Electronic Arts today announced that it has signed a North American distribution agreement with KOEI Corporation for the upcoming tactical action game, Samurai Warriors. Samurai Warriors is developed by Koei's internal development team Omega Force, the studio behind the award-winning Dynasty Warriors series, and is slated for release on the PlayStation 2 in May 2004.

Digital Jesters has launched the official‘Samurai Wars’ Mod website. Samurai Wars is the exclusive MOD created especially for distribution with the European boxed version of Savage: The Battle for Newerth. Set in feudal Japan, Samurai Wars builds on the strength of the Savage engine to provide an alternative and engrossing playing experience. Read more to check out some screens or visit the official Samurai Wars website.

Developed by Acquire, Way of the Samurai 2 will build on its predecessor's mix of fighting and adventure. The game will be set in a war-torn town during the end of feudal Japan's Edo period. Players will be torn between the town's corrupt magistrate and a group of leaderless ronin. Its story will occur over 10 days and will have a much larger cast of characters and slate of side quests.

Sammy Studios today announced the launch of the dedicated web site for "Seven Samurai 20XX". Exclusively for Sony PS2, "Seven Samurai 20XX" is a fast-paced action game inspired by Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece "The Seven Samurai." Visitors go behind-the-scenes to gain access to a wide selection of art, movies, screenshots, character and story background and artist profiles to get a look into how the greatest action tale of all time has been "digitally remastered" for the video game generation. Scheduled for release spring 2004, "Seven Samurai 20XX" is rated T for Teen and has an MSRP of $39.99.

Samurai Jack is the highly stylized, Emmy-winning action cartoon from Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of Dexter's Laboratory and the director of the popular new animated epic micro series, Star Wars: Clone Wars. "Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku" was developed for a broad audience by Amaze's Adrenium Games studio. It's a free roaming, easy to control action-adventure that's perfect for fans of the television series who are both casual players and hardcore gamers.

SEGA of America, Inc. has announced that Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have awarded it the license to publish a console game based on the popular Cartoon Network series Samurai Jack. The videogame developed by Amaze Entertainment, named "Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku," will be available on Microsoft Xbox, PlayStation2, and GameCube in March 2004.

SAMURAI WARRIORS stars the brave Sanada Yukimura, who leads an elite band of samurai and ninja. Sanada's journey will take him to the hallowed Japanese battlefields of Okehazama and Kawanakajima and inside the embattled walls of Osaka Castle where he will come face-to-face with gun-toting troops, echelons of ninja, and deadly kunoichi (female ninja). Read more for details and screens ...

Seven Samurai 20XX puts players in the role of the young Ronin Natoe. At first fighting the enemy alone as they begin laying siege to the human’s one and only city, Natoe soon finds himself the protector of the humans’ last hope, the Holy Child, and ultimately the leader of a band of warriors united to protect her against the invaders. Seven Samurai 20XX engages players with an experience that combines compelling storytelling, delivered through superb cinematic cut-scenes, with intense melee-style combat. Players will use a variety of ancient fighting styles in the game, employing an arsenal of moves and attacks that grow with their mastery of the samurai way.

Way of the Samurai 2 takes place at the end of the Edo period in 19th Century feudal Japan and is set in a town called Amahara, located on the island of Dejima. The citizens of Amahara once lived in peace and harmony, but as policy shifted within the powerful Magistrate’s office, they have found themselves the victims of extreme justice. Read more for details and screens ...

KOEI unveiled details on Samurai Warriors for the PlayStation2. Known as Sengoku Musou in Japan, the Japanese-themed Tactical Action game signals the culmination of KOEI's 25th Anniversary and will ship to North American Retailers in March 2004. Read more for details and screens ...

Sammy Europe, Ltd. today unveiled the games it will have on display at ECTS 2003. Amongst their titles are the eagerly anticipated Lethal Skies 2, as well as Seven Samurai 20XX. The company is exhibiting at booth #1950 at the show, held August 27th – 29th at Earls Court in London, UK.

The United Cyber Games Association (UCGA) announced today that each participating Samsung World Cyber Games 2003 USA Finalist will walk away with a state of the art PC and monitor at the U.S. Finals in Irvine, CA, August 19th and 20th. Read more for details ...

Hot on the heels of the freshly released Battlefield v1.4 patch/servers comes a beta version of the level editor for Battlefield 1942 appropriatly name Battlecraft 1942. The map editor comeswith a file including examples. Read more for details and download links ...

Jester Interactive the developers and publishers of the critically acclaimed Music 3000 for Playstation 2 are set to launch a USB sampler and microphone to accompany the game.The sampler will enable user to take advantage of extra features the game has to offer. These include the ability to sample from your own music collection, the unique V2m (voice to music), and of course being able to add your own vocals!

Nearing the end of my E3 Screens Gallery list is one of the smaller developer/publishers but big in quality. Sammy Studios is a fairly new addition to the battlefield but with last year's Guilty Gear X2 and Galerians Ash they proved to have what it takes! This year they have 2 equally impressive titles (and a few more not yet announced in house developments coming) such as:

• Lethal Skies II (PS2)
• Seven Samurai 20XX (PS2)
  
  Hit this link for the screens!

Sammy Studios Announces Lethal Skies II (PS2): “Lethal Skies II is a thrilling title that will bring gamers a fast-paced, graphically rich jet combat game,” said John Rowe, president of Sammy Studios. “Players will be able to immerse themselves into this game’s single-player mode as an elite pilot commanding a powerful air fleet, or compete with friends for Ace status in 2-player mode.”

Sammy Studios Unveils The Seven Samurai (PS2): “Seven Samurai 20XX is an exciting video game title on many levels,” said John Rowe, president of Sammy Studios. “It takes a film that has transcended generations and recreates it as an intense action game set in the future, and pays proper homage to the masterpiece that inspired it as a collaborative and artistically-driven effort.”

Serious Sam is a high-adrenaline arcade-action shooter heavily focused on frantic arcade-style single player action. In a world where cyberpunk meets fantasy-fiction and advanced technology is mixed with black magic and psycho-powers, Sam travels through the beautiful world of ancient Egypt and several diverse planets, confronting countless Mental's minions on his way to the Mental's base.

Sammy Studios Inc. today announced that it has expanded its U.S.-based video game development operations. The company unveiled a team based in Los Angeles that is currently working on its second internally developed title, a flight combat game for home consoles, along with plans to launch a state-of-the-art studio located in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley before the end of Q2 2003. Sammy Studios' founding team has been working on the company's first-ever U.S.-developed title, a console-based first person shooter, since launching its San Diego studio last year. Sammy Studios also revealed that it will begin development on two additional titles and will be looking at applicants for all projects in both studios at the Game Developers' Conference (GDC) in San Jose, California, on March 5th - 8th, 2003.

Sammy Studios Inc. today announced that Rick Olafsson has been appointed to the position of chief financial officer. Rick comes to Sammy Studios after having served financial management positions in high-tech and interactive entertainment at such companies as Mattel Inc., eParties.com, and most recently TheBrain Technologies Corporation.

Sword of the Samurai is a story-driven sword fighting game that allows players to create a character and train their fighter in a variety of fighting techniques as they work their way to finally become the ultimate Bushido Master. Players will experience their character's growth as they develop their own sword-fighting style and learn new skills by receiving authentic advice and instruction from expert Dojo Masters. Players will fight multiple opponents including 30 of the most famous Japanese sword-fighting grandmasters, going on a variety of missions to learn new sword fighting skills and amass a collection of more than 100 authentic swords with individual statistics. Sword of the Samurai is the ultimate sword fighting game, featuring awesome combat in a feudal Japanese atmosphere.

Sammy Studios Inc. today announced the addition of Clinton Keith. Clinton comes to the company from Rockstar San Diego, the developer formerly known as Angel Studios, Inc., where he served as director/lead programmer. He joins Sammy Studios as lead tools programmer, working with teams currently creating the company’s first internally-developed video games in North America.

Samurai Jack is a bold adventure show on Cartoon Network. In the distant past, an evil shape-shifting wizard named Aku brought destruction upon the land. As the citizens’ last hope, a young Jack is sent away to train in the various combat and philosophical arts to become a samurai warrior. When Samurai Jack returns to find the people of his town oppressed, his mother gives him his father’s magic sword. To free the people, Jack goes in search of Aku. A few new sword yielding screens for you to enjoy!

Yesterday we had an interview with Serious Sam producer David Nottingham, today we took a jab at Croteam Game & Level Designer, Davor Tomicic. In anticipation of the Xbox release on Nov12th, this will have to do until then ;)

Serious Sam is a high-adrenaline arcade-action 3D-shooter heavily focused on frantic arcade-style action. In a world where cyberpunk meets fantasy-fiction and advanced technology is mixed with black magic and psychic-powers, Sam travels from the beautiful world of ancient Egypt through many diverse planets, confronting Mental's hideous minions on his way to the final showdown at Notorious Mental's lair. Today we have an interview with Producer David Nottingham and a few new art screens ...

From Lightweight, the developer of the acclaimed Kengo and Bushido Blade series, Sword of the Samurai is an authentic Japanese sword fighting title, which challenges gamers to become a grand master sword fighter. Some new screens to show off the sword wielding samurai ..