Simbin has released a new patch for the German edition of their racing game GTR: FIA GT Racing Game. This update brings your retail game to 1.4.0.0 and adds the new RaceMore feature, improves the in-game lobby, adds voting to boot people off, some memory leaks and the usual gameplay tweaks and big fixes. Read more for details ...

In Elite Warriors: Vietnam, you will fight along side Green Beret commandoes as you conduct classified missions deep in Southeast Asia. By using patrol techniques still being used today in Iraq and Afghanistan you will rescue downed pilots, ambush convoys, seize enemy prisoners, and discover targets for air attacks.

S2 will significantly improve the game - important features have been added, dynamic camber (improved simulation of suspension and different suspension types), highly detailed tyre physics and a damage model have been introduced. The LFS team has released an updated alpha demo for Live for Speed S2 offering you a training area, and the Blackwood track, driveable in 3 cars. This update adds various fixes and improvements including a new kind of differential which helps you to get the power down to the ground more effectively. Read more for download links ...

Blizzard has released yet another new Warcraft III map, this time called "Shrine of the Ancients"... Map info: "There once existed a shrine to the ancient gods of yore, but all that remains is a ruin of rubble, sand, and ore. Though legends persist of creatures from the sea, that have surfaced to guard the treasures of an era long before." This is a small sized map and the suggested no. of players is 1v1. It is based on the "Sunken Ruins" tileset. Go download it here!

Bold Games has released a new patch for Gabriel Entertainment's sim John Deere American Farmer, in which you create, build and manage a successful farm. This update brings your retail game to v1.02 and addresses a crash when loading save games, menu issue on certain gfx cards and a few game tweaks. Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

In Battlefield 2, players will choose to fight for one of three military superpowers: the United States, China, or the newly formed Middle East Coalition. Armed with the latest modern weaponry, players can take control of any of the game's 30+ vehicles to engage in major conflicts with over 100 players in some of the largest online battles on the PC. Check these new screens and trailers ...

Spy vs. Spy is one of MAD Magazine's longest-running and best-known features. For nearly four decades, the Black Spy and White Spy have been building their bizarre, elaborate contraptions in an endless parry of "Joke and Dagger." Since 1961, award-winning cartoonist Antonio Prohias' Spies have been silently turning tables on each other in crazier and ever-more bizarre schemes of one-upmanship.

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 :

• Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana - Trailer #2
• Cold Winter - Multiplayer Trailer
• Pariah - Trailer (Part 2)
• Tomb Raider: Legend - Trailer
• Dragonshard - Trailer #6

Act of War: Direct Action is Eugen Systems' recently released RTS game with a storyline and game universe created in cooperation with Dale Brown. Atari has released a multiplayer demo featuring two maps (Fistful of Sand and The Last Battlefield), playable as the US Army over LAN/online, and in skirmish mode (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

Alien Swarm: Infested is an upcoming action strategy game, using Valve's Source engine, featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad level tactics all in an overhead view.

Earlier today a game listing was spotted on Gamestop revealing an expansion pack for Rome: Total War, scheduled for October 17, 2005. PC Zone UK confirms this rumor as they are running a preview in their current issue. Here is a snip : "The expansion pack's called Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion and is set well after Rome: Total War spanning the years 364AD to 476AD. You can play as one of the Barbarian factions (including the Vandals, Saxons and Huns) and take revenge against the Roman Empire, or as the Western and Eastern Roman empires attempting to drive back the Barbarians. The big new feature is the addition of night-time battles, but lighter troops - including cavalry - can now also swim across rivers. There are also a load of new units to look forward to."

One of the PlanetBattlefield editors is currently attending a community event at the EA campus and during a presentation executive producers Scott Evans revealed that a Battlefield 2 demo is in the works and it is expected to be released Mid June featuring one map. No details whether this will be a single or multiplayer demo, but judging from EA's trackrecord, we can assume it will probably be MP. The official Battlefield 2 release date is set for June 23, 2005 in North America and Europeans will get lucky a few days earlier on the 17th.

Myelin Media today revealed details about the online gameplay in STACKED with Daniel Negreanu. The game will feature its own sanctioned multi-table tournament system called “STACKED Masters” and will also include involvement from the seven professional players associated with the game, providing the most in-depth online play and community experience for any console poker game.

After Sony Europe renamed Wanda & the Colossus to Shadow of the Colossus over a month ago, SCEA is now following suit and had taken the name change on as well. The reason to to rename SCEI's upcoming action/adventure game is the same as before, "to better reflect the game's atmosphere and to avoid possible translation issues." Wanda is Japanese translates to "wonder" in English. Situated in the same universe as its prequel, the Collossus will follow a totally different story line.

THQ has released details of what people can expect for the upcoming first patch for Relic's 3D RTS Dawn Of War. While no specific release date has been announced yet, the new v1.3 patch is currently in Q&A testing, so it should not take too much longer. The new patch will address a slew of tweaks & unit balancing for all 4 races, game performance improvement, bug fixes, ability fixes and adds Observer mode, mod manager, friends list and plenty more (thanks RelicNews). Read more for detailed fix list....

Atari has named Marc Metis as its Senior Vice President, Marketing, effective immediately, it was announced today by Jim Caparro, President and Chief Executive Officer. Metis will be responsible for driving the marketing for all of Atari's interactive products and will oversee the Marketing team, including advertising, media buying and channel marketing, product marketing and publicity, and market research.

A few weeks ago VIS Entertainment closed its Dundee office and laid off several people at its other remaining Edinburgh studio, virtually halting all production on its titles in development, State of Emergency 2 and Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer. Today DC Studios announced that it has acquired the rights to Rockstar's 2002 sequel and will resume development on State of Emergency 2, which is now schedule for late this year, PS2 confirmed, but no other platforms are specified at this point in time. DC Studios most recently finished Ubisoft's Rayman DS and is currently also developing a multiplatform title for Konami of Europe.

While Phantagram announced it a few months ago, Microsoft announced today that it will distribute the next saga of the epic action-strategy game Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes exclusively for Xbox in late summer 2005. Read more for details & the very first screens ...

SpecForce is Techland's latest futuristic tactical shooter with a plot connected to already known Chrome. Using an optimized Chrome Engine, the gamer acts as an operative of future's special forces unit - SpecForce. Established to fight crisis situations that threaten the Federation's peace, equipped with the latest combat gear, the unit is the Federation's elite rapid reaction force.

A new development studio has been launched - fronted by ex-Team 17, Ocean and Infogrames veteran, Jon Oldham, and fifteen members of Acclaim's Manchester studio, who were working on Interview With a Made Man. Fund4Games has secured the rights & assets to the title, and SilverBack Studios have reprised development for current and next-gen consoles, and it is now scheduled for 2006. Read more for details ...

Valve and Vivendi today announced the settlement of a pending federal court lawsuit filed by Valve in August 2002. The parties have resolved their differences, and the settlement provides for the dismissal of all claims and counterclaims. VUG will cease distribution of retail packaged versions of Valve's games, including Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source, effective August 31, 2005, and notify distributors and cyber cafes that were licensed by VUG that only Valve is authorized to distribute Valve games to cyber cafés and grant cyber café licenses. All previous license agreements made by Vivendi are being terminated. Needless to say, settlement or not, this is a huge win for Valve.

Already revealed a few months ago, Nival Interactive today officially announced Hammer & Sickle, a new tactical role playing game set in the Silent Storm universe. The game is being co-developed by Novik&Co and Nival Interactive.

ForwardGames' Notcom Racing is a next-gen futuristic racing game with more than a twist. Race among beautiful, highly detailed environments, over the magnetic track at insane speeds, find your way out among track-traps of any sorts, change vehicle configuration on the fly and do not, do not use wisely your lethal embedded weapons arsenal!

2K Games today announced Vietcong 2 for the PC, the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Vietcong and the expansion pack Vietcong: Fist Alpha.

Cyanide Studio today announced the development of their latest cycling title, Pro Cycling Manager. PCM will have more detailed animations, an experience system, stage editor and also several multiplayer modes. Cyanide Studio is using the GameBryo engine, and the Paris-based developer of Chaos League has also recently licensed SpeedTree for use in Pro Cycling Manager. Read more for the first screens ...