EA officially announced today that The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II has gone gold and will be on store shelves in North America on March 2, 2006.

Revealed a few weeks ago, Activision today officially announced it has signed a licensing deal that grants Activision the global rights, excluding Japan, to develop console, handheld and PC games based on the Transformers brand. The first game will be tied to the much-anticipated July 4, 2007 movie release of the live action Transformers film.

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.

THQ today announced that a deal has been signed with Painkiller developer People Can Fly to bring their forthcoming title to consumers worldwide. Under the terms of the agreement, the as-yet untitled game is expected to be developed for a global release across next-gen platforms in fall 2007.

MMO developer Red 5 Studios and Offset Software, a developer of next generation games, today announce that Red 5 Studios has agreed to license the Offset Engine for use in Red 5 Studios' upcoming massively multiplayer online game (MMO) title.

Activision announced today that two of its games were honored at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Ninth Annual Interactive Achievement Awards Call of Duty 2: Big Red One earned "Outstanding Achievement in Story and Character Development" and The Movies was named "Simulation Game of the Year."

Valve has changed the Half-Life 2: Aftermath name to Half-Life 2: Episode One, and will release content in a series of episodes according to GameSpot. Similar to Ritual's SiN Episodes, Valve will use its Steam content delivery to offer several episodes instead of full addons, according to Valve' Doug Lombardi. An estimated released date for Half-Life 2: Episode One was not revealed.

Eidos Interactive today confirms that Commandos Strike Force, developed by Pyro Studios, will be released on April 4th, 2006 on PS2, Xbox and PC in North America.

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.

As promised EA has released the singleplayer demo for The Battle for Middle-Earth 2 demo. The massive 1.3GB demo allows you to play as either the Goblins or Dwarves and feature a tutorial and single-player skirmish mode on two maps. Read more for download links ...

The US Army has released a new updated version for America's Army: Special Forces (Link-Up). This upgrade brings their team-based multiplayer game to v2.6 and includes two new missions, new match-making service, updated punkbuster, and the usual tweaks, bug and game crash fixes. Read more for details and download links ...

According to In Newsweekly, Blizzard has sent Sara Andrews a formal letter of apology after reviewing the incident where she was reprimanded for using the term "GLBT friendly." The policy in question would be reviewed, and Blizzard's COO Paul Sams told In Newsweekly that it would be adding a guild recruitment channel to the game where people can advertise their guilds in an appropriate fashion, and to top it off, all of its WoW GMs are getting sensitivity training.

Nobilis' 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.

Already revealed a few weeks ago, but today Ubisoft officially announced that the action-filled flight combat game Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII will also be released for the PC in March 2006.

Electronic Arts revealed today that once again war is upon us. This coming Thursday at 9am PST EA will release a demo for The Battle for Middle-Earth 2 demo. The massive 1.3GB demo will allow you to play as either the Goblins or Dwarves and feature a tutorial and single-player skirmish mode on two maps. We will of course have the demo on our fileserver network as soon as it becomes available.

This weekend, everyone is invited to try Day of Defeat: Source, Valve WWII online action game from, for free. Join the ranks as Axis or Allies troops located in Western Europe during the height of the war in 1944. Install Steam and then you'll have everything you need to try DoD: Source for free, pre-load the game and be set to play at 12:00 pm PST on Friday,

Codemasters announced today that Chris Deering, has joined the company's Board of Management as non-executive Chairman. Mr. Deerings, a 25 year industry veteran, was President of Sony Europe, Consumer Electronics Division, (2004-2005) as well as Chairman and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe,

Back in April 2005 an email from a musician who claimed he had returned from a recording session in Bratislava, with the local Radio Symphony Orchestra, started the Diablo III rumor, and now Blizzard themselves fuel speculations. A new job opening on the Blizzard website states "The team behind Diablo I and II is looking for a talented, motivated, and experienced Art Director to help lead our art team in developing beautiful, cohesive game worlds for an unannounced PC Project" Some requirements are "experience modeling and texturing a diverse visual range of characters and creatures." and "experience animating both human and non-humanoid characters"

EA announced today that it has signed on with Tiger Woods for another 6 more years to use his likeness and name in their golfing game franchise. electronic Arts does not have any exclusivity deal with the PGA Tour but their Tiger Woods PGA Tour titles are widely considered the most popular golfing titles on the market. No financial details were disclosed, but I'm sure Tiger didn't go down cheap ...

Electronic Arts on Wednesday began laying off several hundred workers in a move EA says will help cut costs and shift resources amid changing business strategies and a revenue-slowing transition to new gaming machines.

SpellForce Platinum features three games in one box – SpellForce Gold Edition, which includes The Order of the Dawn and Breath of Winter, plus the expansion pack Shadow of the Phoenix. In the single-player action, players will enjoy a unique mixture of RTS and RPG elements that offer exciting gaming challenges through a persistent game world with a continuous, gripping storyline and numerous sub-quests.

Quazal and Crave Entertainment today announced that they have entered into a long-term, three-year agreement for the use of Quazal’s online technologies in all of Crave Entertainment’s gaming products.

Pursuit Force is a fast-paced arcade-action game, that fuses driving and combat mechanics to create a unique gaming experience for PSP. Pursuit Force follows the misadventures of a rookie Police Officer tracking down five criminal gangs across an entire fictional state in America.

In SpellForce 2 you take over both roles, Commander of your troops and also a front fighting hero, solving quests and overcoming obstacles as in classical RPGs, but also leading armies as in an RTS. Jowood sends out a precanned Q&A with Project Manager Martin Löhlein.

The Sims 2: Open for Business will revolve around setting up businesses and making money. Construction company, restaurant, nightclub, or simply decide to work from home, it will all be possible. You will need to strategically place employees, or fire useless workers, in order to keep your customers happy (thanks PCGames). Read more for new screens ...