Electronic Arts announced today that EA SPORTS Rugby 2005, the latest title under the EA SPORTS brand, is available in stores worldwide. EA SPORTS Rugby 2005 brings exceptional visual quality and the standards of all EA SPORTS franchises, including new player models with star heads for the top players worldwide. The game also features real-to-life animations of player movements, their intense emotions, and tackles that make you cringe.

Jowood has released yet another patch for Wing Simulations' multiplayer shooter SÖLDNER: Secret Wars. This v33588 patch synchronises SÖLDNER: Secret Wars, SÖLDNER: Reloaded, the newest add-on SÖLDNER: Marine Corps to one version number, and mainly fixes a massive amount of bugs and gameplay issues. A lot of aspects of the game have been completely redesigned so the game experience overall should be greatly improved. Read more for details and download links ...

Act of War: Direct Action, developed by Eugen Systems, is Atari new action game with a storyline and game universe created in cooperation with Dale Brown, 15-time New York Times best-selling author and expert on US military, global conflict and future military technology. Read more for new screens...

Still Life lets you play the role of FBI agent Victoria McPherson. Situated in Chicago, you are on the heels of a serial killer, much like your grandfather did 80 years earlier in Prague (Microids' Post Mortem). By means of flashbacks and timewarps, you will travel to locations like Eastern Europe to interrogate suspects, or North America, to scrutinize dead bodies.

Viewed from a third person perspective players must take turns using the available time, energy and weapons to defeat the enemy. With unique line of sight AI and fully destructible environments no two games are ever the same. Add to this a team of characters each with different skills and you get a game of infinite possibilities and compulsive playablity.

The first ever 3D version of the most popular fighting franchise in history, The King of Fighters Maximum Impact comes to the Xbox Video Game System. Gamers from around the world will be able to battle it out across the Xbox Live network and play as their favorite SNK character in full 3D with beautifully rendered backgrounds and full flowing animation.

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 :

• Pariah - Trailer #2
• Stubbs The Zombie: Rebel Without a Pulse - Trailerpack
• Wrestlemania 21 - Trailer
• Obscure - Trailer #4
• Aurora Watching - Trailer

Fire Department 2 (known in the US as Fire Captain: Bay Area Inferno) will feature a lot of improvements and new features such as multiplayer capabilities, better AI, control over a larger amount of units, improved graphics, five campaigns, and, of course, more realism. Monte Cristo has released an English demo featuring the 'Shopping Mall' mission from the first campaign (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

Perpetual Entertainment, developer of the upcoming Star Trek Online, today announced Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, a new massively multi-player game (MMG) designed by Stieg Hedlund, the lead designer of Diablo II. Gods and Heroes is being unveiled at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) this week and will launch in the fall of this year.

Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich is a comic book-inspired tactical role-playing game features a brand new league of heroes and villains, overhauled combat system, and spectacular graphic enhancements. Irrational has released Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich beta mod tools allowing fans of the game to add to the already huge Freedom Force mod community. Read more for details and download links ...

KOEI today announced that Dynasty Warriors 5 for the PlayStation2 has reached gold status. The much-anticipated title will ship to North American retailers on March 29, 2005. The game already made its Japanese debut last month, appearing as the #1 title in the first week of release.

A more grown-up Link returns to Nintendo GameCube in a new adventure, and an impressive new 3-D look. Solve challenging puzzles, explore vast lands and hunt for treasure. Immerse yourself in the deep storylines and rich graphics that the franchise is known for. Read more to check out 11 awesome new screens, as well as a new trailer ...

Project: Snowblind is a the first-person action shooter putting you in the role of an elite super soldier, fighting on the front lines of a near-future war using unique weapons, abilities and high-tech gadgetry that inject depth and variety to gameplay. Read more for new screens ...

Still Life lets you play the role of FBI agent Victoria McPherson. Situated in Chicago, you are on the heels of a serial killer, much like your grandfather did 80 years earlier in Prague (Microids' Post Mortem). By means of flashbacks and timewarps, you will travel to locations like Eastern Europe to interrogate suspects, or North America, to scrutinize dead bodies.

Today Nintendo President Satoru Iwata outline the company's bold vision for the future. Iwata made several major announcements during his Game Developers Conference keynote speech such as the fact that the Revolution is proceeding on schedule and will include both backward compatibility and Wi-Fi features. Iwata also announced that Nintendo soon will offer a free Wi-Fi connection service to NDS owners, and demonstrated several new titles using voice recognition, touch-screen control and wireless connectivity. Read more for details ...

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and SEGA announced today that The Matrix Online has gone gold and is on track for a March 22, 2005 launch. The MMOG will take tens of thousands of players down the rabbit hole and unveil a story full of twists and turns allowing them to take an active role in helping determining the future of the Matrix saga.

Naked Sky Entertainment began demonstrating RoboHordes today at the Game Developer Conference (GDC). Commissioned by Intel to showcase the power of Intel's dual-core processor, the RoboHordes demo not only utilizes advanced robot simulation technology and control theory from modern robot design, but is also the first game to use Unreal Engine 3 at a playable frame rate.

Spring 1945: World War 2 is drawing to a close and the Russians and Germans are caught in a furious battle for a devastated Berlin. The cold war starts... As a sniper, recruited by the OSS (former CIA), it is the beginning of a lonely stealth mission in the Russian territory. In development since 2003, Sniper Elite is a sniping/stealth game due to be released on PS2, PC and Xbox May 2005.

Play the most memorable and exhilarating scenes from The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and the forthcoming Episode III Revenge of the Sith including pod racing on Mos Espa, the repelling of the droid onslaught in the Genosian arena and Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon's fatal fight with Darth Maul. Eidos has released a demo for its upcoming action game LEGO Star Wars, allowing you to play the first level (thanks Demonews) Read more for download links ...

Already revealed earlier this month, Jowood Productions today officially announced its intention to bring out the big guns for 2005 with the release of Panzer Elite Action for Xbox, PS2 and PC developed by Zootfly. Read more for details and screens ...

NDL today announced from the 2005 Game Developers Conference (GDC) that its Gamebryo 3D graphics engine and toolkit is being used by Firaxis Games in the creation of Sid Meier's Civilization IV. Firaxis is expanding its relationship with NDL based on the company's recent success using Gamebryo in the development of the critically acclaimed Sid Meier's Pirates!

BioWare and Irrational Games are pleased to announce a co-marketing agreement for Irrational Games’ new release, Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich. As part of BioWare’s continuing efforts to expand its online store, BioWare will be promoting Irrational's Freedom Force sequel to the nearly 2.4 million members of the BioWare Community. Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich offers gamers a unique role-playing experience, and BioWare and Irrational hope that fans of BioWare’s games will also be fans of Irrational’s new release.

Founded in 1996, Galiléa started with the adventure/edutainment title Genesys before finding a much wider audience with Cameron Files series (Loch Ness and Pharaoh's Curse/Amenophis). The company's final adventure was Jack the Ripper in early 2004. Having already cancelled production on the third Cameron Files game and shutting down its main studio in Grenoble, France, Galiléa has existed since mid-2004 as a skeleton company based in Montreal, Canada. However, unable to secure any new development deals, co-founder Philippe Gaudé has now confirmed that budget considerations have forced them to close down and seek opportunities elsewhere (thanks Adventure Gamers).

Xfire announced today it has filed an answer and countersuit in United States District Court in response to a lawsuit filed by Yahoo Inc. In today's filing Xfire refutes all allegations that it is infringing Yahoo's patent. In addition, Xfire has filed a countersuit stating that the Yahoo lawsuit is an attempt to drive Xfire out of business (and therefore avoid direct competition in the marketplace) or to force Xfire to sell or license its proprietary technology to Yahoo for far less than fair market value to settle the expensive litigation.

LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment are thrilled to announce Star Wars Galaxies: Episode III Rage of the Wookiees as the next addition to the popular online Star Wars gaming experience. Episode III Rage of the Wookiees, available to current players two full weeks before the movie launches as a digital download, adds a whole slew of content taken directly from the highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith movie, including the adventure planet of Kashyyyk, home to the Wookiees.