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).

'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