Capcom today announced the release of Mega Man Battle Network 4 in two versions- Red Sun and Blue Moon for the GBA. Each version presents many challenges for players as they encounter different enemies, battle chips, souls and characters. A Game Link Cable can be used for competitive gameplay and battle chip exchanges. Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun and Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon are now available at retailers across North America.

Lead a four-man fireteam of US Marines through the perils of authentic, modern urban combat in a Middle-Eastern urban battleground. This is an action-oriented, first-person 3D shooter that is being developed under the direction of the US Marine Corps as a training simulation for use by the Marine Corps. Close Combat: First to Fight is as close as you can get on a computer or Xbox to being a Marine fireteam leader in modern urban combat! Read more for new screens, or check the one's from a few days ago ...

Codemasters announced today the company’s groundbreaking real time strategy game, Perimeter, has shipped to North American retail outlets. Developed in Russia by 1C Company and KD-LAB, Perimeter is now available exclusively for PC.

NVIDIA Corporation today unveiled a revolutionary new technology that enables multiple NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series or NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards to operate in a single PC or workstation for a stunning increase in graphics horsepower. Appearing later this year in PCI Express-based PCs and workstations from the world's top manufacturers, the new NVIDIA SLI technology takes full advantage of the additional bandwidth and features of this new high-bandwidth bus architecture.

Noticed on Homelan that they point to a new listing on EBGames indicating that Vivendi might be bringing Starbreeze's The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay to the PC. The listing has an estimated ship date for the PC port as November 15th 2004 (for the low price of $29.99), and while these online store listing are often nothing but wild rumours, an Xbox to PC port is not such a atretch. No official word or announcement from Vivendi on this matter yet. To be continued....

Pirates is broadband only, with high-end hardware specifications for graphics -- a GeForce 3 or better is required in at least a 1GHz machine, and the game is optimized for the latest DirectX 9.0-class cards. Pirates is being published on-line directly to gamers using Valve's new Steam technology, the same delivery system used by Half-Life 2 and Counterstrike 2. Check out the new seaworthy screens ...

NCsoft Corporation today released the first major update to it's acclaimed massively multiplayer online game Lineage? II: The Chaotic Chronicle. The update, Chronicle 1: Harbingers of War, adds stirring castle sieges, new fierce monsters, items and quests, and a significantly expanded 3D world. The update is free to all Lineage II subscribers via automatic download.

Enlight announced today that it will publish Scrapland, with executive producer and ground breaking game auteur American McGee. Developed by Mercury Steam, Scrapland is a deeply immersive 3rd person 3D action/adventure set in a bizarre robotic world made of scrap parts. Scrapland is scheduled for release in Q4 2004 for the Xbox and PC.

Codemasters announced today the company's innovative real-time strategy game, "Soldiers: Heroes Of World War II," has shipped to North American retail outlets. Developed by Ukrainian company Best Way, "Soldiers" is now available exclusively for PC.

Jackie Chan Adventures features the martial arts hero scouring the globe as an ancient artefact expert looking for talismans with his 11-year old niece Jade as his apprentice. Each talisman unlocks additional powers for Jackie, allowing him to access new areas within the worlds. Jackie must also play his part in protecting the world from ancient Chinese demons, and a group of ninjas known as the Dark Hand.

Medieval Lords takes aspiring city governors to the middle ages, combining rich city-building challenges with evolving military forces to defend against relentless attacks from neighboring enemies. A first for the genre, Medieval Lords features a full 3D engine that enables innovative new gameplay elements. The city building game genre will take on a whole new dimension when Monte Cristo Games ships "Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand” in Fall 2004.

In Tribes: Vengeance's single-player campaign, gamers become immersed in a roiling galactic thriller. Throughout the game, the player catches glimpses of other, interrelated stories that are unfolding behind-the-scenes. In addition, gamers are given the opportunity to experience the full scope of the single-player story through multiple viewpoints and characters. Check out these new screens ...

Start your engine, strap yourself in, get your place on the track and prepare to speed your way to victory in the first ever European tournament for the highly acclaimed RalliSport Challenge 2. The tournament, hosted on the Xbox Live service, from today, 28 June, until 21 July, will be the ultimate test of driving skills since, in this tournament, there is only one track to race on and one car to drive, making it a level playing field for everyone.

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 :

• Driv3r - Trailer
• Everquest 2 - Trailer
• Vivisector - Trailer
• Burnout 3 - Trailer
• GoldenEye: Rogue Agent - Trailer #2

Sector is proud to introduce the English version of free web turn-based sci-fi strategy game bio.sector. This popular game is now online and ready to welcome new commanders. Enter the universe of bio! Create your base, build, harvest, research, spy, trade and fight. Don't get blinded by the power of Bio. The Universe must be saved, the seven crystals have to be recovered and united before the central star collapses.

LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment Inc. are proud to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the launch of Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. Launched a year ago, Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided quickly became the fastest growing massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) in North America and today boasts over 500,000 registered users, with more than 115,000 players logging into the game every day.

Encore has released a new patch for their recently released action/horror game The Suffering. This update patch brings your retail game to v1.1 and addresses various bugs and game fixes. Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

Blizzard Entertainment today announced the 5th July 2004 as the date players can start signing up for the European Closed Beta of its eagerly awaited MMORPG, World of Warcraft. Potential testers will be able to register online through the official European Blizzard websites for the English, French and German speaking markets.

Enlight has released a patch for their strategy game Warlords BattleCry 3. This update patch brings your retail game to v1.01 and addresses various of bug-fixes, balance changes, and several game tweaks. Read more for download links ...

Ubisoft has released a small patch for their 3D action/adventure game Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time. This update patch has no specific version identification but addresses a graphical problem when running Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time on NVIDIA GeForce 6800 video cards. Instructions are quite simple, download the patch and replace the exe. Read more for download links ...

SCEE announced today the Autumn launch of Jackie Chan Adventures exclusively for PlayStation2. Developed by Atomic Planet, Jackie Chan Adventures is the only official game for home consoles based on the popular action cartoon series of the same name.

Van Helsing for GBA offers players a wild adventure filled with frightening creatures, furious combat and daring escapes. With legendary characters like Dracula and The Frankenstein Monster as well as action-packed hand-to-hand and ranged combat, Van Helsing is a must-have for fans of handheld action gaming

Sports Interactive is putting its immediate future on ice, with the announcement that NHL Eastside Hockey Manager will be available to the public for the first time from Friday, July 2nd in Europe, with releases to follow in Czech Republic in August, and the US in September. The PC version of the game will also be available as a digital download from the 2nd July, with more details to follow in the coming weeks.

I’m going to take a break from directing my rants towards one development team and instead examine the commitments persistent-world games require, and some steps current and future games are taking to resolve them.