Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood builds upon the elements that have made Brothers in Arms Road to Hill 30 a runaway success by adding new features and game modes. Featuring a new single-player narrative, new multiplayer missions, an all-new cooperative-style game mode, and new weapons and vehicles, Brothers In Arms Earned In Blood promises to lead the way this holiday season.

Today Microsoft announced its Japanese Xbox 360 line-up during the Xbox Summit 2005. During the presentation quite a few new titles were unveiled such as Namco's Ride Racer 6, Konami's Winning Eleven. Tecmo has no less than 4 titles planned (including DoA Xtreme 2). Read more for additional details ...

EA has signed a pact with New Line Cinema extending its rights to make games based on The Lord of the Rings franchise using images and actor likenesses from the pic trilogy. In addition, EA has now also signed a deal with with Tolkien Enterprises for J.R.R. Tolkien's literary trilogy, previously in the hands of Vivendi, giving it rights to use events and characters from the books not used in the pics.

Metro 3D announced today that it has reached an agreement with Data Design Interactive to publish 9 affordable Playstation2 and budget PC games in the UK. Read more for details ...

Valve lastest Steam Update has news about Day of Defeat Source and the upcoming Lost Coast release. Dod Source is currently being tested and is scheduled for release later this summer. Polishing work is being done right now on the player animations, as well as lighting work on the various maps. Current favorite features include the new grenade stun effect, and the ability to deploy the machine gun on any surface. In other news, HL2: Lost Coast (the upcoming free Half-Life 2 map for Half-Life 2 owners which showcases HDR rendering technology) is nearing completion and will be released soon on Steam. Valve promises extra, yet undisclosed, content with Lost Coast, but more info to come shortly ...

The Gamestar September issue has a 6 page preview article on Battle for Middle Earth 2. In contrary to the first BFME title, the sequel will take part in the North where a battle is raging between Sauron's forces vs. elves and dwarves. It will be possible to create/customize your own hero, apart from known figures such as Arwin, and become more powerful as you progress in the game. One of the main changes is that you will no longer be restricted in where you place your buildings, you will have total control over where you want to construct your base. While BFME was all land based, the sequel will also take the action on the sea, naval battles included, courtesy of an updated engine. In short, BFME 2 will have 15 missions per side, new units, new heroes, new races, new multiplayer mode, is currently about 50% complete and is scheduled for Q1 2006.

ZuxxeZ has released a new Gold Upgrade (not a patch) for its RTS Earth 2160. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.3 and adds troop formations, AI adjustments, interface optimizations and plenty more. Read more for download links ...

Microsoft reported a 37 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits today, citing strong sales across all its divisions, from servers to its Xbox console and video games. For the quarter ending June 30, Microsoft's net earnings climbed to $3.7 billion, up from $2.69 billion a year ago. Sales also jumped 9 percent to $10.2 billion, up from $9.3 billion a year ago.

At the Playstation Meeting 2005, From Software revealed its first Playstation 3 title, Project Force. After earlier announcing its support for the X360 with Chrome Hounds and Em : Enchant Arm, the Armored Core developer goes back to its long time mech roots. While no specific details were revealed the PM 2005 briefing did show a trailer filled with action, laser fights and destructible environment. Read more to check out the first screens ...

Not only Rockstar's GTA: San Andreas seems to cause controversy but now Atari's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure is getting scrutinized. New York City Council Member Peter F. Vallone, Chair of the Public Safety Committee and leader of the fight against graffiti, has called for Atari to scrap plans to release its graffiti based video game, accusing Atari of aiding and abetting criminal behaviour.

During last E3 Epic announced it would offer its Unreal Engine 3 for development on the PS3, and today Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. announced that it had entered into a strategic licensing agreement with Epic Games, through which SCEI obtains sublicensing rights of Unreal Engine 3.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding the latest update for Counter-Strike Source, which has now been optimized game to lower CPU usage... Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

During E3 Capcom announced that it would be bringing Resident Evil 4 to the PS2, and that it would include brand new features, enhancements and exciting surprises. Ever since rumors have been floating around, but today a few extras were already unveiled. For starters, RE4 for PS2 will support widescreen mode, but most importantly feature a completely new and exclusive weapon, the P.R.L 412, which stands for Plagas Removal Laser, has the ability to eradicate parasites from the hosts body.

Take-Two announced today that the Entertainment Software Rating Board has changed the rating of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on all platforms from "Mature 17+" (M) to "Adults Only 18+" (AO) because of the so-called "hot coffee mod," an unauthorized third party modification that alters the retail version of the game.

Microsoft announced today that its Xbox Live now unites two million gamers from around the world. Xbox Live continues to grow exponentially having doubled its online, dynamic community in just one year – the equivalent to adding one Xbox Live member every 30 seconds.

Midway announced today that former professional football standout and Hall of Fame inductee, Lawrence Taylor, will serve as the official cover athlete for Midway's new, unlicensed football videogame, Blitz: The League. Blitz: The League exposes the harsh realism and troubling, behind-the-scenes stories of a fictional professional football league.

In Crash Tag Team Racing players will be able to fuse two cars together on the fly to form a super vehicle outfitted with a turret gun with the all-new "clashing" technology. Players can continue their adventures on foot with out-of-car action, allowing them to traverse an amusement park-like world where they can interact with other characters, collect items and complete mini-missions.

On Wednesday July 20th, Bungie will release Autoupdate 4, a small file that updates your version of Halo 2 to mostly address cheating, strengthen security or minor, invisible bugs, but one thing you will notice right away, is that the Relic teleporter bug has been fixed, so you can no longer crouch jump to get through a locked teleporter. If you Xbox contains modded Xbox content, softmods, Action Replay saves, you will be permanently banned from matchmaking. Head on over here for more juicy details ...

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 is the next in the series of railroad simulators developed by Auran. Previously known as Engineers Edition, TRS2006 is being released as a full product later this year and sets new standards of realism and immersion in operating a virtual railroad. Aura has announced it will be releasing TRS2006 in September 2005.

German developer X1Software announced today that it is working on an un-official addon for Ubisoft's submarine sim, Silent Hunter 3: Seawolves will add sixty new cities across Europe, North America and the Pacific, new campaigns & missions (22 sp, 4 mp), and plenty of other enhancements. Read more for details ...

After last week John Romero confirmed his Midway exit, it seems now a second high profile developer on the Gauntlet team has quietly left Midway. J.E. Sawyer, previously known for working on Black Isle Studio's Icewind Dale series, has posted a few messages on the Mistress' Lair website that last week Friday (July 15th) was his last day, and that he was teaming up with other former BIS employees over at Obsidian where he will be working on Neverwinter Nights 2.

EA and Valve today announced that they have entered a multi-year agreement to deliver a collection of Valve games to players worldwide. The first two games to be released under this agreement are Half-Life 2: Game of the Year and Counter-Strike: Source for PC, both launching this fall. In addition, Half-Life 2 for the Xbox, scheduled for release in October, will be published and distributed worldwide by EA.

Square Enix America announced today that its PS2 exclusive Radiata Stories will ship to retailers September 6, 2005. Radiata Stories is the latest fantasy RPG developed by tri-Ace Inc., developers of Valkyrie Profile and the Star Ocean series, and takes gamers on a non-linear adventure through a fully interactive world.

Electronic Arts today announced plans to co-publish Namco's Dead to Rights: Reckoning for the PSP. Delivering the series' trademark non-stop, hard-boiled action and a gritty cop storyline, Dead to Rights: Reckoning, developed by Rebellion in the UK, is planned for release on the PSP in the winter of 2005.

Last week, during EA's hot summer night press event, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux revealed that Black & White 2 is on schedule to be released later this year. While no fixed date has been pinned down yet, Molyneux told C&VG that it will be either on Sept 27, or October 14, and a pair of demos will be released prior or simultaniously with the game's release, and consist of one or two early levels.