Activision announced today that Call of Duty: United Offensive - the expansion pack to Infinity Ward's highly acclaimed Call of Duty, which has received over 80 Game of the Year and 50 Editors' Choice Awards worldwide - has gone gold and will ship to retail outlets nationwide on Sept. 14.

Medieval Lords takes aspiring city governors to the middle ages, combining rich city-building challenges with evolving military forces to defend against relentless attacks from neighboring enemies. A first for the genre, Medieval Lords features a full 3D engine that enables innovative new gameplay elements. The city building game genre will take on a whole new dimension when Monte Cristo Games ships "Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand” in Fall 2004.

Team 6 has released a demo for their helicopter action game Elite Heli Defender giving you the chance to try out the game for 60 minutes, featuring 2 missions and 1 helicopter. Read more for details, screens and download links ...

Valve's Gabe Newell has been known to trickle out little information about Half-Life 2's progress now and then on the HL2Fallout.com forums, and it seems he did again just that Friday night. After a long night of partying or not, Gabe has posted a short blurb simply stating "We're going gold monday..." Various online retailers have been changing the HL2 release date in their db's to early September over the past week, and it seems, for once, they may be right.

Update: Seems this was a fake/hacked forum post... bummer!

Gamers can enlist for a second tour of duty on the intense front lines of WWII with Call of Duty: United Offensive. Delivering a compelling, all-new single player campaign filled with new weapons, character abilities and other expanded features, Call of Duty: United Offensive also offers a robust multiplayer experience introducing new maps and modes of play. Read more for new screens or check the multiplayer trailer...

Half-Life 2 pre-loading begins to Steam account holders today. Over the coming days, those who have selected the pre-loading option will have encrypted Half-Life 2 files delivered to their PC. No purchase is required to pre-load HL2, but is required to activate the game. Purchase options will be released soon. Then, the moment the game is made available, those who have pre-loaded and purchased Half-Life 2 via Steam will be authenticated and ready to start playing.

The retail version of EA's Burnout 3: Takedown for the PS2 will feature a demo version of Need for Speed Underground 2. Retail versions of Need for Speed Underground 2 for the PS2 and Xbox will, in turn, feature a demo of Burnout 3: Takedown. Burnout 3: Takedown is slated to ship on September 8 for the PS2 and Xbox. Need for Speed Underground 2 is slated to ship in November for the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, and GBA.

Fire Captain ignites the 3D Real-Time Strategy genre with the fire and rescue scene. Players are challenged to keep their cool as they manage a squad of elite firefighters in a variety of fast-paced, unpredictable, and explosive emergency scenarios. Set in and around a metropolitan city along the U.S. west coast, fire chiefs command fire squads and vehicles to extinguish flames and save victims in five single player campaigns with increasingly complex missions based on real-life events and three multiplayer modes.

Konami of Europe has announced that Thierry Henry is to be one of the faces of Pro Evolution Soccer 4, the latest installment in Konami Tokyo's highly regarded football simulation for PlayStation 2, PC and the Xbox.

Ubisoft has released a demo for Hydravision 3rd person survival horror game Obscure: Learn about Fear. This demo features starts you off in the basketball gym, but no specifics are available at this point (thanks Gamershell). Read more for download links...

Enthusia Professional Racing is a PS2 new racing game, developed by KCES, designed to bring all of the white-knuckle energy and thrill of car racing to life, Enthusia features groundbreaking gameplay mechanics, enhanced physics and pixel-perfect graphics to deliver an unprecedented racing experience. Read more for screens & trailer...

Medieval Lords takes aspiring city governors to the middle ages, combining rich city-building challenges with evolving military forces to defend against relentless attacks from neighboring enemies. A first for the genre, Medieval Lords features a full 3D engine that enables innovative new gameplay elements. The city building game genre will take on a whole new dimension when Monte Cristo Games ships "Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand” in Fall 2004.

More indications surfaced today, giving more credibility to the rumor that 'Half-Life 2' might be released in September. Valve's Gabe Newell has posted some interesting information on the HL2 Fallout forums : "8/11 the Cafe's turn on (tomorrow). 8/16 CZ/ATI users pre-load. 8/18 CZ/ATI turns on. 8/17 HL-2 pre-load starts (textures, audio and other stuff that doesn't change)." This indicates that big parts of the game are in the final stage and are probably going to get pre-loaded to gradually build up to the full release.

Medieval Lords takes aspiring city governors to the middle ages, combining rich city-building challenges with evolving military forces to defend against relentless attacks from neighboring enemies. A first for the genre, Medieval Lords features a full 3D engine that enables innovative new gameplay elements. The city building game genre will take on a whole new dimension when Monte Cristo Games ships "Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand” in Fall 2004.

In Half-Life 2 the player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people people he cares about are counting on him. Read more for somenew screens ...

Valve has selected Japan-based Namco, Ltd. as its representative to distribute its already famous games, including Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Day of Defeat, to the cyber cafe community in Japan. Namco is currently the only authorized cyber cafe reseller in Japan for Valve games.

ESPN Videogames today unveiled new features for their upcoming hockey title, ESPN NHL 2K5. ESPN NHL 2K5 introduces several new additions in Franchise Mode, the new Intense Contact Control system, and Party Mode, a new feature that brings fans together in the spirit of competition. Read more for details...

TDK Mediactive has released a demo for Starbreeze Studios' 3rd person action game Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade. In the rank of a Commander of Knights he has to make his way through the lost city of Petra and to face groups of opponents armed with different weapons using unique fighting techniques. The player will be able to use sword, axe, mace and bow as well as 4 combos, all special attacks and all divine powers (thanks Gamershell).

Tiscali Games today announced new features which are about to be introduced to the PC game 'BiosFear' with 'BiosFear Chapter 2: Battle for Winter Castle'. Click 'Read More' for details on this free add-on.

More than 280,000 24-page Chaos League comics will be distributed to the trade and public as Digital Jesters gears up for the August 6th release of Chaos League. Mmmm, free violence. Read more for details...

Gamers can enlist for a second tour of duty on the intense front lines of WWII with Call of Duty: United Offensive. Delivering a compelling, all-new single player campaign filled with new weapons, character abilities and other expanded features, Call of Duty: United Offensive also offers a robust multiplayer experience introducing new maps and modes of play. Read more for new screens ...

While already revealed a few weeks ago, Electronic Arts announced today the return of one of the most critically acclaimed console first-person shooters with TimeSplitters Future Perfect, in development by Free Radical Design Ltd. and slated to ship in early 2005 under the EA GAMES brand. Read more for details and screens...

Jowood has released a demo for Wildlife Park: Wild Creatures, featuring one map and two missions. The AddOn to Wildlife Park leads you into an extremely exotic world of wild animals from the present and past. Numerous new species are settled in Wildlife Park AddOn to attract visitors in missions or in the free game. Read more for download links ...

Ace Combat 5 blends highly realistic graphics and dog fighting action with the intensity and regimen of squadron command to offer the most explosive title in the Ace Combat series. Offering more than 50 licensed planes and a compelling storyline with more than 30 missions, players are tested to the fullest with air-to-air combat, air-to-ground fighting, air-to-sea assaults, rescue, recon and more.