Microids and DreamCatcher have signed a publishing/distribution agreement for the North American market for two titles, Still Life and Obscure. No specific release date was announced, but both are expected around Q2 2005.

Vivisector: Beast Inside developed by Action Forms (creators of Chasm and Carnivores series) is a unique mixture of 3D Action/Horror. The game blends a thrilling interactive story with intense, high-adrenaline action and immerses players in a rich and fascinating storyline.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding yet another Half-Life 2 update which addresses some Steam issues, enables support for new query protocol in the HL dedicated server, and fixed a Source Engine spam issue. Restart Steam to get the latest update..

The rivalry between Sony's Blu-Ray and Toshiba/NEC's HD-DVD rages on as today the first two game companies have announced their support for Sony's Blu-Ray solution. Electronic Arts and Vivendi Universal Games will announce their support for the Blu-ray Disc optical disc format on Thursday afternoon at the CES.

You belong to an elite force fighting against global counter-terrorism. Your team is made up of two crack agents poised to react to any threat. Stealth Owl is an infiltration expert, whose skills are accuracy and skydiving. Raptor uses weapons of mass destruction and favors close combat. Your main objective is to dismantle the NEMESIS network and retrieve the stolen technology. But by changing the chemical properties of certain proteins, the terrorists have made their fighters much more aggressive…

At the Consumer Electronics Showtoday in Las Vegas, Electronic Arts announced its entire PSP line up set for release when the system launches in the U.S. this March. Designed to deliver the ultimate handheld experience, EA's PSP list of launch titles includes two new EA SPORTS staples; FIFA Football and MVP Baseball (U.S only), along with four previously announced franchise greats; Need for Speed Underground Rivals, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, NBA STREET: Showdown and NFL STREET 2: Unleashed.

DreamCatcher Games today announced it will publish Tesseraction Games has naval combat Enigma: Rising Tide -Gold Edition in North America, coming January 28 2005. Read more for details and new screens ...

Live fastballs, suicide squeezes, grass-staining dives, seventh-inning stretches, walk-off homeruns, peanuts and hotdogs… these are just some of the things that make the sport of baseball America’s favorite pastime. The victory of a baseball game can depend on the walk-off homerun in the ninth inning or a simple second base steal. Anything can make an impact in a baseball game because- as a wise man once said - “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” Coming this spring 2005.

Electronic Arts and Nintendo announced today a partnership that brings the Nintendo All-Stars – Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach – to the GameCube version of NBA Street V3, scheduled to launch in February. Read more for details and some screens showing off the new characters...

Players play Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat using bongos - by tapping the left or right drum, tapping both drums together or clapping as each gives Donkey Kong a different move. By using these moves on the bongos, players will be able to run, jump, battle, swing from vines and collect bananas as they explore beautiful side-scrolling environments. Controlling the game using the bongos elevates this far beyond a regular platform game.

'Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix,' scheduled for a February 18 release, will feature two new units and buildings, as well as allowing you to further upgrade your heros to level 50. An all new singleplayer campaign will be added, but also 25 new multiplayer maps, 15 of which are dedicated to coop play (a feature which was added in the previous Breath Of Winter expansion). Read more for 10 new screens ...

Paradox Interactive announced today that their much-awaited sequel to the multiple award-winning Hearts of Iron II has shipped to retail stores all over North America. Hearts of Iron II has been rated E for Everyone and has an MSRP of $39.99.

Vivendi has released a second singleplayer demo for Irrational's Tribes: Vengeance. In This demo you play the role of Mercury, a robot assassin hired to locate and eliminate Daniel, a captain of the local Phoenix subclan. Read more for download links ...

President of Infinium Labs and former Microsoft Xbox creator Kevin Bachus will be a lead speaker for a panel on the "History of Gaming" at the upcoming 2005 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world's largest annual trade show for consumer technology, Thursday – Sunday, Jan. 6 – 9, 2005 in Las Vegas.

In response to Gov. Blagojevich proposing legislation to ban the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to youths under age 18, the Illinois State Crime Commission and state Rep. Paul Froehlich checked to see if such games really were being sold to minors in and around Froehlich's legislative district. The Crime Commission enlisted 15-year-old Dan Shemwell to go to 15 stores Thursday. He attempted to buy "M-rated" (mature) games, including "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas." Despite most retailers voluntarily adopting policies banning the sale of such M-rated games to youths under 17, Dan Shemwell was able to buy games at 11 of the places he stopped. Read the full article over at the Chicago Sun-Times.

East Front is a high-tech first-person 3D-shooter. The action takes place in the alternate universe where fascist Germany won in the Second World War. A soldier of the German Resistance, Karl Stolz, turns out to be involved in the deadly play of mysterious powers, and at stake is control over the whole world. Read more for the first screens...

Retribution is a new FPS currently in production by U-235 Studios, with the prototype set to hit publishers doorsteps in November 2005. U-235 Studios have secured a licensing agreement for the state of the art engine "Reality" developed by Artificial Studios. Read more for details & screens..

TheForce.net managed to get some info from the Feb. 2005 PCZone UK issue about LucasArts/Petroglyph's (ex-Westwood) newest Star Wars RTS, which was revealed early Nov. 2004. "This new PC game is set two years before ANH with a certain amount of cross over from Episode 3. Screen shots look superb. It appears to include ground battles set in dessert and greenland areas with attacking AT-AT's and a new Imperial ground based vehicle called "TIE Crawlers" which I've not seen before (cross between a tank and a TIE Fighter). The action also takes place in space with rebel fleets taking on Star Destroyers (think of the game Homeworld)." No timeframe regarding the release date yet though (thanks VE3D).

The entire Worthplaying team wishes everybody a Happy New Year! We hope everybody had a safe transition from old into new and may 2005 be even better than last year. We here at Worthplaying have tons of exciting new stuff lined up to better serve you all. Behind the scenes, we are working very hard to expand the website in various ways which will start showing in the months ahead. Until then, party on!

Whereas its prequels offered first-person role-playing and strategy role-playing experiences (respectively), Shining Tears is an action role-playing game, featuring real-time battles and cooperative multiplayer game options.

The latest PC Gamer issue has revealed the name of Ensemble Studios latest AoE product, as well as the first details. 'Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery' is set in 1500 A.D. and chronicles the Age of Discovery that started around the time that Columbus "discovered" the new world. The single player campaign then follows American history up through 1850. One of the biggest changes is where it will no longer be necesary to drop off gathered resources at specific buildings. In multiplayer mode, you'll be able to choose from among eight different civilizations (so far only the French, Spanish, and British have been confirmed) and there will be, amongst others, free-for-all and team-vs-team matches supporting up to eight players over a LAN or the internet. Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery will have a heavily modified AI system, as well as the latest Havok physics engine (thanks PlanetAoM). We will have more info soon ...

Scratches is a gripping first-person mystery adventure game that will keep the players glued to their monitors, with its story full of breathtaking twists and surprises, until the final shocking revelation. Nucleosys has released 2 small teaser demos giving you the chance to wander around in some of the environments featured in the game (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

Ubi Soft could receive government support in its fight against the threat of a takeover by US video games giant Electronic Arts, La Tribune newspaper reported without naming its sources (thanks VE3D). Read more for details ...

East Front is a high-tech 1st/ person 3d-shooter. The action takes place in the alternative universe where the fascist Germany won in the Second World War. A soldier of the German Resistance Karl Stolz turns out to be involved in the deadly play of mysterious powers and the stake is the control over the whole world. Read more for the first screens...