Film and Video Game production company Union Entertainment announced today the procurement of development financing for the company’s video game division. Backed by Korean software company Digital Tetra, the fund provides $1.2 million for Union to develop new games to a playable demo level before shopping the titles to game publishers. The deal was brokered by Clemensen Capital.

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE) today announced that EverQuest II will be the first MMO game to feature voiceover for in-game Non-Player Characters (NPCs). The voiceover will be comprised of more than 130 hours of dialog and approximately 1.5 million words (the equivalent of more than 65 feature films worth of content). The addition of voiceover to the game adds a new dimension of realism to the MMO genre that is unmatched by the current generation of titles. Read more for details & new trailer filled with speech...

'KOF: Maximum Impact' will feature the most popular KOF characters such as Terry Bogard and Kyo Kusanagi all rendered in 3D. The game will also feature several brand new characters to the franchise and a wide assortment of detailed battlegrounds and fighting maneuvers. Check out the freshly launched KOF: Maximum Impact website or read more for new screens ...

Novalogic has released a demo for their upcoming FPS multiplayer game Joint Operations. the demo features one 'Twin Island' multiplayer map with day and night settings. The demo will be playable over the NovaWorld Games Network and via LAN. Other features in the demo include:Up to 100 player games via NovaWorld with 32 players on a LAN, 19 land sea and air drivable vehicles,27 Weapons,5 classes: Rifleman, Gunner, Engineer, Sniper & Medic. Read more for download links ...

Ubisoft and Microsoft are pleased to announce that an autoupdate is now available online to address the issues with optimatch that Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow players experienced. The game will automatically update itself the next time you connect to XBOX Live. The updated game will no longer freeze when displaying optimatch or quickmatch results. Read more for details ...

Ubisoft today announced that its new flight combat title, Pacific Fighters, will launch this fall. WWII's Pacific theater was the backdrop for some of the most famous aerial battles in history. In places like Midway, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, allied fighters and bombers went head-to-head against the air power of the Japanese empire. Pacific Fighters provides the opportunity for players to experience the realistic action, intense flight combat and immersive gameplay of WWII's Pacific air war. Read more for details & screens ..

Sid Meier’s Pirates! is among the most popular and loved titles in gaming history. Originally released in 1987, Pirates! received unprecedented critical acclaim for crossing multiple game genres to offer unique, unrivaled gameplay options. Pirates! set the industry standard for innovative game design with its unique blend of open-ended role-playing, real-time adventures and thrilling action sequences. Read more for some new screens ...

Set in the 60s and using the Cold War as its inspiration, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater forces the player to adopt a number of new skills to survive in Snake's new jungle environment. Danger lurks everywhere as Snake explores the beautifully-realised forests, encampments and rivers, with guards patrolling key routes, dangerous animals to contend with, and the uneven terrain and noisy foliage making the silent approaches the Metal Gear hero is famed for virtually impossible. Read more for some new screens ...

Game Developers Conference is pretty titillating. No, I’m afraid GDC is one of the few conferences with booth babes who are fully clothed and well-versed in C++. But there’s another kind of stimulation to be found here. A sense of community amongst people who love the same thing -- making games. Our man in the field was present at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) held in San Jose, California, checking out titles such as Fable, Serious Sam 2, Far Cry, Tribes Vengeance, Painkiller...

Matrix Games and Destroyer Studios are pleased to announce the upcoming release of an exciting new space combat simulator, Starshatter, to be published this summer by Matrix Games. Read more for details and the first screens ...

SuperPower 2 is the only global geopolitical simulation game which allows players to control entire countries. As with SuperPower, players control countries in 3 major areas: political, economic and military, but this time it’s in a beautiful real-time 3D environment. Read more for a batch of new screens ...

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 :

• Resident Evil 4 - Trailer
• Specnaz: Project Wolf - Trailer
• Killer 7 - Trailer
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  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

Besieger is a new real-time 3D strategy is set in a medieval fantasy world in which rival players wage war as either Viking or Cimmerian warriors. Gamers will need to conquer factions such as Ogres, Werewolves and Centaurs and besiege towns on horseback or build primitive flying machines to win their battles. Users will also have to smash their way into the enemy’s heavily defended Citadels, while in turn defending their own domains. Read more for a batch of new screens...

Licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee is a humorous action racing game that combines a mission-based adventure and arena-style driving. The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee will be available for the PlayStation2 and the Xbox in October 2004. Read more for the first few screens ...

Encore and Monte Cristo Games today announced that Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps has shipped to retail stores in North America.

MC2-Microids announced today the release of the epic adventure game, Syberia II for the PC in North America. Syberia II takes our heroine Kate Walker on a dashing journey through four majestic worlds to the mythical Syberia, land of the forgotten mammoths, in the latest adventure from renowned artist Benoit Sokal.

Race Driver 2 will provide gamers the most diverse and thrilling range of motor sports ever seen in one game. Designed as the definitive racing experience, the game will feature complete PC online functionality. This single-player TOCA Race Driver 2 demo puts you in the driving seat of three of the game's 35 cars (Jaguar E-Type, the AMG Mercedes CLK and the HRT Holden Commodore VY), and lets you rip it up around Brands Hatch Indy, Hockenheimring and Phillip Island circuits. Read more for download links ...

In the latest Sierra newsletter Massive Ent.'s Lead Game Designer Henrik Sebring revealed that we can expect a demo for their upcoming 3D RTS game Ground Control II: Operation Exodus. A specific date has not been mentioned bit would/should be "before" Ground Control II: Operation Exodus is ecpted in stores, which so far is still set for July 2004. Of course we will have the demo on our fileservers as soon as it's available...

Dragon Claw Studio announced today that their massive multiplayer game, FaitH officially launched its new server on Monday, March 29th. As always, FREE trials are still unlimited in length and allow you to play one of the nine church options and one of the five class options.

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 :

• Darkwatch: Curse of the West - Trailer
• The Alamo - Trailer
• King Of Fighters: Maximum Impact - Trailer
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

SNK NEOGEO USA announced today the company is developing the first original The King of Fighters title for the PlayStation2. KOF: Maximum Impact will ship in Fall 2004 and is the first KOF title to be designed specifically for the PlayStation2, rather than being based on any existing SNK arcade version. Read more for details & screens ...

Last week gamers who purchased Ubisoft's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow for the Xbox, experienced an Xbox Live problem, today Ubisoft issued the following statement : "Some gamers who acquired the Xbox version of Ubisoft's critically acclaimed Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow have experienced problems using the game's online multiplayer features. Specifically, after logging onto Xbox Live and selecting the "optimatch" function, players discovered that waiting for more than about 10 seconds on the optimatch results screen causes the game to freeze indefinitely." Read more for the full statement...

DreamCatcher Games today announced that it will publish "Dungeon Lords" for the PC in North America. "Dungeon Lords" blends the depth of an epic Fantasy RPG with the flexibility of an FPS-style control system. Gamers journey through a land of ancient castles and dungeon lairs to engage in real-time tactical combat with a variety of deadly foes. It's not just about the battles though, as magic spells and hundreds of powerful weapons and artifacts play a huge role in the game.

Knights Over Europe is a World War I combat flight simulation brought to you by a team whose collective experience includes Red Baron II, the Falcon 3 series, the Close Combat series and Fly II. Knights Over Europe brings the dawn of aerial combat up-to-date with leading edge graphics, high fidelity flight models and precision damage modeling. Dozens of highly detailed aircraft with historically accurate markings will set the stage for an experience that will attract both hard-core flightsim fans and novices alike. Read more for details and screens

Project 3 has today released a final upgrade for its FPS game 'New World Order'. The main new features of v.1.43 are - 4 new sets of custom character skins to choose from, overall improved rendering, improved hardware compatibility, bindable sayings, improved movement and jumping, team-only spectate setting (for meeting clanwar rules), new connection speed options, various graphical performance tweaks and much more. Read more for download links ...