Sigil Games Online, Inc. today announced that original "EverQuest" designer Ryan Palacio has accepted the position of Senior Game Designer to begin work immediately on the next generation massively multiplayer game "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes." He joins many of his former teammates already at Sigil, including Milo Cooper, Steve Clover, Mike Hutchins and Brad McQuaid.

NDL announced today that more than a dozen computer video game titles using its Gamebryo 3D graphics engine and tools will be demonstrated at the annual E3. A wide range of genres, visual styles and platforms will be represented in the titles launched by top-tier developers and publishers at E3. Gamebryo enables these organizations to focus on creating stunning content and gameplay while saving development time and cost.

Return to Mysterious Island, a puzzle/adventure game is based on the novel by Jules Verne, follows Mina, a strong young woman alone on a round-the-world sailing expedition. Caught in a tremendous storm, she becomes stranded on the shores of a wild and apparently uninhabited island. As she explores her new surroundings, she uncovers artifacts, living spaces and technologies left behind by the people who came before her to this uncharted island.

Enlight announced today the long-awaited fantasy RTS title Warlords Battlecry III has reached gold status and will be available in retail stores across the U.S. and Canada next week.

Konami and Buena Vista Interactive today announced plans to publish video games based on one of the summer’s most anticipated films, “King Arthur.” Under development by Krome Studios PTY, Ltd., the King Arthur video game will utilize footage from the Touchstone Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer Films movie and feature likenesses of characters from the film. The game is being developed for the PlayStation2, Xbox and GameCube.

Sega of America, Inc. and Warner Bros. today announced an agreement to co-publish The Matrix Online, the first massively multiplayer online game based on Warner Bros. Pictures' popular Matrix property. SEGA will manage distribution of The Matrix Online, while Warner Bros. will oversee content development and manage the live game operations. Both companies will supervise ongoing game development and marketing activities for the game. The Matrix Online is expected to launch in Nov 2004.

Deep in the Peruvian Jungle, assume the role of Pitfall Harry, a fearless, rough-and-ready treasure seeker who battles evil using his athletic ability and a knapsack filled with adventure gear. Your mission: race against a rival explorer to find hidden treasures, which in the wrong hands could spell doom for you and your friends. Laugh in the face of danger as you search for lost treasures and rescue those in distress from deadly foes.

Ubisoft today announced that Ubisoft's Montreal studio is currently developing Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3 (Working Title), the next installment in the now-legendary Splinter Cell franchise. The Splinter Cell titles have consistently received some of industry's highest-ever review scores and most prestigious awards, and have sold, cumulatively, more than 6 million copies worldwide. Splinter Cell 3 will be shown for the first time ever in a theater-style demo at Ubisoft's E3 booth - #1046 in the South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center, and is scheduled for a PC launch in late 2004.

Midway Games Inc. today announced its roster of titles scheduled for exhibit at the annual E3. Headlining the selection is Mortal Kombat: Deception, the next product in the top-selling, history-making franchise. For the first time ever, Mortal Kombat will be going online and full product details will be unveiled at a special, invitation only event the Tuesday night before E3. On the show floor, Midway will also be showing off a near final version of the much anticipated Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy and the first-person action thriller Area 51, which will feature online play for up to 16 players.

'The Egyptian Prophecy' is a first person adventure has an easy to use point-and-click interface with high quality cinematics, and integrated 3D real-time puzzles. Ramses is doomed by what appears to be an evil curse surrounding this pact. His fate lies in the hands of one… Maia, a beautiful young sorceress favoured by the gods. If she fails to uncover the mystery, Ramses will die, and with him Egypt shall fall.

Today the German middleware developer Trinigy GmbH announced that it just signed its first licensing deal in the Asian entertainment market. The Chinese company Tianjin Naga Digital Software Development, located close to Peking, purchased a full license of the versatile and powerful Vision Game Engine for the development of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

All-Star Baseball 2005 is the most realistic baseball simulation that’s easier and more fun to play. All-Star Baseball 2005 is packed with exclusive feature innovations and online head-to-head play plus the deepest franchise mode of any baseball video game.

Ground Control 2 : Operation Exodus takes place during the year 2741 AD, roughly 300 years after the events in the original game. The democratic and freedom caring Northern Star Alliance (NSA) is being hard pressed by the warmongering Terran Empire. The war has recently entered a new stage; a brutal and deadly ground war, as the Empire has managed to land their first troopships on the last NSA controlled planet – Morningstar Prime...

Decisions. They’re something we face all the time in our day-to-day lives. When we wake up in the morning, we decide what to wear, what breakfast to have, whether to have tea of coffee before we leave for work. Do we obey or break the speed limit on the journey in? Do we pretend to like the boss when we see him at the office or sneer at them embodying the utter disdain we actually hold them in?

Vivendi Universal will be releasing a playable demo for Massive Entertainments upcoming sci-fi RTS 'Ground Control II' on May 25th. This single-player demo will feature two tutorial missions (you play as Captain Angelus, who is trying to force the Terrans out of Newstone) , one campaign mission ("Calling the Shots," where you assault the Terran base at Gideon's Landing)and will weigh in at just below 200mb. Of course we will have it available on our fileservers as soon as it becomes available...

Vivendi has closed down famed NASCAR developer Papyrus (along with all their other East Coast Studios). The VUGames forum has the following about it : "Yes, Papyrus has closed up shop for good. Sorry, but it is true. The last time I asked a few weeks back, the statement was that multiplayer will continue to be fully supported. Nothing has been said to change this, but we are asking again to be sure. The reason parts are still down is they physically moved the servers from Boston to LA. The bugs arn't worked out yet."

A few days ago DreamCatcher & The Adventure Company revealed their 2004 E3 lineups and today we have screens (as well as a few trailers) for the following :

• 'Missing'
• 'Atlantis Evolution'
• 'Dark Fall: Lights Out'
• 'Aura: Fate of the Ages'
• 'Besieger'
• 'SuperPower 2'
• 'Dungeon Lords'

Fireglow Ltd announces new Sudden Strike line engine and game-Sudden Strike III. Firelgow team is now developing a next generation game engine (engine codename: Sudden Strike Next7) and the first game based on this engine (working title: Sudden Strike III), and also Fireglow plans to develop several other games based on this engine in different setups related to war conflicts.

NVIDIA Corporation and Epic Games today announced the first public showing of Unreal Engine 3 at this week’s E3. Designed to dramatically raise the bar of visual quality in 3D games, Unreal Engine 3 is the first game engine to take full advantage of Shader Model 3.0—a key feature of Microsoft DirectX 9.0—enabled only by the NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series of graphics processing units (GPUs).

Eidos reinforces its dedication to developing platform-leading, content-rich brands. Among the games highlighted during the show are: Hitman: Contracts, Imperial Glory, Get On Da Mic, Singles ­ Flirt up your Life, Crash ‘n’ Burn and Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes The Neighborhood. Read more for details on each title ...

3000 AD has released another patch for their futuristic 3D action game Universal Combat. This update will bring your retail game to v2.00.00 and adds a ton of new features, game tweaks, improvement, a slew of bug fixes and plenty more. Read more for details and download links ...

A few days ago 1C Company unveiled their E3 2004 lineup. The largest collection of interactive entertainment titles to date, the 1C Company is showing a blockbuster lineup across all genres of gaming. Our dedicated E3 page has been updated with screens for : Axle Rage, Captain Blood, PT Boats: Knights of the Sea, Swashbucklers: Legacy of Drake You Are Empty, Rig’n’Roll Racing, Vivisector: Beast Inside, Cuban Missile Crisis, XIII Century: Sword and Honor, Parkan II, Sphere, Stalingrad, World War I, Desert Law, Brigade E5: New Jagged Union, Ascension to the Throne, Star Wolves, Space Rangers 2: Dominators, StarRush, BorderZone.

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 :

• Area 51 - Trailer
• Shadow Hearts: Covenant - Trailer
• HeadHunter : Redemption - Trailer
• Project Freedom - Trailer
• Red Dead Revolver - Trailer
• Webwars Arena - Trailer
• 
  

BioWare Corp. today revealed the lineup of games to be shown at the BioWare booth during the E3, May 12-14, 2004 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. In addition to the already announced Jade Empire, BioWare will be revealing two new products at E3 2004.

Crave Entertainment today announced that Future Tactics: The Uprising has shipped for the PS2, Xbox and GameCube. Packed with action, Future Tactics is a turn-based tactical RPG that looks and feels like an action/platform game. Built around a highly complex turn-based battle engine, the adventure showcases a single-player Story Mode, as well as a two-player Battle Mode.