Microsoft has released a the first patch for Blue Fang Games' zoo building sim Zoo Tycoon 2. This update brings your retail game to v20.11.00.0007 and contains a performance enhancement and includes a number of fixes for Animal and Guest related issues. Read more for download links ..

Mythic appreciates the continued support of DAOC players and with that in mind Mythic is committed to continuing to expand and improve Dark Age of Camelot far into the future. However, in the three years since DAoC first launched, Mythic’s costs to operate DAoC have more than doubled as we have expanded the size of the development team in order to add new technologies and grow the world of Camelot. In order for Mythic to continue to make this significant investment after three years of not changing our subscription fees, we must raise the price of our fees in line with those increased costs. Read more about it on the Camelot Herald...

DreamCatcher Games today announced it will publish Aerial Strike: The Yager Missions (known in Europe as Yager), a futuristic aerial 3D combat/action game, for PC (Xbox version will be published by Kecmo) in North America. Read more for some new screens ...

EA announced today that Bernard Hopkins, the Middleweight Champion of the World, will serve as the official spokesman and cover athlete for EA Sports Fight Night Round 2. The sequel to this year's hit boxing video game will be released in March 2005 under the EA Sports brand for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube.

'Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix,' scheduled for a February 18 release, will feature two new units and buildings, as well as allowing you to further upgrade your heros to level 50. An all new singleplayer campaign will be added, but also 25 new multiplayer maps, 15 of which are dedicated to coop play (a feature which was added in the previous Breath Of Winter expansion). Read more for 10 new screens ...

Deep Silver are delighted to confirm that American McGee's highly anticipated game, Scrapland has gone GOLD. A deeply immersive 3rd person 3D action/adventure, Scrapland sets players in a bizarre robotic world made of scrap parts. Scheduled for release 4th February 2005, Scrapland will be available for the Xbox (£39.99) and PC (£29.99).

'Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery' is set in 1500 A.D. and chronicles the Age of Discovery that started around the time that Columbus "discovered" the new world. The single player campaign follows American history up through 1850, and in multiplayer mode, you'll be able to choose from among eight different civilizations, and there will include free-for-all and team-vs-team matches for up to eight players. Age of Empires III is scheduled to ship in the second half of 2005, in the meantime, read more for details and 18 new screens ...

Paradox Interactive announced today that their much-awaited sequel to the multiple award-winning Hearts of Iron II has shipped to retail stores all over North America. Hearts of Iron II has been rated E for Everyone and has an MSRP of $39.99.

Vivendi has released a second singleplayer demo for Irrational's Tribes: Vengeance. In This demo you play the role of Mercury, a robot assassin hired to locate and eliminate Daniel, a captain of the local Phoenix subclan. Read more for download links ...

President of Infinium Labs and former Microsoft Xbox creator Kevin Bachus will be a lead speaker for a panel on the "History of Gaming" at the upcoming 2005 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world's largest annual trade show for consumer technology, Thursday – Sunday, Jan. 6 – 9, 2005 in Las Vegas.

CT Special Forces: Fire For Effect will feature unique missions in the fight against worldwide terrorist networks. The game also benefits from a cutting-edge engine as well as a specific physics system. For the first time in this genre, physics will have a major impact on how you play the game.

Stalingrad is a real-time strategy based on the modified Blitzkrieg engine. The game tells a story of one of the most dramatic periods of World War II and covers all major events from June 1942 till January 1943. The game consists out of two campaigns. During the first one players will lead the advancing German forces and after that will assume the role of a Soviet commander, whose aim is to liberate the city and smash the 6th Army of Wehrmacht...

Time of Defiance is an online-only massively multiplayer real-time strategy game set across the huge landscape of the shattered world of Nespanona. Fight for conquest of the islands and mine their mineral wealth to expand your empire.

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 :

• Jade Empire - Trailer #7
• Mercenaries - Trailer #5

Cat Daddy has released a demo for its skiing sim game Ski Resort Extreme. This demo includes 1 Free Play map and 1 challange as well as over 45 buildings and objects at your disposal to create the ultimate glacial getaway. Read more for download links ...

Ubisoft is pleased to announce that the book Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell has hit the New York Times’ Top 10 bestseller list for paperback fiction. The novel, which was just published this past December, is the first of a series inspired by Ubisoft’s video game franchise Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. The book’s success reinforces the impact and value of the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell brand both within and outside of the video game industry, an asset from which Ubisoft will continue to benefit in the near future.

In response to Gov. Blagojevich proposing legislation to ban the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to youths under age 18, the Illinois State Crime Commission and state Rep. Paul Froehlich checked to see if such games really were being sold to minors in and around Froehlich's legislative district. The Crime Commission enlisted 15-year-old Dan Shemwell to go to 15 stores Thursday. He attempted to buy "M-rated" (mature) games, including "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas." Despite most retailers voluntarily adopting policies banning the sale of such M-rated games to youths under 17, Dan Shemwell was able to buy games at 11 of the places he stopped. Read the full article over at the Chicago Sun-Times.

FullMetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel brings a fresh new action RPG to this year's Square Enix lineup. Based on a wildly popular Japanese animation and comic of the same name, FullMetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel traces the journey of two brothers on a life-changing quest. Square Enix has launched the official website, so head on over there for the latest info & screens...

Torque is back in Surreal Software's The Suffering 2, promising all new & more enemies (over a dozen), new weapons (grenade launcher), new environments and although you will only be able to carry two weapons at any given time, you will be able to dual yield this time around. Not much info is available at this point, nor any official announcement yet, but the first screens have however already arrived.. Read more to check out the goods...

The Sims 2 University is the first expansion pack for the highly-acclaimed The Sims 2, giving players of The Sims 2 the ability to watch their Sims become young adults and put childhood behind them as they settle into an all-new college town to live out their ultimate college fantasy.

It has been six years since the destruction of Raccoon City and in that time, the U.S. government has been able to destroy the evil Umbrella Corporation. Fast forward to 2004 and players rejoin Leon, who is now a U.S. agent with a top-secret mission. He has been tasked to look into the abduction of the President’s daughter and his investigation has led him to a mysterious location in Europe.

Devil May Cry 3 unfolds an earlier chapter in Dante's history, before the original Devil May Cry, to the fateful clash between Sparda's twin sons, divided by the divergence of their chosen paths. Take a peek at yet another 50+ new screens...

Enthusia Professional Racing is a new PS2 racing game, developed by KCES, designed to bring all of the white-knuckle energy and thrill of car racing to life, Enthusia features groundbreaking gameplay mechanics, enhanced physics and pixel-perfect graphics to deliver an unprecedented racing experience.

It is 776 BC, the time of the first Olympics in Ancient Greece. The Greek city states of Athens, Sparta, Macedonia, Elis, Crete, Troy, Thebes and Carthage have gathered at Olympia. It is the last day of the historic event, and the five full days of frenetic athletic activities are coming to an end. But the pinnacle of all the Olympic events has yet to commence. As one of the competitors, the expectations of thousands rest upon your shoulders ...

The second release of the Musashi series makes its debut on the PS2 featuring exhilarating, fast-paced, action-packed gameplay utilizing manga shaded graphics. Like a true samurai, Musashi's powers of observation will pay off in the heat of battle as he channels this energy to learn his opponents' techniques. A new mode of his protective services has also been employed, in which he literally carries his characters to safety.