Atari has shipped Shadow Ops: Red Mercury, the highly anticipated cinematic first-person action game for the Xbox, to retail stores worldwide this week. Shadow Ops: Red Mercury offers players a gripping movie-style experience through its unprecedented Hollywood production values, intense action and ground-breaking sound and visual effects.

Blockbuster Inc. today announced the national rollout of the Blockbuster Flip Card – just in time for the latest summer game titles. When consumers purchase a BLOCKBUSTER Flip Card for just $49 plus tax, they get unlimited game rentals, one out at a time, for three consecutive months – less than the price of the hottest new release games.

Get ready to hone your drumming skills! TAIKO: Drum Master, developed by Namco Ltd. in Japan, is a new game that challenges your rhythmic skills through fun and challenging game play. TAIKO: Drum Master will release in time for the holiday season.

Quazal and Ubisoft today announce their partnership has produced the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3 multiplayer experience: one of the most innovative multiplayer designs to date, with cooperative moves that have never before been seen in a video game. A continuation to the story of Sam Fisher, member of the ultra-secret Third Echelon, Splinter Cell 3 is currently in development at Ubisoft’s Montreal studios.

Crusader Kings will be in stores on September 21st, and as a step in Paradox Entertainment’s long-term strategy, the company will self-publish the title in North America (it was previously to be published by Strategy First).

Fly one of the many spacecraft and battle huge cruisers - or break through hull, grab your rocket launcher and explore the enemy's vessel in your superior battle suit! Fight morphing aliens and fierce time warriors in a dark future that will become your worst nightmare!

Stormregion made massive tanks a crucial element in this tactical combat action title set in World War II. Russian, German and Allied troops fight in three campaigns and more than 30 breath taking single player missions. Over a hundred authentic 3D vehicles are at disposal as well as a wide range of ground troops. Read more to check 30 new screens and also check our Panzers preview!

Aleready revealed a few weeks ago, but today the official announcement rolled in. Atari has forged links with Microsoft, publisher of Top Spin for the Xbox, to publish the Windows PC version of Top Spin, the critically renowned tennis simulation releasing this September. Atari and Microsoft are confident of repeating the success of last year's Xbox version in 2004.

Lionhead Studios is delighted to announce the appointment of brothers Ron and Chris Millar who both formerly worked for Jaleco Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment. Ron Millar is to continue his work as designer at Lionhead Studios and his experience on games such as Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo will undoubtedly bring a new perspective to Lionhead's design process.

A couple years ago, the GarageGames position on shader support was that it was not needed. Now, however, a new generation of video cards supporting shaders and DirectX 9 have been on the market for several years and are becoming ubiqutious in new computers. Shaders are becoming a technology that cannot be ignored by game makers, but that cannot easily be addressed by old techniques.

Cenega has announced that the English version of our game "Gooka - The Mystery of Janatris" has gone GOLD and will be released in a second half of June. Gooka: Mystery of Janatris is a point and click style RPG adventure – take on the role of Judge Gooka, who, on arriving home after a long journey discovers his house has been razed to the ground, his wife in a critical condition and his son vanished. Travel through many exciting and varied locations to piece together the clues that will help you progress through the game, saving your wife and rescuing your son.

NovaLogic, Inc. today announced that the groundbreaking new multiplayer FPS title Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising has shipped and is in stores now.

Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes The Neighborhood places gamers deep in the heart of Small Town America, USA. Backyard Wrestling Inc. has announced "your town" as the location of its first live pay per view. They've put a million dollars cash prize on the line for the wrestler who's got what it takes to destroy every obstacle in their way to the main event and ultimately the unified BYW championship.

Another day, another batch of game trailers were released. Instead of giving them all their own posts, we grouped them, and so far there are trailers for :

• Ground Control 2: Operation Exodus - Intro Movie
• Fahrenheit - Trailer (2)
• Van Helsing - Final Chapter Trailer
• Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay - TrailerPack

Mythic Entertainment has released an updated Dark Age of Camelot: New Frontiers Open Beta. The closed beta will be followed with an extended open beta period, warning that this open beta version is unfinished, nor that the add-on is almost finished. In order to participate you must have either Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles or Trials of Atlantis installed. This version has NO new content, just much smaller in size, so if you have the previous version, no need to get this again. Read more for download links ...

Ubisoft has released a new patch for The Fighter Collection's Lock On: Modern Air Combat and adds new missions, gameplay modes, network & performance improvements, bug fixes, etc. Read more for download links ...

The first Add-on to the critically acclaimed genre-spanning Role-Playing-Strategy hit Spellforce - The Order of Dawn has gone gold. In store in the UK on June 25th, the game features an extensive 40h single player campaign and the new "Free Game" mode, allowing one to three players to compete against the computer with their own Avatars on a large range of separate maps. The add-on has undergone extensive testing with participation from the fan community and seen large improvements especially in the multiplayer network code.

After more than 2 years Yager is FINALLY coming to North America. Kemco announced today that they have signed a publishing agreement with Yager Development Team to bring the long awaited shooter to North America, expected in stores September 2004. With 22 levels, this 3rd or 1st person sci-fi flight action shooter will be sure to please. With free roaming huge levels, intense flying action, and an involving storyline, Xbox/PC fans everywhere are in for a treat. Read more for details ...

An agreement between games developer DC-Studios and games guru Dino Dini is set to show football videogames the red card. Dino Dini is the godfather of the football game genre and creator of some of the most influential football games ever to appear on home computers and games consoles. His most famous games include Kick Off, Player Manager, Goal and Dino Dini's Football. Read more for details ...

Featuring all 30 NHL teams, plus teams from all the other major hockey leagues of North America and Europe, NHL Eastside Hockey manager provides ice hockey fans complete franchise control of their favourite ice hockey team. Read more to check out some new screens ...

UFO: Aftershock is the sequel to the highly successful 2003 title - UFO: Aftermath - and follows directly from one of the endings of the first title, where the player agrees to hand over the Earth to the Alien scientists, who are trying to change the planet into a giant living organism. The Council of Earth and their followers take refuge on an orbiting satellite prepared for them by the aliens, but not all the survivors of the original invasion where re-located.

Dutch publisher Project Three Interactive today announced a publishing deal for the PC version of "Alida", an atmospheric graphical adventure game. The game was originally developed for Macintosh and is now being brought to a bigger audience on the Windows PC platform.

Launching for PC on July 2nd, Soldiers allows you to handpick your troops from your real-life mates and team up with three buddies as a crack squad and play through any of the tactical action missions in the campaign. Complementing the strong single-player game, co-operative multiplayer affords all-new gameplay possibilities, vastly increasing the tactical options available to the players. Read more for details & screens...

SuperPower 2 is the only global geopolitical simulation game which allows players to control entire countries. Players control countries in 3 major areas: political, economic and military, but this time, in a beautiful real-time 3D environment. Players build up their own countries and increase their influence in the broader world while competing against sophisticated A.I.

Vietnam, 1967. You are Specialist Heavy Gunner Grant of the 6th Platoon US Marine Corps. Weeks earlier on a routine search and clear mission, members of your platoon were ambushed and taken prisoner by the Black Skulls, an elite North Vietnamese unit under the command of Colonel Trung also known as the “butcher of Bac Ninh”. Your mission is to find the hidden POW camp and rescue your buddies…and perhaps exact a little revenge along the way.