Midway announced today the appointment of three industry leaders who add significant depth to Midway's internal product development capabilities and are expected to be instrumental in next generation game development. Scot Bayless, former EA and Microsoft, will head Midway's Chicago studio. Denise Fulton, former Eidos and EA, will head the new Midway Studios-Austin. Stephan Martinière, an artist and visual designer brings his talents to the position of visual design director at the Chicago studio.

The Modding Theater Forums have info from EALA's Ed Moore regarding an upcoming patch for EA's recently release FPS Pacific Assault. The update will bring your retail game to v1.1 and address a few minor issues such as address mouse lag, dedicated server CPU utilization, the 999 ping bug, miscellaneous single player bug fixes, etc. Read more for details ...

You might be comfortable in the armor. You might wield the arm cannon with devastating precision. And you might even be a master at maneuvering the Morph Ball. Yet nothing you've encountered has prepared you for the edge-of-your-seat adventure of Metroid Prime 2 Echoes, launching today exclusively for GameCube.

As commander of up to four fort-dwelling worms, you direct your garrison to quickly construct defenses then build weapons of mass destruction to destroy your opponents' fortifications! With a touch of skill, catapult or canon and some crazy Worms attitude, battle your way to victory through eras and mythologies.

Konami has announced that it will launch Yu-Gi-Oh! Online, an online version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game, Konami's global strategic product. Konami Online, Inc. and Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Inc. have joined forces to develop the new on-line service, which is scheduled to start December 18 on a test basis.

Electronic Arts today announced a tender offer for all outstanding shares of the Swedish game developer, Digital Illusions (DICE). The offer is scheduled to close on December 27, 2004. EA currently owns approximately 19 percent of DICE's outstanding shares.

Flat-Out developers Bugbear have put a message in the game's community forum notifying its fans that they are working on an update patch for their recently released racing game. The fixes will include at least the following Blue screen / crashes (as far as these can be reproduced), incompability with certain Nvidia Forceware driver version, DirectX 9.0 detection and reporting, force feedback and the horsepower bugs are also on the to-be-fixed list. No multiplayer patch is being worked on, although BugBear recognizes the fan outcry, but says it depends on publisher Empire Interactive.

City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios has updated its official website with a brief statement regarding last week's copyright lawsuit by Marvel Comics. "As reported by The Associated Press, Marvel Enterprises Inc. and Marvel Characters, Inc. have sued NCsoft Corporation and Cryptic Studios. The complaint is meritless. Cryptic Studios is confident that the District Court will reject all of Marvel's claims and fully vindicate Cryptic Studios in all respects."

Guilty Gear Isuka introduces revolutionary upgrades such as 4-player simultaneous fighting, allowing for 2-on-2, 3-on-1 and 2-player co-op battles. The title also adds new characters to a full roster of returning fighters, all-new fight arenas and multiple new modes of play, including an exciting side-scrolling action game called Boost Mode.

SimBin Development Team is nearing completion of the first ever official racing game based on the FIA GT racing series. GTR – The Ultimate Racing Game represents the most intense and immersive racing experience ever to grace a PC or games console. GTR is scheduled to ship in North America in late Q1, 2005 for the PC.

HL2DB and GameSurge are holding a Half-Life 2 Release Party on IRC and GameSurge Radio, with various events scheduled for the hours leading up to the release (midnight on November the 15th), including a possible interview with members of Valve Software. From 9PM Pacific Standard Time, an interview with Sven Viking and Sniper of the Sven Co-op team -- on the subject of their upcoming co-operative mod for HL2 -- is to be held in the #HalfLife2 channel on irc.gamesurge.net.

After Strategy First losing the license last week, Matrix Games is pleased to announce that it has secured the rights to publish Black Hammer Game's new turn-based sci-fi strategy game, Supremacy: Four Paths To Power, which is scheduled for release in December, 2004.

The Kessen series melded two elements, ‘game’ and ‘drama’ together into grand epics that have won the acclaim of critics and consumers worldwide. The appeal of commanding one side of an epic clash between two great armies and the awe of watching dramatic events unfold across spectacular vistas are what the Kessen series is all about. Kessen III will be considered the game that redefined the Kessen series.

TDK Mediactive and AC Cars have concluded an agreement to feature one of the world’s most famous sports cars in the racing game World Racing 2. The famous 1960's AC Cobra will enhance the variety of car models in the game and offer the experience of an authentic piece of sports motoring history.

Over 30 new spells, along with new races, sound effects, are included in the new beta test for Dark and Light, an MMORPG scheduled for commercial release in April 2005 by developer NP Cube and publisher Farlan Entertainment.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, built using Valve's Half-Life 2 Source Technology, allows players to become a dangerous creature of the night as they assume the role of a recently embraced fledgling vampire in the service of the city's dark prince. Vampire: The Masquerade- Bloodlines is being developed by Troika Games, based on White Wolf's renowned pen-and-paper Vampire: The Masquerade RPG series.

Colin McRae Rally 2005 accelerates the series to a blinding speed that captures the sheer adrenaline of edge-of-control rallying and lets you take the stages at speeds a third faster than before. You won't be spinning off unnecessarily either: the stages have been designed to let you use that speed as you hurtle through the detailed international environments. However, crash out and you'll see the individual damage models for each car in action – right down to scraping the paintwork!

Jowood has released yet another first patch for Wing Simulations' multiplayer shooter SÖLDNER: Secret Wars. This v30770 beta patch optimizes camera code, addresses plenty of gameplay issues, bug and game crash fixes but also adds new maps (St Rebecca / Hell Village), new vehicles, and new weapons. Read more for details and download links ...

As has been rumored the past few days, 'Half-Life 2' is indeed being sold early at various big stores in the U.S., such as BestBuy, Wal-Mart and even a few select EBGames. The lucky ones who managed to purchase a copy will get a major disappointment, as Vivendi ordered Valve to not activate the Half-Life 2 Steam authentication servers. Basically, anybody who bought HL2 can't play it yet. Valve issued a statement saying it is not their decision, but Vivendi who threatened Valve with breach of contract if they did.

Atari has released the first patch for its strategy game Chris Sawyer's Locomotion. This update brings your retail game to v1.76 and addresses about a dozen game balance issues, crash fixes, as well as interface adjustments (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

Blizzard has released yet another new Warcraft III map, this time called "Hinterland Raid"... Map info: "Deep in the woods, you'll track down the enemy encampment and prepare to launch a final, decisive strike. Assemble your forces quickly: the peril is great, and time grows short." This is a small map and the suggested no. of players is 2v2 or 3v3. It is based on the "Ashenvale Forest" tileset. Go download it here!

140 kp/h…….150 kp/h……160 kp/h………and no airbag! Ski Racing 2005 feat. Hermann Maier has the farthest jumps, the steepest slopes, the toughest skiers! Total concentration – An extreme risk - Brutal falls - Every mistake will be penalized without mercy! Thousands of fans – Breathtaking atmosphere – An unforgettable experience: The fight for the World Cup 2005 has now begun!

The Bard's Tale combines the development team's collective knowledge of compelling RPG gameplay with brilliant graphics and major motion picture quality story and dialogue. The Bard's Tale eschews genre cliches in favor of intelligent humor for an original and truly entertaining experience.

Majesco has released a demo for Terminal Reality's horror action game BloodRayne 2 featuring 1 level of play, the Mansion. Your objective is to discover who is the Cult of Kagan and put an end to their ring leader, Dariel Zerenski. Read more for 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 :

• Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault - Trailer
• Armies Of Exigo - Trailer
• Wanda And The Colossus - Trailer #2
• Painkiller: Battle out of Hell - Trailer #2
• Alida - Trailer #2