For the first time, American Pump It Up players are getting to compete for cash prizes and exclusive merchandise with the debut of the United States Pump It Up Championship Series, sponsored by publisher Mastiff, Andamiro, and Coin it Up. Read more for details ...

Sports Interactive have released the first patch for their latest hockey manager, bringing your retail game to v2.0.2 and addressing a massive amount of issues, AI tweaks, localization & engine updates. Read more for details and download links ...

Set in the violent period of civil wars in Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1995, T-72: Balkans on fire! puts the player as a Russian volunteer tank commander right into the turret of some of the best tanks the Russians built ­ the T-72B, the T-55A and the T-34-85. This updated demo features the same 3 missions and incorporates the previously released minor patch, addressing an issue in the Dog Fight mission where the AI was not responding properly. Read more for download links ...

Sign up to Xbox Live on or before 31st August 2005 and you will get one of three games absolutely free! Choose from Forza Motorsport, Conker: Live and Reloaded or Dead or Alive Ultimate. If you're quick about it and are one of the first 200 to sign up you'll get all three games for free!

Vivendi Universal Games' revenues for the first half of 2005 are €238 million were 61% above the prior year, mainly driven by World of Warcraft and the first quarter launch of Robots, a children's game based on the movie.

Virtual RC Racing is the worlds most advanced and realistic r/c car simulation and on-line r/c racing community. This v2 features the previous RC Speedway and Oslo tracks, but now has better AI, better physics and the usual fixes. You will need to sign up on the offical site to activate the game and play (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

Shrek SuperSlam pits the characters from the Shrek franchise against each other in the only game that combines the twisted humor and pop culture parodies of the Shrek universe with the fast-paced action of a melee fighting game.

A study revealed today that retail sales of U.S. video games hardware, software and accessories jumped up by 21 percent in the first six months of the year, as the popularity of handheld devices offset a decline in aging game consoles.

The year is 2010 and the Major Powers of the world as we currently know them have disintegrated into bickering economic and military regions. The United Nations has disappeared, and in its place an organization with far sharper teeth referred to simply as "The World Market" has taken its place. Individual Regions are left to fight for power to dominate their neighbors, their countries, their continents, and then the world.

Xing Interactive has released the first patch for Unicejo Entertainment RTS game Cloven Crania Meadow. This update brings your retail game to v1.05 and adds a group selection feature, fixes minor problems, and addresses a registry issue. An update demo is also available (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

2K Sports and PowerBar today announced they have entered into a marketing relationship to mutually promote the new PowerBar Triple Threat energy bar line and the Fall 2005 release of NBA 2K6 and College Hoops 2K6 basketball video game titles from 2K Sports.

Microsoft Corp. announced that it is adopting more stringent controls for registering legitimate copies of its flagship Windows operating system in an effort to curtail piracy of its products worldwide. Read more for details ...

Digital Jesters has released a new patch for Cyanide's strategy game Chaos League: Sudden Death. This update brings your English, French or German retail game to v2.02, but not specific details are available at this moment. Read more for download links ...

Solar Studios and Tricor Entertainment have formed an alliance to develop upcoming blockbuster Hollywood-style action games and related film properties. The first Solar and Tricor project is an unnamed Sci-Fi action/adventure property.

With an onverwhelming 355-21 vote, the House passed a resolution asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Rockstar and Take Two to see if they intentionally deceived the ESRB over hidden, sexually explicit scenes in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Pro Cycling Manager will have more detailed animations, an experience system, stage editor and also several multiplayer modes. Cyanide Studio has released a new patch for its cycling manager. This update brings your retail game to v1.2r and adds over a dozen new races, interface adjustments, multiplayer tweaks, fixes a few graphical glitches, etc. Read more for download links ...

Valve lastest Steam Update has news about Day of Defeat Source and the upcoming Lost Coast release. Dod Source is currently being tested and is scheduled for release later this summer. Polishing work is being done right now on the player animations, as well as lighting work on the various maps. Current favorite features include the new grenade stun effect, and the ability to deploy the machine gun on any surface. In other news, HL2: Lost Coast (the upcoming free Half-Life 2 map for Half-Life 2 owners which showcases HDR rendering technology) is nearing completion and will be released soon on Steam. Valve promises extra, yet undisclosed, content with Lost Coast, but more info to come shortly ...

ZuxxeZ has released a new Gold Upgrade (not a patch) for its RTS Earth 2160. This upgrade brings your retail game to v1.3 and adds troop formations, AI adjustments, interface optimizations and plenty more. Read more for download links ...

Netcharger and MindSurge Entertainment announced today that they have opened the doors for sign-ups for the Control Monger closed beta test, starting on the 2nd of Aug 2005. Control Monger will be a 100% free to download and free to play team based online first person shooter for up to 255 players, with 7 player types (Repair, heavy, construction, sniper, demolition, soldier & spy bot), multiple modes of play on each map (CTF, KoTH, DM etc.), and supports custom made maps.

Not only Rockstar's GTA: San Andreas seems to cause controversy but now Atari's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure is getting scrutinized. New York City Council Member Peter F. Vallone, Chair of the Public Safety Committee and leader of the fight against graffiti, has called for Atari to scrap plans to release its graffiti based video game, accusing Atari of aiding and abetting criminal behaviour.

Mario Superstar Baseball combines an intuitive hitting system with easy-to-learn fielding and pitching controls – making it an arcade-like experience that will appeal to baseball novices and hard-core fans alike.

Atari and Marc Ecko today announced an incredible lineup of Hollywood talent providing voices for Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Rosario Dawson, Brittany Murphy, George Hamilton, Giovanni Ribisi, Adam West, Andy Dick, Charlie Murphy, The RZA, and Michael “M.C. Serch” Berrin will all add their voice to the first video game based on urban culture and graffiti art.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding the latest update for Counter-Strike Source, which has now been optimized game to lower CPU usage... Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

As expected, EA has released the first patch for its recently released Sim game, The Sims 2. This update brings your retail game to v1.0.0.999 and a few of game crashes, bug fixes, and adds Hungarian langauge support (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

On Wednesday July 20th, Bungie will release Autoupdate 4, a small file that updates your version of Halo 2 to mostly address cheating, strengthen security or minor, invisible bugs, but one thing you will notice right away, is that the Relic teleporter bug has been fixed, so you can no longer crouch jump to get through a locked teleporter. If you Xbox contains modded Xbox content, softmods, Action Replay saves, you will be permanently banned from matchmaking. Head on over here for more juicy details ...