According to CNET, Democrats Joseph Lieberman, Hillary Clinton, and Dick Durbin persuaded a Senate committee to approve a sweeping study of the "impact of electronic media use" to be organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. The bill, called CAMRA, would provide funding to investigate the cognitive, physical and socio-behavioral impact of electronic media on child and adolescent development.

In SpellForce II you take on the role of Commander of your troops, a front fighting hero, solving quests and overcoming obstacles as in classical RPGs, but also leads armies as in an RTS. Aspyr has released a demo allowing you to try out a tutorial and 2 maps.

In Battlefield 2: Euro Force, the European Army joins the Battlefield with seven new weapons and four new vehicles, the European Army will be sent into battle against MEC and Chinese forces on three brand new maps. The BF 2 Euro Force Booster Pack will be available for download on Wednesday March 15th.

The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript is a major adventure and investigation game, the first game created about the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci. It offers players the opportunity to grapple with the mysteries of the codes hidden within the works of the great Italian genius.

Giant Bite is founded by game industry veterans Hamilton Chu, Michael Evans, Andy Glaister, and Steve Theodore. The principals have helped to create some of the best-known games in the world, including Halo, Halo 2, Half-Life and Counterstrike, as well as making key contributions to Microsoft's DirectX technologies.

Battle of Europe offers fast, arcade style gameplay with a historical theme. Players will control the best combat aircraft of the era and even some "top secret" ones! This fast paced title lets players engage their enemies over some of the most beautiful landscapes in Europe.

SCEA announced today that its PSP exclusive action game Pursuit Force is now available. Pursuit Force delivers Hollywood-style movie action to the small screen with high-speed vehicle chases, exciting stunts, and thrilling shootouts, all in the quest to bring criminal gangs to justice and restore peace throughout Capital City.

Lionhead's community manager Sam van Tilburgh revealed today that at a company meeting Lionhead decided to lay off about 100 people. After somewhat low sales numbers for The Movies, Activision backing out of the console version, Lionhead is scaling back from 3 to 2 developments teams as certain projects wrapped up. While support and a planned expansion pack for the Movies are still in play, the execs decided to get rid of the redundancies, although oddly enough a few days ago the official website mentioned Lionhead was hiring.

Rush for Berlin is a tactical real time strategy game, set on the European battlefields of World War II, during 1944-45. The player's goal; to capture the German capital, as either the British/US/French alliance or the Red army of the Soviet Union.

Microsoft announced today a new retail program called the Best of Platinum Hits. Starting March 2006 Microsoft will providing consumers with popular Xbox titles for the low price of $9.99 (SRP).

EA today announced that the signature sound of alternative rock band Depeche Mode has been translated to The Sims native Simlish language for the first time ever. 'Suffer Well,' a popular track from Depeche Mode's critically acclaimed album 'Playing the Angel,' has been recorded in Simlish and will be made available to fans of music and PC games through The Sims 2 Open for Business.

Slitherine in association with Black Bean and Strategy First, today announced the Cult of Mithras has gone gold, and is only available by digital download. Cult of Mithras allows players to take their armies on new adventures into a new world, fighting against old enemies and new mythological beasts.

SOE's Platform Publishing today announced an agreement with Perpetual Entertainment to co-publish its online action role-playing game, Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising.

EA shipped The Sims 2 Open for Business to retailers around the globe today. The Sims 2 Open for Business allows players to access a whole new type of gameplay that takes Sims out of their homes, and allows them to flourish at their dream business.

EA announced today that The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II has shipped to retailers nationwide and will be in stores on March 2, 2006. This real-time strategy game offers the chance to experience Middle-earth in a way you have never seen.

Battlefront announced today that Hubert Cater's grand strategy title Strategic Command 2 Blitzkrieg is now available for pre-order. Combining the ease of play, accessibility and addictive gameplay of the original, Strategic Command 2 Blitzkrieg adds tons of new features including many player submitted suggestions.

SCEA's God of War and Shadow of the Colossus lead the list of nominated games for the 6th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, receiving six and five nominations, respectively. Guitar Hero, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Psychonauts follow close behind with three nods.

EA has released a new patch for it the original 3D RTS Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth. This update brings your retail game to v1.03 and a slew of unit tweaks and a few bugs/crash fixes. Read more for detailed fix list and download links.

Cyanide announced that Winter Challenge is now available for online order/download from its website. Winter Challenge, aka Wintersport Pro 2006, is based on the upcoming Olympic Wintersports in Torino, and will feature 16 disciplines (skiing, bobsled, ski jumping etc.) and over 700 athletes from 29 countries, as well as multiplayer.

The story takes place in an abandoned island, where all humans disappeared in a mysterious way 29 years ago. This time other than the dead people from the first game, there is a new type of enemy called the dark people, they have intelligence and abilities over human, and they can see in the darkness.

SimBin secures future productions of its racing game GTR, based on the FIA GT Championship. The organisation behind the championship, SRO, and SimBin has agreed on a prolonged cooperation lasting until year 2012.

Ahead of its retail launch, EA has already released the first patch for its 3D RTS sequel The Battle for Middle-Earth 2. This update brings your retail game to v1.1 and improves stability of the game and fixes a few desyncs. Read more for download links ...

RF Online is crossing over to the West as Codemasters announces it is now shipping the much-anticipated MMO to retail outlets in the U.S. and U.K.

BFME 2 takes part in the North where a battle is raging between Sauron's forces vs. elves and dwarves. It will be possible to create/customize your own hero, apart from known figures such as Arwin, and become more powerful as you progress in the game. While BFME was all land based, the sequel will also take the action on the sea, naval battles included.

EverQuest: Prophecy of Ro will add three new features, spheres of influence, a trap system, and for the first time in EverQuest, players will be able to destroy objects in the world. SOE announced that its eleventh EQ expansion is shipping to retail stores in North America and is now available for download