SOE today announced EQ: Depths of Darkhollow, offering new adventures and features for players of all levels. For the first time ever, players will play as monsters and experience EQ lore first hand through the eyes of another character while they do battle against their ancient foes. Players can also utilize Spirit Shrouds to don the form of a lower level creature to join newbie friends in battle.

Inon Zur is writing the musical score for NCsoft's new online action game Exteel. Zur has composed music for titles such as PoP: Warrior Within, Men Of Valor, Socom II and Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest, and his orchestral scores are featured in the promotional trailers for movies such as Kingdom Of Heaven, The Pacifier and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Pro Cycling Manager will have more detailed animations, an experience system, stage editor and also several multiplayer modes. Cyanide Studio is using the GameBryo engine, and the Paris-based developer of Chaos League has also recently licensed SpeedTree for use in Pro Cycling Manager.

Deep Silver and Phantagram reunite to launch Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes, the enhanced sequel to last years highly acclaimed action packed strategy title for the Xbox, Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders. After an incredibly successful E3, KUFH is ready to make its presence felt in the UK when it releases in late September 2005.

The Adventure Company today announced ECHO: Secrets of the Lost Cavern has gone gold in North America. ECHO: Secrets of the Lost Cavern lets you delve into a world of exploration and intrigue as you embark on a quest filled with puzzles and mystery. This unique adventure game will ship to retailers June 21, 2005.

NetDevil announced today the upcoming merging of European and American servers for its space combat MMG Jumpgate. The move results from the discontinuance of Mightygames as NetDevil's European partner.

Ubi Soft has yet again released new patches for 1C Maddox's WW2 flight sim Pacific Fighters. This update brings your retail game to v4.01 (for both the standalone and merged installations) and addsa new flight model, new aircraft, new AI, new maps and plenty more. Read more for download links.

Auto Assault combines vehicular combat with role-playing elements. Players explore a post-apocalyptic future in customizable cars, motorcycles, semis and even tanks. Players battle other players both in arenas and in epic race vs. race wars for control of the regions in a devastated Earth. Developer NetDevil answers a few questions ...

Dangerous Waters allows the player total control over multiple air, surface and subsurface platforms in a modern-day naval environment. The game shipped with dozens of single player missions and a full campaign, as well as a powerful full-featured mission editor.

Bioware has released the final patch for their 3D role-playing game Neverwinter Nights, and both its addons Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.66 and adds a new test module to the Aurora Toolset, fixes various issues and crashes, as well as several game balancing tweaks. Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure combines combat, action, adventure and stealth, using a thrilling graffiti-driven framework to tell its story of self-expression and the fight for creative freedom. Atari's recent financial statement lists Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure PC and Xbox editions for 2006.

EA has released the dedicated linux server for the recent demo for DICE's FPS sequel Battlefield 2. We reported earlier about EA banned modded servers from the master server list, and EA has finally issued a statement that this is indeed the case. "Because some server operators have hacked the time limit out of their servers or hacked access to the unlocks, we have been forced to reinforce our intended feature set by delisting the offending servers. All violations of the EULA as described above will result in a 1-week ban/delisting."

Majorem regretably announces today that development of its MMO-RTS Ballerium has again come to a full stop, as a result of an agreement signed with Interplay's in December 2004 that could not be realized, apparently due to Interplay's inability to raise the required funding to turn Majorem's technology into a game. The agreement, signed in december was to see Interplay provide Majorem with the means to launch Ballerium this summer. As a result of this new situation, Majorem now considers to accept new offers for the licensing of its MMO-RTS technology (and an almost ready MMO-RTS game) to interested third parties. Inquiries can be sent to info@majorem.com

Frame City Killer is a next-generation action game for the Xbox 360. Featuring astoundingly detailed graphics powered by the Unreal Engine 3 and immersive, non-linear gameplay, Frame City Killer is set to deliver an intense gaming experience this holiday season in North America and Europe.

The game tells the story of Riddick's dramatic escape from the previously inescapable triple max security slam Butcher Bay, home to the most violent prisoners in the universe. Several weeks after the US patch, Vivendi has released Euro patches for Starbreeze's action game. This update brings your European/German retail copy to v1.1 and resolves some problems for newer Nvidia video cards, updates some model assets, and allows the use of gamepads (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

There is quite a stir going on in the Battlefield 2 community as many server admins have started raising questions about their servers no longer showing up in the in-game master server list. Curiously enough all the missing servers were running minor mods to unlock hidden weapons and remove the ridiculously short time limit. At least 80 servers have been removed without any prior notice or explanation from EA, and there has been no official comment from the EA community moderators either. A possible workaround is changing the server ip or the name, especially if it includes mod hints such as "no time limit" etc.

In Pirates! you take the leading role of a Pirate Captain in the 17th century Caribbean trying to become the most revered and feared pirate in history - exploring high seas and exotic ports, overtaking enemies in fierce naval battles, engaging in duels and attempting to seize valuable booty. In this designer diary lead animator Steve Chao talks about the animation process and "even the odds," a new mode added for the Xbox version of the game.

Ubisoft has released an new update patch for Blue Byte's 3D RTS game 'Settlers: Heritage Of Kings.' This patch brings your retail game to v1.04 and adds ubi.com ladder support, as well as a few minor improvements. Read more for download links.

Black Bean Games has released a patch for the German edition of G5 Software's cold war RTS The Day After, previously known as Cuban Missile Crisis. No details available as to what it exactly fixes are available at this point. Read more for download links ...

Vicious Cycle Software announced today the upcoming release of the Vicious Engine, a complete middleware solution for game development on the PS2, Xbox and PC. This exciting technology is one of the first engines to offer full support for the PSP platform.

Bringing its heritage of being the definitive cricket game series, Brian Lara International Cricket comes ten years after Codemasters launched the original Brian Lara game and over five years since the series appeared on any platform. Read more for screens or check the new trailer.

Blizzard today announced that its MMO World of Warcraft has surpassed two million paying subscribers worldwide. As the game's worldwide population continues to grow, so does the game itself: Blizzard recently introduced the highly anticipated player-vs.-player (PvP) Honor System and the game's first two Battlegrounds, Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch. These new PvP battlefields offer a variety of fast-paced combat and some of the most valuable rewards yet seen in the game.

Create exactly the city you want: build uniquely-designed structures, from residences to corporate skyscrapers. Improve the quality of life by providing recreational and entertainment opportunities-without letting taxes spiral out of control. Solve traffic and pollution problems and sustain the city resources needed to keep the peace. Spend wisely to keep your town prosperous, wealthy, contented and healthy.

Star Defender II is a new Galaga-inspired game that is nothing but a continuous survival marathon that is sure to exhaust even the most experienced players. The game is 100 levels long, jam packed with amazingly detailed and uniquely different species of aliens (total of thirty) and is undoubtedly one of the toughest scrolling shooters in the world.