes, players can lead a range of new units into battle, including Viking Berserkers, Saxon Huscarles and Fyrdmen, while conducting sieges enhanced by the introduction of flaming arrows and boiling oil. Check these 8 new screens ...

ARUSH Entertainment, Groove Games and Digitalo are pleased to announce that the 2-level multiplayer demo of the much-anticipated FPS Devastation has been released. The demo lets gamers play Devastation’s “Streetwar” (just like Deathmatch) and Capture the Flag game types over a LAN or online. It features two amazingly detailed environments, the Embarcadero Depot, and the abandoned Union Rail Yard. The maps are stocked with amazing weapons, including the powerful P*Laser and the remote-controlled Rat Drone. They have now updated the multiplayer demo and included the fix issued yesterday. Read more for download links ...

Vic DeLeon Sr. Producer @ Digitalo Studios posted up following information on Devastation forum:

The majority has spoken. Apparently this was a legitimate enough gripe and we will comply like the good developers we are trying to be. Most of the weapon sounds will be given an overhaul, with more bass, and pitch adjustments. I cannot promise anything but these changes should be in the full patch.

Thanks again for all the feedback and support. Keep it comin!

Champions of the forthcoming "official" Battlefield 1942 National Championship, hosted by iGames.org and Firingsquad.com, will be appearing in the next edition of Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records. As part of a broad campaign launched by the editors of the Book of World Records to identify the top players on all PC, arcade and console games, the champions of the Battlefield 1942 event will receive 2-3 pages of coverage in the record book, including player biographies, photos, statistics and a table displaying the final rankings of the national champions.

Sony Computer Entertainment UK today announced the PlayStation 2 Creative Award 2003 and also announced that renowned BritArtists Dinos & Jake Chapman and Marc Quinn will be on the judging panel for the award. Designed to recognise fresh talent from UK universities, nominations for the PlayStation 2 Creative Award 2003 will be taken from work submitted to an intriguing art exhibition, "Primal Art - portrait of the artist as a video gamer".

Fasa Studio's Von revealed following MechWarrior information on their forum:

Over the past few months there has been plenty of speculation, email, and pleas for information regarding the future of the PC MechWarrior franchise, namely MechWarrior 5. Although an exceptional effort was made by an extremely creative and talented development team, we have decided not to continue the development of the project at this time. There were several factors in this decision, but most prevalent was our concern that we were not advancing the genre enough to meet and exceed our customer's expectations. Please know that this was a very difficult decision, but one we felt was in the best interests of our customers.

We deeply love the Mechwarrior franchise, and are committed to keeping it alive. Our plan is to re-invent Mechwarrior in a way that brings a fresh experience to our devoted customers and new fans alike. We would like to thank all of you for your continued support of the Mechwarrior 4 series of games, and greatly appreciate all the feedback we've received on our games. We are intensely focused on delivering outstanding game experiences, and rest assured we are working feverishly on some wonderful next-generation games.

A few days back Take-Two Interactive announced VIETCONG for the PC went gold. VIETCONG, a first person shooter set during the Vietnam War, is set to hit stores shelves in March 2003. Now you can listen to the hot newcomer band Rude Kostry and its instrumental soundtrack for VIETCONG, playing at Radio Vietcong. (thanks Unrealik)