Mercenaries is a revolutionary third-person combat-action game that delivers the next level of free-form gameplay in massive interactive environments. The game gives players the opportunity to take on the role of a soldier for hire in an open-ended world. Mercenaries has is scheduled to explode onto store shelves the week of January 10, 2005.

"Jade Empire" is set in a new fantastical world based on mythical China, where sinister events have upset the peaceful harmony of an isolated martial arts school. Featuring furious action previously found only in Hong Kong cinema, the game lets players master more than 30 fighting styles and a wide range of mystical powers.

After Reuters reported yesterday that Infogrames CEO Bruno Bonnell might be willing to help out Ubisoft in its defense against a hostile take over from EA, todays rumour involves a possible merger between Vivendi and Ubisoft according to French newspaper L'Agefi. Either publisher had no comment but it is safe to say that a merger between Vivendi Universal Games and Ubisoft would create the largest video games group in Europe. Analysts said the tie-up would be encouraged by the French government which would be concerned about seeing French games technology fall in foreign hands.

UPDATE : "In view of the rumors reported in the press, Vivendi Universal denies that any negotiations are taking place concerning the takeover of Ubisoft."

DreamCatcher Games today announced it will publish Tesseraction Games has naval combat Enigma: Rising Tide -Gold Edition in North America, coming January 28 2005. Read more for details and new screens ...

Reuters France is reporting that the commercial court of Meaux announced on Monday that French publisher Titus and its subsidiary companies, Sofra Jeux (publisher) and Avalon France (previously known as Virgin Interactive) are bankrupt. Titus also held 62.25% of the Interplay shares, which is now also liquidated (thanks DuckforCover). Interplay recently signed a publishing deal with Majorem for its MMORTS Ballerium, so it is uncertain what will happen to the title now. Majorem had this to say : "We're still waiting for a confirmation of this item as posted by you, however in the meantime I can reassure that even in the case that Interplay liquidates as well, Ballerium is as safe as it was (or, as unsafe as it was, depending your point of view)."

Live fastballs, suicide squeezes, grass-staining dives, seventh-inning stretches, walk-off homeruns, peanuts and hotdogs… these are just some of the things that make the sport of baseball America’s favorite pastime. The victory of a baseball game can depend on the walk-off homerun in the ninth inning or a simple second base steal. Anything can make an impact in a baseball game because- as a wise man once said - “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” Coming this spring 2005.

Capcom today announced plans to release Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower for the PSP. This hard hitting fighting game summons the return of Capcom's greatest monster warriors to once again battle for control of the night. Read more for details and screens ...

Set in a virtual, persistent online universe in which millions of players around the globe can participate, The Matrix Online, developed by Monolith and EON Entertainment, will feature cutting-edge graphics, real-time martial arts combat and a rich storyline that picks up where The Matrix Revolutions, the third chapter in The Matrix film trilogy, leaves off.

Shadow Tor Studios announces production on “Barrow Hill”, a chilling new adventure game. The news follows an invitation by Conrad Morse, of Middlestone University, for the media production company to help survey the ancient stone circle known as “Barrow Hill”. Read more for details and screens ...

3000AD announced “Universal Combat: A World Apart”, an add-on to the original Universal Combat title released in February 2004 by Dreamcatcher Games. This add-on has been in development for some time and is scheduled to be released in March 2005 via online distribution as well as various retail chains, a demo is expected to be released at the same time. Read more for new screens...

NCsoft and Cryptic Studios announced the release of the third expansion of its MMORPG City of Heroes, Issue 3: A Council of War. The expansion includes the villain group, the 5th Column, taken over by the mysterious Council in a war that will sweep through most of Paragon City’s zones. Issue 3 also brings new “ancillary” powers and “epic” archetypes to high-level players, a new mid-level zone called Striga Isle and several automated zone events.

Sony will likely launch its new PlayStation Portable hand-held game console in North America and Europe in March, a top executive said on Wednesday. Sony has previously only said it will start selling the PSP, which can also play movies and music, in Europe and North America between January and March.

Electronic Arts and Nintendo announced today a partnership that brings the Nintendo All-Stars – Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach – to the GameCube version of NBA Street V3, scheduled to launch in February. Read more for details and some screens showing off the new characters...

Kay's home, the island Yenching, has been invaded by Shun's evil gorilla army and masses of sleazy rats. When the new occupants meddle with his fight training, Kay is livid so he follows his friend Su Ling to offer some armed resistance. An action packed adventure drives Kay through all of Yenching to the heart of evil; the flaming fortress of Waa-Lo. New screens & trailer, coming right up!

Battle Mages: Sign Of Darkness is an RPG in which you will discover the mysteries of the Order of the Keepers, confront treacherous plans of the elves, lead vengeful Orcs to the battle, oppose the creatures of Chaos, and of course the darkness will raise its flag over the green hills of Daenmor under his command. We had a chance to play an early beta build, read more for our findings...

Project Three Interactive has the 3rd patch for 3DPeople's 3D isometric RPG Kult: Heretic Kingdoms. This update brings your retail game to v1.3 and decreases loading times, less in-game memory usage, improves memory management and adds mod support. Read more for download links ...

Dreamcatcher has released a patch for the European edition (any language version) of Mistlands tactical strategy and RPG game Power of Law. This update brings your retail game to v1.22 and fixing some random game crash, as well as addressing Windows 2000 related sound issues (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for details and download links ..

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 :

• NARC - Trailer #4
• Rugby 2005 - Trailer

The latest version of Gran Turismo 4 further demonstrates its mission to provide the most authentic driving simulation available in the marketplace. New features will extend above and beyond just pure automotive racing, providing a unique destination for automotive and PS2 enthusiasts to enjoy car culture in every dimension. Check out these new screens ...

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).